Week of 1/5/25

This week Monday started out cloudy and cold with a low of 7 degrees. The sun then came out mid-morning and it warmed up to a nice high of 23 degrees. Perfect weather for working in the woods; so thats what I did, I cut wood. I also bedded the calf barn. 

Tuesday was the same, the day started out cloudy and cold and then the sun came out and temps climbed from 4 to 25 degrees. I split wood and put it in the barn on Tuesday morning. I also cut more wood in the afternoon. 

Wednesday was still cold with a low of 5 but sunny it soon got to a high of 26. I finished splitting the wood that I had cut and put it away. Ruth had a nice syrup order to send to Washington. With shipping getting so expensive sometimes on a small order the shipping costs more than the syrup and that part of our business is getting smaller.

Thursday was still cold with the temperature starting at only 6 degrees but then warming up nicely to a high of 30 under a bright sun before the clouds moved in later in the day. I took some hay to the cows on the ridge and then went to the woods where I cut 2 mule loads of wood. During the evening I got a telephone call from a company called Bookmarc Alliance wanting to promote my book and make me rich. I told them to send me their proposal in writing. 

Friday was a warmer cloudy day with a few flurries flying in the morning. In he afternoon I cut some more wood. Ted, Renae, and Tayden brought down 5 cows to add to the herd here and then hauled the 41 calves from here to Ted’s farm. I will now have less chores to do. I saw a couple of deer, which are the first I have seen in a couple of weeks. 

Saturday was again another cloudy day with a low of 21 and a high of 32. I cut a split more wood again today. I now have 7 full cords made with 3 more to go until I will have the barn full; about 24 cords total.

I read an article in the Dodgeville Chronicle trashing Facebook and social media for being a place where people can say anything with no points for accuracy and that it is causing the downfall of mainstream media. I believe this article was by a Mary G. However, in my experience, social media can be one of the only places where you can get the facts. This is because the mainstream media will report only what is spoon-fed to them by the authorities and press releases by the politicians. Take the case of No. 2008 C.V.00007 in Grant County Wisconsin by Judge Robert P. Van De Hey who overturned a contract in a deed and took away the use of part of the defendant's pasture land not because of what they had done but because of who they are; that being family farmers with Native American blood. The case that was brought against us I believe was because of who we are; that, because we were using a rotation pasture system that he had to open and close 3 to 4 gates over and over again to get to his residence was a total lie. Reason number 1 being that there was no residence to get to, zoning did not allow for a residence as he only had a 30ft easement, the law would have required it to be 66ft. It was a wooded parcel of land that he used for hunting. Reason 2 is that it was totally impossible to close the easement off and still have a rotation pasture if the cows were on the east side as the 2 gates would have to be closed alongside the easement to keep the cows there and when moved to the west pastures the gates on that side would have to be closed along side of the easement not across it so at least half of the easement would always be open, as the gates cannot be in two places at the same time. All of this was brought up to the newspapers and TV stations. Only one of the editors of the Fennimore Times would look into it Rob Callahan, who was then quickly replaced by Morris Newspapers. The D.A. was asked many times to bring charges of perjury against the plaintiff but she would not although she admitted that there was perjury. She is now the Granty County Judge. In my book The Heart Remembers I wrote this story and a book was sent to all of the local newspapers and T.V. stations but none of them would do a story on a local author. Books were also donated to the local libraries. The newspapers would not mention that either so I challenge those of you in mainstream media to investigate case No. 2008 C.V. 00007 and print what you find. As I see what was done as nothing short of a racial and corrupt hate crime by Grant County's so-called Justice System.

-Helmuth Krause

Week of 12/29/24

This week started out warm and sunny, it was a pleasant day. After chores and taking hay to the cows on the ridge I noticed our old cow #36 hadn’t gained weight like she should have after her calf was weaned. It could be her teeth betting bad, but I will keep an eye on her. I then went to cutting wood and I got 2 mule loads cut and hauled out of the woods on Monday.

Tuesday was a little cooler with a little light snow early in the morning. I split and put the wood in the barn that I had cut on Monday, and bedded the calf barn. I also had a situation on my hands as I had forgotten to close the calf gate this morning after feeding the calves their grain. Luckily I was still in the area when the calves started to some out.

On Wednesday it was a gray and cloudy day with a light wind coming out of the north to welcome the new year in. I also welcomed the new year in a good way by cutting a load of wood.

On Thursday morning the temp was down to 15 and the ground was now froze hard. This was real good weather to be out in the woods. I the cut more wood and split it and put it in the barn,

On Friday it was a cold and sunny with a still N.W. wind. Now this is the real weather to be out working in the woods. I cut wood most of the day and hauled it to the splitter. I got 3 mule loads done. I was mighty tired by the end of the day.

