Draken Harald Hårfagre

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This is the Draken Harald Hårfagre.

It is a Viking longship built in the municipality of Haugesund, Norway.  It also happens to be the longest Viking ship built in modern times.

The Draken Harald Hårfagre brings the seafaring qualities of a warship from the old Norse sagas to life.  It is a ship that combines ocean-crossing sailing capabilities with a warship’s use of oars.

I have a great deal of respect for the Vikings – not the football team – but the real Vikings.  It takes a brave soul to venture upon the North Atlantic in an open boat.  This modern Viking warship actually sailed from Norway, to Iceland, to Greenland and to North America – winding its way through the seaway, Great Lakes and the destination tomorrow of Green Bay.

Holy crap. These sailors have balls of brass.

There also happened to be a huge man with a huge red beard at the tiller of this vessel.  No doubt they are pillaging the Door County countryside tonight.

You can learn more about this tall ship's voyage to America here.   Amazing!

Guardian Angels

I don't know if you believe in Guardian Angels but I certainly do.  I've had too many close brushes with fate to abandonthis vestige of my Roman Catholic upbringing. “According to Church tradition”, Pope Francis said, “we all have an angel with us, who guards us."

I had another brush with fate this last weekend.

While out brushing trails and clearing wildlife openings I have absolutely no idea why the roll bar on the New Holland tractor did not knock this basketball-sized nest full of hundreds of buzzing baldfaced hornets from the white pine where their nest was hung.

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That's it directly in the center of the photo.

I drove close to both edges of that tree and had I disturbed their lair the insects would have vigorously defend their nest. Baldfaced hornets are known for their defensive behavior. People are often stung when they accidentally stumble upon a hidden nest.

Even though I carry an epi-pen an attack by a swarm of these guys would have really missed-up my day or maybe even my life.

That Guardian Angel put in some hazardous duty overtime last weekend.  Do angels get a raise?

Practice, Practice, Practice

A recent weekly routine is to meet with one or more of my deer hunting pals at the indoor archery range for practice after work.  Video for now to work on the finesse of instinctive shooting and shot placement. Later and at the last minute the bows can be fine-tuned before they're used in the field.

For a guy with degenerative arthritis this is the best I've felt in a long time.  However, 40 arrows in the space of half an hour WILL make your shoulder slightly sore.

An upshot is dinner out afterwards for a burger or pizza and the opportunity to talk hunting and politics.

Cheers! 

Eagle III

The Frau insists that I am wrong about this but I am convinced that the air ambulance based in Green Bay uses our house as a navigation landmark.  

She will tell you that the Eagle III chopper follows the four lane highway up the Door peninsula.  I will tell you that the four lane is further to the west and nothing else could account for the EMS air crew to pilot their aircraft directly over the house.  I have blogged about this before.  Just go to the labels on the left of the homepage.

Just this past weekend.

Heading northeast in a hurry.

And 28 minutes later heading back to Green Bay in a big hurry.

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I have no idea what the peninsula would do without this service as it's a minimum 90 to 120 minute drive from some of furthest communities to Green Bay.

If any of you pilots have a navigation explanation I would appreciate your chiming-in.

Death Penalty

Beginning last year nocturnal visitations to my garden commenced.  This year they continue.  As evidence of these raids upon my fresh, organically-grown, yummy vegetables have been picked green beans, nibbled carrot tops and the strange disappearance of every last broccoli plant.  

There is irrefutable evidence that the perpetrator of the theft was accomplished by one or more children.  This is apparently a crime family.


This past week my beautiful romaine lettuce was browsed to a mere stump.

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Then there were the tender, leafy beet tops neatly nipped from the root vegetable.

The forensic proof of the culprit has been the foot hoof prints.

This is a crime that carries seriously grave consequences.

As the penalty is death...

The Garden Chronicles

Taken this afternoon.

The garden is going through a growth spurt - helped by ample rain and plenty of heat.  As a matter of fact this is the first year in memory I haven't had to irrigate a single vegetable.  And we're running the A/C more than in prior years.

Gotta take the good with the bad...

Meat Pole

The 2015 deer season ushered-in with it both a blessing and a curse.

The blessing was an awesome harvest of adult does and some dandy antlered bucks.  Exactly what you want and need to do to keep the burgeoning herd in check.  By all accounts this year may possibly bring more of the same.

The curse is that processing deer is a lot of work.  It is hard, hard work.  

Skinning, deboning, cutting and packaging comes with it's share of drudgery.  No getting around it.  If it was easy The Frau would tell you it was shopping for your meat.

Having said that there is something to be said for processing your own deer and knowing that at every step you have taken the requisite pains to assure that your bounty from the field has been killed humanely, processed quickly and meticulously.

In 2015 we had a dilemma.  We ran out of places to hang deer.  There is only one gambrel hoist in the machine shed so all the other deer had to hang from every available apple tree in the yard.  

A totally ghastly welcome for a stranger entering the driveway.

So there is this.

The solution.

Nice, robustly-welded brackets that will accept a 4x4 post.  Designed for a backyard child's swing set they are perfect for the assembly of a giant saw buck for hanging deer as opposed to swings.

I want to thank my pal New Guy for thinking of this and locating these brackets on eBay for purchase and free shipping.  The brilliance of these is I think we can assemble the parts and hang the deer from pulleys.  After camp has closed our meat pole can be easily disassembled and stored in the barn for next year.  

My plan is to take pictures of it with deer hanging and email them to the swing set bracket company.  If I had to hazard a guess by next  year these will be sold by Cabela's and Gander for your own deer camp.

Raising a toast to American manufacturing, creative thinking and the ingenuity of friends.

This is what made America as great as it is.