A Very Special Weekend with the Family

This last weekend was pretty special. The UI Homecoming events drew Will, Rob, and Betsy and their families back here for a few days. Betsy, Pete, Henry, and Clara stayed at our house while they were here. So, to begin, here are a few pictures of part of their time with us.

Clara was all decked out in a pretty Hawkeye gold colored outfit, appropriate for the weekend's festivities. At this point in her life, she very much prefers to be always within inches of her mother or father. Nevertheless, you can get lots of smiles from this little sweetie.

Henry spent part of his time taking rides on our chair lift. Yikes! He's almost four!

Henry had received a "visible human" toy from Betsy's cousin Katie, who had stayed with Betsy and Pete while doing an internship in the Chicago area. Since Henry and I had discussed skeletons, muscles, and other things about the human body in some of our recent letters to each other, he wanted to work together to assemble this toy. Here he is with the final results.

Meanwhile, Grandma worked her "dog whisperer" tricks on Franklin.

On Sunday morning, Kathie fixed an incredible brunch. Everyone came out for that, so we had almost the whole family together. (Wish Jessica & Mike and Travis could have been here too!!) Here are all of us--Kathie and me, Kathie's mother, and all three of my kids and their families. This was Anders' first trip to Iowa City or anywhere else for that matter. Only Kathie and I had previously met him. Everyone else got to meet him this weekend for the first time. Less than four years ago, this picture would have had only nine people in it. With the grandkids, there are now 13.

Here is another shot with just my three children and their families.

I took ten shots of all of my grandchildren (the cousins) together. I couldn't decide which of the ten were the best shots, but here are two pretty good ones.

House Project Update

We are back in Iowa. Work is progressing nicely on our house. Below are pictures taken while we were away and some others that I took upon our return. No need for many comments, I guess, as you can see what's what.

The house had two layers of siding on it--a blue vinyl siding and another layer beneath that of masonite siding. Both were removed. Then foam backing was installed and the new siding over that.

We haven't picked out shutters yet, but will add them to the front windows later.

This is the rough-in of the new sunporch.

The sunporch is quite a bit larger than the old porch was. We are excited about this new space.

Fall Colors

Locals are telling us that fall colors won't peak for another week. You can't prove that by us. Everywhere we look is gorgeous. Besides, we won't be here in another week, as we will head back to Iowa on Tuesday. Here are a few shots from our deck looking out over the lake–strong reds, oranges and yellows amidst all the green. These pictures don't really do justice to what we are actually seeing!

Meeting Anders

We were in Minneapolis the past couple of days to meet our new grandson.

Of course, I got to hold him for quite a long time. Like they say, it is a tough job, but someone has to do it.

Grandma held him too. She has a reputation for being able to get fussy babies to sleep, and she demonstrated that a couple of times during our visit.

Will said in one of his posts that Anders is very small. Here is some additional evidence of that. (Although, he is already gaining weight, we were told!!)

Of course, I think he is wonderful. I had a chance to further consider whether or not he resembles his father. I see quite a bit of resemblance. What do you think?

Here are three generations of Deckers. Two are thinking about how happy they are. One is still working at thinking.

And finally, if you are tired but cannot sleep, the following hypnotic video may help you.

She's Catchin' Lunkers!

My darling wife had an extraordinary fishing outing two days ago. We took the boat out just before lunch to a different area of the lake than we normally fish. After locating some suitable underwater terrain, using our trusty fish finder, we started hurling minnows out for whatever might bite. Kathie started with a couple of nice crappie. Then, she hooked something big and, after fighting it for about 10 minutes, landed a seven pound Northern (about 28-1/2" in length). We didn't keep that fish, and we didn't have our camera along! Within about 15 minutes she hooked and landed a very, very nice Walleye (about 18-1/2" and 2-1/2 pounds). We kept that one! Then again within the next 15 minutes or so, she hooked another large Northern (about 25" and 4 pounds). We kept this one also. Here are those two fish at a later point in time when we got home.

This picture will give you a better idea of the size of these fish. Too bad we didn't keep the seven pound Northern so as to impress you further. I was impressed with how well Kathie played the fish, especially the two Northern. Considering that we were using our standard monofilament leaders and jigs with minnows, instead of steel leaders, it was amazing that she was able to keep the two Northern from cutting the line with their teeth. In both cases, fortunately, they were hooked in such a way that the body of the jig and the leader stayed outside the mouth. Still, it would not have taken much for them to nip the leader and escape.

