Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Wisconsin author and historian Jerry Apps shares his passion for the land, conservation, and local farming with his two grandsons on his Waushara County farm. Drawing on lessons passed down from his own father, Apps shows the next generation how to observe nature closely and how knowing the land leads to caring for it.

Chapters:
0:00 Learn to listen for the whispers
3:05 Planting onions with the grandsons
6:27 Every tree speaks differently
10:07 Ten thousand years of this land
14:09 Central Wisconsin's Dust Bowl
18:18 Prairie restoration on sandy soil
21:21 The jack pine, survival in sand
22:45 Shucking peas with his mother
25:23 September harvest on the farm
29:51 A prairie of goldenrod in bloom
36:17 Morty Oliphant's raccoon and badger
39:30 Surviving polio at age 12
47:09 His father's last deer season
52:50 Letters to Grandpa from the boys

Watch this program here on YouTube and stream it anytime online and on the free PBS app on all streaming devices: pbswisconsin.org/watch/jerry-apps