tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76634685256576860102024-03-17T20:02:15.655-07:00River Road RamblingsComments and photographs from an old local historian and backwoodsman about life in the St. Croix River ValleyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger756125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7663468525657686010.post-14892936603974550822024-01-23T06:17:00.000-08:002024-01-23T06:17:00.862-08:00<p> </p><span id="docs-internal-guid-52dd43e4-7fff-b4c9-7504-bef2c8e72006"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><hr /><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: medium;">With January 23rd 2024 the beginning of a 10 day forecast of 30s and 40s daytimes highs, it gets us to thinking about 2012 when the maple syrup season was whole month early and we should have tapped in February instead of March. That got me to remembering the winter of 1877 where it was abnormally warm, farmers could plow ground all winter and one even planted his oats 2 months early in February rather than April. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> I searched on newspapers.com to find information on the 1877 maple syrup season and found it to be poor, but also found this funny article about a beginner's maple tapping</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: medium;">From an April 1877 issue of the Lake Geneva Herald</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Boring for Maple Sugar.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Mr. Sniffin relates his experience in boring for maple sugar as follows:</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> When I bought my present place the former owner offered, as one of the inducements to purchase, the fact that there was a superb sugar maple tree, and I made up my mind that I would tap it to manufacture some sugar. However I never did so until this year. But a few weeks ago I concluded to draw the sap and have what Mr Bangs calls "sugar bilin'." My wife's uncle was staying with us, and after inviting some friends to come and eat sugar, he and I got to work. We took the wash kettle down into the yard and pried some wood beneath it, and then he brought out a couple of buckets, to catch the sap, and the auger with which to bore a hole in the tree.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> My wife's uncle said the bucket ought to be set about three feet from the tree, as the sap would spurt out with a good deal of force, and it would be a pity to waste any of it.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Then he lighted the fire, while I bored the hole about four inches deep. When I took the augur out the sap did not follow, but my wife's uncle said what it wanted was a little time, and so while we waited he put a fresh armful of wood on the fire. We waited half an hour, and as the sap didn't come, I concluded that the hole wasn't deep enough, so I began boring again; but I bored too far, for the augur went clear through the tree and penetrating the back of my wife's uncle, who was leaning up against the trunk trying to light his pipe. He jumped nearly ten feet, and I had to mend him up with court-plaster.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Then he said he thought the reason the sap didn't come was that there ought to be a kind of spigot in the hole so as to let it run off easily. We got the wooden spigot from the vinegar barrel in the cellar and inserted it. Then as the sap did not come, my wife's uncle said he thought the spigot must be jammed in so tight that it choked the flow; and while I tried to push it out, he fed the fire with some kindling wood. As the spigot could not be budged with a hammer, I concluded to bore it out with the augur, and meanwhile, my wife's uncle stirred the fire. Then the augur broke off short in the hole, and I had to go half a mile to get another one.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Then I bored a fresh hole, and although the sap would not come, the company did, and they examined with much interest that kettle, which was now red hot, and which my wife's uncle was trying to lift off the fire with the hay fork. As the sap still refused to come, I went over for Bangs to tell me how to make that exasperating tree disgorge. When he arrived he looked at the hole, then at the spigot, then at the tree. Then turning to me with a mournful face, he said: </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“Suffia you have had a good deal of trouble in your life, and its done you good. It's made a man of you. This world is full of sorrow, but we must bear it without grumbling. You know that, of course. Consequently, now that I've some bad news to break to you, I feel's if the shock won't knock you endways, but'll be received with patient resignation. I say I hope you won't break down an' give way to your feeling when I tell you that there tree is no sugar maple at all! Grasaus! why that's Dack hickory! It is indeed, and you might as well bore for maple sugar in the side of a telegraph pole."</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Then the company went home, and my wife's uncle said he had an engagement with a man in Hathborough, which be must keep right off I took the kettle up to the house, but as it was burned out, I sold it the next day for fifteen cen</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">ts for old iron; and bought a new one for five dollars. I think now may be it's better to buy your own maple sugar. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 2524px; overflow: hidden; width: 621px;"><img height="2524" src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/8o1FaId0jpa4yFGA2fr6A1h6dYCuBYFn4dvFBuW2qGJZIebqLgXe6cctcQkHiobrD2zWvbyF-VLUDTa_hgfOXTBNRLnL3iRkpoi23yCQ5Ly2NkMlv3-9_8c0r2p50DWoG5EtfrVSJXTTSh4iiv23Qiw" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="621" /></span></p><div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7663468525657686010.post-80513888518485278462023-12-16T08:32:00.000-08:002023-12-16T08:32:25.363-08:00Trumpeter Swans having a mild December <p> </p><p class="MsoNormal">Wintering Trumpeter Swans</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Russ Hanson </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I counted 175 Trumpeter Swans, December 15<sup>th</sup> on
open water just north of Cushing in the middle of Bass Lake along with probably
500 Canada Geese.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During the cold spell
a few weeks earlier, when all the local lakes froze over and ice fishing began,
a small group of swans and geese paddled the center of the lake to keep an open
spot, shrinking quite small before the milder recent weather let them open up
maybe half of the lake and attract up to 1000 birds at a time. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The birds have excellent feed on the nearby corn and soybean
stubble, where a dry year made the beans shorter and more prone to be missed by
the combine as well as the corn ears with shorter ends also passed through the combine
and littering the ground with high energy food. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My own story with Trumpeter Swans begin in 1989 when my
brother, Everett, who worked for the DNR out of Grantsburg, began telling us
about the re-introduction of swans to Wisconsin through Crex Meadows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He described bringing in eggs from Alaska,
hatching them and raising the young in pens at Crex to protect them from
predators.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Crex employees dressed up
like parent swans and shepherded the small flock of cygnets around the first
year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Swans take 3 to 4 years before they nest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>1993 was exciting for us as one of the very
first Crex raised swan pairs nested on Orr Lake, just off of Hwy 87 near the
Polk Burnett county border, where we could see them from our lake cottage, high
on the hillside overlooking the lake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All
spring we had been serenaded by the trumpeter swan, so named because their call
is so loud that as they took their dawn flight around the lake honking to chase
away geese, they woke the whole neighborhood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Things quieted down for six weeks as we noted the swans built a nest
along the north shore of the lake, pulling cattails and reeds to build a mound
nearly 2 feet above the lake level.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Then one weekend in early June, Father and Mother Swans came
floating by our lakeshore dock with five youngsters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And all summer long we watched them grown and
thrive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A young woman stopped at the cabin early June on a Saturday
and asked to view the swans from our porch. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Your brother Everett told me that you can see
the swans from your home.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had been watching the five cygnets and
parents floating around the lake for a few weeks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“This is a wonderful place to watch the swans!”
exclaimed Mary, who told us she was a college student hired for the summer to
keep track of the nine nesting pairs of swans in the area – the first ever
nesting since introduction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We gave her
the key and permission to do her weekly survey of the swans from our porch and
we too were thrilled to see and hear the first swans nesting in Wisconsin for
over a century, from the time they were hunted to Wisconsin extinction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Trumpeter Swans are well suited to stay in Northern
Wisconsin all winter, and most do if they can find open water areas and a
source of food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here and there even in
the coldest part of winter there are streams, parts of the St Croix River and
lake springs that keep areas open, and so they stay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Early in the spring, before the ice melts,
they pick a nesting ground on a pond, lake or beaver dam flowage, begin
protecting the territory and in May nest with the likelihood of 4-7 youngsters
growing to maturity from each pair – the reason why they have flourished.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For many years the
swan pair stayed on Orr Lake and entertained us, having 4-6 cygnets each year, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>then one spring one swan was missing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was found dead nearby, having swallowed
a Dare-Devil snagged under the water from a fisherman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since then we have had other pairs on the
lake and they have continued to thrive, although they do suffer from lead
poisoning when they feed on the bottom of ponds where duck and goose hunters
shoot and occasional fishing lure problems.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Originally all of the swans were tagged with neck bands
easily readable from a distance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With
the program’s <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>success, an estimated 7000
WI birds in 2021, tagging has been stopped and swans are thriving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you see a tagged swan, like our local
neighbor 86K, you can be sure it is an older one, who may be nearing the life
span of 20-25 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This December, living adjacent to Bass Lake, is quite
wonderful, the night filled with the subdued gurgling conversations of 100s of
geese and swans, reassuring themselves the family groups are nearby and
enjoying a mild winter. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you want to
see them 10 am is a good time, north of Cushing on Hwy 87 about 3 miles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Take Evergreen Avenue to get a better view. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje60ODdURxkg6b4Y_4LNf1aXGqTN-PR4pKOaCS7CmPcdTQm_qYq30ZtvRfPHLrcT4yRWf3dwUHvoCvQH0hcSu2zf7-52D2ff1N7zstUoKZPFkxUjZXJX2Bfya55yApecnnrddiXL3VpV8Sa6k2PVTRWRI3HKL744kX-CeA9db8NTouncxOu69DzsOk4WRB/s4608/DSCN0105.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="4608" height="361" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje60ODdURxkg6b4Y_4LNf1aXGqTN-PR4pKOaCS7CmPcdTQm_qYq30ZtvRfPHLrcT4yRWf3dwUHvoCvQH0hcSu2zf7-52D2ff1N7zstUoKZPFkxUjZXJX2Bfya55yApecnnrddiXL3VpV8Sa6k2PVTRWRI3HKL744kX-CeA9db8NTouncxOu69DzsOk4WRB/w482-h361/DSCN0105.JPG" width="482" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMa-VkNmNbLImXSo-KjczinvvLNsUJ4wc0x1NOqAf8HlG7WRHN_B0QxCjGOxTZd-cBAVyElabDC0zVn12Sg5M-Q-yT3b7CzjEShNoU1U9kYCEMD2-lWqsBWIBSxl9oseQay-vfQxQRNplpIa0w_HkSsfyigH6r7mCshmAf-eQNzEkUcA9Xee8vLD-Rc4yw/s4608/DSCN0109.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="4608" height="353" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMa-VkNmNbLImXSo-KjczinvvLNsUJ4wc0x1NOqAf8HlG7WRHN_B0QxCjGOxTZd-cBAVyElabDC0zVn12Sg5M-Q-yT3b7CzjEShNoU1U9kYCEMD2-lWqsBWIBSxl9oseQay-vfQxQRNplpIa0w_HkSsfyigH6r7mCshmAf-eQNzEkUcA9Xee8vLD-Rc4yw/w471-h353/DSCN0109.JPG" width="471" /></a></div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg360PKTdC7UoYuHzyS6H5Kaz9xO9QmGwhv-LUm6AFjO5bZPjdHLCYKT_WAN25cmEBmOPM_EYkeCTVBIkejEdaCvtlE5xXcUPKzqGa2wypM1zreCIcYFFLWj43MFRbfpBni2Y2fopRlMcRpHzLN-3_NDhOEkuN_klxLuyPu_8PyPQVMKOomTDn71CAIKeQ2/s4608/DSCN0123.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="4608" height="383" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg360PKTdC7UoYuHzyS6H5Kaz9xO9QmGwhv-LUm6AFjO5bZPjdHLCYKT_WAN25cmEBmOPM_EYkeCTVBIkejEdaCvtlE5xXcUPKzqGa2wypM1zreCIcYFFLWj43MFRbfpBni2Y2fopRlMcRpHzLN-3_NDhOEkuN_klxLuyPu_8PyPQVMKOomTDn71CAIKeQ2/w510-h383/DSCN0123.JPG" width="510" /></a></div><br /><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><br /><!--[endif]--></span><p></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4PGmkplUsvU9cm2DhlKWvXRox7vF5eimuUOPMU3otE8ORiNlRQ58eYiMW9zrYey1bGEtNBtReY6Shy1tZbvDEmPFuvhhL993LK053jKpj1CURhakK8t9aZmm92YVH8yPVNIyu-Yhh8EXzIYGXTMN5arNFJrhmbhvemywM68tvYXu6l-EPOrvf8tfE2Z27/s4608/DSCN0117.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="4608" height="334" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4PGmkplUsvU9cm2DhlKWvXRox7vF5eimuUOPMU3otE8ORiNlRQ58eYiMW9zrYey1bGEtNBtReY6Shy1tZbvDEmPFuvhhL993LK053jKpj1CURhakK8t9aZmm92YVH8yPVNIyu-Yhh8EXzIYGXTMN5arNFJrhmbhvemywM68tvYXu6l-EPOrvf8tfE2Z27/w445-h334/DSCN0117.JPG" width="445" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><br /><!--[endif]--></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><br /><!--[endif]--></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7663468525657686010.post-87626109711039372632023-12-13T05:46:00.000-08:002023-12-13T05:46:00.051-08:00<p> <span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 18pt; font-weight: 700; text-align: center; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Chickens Gone Wild </span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8cb618d0-7fff-572f-8a76-430a8519710c"><b><i>by Bert Brenizer as told to the Hanson boys in the 1950s</i></b></span></h3><span id="docs-internal-guid-8cb618d0-7fff-572f-8a76-430a8519710c"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> “Wake up!” I heard Hattie calling to me through the fog of sleep. It was 1923 and we were spending our first night in our brand new big farmhouse on Evergreen Avenue. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> “What’s wrong?” </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> “Listen! Something’s in the chicken coop scaring the chickens.” </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> Barely awake, I got out of bed wearing just my red flannel underwear, stumbled to the back porch, grabbed a match and lit the barn lantern, the familiar smell of kerosene fumes waking me up. The lantern dimly lit the way. The wet grass was cool on my bare feet. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> As I reached small coop, I heard all forty chickens in a panic. Was it a rat, a weasel, a mink, fox, dog or bum? All at one time or other had designs on Hattie’s chickens. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> I was not prepared at all, in my bare feet, without a club or gun, I cautiously opened the door and held the lantern inside and peered into a scene of chickens gone wild, flying and squawking in panic. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> I saw and smelled it at the same time, a skunk, with its black and white glistening fur right in front of me inside the door greedily licking a broken egg. It saw me and raised its tail only two feet away, aimed right at me. Without thinking I reached out and grabbed the upraised tail, dimly remembering the old story skunks can’t squirt if held by the tail. The skunk snarled and twisted wildly, dangling from his tail trying to bite me, but there was no spray! “Hah! A skunk held by the tail really can’t spray,” I thought smugly. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> The skunk wriggled violently, snarling and biting the air threatening to wriggle loose at any time, and even without spraying stunk something fierce. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> “Hattie! I got a skunk by the tail. He’s getting away! Bring me the stove poker!” I hollered as I headed to the house. Hattie met me on the porch with the heavy iron rod. I set the lantern on the kitchen table to strengthen my grip. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> “I can’t let go or he will stink me up.” He made a violent twist right then and I barely held on. I grabbed the poker and hauled off and cracked him right on the head. He immediately went limp and died. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> “Get that thing out of here!” yelled Hattie gagging from the sudden blast of skunk spray spreading over me and her brand new kitchen. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> ”Well, I found out something the hard way, a skunk don’t spray when you hold him by the tail and he is alive. But when he dies something changes to let the stink shootout full blast! Hattie moved back to the old log house for two months leaving me in the new house until we both aired out. She barely talked to me the whole time! Over here in the entryway 30 years later you can still smell it.”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOC61X8zXBU6YmfCLy70yvwHu6dbStgXkSeKSnTuoXiqBVLYHkzxGKMlpoSKQmJ2U4e3irAhkF_lKqBnRG9_WUyCRQM6ckDTHiCrNfPrOpnmYiJQy5HwFY3VO_t9zjipNurD9iKGbVSY6QaY_xSM9UhDab-T1PQucilsF5rfKDEL8hUDrk09HJ4fZQXEMU/s904/Hattie&Bert%20Brenizer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="904" data-original-width="902" height="451" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOC61X8zXBU6YmfCLy70yvwHu6dbStgXkSeKSnTuoXiqBVLYHkzxGKMlpoSKQmJ2U4e3irAhkF_lKqBnRG9_WUyCRQM6ckDTHiCrNfPrOpnmYiJQy5HwFY3VO_t9zjipNurD9iKGbVSY6QaY_xSM9UhDab-T1PQucilsF5rfKDEL8hUDrk09HJ4fZQXEMU/w450-h451/Hattie&Bert%20Brenizer.jpg" width="450" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bert Brenizer and Hattie Noyes Brenizer</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrlouHnnc5mwYcayW7oU-0dXnIgm-fnzfzlEJ9JjDOHN0Dh-4LqqNuEDDyGhZ0Wftwe77M1vswtRu0Ar748EzWCKtV4LBDjcDiz8pvaSJo4PnAQKP979SqAuSDFEkf6hXycQN8EQhrs_9w5ws5RcmRavBXGdRsTjqJya-reU7RF5z6vs_sMHPdNZpQ_yRF/s5010/Bert%20and%20Hattie%20Brenizer%204th%20of%20July%201950%20(1).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4150" data-original-width="5010" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrlouHnnc5mwYcayW7oU-0dXnIgm-fnzfzlEJ9JjDOHN0Dh-4LqqNuEDDyGhZ0Wftwe77M1vswtRu0Ar748EzWCKtV4LBDjcDiz8pvaSJo4PnAQKP979SqAuSDFEkf6hXycQN8EQhrs_9w5ws5RcmRavBXGdRsTjqJya-reU7RF5z6vs_sMHPdNZpQ_yRF/w430-h356/Bert%20and%20Hattie%20Brenizer%204th%20of%20July%201950%20(1).JPG" width="430" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7663468525657686010.post-62741782881577597082023-10-07T04:15:00.000-07:002023-10-07T04:15:03.255-07:00<p> This was published in the newsletter of the Wisconsin Alliance of Cemeteries in 2023</p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Put Your Cemetery
Online – Free and Easy <o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Russ Hanson Sexton, Wolf Creek Cemetery, Polk County,
WI.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This is meant to be a highly interactive document, so click
on the links as you read through it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Google your cemetery, i.e<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=Pleasant+Valley+Cemetery+Polk+County+WI&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS1040US1040&oq=Pleasant+Valley+Cemetery+Polk+County+WI&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i59.2106j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pleasant Valley Cemetery Polk County WI </i></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and see what comes up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you are like many small cemeteries all you
will see is a Find A Grave link, possibly one from a genealogical site and
maybe a Google map showing the location.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And that is all! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Google a large
cemetery <a href="https://www.evergreencemeterymenomonie.com/"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Evergreen Cemetery Menomonie WI</i></a> and
you get a very nice website with just about everything you ever dreamed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">You think wow, that sure is nice, but we don’t have that
kind of money to spend on a website and think about the $1000s of dollars and a
person hired to keep it updated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so
you say maybe someday…</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Well, I am here to tell you how to do it yourself if you
have some simple computer skills, or if not, you can borrow a high school kid
to do it for you – and FREE<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(although I
recommend a McDonalds Gift card reward for the kid).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I am the volunteer sexton for the Wolf Creek Cemetery, in NW
Polk County, 10 miles north of St Croix Falls. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are a small cemetery, 6 acres, and about 15
burials per year and maybe 15 grave purchases per year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we have been around since 1857 and we have
thousands existing burials.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We do not
have any paid staff, contracting for mowing, digging etc and doing lots of
volunteer work to serve the local community’s needs. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">At a cemetery board meeting a few years ago, we decided the
cemetery needed a web presence. And I said “I will see what we can do for
free.” And the rest of this is the rationale and how we did it free. You should
stop now and look at our <a href="https://sites.google.com/view/wolf-creek-cemetery">Wolf Creek Cemetery</a>
site to be properly motivated. Be sure to click on the tabs at the top right to
go to the various pages of information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Note: Our site is pretty new and we are still thinking about what we
might want to add to it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">You might ask “Why should we have a web presence?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The primary reason we think is to make it
easy for folks to find out information about the cemetery without bothering us
with phone calls! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://sites.google.com/view/wolf-creek-cemetery/graves">Rules, costs
and contacts</a> are most often asked for burials and gravestones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Genealogical questions are quite common.
