Jerry Apps's Blog, page 33

50 Years of Tree Planting at Roshara

We planted 2,000 trees at Roshara in 1966, the year we purchased the place.   By hand. We did the same in 1967 and 1968.  Also by hand.  And we have planted trees at Roshara every year since.  Sometimes only 25, one year 7,500 (not by hand).
This year marked 50 years of tree planting—and we planted 300 of them.  Over the years we have planted in the rain, during sleet storms, during snow storms, and when the wind was so cold we were dressed for winter.  This year it was sunny and in the seventies.  Almost too warm for tree planting.
The tree planting crew consisted of Natasha and Steve, Sue and Paul, and grandson, Josh with his friend, Collin. I had the dubious title of Senior Supervisor—which meant I did a little demonstration on how to correctly plant a tree, which I do every year.  “Dad we know how to plant a tree,” I hear every year.  But I repeat the instructions anyway.   I also had the difficult job of keeping the little trees, they are only about eight to ten inches tall, from drying out.  Which meant I made sure that the little trees roots remained immersed in a pail of water. We were planting red pine, jack pine, and Norway spruce—a hundred of each.
The crew was inter-planting to fill in the places where last year’s trees had died.  Not an easy task because it meant shoveling away sod before slicing a hole in the soil and putting a new tree in place.  It was a hot and sweaty project—but little complaining.  Although Sue claimed the last bunch of trees in the pail increased in size from 25 to 50.
By mid-afternoon the last little tree went into the ground, near a clump of trees we had planted in 1968.  I reminded Steve and Sue that they had help planted those trees, which now stand fifty feet tall.  The were just little kids then, but Ruth and I had them helping out, along with their brother Jeff, who, I’m sure misses our annual tree planting—he lives in Colorado.
THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Plant a tree—what better way to assure a green future.
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Writing Workshops for 2016
Telling Your Story Workshop at Wild Rose Library, Saturday June 11, 9-4. Call 920-622-3835 to get your name on the list as enrollment is limited. (Class is filled)
Telling Your Story Workshop at The Clearing in Door County.  Friday, August 12, 9-4.  Call 920-854-4088 to get your name on the list. (Still Room)
UPCOMING EVENTS.
April 19, 6:00 p.m.  Union Grove Library.  Wisconsin Agriculture: A History
May 14, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Book signing, Dregne’s, Westby.
May 26, 7:00 p.m. Richfield Historical Society, 4128 Hubertus Road, Richfield, WI  Whispers and Shadows.
June 7, 7:00 p.m. Cambria Library. Cambria Fire Dept. Community Center, Cambria.
June 11, 9-4 Writing Workshop, Wild Rose Library.  Telling Your Story
June 14, 9:00 a.m. Keynote speech. Country Heritage Day, St. John the Baptist Church, Montello. Barns of Wisconsin.
July 19, 11:00 a.m., Farm Technology Days, Snudden Farms, Lake Geneva, Walworth County. History of Wisconsin Agriculture.
August 9, 6:30 p.m.. Evening. Winnebago County Historical Society.  Oshkosh Library.  History of Wisconsin Agriculture.
August 12 9-4, Writing Workshop, The Clearing, Door County.
August 20, 10:30-11:30 am.  Waupaca Annual Arts on the Square. 
Purchase Jerry’s DVDS and his Books from the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them): 

The library now has available signed copies of Jerry’s DVDs: Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.) Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)
 The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows.)Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. and Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.Contact the library for prices and special package deals.Patterson Memorial Library500 Division StreetWild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
920-622-3835

