This was published in the newsletter of the Wisconsin Alliance of Cemeteries in 2023

Put Your Cemetery Online – Free and Easy

Russ Hanson Sexton, Wolf Creek Cemetery, Polk County, WI. 

This is meant to be a highly interactive document, so click on the links as you read through it.  

Google your cemetery, i.e  Pleasant Valley Cemetery Polk County WI  and see what comes up.  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.  And that is all!   Google a large cemetery Evergreen Cemetery Menomonie WI and you get a very nice website with just about everything you ever dreamed.    

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.  And so you say maybe someday…

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  (although I recommend a McDonalds Gift card reward for the kid). 

I am the volunteer sexton for the Wolf Creek Cemetery, in NW Polk County, 10 miles north of St Croix Falls.  We are a small cemetery, 6 acres, and about 15 burials per year and maybe 15 grave purchases per year.  As we have been around since 1857 and we have thousands existing burials.  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.  

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 Wolf Creek Cemetery site to be properly motivated. Be sure to click on the tabs at the top right to go to the various pages of information.   Note: Our site is pretty new and we are still thinking about what we might want to add to it. 

You might ask “Why should we have a web presence?”  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!  Rules, costs and contacts are most often asked for burials and gravestones.  Genealogical questions are quite common. Rather than a person on the phone or in person, the information can be by email, website, and events from our calendar or posted on our social media page.  Along with the savings in time and effort, we have had more grave sales as folks find us through our online presence.

Google Map Location. 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.  I never expect to remember how to do that, or for that matter most internet stuff,  so I just do a Google search How do I add my cemetery to Google locations?  Asking questions in normal language works fine.  We have the Google Street View of our cemetery along with the map location from an internet search. 

An email address.  The best I have found is to create an account using Google’s Gmail.   Wolfcreekcemetery@gmail.com  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.  Post your email address on a sign at the cemetery along with your rules.  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. 

A Facebook Business Page.  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.  Ours is WC Facebook   We try to post something weekly to keep folks interested not only events, but obituary links, historical notes, interesting graves etc.  If you are not clear on how to do this, search YouTube videos on how do I set up a Facebook business page for beginners? It is completely FREE!

A Website.    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.   Before starting, try finding a few cemetery websites and choose a pattern from one you like – maybe Forest Home in Milwaukee.  We don’t expect ours to be quite so fancy, but we can do a very good one easily.   

A new website can begin with just a single page with the core information.  A photo of the cemetery is nice, two better. A map of our location would be nice or at least the street address.  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.  This is the place where if you feel lost, you find that high school kid who likes computers. 

To build the site yourself, log in on a computer using the cemetery Gmail account.  That switches you from yourself to the cemetery account. Go to   sites.google.com.  There you have various templates to create a new website, with sort of a fill in the blanks approach.    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!

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   However if you want something like  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.  We wanted to be free, so didn’t buy one.  The URL works fine and if you do a Google search to find Wolf Creek Cemetery Polk Wisconsin 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. 

Google Drive.  We have taken our internet use a step more.  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.   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 1912 map where some Mariette family are buried and the name is written in the map.  That is absolutely wonderful to make old records useful.   It makes my sexton job vastly easier, especially with the genealogy queries.  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.  Here is a page from the Town records with a meeting minute involving the cemetery perpetual care funds 1938 Record. 

Note- to fit our records into the free 15gb, we compressed the scans.  You can buy more storage space but we were aiming to be FREE!

If you have questions, you can send them to wolfcreekcemetery@gmail.com  and they will be forwarded to Russ Hanson who believes you too should have an online presence for your cemetery.   And if you want to get even fancier, try a QR code FREE too at this link.

 

The Reverend Jerry  (Feb 18, 2011) 

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.        

“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.  

After exchanging the usual weather comparisons of Cushing and Louisiana, I asked him about being a minister.  

“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.” 

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.   

“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.’”

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.    

 “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.  

“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”

“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.”

“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.”

“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!”

“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).   

“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.”

“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.”

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.”

“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!”

“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.” 

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.    

“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!”  

“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.”

“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?”  

“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.”  

“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!”

“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.  

“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.”  

“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.”

“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?”  

“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.” 

   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.  

   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.  

  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. 

  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.  

  This week I harvested them, digging up probably 200 lbs of potatoes, enough to far more than supply the winter's need. 

  The story of 2020 potatoes was on my Facebook page too.  

  

  This link is a search of my youtube channel for potato videos.  More than I remember!

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=RiverRoadRambler+potatoes

 

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.  

 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!

   

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.  

 

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.  

  

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.  

   

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!

   

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. 

   

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.   

"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.

  

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.

How Do You Make 1700 Apple Pies?

 How do you make 1700 Apple Pies?

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.  

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.  

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. 

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. 

After a good soak the apples are collected in huge trays and moved to the pie filling station. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.  

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. 

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?

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.  

