Canoe Trip

My son, Steve, and I have just returned from the BWCAW, a long set of initials that mean Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. For those who are unaware, the BWCAW is located in far northeastern Minnesota, snuggled up against the Canadian Border. It’s one of the few true wilderness areas left in our country (outside of Alaska). The BWCAW is more than 100 miles long, some 30 miles wide and includes more than one million acres, with no motorboats allowed on almost all of its 1,000 lakes and streams.

It’s a place for canoes and quiet contemplation, a place for settling down and checking out (no cell-phone access). A place to listen for loon calls, and, if you are lucky, hear a wolf’s lonesome howl in the night. A place to hear waves slapping against ancient rocks. A place to reconnect with nature.

Oh, it’s also a place to fish. In our annual fishing contest, Steve landed an 18-inch small mouth bass, which meant I had to buy him breakfast on Friday morning when we began our long drive home. I won’t get into my fishing success this year—I’ll save that for another day.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: You can’t catch a fish if your line is not in the water.

CHECK THIS OUT: See my new book, Campfires and Loon Calls. It’s all about the Boundary Waters and our adventures there. Publisher: Fulcrum Press, 2011. Check my website, www.jerryapps.com for more information.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

September 7, Noon. Friends of Eagle River Library Banquet.

September 10, Barnes and Noble, La Crosse. 1:00 p.m. Campfires and Loon Calls.

September 11, Woodland Country School Reunion, 1-4, Speaking at 2:00 p.m. Two miles from Hustisford on Highway R.

September 17, Creekside Bookstore, Cedarburg. Book Signing, 1-4.

September 18, Creekside Bookstore, Cedarburg, Book signing, 12-3.

September 21, Cumberland Library, 5:30 p.m. The Lighter Side of Country Living.

September 22, Midwest Bookseller Convention, Minneapolis

October 2, Old World Wisconsin, Eagle, WI.

October 4, Union Grove Library. 1:30 p.m. Horse Drawn Days, 6:30 p.m. History of Cheese Making.

October 8, Horse Drawn Days, Stonefield Village, Cassville, WI. 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

October 15, Horse Drawn Days, Wade House,Green Bush, WI. 1:00 p.m.

October 18, New Holstein Library, 1:00 p.m. Book talk featuring Cranberry Red. 6:30-8:30 Writer’s workshop.

Say Cheese

The last couple of weeks I’ve been giving presentations about the history of Wisconsin’s cheese industry. For those who have accepted California as the leading dairy state in the nation—remove those thoughts from your mind. Wisconsin continues as the leading cheese producing state in the nation—a honor our state has held since 1910.

In 2010 Wisconsin produced 2.6 billion pounds of cheese. Lots of cheese. Mozzarella, then cheddar lead the pack of cheese varieties produced.

Some additional cheese trivia that you can use to wow your friends:

It takes 10 pounds of milk to make a pound of cheese.

Colby and brick cheese are Wisconsin originals—meaning they were invented here.

There is but one cheese factory in all of North America that manufactures limburger cheese—Chalet Cheese Factory near Monroe in Green County.

In 1950, Wisconsin had 143,000 dairy farms. In 2011 the number of dairy farms is about 12,000 and dropping.

Wisconsin has about 1.3 million cows.

Artisan cheese, small batch handmade cheeses, now make up 16 percent of total cheese produced in Wisconsin. More than 400 different kinds.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: I’m a cheesehead and proud of it.

CHECK THIS OUT: The Wisconsin Historical Press, one of my publishers, has recently produced a “trailer” for my new barn book. You can watch it by going to: http://www.youtube.com/user/whspressvideo.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

September 7, Noon. Friends of Eagle River Library Banquet.

September 10, Barnes and Noble, La Crosse. 1:00 p.m. Campfires and Loon Calls.

September 11, Woodland Country School Reunion, 1-4, Speaking at 2:00 p.m. Two miles from Hustisford on Highway R.

September 17, Creekside Bookstore, Cedarburg. Book Signing, 1-4.

September 18, Creekside Bookstore, Cedarburg, Book signing, 12-3.

September 21, Cumberland Library, 5:30 p.m. The Lighter Side of Country Living.

September 22, Midwest Bookseller Convention, Minneapolis

October 2, Old World Wisconsin, Eagle, WI.

October 4, Union Grove Library. 1:30 p.m. Horse Drawn Days, 6:30 p.m. History of Cheese Making.

October 8, Horse Drawn Days, Stonefield Village, Cassville, WI. 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

October 15, Horse Drawn Days, Wade House,Green Bush, WI. 1:00 p.m.

October 18, New Holstein Library, 1:00 p.m. Book talk featuring Cranberry Red. 6:30-8:30 Writer’s workshop.

Wild Grape Vine

I have wild grapes on my farm and this has been a banner year for them. They crawl over the lilac bushes by the cabin. They climb nearly to the top of the oak trees that line the trail to the pond. They curl up the red cedar tree by my machine shed. And this year they have succeeded in climbing to the peak of my pump house, nearly completely covering the east wall of the building.

My grape vines are aggressive and exploratory. One mischievous vine snuck through a crack in a pump house window. Once inside the curious vine discovered (can plants discover?) that no sunlight existed in my dark and dreary pump house, now mostly used as a woodshed. Know what? The vine crawled along the south wall inside the building, found a crack above the door and exited to the outside where it was once more treated to the afternoon sun. It appears happy as can be and seems rather proud that it has crawled in and out of my pump house. I must say, I’m impressed.

Anyone with a wild grape story? Love to hear from you.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: The road home is often the longest.

CHECK THIS OUT: The Wisconsin Historical Press, one of my publishers, has recently produced a “trailer” for my new barn book. You can watch it by going to: http://www.youtube.com/user/whspressvideo.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

August 18, 7:00 p.m. Three Lakes Historical Society, Three Lakes Wisconsin. History of cheese making in Wisconsin.

August 21, 4:00 p.m. Arcadia Books, Spring Green, WI. Presentation and Book Signing.

September 7, Noon. Friends of Eagle River Library Banquet.

September 10, Barnes and Noble, La Crosse. 1:00 p.m. Campfires and Loon Calls.

September 11, Woodland Country School Reunion, 1-4, Speaking at 2:00 p.m. Two miles from Hustisford on Highway R.

September 17, Creekside Bookstore, Cedarburg. Book Signing, 1-4.

September 18, Creekside Bookstore, Cedarburg, Book signing, 12-3.

Garden Update

A few weeks ago, shortly after I wrote about my garden suffering from dry weather, it began raining. Sometimes an inch, occasionally a half an inch, enough to give my sandy soil garden the boost it needed.

Yesterday I picked about ten pounds of snap beans; a half grocery bag of cucumbers, five pounds or so of zucchini and our first three tomatoes of the season. I could have dug more red potatoes—I dug a half sack last week, I could have dug more onions—how well they have developed. And I could have dug more beets—I also did that a week ago. But the day was hot and steamy, hanging just around ninety, so—Ruth and I quit harvesting early.

Two weeks ago the pumpkins showed nothing but blossoms, today they have pumpkins the size of softballs and larger. The pumpkin vines are everywhere, crawling up the sweet corn, snaking over the tops of the tomatoes, and sneaking under the fence on their way to the cabin.

Can you believe it, I have tomato vines five feet tall? Tallest tomato vines I remember for several years. We have 48 tomato plants. If they continue developing as they recently have, we will have tomatoes—lots of tomatoes.

But I know full well the hazards of gardening. This week’s joy can turn into sorrow with one hail storm, another spell of dry weather, a broken deer fence and a critter raid. So I must be careful. When people ask me how my garden is doing, I usually say, “Could be better.”

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Keep things simple. They’ll get complicated enough, soon enough, without you intending that they should.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

August 10. 5 p.m., program at 6 p.m. Red Crown Lodge, 3852 Highway 51 North, Arbor Vitae, WI Preview of Ken Burns’ latest film, Prohibition. Discussion of Prohibition in Wisconsin. Free.

August 13. 5:30 p.m. Manitowoc County Historical Society. Horse Drawn Days

August 18, 7:00 p.m. Three Lakes Historical Society, Three Lakes Wisconsin. History of cheese making in Wisconsin.

August 21, 4:00 p.m. Arcadia Books, Spring Green, WI. Presentation and Book Signing.

September 7, Noon. Friends of Eagle River Library Banquet.

September 10, Barnes and Noble, La Crosse. 1:00 p.m. Campfires and Loon Calls.

September 11, Woodland Country School Reunion, 1-4, Speaking at 2:00 p.m. Two miles from Hustisford on Highway R. One-Room Country Schools.

September 17, Creekside Bookstore, Cedarburg. Book Signing, 1-4.

September 18, Creekside Bookstore, Cedarburg, Book signing, 12-3.

Mosquito Deterrent

The family is just back from a great week in the Northwoods, in a cabin on a lake where swimming, water skiing and all the rest were wonderful. Great fun for the kids and grand kids, and a relaxing time for those not into being pulled around the lake on a pair of slender slats.

Except for one problem. Mosquitoes. Hundreds of them. Thousands of them. As many as the national debt and more. A deep breath resulted in a mouth full of the buggers—not an exaggeration. I slapped my arm and dispatched a half-dozen with one blow.

What to do? Off to the store for mosquito dope. Stuff with DEET in it. Stuff to keep the mosquitoes at bay.

While inspecting the mosquito repellent display—quite an elaborate one I might add—I spotted something new—at least for gullible me. I spotted an ultrasonic mosquito repellent, battery operated and of a size where I could clip it to my belt. No Deet to spray on tender skin. A modern piece of technology. I bought one. Could have bought two spray cans of Deet for the price, but that’s something my wife doesn’t need to know.

I brought it to the cabin, cut the device loose from its plastic bindings, pushed a little button and saw a tiny bulb glow red. It was obviously emitting high frequency sounds that disturbed mosquitoes and sent them away to antagonize someone else. At least that’s what it was supposed to do.

I stood in a shady place where I had previously been unmercifully attacked that morning. I waited to hear the buzzing of mosquitoes, held at bay some six feet from me by my new piece of modern technology—as the advertising claimed would happen.

There was no buzzing at six feet. Squadrons of menacing little beasties tore at me as if my new piece of electronics were a homing device.

Back to Deet. No more mention of my new piece of mosquito deterring equipment. Mosquitoes won again.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: When you find something that works. Stay with it. On the other hand, kind of fun to try something new once in a while.

UPCOMING EVENTS:
July 31-August 6, Writing Workshop, The Clearing, Door County.

August 10. 5 p.m., program at 6 p.m. Red Crown Lodge, 3852 Highway 51 North, Arbor Vitae, WI Preview of Ken Burns’ latest film, Prohibition. Discussion of Prohibition in Wisconsin. Free. Registration required by August 5. Register: UWalumni.com or call 608-263-4508.

August 13. 5:30 p.m. Manitowoc County Historical Society. Horse Drawn Days

August 18, 7:00 p.m. Three Lakes Historical Society, Three Lakes Wisconsin. History of cheese making in Wisconsin.

August 21, 4:00 p.m. Arcadia Books, Spring Green, WI. Presentation and Book Signing.

