What's Up wth Bill and Kathie

Christmas, 2011

2011-12-30T12:11:00.000-06:00

Lots of pictures follow from our recent Christmas gatherings. The Tennessee contingent arrived the day before Christmas. Maia is almost one year old already! She liked the tree and all the colorful gifts.

We have had an old electronic keyboard that Jessica and Travis used to play and play with. It now belongs to Maia, who is trying it out here.

On Christmas morning, Maia posed with her mother for me. She has become very aware of cameras and likes to ham it up a bit.

Here she is with the beautiful Christmas stocking that her Grandma Kathie made for her. These toy jacks can be snapped together in a variety of ways. Soon, Maia was making helical DNA models for us.

Mike and Jess found new T-shirts in their stockings. Jessica's was one we discovered during our recent visit to the Cedar Ridge Winery—the comment about shoes works well for her. We made the one for Mike, which features his cute little girl.

Maia quickly learned about gift opening. This package contained her new all-in-one kitchen, featuring a talking refrigerator, stove, and other appliances.

Meanwhile, Great Grandma opened one of her gifts.

Maia's new dolly, which Great Grandma Novy gave her, received its first kiss.

We invited our neighbor, Portia, to join us for Christmas dinner. Afterwards, the ladies played some cards, and Portia won!

Jess, Mike and Maia went for an afternoon walk. (What is it with this strange, warm weather we are having? I'm ready for some cold and snow!)

The morning after Christmas, we all met Rob's family at Amana for breakfast (never enough food at this time of year!). Penny and Maia got to know each other and spent some time comparing nooks.

After the Tennessee contingent left on Tuesday morning, the Minneapolis group arrived. After some lunch (leftovers), Anders and Grandma Kathie played "Monkeys Jumping on the Bed."

Anders also likes to play "Angry Birds" on my iPad.

The next day, all of the Minneapolis, Northbrook and Iowa City families joined us for the day. This included lots of time with the electric trains, which, as you will recall, were requested by Henry and the others. All of the grandkids made some cute little buildings of paper to add to the layouts. Here are Anders and Eleanor at the controls of the bigger Lionel set. Eleanor thought the engine made too much noise.

Below is another perspective on the Lionel set, which features both a Harry Potter Hogwarts Express passenger set and a Canadian Pacific freight set.

The HO layout has two independent loops, a wye, and a number of sidings that allow different engines to operate. I have four different engines: two Alaska diesels, a Santa Fe Diesel, and an older steam engine and tender. There are also four Holland America McKinley Explorer passenger cars, an Alaska caboose, and a set of freight cars of various kinds.

Betsy, who is a big Harry Potter fan, especially liked the Hogwarts Express train.

Before dinner, there was the usual round of gifts to open.

Two of my darling granddaughters posed for me at the front window with some of their gifts.

Henry and Anders played some ball outdoors.

Clara loves to hold Penny.

Rob helped the kids build a cabin from our set of Lincoln Logs.

Then it was time to eat again.

Josey was quite tolerant of Clara's attentions and petting.

Penny and her dad enjoyed one of the afternoon football games.

Holiday Gatherings

2011-12-21T09:13:00.001-06:00

In keeping with the season, we have enjoyed a couple of outings this week with neighbors and family. On Monday, we invited Kathie's mother and our good neighbor, Portia, to have lunch with us at the Iowa River Power Company.

Then last evening, we met cousins Phyllis, Bob, Ed and Karilyn in Mount Vernon for a dinner at the Lincoln Cafe. This was something we had talked about doing for a very long time, and we finally got all our respective ducks in a row to do it. Catching up with everyone was lots of fun, and the food at the Lincoln Cafe was quite interesting. Check it out here and click on Menu to read about the evening entrees they are currently featuring. Between the six of us, we tried all of the three different offerings and even sampled a couple of the desserts. Highly recommended!

Electric Trains

2011-12-20T11:53:00.001-06:00

I've received a request from some of my grandkids. When they are here for Christmas, they would love to play with my electric trains. This has been all the motivation I needed to do something I've wanted to do for a long time. I started by designing a couple of different layouts, one for my HO-guage set and another for my O-guage Lionel set. Then I checked to see what parts I was missing (sections of track, connectors, etc.) and ordered some odds and ends. OK, maybe I went a little overboard, because I decided to put together a couple of more intricate layouts. Kathie actually encouraged me by saying it was OK if I wanted to use up some more of our basement space for tables for the layouts. So, I set up one 4x8 sheet of plywood for the HO set and two sheets (an 8x8 arrangement) for the O set. Here is what the O table looked like a few days ago. I was staging things on it while working on the HO set.

I made a control station for the HO set which you can see here. The diagram in the upper left corner shows the track sections and switches and numbers everything so that you can determine how to route power to the trains. On this layout, you can operate two trains at the same time. There is even a reversing wye and enough sidings to do some interesting things. I have four different HO engines—one steam locomotive and three diesel locomotives. Two of the diesels are models from the Alaska railroad, and I have Holland America McKinley Explorer passenger cars like the ones we rode when we visited Alaska last May. The other engines have various freight cars to pull. I can keep two locomotives idle on sidings while operating the other two.

Here I am wiring the bottom side of the table where the wires from the switches and track sections come through.

After routing those wires to the edge of the table, I created two wire bundles with connectors to the control station. (I listen to books on my iPod while I work.)

Here is the more-or-less final result for the HO layout. I invited the grandkids to make little paper buildings to decorate the layout. We'll see what they come up with.

The O layout is still a work in progress. I intend to set it up to operate two trains simultaneously as well, unless I run out of time before everyone gets here. I'll be sure to post more pictures when the grandkids arrive. OK, it is true that I'm playing. Who is having more fun—grandpa or the grandkids? I'll never tell.

Cedar Ridge Winery

2011-12-02T10:43:00.001-06:00

Yesterday, I asked my significantly better half out for a date. For some time, I've been wanting to visit the Cedar Ridge Vineyards, Winery & Distillery near Swisher, Iowa. You can learn more about them by clicking here. In addition to some reasonable wines, they make an interesting bourbon, a dark rum, and two different brandies, one made with Iowa apples.

We sampled the various wines and spirits, some of which we/I quite liked, and so we purchased several bottles to take home with us. Their tasting room is very pleasant, and they offer a number of different luncheon options (and a prime rib dinner on selected evenings). We tried their wood-fired pizzas, which reminded both of us of some of the better pizzas we have enjoyed on our visits to Italy. Of course, a bottle of wine with lunch was in order too. Plan to go there with us sometime when you are with us!

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-12-02T10:31:00.001-06:00

Betsy has already reported on Thanksgiving, but I'll add a few more photographs. All of these were taken with my new iPhone 4S, and while it takes good pictures, it is not like working with a real camera. So, some of these are not great. I like a little more bulk in my hands when trying to focus, aim, shoot, correct for any lighting conditions, etc.

I got to spend quite a bit of time with the youngest of my grandchildren, Penny, who was full of smiles and giggles and who loved to move about and stand.

Anders played with Henry's train set quite a lot. Here he is busy working with a new layout that his dad helped him construct.

Penny couldn't sit by herself, but the other four cousins had a private table for their Thanksgiving meal.

On Friday, we watched the lackluster Hawkeyes lose their final 2011 season football game with Nebraska. You can tell how exciting the game was by observing Pete's attention level.

On Friday evening, we all went to the Chicago Botanical Gardens to visit their Wonderland Express exhibit. Click here to read more about it and to see a video of the various electric trains and miniature scenes. What a delightful event. Here are each of my children and their respective families near the entrance to the exhibit.

And here is a small taste of what the outdoor areas of the location looked like. There were millions of lights and decorations.

Recent Fun Outings

2011-11-12T08:14:00.001-06:00

Last Tuesday, we met Rob's family at a local restaurant for dinner. Much of the motivation was Carrie's birthday, but of course, we also got to see Penny and Eleanor. I know it is said over and over, but these little ones change so amazingly fast in their first years. We hadn't seen Penny in about a month, because we were at the lake, and by the time we got together again this week, she was all bright eyes and smiling.

Eleanor was sporting a cute new haircut. She is currently developing a very precise "within the lines" artistic technique now and is using color liberally. I'll have to get her together with her Great Aunt Paula, the artist—Paula would love that. Eleanor and I also had breakfast with her Pop on Friday morning. She is quite the story teller and regaled me with tales about muskrats and other wetland creatures appearing in a coloring book she brought along.

Last night, Will and Anders were in town, and so I suggested we all go to see a Hawkeye men's basketball game. This was Anders' first official Hawkeye sports outing. During our walk over to the arena, I tried to describe the big building to him. He was very excited, and his eyes were as big as saucers when we entered and he saw the large oval seating areas and basketball court below. Naturally, he was decked out in his official colors and cap.

He got right into the clapping for the band music and player introductions. There were lots of questions to be answered throughout the evening.

Anders and Grandma were doing moves to the music.

Anders had previously seen Herky at the Homecoming Parade a couple weeks ago, and so he was constantly trying to keep track of where Herky was and what he was doing. I thought it was just too good an opportunity to pass up and wanted to get a picture of him with Herky. However, the reality of being near that big, scary Hawk became overwhelming as we drew close. I thought he might pose with Herky if his dad held him, but Anders was not having any of it. He loved watching him, but he didn't want to be buddies with him—at least not yet. Later, he wondered where Herky slept and had other questions about him, so I guess he wasn't aware that there was a real human inside that head.

Copper Falls State Park

2011-10-28T11:31:00.000-05:00

We are nearing the end of our last two weeks at the lake for the 2011 season. If I counted right, we will have been here for a total of 114 days—almost 1/3 of the year! During these final two weeks, we have done a little fishing and put another batch of fish fillets in the freezer. However, it has been pretty cool out on the lake. Our dock and boat lift have been pulled up onto the shore, and the deck furniture has been stored and covered. We have had the boat winterized, and it is now stored away in the garage. After one final use last evening, our hot tub is being winterized this morning. We have really enjoyed that nice 102º water on these cold nights, even though the trip to/from through 30º to 40º air can be challenging. We will probably be back for some cross-country skiing in January and/or February to start off the 2012 season.

