Wannaskan Almanac

Serendipity : A Silver Lining .    How many instances of serendipity can we thus define in a single hour?      I have to answer nature’s call before sunrise, the house is dark. I arise from bed, swing my feet to the floor then as I try to quietly move between the bed and the wall, I step painfully on the plug-in end of the cord on my electric blanket that was laying on the floor -- but I don’t trip into the leg of the steel bed frame like I have before . Serendipity      I open the kitchen door to the basement and the cat isn’t there to meow insistent to go outside. The dog isn’t there to thump her tail loudly against the landing when she sees me. Serendipity.      I descend the basement steps without incident, recalling the afternoon during the winter when I came through the door from the outdoors in my winter gear, big boots, heavy coat and wool hat, carrying a snow shovel for some reason--then slipped and wildly careened down th...

 A day of outdoor work done, I st upon the upside down jonboat to listen-in the night, something I haven't done for quite awhile. It used to be I'd get an opportunity to sit outdoors as the sun webt down, in some inconspicuous place. It was an evening of observation, a passive interaction with nature of some spontaneity and commonly done at home.    I am fortunate to live in NW Minnesota on a quarter section of forested land with two diagonally-opposite waterways; Johnson Creek on the NW corner, and Mikinaak Creek on it SE, intersecting it. They quietly meander through wetlands bordered with deciduous and conifer trees; some that our families planted over 40 years ago; and some others well over a hundred years old perhaps, given how short the growing seasons have been around here , historically. Beaver have dammed the Mikinaak for centuries, as the land formations indicate, backing up its water levels along its length, stalling its northern flow into the south fork of the...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for January 21, 2026, the third Wednesday of the year, the fifth Wednesday of winter, the third Wednesday of January, and the twenty-first day of the year, with three-hundred forty-four days remaining, brought to you by Bead Gypsy Studio & Scandinavian Shoppe, 101 Main Avenue North, Roseau, with a Ekelund Linens & Scandinavian Food BOGO through the month of January. Open Monday through Saturday.   Wannaska Phenology Update for January 21, 2026 Dark-eyed Junco Junco hyemalis — jaashaawanibiisi in Anishinaabe — a year-round resident of Wannaska, heads north to the arctic to breed in the summer, but some may travel as far as Mexico to winter. These hardy six-inch gray birds have white bellies and white outer tail feathers that flash when in flight. Both sexes have dark eyes, but males have a slate-gray to charcoal chest, head, and back, while females have light tan to light gray-brown feathers. Listen for their trilled mu...

The number 13 has unfairly shouldered the blame for centuries of misfortune, earning a reputation for chaos and calamity. While history certainly provides its share of terrible events tied to the date, to label the 13th solely as a harbinger of doom is to ignore the wealth of positive, pivotal, and genuinely happy events that have also unfolded on this supposedly "unlucky" day. Against the odds, the 13th has often proven to be a date of triumph, innovation, and celebration, offering a surprising counterbalance to the prevailing superstition. One of the most significant and fortunate events on the 13th relates to the birth of the modern computer age. On Friday, January 13, 1956, the IBM 305 RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control) was publicly announced. This machine was the first commercial computer to use a moving-head hard disk drive for data storage. It was a technological leap forward that revolutionized data processing, making large-scale data storage pract...

Originally published July 20, 2020... In the previous post of The One , we left with a cliffhanger. A “being” emerged from the seaside cave – a visitation, so to speak. Who or what is this apparition? Will an identity even be revealed? More details surface in this segment; however, mystery remains. Decide for yourself how many more revelations need to arise before we fully comprehend who or what this cave dweller presents. . . . I mumble words I barely hear myself Argose at my side gently licks my hand “I cannot say why I am come to this place and not some other more surpassing gate She pauses, pondering it seems, as I speculate the manner of her strangeness . . .                                                                                             ...

  The Palmville Globe Volume 1 Number 51 Man Does Not Buy Third Home Joe McDonnell, 78 and a resident of Palmville Twp, Minnesota,   recently pulled back from buying a third house. "We already have two houses in the country," McDonnell tells the press. "We live in one and put guests in the other one. If the workload in the country ever becomes too heavy, it would be good to have a small place in town where there would be fewer things to fix. If we bought this place we could rent it until we needed it. The real estate agent said the place in town that caught our eye had had water damage inside the house, but that there was a new roof in place. The closer we got to the house, the more things we saw that would have to be dealt with. Seeing the extent of the water damage extinguished our interest in the house especially since the price was controlled by a governmental entity that would not negotiate." McDonnell reported later that he was relieved that the deal fell thro...

Hello and welcome to a subzero, mid-January-already Saturday here at the Wannaskan Alamanc. Today is January 17th. Week #2 of post-holiday Ordinary Time went more smoothly than Week #1, as we eased into more of our regular habits and routines. In addition to work and school, kids resumed Lego League practices, I attended the first Toastmasters meeting of the year, and the hubs commenced robotics mentoring. The morning routine got easier, and we all headed out the door feeling a bit more joyful and a little less resigned to our lot in life. (Which is actually a pretty good lot.) The week was also punctuated with a few adventures, making for an all-around lovely week. On Sunday, we went cross-country skiing. This was my first attempt in 15 years, and the last time before that attempt was when I was actually 15 years old. Friends took us out into Beltrami on a nice, powdery trail they maintain themselves. The forest was breathtaking, peaceful, and gorgeous with the contrast of clean, brig...

     Making a great pizza is easy. The hard part is making it in a way that tastes great to you. Lesson One:  Even a bad pizza is pretty good. When people discovered how to make flour 12,000 years ago, they immediately started baking flat bread. Pizza is just flat bread with stuff on it. The first flat breads were probably terrible, but the family choked them down anyway because they would have starved if they didn't.    By making pizza we're paying homage to our ancestors. I keep them in mind whenever I attempt to improve my pizza. Lesson Two: The crust is by far the most important part of a pizza. If the crust is great you can put dirt on top and it will still taste good. In fact I think some high-end gourmet pizzerias do just that.    The dough for the crust has four ingredients: yeast, water, flour and salt. Start with a cup of very warm water in a medium size bowl. If you have a thermometer, no hotter than 130 degrees. Sprinkle a teaspoon of ...

     A true story from Palmville Township as composed by Joe McDonnel l. Although it may have been altered a bit by generational repetition in the oral tradition of story telling, Oskar, Untvar, and Jalmar live on in McDonnell's vibrant story writing and quite understandably, the flesh of their descendants. Note: While reading this story brings varying images to mind in itself, having McDonnell dramatically tell it, is a must.

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for January 14, 2026, the second Wednesday of the year, the fourth Wednesday of winter, the second Wednesday of January, and the fourteenth day of the year, with three-hundred fifty-one days remaining.   Wannaska Phenology Update for January 14, 2026 Cedar Waxwing Bombycilla cedrorum  — zegibanaanishiinh in Anishinaabe — a member of the family Bombycillidae or waxwing family of passerine birds, sports brown, gray, and yellow feathers. Some of the wing feathers have red tips which resemble sealing wax, giving these birds their common name. A year-round native of Wannaska and other parts of North and Central America, pairs breed in open wooded areas in southern Canada, some make the trip to winter in the southern half of the United States, Central America, and the far northwest of South America. Waxwing diets includes cedar cones, fruit, holly berries, and insects. The two common calls of these birds include very high-pitch...