More Cool Automobiles - The Street Rods

There were dozens of street rods at the harvest festival auto show. Here is just a handful of them.


As a kid I was fascinated with building Revell models of cars like this. It would be fun to take one of these for a spin.

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Welcome Frog

This little tree frog was hanging-out on the top of the welcome sign near the door. How the heck did he get up there? It's getting colder so we won't be seeing him for much longer.

Kayak Invasion

I've pointed out on more than one occasion how it seems that the roads nowadays are crowded with vehicles hauling kayaks from here to there.

I'm telling you - kayaks are everywhere.

As evidence of the fact that kayaks are taking over the land there is this new State Park Admission Sticker...

Hat Tip - Sinissippigal

Monday Football

Every fall there is a sturgeon auction in Sturgeon Bay. If you want to participate you obtain from the organizers of his useful fundraiser a blank fiberglass casting of a sturgeon. Then you can exercise your artistic talents to turn it into whatever sort of sturgeon creation you want.



My favorite was this Green Bay Packer sturgeon - complete in green and gold mirrored glass and a face guard.

The Packers play that team from the windy city tonight.

I didn't see any sturgeon dressed-up like a bear.

Go Pack!

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Prostletizing

Yesterday the Jehovah Witnesses paid us their semi-annual visit.

In the city they hardly ever come around to visit.

Out in the country where everyone is spread out and scattered they come around pretty regularly.

Even though we routinely turn-down the offer of a copy of the Watch Tower and Girlfriend gets all worked-up and barks at them they still come around.

I have to give them credit for being persistent.

A Couple of Additional Bachelors

Here is a nice pair of gobblers.

I have a fall turkey permit and never leave home without it during the bow season.

Top Ten War Movies - #7

Another great motion picture from 1970 is the venerable M*A*S*H.

Starring Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Robert Duval and Sally Kellerman. Gary Burghoff went on to star in the long running television spin-off.

By no means an epic motion picture - it's a story about the brutal consequences of combat in the forward aid stations and MASH units close to the action. And coping.

It was one of the first movies to seriously poke fun at army life.

Like I said before - 1970 was an impressionable year.

Several years later one of my girlfriends from back then made a habit of snuggling with me on the couch every Thursday evening to catch the latest episode of the television version of M*A*S*H.

That always made a nice impression.

A number of years ago I learned about Door County's own 'Hawkeye Pierce'. A retired doctor who lived on the Peninsula and had served as a combat surgeon in Korea.

The Frau and I traveled to see a collection of memorabilia at the local library near where he lives – including his GI .45, mementos from the ‘police action’, his carefully written chronicles of life during his time overseas and a bunch of photographs.

Including a picture of a sagging GI tent complete with a stove pipe and one of those crazy road sign posts with the distances to faraway places nailed all over it.

A Couple of Bachelors

The infrared technology of the replacement trail camera is purportedly to function with 'no visible flash'.

I don't know about you but I still think the critters know they're getting their picture taken.

These bucks certainly look to me like a deer caught in the headlights. The fork horn you see was in my sights last weekend and was reprieved.


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More Cool Automobiles - The Foreigners

So many cars at this year's Harvest Fest that Brother In Law and I repeatedly praised the virtues of digital photography. There is no way we could have saved everything on Kodachrome.

Well, we could have saved the images but it would have gotten costly. Very quickly.

This is just a handful of some of the overseas models.

Can you ID any of them?

Death and Taxes

Each year when the estate tax is collected, an estimated 2.6 million acres of woodlands are harvested and 1.4 million acres are sold to pay the federal estate tax.

If Congress does not take action before the end of 2010, we will see this number rise even higher.

Beginning in 2011, a 55 percent tax will be collected on all estates valued over $1 million—the levels of 2001.

Congress has a way to fix the estate tax for family-owned forests and farms. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Mike Crapo (R-ID) introduced The Family Farm Estate Tax Deferral Act of 2010 (S. 3664), which would provide family forest owners with an exemption from the estate tax, if they keep the land in their family and manage it as a forest.

Learn more about the Feinstein-Crapo bill.

Source - American Forest Foundation

Harvest Fest

Harvest Fest was this weekend. And Brother In Law and I make it a fall tradition to celebrate the harvest, enjoy a refreshing adult beverage and take-in the festivities in downtown Sturgeon Bay.

Here is the proper way to do this.

First, you fetch an icy cold Amber Bock.

Second, you fetch a spicy Italian sausage from the Marine Corps League.


Third, you walk down one side of the street and view all of the vehicles there for the car show.



Like this classic Willys.


Wouldn't it be totally cool to have one of these in your shed?

It even has a rear power take-off.

