Wildflower Blooms

From our morning walk the other day there were these showy, native flowers.

Bee Balm

Black-Eyed Susan

Blue Vervain

Compass Plant

Gray-Headed Coneflower

Joe Pye Weed

Obedient Plant

Prairie Blazing Star

Purple Coneflower 

Purple Prairie Clover

Welfare Check

Checked the nest box yesterday. 

Second batch of bluebirds are growing fast.  

Not far from promotion to fledglings.....  

Wiley Coyote

Girl coyote followed by boy coyote.

 

I wonder if they are a mated pair?  

Lazarus Asparagus

A couple months or so ago I figured my asparagus was done-for.  As it turns-out not so much.  For a while every day or so I'd pick a spear or three to keep my diet German.  And while things have been tapering-off I'm still picking enough to include homegrown spargel in the vegetable line-up on at least a weekly basis.

I swear - I get-up, pour a cuppa joe, look out the kitchen window and there it is.  I grows overnight! 

Pan-seared salmon, brown rice and you-know-who.

Pretty good chow if you can get it.   

Healthy too..... 

Picking Winners and Losers - Part 2

Who’s winning?

Domestic US automobile manufacturers are subject to a 50% tariff on steel - resulting in the highest steel prices on the planet, a 25% tariff on parts imported from Mexico and Canada along with a 65%+ tariff on Chinese LCDs and electronics. 

The European Union can manufacture cars with zero steel tariffs, 4% Chinese tariffs, and zero tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada. 

EU auto exports to the US are subject to a 15% tariff.

The Art of the Deal.......

Picking Winners and Losers

I'm feeling pretty good about front-running the most serious impact of tariffs on our household economics.   New appliances, vehicles, water heater, laptop, tablet, iPhone, including locking-down the pricing of a steel roof on the house eighteen months ago.  

I know I sound like a broken record but contrary to what White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt or Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick will tell you about other countries paying the tariffs they're not playing it straight.  Tariffs (sometimes called a duty) are a tax on imports.  Tariffs are not paid by the other countries.  They are paid by the US importer.  The importer might "eat" some of the tax but because they have to turn a profit they generally pass it on to the purchaser of the imported goods.  

Tariffs are a tax (just like a sales tax) paid by US companies and consumers. 

Which leads me to this tidbit.

American-made steel is now the most expensive steel on the planet.

Only about twenty percent of the steel sold domestically is imported.  The steel tariffs, previously at 25%, were raised last month to 50%.  Consequently, steel imports became more expensive.  Naturally, imported steel has declined in volume allowing American companies to increase their market share and raise prices to match that of imported steel.

Domestic trade policy has created an opportunistic landscape that allows domestic producers to simply charge more.  Why, you ask?  

Because they can.  

Scott Lincicome, vice president for trade policy at the Cato Institute said it well - It's just pure protectionism and cronyism. 

Heretofore, president Trump has not imposed tariffs on imports of raw materials such as iron ore, pig iron and other products that are precursors to steel production.  Nevertheless, that could change if he imposes a threatened fifty percent tariff on all imports from Brazil.

In a fit of pique Trump has accused Brazilian leadership of conducting a witch hunt against his pal former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro; menacing the South American country with a retaliatory tariff over internal politics.  This personal retribution against Brazil means American consumers would pay more for coffee, orange juice, paper and pulp and steel precursors sold to American mills. 

White House trade policy is bananas.  Does any of this come as a surprise to you?

This is called picking winners and losers.  And it seems like all of my previously, self-identified libertarian friends have gone silent.

Meanwhile, I'm having a tough time figuring-out how any of this improves your and my prosperity and general lot in life.  And maybe make the world a safer place.

Out Of This World Kimchi

On Thursday (July 24), NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, a flight engineer on the space station's Expedition 73 crew, spoke with the 125 participants from 39 countries in the International Space University Space Studies Program held this year in Seoul, South Korea. A medical doctor and a former U.S. Navy SEAL, Kim's parents immigrated from South Korea.

"I had a cargo mission come up that had some of my most favorite foods. So of course I had kimchi brought up. I had gochujang, which is a red pepper paste, and I had rice come up. So with those ingredients, and of course, some Spam, I was able to make my space version of kimchi fried rice. It wasn't as good as I could make at home, on earth, but in space you work with the best you've got, and I really, really enjoyed it," said Kim, after hearing that that the ISU attendees had also been enjoying the local cuisine.

Milestone - Part Two

The number one animal appearing in the digital captures of Snapshot Wisconsin trail cameras is Odocoileus virginianus, the whitetail deer.

Same here.

Fun Fact: The top four animals captured here are as follows (in rank order) - Deer, Turkey, Cottontail and Racoon.

 

 

Milestone

Some of you readers know that we've been hosting a Snapshot Wisconsin camera here at The Platz. 

This project utilizes volunteers to help identify and count the animals recorded on these trail cameras. 

Crowdsourcing the data of where and when each photo was taken will hopefully lend further understanding of wildlife population distributions across Wisconsin and how these distributions change over time. Snapshot Wisconsin is a consistent mechanism to monitor all types of wildlife throughout the year.   

