Wannaskan Almanac

Woah. It’s been a while. How long? Four, almost five months? I’ve got a bit of catchup to do. Anyways, hello, and welcome to another wonderful blog written by me, the WAKWIR himself! A lot of things have changed since my last blog, for instance, the amount of time I spend on piano compared to playing video games is almost at a ratio of ten to one now, when four months ago, it was completely reversed. Well, let's get to the main events! I'll do a small recap on most of what happened in between my last post and now, but I’ll go into more detail on some bigger things. So, for some prior knowledge, I was in about 4 different activities over the winter (Knowledge Bowl, One Act, Robotics, and Speech) and now that it’s getting closer to the end of the school year, it’s sad to say that all of these activities have wrapped up except for Robotics. I really enjoyed all of the activities I was in, and I also learned a lot from them. Doing multiple activities that always conflict with each ...

      The town of Goodridge was not looking its best on this Saturday, the 24th of April as my brother-in-law Pete, Steve Reynolds, and I pulled into town. It was the day of the Lions annual smelt fry, undoubtedly Goodridge's biggest day of the year. The smelt fry had been cancelled the past two years due to Covid so there was a lot of anticipation. But it had rained all day the previous day, and even more heavily this morning. One more kick in the teeth from the hard winter hardly passed.    All our previous smelt fry jaunts had been on sunny days. We would arrive an hour or so before the smelt fry began at 4:00. The little town, pop. 132, would be packed with trucks, trailers, and people. We would hear the stereophonic chant of the simultaneous auctions that would have been going on since 9:00 a.m.   The rummage sale was in an adjacent lot. This also had started in the morning, but there would still be lots of stuff left for us to gawk at; Elvis memorabil...

    Saturday April 23rd'’s forecast was for rain with possible thunderstorms. We weren’t surprised. It hadn’t been a typically pleasant April in northwest Minnesota anyway; more like January, February, March and April all rolled into one with “Chances of rain and snow; then snow mixed with rain; a chance of rain and snow before 7pm, then a chance of snow between 7pm and 10pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 20. Blustery, with a north northwest wind 18 to 24 mph, with gusts as high as 37 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%.”     Joe, Pete, and I still went to the 2022 Gud-rudge smelt fry to see just different field ponds and seas of mud. We weren't disappointed because we knew exactly what to expect: a few unidentifiable people around muddy pickups with wet rusty-looking articles in them like small outboard motors, riding lawnmowers, and stovepipe sections.      They didn't disappoint; there was just a handful of people in elevator caps ...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday, April 27, 2022, the seventeenth Wednesday of the year, the sixth Wednesday of spring, and the 117th day of the year, with 248 days remaining. Wannaska Nature Update for April 27, 2022 Minnesota snakes typically hibernate earlier and come out later, as our temperatures are a lot cooler than Kansas. Typically, the Wannaska population of snakes will begin to emerge from hibernation between late March or April. We saw one out this past Monday. April 27 Nordhem Lunch : Baked Ham Scalloped Potatoes Peas & Carrots Bread w/ butter Super BLT Open Face BLT Smothered in melted Cheddar on a Toasted Hoagie Bun Cream of Chicken Dumpling Soup w/choice of sandwich... Ham, Egg Salad, or Turkey Earth/Moon Almanac for April 27, 2022 Sunrise: 6:10am; Sunset: 8:32pm; 3 minutes, 14 seconds more daylight today Moonrise: 5:22am; Moonset: 5:06pm, waning crescent, 10% illuminated. Temperature Almanac for April 27, 2022       ...

Time for a confession.  Although I write for the Wannaskan Almanac, I do not live in Wannaska.  I don't even live in Minnesota, which explains why none of the Norwegian anecdotes that other writers share make sense to me.  I live in Southwest Kansas, and in Kansas we are right now in the middle of tornado season.  Tornado season usually runs from March through June each year.   One of the most destructive tornadoes in Kansas happened on this day in 1991.  The town of Andover experienced some of the worst damage as an F5 tornado tore huge swaths through the town.   The tornado was estimated to be 600 yards wide when it hit the town.  17 people lost their lives, and around 300 homes were destroyed.  The destruction was hard to imagine.  It was one of the biggest tornadoes to ever hit Kansas.   A trail of destruction All in all over 50 tornadoes were reported on April 26, 1991.  Altogether 21 people lost their lives...

