Wannaskan Almanac

     The Minnesota State Fair runs for ten days in late August up to Labor Day. The gates open at 7:00 am and close at 11:00 pm except on Labor Day when they close at 9:00 pm. A true Fair rat could potentially spend a total of 158 hours on the fairgrounds. Such a person could work a six hour daily shift for one of the hundreds of vendors, which would get him or her free admission to the Fair (a $20 per day value) plus cash for buying treats and gimcracks.    Teresa and I might have done that in our younger days, but that window has closed. We now content ourselves with a single day at the Fair. We used to arrive early and stay late. Even that window is slowly closing. A few years back we would park directly on the fairgrounds. The rate was reasonable and at the end of the day, our car was right there. But the Fair wants to expand into its parking lot and has been raising the fee to discourage people from parking there. It's discouraged us.    The Fair ...

   A guy at the toy factory asked me to go with him and his wife to his dad’s cabin at Hackensack, Minnesota, over this weekend. They were going to be gone until Monday — said there was plenty of room.    I was surprised and honored; but declined apologetically. We had known each other just a few weeks since I started working there with his wife. I said I had other plans to meet friends at Hayes Lake State Park, which was sort of the truth, but actually I didn’t want to get stuck in an unpleasant situation, after  learning firsthand of this guy's penchant for getting drunk and obnoxious — and overtly jealous of his wife. I knew how he could get and I didn’t want any part of it with no way to escape.    I set up my rod and reel, tying on a new swivel and leader after losing them in the Roseau River, a couple weeks earlier; I laid in a supply of a few inexpensive lures, a new stringer, two rods & reel. Got the canoe on top of the truck, hooked up to...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for September 2, 2026, the thirty-fifth Wednesday of the year, the eleventh Wednesday of summer, the first Wednesday of September, and the two-hundred forty-fifth day of the year, with one-hundred twenty days remaining. Wannaska Phenology Update for September 2, 2026 Snowberry Now fruiting in Wannaskaland, Symphoricarpos albus , ma'ingaananaatig in Anishinaabe, is also known as waxberry and ghostberry.  The name of the genus is derived from the Ancient Greek words συμφορεῖν ( sumphoreîn ), meaning "to bear together", and καρπός ( karpós ), meaning "fruit". A resilient plant able to withstand a variety of conditions, snowberries deep roots allow them to survive dry seasons, and they grow in a variety of soil types such as light sandy soil, medium loamy soil, and heavier clay soil. You're most likely to find them out in Beltrami Forest near Hayes Lake, where the soil is nice and sandy. Snowberry contains l...

If you’ve ever sat around and wondered about a number—just a plain ol’ number—you’re in good company. Folks like me find joy in poking at the little corners of math that most people walk right past. Take 9126, for example. It’s not famous like π or flashy like a big prime, but it’s got its own quiet charm. At first glance, it’s just four digits sitting politely in a row. But dig a little deeper, and you’ll find it’s got more personality than you’d expect. For starters, 9126 is an even composite number, meaning it’s built from smaller pieces. If you break it apart, you’ll find it’s divisible by 2, 3, 11, and 23, among others. In fact, its prime factorization is 2 × 3 × 11 × 23 × 6, which is a fancy way of saying it’s stitched together from some of the friendlier primes in the neighborhood. Numbers like this tend to show up in all sorts of places—inventory counts, ID codes, or even the total attendance at a county fair if it’s been a good year. It’s the kind of number that works hard beh...

  THIRD MOVEMENT REMEMBERING   SONG SEVENTEEN BURNING GROUND   II                As I walk old roads, sadness deepens, but I do not worry             There is so little left of me to hurt                         that pain skims by like the darkened trunks of leafless trees                                     passing outside a lighted coach               I choose this walk because I want to.             This is the last time I will feel these things ...

  The Palmville Globe Volume 2 Number 31 Man Gets Lesson in Octane Ratings Joe McDonnell, 79 and residing in Palmville Twp, Minnesota,   was recently educated on the proper gasoline to use in his brush cutter. "No one ever told me when I bought the machine that I was supposed to use high octane gas," McDonnell tells the press. "I had once heard that using a gas with too high an octane rating could damage the engine, so I used a medium octane fuel and the engine ran fine for several years until recently when it wouldn't start. I brought the brush cutter to the place I bought it and the no-start problem turned out to be unrelated to the fuel I had been using. The mechanic had heard that I had been using a lower octane fuel and when I picked up the brush cutter he gave me a tutorial on starting the brush cutter and pointed out the nearest station that sold high octane gas." In a later communication, McDonnell says he wishes he had been given the tutorial at the tim...

Hello and welcome to the last Saturday of summer here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is August 29th. School starts at our house on September 1st, meaning summer is winding down. What a whirlwind and honestly, we all wish we could have just a few more weeks. In this last weekend of summer, we're all in transit, getting in our last hurrahs, wrapping up trips, and making our way home. By tomorrow night, six of our seven will have landed back at the homepad in Wannaska, physically present to start what I call "Ordinary Time" - ready or not. I, myself, am in the Twin Cities at the moment, celebrating a friend's retirement, attending a bridal shower, getting in some meaningful one-on-one time with a cousin, and picking up the College Kid 3.0 from the airport. As I rush to type this out before heading out for today's adventures, this Ferris Bueller quote   comes to mind: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” Make...