Hello and welcome to a partly sunny with a high of 52 Saturday at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is September 28, aka National Bunny Day or National Drink Beer Day. You pick.
How about that weather, folks? Wannaska got hit with all kinds of wet beginning last Friday, with rains pounding the region ever since.
I happened to be out in the Big Woods east of Wannaska last Friday and Saturday with our WA poet-in-residence, Jack Pine Savage. We saw hail the size of quarters. The sandy area we were in happily sucked down all that water while mushrooms of ample varieties pushed their way out of the ground to get in on the good stuff.
After supper, I took a walk outside to get my heart rate up and assess the damage. While we'd heard about flooding in Roseau, out there in the forest, I found only a collection of mud puddles. As twilight slipped through the branches of the changing leaves, I spotted a sign.
Surely I jest. But, no, on the very next step, sure enough - I spotted a Bigfoot. My stomach leaped into my neck and - I kid you not - I yelped and jumped a good two feet in the air, narrowly missing a splash in the biggest puddle I'd encountered on my walk.
No joke, folks. I was spooked.
I hightailed it back to my friend's house because I've watched enough episodes of Finding Bigfoot to know that I am NOT the scientist type and I absolutely WOULD run in the opposite direction. Which I did.
When I told my friends about this, they confirmed that, yes, indeed, they too have regular Bigfoot sightings. They think it's just the singular 'Foot out there and he likes to hang out just inside the woodsy perimeter of the neighbor's yard. He rustles the trees and is especially prone to come out after heavy rains, possibly for a shower, when he (or she!) doesn't want to bathe in the surrounding ponds.
I hear this Bigfoot likes peanut butter and jelly when s/he can nab one from an unassuming picnicker. Otherwise s/he eats whatever the forest provides: berries, edible plants, small game, mosquitoes and lost persons. Just kidding about that last one. (Or am I?)
After further investigation, it turns out the forest folk know all about their hairy-covered friend. Other than the occasional prank - leaving cabin doors wide open for critters' refuge , swiping the last burger off the grill and drinking all the red stuff out of the hummingbird feeder, they decide to leave well enough alone. Ah, a trickster Bigfoot? Admittedly, I'm charmed.
There have been other sightings of bigfeets in Minnesota such as the one in this 2009 ABC News article, Bigfoot in Minnesota? Trail Cam Snaps Pic of Sasquatch-Like Figure. According to this article, the bigfoot came out in the evening in the rain. Just like mine.
There have been enough sightings along Minnesota's North Shore to prompt the creation of an official organization. In August 2019, the Great Lakes Sasquatch formed, consisting of a group of Minnesota-based researchers currently gathering reports of possible bigfoot encounters or sightings from the Great Lakes region. Here's an interview with founder, Chris Fruetel, who describes his own encounter in 2016.
"Within the last two years, there have been about 20 documented sightings [of Bigfoot] across Northeastern Minnesota," Robert Olson of Deer River, MN, shares in an article, Bigfoot or Big Story? with the Duluth News Tribune. Olson
With all these sightings in northeastern Minnesota, is it possible the elusive Sasquatch are migrating west? Have they always been here?
My forest friends aren't telling.
2008 - Falcon 1 is launched
Falcon 1, the first privately supported and funded spacecraft, was launched into space on its fourth attempt by SpaceX.
1995 - Israel and PLO Sign the Oslo II Accords
The Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, also known as the Taba Agreement, divided Gaza and West Bank into 3 areas, and gave limited control over some of these areas to the Palestinians. The Accord, which was signed by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, also called for Palestinian elections.
1980 - Carl Sagan’s Cosmos: A Personal Voyage Makes its Debut
The widely popular 13-episode science television documentary series was broadcast on Public Broadcasting Service. It was presented by astronomer Carl Sagan and written by Ann Druyan, Sagan, and Steven Soter. It was, and remains, one of the most watched science-based TV documentaries.
1924 - First Flight Around the World
On April 6, 1924, 4 teams of pilots from the United States Army Air Service set out from Seattle, Washington in an attempt to circumnavigate the world. The 4 Douglas World Cruiser planes were named Seattle, Chicago, Boston, and New Orleans. 175 days later, Chicago and New Orleans touched down in Seattle – Boston and Seattle did not complete the 27,500-mile journey around the world.