Yesterday, we decided to expand our knowledge of the area by traveling north to Copper Falls State Park. Click here for access to the Wisconsin DNR's park information page. We had heard of this and another park through friends, and a hike in the woods on a sunny fall afternoon seemed like a good way to get out and about. The park is about 45 miles from us—about an hour's drive, and what a beautiful area it proved to be. Wisconsin changes quite a bit as we drive north towards Lake Superior. While it is relatively flat in the area near us, there it is quite hilly, with deep valleys and more rock. I'm eager to go back next summer when family members come to visit. A picnic and some hiking and sight-seeing will be something that I think everyone will enjoy. I'm pretty sure the grandkids will like it.

Kathie posed for me on a foot bridge that provides one of the entrances to a hiking trail that loops around the falls and gorges that are the park's main attractions. The park is geologically interesting, as it is evidently formed from large basalt deposits from ancient lava flows and subsequent ruptures that created the gorges. (If Rob and his family come for a visit next summer, he can explain all of this to me. It will be a test to see how much of his geology major has been retained.) The Bad River flows through these very deep gorges now, and there are two impressive falls along the way.

This is Copper Falls, which drops only about 12 feet today. Evidently, it dropped about 30 feet in the 1900s, but erosion and other impacts have changed that.

A bit further downstream, a second river flows into the Bad River. Well, actually, it falls into the Bad River at Brownstone Falls, which you can see here. Note the tannins, which color the water. The gorge was so deep along here, and the falls created so much mist, that we felt like we were in a rain forest. The trees were covered with droplets of water and were very, very green. I know the area would be especially pretty when the deciduous trees still have their leaves.

The park benefitted from the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) work in the 1930s. Most of the park structures were built during that time, and the bridges, park shelters, and railings are all made of nice, big timbers and logs, creating a wonderful look and feel. One of the structures is this observation tower, which you can reach after climbing a long series of stairs comprising 114 steps and 14 landings (Kathie counted them), followed by a hike along a trail that follows a high ridge, which has its own great views to the park below. I elected to climb to the top of this structure too, and I admit that my legs were really feeling the exercise of the hikes and all the stairs by the time I was done.

I thought I might be able to see Lake Superior from up there, since we were only about 20 miles from the lake while in the park, but I couldn't make it out. Probably, it was hiding in the gray distance or was simply too far off. Nevertheless, the views in all directions were spectacular. I bet the fall colors would be impressive from up there.

I took the following two pictures so that Will could see some other types of timber construction. I thought the iron hangers used for the beams and which were made from 3/4" strap iron were impressive. This tower was so solid that I doubt you could ever feel any movement in it.

Like I said, I eagerly look forward to another visit sometime. We also want to check out Morgan Falls and St. Peter's Dome, which are nearby, on another outing next year.

For Dad

2011-10-20T08:31:00.000-05:00

My dad was a Cardinals fan, so I know he would have enjoyed watching the World Series this week. The Cardinals are already up one game to none. Alas, my beloved Yankees didn't make it. So, here's hoping that the Cardinals sweep those nasty Rangers.

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Splitting Wood

2011-09-21T09:01:00.001-05:00

You may recall our having some dead trees cut down around our property in WI last July. Three of them were ones I wanted to cut up for firewood. It is important to have fuel for all those s'mores events when grandkids come for visits. My good neighbor, Jerry, had offered to help me split the wood, once I got the trees "Tootsie Rolled." Up here, that is how they describe the process of cutting a tree into short logs.

Jerry owns a splitter, a machine I have seen but never worked with before. So, I was looking forward to that experience. I love seeing different machines and how they work, of course. Here we are assessing part of the pile of logs waiting to be split. By the time this picture was taken, we had already split about half the pile.

The splitter uses a good-sized hydraulic cylinder to press a wedge into the ends of the logs. The wedge consists of two parts, a narrow, sharp, leading wedge followed by a wide, separating wedge. The machine was amazing to me in terms of its capabilities. Jerry says it can handle much larger pieces if you tip it up into its alternate vertical position. Working with it at waist level is much easier, though, in terms of reducing the amount of bending and stooping one must do. Important safety tip: Keep your fingers away from being between the wedge and the wood. (We did!)

Of course, Jerry really had the techniques down for operating his machine, so I did most of the work of grabbing and placing the next log and then tossing the pieces into my wheel barrow. It is kind of fun to see the inside of each piece. Most of the time, it was just nice Spruce grain, but occasionally we saw some color or figure in the grain, or we might encounter some insects (ants, worms) that had taken up residence inside.

You must know that Kathie took these pictures. She was busy stacking, when not photographing. I would deliver each wheel barrow full of split wood to the area where we keep our firewood.

Then, Kathie created this nice, neat stack of wood. This is probably about 2/3 of the total. We'll have plenty of nice pieces next year for sitting out by a cozy fire near the lake or for roasting wieners or marshmallows. Thanks for all the help, Jerry!

Here's To Us

2011-09-16T08:52:00.000-05:00

Twenty-one years ago today, on a beautiful sunny afternoon, Kathie and I were married just inside the lobby of the UI Theater building. We were blessed to have our children and lots of good family and friends around us. The years since have been very happy ones, as the pictures below will attest. Lots and lots of smiles came from the many happy occasions, celebrations, travels, and times together that we have shared. We appreciate the support that our children and friends have always shown us.

How can one possibly measure the very positive difference that another has made in their life? Kathie has been an extraordinary life companion and has helped me in so many ways to achieve, enjoy, benefit, survive, appreciate, thrive, value, ... Most of all, she has loved me, in spite of all my warts and flaws, both the visible and invisible ones. I love her and treasure her friendship and place in my life more than it is possible to express, and I hope that we will be able to share many, many more years to come.

Happy Anniversary, Sweetheart!

Recent Projects

2011-09-12T08:51:00.001-05:00

Haven't had anything in particular to post this past week, so I thought I'd share a couple projects that I finished and delivered in early August.

I had promised to make something for Sarah and Josh as part of their wedding present. I asked them to give me some suggestions. They mentioned that they had received three decorative serving plates, shaped like leaves, as a wedding gift from someone else, and they didn't know how to display them. I thought about various shelves, but they all seemed too ordinary and not very special. Eventually, I came upon the idea of using a piece of burl or a wood slab somehow. There are places that sell slabs and burl, usually cut as cross sections of tree trunks. Many have highly figured grain and are used for such things as gun stocks, clocks or clock faces, or, if you can find bookend pieces (slabs that were adjacent to each other on the tree), small end table tops. I ordered a walnut slab from a shop in Webster City, IA, cleaned it up, and installed some walnut supports on it for the plates. Here is the final product, nearly a year after their wedding! Sarah and Josh seemed pleased with the results. This was a fairly different kind of project for me, maybe closer to art work than carpentry. My sister, the artist, liked it, so that made me feel a little glow.

Around the same time, I finished up a high chair for granddaughter Maia. This is actually the second one of these I have made, the first being for Eleanor. Hers was made of rock maple, and this one is oak. I let the UPS Store package and ship it to Maia for me.

It arrived safely in Nashville, and so here is Maia giving it a test drive. Actually, the color of the chair in this picture is more accurate than the one above (too much flash!). She seems surprised that her grandpa could actually do something like this. Sometimes her grandpa is too.

Completed Sauna Frame

2011-09-07T09:14:00.000-05:00

You will recall that Kathie and I left the sauna project just after completing all work except for the rafters. Will promised to send me a picture of the structure after he got the rafters put on, and here it is. I'm excited to see all these individual pieces of timber that we made together two years ago now assembled into what I think is a very attractive little building. I like the extra touches that Will put into the curves on the ends of the rafters and the top plates (the three pieces on which the rafters rest). Now he is left with related future projects: putting a roof on the rafters; building walls; adding insulation and siding; adding doors and windows; putting down porch deck boards; eventually adding a sauna stove; ... Sounds like more work! Sounds like more fun!

Raising the Sauna

2011-09-06T11:53:00.002-05:00

(Warning: fairly long posting with lots of pictures.)

Some of you may remember the post I did two years ago entitled "Timber Framing With My Son." If not, please click here to review. Included there is an architectural drawing of the sauna for which we prepared timbers during the class on timber framing that we took in Grand Marais, MN back then. Will had made plans to build a sauna on the property that he and Sandy own within the Superior National Forest, and his chosen construction style was a timber-framed building. This year, Will and Sandy made plans to erect the building, and Kathie and I were invited to assist in that project. Because I helped make the timbers two years ago, I was very excited to have a chance to assist in putting the structure together.

Will worked during the spring and earlier summer building a rock foundation to support a set of timber sills and floor joists. When Kathie and I arrived, Anders showed me that work. I was impressed with how solid this base was. The setting is a sheltered nook enclosed within the forest. The sauna will look out toward their lake just down a slight hill and not too far to run to the lake after baking in the sauna for awhile.

After showing me the foundation, Anders asked if he could take my picture with my camera. I think he did a pretty good job of capturing my happiness at being with him and the excitement I felt about the work we were going to do over the next several days.

Later, Anders was playing with his dad's chain sawing helmet, and of course, I could not resist getting a picture of that.

Kathie and I stayed at a motel in Grand Marais and drove out to the project site each day. Will, Sandy and Anders stayed on site in the tiny cabin Will built on their property a few years ago. The first actual day of work involved finishing up the toe-nailing of some of the floor joists.

Next, Will put the ladies to work planing some of the faces of selected timbers, namely the interior faces of posts and knee braces. This will give the sauna's two rooms a more finished look. There will be a front porch with an entry into a changing room, which has a door leading to the actual sauna room. Until Will and Sandy can build a larger timber-framed cabin on the property, their intention is to use the sauna temporarily as a small cabin for their stays at the lake. The one they have is just too small.

Meanwhile, I fit sheets of treated plywood to the base of the sauna to make a floor. Later, Kathie and Anders helped me nail them to the sills and joists. The open area on the right will be the porch and will have deck boards instead of a regular floor. During the project this past week, we covered it temporarily with chip board and other scraps so that we could stand on it to work.

Will used an old-timey adze to put decorative curves in the ends of the plates (or beams) that form the roof lines. He did the same with the eave-ends of each rafter.

Many of the timbers (plates, posts, and girts) had to be bored to accept the 3/4" oak pegs which secured the various joints between posts, plates and knee braces. Will put me to work doing that job, so here I am measuring locations for holes. In the end, I must have bored out about 100 holes or more. I now have "Popeye arms." Anders helped.