National Library Week

About a decade or so ago, I remember reading how libraries were on their way out and would soon be replaced by the computer and the internet.  I’m reminded of Mark Twain, who, when reading about his death in a newspaper, said, “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”        Libraries—public, school, academic and special--the big ones and the little ones are flourishing.  This week (April 10-16) we honor them.  We applaud these places where books are special—and made available to everyone. We reflect on the theme “Libraries Transform.”
 I remember the eight years I attended a one-room country school, where our library was but four shelves of books in the back of the school room, next to the big rusty wood burning stove.  By the time I was in fifth grade I read every book and began reading them over again.  In those days, I did not have access to the village library.  But I loved books, loved holding them, and so much appreciated what I was reading.  Books took me to far places in the world, got me thinking about things I never thought about, and learning about people so different from those in my rural community.
  Arnol Roberts owned the Mercantile in Wild Rose.  In the basement, Mr. Roberts had a table of new books.  When he knew of my interest in reading, and after I had saved money from picking potatoes or cucumbers, he took me to the basement and told me about the books he thought I’d like to read: Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss, Hans Brinker by Mary Mapes Dodge, The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson and more.  They were forty-nine cents, in hardcover, and I have them on my shelf today.
One of the reasons I’m a writer is my great love for books. And today’s libraries make them available to everyone.  Over the past several years, I have spoken at 121 Wisconsin libraries, from north to south, from east to west, from the tiniest of the tiny to the biggest of the big.
 So my hat is off to libraries, they are the community centers in many state’s villages and cities, places where people gather, read books, and chat with each other.  As the theme for National Library Week suggests, “Libraries Transform.”
THE OLD TIMER SAYS:     Read a good book lately?  Stop by your local library and check one out.
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Writing Workshops for 2016
Telling Your Story Workshop at Wild Rose Library, Saturday June 11, 9-4. Call 920-622-3835 to get your name on the list as enrollment is limited.Telling Your Story Workshop at The Clearing in Door County.  Friday, August 12, 9-4.  Call 920-854-4088 to get your name on the list.
UPCOMING EVENTS.
April 14, 12:00 p.m. Wild Rose Hospital Auxiliary Luncheon speaker.Farm Stories
April 17,   7:00 p.m. Lebanon Historical Society and Dodge County Geological Group, Watertown Senior and Community Center, 514 South First Street, Watertown. Whispers and Shadows. 
April 19, 6:00 p.m.  Union Grove Library.  Wisconsin Agriculture: A History
May 26, 7:00 p.m. Richfield Historical Society, 4128 Hubertus Road, Richfield, WI  Whispers and Shadows.
June 7, Cambria Library. 
June 11, 9-4 Writing Workshop, Wild Rose Library.  Telling Your Story
June 14.9:00 a.m. Keynote speech. Country Heritage Day, St. John the Baptist Church, Montello. Barns of Wisconsin.
August 9, 6:30 p.m.. Evening. Winnebago County Historical Society.  Oshkosh Library.  Ag. History
August 12 9-4, Writing Workshop, The Clearing, Door County.
August 20, 10:30-11:30 am.  Waupaca Annual Arts on the Square. 
Purchase Jerry’s DVDS and his Books from the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them): 

The library now has available signed copies of Jerry’s DVDs: Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.) Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)
 The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows.)Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. and Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.Contact the library for prices and special package deals.Patterson Memorial Library500 Division StreetWild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
920-622-3835

