Sunset

Old Sol continues the march north by northwest.

Sunsets are now situating themselves in the northern most compass points before they'll reverse and begin their relentless march south.

Tonight there was this...... 

Es lebe der Spargel

We have a kitchen garden surrounded by a quaint picket fence just outside our kitchen. Theoretically this is where you would grow those things you require in fresh yet small quantities for direct use in the course of your daily meal planning.  If you were to pay a call you'd conclude that it is a thoroughly disheveled kitchen garden.  It's in need of some long-overdue elbow grease and now that the porch contractors have moved-on this small, utilitarian garden patch will receive our full-time retired people attention.  It is important to note that this is where my spargel patch is situated.  

There is absolutely nothing more delicious than freshly-cut asparagus anointed in olive oil and delicately grilled with a sprinkle of fresh-cracked sea salt.  

Dunk a sprig in a Bloody Mary fashioned from my famous Uncle Dick's Tomato Juice and you'll think you've died and gone to heaven.  

Alas, all good things come to an end.  

After fifteen years of steady production my asparagus patch finally threw in the towel.  The spring crop started to decline beginning 2018 and this year only one, thin, lonely stalk, half the diameter of a straw, materialized.  

I'm not sure what the cause was; nevertheless, I was prepared for this eventuality.  When I placed my seed order with Jung in December I made certain to include the special two-pack featuring Jersey Supreme and Millennium Hybrid asparagus - twenty root crowns total.  

I got lucky with the advance planning because once the COVID-19 pandemic hit - everyone decided they wanted to grow their own victory garden.  Gardening companies have pretty much been cleaned-out of their seed inventory.  But I digress.

I excavated the original bed with a pick and shovel removing approximately six wheel barrows-full of soil and a tangle of dead and dying asparagus roots.  I also enlarged it a wee bit.  The roots made this a challenge - hence the pick-axe.

This was followed by laying a base of six forty-pound bags of composted cow manure.

The root crowns were carefully spaced atop the manure and six bags of rich topsoil blanketed over all.  A cup of Jung Asparagus Food was dissolved in a sprinkling can with two gallons of water and poured over all.

As the new shoots begin to materialize I'll add a minimum of three additional bags of topsoil to raise the bed as everything settles-in.

No harvest in 2021 and likely less than half of the largest shoots may be taken in the spring of 2022.  

It was back-breaking digging yet there-again nothing beats fresh, home-grown spargel.  Just ask our Labs.  They'll filch a stalk or two if you're not looking.  My hope is that this is the last asparagus patch I'll be establishing in my life.  Here anyways.    

Stay-tuned.....

 

Afternoon Update

From our walk today there were prairie plants literally reaching for the sun.

Compass plant

Ox-eye

And a fresh batch of bluebirds in one of the nest boxes

With all the madness swirling in the wind it is healing to seek solace and take some comfort in the natural world.

More Spring Blooms

After I retired I vowed to make an effort to take better notice of the natural world around me.  If you are a reader or follow me on Facebook there is evidence of that.

As our country begins a slow return to normalcy I know that it isn't going to happen overnight.  It will be slow and frustrating at times.  

So I take no small measure of comfort from the knowledge that the natural world remains predictably constant and is seemingly unaffected by political drama, a novel virus, a wounded economy or the inconvenience of wearing a face mask in public.  The service berry bloomed right on time and the migratory songbirds and monarch butterflies keep a tight schedule.

With rain in the forecast - and before these spring blooms were battered - I took these pictures on Thursday.

Right on time apple blossoms.....

And our famous and ancient lilacs....

My Kingdom for a Leader

*This post was written two days ago and had been scheduled for publication Sunday morning.  In light of the escalating Tweet War between President Trump and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey the staff here at The Platz determined it should be published earlier than planned.

You all likely remember the Donald Trump ‘Birther Conspiracy’ – the tall tale that Obama was not born in the US and was thus ineligible for office.  

For five years Trump led the birther movement to delegitimize a sitting president.  This lie eventually became the foundation of his own campaign.  Then, with 53 days remaining until  the presidential election, Trump had this to say:  President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Period.   

The entire vast conspiracy ended with ten words. 

What is interesting – to me at least – is that people believed the lie.  They embraced it as they would an article of faith.  Some still do.  A couple of employers ago I was acquainted with a person that did then and continues to believe today that Obama was not born on American soil, that his birth certificate is an elaborate hoax and he therefore remains an illegitimate president.  Guess what - this individual is not alone in that belief. 

Let that notion sink-in for a bit.  People believed the lie with all their heart.  

Are you a birther?

I share this walk down memory lane because Donald Trump has hitched his wagon to another baseless conspiracy theory about the 2001 death of Lori Klausutis.             

In case you didn't know or haven't been paying attention - Lori Klausutis worked as a staffer for Joe Scarborough when he represented Florida’s First District in Congress.  Klausutis passed-away while at work.  Klausutis, age 28, fainted as a consequence of a heart defect and struck her head on a desk.  She was found dead the following day.  Her boss, Scarborough, was in Washington at the time.   

A subsequent police investigation found no evidence of wrong doing and the coroner reported that the cause of death was a hard fall against a hard object precipitated by a  floppy mitral valve disease.   End of story, right?           

Not so with Donald Trump.    

