The Big Ditch

This is the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal. (click on image to enlarge)

Not many people know this but the Door Peninsula takes its name from the treacherous straits located between the tip of the peninsula and Washington Island.

Porte des Morts – Passage of Death – Death’s Door.

It has the rather grim reputation of possibly being the location of more fresh water shipwrecks than anywhere else on earth.

Hence the inspiration for the canal.

A consortium of investors headed by William Ogden – President of the Chicago and North Western Railway – constructed the canal between 1872 and 1881 at a cost of $291,461.

The 1.3 mile stretch - dug through the peninsula - connects Lake Michigan to Sturgeon Bay to Green Bay. It cut the corner and provided for a safer and shorter passage.

The canal was opened to large vessels in 1890 and subsequently sold to the US Government in 1893.

Today it is maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Five With One Blow

I've had a rather rough streak with critters of late.

A week and a half ago I went to turn the dog out for one last tinkle before bedtime and there was a raccoon giving us the hairy eyeball through the glass of the front door.

The dog went nuts and my varmint pistolero was in the gun safe.

In all of the confusion Mr. Raccoon walked.

Phil the groundhog has excavated a magnificent den in my septic mound and heretofore escaped eviction, capture and death.

I have bunnies in the garden.

And now mice.

Yesterday I had to run to town with my grocery list: 6 gallons of diesel, jar of jam, bag of ice and a bottle of whiskey.

I know - it's an eclectic shopping list for sure.

In any event I cranked over the pick-up and made ready to leave when I realized I had forgotten the grocery tote. Dismounting, I ran to the house to fetch the tote and when I returned to the idling truck out from the bottom of the engine compartment dropped a mama mouse along with four baby mice.
She had apparently been using some part of my Chevy as a nursery.

So here was mama mouse scurrying about the driveway with four baby mice clamped onto her teats.

If the notion of the potential damage that mice can do to your vehicle wasn't so serious - watching the cluster of mice scramble-about would be positively funny.

They disappeared from view.

And I took the truck to town.

Walking back to the house following my shopping excursion I wondered how mama mouse was going to fare having been so rudely evicted from her home.

I didn't have to wonder for very long.

There on the gravel driveway was the entire family.

Flat as a mouse pancake.

Clean-up was easy.

Report From The Platz

The garden is doing terrific.

Granddaughter has been assisting with the picking of beans, summer squash, cukes, pickles and flowers for the table.

I've finally been able to get the tractor out and begin mowing three-some-odd-miles of trails. There are some very wet spots still but not so squishy to leave ruts or get stuck.

Granddaughter also learned how to milk a goat yesterday. I'm not sure that this is an indispensable life skill - but it's a start.

Last night she reported that she sighted Phil in the garden.

Sure enough. The den in the septic mound has been re excavated (for the fourth time).

I'm feeling a lot like Bill Murray lately...

Hors d'œuvres

Last night the granddaughter learned the fine art of making cucumber sandwiches.

And entertaining.

Rubschlager pumpernickel rye, cream cheese, topped with sliced garden cukes and dill from the kitchen garden.

Watched the sunset from the porch with a refreshing adult beverage.

Side note-

We think the problem of Phil the groundhog has been resolved.

Taking the Pulse

Don't you sometimes think you are trying to take a sip of water from a firehose? In case you felt there was not enough economic data to sift through, there is a new econometric report on the financial landscape.

The index, launched earlier this year, is based on an analysis of real-time diesel fuel consumption data from over the road trucking tracked by Ceridian Corporation. Ceridian produces the index in conjunction with UCLA Anderson School of Management and Charles River Associates. It mirrors closely the Federal Reserve's Industrial Production Index but is issued days before that index is released.

The index is built by analyzing Ceridian's electronic card payment data that captures the location and volume of diesel fuel being purchased by over the road trucking operations, providing a detailed picture of the movement of products across the United States. The thought is that goods have to be transported for an economy to grow and by monitoring the consumption of diesel fuel could provide an indication about growth.

Learn more about this interesting new index.

The Dog Days of Summer

It's tough to be a big black dog on a hot, hot day...

Big Bucks

Raila Odinga, Kenya's prime minister, recently rejected the pay increase he was awarded by the country's parliament last week.

