Wannaskan Almanac

It is the last day of February.  This is only true because this is not a leap year.  Leap years occur approximately every 4 years.  The reason is that a year is not exactly 365 days long.  A year is actually 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds...or 365.2422 days.  Since there is a little bit extra we add in a day almost every 4 years to make the seasons line up with the proper months.  If we didn't do this then there is the danger that in approximately 600 years Christmas would fall in the middle of summer.  Then how would Santa get his sleigh around to deliver all those presents.  Probably the same way he does in the Southern Hemisphere and tropics, but I don't have time to get into all of that. Not this year you fractionally longer year! I have a confession to make.  I like to tell jokes.  No, I am serious about that.  I have a strong attraction to bad humor, aka dad jokes.  The other day I told my class this o...

Time Passing – Forgotten in Time Like footprints in sand washed away by the sea, most humans are not remembered after enough time passes and snuffs out even minor thoughts about the one who has died. On the other hand, is it possible that we can keep the dead alive stored in our brain-housed memories.  An author whose name I cannot bring to mind said – and I paraphrase – when someone dies (s)he is remembered by those still living, be the memories favorable or not. As long as one living person remembers the one who has died, the deceased remains alive. But when no one brings the departed to mind, the dead one is truly gone.  What does it mean to be remembered? Are there multiple ways? What about a memorial be it grave stone, boseki, Taj Mahal, Lincoln Monument, the United States Marine Corp War Memorial , or with a  beautiful blog post ? Is it reasonable to conclude that if the last person remembering the one who has died passes on memories to a next generation or to those...

  They say the poor are often happier than the well-off, but there are few among the poor who wouldn’t risk that unhappiness.  <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Brave is the soldier going into battle. Braver still the surgical patient, knowing they’ll be cut; knowing there’ll be pain that pills at first will cover no better than a tin shield against the dragon’s fire.   <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Life is a trade off. I eat salad at supper so I can have ice cream before bed.  <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> What does that patch of ground look like between killing a person we   don’t agree with and just writing them off completely.  <><><><><...

Hello and welcome to a sunny and cold Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is February 25th, and the rest of Minnesota might care to know that Wannaska got no snow from this past week's blizzard. On March 5, 2022, I shared a story about a friend who fled wartime Ukraine . Ten days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we spoke over Facebook Messenger while she lie, exhausted in every way imaginable, on the sofa in a friend’s apartment in Poland. Despite all she’d endured, her primary emotion was relief. Relief to have gotten her children to safety. Relief to be able to rest without bombs exploding in her sleep. Relief to have been one of the lucky ones. A year later, again over Facebook Messenger, she recalls that conversation. She remembers that contrast of lying exhausted in the living room while friends chatted and prepared food in the kitchen. She hadn’t known then how far Russia's invasion would go. She hadn’t known to what extent the damage would be or how close...

    There was a song in the Vietnam era that asked what war was good for. The answer was, absolutely nothing. War does occasionally throw up funny names for its conflicts: The War of the Oaken Bucket (Italy 1325), The War of the Golden Stool (Ghana 1896), The War of the Three Sanchos (Spain 1065-71), and strangest of all, The War of Jenkins’ Ear (Caribbean 1739-42).   The Pemmican War took place between two trading companies just across the border in Manitoba during the years 1814-20. And it was on this day in 1597 that the last battle of the Cudgel War took place between Finnish peasants and Finnish nobles. Guess which side used cudgels and which side won.   Like most of the strangely named wars, the Cudgel War was part of a larger conflict. Duke Charles lived in Sweden and wanted to be king there, but Sigismund, who was Charles's nephew, was the legitimate king. Sigismund was also king of Poland which is where he lived. In 1595 Charles stirred up the peasants of Fi...

Sandra (Reynolds) Ellgaard 1940-2023     My youngest sister Sandra Jean (Reynolds) Ellgaard of Metairie, Louisiana, died, unexpectedly, on February 20, this year. The news caught us by surprise that morning and has evaded my consciousness although it surfaces now and then in gasps; suppressed by pauses of contemplation of this keyboard I write upon, or the start-up of the furnace, or closing of an upstairs cupboard door. I’m just not there yet.     Sandra was the youngest daughter of Guy and Violet Reynolds. Born August 3rd, 1940, in Des Moines, Iowa, she was nine years younger than her sister Virgina (Ginger) [Wilson] (1932-2009), and eleven years younger than her sister, Ann Marie [Baldner] born on May 19, 1930 and going on 93 come May. Me and the girls in Des Moines in 2010. Ann Marie, Ginger, Sandra      Sandra had the world by the tail until I was born, eleven years later in 1951; an event that she wasn’t at all pleased about. “One ...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for February 22, 2023, the eighth Wednesday of the year, the tenth Wednesday of winter, the last Wednesday of February, and the 53rd day of the year, with 312 days remaining. Brought to you this week by Bead Gypsy , celebrating Flannel & Frost Winter Fest with fika this Friday and Saturday, February 24 & 25, at 101 Main Avenue, North, in downtown Roseau.   Wannaska Phenology Update for February 22, 2023 Coyote Breeding Season   by Mia McPherson   Canis latrans is Minnesota’s most abundant large predator after homo sapiens , usually preying on small mammals, but sometime large mammals, including livestock. Coyotes begin to mate at age two, and may pair for life. The mating season in Wannaska begins in January and lasts through February (pant, pant…). After breeding, females search for dens, either digging one in loose soil or enlarging the den of another animal, birthing five to seven pups in April. Born blind...

Trumpets blare.  The court rises to their feet.  A hush falls through the crowd.  It must be...it has to be...another episode of fractured history! The following events happened on February 21,  just as they appear here in the almanac. 1173 Pope Alexander III canonizes Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury.  We are not really certain whether he used a canon camera or a canon cannon.   You ever look at someone and think...that head would make a good cannonball 1431 Joan of Arc's first day of interrogation during her trial for heresy.  The lesser known (but equally as exciting) song 12 days of Arc's Testimony starts out like this:  On the first day of testimony for my heresy, I swore allegiance to good King Charlie. 1583 Groningen, Netherlands, begins using Gregorian calendar.  Up until then they had been using the Peter Panthian calendar, but it seemed like nobody was growing older with it. 1764 John Wilkes is thrown out of English Hous...

The Chairman Rides Again & Space-Time with Dave Proffitt We are pleased to present another gem of a poem from the Wannaskan Almanac ’s own Friday/Sunday post-master, The Chairman. And yes, the drawing is also his! The low February sun Slowly eats the snow And grazes beneath the small spruce trees Its weight pushes my eyes onto the trail Where our three deer have punched Thousands of holes And where their hundreds of Warm olives have burrowed in Space-Time Today’s post continues to focus on time. Time. So many aspects. So many uncertainties. Quite a few manmade ways to measure it. But is time even an entity, or is it a human invention that serves our species’ need to organize? I’ll meet you at “x” o’clock. What would this mean if we didn’t have instruments of time – you know, like a watch or a sundial? Here is a simple definition of time: In math, time can be defined as an ongoing and continuous sequence of events that occur in succession, from past through the present, and to the f...