Welcome, everyone, to Midday magazine for this February 1st, 2024.
Have your host, James J. May left behind the mic at 330 today.
We're going to welcome in Alison John Jack, regional cranberry educator with UW
Madison Extension Wood County.
Right now in studio, we have our favorite people.
Mike Kittner, Tom Bremmer, historic point boss.
Good afternoon, you two.
How are you guys doing?
Wonderful.
Great afternoon and good afternoon to everybody in radio.
I appreciate you guys.
You got the blushing.
No, we can go now.
We got the radio.
We appreciate that and appreciate you guys being here.
Love talking to historic point boss.
Love talking with you guys.
Before we get into some events coming up, I want to talk about the ice harvest a little
bit with you and how that went.
Yeah, that was just this past weekend at NEPCO Lake with the NEPCO, not NEPCO Lake,
but Port Edward's Lions had their fishery and we cut surprisingly.
A lot of people were worried about the amount of mice we're going to have because we did
have a week of cold, but we also had 11 inches of snow total, so it was kind of insulated
a bit.
But we did have a 12, maybe a little bit more than 12 inches and so we went out and cut,
Tom said what, 126.
126 blocks of ice.
126 blocks of ice and filled up the ice house and sawdust it down and everything
and everything was put away and nobody got injured.
Nobody went for the polar plunge prematurely.
That they're going to do this weekend, so it was a good event for everybody.
We had probably about a dozen, 15 people come down to the site and saw us pack it away
and Larry had the bunkhouse open so he gave a little tour in there and had some hot chocolate
and stuff.
It was a good event all the way around and thanks to all the people that participated
and a lot of the public, we invite them in to kind of cut to everything and some of them
take us up on them and some don't, but we had quite a few people that actually helped
cut or pulled the ice out and that sort of thing and so that's what really you want to
get is the public involved in a safe way, certainly.
We don't want to take any chances, usually if their children smaller or something like that
will have trim saw stuff on the side where it's away from the open water and that sort of thing
because we moved our ice cutting in about 10, 15 feet from where it was previously
and it was still more than eight feet of water in there.
I thought maybe we'd get down to six because we really only need about three feet
for the saw to extend, but we were still, I think, more than eight feet of water there.
Surprisingly, it must be a little bit of a hole there or something.
When we talk about bringing kids to events at the historic point boss,
in part to spark that love of history, that love of culture,
love of your community, of your dirt, of your earth, though you grew up on your ancestors grew up on.
When it comes to adults and having others getting involved in these things,
it's just the same thing, it's creating a little bit more of a connection.
If you physically do these things, you're going to have an immediate almost tie to that
and not only your ancestors, but what was done before.
When we talk about it, Tom knows about there's one gentleman that cut ice
and he got paid, I think, three cents a block.
And he cut, what did he cut, three hundred one day?
Something like that.
Something like that.
And I know this was only 12 inches, I'm sure he was cutting more than that.
But the next day in that night, I felt, I'm 75 years old and I felt 75.
Normally I don't feel that old, but I tell you that with cutting that ice
and it's a physical, I think the main reason we do it,
and I think Rob Nuri, who started us on this,
was he says, we got to know how it feels to do this.
And we don't know how to, how you feel to do it, if you just talk about it.
So we had to do it.
So we continue to do it probably now about 25 years, we've been cutting ice.
Reading and hearing history is important, feeling it is a whole different ball game.
I love that you guys incorporate that.
And some people are tactile learners.
So that's what they have to do to learn it.
If you tell me, I will forget.
If you show me, I may remember, if you involve me, I will understand.
Life is like that.
That's what we do.
It's involved me very well.
Very well said.
I tried to do it.
That's Tom's former teacher said one time after he made a presentation to us,
retired teachers that he told her that he read more books since he got out of school and he ever read it.
That's right, right.
She was a reading teacher.
Complimented me.
No, I've read a lot more books now and later.
One of the other interesting things, as you noted, this time a year is a little different than years past.
We've got some record temps, got more of that we're dealing with.
But in talking to our weather people and any history buff out there,
this was something they dealt with at times, too.
Maybe not as much or maybe not very often, but we see in our history that this is something.
So unlike maybe in years past where we have whatever the normal winters are around here, whatever normal is,
people got to experience a little bit of a different test taste of history.
Right.
We talked about it if we didn't have enough ice that we would do like they do like maybe Monticello or Thomas Jefferson lived in places like that where they had thin ice.
They actually pounded it together to make a bigger chunk and it would last longer.
So we would probably have to do that, I guess, depending on the situation whenever it happens that it may get like that.
And yesterday, Don and I took the fence off the ice because we're afraid we're never going to get that fence back.
And just bought a new 100 foot plastic fence.
It's kind of a security fence.
There's no fence around it.
