Garden Harvest

I put my garden to bed for the winter this past week. I dug the potatoes, carrots, beets, onions and rutabagas. I gathered up the remaining pumpkins and squash. I picked the ornamental corn and cut the tops from the broom corn and the sorghum. I cut a plump head of red cabbage, picked several zucchini and a couple stalks of Brussels sprouts. I picked another half bushel of tomatoes, the last of a slow tomato season. And finally, I harvested my several rows of navy beans. In spite of the bunny problems in early season, the beans did well.

As I do every fall, I thought about my garden successes and failures. A good pumpkin year, an average potato crop, a poor crop of squash, an excellent sweet corn harvest, an average pea harvest, a good zucchini crop and outstanding carrots. But alas, the beets and the rutabagas were near crop failures.

Gardening is a lot like life, each year is filled with surprises, some successes, some failures but always different. What will next year bring? In a few months I’ll be making plans.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: In any journey, it’s important to stop from time to time and be thankful for the distance you’ve covered.

NEW NOVEL, BLUE SHADOWS FARM, NOW AVAILABLE: Check my website for further information. Check my schedule below for book signings and presentations.


COMING EVENTS:
Oct. 1, 7:00 p.m. Chippewa Falls Library, Blue Shadows Farm

Oct. 4, 1:30 p.m. Monona Historical Society, Monona, Iowa, The Lighter Side of Country Living, including Blue Shadows Farm

Oct. 15, 7:00 p.m. Reader’s Loft, Green Bay, Blue Shadows Farm

Oct. 17, (9 to 4) Writing From Your Life Workshop. The Clearing, Ellison Bay, WI. (Still room for additional participants. Contact http://www.theclearing.org.)

Oct. 20, 7:00 p.m. Barnes and Noble, Madison West. Official Book Launch, Blue Shadows Farm

Oct. 24, 1:00 p.m. Wild Rose Library. Book Launch, Central Wisconsin, Blue Shadows Farm

Oct. 28, 6:30 p.m. Elkhorn Library. Blue Shadows Farm

Nov 6-8: National Farm Toy Show, Dyersville, Iowa. Book signing: Blue Shadows Farm and other titles

Pumpkins Big and Little

This was the year of the pumpkin in my garden. Big ones and little ones, both kinds perfectly formed. The little ones not much larger than a chicken egg. The big ones—well two of them made a wheelbarrow load.

The two varieties grew in the same row; the big ones didn’t bother the little ones or try to do them in. The little ones didn’t seem to mind that they were little. Big and little growing side by side, each doing the best it could. And each succeeding. A lesson here for the rest of us?

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Bigger is not better. Nor is little better. There should be room for us all.


NEW NOVEL, BLUE SHADOWS FARM, NOW AVAILABLE: Check my website for further information. Check my schedule below for book signings and presentations.

Reviewer Christine Eirschele wrote: “A thread of determination is spun throughout the story of Blue Shadow Farms. While this tale begins with Silas, it is the women that emerge as the toughest characters, beginning with Sophia Reinert and ending with Emma Starkweather. It is not until 2000, when Emma uses Silas’s plan to ensure the survival of the farm, continuing the real importance Silas learned so long ago, saving the land.” See entire review at Suite 101.com.


COMING EVENTS:
Sept. 21, 7:00 p.m. Sequoya Library, Madison. Ames County Novels presentation

Sept. 24-25, Midwest Book Sellers Convention, St. Paul, MN.

Oct. 1, 7:00 p.m. Chippewa Falls Library, Blue Shadows Farm

Oct. 4, 1:30 p.m. Monona Historical Society, Monona, Iowa, The Lighter Side of Country Living, including Blue Shadows Farm

Oct. 15, 7:00 p.m. Reader’s Loft, Green Bay, Blue Shadows Farm

Oct. 17, (9 to 4) Writing From Your Life Workshop. The Clearing, Ellison Bay, WI. (Still room for additional participants. Contact http://www.theclearing.org.)

Oct. 20, 7:00 p.m. Barnes and Noble, Madison West. Official Book Launch, Blue Shadows Farm

Oct. 24, 1:00 p.m. Patterson Memorial Library, Wild Rose. Book Launch, Central Wisconsin, Blue Shadows Farm

Oct. 28, 6:30 p.m. Elkhorn Library. Blue Shadows Farm

Nov 6-8: National Farm Toy Show, Dyersville, Iowa. Book signing: Blue Shadows Farm and other titles

Grape Jelly

I have a grape arbor in my front yard. More truthfully, I have one lone Concord grape vine that tangles around my split rail fence out by the sidewalk. Except for some heavy pruning in early spring, which means I cut it back so there is only a couple feet of vine remaining, I do nothing with it. Absolutely nothing. No watering, no fertilizing, no spraying. I just watch it grow, and it grows and grows and seems to grow more each year. It’s probably 20 years old now, no longer a teenager and coming into its own.

This week I picked about a half bushel of beautiful deep purple, plump grapes, many with just a blush of gray on them to set off the purple.

