Wannaskan Almanac

  This is Ginny Graham's follow-up to my post last Friday about the Graham's visit over the St. Patrick's Day weekend.  To begin my account of The Graham’s 2023 Visit to Wannaska, I’ll yoke Joe’s backdrop of the winter weather we wanted and found to the homage that Jack Pine Savage kindly offers: a candle lit for old friendships that flourish over time. Contrast so often illuminates, and I chuckle when I think of how I longed to experience the Minnesota cold. How ironic, because the overriding experience of being there was one of warmth. Although we hadn’t been to the McDonnell’s since ’97, we’d followed accounts of their house renovation and the building of the remarkable Shedeau. The aesthetic they’ve created in both houses soothes with colors, textures, and beautiful elements that create an integrated sense of balance. All their many books, the art, the crafted woodwork and natural- branch-railings, the paint choices, pillows, hand-made blankets - all the obvious care th...

  Stories of The Louis Palms: Part 2   Forty years ago, Janet Strandlie, of Thief River Falls, Minnesota acted as a caregiver for a week, starting on February 26, 1983, for my uncle, the late Raymond Palm, of Roseau, Minnesota, who at the age of 20 became paralysed from the waist down as a result of a tree-climbing accident in 1932. Raymond became a successful jeweler, watchmaker, and gunsmith. He had an adjoining living space and shop in a house on Center Street East, in which he lived with his sister, Irene, and her husband John.      Raymond ‘walked on’ in 2002 at age 91, after surviving 71 years in a wheelchair, at one point becoming a spinal cord injury survivor record holder. Janet writes: “These are Raymond’s words, written as fast as possible as he wove the tales and brought up story after story. This was done over one week in 1983. I think he really enjoyed it.” Note: I've edited spellings, added death dates, and composed it chronologically. ( WW/S...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for March 29, 2023, the thirteenth Wednesday of the year, the second Wednesday of spring, and the eighty-eighth day of the year, with two-hundred seventy-seven days remaining.   Wannaska Phenology Update for March 29, 2023 Night Life   Should you be the outdoorsy type, there's much to enjoy this time of year in Wannaska after the sun goes down and the Fickle Pickle closes. Sunspot and solar flare activity has been gradually increasing, as our recent aurora borealis sightings demonstrate so beautifully. Uranus has also joined Venus in the sky near the waxing crescent moon. For your listening pleasure, the Barred Owl, Strix varia , begins nesting in March, and as nocturnally active creatures, you'll now hear them singing after dark. The female lays two or three white eggs, which hatch in 28 to 33 days. The newly hatched young will be covered with fine white down. Young barred owls leave the nest four to five weeks after ha...

Life has changed.  It is hard to say if it has changed for the better.  All I know is that I hurt a lot more in a lot more places than I did 50 years ago.   50 years ago people used cash.  To get that cash you used to have to go to work.  Then you would put that money in the bank.  Then you would go to the bank to get cash out.  Checks were used when mailing a bill.   See you at the bank People got married much earlier in life.  The median age of first marriage was 20 for women and 23 for men. Back then, close to 70 percent of American adults were married; today only 51 percent are.  The modern bride is 26.5 years old on average and the groom 28.7. Why yes, we did meet in high school The legal drinking age was 18.  In 1984 this was moved to 21.  In the provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, and Quebec you can still drink at age 18.  You can still get sent off to war at 18 though.  At least you will be sober. Y...

Nature on the Wing Today, our nature focus is creatures  wing – birds that is, however lovely are butterflies, hawkmoths, and Black Soldier Flies. But a few words on Earth Day before we take flight with our avian friends. We’re writing this post on 22 March, one month from 2023’s Earth Day on 22 April 2023. It’s a day worth celebrating, and events are plentiful. Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by EARTHDAY.ORG including 1 billion people in more than 193 countries. The official theme for 2023 is “Invest In Our Planet.” The first Earth Day was focused on the United States. In 1990, Denis Hayes, the original national coordinator in 1970, took it international and organized events in 141 nations. On Earth Day 2016, the landmark Paris Agreement was signed by the United States, the United Kingdom, China, and 120 other countries. This sig...

  This winter is sticking around like a frozen cocklebur.  A wise philosopher king might provide the best form of government, but he’d be so busy putting down revolts, he wouldn’t have time to govern.  Is there a word for the opposite of envy? Like when a big snowstorm goes south of me. A word expressing how much I don’t want what they’re getting.   Saying a cruel thing wittily does not redeem it, but it does earn points towards a higher level in hell.  Those on the Right hate the concept of woke. Woke is the Liberal’s “born again” of which Jesus spoke.    God is omniscient; He knows all our needs. So we turn to the saints as to lawyers to get what we want.  One man’s intellectual fare is another man’s reality TV.  Some become narcissists as revenge on a world that seems to care nothing for them.  Pity the man with no thoughts to think Like a bee in a desert, no nectar to drink The calendar has served Winter his eviction notice, but...

Hello and welcome to a traveling Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is March 25th. Our family is on the road, on our way to another robotics regional. Since we’re in the car together for an 8-hour trip, I thought we could write a post together because isn’t that what car rides are about? Togetherness? Fifth Grader: The Ad-VEN-Ture! (cue dramatic music.) Okay, that’s all I’ve got. She sits in the way back of the van where she has the entire space to herself. That singular act describes her personality – happy to be by herself, having room ALL to herself. In regular intervals, she quietly munches on the snacks she spent the last two weeks squirreling away specifically for this trip. I hear her voice and when I look back, I see she is supervising an animated conversation between two gummy bears. Second Grader: This is not a blog post just for me – it’s from our whole family! Except for my older siblings. Today we’re going to La Crosse and we have nine hours ahead of us....

    I read once about an elderly woman who needed care and had to move across the country to be near her daughter. She was very lonely and her daughter said, “Don’t be sad. You’ll make friends here.” “Yes,” said her mother, “but I don’t have time to make old friends.”   I’ve known Jim and Ginny Graham since college. Jim and I had an apartment off campus and I was their best man. Jim went off to law school in Texas and I joined the Navy. The Grahams moved to Virginia after Jim got a job at the Justice Department in Washington. I married Teresa and moved to Wannaska. Distance can weaken the ties of friendship, but we were making annual trips to Massachusetts to see my family and the Grahams had bought a summer place also in Massachusetts so Ginny could see her family, so we got together at least once a year.   We convinced Jim and Ginny to visit us in June, 1997. They flew into Grand Forks and I drove them around town to see the devastation of the recent flood. Teresa'...

  Family of Willie and Annie Palm. Raymond in doorway. From Raymond's left CW: Ervin, Clifford and Delores; Jack, Martin and Irene; Annie; unknown woman; Clinton; Dean.     Forty years ago, in February of 1983, Janet Davidson (Strandlie), of Thief River Falls, Minnesota acted as a caregiver for a week for my uncle, the late Raymond Palm, of Roseau, Minnesota, who was a paraplegic as a result of a tree-climbing accident in 1932. Raymond, a jeweler and gunsmith, had an adjoining living space and shop in a house (on Center Street) in which he lived with his sister, Irene, and her husband John. Janet helped Raymond while they were away on a vacation. Raymond ‘walked on’ in 2002, at age 91, after 71 years in a wheelchair.     I sit here in Raymond’s old wooden wheelchair on a Saturday morning, talking to Raymond in his bed. This is a good time to catch him to get the information-- pick his brain -- so to speak. I can’t believe how he can rattle off these...