Giving Thanks

This past week was devoted to giving thanks, for setting aside the problems and turmoil, the frets and fusses of life to think of the good and the important. The enduring and the meaningful.

For me the week focused on family gathered around a Thanksgiving table, brothers and their wives, children and their children, stories shared of earlier days, memories of those no longer with us. Giggles and laughter from the younger generation who have heard the stories already several times, and who vow to never repeat them. But they will, for it is the stories that tie families together. That keep the generations connected.

And of course there was feasting. But Thanksgiving celebrations are more than turkey and cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and dressing, dill pickles and mashed potatoes with Paul’s special gravy—although it is food that brings us all together.

Thanksgiving is for giving thanks—and for remembering. For once again being reminded of the importance of family.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Family comes first. Before work. Ahead of play. Beyond everything that may look so important at the time.

WRITING WORKSHOP: The dates for my writing workshop at The Clearing in Door
County for 2010 are August 8-14. Contact www.theclearing.org for further information.

CHRISTMAS GIFTS: Consider BLUE SHADOWS FARM, IN A PICKLE, and OLD FARM. See my website for details about these books. Available in most book shops. Can also be ordered from my website.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

December 7, 1:00 p.m. Sugar Creek Camp, Ferryville, WI. Stories From the Land.

December 12, 10 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Fireside Books, West Bend, WI. Book signing. Presentation at 10:30 a.m. Blue Shadows Farm.

January 4, 11:45-12:30. Wisconsin Public Radio, Ideas Network. Telling Wisconsin Stories. (With Larry Meiller)

January 14, 6:30 p.m. Madison History Round Table. West Side Business Men’s Association. Old Farm

January 19, Noon luncheon. SAIL (Supporting Active Independent Lives) Black Hawk County Club, Madison. Telling Stories—Why and How.

Deer Hunting 2009

I’m going deer hunting on Saturday morning. Haven’t missed a deer season since I was twelve years old, and that goes back to a time when we wore red coats rather than blaze orange. I hunted with my dad back then, and walked miles from farm to farm—no trespassing signs in those days. Not many deer either.

People say to me, “You still go deer hunting?”

“Yup,” I answer with a smile. And they look at me like I’ve lost a marble or two.

“Why do you do it?” they ask. My cynical answer is because I still can. But the reasons are more complicated than that. I hunt deer because my family has hunted for generations. My dad still hunted when he was 92. Deer hunting season is when I see my brother, and my three nephews, who all hunt. My son has hunted with me since he was twelve.

And it’s one more opportunity to be outdoors, in the quiet of a late November morning when the countryside is saying goodbye to fall and waiting for winter. The smells and sounds of fall are all around when I sit on the edge of a field on the back end of my farm.

Oh, I still enjoy a slice of venison sausage. Nothing better, especially if it’s home grown.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: There are no shortcuts to important places.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

December 7, 1:00 p.m. Sugar Creek Camp, Ferryville, WI. Stories From the Land.

December 12, 10 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Fireside Books, West Bend, WI. Book signing. Presentation at 10:30 a.m. Blue Shadows Farm.

January 4, 11:45-12:30. Wisconsin Public Radio, Ideas Network. Telling Wisconsin Stories. (With Larry Meiller)

January 14, 6:30 p.m. Madison History Round Table. West Side Business Men’s Association. Old Farm

January 19, Noon luncheon. SAIL (Supporting Active Independent Lives) Black Hawk County Club, Madison. Telling Stories—Why and How.

Sheboygan County Research Center

History is alive in Sheboygan County,Wisconsin. Much of the interest and excitement is due to the Sheboygan County Research Center in Sheboygan Falls. With the leadership of Beth Dippel, Executive Director, her staff and a host of volunteers the center has carved out an impressive place in preserving and sharing the area’s history.

“Second Saturdays” is what they’ve labeled Saturday morning programs that start in September and continue through May. The 2009-1010 program topics range from Windmills to Wisconsin’s Champion Trees, from Wisconsin wine-making history to the history of deer hunting in Wisconsin.

