Wannaskan Almanac

Hello and welcome to a St. Paddy's Saturday here at the Wannaskan Alamanc. There's a party tonight at Chairman Joe's! Kids and I have been adventuring in the balmy, culturally rich Brainerd this past few days. When I was in college, a friend I traveled with taught me that every trip should have something educational, something fun, and if possible, something that is both fun and educational. Queue up the educational: We got a tour of the local public utilities where my cousin works. She showed us all the inventory she orders and oversees. Kids marveled at the massive quantities of transformers and coiled cables of all colors and variegations. The funnest fun fact was learning that the individual stoplights - you know, red, yellow, and green - were bigger than our heads! Queue up the fun: We enjoyed an awesome escape room experience at the Copper Cat! Granny's gone missing, and the big, bad cooking company is on their way to her assisted living apartment to steal her re...

     St Joseph, Missouri is famous for three things: It was the jumping off point of the Pony Express, it was the city where Jesse James was killed, and it's the home of the Chase Candy company, maker of the beloved Cherry Mash chocolate and cherry candy bar.    The Pony Express only lasted 18 months. but it had a glorious run. It cut the time for a letter to reach San Francisco to ten days, a record at the time. It cost five dollars ($180 dollars in today's money) to send a 1/2 ounce letter by Pony Express. It was subsided by the government but lost twice as much as it earned and was put out of business by the telegraph.    The house where Jesse James was killed in St Joseph is just a ten minute walk from the Pony Express Museum. James had moved to St Joseph after the disastrous raid on the Northfield, Minnesota bank, planning to give up crime. He got restless though and took on new gang members, one of whom shot him in the back of the head while he w...

  "Yah, I seen a bus loaded vit' dem go by da town 'all 'ere, nut two 'ours ago," Sven continued."     “Did ya know da tin man’s 'omestead 'as been sold to a 'uge family of kids?" Sven said, cracking the last egg against the bottom of the skillet.       “Nooo," said Ula, his curiosity aroused. Coffee steamed from his mug aside his dish, as he pulled off his honkin' tall knee-high boots as he sat at Sven's table, and put them to dry on some newspapers spread on the floor.       “Yah, I seen a bus loaded vit 'em go by da town 'all ‘ere, nut two ‘ours ago,” Sven continued, watching his three eggs fry against a mountain of lean thick-cut smoked maple-flavored bacon. “I’d gone up to da mailbox ta put a letter in. Kids vere ‘angin’ out dem vindows. Dere vas a bunch of yellin’ goin’ on too. Caught me attention, it did.”       “Vere vill dey live dere? Dere ain’t been a livable space dere fer over ...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for March 11, 2026, the tenth Wednesday of the year, the twelfth Wednesday of winter, the second Wednesday of March, and the seventieth day of the year, with two-hundred ninety-five days remaining. Wannaska Phenology Update for March 11, 2026 Scurries On Their Way Tamiasciurus hudsonicus  — ajidamoo, in Anishinaabe — is one of three tree squirrels species classified in the genus Tamiasciurus , known as the pine squirrels, the others being the Douglas squirrel, T. douglasii , and the southwestern red squirrel, T. fremonti . Also known as the pine squirrel, piney squirrel, North American red squirrel, chickaree, or boomer, ajidamoo defends its territory all year round, feeding primarily on pine cone seeds, and this time of year bearing kits. The collective noun for red squirrels is scurry. March 11 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special : Potato Dumpling March 11 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch : Updated daily, occasionally. Earth/Moon A...

Story Two of a Small Town If the gravel road was the nervous system of Walnut Bend, the railroad tracks were its spine—long, rusted, and indifferent. The tracks ran parallel to the road, just a stone's throw behind Earl’s general store. They didn't stop for us, of course. There was no station, no platform, and certainly no reason for a conductor to pull the brake. To the folks in the engine, Walnut Bend was just a four-second blur of a leaning silo and a single gas pump. But to me, those trains were the only way we kept time. In a place where the sun felt like it stood still for hours, the trains were our mechanical heartbeat. They came three times a day, plus the one that ran in the dead of night. The first was the 10:00 AM. It was usually a freight haul, heavy with coal or timber, moving slow enough that you could feel the vibration in the soles of your boots before you could see the smoke on the horizon. If you were standing in Earl’s buying a soda, the cans on the shelf wou...

Until March 20th, when Spring officially arrives, winter reigns, and walking around DC these days means wrestling with the season's obstinacy. Dribs and drabs of piebald snowpack laze on random street corners. Patches of sopping grass slow me down as I pick my way through sidewalk gardens. Mud - late winter's final insult.  And I caught another cold. Or was it the six cats in the house we toured last Sunday? Whether virus or dander, my nose is running again. Another seasonal offense, and it makes me mad.  As does waking to another grey day. We’ve had an intrusive string of them: foggy skies from constant rain, our two rivers, and the warmer spring air sneaking in.  For me, tea is one defense against the dregs of winter, so I make another cup and sit down to reflect. Winter is not the only thing that’s getting me down. Back when we concocted the idea of a temporary move, we’d been feeling stuck in our old house and were overdue for a change. Friends were entering tiered ad...