Autumn Food

Plenty of food this fall for the birds and wildlife.  

Autumn Leaves are Falling

Orr Creek meanders south to Wolf Creek from Orr Lake (our cabin lake).
 

The 91 Olds with the cabin hidden in the woods to the left.  

Friday was the meeting of the Northwest Wisconsin Regional Writers--topic was Halloween.  Nov's meeting will be "Cold Turkey."

Maples are mostly yellow at the cabin this fall. 

One of the two conservation ponds holds some water this fall.  A pair of ducks flew up as I approached.  

Bittersweet berries haven't opened to show their red centers. Bluebirds and robins are thick eating the grapes, partrideberries and thorn apples this week. 

Planting Pine Trees 50 years ago

Working on the Cushing Fire Department History--1963 beginnings, I ran across some interesting items in the 1963 treasurer's receipts.   Two were related to me!  One was a $10 bill submitted for 4 boys and their mother spending 2 days brushing, cleaning and mowing the Pioneer Cemetery out on Evergreen Av (the Bush Cemetery) and the other was a bill submitted for a week of planting Red Pines for the town of Sterling.  

Sterling Township ordered 20,000 jack pines and 10,000 Norway Pines through the WI state nursery at Gordon WI Feb 20, 1963.  The Jacks were 2 year old and the Red pines 3 year old. 

Sterling rented the Polk County tree planter (a pull behind plow/seat where you dropped trees into a furrow) to plant the 20,000 Jack Pines.  

Sterling paid Russ Hanson and Walter Dahl $45 each to spend 4.5 days planting the 10,000 Red Pines.   1,000 trees per day was considered a full day's work.  We got $1.25 per hour.  Russ took off school days to earn the money.  He spent it on a telescope mirror for a 6 inch reflector telescope he was building.  

The Sterling letterhead in those days showed with pride the 4000 acres of Sterling Forest land.  Much of this was land that had been acquired from folks who no longer paid the taxes in the Depression years.   Polk County acquired a great deal more land.  Sterling Town has the largest town forest in all of Wisconsin.  It is open to all sorts of recreational activities along with timber harvest.

We planted trees in two different places.  Both were old fields that had been farmed in the heyday of barrens farming back in the 1870s-1900.  The thin topsoil was soon exhausted of fertility and the dry years in the 1890s caused a great deal of sandstorms on the open land.  The farmers moved on, and with the beginning of fire control in the 1930s, much of the land was beginning to turn from a great open prairie to jack-pine and scrub oak forests (what is there now).  

I remember one of the field locations--along the beginning of the old road running down to the Sunrise ferry from where Wally Lund had his home on the corner -- turn west off of 330th St down Ferry Drive and go until you see a pine plantation along the north side of the road.  The other, was some old field back in the woods along a trail I can't remember anymore. I plan to take a drive to the plantation and photograph it any day now--what our tree planting looks like 50 years later. 

You can read a little about the tree planting effort by Polk County at POLK FORESTATION

Polk County WI Lakeshore preservation under attack?

Recent letters to the editor in the local newspapers as well as a motion passed at the Polk County board to tell zoning folks to go easy on lake shore zoning seem to be part of an attempt by local conservatives (Tea Party county board man Hershel in the lead) to promote a pro-business attitude.  It fits with the current WI push to open the state to business by weakening environmental concerns.

For those of us who like clean water, clean air, and a rural environment, this is a concern.  It comes at a time when the Polk Zoning committee is rewriting the zoning rules.  We have to be careful or the pro-business, anti-environment folks will weaken the protection of our natural resources.  I doubt that many of us would want Polk County to become another St Croix County WI or Chisago County MN--suburbs of the Twin Cities.

 You can read and comment on this either way and are supposed to be able to submit the comment form online, however I found after I filled it out, it failed to submit--so I wouldn't count on this getting to the zoning committee without printing it and sending it by mail.

Zoning changes

 If you doubt the direction of the movement, check the recent actions of the county board attempting to force the zoning board to ignore the zoning rules on lake shore zoning and the general direction of WI to open mines all over the place with weakened regulation.  We have a wonderful local environment and filling it with development is really not going to make things better.  Just tell them to protect our lakes, streams and beautiful surroundings.  