We celebrated Anders' birthday a few days early, while we were there. This shot was taken in our Grand Marais motel room/cabin after Anders had opened his first gift, which is the mandatory, Grandpa-supplied baseball glove. I had also made a baseball bat for him, which you can see in the second shot. I even managed to woodburn "AWD Slugger" onto it without making a serious mistake.

The next day, we were back to work in the rain. Will is using a draw knife here to clean up some of the curves in the ends of the top plates.

Finally, after all the preparation (planing, shaping and boring), it was time to begin raising the structure. I was anxious, as I'm sure Will was also, to see if the pieces fit together as they were supposed to. This was a little like having a big set of Lincoln Logs and hoping we had made them properly more than two years ago. In this shot, we have joined the pieces forming one of the two outside walls. This mostly involves inserting tenons into mortises and then pulling everything together with ratcheted straps. After joining, Will took care to insure that things were square. When not, we would pull the assembly back apart, and Will would make small adjustments with a sharp chisel or slick to get a better fit.

The holes that I had previously bored were through the mortises, but the inserted tenons could not be bored until they were seated and aligned within the mortises. So some additional boring occurred at this point, and then oak pegs were driven into the holes to secure everything. No nails, screws or bolts in a structure like this one! With a little help from his dad, Anders had the honor of driving in the first peg. His dad labeled the spot for future historians to discover.

Now it was time to set the assembled wall upright. Will had rigged a block and tackle to a nearby tree so that he could pull it up while the rest of us guided it into place. Then it was temporarily braced with some 2x4s. Will gave it a few extra taps with a sledge hammer to settle the posts onto pegs we had previously put into the floor to help position each one.

More holes! I located the positions on the floor for each of the post pegs and then bored holes in the floor and into the bottom of each post for those pegs.

Anders wanted to try the electric drill too, now that he was familiar with a brace and bit. He liked making holes. Will has a generator at the property (no electricity otherwise!).

The two outside walls are now in place.

Each of these walls is joined to a series of center posts with timbers called girts, so our next task was to add the three center posts, girts and companion knee braces.

At the end of the first full day of assembly, we all felt pretty proud of ourselves. Kathie too, but someone had to take the picture!

On the following day, we had to tip the remaining wall out slightly, holding it from falling over with straps. This was done so that we could add the girts and knee braces on that side of the center posts.

Here is the structure with all of its walls and bents in place. A bent is essentially a wall that is perpendicular to the outside walls. Walls go side to side, and bents go front to back. The only things remaining at this point were more pegs, a final top plate, and the rafters.

Sandy worked on pegs.

Anders supervised from a good supervisory position.

There was some admiring of the work done thus far.

The final step, prior to the addition of the rafters, was to lift the last top plate onto the top of the center posts. Will pulled this up using the block and tackle, while the rest of us pulled it over onto the structure. Then he and I boosted it up onto the center posts, positioning various knee braces in the process.

Sometime not long after this, Kathie took a tumble while pounding a knee brace into place. She bumped her head pretty hard, so we all were distracted from taking any more pictures just then. She's fine now, although she had quite a headache for awhile. As a result, I didn't get any pictures of the structure with its rafters added. Will and Sandy may post some of those shots on their blog. Except for Kathie's tumble, this was all a huge amount of fun for me.

Oh, one last thing, and to show that Kathie really is OK...the World's Greatest Donuts shop is in Grand Marais, so we may have been guilty of stopping there several mornings. This picture was taken the last morning, just before we drove back to our place in WI. Yes, these really are the best donuts in the world, no doubt about it, no debate, end of story.

Penelope

2011-09-03T14:00:00.002-05:00

I've not been diligent lately in getting posts to this blog done. As most of you know, we welcomed new granddaughter Penelope to our family late last July. Our first chance to meet her was August 13th. Holding these little persons for the first time is always a privilege for me.

Eleanor is a the new big sister. It seems only yesterday that I was holding her for the first time. Now she is four and preparing to teach her little sis the ways of the world.

Grandma Kathie also spent some time remembering the wonderful feel of a little one in her arms.

Papa Rob is clearly very much into being the only man in the house. He loves all his girls. It will be fun some day to watch him when Eleanor and Penelope are young women. In the meantime, I enjoy seeing these proud, adoring moments in his life.

Red Sox vs. Twins

2011-08-11T16:51:00.003-05:00

Will invited me to join him at a Twins game Tuesday night. They were playing the Red Sox. At the time of my birthday a year ago, Will took me to a Twins/Yankees game, but we got rained out in the 5th inning, so I was eager to see an entire game at the new Target Field in downtown Minneapolis. It is a very nice stadium, and Will had gotten some terrific seats for us through a lottery system at General Mills. The food options were impressive too.

Here is local hero Joe Mauer at bat for the Twins. I believe he went 2 for 4 or 2 for 5 for the night. Alas, the Red Sox won for the second night in a row.

But what's not to like about having a chance to see a baseball game with your son, even if the Twins lost? As you can tell by this picture, it was a good night for the two of us. You can also tell I need to lose some weight!!

Sister and Co.

2011-08-11T09:09:00.006-05:00

Ron and Paula came to visit us at the lake this past week. They had not been up here for several years, so it was an extra nice visit. One day, we went to town to see what kind of trouble we could get into. I had never visited the bar that displays the world record muskellunge (musky) fish, so I thought that would be fun. Of course we decided to wet our whistles while we were there, and since they had pull tabs, I thought we should see if we could be lucky too. Naturally, the winning tickets were all for small amounts, so we kept trading them back in for more tickets, and in the end, we failed to walk out with any winnings. We did have lots of laughs though.

I asked Paula to "hold up" the record musky. If you click on the picture, you can see a larger version and read about that big fish if you want. You can also see my delightful sister's big smile.

There were lots of other critters and fish on display too, so Kathie posed with this chipmunk on her shoulder.

Kathie's mom chose the ring-necked pheasant (or maybe we coerced her into choosing it).

After enjoying her first-ever serious fishing outing with us here some years ago, Paula wanted to go out again. She caught a few, including this really nice bass. I think you can tell she enjoyed that. She still needs to work on baiting her own hooks, however. She didn't much like the idea of handling leeches or worms or even minnows.

She found a new fishing hat in town. I think she said it was made of paper, which would naturally appeal to the artist in her. However, she said it kept stretching, so that by the time she wore it awhile, it was generously covering her head and ears.

Sarah and Josh came over for the weekend, while Paula and Ron were here, and they went fishing with us too.

Josh and Sarah have been married for almost one full year now, and they are as happy as ever. It can be hard to keep up with their playful banter and jokes.

Making s'mores has become something of a tradition here. This is good for me, because although I don't much care for s'mores, I do love Hershey's chocolate bars.

I couldn't resist including this picture. My sweet wife is naturally photogenic, I think. I love her and I love this picture of her and I love the way it shows how happy her retirement is.

Paula loves our screened-in porch. She played cards there quite a few times while we visited and told stories. She said that if she lived here, she would turn the space into an art studio. I said that would probably mean giving up the screens, and she sighed and said, "I suppose."

Everyone enjoys spending time on the lower deck, especially when it is warm. However, Paula didn't seem to understand that it was warm. (When she was young, she often curled up in a big purple quilt that our mother made, even on very warm days. I think she just likes the coziness.)

Here are all our guests just before Sarah and Josh headed back home. I hope we can all be together again soon.

Four Generations

2011-08-08T10:16:00.002-05:00

I promised to post an official four generation picture. Here is the first one. I've always enjoyed photographs like this. I have one of myself with my son Will and my father and grandfather. These women all look terrific, don't you think?

Here is another taken outside.

Then we took some others just for fun. Here is one with Uncle Travis added to the mix.

And one of the twins with Maia.

And finally, one in which the proud stepdad gets to be a part.

Farewell to One of Our Red Pines

2011-08-06T11:24:00.005-05:00

Our lake home came with a pair of red pines right next to the corner of our screened-in porch. One of them fell in a windstorm the first summer we were here, actually while we were still moving in and getting settled. That left a snag/stump and a full-fledged tree, which has done fine until recently. Last year, it started to show signs of dying. Its crown of needles became more and more diminished, and we started worrying about the possibility of it falling on our house or falling and having a root ball tear up the corner of the porch. So, we decided to take it down this year. I hated to do it, but we have lots more red pines growing all around us in the woods, and we have planted more, so I guess this is all for the better.

Here I am looking at the snag after it was dropped. One of the two men I hired is about to drag the snag away from the base of the full tree with his pickup.

Then came the main event. This sequence of pictures shows the tree being cut and falling.

Kathie made a little movie while I was snapping the sequence above.

Rather than waste the wood, I decided to have the tree cut into timbers and lumber that son Will can use in building his timber-framed structures on his property up in northern Minnesota. The logs were loaded onto a truck and hauled to a nearby mill.

A couple days ago, I picked up all of the timbers and lumber and stood it up in the garage to dry until I can haul it up to Will's property near Grand Marais, MN. The timbers in the foreground are 8x8 timbers about 9' long. Most of the rest of it is full 1" lumber that can be used for roofing and other purposes. It is fairly damp still, so the garage is very fragrant. I feel good about not wasting a resource like this. In a couple of weeks, I'll stack the lumber with spacers for further drying and to insure that it does not warp or bow. Later this month, Kathie and I will haul it north and assist Will and Sandy in erecting one of the timber-framed structures Will and I worked on a couple years ago. You can read about that here, if you are interested.

With the red pine gone, the house looks a little different or naked, but it is surely safer in the event of a storm.

Welcome Penelope

2011-08-01T09:34:00.004-05:00

It is with much joy that we share news of the arrival of our sixth grandchild. This is Penelope Clover, who was born on July 30th to Rob and Carrie. She was also welcomed by her sister, Eleanor, who picked out her middle name quite some time ago.

Mandatory Hawkeyeness

2011-07-31T11:40:00.003-05:00

The title of this posting and the picture below will speak for themselves. Whether she lives in Nashville or somewhere else, being a Hawkeye is mandatory. Maia's a cute one!