Bookstore Closings

I stopped at Brown’s Bookstore in Rhinelander this week and discovered they were closing. After 18 years they are locking their doors and calling it quits. A loss to the community; a loss to publishers, a loss to writers.

I also noticed this week that the Borders' book chain, second only to Barnes and Noble in size, has lost its battle to continue after declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year.

Little bookstores, big bookstores, independents and chains—closing. Not able to compete with the juggernaut called E-books that are digital and require no paper. Books read on such devices as Kindle and Nook and iPads and Blackberries. Books that cost less, oft times considerably less than their paper printed versions.

What are we losing when we lose a bookstore, whether a little independent such as Brown’s in Rhinelander or the Borders’ chain that had stores scattered across the country? Are bookstores, real ones not virtual, digital versions, important enough so that some will survive? Should some survive?

We appear to be in the midst of a great revolution—an earthshaking reshaping of defining what is a book and how they are made and sold? It’s both an exciting and a depressing time.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: How do we decide what of the past we should keep when something new comes along and threatens to replace it?

CHECK THIS OUT: My friend, Phil Martin, who is a writer, editor, and publisher, has just published a new book: HOW TO WRITE YOUR BEST STORY. It’s advice for writers who want to polish their story writing skills. Great collection of practical tips. Available on Amazon.com, www.itascabooks.com and other booksellers. And only $14.95. What a deal!

UPCOMING EVENTS:
July 26, Noon, Wis Historical Society Museum, on the Square, Madison, WI. Ringling Bros. Circus.

July 31-August 6, Writing Workshop, The Clearing, Door County.

August 10. 5 p.m., program at 6 p.m. Red Crown Lodge, 3852 Highway 51 North, Arbor Vitae, WI Preview of Ken Burns’ latest film, Prohibition. Discussion of Prohibition in Wisconsin. Free. Registration required by August 5. Register: UWalumni.com or call 608-263-4508.

August 13. 5:30 p.m. Manitowoc County Historical Society. Horse Drawn Days.

Bur Oak

I like trees, all kinds of trees, pine trees and oak trees, trees I’ve planted and trees that have been on my farm for a hundred years and probably more. But of all the trees that grow at Roshara, I am most impressed with the Bur Oak (sometimes spelled Burr).

First off, I respect the Bur Oak’s toughness. They withstand fire, storms, dry weather, wet weather—they come through it all and continue living and growing year after year, sometimes surviving two or three hundred years.

Bur Oaks are not especially attractive when compared to some other trees such as a Balsam Fir (I have but one of these at my farm). But in their own way, with their thick, corky bark and scraggly limbs going this way and that, they have a beauty all their own. Besides, Bur Oak trees are native to my farm. No one hauled them in from somewhere else. They have thrived in much of central and southwestern Wisconsin as long as anything living has been here. I marvel at that.

Some Bur Oak facts: They may grow 80 feet tall, even taller in richer soils, and reach diameters greater than four feet. The Bur Oak roots may reach depths of 20 feet and a lateral spread of 40 feet. The weight of the roots can equal that of the tops. One of the reasons the Bur Oak lives so long and does so well is its tremendous root system—what you see of the tree is only about half of it—the other half is below ground.

Sort of like people. What you don’t see about a person is often more important than what you do see.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: No matter how old you are, plant a tree. And don’t forget to speak up when someone wants to cut a living tree for no good reason.

CHECK THIS OUT: My friend, Phil Martin, who is a writer, editor, and publisher, has just published a new book: HOW TO WRITE YOUR BEST STORY. It’s advice for writers who want to polish their story writing skills. Great collection of practical tips. Available on Amazon.com, www.itascabooks.com and other booksellers. And only $14.95. What a deal!

UPCOMING EVENTS:
July 26, Noon, Wis Historical Society Museum, on the Square, Madison, WI. Ringling Bros. Circus.

July 31-August 6, Writing Workshop, The Clearing, Door County.

August 10. 5 p.m., program at 6 p.m. Red Crown Lodge, 3852 Highway 51 North, Arbor Vitae, WI Preview of Ken Burns’ latest film, Prohibition. Discussion of Prohibition in Wisconsin. Free. Registration required by August 5. Register: UWalumni.com or call 608-263-4508.

August 13. 5:30 p.m. Manitowoc County Historical Society. Horse Drawn Days

Dry Weather

Dry weather in central Wisconsin. Hot days, cool nights and no rain. Ten days ago the lawn grass in front of my cabin, native grass as I planted no grass seed was green, lush and growing rapidly. This morning it is brown and crunches underfoot when I walk across it. The grass appears dead, but it is not. It is merely waiting for the next rain when it will once more turn green. Tough stuff this centuries old grass that knows the ways of sandy, dry soils.

My garden suffers. Potato vines curl, squash leaves wilt, the bottom leaves of the sweet corn are turning brown, the tomato plants have stopped growing. Even some of the weeds have wilted—but not all as weeds, better than the fancy, hybrid vegetable varieties know dry weather, know how to send their roots ever deeper, searching for life-giving moisture.

Those of us in central Wisconsin look to the western sky and wait for rain as we have for generations as these sandy soils never have enough it seems. The rains in mid-summer make all the difference as to whether a crop will produce well, indeed even survive. Farming sandy soil without irrigation is a gamble, always has been, always will be.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: One of the best ways to solve a problem is to walk. It may take a mile, it may take longer.

July 26, Noon, Wis Historical Society Museum, on the Square, Madison, WI. Ringling Bros. Circus.

July 31-August 6, Writing Workshop, The Clearing, Door County.

August 10. 5 p.m., program at 6 p.m. Red Crown Lodge, 3852 Highway 51 North, Arbor Vitae, WI Preview of Ken Burns’ latest film, Prohibition. Discussion of Prohibition in Wisconsin. Free. Registration required by August 5. Register: UWalumni.com or call 608-263-4508.

Potato Bugs

Potato bugs we called them when I was a kid, a menace for potato patches. They still are a problem today maybe more so than ever as chemical treatments have toughened them rather than eliminated them.

Their official name is Colorado Potato Beetle; they feast on potato vines and leave most everything else in the garden alone. An age old system for controlling them works –somewhat anyway. We used it when I was a kid; I still use it to today.
You walk down the row of potatoes, and when you spot a potato bug you drop it in a little pail with some water in the bottom. When I was a kid, Pa poured an inch or so of kerosene in the pail. He wanted to make sure that once we picked them they would never ever find another potato plant to chew on.

I saw an ad in a farm paper for a “sure kill “system for eliminating potato bugs. “Mail in five dollars.” I’ll not say who answered the ad, but when the sure kill system arrived, it consisted of two small blocks of wood with some simple instructions. “Place potato bug on block A. Strike smartly with block B.” It worked.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: A good cup of coffee in the morning gives you the gumption to face the day, no matter how many problems and challenges lie in wait.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

July 6, 6:00 p.m. Chilton Library, Chilton, WI Campfires and Loon Calls

July 10, 11-2:00 Pickle Station, Saxeville, WI. Booksigning.

July 26, Noon, Wis Historical Society Museum, on the Square, Madison, WI. Ringling Bros. Circus.

July 31-August 6, Writing Workshop, The Clearing, Door County.

Dairy Breakfast

If you’ve been wondering how dairy farming—farming in general—has changed the last few decades, attend a dairy breakfast. Ruth and I traveled to the Pionke farm in western Waushara County to see some of these changes while we enjoyed flapjacks, ham, potatoes—a down home country breakfast served in a huge machine shed with live polka music playing in the background.

The Pionke farm, in the family since 1903, is currently owned and managed by Martin, Duane and Cheryl Pionke. When I was a kid, we would have called this a diversified farm because they not only milk cows, about 120 of them, and raise replacement young stock, another 120 head, they also grow cash crops besides feed for their cattle—125 acres of sweet corn, 95 acres of canning peas, 55 acres of snap beans, 40 acres of wheat, 25 acres of soybeans, 200 acres of alfalfa and 340 acres of field corn. Their farm is about 1,000 acres.

Now the comparison. Back in the early 1950s, on our home farm, which was 160 acres, we milked about 15 cows, fed 20 to 30 hogs, raised 30 acres of alfalfa, an acre of snap beans, an acre of cucumbers, and 20-30 acres of corn.

Although the numbers are dramatically different; yesterday’s and today’s farmers had the same purpose: Providing food for a hungry world.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Keep things simple. They’ll get complicated enough, soon enough, without you intending that they should.

UPCOMING EVENTS:
June 28, 5-7 p.m. Fitger’s Bookstore, Duluth, MN. Book signing, Campfires and Loon Calls.

June 29, 2-4 p.m. Cherry St. Books, Alexandria, MN. Book signing, Campfires and Loon Calls.

July 6, 6:00 p.m. Chilton Library, Chilton, WI Campfires and Loon Calls

July 10, 11-2:00 Pickle Station, Saxeville, WI. Booksigning.

July 26, Noon, Wis Historical Society Museum, on the Square, Madison, WI. Ringling Bros. Circus.

July 31-August 6, Writing Workshop, The Clearing, Door County.

Garden Report

It’s time for a garden report. As all gardeners in Wisconsin know, we started the season with cold and wet and never ending winter-like weather. I usually plant onions, radishes, lettuce, beets, cabbage and especially potatoes by mid-April. As most people remember, we had a major snow storm on April 20 with more than six inches burying my already too wet to work garden.

On May 8th, I finally planted the early vegetables. The last week in May, I planted the late season crops. Two days after I set out my tomato plants, planted green beans, cucumbers, squash, sweet corn and pumpkins—we had a freeze. Cold enough so the grassy areas around the cabin were covered with white frost. But for some unknown reason my little tomato plants survived.

This past week—way late—I replanted green beans, cucumbers, sunflowers, even some lettuce—vegetables that simply didn’t come up or came up with missing areas.
But I have good news. So far, this is one of my best potato seasons. Almost every plant came up and they are already knee high and almost too bushy to rototill. Late planting seemed to make no difference. The tomatoes that miraculously escaped the late May frost are doing quite well, too. I started them from seed and when we set them out the plants were a sorry looking lot, bent stems, scraggly, off color. I set out 45 plants—44 are alive, a few of the early ones are already in blossom.

We have enjoyed radishes for a couple of weeks, the leaf lettuce is ready to cut and the onions are well ahead of most seasons. If the warm weather continues and especially the timely rains, the sweet corn will easily make knee high by the Fourth of July—the standard for all mid-Wisconsin farmers.

One reason I continue gardening—we planted our first garden at our farm in 1967—is the yearly surprises. I never know which vegetables will do well and which will not. I’ve essentially gardened the same way every year, yet the outcomes are always different. May it always be so.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: You can bury a lot of troubles digging in your garden.

CHECK THIS OUT: Central Wisconsin book launch for Campfires and Loon Calls. Fundraiser for Patterson Memorial Library, Wild Rose, Wisconsin, June 24, 6:30 p.m.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

June 28, 5-7 p.m. Fitger’s Bookstore, Duluth, MN. Book signing, Campfires and Loon Calls.

June 29, 2-4 p.m. Cherry St. Books, Alexandria, MN. Book signing, Campfires and Loon Calls.