Saturday was another cold sunny day and after taking hay to the cows on the ridge, I went to splitting wood and putting it in the barn. I got it all split but not all put away so I quit at 3 as I was all in. Most of what I am cutting is hickory and white ash, both excellent woods. The white ash trees are all dead now from the beatles and the hickory needed to be cut to make room for the walnuts.

Sunday was a cold and cloudy day with the low being all the way down to 8 in the morning. Ruth said that we needed to go shopping or quit eating. I decided that I didn’t want to quit eating so we went shopping after chores. We got back home and unloaded the car and had dinner. We then watched the packers and Bears play some football. Both teams tried their hardest to lose but the Packers won that one by losing 22 to 24. I didn’t get anything done with the book this week as I have been to busy.

-Helmuth Krause

Week of 12/22/25

After last weeks end of bitter cold we are back to warmer weather.

On Monday after a low of 24 we got to 36 for a high and the snow began to melt. I went to the woods after chores and had nice working until about 11:30 when a light rain started and the snow got very slippery. I then quit that job for the day. In the afternoon I called a number of book stores about putting my book, The Heart Remembers, in their store. Some seemed promising so I will be visiting them after the new year.

After a good hard freeze with a low of 10 degrees on Monday night I went back to the woods on Tuesday. I worked there until noon, by then with it being a sunny day the snow was getting wet and slippery, in the afternoon I bedded the calf barn and took a nap and watched some Judge Judy on T.V. She mostly always gets things right but she thinks very highly of herself and and treats those in front of her with no respect at all, often calling them stupid for not knowing the law.

On Wednesday I hauled wood I had cut earlier in the woods down to the splitter. I did some hunting in the morning and again later in the afternoon.

On Thursday it was a cloudy and foggy day with some light mist at times, making the snow very slippery. I split wood until noon. I needed to take hay to the cows up on the ridge. I knew the tractor couldn’t make it up without tire chains. They were too heavy for me to handle so Ted and Tayden came and put them on. I then filled the feeders on the ridge with hay.

On Friday morning it was cloudy and very foggy. We had a nice syrup sale early with 20 quarts sold. The person gives them as gifts at their Christmas get-togethers, I then went hunting no more then I got in the woods and jumped a big doe. I got off what I thought would be a killing shot but it wasn’t but it left a blood trail. I tracked it for over an hour until I found it had left my property and went into a woods where the land was posted; what a shame. It had to be only a flesh wound as the deer never laid down and moved on all four feet. She should live. It was starting to rain by then and as the land was posted I had to let it go. That afternoon we had a funeral to go to in Avoca for a fellow veteran. He was only 82.

Saturday was a partly sunny day with temps in the mid 40s. The snow was now all gone. I split wood and put it in the barn in the morning. In the afternoon I cleaned the calf yard and bedded the barn. My granddaughters Ashley and Taylor stopped by, along with Ashley’s fiancé Ty stopped by to visit before they go back to where the now live. With Ashley & Ty living in Appleton and Taylor living in Denver Colorado.

On Sunday we again woke up to thick fog. It was in the afternoon before the sun finally burned it off. With it being a day of rest I did just that. I watched the Vikings beat the Packers 27 to 25. Jimmy Carter our 39th president died today at the age of 100, he was an honest and decent man. The only honest president we had in my time of 92 years.

-Helmuth Krause

Week of 12/15/24

This week on Monday the weather was warm, cloudy, and foggy with some light rain around noon. I put a couple of gator loads of wood by the maple syrup cook shed in the morning. In the afternoon Ted and Tayden came and I helped them work the calves here on this farm.

Tuesday stayed warm with a high of 37 and it started out sunny but was cloudy by noon. After chores and filling the bale feeder on the ridge, Ruth and I went to the apple orchard at Gays Mills. They were having their Christmas sale that went as each box you buy you would get the second one free. So we got a couple bushel that Ruth will cut and freeze and use for her pies as needed. On the way back we stopped in Boscobel and had lunch. We then went to the Paisley Star where we scheduled a book signing for February 1st 2025, on a Saturday from 10:30 to 3:00. When I got home I bedded the calf barn.

On Wednesday it was a more normal day with a high of 30 with some sun early them clouds. It was a good day to work in the woods. So after chores I went to cutting wood most of the day.

Thursday was a snowy day, we got a light snow that started early in the morning. I started splitting the wood I had cut yesterday and by noon I had 2 gator loads split and put in the barn. I took a nap after lunch. At 3 I went out and shoveled the sidewalk off. There was 5 inched on it by then. I then called it a day.

Friday winter was back, I woke up to a chilly 5 degrees, however it was a bright sunny day without and wind; not bad at all. I had a doctors appointment in Muscoda in the morning. In the afternoon I cleaned up the snow around the farm with the skid steer.

