Wannaskan Almanac

               The Jewish city of Capernaum was only a couple of hundred years old when Saint Peter was dipping his nets into the Sea of Galilee. A thousand years later the city was gone. That’s a relatively short life span for that part of the world. The city eventually disappeared from the map completely only to be rediscovered in the 19th century by Franciscan archeologists.     Capernaum was one of several fishing villages on the northwest shore of the lake. Most of the inhabitants made a living by fishing or farming and the city also prospered as a stop along the east-west trade route, plus the Roman's kept a garrison there. Once the Muslims took over in the seventh century the town declined. The trade routes changed and the Muslim troops were stationed elsewhere. A series of earthquakes devastated the city so that by the time of the first Crusade in 1099 Capernaum was a ghost town.    After the Franciscans excavated ...

Serendipity : A Silver Lining .    How many instances of serendipity can we thus define in a single hour?      I have to answer nature’s call before sunrise, the house is dark. I arise from bed, swing my feet to the floor then as I try to quietly move between the bed and the wall, I step painfully on the plug-in end of the cord on my electric blanket that was laying on the floor -- but I don’t trip into the leg of the steel bed frame like I have before . Serendipity      I open the kitchen door to the basement and the cat isn’t there to meow insistent to go outside. The dog isn’t there to thump her tail loudly against the landing when she sees me. Serendipity.      I descend the basement steps without incident, recalling the afternoon during the winter when I came through the door from the outdoors in my winter gear, big boots, heavy coat and wool hat, carrying a snow shovel for some reason--then slipped and wildly careened down th...

 A day of outdoor work done, I st upon the upside down jonboat to listen-in the night, something I haven't done for quite awhile. It used to be I'd get an opportunity to sit outdoors as the sun webt down, in some inconspicuous place. It was an evening of observation, a passive interaction with nature of some spontaneity and commonly done at home.    I am fortunate to live in NW Minnesota on a quarter section of forested land with two diagonally-opposite waterways; Johnson Creek on the NW corner, and Mikinaak Creek on it SE, intersecting it. They quietly meander through wetlands bordered with deciduous and conifer trees; some that our families planted over 40 years ago; and some others well over a hundred years old perhaps, given how short the growing seasons have been around here , historically. Beaver have dammed the Mikinaak for centuries, as the land formations indicate, backing up its water levels along its length, stalling its northern flow into the south fork of the...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for January 21, 2026, the third Wednesday of the year, the fifth Wednesday of winter, the third Wednesday of January, and the twenty-first day of the year, with three-hundred forty-four days remaining, brought to you by Bead Gypsy Studio & Scandinavian Shoppe, 101 Main Avenue North, Roseau, with a Ekelund Linens & Scandinavian Food BOGO through the month of January. Open Monday through Saturday.   Wannaska Phenology Update for January 21, 2026 Dark-eyed Junco Junco hyemalis — jaashaawanibiisi in Anishinaabe — a year-round resident of Wannaska, heads north to the arctic to breed in the summer, but some may travel as far as Mexico to winter. These hardy six-inch gray birds have white bellies and white outer tail feathers that flash when in flight. Both sexes have dark eyes, but males have a slate-gray to charcoal chest, head, and back, while females have light tan to light gray-brown feathers. Listen for their trilled mu...

The number 13 has unfairly shouldered the blame for centuries of misfortune, earning a reputation for chaos and calamity. While history certainly provides its share of terrible events tied to the date, to label the 13th solely as a harbinger of doom is to ignore the wealth of positive, pivotal, and genuinely happy events that have also unfolded on this supposedly "unlucky" day. Against the odds, the 13th has often proven to be a date of triumph, innovation, and celebration, offering a surprising counterbalance to the prevailing superstition. One of the most significant and fortunate events on the 13th relates to the birth of the modern computer age. On Friday, January 13, 1956, the IBM 305 RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control) was publicly announced. This machine was the first commercial computer to use a moving-head hard disk drive for data storage. It was a technological leap forward that revolutionized data processing, making large-scale data storage pract...

Originally published July 20, 2020... In the previous post of The One , we left with a cliffhanger. A “being” emerged from the seaside cave – a visitation, so to speak. Who or what is this apparition? Will an identity even be revealed? More details surface in this segment; however, mystery remains. Decide for yourself how many more revelations need to arise before we fully comprehend who or what this cave dweller presents. . . . I mumble words I barely hear myself Argose at my side gently licks my hand “I cannot say why I am come to this place and not some other more surpassing gate She pauses, pondering it seems, as I speculate the manner of her strangeness . . .                                                                                             ...