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Well almost to Door,  one more day of work and Saturday we head our on our annual adventure.    It is always something to look forward to each year for all of us – about 100 people who show up for spaghetti night.    And I think some of those young families have grown this year.

Chris and I look forward to relaxation, a little golf, and time with old friends.   And maybe visiting some favorite restaurants and bars.   And there will be time on the golf course.  There are a number to choose from, and a good year is when I am on them all.   I will be coming back  Tuesdays and Wednesdays this year.   Check the house, the cat, and save some vacation days for December.    It sounds like this will be a below normal temperature year.   But don’t worry, Chris always has her winter jacket and gloves along.  She remembers the early years when we had cold nights.

We arrive Saturday and Saturday night a group of us are going to Stone’s Throw Winery for music, food, and probably a little wine.  We have made one of their music nights for several years now and always enjoy.    And MJ and John will arrive sometime on Saturday.  They are starting off Friday night from Detroit,  so it should not be too late this year.

So trying to finish the last minute packing.  And getting the garden  and yard as prepared as possible for a couple of weeks!  With the dry weather I probably won’t have to worry about cutting grass in between!   But the weeds will keep growing in the garden.

And the boathouse is almost complete.  Finally got around to siding it.  We found a good guy to work with us.   He needs to come back for a little caulking and some blocks for electrical, but everything else is done and looking good.   I had removed the 16 foot garage door in front because the front of the building was getting week and bowed in about 3 inches.  So now it is firm and have some more storage space on the inside.   It is good to have another project almost done.

So everyone enjoy the summer,  it is going by quickly.

By the way, did you know if you click on any pictures they will expand on your desktop?

Project this week  was 8 more yards of screenings delivered.   The picture does not do it justice.  the area along the driveway is always used by trucks and people turning around at our dead end.  And Chris was tired of bouncing over the ruts with the lawnmower.   So gravel will be easier to take care of.    So a little more work for the ATV and plow.  Much better than snow.

Otherwise still cool for July, but not bad.  I took the pontoon out last night with a couple of friends.  We went out with the lake like glass and 15 minutes later had a strong northeast wind!   It turned into a cool evening.

We are hoping to go to Waterfest tomorrow night, of course they are predicting rain to come in tomorrow night.  It is dry and we need it,  but it could wait until after midnight.   It would be fun to see some bands and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.

Brews and Blues beer festival this Saturday in Oshkosh.  Always good music and choice of good beers.  My club will be serving for our booth and others.

And of course it is time to be preparing for Door County for us.  A week from Saturday we will be on our way.

Time to think about bed for me.  It was a long day today and have some more things to clean up at work in the morning.  But it’s good I am busy, RRD announced another plant closing in our division this week.

So everyone get out and enjoy some sunshine!

Happy July 4th to all.  It was wonderful to kick off the weekend by having Friday off!   A lot was accomplished around the yard and we managed some fun also.

We kicked off the weekend Thursday night by celebrating Steve and Nancee  being in town from Denver.  Steve is a great homebrewer friend, and his coming home is always associated with getting together with a few friends.  We all save up our best beers to share, which makes for a great evening and unsteady morning.

Some more flowers are planted, and some weeds have been treated.  And the boathouse being cleaned up of old house and boathouse windows (which involved a lot of breaking glass).   And Chris and I had a long boatride in the Bayliner.  There was a northwest wind, but very light.  It felt good to get on the water.  And we ended the day with our neighbor’s Thomas’ annual party.  Somehow they out do the year before.  This year included not just a pig roast, but a bear roast as well!  I loved it.   And a chance to be together with neighbors.   And it ended with Darrell’s fireworks show, which surpasses most towns.   And he again out did the year before.  This year he bypassed the row boat with the 4×8 plywood sheets bolted on, and bought a pontoon boat to use for the occasion.  He stripped it down and set up his show on the deck.  Judy said he spent 4 hours mounting fireworks and tying fuses.  It was great. Chris and I took it in from the pontoon boat.

This morning a light northeast wind.  Northeast winds are not welcome but at least it is light!  And cloudy and hazy.  But it is a comfortable temperature.   A good chance to catch up on reading the papers this morning and starting off relaxing.  The flag is flying and life is good.  Through all of our problems, politics, economy we still are blessed to live in the greatest country in the world.  And our lives could be so much worse.  We are called on to remember those who have made our country and our lives so good, and are called on to not be complacent;  to continue to change and keep the country vibrant.