Saturday was the first day of winter. It came in very cold with a low of -9 degrees. But again, like Friday, it was sunny with no wind. So, after chores, I went out to the woods and cut wood until noon. I rested up in the afternoon in the evening and went to the Krause and Moneypenny Christmas gathering at Scot and Tammy’s in the big machine shed on their farm.

Sunday was a warmer day with a high of 31, the snow will settle some. A few birds coming to the feeder now but no cardinals yet. Seen some deer tracks since the snow but nothing like a few years ago. Some hinters are finding dead deer with swollen tongues and look like they had starved to death. Is there another new disease out there killing them? I know on my farm there is only one doe with her two fawns whereas 10 years ago there would be around a dozen.

-Helmuth R. Krause

Week of 12/8/24

This week started out great, weather-wise. It was warm and sunny at 32 degrees at sunrise on Monday morning and 48 by midafternoon. I then cleaned out the calf barn Monday starting at 8 in the morning and was done by noon. I always am amazed at how efficient a skid steer loader is you can get twice as much done with one of them as you can with a wheel steer and they are fun to operate, they are like the zero-turn lawnmowers. That must be why the women have taken over that job! Then Monday afternoon I cut a mule load of white oak wood. Which is another job I like to do and white oak is so nice to work with. The trees are tall and straight with few branches.

The good weather didn’t last too long. On Tuesday it was cloudy and cooler with a low of 25 and a high of 31. I took round bales of hay to the beef cows on the ridge then split the wood I had cut earlier and put in the barn, which was 2 Gator loads.

By Wednesday winter was coming back the high in the morning was at 26. After chores I went to the woods and cut a mule load of wood and got it split and put away by noon. By then it was getting very windy with the temps dropping. After noon I then took a nap and after that I bedded the Calf barn. I was then done for the day, a short one.

By Thursday morning winter was back in full force with a low of 0 and with a high of 9. I went shopping with Ruth in the morning. In the afternoon I put a couple gator loads of wood by the maple syrup cook shed. I also got a call from a company in California that wanted to promote my book and make me rich. They were going to call me back at noon with a plan but they didn’t. So I guess I won’t get rich.

Friday morning started out clear and cold. It was down to -1. I took hay to the cows on the ridge. I then went to the woods and cut down a dead ash tree. I couldn’t get to it with the tractor so I skidded it out of the woods and took the logs down to the splitter with the tractor where I then cut them up and split the wood and put it in the barn. I had a really nice Christmas syrup order Friday evening.

By Saturday the weather had changed again, it was a cloudy gray day with a low of 26 and a high of 36. I got a mule load of wood split out in the barn. Just in time before the freezing rain started. At mid-morning we had a quarter inch in the rain gauge Sunday morning. Sunday was a cloudy, foggy day. After chores and bedding the calves I had a day of rest.

Visit with you next week.

-Helmuth Krause

Week of 12/1/24

This week started out cold on Monday with the low being only 12 degrees and the high being 26. Th ground is now froze and that’s a good thing as we had 5 inches of rain in November, and the ground was a bit muddy so now that the ground is too froze to plant walnuts I started on the wood splitting. I will need about 12 full cords to take care of wood needed to heat the house and for the maple syrup operation. On Monday I put 3 gator loads of wood in the barn from cherry trees that had blown down last summer and I had cut and split earlier this fall.

On Tuesday, a cool and pleasant sunny day, after chores and taking large round bales of hay up on the riidge to the beef cattle, I went to the woods to cut down a hickory tree. I brought it down on the loader tractor, cut it in blocks, and was starting to split it when a syrup customer stopped by. It was a retired school teacher and he came running over asking if he could help. I said he sure could. He hadn’t split wood since he was a kid growing up on a farm many years ago, but he enjoyed it.

On Wednesday it started out clear but it warmed up fast to the mid 30s by noon. In the morning I had to cut a mule load of white oak wood as all the oak trees are dying from a beetle infestation. I split that and cut another load that afternoon. By evening th eweather was changing again. The wind was now coming from the northwest and the temperature was falling fast. By the next morning it was down to 8 degrees.

On Thursday after chores I went back to the wood splitting. I took a nice nap after lunch on Thursday before I cut another gator load of wood.

On Friday morning I split wood also. On Friday afternoon I bedded the calf barn and filled the bale feeder on the ridge with big round bales of hay. Friday evening I took the products that we would be selling at the Highland Christmas Market on Saturday. It’s held in the Highland School Gym and we sell maple syrup, pies, and my book. A nice young man helped us carry all of our stuff in, thank you so much Miles.

On Saturday at the market we did very well, all of Ruth’s 35 pies sold out. We sold lots of maple syrup and many books. I think it was our best year ever at that market and we have been going there for over 20 years. That evening I went to the Highland parade, it was a very good one, and then had a meal and played some bingo at the Highland V.F.W. Christmas party.

Sunday was warm and sunny almost spring with a high of something like 52 degrees. After chores I watched some T.V., had a big dinner and took a long nap. In the evening I had a good syrup sale to some very nice people, who have been long time customers.

