First World Problem

And likely one of the finer examples of American excess that you will encounter today. 

We’re in the throes of downsizing (again) and have to combine the contents of two households – a city apartment and a country home.   

Imagine all of the usual and customary mundane accoutrements that accompany everyday household life.   Underwear, socks, cookware, flannel pants, moccasins, flatware, toasters, kitchen spices, baking ware, condiments in your fridge, charging devices, toasters, Band-Aids, printer/scanners, cleaning supplies, counter stools, coffee makers,  not to mention glassware, towels, toothpaste and leather armchairs.  Multiply everything by at least two-fold.  It is insane.  If anyone paid a visit they would probably be thinking – these people are hoarders.  They need an intervention.  Maybe therapy too.     

I’ve been making steady progress and got rid of a vehicle yesterday.  The good news is that much of this is consumable product and will eventually go away by means of ordinary attrition.  It is obvious I will not be purchasing any aluminum foil until early 2021.  And several worthy charities get the rest – including a set of Calphalon cookware and Chicago cutlery.  

Raising a toast to Marie Kondo…..

Schlafender Hund

'Twas a day of fresh air and exercise. 

My new retired guy routine is to take the girls for a walk just about every day, weather-permitting.  The weather part is my rule - not that it matters at all to the dogs.  It is mud season after-all and the wetter the better.

click on images to enlarge

 

If you are a Labrador retriever the fastest way to get from Point A to Point B is thru whatever water you can find between both of those points. Seriously, both dogs will go out of their way (take a detour if you will) to stomp, splash and charge thru any standing water that can be found.  And with Silver Creek running at full bore a swim in the creek is imperative.

Since we have to cross the creek going or returning it actually has begun to serve as a makeshift rinse station on our return leg home.  Trust me this is icy-cold water and the dogs love it.

They still het a hosing-off back at the house and then sleep it off on the porch in the sun.

Nights are pretty quiet around here now.

Except for the snoring...

Pony Express

Not really.  The mail will come by means of vehicle driven by a rural mail carrier for roadside delivery.  The Post Office Box in town will be abandoned after the lease is up this summer. 

With the advent of retirement and permanent, year-round living here at The Platz we now sport this handsome-looking mail box on the north side of the road and at the end of the driveway.   We up-sized so that it can handle small packages.  It's going to be interesting wrangling the forwarding of mail from the former address in the Naked City and the PO Box to this address.  But that can be figured-out later.

Anyway, mail boxes in rural America have a limited life expectancy - with most of them suffering a violent death at the hands of the county plow.  

Don't take my word for this - just drive around and you will find all sorts of mail boxes held-together with bailing wire, splints or elaborately constructed of almost indestructible (and very expensive) hinged, steel posts and arms that can stand-up against the wrath of the snowplow. 

For these reasons that this installation (and possibly first iteration) went to the lowest bidder.  The most expensive item happens to the be the box itself.

The post was crafted from a 4 by 4 length of cedar.

click on images for a closer look

I added some long lag bolts to the post to serve as rebar.

The bucket was free - I fetched it from the ditch a couple of years ago .

And I mixed-up 120 pounds of QUIKRETE^® concrete mix to fill the bucket to over-flowing.

There's buried power lines and phone lines underneath this location so there's no way this hombre was going to dig a hole.  Moreover, my hypothesis is that there's enough ballast in the five gallon pail to prevent the contraption from tipping-over in a gale.  And theoretically, if the county plow comes barreling down the highway at 70 miles an hour kicking-up a wall of flying snow - at worst the box and post will simply fall-over.  And it would be a small matter to lift it upright as it's not attached to the ground.  That's the theory anyway. 

Stay tuned.....

Deer

click on the image for a closer look

 

Trail camera photo from April 9th.  This is a remarkably healthy looking specimen for a whitetail coming out of winter.

Of course they've browsed everything in sight.

Truth in Advertising

Examine the photo carefully.  For a large and closer view click on it.  Do you notice any differences?

The grinder on the right is empty.  The replacement grinder on the left is pitched as Value Size.  Too be fair the grinder on the left bears a similar design to the one on the right - but the top is slightly shorter, the base slight shorter and the middle portion of the grinder slightly taller.  The over-all height is identical and both bottles are exactly 6.1 ounces net.

