Colorado Garden

My Colorado grandsons, Christian (11) and Nicholas (9), watched carefully by their sister, Elizabeth (5) planted a vegetable garden back of their Avon, Colorado home last week. In between rain showers.

Avon, elevation above sea level about 7,500 feet and a growing season of about 65 days, presents special challenges to the gardener. Frost is a danger until about the middle of June. Autumn frosts start by mid-August.

For that narrow window of growing season we planted lettuce, radishes, green beans, carrots and a few other cool weather crops and hoped for the best as this will be the kids’ first vegetable garden.

For a Midwesterner, the Colorado soils are a mystery to me. I bought an inexpensive soil testing kit at the local Home Depot and Christian and I tested the soil. As I surmised, no lime would ever be necessary as the soil is naturally alkaline with sufficient amounts of potash and potassium. As for nitrogen, their soil essentially had none. We bought several sacks of compost and some nitrogen fertilizer, which we worked into the soil before planting.

Of course each day after we planted the kids were checking to see if anything had come up. Gardening teaches patience. I hope this high country garden also does not teach disappointment.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Doing something that is especially hard gets a lot harder if you do too much thinking about it.

UPCOMING WRITING WORKSHOPS:

Writing From Your Life. The Clearing, Ellison Bay, WI. August 2-8.

Writing From Your Life. Sheboygan Public Library, August 23, P.M.

Writing From Your Life. The Clearing, Ellison Bay, WI. October 17. A.M. & P.M.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

June 30, 7:00 P.M. Prairie du Sac Library. Old Farm.

Bean Patch

Anyone who has read Walden knows about Thoreau and his bean patch. He devoted an entire chapter to beans and wrote eloquently about his bean rows and how they attached him to the earth.

Not to be outdone by Henry David Thoreau, this year I devoted about a quarter of my large garden at Roshara to beans. Not snap beans, not pole beans, but navy beans or field beans as some call them. They grow until they ripen, then are harvested and threshed. I tried this a few years ago and they grew well. I planted a lot more this year. My new son-in-law to be is a cook and a darn good one. I have not told him yet, but I will have beans for him this fall. I hope lots of them. And I will encourage him to make baked beans with molasses and a little bacon. I can taste them now.

NOTE: Off to Colorado until the end of the May. Time for Ruth and me to check up on the Colorado grandkids.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Knew a fellow once who was so dumb he did not know beans when the bag was open.

UPCOMING WRITING WORKSHOPS:

Writing From Your Life. The Clearing, Ellison Bay, WI. August 2-8.

Writing From Your Life. Sheboygan Public Library, August 23, P.M.

Writing From Your Life. The Clearing, Ellison Bay, WI. October 17. A.M. & P.M.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

May 19, 7:00 P.M. Book Vault, Oskaloosa, Iowa. Old Farm: A History, In a Pickle and more.

June 30, 7:00 P.M. Prairie du Sac Library. Old Farm.

The Plunge

My friend Jim Kolka said about my unintended dunk in Gilbert Lake last week that I had done it on purpose so that I’d have something to write about.

Believe me, it wasn’t on purpose. The water was way too cold for that. But it did evoke considerable response.

Jeanne Engle wrote, Oh my, glad only your pride was hurt. (More than my pride got wet.)

Linda and William Schlaak wondered if brother Don all along knew the boat seat clamp was loose. (From the way he laughed, I suspect he did)

Fellow writer Howard Sherpe from Westby said, using Westby Norwegian language. The Plunge. Uff da, Jerry. What an adventure! Now if you had gone in the lake trying to land a trophy fish . . . (Yup, that’s what I was doing. Going for a trophy Northern Pike. Right.)

Kathryn Moore from Savanna, Illinois said: Talk about Two Stooges!!!!! What a laugh, at least from my seat. Sorry you got cold but you gotta admit it makes for a giggle for someone else. (Taking about giggling, my dear little brother, Don, is still laughing so hard he cannot even talk about the event, to say nothing about finding time to fix the boat seat.)

On a different note:

Yesterday, in Milwaukee, I was pleased to receive the Ellis/Henderson Outdoor Writing Award for my book OLD FARM: A HISTORY (Wisconsin Historical Society Press). The awards ceremony was sponsored by the Council for Wisconsin Writers. Always a humbling experience to win an award when I know there are so many good writers in Wisconsin.


THE OLD TIMER SAYS: One of the most important things we can learn is how to get out of our own way.

UPCOMING WRITING WORKSHOPS:

Writing From Your Life. The Clearing, Ellison Bay, WI. August 2-8.

Writing From Your Life. Sheboygan Public Library, August 23, P.M.

Writing From Your Life. The Clearing, Ellison Bay, WI. October 17. A.M. & P.M.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

May 13, 7:00 P.M. Hartford Public Library, Hartford. Old Farm: A History.

May 16, 10:30 A.M. – 2:30 P.M. Dregne Gift Shop, Westby. Old Farm: A History

May 19, 7:00 P.M. Book Vault, Oskaloosa, Iowa. Old Farm: A History, In a Pickle and more.

June 30, 7:00 P.M. Prairie du Sac Library. Old Farm.

Adventure

There was a time when I went looking for adventure. Not so much anymore. But last Sunday adventure came looking for me.

To welcome in the new fishing season, my brother ,Donald and I launched his boat with new motor and even newer fish finder into Gilbert Lake east of Wild Rose. The day was sunny, but cool with a cold westerly breeze rippling the water.

We arrived at our agreed on fishing spot without incident. We were the only boat on the lake, so had many choices of where to fish. Don said the fish finder reported 18 feet of water with a water temperature of 58 degrees. He suggested I crawl to the front of the boat and loosen the anchor, which I did. On the way back to my seat—a new one he had just purchased which allowed the occupant to sit high and see far—it happened.

I grabbed hold of the seat to right myself. The seat, fastened with a clamp, came loose and yours truly plunged into the lake with a huge splash. The first time in more than six decades of fishing that I have fallen out of a boat.

My life preserver brought me to the surface immediately, but it did nothing to change the water temperature. I was now wide awake and thoroughly soaked, and unable to climb back in the boat. Don pulled up the anchor, fired up his motor and dragged me a hundred yards to shore, where I dumped the water from my boots, noted I still had my glasses, keys, billfold and cell phone. We motored back to the boat landing. Once my brother decided that I didn’t have a heart attack from the shock of dumping into cold water, wasn’t suffering too much from hypothermia and I hadn’t drowned, he was laughing so hard he could scarcely steer the boat. I wasn’t laughing.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: No matter what you do on water—boating, canoeing, sailing—wear a life vest. And check the seats on any boat you climb into, even if it belongs to your brother.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

May 6, 7:00 P.M. Albertson Memorial Library, Albany, WI. Old Farm: A History.

May 7, 10:30 A.M. Wisconsin Association of Public Libraries Convention. Glacier Canyon Lodge at Wilderness Way, Wisconsin Dells. Old Farm: A history.

May 13, 7:00 P.M. Hartford Public Library, Hartford. Old Farm: A History.

May 16, 10:30 A.M. – 2:30 P.M. Dregne Gift Shop, Westby. Old Farm: A History

May 19, 7:00 P.M. Book Vault, Oskaloosa, Iowa. Old Farm: A History, In a Pickle and more.