Wannaskan Almanac

Originally published September 30, 2019... Song 8 falls under the second movement, “Becoming,” a word that can be interpreted as either positive or negative. Becoming cynical. Becoming ruthless. Becoming kind. Becoming generous. Read this segment asking whether the Song falls to one side or the other or partially in both. The title of the Song, “Endings and Transitions,” also merits consideration. What has ended? What do the transitions look like? On a journey such as this one, “endings” call to mind a dead-end road, and transitions serving as bridges between what has disappeared and what is yet to come. SECOND MOVEMENT BECOMING SONG 8 ENDINGS AND TRANSITIONS I clasp my legs to my heaving, hot chest             and pillow my muddled head on my knees                         sobbing into my dark nauseous center                         hollow...

The Palmville Globe Volume 1 Number 8 Man Transports Concrete Pads to Remote Site Joe McDonnell, 78 and residing in Palmville Twp, Minnesota recently moved nine 30 lb. concrete pads to a remote building site. "I don't know how remote it is," McDonnell, 78, tells the press. "The building site is only .14 miles south of the house. But everything must be carried in by hand during the wet and muddy season, plus there are two ice filled ravines on the route." McDonnell repaired a long-term slow leak in his wheelbarrow tire and also made use of a heavy duty plastic snowmobile sled to transport the pads in groups of three. "In the sportier sections in the ravines there was some hand-carrying the pads in groups of one," McDonnell tells reporters.          Man Celebrates Irish Sign Joe McDonnell, 78 and a fit retiree, told reporters that while taking down his  Sláinte!  sign, he realized this was the 25th time he had put the sign up and then taken it down again...

Hello and welcome to a crafty Saturday, here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is March 29th and I'm coming to you live from Bangor, WI. No, not Bangor, Maine, nor Bangor, Pennsylvania, but the Bangor in Wisconsin, just east of LaCrosse, on a craft retreat at the Dragonfly Retreat house . How does a girl from Wannaska land at a crafting retreat in southern Wisconsin? She makes a promise. "When you said you would go, I didn't really believe you would," my friend admitted when I got to her house Thursday evening. I didn't take offense, after all, it was this time a year ago when I declared that I'd road trip with her to her annual craft retreat in 2025. Craft Retreat is sacred, according to my friend Carol. "What happens at craft retreat, stays at craft retreat." But there are a few details I can share with the general public before diving back into my creative endeavors for the weekend. "Craft Retreat started over 20 years ago," Trudy (Carol...

   “Only a paleface would think he could make a blanket longer by cutting a foot off the bottom and sewing it on the top.” This quote appears every year at the start of Daylight Saving Time. It’s attributed to an “old Indian chief”. It should really be attributed to an annoyed white man, who dislikes having to go around the house setting all the clocks ahead an hour.     Everyone dislikes losing an hour of sleep. There is less complaining about returning to Standard Time when we get our lost hour back. Farmers are blamed for DST but farmers say it wasn’t us. We don’t care what time the sun comes up.     It was just getting to be light around six a.m. before DST went into effect. We lost that early light and I started setting my alarm to seven. Over the past two weeks I’ve worked my way back to my usual six a.m. The extra hour of daylight in the evening is fine, but I’ve been mildly disoriented by this one hour jet lag.     The logic...

*Originally published February 20, 2020         “Are you stuck again?” the young neighbor man joked when I called him Monday evening, because I had called him last Thursday morning for just that very reason when Chairman Joe and I found ourselves unexpectedly stationary in a ditch bank. This neighbor has some big pickups and tractors, and has offered his help in the past, should I have issues.      That morning, we were in Joe's car on 210th Avenue NE, and its intersection with 450th Street NE, in Marshall County, Minnesota, known to locals and county highway engineers as Marshall County Highway 48, three miles west of Honker Flats Greenhouse, which is, as a landmark, approximately 13 miles, west southwest, where the neighbor I called lives, as I do myself, a mile north of him.        "Hello neighbor!" the neighbor had said cheerfully, on Monday, after reading the caller ID on his phone.    ...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for March 26, 2025, the twenty-third Wednesday of the year, the first Wednesday of spring, the fourth Wednesday of March, and the eighty-fifth day of the year, with two-hundred eighty days remaining.   Wannaska Phenology Update for March 26, 2025 Horned Lark The horned lark , Eremophila alpestris , a species of lark in the family Alaudidae found across the northern hemisphere — collective noun: exultation — calls Wannaska home when it comes to breeding activities and is the only lark species native to North America, and they're moving in to position. A common very early spring migrant throughout the cultivated regions of Minnesota from February through late March, the horned lark also is an early nester — a risky business for the eggs and chicks when it comes to March and April snow storms. Horned lark vocalizations are high-pitched, lisping, tinkling, and weak. The song, given in flight as is common among larks, consists of a...

I have a long standing feud with banks.  Actually, until I had some extra money, banks never really interested me.  They were more interested in taking my interest.  However, ever since I have paid off my mortgage I no longer get good service at banks.   Today I went to the bank with 2 checks for $200 each.  I wanted them cashed, and gave them a note saying that I wanted: 1-100 20-10's 20-5's Those apostrophes were an apostasy to the bank and caused them currency confusion.  They gave me 2 hundreds, 10 tens, and 5 twenties.  I sent them back the twenties and a hundred.  I asked them this time for ten tens and twenty fives.  I got the envelope back.  Apparently they switched the hundred for twenties and the twenties for tens.   What I finally ended up with...in frustration...was: 1-100  20-10's 5-20's They were so close!  Just one denomination off!  Oh well, at least I had the right amount of money! ...

  The day before the snowshoe trek, I'd stood beside Chairman Joe at his stove in the Shedeau while he made pita bread. He flattened soft dough balls into circles, and I watched each one brown and puff up on the hot skillet.  Before Teresa, Joe, Jim, and I set out the next day, we gobbled one of these pockets, overflowing with scrambled eggs, bacon, and drippy cheese. Joe knows that mighty fortification is necessary for a snowshoe walk in Roseau, and he takes good care of his guests. Midway through the hike, a zig-zaggy bloody map on the snow forced us to stop. Deer attack , Joe declared immediately, his voice calm and direct. Teresa nodded soberly in agreement, but I gasped and looked around in disbelief. We were unwitting witnesses to an atrocity, and I was confused. "Where are all the bones?"  I begged. Despite the pale rust-red blood that had soaked into the snow, there was no trace of any animal. "Bones are booty," Joe explained, "Like doggy bags, the ...

  The Palmville Globe  Volume 1 Number 7  Man Sends Snowshoes to Rafters Joe McDonnell, 77 and a resident of Palmville Twp, Minnesota, recently put his four pairs of snowshoes up in the garage rafters. "The rafters are the only sensible place to store them," McDonnell tells the press. "You'd think snowshoes would stack nicely, like aluminum pancakes, but they don't. They sprawl all over because of the claw on the bottom. I don't want to badmouth the claw because it's what gets me up hills and stops me from falling on my face when going down hills. Each shoe can have its own spot up in the rafters." The forecast shows more snow coming. "I don't care if it snows a foot," McDonnell says. "My appetite for snowshoeing is satiated for now. Trail reopening TBA." Man Caught in Furniture Time Warp Joe McDonnell, 77 and a fit retiree, recently found himself left in the wake of changes in furniture design. "My interior designer rece...