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Thursday October 9, 2025 Mac Furlong: Legend

Last week, in Reed River , Sven saw Mac Furlong hurrying down Main Street on his way to sign up for the Big Buck Contest at Doc's On Main . Mac was wearing his Reed River Bank suit clothes so Sven didn’t recognize him right off, walking so serious like. Beginning soon after the Roseau County Fair in July, you might begin noticing a few people wearing at least one parcel of florescent orange as they visit their local hardware stores and sporting goods shops salivating over the latest fall hunting gear -- although temperatures are yet in the eighties. As the weeks roll on toward fall, the few become hordes awash in hunting clothes brand names; everybody wears florescent orange or florescent orange and camouflage. Mac’s suit and tie didn’t quite make the impression of the life-long sportsman he is, but all who know him (and who doesn’t around Reed River?) would recognize the legendary name before the man anyway, even if he wasn’t wearing his classic head-to-toe camo...
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Word-Wednesday for October 8, 2025

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for October 8, 2025, the seventeenth Wednesday of the year, the third Wednesday of fall, the second Wednesday of October, and the two-hundred eighty-first day of the year, with eighty-four days remaining.   Wannaska Phenology Update for October 8, 2025 Wild Cranberries Time to head out to your local Wannaska cranberry bog to enjoy the season. There are two species of wild cranberry: Large Cranberry ( Vaccinium macrocarpon ) and Small Cranberry ( Vaccinium oxycoccos ). The Anishinaabe word for cranberry is mashkiigimin. Best picked when ripe, and they both large and small varieties have about the same excellent flavor. The different common names simply refer to the relative size of the fruit of each species. Most of the berries you’ll find will likely be quite smaller than those you buy in your local grocery store, but the wild berries have a much deeper flavor. Cranberry fruit grow from a short stem that occasionally emerges fr...

Wannaskan Almanac for Tuesday, October 7, 2025 The Last Chapter of the Song

I have often imagined a world without telephone poles and fences, free from highways and the trash found on them.  This is the final chapter.  Enjoy! Chapter 11: The Last Reflection The weight of loneliness pressed down on Elias, an invisible burden that grew heavier with each passing day. He wandered the cleansed world, a ghost in a garden, a solitary figure in a symphony of nature. The vibrant beauty that surrounded him only served to highlight his isolation. He longed for a connection, a shared glance, a familiar voice – a reminder that he was not alone in the vast expanse of existence. He traversed continents, his footsteps echoing in the silent forests and across the empty plains. The animals, once his guides and companions, now simply watched him with curious eyes, unable to bridge the chasm that separated their world from his. The wind whispered secrets through the tall grasses, the rivers sang their ancient songs, but none of them spoke to his soul. One day, as he walk...

Boo!

  Along with falling leaves, dread has darkened the streets on Capitol Hill. Gravestones preside beneath porches; skeletons rock in web-tangled chairs; green-eyed witches send spells as I pass. Summer blooms that offered joy only days ago now mock betrayal. October, the month when we willingly invite terror, has begun the year's dirty work, and it's all dressed up as fun.  Ghosties, goulies, and long-leggity beasties and things that go bump in the night - most of us have had our share of challenges: health issues, relationship woes, and financial strain. These are the ghosts that haunt us, the ghouls that lurk in the shadows. Losses weigh heavily, and life refuses to answer every question. October, the playful trickster dressed in orange, may suggest that we have choices, but my brother, Larry, knows better.  None of us is going to get out of here alive, he quips. Of course, I always laugh at his gallows humor, but the inevitability of life's stressors is no laughing ma...

Sunday News

  The Palmville Globe Volume 1 Number 36 Man Shanghaied While on Tour Joe McDonnell, 78 and residing in Palmville Twp, Minnesota, recently became separated from his group while touring a busy European college town. “I had discovered one of our group members was Italian. He told me he was born in Milan but had lived in Shanghai for the past 30 years. As we chatted I started hearing my name being called but I ignored it because I didn’t know anyone in that town. When people around us started looking towards the person calling my name I realized my new chum and I had gone straight while the tour went right. I wondered later why the Italian guy’s wife hadn’t called his name too.” Man Critiques Raingear Joe McDonnell, 78 and a long-range walker, recently tested his raingear against the elements. “We had bought our raingear several years ago and never had to use it. We liked it because it was cheap and light. On our most recent hike a light rain started and we were glad we had our suits....

Fall Fests

Hello and welcome to a festive Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is October 4th. How about that heat last week?  Today, our family will be out and about taking in all the fall festivities happening this week across Wannaskaland. Last weekend, we enjoyed Middle River GooseFest , where we bought homemade doughnuts (you know, the kind that grannies from yesteryear make), wild plum syrup, a unicorn stocking cap, a children's book, Aunt Sophie's Place by Joni Armstrong (loved it and highly recommend), and a cute scrubby pouch that holds all the loose soap bits that sits on a nice wooden tray.  We feasted on free samples of cooked goose, smoked goose, and a wild rice goose casserole. I considered buying an apple tree and a big bushel of maroon mums before reminding myself that my gardening thumb is far too weedy and brown to justify these splurges. The squares were all sold out, so we missed our chance at $500 from the goose drop. But we enjoyed the thespian talen...