Countdown to the Super Bowl - Day 7

The Green Bay Packers are still the only publicly-held NFL franchise - thriving in a city much smalled than most professional sports teams - and their origins are just a modest.

The team was conceived by a couple of ordinary guys - George Calhoun and Curly Lambeau in 1919.

Lambeau, then a shipping clerk for the Indian Packing Company, convinced his employer to sponsor some basic equipment for the team.  In a tribute to that donation they called their team the Packers.  When the Packers were franchised into the American Professional Football Association they also received financial backing from another packing company - the Acme Packing Company.

Hair of the Dog

I spied this the other day in a parking lot.

You have to wonder about what is behind some of these license plates, eh?



The Ever-Changing Door County Landscape

View Larger Map

The picture above is a modern-day aerial view of the farm. It's a half-dozen years-old so it's not exactly up-to-date. But it's recent enough to give you a fairly good idea of the surrounding topography and what the landscape looks like nowadays.

The photo encompasses slightly more than six forty acre parcels.  Ours are the two in the center of the map.  Top to bottom it's a quarter mile across and a half mile in length.

The southern border is the county road where the house and buildings are located.  The meandering tree line crossing north of the house is Silver Creek.  The state tells us it's a navigable stream but most years is runs only intermittently.  The tiny brown smudge - bottom center of the photo - is a pond we excavated.  It was largely dry when this photo was taken.

The north property line is bordered by a narrow gravel road which dead-ends at the northeast corner of the property.  

A word about dead-end town roads that are a half-mile from the nearest house and beyond earshot.  Evidence of teenage whoopee and road hunting violators can be found from time-to-time.  But that would be another story.  

You can see the trail system - a bit over three miles in length.  There are a couple of small white patches.  These are wildlife food plots in the preparation stage.  There is a larger white patch northeast of the buildings near the right hand border of the map.  This is a field being prepped for planting into trees.  It is in the northeast corner of my neighbor's forty.

Here is a photo of the same area taken June 13,1938-


The distinctive sofa-shaped woodlot at top center is a landmark little changed in more than 70 years.

Same for the location of the buildings.

The original farm house is gone.  Sold to a flatlander before we purchased the joint.

A new house is now sited where the barn once stood.  The two-hole shitter has been replaced with three flushers along with hot and cold running water and a mound system.

The concrete silo was demolished and buried to provide a vast underground den for the resident snake population.

The pump house (added after rural electrification) and a restored granary are all that remain of the original buildings.  A metal sided machine shed houses my stuff and serves as the man cave.

Fields cultivated in 1938 were smaller in size and more numerous - a consequence of draft animals instead of large-scale mechanized farming.  The rest of the surrounding area has gotten a little more over-grown as the years have passed.  Elm trees used to be dominant but they succumbed to disease and have been replaced by ash and poplar.  The ash may eventually surrender to the emerald ash borer.  What will replace them?

There are stone piles located all over the property.  The peninsula's shallow soils are littered with stones.  A gift of the glacier.  Many of the stones are scored - evidence of the havoc they wrought on plows.  A few of the stones are not at all like the local dolostone formation.  These igneous rocks traveled with the ice from reaches far in the Canadian north.  How many children have had to pick rocks over the years without the assistance of a skid loader or a four-wheeler?

The landscape continues to change. 

The few remaining farm operations are larger, fence rows fewer and extra acreage is under lease.  Many farmers have retired and allowed their lands to naturalize slowly or they've planted most of it into permanent cover like trees.  Some are selling their acreage in smaller chunks to folks in Green Bay who enjoy life in the country and a 20 minute commute on the new four lane expressway.

Fragmentation. 

Good for the farmer who needs to monetize his landholdings into a comfortable retirement.  Yet there are consequences.  City people who complain about manure spreading, dust and other agricultural practices.  And they close their land to hunting.

Hat Tip to TosaGuy for the link to the Wisconsin Historic Aerial Image Finder.  It has led to hours of fun learning about the ever-changing landscape.

Take some time to discover how your local landscape has changed and might continue to evolve.

click on images to enlarge magnification

Balls of Fun

Have you ever heard of the annual Testicle Festival in Eldreron, WI?

It’s just as appetizing as it sounds.

For years – people have paid $5 each at Mama’s Place Bar and Grill for all-you-can-eat deep-fried lamb, bull and goat testicles.

Chomping down a McNugget may never be quite the same again after hearing one fella describe eating a fried ball on a bun with tartar sauce - After a few beers you can’t really tell the difference.

Learn more about it here.

Top Gun

This is Sergeant Sherri Gallagher.
At the present she holds 21 national shooting records.
Most recently she earned the National Champion title in the High Power Rifle competition at the NRA's 2010 Rifle and Pistol Championships at Camp Perry, OH.