Travis, Jess and Maia at the Lake

2011-07-31T08:16:00.007-05:00

This week we have been blessed to have visitors from Nashville and Fort Collins with us. Travis, Jessica and Maia flew into Minneapolis a few days ago and are now ensconced with us here at the lake. Kathie had not seen Maia since March. I had not seen her since January, when she was born, and Great Grandma had never met her in person before. (Watch for an official four generation picture in the not-too-distant future!) I know, I know, we hadn't seen Jessica and Travis in awhile either, but somehow the grandchildren always seem to spark an extra smile or two and some extra anticipation.

Grandma and Maia were enjoying the hanging chairs when I took this picture. I should have maybe waited for a better time of day when the light wasn't shining through the cracks from above, but they just looked too cute together to pass up the opportunity.

Later in the day, Jess and Maia watched Grandma do some fishing from the dock. Maia is sporting a bonnet that Uncle Rob and Aunt Carrie and Cousin Eleanor loaned her.

There is always a game or two of Hand-and-Foot when we are all together.

I made Maia a little paper hat, and she took on a Little Dutch Girl image.

Travis was the last one up, and when I asked him about whether he wanted big or little pancakes, he said, "Surprise me!" Well, I like a challenge, so I did the Mickey Mouse thing and added a face with some blueberries. I got this reaction in response, when I put the plate before him. Later on, he and I went golfing and had lots of fun. Neither of us had a terrific score, but we laughed lots, had some good shots each, and enjoyed a beautiful day.

That evening we went to the Lumberjack Championship event in Hayward. Kathie and I had been to the event before, but this was a first for Travis and Jessica, and I think I've posted about this before, when we took Will and Betsy's families in prior years. There was pole climbing (races) of 60' and 90'. I won't be taking up this sport anytime soon.

Maia, her mom, and her uncle were taking it all in (in more ways than one).

This young woman didn't win her match, but she did avoid hitting her feet. I kept hoping that unlike baseball and the occasional broken bat flying into the stands, an axehead wouldn't come flying our way.

This is the single buck version of sawing. Contestants were from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the USA. States all across the northern part of the US were represented, but most participants were from Wisconsin and Minnesota.

TJ Beaver was throwing out souvenirs.

Uncle Travis and Maia watched, but Maia seems to be unhappy about missing out on a handout from TJ. On the other hand, her uncle Travis is a TJ, so maybe that will suffice.

This is double buck sawing in the master's competition (old guys like me).

Younger men and women competed in log rolling events and in an event called boom races, which involves running across the floating booms (logs tied together end to end but able to roll individually). You can see a boom in the foreground and log rollers in the background.

I didn't get pictures of the chainsawing events. We'll post more pictures of the visit in a few days.

Blueberries

2011-07-25T21:29:00.005-05:00

Our good neighbor, Kathy, invited us to go pick wild blueberries with her today. We drove to a timbered area owned by a paper company that had been clear cut a few years ago. This tends to promote blueberry growth, since they do not much care for the shade that timbers provide. These little guys, based on some tasting-during-picking experience, seem to be much more flavorful and sweeter than purchased blueberries. The only downside is that they are small, ranging from about the size of a BB to something like large peas. Here is an example of what they look like. We saw two species intermingled, some the usual bluish color and others almost black.

Here are the girls getting set to start filling their buckets.

Gosh, I have to say it takes a lot of picking of these little things to fill a gallon bucket! It took me awhile to cover the bottom of my bucket and my back was already asking me how long it would have to be bent over. I felt like I hadn't even made a dent in the task. However, I did become more proficient. There definitely are some tricks to picking blueberries. Doing them one at a time is not the way to go. When you can focus on clusters of them and roll, rather than pick, several off the plant at one time, it goes much faster. After about two hours, Kathie and I each had about 3/4 of a gallon of them. I think Kathy, on the other hand, managed to do a gallon all on her own (she is holding my bucket, not her full gallon).

Well, maybe Kathie got 3/4 of a gallon and I got 2/3 of a gallon. She may be more adept at these fine motor skills.

Nevertheless, we'll be having some serious blueberry experiences over the next several days and months (we will freeze some). Blueberry pancakes are definitely in my future, as well as a peach/blueberry cobbler (thanks to Mary Herr), blueberries on cereal, blueberries on ice cream, blueberry smoothies, and whatever else we can dream up. YUM!

The only question that remains for us is, "Why didn't the bears eat all of them before we got there?"

Lost Boats and Rainbows

2011-07-20T08:11:00.003-05:00

Like all of you, we have been experiencing very hot weather and lots of humidity lately. In the evenings, we have had occasional storms, including a real downpour last night. During that downpour, I looked out at the lake and saw our boat drifting away! Evidently, a combination of our not cranking it up high enough on the lift, its taking on water that made its stern heavier, and some wind made it slip off the lift and escape its moorings. I ran down and threw a canoe into the water, paddled out to the boat, tied the canoe to the boat, and brought everything back to our dock. Needless to say, I got very wet in the process, and Kathie didn't much like me being out there while there was so much lightening. However, I was too preoccupied to take much of that into account in the moment. Kathie thought she needed a picture of me for some reason.

Awhile later, we were treated to what might have been the most spectacular rainbow or pair of rainbows (and there may have even been a faint third) I have ever seen, although growing up on the farm, I saw some mighty pretty ones. The dominant one gave off amazing color, which I don't suppose this picture captures all that well, but here it is for your enjoyment.

Featuring Kathie

2011-07-18T09:07:00.002-05:00

I understand it may be very warm where you are too. We are in a stretch of sticky, uncomfortable days. Thank goodness we can escape to the lower level of our Wisconsin home, where the temperature is quite a bit lower. The heat has not, however, stopped my dedicated fisherwoman from finding bass. A couple nights ago, she pulled in this 17" guy just across the bay from our home.

No, she didn't really kiss it.

Yesterday in the late evening as the sun got low and after the temperature had climbed to over 90º, we had a nice rain shower. (We could still use more rain.) As the storm moved to the east, the low sun in the west lit up the sky in ways we have rarely seen before. Kathie took this and several other pictures of the sky, but I thought this one was especially nice. This picture has not been doctored in any way, and the colors are very true to what we actually saw. The sky and the lake had strong pink hues. It was quite a pretty sight to behold.

Boys Will Be Boys

2011-07-14T10:50:00.010-05:00

Before we get to the "boys will be boys" part, allow me to insert this picture of time Betsy spent in the hot tub with Clara and Henry. Forgot to add it to yesterday's posting. She's reading a book, or attempting to, and they had the hot tub full of bath toys. I think this is the first time I ever saw a hot tub with bath toys in it. We had the temperature turned down to make it more like a warm swimming pool, and I think the grandkids loved it.

Now, back to the "boys will be boys" part. You see, we boys, and I suppose girls too, if the truth be told, are very inquisitive about mechanical things, science, gadgets, and the like. And honestly, some of the inquisitiveness or curiosity manifests itself through our having to make semi-dangerous things or having to blow things up or whatever. When I was young, there was a great TV show called Watch Mr. Wizard featuring a man named Don Herbert who showed young people how to do various science experiments at home. (Read about the show by clicking here, if you like.) Magazines such as Boys Life and Popular Mechanics were also great sources for ideas. For awhile, it seemed that litigation made us all maybe too seriously concerned about the safety of toys and such, and the idea of providing information that might lead a young person to attempt something dangerous was definitely tamped down. However, in recent years some interesting books have appeared, including this one:

It will probably not be a surprise to you that I own a copy of the above book, along with others, including Backyard Ballistics and The Art of the Catapult. I have these with me here at the lake, and Henry seemed to enjoy thumbing through them.

Back in Iowa, over the 4th, he wanted to build something in my shop, which of course pleases me. We have done this several times, and I love it that he wants to learn about tools and to be constructive. Anyway, I didn't have anything in particular in mind to build, but we eventually landed on the idea of a small catapult. Then, when we got to the lake, we decided to make a bigger one. So, here are Pete, Henry and I building a Wyvern torsion catapult. In addition to carpentry techniques, I rationalize that this project helped Henry learn some things about physics and history.

Henry and his dad begin by building the base frame, while I cut other parts on my saw.

The torsion part comes from a twisted rope, which we are threading back and forth between the frame and the arm here.

When it is tightly twisted, it acts as a spring to propel the arm. Here is Henry trying it out. He was excited about it, but I was honestly disappointed that we didn't get more distance in the items we launched. (Henry agreed to leave it here, and I encouraged him to think about how to make it work better. So, we may work on improvements next year or whenever he comes for another visit.) We took it down to the dock and launched rocks out into the lake.

Here is Henry posing with each of the catapults we made. He took the small one home.

In the following video, Henry describes these projects.

Another project we did together involved a bottle of Diet Coke and a roll of Mentos candies. You may know about this little experiment, which was described in the Totally Irresponsible Science book. I had heard of this before but had never seen it done. The candies provide a surface that makes the carbonation in the Diet Coke foam very, very rapidly. There are different ways of doing this, including one which effectively turns the bottle into a rocket. We preferred to try the version that turns the Coke into a fountain, though we all feared that we were going to be showered with Coke. The latter point will explain my total lack of gracefulness in the following video as I attempt to back away from the bottle after dropping in the Mentos.

Here is a still shot in case you missed how high the fountain reached. It really was quite amazing.

Henry did some other experiments too, including attempting to blow up plastics bags containing baking soda and vinegar and floating a ping pong ball in a vertical stream of air. Very cool stuff. We had lots of fun, and we haven't even worked all the way through the books yet!

Picnic on an Island

2011-07-13T09:19:00.004-05:00

Several of the days that Betsy and her family were here were quite warm. So, we decided to spend part of one of them on an island, where we could picnic, fish, and wade or swim on a sandy beach. Here are two of my darling girls at the island.

Here is another with Betsy, Henry and Clara preparing to wade on the beach.

Meanwhile, Kathie and Pete were fishing. Mostly, it was an excuse to cool one's feet in the water.

Later, there was swimming.

And a picnic.

I included this picture just because I think it is pretty. This little island, called Chipmunk Island, is a very nice spot to spend days like this one was.

Later, Betsy and Pete played some ping pong.

While Henry and Clara watched nearby from their sleeping quarters.

Be sure to tune in for the next posting, where Henry, Pete and I all become little boys and play with what some would consider questionable "toys."

