Gophers for Breakfast

CSU Photo

Technically-speaking thirteen-lined ground squirrels.

They're back.

Every year they arrive.

Every year I eradicate them.

And every year they return.

You'd think that by now a memo would have circulated amongst the ground squirrel kingdom that taking-up residence around here might be hazardous.

They build their den in the mound system. These little engineers burrow up to twenty feet leaving several entrance and exit holes.

Why anyone would want to live in someone else's sewage management complex is beyond me - but they do.

They also eat my tomatoes.

I would not begrudge them an occasional fruit but they insist upon taking just one bite from each of the most ripe and ready-to-pick fruits.

Before too long they wear out their welcome.

That time is now and it is time to begin to thin the herd.

It's just shy of 7AM and the squirrels are probably stirring. Fetching my Marlin .22 and a steaming mug of joe I set myself on the picnic table.

Up pops a curious rodent.

Kapow!

Swamp Gas - 1

Squirrels - 0

Thirty-plus yards with iron sights.

One shot.

A good cure for the yips.

Monday Morning Music

Outdoor concerts are a staple of Door County's summer fare and the line-up at The Peg Egan Performing Arts Center in Egg Harbor is pretty hard to beat.

Since they're free.

My lovely wife suggested that we take in the opener last night.

Inasmuch as I desired to remain as incognito as possible I got dressed in my tourist attire and off we went.

Here's a tip - if you plan to attend one of these concerts - get there hours ahead of time and put your camp chairs or blanket on the grass so as to claim a prime location.

Then go and blend-in with the tourists.

You might go shopping like my wife did.

Or you might do as I did and sip a couple of pints of Guinness and watch the tourists go by.




















If you really want to blend-in you and your spouse should wear matching Chicago Cubs jerseys.

See what I mean about prime seating?














Anyway, I'm not generally given to concert reviews but this has my unqualified endorsement. You can find more information here about the summer schedule.

Last night's concert featured Harry Manx. Do you like the blues? You like awesome guitar work?



And Richie Havens.

If you're old like me you have many fond memories of his soulful guitar work.
When Richie launched into Freedom the Woodstock Gods were angered and the skies opened-up and the rain poured down.

Aside from the soaking it was a terrific evening.

I Have Seen the Future and There is Pie

Last year was a bad year for orchard crops.

A wet spring hammered the blossoms followed-on by a long dry spell.

The short version of the story is that Door County cherries were difficult to come by and my apple crop was virtually non-existent.

I have three mature apple trees. Whoever built here back in the 1800s had the foresight to plant both these trees and the lilacs around the original homestead.

One of those fruit trees is so old that I can barely link my hands about its vast trunk.

It is a gnarly tree with a couple of dead main limbs that are particularly spooky in the moonlight.

Bluebirds are nesting in a cavity in its trunk.

Yet it lives.

Those prehistoric lilacs have since formed a formidable hedgerow providing a source of nectar for the first of the hummingbirds to arrive in the spring and nesting cover for both them and several families of robins.

Bouquets of fresh lilacs and apple blossoms are a sure sign of the cold months being exorcised.

Back to the apple trees.

I haven't a clue what variety of apples these are but they are tart and excellent for cooking.

Apple sauce.

Apple butter.

And apple pie.

Plenty of blooms this spring-















Translates to plenty of apples this fall-

Irish Bait

And what makes them green?

More importantly - do they catch more fish?

Silviculture 101

Silviculture: The care and cultivation of forest trees; forestry.

Managing a forest for multiple constituents is a circus act.

Take northern white cedar- Thuja occidentalis. This a native North American tree. Also known as arborvitae it is commercially sold and planted in yards throughout the United States. The tree is identified primarily by unique flat and filigree sprays made up of tiny, scaly leaves. The tree loves limestone areas and can take full sun to light shade.

You'll find it all over the peninsula.

The rot-and termite-resistant wood is used principally for products in contact with water and soil. The tree provides valuable shelter and browse - mostly for deer.

Check-out the browse line on these twelve-year-old cedars-

On the left is a pure stand of aspen - Populus grandidentata (big tooth aspen) to be exact.

Another valuable wildlife tree (deer and grouse) and timber tree (pulp for the manufacture of paper).

It is difficult to grow popple from seed.

In the natural order of things aspen is born of fire, landslide, and disaster. It colonizes disturbed areas, massing at the sunny edges of forests and meadows.

In the winter of 1998/1999 my wife and I created a disturbance.

We clear-cut a couple hundred ancient popple.

What? You committed a heinous clear-cut?