Wisconsin started as a pilot program in only two counties in 2016 but expanded statewide in 2018. Today, there are 1,894 volunteers, monitoring over 2,069 trail cameras across the state. Furthermore, the Snapshot program receives approximately 45,000 photos per day from all these cameras. Just stop and think about how incredible that is!

The Bushnell Snapshot camera we host was deployed at the end of October 2018 and had to be replaced after a critter damaged its motion detector several years ago.  The location has not changed in eight years.  

Snapshot Wisconsin recently reached an important milestone - 

100 Million Photos Collected! 

100 million photos collected is no small feat, and the volunteer hours which made it all possible cannot be overstated. These photos have provided critical data to help inform countless wildlife management decisions, provided educational opportunities for students across the state and engaged thousands of volunteers in community science. To celebrate this achievement, the Snapshot Team put together a photo collection featuring one trail camera image from each county in Wisconsin. 

Go to this link to learn more as you scroll to explore our state, county by county, through the lens of the Snapshot Wisconsin trail camera project.  This story map you will be redirected-to is best viewed on a desktop browser or tablet. 

Fun Fact:  The photo featured for Door County was taken by the camera we host. 

2025 Graduating Class

It's been a terrific year for the birds that come to the oriole feeder; including the Baltimore and orchard orioles, indigo buntings, purple finches, catbirds, rose-breasted grosbeaks and red-bellied woodpeckers.  Sometimes a ruby-throated hummingbird will pay a call.  Anecdotally, I've observed more orchard orioles than in any previous year.  

Best of all, for a couple of weeks the fledglings of all of the foregoing are now coming to the feeders to be fed by mom and dad before figuring it out on their own.  By the time you read this I will have gone thru fifteen, 32 ounce (two pound) jars of grape jelly and a pile of navel oranges.  And taken thousands of digital images with a trail camera strapped to a post on the west side of the porch.

Anyway, here's a selection of this year's graduating class since the last time I've reported on the subject.

Fun Fact: Fledglings of these species oftentimes look like females.  They're all adult-sized. Male orchard orioles share the coloration of a female (the lack the distinctive ruddy brownish red of an adult male) but share the distinctive black hood and bib of an adult male. 

Raising The Roof

The title of this post is apropos as it was rather noisy around here for the duration of the project.  Our shack here at The Platz now sports a brand-spanking-new, tin roof - green to be exact.  Constructed twenty years ago the original roof has been on our minds for a spell especially since the installed roof was a forty year roof that became sketchy before the twenty year mark.  Chalk this up to peninsula weather.  We also had a discussion with our insurance guy who shared that roof claims are the number one driver of the rise in homeowner policy premiums and they no longer underwrite asphalt-shingle roofs more than a decade old.  We were grandfathered.  Anyway, we figured a steel roof is a major plus for a future buyer and if we fancied installing a solar array on our perfectly oriented southern exposure we could confidently do so on this roof.  But I digress.

This job was scheduled more than a year ago as the contractor was booked that far out; and fortuitously allowed us to lock-down the pricing and front-run the more recent Liberation Day reciprocal tariffs imposed on construction materials by the current occupant of the White House. 

ABC Construction, LLC of Bonduel, Wisconsin is an Amish family business who came highly recommended by a neighbor who had both a house roof and barn siding completed by Eli and his crew.  

Last week, Oconto County Lumber showed-up unexpectedly and dropped a pile of building materials on the driveway.  Around lunchtime the following day Eli showed-up with his trailer after completing a roofing and siding job for a neighbor one road over from us.  My neighbor's old house now looks like a newly-constructed house.  And after one full day and two additional half-days on the job, our house is looking like a sharp, newly-constructed one too.

Wisconsin has the fourth largest Amish population in the country, behind Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana; nevertheless, I've never worked with an Amish contractor before.  Like most Wisconsin Amish, Eli does not operate a motor vehicle.  He hires other guys to haul him around.  Nevertheless, he does use every imaginable manner of power tool and a cell phone.  He and his boys speak perfect English in general communications; but between one-another they use English and some sorta German-influenced patois that sounds like the Pennsylvania Dutch you might hear in a Mennonite community. 

Solid work Eli delivered.  He and his boys were polite, affable, efficient and I would be surprised if we find a nail or screw in the turf around the house.  I'd recommend them in a heartbeat.  The job wrapped-up before lunchtime Saturday and he was off to drop the trailer at the next job in New Franken just south of here. 

 

 

  

Three Is a Charm

What are the odds? 

Ran the trail camera trap line recently and downloaded this gem. 

I have previously captured trail camera images of triplet fawns (including mom) in 2014, 2019, 2020, 2021 and now 2025.  Go ahead; type fawn triplets in the search feature in the upper left corner of the homepage.

Daycare situation or the real deal?

Fingers-crossed to catch a pic of all three with mama.... 

Friday Music

Originally from the Living in the Past album, circa 1971, this is an arrangement of Life's a Long Song that Ian Anderson and company performed in his home with a string quartet. 

