WannaskaWriter

Blue Grama Native grass

  Life's mysteries surround me on occasion, but perhaps they're not so mysterious if I think about it as they mostly occur in the area of a small Canadian border town and county named Roseau, Minnesota, with a population of 2672, and 15, 246, respectively or, as Joe/Woe Wednesday stated it on February 13, 2025, " Another way to characterize where we live is in terms of population density comparisons. Wannaska: 4 persons/square mile; Roseau County: 9.2 persons/square mile; Tuff Rubber Balls: 914.0 persons/square mile; Minneapolis: 7,962.1 persons/square mile; New York City: 29,303.2 persons/square mile."      The odds of meeting people one recognizes here, or who recognize you, grows exponentially, as happened last week in the Super One parking lot where, as I left the store, I met my friend, JoMar, walking toward the store. He and I meet periodically throughout the year, exchanging pleasantries as we pass; but this time, he stopped and asked, "So ar...

  https://queticosuperior.org/we-badly-need-good-fire-new-film-oshkigin-spirit-of-fire/

  I've planted more than a hundred thousand trees since 1974, the earliest ones by hand with help by a friend  from Iowa. Some lived, some died. The fact that my help couldn't avoid hitting a rock with his planting bar, no matter what direction he turned, or how much he swore, may have had something to do with it. "C'mon really, Jeff?" A portion of 1974 White Spruce plantation planted by hand along Mikinaak Creek.    Since then, many more have reproduced a thousand fold. It's good to see them in their multitudes; one over-topping another through their depth and width.         The tallest prevail. These White Spruce and Hybrid Cottonwood, planted in 1981, in half-mile long rows on the west side of Mikinaak Creek, were the first trees ever planted using tractor and tree planter, echoing the contours of the farm lane and existing woodlots near the farmstead, that in turn echoed the contours of Mikinaak Creek set in motion my unconventiona...

 

    Aurora Borealis over Palm Camp. Image by Gene Palm  1951-2026 On April 5, 2026 Easter morning, my cousin Gene Palm 'walked on,' with relief from all the suffering he had been enduring for six long months, and a smile on his face knowing he had provided his wife and children and grandchildren with the very best of everything he had to give of his love and respect. I spent three of his last days in his home talking and joking about the past; his memory coming and going between his silent gasps of pain, his ever-present smile fading then slowly coming back.    Gene was always a guy with a smile on his face and a cigarette, Diet Coke, coffee, or sometimes beer in hand. He made time to listen when necessary; withheld advice until asked, and always admitted when he was wrong. He seemed genuinely buoyed by a life of charity which he bestowed on his friends and family throughout Minnesota; one example being that he periodically visited the city dump in...