Meanwhile, I was catching a few crappie, though nothing to write home about. A few days earlier, I had caught my largest Walleye of the season, which you can see below. It was only half the size of the one Kathie caught as described above.

I had been cleaning fish at our basement utility sink, but that has not been very satisfactory--a little too messy, I thought, for that area, and the lighting and work space were not great. So, I found online a very reasonable and portable fish cleaning table and ordered one. Our local UPS delivery person brought it the same day that Kathie caught the lunkers, so I had a chance to try it out for the first time. It has a place to attach a plastic bag for disposal of remains, places to put knives and other containers, and two nice cutting surfaces. I like being able to use it outside, where I can keep the hose nearby and keep any mess away from the house. In warmer months, I may need to surround it with a simple screened-in tent/gazebo, because insects are not always cooperative, but this time of year, it is not an issue.

In consideration of the faint of heart, I won't share pictures of the entire process, but here you can get some idea of how nicely the table works.

Friends Visit

Last week, we were honored to host our friends Dick and Rina, along with their dog Daisy, for a visit.

Dick and Rina were here a couple of years ago, when we were much less familiar with fishing on the lake. So, we made up for that to some extent this time with numerous fishing outings and some actual catches. Unfortunately, though we tried for several hours, our luck did not extend to catching any Muskie, those large, elusive, trophy fish that live in this big lake. (By the way, there was a Muskie Fishing Contest on the lake last Friday and Saturday. 200 fisherpersons were signed up. We learned that they caught 44 fish, with about 30 of them over 40" in length. A quick calculation suggests that 200 contestants, each fishing for about 12 hours over the two days, yields 2400 hours of fishing for 44 fish. That gives you an idea of how tough it can be to catch these big guys!! No wonder Dick and I failed in our attempts.) We did enjoy lots of fun meals, and, of course, we watched some of the Republican Convention so that we could assess (and bash) the competition. Daisy is a very light-colored Golden Retriever, and unlike Josey, she loves to swim. She retrieved every stick offered for her amusement, as you can see below.

Like Father, Like Son

If you have been following the postings over at Will & Sandy's blog and the related comments, you will see a few suggestions to the effect that the new baby (as yet unnamed, but referred to by others as any one of Clocker Baby, Whatshisname, Mini-Will, Woogie, or Sleepy McGee) shows resemblance to Will. For those trying to decide, perhaps the following two pictures will help.

Or maybe not! Instead, maybe comparing sleeping positions will help.

Obviously, the guy in the second-to-last picture is lots bigger in the last picture!

Grandchild Number Four!

Son Will and daughter-in-law Sandy are the proud parents of a baby boy born this morning at 1:40AM. The little guy weighed in at 7 lbs 5 oz, and he is 20" long. No name yet. Pictures can be found here.

Brunch!

Those who have visited us in WI know that we have one rule: you have to cook one meal. Sarah was unaware of this rule, so I told her that it would be fun for the two of us to cook a meal together. We decided on a Labor Day brunch. Here are we two cooks. Much uncle/niece bonding occurred during this exercise, and we had fun!!

We browsed a cookbook and picked out a set of things to try, none of which either of us had ever made before. Sarah started out by making a cold Swiss oatmeal, consisting of apples, raisins, oatmeal, sliced almonds, yogurt, honey, brown sugar, and apple cider. Next she prepared a vegetable drink, consisting of tomatoes, celery, cucumber, lemon juice, tobasco, and maybe some other things. We agreed that it was tasty but too thick. Another time, we might alter the recipe to thin it down or to involve some extra tomato juice, perhaps. The oatmeal on the other hand was a big hit.

Meanwhile, I worked on a "pear pizza." This was a simple pizza-style crust covered and baked with a mixture of pear slices, chopped raisins, lemon juice, and a bit of sugar.

In addition to making the oatmeal and beverage, Sarah mixed eggs for an omelette that had chopped tomatoes, Italian sausage, and cheddar cheese. At the table, we served a green salsa as a topping for the omelette.

Dick and Rina are here with us for a few days, having arrived late yesterday. Here is Dick being served a piece of the pear pizza. Everyone seemed to enjoy our selections, which were served mid-morning as a brunch. It was truly great fun for me to spend a couple of hours in the kitchen with Sarah slicing, dicing, blending, mixing, stirring, paring, baking, cooking, and serving! A bit of lively banter added to the fun, of course.