Soldiers Grove Book Talk

It was April 2 and a couple inches of new, wet, not wanted snow covered everything.  My Grandson, Josh, and I were in the car headed west, on our way to the Soldiers Grove Library where I was to speak in the early afternoon.  As we drove we moved from spring to winter every few miles, with a strong, cold, miserable wind rocking the car every mile of the way.
Josh is driving, not too concerned about the alternating seasons—where else but in Wisconsin—maybe Minnesota—can you see the seasons change every few minutes?  I am fretting.  I’m always fretting before a presentation.  But with this miserable weather will anyone come to Soldier’s Grove to hear me?  I know I wouldn’t be keen to travel on a day like this to hear me talk.
We drove on, across the Wisconsin River that was flooding, through Spring Green and  Richland Center, through Bosstown and Readstown, and then to Soldier’s Grove snuggled up against the Kickapoo River. 
The Kickapoo had caused havoc to the town over the years, especially in 1978 when it flooded and  ruined the business district along with many homes.  So the village moved to higher ground—a gutsy, historical move.  But that wasn’t all; they built an energy conserving solar heated business district—the first of its kind in the country.
Soon we met Cele Wolf, librarian.   I prepared my notes while Josh set up our book display.  I continued to wonder if anyone would come for my 1:30 talk.  But the librarian and I were totally surprised.  By 1:30 the room was full,  50 to 60 people in every chair and standing.  People from as far away as Oxford, but also from Ferryvile, Onalaska, Viroqua, Richland Center. and of course Soldier’s Grove.
I talked about one-room schools.  I asked how many had attended one.  Nearly every hand went up.  So it was an afternoon of story-telling, and remembering the days of one teacher in one little building teaching all eight grades. 
I introduced the new edition of my book One-Room Schools, newly published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press.  And Josh and I continued to listen to one-room school stories long after my talk ended.
THE OLD TIMER SAYS: No matter what the weather, people will come.
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Writing Workshops for 2016
Telling Your Story Workshop at Wild Rose Library, Saturday June 11, 9-4. Call 920-622-3835 to get your name on the list as enrollment is limited.
Telling Your Story Workshop at The Clearing in Door County.  Friday, August 12, 9-4.  Call 920-854-4088 to get your name on the list..UPCOMING EVENTS.
April 5, 6:30 Heritage Hill State Park, Green Bay.  Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.
April 9, Fort Atkinson Library, 1-3:00 p.m.  Whispers and Shadows. 
April 14, 12:00 p.m. Wild Rose Hospital Auxiliary Luncheon speaker.Farm Stories
April 17,   7:00 p.m. Lebanon Historical Society and Dodge County Geological Group, Watertown Senior and Community Center, 514 South First Street, Watertown. Whispers and Shadows. 
April 19, 6:00 p.m.  Union Grove Library.  Wisconsin Agriculture: A History
May 26, 7:00 p.m. Richfield Historical Society, 4128 Hubertus Road, Richfield, WI  Whispers and Shadows.
June 7, Cambria Library. 
June 11, 9-4 Writing Workshop, Wild Rose Library.  Telling Your Story
June 14.9:00 a.m. Keynote speech. Country Heritage Day, St. John the Baptist Church, Montello. Barns of Wisconsin.
August 9, 6:30 p.m.. Evening. Winnebago County Historical Society.  Oshkosh Library.  Ag. History
August 12 9-4, Writing Workshop, The Clearing, Door County.
August 20, 10:30-11:30 am.  Waupaca Annual Arts on the Square. 
Purchase Jerry’s DVDS and his Books from the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them): 

The library now has available signed copies of Jerry’s DVDs: Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.) Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdomand Old Farm books.)
 The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows.)Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. and Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.Contact the library for prices and special package deals.Patterson Memorial Library500 Division StreetWild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
920-622-3835