935 - Saint Wenceslas (Vaclav) is murdered by his brother, Boleslaus I (Boleslav) of Bohemia
1968 - Naomi Watts, English/Australian actress
1934 - Brigitte Bardot, French actress, singer
1909 - Al Capp, American cartoonist
1725 - Arthur Guinness, Irish brewer (founder of Guinness brewery)
551 BC - Confucius, Chinese philosopher and founder of Confucianism
How about that weather, folks? Wannaska got hit with all kinds of wet beginning last Friday, with rains pounding the region ever since.
I happened to be out in the Big Woods east of Wannaska last Friday and Saturday with our WA poet-in-residence, Jack Pine Savage. We saw hail the size of quarters. The sandy area we were in happily sucked down all that water while mushrooms of ample varieties pushed their way out of the ground to get in on the good stuff.
After supper, I took a walk outside to get my heart rate up and assess the damage. While we'd heard about flooding in Roseau, out there in the forest, I found only a collection of mud puddles. As twilight slipped through the branches of the changing leaves, I spotted a sign.
Surely I jest. But, no, on the very next step, sure enough - I spotted a Bigfoot. My stomach leaped into my neck and - I kid you not - I yelped and jumped a good two feet in the air, narrowly missing a splash in the biggest puddle I'd encountered on my walk.
No joke, folks. I was spooked.
I hightailed it back to my friend's house because I've watched enough episodes of Finding Bigfoot to know that I am NOT the scientist type and I absolutely WOULD run in the opposite direction. Which I did.
When I told my friends about this, they confirmed that, yes, indeed, they too have regular Bigfoot sightings. They think it's just the singular 'Foot out there and he likes to hang out just inside the woodsy perimeter of the neighbor's yard. He rustles the trees and is especially prone to come out after heavy rains, possibly for a shower, when he (or she!) doesn't want to bathe in the surrounding ponds.
I hear this Bigfoot likes peanut butter and jelly when s/he can nab one from an unassuming picnicker. Otherwise s/he eats whatever the forest provides: berries, edible plants, small game, mosquitoes and lost persons. Just kidding about that last one. (Or am I?)
After further investigation, it turns out the forest folk know all about their hairy-covered friend. Other than the occasional prank - leaving cabin doors wide open for critters' refuge , swiping the last burger off the grill and drinking all the red stuff out of the hummingbird feeder, they decide to leave well enough alone. Ah, a trickster Bigfoot? Admittedly, I'm charmed.
There have been other sightings of bigfeets in Minnesota such as the one in this 2009 ABC News article, Bigfoot in Minnesota? Trail Cam Snaps Pic of Sasquatch-Like Figure. According to this article, the bigfoot came out in the evening in the rain. Just like mine.
There have been enough sightings along Minnesota's North Shore to prompt the creation of an official organization. In August 2019, the Great Lakes Sasquatch formed, consisting of a group of Minnesota-based researchers currently gathering reports of possible bigfoot encounters or sightings from the Great Lakes region. Here's an interview with founder, Chris Fruetel, who describes his own encounter in 2016.
"Within the last two years, there have been about 20 documented sightings [of Bigfoot] across Northeastern Minnesota," Robert Olson of Deer River, MN, shares in an article, Bigfoot or Big Story? with the Duluth News Tribune. Olson
With all these sightings in northeastern Minnesota, is it possible the elusive Sasquatch are migrating west? Have they always been here?
My forest friends aren't telling.
On This Day
Historic Highlights (credits)
2008 - Falcon 1 is launched
Falcon 1, the first privately supported and funded spacecraft, was launched into space on its fourth attempt by SpaceX.
1995 - Israel and PLO Sign the Oslo II Accords
The Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, also known as the Taba Agreement, divided Gaza and West Bank into 3 areas, and gave limited control over some of these areas to the Palestinians. The Accord, which was signed by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, also called for Palestinian elections.
1980 - Carl Sagan’s Cosmos: A Personal Voyage Makes its Debut
The widely popular 13-episode science television documentary series was broadcast on Public Broadcasting Service. It was presented by astronomer Carl Sagan and written by Ann Druyan, Sagan, and Steven Soter. It was, and remains, one of the most watched science-based TV documentaries.
1924 - First Flight Around the World
On April 6, 1924, 4 teams of pilots from the United States Army Air Service set out from Seattle, Washington in an attempt to circumnavigate the world. The 4 Douglas World Cruiser planes were named Seattle, Chicago, Boston, and New Orleans. 175 days later, Chicago and New Orleans touched down in Seattle – Boston and Seattle did not complete the 27,500-mile journey around the world.