The Members of Parliament had granted Mr. Odinga a raise to nearly $430,000 a year, while giving themselves a 25 percent increase to $161,000. This boost would place Mr. Odinga among the highest-paid political leaders in the world. More worryingly, his salary would be some 240 times greater than the country's GDP per person (measured on a purchasing-power parity basis).

Lee Hsien Loong, the prime minister of Singapore, tops the list of selected leaders' salaries. He is paid more than 40 times the city-state's GDP per person.

At the other end of the scale, Manmohan Singh, the prime minister of India, reaffirms his reputation for saintliness by taking a modest sum from Indian taxpayers.

Read more about how much compensation leaders from around the globe take home.

Source: Economist.com

Having a Bad Day?

Just about the time you feel you are having a bad day - you find out someone else is having a worse one. Ouch!

Feed the Fish

Tony Shalhoub's Feed the Fish begins a two week run today a the Sturgeon Bay Cinema 6.

Shalhoub is a Green Bay native and the film was writen, directed and produced by his nephew Michael Matzdorff from Green Bay.

Without giving away too much of the story line it's a midlife crisis winter comedy flick.

Be sure to catch it. It's all Door County.

The Porch, the Laptop and the Pistol

It occured to me yesterday morning that I might possibly be the only guy on the peninsula who is sitting on his porch with his adoring dog, a steaming cuppa joe, a laptop and a pistolero.

Same for the end of the day - but with a refreshing adult beverage.

What's with the pistol? If it wasn't for the laptop we'd all think you've gone redneck on us.

I've had a bad stretch of critter incidents.

And Phil the groundhog has returned.

Behold the Clearcut

Nothing inspires more angst and anger among armchair environmentalists than the notion of a clearcut.

Frankly a clearcut forest doesn't look all that nice. Plenty of images from the great cutover of more than a century ago feed that mindset.

Some folks believe that a clearcut is a permanent deforestation and contributes to global climate change.

Modern, scientific forestry practices today are nothing like this at all. That is not to say that clearcutting doesn't exist - it occurs when there is good reason for it to happen. Not because you want to graze cattle - but to manage the forest by means of mimicking nature.

Some forest species require disturbance (wind, fire, etc.) in order to regenerate. Forestry practices of the past century have suppressed fire (a naturally occurring phenomenon) leaving only blowdowns to regenerate certain species.

Sometimes man must intervene when man suppresses the natural order of things.

Very few people consider what Wisconsin's 16 million acres of forest would look like without the influence of science-based management practices.

Without the influence of management our forests would be predominantly one age-class (roughly 80 to 100 years old) and consisting of late succession species such as ironwood, maple and basswood.

Due to crowding most of these trees would be pole size as they compete with each other for space, light and nutrients. Many popular forest dwelling wildlife species would be sparse if not nonexistent.

Aspen is an early succession forest species that requires disturbance for regeneration. Historically vast fires provided the impetus for colonizing aspen regeneration.

Today it is the clearcut.

Clearcut a stand of aspen and within a matter of months you may have as many as 10,000 stems per acre responding to the disturbance.

This is crucial habitat for species like grouse and woodcock that thrive in early succession forest types.

The Ruffed Grouse Society has a manner of putting this in the proper frame of reference:

The next time you hear someone complain about a recent clearcut in a forest near you, let them know you think it's for the birds!

Learn more about it here.

How to Stamp Out the Deficit

The people over at the Tax Foundation's Tax Policy Blog are having a little fun with various taxation scenarios necessary to erase a $1.5 trillion deficit.

Read all about it over here.

Big Barge Big Tug

A rise in demand for waterborne transportation of petroleum products coupled with a shortfall in tank vessel capacity has created a healthy demand for large - oceangoing tank barges.

The shortfall in capacity is due to pressures from a couple of directions.

First - a rise in demand for petroleum products.

Second - the phasing-out of single-hull tank barges mandated by the Oil Pollution Act (OPA).

By the close of 2014 all single-hull tank barges will be phased out from the U.S. fleet.

Construction of doubled skinned barges has been brisk in Sturgeon Bay.



Here a tug is under construction that will push this barge. Nose first – right in the notch of the barge's stern you see above.