God Bless the United States of America and may God Bless you and yours.

Yes,  it is wonderful to be in the summer weather!

Lot’s of good things happening, chances for everyone to get outside and enjoy.    We had a good week.  We has some boat rides, even though it has been hot the lake is always enjoyable.  We went to Waterfest one night,   Oshkosh’s weekly outdoor music festival.  And we heard a couple of very good bands (I bought more CD’s)  but headed home before the headliner came on.  Friday mornings I need to be somewhat alert!

Yesterday my homebrew club pulled off their first beer festival.   After a severe setback with the Wisconsin department of Revenue stepping in and telling us we could not serve homebrewed beer or they would come in and confiscate everything, a couple of club members especially stepped up and bought beer from microbreweries across the state.  and the micro breweries stepped up and offered what they could at the discounts available.   It seems like home brew was included in a state law pushed through a couple of years ago by the liquor distributers that makes beer go through distributers and makes it illegal for breweries to donate beer to festivals.   Instead all festivals must buy the beer through distributors.  The bill was fought against by the state association of small breweries headed by Deb Carey from New Glarus,  but was still included in a midnight revision and then passed.   It is also interesting to note that the largest politcal money contributions come from what group? =distributors.

But anyway the festival went off well – I had my doubts.   But it was well organized and run well.   The crowd was smaller than we would have liked, but for a first year and ‘iffy’ weather first guess is we paid for the beer and still will have some money to go to the Kiwani’s charities that we partnered with.    And a good time was had by all.

Much cooler today from the past week.  But very nice.  A strong northwest wind that will probably keep us off the lake.   But it will be nice for doing some projects.   So get out and enjoy!

It is summer, and even the heat feels good.   Yesterday evening down to Milwaukee for a funeral.  Tonight an at home night.

Managed to trim up the grass and do some edging.  And watered everything down this evening.  Chris has been watering in the mornings, and everything looks like it is doing well, including the weeds of course!  But it is good to see things growing and green.

Oh and we picked up my car from the shop tonight.  Blew a radiator hose on Monday night coming home.  The way it popped I thought it might have been the radiator but we were lucky enough to only be a hose.   So I had it towed in,  I was not up to sticking my head under a hot hood full of antifreeze.  So I let the shop do it.  So now the hoses should be set for another 150,000 miles.

After the yard work tonight I thought I deserved a pontoon ride.  So a cigar and a beer and a light northwest breeze.   Even though it was hot today it was a nice evening.  It had clouded up and threatened to rain,  but the sun came out for a little bit of sunset.   Life it good!

Well it is officially summer and it sounds like it is really going to let us know about it this week!  That’s OK,   I have been complaining about cold weather so long that I will make it through the hot weather!  We have had a series of rainy days turning to warm sun,  so even though I planted the garden late it is off to a good start.   Peas and Beans are up,  and radishes and a few of the flower seeds.   Tomato’s and Peppers look good and raspberries look like it will be another good year.   And this week with the very hot weather will have a chance of rain each day,  so things should continue to do well.  Of course the weeds are growing even faster so I’ll need to try to keep up with those also!

Friday we were in Milwaukee for the evening.  We visited with Mom and went out to eat with good freinds Dick and Carol.  We went to Gus’s cantina near Hales Corners, and it was a winner.  That will be worth going back for.    Saturday morning we did some shopping for Mom, and had lunch with her, and then headed home.   Enders joined us here Saturday afternoon.  We visited, went to church Saturday evening, out to Winro for a great steak, and made it home in time for a cruise on the boat.  And we finished the evening with some rousing games of cribbage, and a few good beers.

Sunday we did some work on Enders trailer,  and Noel and I floated on the pontoon for awhile.   I caught a 4″ walleye for the catch of the day.  Pretty slow fishing, but it was an East wind which is never good for fishing.   It was kind of a hazy day, and a nice breeze,  so it was very nice on the lake.  Lot’s of boat traffic with everyone out enjoying the summer.    Enders headed out to meet friends for supper near Milwaukee,  and I managed to get a few more things done around the house.  Some trimming, getting weeds out of the gravel, repositioned a pole and the ropes for the pontoon to even them out.  Just the little things that need to get done.  And replace a valve on the washtub that was leaking,  I’ll wait until tomorrow to put water presure on it!  So now getting ready to relax and prepare for another work week.  I hate Mondays,  but so far am lucky enough to still have a job to go to.