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.  https://tinyurl.com/2020RRR.  Want to be a Ramble stop?  Call 715 488 2416 or email selhscushing@gmail.com  by September 10th.  Sponsored by Sterling Eureka and Laketown Historical Society

For a video of the pie making in action, check out the Youtube video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgmAq5uq2q8   

Photos and captions

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.  

A pie of many colors suitable for Joseph himself. 

 

  Domed pies filled to overflowing with apples won’t stack so they have to be frozen in layers separated by frames to prevent crushing. 

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.  

Peeling, slicing, and coring in a 15 seconds. 

Two rings are used to press the crusts together and leave a pattern in the crimp. 

No stinting on apples here!

Pie Crusts get flattened with a new pie press that makes top and pie-pan in a single step

 

The pies get a final trim, are packaged and frozen.  

Cletrac AG-6 Carburetor Problems

My 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.

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 The Carburetor Shop. 

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.  

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. 

2020 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

https://www.facebook.com/Backyard-Maple-Syruping-745375225598918

https://lgolx55zgwqq9z1zzjjseq-on.drv.tw/facebook%20backyard%20maple%20syrup/posts/posts_1.html 

The bottom link is backwards in time -- the way Facebook shows us current first. 

It is rather interesting to try to do sort of automatic websites with information from other places. 

I tried another one -- a website for backyard maple syruping -- nothing much there yet, but also free. 
https://sites.google.com/view/backyardmaplesyruping/home

The last step is to use tinyurl.com and make a simple short web address that goes to the longer one. 
 https://tinyurl.com/BackYardMapleSyruping

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. 

Scouts Come to Garner State Park for the Freezerie Campout

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.  Eighty boys and girls (yes scouts are now co-ed) and their parents came for two nights and Saturday of activity. 

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).  But as we were already here we were left right in the middle of the group .

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  and was an Eagle Scout and had brought Margo and I into scouting too, he invited us to the Saturday evening campfire program. 

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.

“Congratulations to those of you who came and tented overnight Friday,” he proclaimed.  “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.”

“I want to introduce to you, a former scouter from Minnesota, Mr. Hanson.”  And so I step forward a little into the ring and wave  “Mr Hanson told me that in Minnesota they have their winter campout and earn the Zerio Hero badge, if it gets cold enough there.  Do you know how cold it has to be?  Yes, it has to go below zero overnight.  That makes our below 32F look like a mild night.  Thank you for sharing, Mr Hanson!”

The campfire had some announcements – the last campout for the Webelos 2 group, the Lions group welcomed as new scouts and future events listed.  Then each of the Tigers, Bears, Wolves, Webelos 1 and 2 gave a skit.   el

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.   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.” 

Cub Scouts are from something like 5-11 before they move into Boy Scouts.  Although there were more boys than girls, many girls were there.  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.” 

The pack was absolutely noisy until 9 pm and then shut down  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.  The only problem was the mass move to the bathroom this morning as I too didn’t get up until 7 am. 

Scouting was something foreign to me – an activity a few of my friends from St Croix Falls did for outdoor activities.  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. 

That seemed a long distance to carry a pack and spend a week in the mosquito, deerfly woods along the creek.  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.  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. 

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.  His friends had decided to join and so we did too.  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. 

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.

Chuck Ruemping and Roy Kruger were Scoutmaster and Assistant.  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.  And the listed jobs like fund raising, book keeping, camping and many more.  

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.  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.

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.

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.  

Gary Egbert, Troop 42 committee chairman called me and asked me to take on the Scoutmaster position.  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.  “Gary, I am brand new to scouting.  I still don’t know the basics of ranks, merit badges, rules and regulations of scouting.  All I have done is tagged along with the boys on campouts and sat in on the weekly meetings.  You can find someone much better for the job, but thank you for asking.”

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.”  Roy and Chuck assured me they would stay active for the coming year and with them as guides, I figured it would work out. 

Once I agreed to become Scoutmaster, I got signed up for three 3-day weekends at Wood Badge training – training for scout troop leaders.  That was what I needed as it actually taught me the principles of scouting.  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.  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. 

Anyway, I was the official Troop 42 Scoutmaster for 3 years, and then stepped back into assistant scoutmaster for many more years.  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.  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.  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.  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. 

Adam, Scott H, Brad, Scott A, Bob – classmates in school and fellow Eagle Scouts

January in Utopia

The first week of our TX vacation has passed here in Garner State Park, TX.  We have done some sight seeing, some reading, me some work on the book and a little hiking.  With the exception of one rainy night, and a cool cloudy day, the weather has been lovely – 40s-60s.  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. 

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.   We remember the 1970s trip we took and the enjoyable shopping and touristing across the border and hope to try at least once.   We need to do it without much walking to accommodate Margo.  So maybe a tour setup up with a taxi.  When we get to Laredo we will see what can be arranged.

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.   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.  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. 

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. 

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.  I am finding them and adding each to the book.  I also have several family histories used in previous books prepared by the families to add.  And of course lots of old newspaper clippings, photos, obituaries, genealogy and other items that relate to folks in the cemetery. 