And Ruth made jelly, and more jelly, and still more jelly—six batches in all for a total of 42 jars of tasty, downright pretty jelly. Christmas presents, birthday presents—get on Ruth’s good side and she might give you a jar. But then again, she may not. Much of it is already spoken for. Sue, Paul and the boys want some. Steve and Natasha already have their order in. Jeff, Sandy and their family claim nothing is better on toast.


THE OLD TIMER SAYS: There is something about the taste of what’s made in your own kitchen that surpasses anything you buy in a store, no matter how fancy the store, or how plain your kitchen.


NEW NOVEL, BLUE SHADOWS FARM, NOW AVAILABLE: Check my website for further information. Check my schedule below for book signings and presentations.

DESCRIPTION: Follow the Starkweather family through three generations as they try to make a living on a farm near Link Lake, Ames County, Wisconsin. Through the story of the Starkweather family’s changing fortunes, and each family’s very different relationship to the land, BLUE SHADOWS FARM is in some ways the narrative of all farmers and the increasingly difficult challenges they face as committed stewards of the land.

SCHEDULE OF APPEARANCES:

Sept. 16, 12 Noon. UW Oshkosh Learning in Retirement. LaSure’s Banquet Hall, Oshkosh. Life after Academe

Sept. 17, 11:45-12:30. Larry Meiller Show. Wisconsin Public Radio. Blue Shadows Farm

Sept. 19, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Morgan Horse Field Day, Schuster Farm, Deerfield, WI. (Book signing and Presentation on history of farming with horses)

Sept. 21, 7:00 p.m. Sequoya Library, Madison. Ames County Novels presentation

Oct. 1, 7:00 p.m. Chippewa Falls Library, Blue Shadows Farm

Oct. 4, 1:30 p.m. Monona Historical Society, Monona, Iowa, The Lighter Side of Country Living, including Blue Shadows Farm

Oct. 15, 7:00 p.m. Reader’s Loft, Green Bay, Blue Shadows Farm

Oct. 17, (9 to 4) Writing From Your Life Workshop. The Clearing, Ellison Bay, WI. (Still room for additional participants. Contact http://www.theclearing.org.)

Oct. 20, 7:00 p.m. Barnes and Noble, Madison West. Official Book Launch, Blue Shadows Farm

Oct. 24, 1:00 p.m. Wild Rose Library. Book Launch, Central Wisconsin, Blue Shadows Farm

Oct. 28, 6:30 p.m. Elkhorn Library. Blue Shadows Farm

Nov 6-8: National Farm Toy Show, Dyersville, Iowa. Book signing: Blue Shadows Farm and other titles

Boundary Waters

This past week Steve and I canoed in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area located within the Superior National Forest in northern Minnesota. At one point we were less than a mile from Canada. It is a land of birch trees and stately white pines, of balsam fir and white cedar. It is the land of moose and wolves, black bear and beaver, bald eagles and white-tailed deer—and pesky red squirrels that wait for campers’ handouts.

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area is more than one-million acres of lakes, portages, wild animals and birds, rocks, hills, dense forest—and quiet. Oh, how quiet with no background noise of traffic. No cell phone service, no internet, no radio, no TV.

It is the land of loons, those beautiful big black and white water birds whose calls mystify and delight. A loon swam but a few yards off the portage from Hungry Jack Lake to Bearskin Lake when we put in our canoe. It looked us over, checked us out, and then called lustily to its mate somewhere off in the distance. The return call echoed across the still waters of Bearskin Lake. The call of the loon brings us back each year to this special place, a sacred place for many.


THE OLD TIMER SAYS: If everyone is thinking the same way, then no one is thinking at all.


BLUE SHADOWS FARM: Now Available. Someone asked me what my newest book is about. A WISCONSIN TRAILS reviewer wrote: Uncover the changing face of a Wisconsin farm . . . . Recall bygone days and gain an appreciation for the difficult challenges farmers face as committed stewards of the land.


UPCOMING EVENTS.

Sept. 9, 7:00 p.m. Whitewater Library. Country Living and other stories.

Sept. 16, 12 Noon. UW Oshkosh Learning in Retirement. LaSure’s Banquet Hall, Oshkosh. Life after Academe.

Sept. 17, 11:45-12:30. Larry Meiller Show. Wisconsin Public Radio. Blue Shadows Farm.

Sept. 21, 7:00 p.m. Sequoya Library, Madison. Blue Shadows Farm

Oct. 1, 7:00 p.m. Chippewa Falls Library, Blue Shadows Farm

Oct. 4, 1:30 p.m. Monona Historical Society, Monona, Iowa, The Lighter Side of Country Living, including Blue Shadows Farm

Oct. 15, 7:00 p.m. Reader’s Loft, Green Bay, Blue Shadows Farm

Oct. 17, (9 to 4) Writing From Your Life Workshop. The Clearing, Ellison Bay, WI. (Still room for additional participations. Contact http://www.theclearing.org.)

Oct. 20, 7:00 p.m. Barnes and Noble, Madison West. Official Book Launch, Blue Shadows Farm

Oct. 24, 1:00 p.m. Patterson Memorial Library, Wild Rose. Book Launch, Central Wisconsin, Blue Shadows Farm

Oct. 28, 6:30 p.m. Elkhorn Library. Blue Shadows Farm