Sure. that's how you regenerate aspen. Don't take my word for it- you can see the fantastic stand that sprouted in the last decade following the cut.

To the right in the picture is a stand of bur oak - Quercus macrocarpa. Bur oak is a classic tree of the American prairie. You'll find these on the Great Plains where other tree species have failed.

This part of the acorn factory. Acorns of bur oak make up much of the food of red squirrels and are also eaten by wood ducks, deer and a host of other animals.

That is Girlfriend in the trail.

A Bad Case of the Yips

Tuesday night is archery night.

Not every Tuesday - but most Tuesdays. Braumeister, me and sometimes Technology Man get together and shoot arrows. This is followed by dinner and talking smack. At about $20 bucks a guy it's a cheap date. Besides it keeps us sharp. Like any shooting sport the more you do it the more instinctive and fluid it becomes. With all the basics on autopilot - concentration can focus on arrow placement within the target. More accurate shots are the result.

That is until last week.

Last Tuesday a very serious problem manifested itself.

Upon coming to a full draw my arrow would inexplicably fall from the string and I would have to slowly bring the string to a rest. A couple of times the arrow would fall from the string precisely as I released the shot resulting in a very unnerving dry-fire and seriously running the risk of damaging my bow.














If you examine the picture above you will note that the length of the prongs on the arrow's nock are rather short.

When coming to full draw the severe angle of the short-limbed bow was pinching the nock just right and causing those short prongs to lose their grip - allowing the arrow to detach. Other factors could play a role - a worn serving, a stretching of the string or a slight change in the mechanical dynamics of a fast compound bow and so on.

So what. Replace it with a nock that has longer prongs.

That nock is hard to find because those arrows are no longer manufactured.

Get new arrows that have nocks with longer prongs.

Not going to happen. I think I have a lifetime supply of these arrows because I bought-up every one's inventory when Beman stopped manufacturing them.

Get a new bow.

Yeah. That's what the wiseguy owner of the archery shop suggested.

We tried a string loop upon which I could attach my release. Cheaper than new arrows.

Nothing but problems. My anchor point changed, the sighting changed, the bow needed to be re-tuned and one of four arrows still fell from the string.

Things were not better and the yips got worse.

The yips?

Yep. The yips. The yips are a condition - also known as target panic - are the result of an archer's preoccupation with something other than the instinctive nature of shooting. The yips result in bad shots.

Every time I drew my bow I was so concerned with the possibility of the arrow becoming detached that my concentration and instincts all went to hell.

Last night the archery man removed the string loop and replaced the serving on the bow string.

For you non-archers - serving is the braided string wound tightly around main string above and below the nocking point. It is a durable surface upon which to nock (attach) your arrow.

Back to shooting.

Thirty consecutive shots with no detached arrows.

Problem solved - and cheaper than new arrows.

Well not entirely. The accuracy sucks because the yips are still there.

Practice, practice, practice...

Update On the Nation's Finances

Why hasn't anyone thought to do this sooner?

Problem fixed.

Play Ball!

The local baseball team is pretty good

Last year they finished a perfect undefeated season.

So when you have a sunny, Sunday with temperatures in the 80's it is time to watch baseball.















The kids fetch any fouls and out of the field home runs.

It's worth 50 cents a ball.

They get to assist with the play-by-play up in the press box.




















Admission for two: $8

Three beers: $4.50

Two hamburgers: $5

Twenty tickets for the 50/50 drawing: $5

Watching the Kolberg Braves whomp West Jacksonport 11 to 2: Priceless

An afternoon of great baseball for less than $25.

I'm not sure I can park my car at Miller Park anymore for less than that.

Pelicans

A couple of my readers are very much on the ball.

One of them was correct to point out that most people are unfamiliar with the news that pelicans are found in our waters.

Another reader was gracious enough to share some of her very cool Wisconsin pelican portraits.

Is The Recession Over?

Yep. Schwab's chief investment strategist, Liz Ann Sonders, says it's over.

It is useful to know that Sonders was one of the first to declare in late 2007 that we were in a recession - long before it was painfully obvious and before the official pronouncement by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Before you break-out the champagne - Sonders also says our problems are not completely behind us and that there is a reasonable risk of a double-dip recession.



Here's what I want to know.

If the worst is behind us and the economy is on the mend and we've only spent roughly 7% of the economic stimulus money is someone going to send the remaining 93% that hasn't been spent back?

The Memo

A memo crossed my desk at the day job today.

Americans discard four million tons of office paper each year, which is the equivalent of 96 million trees or a 500,000 acre forest. With this in mind, Giant Faceless Financial Firm is reducing the printing and mailing of specific hard-copy correspondence you receive, and for your convenience is providing that correspondence via your Giant Faceless Financial Firm professional partner website.

