St Croix River Road Ramblings

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Sunday, February 28, 2016

Honkings of Spring

Spring weather breezed in Saturday with 60F on the farm, and sneaked away today with just above freezing.  We are close to tapping our maples, but decided to wait until Friday as the forecast this week is not quite warm enough.  
  After tapping and using buckets, we have about 5 weeks before the tap holes dry up from natural healing processes, so we wait until the last minute-- a gamble, but if we tap now and, like last year, the best runs are in mid April, we might totally miss it. 
  Yesterday Scott and I took the chainsaws and went through the maple sap trails and cleaned up the down trees, branches and brush so the tractor will have an easy path.  We still need to do some trimming small prickly ash shoots that grow back near the maples each year from the stub. 
  Sunday afternoon, windy and cold, Margo and I took a short trip to see what was in the open water areas.  We didn't hit the St Croix, instead stopping at Holmes Lake on Trade River and Atlas at the dam and lake.  
  


The ground just south east of the dam was green with a ground cover all through the trees and brush.  Escaped from the yard it appears.  




A narrow area up from the Atlas dam and around to the west -- from Hwy B where it goes south.  


Holmes Lake 






Thursday, February 25, 2016

A Drop of Sap Dripped



First Drips of Sap of the Year
 (the link is to the video on "Back Yard Syruping" my daily facebook post on how the maple sap season is coming along.  You should be able to see it even if you don't use facebook)

  Try https://www.facebook.com/Backyard-Maple-Syruping-745375225598918/    to see the public facebook pages.  You have to be a facebook user to make comments, I think, but you should be able to see the daily updates

The sugar maple test tree started dripping this afternoon, slowly at only 1 drop every 3 seconds, but it is started.  Probably will not tap more trees right away until we see if it continues, but with 50F predicted for Saturday, we may be into the season. 

Some photos from today as I took a drive up the River Road and then at the cabin and lake.   The River was partially open from Spangler's landing to Nevers Dam.  











Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Waiting for A Drop to Drip

With maple sap season still likely a few weeks off, been sort of at loose ends, not quite ambitious to take on big projects on the farm, but too much guilt if I don't keep active, so did a few small improvements around the farm and spent some time in my favorite past time of looking around my neighborhood.  Photos from the last few days as we lost the snow and some water started pooling on the pond.  Couple of videos from last week too at the end of this post -- including pulling over the old corn crib with the tractor, a lot more fun than all the fixing things we have been doing. 















Tapping a Test tree

Pulling down the old corn crib video

Friday, February 19, 2016

Write Right Right Now!

This appeared in the Inter-County Newspaper at Frederic WI several years ago. 
(Note to Editor:   It would be best to leave the article below unedited, as there are 43.4 intentional errors or problems that are necessary to make the article work.)
  
River Road Ramblings:  To Grammatically Write Rite by Russ Hanson

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you CAN make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is”, said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master – that’s all.”
From Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

    Having a weekly column for the past five years, we have had some criticism of our writing style, punctuation, word usage, spelling and grammar.  It is time to respond to the criticisms and review grammar rules so we all can learn and improve in the future.

    Doc Squirt (Roy Hennings), a Cushing native who wrote for many newspapers from 1900 to his death in 1943 was often taken to task by his editors for his lack of punctuation.  He solved it by sending the editors a typewritten page filled with commas, periods, colons, semicolons, question marks and exclamation marks with the instructions to “feel free to sprinkle them throughout his columns."  I am more like Mr. Dumpty in that I have never, ever, ever, been intimidated, by grammar, and know who is the master!  So without farther adieu, here are some lessons.

    Utilize ostentatious language:  Never use a simple word when you can think of a big one.  Thusly, utilize replaces use; canine for dog; automobile for car, etc.  I especially like the signs on Hwy 87 designating Evergreen Avenue, the route to horsie camp as the “Equestrian” area.      

    Create interest with verb conjugations:   You have numerous alternatives.  I shall be giving examples in the first person (I), but remember you have the “I/me/my” “he/she/thee/thy/thine”, “we/they/them”, and of course the “ye,you,thou” singular/plural and objective, subjective and possessive too.  If you want to be a good writer, you should practice each variation that follows in a sentence.  Sometimes you can change the mood of a story by switching from the past/present/future indicative, subjunctive or conjunctive mood to another, especially in your dependent clauses. 

    Use the right conjugations:   The infinitive verb “to write” conjugates thusly: 
the present basic                     I write
the present progressive          I am writing
the present perfect                  I have written
the present progressive          I have been writing
the past basic                          I wrote
the past progressive                I was writing
the past perfect                       I had written
the past perfect progressive   I shall/will have written
the future basic                       I shall/will write
the future progressive                        I shall/will be writing
the future perfect                    I shall/will have written
the future perfect progressive I shall/will have been writing
the intensive present              I do write
the intensive past                    I did write
the habitual past                     I used to write
the "shall future"                    I shall write
the "going-to future"              I am going to write
the "future in the past"           I was going to write
the conditional                        I would write
the perfect conditional           I would have written
the subjunctive,                      if I be writing, if I were writing.
Non-standard usage:  I be writing, I done rote, I have wrotten, I writed it, I writ it, and Dudley do write.  