Thats it for this week,

-Helmuth Krause

Week of 11/24/24

Not anything exciting happened this week. I planted walnuts the first 4 days until the ground froze to hard to get the spade in. I got a least 2,000 planted and I got a place for another 1,000. That will have to wait until spring.

I also did a little hunting in the early morning and again in the evening. I didn’t see any deer from last sunday until this sunda morning I saw a deer with her two fawns. I didn’t get a shot at them as they spotted me and took off through the brush. I don’t like to shoot unless I can get a killing shot, not white flags going away.

On Wednesday Ruth baked 7 pies as she had orders for them for peoples thanksgiving dinners.

Now that the ground is froze to hard to plant walnuts, I started on the wood splitting. On Friday I split two gator loads of cherry wood that I had cut last summer from the trees that had blown down. Also on friday evening we went to our daughter Tina’s for Thanksgiving dinner as usual I ate too much and then there was that counter full of desserts; my weakness. That strawberry cheesecake was so good, I couldn’t believe my gut could put that much food away.

Also on Thursday, the 28th, on Thanksgiving Day, I turned 92.

Saturday morning I went shopping with Ruth. In the afternoon I got a couple of logs out of the woods to cut up for firewood. One thing I noticed is there are no Blue-Jays in the woods to sound the alarm when something enters the woods. I do not know where they are hiding out. I didn’t get out to promote the book this week.

I will also be at the Highland School on Saturday December 7th selling maple syrup, pies, and doing a book signing! Come see me there.

-Helmuth Krause

Week of 11/17/24

This week the weather started out cloudy and wet with the clouds staying the whole week. On Monday I planted walnuts until noon. We got a light rain in the afternoon and heavier rain at night, for a total of 1.5 inches by Tuesday morning. I then planted walnuts again until noon. Then I went out to see if we could get the books in more stores. So we went to a place in Boscobel called the Paisley Star, then later to a place called Country View Market just outside Platteville. They both agreed to take some to sell. Thats two more places for customers to buy books.

On Wednesday I took Ruth to see the chiropractor in Mineral Point as her back had been giving her a lot of pain. While we were there I decided to stop by the local library and donate one of my books. So now there are 4 local libraries that readers can check out the book, including Muscoda, Spring Green, Dodgeville, and Mineral Point.

On Thursday we got out first snow of the season, about an inch. We also got two calls, one from a book promotion company called BookMarc Alliance and the other one being a movie company called Creative Productions. I had a long talk with them, and there may be a big story on them later.

On Friday I checked out the woods to see what deer runs looked the best as the gun deer season opens on Saturday the 23rd. I also plan to plant walnuts each day until my legs tell me to quit. I now have 1500 in the ground and I hope to have at least 2000 in before the ground freezes up.

On Saturday I came in from hunting and there was a nice surprise, somebody had brought me a batch of cookies. It was a little 7 year old girl from Highland School. On veterans day she had wrote me a letter thanking me for my service. I had wrote her a letter back and she baked some cookies for me, what a very nice person she is.

My hunting hasn’t been very successful so far. On Saturday I was on the wrong run as a doe and her 3 fawns crossed a valley a ways down from where I was.

On Sunday morning spotted a doe and her fawn about a hundred yards from me and she just stood there broadside. “Too good to be true I thought,” so I decided to take a neck shot at her. I shot and she jumped about 10 feet in the air then took off into the brush. I figured I had her, but I guess I had missed. I searched the hillside for about an hour but couldn’t find her or any blood, but without any snow it is hard to tell. Thats the way this week ended.

-Helmuth Krause

Week of 11/10/24

The week started out sunny but a fair amount cooler then what most of this fall has been. That all changed by Tuesday the rest of the week it stayed cloudy with some light rain Wednesday evening and heavy rain Thursday morning before daylight. Which left the feeding lot full of calves a total mess, as well as the field where I feed the cows.

On Friday I got around to cleaning out the feed lot and giving the calves plenty of dry bedding. Which is a good thing because Ted worked the calves on Saturday vaccinating and tagging them.

Most of the mornings this week after chores I planted more walnuts. I got around 800 in the ground now. I only work till noon doing that as that is all this 92-year-old body can take anymore.

I spent a good but of time just sitting and watching the chipmunks and squirrels play. So far, I haven’t seen the squirrels dig up any of the nuts I had planted, as there are so many hickory nuts and other walnuts laying on the ground that they haven’t even started to work at that yet. Both the turkey and the deer are working the harvested corn and soybean fields. The turkeys do it in the daytime then the deer do the evening and night shifts.

Ruth got some nice orders for Thanksgiving pies. So now she will get to use her new stove for them, as McNeal Appliance brought it out Wednesday.