The Madness of March

March was rolling right along,  Temperatures above freezing every day, grass greening up, neighbors raking their lawns—some days shirt sleeve weather.  Nice.  Dependable .  Not like March, but we’ll take it.
Then the weather forecast:  Winter Storm Warning for much of the central part of the country.  How could that be?  It’s spring.  Says so right on the March calendar.   Must be a mistake.  Maybe an April Fool’s trick a few days early.This was last Tuesday, when the temperature was in the 50s. 
We all chuckled.  They sure got it wrong this time.  Never could depend on those weather people.  Always wanting to turn a few snowflakes into a blizzard—that’s what they said.  Blizzard warnings for some counties.  We didn’t have one of those in January—what’s going on?  Weather people should stick their noses outside more often, see how the weather on the computer screen doesn’t compare with what’s really out there.
But, But, I’m eating crow, the weather people were right.  Right on the button right.  First the rain, then some ice, some places lots of ice, and then the snow, heavy snow, blowing snow, slippery snow, winter snow—but it’s spring for heaven’s sake.
Today, a couple days later, the snow in southern Wisconsin is gone, the grass is green, the neighbors are raking their lawns, spring flowers are beginning to bloom.  Was mid-last week just a bad dream?  Or has March made sure that we didn’t forget its madness—which goes beyond basketball.
THE OLD TIMER SAYS: So it’s March, get over it.
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Writing Workshops for 2016Telling Your Story Workshop at Wild Rose Library, Saturday June 11, 9-4. Call 920-622-3835 to get your name on the list as enrollment is limited.Telling Your Story Workshop at The Clearing in Door County.  Friday, August 12, 9-4.  Call 920-854-4088 to get your name on the list..UPCOMING EVENTS.
April 2, 1:30 Soldier’s Grove Library.  One-Room SchoolsApril 5, 6:30 Heritage Hill State Park, Green Bay.  Wisconsin Agriculture: A History. April 9, Fort Atkinson Library, 1-3:00 p.m.  Whispers and Shadows.  April 14, 12:00 p.m. Wild Rose Hospital Auxiliary Luncheon speaker.Farm StoriesApril 17,   7:00 p.m. Lebanon Historical Society and Dodge County Geological Group, Watertown Senior and Community Center, 514 South First Street, Watertown. Whispers and Shadows.  April 19, 6:00 p.m.  Union Grove Library.  Wisconsin Agriculture: A HistoryMay 26, 7:00 p.m. Richfield Historical Society, 4128 Hubertus Road, Richfield, WI  Whispers and Shadows. June 7, Cambria Library.  June 11, 9-4 Writing Workshop, Wild Rose Library.  Telling Your StoryJune 14.9:00 a.m. Keynote speech. Country Heritage Day, St. John the Baptist Church, Montello. Barns of Wisconsin. August 9, 6:30 p.m.. Evening. Winnebago County Historical Society.  Oshkosh Library.  Ag. HistoryAugust 12 9-4, Writing Workshop, The Clearing, Door County. August 20, 10:30-11:30 am.  Waupaca Annual Arts on the Square. 
Purchase Jerry’s DVDS and his Books from the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them): 

The library now has available signed copies of Jerry’s DVDs: Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.) Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdomand Old Farm books.)
 The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows.)Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. and Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.Contact the library for prices and special package deals.Patterson Memorial Library500 Division StreetWild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
920-622-3835

Gathering of the Green

“It’s not easy being green,” sang Kermit the Frog of Muppets fame.  But really, it is, especially if it’s a John Deere tractor.
Kristin Gilpatrick, Marketing Manager for the Wisconsin Historical Society Press and I trekked off Saturday to the capitol of green for a week—Davenport, Iowa. We attended the 2016 “Gathering of the Green” convention along with about 3,000 others from 40 states, Canada, England and Sweden.The convention was dedicated to John Deere antique tractor restorers, collectors, and those who, as kids on the farm, had fallen in love with a green John Deere Tractor and never got over it.
Lovers of Green spent last week attending historical and technical workshops where they could learn some of the skills necessary to make an old two-cylinder green tractor run once more, or merely stand looking at a John Deere, high wheeled wagon filled with ear corn, and remember picking corn by hand and filling one of those wagons.  Countless exhibits of antique John Deere tractors, plows, corn pickers, combines, and more brought back tears, memories and stories.  Oh, so many stories.
Saturday night, 600 of these green lovers  listened to me talk about the first tractor on the Apps farm.   It wasn’t green, but a bright, shiny red, Farmall H.  I got a polite “boo” for that story.
I went on to talk about the values gained from growing up on a farm, and how they never leave a farm kid. I even got a round of applause when I stated one of my dad’s favorite sayings: “Just because you have a lot of education doesn’t mean you know anything.”
It was a great evening—I must say I haven’t seen so much green in one place in a long while.
THE OLD TIMER ASKS:  If you grew up on farm, what was the color of your first tractor?
 SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Writing Workshops for 2016
Telling Your Story Workshop at Wild Rose Library, Saturday June 11, 9-4. Call 920-622-3835 to get your name on the list as enrollment is limited.Telling Your Story Workshop at The Clearing in Door County.  Friday, August 12, 9-4.  Call 920-854-4088 to get your name on the list..UPCOMING EVENTS.
March 22: 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.  Writing Wisconsin Waterways, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. Lecture Hall, 227 State Street. 
April 2, 1:30 Soldier’s Grove Library.
April 5, 6:30 Heritage Hill State Park, Green Bay.  Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.
April 9, Fort Atkinson Library, 1-3:00 p.m.  Whispers and Shadows. 
April 14, 12:00 p.m. Wild Rose Hospital Auxiliary Luncheon speaker.Farm Stories
April 17,   7:00 p.m. Lebanon Historical Society and Dodge County Geological Group, Watertown Senior and Community Center, 514 South First Street, Watertown. Whispers and Shadows. 
April 19, 6:00 p.m.  Union Grove Library.  Wisconsin Agriculture: A History
May 26, 7:00 p.m. Richfield Historical Society, 4128 Hubertus Road, Richfield, WI  Whispers and Shadows.
June 7, Cambria Library. 
June 11, 9-4 Writing Workshop, Wild Rose Library.  Telling Your Story
June 14.9:00 a.m. Keynote speech. Country Heritage Day, St. John the Baptist Church, Montello. Barns of Wisconsin.
August 9, 6:30 p.m.. Evening. Winnebago County Historical Society.  Oshkosh Library.  Ag. History
August 12 9-4, Writing Workshop, The Clearing, Door County.
August 20, 10:30-11:30 am.  Waupaca Annual Arts on the Square. 
Purchase Jerry’s DVDS and his Books from the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them): 

