Wannaskan Almanac

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Word-Wednesday, June 30, 2021, the 26th Wednesday of the year, the second Wednesday of summer, and the 181st day of the year, with 184 days remaining. Wannaska Nature Update for June 30, 2021 Blueberry Status Coming along… Nordhem Lunch : Closed Earth/Moon Almanac for June 30, 2021 Sunrise: 5:24am; Sunset: 9:31pm; 50 seconds less daylight today Moonrise: 1:01am; Moonset: 12:09pm, waxing gibbous, 63% illuminated. Temperature Almanac for June 30, 2021                 Average            Record              Today High             77                     96              ...

I grew up in Canada.  The real Canada...not one of the following: 1. Canada, England: A settlement within the village of Wellow in Hampshire, the region includes the church of St. Margaret of Antioch, where Florence Nightingale is buried. 2. Canada, Kansas: Founded in 1883, the town was established by the sons of David Christie, a former Speaker of the Canadian Senate. Other Canadians soon followed. 3. Canada Glacier, Antarctica: A small glacier flowing into Taylor Valley in Victoria Land, it was charted and named by the British Antarctic Expedition under Robert Scott. Charles S. Wright, a Canadian physicist, was a member of the party that explored this area. 4. Canada Park: A national park that straddles Israel and the West Bank. The park was funded by Canadians and the road leading to the popular attraction is named for former prime minister John Diefenbaker. 5. Little Canada, Minnesota: A suburb of Minneapolis and St. Paul, the city was founded by French Canadian settlers in 184...

Marsh Star – 28 June 2021 Is it true that most of us rarely compare ourselves with wild creatures? I think so. Yes, rare individuals have an affinity for the natural world, and they even spend tremendous effort attempting to protect it. But it’s also true that some such well-meaning folks continue to believe that we are separate from the un-man-made our artificial viewpoint. I don’t know what to make of this, especially up here where natural realities slap us upside our heads. Think severe weather, floods, droughts,  Forest fires, and more events out of our control – except for the damage we cause.   orest fires, and more events out of our control – except for the damage we cause.  We are not separate. Neither are we one with the natural world. We are interconnected, each affecting the other. That’s a theme you will see more of in coming months. If you follow my posts, you know that I frequently write about wild animals and settings like Beltrami Island Forest. If these a...

  Summer solstice: reminder to sinners we are not yet ready for the eternal sunshine. Book: the WiFi's not working. Wine: big sister to beer; warning finger to booze. Fiber: an essential component of a healthy diet, contained in foods we mostly shun. Renaissance man: unable to hold a steady job. Breakfast cereal: sloth's supper. Scattering of ashes: done everywhere and anywhere. Except in a cemetery. Catch and release: without follow-up therapy it becomes catch and a lingering death. Deer camp: rustic shack to relax in with a beer after the hunt. It's best to leave your boots on if the boys commence to shooting the camp mice with birdshot. Hangover: fee your body charges for overdrafts on your ration of well-being. Summer school vacation: period when your property taxes don't cover daycare. Sex: bad: objectifying your subject; good: subjectifying your object. Death: the ultimate workaround. Chairman Joe  Best wishes to WannaskaWriter (Steve Reynolds) who is 70 today!!

Hello and welcome to a rainy Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is June 26th and the last Saturday in June. We’re already a month into summer vacation and it feels like it has barely started. The Oldest came home from college on May 17th, long enough to dump her college stuff and pack a suitcase. She, along with her dad and two youngest siblings, headed for Fargo the very next day to be ready for their flight to the Czech Republic the following morning, the 19th.  Despite one major delay – a United Airlines employee telling our Czech-bound crew they didn’t have the correct Covid testing (they did) – they were eventually on their way and arrived safely in Prague on Friday, May 21st. Babička picked them up and drove them out to the family house in Teplice nad Metuji , a little village tucked into a small pocket of northeastern Bohemia near the Polish border known for the area’s unique rock formations , for five days of quarantining. After more Covid testing, the famil...

   Let’s celebrate World Microbiome Day this Sunday, June 27th! The microbiome is all the stuff we can't see that makes our life possible: the bacteria, fungi, viruses, etc. The microbes in the sea produce most of the oxygen we breathe and absorb as much carbon dioxide as plants do on land. A third of the food we consume is produced by microbes. New uses for microbes are being developed to produce fuel and combat pollution.    Don't you love microbes? Of course the virus microbes have gotten a bad name in the last year thanks to the Coronavirus. But just as not all bacteria are bad, the same is true of viruses. Viruses have been important in the development of our DNA. Viruses were responsible during our evolution for the fact that our embryos develop in nice wombs rather than in eggshells. Viruses in our body fight off the bad bacteria and tame our sometimes over-aggressive immune system. Scientists are working on therapies that would use viruses to kill cancer cel...