Who was Beowulf? As we draw closer to the end of Beowulf’s epic story, it is fair to ask who he was. Was he man or myth? It is safe to say that he was that he was.not an ordinary man; he is the epitome of a true hero. Whether man or myth, he was not ordinary man; he is the epitome of a true hero. Beowulf is considered an epic hero because his bravery has won many battles. This bravery also makes him a tragic hero because he is a great man with the tragic flaw of pride, which leads to his death. In his youth, Beowulf is a great warrior, characterized predominantly by his feats of strength and courage, including his fabled swimming match against Breca. He also perfectly embodies the manners and values dictated by the Germanic heroic code, including loyalty, courtesy, and pride. "The hero of all heroes," Beowulf, strong and courageous, is the prince of Geats. Once he makes a vow, he stands by his word, no matter what the cost, even if it takes his life. He is reluctant to back d...

  I saw a guy  With a log in his eye I offered to remove it No thanks said he That need not be  I’ve come to rather like it.  All of us praise the patience of Job Though I’ll not be as noble as he Lest old Nick points me out and says to the Lord I bet I can make him curse Thee Conservative tape measures eschew the metric scale and come with instructions in English only.  They’ve made their peace however with Arabic numerals.  Humor is so fluid  It runs by like a river If you would tell your joke in time Your wit must be quicksilver To be a bookmark is a humble job. Unless it’s in the book of eternity. 

Hello and welcome to a hot Saturday in Houston here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is April 23rd. That's right, folks. The WA blog is on the road, this time to Houston, Texas for the 2022 FIRST Championship , but, let me tell you, the expression, " (Insert name of city here) or Bust" took on a whole new meaning on this trip. First things first, a little explanation. Here's the schpiel from the FIRST Championship website which best sums up what all this is: "Hosted by FIRST headquarters, FIRST Championship is a culminating, international event for our youth robotics competition season and an annual celebration of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) for our community as we prepare young people for the future." Every year, there's a theme and a challenge. Each team must build a robot to successfully complete the challenge. When it comes time to compete, teams are grouped in trios called alliances. Each team has about 10 qualification matches,...

       In the summer of 1968, nine sailors left the British Isles in an attempt to make the first non-stop solo circumnavigation of the globe by sail and without assistance. If our friend and neighbor Jerry Solom had his boat  Indian Summer  ready back then, he might have joined the race.    The Canadian-American Joshua Slocum was the first to circumnavigate the globe solo between 1895-98.  He took a leisurely three years with many stops along the way. In 1966 Francis Chichester made a solo circumnavigation, but he stopped in Sydney and took a 30 day break. His actual sailing time was 266 days.    In 1968 the London  Sunday Times  sponsored a non-stop round-the-world race, hoping a British sailor would be the one to do it. Six of the nine competitors were British, two French, and one Italian.  The Times  realized it would be impossible to have all nine leave at the same time so they offered two prizes: one for th...

He Barely Got Away From This Bear "So in one spin he twirled around and kicked the bear right in the nose with the heel of his boot."     My uncle, Martin Davidson (1900-1975), formerly of Palmville, was about 70 years old, and working for his nephew, the late Milton Davidson of Newfolden, in the water well drilling business. He was taking a short cut home when he saw several cars parked along the road ahead not far from his place. This looked unusual to him, so he stopped and walked up to some men, looking out into the field across the ditch, standing by their vehicles.      He knew several of the men and asked them what was going on. It seems that someone had shot and wounded a big bear and it had run into the small grove adjacent to the field. There were hunters standing post at the far corners of the woods and a couple of men were in the woods trying to drive the bear out. You really need to be careful with a wounded bear!       Well, Mar...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday, April 20, 2022, the sixteenth Wednesday of the year, the fifth Wednesday of spring, and the 110th day of the year, with 255 days remaining. Wannaska Nature Update for April 20, 2022 We have more open water, and the Trumpeter Swan, Cygnus buccinator, a regular breeding resident widely distributed throughout the state but most common in the east-central, north-central, and northwestern regions, is moving in to Wannaska. April 20 Nordhem Lunch : OVEN FRIED CHICKEN DINNER     w/Mashed Potatoes & Gravy MONTE CRISTO     w/Mac Salad VEGETABLE BEEF SOUP     w/Choice of Sandwich Earth/Moon Almanac for April 20, 2022 Sunrise: 6:23am; Sunset: 8:22pm; 3 minutes, 22 seconds more daylight today Moonrise: 12:40am; Moonset: 8:36am, waning gibbous, 83% illuminated. Temperature Almanac for April 20, 2022                 Average...