Located at the southwest corner of Third Avenue and Kentucky is one of Sturgeon Bay's more prominent lat 19th-century commercial buildings; the Hay Hardware Building. I paid a call last week for an annual eye exam at Door County Eye Associates and always enjoy the tasteful blend of old architecture and a new professional suite replete with modern technology.
Hardware merchants Charles Tifft and John Hay expanded their business in Ahnapee (Algoma) to Sturgeon Bay in the 1880s. Hay moved to Sturgeon Bay to manage the store. The business grew in popularity with Door County farmers supplying everything from heavy agricultural supplies, nails, paint and fencing. As the business grew, Tifft and Hay built the brick building at what was then the primary business corner of downtown at the intersection of Cedar and St. John Streets. It opened in September of 1889.
During the economic depression of 1894 the two men parted company and John Hay assumed full ownership of the Sturgeon Bay business as Hay Hardware. Around the turn of the century a matching brick addition as built at the rear to house a tin shop for the hardware business. Prior to the opening of the Michigan Street Bridge in 1931 this building was downtown Sturgeon Bay's business anchor. It operated continuously as a hardware store for ninety years before closing in 1979.
Constructed of local stone and cream-colored brick the structure is a classic commercial design featuring an ornate corbelled brick cornice. decorative brick pilasters, six bay facade with limestone sills and lintels. The building retains its original storefront and layout and showcases the original interior structural old-growth white pine timbers tied-together with iron rods and bolts.
When was the last time you saw square nuts that large?
Nowadays, the building persists as a contributor to the Third Avenue Historic District and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
And following my cataract surgery It has become brighter, clearer and more colorful to behold.
The other day I was sitting in my armchair thinking about lessons being learned by the grinding and ever-evolving war between Ukraine and Russia and the more recent war between the U.S. and Iran. Armchair general stuff was swirling-about in my civilian brain. Mostly about the asymmetric nature of the conflicts as it pertains to large, global powers going-up against smaller powers and the cost-asymmetry observed in the use of costly exquisite weapons to defeat numerous unsophisticated and cheap weapons.
Just as armor, gunpowder, artillery, naval power, the machine gun, poison gas, communications, mechanization, aircraft and mutually assured destruction changed the face of warfare; we are witness to another.
Only last month an advanced AH-64 Apache attack chopper was downed by a loitering Iranian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). A $30 million aircraft defeated by an unmanned drone that costs $20,000. The pilots survived and were pulled from the waters the the Strait of Hormuz by an unmanned drone watercraft. Lots of technology packaged in this single incident and a huge disparity in the price of weapon systems.
China currently produces UAVs and similar loitering drones at a scale that is stunning. And if we found ourselves in a shooting war over Taiwan all we got is an ever-dwindling supply of Patriot missiles to shoot them down. At $4 million a copy.
Shooting million-dollar missiles at twenty-thousand-dollar drones is unsustainable.
Say hello to the new face of modern warfare.
Ukraine has embraced drone warfare in earnest; including the deployment of autonomous UAVs capable of delivering a warhead over vast distances; all the while stalling and reversing Russian advances into their territory at a terrifying cost in Russian and North Korean lives.
Assembling a single modern Patriot Advanced Capability-3 interceptor takes about a couple of years. A solid rocket motor requires up to thirty months. Setting-up a new assembly facility for Patriot missiles can presently take three to four years.
Ukraine assembles and delivers small FPV (First Person View) reconnaissance and kamikaze drones in a matter of hours to a couple of days. Supply chain and procurement move an order from workshop to combat deployment in 24 to 48 hours. Larger strategic strike UAVs and maritime drone boats requires only weeks.
Finally, there is the application of artificial intelligence to facilitate modern warfare. AI software processes real-time intelligence feeds to coordinate operations and advise targeting in single minutes and seconds.
Unmanned drones use onboard computer vision to lock-onto and strike targets independently; thereby defeating electronic jamming. AI-enabled hardware permits inexpensive weapons systems to defeat high-value targets like tanks, missiles and ships.
Machine learning can sort thru overwhelming amounts of geospatial and signal intelligence that previously would require thousands of human analysts.
Sadly, modern conflicts have become a test bed for rapid evolution in warfare and tactics as we've known it.
And the U.S. is hesitant to allow Ukraine to manufacture Patriot missiles locally, partially to protect U.S. military intellectual property, but more so because it doesn't want Ukraine to do it better.
Shortsighted? Or brilliant strategy? Judging from how the war with Iran is playing-out only time will tell. Watch the Peter Zeihan video short to the end. Better yet read the comments....
If the weather holds the fellas and I plan to deploy a replacement deer stand today to replace the oldest of the factory-built steel tower stands dating-back to the early years. If all goes according to plan I'll post photos and the backstory when I have time.
Meanwhile, there have been some other fellas showing-up on the trail cameras from time to time; those with the velvet antlers.....
Nick Offerman shows how easy it is to provide kids with healthy, farm-fresh snacks like pizza, taquitos, and fish sticks harvested straight off the vine.
Remember kids - if it comes from a plant it is healthy....
Treasury Secretary Scott
Bessent moved to calm the bond markets yesterday after a recent selloff
made mortgages and other consumer loans more expensive.
Bessent's move to
increase repurchases of long-term government notes and bonds
(increasing demand for them) is largely symbolic but could still help
bring those costs down.
Wall
Street is skeptical the relief will stick, given that the Treasury
Department's purchases are quite tiny compared with the roughly $30
trillion market for government debt.
The reason any of this matters is that the bond
market impacts how much it costs everyone — the government, consumers,
and companies — to borrow money. The bond market is getting squeezed
from multiple directions. It sure looks like we’re in for a spell of rising interest rates.
Meanwhile,
Mr. Trump’s unilateral war in the Middle East and de facto closure of
the Strait of Hormuz is feeding inflation all the while destabilizing
global security and the world’s economy. So much winning.
Yet we have gilded statuary, a ballroom, an airborne Qatari palace, reflecting pool and a triumphal arch.
Used to promote the sale of their Fire Chief gasoline brand Texaco introduced this nifty firefighter helmet in the 1960s. It was available exclusively through Texaco filling stations for $3.98 with a fill-up. It became an iconic promotional item that any boy would want to have. My little brother had one.
Naturally, it boasted the technology of the era with a transistor loudspeaker and a handset microphone powered by a 9v battery. Same as your transistor radio.
Next time I see my brother I'll endeavor to remember to ask if he still has his helmet. Even if it's no longer working it might be worth $20+ on eBay. An excellent condition, working model might fetch $75-$100 from a collector. While a pristine model in the original box might command a price north of $400.
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