Is McCormick Spice Grinder pulling a fast one?  Unfortunately, I haven't a receipt for either as I just did the comparison when I fetched the replacement from the pantry.

I sent a message to McCormick for the skinny on this and will let you know what I find out. 

Stay tuned....

Spring Arrival

By the time you are reading this there may be rain or snow (or both) happening.  That's the thing about spring in Wisconsin - gorgeous one day and crappy the next.  Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day and when the girls and I went for our daily mile+ walk we observed honey bees availing themselves of these blossoms. 

click on the image for a closer look

 

Meet Salix discolor - the Pussy Willow.
 

As winter begins its last gasp fuzzy little nubs begin to appear on the branches of this willow.  They look just like the paws of a kitten and even feel furry to the touch – hence the name – pussy willow.  These are called 'catkins' and are the flower buds.  They serve to protect the pre-emergent bloom from the harsh winter elements. 

 

 

 

 

This is a common native tree found throughout Wisconsin - typically in moist soils, wet conditions or the fringes of swampy environments.  Depending upon the season it is also commonly utilized in floral arrangements. 

 

Since this is one of the very first spring blooms they are a sure sign of the end of winter and the beginning of spring. 

 

Bonus is that we spied our first honey bees of 2019.

Friday Music

Composed by guitarist Randy Bachman and lead singer Burton Cummings this song was released in November of 1969 by Canadian group The Guess Who. 

One of my all-time teenage dating favorites - this is basically a Dear John or Get Lost song.  I've long associated it with summer art camp at UW Wausau - and a garage band dance that included a friendly German girl.  But I digress.  The song peaked at No. 5 in the U.S. and was the third in a string of million-selling singles that all hit No. 1 in Canada for this rock band. 

This cover includes a slew of artists who convened at the Jazz Festival in Switzerland.  Including Ringo Starr, Burton Cummings, Joe Walsh and Todd Rundgren.  Also with Nils Lofgren, Dave Edmunds and Timmy B. Schmit.  Great stuff - with Walsh and Lofgren doing an impersonation of Randy Bachman. 

Crank the volume on your office workstation for No Time…..

Woof!

The tourist season is nigh upon us here on the peninsula and travel website - Expedia - recently published it's Top Ten dog-friendly travel destinations.  The list included eight cities, an island and an entire county.  Yup, an entire county.  You're probably thinking - An entire county?  What county could that possibly be?  Drum roll, please.....

 

Door County

Pooch-friendly Door County joins San Diego, Albuquerque, Austin and other locations as a desirable doggie vacation destination.

In case you didn't know this - the peninsula is home to a dog beach;  Whitefish Dunes State Park.  The girls give this swimming spot a thumbs-up.

Check out the Door County Visitor Bureau for a list of dog friendly lodgings, restaurants, and experiences.

Bridging the Divide

Some years ago the deer camp crew convened by fireside and with the inspiration of adult beverages brainstormed a list of projects to make our hunting experience more positive.

The list included any number of things and endeavors including a deer stand on a rock pile, shooting lanes, better knives for butchering, even a power hoist for hanging deer in the machine shed.  Someone even advanced a motion to discontinue drinking shots of Jägermeister following a deer kill.  Ha-ha.  Don't hold your breath.

One of the more practical ideas was the construction of a footbridge to cross Silver Creek close to the eastern property boundary. 

Long story short is that the foot bridge happened the following year and has been in continuous use ever since.

click on images to enlarge

 

I have to extend a heap of credit to my pal New Guy for engineering and building this infrastructure with the assistance of Mennonite. 

To be fair it is constructed of surplus parts. Yup, leftovers.  

Lumber retrieved from the barn including rebar and hardware from the machine shed and rocks from the ubiquitous rock piles that are everywhere.  DeWalt and hand tools too.

This was August of 2017.

A few days ago the girls and I were exploring that portion of the creek and took a few moments to recommbobulate the bridge which was a wee bit catawampus from the winter ice jams.  Easy-peasy.

New Guy reminded me that it was engineered to be removed seasonally.

Note to self.  Raise the foot bridge in December.....

Quitting Time

Busy day for this retired guy. 

