All Wound-Up

I can remember this from my childhood.  We didn't have one as it was a luxury feature on your typical suburban lawnmower.  A neighbor had one however; and come to think of it, this was a technological marvel of the time.

The Briggs & Stratton wind-up starter, technically an impulse starter, was a mechanical alternative to the more common rope-pull recoil starters that persist to this day.  (My cursed rototiller has a rope-pull).  Anyway, in the 1960's this breakthrough allowed a user to start a lawn mower without yanking on a rope multiple times.

The technology relied-upon a spring that stored energy as it was wound with a crank. Flipping a release lever allowed the spring the snap back, spinning the crankshaft much faster than a yanking on a rope and starting the engine.  The Briggs Easy Spin version incorporated a patented camshaft feature that kept the intake valve open slightly longer on the compression stroke thereby reducing the force needed to turn the engine over.  Spiffy.

A victim of their own complexity and as electric starters became more affordable this technology fell out of favor.  It persists - although you won't find it in your garage.  In situations where there is no electricity (lifeboats, military applications, generators, disaster relief) impulse starters are used for diesel engines.  

Speaking for myself, rope pull starters suck.... 

Sunset

From tonight there was this...

View to the northwest

And the reflection in the view to the southeast  

 

Lord Of The Flies

I read this book as a youngster. 

Written in the midst of the Cold War the power struggle on the island was an allegorical microcosm of the ideological divide between liberal democracy and the totalitarianism of communism.  

I suppose nowadays if parents allowed a preteen access to such literature they’d be turned-in to county social services.   Or it might already have been banned in your community as it has in others. 

Anyway, this is a riveting redo of a very dark tale of stranded schoolboys attempt to build a democratic society on a deserted island. 

Order quickly dissolves into tribal savagery and murder as they succumb to their primal instincts and a terrifying imaginary beast.

We got hooked after the first of four episodes.  Like I said; it’s dark.  View it at your own peril. 

British novelist William Golding’s Lord of the Flies….

 

May Astronomy

 

click on image to enlarge

A clear dark night, 11:16 PM, last potty call for doggo and me.  This is a time-lapse photo using the iPhone 14 Pro stabilization feature and Snapseed filters to enhance the exposure.  View is directly at the heart of the spring triangle featuring three constellations.

View south from the porch.  Because camera filters pick-up a lot of faint stars that the naked eye filters out finding the shapes can be a bit of a connect the dots puzzle.  

Leo the Lion, high in the southwest (upper right quadrant of the image) is easily identified by the sickle asterism that appears like a reversed question mark.  The anchor stars include Regulus the period at the bottom of the shape and Denebola to the left.

Virgo the Maiden, located lower and to the left of Leo is the second-largest constellation in the sky and the largest constellation of the Zodiac. It also contains the bright star Spica.  Look for a lazy, sprawling "Y" shape of stars lying horizontally just above Spica which is situated in the lower right center of the image. 

Boötes the Herdsman, is situated upper left quadrant high in the southern sky and resembles a kite shape.  The very bright star is Arcturus; the brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere.  Extending up and slightly left of Arcturus you can trace an elongated kite of ice cream cone shape.

The Spring Triangle is a large asterism (an equilateral triangle) formed by the three bright stars from the preceding constellations: Arcturus (top left), Spica (bottom right) and Denebola (upper right). 

You can be sure..

  ...if it's Westinghouse!

This vintage commercial for the Westinghouse Food File Refrigerator highlights the product's design solutions for growing families who now find their post-war models too cramped.

Storage capacity offered more than twelve feet of storage space - considered cavernous in the mid-1950s.  Westinghouse's Food File organizer with a place for everything and everything in its place; included patented roll-out shelves, a Meat Keeper, Humidrawers for produce, in-door storage sections for fruit, cheese butter and eggs and a full-width freezer overhead. 

Naturally, the commercial concludes with the brand's long-standing slogan:  "You can be sure if it's Westinghouse"

Other brands of that era included Frigidaire, GE and Kelvinator.  I cannot recall seeing full size Westinghouse fridges on a showroom floor when we were looking a few years ago.  The US market for this brand is mostly compact, beverage and specialty models.  Nevertheless, kitchen models continue to be manufactured and sold globally.  The interweb tells me they're the top choice for Australians.  How 'bout that, mate!

Before the tariff regime hit we replaced all of our major kitchen appliances and our three-door GE Profile fridge sports many of the same features 70 years later.  Except it has 27 cubic feet of storage space and manufactures ice faster than a thirsty deer camp can consume it. 