July 6, 6:00 p.m. Chilton Library, Chilton, WI Campfires and Loon Calls

July 10, 11-2:00 Pickle Station, Saxeville, WI. Booksigning.

July 26, Noon, Wis Historical Society Museum, on the Square, Madison, WI. Ringling Bros. Circus.

July 31-August 6, Writing Workshop, The Clearing, Door County.

Congratulations , Josh

Josh Horman, my oldest grandson, graduated from high school this weekend and is headed off to college in the fall. It’s been fun to watch him grow up, to attend his basketball games from the time he was a little shaver until he was part of his varsity H.S. team, to see him for the first time in football pads that made him look like a little triangle, and then, a few years later, watch him run back a kickoff for a touchdown on his varsity H.S. team.

Josh also helped with our garden at the farm. From the time when he was but a little kid, he helped plant the pumpkins and then harvest them in the fall, picking out the biggest one for his own special jack-o-lantern.

But what I remember most about Josh is how he would listen to my many tales about our farm, and then I would hear him repeat them to his little Colorado cousins, with considerable embellishment—sometimes well beyond embellishment. Such as a story about how the Indians did battle with the pioneers in the back fields of our farm in the early days, and how monsters were likely to live where the terminal moraine and the biological tension zone intersected at our farm.

Congratulations, Josh. Keep the stories coming.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Hard to beat a good story, doesn’t matter if it’s true or not.

CHECK THIS OUT: Central Wisconsin launch and fundraiser for Patterson Memorial Library, Wild Rose, Wisconsin, June 24, 6:30 p.m. Campfires and Loon Calls.

UPCOMING EVENTS:
June 24, 6:30 p.m. Patterson Memorial Library, Wild Rose, WI. Fundraiser featuring Campfires and Loon calls.

June 28, 5-7 p.m. Fitger’s Bookstore, Duluth, MN. Book signing, Campfires and Loon Calls.

June 29, 2-4 p.m. Cherry St. Books, Alexandria, MN. Book signing, Campfires and Loon Calls.

July 6, 6:00 p.m. Chilton Library, Chilton, WI Campfires and Loon Calls

July 10, 11-2:00 Pickle Station, Saxeville, WI. Book signing.

July 26, Noon, Wis Historical Society Museum, on the Square, Madison, WI. Ringling Bros. Circus.

July 31-August 6, Writing Workshop, The Clearing, Door County.

Garden Planted

Last weekend we finished planting the garden. We set out the last of the home-grown tomato plants, broccoli, and cabbage. Planted more sweet corn, put in the squash and pumpkin seeds, planted the green beans and sowed more lettuce. Planted several hills of zucchini.

The garden is larger this year as three families are sharing--my son Steve’s and daughter Sue’s families plus Ruth and me. So we have 17 rows of potatoes—everyone likes homegrown potatoes. Forty tomato plants—who can resist homemade tomato soup, tomato juice and salsa. Long rows of green beans for eating fresh and freezing, and several rows of sweet corn. A few heads of cabbage—I’m the coleslaw lover in the family. Plenty of zucchini, too.

Each garden year is a challenge and a mystery. Some vegetables will do well, others less so. But after all the years that we’ve grown a garden at Roshara (since 1966) we’ve always managed to have plenty of fresh vegetables—and enjoyed many of them throughout the winter as well.

I’ve decided that gardening is one part skill, one part patience and one part hope. May it always be so.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Gardening is one way to be close to the earth, in more ways than you could imagine.

COMING EVENTS:

June 7, 7:00 p.m. Galesville Library. Horses and Barns.

June 24, 6:30 p.m. Patterson Memorial Library, Wild Rose, WI. Fundraiser featuring Campfires and Loon calls.

June 28, 5-7 p.m. Fitger’s Bookstore, Duluth, MN. Book signing, Campfires and Loon Calls.

June 29, 2-4 p.m. Cherry St. Books, Alexandria, MN. Book signing, Campfires and Loon Calls.

Old Apple Tree

The old apple tree at my farm is twisted and gnarled and bent and broken, but it is still alive. I don’t know the tree’s exact age, but I do know the first settler on my farm, Tom Stewart, arrived on these acres in 1867, and I’m assuming started an apple orchard shortly after he came. He was from New York State, and many early settlers brought apple trees with them to plant in this new place.

We have owned our farm since 1964 and have marveled at this old apple tree from the day when we first saw it in full bloom. A few years ago we thought it was on its last tracks, it had but a few blossoms, a major limb had smashed to the ground, and it was a pathetic sight. But as it turns out, this was only a setback, a brief unhappy experience, as the tree developed new growth and continued on.

This year the old apple tree is covered with blossoms, more than I ever remember. The tree is making a point. Just because you’re old doesn’t mean you can’t show off a little.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Some trips are two steps forward and one back. Better this arrangement than the opposite.

June 2, 7:00 p.m. Luck Library. Campfires and Loon Calls.

June 7, 7:00 p.m. Galesville Library. Horses and Barns.

June 24, 6:30 p.m. Patterson Memorial Library, Wild Rose, WI. Fundraiser featuring Campfires and Loon calls.

June 28, 5-7 p.m. Fitger’s Bookstore, Duluth, MN. Book signing, Campfires and Loon Calls.

June 29, 2-4 p.m. Cherry St. Books, Alexandria, MN. Book signing, Campfires and Loon Calls.

Lilacs

The lilacs are opening in our neck of the words. Beautiful purple flowers with a smell filled with memories. Lilac bushes graced the south side of our one-room school yard, tall gangly bushes most of the year, but for a few days, a couple of weeks sometimes, the schoolyard was filled with the smell of lilac. When the lilacs first opened, we’d cut a big bouquet and give them to our teacher who would put them in a vase on the corner of her desk. And now the schoolroom, too, its long winter, musty smell with lingering smells of oak smoke was replaced with one more smell of spring.

We didn’t have lilacs at home. Pa didn’t like them. Said their smell was too strong. Here was one place I disagreed with him for I enjoyed the smell of lilacs, then and now. I prefer the smell of real lilac, not that created in a laboratory to become part of a strong smelling perfume that is supposed to smell like lilacs but doesn’t make it, not for my country smelling nose anyway.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: The road home is often the longest.

UPCOMING EVENTS:
May 23, 7:30 p.m. Brodhead Historical Society. Brodhead High School. History of Wisconsin Agriculture.

May 26, 7:00 p.m. Eagle River Library. Campfires and Loon Calls.

June 2, 7:00 p.m. Luck Library. Campfires and Loon Calls.

June 7, 7:00 p.m. Galesville Library. Horses and Barns.

June 24, 6:30 p.m. Patterson Memorial Library, fundraiser featuring Campfires and Loon calls.

June 28, 5-7 p.m. Fitger’s Bookstore, Duluth, MN. Book signing, Campfires and Loon Calls.

June 29, 2-4 p.m. Cherry Street Books, Alexandria, MN. Book signing, Campfires and Loon Calls.

The Many Greens of Spring

After a few days of dreary, bleak and mostly colorless days in April, a few warm days in May changed the landscape to a world of green. We celebrate fall for its palette of vivid colors, but if we want to see green—early spring is the season to do it.

From the light greens of the aspen trees, to the dark greens of the white and red pine. From the reddish green of the maples to the yellowish green of the little nubs of oak leaves just pushing forth.

Alfalfa fields, winter wheat, rye, and pasture grass just waking up from a long winter. All green in various shades. Green is clearly the color of spring, the color of revival and new growth. The color of optimism and looking forward.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: The shortest distance between two points is often not the point.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

May 18, 7:00 p.m., Beloit Library. Ames County Novels.

May 23, 7:30 p.m. Brodhead Historical Society. Brodhead High School. History of Wisconsin Agriculture.

May 26, 7:00 p.m. Eagle River Library. Campfires and Loon Calls.

June 2, 7:00 p.m. Luck Library. Campfires and Loon Calls.

June 7, 7:00 p.m. Galesville Library. Horses and Barns.

June 24, 6:30 p.m. Patterson Memorial Library, fundraiser featuring Campfires and Loon calls.

June 28, 5-7 p.m. Fitger’s Bookstore, Duluth, MN. Book signing, Campfires and Loon Calls.

June 29, 2-4 p.m. Cherry St. Books, Alexandria, MN. Book signing, Campfires and Loon Calls.

Mother's Day

A twenty acre woodlot backed up to our farm house. It provided firewood for our ever hungry wood stoves. In fall it offered a steady supply of squirrels and rabbits for our supper table. It was a place to explore, to hike and watch the birds, to find peace and quiet. And when you did something wrong, a place to run to while you waited for Pa to cool off and reconsider the punishment you knew was coming if you’d not escaped to this wonderful hiding place.

On Mother’s Day, the woods was an especially important place for on a hillside on the north side of the woodlot, in a little clearing, grew a big patch of purple violets, light purple, some a dark velvety purple. My brothers and I would pick bouquets of these beautiful spring flowers and give them to our mother for Mother’s Day. She put the fragile flowers in a jelly glass and then place them in the middle of the kitchen table where we’d all enjoy them. For several years, this was our Mother’s Day gift, and one that Mother seemed always to enjoy when she saw her three little boys, each holding a fist full of the purple flowers emerge from the woods with big smiles on their faces.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: It’s not the size of the gift, but the size of the thought that counts.

May 14, 10 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Books signing. Dregni’s, Westby.

May 18, 7:00 p.m., Beloit Library. Ames County Novels.

May 23, 7:30 p.m. Brodhead Historical Society. History of Wisconsin Agriculture.

May 26, 7:00 p.m. Eagle River Library. Campfires and Loon Calls.

June 2, 7:00 p.m. Luck Library. Campfires and Loon Calls.

Spring at the Pond

Spring has arrived at the pond on our farm. A pair of sandhill cranes is staking out their nesting site, mamma and papa Canada geese are making inspection tours, several mallard and wood ducks have already taken up residence, and the frogs are singing out their hearts.

That’s not to credit less the turkey gobblers that are strutting and calling and making a fuss about finding a mate, and the song birds that are returning, some to stay and nest, others to move on further north.

I spotted at least three bluebirds nesting in our string of houses alongside our prairie—another good sign that some things appear right with the world.

Now we need the weather to cooperate a little—too cold, too much late snow and thus little plant growth. And no garden planted, not one seed. Another year with winter morphing into summer with no spring in between?

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Spring is full of promises, many not kept.

CHECK THIS OUT: Interested in old barns. The Wisconsin Historical Society Museum on the square in Madison is sponsoring a special program on Wednesday, May 11, 6:30-9:00 P.M. The program includes a meal catered by the Underground Food Collective, plus a presentation with history and stories from Wisconsin barns (my part of the program). Call 608-264-6563 for reservations.

UPCOMING EVENTS:
May 3, 12:00-2:00 p.m. Book signing. Barnes and Noble, Denver West Village, 14347 Colfax Ave., Lakewood, Colorado.

May 7, 1:00-3:00 p.m. Book signing. Apple Blossom Books, Oshkosh, WI.