And so we went out and harvested the fence because I'm afraid that if this continues, I'm sure it will pay for this in maybe March and April,
but it will get that cold again to freeze as extremely as it has.
And if we don't pay for it then next year, you just watch.
We don't want those fishermen to be pulling up orange fence off the bottom.
No, no, no, no.
We can get in trouble for that.
We should segue James into our winter feast, wakily winter feast, which will be at the Nacusa Community Center on Saturday, February 17th.
And we start about four o'clock gathering and we have some more derves and and Rosner made some more derves and she brought it to one of our meetings.
And it was really great stuff.
I mean, we've never had or derves like that before.
We've had cheese and sausage and crackers.
That sort of thing.
This is once.
Yeah, this is way beyond that.
And so if you come, it'll be worth it, worth it, just for the derves alone.
And so handed a really great job on that.
And then she didn't take any home from the meeting.
None left.
None left.
And we had savory and sweet both.
And that sort of thing.
But Tom can go through the menu.
And I think the menu will interest a lot of people.
And even if you haven't, if you're ready, then breakfast may start grueling again.
Yeah, that's the whole idea.
We've always had ham and chicken.
With mashed potatoes and gravy and homemade dressing, everything is homemade.
From.
And it's made on the site.
It isn't brought in.
We go in Thursday for a part of a day, all day Friday and all day Saturday.
There's as many as 20 people.
That's going to say.
And setting up and cooking to.
We're feeding 150 to 80 people depending on, you know, need a team to do that.
Yes, we have a great one.
Honest God.
I mean, there.
So anyway, we got dressing.
We, this year, returned after many years, absent is salmon.
Oh, we got a donation of salmon.
I like Michigan.
So this is not commercial stuff.
Yes.
Amateur caught.
It's the first thing and I'm already mouthwatering.
Yeah.
We got through the list.
Well, and with salmon, we know in previous years, if you aren't in line fairly early,
you probably won't get it.
We would kind of dribble it out so that at least most of the people get a chance of it.
We got to play that game.
We're also going to do mac and cheese again.
Cool.
Now, everybody thinks mac and cheese, that's, that's modern, a little blue box, you know.
No.
It's 500 years old.
Thomas Jefferson served it in the White House in 1803.
I didn't know that.
Yeah.
Wow.
I didn't need it.
But I have to be looking at a thing and the guy is telling me this and I'm going, and the guy is a YouTuber, but he does.
We've known him.
He's from Indiana.
Yeah.
He's a great researcher.
So I believe him.
Oh, yeah.
You know, it's like really, you know.
That's interesting.
We're also going to do trappers pie.
Now, you've heard of shepherds pie with lamb and Guinness.
Yeah.
But we have trappers pie with beaver and point special beer.
Yeah.
Always that part.
And then they always put mashed potatoes on top.
And we put biscuits, making powdered biscuit on the top.
Oh, does that sound good?
We've done that a different times with other meats and different things.
So we're looking for that to do again.
And then I don't imagine Mary Wakeley ever made a real Italian dish.
But we're having raccoon ragu with tomato sauce and raccoon and pasta and whatever.
There'd be some vegetables in there too.
But kind of a, I don't want to call it hot dish.
But yeah, that's kind of what it is of a baked pasta dish.
We're going to do homemade cabbage rolls with venison.
We're those have gone over over the many years.
We've done a number of times.
And they, I mean, there's never.
It's kind of a top.
Oh, yeah.
That's.
And they're not huge.
But, you know, you get a reasonable portion.
We're doing roasted vegetables with carrots and rutabaggies and tornips and parsnips and onions and sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts.
And one of the gals has got a heck of a recipe.
So we're just going to run with it.
And there's some kind of a buttery savory sauce that goes on.
She's making it.
It'll be good.
It'll be good.
We're doing homemade sauerkraut, which Mr. Wakeley here made himself.
Yeah.
He made that at Harvest Ferris in September.
Harvest Ferris in September.
And our friends from the Kusa have made us homemade venison bratwurst.
So that's, we've never had that before.
And that's another first.
And it's going to, I've had their bratwurst.
It's excellent.
And, you know, well done.
We're also going to do some plain sauerkraut.
If you don't happen to like bratwurst, we got that too.
And then some roast squash that we grew in our garden.
The apple cider that Mike talked about before comes from the apples from our own orchard right
there on the site.
Yeah.
So we're in some of the root vegetables also.
Yeah.
Some of the root of babies in terms came from our own garden.
We've been trying in the last probably three years to produce more and more of the stuff we use ourselves.
When it comes to, as, and thank you so much for that time, that was a great run down.
We are all starving right now.
It doesn't matter if you haven't even got the dessert yet.
I got tickets in my pocket.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
I should get out of here.
We got dessert yet again.
Oh, yeah.
We got bread pudding, which is, we've had every year since, I figured it out, it was 1988.
It was the first one.