On Saturday I had a book signing at the Aspen Ridge Home and Garden Center in Mineral Point Wisconsin. We did real well there just about everyone who looked at the book bought one.

On Sunday afternoon I went to Oakwood Apple Orchard as Richland Center where we had left quite a bunch of books at the start of the season in August. The books were all sold out and had been for some time. We will make sure to leave more there next year.

-Helmuth Krause

Week of 11/3/24

Now that the harvest is over and the garden is done, as well as the farmers market being over for this year things have sort of slowed down from what has to get done. So I have started to work in the woods. On Monday I got a couple gator loads of wood cut down from a few cherry trees that had blown over this summer. There are still some more yet to go.

I also helped Ted load out some cull cows we had culled out from the herd when we weaned the calves. Then on Tuesday it was a wet and cloudy day, so we went to look about getting a new stove as the top of the old one had cracked and to replace the top was over half the price of a new stove. So we decided that a new stove would make more sense as the old one was 14 years old and has seen a lot of use, as Ruth bakes around a thousand pies a year plus a lot of other stuff.

Wednesday, I went to planting walnuts in the woods, where I have been cutting the wood trees down for firewood. These woods are on a steep rocky hillside, so I can only work between 3 to 4 hours a day before I get severe leg cramps in the evening. I move very slow as these hill sides are slippery as heck and when I fall it gets harder to get back up each year. So, I only get about 150 planted in a day. I would like to get at least around 2000 of them planted before this falls freeze.

After that I will go to cutting wood for the house as we still use wood for heating the house in the winter. I also cut wood for our little maple syrup operation; a total needed of 12 full cords.

I also have a few chores to do now, like taking care of the weaned calves and feeding the cow herd.

I got the garlic planted this week but I didn’t plant as much this fall as the market wasn’t as good as what I had thought it would be and I have a fair amount left over. The book sales are going great, we added 2 new places to sell the book. A little store in Dodgeville called Roots to Branches and a home and garden center in Mineral Point called Aspen Ridge. We will be having a book signing event there on Saturday, November 16th going from 10 to 4. I hope to see a good turnout.

Week of 10/27/24

This week started out warm and windy, with it being 70 on Monday and by Tuesday it climbed to 81. One degree from the record of 92 set for October 29th. Wednesday is was 77 and Wednesday night we got 2 inches of rain to break a dry spell of almost two months. Then after that it cooled down to about normal for the rest of the week.

On Monday and Tuesday I went to Ted’s farm and did chisel plowing while Ted did dry tilling. Ted had got the little John Deere dozer back so he hired John to fill in washouts and redo some of the grass waterways that were washing along the sides from this summers heavy rains. On Wednesday John came to my farm to work on the ridge roads that had badly washed. I then got a bag of winter rye and seeded the rye with my little hand spinner to try to keep the roads from washing by getting a cover crop growing.

The harvest and fall field work went really well but at the low prices and very expensive inputs like fertilizer, seed, and machine costs. Lets not forget land rent, which is very high compared to the price of corn and soybeans. I believe like last year it will be a negative return per acre. Historically it has been that the farmer and the land owner get equal returns per acre. That worked from 2020 through 2022 but now with grain prices 25 percent or more lower, and the landowner still wanting over $200 per acre, the farer would have to pay out of his pocket to farm the land. It makes no sense. The sad part is a lot of these landowners are retired farmers or farm heirs and they know better or should.

On Friday here on my farm we weaned the calves and had a total of 44. On Teds farm I am not sure how many there are, maybe around 50. That is the bright spot in farming the last couple of years, as beef prices are good but don’t I don’t know if it is enough to keep it in the black.

I got a new shipment of book Friday, and I have a waiting list for them. They sell well when they are out in the stores unfortunately we don’t have many places handling them yet. We will have to work on that, or the publisher seems to have no intent in getting the books out in the book stores.

Update 11/7/24 - Books in Dodgeville store “Roots & Branches” as well as McNeill Appliance. Books are also in Mineral Point at the “Aspen Ridge Home and Garden Center. There will also be a book signing there on November 16th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

- Helmuth Krause

Week of 10/20/24

It’s been another busy week. We have been harvesting corn for my son Ted this week. I start in the morning and work until Tayden, Teds son, gets home from school. Then Tayden takes over and they work till well after dark. On Thursday night they finished the harvest. While it was a fair crop overall, it wasn’t as good as expected with this summers ample rain. In places where the water would stand the crop was very poor. On the well drained ground the crop was very good but it couldn’t quite make up for the wet ground as Ted has a lot of level land with low spots.

On Friday I went to the chiropractor as both my back and right shoulder had been giving me quite a bit of pain. There was a knot the size of a golf ball on the back of my shoulder. The chiropractor spent about half an hour working that down. It feels a lot better now.

