Wannaskan Almanac

Hello and welcome to a peaceful, pretty content Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is August 23rd. There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.  She had so many children, she didn't know what to do.  As summer winds down to Ordinary Time (what I call the season from September to May), the oldest kids have all landed at our house on a brief layover before life resumes. "How did we manage to fit eight 10-year-old boys into our living room for a sleepover?" I mused aloud last night, as our family of seven gathered in the exact same space. "Because they were small boy bodies," the Oldest answered. And she's right. With the growing up of the first group of progeny we call Kids 1.0, comes their full adult-size bodies. And not just their bodies, but their thoughts and feelings, which all seem so much larger than when they were home living under our roof.  And the living room feels small. 1 - 2- 3 easy chairs, I count around the room. The 1 -2 - 3 spaces o...

     Doors can be tricky I've heard. Carpenters often buy doors already framed and trimmed and they just pop them into an opening and use shims to get everything square. A good carpenter is practiced at covering up his mistakes. That's why you see so much trim in the average house.   Our cabin in the woods is ready for a door. We call the cabin the Cabinet because it's only 12' by 8', about two thirds the size of Thoreau's cabin. Thoreau built his cabin in the woods near Concord, Mass. and stayed there for two years in order to live deliberately. People are always building little hermitages away from it all for similar purposes. The poet Yeats built a cabin where peace comes dropping slow among the beans and the bees.    I could certainly figure out how to hang the old door we had in the opening on the east side of the cabin. But it would take much trial and error and a return to the lumber yard after I cut things the wrong way. Our friend Joe Stenzel has h...

    I'm among the smallest acreage landowners in Palmville. Our quarter of land is given over to trees, meadows, and wetlands as are about 17, 538 other acres scattered throughout the township, a majority of it being State Land or Red Lake Tribal land. The balance of 5500 or so other acres are open farm fields. The big land tracts are maintained using big equipment. The little land tracts are maintained using tractors, smaller than my little 53.8 hp Massey-Ferguson 180 Diesel, that would even include rider mowers and equipment pulled by ATVs.  A neighbor called our tractor 'a pony' compared to the hundreds of horses under the hood of any one of his big tractors he and his family use for their farm work.      Gone are the DIY tractor-fixing days for the big landowners. If their tractor or equipment breaks down they have to call in a factory representative to fix even the smallest of problems excluding the driver's need for lunch at mid-day when like...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for August 20, 2025, the twenty-seventh Wednesday of the year, the ninth Wednesday of summer, the third Wednesday of August, and the two-hundred thirty-second day of the year, with one-hundred thirty-tree days remaining.   Wannaska Phenology Update for August 20, 2025 Feeding Frenzy! While the mourning doves continue to nest and the second broods of barn swallows leave their nests, and monarch butterflies cluster on trees - a sign that their migration is beginning - these calm, peaceful moments pale with the onset of the hummingbird feeding frenzy. Those of us who have been feeding our hovering friends now fill the feeders almost every day. The adults and their new broods prepare for the long journey south. August 20 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special : Potato Dumpling August 20 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch : Updated daily, occasionally. Earth/Moon Almanac for August 20, 2025 Sunrise: 6:24am; Sunset: 8:31pm; 3 minutes, 19 second...

Here is the fourth chapter...enjoy! Chapter 4:  The Nature of the Turning The weight of what he'd done pressed down on Elias, an invisible burden that made every breath a conscious effort. He was no longer a reluctant cleaner, a misguided environmental crusader. He was something far more sinister: a destroyer, an accidental eraser of human lives. He stayed in his secluded grove for days, barely moving, barely eating. The forest, once a place of alien beauty, now felt like a silent judge, its ancient trees bearing witness to his crimes. He couldn't bring himself to use the song, the melody that had once seemed like a gift now a poisoned chalice. But the world outside was changing, and he couldn't ignore it forever. The animals, growing bolder in the absence of human activity, had begun to encroach on his solitude. He saw deer grazing in what had been his grandmother's garden, foxes sleeping in the ruins of the barn, and once, a majestic bald eagle soaring overhead, a sig...

Originally published February 17, 2020... And here we are at the third segment of Song 10, “City Secundus.” As we begin this segment, it appears the MC is developing a sense of humor about the situations that flow by. This does not last very long, as the multitude of stimuli rain down on the MC’s senses. Argose appears to have integrated with the narrative and with the MC’s path. Imagine yourself in an unfamiliar city; follow the MC and decide which actions seem appropriate in the various situations, and which are just plain foolish. Bon voyage!   My sea legs, as before, prove quite wobbly Argose nearly falls over on his side We have been enough days on the water             to alter balance and body rhythms I chuckle thinking if Hart saw me now             he would again denounce me for a drunk             but we both manage to right ourselves soon             ...

  The Palmville Globe Volume 1 Number 29 Man Rises in the World Two Inches Joe McDonnell, 78 and residing in Palmville Twp, Minnesota, recently welcomed a high rise toilet to his downstairs bathroom. "My sister-in-law had the same toilet installed a few months ago and we always seem to eventually follow her lead in these matters," McDonnell tells the press. "I suggested that instead of a new toilet, we get one of those foam collars you see in hospitals to raise the seat level but I ran into a brick wall with that idea. The old toilet had this problem that you had to lift the handle after flushing to make the water quit running." McDonnell reports that he had put a note on top of the tank asking people to lift the handle and that most people complied. "I took the note away once the new toilet was in place," he confirms.  Man Makes Pyramid Bread Joe McDonnell, 78 and a bread historian, recently made a loaf of bread identical to those baked in the second mill...

Hello and welcome to a mirthful Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is August 16th and all my birdies have flown home. Birds flying, soaring, exploring and returning is where my heart is today. This past week on one of my morning walks, I had a conversation with a crow. "Caw, caw, caw!" he said, to which I replied, "Hello! Hello! Hello!" He cawed once more and I smiled. He flew along the field as I made my way home and   

   There's a series of rumble strips on the road east of us where Roseau County 8 meets Minnesota State Highway 89. The closest strips are about half mile from our place so we can hear them go blaaat! when a vehicle runs over them as it approaches the stop sign. Fortunately, traffic is light on County Road 8 and if the rumble strips prevent even one accident, then I need to curb my annoyance at the noise.  Whenever Teresa or I approach rumble strips we try to avoid them because we don't like the noise. I've always wondered what percentage of drivers avoid the strips and what percentage run over them. Instead of just speculating, I decided to take a sample of vehicles on 8 headed east to 89 for a least one hour during morning rush hour.     When I told fellow Wannaskan Almanac writer Joe Stenzel ( Word Wednesday ) my plans, he volunteered to help. I knew fellow writer Steve Reynolds (wannaskawriter) would want to join in too. I knew then that I'd have to pr...