Arbor Day

At the one-room country school I attended, we celebrated Arbor Day each year--usually in late April. On that special day we all brought garden rakes from home and spent the day raking the schoolyard. Our schoolyard was one acre, which doesn't sound like much until you have to rake every square foot of it.

We also had lots of oak trees in our schoolyard, so there was lots to rake. We usually finished sometime in early afternoon. We piled the leaves, burned them, and roasted wieners and marshmallows. Great fun. A day outside and a break from study.

The first Arbor Day was celebrated on April 10, 1872 in Nebraska. Julius Sterling Morton, a newspaperman, thought Nebraska's landscape would be improved with more planting of trees. So Arbor Day is associated with tree planting, although I don't recall we ever planted trees in our schoolyard as a part of the celebration. After all, we had plenty of trees.

Today, Arbor Day is officially celebrated on the last Friday of April--and it's a national event.

Anyone have a memory of Arbor Day when you were a kid?


The Old Timer recalls the words of Aldo Leopold: "Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets. To plant a pine, one need only a shovel."

Sunrise at the Pond

In the dim light of dawn I unfold my portable stool,pour a cup of coffee from my Thermos and fish the binoculars out of my pocket. I'm sitting near my pond this early spring morning not knowing what I'll see. Soon I catch movement to my left. A pair of shadowy gray sandhill cranes move slowly though the tall dead grass, their camouflage near perfect. And then a flock of geese flies over in a long jagged V, so low I can hear the swishing of their wings mixed with their honking.

A few minutes later I hear a wild turkey gobble to the north, and moments after I hear him I see the big bird lumbering toward the pond. The big tom is not alone, two others trail behind him and behind them I spot two hens. A five-some out on an early morning walk.

It's turkey mating season. All three gobblers stop a hundred yards or so from me (they don't see me) and go into full display--fanning their big tails like we sometimes see in the Thanksgiving paintings of turkeys. A sight to behold. Except the two hens seemed not impressed at all. They search for something to eat in the wet soil around the pond, while their boy friends? strut their stuff with no reaction.

One of the cranes lets loose with its call and the sound disrupts the gobblers who seem compelled to answer the crane with loud "Gobble, Gobble, Gobbles."

I am so caught up with my watching and listening, I have no time to drink coffee.


The Old Timer Says: "Remember, Tuesday is Earth Day (April 22). This is the only earth we have, we gotta take care of it."

Upcoming Events

April 23, 6:00 p.m. RINGLINGVILLE USA, Beloit Historical Society, Beloit, WI.
e-mail pkeer@beloithistoricalsociety.com for further information.

April 24, 7:00 p.m. Black Earth Public Library. The Lighter Side of Country Living.

April 29, 11:30 a.m Governor Dodge Convention Center, Platteville, WI. (University of Wisconsin-Platteville). Luncheon. The Lighter Side of Country Living. Call 888-281.9472 for further information.

Spring Cleaning

Spring cleaning is what my mother called it. The first warm days of April she took down the dining room curtains and washed them. Took the quilts off the beds and hung them on the clothes line back of the house and beat the dickens out of them (and the winter collection of dust as well). And most important of all, she convinced Pa to take down the stove pipes for the dining room stove and move the dirty, dusty Round Oak wood burner out to the woodshed where it would remain until November.

No matter what the weather, when Ma began spring cleaning, we knew it was spring.


The Old Timer, in this month of taxpaying, remembers Ben Franklin's famous words: "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."


Upcoming Events:

April 15, 11:00 a.m. LIGHTER SIDE OF COUNTRY LIVING, Clear Lake Community Center, Clear Lake,WI

April 17, 7:00 P.M. LIGHTER SIDE OF COUNTRY LIVING, Jackson Historical Society, Jackson, WI

April 18,6:30 pm. IN A PICKLE, Rusk County Free Film Festival, Miner Theater, Ladysmith, WI

April 19, 11:30 a.m. IN A PICKLE, Literary Bash, Mead Wildlife Area, Milladore, WI

April 23, 6:00 p.m. RINGLINGVILLE USA, Beloit Historical Society, Beloit, WI.
e-mail pkeer@beloithistoricalsociety.com for further information.

Walking into Spring

I walk a mile each morning, except when the snow is too deep or the walkway too icy. This morning I walked into spring. Robin song everywhere, a mourning dove call in the distance, sandhill cranes talking to each other. The smell of spring steeped with promise and anticipation. And the last grainy snow piles in fast retreat with trickles of melt water oozing from their bottoms.

Naturalist Hal Borland wrote: "No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn." How true it is.

The Old Timer says: "Appreciate the importance of waiting and the value of looking forward to something, as you enjoy what you are doing now."


Upcoming Events:

April 12, 8:30 p.m. IN A PICKLE, reading and signing, Borders West, Madison

April 15, 11:00 a.m. LIGHTER SIDE OF COUNTRY LIVING, Clear Lake Community Center, Clear Lake,WI

April 17, 7:00 P.M. LIGHTER SIDE OF COUNTRY LIVING, Jackson Historical Society, Jackson, WI

April 18,6:30 pm. IN A PICKLE, Rusk County Free Film Festival, Miner Theater, Ladysmith, WI

April 19, 11:30 a.m. IN A PICKLE, Literay Bash, Mead Wildlife Area, Milladore, WI