An instructor for the Army's Marksmanship Unit she also won the Army's soldier of the Year for 2010's Best Warrior Competition.

Learn more about Sgt. Gallagher here.

Photo - SPC Vanessa Hernandez

Strange Deaths

Recent news headlines have brought us stories of large numbers of animals that have mysteriously died.

While still unsolved, the deaths of thousands of birds in two states and an estimated 100,000 dead fish in Arkansas have had no shortage of "explanations."  Wildlife experts and bloggers alike have presented their opinions ranging from simple acts of nature (lightning strikes) to conspiratorial (secret weapons-testing programs of the defense department).

Whatever the actual cause may be, these types of events are certainly not unprecedented. Read about other mass animal deaths, many of which are still unsolved.

SOTU Address Drinking Game

Esquire Magazine has published their 2011 edition of the State of the Union address drinking game.

Rules for drinking may be found among the following behaviors - standing, sitting, booing, hissing, rolling of eyes, looking constipated and more.

Learn more about it here.

And remember - if you're drinking have a designated driver.  Better yet - watch the address from home.

Cheers! 

Winter Deer

Still getting plenty of deer on the trail camera.  It is absolutely amazing how long the batteries have lasted.  With as cold as it has been the camera display tells me that there is 39% of the battery life remaining.


Momma deer




Twin number one - a boy deer



Twin number two -  a girl deer



Large doe after dark
















Did you see that?  The tree tried to grab my hat!



Divine Intervention

I don't often times ascribe the outcome of certain sporting events to the intervention of the supernatural.

Nonetheless - I am certain that it was the presence of Saint Vincent at last evening's Packer party that played a small role in Green Bay's defeat of the Chicago Bears on their home turf, in their very own house of pain to go to the Super Bowl and return the Lombardi Trophy to its rightful home in Titletown.

Go Pack! 

Game Day Chicago Bear Jokes

Q. What do you call 47 people sitting around a TV watching the Super Bowl?

A. The Chicago Bears.

Q. How do you keep a Chicago Bears player out of your yard?

A. Put up goal posts.

Q. What do the Chicago Bears and Billy Graham have in common?

A. They both can make a stadium full of people stand up and yell Jesus Christ.

Mommy Bear and Daddy Bear were in divorce court.

The judge looked down and asked the Baby Bear, So Baby Bear, do you want to live with Daddy Bear?

Oh, no, Baby Bear replied, I don’t want to live with Daddy Bear. He beat me.

Well then, you should live with Mommy Bear, answered the judge.

Oh, no, I don’t want to live with Mommy Bear. She beat me.

Well then, Baby Bear, who do you want to live with?

Baby Bear said, I want to live with the Chicago Bears. They don’t beat anybody!

The Fuhrer Goes to a Chicago Bears Game

Packer Nation Goes Hunting

I heard that the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has extended the bear hunt for one day only.

January 23, 2011.

One tag will be issued...

Wisconsin's New Deer Management Paradigm

Now that Wisconsin is going to have a Deer Trustee who will - take the politics out of the woods and put the deer back in - here's how it's gonna be...

Schuetzenfest Fashion Wear

The fashion design staff here at The Platz has been busy, busy, busy.

As we expand our clothing line - new for this year is official Schuetzenfest head gear.

Genuine Bundeswehr garrison caps.

Brand new. Never issued. In a fashionable olive drab too. Because we at The Platz are tighter than the bark on our trees you should know that the cost of these tasteful toppers was less than 14 cents apiece!

You’re probably thinking - How you can get such a bargain?

Germany recently did away with conscription so they’re probably off-loading surplus inventory…

Bumper Cars

Just got back to Tosa following a harrowing trip back from The Platz.

The usual 135 minute trip required more than four hours of slow, white knuckle driving.

Terrible winter driving conditions with I-43 a freakn’ mess.

Cars in the ditch.

Cars in the median.

Cars rolled-ever with the windows punched-out.

Trucks jack knifed.

I cannot recall seeing anything quite like this before.

Thank goodness the Acadia has all wheel drive and traction control.

No slippage.

Cool Cars

The 2011 Detroit Auto Show kicked off this past week, featuring a potpourri of new models, updates to current product lines and, of course, a bevy of concept cars (most of which will never see an assembly line).

See a slideshow of some of the top headliners of the show.

Smile For the Trail Camera

Thirty four deer pictures over the course of three days.

Sure. Multiple shots of the same – but here are three different deer.

Click on image to enlarge

Izzy & Lenore

It has been awhile but I've read some of Jon Katz's stuff over the years.