Anyway, when you get to the end of the street you purchase another Amber Bock and walk back in the opposite direction - different side of the street.

What about the wives? Where are the wives?

It is agreed that the wives shop.

More pictures to follow.

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Piebald Deer

The markings on this doe are really quite extraordinary.

If this deer is taken this year I want to tan the hide with the hair-on.


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Regret?

Sat for a couple of hours this afternoon with my bow.

Jumped a deer walking out to my stand and had to change-up the plan and move to an alternate location.

Within an hour I spied a lone deer picking through the woods and then move off to the east. Twenty minutes later a doe with a pair of fawns moved through. They were clueless to my presence.

I thought about taking the doe and then thought about one of the fawns and decided upon none of the above. I watched them for awhile until a fork-horn ambled-into view.

Mama and the twins walked out of range and the fork buck stood there broadside to me like he was posing for a holy card.

Bow up and release clipped in I hemmed and hawed over taking him.

Then it occurred to me that if I shot him the first time out I will have burned my buck tag.

I got busted attempting to take his picture with my phone.

Saw six deer tonight.

Life is good.

A Dog, A Deer and a Ball

Top Ten War Movies - #8

The year 1970 was a good year as far as motion pictures about wars go. Three from that year have made the Top Ten list.

Maybe I was just an impressionable lad.

Who knows.

Tora! Tora! Tora! featured a small handful of recognized Hollywood actors including Jason Robards, E.G. Marshall and James Whitmore. There were a bunch of Japanese actors to round-out the cast as well.

I suspect that one of the reasons this film made such a lasting impression upon me was at this time of my life I was devouring anything I could read about military history. Plus the film used subtitles to add an aura of additional authenticity.

This motion picture quite effectively spun the historical tale surrounding the Empire of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.

While they were state-of-the art forty years ago – the special effects are kind of hokey by today’s standards. Detailed scale models instead of digital. Oh, that's right, digital special effects weren't invented yet.

It remains a great movie.

A Crackerjack Surprise

Last week I spent four days knocking around a tree farm or two, some manufacturing facilities and a sawmill.

The forest products industry in Wisconsin is a $20 billion (yes that is B as in Billion) industry in this state.

At the mill I got to talking to one of the guys about crap that they find in saw logs from time-to-time. You know - like bits of barbed wire, nails and other clutter.

They had an entire collection of exotic stuff that their metal detectors flag before a log has an opportunity to mess-up their expensive German machinery.

Like this pitch fork that a tree has grown around.


Or better yet - this old-school broadhead that was found inside a chunk of cedar.

There was more-

Bullets.

Children's toys.

Screw-in climbing pegs.

You name it.

A Crackerjack Prize in the occasional log...

Popularizing the Swamp

More people are jumping on the bandwagon.

Like this gal that sports her own Swamp tag on her H2...




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Bravery?

Spotted on the factory floor during my recent research into Wisconsin's forest products industry...








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Monday Morning Music

A special with the flip side offering some bonus belly-rubbing musik. Ooooh baby.

Here's a walk down memory lane....

Deer

Deer in the yard during broad daylight. Yikes!






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Solve the Riddle

I'm surprised that nobody's been able to crack the Double Bubble Riddle.

Top Ten War Movies - #9

All Quiet on the Western Front might just be one of the most profound anti-war movies ever created. It certainly is one of the oldest.

Unlike most all of the movies on the list I have no recognition or connection to any of the actors.

I first watched this movie while away at art camp in the ‘60s on one of the UW campuses.

Yeah, I know, you’re probably thinking – What are you, some old hippie?

Not quite.

This was period during the Vietnam War and anti-war sentiment ran high at places like art camp. Hence the showing of this movie in the campus auditorium.

We also watched some Salvador Dali flicks too. Blech.

All of this made a lasting impression on me.

I still have a taste for good art. My homes features art and artifacts from my travels along with some collectible wildlife prints.

One of these days I’d like to indulge in making pottery again.

And be cautious about rushing to war. Real people die you know.

Deer Camp Beer

Braumeister is actually an award-winning braumeister.

And every year he brews a keg of signature brew for deer camp.

I don't know what he has up his sleeve for November but I was instructed to gather hops for him.

I have giant Cascade hops vine on the rock wall and I picked a grocery bag of hops for him.

Prosit!

Viking Cuke Boat

Last week I mused about what to do with a mutant pickle.

In the end I decided to take a reader's advice and turn it into both cucumber dip and serving dish.

Here it is.

It sort of looks like a fat, Viking short boat.

I made a half-batch of the dip served with sea salt pita chips.

My guests declared it fabulous!