May 11, 6:30 p.m. Dinner and Presentation, Barns of Wisconsin. Wisconsin Historical Society Museum on the Square in Madison. (See above for details)

May 14, 10 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Books signing. Dregni’s, Westby.

May 18, 7:00 p.m., Beloit Library. Ames County Novels.

May 23, 7:30 p.m. Brodhead Historical Society. History of Wisconsin Agriculture
.
May 26, 7:00 p.m. Eagle River Library. Campfires and Loon Calls.

June 2, 7:00 p.m. Luck Library. Campfires and Loon Calls.

Arbor Day

Long before the celebration of Earth Day, which is April 22, we set aside a day at our one-room country school to spend outside, sprucing up the school grounds. We called it Arbor Day, a day long associated with planting trees.

We planted no trees in our one-acre schoolyard on Arbor Day—there were already plenty of giant black and white oaks. What we did was bring garden rakes from home and spent the day raking leaves and grass and piling them in the middle of our softball diamond. It was a fun day, a chance to be away from the routine of studying and reciting and following a rather tight schedule of learning.

I especially remember Arbor Day when I was in seventh grade. Maxine Thompson was our teacher and she joined us in the clean-up operation and seemed to be having as much fun as we did as we raked, carried, and piled leaves and dead grass.
When there was no more grass to rake, and no more winter-tired oak leaves to gather, Miss Thompson touched a match to the big pile and we had a glorious bonfire with pungent smoke trickling skyward. While the pile was burning, we searched for sticks as we knew that a wiener and marshmallow roast would follow. It was a day to remember.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: (Quoting Increase Joseph, from my novel, The Travels of Increase Joseph)”It’s the land. I’m talking about the land and how we must take care of it or we shall all perish.”

CHECK THIS OUT: The Sturm Public Library in Manawa has selected my novel, In a Pickle, for its community read program this spring. I will be speaking at the library on April 19, 7:00 p.m. Want to learn more about cucumbers and their history? Plan to attend.

Grape Vine

I pruned my grape vines this week; I really should say “vine” as I have only one. I planted it about 15 years ago in front of my house and next to my split rail fence. The idea was to add a “little something” to the fence as my wife said.

It’s a Concord grape and I really didn’t expect much from it, beyond tangling itself along the top rail of the cedar fence and looking nice. But was I surprised. This single vine produces up to a half-bushel and sometimes more of rich, lush purple grapes each year. By mid-summer Its leaves and vines cover an entire section of the fence. Last year the grape vine was especially rambunctious and threatened to overrun a rose bush that is more than dozen feet away from the base of the vine.

As for care, beyond severely pruning the vine each early spring, I do nothing but watch it grow. No watering, no fertilizing, no spraying—nothing. It’s about the easiest plant to take care of I have on my property. Come late August and early September, I begin checking for ripe grapes, snipping them off with a shears when they are ready and carrying them into the kitchen.

Ruth has a wonderful grape jelly recipe—we feast on grape jelly and toast all winter. And the family and friends do as well as we give away jars of grape jelly as Christmas presents.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Expect little from something and be surprised.

CHECK THIS OUT: The Sturm Public Library in Manawa has selected my novel, In a Pickle, for its community read program this spring. I will be speaking at the library on April 19, 7:00 p.m. Want to learn more about cucumbers and their history? Plan to attend.

Tuesday, April 12, 7:00 p.m., Fall Creek Library (Horses and Barns)

Thursday, April 14, 6:30 p.m. Marathon County Library, 300 N. First Street, Wausau. (Horses and Barns)

Friday, April 15, 1:00 p.m. Kaukauna Public Library (Fox Cities Book Festival. Horses and Barns)

Saturday, April 16, Wild Rose High School Centennial Program. 1-4:00 p.m. Program at 2:30.

Tuesday, April 19, Sturm Public Library, Manawa, 7:00 p.m. In a Pickle.

Strawberries

I uncovered my strawberry bed today, if you can call six plants a bed. They have been waiting out the winter tucked under a warm cover of maple leaves that I piled on them last fall.

My strawberry plants (I have a variety called Cabot that was developed in Canada), appeared bewildered as they once more saw the sun, plus a little bedraggled and winter worn. But they were green as summer, and most importantly, alive. A welcome sight they are, with memories of lush fresh fruit in a couple months or so depending on what kind of spring we have (so far it’s been a bust with an inch of wet snow on April Fool’s day).

California and Florida ship tons of strawberries to Wisconsin, but nothing beats the taste of homegrown berries, and especially those I grow myself. I cheat a bit. I planted my strawberries in the flowerbed in front of my house in town. The strawberries don’t seem to mind, in fact, with a little competition from daylilies, mums, and dahlias, the strawberries thrive, even a little too much. If given a choice they surely would take over the entire flowerbed. It wouldn’t be all bad. I’ve never much cared for the taste of mums and dahlias. Someone once said daylilies make a good salad. I’ll stick with fresh strawberries.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Don’t let April fool you; it will try. Spring is out there—At least I think so.

CHECK THIS OUT: The Mead Public Library in Sheboygan has selected my book, OLD FARM, for their Sheboygan Reads program. On Saturday, April 9, at 9:30 a.m., I will be reading from the book and answering questions. We will meet in the Quiet Study Room at the library. Hope to see you there.

Tuesday, April 5, 6:00 p.m. Salem Public Library, Salem, WI (Stories from the Land)

Saturday, April 9, 9:30 a.m. Mead Public Library, Sheboygan. (Old Farm)

April 9, 1:30-4:00 p.m. Mead Public Library, Sheboygan Writing Workshop. Call 920-459-3400, ext. 3422 for reservations.

Tuesday, April 12, 7:00 p.m., Fall Creek Library (Horses and Barns)

Thursday, April 14, 6:30 p.m. Marathon County Library, 300 N. First Street, Wausau. (Horses and Barns)

Friday, April 15, 1:00 p.m. Kaukauna Public Library (Fox Cities Book Festival. Horses and Barns)

Saturday, April 16, Wild Rose High School Centennial Program

Tuesday, April 19, Sturm Public Library, Manawa, 7:00 p.m. In a Pickle. A rescheduled program.

Medical Update

I had an extremely aggressive bacterial infection, which I discovered last Saturday. By Sunday it was really on the move. Urgent Care doctors quickly identified the culprit and put me on massive doses of antibiotics, including IV infusions for a couple days. As one of the doctors said yesterday, “You’re over the hump.” That appears to be modern-day medical language to mean I’m getting better. If all proceeds normally, and there is every reason to believe that it will, I’ll be back to my regular schedule next Monday. It was a bit of a scare. Watch out for infections, there are some nasty bugs out there.

Thanks to all who sent notes of concern; I really appreciated it.

Cancelled Events

Do to medical problem--got a diagnosis this afternoon--I will have to cancel the following:

Tuesday, March 29, 7:00 p.m. Strum Public Library (Manawa). (In a Pickle).

Friday, April 1, 7:00 p.m. Oconto Falls Library. (Stories from the Land)

Saturday, April 2, 9:00-11:00 a.m. Oconto Falls Library. (Writing workshop: Writing Family Stories. Call the library for further information.)

I'm hoping I can be back on the road in a week or so.

Early Spring Flowers

Last Monday morning. Three little flowers peeking their heads above the leaf mulch. Welcoming spring. First color of the season. Crocus. The bravest of the brave. The earliest of the early.

By mid-week. Rain. Cold Rain. Sometimes mixed with sleet. Sometimes mixed with snow. Winter returning. Snuffing out spring. Sending the new season in retreat. Closing up the yellow flowers. Reprimanding them for their enthusiasm, for their optimism, for believing that spring has arrived in the north.

The yellow flowers will return. And winter, with all its fuss and bluster, threats and cold weather will retreat and wait a few months, to gather strength and verve.

The crocus knows patience. Patience is the watch word for those of us who have given up on winter and want no more of it. Spring is just around the corner. We’ve gotten glimpses of it—so have the crocus flowers.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Patience is often in short supply these days.

CHECK THIS OUT: The Mead Public Library in Sheboygan has selected my book, OLD FARM, for their Sheboygan Reads program. On Saturday, April 9, at 9:30 a.m., I will be reading from the book and answering questions. We will meet in the Quiet Study Room at the library. Hope to see you there.

Friday, April 1, 7:00 p.m. Oconto Falls Library. (Stories from the Land)

Saturday, April 2, 9:00-11:00 a.m. Oconto Falls Library. (Writing workshop: Writing Family Stories. Call the library for further information.)

Tuesday, April 5, 6:00 p.m. Salem Public Library, Salem, WI (Stories from the Land)

Saturday, April 9, 9:30 a.m. Mead Public Library, Sheboygan. (Old Farm)

April 9, 1:30-4:00 p.m. Mead Public Library, Sheboygan Writing Workshop. Call 920-459-3400, ext. 3422 for reservations.

Tuesday, April 12, 7:00 p.m., Fall Creek Library (Horses and Barns)

Thursday, April 14, 6:30 p.m. Marathon County Library, 300 N. First Street, Wausau. (Horses and Barns)

Friday, April 15, 1:00 p.m. Kaukauna Public Library (Fox Cities Book Festival)

Saturday, April 16, Wild Rose High School Centennial Program

Waterwheel

On the home farm, when the snows began melting in March, a little stream of melt water trickled from behind the corn crib, continued on between the house and the barn, and finally curled under the barnyard gate to disperse in the barnyard.

One year Pa suggested we make a little waterwheel and place it in the melt water river. He made the waterwheel from a cedar wood shingle. He cut two pieces, each about three inches long and a half inch wide. He notched the two pieces and pushed them together making a waterwheel with four little paddles. With two other pieces of shingle wood he made a little frame that held the waterwheel in place while the running melt water turned it.

In early morning, when the temperature had fallen below freezing, the little waterwheel hung motionless in its frame, but usually by mid-day, with climbing temperatures and more snow melting, the waterwheel turned furiously, making a “flip ,flip” sound. The waterwheel turned for more than a week; Pa, my brothers and I would stop, watch and listen to it as we went about doing our various spring chores.

One warm, late afternoon day, we noticed the melt water river had stopped running and the water wheel no longer turned. On that day we knew that spring arrived.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Oft times the little things in life can provide the most pleasure.

CHECK THIS OUT: Plan to attend the Strum Memorial Library (Manawa) special program 7:00 p.m., March 29. The library selected my book, IN A PICKLE, for their “One Book/One Community” program. I’m told that more than 100 people in the community have read the book so far. I’ll discuss the background for writing the book as well as do a reading at the March 29 event.

COMING EVENTS:

Wednesday, March 23, 1:00 p.m., New Berlin Banquet and Conference Center. Learning in Retirement Group, (Remembering Our Agricultural Heritage).

Saturday, March 26, 9:30 a.m., Richland County Electric Co-op, Richland Center High School.

Tuesday, March 29, 7:00 p.m. Strum Public Library (Manawa). (In a Pickle).

Friday, April 1, 7:00 p.m. Oconto Falls Library. (Stories from the Land)

Saturday, April 2, 9:00-11:00 a.m. Oconto Falls Library. (Writing workshop: Writing Family Stories)

Tuesday, April 5, 6:00 p.m. Salem Public Library (Stories from the Land)

Saturday, April 9, 9:30 a.m. Mead Public Library, Sheboygan. (Old Farm)

Saturday, April 9, 1:30-4:00 p.m. Mead Public Library, Sheboygan Writing Workshop. Call 920-459-3400, ext. 3422 for reservations.