Oh, that was the very first one.
That was the very first one.
Coming up a little bit later.
Bearing community home.
Yep.
Good Lord.
That's a long time ago.
But we had bread pudding with the butter sauce.
That's been a staple every time.
And this time we're having sawdust cake.
Mmm.
But no trees were harmed.
No trees were harmed.
In the cooking of sawdust cake.
Yeah.
But it's excellent.
We've had it a couple of times before and it's excellent.
Is there a description?
Is there anything?
Oh, you can give us about sawdust cake?
I've never heard of that before.
Oh, I would like, that's a trade secret.
Okay.
All right.
You can trust.
He's sitting here grinning because he brought the recipe and it's excellent.
It's really good.
You're going to go there, taste it yourself, find out for yourself.
Well, like I say, no trees were harmed.
Yeah.
The idea, James, is instead of sawdust using coconut.
Yep.
Oh, nice.
Yeah.
Very nice.
Thank you for that, Mike.
Thank you for that.
Yeah, cheated, yeah.
That's great.
Good, good stuff, right?
Boy, yeah.
A great meal, a great night of food that you are going to be.
Your stomach is going to be very happy with.
Also going to have some nice music down there.
Yeah.
Don and Ann Pollock from Steven's Point play guitar and violin and they're going to do,
they do a little of everything, but it's, I'd say fairly close to period type music and
very enjoyable, a nice couple that enjoys playing wants to play this sort of thing.
And so they come, I think this is maybe the third year.
I think the third.
Third year that they've been playing.
Sometimes they have a bass fiddle player, Dennis that joins them, but they didn't know for sure when I
talked to him when I arranged it.
But what we're really trying to recreate, James is this wakely and the newspaper reports,
report him having a cattillion, kind of a dance and a feast and everything else in February.
And they talk about how the people came and enjoyed their day and stayed all night and slept
over and had big breakfast next morning.
We're not going to do that though.
But we're recreating what wakely did and he did that in his inn, not his house.
So this cattillion was in, but the newspapers gave glowing reports of all the great time
people had.
Yeah.
It's keeping that history alive as something that you guys are very good at over there doing.
The domestic meets part, I'm curious, was that something that was a part of things from
the very beginning?
I was going to ask a little bit.
A while game?
Yeah, the while game.
Absolutely.
That was part of the, when we started this a long time ago, Brian McDermott, who was the
first president of, at that time, Wakely in preservation, he had been to a madrigal
dinner at point at the university.
I know about them.
My brother and I used to belong to the chorus that did all the music.
So I'd never been to one, but I knew about him from him.
And he was talking about it and a few of us around the table going, wait a minute.
We were looking for funders.
I mean, at that time, I mean, we didn't have two nickels dropped together.
Well, you know, we go to board meetings when he passed the hat because we didn't have enough
to pay for whatever.
Pay the electric bill.
I mean, literally that happened.
So we were looking to raise some money.
So a few of us says, well, what the heck?
So we hired a caterer to do it, but they wouldn't do a wild game.
So we would cook the wild game at home.
And in Nesco Roasters, you have to get a permit from the DNR to do all this stuff, which
we have.
Yeah.
They've been really good to us over here.
They're easy to work with, no matter what they tell you.
Same here.
You play the game.
You do the rules.
You get a good deal.
That's great.
We would bring in a venison stew or, oh, I don't remember.
That's just two wild game dishes.
And we would bring those in, and they would serve them.
And we did a great time.
Yeah, I think that in the first few years, we probably didn't mostly or exclusively venison.
Yeah, absolutely.
Then when you got to know some trappers and then the raccoon and the beaver and the muskrat
were available all to us.
And over the years, we've had somebody that dedicated some bear to us.
And we had some rabbit rabbits and different things.
So it just depends on what's available.
And that's how the menu comes up.
Then we think creatively, how can we serve it this year?
And so we've got about probably four or five recipes for each thing.
And we kind of vary them a little bit.
And then sometimes somebody comes with a new one.
And I've got a new one for the sauerkraut that I've been playing with.
And I think maybe we'll work on that for next year.
Okay.
Okay.
And it's sauerkraut and pasta and onions, and that's really, you know, I've tried it three
or four times.
I love it.
I like all three of them.
I'm putting them together.
I don't see why not.
I mean, that's really sweet because the sauerkraut is fairly sweet and onions are really
sweet.
And then you put the pasta in there as maybe a little bit of a filler or something.
Right.
And you do about half pasta and half sauerkraut.
And then about, you know, a couple of pounds of onions, depending on how big a batch
you're making.
It's really good.
I think we'll try it next year.
I mean, you put a try of onions on an old tire and you're good at it.
We will have a recap of this and then maybe I'll make a batch and then serve it and see
how people can try it out.
Exactly.
That sounds like a good idea, Mike.