Thank you for your continued business and for joining the many professional partners who are already experiencing the convenience of "any time access" to their Giant Faceless Financial Firm quarterly statements. If you have any questions, please contact our Customer Service Center at 800-123-4567.

Oh, sure.

This is corporate doublespeak for - one other thing we are going to stop doing as a mechanism to shore-up our bottom line while at the same time hoping you don't notice that we're not going to reduce any of the program fees we charge you.

And what about the tree farmer?

The Beast

Thursday my wife says -There is going to be a car show at Rouer's in town on Saturday. I saw a flyer on the bulletin board at the grocery store and at the post office. You should take The Beast over there if the weather is nice.

The Beast happens to be a 1968 Pontiac LeMans. I'm the second owner and I've now owned it longer than the first owner.

Pontiac's Tempest line included the Tempest, LeMans and GTO.

My Car has a 350 engine and a two-speed slush box transmission. It is also a rag top.

It's called The Beast because only a beastly car would guzzle gasoline like this one and handle like a large pile of wet bread dough.

But that's how Detroit built their cars back then. Big and fast and short on the finesse.

Anyway, Retro Modz & Rodz is the local car club and this was their second annual car show hosted by Rouer's Grand Slam.

You talk about perfect weather! Sunny and not too hot. $2 burgers and $2 Millers in a frosty 16 ounce aluminum bottle. My garden was in so I'm all over this.

I pulled-off The Beast's shroud, retracted the top, dusted it-off and fired it up!

Ooooh baby. Just listen to that rumble.

Close the back door - you're going to make the house stink!

This was also the era before emission controls.














We counted about 75 entries for the show in this little burg. If my math is correct that would make the ownership of collector cars pretty close to two-tenths of one percent.

I wonder what it is elsewhere?

This guy drove his dragster from the shop a couple of blocks down the road.

I thought this 1956 Chevy was the best of show. I was wrong.















Chevy Malibu. Get the impression that I am partial to red cars?














1967 Pontiac Firebird.














1962 Chevy II Nova. I owned one of these in college. I paid $50 for it. Naturally it wasn't as show-worthy as this.














Here it is - The Beast.














So - I bring you the start-up sequence for a 1968 Pontiac GTO.

This is muscle car porn so don't let your wife catch you watching...

Another Surprise

First there is the surprise family of cats.

Now there is this.















The Door County highway department has misplaced one of its tractors.

I'm thinking - Maybe it's broken?

Nope. It started right-up.

So the dog and I drove it home and put it in the shed.

Maybe they won't notice it is missing.

I've always wanted a side-mounted Alamo flail mower.

Sometimes good things come to those who wait.

Squatters

More troubles.

A mama cat and her brood have taken-up residence in our granary.

An Exercise in Frustration

Sometimes I get really frustrated - especially with individuals that are obtuse, uninformed or just plain dense.

Like the guy I talked with recently who was bragging about his new bamboo floor and how full of himself he was about saving the planet, his generally self-congratulatory greeness and overall concern for all things green.

Really.

This knucklehead gave absolutely no thought or regard to the energy consumed to ship that bamboo flooring from half-way around the world to Wisconsin. Or the tropical forest that was cleared and burned to farm it. Or the peasants paid a pittance of a wage to harvest and process it.

This dolt never even entertained the obvious - like purchasing a perfectly better floor made of renewable Wisconsin oak (I would recommend red oak) all supported by working Wisconsinites.

Sheesh.

And then there was the letter published in the June 3rd edition of the Door County Advocate that reads as follows-

I would like to know why the DNR shot the pair of nesting swans in the Little Sturgeon Bay on the morning of May 21. My husband and I were working in our yard at our home on Little Sturgeon Bay when I heard a shot. I saw three people in a boat. We witnessed a barbarous act that sickened both of us. They had shot the female swan near her nest on the island; then they went after the drake. They shot him from a moving boat, which I believe is illegal.

We have been watching this pair of swans since early spring. We watched the nest being built. We watched the drake chase away the pelicans and cormorants (which eat fish). We, and our neighbors cheered these events. Swans don't eat fish and don't invade our properties. They have become a valued part of our summer experience, and for our neighbors on Squaw Island, along with the sandhill cranes, various ducks and some of the geese. They are the only pair of swans in the Little Sturgeon area. We retell their migration and local adventures whenever we get together; look forward to the young and identify with their plight. Our grandchildren look forward to seeing them on their weekend visits, especially watching the young riding on the parent's backs.