Tuesday, April 12, 7:00 p.m., Fall Creek Library (Horses and Barns)

Thursday, April 14, 6:30 p.m. Marathon County Library, 300 N. First Street, Wausau. (Horses and Barns)

Friday, April 15, 1:00 p.m. Kaukauna Public Library (Fox Cities Book Festival)

Saturday, April 16, Wild Rose High School Centennial Program

Canoecopia 2011

It’s the weekend for Canoecopia, an annual event held at the Alliant Center in Madison where hundreds of winter weary people gather to think about summer, outdoor camping, canoeing, and traveling to wilderness areas to get away from it all for a few days.

Canoecopia is billed as the world’s largest paddlesports expo. Sponsored by an outdoor supply store in Madison with the rather exotic name of Rutabaga, visitors to the three day show can leave behind the waning days of winter by checking out new canoes and kayaks, paddles of various shapes and prices, life vests, appropriate clothing , new ideas for backpacks and much, much more.

Visitors can also listen to a vast array of speakers (I was one of them) talk about everything from their new books (I shared stores from my book, CAMPFIRES AND LOON CALLS) to camping in the Grand Canyon, Treasures of the Apostle Islands, Essential Equipment for Paddling and How to Build Your Own Canoe.

The show provides three days of escaping winter, propelling visitors to a time when they are sitting on a high point overlooking a lake with waves lapping the rocks below their campsite, and a loon calling in the distance as the sun slips slowly below the horizon to the west.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: I need to hear the call of the loon at least once a year to remind me that everything is not as bad as it may sometimes appear.

CHECK THIS OUT: Plan to attend the launch party for CAMPFIRES AND LOON CALLS at Barnes and Noble West in Madison on Tuesday, March 15 at 7:00 p.m. Ruth is making chocolate chip cookies for the event. (We take chocolate chip cookies along on our wilderness camping trips).

COMING EVENTS:

March 15, 10:30 a.m. Eager Free Library, Evansville, WI.

March 15, 7:00 p.m. Barnes and Noble, Madison West. (Launch for Campfires and Loon Calls).

March 17, 2:00-4:00. Monroe Arts Center, Monroe. Memories into Memoirs—Writers’ Workshop.

March 17, 7:00 p.m. Monroe Arts Center. (Our Rural Heritage).

March 20, 7:00 p.m. Lebanon Historical Society, Fire Station, New Lebanon. (Horse Drawn Days).

March 23, 1:00 p.m., New Berlin Banquet and Conference Center. Learning in Retirement.

March 26, 9:30 a.m., Richland County Electric Co-op, Richland Center High School
.
March 29, 7:00 p.m. Manawa Public Library. (In a Pickle).

April 1, 7:00 p.m. Oconto Falls Library. (Stories from the Land)

April 2, 9:00-11:00 Oconto Falls Library. (Writing workshop: Writing Family Stories)

April 5, 6:00 p.m. Salem Public Library (Stories from the Land)

Signs of Spring

It is many years ago; my two brothers and I are in the upstairs bedroom of our old farm house. It has been a long, cold winter, with many below zero days and snow so deep the old timers said they couldn’t remember ever seeing such a tough winter. But something is different this morning—the most obvious, the bedroom isn’t so cold. The thick frost that has covered the inside of the windows since last November is melting, puddling on the window sills. Rain is splashing against the windows, one of the first sounds of spring. I look out the window, toward our snow-covered fields to east and I see wisps of fog.

I pull on my clothes, rush downstairs, grab my barn lantern and trot to the barn. For the first time in weeks, the snow is mushy underfoot. And the subtle smell of spring is in the air. Once in the barn for the morning milking, I notice the animals are aware of the weather change as well. They are restless and wanting to go outside, understandable after being cooped up in the barn for these long winter months.

After breakfast, we let the cows outside, to romp in the barnyard, to run with their tails in the air, to experience spring. To feel the rain on their backs and the soft snow underfoot. But winter doesn’t give up easily. That evening, the rain changes to snow as winter refuses to leave quietly. But we now know that spring is waiting in the wings, waiting for a chance to sneak in and take over, and push winter farther north for a few months.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: We need winter to truly enjoy spring.

CHECK THIS OUT: Tune in the Larry Meiller Show on Wisconsin Public Radio, Wednesday, March 9. 11:45-12:20. I’ll be discussing my new book, CAMPFIRES AND LOON CALLS.

COMING EVENTS:
March 11, 5:30 p.m. and Saturday, March 12, 3:30 p.m. Canoecopia Trade Show, Alliant Center, Madison:. (Campfires and Loon Calls).

March 15, 10:30 a.m. Eager Free Library, Evansville, WI.

March 15, 7:00 p.m. Barnes and Noble, Madison West. (Launch for Campfires and Loon Calls).

March 17, 2:00-4:00. Monroe Arts Center, Monroe. Memories into Memoirs—Writers’ Workshop.

March 17, 7:00 p.m. Monroe Arts Center. (Our Rural Heritage).

March 20, 7:00 p.m. Lebanon Historical Society, Fire Station, New Lebanon. (Horse Drawn Days).

March 26, 9:30 a.m., Richland County Electric Co-op, Richland Center High School.

March 29, 7:00 p.m. Manawa Public Library. (In a Pickle).

Late Winter Quiet

I’m at my farm these waning days of winter. The snow is piled high around the buildings, as high as I can remember. It took me more than two hours with my tractor to plow out my driveway after the most recent snowstorm.

I watched a deer last night; a little doe with a thick coat of fur. She was feeding on the brush growing under the windbreak not twenty yards from the cabin. Although she was up to her belly in deep snow, she appeared healthy. Even with deep snow, she appeared to move easily, albeit very slowly.

This morning, as the late February sun begins to crawl above the horizon to the east, I pull on my parka and head for the woodshed, a several times a day task in winter, as my wood stove has a never ending appetite. The thermometer reads 15 degrees. What I notice these chilly late winter mornings is the quiet—oh so quiet. The only sound is that of my boots creaking on the snow. I stop and listen to the silence—a real treat as most of my life is filled with sound.

As the first rays of sun appear, I hear it, off to the east, a cardinal shattering the silence, welcoming the new day, and welcoming the seasonal change as well.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Change and progress are not the same thing.

CHECK THIS OUT:
My newest book, CAMPFIRES AND LOON CALLS: TRAVELS IN THE BOUNDARY WATERS is in the bookstores. My son, Steve and I have canoed in the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota for 25 years. This is our story. Go to: http://fulcrumpublishing.wordpress.com for more information, including an interview.

COMING EVENTS:
March 2, 7:00 p.m. River Falls Library. Smithsonian’s “Key Ingredients: America By Food.” (Farming History).

March 5, 3:00 p.m. City Hall, Platteville (Old Farm).

March 5, 7:00 p.m. Mining Museum-405 E. Main, Platteville: (Horse Drawn Days).

March 6, 2:00 p.m. Pioneer Dinner, Milton House Museum, Seventh Day Baptist Church, Milton (Remembering our Rural Heritage).

March 9, 11:45-12:30 Larry Meiller Show, Wisconsin Public Radio (Campfires and Loon Calls).

March 11, 5:30 p.m. and Saturday, March 12, 3:30 p.m. Canoecopia, Alliant Center, Madison:. (Campfires and Loon Calls).

March 15, 10:30 a.m. Eager Free Library, Evansville, WI.

March 15, 7:00 p.m. Barnes and Noble, Madison West. (Launch for Campfires and Loon Calls).

March 17, 2:00-4:00. Monroe Arts Center, Monroe. Memories into Memoirs—Writers’ Workshop.

March 17, 7:00 p.m. Monroe Arts Center. (Our Rural Heritage).

March 20, 7:00 p.m. Lebanon Historical Society, Fire Station, New Lebanon. (Horse Drawn Days).

March 26, 9:30 a.m., Richland County Electric Co-op, Richland Center High School.

March 29, 7:00 p.m. Manawa Public Library. (In a Pickle).

Ice Skating

We’ve had a week of above freezing weather, the temperature climbing into the low 50s one day. The snow is in fast retreat. When I was a kid we looked forward to these winter thaws, not only because warmer weather made doing farm chores a little easier, but because the hollows on the farm filled with melt water. When winter returned, and it always did, the ponds in the hollows froze and we had ice skating ponds.

When I was eleven years old or so, I was introduced to ice skating after one of these winter thaws created a couple acre pond in the big hayfield across the road from our farmstead. When the pond froze, Pa asked my brothers and me one Saturday morning whether we’d be interesting in learning how to ice skate. We had no ice skates at the time, so were a bit perplexed by Pa’s question.

That Saturday afternoon, while Ma was trading for groceries (she traded eggs for groceries at the Mercantile in Wild Rose), Pa, my brothers and I walked down the street to Hotz’s Hardware. Pa inquired about ice skates, the kind that you clamp on the bottom of your shoes with a little key. He bought three pair, fifty cents a pair.

Later that afternoon, when we were back home, my brothers and I trekked down to the pond, clamped on our shiny new skates and quickly discovered that there was nothing easy about ice skating. We were on our backsides more often than we were upright. At suppertime, Pa inquired about our skating success and we told him we’d probably go back to sledding. The next day Pa came with us to the pond, we wondered why. Once there, he said he’d like to try skating. As an old man, he was in his forties, we thought he’d probably fall and break something. And we’d have more chores to do.

We shouldn’t have worried. Pa made a couple swings around the pond, his hands behind his back, a smile spreading across his face. He slid to a stop,commenced skating backwards, and then cross stepped going backwards. Not once did he fall. Not once. My brothers and I just stood there with our mouths hanging open. “Not much to ice skating,” he said. “Does take a little practice, though.”

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: The only way to lose is to quit.

CHECK THIS OUT:

My newest book, CAMPFIRES AND LOON CALLS: TRAVELS IN THE BOUNDARY WATERS is in the bookstores. My son, Steve and I have canoed in the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota for 25 years. This is our story. Go to: http://fulcrumpublishing.wordpress.com for more information, including an interview.

COMING EVENTS:

March 2, 7:00 p.m. River Falls Library. Smithsonian’s “Key Ingredients: America By Food.” Farming History.

March 5, 3:00 p.m. City Hall, Platteville (Old Farm).

March 5, 7:00 p.m. Mining Museum-405 E. Main, Platteville: (Horse Drawn Days.)

March 6, 2:00 p.m. Pioneer Dinner, Milton House Museum, Milton: Remembering our Rural Heritage.

March 9, 11:45-12:30 Larry Meiller Show, Wisconsin Public Radio: Campfires and Loon Calls.

March 11, 5:30 p.m. and Saturday, March 12, 3:30 p.m. Canoecopia, Alliant Center, Madison: Campfires and Loon Calls.

March 15, 10:30 a.m. Eager Free Library, Evansville, WI.

March 15, 7:00 p.m. Barnes and Noble, Madison West. Launch for Campfires and Loon Calls.