Back to the Stone Age

When my pal World Explorer lived in Santa Fe he used to brag about how low his property taxes were relative to the big honking value of his house.

I used to explain to him that this was partly because the only paved roads in New Mexico were the interstate and state highways. All the county roads were washboards until someone ran a blade across them once a year.

It seems that with the economic times we're in we may have to expect more of this. Paved roads are being torn up across rural America and replaced with gravel or other rough surfaces as counties struggle with tight budgets

Read more about it over at the WSJ.

Out To Eat

According to the National Restaurant Association - Americans are expected to spend $1.6 billion a day at restaurants and bars in 2010.

The Day Job

As I tap out this post I am feeling both smug and nervous. Trust me - a bad mix. Don't tell anyone but I am not wearing socks.


You might be thinking - Big deal. Plenty of people go without socks in the summer.


Yes, but I am actually sitting at my desk at the day job wearing a t-shirt and shorts - sans socks!

You see I have surreptitiously gained access to my office by slipping-in unnoticed by means of the secret escape passage.


The Director of Operations doesn't even know I am here. Ooooh baby! If I get caught there could be a ruckus. (Which is what makes this illicit visit so much fun).


Normally I would not be here but both my partner and my staff person are away so I absolutely had to find a way to personally shuffle some papers from one side of the desk to the other.


In the process of shuffling I found this.

This is a .45 ACP cartridge. Probably 230 gr. bullet too.


Could this be a sign?

The American Courage

The M/V American Courage was built in 1979 by Bay Shipbuilding Corporation, Sturgeon Bay, WI.

The vessel made its maiden voyage in ballast from Sturgeon Bay, WI to Escanaba, MI to load iron ore pellets in May of 1979.

It is powered by two 3500 HP General Motors Electro Motive Division (EMD) diesel engines. The vessel uses a conveyor system below its cargo holds to transport cargo to an inclined conveyor system that elevates the cargo to the deck-mounted boom conveyor.

For maneuvering in port the vessel is equipped with 1,000 HP bow and 600 HP stern thrusters.

It serves in the transportation of iron ore pellets, coal and limestone.

Read more about it over here at Boatnerd.com.

First Flight

SinissippiGal sent me this picture last week.

Here's what she has to report - Hope you're up for a few shots of my "grown up" Eaglets from tonight.

Today was the first flight day for them, and boy were they mobbed by the Eastern Kingbirds.

Sheesh, they learn how to fly and can't catch a break from the other birds!

I've seen shots like this, of course, but this is the first time I actually took shots like these.

Redneck Romance

This news just tugs at my heartstrings. Don't you just love happy endings?

Sold!

How many of you recall that talk radio personality Rush Limbaugh put his New York City apartment up for sale earlier this year?

Well - it sold. For $2.5 mm less than asking price. But he still cleaned-up with a tidy profit.

The Wall Street Journal has the particulars.

You can judge a great deal about a man by his decorating tastes. I still think El Rushbo is flamboyant.

Belgian Days

Belgian Days was celebrated last weekend.

The Brussels Lions Club hosted the 49th annual celebration of this event. All two days of it.

There is nothing quite like a small town parade and the local Belgians sure know how to throw a good one. I'm not even Belgian and I was in it.

Get a load of this pick-up truck. This guy must live and breathe Semper Fi as I have never seen a rolling tribute to The Corps quite like this one.


And the tractors!

I am not making this-up - there were probably close to fifty tractors. Mostly older restored models - but with a handful of modern giant rigs for good measure.

As for me - the kids and I dusted-off The Beast and rode with the other muscle cars. Including a really nice Chevy II Nova SS in matching red that trailed us.

As per usual - three different individuals approached me that day to inquire if I was interested in selling Pontiac.

For the record it is not for sale. In fact - the last I heard they're not making any more of them. So I believe I'll just hang-on to this gas guzzler for a bit longer.

Belgian Days. Big parade, good food, cold beer, root beer floats for the kids, live country music and friendly people. If you missed it this year - check it out next year.

And be sure to take a Belgian pie home with you for snacking later-on.

click on images to enlarge

The Garden Chronicles

The niece and nephews are staying with us for a spell.