The library now has available signed copies of Jerry’s DVDs: Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.) Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)
 The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows.)Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. and Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.Contact the library for prices and special package deals.Patterson Memorial Library500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
920-622-3835

Rag-Doll Seed Germinator

I asked my wife, Ruth, what memories she had of the first signs of spring.  She grew up on a farm, as I did.  She told me that about this time of the year, in mid-March, her dad would find a large glass jar, and an old woolen sock.  Then he located the sack of corn seeds he had saved from the previous fall harvest and counted out 50 kernels.
He’d moisten the sock, and then place the kernels on the sock, rolling the sock as he did this.  With the kernels all rolled up in the sock, he put the sock in the jar, screwed tight the lid and put the jar in a warm place.
After three or four days, he’d open the jar, take out the sock and count the seeds that didn’t germinate.  He put the sock back together again , stuffed it into the jar, and opened it again at seven days.  And he once more counted the seeds that did not germinate.  What he learned was how many seeds he should  plant, now knowing what percentage of the seeds would not grow.
He was using what was popularly known as a rag-doll germinator.  Go to https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ag182 if you are interested in learning more about this old-fashioned, but still popular way of doing a germination test for saved seeds.
With most farmers growing hybrid corn these days, they don’t save seeds, as the seeds saved from hybrid kernels will not replicate the parent crop.  But the test continues to work with the heritage, (not hybrid varieties) of most seeds, garden seeds included.
THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Doing a rag-doll germination seed test is a fun thing to do with the kids.
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Writing Workshops for 2016
Telling Your Story Workshop at Wild Rose Library, Saturday June 11, 9-4. Call 920-622-3835 to get your name on the list as enrollment is limited.
Telling Your Story Workshop at The Clearing in Door County.  Friday, August 12, 9-4.  Call 920-854-4088 to get your name on the list..UPCOMING EVENTS.
March 19: Banquet, Gathering of the Green, Davenport, IA. John Deere Tractors.
March 22: 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.  Writing Wisconsin Waterways, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. Lecture Hall, 227 State Street. 
April 2, 1:30 Soldier’s Grove Library.
April 5, 6:30 Heritage Hill State Park, Green Bay.  Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.
April 9, Fort Atkinson Library, 1-3:00 p.m.  Whispers and Shadows. 
April 14, 12:00 p.m. Wild Rose Hospital Auxiliary Luncheon speaker.Stories from the Land.
April 17,   7:00 p.m. Lebanon Historical Society and Dodge County Geological Group, Watertown Senior and Community Center, 514 South First Street, Watertown. Whispers and Shadows. 
April 19, 6:00 p.m.  Union Grove Library. 
May 26, 7:00 p.m. Richfield Historical Society, 4128 Hubertus Road, Richfield, WI  Whispers and Shadows.
June 7, Cambria Library. 
June 11, 9-4 Writing Workshop, Wild Rose Library.  Telling Your Story
June 14.9:00 a.m. Keynote speech. Country Heritage Day, St. John the Baptist Church, Montello. Barns of Wisconsin.
August 9, 6:30 p.m.. Evening. Winnebago County Historical Society.  Oshkosh Library.  Ag. History
August 12 9-4, Writing Workshop, The Clearing, Door County.
August 20, 10:30-11:30 am.  Waupaca Annual Arts on the Square. 
Purchase Jerry’s DVDS and his Books from the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them): 