935 - Saint Wenceslas (Vaclav) is murdered by his brother, Boleslaus I (Boleslav) of Bohemia
Happy Birthday to You!🎶
1934 - Brigitte Bardot, French actress, singer
1909 - Al Capp, American cartoonist
1725 - Arthur Guinness, Irish brewer (founder of Guinness brewery)
551 BC - Confucius, Chinese philosopher and founder of Confucianism
Remembering You
1991 - Miles Davis, American trumpet player, composer, bandleader
1978 - Pope John Paul I
1895 - Louis Pasteur, French chemist, microbiologist
1891 - Herman Melville, American writer
935 - Wenceslaus I (Vaclav), Duke of Bohemia
Explore the great outdoors and make it a great Saturday!
Kim
Note: My "encounter" is for entertainment purposes only and not intended for research.
1978 - Pope John Paul I
1895 - Louis Pasteur, French chemist, microbiologist
1891 - Herman Melville, American writer
935 - Wenceslaus I (Vaclav), Duke of Bohemia
Explore the great outdoors and make it a great Saturday!
Kim
Note: My "encounter" is for entertainment purposes only and not intended for research.
Oh yeah, that's what all you pseudo-scientists write after an close encounter with Sasquatch, "I wrote/or joked about that for entertainment purposes only," igniting a powder keg under hundreds of Sasquatch-seekers of this rural county in Minnesota, who at this very second, are replacing all the batteries in their trail cameras, unrolling topo maps of the region, sending up camera drones from their backyards, calling motels, making reservations at county and state state park campgrounds, changing oil in their specially-equipped vans and 4x4 trucks, purchasing the newest night-vision goggles, strapping survival knives alongside their shins, donning knee-high boots and chest-high waders, stuffing water purification tubes and cups into their backpacks and doing last minute calenstitics (cardio exercises, to the uninformed) and heading, undefined, to where the writer in this case, joked about maybe seeing Bigfoot--which as everyone currently on this planet knows--is just as good as a claim, they did.
ReplyDeleteNobody but BTBs (Bigfoot True Believers) plan on seeing Sasquatch/Bigfoot and since non-BTBs far outnumber BTBs, the logic is that, of course non-BTBs see them but don't want to make it sound like they did, because they don't believe their eyes when they do.
According to BTBs that I've listened to (after BTB disclosure you can never get a word in edge-wise) research has proven there is an up tic in doctor visits after a Bigfoot sighting. This is why we frequently see BIGFOOT vans, cars and trucks in clinic and hospital parking lots almost on a daily basis; those bevies of them in Wal-Mart parking lots are just member drives and fundraisers.
The last Bigfoot sighting push I heard about a few years ago was --- I can't tell you. Well, just as blueberry-pickers, fisherpeople, and morel mushroom gatherers won't tell you where they pick, fish, or gather, BTBs don't tell non-BTBs where they sight them; they talk in generalities, like in this instance, "One of The Brethren said he saw one run across a power-line rightaway in the forest south of Highway 11 somewhere; he got it on his trail camera. I've just purchased twenty Bushnell Impulse Cellular Trail Cameras to cover that area, who is going with me?"
"Another guy found deer carcasses stuffed high into the clefts of trees, near there, for snacks later," said another BTB.
While eyes grew wide among others included in the conversation, a girl made a drawing of a crude earthen abode made into a high bank and walled up with empty wooden fiber optic cable spools chinked with mud, "This here is a four-season lodge, dudes, it even had a comfortable over-a hole privy where their excrement fell into a subterranean stream below and the wastes were carried away. I'll send you pictures, what's your email address?"
Good try, Saturday almanac person. Good try.
Loved your response, esp. the laundry list of BF seekers' paraphernalia. Very colorful. JP Savage
DeleteWell, on the one hand, I really did see a Big Foot shape, so that part's true. And all the stuff at the end about enthusiasts and sightings in Minnesota is true. The middle...well, therein lies the fun part of writing for the Wannaskan Alamanac. I put the disclaimer at the bottom just in case - wow, those BF followers are passionate - because I didn't want my folksy fun to land in the earnest, honest-to-God sightings pile. Alas, I have failed on all sides. ;)
DeleteWow! I got a mention in your post! Woo hoo, as you would say.
ReplyDeleteAlas, I was not to be the subject of your post, but who could compete with a BF sighting? So glad I didn't clue you in on our local BF before you went for your walk. Also glad I didn't find any manure piles in the area where you had your BF sighting.
Hmmm. BF could also mean boyfriend or best friend. Just sayin'.
By the by, the hail was chickpea size, not quarters. You relative city folk always exaggerate.