Rather than a person on the phone or in person, the information can be by
email, <a href="https://sites.google.com/view/wolf-creek-cemetery/history">website</a>,
and <a href="https://sites.google.com/view/wolf-creek-cemetery/memorial-day">events</a>
from our calendar or posted on our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Wolf-Creek-Cemetery-115388073164926/">social
media</a> page.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Along with the savings
in time and effort, we have had more grave sales as folks find us through our
online presence. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Google Map Location.</b>
If you search for your cemetery and it doesn’t show up on a Google map when you
search on its name, then you should add that as a location.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I never expect to remember how to do that, or
for that matter most internet stuff, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>so
I just do a Google search <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How do I add my
cemetery to Google locations?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>Asking
questions in normal language works fine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We have the <a href="https://goo.gl/maps/96qbBRfRsvWK13vHA">Google Street
View</a> of our cemetery along with the map location from an internet
search.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">An email address.</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The best I have found is to create an account
using Google’s Gmail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="mailto:Wolfcreekcemetery@gmail.com">Wolfcreekcemetery@gmail.com</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>not only gave us free email, but opened up
15gb of free cloud file storage, allows for free website creation as well as
many other quite wonderful tools –FREE.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Post your email address on a sign at the cemetery along with your rules.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I set up the Gmail account to forward emails
to my own email account so I don’t have to log in and check the cemetery one. An
email contact is vastly nicer than a phone call as I have time to do
thoughtfully answer the question rather than try to wing it on the phone. If
you don’t have one, just go to mail.google.com and sign up your cemetery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">A Facebook Business Page.</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Start on your own Facebook page and click on
the little orange pages flag on the far left of the screen to get into the
create a page setup. It is easy and you can be share the editor role with
others so several folks can post information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ours is <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Wolf-Creek-Cemetery-115388073164926/">WC
Facebook</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We try to post something
weekly to keep folks interested not only events, but obituary links, historical
notes, interesting graves etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you
are not clear on how to do this, search YouTube videos on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">how do I set up a Facebook business page for beginners? </i>It is
completely FREE!</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">A Website.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b>Having gotten your email address and
Facebook business page, you are likely feeling quite accomplished and are ready
to create a website using Google’s absolutely free and easy hosting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Before starting, try finding a few cemetery
websites and choose a pattern from one you like – maybe <a href="https://foresthomecemetery.com/">Forest Home</a> in Milwaukee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t expect ours to be quite so fancy,
but we can do a very good one easily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A new website can begin with just a single page with the
core information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A photo of the
cemetery is nice, two better. A map of our location would be nice or at least
the street address.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our contact email
address and if we have a regular mail address or phone contact. Maybe a couple
of the most commonly asked questions on that first page (i.e. costs). And a
link to our Facebook page, and a link to our rules and regulations would be
nice, although they can be on another page as we get things developed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the place where if you feel lost, you
find that high school kid who likes computers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To build the site yourself, log in on a computer using the
cemetery Gmail account.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That switches
you from yourself to the cemetery account. Go to <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="file:///C:/Users/Museum%20User/Documents/sites.google.com"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sites.google.com</i></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There you have various templates to create a
new website, with sort of a fill in the blanks approach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
website building is easy and high level, much like using a word processor where
you insert photos, text boxes, photo carousels, the Google calendar, and more.
The site is not visible to the public until you click the PUBLISH button, then
as if by magic, it is live and the world can see you!</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Website addresses (URLs) are free if you use the
sites.google.com preface for your cemetery as we did with https://sites.google.com/view/wolf-creek-cemetery/home
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However if you want something like <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>WolfCreekCemeteryWI.com or
WolfCreekCemetery.org, then you have to go to a domain service and pay for it
yearly, maybe about $13/year and take a couple of simple steps to make that
work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We wanted to be free, so didn’t
buy one. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The URL works fine and if you
do a Google search to find <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wolf Creek Cemetery
Polk Wisconsin</i> our link pops up in the first three results with the
Findagrave and Facebook for our cemetery. Having wolfcreekcemetery.org would be
like frosting on the cake, but we are happy with the free link.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Google Drive.</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have taken our internet use a step
more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have scanned all of our
cemetery records and put them on our free 15gb of Google cloud drive as
pictures of the pages, cards or receipts and forms. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Google does an amazing thing with the images
of our records – it automatically turns them into searchable text, even the
handwritten ones (if they are at least moderately readable) and so we can
search all of our cloud drive files for Mariette and up pops the image of the <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JNPmDzi3ZrZjr5CS89HOqluKKKoNvc9N/view?usp=sharing">1912
map</a> where some Mariette family are buried and the name is written in the map.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is absolutely wonderful to make old
records useful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It makes my sexton job vastly easier,
especially with the genealogy queries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
we can choose to share an old record with a single person via Gmail, or we can
share a photo or a folder of photos with everyone in the world, or maybe with
just our board members.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is a page
from the Town records with a meeting minute involving the cemetery perpetual
care funds <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CL_huqbIjb9yG4IQIwvNNfy1iYoPcQ5h/view?usp=sharing">1938
Record</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Note- to fit our records into the free 15gb, we compressed
the scans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can buy more storage
space but we were aiming to be FREE! </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If
you have questions, you can send them to <a href="mailto:wolfcreekcemetery@gmail.com">wolfcreekcemetery@gmail.com</a> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and they will be forwarded to Russ Hanson who
believes you too should have an online presence for your cemetery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if you want to get even fancier, try a
QR code FREE too at <a href="https://www.qrstuff.com/">this link</a>.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7663468525657686010.post-54035306553147589482023-07-21T03:45:00.001-07:002023-07-21T03:45:25.750-07:00<p><b>The Reverend Jerry (Feb 18, 2011) </b></p><p>My next door neighbor at the state park in central Louisiana had a fire burning and was visiting with another RV’r, their southern accents prominent and friendly, so I stepped over and introduced myself and commented about the weather. One was doing most of the talking. </p><p>“I’m Reverend Jerry and this here is Bill,” said the talkative man pointing to his friend, a slim weather beaten older man sitting back in a camp chair sipping a Pepsi. “Supposed to be back in the 60s and 70s all next week. We have been here a few weeks. Last Friday it rained than dropped down in the 20s and iced up the trees pretty thick. These branches, (he pointed to pine branches piled here and there) came down with the ice. Been a cool stay, but we are headed out Friday,” he continued. </p><p>After exchanging the usual weather comparisons of Cushing and Louisiana, I asked him about being a minister. </p><p>“I’m a revivalist, a preacher who goes on the road holding revival meetings across the country. Since December, my wife and two sons, and I, have been pretty much just out on Saturdays and Sundays, but we start full time this coming weekend. We are booked full for months in advance across the south doing revival meetings.” </p><p>The Reverend Jerry was short, well rounded, a vigorous looking man with graying hair, mid 50ish, a very open and friendly man with a well modulated voice and a familiar southern accent. “You sound just like President Clinton,” I told him. </p><p>“Funny you would say that. I grew up in Hope Arkansas, same place as President Clinton—but he left before I was there, although I have met him. Other than his personal failing with that woman, I think he was a pretty good president, for helping people. We revival preachers are used to sinners; we all sin; sinners are the people want to reach. You know, if we were powerful or rich, we might get temptations we couldn’t handle either. You remember Matthew says in chapter 9, verse 13 ‘For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.’”</p><p>He had a large older motorized RV with a 5-year old Chevy minvan setup to tow behind. “I’ve been here for a few weeks. This park has the lake area closed; they charge half price, only $8 per night. The bathrooms are brand new with 6 separate rooms, shower, toilet and lots of room and privacy, pretty nice for a state park—a good place for home base for awhile” he added. </p><p> “My great grandpa and family got converted about 1900 at a big revival tent meeting. Do you do that kind of services?” I asked, wondering what a revivalist’s life was like and wanting to draw him out, without getting a sermon. </p><p>“Yes, once in a while during the summer we might go to a church where they have a tent rented and set up, but mostly we are invited to churches to hold a day to a week’s worth of services, preaching the gospel of salvation. We provide the music, the preaching and the church makes an effort to get people to come. We have a few baseball stadiums lined up, some hotel meeting rooms, big and small. We are scheduled out full time way into the summer, with more calls coming all the time. Right now is our break time”</p><p>“I preach about getting to heaven and staying out of hell and don’t get mired in the controversies that split churches. I stay out of any politics. I think Christians spend too much time worrying things that really don’t matter and not enough time loving their neighbors. I try to get people saved and delivered to a local church for safekeeping. If you think of the Billy Graham crusades, and you shrink it down a whole lot, you got my kind of work. We’ve been on the road 25 years now. Don’t know how much longer God wants me at it.”</p><p>“I play the piano, now it is an electronic one, and sing along with my wife and two sons. My boys (25 and 28) both have Downs Syndrome and have always lived with us. They sing with us and are part of the service.”</p><p>“We go in where we are invited. We get a share of the collection with a guarantee of enough to cover our costs. By living in an RV and trying to be careful with our money, we get by. In my business, you have to trust in God that He will look out for you. If He doesn’t, then we would know it is time to quit!”</p><p>“When we had our first boy 28 years ago, the doctor thought we should sign away our rights and let him be brought up in an institution so he wouldn’t wreck our lives. He and the nurse insisted that was the best thing to do. They pushed me hard. I got angry and slapped him and told him to wrap up the baby and we left and went home right away. He has been a blessing to us,” he said. (I didn’t get this statement exactly as he said it, but as he told it you could tell it was a regular part of a sermon, said with a controlled, practiced, emphasized voice that gave you a feeling he would be a dynamic speaker). </p><p>“When my wife got pregnant the second time, the doctor did an amniocentesis that said this boy would be normal. When he was born, the doctor told me he was normal. I took a first look at him, in my arms before the cord was cut, told the doctor ‘this boy has Downs too.’ They did the test and sure enough, he had it too.”</p><p>“The boys do fine with us. They spend a lot of time watching their favorite DVDs and that is fine. They pretty much can take care of themselves and help out some. They are adults in size, but really just children. They need us to guide them. We believe that everything that happens is part of God’s plan for us, so we just enjoy them and do the best we can for them.”</p><p>The next day, we talked some more. “Did you hear me yell an hour ago? No? Well, I was so excited I let out a holler. We got a deal to buy a bigger RV. The new one will have four bump-outs (versus one on the old one), separate bedrooms, and lots more space. It has a 500 Cummings diesel and 8 back wheels, two sets of duals. It will make things much more comfortable with extra room and more private space for each of us. We don’t have another home, just live in the RV year around. You know, those big rigs can cost up around $500-750 thousand. Got a good deal and it’s in good shape. It will make a difference for the boys to have more private room.”</p><p>“I already have a post office box in Montana, the state we claim for residency, and am going to license it there. Montana doesn’t have state income taxes and has some other advantages for transients like us. You gotta watch your money when you don’t have much of it!”</p><p>“Sometimes we would like to have a home and roots; but with this kind of life, we travel all across the country and having the RV works fine for now. We stay in state parks sometimes and other times in church parking lots or other places where we can get water and electricity. Someday we will settle down, but for now our calling is as traveling revivalists.” </p><p>I wanted to talk more to him, but they left sooner than expected to hold several days of services a few hundred miles away. Some folks have much more interesting lives than those of us who go to the office or milk the cows every day. However, my other neighbor, Bill, who had been quiet the while the Reverend Jerry talked sat down with me another afternoon and reminisced a little. I guessed him to be a spry mid 80s. He was a Louisianan, raised, and worked all his life in a nearby small town. </p><p>“Back in the 30s to 50s, I remember some summers when a few local churches, usually the fundamentalist ones like mine, Freewill Baptist, would get together and invite a revivalist in for meetings. The most interesting were the tent meetings. I’m old enough to remember a few of them. Ain’t the same nowadays as in the old days!” </p><p>“They’d setup a big tent that would hold a hundred or more people somewhere near a church or park, mostly on a bayou. Wooden planks for pews and a stage with a pulpit. Always in the dog days of August; hot, humid and buggy. The tent gave shade and rain protection. The walls were open to let air through and to give mosquitoes a clear shot at sinners, but could be dropped if it cooled down or stormed. When the Baptists ran the show, it was always by a lake or river for dunk’n baptisms on the last meeting.”</p><p>“The goal was to get different folks to come and get saved and join the church, but most of ‘em were regular church folks out for rejuvenation; you remember when you took your old black and white TV into the repair shop where they gave it a jolt of electricity to bring back the fading picture another year?” </p><p>“Each evening people gathered, the farmers coming in about 7 pm, others earlier. There was good music; a local choir and the family of the revivalist. He had to sing; his wife had to sing and any children had to join them. The elders supervised moving the piano and pump organ from the church to the tent for the week. The local choir and the congregation sang the old favorites; “The Old Rugged Cross,” “Til We Meet,” “Bringing in the Sheaves,” “Onward Christian Soldiers.” </p><p>“A good preacher got your emotions worked up; first he got you scared of eternal hellfire, burning and pain, and then described how wonderful heaven would be. You know, I remember the descriptions of hell, but I couldn’t ever picture heaven very good. I sort of figured it must be a place where our best times on earth would be happening all the time—even better, and we wouldn’t feel guilty about having a good time!”</p><p>“You know, I hear the Muslims promise seven virgins for those martyred for their faith. That is pretty concrete what heaven is like for them. Me, I got me one virgin and trained her and lived with her for 57 years now. Seems to me havin to do it 7 times ain’t no great reward,” he added with a grin. </p><p>“We already-saved folks tried not to feel prideful when we saw our more sinful neighbors show up for the meetings. There was food, lots of music and singing, and if the preacher was good, a real lively sermon each night for the week. If you was smart, you sat in the third row from the back on the inside aisle so the mosquitoes got fed on the edge people. Made it easy to have a coughing spell and duck out with the men going to the bushes for a nature call, cigarette and maybe a nip of moon.” </p><p>“You ducked back in, hoping your seat was available for the alter call. The preacher would have wound up and would be winding down, begging you to come forward and get saved. The choir sang something like “just as I am without one plea…” Elders went round the sinners and whispered encouragement to go forward and get saved. Usually, a few regulars started it off, those who felt like it didn’t stick last time, or had gotten so emotionally worked up they had to go to the front whatever the reason. Then a few drunks, already loaded, crying their way forward when the preacher said ‘Remember you saintly old mother and praying at her knee; she wants you to come forward.. do it for her.’ You might get a few regular people come too—that’s the kind that you wanted most. They all went to the front and knelt and repeated a prayer.”</p><p>“I wonder if the Reverend Jerry does that kind of revival meeting?” I asked after he finished. “ Did you get saved at a revival meeting?” </p><p>“I got saved when I was so little that I crawled to the altar in church. I got saved and toilet trained all at the same time!” laughed Bill. “I liked the tent meetings; they did rejuvenated me each summer. They were great entertainment; a week-long summer picnic where we took a break from farm work; had fresh made ice cream and pie every night and watched folks come together, and if we were lucky, listened to great preacher who could run your emotions up and down like a squirrel climbing a ‘simmon tree. I'm gonna find out where Reverend Jerry is headed next.” </p><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7663468525657686010.post-27861209554271631312020-09-29T06:09:00.001-07:002020-09-29T06:09:18.387-07:00<span style="font-size: large;"> 2020 was a year of potatoes here on the Farm. With the Covid-19 pandemic threatening the food supplies this spring, we decided to garden more seriously this year and freeze and can more of our own produce. </span><div><span style="font-size: large;"> And so I took over one whole garden plot for potatoes. Many years ago I bought some Yukon Gold (I think) potato pieces from the store to start growing them. Probably close to 15 years ago. And I save some each year to replant. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"> Last year I saved all of the small ones out separately to see if I could use them for seed this spring. Unlike most folks who save seed from the best of the plants, mine were any small potatoes. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"> And so I had about 50 still OK this spring. I planted about 30 hills and most of them grew. From planting to digging I documented this and stuck the videos on my youtube channel. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"> This week I harvested them, digging up probably 200 lbs of potatoes, enough to far more than supply the winter's need. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"> The story of 2020 potatoes was on my Facebook page too. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"> This link is a search of my youtube channel for potato videos. More than I remember!</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=RiverRoadRambler+potatoes</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMqoZdn7i99H2GdVav5TJpX1FlD3IvuJRaLJm7Zjbpqr81zNyEMec2UhAEFjioFnBsMwJ_eSTopq_IIteakYuF4-StOnLbPXtvDWmyh6izjzbH3c7B2iOK7Ly45jIy1JEircpVUrPwWaMz/s2048/DSCN9673.