Grilling Tip

It's raining today; consequently, it's an indoor day.  A far cry from the glorious sunshine and warmth of the latter half of the week. 

I’m going to let you in on a secret to making something we call a California Burger.  Although, it has nothing remotely associated with California.  Let me explain.

Start with a 1/3 pound ground chuck patty and bakery Kaiser roll from Marchant’s in Brussels and light a fire in your Smokey Joe.

Anoint your beef with Penzey’s English prime rib rub and a spritz of EVO. Sear over hot coals taking care to turn 90 degrees for grill marks and flip only one time. Medium to medium rare. Remove to rest.

Meanwhile, toast your sliced rolls on the grill. Butter is optional (but recommended).

Assemble as follows from bottom-up.   Roll, Duke’s mayo, raw Vidalia onion, burger, two slices of tomato, lettuce, mayo and bun top.  Wavy chips on the side.

Cheese, ketchup, mustard, sautéed onions, pickles, jalapeños, etc. all optional. Make your burger your own.

The last coupla days have nearly felt almost like summer. Grilling completes the circle.

Real men grill with fire; not with electricity…. 

 

The Gift Of Fungus

Last week some neighbors of ours gave us a couple of bags of mushrooms sourced from local Brussels growers - Wild Eastons.  Oyster and Lion's Mane shrooms to be exact.  They had travel plans so we scored a gift of two big packages of beautiful fungi.  

For a couple of days I pondered what to do with them.  Pizza came to mind first.  A pasta dish next. And then a light came on; how about soup?  Homemade mushroom soup.  Consulting with the missus she agreed.  And suggested that there was a good mushroom soup recipe in the older of her two Moosewood cookbooks; the 1974 edition.  She shared that she used to make it for herself back in the day.

So I looked it-up; Mollie Katzen's Hungarian Mushroom Soup. And I had everything needed on hand to bring this recipe to life.

Upon serving, Jill declared, This is the soup I remember!  And it was fantastic; a rich and hearty mix of two mushrooms in a chicken stock accented with three kinds of dairy and a couple types of Hungarian paprika.  The only substitution I made to the recipe (linked above) was heavy cream instead of milk.  Because I could.

I'd make it again.   Come to think of it, Until now I don't ever recall knowingly eating a Lion's Mane mushroom before. Fantastic!

 

The Oriole Ranch

They're back; among the last to arrive and the first to depart. 

Some of the most colorful birds that visit Wisconsin backyards and birdfeeders during the warmer months put in serious migration miles.

Baltimore orioles, rose-breasted grosbeaks and indigo buntings all migrate far south. Birds may travel as far as 3,000 miles – sometimes over long expanses of ocean to return to their breeding habitat.

When you live halfway between the equator and the North Pole these birds have only begun to arrive in the last week.

To help migrating birds, turn off outdoor lights and close curtains at night and reduce window collisions with external screens and marker decals on the glass.

And be sure to check back for periodic updates; and the appearance of other migratory species... 

Male Baltimore oriole

Orchard oriole sparring with a Baltimore

A couple of female Baltimores

Indigo bunting

Male orchard (left) female orchard (right) 

Red-bellied woodpecker - female is characterized by a gray crown and red nape 

The help... 

 

 

Slammin' Salmon

From the other day there was this. 

 

Pan-seared Norwegian salmon teriyaki finished in a deglaze of maple syrup and honey.

Organic brown rice and peas and corn.

Pretty good chow if you can get it....

 

Friday Morning Taste Test

Professional chefs Frank Proto, Dan Richer, and Giorgia Caporuscio share their unfiltered, honest reviews of some prominent tomato sauce brands found on supermarket shelves. Which marinara packs the most bang for your buck, and which should you avoid at all costs? 

It is heartening to see a value-priced product punch above its weight.  Although, I think that once you're over five bucks for a jar of marinara sauce it's worth it to make your own from scratch.

 

Strutting Your Stuff

This year my turkey hunt was a bit of a bust; and not for a lack of trying or a shortage of turkeys.  No rain and no snow either; so I cannot blame it on the weather.  I was talking about it with my pal, Braumeister, and we both concluded turkey hunting is generally a morning gig with most birds killed before lunchtime.  Furthermore, it either happens quickly or not at all.  Bottom line it like the missus has characterized it - "That's why they call it hunting.  If it was easy it would be called shopping." 