Thursday June 24, 1314 2nd Battle of Bannockburn     Some people wonder why I'm not as interested in my own ancestry/culture as I am in Native culture, and my answer is because my European ancestry is much known in books and record the world over. Although an ancient civilization as any in the world, Native languages and history were, overall, based on oral tradition, rather than written traditions, and passed down from one generation to the next, until recent times. My gross ignorance of these people who populated the Americas long before my European ancestor’s arrival here, have long drawn my interest and piqued my thought more often, than me wonderin’ where my great grandparents on both sides of my family and their early kin came from, here, and across the sea.     That being said, I learned I have a bit of Scottish blood somewhere along my lineage. Looking for an almanac-type entry, for once, what do I discover happened on the 24th of June in 1314?...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Word-Wednesday, June 23, 2021, the 25th Wednesday of the year, the first Wednesday of summer, and the 174th day of the year, with 191 days remaining. Wannaska Nature Update for June 23, 2021 The Great Tomato Comeback Vespers In your extended absence, you permit me use of earth, anticipating some return on investment. I must report failure in my assignment, principally regarding the tomato plants. I think I should not be encouraged to grow tomatoes. Or, if I am, you should withhold the heavy rains, the cold nights that come so often here, while other regions get twelve weeks of summer. All this belongs to you: on the other hand, I planted the seeds, I watched the first shoots like wings tearing the soil, and it was my heart broken by the blight, the black spot so quickly multiplying in the rows. I doubt you have a heart, in our understanding of that term. You who do not discriminate between the dead and the living, who are, in consequence, immune ...

Hi there Wannaskan Almanac reader.  Do you have a pet peeve?  Pet peeves (as defined by the editors of the Wannaskan Almanac during a drunken bar fight) are things that bother you but really don't seem to bother someone else.  For example, some people don't like chihuahuas.  On the other hand, I really like my chihuahua...most of the time.  A cat is not a pet peeve.  No sane person likes cats. Cats don't like anyone My real pet peeve lately is gender reveals.  In case you don't know, a gender reveal is where someone who is barely pregnant makes a big announcement about the gender of their little bundle of joy.  There are people who throw parties where they reveal the gender in unusual ways.  Sometimes mistakes are made, as seen in this video. So why do gender reveals cause me such anguish?  Let me put it in a rhyming list (one of Steve and Joe's most disturbing pet peeves) 1.  It is like finding out your Christmas presents early...m...

Four Echo Poems & an Invitation For a while now, The Chairman and Jack Pine Savage (me) have been exchanging Echo Poems on various subjects. It’s fun! You can see an example of one of these exchanges (two poems) in today’s feature. Recently, the Chairman lobbed one over the net while he and T. were heading south to Chicago. I chewed on his poem for a while and then responded with my own verse.  (Again, see both poems in the feature section below.) Now you, too, can join in the merriment – see the invitation below with an opportunity to become an Echo Poem writer yourself! Definitions What’s an “echo poem”? In truth, I thought I had made up the form; however, when I researched the term, I found others had already claimed credit. Their definition was all about form which varies greatly from the Echo Poems The Chairman and I have been exchanging. At any rate, for the record, the explanation Google gave was: Echo verse: a type of verse in which repetition of the end of a line or st...

  I wonder how many first world problems I have to have before I’m having a third world life. The best way to save our soul is by helping others save theirs, no matter what back alley or briar patch they insist on passing through.  Appreciate your teachers. After graduation, experience will be the strictest teacher you ever have.  The short answer to many questions is ' yes.' An even shorter one is 'no.' Ah, to be the pet of folks much smarter than I'm able And feed upon the tid-bits that fall off from their table Even the most selfless of us sails the ocean of humanity in a vessel called  The Narcissist.  Chairman Joe  

Hello and welcome back to another blog post written by the WAKWIR (Wannaskan Almanac Kid Writer-in-Residence) himself, David. Since my last post at the end of May, there have been many, many different events that have happened that are worth sharing. And wow, time flies. At one moment it’s the day after school ends, and the next, almost the end of June. June has really gone by fast. But now, without any further adieu, let's get to these exciting events. Immediately once June started, I began running 3 miles a day 5 to 6 days of the week. Why? Well, there’s a bit of story to that. I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m on the Warroad Cross Country team. And one of the things our coach likes to do is the summer miles challenge to prepare for the next season. Between 2 specific dates (usually between the end of May and the middle of August when practice starts) we are challenged to run as many miles as we can.  There are some goals integrated into the system as well. There’s a 100, 150, 20...