We've been told the reason for this barbarous treatment of wildlife is that mute swans are not native to this area and that they are keeping native trumpeter and tundra swans away. I was born more than 70 years ago. Last year was the first time we have seen any kind of swans. They were also mute swans. They hatched six young, three of which survived. The DNR has introduced non-native species with devastating effects, such as alewives, turkeys and Asian beetles. Our swans have had a very positive effect.

We have also been told mute swans are unchecked and our of control in southern Wisconsin, the eastern state and Michigan. That may be so, but they are not unchecked or out of control on Little Sturgeon Bay. If we need to control them, we want to be part of the discussion instead of part of the barbarous killing. We have read about alternative controls such as sterilization, addling eggs, raising and reintroducing trumpeter swans. Why aren't these methods being used? We are intelligent adults who resent being treated as if we didn't exist or didn't have representation in the control of our environment.

Althea F. Gothberg, Sturgeon Bay

Since no silly letter should ever be allowed to remain published without comment - I wrote back a good, old-fashioned letter to the editor in response. I really needed to set this swan lady straight. And it is a good thing I waited the requisite cooling-off period before I sent it. That letter was published in the June 10th edition of the Advocate and reads as follows-

Althea Gothberg's outrage over the killing of mute swans (Your Letters, June 3) begs a response.

Sure, the beauty and grace of these swans is a delight to behold. Not here - in Europe and Asia, where they belong.

The personality of these non-native birds does not match their good looks. In defending their nesting territory, they will harass and kill native waterfowl, including their young. These large birds are capable of uprooting 20 pounds of aquatic vegetation a day, destroying valuable habitat.

Even the Audubon Society supports the removal of mute swans.

As for your accusation about the DNR "introducing non-native species such as alewives, turkeys and Asian beetles," you're mistaken. The DNR had no role with the fish or the beetles. The turkeys are native.

Save your venom for issues you know something about.

Tom Gaertner, Brussels

There. I feel better already. I also had to do some venting over at the other blog.

Random Musings and Idle Chit Chat

I feel like someone kicked me in the ass.

I spent yesterday afternoon and most of today working in the garden. Mostly on my hands and knees. Everything aches.

I've been planting since the first week of May and an excess of rain followed-on by temperatures in the mid-thirties put an end to my developing radishes, spinach. beets and lettuces.

First they were drowned and then mother nature gave them the cold shoulder.

They have been replanted.

The onions, cabbages, green beans and peas are all doing fine. The potatoes too. The red Pontiac and Yukon gold spuds are doing so well that I had to mound them already.

The first two rows of sweet corn are just beginning to peek thru.

Yesterday and today I planted four each of Early Girl, beefsteak and Roma tomatoes along with one cherry tomato plant. Green peppers, kale, Brussels sprouts and broccoli plants all went in. Two additional rows of green beans and sweet corn were planted along with a row of pickles, cukes and cantaloupe.

I've run out of gas and it is starting to rain so I'm in for the duration.

Girlfriend and I went out for a long walk this morning and we retrieved the memory chip from the game camera.

The entire interior of the camera was infested with little red ants and their eggs.

Blech.

Here's a tip. If you attempt to shake a game camera of its ant colony the little red ants will swarm all over you.

Anyway, here are some pictures. The trail is flush with a couple of types of clover and the deer have been feasting on it.

I've also been on the lookout for sign of gypsy moth and the results have been discouraging. The nasty little caterpillars are everywhere.

We've done a reasonably good job of oiling egg masses over the winter so the question is where are these caterpillars coming from?

Early on, when still small and lightweight, the caterpillars drop down from tree branches on silk-like threads and are blown by the wind to other trees.

These are probably my neighbor's.

You can see in he picture below how quickly and efficiently they'll devour an oak leaf. If there are enough of them they'll strip the tree of its leaves.

So, Swamp Gas, you actually brought those furry little buggers into the house? Are you nuts?

Hardly. I just wanted to take their picture. After which I put that leaf in the microwave so I could nuke those nasty guys.

I immediately felt better.

I counted 27 goldfinches on the thistle feeders this morning. There is a pair of nesting blue birds in a nest box within view of the house. And last night a pair of cranes were putting on a show in the big pond.

Tonight I am preparing venison loin skewers marinated in harissa and yogurt.

If it's any good I'll post the recipe.

Edit - The recipe was good but not excellent. Thus it will not be posted. The cucumber salad component was very good but it needs a yogurt dressing upgrade. Once I get it perfected I will post my recipe for loin of venison gyros.

Economic Question of the Day

This is something that has been on my mind lately...

Sunset At Eagle Lake