Icicle Gun

Military hardware set up as a memorial by local veterans groups is pretty common.  But always worth a look.

An informative plaque identifies it as a turn of the last century 5 inch coastal defense gun.

The service record of these guns was limited.  They were later developments of ordnance from the 1880's.  In the Great War a number of these were dismounted and issued to artillery regiments made up of Coast Guard personnel.  But the war was over before they could be deployed overseas.  A few of these were present when the Japanese invaded the Philippines.  They did the best they could.

A close look at the muzzle shows something odd.  At first I thought it was a bundle of sticks or perhaps a dried up batch of flowers.  Back in my much younger days it was sort of a thing to put flowers into the muzzles of guns.  Hey, 60's.  But no...

The electrical plug gives it away.  These are outdoor lights of the "icicle" sort that people use in winter holiday displays.  Or to simulate a silent cannon shot aimed in the general direction of the next town over.

Signs of the Times - Summer in Wisconsin

 Faith on display and perhaps half price Men for sale....?

A Day of Victories

It's not the things you can't remember, its the things you remember just a bit wrong....

As we headed out the door to fly overseas in late April I realized I had my house and car keys with me.  I recall where I was at that moment and that I commented to my wife that I had better leave them at home.  We both remembered that I put them down somewhere between the garage where I was setting our bags and the kitchen.  On our return they were nowhere to be found.

Since older people losing their car keys is short hand for losing their wits this has bothered us both to the point of a substantial bounty being placed on the keys.  Today my better half picked up a pair of jeans I had hung up, evidently when I switched to traveling clothes, and of course there in the pocket...

My next task of the day was to figure out why there was a dead mouse smell in my car.  Traveling might have something to do with this as well.  When you leave your vehicles in the garage for three weeks the little rodent deadbeats figure out they are a nice place to live.  We'd cleaned out a nest of chewed up paper from my wife's car.  Fortunately the occupant decided to climb into a trash can and expire.  So this was a smell I knew all too well.  As it turns out there is an alternate explanation.  Not a mouse.  Three mice.  

Pretty nasty but now cleaned and bleached.  Given their abilities to get in and out of places I have no idea why these guys decided to just stay in their nest of shredded insulation under the spare tire.  Could they not have just left?  Perhaps that stuff about not leaving animals in cars on 90 degree days has something to it.  Or maybe it was some sort of weird Rodent Death Cult.  Band Name of the day right there....

My assignment in payment for car key finding was dealing with the local Department of Motor Vehicles.  Where might be the tabs and registration paperwork we paid for online?  Not in our possession good bureaucrats.  I showed up prepared for a long tedious wait as the System decided whether it would hear my request and act.  I was prepared...brought some reading material.

In I went clutching, among other things the previous mouse chewed registration.  I was back out in under ten minutes and not only with the tabs but a nice tomato cage that was just sitting on the curb next to their sign.  True, the actual registration seems to be in some DMV-Postal Service limbo, having been mailed to us when we were out of town and sent to the wrong Mail Hold destination, but I could only take so much winning in one day.

Strange Fish Nation

I don't do well with idleness.  So when I find myself with a few days and nothing on the agenda I  make up tasks.  I should probably learn how to play golf.

But of late I've been continuing my odd geocache series: Strange Fish.  The gimmick is that I will catch something odd then put a geocache near the site.  Catch meets Cache if you will.  The limitations of this concept are manifest.

Geocaches tend to cluster in areas of beauty and recreation.  And since you can't place them too close to an existing one that means most of the lakes and rivers nearby are already covered.  At least the public places like parks.  You can't just go either fishing or geocaching on random private property.

And the number of peculiar species of fish that both exist and can be caught by hook and line from shore is limited.  So I have to plan these campaigns.

Casting about, before actually casting about, I noticed that a community over to the east had few geocaches and some tempting places to fish.  In particular a spillway below an impoundment dam.  Some odd things either go over the dam or swim up the stream.....

It was a delightful day for fishing.  And, while this was no place to actually catch any respectable fish, there was on hand a little band of Strange Fishermen.  And women.  And children.  My kinda folks.  I'm only showing the shirtless patriarch of this extended and somewhat confusing family group.  He was having a good old time.  I of course asked him what he was catching.  "Bullheads!" he said with enthusiasm.  And he was keeping them, tossing one after another into a fish basket.  Now I've eaten bullhead and its not bad.  But hardly anybody bothers with them.  These guys were about 5 inches long and come equipped with venomous spines and a bad attitude.  But while I was there he caught 30 of them.  One of the kids named each one.  Sometimes the name would be given before the fish bit.  "Here comes ELVIS!!" he'd holler....  My kind of fishermen.  Although unlike shirtless dad I don't fish with a beer and a pack of cigs by my side.

Eventually I did catch something worthy of a Strange Fish entry.  Oh, nothing fancy, it's just a sunfish variant called Pumpkin Seed.  But interesting enough in its own way.  In a world full of voracious predators they insolently go here and there with ridiculous bright coloration.  Oh, and they are a pesky invasive species in Europe.  Thanks for the starlings and Eurasian milfoil.  Here, have a cute little fishie...