Following this we grilled salmon, garden squash, new potatoes, green beans and an eater pumpkin for dinner.

Then we polished-off a watermelon from the garden.

Local Celebration

The new Community Center was dedicated the other day.










The VFW’s color guard turned-out for the raising of the flag. The Civil Air Patrol performed a fly-over. There was a ribbon-cutting too.

Representative Garey Bies (center) and Senator Alan Lasee (right) made an appearance and presented a State Proclamation.

This also serves as the location of the Town Hall. I think it might be the only Town Hall with a bar.

Migrants

In the last week all of the hummingbirds vamoosed for the season - off to Mexico or Central America.

Spied and Eastern Phoebe for the first time.

More From the Road

OK.

Big motor home.

Dragging a small SUV.

The SUV is carrying two hybrid bikes AND a kayak.

I think this guy is ready for just about any possible contingency.

What's with all the kayaks?

I'm telling you.

The roads are filled with kayaks.

Apples

There aren't great numbers of them but the apples this year look pretty good.

There are three trees - each situated at one of three corners where the ancestral farm house stood all so many years ago.

The house has been long gone for years. The trees remain.

One tree is positively ancient with a thick and gnarly trunk. The second tree is slightly less old and the third (from whence this fruit was plucked) is the youngest.

They make for good applesauce, apple butter and pie filling.

We have no clue what cultivar they are.

Top Ten War Movies - #10

Produced in the UK this cinematic giant featured an all star line-up of Hollywood greats – Peter O’Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, and Omar Sharif.

It is worthy of mention that one of my all-time favorite movies is Dr. Zhivago - also starring Omar Sharif. That particular movie also included a war (revolution to be exact) but it doesn’t necessarily meet my strict criteria for inclusion. It's basically a love story.

Although it was a much better picture than Gone with the Wind. But I digress.

My dad took me to see this movie as a kid and while I had no clue about the history of T.E. Lawrence - the swashbuckling and heroic actions of the leading character combined with all of the charging horses, camels, desert scenery and Arab intrigue left me awed.

This first film and the final film date to my childhood.

Lasting impression - whenever I hear this musical score I am transported immediately to the old childhood home. And then I cannot shake it from my head. We probably also had the LP in the household for playing on the hi fi.

Top Ten War Movies

For about a year I have been toying with publishing a listing of my all-time Top Ten war movies.

I have read countless books and stories about war and and the consequences of war. But rarely does a great motion picture result from the publication of a great book. For instance, Michener's The Bridges at Toko-Ri is a compelling novel. The movie (while worth seeing) is hardly a epic film.

Nonetheless, there are plenty of great motion pictures about war and the trouble with this is that it's hard to whittle the list down to ten and only ten.

So what I have done is to have enlisted the vast resources of the professional and technical staff here at The Platz to scribble a list on a yellow legal pad of all the war movies I could recall that fit my exacting criteria. When I had nothing better to do I would reconvene all of those vast resources and revisit the list from time to time. Movie titles would be added and deleted and the collection of motion pictures would expand and contract and then we would start the process all over again.

Voila!

Wouldn't you know it. After an entire year of grueling effort I have compiled the list.

I feel like a one man Academy of Motion Picture Sciences.

Anyway, here are my exacting criteria for qualifying for the list:

1. It has to be a theater release. For example, HBO's Band of Brothers series might have easily made the Top Ten but it was a made for cable production and therefore it's not on the list.

2. Any qualifying motion picture had to have been watched by me for the first time in an actual theater. Video, DVD and cable doesn't count.

3. The central theme has to be combat. For instance, Gone with the Wind was not necessarily an epic film about the War Between the States - or as it is known in the south - the War of Northern Aggression. It was a treacly Hollywood embellishment of southern life before and after the war. Besides, that war occurred outside my 100 year parameter. (Refer to #4 below)

4. Only wars from the last one hundred years count. Therefore, something like Braveheart, Glory or anything about the Norman Conquest is off the table.

5. Extra points for leaving a lasting impression. Yes, I know that's very subjective but I'll elaborate as I proceed.

Check-in tomorrow for the first weekly installment.

A Startling Surprise

Braumeister and I shot arrows again last night. We've both been shooting pretty good lately - him better than me. He was whipping my ass until he had a catastrophic equipment failure.

The unit housing the sight pins dropped from his bow.

I think it is better to have this happen now instead of while you're out in the woods trying to fill your freezer.

Many years ago I walked out in the dark early one morning and reaching the top of the ladder began to crawl into the stand and roused a possum who was hanging out there in the dark.

The surprise was startling.

How'd you like to climb into your stand in the dark and find this...



The bow opener is only eighteen days away.