Gone Fishing

The Best Broasted Pork Chop on the Peninsula

Tomorrow the First Mate and I will hitch the boat to the pick-up and head north for a stretch of fishing in the Eagle Flowage.

Tonight we dined in anticipation.

I've never had the broasted pork chop at Why Lee's and as a consequence this evening I ordered chicken and chop - broasted.  As per usual the chicken was predictably excellent and the chop was too.  Very juicy and done to perfection.

I recommend it.

If you travel to Why Lee's for an adult beverage, lunch or dinner or both - tell them Swamp sent you.

Check Lee out on Face Book here....

Raggedy Deer

 



This animal looks a bit mangy but he's probably just scruffy.  As the days grow longer the hormonal levels of whitetail deer begin the change.  For boy deer testosterone levels gradually rise.  As a consequence antler growth begins and the gray winter coat with its thick guard hairs begins to molt.

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.   

The Labs are going thru their spring molt too. 

Hair everywhere.  Yeesh.

IR Photos

This is a healthy-looking coyote and as near as I can figure from comparable photos about the same size as my blonde Lab.

Infrared technology (IR for short) allows for picture-taking after dark without a visible flash and saves substantially on battery life.  It also is less obtrusive and doesn't alert most animals to the presence of a camera (other than the camera is obviously there).  Pictures have a tendency to be blurred in this mode but I seem to capture enough good ones to make it worth while.







The rabbit with three ears is from several years ago.  Besides, what's not to like about a three-eared bunny...

click on images for a closer look

 

 

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... 

- 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. 

 

 

 

 

 

An officer in my father’s unit in Normandy was mortally wounded by a German 88mm shell at the bloody Crossroads 114 near Acqueville and Le Motel in the drive to envelope the critical port city of Cherbourg.  He died a few days later.  

In Plot E Row 26 Grave 37 rests James D. Johnston. Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army, 47th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division. 

 

Canada Red Cherry

Prunus virginiana 'Shubert' – Is a species of bird cherry that includes bitter-berry,  chokecherry, Virginia bird cherry, western chokecherry and black chokecherry.  
 
The Canada Red Cherry is known for its toughness and as a reliable tree to grow under difficult conditions.  It tolerates cold, heat, wind, poor soil and fluctuating temperatures.   This hardy species has bright green leaves that emerge in spring becoming maroon to purple by the fall.  Fragrant white spring flowers are followed by a sweet purple fruit that makes for excellent bird forage. 
 
While we don’t have to be concerned about this here if you want something well-suited to a city yard this might be a good pick as they rarely grow beyond the height of an overhead power line.

Spring Perennial

Meet Caltha Palustris - the Marsh Marigold - a member of the buttercup family (not a marigold) and a perennial spring wild flower found in our bottomlands this time of year.

This is a difficult plant to miss as the bright yellow flowers are quite showy.  This plant grows along Silver Creek and in the dappled sunlit areas where ephemeral waters gather. 

This plant happens to be edible when cooked.  The tender spring leaves or buds can be blanched in boiling water , cut into bite-sized pieces, lightly salted and served with melted butter.

It is sometimes called Cowslip - a throwback to the fact that it is found in low-lying areas and cows would slip-upon it when they came to the creek to drink. 

Friday Music

Released in August of 1964 as the group's third single it rose to number one on the UK singles chart by September.  This was the tune that finally differentiated the group from all the other bands that made up the British Invasion.  You Really Got Me was later included on the Kinks' debut album.  Great garage band music.  Enjoy…

Living With Coyotes

Near the dawn of time, the story goes; Coyote saved the creatures of Earth. According to the mythology of Idaho's Nez Perce people, the monster Kamiah had stalked into the region and was gobbling up the animals one by one. The crafty Coyote evaded Kamiah but didn't want to lose his friends, so he let himself be swallowed. From inside the beast, Coyote severed Kamiah's heart and freed his fellow animals. Then he chopped up Kamiah and threw the pieces to the winds, where they gave birth to the peoples of the planet. 

– Nature

Yote - short for coyote, Wile E. Coyote, Canis latrans.   If you were to inquire of a wildlife biologist they would tell you that there are nineteen subspecies of coyote that are exceedingly well-adapted to living in urban, rural and wild America.   