Sounds like a really good idea.
We're speaking with Mike in time from the historic point of us about Wacley's Winter Feast
coming up January 17th, Saturday, February 17th at the Nicosa Community Center.
Guys, a real quick couple of questions before you wrap up here.
What is one of the more or if the most obscure animal you have had at the feast over the years?
Probably the bear.
Bear?
Yeah.
Because we have to have enough of it to make something with.
So if we had just a ponder too, we couldn't do anything with it.
We had elk that one year, your brother not got us some.
And there wasn't too much, but we were able to put it into like meatballs or something
so where you could mix it in with a lot of stuff.
So probably that was the bearer elk thing.
Yeah, very cool.
Very cool.
And oysters one year, Harold Longberg brought some back from his brother Tom in Florida.
And we did, you know, you get this gift and what are we going to do with it?
We had two kinds of dressing, regular dressing and then oyster dressing, which was a thing
back in those days, out in the east, sold it off, I mean they ate it off, so I've whatever
and it was good.
Not every we liked it, but there was enough that...
Whether it's oysters, elk, bear, whatever it is, these are not meats that we cook every
day or are prepared every day.
So I do want to send a big compliment to that team, the chefs, the cooks, everybody that
prepares this stuff so well and does that.
If people are trying some of this food and they're kind of curious of how it's made or
anything like that, are they able to maybe pick the ear of a chef or anything like that
or ask questions like that?
Certainly, if anybody asked us, I'm certain we'd pass on the recipe if they're interested.
Certainly.
If we have any leftover last year, we didn't have very much of anything left over.
But we do put out like one quart ziplock bags for people to take with them home if we
have some leftover of stuffing or whatever it might be.
But certainly if anybody wants a recipe, there's no real big secrets here except for maybe
sawdust.
Yeah, yeah.
Which I got to get a slice of.
It's going to be on my mind all day.
Yeah, I got a ticket, my pocket.
And speaking of tickets, Tom, how much are tickets, Mike, and where can they get them?
The $20 in advance and $25 at the door and you can get them at beavers, drug, not beavers,
drug store beavers, dime store in Acusa and a daily drug in Wisconsin Rapids or family
natural foods on West Grand Avenue and Wisconsin Rapids.
They all have plenty of tickets, can take care of you.
Otherwise if you know Tom or myself, I'm carrying two tickets, Tom's carrying tickets.
Most of all members carry tickets with them.
You can hit us up too.
Yeah.
And we'd like you to get at least a little ahead of time, multiplying loads and fishes
is way above our pay grade.
We can't do that.
Right.
So if we know, you know, you can always add more, but if there's a certain point where
there's like folks, you know, it's not only a good idea to get those tickets early so
that you know you have them, but they could sell out.
So you don't want to take a chance of losing.
It's reasonably close.
Well, and then last year we had to put up three extra tables.
And this year we had to even order more tablecloths because they used tablecloths out
front because we do some drawings with baskets and that sort of thing, some gift items.
So they had to tear those, those gift baskets off of those tables and take those tablecloths
because we didn't have enough tablecloths for those three extra tables that we put up.
So it's a, oh, do you have something else?
They're going to, they're going to do basket raffles.
I don't know how many they got.
Think about 12.
Okay.
Cool.
And you can, so you can buy candy and put the ones in the one you want.
You can, you know, it's not them.
And some of Johann's famous bowls and hand turned bowls from wood from our site.
Right off the site.
That is really cool.
So cool.
That's a silent auction item, I believe.
All of this music, great food, great atmosphere and, and you get to know that while you're enjoying
your meal and you're enjoying this music and this great night, you are putting back into
your community.
You were helping keep history alive just by purchasing a ticket, just by giving yourself
a good night.
Like that's, you get to have that great feeling along with that.
Best of both worlds.
You get your tummy full and get some musical entertainment and you go home at the end of
the night and really not any more than if you went out to a restaurant.
Oh, yeah.
No, that's a steal, you guys.
20 bucks, that's a steal, that's right there, that's a really nice deal for people.
And something that we appreciate that you guys do with all of your events, making them
affordable for our community.
We greatly appreciate that.
You have our back.
We want to have yours.
This is a great fundraiser, great night to be a part of the Robert and Mary Wacley, Wacley's
Winter Feast going on Saturday, February 17th in Acusa Community Center, Fort 16, Crest
View Lane in beautiful in Acusa.
You can find no more by going to HistoricPointboss.com and encourage people to reach out to Historic Point
Boss when it comes to volunteering, being a part of things over there, help keep history
alive like these guys do such a good job of.
Yeah, and thank you, James and WFHR.
And we really appreciate it, this is...
Oh, I appreciate you guys, we'll see you soon, thanks for the time.
We'll be back with more Midday Magazine right here on 975 FM, 1320 AM, WFHR, we are locally
grown radio.
