WannaskaWriter

       I learned of the book, “We Were Not The Savages: Collision Between European and Native American Civilizations,” by Daniel N. Paul, through my son John who lives on the Red Cliff Ojibwe Reservation in Wisconsin. Although I am not a Indigenous person, many of my relatives are through marriage. My interests in their culture and history are paramount to my day-to-day education; I read. I visit. I listen. I learn.    My Anishinaabe Ojibwe grandson, Ozaawaa, John’s son, is 13 years old; he’s been my primary catalyst of learning and experiencing Anishinaabe culture since his birth. One day when Ozaawaa was six, we were outdoors playing Frisbee, he stopped and asked me, offhandedly, “Grandpa, are you Native?”    It was a question that I knew we’d be sharing eventually, and as I was unable to avoid it, I answered, “No Ozaawaa. I’m not.”    “What are you then?” he said. “I’m ... uh ... Euro-American,” I answered watching his face for recognition so I wouldn’t have to explain further. Not

      Over the Indigenous Peoples Day weekend, aside from the host of things I was told by individuals in the know, unlike myself, one told me that because I’ve submitted a sample of my Deoxyribonucleic acid to an ancestry site, ‘they’ve’ made a clone of me who exists someplace apart from the child I helped create many years ago.     Contemplating my cloned-self, let's refer to him as MM (mini-me) for clarification. I shudder to think of him having to endure the same life I endured as a child if we’re so alike in every aspect.      WARNING:  THE FOLLOWING  CONTAINS POSSIBLE 'CLONOGRAPHICAL' RECORD  OF MY DNA.     Herein, we explore what may or may not occur . He may be discovered outside a single car garage by a kindly unmarried woman 21-years older than himself who identifies herself to him as his oldest sister. She is ecstatic.   The 'sister's' father adopts the baby as his own despite having so many other mouths to feed. Boy children are r

      My son Martin works at a medical equipment design company in the Twin Cities and had access to its wood shipping crates, many of them custom built. He brought this little beauty up (note that I used the word 'little,' in its description) in the spring of 2021 for me to make it into an elevated box-blind for deer hunting on our farm in northwest Minnesota.      It was constructed of three quarter-inch plywood and two by fours, on all its six sides, and had several metal twist-lock closures to tightly secure the lid. We eliminated all but one of the closures, and made the lid into a door totally ignoring the obvious.     Martin and I used four steel blind-post brackets called 'risers,' to attach its heavy duty box to four 10-foot long, 4" by 4" green treated posts and eight 2"x4" x 12' cross-tie brackets, so the blind would stand ten-feet above the ground.      I even went as far as painting the whole thing, top to bottom, in Valspar Farm Fr

        I started remodeling "Craig's Stand" in September after discovering that a weasel had gotten itself temporarily trapped inside it. It had found a convenient entry through a warp in the exterior chipboard wall and found itself sandwiched in a batt of insulation behind the plastic sheeting.      I think the weasel went ballistic in an attempt to free itself and chewed, scratched, and ripped its way to freedom. Did I mention it shit everywhere it stopped trying to find the door? Yes, it did.     Considering the destruction -- and defecation inside, I got to work cleaning its debris away, even going as far as wearing a Covid mask against the purported dangers dealing with feces.When my vision cleared I could see my efforts were in vain, the deer stand was virtually useless because of how all the trees had grown up around it since the horrendous spring rains we had. Although picturesque in its cozy forest setting, its short six foot height amid all the &#

  September 26, 2022   Step 3  New Craig's Stand Construction With the base on the back of the trailer, raised up about 8-inches, I inserted the two lower legs.    I raised the base about 8-inches off the end on the trailer. Using a spare length of 2x6, wedged under a 2x4 spanning the width of the trailer perpendicular to it, I screwed it to the base so it wouldn't fall forward from the weight of the legs nor fall backward as I maneuvered legs into it.    Using two drill guns, one to drill holes and one to drive lag screws, I drilled a 5/16th inch pilot hole for each of the 3/8th inch diameter two-inch lag screws to secure the legs to the risers. Then doing the same thing attached 2x4x10 cross members top to bottom of each. Below.    A few days earlier , I had watched the video I had linked in the first blog post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TPDGaIj4sY   and remembered the trick they used to perform the next step of the process of putting on the overhead third and fourth

September 25, 2022   Step 2  New Craig's Stand Construction The base is 48" by 48" and framed with 2x6s. The floor is 48" by 60" 7/16 plywood sheeting. Base with 'risers' which are steel brackets screwed to 2x6 framing made for attaching 4" by 4" posts. Base setup for attaching legs.    It's been raining for the past few days -- not that I'm complaining. I've wished for rain for weeks. I was out working on this stand in the mists and under moody-looking clouds a couple hours a day. When it rained steadily I stayed indoors. I hadn't planned on building this stand this year, so things like tools and materials are in disarray, not that anyone who knows me would notice. I tend to operate like this until I get all my ducks in a row -- usually by the end of the project, but truly, I enjoy doing it and figuring how to make things work to my satisfaction -- I ain't building china cabinets .That being said, I think this project is m