Many of us grumble at times about the zoning regulations, however they are needed.  I remember when Bass Lake, just north of Cushing was an excellent fishing lake -- 1950s and earlier.  However, by the 1960s, the barnyard runoff from just 4 neighboring farmers fertilized it so heavily that it became a mass of weeds; the fish died off, and it was a ruined lake.  

Since that time, zoning and much improved farming practices have allowed the lake to begin the process of rebalancing and now I occasionally see a fisher or swimmer in the lake again.  We have to be very careful in the rewrite of these rules that we don't lose protection of our wonderful area.

 I was struck by this article in the Twin Cities newspapers:
Mining Problems could pollute water for 500 years     

If we don't speak up, we may find our county rapidly becoming someplace we don't want to live anymore.

Affordable Health Care

Having spent most of my career working in the healthcare industry and experienced with much of what is happening with the Obamacare rollout, I am adding my opinion here. I am biased, as I am in favor of something being done rather than leaving things as they were before Obamacare.  I do think it will need changes as things evolve. 

Republicans are enthused about the computer glitches with the opening of Obamacare--part of their desperate hopes it will fail and are bragging that few people have signed up for insurance yet.  They continue to shut down the govt to try to force a roll-back of affordable health care for fear that it will work.  

 Democrats are pleased that 7 million people have already gone online to find out more about affordable insurance.  They also do not expect folks to sign up without a few weeks of consideration and comparison shopping.  

  A real test of Obamacare is to let it happen and if it doesn't work, then fix it.  If you really don't like it, then win an election so you can roll it back--don't just throw a tantrum. 

 As a retired computer systems person, I am impressed any computer site that has 7 million users in the first 3 days has been working at all.  We always tested things and then rolled it out and spent the next few weeks 24x7 fixing the problems as they arose with heavy use--something you really can't test for.  Remember, most of the computer systems were built by private businesses contracted to do this for the government--not by government programmers themselves, so the finger pointing is really at private companies.   


Anyone who works in highly computerized industry learns to be wary of doing things on Mondays--as we programmers role out our changes over the weekend and they get the real user test on Monday!  And they are always particularly nervous about a brand new roll-out, just as we are with a new version of our computer programs.

  The good thing is that the fixes are generally quickly done; the bottlenecks figured out and things smooth out soon.  That is what is happening with the ACA roll out of exchanges.  

Daniel H Beal Obituary

Note:   The Beal family is planning a memorial service for Luck in about a month.

O'Halloran Murphy Funeral Home
http://www.meaningfulfunerals.net/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=2263473&fh_id=12984

Daniel H. Beal 
(May 24, 1931 - September 28, 2013)
Age 82 of Luck, WI. Formerly of Roseville Passed away Sunday September 29, 2013 after a courageous battle with Pulmonary Fibrosis. 

Daniel retired from the Roseville Public Schools early to enjoy a retirement of creativity, adventure and dedication to his family. 

Daniel was always one to question, to challenge, to lead, to tell you to walk with your head down and look for the perfect agate. As Evie says "He was an exciting man to share a lifetime with." 

Preceded in death by parents, Harold and Nellie; sisters, Hope (Dwight) Blagrove, Judy (Bob) Sills, Neila (Fred) Block. Survived by wife, Evie; children, Danise Beal (Cathy Jann) and Eric (Laura); grandchildren, Joseph and Claire Meador, Karli Condon, Josh, and Whitney (Chaz) Afong; great grandchildren, Toka and Tehani Afong; sister, Jennifer (Bernie) Hagen and many nieces, nephews other relatives and friends. 

 Visitation Sunday from 5-9 pm at the Roseville Memorial Chapel, 2245 N. Hamline Ave. In lieu of flowers memorials preferred to any charitable organization of your choice.

 Thank you to the caring and loving staffs of Healtheast Hospice and BrightStar.

Dan Beal -- A Full Life

Dan Beal, on the left, holds an award given him by the Polk Men's group--a group he founded when he retired to Polk County.  His friend, Dick Ugland made the award.  The group continues to meet after nearly 20 years.  