Ain't that right.  That's why she's the brains of the organization.

Anyway, here are some digital trail camera images from the last few weeks... 

 

 

By the way, the big gobbler above (second from the bottom) is one I spent the better part of forty minutes trying to lure within range of my thunder stick.  Yup, one and the same.  He pirouetted, strutted and displayed almost 360 degrees around my blind always just out of gun range.  He was having nothing to do with it.

 

And I had three hens the entire time clucking and purring within thirty feet of me.  Sheesh.

 

Hunting.

 

Definitely not shopping....  

Pitch Perfect

With midterms looming and affordability on voters’ minds, Mr. Trump was asked whether Americans’ financial situation was motivating him to make a deal.  

Not even a little bit. The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran — they can’t have a nuclear weapon.*

- Donald Trump 

*No sarcasm. The President has finally spoken what needs to be said.  The deal, if it comes, must hold every red line; no enrichment, full removal of the existing stockpile, verification with teeth, the Strait open and free, permanently.  Nothing less.

Mixed Messages

I've published on this subject previously and reflecting-upon recent gains in the investment markets, a reasonably robust jobs report, the peace process (or lack-there-of) for the Iran war why are the people seemingly down on their economic situation and possibly even a wee bit grumpy?

Consumer sentiment has dropped again.  According to the University of Michigan, the Consumer Sentiment Index fell to 48.2. from 49.8 in April.  The numbers are preliminary and subject to revision; nevertheless, this is the second consecutive all-time low in a data set that has been collected since the late 1970s.

I look at the economic world through the eyes of a recovering financial advisor and while I'm not wearing rose-colored glasses my sense is that excepting for global economic instability and rising energy costs as a consequence of the Iran war, economically-speaking, things are generally OK.  

What gives?  

Seems like the culprit are those nagging exceptions; namely the war, inflation due to energy costs and tariffs along with generalized economic uncertainty; all of which conspire to create bad vibes that bleeds into weakness in the mood of consumers.  This is important as the lion's share of our domestic economy is driven by consumers and their consumption.

According to the survey's director, Joanne Hsu, the drop is; "Owing to a surge in concerns about high prices both for personal finances as well as buying conditions for major purchases."  One-third of respondents mentioned gas prices as the biggest cause for concern; and another one-third cited tariffs. 

Stock indexes held positive in the wake of this news; and the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that job creation was stronger than expected in April with non farm payrolls rising by a modest 115,000 and unemployment holding steady at 4.3%.  A recession is presently a low-probability event.  Further evidence that things, economically-speaking, are generally OK.  

My sense is the weakness in the Michigan survey numbers reflect public opinion in light of soaring prices for gas and diesel at the start of the summer travel season.  Consequently, there is a political shadow over all of this.  People are pissed-off and tiring of the drama have contracted a case of Trump fatigue.  And I get it; we just purchased airline tickets for a family vacation and with the cost of jet fuel doubling it's not a cheap date.

My preference is for policy that improves your and my prosperity and general lot in life.  Along with making the world a safer place; so, where’re we at?

On one hand the stock market is on an absolute tear, with the NASDAQ up 5% last week and nearly 13% year-to-date.  The proximate causes include a shaky cease-fire with Iran, a 28% surge in S&P corporate profits for the first quarter and some consensus-beating economic reports, like Friday's payroll numbers. 

On the other hand, there is this. 

The Strait remains off-line, inflation is up, Iran holds all of its enriched uranium and President Trump's war has set in motion a cascade of destabilizing events that have all manner of consequences for global stability, security and the world economy.  

Meanwhile there is a billion dollar+ ballroom, a triumphal arch, a glowering visage of Trump on passports and national park passes and a no-bid, resort-blue paint job for the historic Washington Monument Reflecting Pool.  

It's a mixed message for sure.

Good grief.... 

Red Dogs

A week and a half ago doggo and I were out to finish cleaning-out nest boxes and running the trail camera trap line. 

From trail camera central set to capture short, silent, video vignettes there were couple of red dogs.

Same location one day apart.

Local resident red fox and my sidekick, Ruby, The Red Rocket...  

 

Inasmuch as both camera and background are stationary and only the animals are in motion it a terrific way to ballpark and compare relative size between a couple of adult canines.

Redheads too.... 

