Wannaskan Almanac

    Happy 250th Birthday America!      Is a 250th birthday more portentous for a country than a 200th? I was around for America's 200th birthday and I can say with authority that these fifty year increments zip by quickly. In 1976 Gerald Ford was doing his best as president, but the country was not happy. President Nixon had reigned two years earlier to avoid impeachment. Half the country believed he had been unjustly hounded from office and the other half had been delighted to see him go. There's been a vendetta atmosphere in the country ever since.   Are things better now in the US or worse? They were pretty good for me back in '76. I had a beautiful wife. We owned a house in Wannaska that we planned to move to as soon as I finished school. We had friends and supportive families. Life was good. Fifty years later it's even better. Most of our sorrows have come from witnessing the sorrows of our friends and family members. It bothers me that half the countr...

   My late brother-in-law, Clair Baldner, who is survived by his wife Ann Marie Reynolds Baldner, walked on in February this year. A Celebration of Life gathering is to be held on his 5th generation farmstead in Dallas County, Iowa; my daughter Bonny and her family, along with myself, will be attending. I wrote this memory of him, initially in a sympathy card to his family.   Clair and Ann Marie got married at The Stover Memorial Church of the Brethren in Des Moines in 1956, when I was five years old. Nonetheless, they pressed me into service as their familial ‘Ring Bearer’ who, as AI describes now is “... often a close relative ... who carries the wedding rings down the aisle on a pillow ...; whose role adds charm and sentimentality to the ceremony; (I nailed that.) Dress them in a mini version of the groomsman’s suit, or suspenders and a bow tie for a cute look; keep the walk short; help them feel special and behave well.”    Clair’s niece, Susan, was their ‘F...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for July 1, 2026, the twenty-sixth Wednesday of the year, the second Wednesday of summer, the first Wednesday of July, and the one-hundred eighty-second day of the year, with one-hundred eighty-three days remaining. Wannaska Phenology Update for July 1, 2026 Blue Jay Cyanocitta cristata —diindiisi in Anishinaabe—is a passerine bird in the family Corvidae , along with raven, crow, and magpie, making its presence known to Wannaskans everywhere. Diindiisi breeds in both deciduous and coniferous forests, and is common in residential areas. Blue jays feed mainly on seeds and nuts, such as acorns, which they may hide to eat later; soft fruits; arthropods; and occasionally small vertebrates. They typically glean food from trees, shrubs, and the ground, and sometimes hawks insects from the air. Blue jay parents build an open cup nest in the branches of a tree, and both sexes participate. The clutch may be two to seven eggs, which are bluis...

There are things that strike you and leaving you asking the question...how could I have not known that.  Take this for example:  We're Not Gonna Take it by Twisted Sister borrows the music progression from a Christmas carol.  Which one?  Well, listen to this. Sneaky.  I would have never guessed, but now I can't unhear it.  Here are some other things that people should know but often don't: 1.  Ventilation Often Backfires: We are taught that venting anger helps us "let it out." However, psychological studies show that aggressively venting (like punching a pillow or screaming or randomly ramming parked cars) actually prolongs and intensifies anger rather than diffusing it. Quieter reflection or distraction works much better.  That is why you should always silently look into a mirror. 2.  Hearing is the Last Sense to Go: When a person is dying or under heavy anesthesia, the auditory system remains functional longer than sight, touch, o...

  The woman had slept in. Now, sitting up and stretching, she yawns,  looks around the room, and thinks, Home invasion! She won’t be calling the police, but this looks bad. Only after her ritual read in bed does she look up again to survey the scene. The necklace she’d worn to church peeks out from the pile of laundry on the bureau. Her sunglasses loll on the floor asking to be stepped on. Last week’s unpacked suitcase doubles now as a doorstop. Before she’d gone out of town, she’d set aside a pile of random socks for matching. She sees them now, crowding together on top of the bookcase. On her way downstairs to make some breakfast she thinks she hears them griping because the others are still gone missing Mayhem reigned on the first floor too, and as our woman walks into the kitchen, she chuckles as she continues the inventory she’d begun in her messy room. After staying up too late watching some series, rimmed cups and rinsed dishes sit in the sink unwashed. Dried teabags, a...

  The Palmville Globe Volume 2 Number 22 Man Makes Things Go Joe McDonnell, 79 and a resident of Palmville Twp, Minnesota, and his wife Teresa, also residing in Palmville, recently purchased their first hybrid vehicle. "The vehicle requires some getting used to," McDonnell tells reporters. "We decided to take a cross country trip to familiarize ourselves with the controls and work out any bugs. One day after I was just getting used to having to wait for the green"Ready" light on the dash to come on before putting the vehicle in drive, we pulled into a scenic overlook in a remote area. After enjoying the view, I tried backing up and the vehicle would not move. In fact the "check engine" light was on. I was about to call our after-care specialist at the dealership. My wife said there was no cell service and suggested I turn everything off, wait 30 seconds,    and start over. I'm not sure what I had done wrong, but starting over solved the problem....

Hello and welcome to a summer camp Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is June 27th. Camps are a summer hallmark and staple. We have 4-H camps, church camps, sports camp, and the camp of all camps - LAKETRAILS - slotted in our summer schedule. Camps conjure images of singing around bonfires, capture the flag, bracelet braiding, KP duty, group activities in the lodge on a rainy afternoon, cannonballs and canoes, and chatting with your camp BFFs well past lights out. Good times that fuel adult nostalgia. Except when it doesn't quite go that way. Sometimes, instead of temporary unconditional love, bonding, and memories, kids get outcasted and labeled as awkward, quirky, or a misfit. This was my fear as I dropped my kid off last Sunday. "Everyone looks older than me," she observed, as we stood in line to check in. I assured her it was a camp just for 9th and 10th graders. After check-in with several cheerful volunteers, we were escorted to her dorm room - and that...

     For the Roman, all roads lead to Rome. For me, all roads lead to Boston, my natal home, and now the home of our three sons. The Roman could travel by foot or horse or by boat on the sea road. I have more choices. My civilization has built tools to carry me swiftly over smooth roads or through the air. I can still walk if I want. Another tool quickly calculates it would take 24 days to walk from our home in Wannaska to our son Ned's home in Marshfield, Massachusetts. We'll probably never take the walking route, nor the bike option even though a bike would cut our travel time to six days.    The tool making these calculators seems to harness the very spirits in the air. It provides pictures and maps of where we're going, tells where we can find food and lodging, and lets us communicate instantly with our hosts along the way. The internet has only become useful for travel in the last twenty years. We somehow made our way around the country without it, but I wo...

   Presumably I'll live to see my birthday on Saturday, June 27th. But I’ve never been this old before, well, that I know of anyway for I’m ignorant of such things. Yes, yes, yes, you read it here; I don’t know it all, and it’s never bothered me.        Well there’s so much importance made about ‘knowing it all’. On the other hand, i.e., oppositely, people who act like they ‘know it all’ are very often despised. So what’s a person to do? I don’t like to be ignorant of things in most cases; but equally don’t care to know it all because it involves so much of your life; I’m just not ambitious that way. Never have been. I like what I like and that’s it. Interests come to me from experiences with other people, through books, and through stories on the radio.       I have an ear and eye for details and subconsciously remember excerpts of conversation in which either I or others are participating. It seems a natural ability. M...