WannaskaWriter

To: Joe McD. Date: Monday, August 20, 2007 10:30 AM Subject: "Now why don't he write?"    That's a line out of, "Dances With Wolves." The ill-fated mule skinner, looking at a sun-bleached human skeleton with arrows sticking into it (versus, 'sticking out of it') is talking to "John Dunbar," and explaining that," ... some of these po' folks are never heard from again, and the people back home are wondering, "' Now why don't he write?' "     On Sunday, I went to Rydell Wildlife Management Refuge to hear a talk about NW Minnesota's Savannah-Parkland region, and Red River Ox Cart Trails, given by Nancy Sather, a naturalist and writer whom I've wanted to met for some time. I've read her work from time to time and wanted to reprint a piece or two since as it's exceptional. At the beginning of the talk she handed out excerpts from historical manuscripts by early explorers that she encouraged all of us...

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...