    I use Microsoft Word to write my columns.  Word has a basic grammar checking tool built in that along with spell check fixes half of my problems and creates 25% new ones by sowing doubt.    

    Punctuation marks:   The seasoning in your writing.  They try to tell the reader how the writer felt and more importantly, the pauses to take a breath if you are moving your lips while you read.  Punctuation used by most of us include; the period, the comma, the apostrophe and the exclamation mark.  Adventurous authors sprinkle semicolons: very brave authors will try a colon on special occasions:  Her colon was cleansed before the x-ray. 
 
    Emoticons:  Punctuation marks are rapidly changing with the introduction of emoticons.  Exclamation can be represented by the “!” mark, but how do you indicate sadness without a sad faced emoticon :-( or a smile :-).  Sadly, when I emoticonize my writing, the Leader, in translating from the PC to MAC computers, loses them and what you see are ? marks in the printed text. 

    Quotation marks.  “Put commas, exclamation marks and periods inside the quotation marks!”  Question marks rarely go outside.  “You too, Brutus?”  Did Caesar say “You too, Brutus”?  The second example has a quotation within a question. If you always punctuate inside quotes you will be 90% correct, and the rest of the time, no one will notice anyway.

    Who’s on First:  the correct use of “who,” “whom,”  “who’s,” “hoo,” “hoose,”
“Hoose”  is only used in “hoose gow” a euphemism for the slammer.
“Who is” can be shortened to who’s.  “Who’s going to town.”
Whose:  “Whose shoes are those?”
Whom:  you should be able to get through life without using this word.  “To whom do I owe my knowledge of grammar?” is better replaced by, “Who taught me grammar?”  If the answer is him, the question uses whom; if the answer is he, then the question is who.
Who loves you baby?  He does!  Whom do you love?  Him!    “Whom” is popular amongst and betwixt those whose sign is Antiquarius.

    An owl says “hoo hoo” when commenting on the world in general. An owl who says “who? who?” is likely a philosopher.  The owl in my back yard says “Who? Who? Who? Hoo, hoooooooer” asking and answering herself as do most females.  Generally most people don’t give a hoot about this.   

    Contractions:  Shortening words by replacing letters with an apostrophe; gov’t, can’t, they’re, she’ll, o’clock, it’s and the creative I’d’ve .  Gov’r Palin speaks in contractions as in “I’m runnin’ for pres’dent to be savin’ us from death panels.”

    Possessive Apostrophes:  Darla’s womb’s muscle’s fiber’s cell’s nucleus’ DNA strands were punctuated by contractions.  Ownership is shown by the addition of the “apostrophe s” except in some cases where we already have enough s’s and just add the apostrophe at the end—Russ’ books. 

    To Boldly Split Infinitives:  An infinitive is a verb preceded by the word “to.”  To run, to walk, to go, to write, to talk or to split.  Grammar rules say don’t break them up.  It's best never to unintentionally split infinitives (unless you want to really emphasize something).  I am willing to strongly predict writers will obsolete this rule at the World Grammar Society meeting in Helsinki in 2012. 

    Passive voice:  Using was, were as part of your verb with the intention of putting your readers to sleep.  Examples include:  “Mistakes were made” instead of “I made mistakes.” “Margo was talking in a passive voice after having botox injected into her vocal cords last week” instead of “Margo speaks impassively after the botox shot.” 

    Adjectives and Adverbs:  Words that add color to your sentence.  I shot a deer.   Shot is a verb, if you color it, you use adverbs.  Rapidly, boldly and colorfully, I shot carefully and accurately at the huge brown hungry deer.  The “ly” adverbs describe the verb “shot” with “huge, brown, and hungry” adjectives describing the noun deer.  Adjectives and adverbs are necessary to make things interesting and are especially useful if you are paid for writing by the word.     

    Homophones To, Too, Two:   Use two for 2, too if you mean also or too much and the rest of the time use to.  The two boys were too used to having cake and ice cream too, to be satisfied with less.  With society becoming more tolerant, homophonobia has pretty much disappeared. 

    Euphemism: replacing a strong word with a weaker one.  I shot a deer becomes I harvested a deer.  The deer died becomes the deer went to heaven.  People who criticize my grammar are anal retentatives becomes people who criticize my grammar need a hobby. 

     If you want more grammar lessons in this column, please send a note and we will be glad to take on “their, there, they’re”, “lie, lye, lay, lied, laid”, “buy, by, bye”, “sit sat, set, sated, and besotted” and protractions, retractions, subtractions, abstractions, refractions, extractions, attractions, and transactions.    

    “Nostalgia is like a grammar lesson: You find the present tense and the past perfect”  said Robert Orben.  