The string quartet version appears on Jethro Tull – The String Quartets, a collaborative project between Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull frontman) and John O’Hara, the band’s long-time keyboardist and orchestral arranger. The album re imagines classic Jethro Tull songs with a classical chamber music sensibility.

The classical parts are performed by the Carducci String Quartet, a respected British ensemble known for their versatility and willingness to bridge genres.

The arrangement of this song - titled Songs and Horses on the album - strips away the folk-rock textures of the original and replaces them with warm, reflective string harmonies. Ian Anderson still contributes on flute, and occasionally vocals, but the spotlight is often on the quartet’s interpretation of melody and harmony.

Very well done.  Also, the youngster you see on drums is none other than Ian's son, James Duncan Anderson, listed on the DVD as James Duncan.

Courtesy of a Sturgeon Bay acquaintance who happens to be a total music treasure trove....

Storm Damage

The storms that moved thru here late yesterday exacted a price.

Our handsome, young mulberry tree was snapped-off a couple feet from ground level.

To be fair it was a weak spot on the tree where I had to prune a faulty crotch a couple of years ago.  And laden with a heaping burden of ripening fruit it clearly couldn't withstand the wind.

We'll clean it up.  Maybe it will resprout another leader.  Otherwise we'll start over new.

Shucks.  

Dark Sky On Tap

This month's new moon on July 24 offers you stargazers the opportunity to observe the night sky without the interference of moon glow spoiling your view.  Better yet if you can get out into the countryside and away from the light pollution of the city skyline.

 

Since sunlight can only illuminate the far side of the moon, and the moon is in the same region of the sky as the sun, it becomes completely hidden from view from anywhere on Earth for today.  Tonight will be a moonless evening conducive to viewing the night sky.

 

Image credit: Chris Vaughn

 

Fingers-crossed for clear, cloudless skies.  Unlike February you won't freeze your tukus-off but don't forget your bug spray!

Two Rainbows In Two Weeks

Alerted by multiple cell phone audible alerts a fast-moving July storm moved thru quickly this evening at the start of our Lions Club meeting.

And after all the ruckus was over on my way home I was greeted with this.

A doubler. 

When you live in Flyover Country the panoramic views are far better than in an urban setting.  Two rainbows in two weeks.

Ma Nature smiled on the landscape with her all-clear sign….

Chart Of The Day

New data reveals that the American dream of home ownership is on life support for first-time home buyers.

With mortgage rates hovering near 7% and a median-price home near $422,000 Americans need to make six figures to participate in the housing market nowadays. 

To put this in perspective, in 2004 the number of first-time home buyers totaled 3.2 million according to the National Association of Realtors.  By 2024 this number had plunged to only 1.14 million.

Complete story here at Fortune.   

Highway Patrol

Preferred by police fleets everywhere this happens to be a 1956 Wisconsin State Patrol Customline police interceptor.  

And a 1957 Michigan State Trooper and his Ford 300 Cruiser.

Available in both two or four-door configurations it features a new easy-handling ball-joint front suspension, Angle Poised Ride (whatever that is) and Ford Lifeguard engineering.

 You can dissect all of the specifications here.

Remember....

You can't outrun Motorola.

Fruit Of The Vine

From our walk today there was what appears to be a species of wild grape, likely Vitis riparia - Riverbank Grape or Frost Grape.

Will have to keep an eye on them.

Maybe scratch my forager itch if I can positively rule out something poisonous...

 

Kaboom!

Recent travel to visit with family found us in Mobile Alabama for a week with an opportunity to become temporary Mobilians and soak-up the history, food and ambiance of this coastal city.  A boat ride of the delta estuary provided an opportunity to take-in the waterfront, port facilities and Austal Shipyard up-close and personal.  Including this:  The USS Alabama.

USS Alabama (BB-60) is the fourth and final member of the South Dakota class of fast battleships built for the United States Navy in the 1940s.  Her keel was laid February 1, 1940 and was launched February 16, 1942.  She was decommissioned January 9, 1947.  No crew member was lost in combat operations; consequently she is known as Lucky A.

 

Interior of Number two Turret

Her main armament is the 16-inch/45-caliber Mark 6 naval artillery gun.

 

Combat Information Center - Fire Control

The Alabama has three turrets with three 60 foot guns for a total of 9.  Each turret weighs ~1,700 tons and the guns are individually sleeved and can be elevated independently.  This gun was developed in the late 1930s and while it fired the same 2,700 lb shell, the velocity and range was slightly less than the Mark 7 gun used on Iowa-class battleships.  

 

Silk Powder Bags

  

Known for their durability and accuracy these guns had a rate of fire of two rounds per minute and could hurl a shell ~36,900 yards (21 miles) at 45° elevation.  This is one of the longest ranges for naval gunfire ever deployed - the equivalent of hurling a shell from my house, across the bay to land in Oconto.    

 

Powder Hoist

  

  

Spent half a day clambering thru companionways while exploring this piece of history.  If you're ever in Mobile this is a must-see.