The library now has available signed copies of Jerry’s DVDs:
 Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)
 Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)
 The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows.)
Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. and Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.
Contact the library for prices and special package deals.Patterson Memorial Library500 Division StreetWild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
920-622-3835

Visiting a Public School

It’s been a few years since I’ve spoken to school children.  But I did last week, at the Necedah Public School in which elementary, middle-school and high school students are all in one building.
I didn’t quite know what to expect, but soon I was sitting in front of 134 third through fifth graders all sitting on the floor in the band room.  My task was to talk about what farm life was like when I was a kid.  I brought along an old cow bell and a barn lantern.
I asked how many of them lived on farms. Three or four hands went up.  I talked about milking cows by lantern  light.  I talked about doing chores and walking to a one room school. They had unending questions. How many animals did you have? What did you like most about growing up on a farm.  Good questions.  How old are you?  I told them. 
Soon I was talking with a small group of high school students interesting in writing.  They had read several of my books and had seen my TV shows.  I talked about the value of keeping a journal.  I told them to write about what they knew, and also to write about what they didn’t know, which required doing research—reading, interviewing people, sorting out what was true and what wasn’t.
And then I was escorted into the gym where I talked to 162 middle school kids, plus teachers and a few adults from the community.  I talked about writing and how I started doing it.  I talked about storytelling and how important it was.  And I shared a few stories to illustrate my points.
Prior to my coming, my guide for the day, Middle School teacher, Mary Alice Laswell, and her students had visited the classrooms and talked about me, my books and TV shows, and asked  students to have questions prepared for me.  And they did.  Good questions.  What was your worst job on the farm?  What was the best?  What did you do for fun? And many more.
I was most impressed with the students.  They were courteous, respectful, smart, thoughtful and they read books.  I talked with several teachers and administrators as well.  Committed, hardworking people.  Anyone questioning the importance of the public schools should spend some time in one.  Under sometimes trying circumstances they are doing a great job in educating the next generation of citizens.
THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Visit your public school.  You’ll be impressed
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Writing Workshops for 2016
Telling Your Story Workshop at Wild Rose Library, Saturday June 11, 9-4. Call 920-622-3835 to get your name on the list as enrollment is limited.
Telling Your Story Workshop at The Clearing in Door County.  Friday, August 12, 9-4.  Call 920-854-4088 to get your name on the list..
UPCOMING EVENTS.March 9, 7:00 p.m.  THE LAND WITH JERRY APPS, hour-long documentary to be aired on Wisconsin Public TV stations throughout Wisconsin.
March 10, 7:30 p.m., Wisconsin agricultural consultants. Keynote talk, Wis Dells. Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.
March 12, 11:00-2:00, McFarlane’s Sauk City.  Book Signing.
March 19, Gathering of the Green, Davenport, IA.  Banquet keynote speaker. Lessons from the Land.
Purchase Jerry’s DVDS and his Books from the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them): 


The library now has available signed copies of Jerry’s DVDs:
 Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)
 Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)
 The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows.)
Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. and Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.
Contact the library for prices and special package deals.Patterson Memorial Library500 Division StreetWild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
920-622-3835