More Fishing and the Spooner Rodeo

2011-07-12T16:46:00.005-05:00

Since we didn't bring the pickup to the lake this trip, I prevailed upon my good neighbor, Jerry, to come over and pull my boat to a landing so that I could get it launched. Here are two retired guys from the north woods about to take off for said launching. See the happiness? That's what retirement is all about.

Once the boat was back in the water, we headed out for some non-dock fishing. Clara was pretty excited. I had recently purchased two new fishing rods for grandkid use. One is pink (really) and one is blue, and when you crank the line in on each of them, lights flash around the perimeter of the spool. These are very fancy grandkid fishing rods!

Henry, who had mastered fishing over the prior two years, was eager too.

Here is Clara with the new, pink, granddaughter fishing rod. (The rods stay at the lake for use by whichever granddaughter or grandson might be present.)

Henry quickly caught on to the casting techniques of a spinning rod. He had previously only used a closed-face reel on his special Spiderman fishing rod.

Clara really liked playing with those worms. This does not fit my stereotype of a girl, and that's just fine with me.

She soon hooked another fish.

But, like Henry a few years ago, she seemed most fascinated with being able to watch all the fish we had caught in the livewell of the boat.

Here's Henry with another catch. I believe he caught at least a dozen fish this year, surpassing his prior record of two.

One night, we went to the annual Spooner, WI rodeo. This is a big deal up this way.

Clara and Henry had spotted a pony ride on the way to our seats, so Betsy, Pete and I backtracked with them for a chance to ride a pony. They waited more-or-less patiently for their turn.

Here is Clara on Sparky.

Henry rode Banner.

This was the 58th annual rodeo at Spooner. There was lots of opening ceremony pomp and circumstance.

Then we watched as the bare-back bucking horse competition kicked off the evening's events. This was followed by calf roping, mutton busting (kids trying to stay astride a lamb), and double steer roping. As the evening grew quite late and we all tired, we left before the final saddle bronc riding and other events. It was fun while it lasted!

July at the Lake

2011-07-12T08:27:00.004-05:00

After a fun-filled 4th of July weekend in Iowa City, it was time to head back north. Kathie and her mom and the dogs drove directly to the lake, while I rode with Betsy and her family. They had decided to make a brief side trip through Minneapolis to spend a night with Will, Sandy and Anders. So, we all arrived at the lake a day later. Here are two of my young'ns and their families at an authentic Italian pizza place we visited in Minneapolis.

I had the pleasure of riding in the back with my grandkids. Clara entertained me with smiles and stories, and I read her some books.

Henry was in the next seat back, and although he had his nose in a book lots of the time, we had some fun too, including watching a movie together. These cars are very high tech nowadays.

Henry wanted to take a picture of me. I think you can tell I was happy to be with everyone, although I sure can do a goofy smile under such circumstances.

Clara had been all excited about going fishing this year, so when we arrived, it was almost immediately necessary to try some fishing off the dock. She was going to use her mom's 30-year-old Snoopy fishing rod. Bingo! Clara's first ever fish. She caught a couple, as I recall, and Henry caught some too. Clara even likes playing with the worms. She's a real fisherwoman!

After dinner of fish that Kathie and I had caught during our prior time up here, Grandma hauled out the ingredients for S'Mores.

Henry and Clara learned to make these during their annual visit here last year, so they were real pros this time.

Meanwhile, Tighe lounged on the deck.

There is lots more to tell, so check back later!

4th Weekend and Eleanor's Birthday

2011-07-10T14:17:00.007-05:00

Most of the kids were in town the weekend of July 4th. On Friday evening, we enjoyed hosting everyone for tacos and fun. Kathie had purchased a Slip'n'Slide for the grandkids. Henry was the most proficient at the sliding part.

But everyone enjoyed the pool part at the end of the slide.

The girls were in a taco mood.

Later, while we listened to music at Jazz Fest, a friend took this picture of Clara and me.

On Saturday, Rob and Carrie hosted all of us for Eleanor's 4th birthday, which actually occurred a few days prior. At Eleanor's request, her beloved Pop made her an owl birthday cake.

There were many gifts, with Clara providing some assistance.

Uncle Rob showed one of them to Anders.

There was time for more swimming in Eleanor's pool.

Then it was time for the cake and candles.

Victory Park Dedication

2011-07-09T17:21:00.006-05:00

I'm a little behind in my posting. Almost a month ago, Kathie and I stopped to see Will, Sandy and Anders on our way to the lake. Anders has for quite some time enjoyed riding one of those bicycle-like striders, and because it was easy to see how he was acquiring good balance skills, I thought that his transition to a bicycle would be very easy. Indeed it was! Here is the 2 year 9 month old Anders posing with his new bicycle. Following that is a rather blurry movie showing his riding skills.

The Saturday we were there, a rededication of the Victory Parkway took place, so there were fun things to do. We walked over to hear the bands.

There was a cockpit from an F4 Phantom fighter jet on display, and kids could sit in it. So, while good old mom waited in line for Anders' turn,

Anders took another bicycle ride with some supervision by his dear old dad.

He shot me a smile as he rode past.

Finally, he got to the front of the line for the jet experience.

I think he thought it was pretty cool, but I'm glad he didn't really understand what it was all about.

The new memorial was very nice, redone in an almost green marble.

There was time for snacks and relaxing before we headed back to the house.

P.S. Anders also showed us the tattoo (temporary) we gave him as one of his Alaska souvenirs. Fruit stickers are also good.

North to Alaska, Part 5 (Last)

2011-06-26T09:29:00.020-05:00

So if you are tired of reading about our travels, you are in luck, because this is the last episode regarding our trip to Alaska. And actually, this is about Vancouver, because after leaving Ketchikan, we had one nice day at sea passing through the inside passage on our way to Vancouver. When we arrived in Vancouver, the sun was shining and it was early in the day. Since we couldn't check into our hotel right away, we checked our bags and set out to explore the city. The hotel is right next to the cruise ship terminal, so everything was very convenient. We walked along the seawall west toward Stanley Park. Along the way, there were lots of flowers and works of art, including this piece from the 2010 Winter Olympics that you may recognize.

This is "Digital Orca", though I thought it might have been called "Legos Orca."

This one was called "Pillows", appropriately enough.

Here are some houseboat residences.

Kathie took this one. She wanted me to look relaxed. Ever since I retired, the only thing I am is relaxed (well mostly).

Does anyone know what this plant is called (the one with the green flowers in the back)?

This is called "The Meeting", and it first appeared at a G8 summit.

At Stanley Park, which is about 900 acres of old growth forest and which is named for the same Stanley after whom the Stanley Cup in hockey is named, we decided to take a horse-drawn carriage ride to tour the park.

Downtown Vancouver is across the bay. Our hotel is at the left.

One part of the park featured these various totems.

There is our cruise ship across the bay, filling up with the next group of passengers and preparing to head back north to Alaska (is that song out of your heads yet?).

Vancouver asked Copenhagen for permission to duplicate the Little Mermaid statue, but permission was not given. So, Vancouver created a young woman in nearly the same pose but outfitted in a wet suit with fins and a face mask.

The Vancouver Aquarium is in Stanley Park, and we purchased tickets to see it along with our carriage ride. The aquarium was very interesting. Here are some beluga whales.

And a cute sea otter, who kept rubbing his eyes.

And some white-sided dolphins.

I had a wonderful breakfast the next morning layered as follows: hash browns, salmon, scrambled eggs, hollandaise sauce, and asparagus spears with chives and capers.

We visited Chinatown the next morning.

There we enjoyed the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen park and garden.

This is a steam powered clock, believe it or not. Photographs of it are evidently a must. The clock is in a part of Vancouver called Gastown, where we found a great microbrewery and restaurant.

We passed this homeless person several times while coming and going through Gastown. He and his dog were very tightly bonded, and they made an interesting study. Yes, I gave him a donation for allowing me to take his picture.

The next morning, we visited the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. Of all the museums we visited during our trip, this was my favorite. The collection was clearly organized both for the public and for scholars.

Our last afternoon in Vancouver was spent at the Capilano Suspension Bridge which sits 250 or so feet above a river. It is a little spooky to cross, but the trip is worth it. On the opposite side was an old growth forest more than 2000 years old.

By the way, I asked one of the attendants if anyone every freezes up in panic part way across. She said yes, about twice a week. They have a process for going out to rescue them.

The floor of the old growth forest was fascinating in and of itself.

But the trees were astounding, especially for someone who appreciates wood as much as I do. There were western red cedars, douglas fir, and other trees that were simply immense and very, very old.

They had built a set of platforms and suspended bridges about 50 feet above the forest floor, so that you could experience the trees and the forest in quite an intimate way. The platforms had been fastened to the trees with collars that could be adjusted as the trees grow, so that the trees were not harmed.

Here you can see the river far below the suspension bridge.

I've always been fascinated by the RCMP, so I could not resist this picture. We later found an RCMP shop where we could purchase souvenirs.

Our last day in Vancouver was also my birthday, so my best gal took me to a very, very nice restaurant called the Blue Water Cafe, where I feasted on fresh oysters on the half shell and one more great salmon dinner. Being 67 isn't so bad!

That's it! No more stories about our trip to Alaska and Vancouver.

North to Alaska, Part 4

2011-06-21T09:26:00.012-05:00

Our travels next took us to Juneau and Ketchikan. Here is the scene in Juneau while we waited for our shore tour, which was a whale-watching expedition.

Evidently, Hawaii is a favorite vacation spot for folks from Alaska. We saw quite a few places that featured items from Hawaii, although few as distinctive as this one, which was directly across the street from our docked ship.

My kids and I had gone whale watching together years ago off the coast of California near Ventura, but this was a first for Kathie. Whales fill the bays and fjords along the Alaska coast and can easily be seen feeding. We were told that they don't breach as much as they do when they migrate, but they frequently came up to blow and to dive again for food.

Kathie caught one blowing and diving in this little video.

Each whale has a distinctive fluke, so individuals can be identified. This display was aboard our tour boat showing the individuals in the region, but I think you have to be a better trained observer than we are to work out the details.

As everywhere else, the nearby scenery was spectacular. A bald eagle and a group of harbor seals enjoyed the scenery from this marker buoy.

On the way back from the whale watching, we stopped at the Mendenhall Glacier, which is in the Tongass National Forest. You can read more here, if you wish. Since the mid-1700s, the glacier has retreated almost 2.5 miles.