We're going to do all manner of fun stuff like taking the boat out, driving The Beast in the Belgian Days parade, shooting pop cans with a .22 and horseback riding.

The other day the kids shucked fresh peas from the garden.

We did a couple of beer can chickens on the Weber along with foil-roasted potatoes from last year's garden.

And those yummy fresh peas.

Barn Face-lift Completed

The barn renovation is complete. Technically it is a granary and not a barn. I have to mention this because The Wench pointed-out that the original barn is long gone. Its silo buried somewhere beneath the rock wall where the cascade hops now grow. Big snakes reside underground in the rubble. Since the original antique grain mill can still be found in the granary it must be a granary. And not a barn. Picky, picky, picky.

This and the pump house are all that remain of the old Door County homestead. The original log house dismantled and sold to some guy from Chicago all too many years ago.

Ooooh baby! Doesn’t it look nice?

It survived more than a hundred years and I think it might just be good for another hundred.

I have some advice for those of you who might be considering a construction project.

Pick a good contractor.

Since I first met Brian he’s built two homes for me and has now completed this outstanding barn face-lift. He employs his own crew, pays them a good wage and provides an outstanding benefits package. He is uncompromising in demanding quality workmanship. I will hire him again. In a heartbeat.

I also happen to believe that you need to befriend yourself to the contractor’s work crew. I am serious about this. You need to schmooze the crew. So periodically you need to do stuff like this.

Keep a cooler or fridge filled with an unlimited supply of cold drinks. Tell the guys they can help themselves as often as they like. Beers are at the discretion of the foreman at the close of the work day.

Periodically you should grill for them.

Construction guys like nothing more than a freshly-grilled cheese burger (with all the sides) for lunch.

Leave them freshly-baked cookies for break time.

It never hurts to mingle with them during breaks and talk about hunting or let Girlfriend become acquainted.

So how do you pay for these projects?

That’s easy.

My financial guy says the best way to do so is to purchase stocks when the frightened lemmings are running over the cliff. Then you wait for maybe a year or more for the next generation of euphoric lemmings to run the other way. Here you sell your stocks for a tidy profit.

That way you can always use the other people’s money to feather your nest.

Me? That is way too complicated.

What I do is empty my pocket change every day before going to bed and slip it into an old wool sock on the bed rail. When the sock is full I take it to the bank have them run the contents through the change counting machine and then credit my passbook savings account.

I know. It sounds tedious. But it works.

Slow and steady wins the race.

The Dividend

Got my dividend check in the mail the other day. Not only have I increased my equity stake but I have some cool spending money in my pocket.

The Door County Cooperative has been mailing more than $450,000 in patronage dividends to its members.

These are from 2009 business earnings - the fourth consecutive year - and represent a record for the largest distribution by the member-owned Co-op. That's straight-up great performance in a recession year.

I am going to indulge my quasi Capitalist Socialist streak by spending the dividend tomorrow at Belgian Days.

Update on the Barn's Face-lift

Yesterday marked the half-way point on the barn renovation.

Here you can see the north gable end and west side are completed.

The barn sashes haven't been installed just yet as my Frau is busy priming and painting them.

This is old-school carpentry. The new cedar barn boards and batten are all hand nailed.

Brian says - No nail guns allowed.

The guys are pretty amazed at how the old structure has stood the test of time.

Particularly how plumb the walls have remained.

If you look closely you can see how the timbers - replaced about a decade ago - are resting on field stone and boulders.

Those are footings?

Yessir.

In a manner of speaking.

That is the way it was done back in the day.

I've been thinking that I should call my neighbor Ronnie (excavator extraordinaire, purveyor of gravel and stone and local grave digger) about supplying me with some stone for back filling the perimeter of the building with a coarser aggregate for better drainage.

As for the building - it's almost looking nice enough to move into.

Face-lift for the Barn

This is the barn at The Platz.

It’s one of the original structures so it's old for sure. Post and beam construction - all hand hewn timbers and pegs.

Some of the rafters in the roof are partially charred fir or cedar tree trunks. Maybe they date from the great fire that destroyed the Belgian settlement?

Judging from the property’s title records it's certainly possible.

About a decade ago the barn received a new roof, replacement foundation timbers (custom cut from the mill) and a porch. Complete with lean-to roof.