Male coyotes top out at about 44 pounds while females weigh-in slightly less.  For scale my Labs are bulkier than the average coyote.  Coyotes are known for how well they adapt to different habitats.  They are found living in and around large cities, the central plains, farmland, and northern forest, in the desert scrub of the Sonoran Desert, foothills and mountains as well as in populated ring suburbs. 

Coyotes dine on large prey and also eat snakes, insects, rodents, fruit and other mast.  As an opportunistic hunter coyotes have been known to prey-upon small pets and livestock.  In an urban setting they will eat garbage and pet food left on a deck or patio.  The coyote is a gregarious animal - socially-inclined - like the wolf.  This is likely a consequence of the need for a family unit or pack of animals combining to bring down large game. 

Recent genetic studies suggest that coyotes are not native to the eastern United States - having largely evolved on the Great Plains.  As the eastern old growth forests were cleared for settlement and agriculture coyotes adapted to the new environs.   It is thought that coyotes dispersed to our neck of the woods early in the twentieth century.  These canids are presumed to have come from the northern Great Plains and are unique in their genetic origins.  Additional coyotes dispersed from here to New England via the northern Great Lakes region and southern Canada meeting in the 1940s in New York and Pennsylvania. These coyotes have inter-bred  with gray wolf and Eastern wolf populations adding to their own unique genetic diversity and further contributing to their hybrid vigor and ability to adapt to an ever changing environment.  Coyotes here are known as the Northeastern coyote. 

More frequently Jill and I hear coyote vocalizations than we see them live and in person.  In rural America coyotes share the same natural aversion to people that other wildlife do.  They are scared-to-death of people.  However, from time to time I do capture a handful of digital photos on a trail camera. 

All of which leads to this:  On May 18^th at 4:45 AM the camera closest to the house captured a series of burst photos of a group of whitetails moving thru.  A couple of shots are here...

 

So far - so good.

Five minutes later at 4:50 AM this healthy-looking coyote appeared on the scene….

click on the images for a closer look

Nice-looking coyote.  All the same I'll keep my dogs close as best I can.

Learn more from this terrific read in yesterday's Washington Post.

Nesting Season

Meet Tachycineta bicolor - the Tree Swallow.

This blue green feathered bird is among the first to return in the spring and they are a delight to watch as they chase and feed above the tall grass habitat out behind the house.

This is a cavity-nesting bird and they'll compete with Bluebirds for rights to nest in all of the bluebird nest boxes we've built and disbursed.  Which is namely why the bluebird boxes are occupied by other species such as these swallows and house wrens.  But I digress.

We've built plenty of affordable homes for all the box-dwelling birds and they are all a delight to watch.  The Tree Swallows line their nests with grass and feathers and as evidence of their successful courtship last weekend's walk revealed that any number of the boxes may fledge successful broods.

 

click on the image for a closer look

Tree Hugger

A close acquaintance texted me this from Door County's Peninsula Pulse publication...

click on the image for a closer read

Quote of the Day

When the facts are against you - argue the law.  When the law is against you - argue the facts.  And when both the law and facts are against you - wave your arms and yell that you were set up.

 

-Old defense lawyer's adage

Turkey Hunter

Some things are so strange they defy explanation...

Planting Time

There was a flurry of activity on Thursday and Friday - persisting well into the evening after dark as everyone was in a rush to get their crops in before the arrival of the rains.

Across the road and to the west the activity was non-stop.









Even my little field got another rototilling, hand-leveling and I got the peas planted.

click on images to enlarge

 

Locavore

Productive day began with a visit in town with my State Representative.  It was a terrific opportunity to have a productive and friendly chat about the burgeoning deer numbers on the peninsula and Wisconsin's one-size-fits-all approach to managing deer populations.  Remember - the legislature has been in charge of managing wildlife resources - not the Department of Natural Resources, or the Natural Resources Board or (gasp) biologists.  We'll see how it goes and if anything constructive comes of this.

Back at The Platz I took the girls out for a romp to swap-out the SD cards from the trail cameras. 

Following that Jill and I cut-back the raspberry canes, I pruned the suckers from the big apple tree and pruned the 'poop on a stick' branches from one of the Canada Cherry trees.  After that I thought better of proceeding any further until I knew more about the cause and spread of this fungal disease.  I disinfected my lopper and put it away.

I helped Jill clean the GMC and later my lovely wife got her second wind and finished cutting the lawn after the sun peeked-out later today.

