Last weekend I found sign of a mouse (or mice) in my basement. Construction sawdust along with little mouse turds on the floor and on my work bench. All of it confined to that corner of the basement where all of the utilities enter and where the likely access point is located.
Mice live in the barn, the machine shed and the barn. Periodically they take-up winter residence in my boat. But this is the first time in eleven years I've discovered signs of these little rodents in the house. Having lived in older homes all my long life I have cohabitated with mice the entire time. It has been a constant battle between mice and men. Having lived in the countryside for all these many years before the field mice have penetrated my modern defenses is nothing short of miraculous.
Grrrr.
I've cleaned-up their sign and set a couple of traps.
Along the wall
And on the work bench
I'll check the trap line soon.
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
State Bird
click on the bird to enlarge
Meet Turdus migratorius - the American robin - a bird familiar to anyone from Wisconsin probably because most of us know it is the Wisconsin state bird. I would also add that it is a particularly cool Latin classification.
Females are characterized by a grey head and a dull red breast while males sport a a darker head and a darker, rusty red breast.
A territorial bird they raise a stink whenever I approach the granary. Every year a robin builds a nest in the rafters of the lean-to over the deck. Like the bird in the picture above you'll often spy them walking erect in the lawn foraging for something to eat.
Monday, May 30, 2016
Laid to Rest
Today is Memorial Day and obviously some of my family members took time the time to pay a visit to Southern Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery outside of Union Grove.
The cemetery inters caskets and cremation urns year-round. Cremated remains may be interred either in ground, in an above ground columbarium or in a scattering area that allows families to place cremated remains in-ground without a burial container. All internments are memorialized with a government marker that includes the veteran’s name, rank, branch of service, war period, birth date, death date and spousal information. Families also have the option of adding an additional inscription/term of endearment to their loved ones’ marker if space is available on the marker.
My brother and his wife and my brother-in-law and his wife both texted me pictures of the marker in the columbarium. Which, by the way, enjoys a spectacular view to the west and all of the sunsets that are afforded.
The cemetery inters caskets and cremation urns year-round. Cremated remains may be interred either in ground, in an above ground columbarium or in a scattering area that allows families to place cremated remains in-ground without a burial container. All internments are memorialized with a government marker that includes the veteran’s name, rank, branch of service, war period, birth date, death date and spousal information. Families also have the option of adding an additional inscription/term of endearment to their loved ones’ marker if space is available on the marker.
My brother and his wife and my brother-in-law and his wife both texted me pictures of the marker in the columbarium. Which, by the way, enjoys a spectacular view to the west and all of the sunsets that are afforded.
Memorial Day
It is, in a way an odd thing to honor those who died in
defense of our country....in wars far away. The imagination plays a
trick. We see these soldiers in our mind as old and wise. We see them
as something like the Founding Fathers, grave and gray haired.
But most of them were boys when they died, and they gave up two lives - the one they were living and one they would have lived...
But most of them were boys when they died, and they gave up two lives - the one they were living and one they would have lived...
- Ronald Reagan
Originally called Decoration Day - Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for those who have died in service of our country.
There is an American Cemetery and Memorial located in Colleville-sur-Mer on the bluff overlooking Omaha Beach in Normandy, France. Dedicated in 1956 the
Cemetery and Memorial is situated closely to the site of the temporary
American St. Laurent Cemetery, established by the U.S. First Army on
June 8, 1944 - the first American cemetery on European soil in World War
II.
This is the final resting place of 9,387 of our military dead - most of whom lost their lives in the D-Day landings and ensuing operations. If you were to visit this place you will note that upon the walls of the Garden of the Missing are inscribed an additional 1,557 names. And because old battlefields continue to yield their dead - rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified.
This is the final resting place of 9,387 of our military dead - most of whom lost their lives in the D-Day landings and ensuing operations. If you were to visit this place you will note that upon the walls of the Garden of the Missing are inscribed an additional 1,557 names. And because old battlefields continue to yield their dead - rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified.
In Plot E Row 26 Grave 37 rests James D. Johnston. Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army, 47th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division.
Jill and I walked this sacred place on a typical rainy Norman morning and while I have no direct connection to James
Johnston, his life before the war, or his survivors following the war what you can discern from the marker is that Johnston was from North Carolina and was a commander in the same division and infantry regiment my dad served.
Some of you know that my father landed at Utah Beach as an infantry replacement - a machine gunner in a heavy weapons platoon. Dad participated in the battle of the hedgerows and subsequent breakout and dash across northern France. His participation in the liberation of Belgium was intrerrupted by wounds incurred in combat and a recovery in England. Upon release he was a member of the US Army of Occupation of Germany.