I hope everyone misses the storms this week and has an enjoyable start to the summer!

It was a great day out today.  Maybe Wisconsin really does get summer.  We had warmth, and a lack of wind.   It seemed like the first 6 months of the year the wind was always above 15 mph.   But today was a welcome change.  We got out to the cemetary and put some flowers on my grand parents grave.   And did a lot of planting in the gardens.    I used most of the seeds sister in law Claire gave me from her garden.   Are black eyed susan seeds really that small?

Now to keep things wet and the warmth, and hopefully in a week we see some things sprouting.    A few more things to do yet,  but the bulk of it is done.   I hooked up the lake pump to water things,  I am having a problem keeping a strong prime, but hopefully I can figure that out with a little more time.

So we hope everyone had a good day and weather as good as ours!

Well finally we are seeing some sunshine and the air is warming up.  It feels great!   More of the garden is planted, and we hope to finish up this weekend.   We missed some of the sunset tonight with clouds moving in,  it is supposed to rain tonight.  It will be Ok for my beans, peas, and carrot seeds.  And it is supposed to be over with by 9 am!

Catch this picture of the Beer Bike.   Popular in Amsterdam,  We need one of these!  The driver stays sober, supposedly.  I think we could travel Door County with it.   Well maybe not the hill going out of Fish Creek,  we will go out the golf course.

Well paradise is somewhere.   I was waiting to update the site until I had a nice picture of the flowers or the lake,  but we have not had any sun to take a picture!  Our clematis has more flowers than ever, but they will probably be gone before we get any sun.

We were home for the weekend, and were looking forward to it.  But the weather certainly did not co operate.   We did get to the green house in Oshkosh and buy some vegatables and flowers to plant.   I was very tentative on planting in this cold weather, but they had the vegatables outside anyway.  So while it was not raining yet on Saturday, at least lightly, I decided to get the tomato’s and peppers in.   So if we do get some sun tomorrow they have a chance to take hold.   And if is an OK day I may put some of the flowers in tomorrow night.   Otherwise we will keep them watered in the garage.

So for now working on indoor projects!  I finally organized some of the workshop!  And back to making some picture frames

So we hope everyone has a good week.

Finally getting to an update.  My web designer (Craig) did an upgrade and I had to find my way back in to the page!   Looks like more to learn.   I will try to start out simple!   The last update was before Memorial Day.   We had a nice long weekend with Dick and Carol on Sand Lake near Hayward.   It was our initial time out with the trailer for the season, always a good test with a 5 1/2 hour trip.   The weather co operated and Dick and I spent a lot of time on the water.   We saw 5 muskie, even though we were not fishing for them.  They were really only interested in taking a look at us, not in any lures.  Although I did have a couple of lines cut by something with teeth!   I did get one northern and we caught a nice bunch of perch.  And a bunch of illegal walleye.   Walleye limti came down this year from 28 inches to 18 inches.  Of course last year we caught 18 inch and a 22 inch.  This year everything we caught was 17 inches and less!  But we had fun.  And we get to sit in the boat and watch the bald eagles fishing also.  We also got to see bear this year.  The dumpster was not electrified yet and they liked to check it out.   The one we saw was around when we came home from supper and was not dark yet!   Great restaurants in the area, so after a hard day of fishing we got out for cocktails and supper.  After getting home there was lot’s to catch up on, especially the grass!

And we have kept busy with plenty around the house and hoping summer will come.  I don’t have the garden in yet, and chance of frost north of Green Bay again tonight,  I guess I have not missed much yet.   I tried to do some more tilling tonight but the ground is still very wet and won’t work up.  And more rain coming this week.   It will be a year to plant in the mud!  We went down to see Mom this weekend, and then home for some projects and fun.   Enders are almost done in Door County and we will see them tomorrow.  Then they get home to Wauwatosa to spend some time in their house for the first time this year!  So we hope everyone is doing fine!

(Skip note,   I remembered the tripod for the picture and how to set the timer)