Time to fashion a special cache container.  Elongated fish are pretty easy to craft but these little flat guys defy easy container fabrication.  So I went with something a bit different.  Made of workshop stuff, waterproof and with a picture of a "Punk" on it. 

The place I'm considering for the hide involves nooks and crannies.  So having a bit of a visible "handle" in the form of a bobber might help.

The Striped Rats Return

Ah Summer.  The world is renewed.  Everywhere you look there are green growing things.  And yet for some reason the chipmunks have decided it makes sense to infiltrate our domicile and dig at our house plants.  Honestly....nothing edible out there?

After various threats and imprecations I was ordered to deploy the live trap.

Soon thereafter we had one.

My Better Half announced this and said I could take it away any time.  I suggested she heap some verbal abuse on it in the interim.  She allowed as how she'd already called it a "Little Bastard".  But given how few rodents pregnancies actually occur with the benefit of clergy that's just stating a plain ol' fact.

The picture is blurry because this trap is designed for squirrels.  The mesh is just big enough that Chippies can slither through.  So I added plastic side panels.

I used my best Mafioso voice to tell him he'd be "Takin' a little trip across the river....".  Which is literally true, I let them go on the other side.  The metal trap was opened, I banged on it vigorously and off Little Bastard went.  

The Day after Father's Day

One day per year dads get lots of recognition.  And this is appropriate.  Our culture has on the one hand derided us as clueless dolts and on the other hand ignored the societal ills of Absent Fathers.  Yes, we can be foolish but we are demonstrably better than No Dad.

That being true lets be honest and say that Moms deserve not only their own Day but our ongoing respect and admiration.  Without them there would be no kids to turn out either well or badly.  And they have to deal with the reality of parenting on a continuous basis.

Seen on a walk the morning of Father's Day:

A substantial Snapping Turtle digging a nest near my garden plot...

You look into her beady little eyes and just know what she's thinking.

"I had to drag my poor pregnant self all the way up from the pond.  Bipeds are staring at me.  That guy is nowhere to be found and I've got a leech stuck to my head."

Happy Momma Turtle Day.  You've earned it gal.

Dad Musters Out

My dad has been gone for seven years now.  In a real sense he's been gone longer as dementia stole most of what he was a few years before that.  Are we still "us" when the recent memories are gone and what is left are the memories and emotions of our earlier selves?  A topic for another day.

On this Father's Day 2023 I'll be tipping my cap to my own boys who have stepped up to the world of fatherhood.  The late nights with fussy little ones.  The debris fields of legos.  The joys, the worries.  I know that world well.  And through it I know my sons.

But how well do we know our fathers?

In the case of my own there are gaps in my knowledge.  He was not a talkative fellow.  He came from a family of stoic German farmers and then went into medicine where you know, you hear many things you can't discuss.  He wrapped himself up in his career.  In part this was just the work ethic of a farm boy applied to an endlessly demanding job.  But to some extent it was probably to avoid some of the difficulties of our world.  But there is much to respect in a man (equally so of course for a woman) who digs in and works hard for their family's future.  If there were not enough times for us to do stereotypical father-son things like playing catch, well, even a father's shortcomings have their uses.  They showed me the things I needed to do better with my own boys.  My shortcomings will have similar instructional value.

Recently I came upon some unusual documents.  They relate to my dad leaving military service in the late 1940's.  

Dad went through undergrad and med school on an accelerated track designed to train up large numbers of military physicians.  He graduated just after the end of hostilities and spent a few years in the late 40's working in Occupied Germany.  He told very few stories of that era.  I guess he considered hitching a ride on a supply plane during the Berlin airlift.  But never an adventurer he thought better of it.  He got really sick with pneumonia and being the only doctor in a satellite aid station/hospital had to treat himself.  He was intrigued by the evolving discipline of psychiatry and considered visiting Vienna, then the mecca for such studies.  I'm told he even was "analyzed", but the image of my quiet to the point of socially awkward dad laying on a couch and baring his soul...well it does not compute.  

In 1949 he finished his hitch and went home to the family farm outside a sleepy Minnesota village.

Here's a couple of pages of his "inventory", the things he took home from Germany.

I was interested to know that the military mind regards it as necessary for a Captain returning home to have his baggage inspected by a PFC.  Including, on a page I'm not copying, how many pairs of underwear he was packing.

As to the things he acquired most of them look like the sort of Nick Naks you bring home for Mom.  I know a couple of the beer steins are still around, rather nice Pre-WWI German regimental items in fact.  The rest of it?  Where is the "strong box".  And did he really bring home a toy monkey, two harmonicas and a pair of sandals?

Maybe you never completely know your father.  But perhaps when you become one yourself you can squint and just make out the distant outlines of who he was long ago when you were young.

I'll close by wishing my two sons who are in the ranks of Fatherhood the best of days.  It's hard work but the best job ever.

Lefty

Little League baseball on a warm summer evening.  This is "coach pitch" level, hence the somewhat larger looking guy on the mound.  But it is also the first time that perhaps half the players actually have a clue what to do when the ball comes to them.  When two such are on either end of a fielding play it is a thing of wonder.  Dandelion picking is minimal....

