County Fair

I've been thinking about the County Fair recently.

Sure. It's a far way off. Nonetheless, I've been thinking about entering some baked goods. Maybe the ancestral cranberry bread.

Or maybe my homemade applesauce, pie filling or a couple of varieties of pickles.

We'll have to see.

The County Fair has been held on a sixty acre parcel in Sturgeon Bay since 1908. John Miles County Park. Named after Mr. Fair himself.

For a period of time the fair was postponed.

Yep. During WWII there was no County Fair.

Instead - the park hosted a crowd of German POWs housed in three large dormitory buildings near the grandstand. The remaining buildings were used for storing shipbuilding materials for the war effort.

The German POWs worked on local farms.

Today the park hosts all sorts of activities year-round - 4-H. AmVets, Lions Club - you name it. Dirt rack racing at Thunder Hill Raceway too.

Drill Baby Drill

Offshore oil drilling has come a long way in a little over a century. Very simple submerged oil wells began to appear in the United States in the late 1800s, but were crude and simple in design and execution. It wasn't until the late 1930s that the ability to drill through columns of water and access oil reserves that were farther offshore began to take hold.

This progression away from land continued. In 1947, Kerr-McGee built the world's first offshore oil well that was completely out of sight of land. The platform was constructed in 20 feet of water and was able to drill 15 feet into the seabed off the coast of Louisiana.

Today, the offshore drilling industry has progressed to mind-numbing proportions. This year Shell will begin operation of the Perdido oil rig, a massive unit that is as tall as the Eiffel Tower. Operating in ultra-deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the Perdido spar will float on the surface in nearly 8,000 ft of water and is capable of producing as much as 130,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

The spar will be secured in place by nine chain and polyester rope mooring lines, spanning an area of the seafloor roughly the size of downtown Houston. On the seafloor, 22 wells, each extending more than 14,000 ft from the surface and into the mud and rock beneath the vast Alaminos Canyon, will be linked to the Perdido spar above.

Learn more about the evolution of offshore drilling.

Having a Bad Day?

Just about the time you think you're having a bad day - you find out someone is having a worse one than you.

Oh the humanity....

Apartment For Sale

Call me uncultured but doesn't the decorating look a tad flamboyant?

Don't take my word for it though. Scroll through the photos in the online listing. With the exception of the library/den and the can you'd think this was home to a Girly King.

For a cool $13,950,000 it could all be yours.

Rush Limbaugh has put it up for sale.

Fun With Statistics

According to the Office of Management and Budget, during the first 186 years of our nation’s history (i.e., the period from 1789-1974 when records began being kept) the USA spent $3.8 trillion in aggregate.

The total of projected government outlays during the current 2010 fiscal year is $3.7 trillion.

March Deer Informational Meetings

I received the following email late today...

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources will be hosting 38 meetings between March 8 and March 18, providing information about local deer management units, and upcoming deer management projects. The meetings are open to all who have interest in the state's deer herd.
More information about the meetings is currently available on the DNR website: http://dnr.wi.gov/news/DNRNews_Lookup.asp?id=211#art1.

This is a terrific opportunity to listen and voice your questions and opinions.

See you there.

Serious Congressional Committee Meeting Interrupted By Filming of Congressional Reality Show