Bad Hair Day

 

This animal looks a bit raggedy so you might think it has the mange.  It doesn't.  But it's definitely scruffy as the animal is beginning to shed its fur.  Antlers are first; winter coat is next.  As the days grow longer the additional sunlight triggers hormonal changes in whitetail deer that bring-about these changes.  For boy deer testosterone levels gradually rise.  As a consequence antler growth begins and for all deer 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 ruddy red-colored coat of summer.  Better-suited to reflecting the heat of the sun the deer really stand out when they're gathered in a bright green hay field in July.  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.   

Hair everywhere. 

Death To The Queen!

In another rite of spring I deployed this.

 

 

 

 

It's baited with a pheromone attractant. 

 

If I can trap and drown a queen yellow jacket wasp awakening from her overwinter slumber I eliminate the possibility of an entire colony. 

 

It works most years.

 

Bastard, sociopath members of the insect kingdom. 

Mom's Day

Someone once said that the term "working mother" is redundant. 

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms in the world.

The struggle is real…..

 

WWJD

I don't know what variety of Christian church Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth frequents, but I've read Jesus's Sermon on the Mount, commonly called the Beatitudes (New Testament, Matthew 5:9) where Jesus says: "Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God."  Nowhere in the Beatitudes does Jesus praise Hegseth's hyper masculine death-dealing Christian knights of vengeance. 

There are many situations in the New Testament where Jesus eschews violence, including when he is arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Nevertheless, none of this comes as a great surprise; if you follow the polling as I do MAGA World overwhelmingly likes war. 

And I'm not ashamed to share that I pray daily for deliverance from the war.   

Sunset

Good look’n sunset tonight. 

Shot an azimuth to record Old Sol’s relentless march north. 

Love me some spring…..

 

Mom's Day

Tomorrow we celebrate our mothers.  Why, you ask?  Probably because we all have one.  And they are celebrated for nurturing, protecting, teaching and launching us into adulthood.

Almost 100 years ago this photo was snapped of my mom during a stay at the family cottage somewhere on the Fox River.  There was a critter involved.

Apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.... 

 

The Return Of The Oriole Cam

Last Monday I could’ve sworn I spied an orchard oriole. 

And on Tuesday morning the Missus spotted three male Orioles quarreling over the humming bird feed she had recently deployed.

I spotted some rose-breasted grosbeaks in the yard along with the white-crowned sparrows passing-thru on their way to Canada.  Consequently, we put out three additional feeders and I moved the rickety-old trail camera previously used to monitor the peanut feeder to a post on the west side of the porch. 

The oriole cam has been deployed.  

 

 

And a couple of the first photos uploaded yesterday....

 

 

 

Close call

When we go for our walk as a general rule I am accompanied by two sidekicks; my four-legged red golden retriever and one on my hip.

From yesterday morning there was this. 

 
In pretty short order doggo was put on a down stay; and I steadied my sidearm against the trunk of an oak. 

Mr. Browning Buck Mark barked twice.

Stinky encounter (and theoretically a bad start to the day) averted. 

No skunks were hurt in the encounter.

Close call.... 

The Bluebird Of Happiness

Among the regular harbingers of spring is the return of the Redwing Blackbird, the American robin and the eastern bluebird.  One of our favorites is the bluebird and some have suggested they've been seemingly scarcer the past couple of years; we have two confirmed next boxes occupied by this species. 

The notion of the bluebird of happiness has its roots in French folklore and comes from the delightful feeling associated with the sighting of one of these birds with the faded rusty breast, white belly and blue back and tail. They're a flash of color in an otherwise brown and dreary springtime world. They’re fond of perching on the top of a post, tree or garden rake leaning on the fence and surveying their domain.  

WI.DNR.Gov

 

Meet Sialia sialis - the Eastern bluebird.  These are cavity-nesting birds and only a couple of human generations ago their numbers were in serious decline in this country as a consequence of limited nesting habitat.  They’re more common nowadays because us people have mobilized in the face of that decline and assembled and installed nest boxes for them. Multiply that by hundreds of thousands of similarly-minded bird enthusiasts and you get the drift.  More cavities – more birds.  

 

 

Most of the time house wrens and tree sparrows nest in our boxes which is just fine.  They make for good tenants.  When I was out turkey hunting at the end of last month I spotted a pair of birds checking-out the nest box above.  

 

Within a week they decided to take-up housekeeping and constructed a nest.

 

 

Then earlier this week I was out installing a nest box that needed a minor repair and figured I check on my feathered friends for a progress report.

 

So far, so good.

 

We’re about to become grandparents again.   

An interesting factoid about the eastern bluebird is that the young of the first brood assist in raising the young of the second brood.   