Of course, dad returned home from the war and lived a full and rewarding life. He worked quietly in a public school system and never spoke about his experiences in detail until I was in college. That James Johnston shared none of this is obvious.
This is why Memorial Day is personal to me.
Some of you know that my father landed at Utah Beach as an infantry replacement - a machine gunner in a heavy weapons platoon. Dad participated in the battle of the hedgerows and subsequent breakout and dash across northern France. His participation in the liberation of Belgium was intrerrupted by wounds incurred in combat and a recovery in England. Upon release he was a member of the US Army of Occupation of Germany.
Of course, dad returned home from the war and lived a full and rewarding life. He worked quietly in a public school system and never spoke about his experiences in detail until I was in college. That James Johnston shared none of this is obvious.
This is why Memorial Day is personal to me.
Research reveals that Johnston died from wounds
suffered from the detonation of a German 88mm shell at the
blood-stained Crossroads 114 near Acqueville just outside of
Cherbourg. Combat was fickle in the skirmishes and battle for the Norman countryside. PFC Gaertner
survived - Lt Col Johnston did not.
When it came time for a permanent burial, the
families of the dead were asked if they wanted their loved ones
repatriated for permanent burial in the U.S. or interred overseas. For
whatever reason, Lieutenant Colonel Johnston's remains lie here with
approximately 461 graves belonging to 9th Infantry Division
G.I.s.
Today it is useful to remember and honor the lives that brave men and women sacrificed. Both of those lives.
Eight Stars to Victory - Mittelman, The Battery Press
Sunday, May 29, 2016
Frog Chorus
There's no better sleeping than going to bed with the windows open (and screens on) to the cacophony of the spring mating calls of the resident amphibians.
It's not just a a couple of frogs but a chorale of frogs. And one species of toad.
Still waiting upon the broken banjo string call of the green frog.
Get a hotel room already...
It's not just a a couple of frogs but a chorale of frogs. And one species of toad.
Still waiting upon the broken banjo string call of the green frog.
Get a hotel room already...
Labels:
Amphibian Courtship Rituals,
Life is Good
Sunset
Last evening we were hanging out at Highcliff with Sid and his Frau along with Mennonite (and Fraulein) and additional guests.
Sunsets on Green Bay can be rather spectacular especially when the rumbling begins and a storm begins to brew-up over the waters.
That would be Peshtigo and Marinette, Wisconsin off in the distance and Michigan's Upper Peninsula center-right.
Some photos taken over several minutes of the storm developing.
Sunsets on Green Bay can be rather spectacular especially when the rumbling begins and a storm begins to brew-up over the waters.
That would be Peshtigo and Marinette, Wisconsin off in the distance and Michigan's Upper Peninsula center-right.
Some photos taken over several minutes of the storm developing.
click on the sun to enlarge
Labels:
Door County Life,
Friends,
Geography,
iPhone Photography,
Sunset
The Savior
I just got new LL Bean moccasins. Believe it or not the pair in the picture above have been worn around the former house in Wauwatosa for the last fourteen years. A comfortable pair of loafers they're nicely broken-in. If I had to hazard a guess they have a great many miles remaining. Nevertheless, the much older pair at The Platz dating all the way back to the trailer home era needed to be replaced. As a consequence I'm replacing the pair (above) with a new pair and rotating the used pair to replace the really used (and ratty) pair that will be retired.
2016 Moccasins...
click on the shoes to enlarge
The bottom line is that as for long as I can remember I've been getting about a decade and a half of use out of this footwear yielding an exceedingly low amortized cost per use. (Translation - excellent value). LL Bean - of Freeport Maine - still manufactures their long-wearing, high-quality camp mocs in El Salvador. If you don't already know this the literal translation of El Salvador is: The Savior.
I find it mildly amusing that The Savior running for POTUS wants to embargo imported LL Bean camp mocs made by highly-skilled and hard-working Central American craftsmen and women.
The irony is not lost on me.
Not one bit.
Raising a toast to free trade.
Labels:
Donald Trump,
Economics,
Free Trade,
LL Bean
Saturday, May 28, 2016
Running the Trapline
Shuttled The Frau up to Highcliff for the day. She and Sid's Frau are taking a class on how to raise mushrooms. I have a vision of homegrown Shitake mushrooms in my future. There are additional Fraus, a gallery opening, shopping and more. I'm sure they'll make a well-deserved and terrific day of it. When I left Sid and Mennonite were attempting to rapair a self-propelled lawn mower and charge the dead battery on the boat. When I return to Highcliff tonight for a cookout I'll find out if they got the mower running, the boat in the water and how many fish they caught. Chores, chores, chores. But I digress.
