Larry Scheckel

It’s been a busy week with a flu shot and delivering books on Wednesday, Thursday LYNXX-24 taping of a Halloween science segment of the Lab. Friday was a funeral in La Crosse. Friday afternoon was a long bike ride from Tomah to Sparta and back via the newly-paved highway through the southern part of Fort McCoy. Saturday, I rode with my good friend, Dave Hall, around on the John Deere harvester bringing in the soybean crop.

            Tooling around the countryside, one comes across walnut trees and that triggers memories of growing up on the Crawford County farm outside Seneca. The Scheckel farm on Oak Grove Ridge near Seneca in Crawford County had 10 walnut trees in the hill pasture along ShortCut Road. We always looked forward to the annual gathering of walnuts in the late 1940s, early 1950.  

            As fall approached, we kept track of the walnuts falling off the trees.  We traveled past the walnut trees several times a week on our way to Seneca.  When it was time, we gathered up milk pails and gunny sacks from the granary, the burlap bags we used for corn and oats.  Off we would go to the hill pasture.

            Our hill pasture was special.  We drove our milk cows on the gravel road and pastured them during the day in spring, summer and fall. The hill pasture was just a few feet less than the highest point in Crawford County.  A few years after I left the farm, several agencies, including the Wisconsin State Patrol, built a relay tower on the highest point, which was just a few hundred yards from our property line.

            Looking north from our vantage point on the hill pasture, we could see the steeple of Utica Church on Highway 27 north of Mt. Sterling.  The top of the Lansing bridge could be spotted above the terrain to the northwest.   We could see all the way back onto Oak Grove Ridge, the farmlands of Bernier,  Ingham, Suttons, and Fradette. The Payne, McAreavy, and Aspenson farms were fairly close. Further to the east was the Elmer Stove farmstead with its immaculate white buildings and white board fences. They kept their bright red Massey Harris ’44 tractor in spic and span condition.

            Phillip, Bob, and I would pick up a bucket full of walnuts, pour them in a gunny sack, and tie off the gunny sack with binder twine. We’d walk home and ask Dad to take the tractor and wagon or the pickup truck to load up the gunny sacks and bring them back to the farm.            When we were old enough to drive, we boys could retrieve them ourselves.  Age did not determine when we could drive a truck or car.  If your feet reached the pedals, you could drive.  Dad and Mom didn’t allow us to drive to town, but we could drive on Oak Grove Ridge Road and on the roads around our farm.  “Fearless Fred” Brockway, Crawford County deputy sheriff,  would not be patrolling on Oak Grove Ridge.

            The walnut sacks were unloaded on the cement apron east of the Big Barn.  The walnuts might stay in the sacks for several days until we had time to tend to them.  Then the shucking began.  Walnuts were poured out of the sacks onto the concrete, and beaten with a board, that loosened the shell or peeling around the black/brown walnut. Walnuts were picked off of the broken casings and put in a pail or bucket.  Our hands got really badly stained, almost pitch black.  That stain would not come off in soap and water, so we wore our walnut stained hands for several days as sort of badge of honor. Even went to school with stained hands.

            The shucked walnuts were stored in metal tins in the basement.  We cracked walnuts in the winter time, and put them in fudge candy that we made on the stove. Some went into brownies and cakes.

Weekly Blog

Oct 13, 2021

            Someone asked me why I wasn’t blogging anymore, to which I replied that “life got in the way.” I will blog every Wednesday from now on. At times it will concern what is going on at the present time and other times, it could be one of the science Q&As that are in The Journal or the Monroe County Herald newspapers.

            Last week, Ann and I traveled to west-central Iowa to a town of Odebolt, population 1100 if everyone is home. It is the place that caramel corn and Crackerjack started and houses the largest popcorn ball in the world. Odebolt is smack-dab in the middle of farm country and huge grain elevators sit right in the middle of town.

            We were in Odebolt for the one-room Iowa school conference. Sessions on Friday and travel to rural schools on Saturday. We gave a 20-minute PowerPoint presentation on Friday about our newest book, Country School Days: True Tales of a Wisconsin One-Room School. It has a publishing date of November 1, 2021, but we have advance copies, and it is up on Amazon.com. The price on the back is $17.95, but when we do book talks, we sell it for $12, same as all our other books. It is at J&R Variety in Tomah.