Hiked to the creek with the girls to check the flooding after the overnight thunder boomers.  Yikes!  Silver Creek was running hard and had overflowed its banks.  The water was brown too.  Evidence of runoff from upstream farm fields. 

click on the blonde dog to enlarge

 

Mixed 120 pounds of concrete. Mailbox install is at 60%. 

Fixed one overhead garage door after Girlfriend ripped one of the electric eyes from the rail in her exuberance over the daily walk.  

Enjoyed this - La Chouffe - an unfiltered Belgian blonde ale (re-fermented in the bottle) spiced with coriander, mild taste of hops and a fruity nose.  This is a terrific pick inasmuch as my community is home to the largest population of Walloon Belgians anywhere outside of Belgium.

Quitting time.

Cheers!

New Arrivals

If you are reading this post you already know that I've been periodically noting the return of our seasonal visitors - namely migratory birds.

Another visitor has returned.


Those pesky extraterrestrial beings from the fringes of our galaxy that periodically pay a call to the peninsula to vex me.

The evidence is irrefutable.  One of the patient and stealthy trail cameras recorded the return of their spacecraft as it landed nearby.

Cue the Twilight Zone music.....

Going the Way of the Dinosaurs

Just in case you missed it and presuming you need something more to add to your growing list of worries consider this:  

During the last 290 million years the rate of asteroids striking the earth and the moon has suffered a sharp increase.  It used to be that an asteroid strike would occur once every 3 million years.  The strikes are now occurring once every 1 million years.  

William Bottke - a researcher on the team at the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado, said the uptick in asteroid strikes was probably caused by one or more giant space rocks breaking up in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter about 300 million years ago. 

If mass extinction events give you cause for alarm be sure to wear a helmet if you are going outside for a stroll.  As for me, I’ll be hanging out in my bunker. 

You can learn more about the science behind this here.

Quack

Less than fifty feet from the back porch at the edge of the yard is a homemade, makeshift rain garden feature that filters water from the gutters on the north side of the house gradually across the prairie planting and in the general direction of the large pond and Silver Creek. 

And you thought I didn't know anything about managing stormwater.  Humpf!

In any event it is seasonally full at the moment so it has a tendency to be ephemeral in nature.  It is presently home to Mr. and Mrs. Mallard.

Apologies for the crappy composition...

Big Bird - Yikes!

This is not necessarily a migrator - nevertheless it is a randomly terrific photo of one of the larger predator/scavenger birds found on the Door Peninsula.

While I confirmed the photo ID this is an easy identification using field marks. Namely - a distinctive white head, yellow bill and talons and brown plumage.  

We're tickled to observe them regularly and with more frequency here at home - and I am further tickled to capture an image on a trail camera.  Head-on too.  You cannot purchase composition like this in a wild setting.  Saturday, April 13 at 9:21 AM.
 
Yup, it is a bald eagle.  Wheeling-in slow from the south to make a right turn over the camera at an exceedingly low altitude.  If you click on the photo you can enjoy a closer look.

Raising a toast to Snapshot Wisconsin and the ever-patient DNR Bushnell trail camera.  Citizen science and crowd-sourcing data too.

Cheers!

Friday Music

From 1969 this song was written by Moody Blues band member Justin Hayward. 

Popularized on the album On the Threshold of a Dream as a single this tune was a commercial flop.  Same for Mike Pinder’s B-Side recording from the same album - So Deep Within You.  Guess you have to read between the lines or understand late 60s early 70s 'make out' music, eh?  Sigh...

I digress.

One of my favorites of black light nighttime listening - Never Comes the Day…. 

 

Work away today, work away tomorrow.

Never comes the day for my love and me.

I feel her gently sighing as the evening slips away.

If only you knew what's inside of me now…

Pink Moon

If you are reading this you have ample notice about tomorrows' Pink Moon. 

The term ‘Pink Moon’ actually does not imply that the moon is pink.  The term derives from the spring appearance of native ground phlox and its pink blooms that coincides with the April full moon.  I recommend that if viewing conditions are good late Friday evening or very early Saturday morning that you drag yourself out of bed so you can witness the moon at its largest. 

The April full moon is also known as the Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon and the Fish Moon.  