We are done with our Saturday farmers market so I finished filling the wood shed at my home. About 4 full cords as we use mostly wood to heat the house in the winter months. Ruth went to the orchard up at Gays Mills and got a few bushel of pie apples that she will slice up and freeze for next summers farmers market.

With the cool frosty nights the critters are getting a lot more active. I seen a number of buck deer on the move during the day time this past week. The squirrels are working overtime gathering nuts. I had a huge gathering of vultures circling overhead the other day getting ready to go south. But where have all the redwing blackbirds gone? Just a few years ago I would see floods of hundreds of thousands covering a whole hillside so all that you would see is black, like a blanket had been thrown over the field. This year all I see is a few hundred at a time siting on the telephone wires. Maybe they are in a different area this year.

The book is selling weel and we are out again, and we are now waiting for the next shipment.

-Helmuth Krause

Week of 10/13/24

This week started out on the cold side with a high of 50 on Monday and a low of 36. On Tuesday the high was 47 and the low was 29. Then on Wednesday the low got down to 22, a really hard freeze. On last Sunday I had picked all the tomatoes that showed any color and got four 5-gallon buckets full. My wife and two daughters will can a lot of them as I don’t have a market for most of them. I also picked two 5-gallon buckets of cucumbers. They got soft by Saturday market, so they went to a lady that makes a lot of pickles. Monday evening, I picked the last of the peppers and got three 5-gallon buckets. Most of them will also be preserved as I only sold about a quarter of them at the Saturday Market.

This last Saturday was out last farmers market for this year. We did really great that day. Ruth had made 46 pies and she sold all but 2. I also sold 4 books, which was one more than I had taken there so I will have to deliver that one. Overall the year has been very good.

Ted has started to pick corn this week. As usual I help with the harvest, it is something that I really like to do, and with the weather being just perfect, with cool nights and warm sunny days makes being out in the fields even more enjoyable. With this perfect harvesting weather, the harvest will be about done by the end of this week. The corn yield is all over the place, the monitor in the combine is reading lows of 50 bushels per acre on the low wet spots where the water sat at times this summer. On the better fields with good drainage it is reading as high as 275 bushels per acre. Overall it is averaging about 200 bushels per acre, which is about the average for this farm.

After the harvest is over there will be some stalks to bale and some fall tillage to get done. It might all be done by the first of November, which is very early for this area. I don’t know if many cover crops are being planted as the topsoil is bone dry. We will need some rains for anything to germinate.

Out in the woods the walnut trees are now bare of all leaves and nuts. Many of the maples have also lost many of their leaves. The hunters will have much better vision of the game this season. The bucks are leaving many rubs and marking their territory with scrapes.

-Helmuth Krause

Week of 10/6/24

This week Monday morning out growing season came to its end as the temperature dropped to 30. I covered the tomatoes and peppers Sunday, as that was about all that was still left in the garden. Of the cucumbers, I picked all that had any size and left the rest freeze. There is still no rain so to keep the ginseng bed moist, so instead I filled the sprayer tank with water and used a hose to water them down.

The rest of the day I picked up walnuts that I will use for both cracking this winter and planting. I now have about 10 bushels of them. I am now putting wood in the woodshed by the house that we use to heat out house in the winter. There is nothing like coming in the house after chores on a cold winter day and putting your hands up against the wood stove.

Thursday, a warm sunny day like so many this fall, I worked in the woods cutting poke weed off below the soil line with a spade shovel. The poke weed takes over ta open spot in the woods, choking out the good vegetation and tree saplings. To kill it you cut the root off under the ground.

Thursday night we went to our daughter Tina’s 54th birthday party. I probably had one too many, so my wife Ruth drove us home.

Friday as usual I did the harvesting for the Saturday market, not so much to do so I was done by noon. Ruth had her baking done so in the afternoon we went to Muscoda to take care of some business. On the way we met one of them shit hauling trucks from a local big dairy. He didn’t have it closed up right or something as he totally sprayed our car with the stinking crap. We then went straight to the car wash when we got to Muscoda, but the car wash was broke down. The man working said it would take about an hour, so we did our business and then went back. The man through he had it fixed but it still wouldn’t work. The man then told us to go in the self-wash bay and that he would hand wash the car for us, so we did, and he did a really good job. When I went to pay him he refused to take my money. What a good and smart man, and I will now always have my car washed there and pass on the word.

On Saturday as usual we had a very good day. We also had a wonderful experience when the renowned author of poems Daniel Smith came to the market. He told us that he had read my book, The Heart Remembers, and he congratulated me and presented us with a signed hard cover copy of his book called, Ancestral. I never thought of myself as a reader of poetry, but after starting to read his book I really like it. It tells the stories of farmers and the hardships but also the rewards that farm life offers. In his poetry his love for the land clearly shows. He lives here in southwest Wisconsin, and works as a counselor to farm family’s in crisis. His website is www.danielgerardsmith.com.