Kathie took this picture of the daily piece of ice they bring down from the glacier for visitors to experience up close. This is one very, very old piece of ice, and its clarity and bubble-filled appearance was quite interesting.

Ketchikan, like Haines two days prior, was a colorful, seaside community nestled in a true rain forest. Rain occurs there about 300 days per year, and we experienced some of it, though it seems to be almost a more misty, drizzly, constant rain than any kind of downpour. Everything was lush and green.

In the morning, we visited a local museum and did some shopping in the city.

Later, we took a tour to learn about crabbing. At the spot where we saw the crab pots (see below), we also saw evidence of a lumbering business.

We watched as crab pots were pulled from the water. Each one had some type of bait fish in it—this one with a salmon head.

Inside were two trapped dungeness crabs. Our guide showed us how to differentiate between males (which can be kept) and females. They must also be of a certain size (I recall 9" or more) across the carapace.

After the tour, we were treated to an all-you-can-eat crab feast. The crab and the companion dishes were all outstanding. Fresh crab is sensational and is one of Kathie's favorite foods, as you can see below. Actually, no, the pile of shells is not all her doing. There were four of us at the table. Each table had been challenged to create the tallest possible pile, and cheating was encouraged. We didn't come close to winning, though. But, yum, it was fun trying.

Dads

2011-06-19T08:55:00.004-05:00

So on this Father's Day I want to pay my respects to some fathers I love and admire. To begin, here is a father who is just beginning himself. Barely six months in the job, Mike showed us all from day one how proud and attentive he could be. Maia is a lucky little girl.

Pete gets two pictures because I couldn't find just one featuring both of the amazing grandchildren with which he has blessed me. There are few fathers as naturally suited to the job as Pete. The smiles on Henry's and Clara's faces prove how special he is.

Rob is already a wonderful father to Eleanor, and soon, he will be a father yet again to another little one. He loves all of his girls and delights in being called "Pop." I know they take delight in him too.

Anders has already learned to ride a bicycle! For me, this demonstrates the confidence and loving attention Will gives to him. Will is a steady, patient, nurturing, loving dad, and I think he relishes the role.

I have always had great regard for the men from what Tom Brokaw called the greatest generation. Of course, this generation included my father-in-law and my own father. My father-in-law was an honorable man who made me feel very much included in his family. Of course, I love his daughter very much and believe that he thought of me as his son.

Paula and I were more than fortunate to have the kind of father we did. He took to the role naturally and always seemed to want us near. He taught us so much about honor, integrity, love, and responsibility. We certainly cannot thank him enough. We love him and miss him so.

Excuse Me, But ...

2011-06-18T08:51:00.002-05:00

You may recall my April 14th posting about new bird houses I had built. I was installing them at various places around our lake home. One type of bird house was a platform for Robins. We had disliked their prior choices for nests, since they tended to be in places under our deck where we would disturb them as we used the back door. I put blocks in those places to discourage them and placed the platforms in preferred spots. Anyway, as you will see below, things didn't work out quite as planned. That's often the case with Robins. It is as if they said, "Excuse me, but I'll be the judge of where the nest should be." By the way, I put up two of these and got identical results in both locations!

Ring of Fire

2011-06-16T18:36:00.002-05:00

Anyone who knows my grandson Anders also knows that he has fallen in love with Johnny Cash. One of his favorite things is to pull up YouTube videos of Johnny singing various tunes. (Yes, Anders knows how to surf the web and use YouTube.) He knows several songs by heart, including Ring of Fire, Walk the Line, and Jackson.

Hello, I'm Anders Decker. Let me just get this mike adjusted, and then I'd like to do a few tunes for you.

(Trumpets!) Duh. Da-da-da-da! Dah, dah, dah..... Duh. Da-da-da-da! Dah, dah, dah....

Love is a burnin' thing. And it makes a fiery ring. Bound by wild desire, I fell into a ring of fire...

I fell into a burnin' ring of fire. I went down, down, down, and the flames went higher. And it burns, burns, burns...the ring of fire, the ring of fire. (Please note the behind-the-back guitar. A Johnny cash signature stance while singing.)

Thank you fans. Thank you very much.

North to Alaska, Part 3

2011-06-15T09:33:00.017-05:00

Got that song out of your heads yet?

The two days after we boarded the Ms Zaandam in Seward were spent cruising into fjords and bays to view tidewater glaciers (i.e., ones that end at the sea) and nearby mountain areas. The first day was spent mostly in College Fjord in Prince William Sound, which has a number of glaciers named after women's colleges and eastern universities. For example, here are the Harvard and Yale glaciers.

The ship moved forward very slowly during these glacier visits, because there is a considerable amount of ice floating near the glaciers. This is, of course, the result of ice calving from (falling from) the glaciers.

There were beautiful mountains nearby, lots of mountains throughout the panhandle of Alaska.

The icebergs varied from ones that were pure icy blue to those striated with pulverized rock that the glaciers had ground free during their paths to the sea.

I couldn't resist trying to capture one of the gulls that swooped constantly about the ship as we lazily coasted along.

Glacier Bay National Park was our destination during the second day at sea. If you don't know much about the park, I urge you to read about it here. I was not previously familiar with the park, which can only be reached by sea or air. The most amazing thing about the park to me is that the entire region was created during only the last 250 or so years. If you go to the web site I referenced just above, click on the "Nature and Science" link to read more about this. When the glacier was first discovered, it was very near the coast. Its advance had decimated lands which were home to the Huna Tlinget peoples. As it retreated during these recent years, it carved out an immense bay. During our cruise that day, we were privileged to have a Park Ranger and a cultural interpreter of the Tlinget peoples join us for narration and presentations.

At the far north end of the bay, our ship sat quietly about 200 yards away from this glacier. It was quite cool outside. The sounds of the glacier were impressive as it kept creaking, groaning, and cracking.

Kathie was able to capture a number of little videos of calving ice, although it was always difficult to know where the next chunk might fall. I like this little clip because of the reactions of the nearby observers.

Meanwhile, the ship's Cruise Director had organized a "polar bear dip" in the aft pool for anyone brave enough to step outside in a swimsuit. I guess getting into the warmed pool wasn't such a big deal, but getting out into the very chilly air was!

After two days of cruising the glacial areas, we visited Haines. I spent a part of my morning walking through the little town of about 1500 folks.

Naturally, I couldn't resist this photograph of The Hammer Museum. I didn't choose to visit it, but I understand it is filled with nothing but hammers that some guy had collected for years.

Kathie and I did different things in the afternoon. She did a river tour of a bald eagle preserve.

I ventured out with a professional photographer, who took me to a number of interesting and scenic sights while he helped me work on camera skills such as composition, lighting, exposure, etc.

Below is a sample of some of my favorite shots from this outing.

Every year, after the snow plows have destroyed his prior year's efforts, a Haines resident creates a sizable display of rocks stacked in various ways. They were all fascinating with many looking like they should tumble apart.

These are shooting stars.

At the Haines Fair Grounds, a series of structures once built by Disney and used to make the movie White Fang were in use for various events and fair activities.

In part 4, we will visit Juneau and Ketchikan.

North to Alaska, Part 2

2011-06-06T09:03:00.018-05:00

OK, I just have to do this. Every time I think about our vacation or write the title for one of these postings, the old Johnny Horton song and that silly John Wayne movie come to mind. If you would like to have a song in your head that just won't leave for the entire day, please click the play button below. Actually, now that I've even mentioned it, you are probably doomed to singing it to yourself all day long.

Now that we have this out of the way—on with our story. Warning: One unpleasant picture below!

On the third day of our trip, we traveled into Denali National Park for a Wilderness Tour. There is essentially one road that reaches into the park nearly 100 miles. We experienced the first 53 miles of that road and all of the sights along the way, then returned the same way. The mode of transportation was what you might think of as a school bus, although all of the seats had been replaced with more comfortable coach seats. The driver provided narration of the sights and information about the park throughout the trip. Because we were so early in the season, we didn't see the meadows filled with as much green vegetation and flowers as will be available to travelers later in the season. Nevertheless, the vistas are remarkable and beautiful.

Here are the two of us at a rest stop along the way. We were obviously continuing to have a great time. The weather was very nice, and by the end of the tour, we didn't need our jackets.

You may know that Mount McKinley (highest peak in North America at 20,320 feet) can be difficult to see. They have something called the 30% club—only 30% of the visitors to the park ever actually see the mountain. It is so big that it strongly influences the weather near it, and so it is very often shrouded in clouds. This was our best shot, and you can get some idea of the interesting way that clouds sometimes layer above the peak. I guess you could say that we got to see the lower third of the mountain. I was glad even for that. We were told that there were numerous climbers already on the mountain. Stories about climbing Mount McKinely can be found in lots of places. Some folks die every year making the attempt. The various base camps, methods for climbing, and stories about successes and failures are interesting topics.

We did see quite a bit of wildlife. A sampling follows. This is a ptarmigan, which is Alaska's state bird. They were transitioning from their winter white to their summer brown plumage, and the males were often stationed at the very tops of spruce trees attempting to declare a territory and seek out mates. They are fairly large—about the size of our local pheasants.

Unpleasant picture time! We rounded a bend in the road, and the driver spotted this fresh carcass on the shoulder of the road. A Dall sheep had been killed and partially devoured by an unknown predator. It could have been coyotes, wolves, or a grizzly. (By the way, grizzly bears can run at about 40 miles per hour, so don't try to outrun one. This is fast enough for them to overtake a sheep.) The driver thought the kill was most likely by coyotes or wolves, since a bear would probably have dragged it away from the road. On our return trip, the carcass had been moved back away from the road by park rangers.

Soon thereafter, we rounded another bend and spotted a large group of Dall sheep right on the road. Animals in the park are very used to the buses and usually show no concern as long as people are not outside the vehicles. So, we would just slide our windows open and shoot all the pictures we wanted. This was a so-called bachelor herd (all rams) who evidently band together for protection when they are not fighting each other at other times of the year for harems of females.

At another of our rest stops there was a visitors center and some antlers were on display. I'm holding caribou antlers here.

Most of the time, the animals we saw were at quite a distance. Here, for example, is the only grizzly bear we saw. If you double click on the image below, you can maybe get a better look.