Yesterday, after the library visit, we drove the 16 miles east of Garner to Utopia, TX and had lunch there.  We had done this last year and enjoyed it and did it again.  Margo had the hamburger (immense) and I the BLT.   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  oak tables.  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. 

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. 

As the men finished their last refill of coffee, they grudgingly talked about getting back to work or in some cases retirement. 

“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.”

“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.”

The folks at the table all laughed at the good natured ribbing

“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.” 

Then the appreciative laughter around the table. Some of the talk was so twanged and drawled it was hard to understand. 

“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.”

“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. 

“You ain’t done much starving, looks to me,” commented another. 

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.

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.  

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.  

Texas Heats Up

80F here in Garner State Park, SW Texas on Jan 26th, 2020.   Too warm to fast and we are going into heat stroke danger.

Texas Get-Away  Jan 25-26

5:30 am on a Saturday here in Garner State Park, Texas.  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.

Yesterday was sunny, 60Fs, a lovely day to work outside with cleaning the car out completely and using a polish kit on the headlights.  It turned out good, but I learned that with patience I could likely have done it even better.  The reviews say you should do it about every year and so I may get another chance.  In the good old days, lights had glass sealed beams that although they broke regularly from stones, were clear their whole life.  The bulb in reflector plastic lasts longer but yellows and gets a patina.  It came off fine and we should enjoy night driving now rather than dreading it.

The week ahead is supposed to be 60s and and 70s with overnight 40s and mostly sunny.  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.  Margo, who feels the cold more than I do, uses the electric blanket and stays warm.   We depend on electricity for our camper.  We could camp without it but would not be very comfortable without our appliances.  We had a sink and counter two burner gas stove, but removed it, the propane tank and prefer our Coleman outdoor cooking.  We have a small refrigerator, coffee maker, microwave and toaster inside.  The camper cranks up and folds out two wings.  One we use for sleeping and the other for storage, refrigerator, etc.  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.  Takes up less room and works OK. 

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.  Plenty of room for the gear  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. 

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.  I don’t mind cooking in cold weather outside either.  I probably should get a small electric oven too so I could bake too. 

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.  We don’t have a TV; do have a clock radio, and at this park, no cell phone service nor internet.  So I work on the computer on projects and Margo reads a book. 

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.  A few acres he turned screened with shrubs and trees and a place to sit and muse about natures.   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.  He got me reading it too, and a few years ago I stumbled on to a book of the columns and bought it.  The book reminded me of a friend I made, the patient Herb who I helped get up most days for 2.5 years. 

6:00 AM Sunday January 26, 2020

We left Wisconsin on Monday, January 20^th and today is the 7^th day of our vacation that is likely to last until the end of February.  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.  Tuesday we check on the camper tire spare replacement.  We signed up for 2 weeks at this park and may stay longer. Another  two weeks here would cost $360 plus $80 for the Texas Pass renewal.  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.  Last year we moved to LA and regretted it because of the almost continuous heavy rains that miss us in SW TX. 

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”).   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.  I had to call the fraud division.  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.  I did forget to say I might use it in Mexico, and so will take a few $20s if we cross.

From Uvalde, it is about an hour drive to the border at Del Rio or Eagle Pass.  Monday, we have decided to drive the 90 miles to whichever Google says is smaller and safer, and see about a border crossing tour.   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. 

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).  Between then and now I think maybe less than half dozen border crossings – mostly walk across and back.  With Margo not up to walking any distance, we need to think about a bus, taxi, rowboat etc.  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. 

So did we get anything accomplished Saturday?  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.  It doesn’t stop the stove from working, just pools a little fuel around the threaded area.  Made skillet hamburgers. 

Today is starting cloudy and mild – forgot to buy a thermometer and no hey googling, but probably 50s.  Our campsite is nestled adjacent a small mountain range to the west, and so we are free from Texas winds.  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.  I suppose we are in the edges of the Rockies. 

Surely today I will get to working on my Wolf Creek Cemetery history book.  Did some yesterday and realized that, like all of these undertakings, it will be a lot more work than I thought.  Although I have much of the information already, putting it together and editing will be pretty tedious.   My goal is Memorial Day, 2020, to sell it at the program at the Cemetery.  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.  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. 

For instance—the Lagoo family represents both Native American and Canadian voyageurs.  The Blairs, the post Civil War veterans getting free land by homesteads.  The Brenizers, the influx of Iowans about 1900 as what I could call “second growth” settlement.  The Orrs and Rogers the early loggers from Canada or out East.  The Deneens, the earliest business folks with the Wolf Creek Dam and mill.  The Englins, the Scandinavian homesteaders.  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.  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.  

Of course, what sells books is if your family is mentioned, and so we must do lots of that!!!

Spent a few hours renewing the Impala headlights.  They were yellow and quite opague, making night driving bad.  I bought a $20 NuLens kit and  the battery drill along and although didn’t do it perfectly, came out with a much brighter night driving experience.