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMqoZdn7i99H2GdVav5TJpX1FlD3IvuJRaLJm7Zjbpqr81zNyEMec2UhAEFjioFnBsMwJ_eSTopq_IIteakYuF4-StOnLbPXtvDWmyh6izjzbH3c7B2iOK7Ly45jIy1JEircpVUrPwWaMz/w640-h426/DSCN9673.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFX1ST9uNxvqPb7brzeOxQtLTRN7LRbB2DbZreC0QKEkhH6CdvFtCL71fb5YR1f6PjhiTnoGtnuo8NC19i81EvdK6blbRFVNx8VEwzpBf6PkrP8jdiwMLRsMyAKDDR4V54rNL2lpIgmcOs/s2048/DSCN9674.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFX1ST9uNxvqPb7brzeOxQtLTRN7LRbB2DbZreC0QKEkhH6CdvFtCL71fb5YR1f6PjhiTnoGtnuo8NC19i81EvdK6blbRFVNx8VEwzpBf6PkrP8jdiwMLRsMyAKDDR4V54rNL2lpIgmcOs/w640-h426/DSCN9674.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7663468525657686010.post-29533877902353797262020-09-14T08:49:00.000-07:002020-09-14T08:49:02.277-07:00<div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCsOj8dZbkwMVj4tSk4jKIFrEoM6N5BLFxhFAai2Ab6YWfWKh1_Bdo9-y-pLQc8Cxauj8AxKCIbiskk1hDkgekRKsxtpAQ3YG63m_8LS0HxoBN5-Tkhmcaunv4PDZO8VDsg3BWDEeDIEMI/s1728/popcorn+ears+2020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="1728" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCsOj8dZbkwMVj4tSk4jKIFrEoM6N5BLFxhFAai2Ab6YWfWKh1_Bdo9-y-pLQc8Cxauj8AxKCIbiskk1hDkgekRKsxtpAQ3YG63m_8LS0HxoBN5-Tkhmcaunv4PDZO8VDsg3BWDEeDIEMI/w625-h416/popcorn+ears+2020.jpg" width="625" /></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />Picked the popcorn yesterday and have it out to dry now. I had planned to do this much later, but a deer got in that garden and went down the whole row biting the end of each ear off and knocking over many of the stalks. I had let the electric fence get grounded by grass overnight and the deer took advantage of it. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"> I think there will be enough for winter as Scott and Margo are not popcorn eaters unless it is at a movie at $5 a bucket. At home where it is free, they don't seem to care for it. But I like it!</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Dad was the popcorn fan when we were kids, coming in about 9 pm after the evening milking and taking out a cob or two of popcorn, dried upstairs in an onion bag, shelling it, blowing off the chaff, then taking the steel skillet and covering the bottom with kernels. He shook it, sliding it back and forth on the electric stove burner with no oil in it, just rolling the kernels back and forth. The kernels swelled up, started browning, and then a few popped onto the stove before he put on the lid, turned the burner down, and shook it until every kernel popped and the skillet was filled with fresh, crispy, Japanese Hull-less white fluffs. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Then he dumped it into the deep aluminum kettle that was used for the drop-burner on the stove and if we boys were awake, popped a second batch before melting a generous slice of butter off the whole pound block, melting it in the still-hot skillet and then pouring it over the popcorn, adding salt and stirring it all up. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">He put his own helping right in the buttery skillet and ate it while reading the local newspaper or the Reader's Digest. You could see his fingerprints in what he read. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Of course, we always grew our own popcorn. It had to dry until nearly Christmas before the new year batch was ready and so some years we went without for a few months, making the first batch of the new crop exciting!</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">When it was dry, we shelled it, the pointed hard kernels rubbing our hands raw. The shelled popcorn was full of chaff, and so we took it outside to let the wind winnow it. And at just the right moisture content so every kernel popped, we sealed it in fruit jars for the coming year. We boys shelled grandpa and grandma's popcorn for them too. I still remember the raw hands afterward -- as both families had many ears and long rows in the garden or on the field edge rows. Grandma made popcorn balls for Halloween and Christmas and used popcorn and thread to make Christmas tree strings. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">For Halloween, we stopped at our much older neighbors, Bert and Hattie Brenizer, and they never had candy on hand for us, but said --" wait a little and we will pop some corn for you." Bert had the old kitchen wood stove cherry red using some coal with his wood as he told us that his grandpa had a coal mine out east once upon a time and he liked that for heat. He popped it in a popcorn shaker, a rectangular metal pan with a screen top and when done, put it in a grocery brown bag, poured in melted lard and sugar and shook it up. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">"When we were kids," he told us, "all butter was sold to the store to make money, so we used lard and added sugar to make it better." It was good, the brown paper bag stained with lard and our hands and soon our pants greased up too.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">We usually got a few stories along with the popcorn and as we only had a few stops in walking distance of our house, it was special to stay and listen to Hattie tell us about walking to school on the barrens holding on to the big dog so the wolves wouldn't come close.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7663468525657686010.post-91954343709041420752020-09-03T06:14:00.000-07:002020-09-03T06:14:02.760-07:00How Do You Make 1700 Apple Pies?<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">How do you make 1700 Apple Pies?</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-2fd28e0c-7fff-a1ae-bc8a-eb7205be2f18"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The answer, according to the Cushing Lutheran Apple Pie Crew, is to make 170 pies on 10 different days in August and September. After 25 years of making pies by the bushels, they have it down to a science as well as an art. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The pies will be on sale, September 26th 9--5 at the Cushing Brenholt Park, a stop on the 15th Annual River Road - Hwy 87 Ramble. It is also their traditional Fall Bazaar sale with crafts, baked goods, lunch and garage sale items. The sale is spread out widely in the park shelters with mask wearing recommended. The park is where the church has been holding Sunday services this summer, a lovely place to worship God in His grand outdoors. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Driving by the church last week, we saw the parking lot filled with cars on a Monday morning and in Cushing, we satisfy our curiosity by barging right in and finding out what is going on with our neighbors and making the folks feel guilty for not inviting us too. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Walking into the church basement, the first impression was of a party -- folks laughing, visiting and enjoying themselves immensely. The fragrance was of fresh apples. Everyone was busy, wearing masks or staying apart with Covid-19 awareness and in a vast assembly line turning out delicious apple pies. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One way to judge if a church is healthy is to look at what goes on in the church basement. If it is a busy and joyous place, likely the church is thriving. One barely noticed the basement itself with the usual big open area, supporting posts and end kitchen as it was fully occu-pied with bustling folks. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Making 170 pies in a day starts with the apple picking crew, a half dozen folks, headed out to find apple trees enough to pick apples to fill each pie with 5 ½ cups of peeled, diced apples. Eight medium sized apples will do, but in 2020, the apple crop is smaller sized and so closer to 10 apples are needed per pie. That means 1700 apples need to be picked on 10 different days. And as the Lutherans are generous folks, their pies are piled high like Mount Ararat using at least twice the apples of a store bought pie. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Where do the apples come from? Folks all around Cushing who have an apple tree or two in their yard donate their extras. Of course the apples have to be worm free and at the right stage to be pie-able. So the search for good apples is ongoing and intense. The apple crew meets at the church at 8 am, heads out with ladders, apple pickers, and enthusiasm, swarms into the orchard and soon has bushels of apples loaded. They are ready for the next day when fresh apples become pies. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At 7:30 am, on apple pie day, two dozen volunteers are at the Cushing Lutheran basement setting up the Stations of the Pie. Four men man the machines that peel, core and slice an apple in 10 -20 seconds each. Half a dozen folks sit at tables with paring knives cutting them into small pieces and immediately soaking them in salt water so they don’t turn brown. Quality control is done all along the way so any flaw in the apple is tossed in with the peelings and headed either the compost pile or maybe a hog pen or chicken yard. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After a good soak the apples are collected in huge trays and moved to the pie filling station. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In parallel with the apple disassembly line, we have the pie crust crew. That starts with the unthawing and unpackaging of frozen purchased dough that is kneaded into two generous clumps of exactly the size needed for a 9 inch pie shell. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The dough clumps are brought to the pressing station where a brand new 2020 machine takes the place of previous 24 years of pie making by hand rolling the dough. The pie is put in an aluminum pie shell, covered with a thin wax paper sheet, placed in the press and the dough ball flattened to exactly fit the pie tin in a smooth single motion. The press can mold them into the pie tin or flatten them for the top crust. Fast, efficient and no danger of rolling pins used in disagreements over doctrine. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The crust filled tin is then filled as high it can be heaped with 5.5 cups of nearly white apples. The pre-mixed sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt and secret Lutheran very mild spices are added to the top of the heap and the top crust carefully draped over, like the snow on Mount Sinai where Moses came down with the original recipe carved in stone. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To crimp the edges and make a fancy pattern on them also takes a machine. The pie goes in a wooden ring and another wooden ring gets pressed down and seals the edges and imprints a twining pattern. A little excess dough squeezes out and is trimmed with the trimmings going back into a future crust. We suggested a Bible verse pressed into the design, or maybe an advertisement for Lutheran Brotherhood Insurance. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Next the pies are sealed in a zip lock bag with the ingredients list and the cooking instructions before heading to the church garage where 10 large freezers stand. The pies are carefully separated into layers so they don’t touch each other and frozen for 48 hours before the Lutherans will sell them to you or me. No pies are sold fresh, as freezing is part of the process to get the right texture. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why do they make them? Since the serpent tempted Eve with an apple, men and women have had to work hard for their living. And that includes maintaining their churches, and through the churches their goals as Lutherans. So not only has the income from pies paid for repairs to the church and improvements, but to the mission of the church itself to help do God’s work in the world. “We believe that we are freed in Christ to serve and love our neighbors” is stated on the ELCA church website. Can you think of a sweeter way to love your neighbor than with a homemade apple pie?</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The crew this year ranged from several folks in their 80s to youngsters in their 60s. And they all got along, no people were injured, everyone knew their job and everyone one was accepted, from the slow but perfectionist apple slicing of the former banker to the whiz bang speed of the retired farmer across the table. Each according to his or her abilities working together for the common good. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Want an apple pie? $8 each pre-order through the church for pickup. Or better yet, buy one at the 15th Annual River Road Ramble in Cushing, September 26th. The Ramble is bigger and better than ever as not only is it Covid-19 socially distanced, being spread out from Grantsburg to St Croix Falls, but a chance to get out and see fall color, buy some garden and orchard produce, find some local crafts, or antiques, and look for bargains at a garage sale. The map and events will be online soon on the River Road Ramble Facebook page and at our website. </span><a href="https://tinyurl.com/2020RRR" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://tinyurl.com/2020RRR</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Want to be a Ramble stop? Call 715 488 2416 or email </span><a href="mailto:selhscushing@gmail.com" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">selhscushing@gmail.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by September 10th. Sponsored by Sterling Eureka and Laketown Historical Society</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For a video of the pie making in action, check out the Youtube video at </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgmAq5uq2q8" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgmAq5uq2q8</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><br /><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Photos and captions</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We won’t identify the folks in the photos as Lutherans are self-effacing folks who would feel terrible if they were singled out for recognition above others. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="display: inline-block; position: relative; width: 100px;"></span></span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 416px; overflow: hidden; width: 624px;"><img height="416" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/9CEbojsmhM_x8I4Rj9R1jR63yFl-NZ90wJ9wvOtdxYe5r3-cVCRjmUbJaBqNfnky1s4TMhgziLmQGC7lke9Snf5R0-iiwLsSpUUptpm7lMtDqB_yd2foh8JFCdvsrZqiusqPBuc" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A pie of many colors suitable for Joseph himself. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 416px; overflow: hidden; width: 624px;"><img height="416" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/DesrQW0blxl5CSeaHnZjERetbzt1vwTS350IPhYKGVbCygu7Se7RxQv6Zk2KP6Qm0x9MFrul-A-mCbi97rQ_6IUS_2g0kaQiMzHg1cHIBBqwdcIx0VsuBN9Wj6pIPdKVXlyFXeo" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Domed pies filled to overflowing with apples won’t stack so they have to be frozen in layers separated by frames to prevent crushing. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 416px; overflow: hidden; width: 624px;"><img height="416" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/eqYxYvMYyoGezRo6uVwTbURzZtqPs0KjXlcsZu7Yeo5W4TZiHse8-0B8CG-k--Uq8bnSc6bcd1BWMQEkB_l9V4H7272yWov94iYhsL4djSwV3gQO2zHao8GjZEY-bROMpWNZ8dQ" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /></span></span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How do you store 1700 pies? A dozen freezers that run for a few months each year as well as selling them to early customers right now. If an emergency storm shuts off the electricity all of Cushing will eat pies for breakfast, dinner and supper until they are gone. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="display: inline-block; position: relative; width: 100px;"></span></span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Peeling, slicing, and coring in a 15 seconds. </span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 351px; overflow: hidden; width: 624px;"><img height="351" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/YHmsItv3BrQmeesXLkIcWyymnwvwNiCKnV-ePRAVi4JGvyQ6kqFQmkfmQcXVamNmsqMKEQnbUV_IHfg1Huuu6wdCHlFI1nECIegvllIaQc3krdJCAr_usllt9z5dM3t8EGKtqCY" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /></span></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Two rings are used to press the crusts together and leave a pattern in the crimp. </span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 351px; overflow: hidden; width: 625px;"><img height="351" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/pSeWG8rdapZVjA1i-iBf6oWTG5-OY_Rq64Jd7ONmTTb_hHB5uV85D8DZySujMxUSuBCqFm-DhhDOcPdMYrZcEyVTm-NlJvya-KaaHlEIxBdV_87ky-LluN0db_V6IO3o2zwPQ_8" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="625" /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="display: inline-block; position: relative; width: 100px;"></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No stinting on apples here!</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="display: inline-block; position: relative; width: 100px;"></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 351px; overflow: hidden; width: 625px;"><img height="351" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/2UTjvsLh3MtDThgmdCRjkMB2wmXT3F3Z_BLfEoeFxbUSdus8vSA5QlmRNgT7OnpDygVLKZ4w4hk5TydDPdzSquATmFsTMxZYgM0HGZNl32jPDt4RP6Xnym0qmRgWnQBVUEo-3Xc" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="625" /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pie Crusts get flattened with a new pie press that makes top and pie-pan in a single step</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="display: inline-block; position: relative; width: 100px;"></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 351px; overflow: hidden; width: 624px;"><img height="351" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/5CYXv2cI3m_GbHyzPDZf3IflkOVMlw3vbtoJaXLfmaYKedLQWB8XBO4_0vyc8xPgwSP1B7O4uMSz6PlGwlIoyAp0t83X_o-YJV63j9gExf41J0N51BAkUh00q5PhFdY8LTHPe-c" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 351px; overflow: hidden; width: 624px;"><img height="351" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/MmN3C97AsHA_Q30003T002-8SRMR_8NF-7OEz1_fCB1fsex3VvIb4VB6-NDIDoUsYSAhTFGp_SKynbXfP_BsNg4nN5kzGPnq2Mym21OQfYAb6xF8Co3Bbtdmu2iftK0ivkI2apY" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The pies get a final trim, are packaged and frozen. </span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7663468525657686010.post-91804191408355385362020-04-27T10:22:00.001-07:002020-04-27T10:22:43.743-07:00Cletrac AG-6 Carburetor ProblemsMy Farm renter, Chuck, is helping me to get the 1947 Cletrac AG-6 crawler going again. Three years ago, he got the engine running after it had sat for 15 years or so in the shed. To do so, he had to solder the carburetor float as it leaked. When we started it this spring, it again leaked.<br />
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So I tried my hand at soldering it this time -- in the seam. First I checked the internet for suggestions and found this at the <a href="http://www.thecarburetorshop.com/Troubleshooting.htm" target="_blank">The Carburetor Shop</a>. <br />
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<i>If the float should need repair, it is important to understand how the float was originally produced. Virtually all brass float pontoons (the floating part) are composed of two pieces (a few are more) of brass soldered together. The pieces differ in the seam area, as one piece has a male seam and the other a female seam. One float piece will also have a small hole for temperature equilization. This hole will be covered by a small drop of solder, and will be as far from the seam as possible. The manufacturer would solder the two pieces together, allow the float to cool completely, AND THEN close the equilization hole. Soldering MUST be done using a soldering 'iron'. Repair should not be attempted using either a torch, or a soldering gun. If you plan on disregarding this advice, read the next paragraph first! The following procedure works for us (no, we will not repair your float unless we restore the entire carburetor): First, if liquid is present inside the float, find the hole, and remove the liquid by placing the hole down inside the hot water. The pressure will force the liquid from the float. If the float has much liquid, it may be necessary to remove the float from the hot water, allow the float to cool, and repeat the hot water dip. Once the liquid has been removed, and the leak has been marked, open the equilization hole by removing the solder. Solder the leak closed using as little solder as possible. A small piece of tape over the equilization hole will allow the hot water test to be preformed. If there are no leaks, remove the tape, and ALLOW THE FLOAT TO COOL COMPLETELY before closing the equilization hole. A final test, and you have 'saved' a valuable float. </i><br />
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So after taking the carb apart, and removing the float, I tried the hot water test and found it leaked along the seam for almost 2 inches with a couple of tiny holes. I followed with several hot water soaks until it felt like no more gas was inside then tried soldering with my pencil and eventually it appeared to quit bubbling. I am filling the carb bowl with gasoline and then sticking the carb together with a couple of studs and leave it to sit for a few days to see if it does again leak. <br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7663468525657686010.post-91735571380312378282020-04-19T08:39:00.001-07:002020-04-19T08:39:07.639-07:002020 Maple Syrup Season was Excellent!I have a Facebook page that I use to post info and photos about each year's maple syrup season. It is called Backyard Maple Syruping. As I know some of you don't use Facebook, I downloaded the 2020 posts, loaded them on my google cloud drive and used Drivetoweb to make them look like a long web page. The Facebook link itself is<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/Backyard-Maple-Syruping-745375225598918">https://www.facebook.com/Backyard-Maple-Syruping-745375225598918</a><br />
<br />
https://lgolx55zgwqq9z1zzjjseq-on.drv.tw/facebook%20backyard%20maple%20syrup/posts/posts_1.html <br />
<br />
The bottom link is backwards in time -- the way Facebook shows us current first. <br />
<br />
It is rather interesting to try to do sort of automatic websites with information from other places. <br />
<br />