March 17, 2:00-4:00. Monroe Arts Center, Monroe. Memories into Memoirs—Writers’ Workshop.

March 17, 7:00 p.m. Monroe Arts Center. Our Rural Heritage.

March 20, 7:00 p.m. Lebanon Historical Society, Fire Station, New Lebanon. Horse Drawn Days.

March 29, 7:00 p.m. Manawa Public Library, In a Pickle.

Cook Stove

I spent some time at my farm last week, where the snow is piled high and spring seems a long way in the future. I heat my shack with a wood stove, a cook stove that not only provides a place to fry some eggs and heat up a pot of beans, but provides a wonderfully warm heat for the little building.

The temperature dipped to minus twelve one morning, and minus fifteen another. And yet, with these challenging temperatures the cook stove, with sticks of oak and black cherry wood, soon warmed the place to a comfortable level.

I sat near it, in my old rocking chair, and remembered when I was a kid how my dad sat near our old cook stove on cold mornings. And when a neighbor came to visit on a cold winter day, my dad and he would sit by the cook stove and spin stories and reminisce about earlier times when winters were more fierce and the cold more treacherous, at least in their memories. So the wood burning cook stove not only warmed the room, provided a place to cook and bake, but provided a center piece for socializing and being neighborly.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: There is something special about the heat from a wood burning stove.

CHECK THIS OUT:
My newest book, CAMPFIRES AND LOON CALLS: TRAVELS IN THE BOUNDARY WATERS is in the bookstores. My son, Steve and I have canoed in the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota for 25 years. This is our story. Go to: http://fulcrumpublishing.wordpress.com for more information, including an interview.

COMING EVENTS:

March 2, 7:00 p.m. River Falls Library. Smithsonian’s “Key Ingredients: America By Food.” Farming History.

March 5, 3:00 p.m. City Hall, Platteville (Old Farm). 7:00 p.m. Museum-405 E. Main: (Horse Drawn Days.)

March 6, 2:00 p.m. Pioneer Dinner, Milton House Museum, Milton: Remembering our Rural Heritage.

March 9, 11:45-12:30 Larry Meiller Show, Wisconsin Public Radio: Campfires and Loon Calls.

March 11, 5:30 p.m. and Saturday, March 12, 3:30 p.m. Canoecopia, Alliant Center, Madison: Campfires and Loon Calls.

March 15, 10:30 a.m. Eager Free Library, Evansville, WI.

March 15, 7:00 p.m. Barnes and Noble, Madison West. Launch for Campfires and Loon Calls.

March 17, 2:00-4:00. Monroe Arts Center, Monroe. Memories into Memoirs—Writers’ Workshop.

March 17, 7:00 p.m. Monroe Arts Center. Our Rural Heritage.

March 20, 7:00 p.m. Lebanon Historical Society, Fire Station, New Lebanon. Horse Drawn Days.

March 29, 7:00 p.m. Manawa Public Library, In a Pickle.

Back Home

Back home again after a couple weeks in the sunny south. Back to the land of snow banks and icicles, slippery roads and yes, the beauty of a good old-fashioned winter.

We were in Florida for a couple weeks, visiting places like the John and Mable Ringling Museum in Sarasota, and watching the surf roll in from the Gulf of Mexico (no traces of oil by the way).

We drove the near 1,400 hundreds miles so had a chance to see what winter was like in Illinois, in Kentucky, in Tennessee, in Georgia and of course in Florida. Winter is rather bleak and unappealing in these states. Drab and dull until we got to south Georgia and began to see some green grass.

Good to be home, even though my arms ache from shoveling and my back reminds me I’m not thirty years old anymore. Back home in time to watch the Super Bowl. Little talk of this great event in Florida, except for a chuckle or two that Dallas has snow and ice. “The cheeseheads must have brought their weather with them to Texas,” was the common comment.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: The Eskimos had 52 names for snow. One name seems sufficient when you have to shovel it.

CHECK THIS OUT: My newest book, CAMPFIRES AND LOON CALLS: TRAVELS IN THE BOUNDARY WATERS is in the bookstores. My son, Steve and I have canoed in the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota for 25 years. This is our story.

COMING EVENTS:
February 12, 2:00 p.m., Richland Center City Auditorium. Film: County Schools—One Room—One Nation, followed by panel discussion.

March 2, 7:00 p.m. River Falls Library. Smithsonian’s “Key Ingredients: America By Food.” Farming History.

March 5, 3:00 p.m. City Hall, Platteville: Old Farm. 7:00 p.m. Museum-405 E. Main: Horse Drawn Days.

March 6, 2:00 p.m. Pioneer Dinner, Milton House Museum, Milton: Remembering our Rural Heritage.

March 9, 11:45-12:30 Larry Meiller Show, Wisconsin Public Radio: Campfires and Loon Calls.

March 11, Presentations: Friday, 5:30 p.m. and Saturday, March 12, 3:30 p.m. Canoecopia, Alliant Center, Madison: Campfires and Loon Calls.

March 15, 10:30 a.m. Eager Free Library, Evansville, WI.

March 15, 7:00 p.m. Barnes and Noble, Madison West. Launch for Campfires and Loon Calls.

March 17, 2:00-4:00. Monroe Arts Center, Monroe. Memories into Memoirs—Writers’ Workshop.

March 17, 7:00 p.m. Monroe Arts Center. Our Rural Heritage.

March 20, 7:00 p.m. Lebanon Historical Society, Fire Station, New Lebanon. Horse Drawn Days.

March 29, 7:00 p.m. Manawa Public Library, In a Pickle.

The Indispensable Teakettle

We took for granted the old and dented teakettle that sat on a back corner of the wood burning cook stove in the kitchen on the home farm. From early morning until long after we crawled up the frigid stairway to our bedroom, a thread of steam poured from its spout. Without indoor plumbing, the teakettle was our source of hot water. I remember but once or twice when a persnickety city relative appeared and insisted on tea that the teakettle was used for that purpose.

True, the cook stove had a warm water reservoir attached to its right side, which provided warm water for hand and face washing. But the only hot water source was the teakettle, dull aluminum in color, holding about four quarts of water.

Hot water was especially important when winter illnesses came our way. Hot water mixed with salt for a sore throat. A glass of hot water mixed with a jigger of “medicinal” whiskey became a whiskey sling that would kill most any cold from the sniffles to much more. The standard cold remedy in our house, in addition to the whiskey sling, was a goodly amount of skunk grease (it is odorless) rubbed on your chest and covered with a piece of red flannel pinned to your long underwear. It worked, I’m still here.

For bruises, sprains and aches of assorted origin, Ma filled the rubber hot water bottle with hot water from the teakettle. She wrapped a towel around it and the hot water bottle became a cozy warm friend on a cold winter night.

I have many fond memories of that old teakettle and its source of hot water that we used for so many purposes, both outside and inside the house.

CHECK THIS OUT: Look for CAMPFIRES AND LOON CALLS, my newest book, available February 1. It is about 25 years of canoeing in the Boundary Waters of Northern Minnesota. Steve’s photos are throughout. Go to: www.fulcrum-books.com for more information.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Winter is a time for warm memories.

COMING EVENTS:

February 12, 2:00 p.m., Richland Center City Auditorium. Film: County Schools—One Room—One Nation, followed by panel discussion.

March 11-13. Canoecopia, Alliant Center, Madison. Campfires and Loon Calls (two presentations)

March 15, 10:30 a.m. Eager Free Library, Evansville, WI.

March 15, 7:00 p.m. Barnes and Noble, Madison West. Launch for Campfires and Loon Calls.

March 17, 2:00-4:00. Monroe Arts Center, Monroe. Memories into Memoirs—Writers Workshop.

March 17, 7:00 p.m. Monroe Arts Center. Our Rural Heritage.

March 20, 7:00 p.m. Lebanon Historical Society, Fire Station, New Lebanon. Horse Drawn Days,

Seed Catalogs

On a cold, snowy, and dreary early January afternoon, I pick up my mail and my spirits soar. The first seed catalogs have arrived, one from Jungs in Randolph, one from Gurney’s in Indiana,another from Burpee’s in Pennsylvania and several more. A spot of spring on a winter day. Pictures of hope and expectancy.

Seed Catalogs reach near religious status for those of us who garden. On these quiet days of winter we gardeners plan and anticipate—and study like someone facing a major examination. The test, of course, is next summer’s garden. Will it equal gardens of the past? Can next year’s be better?

I first study the tomato varieties: Pink Wonder is a new one, reaching 1 pound each with a “sweet and tangy flavor,” excellent keepers, good disease resistance. I look further. Three more new varieties: Tough Boy: produces “very smooth, round, 8 ounce fruits with no blemishes or imperfections,” Country Taste: “Old fashioned flavor blends with modern vigor.” And Bella Rosa: “A pretty name for a serious performer.” I must try a couple of these, I say, realizing I will most likely plant varieties I have grown for years: Better Boy, Early Girl, and Wisconsin 55.
I do the same for the other vegetables. I plan, check on what’s new in sweet corn, green beans, squash, pumpkins, rutabagas, cabbage, beets, radishes, potatoes and more.

I have a great time, reflecting on last year’s garden and what varieties did well, and planning for the next season. But I know from years of experience, no matter how carefully I plan, how carefully I select vegetable varieties, Mother Nature always surprises me. It’s one of the reasons I garden— I never quite know what to expect.

CHECK THIS OUT: My newest book, available about February 1 is about 25 years of canoeing in the Boundary Waters of Northern Minnesota. Steve’s photos are throughout. Go to: www.fulcrum-books.com for more information. The title: Campfires and Loon calls.

THE OLD TIMER WONDERS: Why do the pictures of the vegetables in the seed catalogs seldom resemble the real thing he grows in his garden?

COMING EVENTS:

February 12, 2:00 p.m., Richland Center City Auditorium. Film: County Schools—One Room—One Nation, followed by panel discussion.

March 11-13. Canoecopia, Alliant Center, Madison. Campfires and Loon Calls (two presentations)

March 15, 10:30 a.m. Eager Free Library, Evansville, WI.

March 15, 7:00 p.m. Barnes and Noble, Madison West. Launch for Campfires and Loon Calls.

March 17, 2:00-4:00. Monroe Arts Center, Monroe. Memories into Memoirs—Writers Workshop.

March 17, 7:00 p.m. Monroe Arts Center. Our Rural Heritage.

March 20, 7:00 p.m. Lebanon Historical Society, Fire Station, New Lebanon. Horse Drawn Days,

Old Timer Tips for the New Year

The Old Timer asked for a little more space this week, the first days of the New Year. He is not much for New Year’s resolutions, but does has some suggestions for the coming year.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS:

Take time to watch a sunset.

Read some poetry. Start with, “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost, published in 1923. Here is the last verse:
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Travel away from the city on a cold, clear night, to a place where there is little light pollution, and look up. When was the last time you saw so many stars?

Hike into a woods on a below-zero morning and listen to the silence.

Vow once a week to set aside a few minutes to do nothing, to think about nothing, to worry about nothing.

Don’t take for granted those who love you.