The driver had a long range movie camera that he could use to bring the images closer and then present on drop-down displays inside the bus.

We also saw two lynx. One was busy chasing a hare, but this one was napping in a secluded spot. He would occasionally stretch and roll around just like his domestic cat relatives do in the sunshine. They were quite large, much bigger than the bobcats we see in Wisconsin or even in Iowa.

So, that was what our day in Denali was like. We concluded the day with a beverage and nice dinner at the Chalets.

On the following day, we boarded motor coaches for our trip to Seward, where we were to board the Zaandam for our cruise to Vancouver. Honestly, it was a long day, even though the coaches were quite comfortable. Scenery along the way continued to be of pleasant, and we passed through a number of interesting small communities. At lunch time, we were in Wasilla. No, we did not see Sarah or her bus or have to listen to her awful comments about gotcha questions, lame-stream media, or made up history lessons. No one in Alaska ever seemed to bring her up as a topic. I didn't sense an awful lot of pride about her connections with the state. The city was really rather nice, and we had a good lunch there overlooking a lake and the mountains in the distance.

Outside the restaurant where we had lunch, there was a display about the Iditarod dogsled races, which was hosted by Kelley Griffin, a Wasilla musher. (Click on her name for more information.) Kelley was seeking donations for her next attempt at the race. I recall it costs something like $30,000 in total to participate. She had a couple of different sleds on display, one an old, heavy wooden sled, and another (in picture) of a modern aluminum sled. The sleds are equipped with covers that hold all kinds of supplies.

The two dogs she had with her were interesting. The image of a furry husky is not really very accurate. Dogs are chosen and bred for endurance, strength, and speed, and any breed will do as long as it meets those criteria. Indeed, they told us that the dogs are usually a kind of "musher's mutt." They were both very friendly. They don't want lots of fur, because the dogs get too hot when racing. If it is too cold, the mushers will put coats on them.

Toward the end of the day, it turned rainy. The sight of the Zaandam as we pulled into Seward was most welcome after the long bus ride.

Stay tuned for part 3 of this saga.

Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception

2011-06-06T07:31:00.003-05:00

Permit me to briefly interrupt my series of postings on our Alaska vacation. Last night I finished a book that I want to bring to your attention. Entitled Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception, the book is an extremely interesting (in my humble opinion) treatment of the ways in which numbers influence us as individuals and of the ways in which they are abused and misused by others to influence us. The book was written by Charles Seife. A good review of the book appeared in the New York Times, which you can read by clicking here.

Mr. Seife presents the idea that when we hear a claim made and backed up by a number, we tend to believe the claim more readily, simply because we take numbers to be cold, hard and objective. He then goes on to describe the various ways in which we can be misled by numbers. A simple example is when someone simply makes up a number to support a claim, as did Joe McCarthy when he started his anti-communist campaign by saying, "I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist party and nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department." Mr. Seife also gives a very nice treatment of the techniques of mathematical correlation and explains how we tend to assume there are cause and effect links between the correlated data even when no such links can exist. (Just because two concepts can be correlated does not mean that one causes the other.) Other topics include measurement error, statistical methods, and cherry picking (selectively choosing from the available data so as to force a particular conclusion).

I know what you are thinking, "Obviously this book would appeal to Bill. He's a math guy." Maybe, but you really don't have to be a math person to understand the concepts, and please consider that the best part of the book is that after helping us to understand the several ways in which uses of numbers can be abused, Mr. Seife presents a series of fascinating discussions of examples of such abuses, including public opinion polls, financial fraud, voting practices, judicial failures, and propaganda.

The book is a quick read at only 295 pages, and I think you will find it difficult to put down. I highly recommend it. Go back and read the New York Times review. If all of us, as citizens, were more aware of these issues, I suspect we would do better jobs of holding elected and public officials, campaigners, and businesses accountable.

North to Alaska, Part 1

2011-06-05T12:18:00.000-05:00

I suppose you faithful readers know that we recently vacationed in Alaska and in Vancouver, Canada. We had a wonderful time, as we seem always to do when we travel. This will be the first post of several about our trip. Each of us carried a camera, and between us, we took 880 photographs, in fact more than we took on our Mediterranean cruise last year! I promise not to show them all.

You probably have some idea about Alaska's size. Make no mistake about it! Alaska is vast, huge, big, and immense in so many different ways. I knew it was supposed to be big, but until I was there, I really didn't appreciate how big it truly is. Various guides loved to ask if anyone present was from Texas. Then they would say something like, "You know, Alaska is 2½ times bigger than Texas!" or "You know, if we divided Alaska in two, Texas would be the third biggest state in the nation." We heard these comments so often, that they got a little old. On the other hand, I'm definitely OK about jabbing Texas. You could put something like 429 Rhode Islands into Alaska. If you placed Alaska on top of the "lower 48", it would cover most of the central US, and its panhandle would touch Florida, while its Aleutian Islands chain would reach California. Nevertheless, Alaska ranks 48th in terms of population with about 750,000 persons, exceeding only North Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming.

I was impressed not only with Alaska's size, but also with the amazing vastness of the open spaces, as for example, in Denali National Park, and by the numbers of mountains, rivers, glaciers and plains. The nature of the environment is interesting too, given that so much of it is covered by permafrost and has such short growing seasons. To put this into perspective, we learned that the park is about the same size as New Hampshire or Vermont at 9,492 square miles, and it takes that much land to support the relatively small populations of animals that live there. This includes no reptiles, lots of birds, and several kinds of mammals. However, there are only about 90 wolves in the entire park and a similar number of grizzly bears. There are many more caribou and moose, but those populations are not large. The point is that it takes lots and lots (and lots and lots) of land to support relatively small numbers of animals compared to what you might find in the lower 48 states.

The number of glaciers surprised me. There are amazing icy-blue glaciers in every mountain range. We saw and heard some of them quite closely, as you will learn. By the way, Denali National Park is not even the biggest national park in Alaska. Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, which we did not visit, is 20,587 square miles. We did visit Glacier Bay National Park, which is sizable too at 5,130 square miles. Many more national parks and preserves are in Alaska, I suspect more than in any other state. There are numerous mountain ranges, and they are all beautiful. Many have very high peaks—Mount McKinley is the best known, of course, at 20,320 feet, it is the tallest peak in North America. We didn't see most of Alaska, most notably the large, open, roadless areas to the north towards the Arctic Circle, but we did see Anchorage, Denali National Park, and a good sampling of cities and areas in the panhandle down along the coast towards Vancouver and other parts of Canada.

A couple of other quick comments about our visit, and then I'll quit lecturing like a teacher and start reporting on our experiences. We felt fortunate to have such nice weather throughout most of the trip, given that we chose to travel early in the Alaska tourism season—temperatures in the 60s and rain that was light and misty and expected in coastal towns that have rain 300+ days of the year (often leading to gorgeous rain forests and other vegetation). Starting so far north, we saw days with nearly endless sun—we watched this change as we moved south over the course of the trip. The land parts of our trip and the cruise along the coast to Vancouver were equally enjoyable, each offering their unique treats. There were plenty of good eating opportunities, as you will learn in some of these postings, many involving seafood, especially salmon, of course.

We flew six hours nonstop from Chicago to Anchorage on Alaska Airlines. The distance was about 2850 miles, whereas the flight from Vancouver back to Chicago was about 1775 miles. Anchorage is quite a distance north. You may recognize the name of the person after whom the airport is named.

Maybe you can tell how happy we both were and how much fun we were already having later that evening when we found an excellent brew pub for dinner—The Glacier Brewhouse. I loved the several micro breweries and beers we discovered throughout our trip.

Kathie had rockfish, and I had salmon. Both were "catch of the day" offerings, and the presentations were typical of the dining we experienced throughout our vacation. Good both visually and in terms of taste.

The next morning, our first full day in Alaska, we boarded McKinley Explorer train cars owned by Holland America (our cruise line of choice) for a day-long ride to Denali National Park, where we stayed in a chalet for two nights.

The cars are pulled north by the Alaska Railroad, which has lines between most important points in the state. You can see we were high in domed cars with wonderful views of the many mountains, rivers, and other sights along the way. Beverages were available throughout the trip, and there were dining rooms in the lower levels of each car. A guide provided narration and information selectively along the way as we passed through communities and scenic areas.

One of the reasons we have so many photographs is that it is difficult to resist taking pictures of the scenes. Knowing you don't want to see picture after picture after picture of mountains, I'll try to just give you a taste.

A couple of the more interesting towns we passed through were Wasilla (more on that in a future posting—no, we didn't see Sarah, which was just fine with us), Willow, and Talkeetna. Willow is the host city for the official restart of the Iditarod dog sled race each year. As I understand, there is a ceremonial start, and then the big restart/sendoff begins in Willow. Talkeetna is the city from which most mountain climbers embark for attempts on Mount McKinley. There is an airstrip there, and they fly from that airstrip to the first base camp on the mountain. By the way, there are many, many, many airstrips in Alaska. Aviation is one of the state's major industries. Bush pilots get folks to destinations in most of the state, since there are so few roads. There are also many float plane harbors in the state, the biggest and busiest in Anchorage, where at the height of the season, takeoffs and landings occur at the rate of dozens per hour. We were told that airplanes can have priority for landing on roads, when necessary, and that vehicles must allow for that.

I love the Alaska flag with its depiction of the Big Dipper or Ursa Major constellation.

We saw quite a few critters while on the train, including caribou and moose. These are caribou.

After we arrived at the McKinley Chalet Resort (click for pictures and information), we relaxed awhile and then had dinner with many of our traveling companions at an old-time dinner-theater event within the resort. The food was quite good (salmon, of course, and ribs), and the servers soon became the entertainers. Their excellent voices and the skit they performed, about the settling of the state of Alaska, were fun.

Part 2 will continue with our tour of Denali and trip to Seward to begin the cruise portion of our vacation.

Mothers Day Date

2011-05-12T08:24:00.000-05:00

I took two sweet young ladies out for lunch on Mothers Day. Orchard Green was the destination, where we were treated to a special four-course luncheon they were offering for the occasion. Each of my dates wore an orchid, which someone thought they should have in honor of being such special mothers.

