Wannaskan Almanac

Hello and welcome to the last Saturday of summer here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is August 29th. School starts at our house on September 1st, meaning summer is winding down. What a whirlwind and honestly, we all wish we could have just a few more weeks. In this last weekend of summer, we're all in transit, getting in our last hurrahs, wrapping up trips, and making our way home. By tomorrow night, six of our seven will have landed back at the homepad in Wannaska, physically present to start what I call "Ordinary Time" - ready or not. I, myself, am in the Twin Cities at the moment, celebrating a friend's retirement, attending a bridal shower, getting in some meaningful one-on-one time with a cousin, and picking up the College Kid 3.0 from the airport. As I rush to type this out before heading out for today's adventures, this Ferris Bueller quote   comes to mind: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” Make...

     I feel sorry for my fellow Christians in the Protestant camp. Part of their Reformation was to quit asking the saints to intercede for them. Luther himself revered the Blessed Virgin but was very strict about going straight to Jesus when he prayed. But Jesus was perfect so it's hard for me to relate to him. And God is way too big a concept for me to approach him beyond saying the Our Father .    The saints to me are approachable. Many of them screwed up badly before they got it right. Look at Saint Paul. He was having Christians killed, but he repented and spread the good word. There are over 10,000 saints venerated in the Catholic Church. No one knows the actual number. The official canonization process didn't begin till 993 A.D. People like Peter and Paul were grandfathered in. The good people of the Old Testament, all the way from Adam and Eve up to Malachi are considered saints. We call them patriarchs, matriarchs and prophets rather than saints.  ...

Hmmmmm, sounds like the rough draft outline for   "Yurasskick Park:" The Palmville Zone Palmville Whitetailosaurus   THE RAVEN  Part 2  Volume 1 Issue 12  (1995)   An Excerpt:    "Rain dripped from the wide brim of his camouflaged hat as he stood at the edge of the clearing. The tall straight trunks of the popple island, chalky-white on one side, wet-green on the other swayed and creaked against a cold northwest wind. The man looked to the west against the high treetops and studied their silhouettes for any discernible shape of anything that moved as big as the darkening sky itself; anything that was bigger than life, larger than thought possible, imaginable or acceptable by the limits of human thought or knowledge."    His interests were complex but worth the 2000 mile trip to check this modern day monster out. The idea of a DNA-generated dinosaur-sized creature was not beyond his imagination, especially  after seeing the movie tha...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for August 26, 2026, the thirty-forth Wednesday of the year, the tenth Wednesday of summer, the forth Wednesday of August, and the two-hundred thirty-eighth day of the year, with one-hundred twenty-seven days remaining. Wannaska Phenology Update for August 26, 2026 Tiger’s Eye Coltricia perennis can now be found in Wannaskan conifer forests. Tiger’s eye is an inedible fungus, with no known medicinal uses, so the Anishinaabe didn't bother giving it a name. Usually associated with forests containing pine. It can be found throughout the growing season in moist forest, Tiger’s eye is ectomycorrhizal /ek-toh-my-koh-RY-zuhl/, which means it forms a connection with the outside of the roots of a plant or tree. Through this connection, the fungus obtains the carbohydrates in needs from the host plant, and the host plant gets minerals from the fungus. This particular species of fungus increases its size by growing new fungal filaments c...

Temu: What Folks Say, What’s True, and Whether It’s Worth a Try If you’ve spent any time online lately, you’ve probably seen Temu pop up in your feed — sometimes as a deal‑packed shopping app, sometimes as the punchline of a meme. Those “what I ordered vs. what I got” jokes have become their own little genre, poking fun at the gap between enticing looking product photos and the sometimes‑quirky reality that arrives on your doorstep. And sure, some of those memes are funny because they’re rooted in truth. But like most things on the internet, they don’t always tell the whole story. Temu can be hit‑or‑miss, but it’s not the wild west of shopping that some memes make it out to be. Temu is owned by PDD Holdings, a large Chinese e‑commerce company. That’s important to know because it shapes how the business operates. They’re able to offer low prices because they work directly with manufacturers, cutting out middle layers that usually raise costs. The trade‑off is that shipping can take long...

Summer is often such a fling. Quick, casual, fun encounters with loved ones. And if summer is the calendar’s friendship ring, by August’s end the season has slipped off our fingers and dropped to the bottom of the pond. Onward we go into autumn, ready for more serious engagements. But not this August. This year we had a wedding. Last summer around this time, our oldest grandson took the solemn step of proposing, and two weeks ago, after a year of preparation, married his love. I write that line and think, Oh my, such a beguilingly simple statement! It was a year of joyful anticipation—and a lot of work. As parents of the groom, our daughter and son-in-law hosted a sit-down rehearsal dinner and welcome party for out-of-town guests. My role as grandmother was support staff. I tried to be a good sounding board as plans unfolded and, as a fellow shopper, agonized with everyone over les robes justes. Honestly, though, my dominant role during the wedding weekend was Ironer. The wedding was o...