Wannaskan Almanac

Hello, and welcome to the second consecutive wet Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is October 3rd. This week was a good bucket list week. First off, Othello was in town at Warroad RiverPlace for a one-night-only show featuring a Shakespearean theater company from the United Kingdom . I've seen Shakespearean plays before, but this was the first time I had seen a Shakespearean play performed in the traditional sense, i.e., male-only actors playing both male and female roles. The place was packed, and I had a second-row seat. Shout out to my friend. Nancy, who suggested I sit up close so I could hear everything.  Yowza, that Shakespearean language is quite a linguistic workout. As someone said to me, it was like listening to a foreign language. I'm not gonna lie, that Shakespearean came strong out the gate when the performance started. At one point I looked at my watch, and it was only 7:15pm. Only 15 minutes of Shakespearean had already felt like 90 minutes after a l...

     Fellow Wannaskan Almanac writer Steve’s wife Jackie asked me recently if I had heard about the upcoming Authors Fair at the Roseau Library. I usually hear about these things after they've happened so it was great she clued me in. It sounded intriguing. I pictured local authors sitting at a long table reading in turn from our writings and answering questions from the audience. Teresa asked if I considered myself an author since I hadn’t published any books. I've posted on a blog for eight years. That makes me an author in my mind at least.   When I visited the library to register, Stacy the librarian told me the purpose of the Fair was for local authors to promote and sell their books. When I told her I wanted to promote the Wannaskan Almanac , she said she would have a table ready for us. She knew WannaskaWriter (Steve Reynolds) because she frequently orders hard-to-find books for him. She didn’t know Joe- Wednesdays’s Child (Joe Stenzel). “I've only lived her...

  Memorial for Pete Fugleberg by Steven Reynolds   Addendum "Pete's Auction"  by Joe McDonnell         Pound for pound Pete Fugleberg (1949-2012) was no lightweight when it came to being a good man and friend to many people. Whether he was seen driving his ‘94 blue three-quarter ton Ford 4x4 pickup through Roseau amid a passenger-side pile of stuff, or astride his flat-black 2010 Harley Sportster at a stoplight, or sitting on his favorite stool at RJ’s bar & grill in Roseau, Pete was known to many, even if they didn’t know his name. Some young people in Roseau only knew Pete as the big old man who often fell asleep in a booth late at night at the Cenex Convenience Store in town.       Little do they know, for a big man, Pete’s size (est. 400 lbs) belied the fact that he had been deceivingly quick in his day. I saw him vault off a dogsled many times to untangle a writhing pile of wild, crazed sled dogs and get them back on t...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for September 30, 2026, the thirty-ninth Wednesday of the year, the second Wednesday of fall, the fifth Wednesday of September, and the two-hundred seventy-third day of the year, with ninety-two days remaining. Brought to you by Bead Gypsy Studio ’s Fall Fest, Saturday October third, with the Kathi Nelson Trunk Show - treats, drawings, and many in-store sales. 101 Main Avenue North, Roseau, just across from Silver Dragon. Wannaska Phenology Update for September 30, 2026 Wax Cap Fashion Show Hygrocybe aurantiosplendens , otherwise known as waxy caps or wax caps, can now be seen on the Wannaskan forest runways strutting their sartorial stuff. Miskonadow in Anishinaabe, these brightly colored, gilled mushrooms with smooth stems have their taxonomy derived from the Greek ῦγρὁς (= moist) + κυβη (= head). Found throughout the world between the polar regions, wax caps are more commonly associated with woodland habitats or uncultivated gra...

So I have a complaint to lodge...I know, I know...the world is waiting with bated breath!  Humanity is ready to jump in and solve my trivial issues, and for that I thank you all!   I know you won't believe me, but today's problem is straight from the halls of the DMV.  If you are anything like me, you have had nothing but positive, polite, and prompt service from the DMV up until...today.  You see, today I called looking for some...what I thought was...simple information.  Approximately how much would it cost me to put tags on a pull behind camper.  The camper's value was under $10,000, and I was only looking for an approximation.   This camper, unlike the DMV workers, is swift The helpful lass (note, I intentionally added that "l" at the beginning of lass) said that they could not give me an estimate.  No ballpark figures.  Not even a shot in the dark.  Her recommendation?  Buy the camper, bring the title in, and they wou...

  THIRD MOVEMENT REMEMBERING   SONG SEVENTEEN BURNING GROUND   IV When next I wake, I see the train is rolling through the City set in emerald hills still floating in its lotus dreams and cut in half by its languid river that once laid its moonbreast in my mouth and brought loved ones to my life   I feel and know at once that this place above all others can truly harness time because we move in a light-speed circle around one other only we outstrip the churning clock and fall turning and turning  into our own darkness alight  with the cold flame we need             the one endless fire in whose warmth we freeze   Still, I want to re-member that long exhale into fire and the mist-formed shimmer that was my light I am breathless once again even after all these years as if no time has passed and I still hunger for that ghostly one’s retreating back   What is this place I struggle to reclaim?...