Page through the seed catalogs that come this time of year. You don’t have to garden to enjoy them.

Write some stories about when you were a kid; your kids will appreciate it.

Call an old friend; somebody you knew when you were in high school.

It’s a New Year! Put a smile on your face, a spring in your step and forget last year’s mistakes.

CHECK THIS OUT: My newest book, available February 1, is about 25 years of canoeing in the Boundary Waters of Northern Minnesota. Steve’s photos are throughout. Go to: www.fulcrum-books.com for more information. The title: Campfires and Loon calls.

UPCOMING EVENTS
January 6, 2011, 5:30 p.m. Lacrosse Library Friends dinner meeting.

Ski Stories From Yesterday

We had several steep little hills on our home farm, perfect for sledding and skiing, especially skiing. My dad made my first pair of skis out of barrel staves, the curved slats from wooden barrels that were about three feet long. He nailed a thin strip of leather onto each stave for my rubber boots. I was maybe four or five years old, so I didn’t mind much that my barrel stave skis were clumsy and performed poorly on hills. They served just fine on the level, sort of like snowshoes.

When I was seven or eight, my grandfather Witt made for me my second pair of skis from two five-foot strips of birch wood that he steamed over a teakettle to bend up the front ends. He also nailed a strip of leather across the middle of each of them to accommodate my four-buckle rubber boots. They were wider than barrel staves, and with the turned up ends I could sail down the hills as well as any kid with “store-bought” skis. Unfortunately, the skis that grandpa made did not have grooves cut in the bottom to keep them going straight. If the snow was packed, I would as likely go sideways as straight ahead—an added benefit I pointed out to my friends who had “better” skis.

By the time I was ten, I received a pair of factory-made skis for Christmas. They were seven feet long, still with but one strip of leather to hold my now six-buckle rubber boots, and with two grooves on the bottom of each for superior control and steering. My dad bought them at Hotz’s Hardware in Wild Rose—each ski somewhere along the way had lost its mate. One ski was black, the other brown. Dad painted the brown one black so they, with some minor differences, became a pair. With my new skis, I skied to school, skied a trap line each morning, skied to neighbors, and of course skied at skiing parties the neighborhood kids organized. Somewhere in my shed at the farm I still have one of these old skis. I broke its mate when I hit a stone, or maybe when I got tangled up in a wire fence I tried to cross. The remaining ski, once more alone, has many stories to tell.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: As we grow older we tend to forget things that happened and remember things that didn’t.

UPCOMING EVENTS
January 6, 2011, 5:30 p.m. Lacrosse Library Friends dinner meeting.

Christmas Memories

Some Christmas memories:

I remember Christmas morning with a stack of presents under the tree that couldn’t be opened until the morning milking was done.

I remember receiving socks and mittens that my grandmother knitted and a new pair of skates, the kind that clamped on the bottom of my shoes and were tightened with a key.

I remember oyster stew for supper on Christmas Eve, every year—a tradition in the family that went back for several generations. We continue to eat oyster stew on Christmas Eve today.

I remember Christmas dinner, with aunts, uncles and cousins, and a table spread with food like I only saw when the threshing crews came.

I remember walking a mile to the neighbor’s with a small present and a freshly baked pie, because we knew the neighbor’s wife had passed away and he and his daughter were alone on Christmas day.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL. Any Christmas stories to share?

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: It often takes only a little more effort to move something from good to great.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

January 6, 2011, 5:30 p.m. Lacrosse Library Friends dinner meeting.

Country School Christrmas Program

Practicing for the Christmas program at our country school began shortly after Thanksgiving break. It was serious business as the school Christmas program was one of the main social events of the year in our central Wisconsin farm community. Everyone attended, parents, relatives, and neighbors, no matter if they had children attending the school or not. Every student performed on the stage, from the youngest first grader, to the oldest, eighth grader.

I remember my first program; I was five years old in first grade, all decked out in a new flannel shirt and newer bib overalls, and scared out of my wits. The school room, lighted with two gasoline lamps, and overheated with a big wood burning stove, was filled with people—standing room only.

It was my turn to “say my piece” a little ditty about winter, as I recall. I had memorized it and memorized it again. I recited it to our cows, and to the chickens when I helped with chores. No complaints. I recited it to my mother who nodded her approval—I did not share it with my twin brothers. What did they know about good performance, they were only three years old?

I did what Miss Piechowski told me: stand up straight, keep my hands out of pockets, use my outside voice—and stare at the stovepipe in the back of room. That was my secret weapon to avoid forgetting my lines when my fellow students crossed their eyes and stuck out their tongues, trying to unnerve me so I would.

It worked. I remembered. I said my piece. Everyone clapped. And I have been searching for stovepipes to stare at ever since.

CHECK THIS OUT: Want to learn more about fictional Ames County, Wisconsin? Go to my website, www.jerryapps.com, and learn about my four novels, all based in this special county. The first is The Travels of Increase Joseph and the most recent is Cranberry Red.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: (From an old country school reader): All that you do, do with all your might. Things done by half, are never done right.

UPCOMING EVENTS
December 13, 11:00 to 2:00 p.m. Dregne’s Scandinavian Gifts, Westby. Book signing for Barns of Wisconsin, Horse Drawn Days, and Cranberry Red. (December 4 appearance canceled because of snow.)

December 16, 7:00 p.m. Stoughton Library. (Previous week’s program canceled because of weather).

January 6, 2011, 5:30 p.m. Lacrosse Library Friends dinner meeting.

Wish Book

It was truly a wish book. The days after Thanksgiving my brothers and I waited patiently for its arrival in our rural mailbox. The book was of course the Sears, Roebuck Christmas Catalog, first published in 1933.

There was no other book like for it, especially for farm kids who lived miles from a city and probably had never been in a department store. The wish book contained page after page of toys, everything from Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys to dolls, books, BB guns, and board games of every type.

My brothers and I took turns paging through the catalog, making our choices for Christmas presents. What we hoped Santa would bring. My mother said we could pick out one toy from the catalog, and one other practical thing such as a sweater, a pair of mittens, or maybe a winter cap with fancy ear flaps.

One Christmas I chose a book called FUN FOR BOYS, edited by William Allan Brooks. I must have gotten it in about 1944 and it still has an important place on my bookshelf. I remember how thrilled I was on Christmas morning to tear open the package with my special book and read through its Table of Contents: “The Secrets of Cartooning,” “How to Identify Aircraft,” (German, Japanese and U.S. as we were in the midst of World War II), “Building Model Planes,” “How to Train Your Dog,” “How to Handle a Rope Like a Cowboy,” “Building a Powerful Physique,” and “The Fundamentals of Jiu-Jitsu” (As taught to marines, soldiers and G-Men).

The final chapter included eight pages of recommended books for boys beginning with THE DEERSLAYER by James Fennimore Cooper, including A SON OF THE MIDDLE BORDER by Hamlin Garland (a Wisconsin author), THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER and THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN both by Mark Twain, ADVENTURES OF BUFFALO BILL by William F. Cody, EARLY MOON by Carl Sandburg and many more.

I spent many hours poring over this special book—I still find it interesting today, more than 66 years later.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: The best thing you can do when it’s snowing is to let it snow.

CHECK THIS OUT: Listen to an online interview about my new novel, CRANBERRY RED. Go to: http://www.wuwm.com/programs/lake_effect/le_sgmt.php?segmentid=6674

WUWM: Lake Effect - Cranberry Red

UPCOMING EVENTS:

December 9, 7:00 p.m. Stoughton Library.

December 11, 10 to 2:00 p.m. Fireside Books, West Bend.

December 13, 11:00 to 2:00 p.m. Dregne’s Scandinavian Gifts, Westby. Book signing for Barns of Wisconsin, Horse Drawn Days, and Cranberry Red. (December 4 appearance canceled because of snow)

Snow at the Farm

First snow at the farm. On the grass and in the shaded places. Not enough to be inconvenient. Not enough to shovel or even sweep. But snow nonetheless. Not especially beautiful as first snows can be—but merely white stuff mixed in with the browns and greens. A not so subtle reminder of winter that waits like a bully to pummel a victim, sending a light jab to garner attention.

Fourteen degrees this morning as a cold, late November sun reluctantly crawls out of the east. Weather person says low forties today. Enough warmth to melt the snow and send winter back north, at least for a bit. But winter will return as it always has. Those of us living in the north would have it no other way. Some of us anyway.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: If you put all of your eggs in one basket, be sure to keep your eye on the basket.

CHECK THIS OUT: Listen to an online interview about my new novel, CRANBERRY RED. Go to: http://www.wuwm.com/programs/lake_effect/le_sgmt.php?segmentid=6674

WUWM: Lake Effect - Cranberry Red

UPCOMING EVENTS:
December 2, 7:00 p.m. McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, Cranberry Red.

December 4, 10:30-2:30. Dregne’s Scandinavian Gifts, Westby. Book signing for Barns of Wisconsin, Horse Drawn Days, and Cranberry Red.

December 9, 7:00 p.m. Stoughton Library.

December 11, 10 to 2:00 p.m. Fireside Books, West Bend.

The Hunter and the Crow

Second morning of deer season. Foggy, misty, 32 degrees. I’m sitting on a wooden bench overlooking my prairie. I see a world of browns, tans and greens—the browns and tans from the dead grass and wildflowers. The greens from the pine trees—those that I planted, and those that grew on their own—red pine, white pine, jack, pine and Scotch.

Not a sound, profound quiet. No movement of wild creatures—they know better on a day like this. They stay hunkered down, out of the weather, different from their blaze orange fellow creatures who try not to let a little mist and fog, and cold and damp change their plans.

Then I hear it, to the west, in those few acres I call my oak woodlot, the sound of a lone crow. Just one. Out in the weather. Just me and a brave crow--I’d like to think the bird is brave, but maybe it’s as crazy as I am.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Change is not always progress.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

December 2, 7:00 p.m. McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, Cranberry Red.

December 4, 10:30-2:30. Dregne’s Scandinavian Gifts, Westby. Book signing for Barns of Wisconsin, Horse Drawn Days, and Cranberry Red.

December 9, 7:00 p.m. Stoughton Library.

December 11, 10 to 2:00 p.m. Fireside Books, West Bend.

Corn Harvesting

The big corn combines are mostly silent now, the corn crop harvested. How different harvesting corn when I was growing up. Then, we cut the standing corn with a corn binder pulled by a team or horses. Once cut, my dad, brothers and I stood the corn bundles into corn shocks that marched across the cornfield like so many Indian tepees.

After a few weeks, a corn shredder arrived at the farm, a smaller version of a threshing machine. The corn shredder (perhaps better called a corn husker) removed the ears of corn from the stalks and cut up the stalks that were blown into our barn for later use as bedding for our cows. The yellow ears of husked corn tumbled into a wagon. When the wagon was full, we forked the cobs into the corn crib.

Corn shredding involved several of the neighbors, just as did threshing. It took a couple of weeks for the corn shredder to make the rounds of the neighbors, tending to each farmer’s corn crop, and leaving the corn fields with rows of corn stubble. With good fall weather, the naked corn fields were plowed down in preparation for the following year’s oat crop. No successive crops of corn on the same field which is often the case today.