            It’s satisfying to see those huge John Deere and Case IH combines or harvesters move through the Iowa fields. Soybeans are going into the big bins atop the machines at the present time and corn will be harvested in about a week. Most combines have a 40-foot header or cutting width and throw up some crop dust that can be spotted from miles around. 

The lilacs, that most fragrant of flowered bushes, are in full bloom. Paul’s Glory, a flowering plant given to use by niece, Jennie Zeitler, has come up on the north side of the house and is about 8 inches high. The seed pods on the big maple trees in the back yard are starting to move from a reddish-green color to tan. In another week, they will start helicoptering down. Several pair of Canadian geese frequent our nearby Butts Park, their little ducklings in tow. The City removed many diseased ash trees last winter, and brush along the bank has been removed, providing us and our neighbors with a stunning view of the blue waters.

We’ve been busy with the Knights of Columbus Tootsie Roll Drive, planning an early June trip to the Black Hills, and working the St. Patrick’s Queen of the Apostles Carnival. The Carnival was delayed due to COVID. Getting cover made for our next book, Country School Days: True Tales of a Wisconsin One-Room School.

I sent the manuscript of our next book, Country School Days: True Tales of a Wisconsin One-Room School, to the publisher last week. It will hopefully be out by early Fall. Ann and I are in the 11^th year of retirement. I believe everyone asks themselves as they approach retirement, “What am I going to do in retirement?” I had personal, perhaps odd, things on my list: Learn to play chords on guitar, learn to fly a radio-controlled plane, and write a memoir of growing up on the farm outside of Seneca, Wisconsin. I’m still working on the chords on guitar, although I have played notes for a number of years. I learned to fly RC planes last summer, not a master aviator, but can fly without crashing most of the time. Have 5 planes for outdoor flying, and 2 for flying indoors. You can’t have too many radio-controlled planes!  In the winter, we fly small stuff in the Barney Center in Sparta, basically a basketball gym. The farm memoir, Seneca Seasons: A Farm Boy Remembers came out in 2014.

We have a number of science books out there, a true-life 1926 murder story book, and now a memoir of attending Oak Grove School from 1948-1956. It is also an account of many rural one-room school in Crawford County.

A most beautiful time of the year. The whole countryside is greening up, trees are in the “leafing out” process, geese are honking their way north, and farmers are set to plant soybeans and corn. Our big maple tree (Acer) in the back yard is in the reddish seed pod (samaras) developing stage. They will later turn a tan color when ripe and then will rain down in whirlybird helicopter spinner style. It’s the maple’s way of propagating. It is a delight to watch.

Dandelions are populating the area parks and lawns. It’s odd that such an exquisitely beautiful flower is considered a weed. I harken back to my days on the farm and our war with the Canadian thistle. Each plant had a lovely fragrant pink flower. Neighbor John Payne called them the “lettuce from hell” thistle. The leaves have an array of prickly barbs that seemed to say, “stay away from me.” If you stood back away from a Canadian thistle plant and waited a few minutes, you could count on a bee using the flower as a landing pad.

We now have a stunning view of Lake Tomah. Obstructing brush has been cut away and numerous diseased ash trees have been removed. Fishing from the shore is popular and we see boaters on the water.

NASA (North American Squirrel Association) is building a handicapped accessible playground on the western side of Butts Park, the park across the street from our house.

I sent the manuscript of our next book, Country School Days: True Tales of a Wisconsin One-Room School, to the publisher yesterday. Hopefully out by early Fall.

Spring is a season of renewal and restoration. So, it is fitting that St. Michael’s Indian Creek Catholic Church, a few miles south of Oakdale, Wisconsin is receiving a complete interior renovation. Each day a dozen parishioners and Tomah Knights of Columbus members are laboring to revive its original look. On Monday, April 12, we removed the pews that were carted off for the Amish to be refurbished. The old wall paneling came down on Tuesday. Wednesday, the false ceiling was taken out. Parish ladies, Juanita Arttus, Marge Shie, and Therese Schuh serve a lunch at noon.

