Wood Burning Cook Stove

At my cabin, I cook and heat the place with a wood burning cook stove. It’s a fine old stove, a Home Comfort made by the Wrought Iron Range Company of St. Louis, Missouri. The company made cook stoves from 1864 to 1940. Salesmen sold them all over the country, especially in the Midwest.

I bought the stove in 1970, used of course. Let’s say it was one of the last stoves the company made, in 1940. The stove was but a youngster in 1970, a scant 30 years old. Today, 40 years later, the old stove is a senior citizen. But like a bunch of other 70 year olds I know, it’s going strong. It’s a little rusty here and there—but the grates are fine, the oven works and it burns wood today as well as it ever did.

And what a wonderful heat it provides. Sure, if you are in a hurry to cook something my old stove would probably send you to McDonald’s. But hurry is not what my cabin is about. My cabin is about slowing down—doing slow cooking, sometimes very slow cooking. But I must say, and I know it’s my opinion, homemade soup cooked on a wood burning stove is just about the best thing you could ever put on the table when the snow is piled high and temperature hangs down there around zero. I can smell it now.


THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Watch the sun set when the temperature is below freezing. The sky is steel blue that turns black as the sun sinks away and the thermometer plummets.

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.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Oakwood East Community Center, Madison. Saturday, February 13, 9:30 a.m. (Delta Kappa Gamma—Educational fraternity) (Stories from the One-Room School)

Eau Claire Farm Show, Eau Claire Indoor Sports Center, March 3, 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. (Stories From The Land)

Aldo Leopold celebration, Lake Geneva Public Library, March 6, 10:30 a.m. (Old Farm and Ames County novels.)

Wisconsin Studio, Overture Center, Madison, WI, Sunday, March 21, 1:30 p.m. (Old
Farm)

UW-Baraboo, “Add Learning to Your Life” workshop for those 55 and older. March 25, 11:30 a.m. (Stories From the Land) Call 608-355-5234 for further information.

Westfield Public Library. March 31, 12:45-1:30. (Ames County Novels)

Walden

In mid-winter, during a string of cloudy, dreary days, with the snow piled high and the cold lingering on, I like to catch up on my reading. I often turn to the classics that I read many years ago. Henry David Thoreau’s, WALDEN is one of them.

Though his writing is sometimes difficult to grasp, Thoreau’s words, written in 1854, continue to resonate with me: “In Wilderness is the preservation of the world,” he wrote. Those words were important in Thoreau’s day; they are even more important today.

Thoreau lived for a time in a cabin in the woods on Walden Pond and wrote: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

So I sit and read and ponder the layers of meaning in Thoreau’s writing, and their application to today’s frantic world.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Listen to the views of others, but trust your own as well.

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.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Oakwood East Community Center, Madison. Saturday, February 13, 9:30 a.m. (Delta Kappa Gamma—Educational fraternity) (Stories from the One-Room School)

Eau Claire Farm Show, Eau Claire Indoor Sports Center, March 3, 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. (Stories From The Land)

Aldo Leopold celebration, Lake Geneva Public Library, March 6 (time to be announced). (Old Farm and Blue Shadows Farm)

Wisconsin Studio, Overture Center, Madison, WI, Sunday, March 21, 1:30 p.m. (Old
Farm)

UW-Baraboo, “Add Learning to Your Life” workshop for those 55 and older. March 25, 11:30 a.m. (Stories From the Land) Call 608-355-5234 for further information.

Westfield Public Library. March 31, 12:45-1:30. (Ames County Novels)

Ice Skating

It warmed up this past week. A January thaw. When I was a kid, a January thaw meant ponds forming in the hollows at the farm, places for ice skating.

My two brothers and I each had a pair of clamp-on skates, the kind that you fastened to the bottom of your shoes. We bought them at Hotz Hardware in Wild Rose—50 cents a pair. Only problem with the clamp-on skates—they pulled the heels from your shoes. But that was a small price to pay for the fun we had.

I was not much of an ice-skater. My brother Don got quite good at it. But his twin brother Darrel, well he was a whiz of a skater. He skated forward, he could cross step, he skated backwards, he cross stepped backward. He skated circles around his twin and me.

We skated every day, after we got home from school and finished our chores. We skated until either another big snow buried our ponds, or spring finally arrived and they disappeared. In those days, winter was a time for fun. It still is.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: A good story, even if lacking in facts, can help us to see the truth.



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.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

SAIL (Supporting Active Independent Lives) January 19, noon, Blackhawk Country Club, Madison. (Telling Stories: Why and How?)

Radio interview, January 21, Public Radio, KBRW, Barrow, Alaska. (Story telling)

Oakwood East Community Center, Saturday, February 13, 9:30 a.m. (Three chapters of Delta Kappa Gamma—Educational fraternity) (Stories from the One-Room School)

Eau Claire Farm Show, Eau Claire Indoor Sports Center, March 3, 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. (Stories From The Land)

Aldo Leopold celebration, Lake Geneva Public Library, March 6 (time to be announced). (Old Farm and Blue Shadows Farm)

Wisconsin Studio, Overture Center, Madison, WI, Sunday, March 21, 1:30 p.m. (Old Farm)

Snowshoes

I bought a new pair of snowshoes a couple years ago, the kind with an aluminum frame and plastic webbing to provide support. Not at all like the snowshoes I’ve used for many years. These older ones have ash wood frames and leather mesh—and now hang on my cabin wall for decoration.