Back at the ranch I took the girls out for some exercise, scouted some more locations of buckthorn and honeysuckle and swapped out the SD cards on the cameras. More chores. Fun later.
Note: Skeeters in the woods were awful. The good news is that this camera was previously not functioning. After a hard reboot all is well (so far).
Back at the ranch I took the girls out for some exercise, scouted some more locations of buckthorn and honeysuckle and swapped out the SD cards on the cameras. More chores. Fun later.
Note: Skeeters in the woods were awful. The good news is that this camera was previously not functioning. After a hard reboot all is well (so far).
click on image to enlarge
Labels:
Chores,
Family,
Friends,
Selfie,
Trail Camera
Deer Food
click image to enlarge
Meet Barbera Vulgaris - Winter Cress. A biennial non-native. Between you and me I think that is a really cool name.
I found this growing in the tall grass field out back of the house. It belongs to the mustard family even though it it is not a true mustard. One of the first wild flowers to bloom in the spring and as a member of the brassica family it is a favorite of whitetail deer.
If you want to practice some folk medicine you can use the plant to make a poultice to treat wounds and its tiny black seeds as a pepper substitute.
It grows just about everywhere and you'll fine it throughout Wisconsin. There doesn't seem to be a large amount of this non-native growing around here so I'm hopeful the over-abundant deer around here will eat it all and save me the effort of applying an herbicide.
Labels:
Non Native Wildflower,
Winter Cress
Friday, May 27, 2016
New Trail Camera Location
A week and ago I made mention of moving the roving trail camera to a new location in the northern-most tree plantation. Last weekend I went hunting for it and after some searching about I found it again. having swapped-out the SD card and before leaving I marked the nearby location on the main trail with some logger flagging tape.
The trail is in the denser portion of the woods and it looks promising. Gonna give it another week or so and keep moving it as there are plenty game trails in the heavier cover to monitor.
The trail is in the denser portion of the woods and it looks promising. Gonna give it another week or so and keep moving it as there are plenty game trails in the heavier cover to monitor.
click on image to enlarge
Friday Morning Music
James Last plays Judy In Disguise and a medley of German drinking songs
(Trink, trink, Brüderlein trink/Du, du liegst mir im Herzen/Jetzt trink
ma no a Flascherl Wein) on his first appearance on German TV in 1968.
This was the first episode of the German variety show Starparade, which
ran from 1968 to 1980.
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Apple Blossom Special
click on the blossoms to enlarge
Apple tree is in full bloom and we're hoping for favorable conditions to allow the pollinators to do their thing and fair weather and ample rains for a good crop at summer's end.
Courtsey to your partner and dosey doe...
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Holiday Cacti
Earlier this month I predicted that The Frau's Christmas Cactus was likely going to bloom shortly before Memorial Day.
I must be prophetic because here it is in all it's glory.
It's nowhere near Christmas but is sure is a nice touch in the dining room.
I must be prophetic because here it is in all it's glory.
click on image to enlarge
It's nowhere near Christmas but is sure is a nice touch in the dining room.
Labels:
Cacti,
Christmas Cactus,
Holidays,
Household Tips
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Sunset Turkey
Speaking of astronomical phenomena what are the odds of this?
A wild turkey silhouetted by the setting sun.
Anybody who tells you that an inexpensive trail camera is incapable of taking cool pictures doesn't know what they're talking about. Particularly if it’s wildlife. Try sneaking-up on a critter some day and ask it to smile and “say cheese” at arms-length.
click image to enlarge
A wild turkey silhouetted by the setting sun.
Anybody who tells you that an inexpensive trail camera is incapable of taking cool pictures doesn't know what they're talking about. Particularly if it’s wildlife. Try sneaking-up on a critter some day and ask it to smile and “say cheese” at arms-length.
Labels:
Moultrie Trail Cameras,
Photography,
Sunset,
Turkeys
Jupiter
click on the Jovian Giant to enlarge
Taken a couple of weeks ago I forgot all about this photo. This is Jupiter.
It's a fuzzy photo since it was taken with an ordinary iPhone. Nevertheless, these clear nights without a light pollution of an urban environment are perfect for star gazing, meteor watching, ISS spotting and planets rising.
Monday, May 23, 2016
Spine
Reid Ribble has capably represented Wisconsin's Eighth Congressional District in Wisconsin. Elected in 2010 he announced earlier this year that he would not run for office again.
