Wannaskan Almanac

Hatchets are red Skin has turned blue Zombies in the street Are chasing you! Not actual zombie, just plays one on TV The Ancient Greeks are thought to be the first civilization to show a fear of the undead. Archaeologists have dug up ancient graves which contained skeletons held down by rocks and other heavy objects, possibly to prevent the dead bodies from rising to terrorize the living. Zombie folklore has been around for centuries in Haiti.  This was thought to begin in the 1600's when West African slaves were brought in to work on Haiti’s sugar cane plantations. Horrible conditions left the slaves wishing for freedom. According to some experts, the life—or rather afterlife—of a zombie was a representation of the terrible lives endured by the slaves. Voodoo believers think that zombies are brought to life by a bokor.  A bokor is a practitioner of Voodoo. In Canada we don't have Voodoo.  We have Skidoo...which is much more handy when there is a lot of snow and you ...

Dominion or Co-inhabitants? You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Mary Oliver, “Wild Geese” opening lines.  No shortage of poets exists* who focus on nature and humankind’s integral, inseparable place within the natural world; however, few have the delicate, yet ferocious, handle on bringing us poems that do this best. Mary Oliver is one of the very best, and her awards and her work undeniably support this assertion. But why spend time reading (or listening) to poems about the environment that we live in 24/7?  The essence of the world around us is the same essence that permeates our lives and our being-ness. Immersing ourselves in poetic reminders of our integration with the natural world – our very interdependence with it – reminds us of who we are and the kind of ecology that we are part of. Some of our most talented poets cho...

  In these nervous days, hand gel has replaced holy water as our go-to devil preventer.  The world is the rock,  Worry the hard place.  When art fails to move And has nothing to teach The artist must fall In the arms of pastiche  When all else fails Instructions read Know they too Astray will lead.  The only way  Right way to start Is read the lines Writ on the heart.  His day is my night / Of brains he’s bereft His dark is my light / He lacks manly heft My dear opponent / My dear opponent  There to the right    /    There to the left Some cooks are forever trying new things  While offering their guests stale excuses Let them master instead a handful of treats Like the mamas and granny babushkas  It would be interesting to visit one of those stars a million light years away. But would it be much different than the one just over the horizon? We’re told to be our brother’s slave To always be a giver Unless of cours...

 Hello and welcome to the first snowy Saturday of the 2023-24 winter season. Today is October 28th. Before we accept the snow that fell yesterday, signaling the inevitable winter descending upon us, let's take one last lingering look at blue skies and bright, sunny days over the warm brown buttes and prairies of western North Dakota we experienced last weekend at Theodore Roosevelt National Park (North Unit) through the eyes of our kids. Little Mo Nature Trail (1.1 mi) - This is a 1.1-mile trail that was very cool because we could see all the cool rocks. We learned about bentonite and lignite.  It was a good beginner trail because it was nice, short, and easy for the next trail which we will talk about later. Some of our favorite things on this trail were seeing a rabbit, climbing up tiny hills, hiking along the Little Missouri River (aka "the Misery River"), learning how the river is formed, seeing prickly pear cactuses, and basically just learning what the plants and d...

     The world's first surrealist movie is called The Andalusian Dog . It was released in 1921. It’s a series of unrelated scenes, supposedly inspired by the director's dreams. Salvador Dali was somehow mixed up in it.   Our week in Andalusia was a little like that. To fill in the time after our hike along the Atlantic coast in the west and our week in Barcelona in the east, we hooked up with a company that booked us in a hill town in Andalusia in the south.    We flew from Barcelona to Málaga on the Mediterranean coast and picked up the car that came with our “tour”. We got out of town fairly easily but it was weird for Google maps assistant to say “Take Massachusetts 21.” The assistant was interpreting the MA21 of Málaga province as a US state. It was a nice touch of home though.   The jumbled hills north of Málaga looked exactly like Arizona. After half an hour the hills evened out and were covered with olive trees. Old olive trees, little olive sap...

      Years ago, I had a big old yellow-orange colored cat that I ever had the pleasure to know. I think its name was Cat. How he arrived here I don't remember; how he departed, is an equal mystery, but I'm thinking it was on his own terms for I never knew him to be indecisive; he was a very purpose-driven being, especially when it came to having fun ...    I was sleeping one mid-morning in my little mobile home here on the farm, when I was awakened by a loud snort of a deer right outside my bedroom. I slid out of the bed quietly and eased slowly to the window at the end of the trailer.     Just over ten feet away stood a Whitetail doe, her nerves all ajangle, her ears forward, her front legs stiff and every muscle in her body tense. She was staring at something out of my line of sight, near the corner of the house -- and acting like the something was staring back. What was it?     The doe stood on its hind legs just long enoug...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for October 25, 2023, the forty-third Wednesday of the year, the fifth Wednesday of fall, and the two-hundred ninety-eighth day of the year, with sixty-seven days remaining.   Wannaska Phenology Update for October 25, 2023 Tamaracks Peak The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources says that Wannaska has past its peak color point for this season, where most of the colorful leaves now lay browning and moldering on the ground. But not so, the tamarack, otherwise know as the larch . Looking up to the northeast on clear nights: If you're up early enough, spot the space station: Oct 25 5:38 AM, Visible: 3 min, Max Height: 42°, Appears: 42° above ESE, Disappears: 10° above ENE. October 25 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special : Potato Dumpling October 25 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch : Updated daily by 11:00am, usually. Earth/Moon Almanac for October 25, 2023 Sunrise: 7:58am; Sunset: 6:15pm; 3 minutes, 21 seconds less daylight today M...