The other morning, when the temperature hung near ten degrees, I slipped into my fancy snowshoes and set off up the hill south of the cabin. It’s easy to criticize these new shoe shoes as lacking in good looks, historical foundation, or whatever else might tickle your critical fancy.

But they work and work well. Oh, did I say they weigh about half as much as my older model, and are only about a third as long. Anyone who knows anything about snow shoeing is aware of a lot of foot lifting when moving through deep snow—I appreciate the lighter weight and shorter length.

So I am faced, again, with questions: What of the new, no matter what it is, should I embrace? What of the old should I keep using and what should I set aside?
When it comes to snow shoes I’ve made up my mind.



THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Take time to see the whiteness of fresh fallen snow that sparkles and glimmers and covers the grime and dirt of an earlier day. It’s nature’s way of hiding human clutter.


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.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

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.

Winter Quiet

The temperature slid to eight below zero during the night. Clear sky, no wind, and a bright sun greeted me when I stepped outside the cabin in the morning. Quiet. So quiet, until I began walking and heard the snow creaking loudly as only cold weather snow can.

I walked along my long driveway to the country road that was still ice covered and slippery. The winter sun, slowly sneaking above the horizon far to the southeast cast long shadows on the bluish-white, snow covered fields. The snow sparkled as if someone had scattered tiny little diamonds everywhere.

Arriving at the country road, I heard only the quiet of a cold January morning. I stood for a time listening and feeling the subtle warmth of the winter sun on my face.

On my way back to the cabin, I stopped at the woodshed for an armful of wood, the cabin stove is ever hungry, more so on a below zero morning. Once in the cabin, I poured another cup of coffee and looked out at the diamonds on the snow. A pleasant way to start the day; a restful way to begin the new year.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Listen for the silence of winter, when the snow buries the land and the cold tightens its grip, turning breath into clouds and thickening ice on the lakes. There is great beauty in silence, something that we have little of these days.


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.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

January 5. (Note date change)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.

Ice Fishing

The years I attended grade school and high school we spent Christmas vacations ice fishing. My brothers, dad and I would finish the morning barns chores and we were off to Mt. Morris Lake, east of Wild Rose a few miles.

We first chopped holes through the ice. Pa’s ice chisel was one that Arnold Christensen, the blacksmith in Wild Rose had made out of a Model T Ford axle. He’d sharpened one end and drilled a hole through the other. Pa pushed a length of leather shoe lace through the hole and tied it in a loop. We were not to use the ice chisel without looping the leather throng over our wrist as we knew of many ice chisels on the bottom of the lake.

Next was to set up our tip-ups, a device that we stuck down in the freshly chopped hole. It contained fish line that would play out if a fish took our bait—we used large minnows for bait. Sometimes other fisherman chided us that if we caught no fish, we could always fry up the minnows. They thought it was a big joke. Pa’s take was the bigger the minnow, the bigger the fish we would catch. The tip-up also had a little flag that would fly up if a fish grabbed the minnow.

With the tip-ups set, we walked to shore, started a little fire and sat watching the tip-ups a hundred yards or so out on the lake through a trickle of wood smoke. Several others fished as well, and we often invited them to join us by our smoky little fire. Each different person meant a new set of stories.

As I look back at those ice fishing years, the stories were nearly as important as the fish we caught. We also caught fish. A bunch of them.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Happy New Year. Every year is a good year, some are just better than others.

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.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

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.

Christmas Secret

Ruth and I attended a Christmas program this week. Kids, mostly little ones, on a little stage reciting their lines, singing songs and reminding me of when I attended country school and we put on a Christmas program the last Friday before Christmas break.

I remember vividly my first Christmas program. I was five years old and in first grade (our school had no kindergarten). My first grade teacher, Theresa Piechowski, was firm but patient with me. She said that everyone in the school from first to eighth graders must “say their piece.” Meaning we had to memorize a little ditty about the Holiday season, stand on the makeshift stage in the front of the school and say what we’d been instructed to say.

I informed Miss Piechowski that I wasn’t at all sure I wanted to do this. She would have none of it. I was to stand on stage and say my piece and that was that.

When she noted how worried I looked, she took me aside and in a near whisper said, “I have a secret for speaking in front of a crowd.”

I was all ears. “When you stand on that stage,” she motioned to the rickety set of planks strung across some sawhorses. “You stand up straight. Take your hands out of your pockets, and talk with a loud, clear voice.”

So what was so secret about that, I wondered. But then she continued. “Do you see the damper on the stove pipe?” She was pointing to the woodstove that stood in the back of the school room.

“I see the damper,” I said, wondering when she was going to get around to telling me her secret for speaking to a group of relatives, neighbors and schoolmates who were as likely to stick their tongues out at me as cross their eyes when I stood on the stage.

“When you stand on the stage and begin talking, look at the damper. People will think you’re looking right at them, but you hardly will see them at all. And you’ll have no problems.’

Miss Piechowski was right. Today, when I speak to a group and I do often, I stare at some spot in the back of the room and all goes well. It’s my Christmas gift to all of you who have dry mouth and empty brains when called on to speak.

Merry Christmas.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: First things first, but not necessarily in that order.

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

UPCOMING EVENTS:

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.