The parish was established in 1860 by immigrant German farmers that had a deep and abiding faith. The Church, as it looks today, was built in 1910. One of the smaller parishes of the Diocese of La Crosse, St. Michael’s sits alone on a hill on the eastern edge of Monroe County, bordering Highway N which parallels Indian Creek, a brook starting in the hills along Highway A, and joining the Lemonweir River at New Lisbon.

St. Michael’s is not unlike numerous Catholic and Lutheran churches that dot the Driftless Area countryside, their cross-topped steeples reaching for the Heavens.

            Good friends presented us with a hyacinth plant, and it is now blooming. The pleasant fragrance fills the living room. The six sedum plants along the north side of the house are poking through the ground and are about 2 inches high. The huge maple trees (Acer Saccharinum)  in the back yard are shedding their reddish buds and sprinkling the patio. In a few weeks, the seed pods will develop and will helicopter down in their whirlybird fashion. We planted two maple trees in 1974, the couple years after moving to Tomah from La Crosse. Our two sons, ages 4 and 2, helped me. A neighbor sauntered over and we engaged in conversation.

“I see you’re planting a couple trees,” he said. “Yes, and normally it would take me about a half-hour, but with my boys helping, it’ll only take me one hour,” I replied. The four-year-old spoke up and said, “Dad, you got that backward.” Of course, I didn’t, but that is the joy of planting a tree. Now, with the whole countryside greening up, the woods take on a beautiful light green hue that will last about 10 days to two weeks, until the foliage turns to a darker green. It’s a beautiful transition and one I look forward to and very much enjoy.

            In contrast, we attended a funeral in Cashton on Thursday. A man, brother to a member of our Church and a Knights of Columbus member, passed suddenly and way too young at age 76. Said to have died on the operating table. The contrast is striking, the slow awakening and rebirth of Spring and the unexpected and abrupt end of life.

Easter at Oak Grove School was celebrated in a quiet way. The week before Easter, Holy Week in the Catholic Church, the Teacher ran off sheets of Easter eggs and Easter bunnies from the hectograph machine. The lower grades could color them and the obligatory hanging them on a wall for display.

            School was out at noon for Good Friday. Many Churches held Good Friday services in the afternoon. Thursday became our Easter celebration day. We brought little baskets of candies, cookies, and brownies, to distribute and share.

         We were tasked with selling Easter seals. Teacher gave each family a sheet of 50 or 100 and they were to be sold for one cent each. Money went to help crippled children, especially those harmed by polio.

            The Kozelkas had a big brown lab dog that answered to Curly. In his prime, Curly walked to and from school each day. Curly hung out around the school building, and truly earned his keep by chasing after and retrieving the softball that was hit over the fence and into the woods.

            Curly wore out his welcome when he ate the eggs set out for the Easter Egg hunt. Curly had his fill, but we kids had our fill of Curly. He was literally in the doghouse from then on!

Spring is here. The ice went out of Lake Tomah on Sunday morning, March 21, close to the official start of Spring. Early Sunday morning witnessed about 30 acres of ice, but the wind was out of the SSW, blowing the ice mass against the northern shore. By noon, the last remnants of ice were gone. We’ve kept track of the dates when Lake Tomah freezes over and when the ice disappears, since we moved here in 1972. The earliest the ice was gone was March 3, 2000 and the latest was April 26, 2013.

The sedum is coming up on the north side of the house. There is no sign of Paul’s Glory, a plant given to us by Jennie Zeitler in memory of our son, Paul, who passed away in 2017. The leaf color changes throughout the season.

Among the outdoor Springtime chores is dethatching the front lawn. I have a dethatching blade on an old push-type Lawn Boy lawnmower. The blade has a 3-inch prong on each end that digs down into the lawn and digs out dead grass. The hard part is the follow-up raking.

Touch-up paint on the garage is another annual task. The garage is coming up on 50 years old, and bits of paint on the siding flake off over time. That was a Tuesday job, with bright sunshine and mid-50s temperatures. I was serenaded by a Mourning Dive perched on the neighbor’s house, every five seconds with the familiar soft “perch-coo” followed by three louder coos.

The maple trees in the back yard are coming alive. The buds are bursting and soon small green leaves will emerge. A month ago, Tomah city crews cut many diseased ash trees in Butts Park affording us and our neighbors a more panoramic view of the Lake and I cut brush along the lakeshore. Already we see people fishing from the shore.