I tried another one -- a website for backyard maple syruping -- nothing much there yet, but also free. <br />
<a href="https://sites.google.com/view/backyardmaplesyruping/home" target="_blank">https://sites.google.com/view/backyardmaplesyruping/home</a><br />
<br />
The last step is to use tinyurl.com and make a simple short web address that goes to the longer one. <br />
<a href="https://tinyurl.com/BackYardMapleSyruping" target="_blank"> https://tinyurl.com/BackYardMapleSyruping</a><br />
<br />
It was a great season. We ran about 75 taps and got nearly 30 gallons of syrup -- great tasting too. Now we are going to setup a road-side driveway stand and see if we can sell some without customer contact in this CV-19 period. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7663468525657686010.post-11810140662170038012020-02-02T07:03:00.003-08:002020-02-02T07:03:37.307-08:00Scouts Come to Garner State Park for the Freezerie Campout<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Friday night through Sunday morning our quiet campsite loop
in Garner State Park was delightfully noisy as Cub Scout Pack xxx from San
Antonio, moved in for their winter Freezzery – overnight tent camping.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eighty boys and girls (yes scouts are now
co-ed) and their parents came for two nights and Saturday of activity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We were right in the middle of the 40 campsites taken by the
Pack. Other non-scout campers had been deferred to the other camping loops
(Garner has something like 500 campsites in four different areas).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But as we were already here we were left
right in the middle of the group .</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The head of the Pack, Randy, stopped by to make sure we were
not being bothered, and when I told him my son had been in Scouts from age 6
(Tiger Cubs) to age 18<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and was an Eagle
Scout and had brought Margo and I into scouting too, he invited us to the
Saturday evening campfire program.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Randy, a slim, tall, mid 30s friendly fellow, was the master
of ceremonies for the campfire – probably 200 folks gathered in a campsite lit
up with some strings of yellow Christmas bulbs and the fire itself. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Congratulations to those of you who came and tented
overnight Friday,” he proclaimed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The
park ranger says it got down to 29F last night ,and so you win the Polar Badge
for camping, an award for sleeping in a tent overnight when it goes below
freezing.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“I want to introduce to you, a former scouter from Minnesota,
Mr. Hanson.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so I step forward a
little into the ring and wave<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Mr Hanson
told me that in Minnesota they have their winter campout and earn the Zerio
Hero badge, if it gets cold enough there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Do you know how cold it has to be?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Yes, it has to go below zero overnight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That makes our below 32F look like a mild night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thank you for sharing, Mr Hanson!”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The campfire had some announcements – the last campout for
the Webelos 2 group, the Lions group welcomed as new scouts and future events
listed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then each of the Tigers, Bears,
Wolves, Webelos 1 and 2 gave a skit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>el</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One, “The Viper is coming” was one done in scout camps
probably since Baden Powell started the scouting something like 115 years ago,
and done by our own boys back when Scott was in scouting in the 80s and
90s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each boy runs out had yells something
like “danger, the Viper is coming!” until the punchiline when a boy comes out
with a pail and towel saying “I’ve come to vipe your vindows and doors.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Cub Scouts are from something like 5-11 before they move
into Boy Scouts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although there were
more boys than girls, many girls were there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>At that age one can’t tell them apart, other than a few of the girls
wore shoes that sparkled in the dark. “It makes much more sense for parents” a
nearby family with tents told me, “we don’t have to do two separate events for
our boy and girl.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The pack was absolutely noisy until 9 pm and then shut
down<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>completely until some 7 am mumbling
and bumping as they got up and headed to a home-made taco breakfast across the
road from us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only problem was the
mass move to the bathroom this morning as I too didn’t get up until 7 am.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Scouting was something foreign to me – an activity a few of
my friends from St Croix Falls did for outdoor activities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We rural kids did 4-H and only wondered as
each summer we saw groups of boys dropped off from Hwy 87 trudging by the Farm
on Evergreen Av headed to the scout camp on Trade River and Cowan Creek out on
the Sterling Barrens – maybe a 5 mile hike.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That seemed a long distance to carry a pack and spend a week
in the mosquito, deerfly woods along the creek.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They used land owned by Northern States Power company, the same place
that was the picnic area from the 1860s on for folks living on the
barrens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was the place where in 1939,
the Old Settler’s picnic was held, and later evolved into a primitive horse
camp before being sold by Northern States to a former Boy Scout friend, Jim
Miller, who a few years ago sold it to the state for part of the Wild and
Scenic River area.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When Scott came home from school and said he wanted to be in
Tiger Cubs at age 6 (at the time he was going to Byron elementary) we thought
OK.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His friends had decided to join and
so we did too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For Tiger Cubs, a brand
new program to catch younger boys, each set o parents hosted one meeting and
had some activity for the boys who came with at least a parent or maybe
two.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Scott continued in Cub Scouts, but Margo and I pretty much
stayed out of it until at age 11, he announced he wanted to continue into Boy
Scouts. When he signed up, it came with a letter addressed to parents that with
his entrance into Troop 42 of Byron, MN, we too were expected to take a part
and told we must come to a meeting of parents to get our volunteer roles. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Chuck Ruemping and Roy Kruger were Scoutmaster and
Assistant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They told us in no uncertain
terms that a boy in Scouting in Troop 42 came with his parents, and that for
him to continue a parent must volunteer for some job with the troop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the listed jobs like fund raising, book
keeping, camping and many more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Having a tent and having liked camping from the days when
Mom and Dad borrowed Clarence Westlund’s tent, air mattresses and car top
carrier and headed to Yellowstone Park in June of 1958 (?). and then Margo and
me tenting around the south-west-north boundaries of the USA back in 1973, I
enjoyed tenting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so I signed up for
a year of monthly campouts and a week of summer camp as one of the adult
drivers and campers. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After a year, learning about winter camping and realizing
that sleeping bags with pictures o giraffes and bears on it, didn’t keep one
warm in February, Scott and I had accumulated the basics of camping gear and
had learned a great deal about outdoors camping. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Scoutmaster, Chuck Ruemping, announced that spring that with
the graduation of his son from the troop to head to college, he was stepping
down into assistant scoutmaster and leaving scoutmaster role open.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Gary Egbert, Troop 42 committee chairman called me and asked
me to take on the Scoutmaster position.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I had become an assistant scoutmaster during the year, a role that gives
digntity, prestige yet very little responsibility other than sort of parenting
in the background.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Gary, I am brand new
to scouting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I still don’t know the
basics of ranks, merit badges, rules and regulations of scouting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All I have done is tagged along with the boys
on campouts and sat in on the weekly meetings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You can find someone much better for the job, but thank you for asking.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A few months later as the fall active season for scouting
approached (during summer the weekly meetings were discontinued and only events
like canoe trips and summer camp went on), the pressure increased as no one
stepped forward and finally in a weak moment, I said, “Well, I suppose I could
do better than no one taking the job, but I sure don’t know much about
scouting.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Roy and Chuck assured me they
would stay active for the coming year and with them as guides, I figured it
would work out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Once I agreed to become Scoutmaster, I got signed up for
three 3-day weekends at Wood Badge training – training for scout troop
leaders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That was what I needed as it
actually taught me the principles of scouting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You are there as an adult to advise boys, but troops are meant to be led
by the boys who learn leadership skills while they plan and carry out their own
activities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I realized that, it
became a much more interesting and actually easier job as I was there to help
them accomplish what they wanted to do, and that failure of an activity was not
really a problem as it instead was a learning process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Anyway, I was the official Troop 42 Scoutmaster for 3 years,
and then stepped back into assistant scoutmaster for many more years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so when I joined the campfire ring last night,
it brought back memories of 1986 – 1999 when, if I remember the years right,
was an active scouting leader.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During
that time we canoed the St Croix River, Boundary Waters and many more rivers
and lakes often; we went to the Philmont New Mexico mountain camp and
backpacked up and down the mountains, did a dozen summer camps (Margo joined us
sometimes there – although it was early days in women becoming scout leaders
too) and earned several zero hero badges, 50 milers on foot, water and bicycle.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Scott and four of his class and
age-mates from Byron all earned their Eagle Scout awards, and in general Margo
and I spent countless hours in Scouting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And when I look back, it was not only good for me, but I like to think
that we helped steer some boys into being better adults.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Adam, Scott H, Brad, Scott A, Bob – classmates in school and
fellow Eagle Scouts</div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7663468525657686010.post-29765858513499468472020-01-31T05:10:00.001-08:002020-01-31T07:20:37.728-08:00January in Utopia<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
The first week of our TX vacation
has passed here in Garner State Park, TX.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We have done some sight seeing, some reading, me some work on the book
and a little hiking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With the exception of
one rainy night, and a cool cloudy day, the weather has been lovely –
40s-60s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have another week at Garner
and then registered for two weeks at Casa Blanca about 3 hours south on the
Mexican border at Laredo, TX.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
Part of the idea of going to
Laredo – where it is an average of 5F warmer, is to see about a Mexico cross
border visit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We remember the 1970s
trip we took and the enjoyable shopping and touristing across the border and hope
to try at least once.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need to do it
without much walking to accommodate Margo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So maybe a tour setup up with a taxi.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When we get to Laredo we will see what can be arranged. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
I have, as a goal, to put
together the information I have collected on the Wolf Creek Cemetery and spend
a few hours every other day on that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Yesterday we went to the Leakey public library where we can get free
WIFI and I did some search and retrieve of Google drive files I want for the
book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I uploaded a great deal of my
research files as they are immediately searchable including the words within
the typewritten/printed type documents and images as well as much of the
handwritten info due to Google’s optical character recognition and handwriting
recognition done automagically.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
The work yesterday was on the
Town of Sterling’s role in the cemetery – which from Township records I have
copied (most of them), show the first mentions of financial support in the
1880s and detail the transfer of the cemetery from Township to Wolf Creek
Cemetery Association in 1938.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
Over the past 12 years or so, I
have taken a soldier buried in the cemetery each year and done either a booklet
or newsletter on that person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am
finding them and adding each to the book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I also have several family histories used in previous books prepared by
the families to add.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And of course lots
of old newspaper clippings, photos, obituaries, genealogy and other items that
relate to folks in the cemetery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
Yesterday, after the library
visit, we drove the 16 miles east of Garner to Utopia, TX and had lunch
there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had done this last year and
enjoyed it and did it again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Margo had
the hamburger (immense) and I the BLT.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We were there about 1 pm as the local lunch crowd was finishing and
visiting—a group of 6 men all seated at one of the old chrome and formica
dining room sets like we have at home – from the 1950s—the modern items then
that replaced the big old<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>oak
tables.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Lost Maples Café was
featured in a movie – can’t remember the name, but about a golfer stuck in town
to get his car repaired and runs into a retired golfer who gets the young guy
back in playing form, solves the girlfriend problem and opines on life in general.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
Utopia is about 200 folks,
isolated enough so it hasn’t died completely and maybe a couple of hours
straight west of San Antonio nestled in the hill country where roads twist and
turn their way up and down small mountains at 75mph and it is polite if you are
a tourist to pull over and let the folks driving 80 go by. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
As the men finished their last
refill of coffee, they grudgingly talked about getting back to work or in some
cases retirement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
“1:30,” drawled a weather beaten
Stetson wearing smoked out rangy man, “I better get back and see if anybody
stopped in with a job to do.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
“When you worked for me, you
never was in no rush to get to work. Seems I remember you all showing up bout
time for coffee break,” drawled another heavy set mid 60s man with bold
suspenders and a sweatstained cowboy hat.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
The folks at the table all
laughed at the good natured ribbing</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
“Weeaaall,” drew out the first
cowboy, “I recall it different wise….bout coffee time, I called you to get you
out of bed so’s you’d order a new part we needed.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
Then the appreciative laughter
around the table. Some of the talk was so twanged and drawled it was hard to
understand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
“When you work for yourself, you
gotta work or go broke,’ commented a younger guy, “but when you work for
someone else, theys gotta worry bout bein broke, not you.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
“Yah, that’s the trouble now, the
boss wants to work you to the bone, get rich, and starve you” commented another
well rounded man.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
“You ain’t done much starving,
looks to me,” commented another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>Each
comment was accompanied by appreciative laughter as the men gradually got up,
left some money on the table and moseyed out to a row of older pickup trucks,
some battered but none with the Wisconsin rust on them and scattered to find
their Utopian roles. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
The movie, "Seven Days in Utopia" was set in the cafe we visited. In that story, a young golfer learns from an older one how to control his golf swing and figures out how to live his life. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
Me, from my 30 minutes in Utopia, too learned the meaning of life: a long lunch with friends and laughing at their jokes whether good or not. </div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7663468525657686010.post-88750081918707711342020-01-26T13:41:00.001-08:002020-01-26T13:41:16.756-08:00Texas Heats Up80F here in Garner State Park, SW Texas on Jan 26th, 2020. Too warm to fast and we are going into heat stroke danger.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h1>
Texas Get-Away<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jan 25-26<sup><o:p></o:p></sup></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
5:30 am on a Saturday here in Garner State Park, Texas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The park is more empty than full, although
maybe a dozen folks moved in last night – mostly families with Texas license
plates and a couple from Iowa, like us, escaping the cold. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yesterday was sunny, 60Fs, a lovely day to work outside with
cleaning the car out completely and using a polish kit on the headlights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It turned out good, but I learned that with
patience I could likely have done it even better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The reviews say you should do it about every
year and so I may get another chance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
the good old days, lights had glass sealed beams that although they broke
regularly from stones, were clear their whole life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The bulb in reflector plastic lasts longer
but yellows and gets a patina.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It came
off fine and we should enjoy night driving now rather than dreading it. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The week ahead is supposed to be 60s and and 70s with
overnight 40s and mostly sunny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our
camper has no furnace, so we use a small electric space heater that, in spite
of canvas walls, and side roofs keeps us comfortable overnight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Margo, who feels the cold more than I do,
uses the electric blanket and stays warm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We depend on electricity for our camper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We could camp without it but would not be very comfortable without our
appliances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had a sink and counter
two burner gas stove, but removed it, the propane tank and prefer our Coleman
outdoor cooking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have a small refrigerator,
coffee maker, microwave and toaster inside.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The camper cranks up and folds out two wings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One we use for sleeping and the other for
storage, refrigerator, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have two
facing bench seats and a narrow table that goes between them. We took out the
wider table and made our own of an 18 inch white shelving plank with one end on
the camper end and the other a fold down leg.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Takes up less room and works OK.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We have a 4-drawer plastic cabinet for clothes and towels.