Tween Season

We are in the midst of a tween season again, when the weather one day feels like winter and the next day it’s spring, only to return to winter again.  The tween season is a roller coaster of joy and despair.  The joy of spring on the way, and the despair that winter isn’t ready to give up.
            As a farm kid, I remember those “hints of spring” days when the snow becomes mushy, the melt water drips from the barn roof, and the dirt road trailing by our farm becomes a sea of mud each afternoon.  We walk to school on the frozen road and wallow in mud on our way home in the afternoon.
            On one of those “spring is here” days, I remember hiking out to the previous year’s corn field, where we had plugged a gully with stones that we had picked from the field.  I stood listening to the melt water as it moved over the stones, a wonderfully pleasing, gurgling sound.  A true sound of spring.  And then the very next day, a snowstorm blows in from the west and spring was on hold once more.
            I heard a cardinal call this morning, and the only snow I see is the piles the snowplow left.  The weatherman says a high of 50 degrees.  One of those joyful tween season days to be savored, for who knows when one more snowstorm will roar in from the west.
THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Time to say goodbye to winter and hello to spring.
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Writing Class at Wild Rose Library
            In addition to the one-day writing class I teach at The Clearing in Door County, I will be teaching a one-day “Telling Your Story” writing class at the Wild Rose Library on Saturday, June 11 from nine to four.  Enrollment limited. Call the library at 920-622-3835 to get your name on the list.
UPCOMING EVENTS.
March 2, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Necedah public schools
March  5, 11:00 a.m. Women in Agriculture, Keynote talk. Marriott Hotel, Middleton. Telling Your Story.
March 9, 7:00 p.m.  THE LAND WITH JERRY APPS, hour-long documentary to be aired on Wisconsin Public TV stations throughout Wisconsin.
March 10, 7:30 p.m., Wisconsin agricultural consultants. Keynote talk, Wis Dells. Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.
March 12, 11:00-2:00, McFarlane’s Sauk City.  Book Signing.
March 19, Gathering of the Green, Davenport, IA.  Banquet keynote speaker. Lessons from the Land.
Purchase Jerry’s DVDS and his Books from the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them): 


The library now has available signed copies of Jerry’s DVDs:
 Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)
 Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)
 The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows.)
Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. and Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.
Contact the library for prices and special package deals.Patterson Memorial Library500 Division StreetWild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
920-622-3835

Oak Smoke Memories

            As I returned from my early morning walk, I caught the smell of oak smoke coming from the cabin’s wood stove.  Immediately I was catapulted back to my childhood with memories both pleasant and not so great.
The pleasant memories are sitting around the big Round Oak wood burning heater in the dining room on a cold, dark night in winter, with the wind rattling the windows.  Pa would say, “Storm coming,” when the wind sent a puff of oak smoke down the chimney and into the cozy room.  And he was usually right in his predication.  But it was comfortable as my brothers and I did our homework with the light of a kerosene lamp.
As cozy as the dining room was in the early evening, it was equally miserably cold the following morning, as the old wood stove would go out about midnight.  The kitchen wood burning cook stove would also die in the night, and the entire house was colder than the inside of an ice house come morning.
 So my memories are mixed.  The cozy warm times and the shivering cold mornings when I dressed in front of the stove, hoping to catch a little of the sputtering warmth as the dining room stove struggled to come alive.
Years later, a guidance counselor asked me, “What do you hope to achieve when you finish your education?”
            “What I would like most is to have a warm floor to put my feet on when I wake up in the morning,” I answered.
            I’ve never forgotten the look on the fellow’s place.  Written all over it were the words, “LOSER.”           
THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Never forget the importance of simple things, such as a warm floor in the morning.
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Writing Class at Patterson Memorial Library, Wild Rose.
            In addition to the one-day writing class I teach at The Clearing in Door County, I will be teaching a one-day “Telling Your Story” writing class at the Wild Rose Library on Saturday, June 11 from nine to four.  Enrollment limited. Call the library at 920-622-3835 to get your name on the list.