I was privileged to talk with more than 100 people who crowded into the basement meeting room of the Sheboygan Falls Public Library as part of the Second Saturday series. I shared a bit from my novel, BLUE SHADOWS FARM. Why and how I write historical fiction, and the importance of stories in keeping history alive and interesting.

I was speaking to the choir. This group knows about the importance of history in the lives of people. I applaud the Research Center, its staff and volunteers such as Marge Pearce, who runs the Saturday programs, for their efforts in keeping history alive, vibrant, and interesting. They also serve a good cup of coffee. Go to www.schrc.org for more information about the center.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Learn from many; be taught by all.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

December 7, 1:00 p.m. Sugar Creek Camp, Ferryville, WI. Stories From the Land.

December 12, 10 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Fireside Books, West Bend, WI. Book signing. Presentation at 10:30 a.m. Blue Shadows Farm.

January 4, 11:45-12:30. Wisconsin Public Radio, Ideas Network. Telling Wisconsin Stories. (With Larry Meiller)

January 14, 6:30 p.m. Madison History Round Table. West Side Business Men’s Association. Old Farm

January 19, Noon luncheon. SAIL (Supporting Active Independent Lives) Black Hawk County Club, Madison. Telling Stories—Why and How.

Dyersville, IA

They came from throughout the United States to little Dyersville, Iowa this past weekend, to the National Farm Toy Collectors Convention. Farmers and their sons and daughters. Grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. Babes in arm, in strollers and hanging on the big hands of their farmer fathers. Little kids and big kids (some in their 70s and 80s). All interested in toys, mostly tractors, but trucks and plows and combines—John Deere and IHC, Oliver and Massey-Harris, Allis Chalmers and Ford, and others too.

Buying collectibles, meeting old friends, and swapping stories—oh the stories. Stories from the country. Stories of corn that can’t be harvested because it’s too wet. Stories of milk prices that are too low. Stories of illness and hardship. Stories of a year ago, and many years ago.

Caps and sweatshirts that advertise something, or make a statement. Especially John Deere Caps. John Deere caps everywhere, sprinkled among the IHC caps, and even one lonely Oliver cap. And a favorite gray sweatshirt with but one word in large script across the front “Useless.” I asked the fellow wearing the shirt if it was true. He gave me a big smile. His wife gave me an even bigger smile—I assumed it was his wife.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: It isn’t how many times you fall down that makes a difference; it’s how many times you get back up.

COMING EVENTS:


November 14, 9:30-11:30 a.m., Sheboygan County Historical Research Center, Sheboygan Falls Library. Blue Shadows Farm.

December 7, 1:00 p.m. Sugar Creek Camp, Ferryville, WI. Stories From the Land.

December 12, 10 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Fireside Books, West Bend, WI. Book signing. Presentation at 10:30 a.m. Blue Shadows Farm.

Wood Splitter

My son, Steve, whose day job is photographer for the Wisconsin State Journal, has been my wood splitter for a decade or so. We heat our cabin at the farm with wood stoves, very hungry wood stoves, so each fall we cut down several dead oaks, sometimes a cherry tree, and make wood. Steve splits the chain-sawed blocks into stove friendly sizes.

One has to learn how to “read” a block of wood before splitting it—the direction of the grain, the location of knots. Some blocks are easily split, others less so. Same for understanding people according to Steve. Some people are easy to read, others all knotted and twisted and difficult to deal with.

Earlier this year Steve had surgery on his back—more to do with carrying heavy photo equipment for many years than splitting wood. But no more wood splitting, said his surgeon.

My brother, Don bought a mechanical wood splitter a couple years ago and named it Steve 1. Steve had developed a reputation for wood splitting, you see. Now I have Steve 2, a new mechanical wood-splitter sitting in my shed. An efficient, quiet, non-complaining piece of equipment. A mechanical Steve, but alas, no words of philosophy comparing wood pieces to people and more. A step backward as I try to move forward.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: You cannot know where you are going until you know where you are.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

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

November 14, 9:30-11:30 a.m., Sheboygan County Historical Research Center, Sheboygan Falls Library. Blue Shadows Farm.

December 12, 10 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Fireside Books, West Bend, WI. Book signing. Presentation at 10:30 a.m. Blue Shadows Farm.