More here from the Old Farmer's Almanac...

Word of the Day

Exhaustipated   

(adj.)  Too tired to give a crap.

Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris

Notre-Dame de Paris – Our Lady of Paris – was begun in 1160 and for all intents and purposes completed a hundred years later.   

With more than 12 million visitors every year it is the most popular monument in Paris. 

Yesterday the cathedral caught fire resulting in the collapse of the main spire and the entire roof.  All of France and much of the world mourn the loss of this cultural and religious treasure.

 

 

click on images for a closer look

 

Jill and I have vacationed in France three times over the past seven years including stays in Paris - one of our favorite cities.     

 

Our most recent trip was early in 2017 - the first travel we've completed with close friends in many years.  It included attending services at the cathedral for the presentation of the Crown of Thorns.  In the interest of full disclosure I was scolded for the sacrilege of shooting some video in church. Chalk it up to a lack of refinement or ugly Americanism.  I endured some latent and fleeting Catholic guilt.  But I digress.  

 

In retrospect I'm grateful for having had the opportunity to attend services at this historic, architectural, religious and cultural treasure with close friends.  And taking the dang video too.      

 

Who knew....





Add Another Migrator

This migratory raptor showed-up today.

Audubon Image

 

Meet Circus cyaneus - the northern harrier - colloquially known as a marsh hawk. A predictable resident.

 

The genus name Circus comes from the Greek kirkos - meaning 'circle' a reference to its circling flight. Cyaneus is Latin - meaning dark-blue. 

 

This is an easy bird of prey to identify.  Northern harriers have several characteristics that set them apart from other hawks.  The feathers around their face have an owl-like disk focusing sound into their ears. Their wings form a v-shape as they fly low and slow and parallel to the ground during flight. They also have a distinctive white rump which is visible during flight.

 

This raptor both nests and feeds on the ground and provides hours of bird watching as they hunt over the tall grass prairie north of the house.

Porch Setting

Second porch beer of the season and first one of retirement.  First Kiss - Imperial India Pale Ale from 3 Sheeps Brewing - Sheboygan, WI.

High gravity brew at 8.2%.  Must be the kiss of wild flower honey in the recipe.

It's been a tragic time for one of my favorite cities.  Raising a toast to Our Lady of Paris... 

The Most Dangerous Job on the Planet

Army Air Force Photo

Between 1940 and 1945 allied air forces dropped 2.7 million tons of bombs on Europe – half of that on Germany alone.  Of that tonnage as much as ten percent failed to detonate.  

Today – almost eighty years later - thousands of tons of unexploded ordnance is uncovered and removed from German soil every year.   Before a construction project can commence the site must be surveyed and certified as clear of any unexploded munitions. 

On May 15, 1945, 600 aircraft flew over the town of Oranienburg in Germany dropping 1,500 tons of explosives.   Almost all of these bombs were fitted with a time delay device.  And as a consequence a much higher proportion than usual of these bombs did not explode.  To this day Oranienburg is considered the most dangerous city on earth.   

To learn more about this fascinating and dangerous situation and the bravery of Germany’s bomb disposal technicians you should check out this Smithsonian link.

Sunset

Ma Nature put on a show tonite with a sunset that kept on improving as it unfolded.

Took about eighteen bracketed photos and kept a handful.

Included is a compass shoot with evidence of the sun continuing its advance north of due-west.....

The start.....

And how the early rays reflected off the bean field and woodlot to the east....

And the finish...

Got the color palette covered this evening....

Scratching the Itch

The Vernal Equinox has come and gone so it is officially spring - and not too early to begin thinking about planting and the garden.  Planting season is only a few months away.  Seed and supplies have already arrived and with retirement I’m itching to get my gardening gloves on and scratch my organic vegetable itch.  Yes, that’s right – organic.  

The technical definition of organic includes: yielding, or involving the use of food produced with the use of feed or fertilizer of plant or animal origin without employment of chemically formulated fertilizers, growth stimulants, antibiotics, or pesticides.   Translation:  crop rotation, use of animal and plant manures, focus on hand weeding and biological pest control.  That is not to imply that my veggies are endowed with more nutrients than non-organic ones.  There are many benefits - including good soil health, clean water and delicious food.   