My book, The Heart Remembers: Recollections of a Ninety-Year-Old Man, is really starting to take off, of the 50 copies we got a month ago only 6 of them are left, and we will order 50 more on Friday. The Dodgeville Public Library also carries the book now.

-Helmuth Krause

Week of 9/29/24

With the weather cooling down this week I did some work in the maple woods. Some taps had broken off and there were a lot of broken limbs down on the sap lines. It took me a couple of days with the chain saw to get that stuff all cleared off the lines, before the weather gets bad. We have to be ready to go next spring when we tap the trees.

I got another job done I have been wanting to get done for years. That was when Ted had built a new fence, and he had straightened it out, as the old fence had fallen on the line of the contour strips. so there was about 1/10 of an area that was a big pile of dirt with an old 3 bottom plow buried in it. I was always planning on leveling it out with the little John Deere bulldozer. However, it never is around when I get the time. So, I put the manure fork on the skid steer, which worked really well to dig into the hill of dirt and level it out. I was surprised about how mellow and loose the dirt was.

After getting that job done, I went about watering the new ginseng beds. I had planted these a few weeks ago but it hasn’t rained since then and the top soil is getting very dry. If ginseng seed dries out it dies. With this sunny and dry weather everything is really finishing off in a hurry. The soybeans are about all harvested in this area, with an average yield. The corn is drying down fast with some of the farmers down in the sand harvesting it and it is dry enough they can put it right in the bin without drying it first. That will save them some money with these low corn prices. Also, the price of corn has raised about 50 cents from a month ago, another big help.

The maple trees are putting on color now, but not very much to no bright red or orange leaves, but rather dull yellow and orange. Some of the walnut have already lost their leaves and nuts. I have picked up a dozen 5 gallon buckets of them and Ruth has also picked up a half dozen buckets full. I will use the nuts to both plant and to crack this winter on the cold and snowy days.

The book continues to sell well, and I will need to order another 50 to the order we got 2 weeks ago, as they are all gone but six.

- Helmuth Krause

Week of 9/22/24

Its been another very busy week. I have finished planting the ginseng seed. I then went to hauling off some of the manure, and when I got that done I got a load of gravel and repaired the driveway where the heavy rains earlier this year had washed away a lot of the gravel down the creek that runs through our driveway. I also got a load of gravel fines to to spread in the cow yard after I got the manure hauled from the cow yard. This all beside haresting the garden as needed. The tomatoes, beans, beats, and cucumbers are still producing well. The nice rain that we got last week has really helped, even the grass has greened up again. Ruth cut the lawn after about 3 weeks of not having to.

I then turned the cows into a new pasture, where I also supplement with hay to stretch out the grass. What a pleasent stretch of weather we have had to get the work all done. Sunshine almost every day for the last month with the high around 80 and lows in the middle to high 40s. The farmers are really getting the beans harvested which I think is getiing close to done.

At the farmers market we are doing very well. We about sell out every saturday. This saturday after market we went to the Highland home-coming as the class of 1964 was being honored on their 60th class reunion, which was Ruth’s class. They all met at one of the class members homes for a little get together.

The book “The Heart Remembers” is selling well. All though it appears it is being banned in some areas. All the morris newspapers received a copy of the book 6 months ago. Only one of the editions of the Muscoda Progressive aknowledged that a local author had wrote a new book, and Wendell Smith, the author, was a independent, not on Morris Newspapers payroll.

In some cases it is being with-held from the public for whatever reason, maybe for its content or maybe because of who wrote it. It appears the book is being banned by some.

The book is now available at the Spring Green Library.

-Helmuth Krause

Week of 9/15/24

Didn’t get nothing wrote last week, as it was very busy. I got some ginseng seed from up north the Wausau area on Sept. 12, and then started to plant it. But first I had to water the ground as it has been very dry here for the last month. And if ginseng seed dries out it will die. I now have about 2/3 of it planted. Then on the 19th of Sept. we got a nice 0.8 in. of rain so I will no longer need to water the ground first. Now as I write this on Sept. 22nd we got another 1 inch of rain last night. So now maybe the grass will green back up and start growing again, as the pastures were drying up and turning brown. I started to put hay out for the cows on Sept. 17th.

Got a nice order for some ginseng root from a Chinese doctor on Sept. 15th, so I have been digging some ginseng root for him. Fall is really coming on fast as on many of the soybean fields the leaves have fallen off and some farmers are starting to harvest the beans. Chopping corn for silage is coming to an end as the plants are fast becoming too dry. Harvesting for dry corn should start this month yet in September. Quite early for this area.

Out in the woods where there are hickory tress the ground is getting covered with nuts as they are coming down fast and there is a big crop of them. The walnuts started to drop there nuts after the wind and rain on Sept. 19th. These have been a so-so crop this year. As for this oaks very few nuts in this area.