There are two inside drawers for miscellaneous, a few floor cabinets and under
the seat storage bins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plenty of room
for the gear<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Outside we have a small
folding plastic cooking table next to the camper and a tub of cooking pots and
pans. I like cooking outside, probably a left over from Scouting days, and like
to have plenty of room and the cooking smells and air free to blow away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We added an awning we can put over the doorway – really just
a plastic tarp that connects to eyebolts on the camper with two poles and guy
ropes so should it rain we can stick it up and still sit or cook outside.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t mind cooking in cold weather outside
either. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I probably should get a small
electric oven too so I could bake too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Generally speaking, if we are where it is mild enough to do
outdoor living (40F or above), we do that and the camper is for sleeping and
morning coffee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t have a TV; do
have a clock radio, and at this park, no cell phone service nor internet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I work on the computer on projects and
Margo reads a book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She has “Notes from Little Lakes” by Mel Ellis from the
Milwaukee area. Ellis was a newspaper reporter who wrote a column about a small
wild pond area he built in the Milwaukee suburbs as a get-away from the
city.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few acres he turned screened
with shrubs and trees and a place to sit and muse about natures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I met Margo, from north of Milwaukee, back
in 1970 when we were *had worked as a linotype operator on the Milwaukee
Journal, knew Ellis, and as I helped him and his roommate get up he had his
morning paper and on column days turned to the notes column first.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He got me reading it too, and a few years ago
I stumbled on to a book of the columns and bought it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The book reminded me of a friend I made, the
patient Herb who I helped get up most days for 2.5 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">6:00 AM Sunday
January 26, 2020<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We left Wisconsin on Monday, January 20<sup>th</sup> and
today is the 7<sup>th</sup> day of our vacation that is likely to last until
the end of February.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first 4 days if
I include the drive from the Farm to Pine our other home in Pine Island, MN,
was in almost trouble free travel to get the 1442 miles to this spot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tuesday we check on the camper tire spare
replacement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We signed up for 2 weeks at
this park and may stay longer. Another<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>two weeks here would cost $360 plus $80 for the Texas Pass renewal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is about $31 per day, twice what we
would pay in Arkansas where the parks are nicer, and we qualify for the
handicap rate. Depends on the weather.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Last year we moved to LA and regretted it because of the almost
continuous heavy rains that miss us in SW TX.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With fine mist and 60s yesterday, we decided to drive to
Uvalde, a town big enough to have all of the chain stores and specialty ones –
probably 10-20,000 folks (here I would have did a “Hey Google, what is the
population of Uvalde, Texas”).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were
looking for a Verizon cell phone signal so I could call the Mayo Clinic Credit
Union and put our card on travel mode as they had emailed us a fraud alert
saying our card had an attempt to use in a Walmart in Texas on Friday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had to call the fraud division.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we got into Uvalde, the first bars on
the phone service showed up and about 10 blocks into town it peaked, and I made
the call and told them of our trip plans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I did forget to say I might use it in Mexico, and so will take a few
$20s if we cross. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
From Uvalde, it is about an hour drive to the border at Del
Rio or Eagle Pass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Monday, we have
decided to drive the 90 miles to whichever Google says is smaller and safer,
and see about a border crossing tour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Back in the 1990s, while in southern California, we found a tourist bus
day trip, guided tour that was rather fun and simple and as a first try at anboother
border crossing 25 years later are interested in first trying it an easy
way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Forty Five years ago, we drove over at Del Rio and a few
other crossings as we toured the whole US southern, western and northern
borders on a Florida to California, to Washington, into Canada and then back to
Wisconsin tent camping in April and May (1973).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Between then and now I think maybe less than half dozen border crossings
– mostly walk across and back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With
Margo not up to walking any distance, we need to think about a bus, taxi,
rowboat etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few hours west at Big
Bend National Park you can wade across if it hasn’t rained much or take a row
boat ride, but that is mostly a walking or burro ride, and we aren’t up to that
anymore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So did we get anything accomplished Saturday?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few shopping items, a thorough car wash in
town, some reading, a little walking, fired up the repaired Coleman and
realized there is a slow leak around where we put in the tank regulator – used
tape and maybe pipe threads is needed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It doesn’t stop the stove from working, just pools a little fuel around
the threaded area.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Made skillet
hamburgers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today is starting cloudy and mild – forgot to buy a
thermometer and no hey googling, but probably 50s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our campsite is nestled adjacent a small
mountain range to the west, and so we are free from Texas winds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Texas is pretty flat in much of the area, but
we are in “Hill country” which means there are limestone hills a few 100 feet
tall, that become mountains to those used to the flatlands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suppose we are in the edges of the Rockies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Surely today I will get to working on my Wolf Creek Cemetery
history book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did some yesterday and
realized that, like all of these undertakings, it will be a lot more work than
I thought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although I have much of the
information already, putting it together and editing will be pretty
tedious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My goal is Memorial Day, 2020,
to sell it at the program at the Cemetery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I think it will cost about $10 to print and if we sell it for $20 each,
can make some money to pay for cemetery maintenance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t want it to be an obituary collection,
but rather chapters on early pioneers to the area, some individuals and some
families that with the person or family we can explain a part of the history of
our part of the St Croix Valley.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For instance—the Lagoo family represents both Native
American and Canadian voyageurs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Blairs, the post Civil War veterans getting free land by homesteads.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Brenizers, the influx of Iowans about
1900 as what I could call “second growth” settlement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Orrs and Rogers the early loggers from
Canada or out East.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Deneens, the
earliest business folks with the Wolf Creek Dam and mill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Englins, the Scandinavian
homesteaders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of the se families
have already been part of my history collecting, and so putting them together
for early history and then looking at farmers, peace officers (George Booth as
sheriff shot a man), the odd fellows, the babies, the veterans of all the wars,
and so on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is overwhelming but if I
put little pieces I have already, add some of the new research in the 9 months
I have been Sexton, and just get at it, I think it could be decent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course, what sells books is if your family is mentioned,
and so we must do lots of that!!!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Spent a few hours renewing the Impala headlights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were yellow and quite opague, making
night driving bad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I bought a $20 NuLens
kit and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the battery drill along and
although didn’t do it perfectly, came out with a much brighter night driving
experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7663468525657686010.post-90237518506955338462020-01-24T08:13:00.000-08:002020-01-24T08:13:42.572-08:002020 Wisconsin to Texas <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">It is 6 am, January 24, 2020 and I
have already been up half hour here at Garner State Park in SW Texas. We got into the park about 7 pm, setup the
camper and unloaded after dark – although with the car lights and then the
camper lights once we got it rolled up, it wasn’t working in the dark. However, the first setup after a year of it
being parked is always complicated as we notice some mustiness and mildew. This year when I put it away, it will be in
the garage, well aired out and a couple of pillowcases with the silica gel
dessicant kitty litter to keep it dry.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We were behind nearly 2 hours from
our planned arrival at 5 pm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two things
got in the way – a stop for grocery shopping to get the first week’s food
before we arrived rather than the next day – as the local town of Leakey (pronounced
Lakey) hasn’t much selection, and a tire blew on the camper about 4 pm, and
that took time to change. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We left Wisconsin, Monday January
20<sup>th</sup>, and drove 120 miles south to our MN home in Pine Island where
we got the snow-blower out and cleared the driveway, did a little maintenance
and then Tuesday left just at light and drove 500 miles before finding a $64
overnight Motel in Kansas SE of Kansas City an hour or so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had driven out of the snow as we entered
KS, but Wednesday morning it has slushed about an inch and at 32 could have
been slippery, but the warmer pavement melted it and we cruised all day long
putting in just under 400 miles to stay at a $44 motel in Oklahoma (just north
of the TX border).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Getting <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>up early on Thursday, with the intent of
making 420 miles to the park – driving SW across much of Texas, we cruised
along nicely and were on schedule to arrive at 5 pm when we heard some rumbling
behind, the car started sort of surging and looking back through the mirror I
saw a chunk of rubber fly up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now we
were doing 70mph on a Farm to Market Road (like a county road) where the speed
limit was 75 and folks were driving 80.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We pulled over to see the rear trailer tire shredded completely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I had a brand new spare on the
back of the camper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The tire that blew
was the last of the 30 year old originals, and I figured just a short stop to
swap tires.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, when I got out my
wrenches, I found, like Goldilocks, one was too big and one was too small and
none were just right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And where was my 4
ended fast tire wrench? – at home on the truck seat where I left it to remind
me to put it in the camper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And where was
my 13/16 socket?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not along—I think Margo
had borrowed it to repair the kitchen Mix Master and not put it back!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">So, after a thorough search, some
self-condemnations, I unhooked the trailer and was about to drive 5 miles ahead
to the next town and get a socket – buy, borrow, beg or steal. Just then an
older pickup and a gentleman inside pulled across the lane and parked behind me
and asked if I needed help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“A 13/16
wrench is what I need!”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">He had one of those 4 ended tire wrenches
and helped us change the tire while visiting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He said I could get a spare in town at the first gas station/tire
shop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I tried to give him $20 for his
help, but although he wouldn’t take that, he did take a pint of maple
syrup.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have noticed in our years of
traveling and tire troubles, that the folks who stop to help are those who undoubtedly
have had the experience of driving on tires that are not as good as they should
be; not those with nice cars or trucks and not those who can afford to call the
road-side service to bail them out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I have had tire troubles on every
trip taken for years, sometimes of my own making as in this old tire and
letting Google maps gps take me through the shortest driving routes that put us
on too many back roads – scenic, traffic free, fast, but probably more
tire-flattening debris.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No tire in
town, so drove the last hour into the park at 60 mph and got here after
hours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That way you just set up
someplace empty (the park is mostly empty this time of year) and then register
in the morning and hope the site is not reserved sometime in the future so you
have to move everything. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Absolutely no cell phone signal
and no wifi at the campsite –A36--we picked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However, we will likely drive the 7 miles to the local town and either
hit the laundromat, restaurant or library to post that we made it to our
destination for the next few weeks. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The mileage counter says 1442
miles since the Farm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first day was
120 to Pine Island.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then roughly 500,
400, 420.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The car mileage was about 17
mpg bucking a south wind of 10-15 the whole way—which means about 85 gallons of
gas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gas ranged from 239 in WI and MN to
1.99 in one gas station in OK, but mostly 2.20 south of Iowa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So with that estimate of about $190 for gas
to drive here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The motels add up to
$108.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Meals on the road about $75.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We will have to buy a new tire for the camper
– maybe $50. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So to get here totals about
$425. We can guess that the return trip will be around $400.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So the travel cost is not too far under
$1000.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The next cost is two weeks of
camping here at the Park.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can’t remember
the fee, but probably $20 per night – will find out later this morning. That
would mean a 30-day stay in TX would cost about $600. And while here we will do
some driving around, some shopping, etc., but that will be likely not a whole
lot different than if we were back home—so won’t count that against the
vacation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My current estimate is that
the whole month away will be about $2000. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are a lot of things that the $2000 could
have bought to make winter in WI and MN easy, but I just wouldn’t have spent
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now that we are here, I don’t have
much choice!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For me, money was hard to
come by the first 1/2 of my life, and so after I finally got a decent paying
job, I never really felt like I should spend it on frivolities like travel. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We also bought $75 of food for the week ahead,
but that we would buy whether we were at home or not, so won’t count that
against the vacation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Driving yesterday we had about 55F
temperatures, sunny and pleasant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here
in the Park we are supposed to see 60s to 70 with 40s overnight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Last night and this morning the sky was absolutely
clear and even with a few nearby lights from the bathroom and a handful of
fellow campers, we could see the stars and constellations wonderfully.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Today we look for a camper tire,
look for a 13/16 deep socket, air out the camper, clean out the car and
organize it and the camper as compactly and neatly as we can, and settle in for
some day strolls, and begin vacation intently while spending frugally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Breakfast today is toasted bagels,
coffee, and a banana, that is if I can find where the coffee maker is, where
the coffee is, where the toaster is etc.