That Scarborough - nowadays a popular MSNBC news host and occasional Trump critic - who also happens to be married to Mika Brzezinski probably has something to do with it.  Brzezinski also happens to be co-host to the same MSNBC program as Scarborough and the both of them have gotten under Trump’s skin.         

Alas, even though local law enforcement concluded no foul play was involved in Klausutis’ death - as with the birther nonsense - Trump has trolled Scarborough periodically over the years.

That Trump tweets outrageous lies and inflammatory rhetoric to his followers should come as no surprise.  There was this several weeks ago...

I consider this exploitation and mockery of someone's death particularly ghoulish.  And it is a heinous thing to inflict-upon the survivors.  

Having had enough of Trump's unsavory behavior the decedent’s spouse, Timothy Klausutis, requested that Twitter take the content down.  Twitter didn't delete the tweet but has begun adding a Fact Check disclaimer to certain of Trump's lies.  The president has responded to this action with his typical outrage and an executive order that is a lame attempt at negating settled law.

And there is this - I've been wondering what percentage of Trump’s 8 million Twitter followers take some measure of amusement and joy in witnessing a family forced to relive the death of loved one. 

Do you take delight in this twisted business?

And how many of those followers now embrace the lie with all their heart? 

This is a sad reflection upon individual character and values.  A new American low.  

That our President routinely traffics in lies and would exploit a family tragedy is stunning.  I am a flawed individual as we all are - yet this repugnance is obscene.            

So consider this – Trump is being out-polled by a guy hiding in his basement and with the COVID-19 death toll now over 100,000 (and rising) voters are beginning to question his unhurried and tardy response to the crisis and subsequent mismanagement of the ongoing response and economic carnage.           

Predictably, Trump’s embrace of another crazy conspiracy theory has shifted attention from the shit show health crisis and broken economy.  As I said before he is a master of managing the narrative – even if it requires mocking and exploited the dead.          

*Edit to add - You might consider reading Joe Scarborough's piece published in the Washington Post yesterday..

Three Simple Rules For The President

• Show empathy 

• Be transparent 

• Tell it straight 

Americans are resilient and can bind together when led 

Easy peasy.......

Friday Music

This American blues, rock, folk band coalesced in 1969 around Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane.  Composition of the group has changed ever since although Kaukonen and Casady remain an ongoing constant.   

This instrumental is from the band’s third album Burgers – released in 1972.  Water Song – Hot Tuna…..

Sunset

Whoa!

This just happened.......

click on the image for a bigger look

The Oriole Ranch

Not the best photo but this is evidence of orchard orioles coming to the feeders.

Similar to the Baltimore oriole but smaller by and inch or two with darker, rust - colored plumage replacing the bright orange of the cousin from Baltimore.

I'll keep the camera out when lighting is optimal.

Monsoons returned today and the place is a freakn' swamp.....

 

Spring Blooms

The white oak tree in the yard was a bare root stick when planted sixteen years ago.  In the intervening decade and a half it has grown into a handsome young adult.            

The other day I noticed that the tree had large numbers of catkins hanging from the prior year’s growth as the leaves of 2020 emerged from their buds.  These are one of the flowers that are produced by the tree – the male flower to be certain.  This species is monoecious – meaning that it produces both male and female flowers. Each male flower typically has six stamens (ranges from two to twelve) which have long spreading white filaments when the flower fully opens.  The female flowers are more reddish-green and appear as small slender spikes in the axils of new growth.           

I gave this tree a thorough examination and could find no flowers of the female persuasion. Not surprising inasmuch as they are not visible to the naked eye.  It is from the female flower that acorns are formed.  White oaks mature sufficiently at twenty or more years of age before they are capable of producing acorns.  Large numbers of acorns won't materialize until the tree is fifty years of age.  Which makes sense for a tree that will live many hundreds of years. 

Later this summer I'll report on any acorns that materialize.

Stay-tuned...... 

Dispatch From The Porch

Yup, I am tapping this out on my laptop from our redone porch.

I apologize for not subjecting you to daily and ritual updates of the demolition and reconstruction.  I can circle-back to that another day as it would be worthy to share the details of the most cool time capsule that has been placed beneath the deck.  

Our porch project was completed this afternoon.

The homeowners would like to thank Buhr Construction, Brussels, WI for the workmanlike result.  Nicely done!

East exposure and entrance to the mudroom

Southern exposure and view west

Southwest corner and view northwest

Western exposure and view north

Northwest corner and view into the screen porch

Norther exposure and screen room.  Research already underway for a replace screen system for three season use.

This is what we call a porch beer. 
  

Another Wisconsin beer from Capital Brewery.

Classic Wisconsin lager brewed with Brewers, Munich, Yellow Corn Grits malt and Northern Brewer hops.

As it says on the bottle ‘Not Bad’

5.2% ABV - IBU 28

The Oriole Ranch

After the construction guys departed yesterday I installed a fresh SD card in the trail camera monitoring one of our feeding stations.  Grape jelly and a half of a navel orange are irresistible.

Three hours of monitoring, 250+ digital action photos resulted in five keepers...

Male Baltimore

Another male Baltimore checking-out the orange

Female Baltimore going for the grape

And after much patience and a boatload of crossing of fingers the male Indigo Bunting was enticed to come in for a landing

And he hung out for a few seconds before the bully boy Baltimore shooed him away