The Frau and I both have grown fond of our Congressman as he's been reliably responsive to questions or concerns that we've brought to his attention. He is also a principled sort of guy - a rare quality in modern politics and politicians.
Speaking of which - like me - he has made no bones about his distaste for Donald Trump. Ribble has said that Trump behaves like a "sixth-grader" and "appeals to the worst parts of who we are as people."
I'd agree.
The Frau and I both have grown fond of our Congressman as he's been reliably responsive to questions or concerns that we've brought to his attention. He is also a principled sort of guy - a rare quality in modern politics and politicians.
Speaking of which - like me - he has made no bones about his distaste for Donald Trump. Ribble has said that Trump behaves like a "sixth-grader" and "appeals to the worst parts of who we are as people."
I'd agree.
"I like people who don't get captured."
This is the remark Donald Trump, a very successful draft
dodger, tossed off in a casual and contemptuous fashion about John McCain, who
endured a horrific and long-lasting captivity at the hands of the North
Vietnamese after being shot down near Hanoi during the Vietnam War.
Remember that quote when you hear about all the GOP
politicians who are deciding they really need to get aboard the Trump Train. To
them, party, not principle, is important.
Cheers to Reid Ribble. Unlike Reince Priebus - a guy with some spine.
To my outgoing Congressman I say - Bon Chance!
To my outgoing Congressman I say - Bon Chance!
Labels:
Donald Trump,
Politics,
Reid Ribble
Sunday, May 22, 2016
More About the Mangy Deer
click to enlarge
Odocileus virginianus - the North American whitetail deer - is a remarkably adaptable creature. A true survivor. In pre-settlement times the deer population of Wisconsin was much smaller than it is today. And it was about to get smaller. The fur trade and later subsistence hunting and market hunting reduced deer populations to their lowest levels in modern history. Then a curious thing happened. Following the great cut-over of Wisconsin's old growth forest and the later collapse of farming in many northern Wisconsin counties a younger forest emerged. And with it the population of deer rebounded. Thanks to a combination of forest succession, the species' polygamous breeding habits and scientific game management it is estimated that the Wisconsin deer herd today is four times that of the early 1960s.
You might be asking yourself why the deer above looks so scruffy and mangy along with the obvious red patches. The animal does not have a skin disease.
Hormonal changes bring about a molting process twice a year and deer alternately grow a faded gray coat consisting of longer guard hairs and replace it with the rusty red-colored coat of summer. The summer coat will only last about three months before the critter begins to regrow the extra layer of longer, stiffer, hollow hair over the softer hair closer to the skin.
Until the transition is complete the local whitetails are going to continue looking a bit raggedy.
Mangy Deer
Taken by trail camera #2.
I don't know about you but these photos are of a doe and her buck fawn of last year and they are the scrawniest, scruffiest, shaggiest skin and bones deer I've seen in awhile.
They're dated April 30 so the animals have been eating better as things have begun to green-up on the landscape but these whitetails look hungover and wretched.
I don't know about you but these photos are of a doe and her buck fawn of last year and they are the scrawniest, scruffiest, shaggiest skin and bones deer I've seen in awhile.
They're dated April 30 so the animals have been eating better as things have begun to green-up on the landscape but these whitetails look hungover and wretched.
Saturday, May 21, 2016
Peninsula Sunset
click on the dog in the kayak to enlarge
Cookout and sunset tonight with friends in Dyckesville.
Nice...
Blonde Dog
Same Camera - Same place.
Nothing more uplifting than the joy of a Labrador Retriever out for a run.
Alternately wet, muddy or covered in something she's rolled-in Blonde Lab is having a blast.
These two trail camera photos were taken six days apart.
What evidence is there of that?
Nothing more uplifting than the joy of a Labrador Retriever out for a run.
Alternately wet, muddy or covered in something she's rolled-in Blonde Lab is having a blast.
These two trail camera photos were taken six days apart.
What evidence is there of that?
click on the Lab to enlarge
Labels:
Door County Life,
Labrador Retrievers,
Sister
Trail Camera #3
North of the creek and just south of the middle guard tower deer stand this has been an active location recently.
Last weekend I uploaded 229 digital photos covering almost two weeks and captured some like these...
Last weekend I uploaded 229 digital photos covering almost two weeks and captured some like these...
Turkeys out for a stroll
The Labs out for a walk
A group of whitetails. How many can you count?
click on images to enlarge
Labels:
Deer,
Labrador Retrievers,
Trail Camera,
Turkeys
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