I have them packed in camper cubbyholes and the coffee in one of my
clothes duffle bags. </span></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7663468525657686010.post-20504934873125752972020-01-04T09:07:00.001-08:002020-01-04T09:07:33.756-08:002009 Tobacco growing in Wisconsin -- an interview<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Did you know that </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Wisconsin</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> was an important grower of </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> for over 100 years? WI workers
stringing </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> for
drying. Photos courtesy of the </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Wisconsin</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Historical Society.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">farmers</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> used small tractors to cultivate
their </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">. Here a 1949
Farmall Cub is used in </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Wisconsin</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">. In the 1800s
you might have seen small </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> patches in
Laketown township. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPApzmlurp0MV9NWcxvclkHks9imZ1XZXfDgF8AG8zNIwkQ7GMFCNVAUYCzRue2NueNJxb4MbTNMdu7YdaCn5CdfasQjcZaUiKhcf9iPslJ1FJR0Ueg7H1cg7-devHje3zivo9i-51VvJd/s1600/wi+hist+soc+cultivating+tobacco.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="478" data-original-width="600" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPApzmlurp0MV9NWcxvclkHks9imZ1XZXfDgF8AG8zNIwkQ7GMFCNVAUYCzRue2NueNJxb4MbTNMdu7YdaCn5CdfasQjcZaUiKhcf9iPslJ1FJR0Ueg7H1cg7-devHje3zivo9i-51VvJd/s400/wi+hist+soc+cultivating+tobacco.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Growing Tobacco in Wisconsin
by Cliff Christianson</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">January 2009<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(From an interview with Cliff in Natchez State Park in
Mississippi where he and his wife and Margp and I were escaping the cold
weather in </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Wisconsin</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">. Around
his campfire he told me about </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> raising. A hundred and fifty years ago you
probably would have seen small patches of </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> around Cushing and Alabama raised by the
families from the state of Alabama who came north to settle in
Laketown--Russ). </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Back in the 1940's when I was at home on our </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">farm</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> north of Colfax, WI, we
raised </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> as a cash
crop. It took a lot of time and labor, but I think it paid for
Dad's </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">farm</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> over five to ten
years. Dad raised no more than 5 acres and at last probably
only an acre and a half. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the late spring, we planted the </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> seeds in a special bed. We
made several rectangle beds out of 1x6 inch boards about 2 feet by 15 feet
filled with good dirt well worked up. We carefully planted the tiny
seeds in the bed, trying to space them out evenly. Then we stretched
old flour sacks, as a cover across the whole bed. They were attached
by nails driven through the boards sticking out along the outside. I suppose it
helped keep the plants warm and protected them from the wind and
bugs. On nice days we opened the plants to the sunlight. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As the seeds sprouted and started to grow, they had to be
weeded, watered and thinned to give each plant room to
grow. When they were about six inches tall or so, they were ready to
transplant into the </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> field—that had
been plowed and kept weed free ahead of time. Each plant was gently
pulled up from the bed and put into pails with water in the
bottom. There were thousands of seedlings to transplant.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We used a </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> planter. It
was pulled by horses. On it were three seats; one in the front
to drive the horses and two sticking out behind for the planters. A
barrel of water gave each plant a shot of water when it was
planted. There were two pails of seedlings, one on each
side. As the planter was pulled across the field, it marked the next
row as well as dug a narrow trench. One person picked a plant from
his pail and carefully dropped it in the trench while another part of the
planter in the back pushed the dirt back in around the seedling. The
plants were dropped about 18 inches apart. One person dropped his
plant and reached for another alternating with the other person trying to keep
a smooth rhythm.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">After the </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> was all planted,
we started the hoeing. We didn't use a mechanical cultivator so we
wouldn't break any of the leaves. It was all hand
hoeing. As we hoed, we carefully looked at the plants to see if
there were any </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> worms. They were
big caterpillars with a horn on their head. You grabbed them by the
horn and picked them off and stepped on them. Once you found any,
then you had to spend a lot of time lifting the individual leaves looking for
hidden ones.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Later in the summer, a seed stalk would grow up through the
middle of the plant. We didn't want any of the plant's energy going
into seed making, so we went through the field and broke off each seed stalk
and dropped it to the ground between the rows.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At the base of each leaf, there would be a new shoot start, what
we called a sucker. They had to be broken off too. All of
this time we were still hoeing the rows to keep the weeds out. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The full-</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">grown</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> leaves on the
plant were about 6 inches wide and 12 to 18 inches long. Well before
frost, when the leaves were still green, we harvested the </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">. We had a sharp metal knife cutter
that we went through the field and cut each plant with its many leaves and
dropped it to the ground. We only cut some of the plants each
day—the amount that we could get into the barn that day. The plants
were cut, dropped to the ground and allowed to wilt, and then gathered and
brought to the drying barn. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dad had a special sort of spear made to pick up the
plants. It was sort of a wide flat metal arrowhead shape that fit
over a four-foot wooden lathe (like the kind you find in old lathe and plaster
house walls). You went to each plant and poked the spearhead through
the main plant stem, back far enough so it would split to the end. You
slid the split plant stem down onto the lathe until you had maybe six or seven
on a lathe. The spearhead was removed and put on a new lathe and
another bunch of plants speared. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Then you loaded the plants and lathes onto a wagon and hauled
them to a special </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> drying
barn. We didn't have one of our own, but our neighbor up the road
had a large one that we used (he didn't raise </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> then). It wasn't
painted—maybe to keep any paint flavor entering the leaves. The
boards on the sides of the barn were vertical, with every other one hinged so
it could be opened for ventilation. Inside the drive-in barn, the
whole barn was lined with a framework of poles—up into the top
part. We unloaded the lathes of </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> and then hung them up between poles in
the barn. The </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> leaves were
wilted, but still very wet and needed to dry for a month or more. It
was a little dangerous hanging leaves up in the higher areas where the poles
could roll away and let you fall down. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On good drying days we might open the side boards wide to let
the breeze through. Other days we had to close them. We watched the
leaves so they were drying evenly, spreading and turning them as
needed. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When they were dry enough, as I remember maybe in late September
or early October, they were quite brittle. We waited until we had
one of those fall days with damp fog that made the leaves pliable and then
started baling them.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We had a wooden box, about two feet square, three feet
long. We put two ropes down in the box and out over the sides and
over the ropes a layer of heavy brown paper in the bottom and up the two
insides. Then we took each plant and stripped each leaf off and graded
it into three qualities: was it free of any breaks or holes from
handling or worms; had only a few holes or breaks; or had lots of holes and
breaks. Leaves of the same grade were packed together by laying them
in one direction, then the opposite, trying to get a level square
stack. When our bale was the right size, we pulled the two ropes to
tightly wrap the brown paper around the </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> leaves and tied them and set the bale
aside.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I think we had as many as 40 bales when we were
done. They weighed about 50 lbs each They were marked as
to their quality. I can't remember if we waited for a buyer to come
or if we sent them to an auction house or just took them to town to
sell. The highest quality leaves were for cigar wrappers, the lowest
quality for filler. I am not sure what the medium quality were used
for—maybe cheap cigars? I don't know how much money Dad got for a
crop, probably $500 or so. In those days a </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">farm</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> only cost a few thousand dollars. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We never used our own </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> for our own use. Dad always had a can
of Copenhagen with him from the store. I think ours all
went for cigar wrappers. The acres of </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> you could raise were strictly controlled
by a </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> board. Although
we raised only a few acres, it took a great deal of time and work. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> that was raised
in </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Wisconsin</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> was quite
different from the that raised in the south. Ours had larger leaves
and was harvested green. In the south, they let the leaves yellow
before it was harvested. I think theirs was for cigarettes. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sometime in the late 1960s, I think, a US law was
changed to allow cigars to be wrapped with reconstituted </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> instead of a high quality </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Wisconsin</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> whole leaf. That meant the
scraps could be ground up and made into cigar paper, and the price of WI </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> dropped tremendously. The
crop had almost disappeared in the state a few years ago. Lately
there has been a WI resurgence when </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> companies found that raising Burley </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> in a northern climate changed the
composition to have a lower level of carcinogens.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I mostly remember all the work it took to raise just a small
field of </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">. You had
to be very fussy with </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> to get a good
quality crop so the buyers would pay a good price. I still have my
Dad's two </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> spear
heads. That is about all I have left from my </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tobacco</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> growing days except my memories and a
sore back!</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7663468525657686010.post-14758225395657365682019-12-24T06:23:00.001-08:002019-12-24T06:23:07.852-08:00Merry Christmas! We are almost finished with our Christmas newsletter mailings. The 2019 year was memorable mostly for the ability to have another enjoyable year here on the Farm and to continue with the usual trip south, maple syrup, gardening, clubs etc. Here is the 2019 Christmas newsletter.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OpCtTKXrJJXjbFURhPkdIAw8Fy3EdSgB/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">2019 Christmas Newsletter</a><br />
<br />
For those of you who want to keep up with the Farm, we do a daily post on Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/russell.b.hanson/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> . I have it set to public, so if you are on Facebook, you should be able to see it without being a friend. <br />
<br />
I occasionally put a video on my youtube channel<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/RiverRoadRambler/" target="_blank">Youtube River Road Rambler </a><br />
<br />
Happy New Year too. <br />
<br />
The River Road Rambler. Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7663468525657686010.post-88815751993350494142019-10-17T06:47:00.003-07:002019-10-17T06:47:58.450-07:00<span style="font-size: large;">Frost on the windows this morning but not the ground here on the farm as October 2019 still hasn't had a killing frost on the Farm. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> An update on projects: The cemetery pipe fence west of us 5 miles on Evergreen had a tree down on 100 feet of it. I volunteered to replace it freewith used well pipe I had in the MN place. Two rails replaced of three, and coming along slowly but surely. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> The new addition to the Wolf Creek Cemetery, where I volunteered this spring to be sexton, is surveyed and we pay the bill and have it registered in the next few weeks. I am digitizing the old cemetery records to make it easier to figure out ownership and occupancy. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> The latest project is an upgrade in fluorescent lights to LED lights in the hallways at the Cushing Community Center -- around the museum upstairs. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> The 14th annual River Road Ramble had a sunny day and a great turnout, and so likely we will do a 15th one. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> Here on the Farm, our pumpkins and squash crops failed, the melons almost failed, the apples are good. Too much rain seemed to be a problem</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> The other project underway is scanning the old Sterling, Eureka and Laketown township records. We started with Sterling and have done about 100 record books so far, with probably 50 -75 left. I try to do 20 per month. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> This is the setup -- a special foot pedal copy camera and a computer and someone to turn the pages and push the pedal. You can read about the project on the latest Sterling Eureka and Laketown Historical Society newsletter. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xX2iIB6Q3AS-9_0xWbXKCqwE__aTcqii" target="_blank">Newsletter Oct 2019</a><br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Working on a video for the End-Of-Season SELHS lunch, Oct 24, 2019 noon potluck at the Wolf Creek Church. The program is about local Country Western singing stars from the 1940s-60s, Hank and Thelma Holland. Thelma Bergstrom grew up along the River Road. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">You can test the video underway at this link </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1bltHYcaWFz-eARTh9rqTtiqYo7XJiWmU" target="_blank">Hank and Thelma</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> I do a daily post of what is happening on Facebook with photos from the Farm. You can look at it without being a facebook friend (I think). </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/russell.b.hanson">https://www.facebook.com/russell.b.hanson</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7663468525657686010.post-4753983950866253332019-09-15T05:02:00.000-07:002019-09-15T05:02:01.369-07:00Farm updates<span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Today's Facebook post</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">58F, calm. damp after an afternoon thunderstorm dumped another half inch of rain on the Farm yesterday.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Before the rain, got a little outdoor work done-- couple more concreted corners at Wolf Creek cemetery and a little sorting of the pipe fence out at the Cemetery west of us on Evergreen Av, and some of the orchard mowed getting ready for apple season.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">The apple orchards around are opening -- Holmes Lake announced Honeycrisp and McIntosh apples for sale. Ours has Wolf</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"> River (baking apples) and probably others too, some trees loaded with apples this year.<br /></span></span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Scott was busy during the rain boiling down a few bushels of tomatoes into tomato paste for winter cooking. He has some Amish Paste tomatoes for that. Although the tomato plants look terrible as the windstorms broke off or bent over the 5-foot tall plants, they are still bearing fine.<br />When it dries out this week, maybe will dig some of the potatoes -- looks like a good crop too. Potatoes are best when dug late and "hardened" a little by cold weather. Adds a little sugar and makes them store better. So other than some for sale and some to eat, will leave most until October.<br /></span></span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Eating the last watermelon -- very poor yield this year. Only planted 4 vines and two died on the way due to injudicious hoeing by the farmer.<br /></span></span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Monday is Genealogy drop in day followed by the Sterling Town Board meeting in the evening. I go to the board meeting to bring back 20 old record books already copied and pick up 20 more for the month ahead. When Sterling is done, have Luck, and Laketown to do next. Goes pretty smoothly as I have a old computer connected to the foot pedal copy camera ready to go when I have some time. Takes about 10 minutes per book. I suppose I should just take the setup to the source and do it there, but I rather enjoy doing it gradually.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"> Lots of irons in the fire make each day a choice of many interesting jobs. I expect that all will get done, but in sort of a shotgun approach with sort of the Jack of</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"> all trades, master of none approach.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f2f3f5;">The tomato vines were 5-foot, held up by wire cages and electric fence posts, but two storms broke them off and although they are bearing yet, they lost their wonderful lush look. </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-ohMyPggf1hiL3mXBD8YVA-nFysuxazquPsuhXtKotKk2qksL7Q8H5FrujU2kQVPCr4kxzZ4w1Z8yz0b7RJ8C394lfQsyfHWOphuv2Thkmmbjb66CkWYAdxa2ycOk750qt2aR1QKfL7Zh/s1600/DSCN0008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-ohMyPggf1hiL3mXBD8YVA-nFysuxazquPsuhXtKotKk2qksL7Q8H5FrujU2kQVPCr4kxzZ4w1Z8yz0b7RJ8C394lfQsyfHWOphuv2Thkmmbjb66CkWYAdxa2ycOk750qt2aR1QKfL7Zh/s640/DSCN0008.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span dir="ltr" style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span class="_3l3x" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lately the swans and geese have been flying around in their vees. It must be the youngsters have gained flight.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbkHMZ9H-3nl-txYExc867pEQ7e2pNc_JT2FLCGOGhTfIDnEu0RX_7G2_aex426dRlgNgmWfsJNrSX6QYCAO-jMwh7xIUhB7lxSqDCZE571TOXahwM4KJO84VPwBteXwl9QV9QXo3OmKpv/s1600/DSCN0026.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbkHMZ9H-3nl-txYExc867pEQ7e2pNc_JT2FLCGOGhTfIDnEu0RX_7G2_aex426dRlgNgmWfsJNrSX6QYCAO-jMwh7xIUhB7lxSqDCZE571TOXahwM4KJO84VPwBteXwl9QV9QXo3OmKpv/s640/DSCN0026.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The tools to make a concrete marker -- pre-mix concrete, post hole digger, shovels and a tub for mixing it and some water.