Players look cooler now than they used to.  "Why, when I was your age we didn't wear sunglasses.  They hadn't been invented.  In fact, we didn't need 'em.  Sun hadn't been invented either!"

Easy Street

 In a stretch without major responsibilities.  Doing a bit of fishing.  Hanging out with the grandies.  Easy Street.

Strange Fish 10 - Lonesome Sturgeon

A fine June day.  A good time for fishing.

Of course for me that means trying to catch Strange Fish as part of my geocache series of the same name.  The gimmick is that I try to "put the cache near the catch".  But as I get to make the rules I also get to make the exceptions.  Here's Duncan Creek just below the dam.  The latter was once associated with a mill, and is one of several such structures that have been approximately on this site since the 1860's.

If you have keen eyes you might have noticed a heron on the far end of the spillway.  And if you have very keen eyes indeed you might see a couple of shark like fins in mid stream...

It's actually the dorsal fin and tail of a Lake Sturgeon.  As the fin is pretty far back you don't get a full sense of just how big this thing is.  Here's another view....

Probably four to five feet long and in the neighborhood of 40 pounds.  They do get bigger...some hit seven feet and 300 pounds!  Here's what they look like out of the water.

Sturgeon are very strange fish, essentially unchanged since dinosaur times.  And you have to admire their determination here, trying so hard to swim past an obstacle they can't hope to cross in order to get upstream and spawn.  After a while a second sturgeon came along.  I imagine one side of their conversation was along the lines of "Hey baby, what's your sign?"  "Pisces?  Me too!"  "So, uh, your place er mine....."

I felt justified in making a Strange Fish geocache to place nearby.  I mean, I was actively trying to not hook these monsters and did not have the special stamp you need to purchase to keep one.  Besides, I think I had one of them on briefly and it snapped my lightweight line with ease.

Here's the commemorative geocache container.  It's made from a water bottle, some polycarbonate fins, a bit of foam rubber for the head and obviously plenty of black duct tape.

If geocaching interests you, here's the link:   

------------------------------

Addendum:  I'm advised that sturgeon have already spawned for the season and that they can do so with relative success in the larger waters of the nearby Chippewa River.  What they were doing trying to swim up a creek is unclear, and they aren't talking.

Fishing - VERY Old School

When I was over in England last month one of my digging cronies gave me a couple of peculiar ceramic items he had picked up off a beach.  I guess they are common, he said he has about 600 of them.

These were found on the West Coast somewhere around Maryport.  Archaeological stuff from all eras turns up on those shores and if you work with the local authorities with regards to the remarkable things its quite legal to pick them up.

I did find some uncertainty out there on the internet.  THIS expressed uncertainty not only as to the age of the artifacts but their intended use.  In fact it mentions that some things that look like this are not artifacts at all but soft stones that have been burrowed into by mollusks!

But for several reasons I'm calling these fishing weights.  They have turned up on shorelines in large enough numbers that alternate explanations such as loom weights are implausible.  And in at least one report a series of them were found perfectly spaced out.....just as you'd expect if they came off a weighted fishing net.

Age is hard to judge.  A few of these things have initials or a cross on them.  Certainly not Roman.  Medieval is possible, but cheap low tech technology often survived well into the modern era.

Just for fun I might try using one as a sinker and see if I can catch a 21st century fish with one of these!

A Leeky Future

One of the odd things about my UK home away from home - The Bowes Hotel - is that it sponsors an annual Giant Leek contest.  We're talking some Big Veg here:

I've known about this for a while, but only recently bothered to look up information on it.  Here, have a quick read: BOWES CONTEST

I was very excited to see that among the trophies awarded was The Wooden Leek for most improved leeks.  Why I just happen to have a picture of it:

I want it.  Or more specifically, as it seems to be a stay in one place award, I want my name on it.

I'm not much of a gardener.  My attempt to grow Giant Pumpkins resulted in one or two slightly larger than average ones.  When I planted a pound of barley to try and have a total home grown home brew I got.....a little more than a pound of crop.  Peppers, carrots, onions, my list of horticultural flops is extensive.  But I'm gonna grow me some giant leeks.

Here's a big cluster of leek sprouts.  Today I teased them apart and planted about 25 individual units in our community garden plot.  I have expectations....

Actually I expect the little blighters will all perish, then next year I can try again and if I get one anemic little pale green leek to survive until fall of 2024 then the Wooden Leek will be mine.  MINE I SAY!

Playing the long game.

Merry Ditchmas

There are a lot of vacationers going back and forth these days.  Some of them are very careless in their packing, sometimes just pitching things into the boats they are towing and expecting that everything will stay there as they drive down the road.  My son rides his bike to work on nice days and has found some great stuff that has bounced or blown free.  Cookware, garments, recently a complete folding table.  I'm pretty sure some of these items have ended up as gifts.  Merry Ditchmas I guess.

I don't do quite as well but the other day did have to stop and score one small item.

Why its a pool noodle.  Not only a common item to be hauling north for aquatic fun but something that the robotics team uses to make protective bumpers for the machines.  Nice to save the team a couple o' bucks.

Here's what bumpers look like before trimming and application of the fabric.