Dinner tonight was a feast:  Grilled venison loin, crashed German Butter Ball spuds and a medley of frozen sweet corn with fresh-picked asparagus.

Everything came from our field, forest or garden. Except the beers.  It's a satisfying feeling for sure...

Indigo Bunting

Such a striking and sweet song bird...

click to enlarge

Bird in the Bush

Last Monday I published a post about the Brown Thrasher that has taken-up residence in our tangled, gnarly and generally dangerous, over-grown rose bush growing on the north side of the attached garage. 

Trust me - this bush is complicated - just taking a photo is going to result in scratches and stab wounds from the gauntlet of thorns you have to navigate.

As of Thursday grandpa and grandma now have the potential of three additional grandchildren - of the brown thrasher side of the family....

click on image for a better look

 

Sunset



 

Nice close to a productive day.  A little bit of day job, sketched-out the 2018 garden on a legal pad for proper crop rotation, fertilized and watered the tomatoes, peppers and broccoli and continued to harden them-off. 

 

Located a new spot for the rhubarb, moved some bags of mulch, walked the dogs down to the creek for swim, tilled the garden for a second time, leveled it out by hand and got the peas planted.

 

Everyone around here had equipment running in a rush to get their stuff planted.

 

Rain in the forecast for tonight.

Indigo Bunting

They're back - on time and almost to the day! 

Meet Passerina cyanea - the Indigo Bunting.  These birds summer here and like the Blue Jay sunlight is refracted in their plumage like that of a Blue Jay making them appear blue.  For the uninitiated this birds doesn't have any blue pigment in its feathers.

This song bird migrates completely to Central and South America, Mexico and southern Florida.  It is refreshing to see this blackbird back in the neighborhood.

Friday Music

From my personal Top Ten list of tunes this song was composed by Wayne Carson and recorded by the Box Tops in 1967.  The Letter was the group's first and biggest hit.  It rose to number one in the United States and Canada and made the Top Ten in any number of other countries. 

It holds a place at number 372 on Rolling Stone Magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Planting Time

Sunset from earlier today.  Impressive, eh?

I just brought the dogs in from a potty call and it is pitch-dark, star-clustered, cool evening.  Yet there was the sound of heavy farm machinery and lights in the distance.  Given that things have finally dried-out enough to begin to work the fields operations are going to continue almost around the clock to get this year's crop in the ground.

Reading List

The time is post-Civil War, the place is Texas and the plot is 70-year-old Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd - guardian of a 10-year-old girl, Johanna Leonberger, rescued from Kiowa Indian captivity by the U.S. Army.  Living in the Information Age this is also a story about a time when news was a rare commodity, literacy was equally rare and when an expert news reader like Captain Kidd both entertained and informed his audiences. 

Following a reading in Wichita Falls, freed black men give Kidd the $50 reward to return Johanna to her aunt and uncle who live outside of San Antonio. Despite grave reservations the Captain agrees to make the journey.  Kidd and Johanna start the 400 mile trek fraught with peril at the hands of bandits, floods and Comanche raiders.  Johanna is a non-English-speaking girl who for all intents and purposes considers herself Kiowa and does not have the slightest desire to return.  During their journey a morality tale unfolds with lessons in truth, courage and trust resulting in a true bond.   

Having devoured the Lonesome Dove series of tales by Larry McMurtry  I couldn’t help but grow to like the two principle characters much as Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call. 

News of the World – by Paulette Jiles

Quantum Physics pays a Visit to the Kitchen

t = m * K * log(ywr * (Tegg - Twater)/(T - Twater))

•t = time

•m = mass
•K = thermal conductivity of the egg
•T = temperature between white and yolk
•Tegg = egg temperature
•Twater = water temperature
•ywr = yolk-white ratio

Yup.  That is the formula for a perfectly-boiled egg.  If you Google 'soft cooked egg' you will get about 5,570,000 results in .55 seconds.  Now there is this:

 

According to Science Alert - quantum physicist Charles D.H. Williams from the University of Exter has determined the precise way to cook and egg to perfection.  Lest you scoff there are many variables to finding the most sublime of soft or hard-cooked egg and Dr. Williams has nailed it.  The bottom line is that the perfect hard boiled egg should be boiled at 170.6 degrees F and a perfectly runny soft boiled egg requires 149 degrees F.  You can read the complete dissertation here.  I have to go now.  Quantum physics makes my head hurt.

