Christmas Tree

We cut our Christmas tree this past week. A self-seeded white pine from the farm. It is a third generation white pine. John Coombes, who owned Roshara before us, planted a row of white pines as a windbreak during the 1930s. Today some of these pines are more than three feet across, forty feet tall and have scads of cones.

A six or seven acre cornfield was located east of this windbreak when my family bought the farm in the mid-1960s. After a year or two of no corn, we noticed little white pines growing everywhere. Today these self-seeded white pines (from the original windbreak pines) are one of the unique aspects of our farm. Many of them are now twenty and more feet tall. One of my favorite hikes, all seasons of the year, is among these pines. If there is a slightest breeze, the trees talk to me, a gentle soothing message as the wind rustles the soft needles.

Now there are third-generation pines growing everywhere, naturally growing with no help from us whatever. And one of these little white pines is our 2008 Christmas tree.


The Old Timer says: When it is too late to do something, it is usually too late.

Upcoming Events:

December 6, 10 AM, Washington County Historical Society, West Bend. Address, 320 South 5th Avenue, West Bend. Old Farm. Fireside Books, 2:00 PM-3:00 PM West Bend, WI. Featuring Old Farm. Presentation and book signing.

December 9, 6:30 PM, Watertown Public Library. Old Farm and other stories.

December 13, 9:30-11:30 AM, Sheboygan Falls, Library. Sheboygan County Historical
Research Center. Old Farm: A History.

December 14, 1:00-3:00 PM. Barnes and Noble West, Madison. Books signing. Old Farm.

Deer Season

Opening morning of deer season. Five degrees above zero. Cold. But so quiet. Not a sound. No crows cawing in the distance. No squirrels chattering. No pileated woodpecker destroying a dead white pine. Not even a chickadee calling.
Then it is six-thirty and a rifle shot shatters the silence and echoes over the hills and through the valleys.

And once more it is quiet as I pull up my collar and pour a cup of steaming coffee and stare through the early morning cold. What could be better?

The Old Timer says: Try and try again, and maybe once more. But then try something different.

Upcoming Events:

November 28, 7:30 PM. Wisconsin Public Television, Here and Now program. Old Farm.

December 6, 10-2:00 PM, Fireside Books, West Bend, WI. Featuring Old Farm. Presentation and book signing.

December 9, 6:30 PM, Watertown Public Library. Old Farm and other stories.

December 13, 9:30-11:30 AM, Sheboygan Falls, Library. Sheboygan County Historical
Research Center. Old Farm: A History.

December 14, 1:00-3:00 PM. Barnes and Noble West, Madison. Books signing. Old Farm.

Making Wood

We make wood once a year at Roshara, a couple days in late October or November. Making wood is an old farm term. It means cutting down trees and splitting blocks and piling the sliced pieces so they can dry.

My son, Steve and I cut down three dead black oak trees last week, on a day when snowflakes drifted from the sky and the woods was filled with silence.

It is hard work, especially for someone who doesn’t do it regularly. But the satisfactions are many. Smelling fresh cut oak wood. Meeting the challenge of an oak block that defies splitting. Seeing the pile of freshly split wood grow ever taller as pieces are added.
Enjoying the heat from our wood burning cook stove at the cabin. And remembering how we made wood for days on end when I was a kid, as we heated our farmhouse, the pump house and the potato cellar with woodstoves.


The Old Timer remembers this saying from his German relatives: Let us all stick together. Everyone for himself.

Upcoming Events:

November 20, 12:30 UW-Baraboo, Baraboo, WI. How technology has changed farming and rural life: a historical perspective.

December 6, 10-2:00 PM, Fireside Books, West Bend, WI. Featuring Old Farm. Presentation and book signing.

December 9, 6:30 PM, Watertown Public Library. Stories from the land.

December 13, 9:30-11:30 AM, Sheboygan Falls, Library. Sheboygan County Historical
Research Center. Old Farm: A History.

December 14, 1:00-3:00 PM. Barnes and Noble West, Madison. Books signing. Old Farm.

National Farm Toy Show

I have just returned from three days at the National Farm Toy Show in Dyersville, Iowa. Signing books and talking with farm folk from throughout the U.S. and Canada, along with more than a few from other countries of the world.

Often three generations, grandpa, son and granddaughter or grandson walking around together. Looking at toy tractors. Talking about farm life during an earlier time. Sharing stories. Passing along history from generation to generation. So important during these times of rapid change.

The Old Timer Says: When I am alone, I prefer to be by myself.

Upcoming events:

November 20, 12:30 UW-Baraboo, Baraboo, WI. How technology has changed farming and rural life: a historical perspective.

December 6, 10-2:00 PM, Fireside Books, West Bend, WI. Featuring Old Farm. Presentation and book signing.

December 9, 6:30 PM, Watertown Public Library. Stories from the land.

December 13, 9:30-11:30 AM, Sheboygan Falls, Library. Sheboygan County Historical
Research Center. Old Farm: A History.

Enjoy Autumn

--Keep close to nature's heart . . . and break away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.--

John Muir said this many years ago, and it is so true yet today. Although you may have some trouble finding a real mountain in the Midwest, you can still climb to a high place and look over the countryside. Or just take a walk in the woods and smell fall all around you. A time of celebration. A time for thinking back to the season just past.

The Old Timer says: Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it is curiosity that keeps a person alive and thinking.


Upcoming Events:

November 5, 5-7:00 PM. Barnes and Noble, Green Bay. Book signing. Featuring Old
Farm.

November 7-9, National Farm Toy Show, Dyersville Iowa. Book signing. Featuring Old
Farm.
November 7, 6-9 pm
November 8, 9-6 pm
November 9, 9-2 pm

November 20, 12:30 UW-Baraboo, Baraboo, WI. How technology had changed farming and rural life: a historical perspective.

December 6, 10-2:00 PM, Fireside Books, West Bend, WI. Featuring Old Farm. Presentation and book signing.

December 9, 6:30 PM, Watertown Public Library. Stories from the land.

December 13, 9:30-11:30 AM, Sheboygan Falls, Library. Sheboygan County Historical
Research Center. Old Farm: A History.