Later on it got all new, upgraded electric service - replacing the wiring installed during rural electrification.

Yesterday Brian's crew began installing new cedar barn boards and batten. New window casings too.

It's going to be really nice when it's finished.

Stop back for updates on this project.

Learn more about the Great Fire here.

Glitch?

It has come to the attention of the technology department here at The Platz that comments are not being published.

The problem seems to reside with The Mothership at Google as we have a policy of never moderating comments.

Your patience is appreciated.

The Force

It is said here at the Platz that - Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side and a dark side and it holds the universe together.

I bring you Scene One of Episode One of A Galaxy Not So Far Away.

Chad Vader is hillariously addictive...

Useful Information

According to the US Census Bureau more than twice as many Americans (48% of our nation’s 309 million population) live in the Eastern Time Zone as compared to the combined population of Americans (23% of the nation) that live in the Pacific Time Zone and the Mountain Time Zone.

Take the Constitution Quiz

Today is Independence Day.

A day to celebrate this great nation of ours. Aren't you just tickled we don't have a king or queen running the show?

I challenge you to take the I.Q. Challenge Quiz.

I am proud to tell you I aced the Constitution I.Q. test.

I am also most like Ben Franklin and would likely vote for James Madison.

Go. Take the quizzes.

Do it now.

If Only the Dead Could Talk

More of the virtual cemetery tour.

A couple more veterans too.

The fella on the left has a modern flush marker. Probably a replacement of an earlier one.

He died close to the end of the conflict. As I snapped this picture I was wondering if he died in the war. Or did he return from the war and perish of natural causes?

It was easy to locate George in the US Census database. The 1910 census has him living with his mother Carrie and father Andrew in Gibraltar.

Finding anything about his service in the army was more difficult. No draft or enlistment records that I could locate.

Then - bingo!

Under Wisconsin's casualty lists - there he was:
George Daniel Anderson, Fish Creek, WI.

Listed halfway down the center column.

Dead.

Just before the war ended in November.









Here's a traditional stone instead of a VA-issue marker.

At thirty-four years of age, mention of military and a date of September 16, 1918 the clues suggest WWI.

A search of the US Census led me to a John E. Emery with a July 1884 date of birth in Wisconsin - but living in Nebraska in 1900.




A further search of World War I draft registration cards leads to a John J. Emery from Taycheedah.

That's it to the left. But the date of birth is wrong!

At this point the trail becomes a dead end. I am stumped.

Nothing to shed any light on how this Emery guy ended-up buried in a cemetery outside of Baileys Harbor.

Did he die in the war?

Company E, 128 Infantry is Wisconsin National Guard.

Maybe someone can shed more light on this story?

Click on images to enlarge

The Garden Chronicles

The garden is looking more like a sculpture garden what with three kinds of tomato thingys.

This year we're experimenting with these corkscrew stakes.

You train the main stalk of the tomato to climb-up the center of the corkscrew.

So far - so good.

If Only the Dead Could Talk

Captain J.A. Wilson.

Click on image to enlarge

Our virtual bicycle tour takes us to his final resting place. And that of his wife - Margaret - who lived considerably longer than her seafaring spouse.

I've dug-up the complete story on this.

It is fascinating.

Wilson plied the Great lakes for almost fifty years under the employ of the Goodrich Navigation Company of Chicago.

Born of immigrants - his formal education ended in Cleveland, Ohio at the age of fourteen. It was then he began his sailing career. He sailed saltwater seas to places as far as England and New Orleans returning to the Great Lakes to spend forty-six years in service with the Goodrich Line.

Margaret Collins was born of Irish immigrants - her parents settled near Baileys Harbor in the early 1840s to tame a parcel of government land. Margaret was educated in Baileys harbor - walking from the farm two and a half miles through the woods and an Indian village to school.

There were no roads in those days.

The Captain and Margaret married on December 8, 1887. Four children followed - John, Alice, Georgia and Arthur.

Following his death - Margaret operated a farm and what has been described as a fine hotel building at Kangaroo Lake. She was a successful forerunner in the summer resort business on the peninsula.

Ships and resorts.

A Captain and a Hotelier.

Even today - some things never change.