Growing organic contributes to a healthy environment and restricts the flow of pesticides into our water supply.  More directly, organically-grown vegetables can reduce the amount of pesticides that end up inside you.  There’s no telling what the long term consequences might be from a build-up of pesticides in the human body – be it cancer and other disease, cognitive impairment or something else - it can’t be good. 

There is also the notion that organic produce simply tastes better.  Yeah, I know I cannot prove a subjective claim but that’s the heart of the matter.   The likely cause of the ‘tastes better’ theory is that it is fresher.  Picked and served or picked and processed for the canner or freezer in a matter of hours.  Unlike supermarket produce which may have been picked more than a week ago and has traveled on a truck for thousands of miles – from garden directly to table has to be better.  And if you eat more vegetables as a consequence it’s all good. 

Vive le jardin magnifique!

Bless Me Father...

...for I have sinned.

Yote

click on the image for a closer look

 

Another cool coyote photo taken by the trail camera north of Silver Creek and not far from the western boundary.  If any of my hunting pals are reading this is the wildlife opening where the shitter is situated.

Anyway, it's a Moultrie A-25 photo taken on March 8th at 4:32 PM.  The lighting was just right with the pink sunset peeking thru in the background and the ethereal blues reflected off the snow.  Ma Nature was fiddling with the color spectrum at the time.

The statisticians here at The Platz tell me that The Law of Large Number and Averages suggest that if you take enough photos with enough trail cameras and repeat it enough times you stand a chance of snapping a really nice random photo from time-to-time.

Raising a toast to cameras that cost less than $100.

Cheers! 

Friday Music

Formed in 1966 this British group initially toured in Italy under the name Shakedown Sound and later, as Silence.  When performing in the UK they were the Doc Thomas Group. 

Founding members included Mick Ralphs on guitar, Stan Tippins on vocals, and Pete Overend Watts on bass.  Producer Guy Stevens at Island Records took a liking to the group and the R&B sound but was not smitten with Tippins as lead singer.  Ian Hunter joined the group as lead and piano player and Tippins became the group’s road manager.  

Curiously, Stevens had done some time earlier in prison on drug charges and read a novel about a member of a circus freak show named Mott the Hoople.  Over the objections of the group Silence changed its name to Mott the Hoople in 1969. 

A glam rock band with a cult-like following (Yes, that would include me) they are best remembered for the song All the Young Dudes, written for them by David Bowie and appearing on their 1972 album of the same name.  

They last toured the US in 1974 and after 45 years they’ve returned – kicking-off this US tour in Milwaukee on April 1st.  Featured are the core 1974 members Ian Hunter, Ariel Bender and Morgan Fisher. 

Crank the volume on your workstation for- The Golden Age of Rock 'n' Roll and Lounge Lizard… 

Dealing With Nuisance Coyotes

 

Urban coyotes can readily become habituated to humans causing all sorts of mayhem.   This is excellent advice from the Redwood City California Parks Department – all of it practical.   

Someone should be sure to notify the nervous busybodies over at Nextdoor.com…..

Look Who Grew-Up

Meet Pinus strobus - the Eastern White Pine.  The largest of conifers in our fair state. 
Before European settlement the great and vast northern third of Wisconsin was dominated by ancient old-growth specimens of this species. 

Wisconsin Historical Society

 

Following the war between the states the Great Cutover began.  Logging then dominated Wisconsin’s economy.  By 1893 Wisconsin had become the king of the logging business and was a world leader in lumber production with more than 3.5 billion board feet produced annually.  Sawmills sprang up everywhere along Wisconsin’s waterways to transport logs to the mill and lumber to build cities like Milwaukee and Chicago.  At the height of the Cutover eight million acres of forest were clear-cut by 1898.  The white pine forest was largely gone.

Since then a fungus called white pine blister rust has killed many of this species and foresters and private property owners are contributing to efforts to resurrect this tree to its former glory. 

click on images tor a closer look

 

Last weekend we were out hunting sheds with the girls when we came across these.  When these trees were planted in 1998 they were one year-old bare root seedlings – not much longer than a pencil and slightly thinner.  Look at them now.  They grew-up! 

Raising a toast to sustainable forestry….