Izzy & Lenore is a very easy read although it has its sappy moments.

Nonetheless if you like dogs and how dogs interact with humans you'll like this.

Therapy dogs, hospice, Jon's struggle with depression - you'll find it all here.

I still favor Michael Perry over Jon Katz.

Starting on one of Braumeister's alternate history books tonight.

Irrational Exuberance

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan coined the term irrational exuberance to describe investor behavior leading-up to the bursting of the technology stock bubble a decade and a half ago.

It is also an apt description of the behavior of a Labrador retriever in the wintertime...

Fresh Snow

My wife thinks I'm crazy to take a picture of signage.

But the freshly fallen snow on the white spruces in the background seemed an appropriate backdrop for the tree farm sign.

Sunset On The Bay

Izzie emailed me this picture.

Rather characteristic of winter life on the peninsula - a village of ice shanties on the frozen waters of Green Bay.

Brutally cold when this shot was taken - we're sure that the ice drinkers were warm and snug in their shanties.

Census Fun

How well do you know your community?

Beneath the many headlines for the 2010 Census sits the underlying data which led to the changes in Congressional re-districting (and subsequent analysis of which states were winners or losers).

Take a fascinating look at the demographic profiles of your state, county, city or zip code. The data can be filtered by different socioeconomic categories, including ethnicity, income, housing, family makeup and education.

Winter Deer

Last week Girlfriend and I moved the trail camera to a location of dense cover.

We got plenty of deer pictures but I discovered there was a tree right smack in the foreground.

Annoying.

We returned yesterday to relocate the camera and sure enough more deer.

We had some fresh powdery snow fall last night and these two deer are sporting a layer of it.

Their hair is such a good insulator the fresh snow isn't even melting.

Recipe of the Day

Make pizza crust in the bread machine.

Preheat oven and pizza stone to 450.

Roll-out dough nice and thin. Place on stone.

Top with mozzarella, chunks of grilled chicken breast, sweet garden onion, mushrooms and basil. Drizzle olive oil over all. Be quick lest the stone get cold.

Bake until golden brown.

Serve with your favorite adult beverage.

One Tough SUV

I was driving around the other day and spied this parked out front of a local welding shop.

How is it that someone is lucky enough to acquire one of these?

A vintage WWII half-track.

I’m jealous.

This would make for an awesome moveable gun platform for deer hunting.

You could go practically anywhere and be completely safe from an errant shot.

The Honey Wagon

Have you ever noticed the clever names that adorn the septic pump trucks?

Of course, you'd have to have a septic system or drive around a lot to notice this.

The guy that comes every three years to pump out our septic tanks has this stenciled on the tank: Yesterday's Meals on Wheels.

I was in Sturgeon Bay the other day and spied this turd tanker.

On the end was stenciled: Stool Bus.

Winter On the Peninsula

You’d think that winter on the peninsula would be grim.

Not so.

There is hunting, ice drinking, snowshoeing, skiing, Packer football and just plain sitting by the fire with a good book.

Izzie emailed this picture of early freeze-up on Green Bay.

That dark line on the horizon is open water.

The Return of the Pheasant?

It's been a number of years since we've had pheasants over-winter here at the Platz.

Their sign is everywhere and the resident group appears to be as many as four each - roosters and hens.









I don't know if they're pen-raised birds released by the Door County Fish Farm and Game Club or if they're wild birds.

If they make it through the winter they're probably wild.

Girlfriend is sure having a blast snuffing all the tracks.

Three Cups of Tea

In 1993, following a failed attempt to scale K2, mountaineer Greg Mortenson was rescued by tribal villagers in the Karakorum region of Pakistan.

Forever impacted by the kindness of these impoverished people he vowed to return their kindness by building the village of Korphe a school.

To educate girls.

Struggling to make good on his promise the Central Asia Institute was born. And the school was built.

Many more schools followed.

Learn more about Mortenson's work here.

It's a good read.

Happy New Year.

Waxing Nostalgic About Hunting

I'm probably done deer hunting until next fall.

We'll have to see.

I remain deerless for 2010/2011.

But I understand that the new Governor is going to 'Take the politics out of the woods and put the deer back in.'

We'll have to see about that.

It's a good thing the past few decades have been good...

Frosted

There are several advantages to winter bow hunting.




The first, and foremost, is it is easier to spot your quarry.

Sure, the deer still materialize like ghosts but at least you can see them approaching from a distance.










It's also easier to identify their sign.

Trails are easier to spot. And the heavily traveled trails can be identified and you can hopefully establish an ambush spot.














The cold can creep-up on you however.





Several hours of standing motionless can leave you frosted.