 

Good parenting skills the bluebird has. 

 

Dump Run

This Chevy Silverado pick-up still runs like a champ.  And it will be celebrating its 29th birthday in September.  That was when it rolled-off the assembly line in Flint Michigan in 1997.

We take care of our vehicles and tend to run them until the wheels fall-off.

It's spring-cleaning time around here so when making a trip to the town dump it's always a delight to rock some Marshall Tucker on the cassette player.

Who do you know has a working cassette player anymore?  Much less, a cassette tape collection.... 

 

May Astronomy

Monday evening before bedtime I took the pup outside for last call. The Flower Moon was bright and there was some interesting cloud action.   

The current moon phase for May 4, 2026 is known as a Waning Gibbous phase. 

Yesterday the moon was 17.9 days old and 89.21 percent illuminated. 

So I took some photos. 

And while I had some downtime in my busy day this afternoon I fiddled with some filters on one photo.  The moon is not very distinct (a shortcoming of even an iPhone 14 Pro).  But the Google Snapseed filtering allows for some interesting results.

Original, enhanced color spectrum and artsy black and white.

Pro Tip - Snapseed is a free app...
 

National Astronaut Day

I learned something today. 

 

It’s National Astronaut Day - in recognition of United States first manned space flight. Who knew?

 

Mercury-Redstone 3, or Freedom 7, was the first United States human spaceflight, on May 5, 1961, piloted by astronaut Alan Shepard. It was the first crewed flight of Project Mercury. The project had the ultimate objective of putting an astronaut into orbit around the Earth and return him safely.

 

As a space/astronomy geek even more than six and a half decades ago I was allowed to miss school that morning so I could watch the launch and recovery on television.

 

I still remember it. Better than what I had to eat yesterday…..

Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em

The device in the photo is the real deal.  A bizarre as it appears it is not AI generated,  photo shopped or a social media hoax.  It's a modern day Hookah.  If you came of age in the 1970's you would know what a water pipe or Hookah is.  But I digress.

The Robot Smoker was a novelty ashtray sold by Sears, Roebuck & Company around 1957.  It has a modern-sounding name but wasn't at all robotic; just playing on the technological advancements of  and more likely a play on the 'Space Age' aesthetic of the time.

You placed a lit cigarette into the holder of the weighted base and a long, flexible tube allowed you to have a smoke at a distance without getting up from your chair, interrupt your television viewing, putting down your book or paper or getting out of bed.  The only thing even close to robotic was the Automatic Butt Ejector; a spring-loaded feature that flipped the spent filter our so you didn't have to touch it.  Priced at $2.97 (roughly $30 nowadays).  An extra dollar got you an upgrade for a two person model to accommodate whomever you were sleeping with. 

Sears sold all sorta stuff throughout its long merchandising lifetime including novelties and gadgets.  Unlike a useful Craftsman wrench this device never became a household staple.  Within a couple of decades the health impacts of tobacco use became better-known and elaborate smoking apparatus fell out of favor. 

A couple of my pals are firefighters with the local department and they would likely be horrified by this.  The ad explicitly suggests its use while lounging in a chair or in bed.  Vintage collectors will tell you that if you coughed or sneezed into the tube you could launch a lit cig across the room.  Sounds like a peril that might very-well void the homeowners insurance you purchased from Sears as well.

Fast Fact:  Elektro the Moto-Man was a giant seven foot tall robot that demonstrated its ability to smoke cigarettes at the 1939 World's Fair ostensibly to demonstrate its air-intake system.  Maybe that's the inspiration for the name?  Alas, all is lost to history.

My smoking history was short-lived.  Good thing.   

National Wildflower Week

Always the first full week of May - National Wildflower Week commemorates the colorful blossoms that bring our landscapes to life. Whether they are on mountainsides, pastures or our own back yards, wildflowers create habitat, help conserve water and reduce erosion. 

Here's a spring perennial that is brightening our stream banks right now.  

Meet Caltha Palustris - the Marsh Marigold - a member of the buttercup family (not a marigold) and a wild flower found in bottomlands, marshes, fens and wet woodlands  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 also happens to be edible when cooked.  Sometimes referred-to as the poor man's saffron  - the tender spring leaves or buds can be blanched in boiling water, cut into bite-sized pieces, lightly salted and served with melted butter.  The flower buds can also be cooked and pickled for use as a caper substitute.  Whatever you do - DO NOT EAT THIS PLANT RAW.     

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.