  

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Maple Syruping in Great Great Grandpa's time

Great Great Grandpa Lathrop Watson Beebe grew up in Western New York and lived there 1822 - 1864.  He lived in Freedom Township, Cattaraugus County.  The poem and image below come from a book written in 1894 remembering 70 years earlier when the author was a child.  The experiences must have been much the same as GG Grandpa Lote experienced.  The family made maple syrup in NY and then in Wisconsin

      ****************************************

                   Maple Sugaring by William R Freeman



My father had reserved for the household use
A part of the grand old forest for wood:
Some trees were maple, from whose sacharine juice
We made our sugar and syrup so good.

With the first warm breath of spring on the breeze,
Before the sweet songs of the birds began.
We would go out and tap the tall maple trees.
And gather the sap in troughs as it ran.

Then on a brisk fire, in our big kettles two,
We boiled it all day, and oft' into night;
If we failed in the day all our task to do.
We finished it up by the fire's light.

And thus we made our sugar, day after day.
Freely uncontrolled by a sugar trust;
There was no one to say we must work or play—
We only stopped work when God said we must.

And then at the end of the frosts and the snow.
The season for making our sugar o'er.
We would take our sweet treasure and homeward go.
And add more comfort to the household store.

From the book Reminiscences of Farm Life in Western New York Seventy Years ago by W. R. Freeman.  

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Mass Destruction on the Farm!


With a few days in the 40s coming up, we finally are thinking the maple syrup season is coming along.  Normally we tap about the 15th of March and the trees run a week or two later, however one is never sure.  2012 was a bust year as March was very warm and that year February would have been the tapping month.  Since then we have been worried about the earlier springs we have been seeing lately. 

Decided to tear down the 1949 corn crib on the farm and burn it to make syrup.  The crib was no longer repairable having lost its roof and rotted out a few years before we moved here in 2013.  

After lots of work repairing and cleaning it was rather fun to go into mass destruction mode.  I filmed it all and put some excerpts on my Youtube channel.  

This video is at Corn Crib Comes Down

The channel is River Road Rambler Youtube Videos

Now I have to clean up the concrete pillars and the junk dumped under it for the past 65 years.  Supposedly there are some Harley Davidson parts under there.  I already found an old catalytic converter.  

The crib was Dad's second building project on the farm.  In 1948 he built a new garage/granary so he could tear down the old rotten granary, a house from up the road moved down in winter to serve at the granary.  Using lumber from this old building he reused it in his first corn crib.  It was in use until the 80s when Dad quit farming.  It's deterioration came from building a leanto on to the garage/granary right tight against one side of the crib, and the water and lack of air flow rotted that side off.  

A genuine Standard Oil brand barrel with the other rubble left behind.  Part of the crib roof is frozen into the top of the leanto and will need to melt loose.  No Harley parts yet, but lots of rubble to remove from 65 years of tossing things under the crib.  It stood on cement piers about 16 inches above the ground for rodent proofing and better drying.  Corn cribs were slated with air spaces to let the winds blow through and keep the ears of corn dry.

Treasure under the crib included a full spool of corn planter check wire.  The wire has a "knot" every 42 inches. It was spread across the corn field and each trip of the planter the wire fed through it along the way and triggered a drop of 3 kernels of corn in a "hill."  The purpose was to make it so you could cultivate the field the normal way and again at right angles and get rid of the weeds in the pre-Roundup spray era.  Probably don't have a corn planter that it will work on anymore, so brother Marv will get it to put by the old one he has in his machinery line. 

Dragged the crib parts to the edge of the field and big brush pile.  I will take some of it for firewood and burn the rest if I ever get enough courage to burn the brush pile --too close to the house and overhead electrical wires.

The crib was about 16 feet long with one end open as an access area with removable short boards inserted to block or access the opening and the other with a small opening near the top.  We shoveled ear corn from the corn picker wagon into the crib from the ends.  Lots of memories of wearing out scoop shovels pitching corn by hand.  In later years we had an elevator to hoist it in through a hole in the roof. 

Friday, February 5, 2016

The Winter of Our Discontent

By February, winter has dragged on and there is not much thrill going out and plowing snow again, slipping to a near fall on the sidewalk or scraping the car off again.  My escape is to take a walk or now that we have a little more snow, a cross country ski tour, and bring along the camera and see if I can find anything new.   
Three winters now because of my health or Margo's health we have stuck out winter in the north.  Before that we tried to spend some time in the south to break things up.  It is hard to stay here when I know that if we get in the car and drive hard all day, we will be in a place where the snow is gone, the lakes are open and the temperatures hit the 50s, and in two days the 70s.  
   Just have to get through Feburary and then March kicks off maple sap season and things get busy and life gets more interesting.  I have been grinding away at trying to clean more buildings, fix more buildings, clean out more junk and my heart is no longer in it until spring cleaning time comes and rejuvenates me again.  Too darn many buildings, rooms, roofs, and way too much stuff, that were all necessary on a working farm but mostly stuff that is just in the way now.  I have a hard time tossing things too, should I get rid of the grain auger and elevator, or keep them; should I get rid of a few tractors or not?   
  Winter we throw away too much that we surely will need in spring, summer and fall, so big decisions need to be delayed!