Wannaskan Almanac

  The Palmville Globe Volume 1 Number 47 Man Solves Dashboard Mystery Joe McDonnell ,  78 and residing in Palmville Twp, Minnesota, recently deciphered a puzzling icon on his vehicle's dashboard. "We've been driving this vehicle for four years and we're still making discoveries," McDonnell tells the press. "The heat and  A/C vent icons always troubled me. Little white arrows show where the air is going when you push the mode button: All Defrost,    Defrost/Floor mix, all Mid-level, Mid-level/Floor mix, and finally, all Floor. But when it was on Mid-level/Floor mix I had to push the button twice. I'm an unpaid efficiency expert and I resented this unnecessary step. As cold weather set in this year and I was adjusting the vent settings more frequently, I noticed a subtle difference in the two Mid-level/Floor mix to all Floor settings. The little arrows indicated to the careful observer that the first setting sent most of the heat to the Mid-level and less t...

Hello and welcome to a snow-blowy Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is December 20th. 'Twas the Saturday before Christmas, when all through the house, The stillness was broken by the click of a mouse. Final gifts were being ordered with moments to spare, In hopes that the older kids soon would be there. The flour was dusted all over the trays, As we baked in a sugar-sweet, buttery haze. With gingerbread men and the scent of the pine, Tilling the kitchen with memories divine. Then out on the driveway there rose such a clatter, I sprang from the counter to see what was the matter. The car doors were swinging, the laughter rang bright, As my "babies" returned in the glow of the porch light. They burst through the door with their bags and their gear, Bringing back all the chaos we’ve missed through the year. The boots in the hallway, the coats on the chair— A beautiful mess that showed they were there. We gathered together where the hearth fire burns, For games an...

     Jerusalem is not the largest city in the world, but it can claim to be the most important. Jerusalem taught the Western Hemisphere how to behave. China and India have had their ethical teachings, but they've been more diffuse. Judaism, Christianity and Islam all came out of Jerusalem. I'll qualify Islam's origins later.   The name Jerusalem means "Foundation of Peace" in Hebrew. That's a great example of wishful thinking. Over the millennia, Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, captured and recaptured 44 times, and attacked 52 times. Having a great location is a mixed blessing. Both Israel and Palestine claim the city as their capital.     Most people think of the Old City with its thick walls built by a Muslim ruler in the 16th century when they hear the name Jerusalem, but less than thirty thousand of modern Jerusalem's million residents live in the Old City. Like the Vatican, the Old City is tiny, less than half a mile square...

 Back in 2000, when any excuse for a road trip would do even with deer abounding in record numbers state-wide, Sven and Ula drove to Tuff Rubber Balls for free seed corn to plant and feed the deer that winter.      “Yah, Ula, dis ‘ere looks like vulf feces,” observed Sven from the open drivers door of his old Ford pickup as he hung from its steering wheel. He was looking at several deer-hair infused cylindrical objects with tapered ends, piled one upon the other on the one-lane gravel road through Thief Lake Refuge .     “Scat Sven!” said Ula from the passenger side of the truck. “Scat!”    “I’m not t’rough lookin’ at ‘em yet. Is dere a car coming?” Sven said perturbedly, his right foot hooked under the clutch pedal should he lose his grip hold on the steering wheel.    “No Sven, feces is also called scat,” explained Ula, who says he knows just a little about a lot of things rather than a lot about a little, thereby exuding the impr...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for December 17, 2025, the twenty-seventh Wednesday of the year, the thirteenth Wednesday of fall, the third Wednesday of December, and the three-hundred fifty-first day of the year, with fourteen days remaining.   Wannaska Phenology Update for December 17, 2025 Pine Siskin From the same family as the Evening Grosbeak, Pine Siskin, Spinus pinus - another ozaawaabineshiins in Anishinaabe, is a North American bird in the finch family. It is a migratory bird with an extremely sporadic winter range — breeding across central Canada, but irrupting into Wannaska for winter fun and food. Although Pine Siskins prefer evergreen or mixed evergreen and deciduous forests with open canopies, they are opportunistic and adaptable in their search for seeds. They'll forage in weedy fields, scrubby thickets, or backyards and gardens. And they'll flock around feeders, especially thistle feeders. The male's song is a slow, soft, "swee...

Confessions of a Fence Post: A Life Between Boundaries Let me introduce myself. I’m a fence post. Not the glamorous kind you see in glossy catalogues, all cedar-stained and standing proud like a suburban sentry. No, I’m the weathered, slightly leaning, splintered veteran of the backyard frontier. I’ve been here since the Nixon administration, and frankly, I’ve seen things. Squirrels using me as a launch pad. Dogs mistaking me for a restroom. Teenagers carving initials into my torso like I’m some kind of rustic yearbook. I don’t mean to sound wooden, but I’ve got feelings too. People think fence posts are just stuck-up sticks with commitment issues. Always standing still, never branching out. But let me tell you, it takes a lot of backbone to hold the line—literally. I’m the unsung hero of property disputes, the silent witness to passive-aggressive landscaping wars. I’ve heard whispered threats over hedge height and seen garden gnomes mysteriously relocated in the dead of night. You thi...

  The priest at our church began his sermon by announcing, “Joy takes center stage on this Third Sunday of Advent.” In the liturgical calendar, today is known as Gaudete Sunday—from the Latin word meaning rejoice. In Anglican traditions, he pointed out, it is also known as Stir-Up Sunday, named for the familiar prayer: “Stir up your power in us, O God.” There’s a bit of irony here, because I have just returned from a particularly joyful weekend at my youngest sister’s home in the Berkshires. This is an annual gathering for the six of us siblings and our spouses. Paula and her husband, Ken, are both gifted in their capacity to whip up joy, and together with my siblings and their partners, we had a wonderful time. The food was notable. On Friday night, Paula’s fennel, radish, and apple salad perfectly complemented Ken’s exquisite salmon and risotto. Saturday brought Jim’s delicious lasagnas—one bolognese, one vegetarian—and, judging by the appreciative sounds as we chowed down, t...

  The Palmville Globe Volume 1 Number 46 Man Cracks Irish Soda Bread Code Joe McDonnell, 78 and a resident of Palmville Twp, Minnesota, recently discovered the secret for authentic Irish soda bread. "When I first started making bread after college, I made a loaf using only whole wheat flour," McDonnell tells the press. "It was like a brick. My Irish grandmother however, had    a slice and said it was very good. I realized later I had inadvertently given her something like the bread of her childhood. Over the years I went on to make more pleasing, excuse my language, bastardizations of the traditional Irish soda bread. I used raisins, sugar, butter, and lots of white flour. Searching for a traditional recipe, I found one that called for wheat bran. A footnote said the sharp edged bran cuts the gluten strands. Gluten can make a soda bead tough. My results were still unsatisfactory, but I can build on the clue about bran." In a later communication, McDonnell says he is...