Take a Swig of Twig's!

Have you ever wondered how this soda came to be known as cream soda?  There obviously isn’t any cream in it.  Some have suggested that back in the days of days of soda fountains the guy behind the counter would include a helping of cream to the glass before adding the flavoring and carbonated water.  But that sounds more like and egg cream.  Nowadays sodas are made with citric acid or phosphoric acid, a large part of cream soda's distinctive flavor comes from the use of tartaric acid.  Tartaric acid is more commonly known as cream of tartar, which could very easily be the origin of the name.  The phrase 'cream soda' was used in print to refer to a tartaric acid-based drink as early as 1852. 

Anyway, after rototilling my garden it was quite pleasant to set on the porch with a frosty cream soda made with 100% REAL sugar.  Take a swig of Twig’s! 

You can learn more about this local bottler of fine soda pop here.

Bird in the Bush

It is said that a bird in the hand is preferred to one in the bush.  I'm not so sure of that.  That is because the big, overgrown, tangle of a rose bush growing on the south side of the garage is typically home to some bird that constructs a nest in it every spring.  The last few years it has been American Robins.  This year is this....

A cup nest carefully constructed of twigs that I first noticed on Saturday.  And in the nest was already a single egg.  If you click on the image for a closer look you will note that it is a pale blue egg with brown markings.






I paid close attention to the nest Saturday afternoon to observe who would return. At one point I startled the occupant who with a flash of dull red darted to the apple tree alongside the driveway.  After it returned I observed a bird that was slightly larger than a Robin, that sported a long tail, a long bill, a rusty red back with a white breast and belly with black streaks.

It is a Brown Thrasher - Toxostoma rufum.

And on Sunday there were two eggs... 

click on images for a closer look

 

We're going to be grandparents....

Talking Turkey

Spring turkey hunting is now history here at The Platz.

Score:

Gobblers - 1

 

Hunters - 0

Six hunters came-up with nutz.  Nothing but sunburn and long hours afield.  

A first. 

Weird weather year for sure.  Yet, that should not be an excuse.

Yeesh....

The Garden Chronicles

Status.

Three gigantic bales of peat moss and six bags of composted cow manure rototilled into the garden.  I'll likely give it one additional till before anything is planted.

Rhubarb, onion and potato sets are chilling-out in the garage fridge.

Tomato, pepper and broccoli plants from Bonnie Brooke Garden Center come out almost every day to begin hardening-off for planting sometime after Memorial Day weekend. 

It's been plenty cool here at The Platz so I haven't planted anything.  And the farm fields around these parts are still wet if they're not tiled. 

Everything but the asparagus is late this year...

Indoor Play Rules Revisited

Ahem (clearing voice).

There is a reason for the rule:  Thou shalt not throw the dog ball in the house.

Friday Music

This is one of my personal Top Ten Tunes.  And this video is the first published on the blog to launch some of the oddball music that finds its way here on a weekly basis. 

Originally released on The Moody Blues 1967 album Days of Future Passed - a concept album chronicling a typical day – this song was subsequently released as a single in 1968. 

According to an interview with Justin Hayward, he wrote "Tuesday Afternoon" while sitting in the middle of a field near his home in England on a beautiful spring afternoon. He claims that he had his acoustic guitar in hand and the song just came to him. The song features Hayward on lead vocals and acoustic guitar. The backing melody comes from the mellotron, which was played by Mike Pinder. There is also a short flute solo at the end played by Ray Thomas. - Wikipedia

Public Shakedown

$24 billion 

Yup, billion with a letter B.  

That is the amount of money spent on stadiums — professional, amateur and college — by state and local governments since 1990.  It is a staggering figure for sure and does the expenditure pay-off in the end?   

Some have suggested that the economics are thin soup.   Employment opportunities are mostly part-time, seasonal or temporary work.  Moreover, local spending—which might otherwise find its way into local pubs, restaurants, bowling alleys, and cinemas—ends-up in the pockets of millionaire athletes and billionaire owners. 

Read the Atlantic’s startlingly cerebral analysis here.

Talking Turkey

Three more turkey hunters on deck for the season that begins today.

It is only fitting that they see evidence of the ladies that are all over the place...

And a gobbler chasing them around...