UPCOMING EVENTS.
February 23, 7:00 p.m. Phillips Center for the Arts, 109 Locust Street, Hudson, WI. Part of Wisconsin Historical Society Tour program.  Lessons from the Land.
March 2, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Necedah public schools
March 5, 11:00 a.m. Women in Agriculture, Keynote talk. Marriott Hotel, Middleton.
March 9, 7:00 p.m.  THE LAND WITH JERRY APPS, hour-long documentary to be aired on Wisconsin Public TV stations throughout Wisconsin.
March 10, 7:30 p.m., Wisconsin agricultural consultants. Keynote talk, Wis Dells. Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.
March 12, 11:00-2:00, McFarlane’s Sauk City.  Book Signing.
March 19, Gathering of the Green, Davenport, IA.  Banquet keynote speaker. Lessons from the Land.
Purchase Jerry’s DVDS and his Books from the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them): 


The library now has available signed copies of Jerry’s DVDs:
 Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)
 Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)
 The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows.)
Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. and Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.
Contact the library for prices and special package deals.Patterson Memorial Library500 Division StreetWild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
920-622-3835

The Romance of Wisconsin Place Names

On a radio call-in show this morning, a person from Waupaca, WI called in. “How do you pronounce that place,” the radio host asked.
The person replied “Wa-pack-a,” which is of course correct.
The Wisconsin Historical Society Press recently published a new edition of Robert Gard’s book, THE ROMANCE OF WISCONSIN PLACE NAMES.  I wrote the foreword to this new edition.
The book includes a collection of Wisconsin place names, with a bit of history about each.  No doubt about it, our state has a great diversity of place names, many reflecting our Native-American, French, New-England settlers, and immigrant histories.
My favorites include:
 “ Butte des Morts,” (Winnebago County) sometimes pronounced “But-dis-morts.”  But correctly pronounced “Bue-de-more.” It means “hill of the dead.”
“Lac Courts Oreilles,” (Sawyer County).  The name supposedly means “Short Ears,” and is pronounced, “La-coo-due-ray.”
“Oconomowoc,” (Waukesha).  It means “Place where the river falls,” Or”river of lakes.”  This name is one that is regularly mangled by radio and TV people new to Wisconsin, who get all tangled up with the five “Os”.  It is correctly pronounced, “Oh-con-no-mo-walk.”
“Chequamegon,” (Ashland County).  Several meanings including “low land.”  Pronounced, “She-quam-again.”
“Mazomanie,” (Dane County) Comes from an Indian word, may also refer to a former Ho-Chunk chief.  Pronounced, “Ma-zo-may-nee.”
“Weyauwega,” (Waupaca County). Named after an Indian village once located there and means “Here we rest.”  Pronounced. “Why-a-wiga.”
I must also mention my hometown of Wild Rose, not difficult to pronounce, but a little confusion about its history.  One version, a less than upstanding young woman named Rose, once lived there.  Another, many wild roses grow in the area.  Or, and the one that is likely true, Wild Rose is named after Rose, Wayne County, New York.  Many of the early settlers in this part of Waushara Country came from Rose, New York.
THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Take a look at THE ROMANCE OF WISCONSIN PLACE NAMES by Robert Gard. 
UPCOMING EVENTS.
February 23, 7:00 p.m. Phillips Center for the Arts, 109 Locust Street, Hudson, WI. Part of Wisconsin Historical Society Tour program.  Stories From the Land.
March 2, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Necedah public schools
March 5, 11:00 a.m. Women in Agriculture, Keynote talk. Marriott Hotel, Middleton.
March 9, 7:00 p.m.  THE LAND WITH JERRY APPS, hour-long documentary to be aired on Wisconsin Public TV stations throughout Wisconsin.
March 10, 7:30 p.m., Wisconsin agricultural consultants. Keynote talk, Wis Dels
March 12, 11:00-2:00, McFarlane’s Sauk City.  Book Signing.
March 19, Gathering of the Green, Davenport, IA.  Banquet keynote speaker.
Purchase Jerry’s DVDS and his Books from the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them): 


The library now has available signed copies of Jerry’s DVDs, Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps and Jerry Apps a Farm Story. Coming soon, The Land With Jerry Apps, which is based on the book Whispers and Shadows.
Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including The Quiet Season (on which the DVD A Farm Winter is based), as well as Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm, (which are related to the DVD Jerry Apps a Farm Story).Also available is Jerry’s new novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County as well as Whispers and Shadows and his newest nonfiction book, Wisconsin Agriculture: A History.
Contact the library for prices and special package deals.Patterson Memorial Library500 Division StreetWild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
920-622-3835