A friend of mine passed away this morning.  Daniel Beal, of Ward Lake, Luck Wisconsin.  

I first met Dan when I began attending the Indianhead Gem and Mineral Society shortly after I retired and came back to Wisconsin for the summers.   Dan and the club welcomed me with my interest in Lake Superior agates.  Dan was president and had been for many years.  

As Margo and I got to know Dan and Evie, we became friends.  Dan was active in many of the same things we volunteered for--the Luck Historical Society and Museum and had founded the local Polk Men's group that he invited me to join.  

Dan was outspoken, humorous, very active and into all sorts of volunteer efforts to improve the local area and the lives of people living in it.   He and Evie had Kinship kids; he was active in local government planning; he often spoke in local schools giving demonstrations involving his hobby as a rock hound and carver.  

Dan was many things in his life including a Marine, an perpetual student, a teacher, a school principal and administrator, a father and husband--doing all of his roles with excellence. 

Margo and I will miss Dan very much.  He was ready to move on, but his friends were not ready to let go of him--so it will be hard for us.  

Dan Beal at the rock club

Rambling into Autumn

This week has been busy as we harvest the garden.  A trailer load of squash; two trailer loads of large pumpkins, lots of apples; heavily loaded tame and wild grapes; carrots, and more.  

We sell pumpkins, squash, maple syrup and apples at the River Road Ramble on the Hanson Farm on Evergreen Av on Saturday the 28th.  In a good year we sell most of the produce.  What is left over we sell some and give some to the local food shelves. 

Today is apple picking day.  The apples are not loaded, so the size is pretty fair.  I sprayed them with Sevin 4 times this summer and that seems to have kept the worms all out.  The wet spring means that some varieties have apple scab, a cosmetic flaw that makes them hard to sell but does not damage the apple underneath.  I would have had to spray them early in the season with a fungicide--but I don't really like doing this as they are really quite potent neuro damaging sprays. 

Took a break and a stroll along Wolf Creek at brother Marv's. 

Wolf Creek meanders through brother Marv's woods--part of Grandpa's old farm. 

The next neighbor to the north -- the creek goes through some boggy wetlands and an open cow pasture in the distance and then in the far distance brother Ev's 60 acres.  Along the creek channel is a little wild rice -- hinting of a time when the Native Americans lived upstream on Roger lake, growing pumpkins, squash, making maple syrup and harvesting the rice.

Marv's house boasts a brand new roof --One that will "do him out!"

St Croix Logging History in Print

Helen McCann White interviewed several local folks back in 1955 the history of the St Croix River logging for the US Forest Service. They were tape recorded.

Two tapes have been transcribed and make interesting reading!

Eureka logger Wirt and
http://www.foresthistory.org/research/Mineau_Wirt.pdf

Hope Garlick
http://www.foresthistory.org/research/Mineau_Hope_Garlick.pdf


Rosemarie Vezina Braatz wrote the history of Nevers Dam
Nevers Dam

Spent a few hours at the Museum in Cushing planning on doing some cleaning to get ready for the open house this Saturday at the River Road Ramble.  However, a visitor doing research on the Spangler family (of Spangler's landing on the St Croix River) got me to visiting.  Luckily Margo was along and ran the vacuum cleaner!   She is on the noon-3pm shift Saturday to host the museum with her friend, Marlys.  Open 9-5. 

Another historical stop is the Eureka Townhall a few miles south of Cushing.  The Wolf Creek School (now the Methodist Church) is also open with food and a jumble sale.   

In St Croix Falls, the St Croix Scenic River hdqrts is a nice place to stop to learn about the St Croix River history.  They have a nice online book 
Saint Croix -- Historic River

2013 River Road Ramble

Saturday, September 2013--8th Annual River Road Hwy 87 Ramble.   St Croix Falls, WI and north!

Check out the details and stops on the 8th Annual River Road Hwy 87 Ramble.  Lots of stops, many new and lots of sales and historic sites. 

The link to the Sterling Eureka and Laketown Historical Site -- where you click on 2013 Ramble for map, detailed list. 

2013 River Road Ramble

Click the links to see the Ramble stops brochure

Stops on the Ramble  

Self Guided Historical River Road Ramble Tour booklet