The corn combine has made the process of corn harvesting considerably easier—but I miss seeing the corn shocks, true symbols of fall. (Travel in Amish country and you can still see them).


THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Better to remain silent and thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.


UPCOMING EVENTS:

November 16, 7:00 p.m. Reedsburg Library, Cranberry Red

December 2, 7:00 p.m. McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, Cranberry Red.

December 4, 10:30-2:30. Dregne’s Scandinavian Gifts, Westby. Book signing for Barns of Wisconsin, Horse Drawn Days, and Cranberry Red.

December 9, 7:00 p.m. Stoughton Library.

December 11, 10 to 2:00 p.m. Fireside Books, West Bend.

National Farm Toy Show

They came from throughout the country, from Canada and several other countries. They gathered at Dyersville, Iowa, a little town west of Dubuque. Farmers mostly, those who still worked the land, and those who were retired but knew the stories of farming and farm life. Often three generations together, grandparents, mom and dad, and the grandkids. Looking at toy tractors and swapping “I remember when stories.” So many stories, nonstop stories from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon.

I sat behind a table piled high with my books as folks stopped by to chat. Their caps identified them—John Deere, Allis Chalmers, International Harvester, Oliver. Their caps told me which tractor was their choice and the source of their stories. Their sweat shirts carried on their infatuation with a certain kind of tractor: “Real friends don’t allow their friends to drive red tractors.” (A John Deere tractor lover for those who don’t know about the friendly competition between red (International) and green (John Deere) tractors.

One little boy—lots of kids of all sizes and ages attended—wore a shirt with the words “I was born in a barn” plastered across the front.
“Were you really born in a barn?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he said smiling. His mother was smiling, too.

Other sweatshirt messages: “Real men use duct tape,” “My tractor’s my first love,” and “Still plays with tractors.”

A cute little boy’s sweat shirt said: “Dirt Rocks.” Another little boy’s shirt: “I move dirt.”

Some 10,000 plus folks attended the event—most of them walked by my table at one time or another. I even signed a book or two.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Always remember, as through life you roll, to keep your eye on the doughnut and not on the hole.

CHECK THIS OUT: Tune in Wisconsin Public Radio on November 9, Larry Meiller show, 11:45-12:30. Discussion of my novel, Cranberry Red.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

November 9, Larry Meiller Show, Wisconsin Public Radio, 11:45-12:30, Cranberry Red.

November 13, 9:30 a.m. Sheboygan Falls Library, Horse Drawn Days.

November 16, 7:00 p.m. Reedsburg Library, Cranberry Red

December 2, 7:00 p.m. McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, Cranberry Red.

December 4, 10:30-2:30. Dregne’s Scandinavian Gifts, Westby. Book signing for Barns of Wisconsin, Horse Drawn Days, and Cranberry Red.

Windstorm

The weather bureau said, “High Wind Warning.” Batten the hatches. Tie things down. Find your flashlight. Prepare for the worst.

It came out of the west. A stiff breeze at first, then stronger gusts and by mid-afternoon on the first day of the storm a freight train sound roaring through the tree tops, screaming around building corners. Worrying roof shingles. Seventy mile an hour gust recorded on the UW campus in Madison.

Tree limbs sheared off, trees uprooted, diseased trees smashed to the ground. Power outages here, there and everywhere throughout the Upper Great Lakes, through Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin. Something to talk about. Stories to tell. Memories of previous storms to recount.

Two days of wind. So powerful. Mother Nature’s way. A periodic reminder of who is really in charge.

THE OLD TIMER REMEMBERS THIS OLD GERMAN SAYING: Let’s all stick together; everybody for himself.

CHECK THIS OUT: Tune in Wisconsin Public Radio on November 9, Larry Meiller show, 11:45-12:30. Discussion of my novel, Cranberry Red.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

November 3, 3:15 p.m. Wisconsin Library Association, Wisconsin Dells, Horse Drawn Days, Barns of Wisconsin.

November 5-7, National Farm Toy Show, Dyersville, Iowa. Horse Drawn Days, Barns of Wisconsin and more.

November 9, Larry Meiller Show, Wisconsin Public Radio, 11:45-12:30, Cranberry Red.

November 13, 9:30 a.m. Sheboygan Falls Library, Horse Drawn Days.

November 16, 7:00 p.m. Reedsburg Library, Cranberry Red

December 2, 7:00 p.m. McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, Cranberry Red.

December 4, 10:30-2:30. Dregne’s Scandinavian Gifts, Westby. Book signing for Barns of Wisconsin, Horse Drawn Days, and Cranberry Red.

More Potato Harvest

“So what did you do with all those potatoes?” someone asked me after reading my last week’s tale about potato digging, potato picking and country school potato vacation.

At noon, and again at the end of a harvest day, we loaded the filled potato crates on our steel-wheeled wagon pulled by trusty Frank and Charlie, our Percheron draft horses. We stored the potatoes in two places, in bins in the cellar of our farm house and in our potato cellar, a little building built into the side of the hill just west of our chicken house.

Farm houses in those days did not have basements, but had dirt floor cellars. Because we had no furnace and heated the house with wood stoves, the cellar was always cool.

The separate potato cellar structure, built mostly underground, was where most of the potatoes were stored. The upper part was for machinery storage, the cellar was divided into several potato bins.

We stored the potatoes until the prices would climb a bit, usually in late winter, and then we would sort them with a hand-cranked potato sorter, bag them and tote them to Wild Rose where the potato buyers operated big warehouses.

Of course we ate potatoes, three times a day, fried potatoes for breakfast, boiled potatoes for dinner, and often baked potatoes for supper.

Potatoes along with cucumbers and green beans were our cash crops, providing a little extra money to supplement the bi-monthly milk checks from our small dairy herd.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Nothing grows without roots.

CHECK THIS OUT: Tune in Wisconsin Public Radio on November 9, Larry Meiller show, 11:45-12:30. Discussion of my new novel, Cranberry Red.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

October 28, 7:00 p.m. Oconto Falls Library.

October 30, 9-4:00, Writing Workshop, The Clearing, Door County.

November 3, 3:15 p.m. Wisconsin Library Association, Wisconsin Dells, Horse Drawn Days, Barns of Wisconsin.

November 5-7, National Farm Toy Show, Dyersville, Iowa. Horse Drawn Days, Barns of Wisconsin and more.

November 9, Larry Meiller Show, Wisconsin Public Radio, 11:45-12:30, Cranberry Red.

November 13, 9:30 a.m. Sheboygan Falls Library, Horse Drawn Days.

November 16, 7:00 p.m. Reedsburg Library, Cranberry Red

December 2, 7:00 p.m. McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, Cranberry Red.

December 4, 10:30-2:30. Dregne’s Scandinavian Gifts, Westby. Book signing for Barns of Wisconsin, Horse Drawn Days, and Cranberry Red.

Potato Harvest

When I was growing up, mid-October was potato harvesting time. During those years we planted twenty acres of potatoes,sometimes more. We planted them by hand, cultivated them with a one-horse walking cultivator, and spent untold hours hoeing out the weeds the cultivator missed.

Come October and potato harvest time, our country school, along with all the country schools in central Wisconsin closed two weeks for potato vacation. Some vacation. Every chilly vacation day morning we loaded wooden potato crates on our steel-wheeled wagon pulled by Frank and Charlie our trusty draft horses.

We distributed the potato crates every few yards across the field, and Pa and a hired man began digging. Each used a six-tine barn fork and backed their way across the field, each digging two rows while my two brothers and I scrambled to pick the big white potatoes into pails that when full we dumped into the potato boxes.

It was back breaking work, but the smells of new potatoes and freshly turned soil were pleasant ones. And besides that, we earned a handsome one cent a bushel for the potatoes we picked, more than most of the kids in the neighborhood who received no pay whatever for their efforts. I purchased my first .22 rifle with potato picking money.


THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Everybody has a story to tell.

CHECK THIS OUT: CRANBERRY RED book launch:

Patterson Memorial Library, Wild Rose, Sunday October 24, 1:00 p.m.
Learn all about cranberry growing, county agent work, and what happens when research goes amuck. UW Press is the publisher of this, my fourth novel, in the Ames County series.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

October 19, 6:30 p.m. Rhinelander Public Library, Horse Drawn Days

October 23, 6:00 p.m. Oregon Public Library. Living a Country Year.

October 24, 1:00 p.m. Patterson Memorial Library, Wild Rose. Cranberry Red

October 28, 7:00 p.m. Oconto Falls Library.

October 30, 9-4:00, Writing Workshop, The Clearing.

November 3, 3:15 p.m. Wisconsin Library Association, Wisconsin Dells, Horse Drawn Days, Barns of Wisconsin.

November 5-7, National Farm Toy Show, Dyersville, Iowa. Horse Drawn Days, Barns of Wisconsin and more.

November 13, 9:30 a.m. Sheboygan Falls Library, Horse Drawn Days.

Old World Wisconsin

It’s harvest time on the farm. Time to bring in the crops. It is so today as it has been since pioneer days.

I spoke at Old World Wisconsin this past weekend, during the midst of their “Autumn on the Farms” celebration. Old World Wisconsin, a Wisconsin Historical Society site, is located near Eagle, not far from Milwaukee. It is a Wisconsin treasure; a place where visitors can see what farm life was like in the 1800s, when Wisconsin agriculture was in its infancy. It’s also a place to learn about Wisconsin’s ethnic roots. Visitors can see German, Norwegian, Polish, Yankee, African-American, Finnish and Danish farmsteads, plus visit a blacksmith shop, an old fashioned country store, church, a one-room country school, an early town hall and much more.

At Old World Wisconsin this past weekend, visitors could see everything from oxen at work, to draft horses plowing. They could witness sausage making, weaving demonstrations, rope making, timber framing, candle dipping, horseradish grating, and more.

Oh, they could also hear me talk about my new books, HORSE DRAWN DAYS and BARNS OF WISCONSIN.


THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Some advice he recently heard. “Write down all of your experiences, even when you don’t have any.”

CHECK THIS OUT: CRANBERRY RED book launch:
Patterson Memorial Library, Wild Rose, Sunday October 24, 1:00 p.m.
Learn all about cranberry growing, county agent work, and what happens when research goes amuck. UW Press is the publisher of this, my fourth novel, in the Ames County series.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

October 15, Local History Conference. Lake Geneva, WI

October 16, 12:00 noon, Muskego Library, Muskego. Horse Drawn Days

October 19, 6:30 p.m. Rhinelander Public Library, Horse Drawn Days

October 23, 6:00 p.m. Oregon Public Library. Living a Country Year.

October 24, 1:00 p.m. Patterson Memorial Library, Wild Rose. Cranberry Red

October 28, 7:00 p.m. Oconto Falls Library.

November 3, 3:15 p.m. Wisconsin Library Association, Wisconsin Dells, Horse Drawn Days, Barns of Wisconsin.

November 5-7, National Farm Toy Show, Dyersville, Iowa. Horse Drawn Days, Barns of Wisconsin and more.

November 13, 9:30 a.m. Sheboygan Falls Library, Horse Drawn Days.