At the Spring Green farmers market we continue to do very well I am always amazed at how many pies we sell at that little market in a village of just over 1000 people. We just got our last order of 50 books a week ago and we sold 31 of them already. Ace Hardware of Muscoda will put books in their stores in Richland Center and La Crosse so that will be 2 more outlets. The books sell when they are displayed, that’s why I don’t understand why the publisher doesn’t get the books out in bookstores like they promised. There cut on each book is over 10 dollars while ours is just over 2 dollars. Why should we have to do all of the promoting? We have sold over 200 books while supposedly they have only sold 3. Maybe it just takes a while for the word to get around how good the book is. It is till maintaining its 5-star ratiing.

-Helmuth Krause

Week of 9/1/24

Its been another busy week besides my regular garden work I was out in the woods a lot trying to get rid of all the trashy vegetation like the honey suckle bush and the rose bushes. Then when you wipe them out the poke weed will take over. That weed will grow ten feet tall in a single year and have a thousand purple berries. I try to get all that stuff wiped out so the maple and walnut trees can get started, a checkerboard woods, white wood with the maple and dark wood from the black walnut.

I was also working on getting some ground out in the woods ready to plant ginseng seed this fall. I will need to wait for some rain for that as the ground is getting really dry, and if the ginseng seeds dry out they will die. The leaves on the ginseng plant are now turning to a golden color, and with the red berries on top, a very pretty sight. Perhaps the only thing that would be more pleasing to the eyes would be a lovely woman.

There is another really nasty weed coming into our pastures and hay fields, the Carolina horse nettle, a type of nightshade. They spread by both the seeds and deep horizontal roots. We have not yet figured out how to get rid of it yet. Repeated cutting doesn’t seem to do the trick. Nor do the regular sprays like 2.4.D. It will probably take a special spray.

I finally got the books this week that we ordered 5 weeks earlier and we got 9 sold right away. Which is why I don’t understand how the publishing company can’t seem to get any sold when it is so easy for me to do myself. We have sold over 200 books at a small farmers market and a town of 800 people. Meanwhile the 6-month royalty check that we got this week was $28.80 for books sold online. I don’t believe that they have any books out in the bookstores.

-Helmuth Krause

Week of 8/25/24

Its been another busy week, both Monday and Tuesday were very hot and on Tuesday it was also very humid with the temperature being in the mid 90s and the heat index around 110. I didn’t do any more than I had to those days. I just picked the tomatoes, cucumbers, and beans that needed to get done.

While I was up in the woods this week, I noticed that all the leaves on the young maple sapling had turned brown and dried up from the recent hot and dry weather. After the wet spring and earlier wet summer, I hope it does not kill any of them, I hope it just puts them in an early dormancy.

I started to prepare some ground up in the woods to plant some ginseng seed this fall. I called up to Marathon Seed where I have gotten my seed before, and they are no longer in the ginseng business as the man who ran that part passed away last winter. So, they decided to drop that part of their ag supplier business. Dale will be missed I really enjoyed working with him over the years; he was one of the good ones. So, I will need to find a new supplier of seed if I want to continue growing seed as I get none off my plants as the turkeys beat me to the seed before it gets ripe.

The leaves on the chestnut tree are now turning red, and the elder berries are also turning. Anybody for elder berry wine?

We did well at the farmers market this Saturday. We did bring a few pies back home, but no complaints from me as I will know what to do with them.

Have been getting great reviews on the book, unfortunately we did not have any to sell this week as we were out, got a order in and it should be here next Saturday.

Meanwhile they can be ordered at www.dorrancebookstore.com

See you next week!

-Helmuth Krause

Week of 8/18/24

Another Summer week has slipped by, and what a contrast in weather; from a low of 49 degrees on Wednesday to a high of 92 this coming Sunday. It’s been a busy week with the harvesting of the garden. I dug the last of the potatoes on Wednesday. Every other day I pick the beans and cucumbers. Twice a week I pick the tomatoes plus the other veggies for the Saturday market in Spring Green.

This last Saturday we had a fabulous day at the market. We sold out of everything in the bakery and produce department. The Asian Beetles are back in droves, a bit later that usual. I had thought we might not have so many as we had hardly any potato bugs. But we had no such luck, and the beetles will eat the leaves off of the plum trees and the raspberry bushes in a few days.

I learned something new this week, never get too old for that. As I was coming out of the woods, destroying the poke week that’s moving in the woods, I saw four tom turkey, with two of them fighting and the other two watching. I drive within ten feet of them, before they broke the fight off and ran. I always thought the toms only fought in the spring during the mating season, where normally you can’t get within a couple hundred yards.

Before the turkeys take off they were out in the field eating the berries from the nightshade plant, which are poisonous. I began to wonder if that would have something to do with their behavior, does anyone know?

Meanwhile the book The Heart Remembers is selling well and you can order it at www.dorrancebookstore.com.

-Helmuth Krause