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAlTngvz92WJAJsHMzJHEXcHe0o_bl2TWM8ENE14_TG0NjuqsTrNPbz57XLD-AwnVkdfvQoYwCDRrvOdCN4tr4sYLUgmai_uYGT3KCl3Xp791-tr-LJtdqzMUYczEgRQWeDzwJbxnJGvWH/s1600/DSCN0027.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAlTngvz92WJAJsHMzJHEXcHe0o_bl2TWM8ENE14_TG0NjuqsTrNPbz57XLD-AwnVkdfvQoYwCDRrvOdCN4tr4sYLUgmai_uYGT3KCl3Xp791-tr-LJtdqzMUYczEgRQWeDzwJbxnJGvWH/s640/DSCN0027.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span><span dir="ltr" style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span class="_3l3x _1n4g" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The surveyor left a lathe marking the south boundary of the church yard with a metal spike driven in the ground. Here, as it was in the ditch, I moved 1 foot to the west, dug a foot deep hole (hit a major tree root at that level) and poured concrete a</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">nd two metal spikes to make a more permanent ground level marker. I still have the west two corners to put a pipe in concrete 1 foot east of the corners. I did all of the markers I put in 1 foot east of the surveyor's pin except this one.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxQ7tKNDkCkG_CJI4noPJkNmR2h3XjEvGGdy9H-3vMgcfQ94ZDqH4N5GaoGV55-Ekeo7FUva_I8WYtwEUimDaJNGpDnMBdEKNVYRhZ0TyXDa6RrTea34t2Z2Gvg-PCs9eNknUUUcZxiRct/s1600/DSCN0029.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxQ7tKNDkCkG_CJI4noPJkNmR2h3XjEvGGdy9H-3vMgcfQ94ZDqH4N5GaoGV55-Ekeo7FUva_I8WYtwEUimDaJNGpDnMBdEKNVYRhZ0TyXDa6RrTea34t2Z2Gvg-PCs9eNknUUUcZxiRct/s640/DSCN0029.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The south boundary of the church yard is about where the big oak tree stands. The old south driveway is just off of the property. Back in the woods, behind the church is the old school yard netting fence, almost all disappeared, but in a few places g</span></span><span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">rown in to trees. The surveyor marked the written boundary about 10 feet east of the old fence. Now, if one wanted to, the old fence could be considered the actually boundary as line fences in for over 20 years are sacrosanct in law -- meant so farmers didn't have to continually move their fences as surveyors changed their measuring techniques and found fences were not quite on lines. Now that would have been important in the cemetery as some graves would have been off the newly surveyed line, but as we bought an extension to the west, we are OK, just our new cemetery boundary is about 10 feet shorter than originally thought. Modern surveyors used gps and satellites and claim to be more accurate than the originals who went with chains and compasses through the area in 1848.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizy2gxfwALUlPVFX2utmeiovfLDCEqfaW6OS0AVCIrSV1GrI4URrDtD2UZ8SPo8afqUH2ez0CNBtXMPzS6n5pAlDJMEO-9KgrCT9phqcH4yUqMZ0FYTUTfI0Tw1AsZTZJlddefSHDiu3VA/s1600/DSCN0030.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizy2gxfwALUlPVFX2utmeiovfLDCEqfaW6OS0AVCIrSV1GrI4URrDtD2UZ8SPo8afqUH2ez0CNBtXMPzS6n5pAlDJMEO-9KgrCT9phqcH4yUqMZ0FYTUTfI0Tw1AsZTZJlddefSHDiu3VA/s640/DSCN0030.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span><span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The finished marker is a deep tube of concrete with 2 spikes embedded that will soon disappear under the sod, but will beep on the metal detector. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The surveyor marked the south boundary of the cemetery property -- a 100 foot buffer zone south of the old cemetery fence. I dug a post hole 1 foot east of the marker and poured it full of concrete with two giant spikes embedded in it -- all below mow</span></span><span style="background-color: #f2f3f5; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">ing level. This marks the south boundary -- the east is the road and back in the woods is the west. It will likely grass over, but be locatable with a metal detector. .When you pay a surveyor $2000 to mark boundaries, you want to make them permanent.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;">In the church yard, a few feet north of the south boundary, east edge just back from the ditch is an old concrete 1922 benchmark survey marker. It used to have a bronze top marking the height above sea level back in the 1950s when I went to school at the Wolf Creek. The bronze was knocked off, but the concrete remains, just high enough to dent the mower blades it looks like. </span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7663468525657686010.post-29078369530426922412019-09-12T05:55:00.001-07:002019-09-15T05:02:30.814-07:00Facebook Posts <div class="_1dwg _1w_m _q7o" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 12px 12px 0px;">
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I do a daily post on Facebook--sort of a memory diary so I will know what it is that is happening and what I am thinking. Have been doing it for many years. Here is the example for September 12, 2019. It usually has photos from the Farm, but this time of year I am up ahead of the sun and so have to use photos from the previous day. </div>
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East wind, drizzle, about 1/2 inch yesterday pushing us to about 8/10 over the two days here on the Farm. Still a stiff east wind and general rain predicted all day through midnight in Cushing.</div>
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Trying to catch up with paper work -- 3 more Sterling record books to scan before the Monday night town meeting where I bring in the finished ones and pick up 20 more. I am doing 1930s and 40s this month. It goes fast when I get at it-- rainy days. Wet days, for me, are inside projects, and lately those have been on the computer.</div>
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Typed up 2 sets of meeting minutes -- the Northwest Wisconsin Museum Consortium meeting on the 10th and last month's Northwest Wisconsin Regional Writer's group. One was fresh in my mind and the other from notes written a month earlier. I learned that I had better do the typed up notes sooner rather than later. I have tried to do the notes on my laptop as the meeting progresses, but that seems to take me out of the conversation rather than being a participant, and also is a little distracting to the others as my keying is a little noisy. I need to cultivate a softer touch. Those of us who began our typing career on old manual typewriters have developed firm keystroking fingers.</div>
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Margo's 2011 laptop quit working last month, and she uses it as her window on the world, so she got a new one, much lighter to handle. It seemed as the old one no longer would charge the battery nor run even when plugged in. . So I bought a junk laptop of the same brand off of Ebay for $12 that seems to at least charge the battery, charged Margo's and put it in and sure enough it works. The connector was OK, so it appears the charging circuitry on the motherboard is shot. I told her to return her new computer and just carry around her old computer and the other old computer for battery charging, but she seemed reluctant (to say the least), so I have another somewhat usable old machine to hookup to a scanner unless I take the two apart and swap parts to make one good one.</div>
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The curse of being somewhat handy on fixing things is you really can't ever throw away anything as you might be able to fix it, given a few more parts and a little time. With ebay, the parts are probably available as other people who can't throw away things sell them.</div>
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A new project -- A slice of the old cemetery white pine blown over in the storm made into a stool (for display only) with the top smoothed and the growth rings showing a timeline from birth to death (75 years) and an event line. Have to figure out how to drill angled leg holes -- or .</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">maybe some kind of bracket. Then put one in the Cushing museum and one in the chapel in the cemetery.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The other project is removing the old storm damaged pipe fence from 100 years ago and replacing it with new pipes. I have several hundred feet of water well pipe at the MN place from twice pulling a 200 foot well and replacing the pipes. So the materials are available. The old fence has smaller rail pipes and larger upright post pipes with holes in them to feed the rails. Far too much work and I don't have smaller pipe, so will bolt the rails to the posts. I offered to do it for free, so after some cleanup of the fenceline will try to get the upright posts in before frost. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The 75 year old white pine has been removed but lots of small branches to clean up and some trimming along the fence before the new fence goes in. </span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7663468525657686010.post-65113865498925857302019-09-08T06:58:00.002-07:002019-09-08T06:58:17.174-07:0014th Annual River Road RambleSeptember 28th, 9-5 pm, 2019 is the 14th Annual River Road Ramble - the loop tour of Hwy 87 and the old River Road between Grantsburg and St Croix Falls. Web page <a href="http://www.tinyurl.com/2019RRR" target="_blank">River Road Ramble</a><br />
Map <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1X73W6z32-LaO-XTXXRmRVfyywnBORDOr&ll=45.59209707720611%2C-92.67684795000002&z=11" target="_blank">2019 Ramble Stops</a><br />
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It looks like we will have about 25 official stops for sales, events, museums, farmer's markets, lunch, bake sales etc. There are always others too along the way, so get out and enjoy what is likely to be very good fall color in the shortest state Hwy in Wisconsin (Hwy 87 Grantsburg to St Croix Falls), and its predecessor state hwy, the Old St Croix River Road.<br />
This is a slow scenery drive to spend the day at rather than a rush from sale to sale on the less traveled roads of NW Wisconsin. <br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7663468525657686010.post-18798703766780356272019-09-01T07:26:00.000-07:002019-09-01T07:26:10.429-07:00Local History Through Township Records<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Back in 1970, I had a summer job at the Sterling Fire tower. I sat 100 feet above the surrounding forest using my eyes to look for smoke. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I had trouble concentrating on it, and talked to others who had towered. One said "I read a book," and at the end of each set of pages, stopped and looked around carefully. That made me a better watchman than just sitting there and forgetting to look around at all."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> "Dad," I asked Sterling Town Board chairman V. R. Hanson, "would it be all right if I took along one of the old Sterling record books to the tower?" The records from the 1850 and newer were stored in the always unlocked 1888 town hall in the chimney closet, somewhat mouse chewed and moldering away. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> "If you think you might learn something," he replied, knowing he didn't have to tell me to be very careful carrying them 100 feet up the ladder on the side of the tower, and putting them back when finished. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> I did a project -- took the 1865 tax roll and made a plat map of land owners in Sterling at the time. The yearly tax roll books told who owned each piece of land and at the end of the book the personal property of each person living in Sterling (at that time all of northern Polk Co and Burnett and Washburn counties were administered by the Town of Sterling as no one lived there). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Most of the land owned in 1865 was along the rivers and streams in the Sterling barrens, much of it still federal land open for homesteading. The land in east Sterling was already owned, but often by absentee speculators. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Over the summer I read the tax rolls, the town meeting minutes, the budgets etc., and got a fine appreciation for the days when the township was almost all of the government folks saw. The taxes were for roads, for bridges, for the poor, for the cemetery, and for town surveying, town lawsuits, etc. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> I got to know the names of old roads as they were called by the folks working on them -- Evergreen was Darey road after a local resident. Hwy 87 was Broadway. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> I learned that half a dozen families from Dunkerton, Iowa began arriving in 1903 including Great Grandpa Carnes. I learned that the Hanson's migrated in form Barron, WI in the 1930s. I saw how many horses the Harris family had, how many cows, and how Ida Harris and her sons Floyd and Vedon stayed on the barrens after most of the folks had left by the 19 teens. I saw the depression area influx that included Grandpa Eugene Hanson and mom, folks who had lost their good farms and were hunkering down on the abandoned farms on the sand barrens with subsistence living to ride it out. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> So this summer, I started a project -- copying all of the Sterling, Laketown, Luck and other local township record books, making digital copies of them and sharing them with others through the magic of cloud drives and the internet. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> As I enthusiastically told the Sterling town board members, "The yearly Sterling tax rolls are the only yearly record we have of who lived where. Census records are 10 years apart, church records are on birth, confirmation, marriage and death. But town records show every year how many cows, horses, buggies, watches, organs, pianos, land and so on that all of the households here have. A treasure that is far to valuable not to be copied and preserved forever." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> And so I committed to photographing hundreds of old books in as careful a manner possible--just turning the pages and photographing each page. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> To do that with a camera seemed possible, but not easy. So, I spent $300 and bought a book copying camera on a stand that, I have found, to make the process easy. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> You can see a video of me in action doing this. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPjm7TY5E_w" target="_blank">CZUR Copy Camera in Action</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Do you want to see some of the results? I am trying to organize them in easily readable book format, that you turn the double pages and zoom in to read the beautifully handwritten records of our past. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Check out the <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Jg2eSmg8N6nypOeURk2Mpysd_M4dbPk-" target="_blank">1943 tax rolls</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> <br /> The rest will be in a cloud drive on Google where you can go to see any of them. To move these files to the cloud, requires decent speed internet, something that has been sorely missing here out at the very end of a stub line of the Grantsburg phone line. Rural phone service always lags 20 years behind the rest of the world-- mostly because phone companies are monopolies here and they see much more money going to serve the lake areas to compete with other phone companies there than serving their own monopoly area. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> But, after a great deal of whining, complaining, and excuses, two weeks ago the fiber was actually put in along Evergreen avenue. We already have it from house to road as that replaced the phone line strung over the trees we had 2 years ago (yes it was from tree-top to tree-top). So all that is needed is a few hours to connect our end and the River Road end for it to work. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> "When?" I asked eagerly as I saw the cable laid. "Probably yet this year," said the monopoly spokes man. I already agreed to pay the $100 + service rate per month, but phone companies have a policy of serving the complainers worst, as the spokesman plainly told me. One of these days the overhead satelite or tower service will catch up and we can dump the monopoly service, a dinosaur from the past that has evolved to a turtle on its way to the future. </span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7663468525657686010.post-36428633169077792082019-08-12T07:47:00.000-07:002019-08-12T07:47:01.645-07:00Factory Farms -- Coming to NW Wisconsin?<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> The past few months here in NW Wisconsin -- Polk and Burnett Counties, along the St Croix River, a movement has been forming. It all began when nearby in Trade Lake Township, word of an agreement with a local farmer and a big hog factory operation to bring 20,000 pigs to a 38 acre piece of land about 8 miles away. The movement has been to oppose CAFOs by going to local government meetings and speaking out against factory farms. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> It got me thinking about the arguments posed in favor by the giant farm proponents. I have attempted to take a few of them and see if I can find support for the claims and then write a letter to the editor of the local papers explaining the facts as I researched them, with sources. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> I grew up on a farm, own a farm now, but have no animals here. Our farming activity is an orchard, maple syrup production, some truck gardening and rental of about 50 acres of cropland on a total of about 140 acres, shrunk from about 200 acres a few years ago. My ancestors for as many generations as one can find have been small farmers. I generally have thought of farms with pleasant and happy memories, but farming is changing into mass production and massive numbers of animals in concentrated locations, generally becoming dreaded neighbors. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> Letters to the editor of the local newspapers. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>CAFOs Bring Water Pollution (Aug 12, 2019)</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> At the Sterling township meeting last month, here in NW Polk County, an impassioned speaker told us that we must not prohibit giant hog farms in Sterling Township. He gave the usual freedom-to-farm argument, but added a personal note that I summarize here:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> "My brother has a large hog farm in Martin County, MN. It is heavily regulated, a very clean operation and is a good neighbor. You should visit a modern hog farm to see that they are not the problem you think they are. Go to Martin County, MN and look around."</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> Although I didn't visit Martin County, MN, I did spend some time on the internet reading about it. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> Martin County MN is on the border with Iowa, with Fairmont as its largest city. It is the self-proclaimed hog capital of MN, and an almost completely farmed area in that flat and rich soil of southern MN. It is home to hundreds of huge feedlots for cattle, turkeys and pigs; the Concentrated Animal Feed Operations (CAFO).</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> According to the website https://www.farmprogress.com/marketing/martin-county-claims-bacon-capital-usa-title Martin county claims the "Bacon Capital of the USA." Martin county has more than 150 pig farms and markets 1.7 million market pigs (2016 data). Of course there are many more pigs than that counting the sows and boars and new and larger operations since 2016. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> The county is almost all farmland It is laced with farmer's drainage tiles and ditches, emptying into the water rich county with many streams, lakes and ponds according to the local Martin County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) https://martinswcd.net/. The massive amount of manure generated is spread on the fields and percolates directly into the drainage system, creating massive water pollution that destroys lakes, streams, rivers wells and even city water.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> Reading information from the Martin County SWCD, we find that the primary direction is working with farmers to decrease the water pollution in the county, which is very bad. Fairmont, a city of 10,000 people, had to issue a "don't let children drink city water" alert a few years ago when their water supply was polluted with nitrates on top of the fecal bacterial load. Chlorine kills the bacteria so it is safe to drink,although water with dead fecal bacteria would seem to be unappealing. However the treatment was not setup to remove farm fertilizer nitrate runoff after big rains. The cost of the additional treatment is high. It is common to Iowa cities too and in both states cities have tried to sue farmer's to recover some of the cost. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> Another Martin County project underway is setting up rural water systems. Few wells are usable due to farm pollution from fields where the manure from millions of hogs, massive turkey operations and large cattle feed lots are prevalent as well as giant irrigation wells pump dry local aquifers. Personal water treatment is expensive, extreme depth wells expensive and so folks in the country plan to get their water from wells with treatment facilities and underground pipes running miles across the scattered farms. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> Of course the funding for the cleanup projects are funded by the State of MN as the cleanup is not happening by farmers doing it without free funding to do better practices -- regulations are set and then money is paid to bribe the farmer into doing what should be done to be a decent neighbor </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> My own SE MN second home has a 400 foot well, attempting to get below the nitrate polluted 100 foot water table that folks had before large farming came to the area. We have 3 CAFO dairy operations within 5 miles. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> The headline last month for SW Wisconsin was 91% of local wells are polluted. Do we want that to come to our area too? </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> I had planned to sell out in MN, get away from the CAFOs and permanently move to Polk County, Stering Township, but I wonder if it will be any better here if factory farms move in? </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> The next letter is in response to a staff writer's glowing report of the CAFO regulations in Wisconsin and leaving the impression that all is well with them, as regulations will keep everything fine. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>CAFOs Story is Fluff (June 28, 2019)</i></b></span></h4>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> Much of the article by Becky Strabel "Four CAFO's already exist in four county area" seems to have been lifted from the website https://www.wiscontext.org/what-does-cafo-oversight-look-wisconsin-and-who-pays-it </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> However in lifting the information, the writer failed to give a balanced view of the original article. The original article says there are rules to follow and permits to gain and inspections to pass, but, and this is a huge but, in truth, the CAFO's do their own inspection and reports and the regulators ignore them. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> "A 2016 review by the state's Legislative Audit Bureau found significant problems with the program's ability to keep up with its workload. One illustration of this issue: In 2017, one-third of CAFOs were operating under expired permits because of a permitting backlog. Two years later, the DNR has closed the gap somewhat but remains unable to keep up with oversight. Nearly a quarter of CAFOs were operating with expired permits in June 2019."</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> Two years later, the DNR has closed the gap somewhat but remains unable to keep up with oversight. Nearly a quarter of CAFOs were operating with expired permits in June 2019. "</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>"Whatever the responsibilities and availability of its regulators, the DNR outsources much of the job of ensuring permit compliance onto the CAFOs themselves. CAFOs are required to conduct daily, weekly and quarterly inspections of various parts of their operations and submit annual records of those inspections to the agency. The 2016 audit of the DNR's water pollution program found that the vast majority of these records, which had been recorded on paper calendars, were not being entered electronically by DNR staff, making for a major compliance blindspot."</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The Leader article was a "feel-good" "all is well" view of CAFOs Ms Strabel should have copied both sides of the issue to present an unbiased look at what is really happening. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Russ Hanson Cushing, WI </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The third letter is in response to a local township meeting where proponents claimed CAFOs bring good jobs to the area. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>CAFO Job Claims a lot of Hog Manure! (June 21, 2019)</i></b></span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> I recently attended two different township meetings, Sterling and Laketown, where the issue of giant hog factories coming into Polk County was discussed. The proponents pushed the idea that they should be judged by the creation of good jobs. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> If one examines the facts of agriculture jobs, we see they are low paying, dangerous, dirty as well as being primarily done by foreign born workers, of which the majority of those are here illegally. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> Some proponents state that the “average wage” is good. That may be true – a full time veterinary gets $200,000 per year and 10 workers $20,000 per year giving an average wage of $36,363. The median agriculture job in the US pays $12/hour.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> The most recent National Agricultural Workers Survey reports 78% of all agricultural employees are foreign born. Estimates are that 50-70% of the foreign born workers are here without legal documents. Another six percent of hired farm labor are children 14-18 years old and mostly paid minimum wage.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> Are farmers and farm organizations in favor of foreign workers? YES!</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> "The U.S. pork industry needs access to a legal and productive workforce,” said National Pork Producers Council President Jim Heimerl. “And skilled and unskilled foreign workers have been crucial to maintaining and growing the workforce... We need more of them, not less.”</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> Will clamping down on immigration create more jobs for Americans? NO!</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service: “a reduction in the foreign-born workforce – prompted by a change in immigration policy – would not be offset by native-born workers and permanent residents. Instead, the tighter supply of foreign-born workers would reduce overall demand for workers as production costs increase and would decrease agricultural output as farmers abandon labor-intensive operations.” We see that in the move to robotic and automated agriculture over human workers.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> Should farmers follow the rules against hiring undocumented workers? NO! if you listen to their organizations. "The Farm Bureau, as one of the largest voices for agriculture, understands that hiring immigrants is essential to fill the critical workforce demands of agriculture. The official Farm Bureau policy opposes using E-Verify.”</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> Can we believe promises by the proponents of local hires and high paying jobs? NO! as in all agribusiness, labor is a cost line item to be minimized. Owners who are states away are concerned with maximizing profits. They see the somewhat unregulated NW Wisconsin area as an opportunity to move in with a minimum of regulations to follow, and possibly hope they can get cheap local labor, but we can be sure they will look for the lowest cost workers available.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> There are jobs that fit into a community, good jobs, safe jobs, high paying jobs; jobs that hire local folks. But, sadly folks, big animal operations, as we already know from the few in our area, look for cheap foreign labor that bring a whole new set of challenges and changes. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Russell B Hanson</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Cushing, WI </b></span><br />
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As part of trying to understand the issue, I have attended two Sterling township meetings. 1 Laketown meeting and plan to attend a county meeting too. The meetings are to persuade local governments to put in place an 18 month moratorium on CAFOs while the issue is researched and any new development can be carefully planned for minimal disruption of the neighbors. <br />
As a farmer now, although mostly retired, I can understand the gradual expansion of farm neighbors to try to improve their financial status, but the operations we are seeing proposed are from distant conglomerates with no local ties, nor any local presence; just hired managers and workers brought in for their experience or willingness to work for low wages in stench filled working conditions. <br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7663468525657686010.post-67099279540297070952019-05-30T08:02:00.000-07:002019-05-30T08:02:01.020-07:00Videos from the Rambler<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">With Summer soon here, we are gradually catching up with the spring jobs; the new garden fences, the garden and flower bed plantings, and into the lawn mowing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">January and February were spent in Texas and Louisiana in our pop-up tent camper and we returned just in time for the end of February big snow storm. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Maple syrup season was mostly in April and good with our usual quart per tap yield.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have been recording videos of things in our lives for many years and have some of them on a youtube channel. You can see them at this link</span><br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/RiverRoadRambler/videos">https://www.youtube.com/user/RiverRoadRambler/videos</a> Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7663468525657686010.post-70687580465889915552019-05-11T04:40:00.000-07:002019-05-11T04:40:36.658-07:00Speak Up<span style="font-size: large;"> College grades were critical to get into graduate school, so when after the first quarter, I got a B in American Literature I was devastated. An easy course that I aced the tests and papers, and yet only a B.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> Most college classes meant listening, note taking, reading, remembering and regurgitating it all on the tests and maybe an in-depth paper or two. All of those were A’s.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> Professor Margaret Odegard included class participation in her grading. She had told us that at the beginning of the quarter, but I had interpreted it as good attendance with excellent tests and papers. At the time, I did not speak up in any class, didn’t raise my hand, and only answered if randomly called upon, preferring quiet note taking and intent listening as the way to get an education. If I didn’t understand something, I attributed it to my own ignorance, and didn’t consider interrupting the class just to display that ignorance to everyone. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKSku_yukPEtJWL24cZAq_BDGXZ0LRCsRtVT69e25TYR5lEet7VAtP3sA2s99nxWNyuJoDxYyb0Wx3kIXvPeHw_4XKJ3yDSLME3xfq5FZi8VjXmdyTAW10wpJoXETAC4kub9DcTv-dKCIh/s1600/margaret+odegard+uwrf.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="537" data-original-width="448" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKSku_yukPEtJWL24cZAq_BDGXZ0LRCsRtVT69e25TYR5lEet7VAtP3sA2s99nxWNyuJoDxYyb0Wx3kIXvPeHw_4XKJ3yDSLME3xfq5FZi8VjXmdyTAW10wpJoXETAC4kub9DcTv-dKCIh/s640/margaret+odegard+uwrf.JPG" width="532" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> My friend, Don, did get an A and the difference, he told me, was he answered questions in class and occasionally asked one. I decided that was my problem, and for this class only, I would have to speak up. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> The second quarter began with me determined to talk. I began raising my hand, but without results. Mrs. Odegard, her preferred title as she said her Mrs. degree, had been harder to get than her PhD, always called on those who raised their hands. During the first quarter, that had narrowed down to about eight regulars out of the fifty of us in class. I think Mrs Odegard was sympathetic to students who might be embarrassed by not being able to answer, and then out of habit called on the same volunteers, and even knew their names. I doubt she even noticed me in the back of the class, even with my hand raised, and if so, didn’t know my name. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> I was determined to get noticed and answer a question. I couldn’t change my assigned seat to the front, as the classroom was full. I didn’t want to make a fool out of myself either, and our rules were we didn’t speak unless called upon after raising our hand. So what could I do?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I talked it over with front row A student and friend Don. “Maybe you should just stay after class and talk to her,” he suggested, being a direct person. “Or you could just bring her an apple,” he joked. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> “That’s it” I exclaimed.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> “That’s way too corny; she will think you are a bumpkin if you do it,” warned Don. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> The next day I bought the biggest, best Red Delicious apple I could find and polished it to glow. When class was over, the other students gone, I lingered, then went to the front desk where Mrs. Odegard was putting away her papers. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> “Mrs. Odegard, my name is Russ Hanson. I sit in the back. I really enjoy this class and the books you have us read. I have always loved to read, but have done it on a shallow level without looking for deeper meaning. Thank you for introducing me to a better way of reading. My name is Russ Hanson. This apple is a thank you for helping me learn.”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> She looked up at me intently, first with a puzzled look, then the hint of a smile. “Thank you,” she said as I rushed off, feeling embarrassed about my apple for the teacher. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> The next day, looking to the back, searching until she saw me, Mrs Odegard began a question: “Russ Hanson, what do you think the author meant …”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> With that I joined the talkers, and the next two quarters got my “A”s. It spilled over into other classes too, where I found that answering questions, occasionally posing them and joining in classroom discussions improved not only my grades but my education too. I found that most of the time if I didn’t understand something and asked the professor a question, I was not alone in my ignorance and we all benefited from those who were brave enough to speak up. </span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7663468525657686010.post-49579757104561010452019-04-14T05:49:00.002-07:002019-04-14T05:57:53.549-07:002019 Maple Syrup Season<span style="font-size: large;">We are finishing maple syrup season this coming week. For us it was a normal season, a normal yield of about 1 quart of syrup per tap, and although it is finishing a little early, and started a little late, we are happy to have another successful year. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> We used to put out 200 taps, but this year we were just under 100. We don't have a market for lots of syrup anymore as we don't go to farmer's markets or market it or sell it wholesale as we have in the past. We make enough for our own use, for some sales, some donations and some gifts. That seems to be the level at which we are comfortable with. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> Some photos from this season -- we tapped the first trees March 15th and probably will get the last run on about April 15th as the forecast is for extended mild weather after that. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Most of the trees we tap are 100 years old or more. We have been tapping them since the 1960s. Many are at the age where they are in decline and we lose a few each year to windstorms breaking out the tops. However we have a good replacement crop coming in the 35 years since it was cow pasture. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCxIDePRDwfrhTTe3kGkb_Ka1aoh8_33paG5TD0PBnXa-rE9MIOZfqRmqA7W7kox68rvm2O8HmficvvtinC0mxWj-BrRTOdt1y5uwtFGklo-MedLho80SLFu29J4O-9oc31-7RtzSPfU5Y/s1600/DSCN0078.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCxIDePRDwfrhTTe3kGkb_Ka1aoh8_33paG5TD0PBnXa-rE9MIOZfqRmqA7W7kox68rvm2O8HmficvvtinC0mxWj-BrRTOdt1y5uwtFGklo-MedLho80SLFu29J4O-9oc31-7RtzSPfU5Y/s640/DSCN0078.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">We used to use the cabin as our syruping headquarters, but since we moved into the farm 3 miles away, we don't even open it until May when the water system can be hooked up. When one gets older conveniences are more of a lure! </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz0bgwa7vWoWbMhleYzIJVm-nXxhicDZ4aqlvMKaSxtiU2MvWmKwqfqmrSB4kY1Fop8fkscdeVX4ngOMf2LrDifqlvC9fINpq8lTKyUkPWKnXpUxgQRKtX6jLqL1-R0Iok89xyj4G0VjDX/s1600/DSCN9954.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz0bgwa7vWoWbMhleYzIJVm-nXxhicDZ4aqlvMKaSxtiU2MvWmKwqfqmrSB4kY1Fop8fkscdeVX4ngOMf2LrDifqlvC9fINpq8lTKyUkPWKnXpUxgQRKtX6jLqL1-R0Iok89xyj4G0VjDX/s640/DSCN9954.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">When we started there was deep snow from a late February storm. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFXzPuCSbN3u4HkZaAWHt7GFU5Jshxk3lWCW36ccK4wxWdNbWHq_VEvudxTLGe2HMEE2Y7OCuZVD_0Evhwgt7cCn7ORl2559pW26VH4wR-Z1cYRRqnDlpm70cx0Fc_aE6ARrM-ToqjV4FH/s1600/DSCN9955.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFXzPuCSbN3u4HkZaAWHt7GFU5Jshxk3lWCW36ccK4wxWdNbWHq_VEvudxTLGe2HMEE2Y7OCuZVD_0Evhwgt7cCn7ORl2559pW26VH4wR-Z1cYRRqnDlpm70cx0Fc_aE6ARrM-ToqjV4FH/s640/DSCN9955.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Two test taps March 15th. They had stopped running April 12th. We added 2 more taps to that tree a week later and they are still running good as of April 13th. Tap holes are good for about a month. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0N_8qnm9hFwdFnrQqbdacdIJk6bGmwwM1PErGNTOmjtabBJizauaInhXjie8qf-YtR-oAYl2AW3dZBdZDw4qIoqZe7M7Il373LI_3meoQjpsPvFEl89JCid2TvMnpWbDGpOhPN8VTnqdg/s1600/DSCN0065.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0N_8qnm9hFwdFnrQqbdacdIJk6bGmwwM1PErGNTOmjtabBJizauaInhXjie8qf-YtR-oAYl2AW3dZBdZDw4qIoqZe7M7Il373LI_3meoQjpsPvFEl89JCid2TvMnpWbDGpOhPN8VTnqdg/s640/DSCN0065.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">The sap shed we built in 2009 is reasonably handy. We use our 1947 Ford 2N for sap hauling. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfsH4EDEw93eBLQgl2h-8ty92CGMFPFe4ydJ2gDvduaRYNk3MrDOI7_w1nkaRUDlR6lcl3LtuKn9Abfz_5VLlSAtTw1r_HBjaeVl2mgUJLgBLWvJxY1I508wZS4BqNykgs-9EKI9sRe2yZ/s1600/DSCN0092.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfsH4EDEw93eBLQgl2h-8ty92CGMFPFe4ydJ2gDvduaRYNk3MrDOI7_w1nkaRUDlR6lcl3LtuKn9Abfz_5VLlSAtTw1r_HBjaeVl2mgUJLgBLWvJxY1I508wZS4BqNykgs-9EKI9sRe2yZ/s640/DSCN0092.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">The 1958 sap pan made in Dresser WI by the tinsmith made another year without problems. Dad had it made after trying a big round kettle, then two wood sided pans and finally this one. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX_w-8lVfPo3GpNWx6mm73UafBhjRPxHKkUYDW6eROm48ijXSsQp38tLnf5Is85R02JiLK8AwJdLtzMbT8QzWN0VsKX8XcIDYCTMFnaQ6r44gqjT7o-17RBy67AF6GMs5LBmKCucbxuV9D/s1600/DSCN9965.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX_w-8lVfPo3GpNWx6mm73UafBhjRPxHKkUYDW6eROm48ijXSsQp38tLnf5Is85R02JiLK8AwJdLtzMbT8QzWN0VsKX8XcIDYCTMFnaQ6r44gqjT7o-17RBy67AF6GMs5LBmKCucbxuV9D/s640/DSCN9965.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">The maple woods is about 40 acres on Orr Lake. Lots of spring ponds, hills and old maples with many new maples coming up that will be ready to tap in a few years. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpjxxy6ln7C3dhj8Y_SefGk5ETnl-Mlji-fu8o9vg3pnhSuSCKNyWbXWlUEr9iqlCMxuYmUaBacj89_nsZJMuYRgbDEUSLtrKemLesnDh_CBUf3GdGgL9RamTUK8m9r2Z0WMAMV1EFboWf/s1600/DSCN9959.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpjxxy6ln7C3dhj8Y_SefGk5ETnl-Mlji-fu8o9vg3pnhSuSCKNyWbXWlUEr9iqlCMxuYmUaBacj89_nsZJMuYRgbDEUSLtrKemLesnDh_CBUf3GdGgL9RamTUK8m9r2Z0WMAMV1EFboWf/s640/DSCN9959.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Some mornings the buckets have ice on the sap. We discard most of it -- the ice is water and the remaining sap gets concentrated with more sugar.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzhMlfwkXHR6tLqohFrmZ-sYKx4hgrds1zxchz0SRTpfAkDlnN-ELhttZBQ8IZKSAt-aKCCsYb5UMyd4lfbPQELJQTAfCjhHDvUtadYOaF7YnXrMlGQr00VhYlbzyZFOZc3mIH7DgvONTi/s1600/DSCN9972.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzhMlfwkXHR6tLqohFrmZ-sYKx4hgrds1zxchz0SRTpfAkDlnN-ELhttZBQ8IZKSAt-aKCCsYb5UMyd4lfbPQELJQTAfCjhHDvUtadYOaF7YnXrMlGQr00VhYlbzyZFOZc3mIH7DgvONTi/s640/DSCN9972.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">It takes much dry wood to boil all the sap. We are dissatisfied with our wood storage and need to put it under a roof rather than piling it outside. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I have been making some videos of activities around the Farm and travel over the past years. You can see them at </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/RiverRoadRambler/" target="_blank">Youtube Channel River Road Rambler</a></span></div>
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