After the lunch, we took an old-fashioned Sunday drive, since it was such a pretty day. Mother is always saying that there just aren't any barns anymore, since it is true that barns are a threatened species out in our rural areas. So, we thought we would show her one that is quite special. The 1883 Secrest Octagonal Barn near Downey, Iowa. Click here to read a little about the barn, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. After taking a look, we looped through the big town of Downey, West Liberty, Nichols and Lone Tree before heading back home.

Happy Mothers Day to Some of the Best Moms I Know

2011-05-07T22:51:00.000-05:00

Happy Mothers Day to all the wonderful mothers who are a part of my life. Let me start with these three, each one of whom has blessed me with one or more terrific grandchildren.

Betsy always shows such an understanding and patient way with her kids. Maybe part of it is the teacher in her, but she just seems to be a natural mom. Henry and Clara are very lucky.

Granddaughter Eleanor has one of the happiest smiles and most imaginative natures. The devotion Carrie shows to Eleanor's well-being is obvious in every book she reads to her, every adoring look she gives her, and every bit of time she spends guiding her life in good directions.

There is no question that Sandy was destined to have a delightful, energetic, blond-headed boy. Anders is already showing the benefits of the guidance Sandy provides through her affectionate, loving, coaching ways. Anders is going to have a wonderful life, in no small part because of the many things Sandy will do with and for him.

Then there is the newest mom, Jessica. She walked through her pregnancy and delivery of Maia like it was no big deal. And that Maia is one of the most beautiful brand-new babies I've ever seen. We have loved watching this new mom and this new little girl interact with each other.

My Kathie has proven over and over again what a great mom she is for Jessica and Travis. The problem solver in her works on their behalf whenever and wherever needed. She is also a very giving, caring and sharing stepmom.

My mother-in-law is another wonderful woman. From our very first meeting, she has made me feel a true part of her family, and though she might occasionally urge me to slow down, I know she supports the person I am. I am very grateful for her love and caring.

She'll even go hot-tubbing with her girls.

Finally, let me not forget my own dear mother and my grandmother. Both of them have been gone far, far too long, but I think of them often and remember with great affection the boosts they gave me in my life and the love they showed me and mine.

Grandson Baseball & Fondue

2011-05-03T08:59:00.001-05:00

We visited Betsy and her family this past weekend. Arriving on Friday, we learned that Henry would have his first youth league baseball game that night. What great timing and what a great opportunity for me! Henry dressed himself initially, and we didn't think about the fact that he had put his number on the front. That was corrected when we got to the playing field.

He allowed me to take pictures and included this pose. The boy may be a pitcher some day. He has started to work on his windup moves, as you can see.

Clara was cheering him on, saying, "Go Henry!"

I must say I admired the dedication and methods of the coaches. I recall once coaching Rob's soccer team for a season, and I know how challenging it can be to teach anything about a sport while having to constantly corral and ask for attention.

The rules of the game were quite different from the baseball rules that I know, but they make sense for beginners. There were two innings, and in each case, all players on the defensive team took positions on the field. They were mostly scattered about the infield, so there seemed to be about two third basemen, two or three short stops, ... you get the idea. Henry was assigned in the first inning to the pitcher's mound. Later, he played third base. If you saw his mother's posting about this outing, you know that involved studying stray rocks and rearranging the dirt around the base.

When on offense, each player got to bat and run to first base. An adult pitched until the batter hit the ball or had three strikes, at which point a tee was used to allow the player to hit the ball. Base running was interesting, as was fielding. Since this is probably the kids' first introduction to baseball as a team sport, there is lots to learn about where to throw the ball once fielded and how to run bases, including when to advance. There were frequently multiple runners on the same base or runners who would pass a runner ahead of them. Naturally, there were lots of side conversations and playing (not baseball) at all times between fellow fielders or between fielders and runners. This tended to distract from attention to the fact that a ball might just have been hit and that fielding or running was needed. It was great fun!

Henry hit 1000 for the evening. He had two hits in two at-bats and never had to use the tee. Here he is about to take a mighty swing at a pitch. He has a good eye for the ball. Keeping those helmets on when batting or running the bases can be difficult though.

Here he is at third base after having successfully navigated around the bases to that point. You can also get an idea about how the players are set up defensively. It would seemingly be tough to get a ball through the left side of the field, even with a good hit.

After scoring a run, Henry showed me his pride of accomplishment.

Now the fondue...on Saturday evening, we went out to Fondue Stube for dinner. There were three courses: vegetables and bread with cheese fondue, meats and vegetables with oil fondue, and fruits and angel food cake with chocolate fondue. Henry and Clara both proved to be adept at using the fondue pots and all potential accidents were avoided.

Here's the whole gang.

I'll let you guess for yourselves which course was associated with this picture.

Disney Misstep

2011-04-26T08:31:00.000-05:00

I've been looking through my thousands of photographs lately, both because it is a nice way to remember and also because I find it fun to share stories. This story is about how the Disney company doesn't always get things right. Or maybe it is about how the UI Athletic Department (UIAD) was rather dumb in thinking that a change was needed—sometimes you shouldn't mess with success. The mistake was probably more UIAD's than Disney's—that's not surprising!

In 1977, The UIAD decided it was time for an update of our beloved Herky the Hawk. (Why?) As I understand, they contacted the Disney company and contracted with them to come up with a new version. You will see the results below. Most of you will realize that the Herky we still have today looks almost exactly like the old one who appears on the left in the photo. The Disney version on the right was not well received. In fact, I recall the crowd booing when he was introduced at the game with some fanfare—falling flat fanfare would be a better description. I don't think he appeared more than a handful of times.

Oh, about those thousands of photographs...I have approximately 12,000 of them right now, having digitized most of my old film-based photographs and now having added lots of digital photographs. So, you may be in for lots of boring stories. I'll try to be reasonable.

Baseball

2011-04-19T09:13:00.000-05:00

People who know me well, know that I love baseball. There are more things wrapped into a given game than you can find in almost any other sport: opportunity for a truly leisurely viewing experience (conversations, even if not about the game, are quite alright—no need to be in a hurry); beer and brats and hot dogs; strategy; politics; rivalries; stunning athletic moves; rare need to stop the game because of injury (this isn't a contact sport, except sometimes at home plate on a close play); statistics (lots and lots of statistics); opportunity for an extended, extra-innings game; apple pie; Chevrolet. (If you don't get the apple pie and Chevrolet part, watch the old Chevy commercial here. This is about remembering the good old times, not about unnecessary flag waving.)

Baseball was big in my home town. High schools in my neck of the woods were too small to support football programs, but we all had good baseball teams. Plus there were numerous Little League teams, pickup games at picnics and whenever groups of us kids gathered, summer softball teams, and quite good town baseball teams for the 20 year olds who still wanted to play. Many of our summer evenings were spent watching our town play a neighboring town at well-tended town baseball parks.

Baseball was so important that when the World Series was on (games were played during the daytime, not in prime time), our school allowed us to leave study halls to watch the games on a TV that was set up for us on the stage which was at one end of our gymnasium. The Yankees, during those years, were always contenders. What really caught my attention was the so-called "Race for Ruth", which occurred in 1961 and which involved both Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle (Yankees, both of them) in pursuit of Babe Ruth's record of 60 home runs in a single season. More than anything else, these two men and the Yankees' winning ways, as well as other colorful Yankee players (e.g. Yogi Berra), made me a lifelong fan.

Both Maris and Mantle were on pace through the season to break Ruth's record. Newspapers featured a front page box that showed the current state of their progress toward this record. Maris eventually did break the record with 61 homers, although it was treated in a disgraceful way by officials, because Maris had eight more games in which to break the record than the Babe did (the season had been extended to 162 games per year from 154). Mantle was a media favorite, while Maris, a more reserved individual, was not always treated kindly. Nevertheless, these two guys were my heroes, and I came to like following the Yankees very, very much. I still do, although I must admit that my various connections to Minnesota and Wisconsin now draw me towards the Twins and Brewers sometimes too. People seem to either hate or love the Yankees—there is no in-between. I love them and love watching them, even if there is a lot of truth to the idea that they are the best team money can buy. (Sorry, Sarah and Josh!)

In July, 1968, I had an opportunity to see a Yankees vs. Twins game at the old Metropolitan field in Bloomington, Minnesota. In the picture below, which I took during the game, you will see Mickey Mantle at bat! Mickey retired from baseball that following September. Roger Maris, who by that time was playing for the Cardinals, retired at the end of that season as well.

Metropolitan field was located where the Mall of America now stands. You can read about the field here, if you wish, along with some history of the Twins (the relocated second edition of the Washington Senators). I like that the Twins are now playing outside again, where the game really belongs.

I thought about concluding with a paragraph on baseball movies. There are lots of good ones, and I have personal stories to go with some of them, so maybe that is fodder for a future blog.

Hats, Chapeau, Caps, Fedoras, Lids, Babouchka, ...

2011-04-16T08:14:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking about doing this posting for some time. Then, once I started, I hardly knew where to stop, because there are so many pictures I like. Anyway, this will give you a taste, and if I left someone out, it was not intentional.

Bird Houses

2011-04-14T17:34:00.000-05:00

When I retired (almost five years ago now), Jackie, with whom I very much enjoyed working for several years, kindly gave me a book of bird house plans. She had figured out by then that I liked to build things. Indeed! In the last few weeks, I made nine different bird houses. One was a special Chickadee house for Anders and his mom. Then I made two Wren houses for my friend Dick. Finally, I made six houses for myself to take to the lake--two Chickadee houses, two Nuthatch houses, and two Robin nesting boxes. All were made of cedar.

We are at the lake now, and I brought my six houses here to Wisconsin. Here is one of the Chickadee houses in a red pine tree.

Here is one of the Nuthatch houses mounted atop what remains of a dead popple tree. We have lost lots of these trees, which aren't very resistant to wind when they get old, plus several recent dry years have been hard on them. They are very, very tall and usually snap off about 20 or 30 above the ground, leaving a tall, unsightly stump. The plan for the Nuthatch houses suggested mounting them on a stump, so I cut two of those stumps off at about 14 feet high and mounted these houses there. The stumps will rot and want to fall eventually, but maybe we will get a few good years of Nuthatch residency before that happens.

A Robin has repeatedly built nests just under our deck in spots that made it difficult for us to avoid disturbing it. So, I blocked off those spots, and mounted my Robin nesting boxes a little more out of the way where we can watch them from inside and, I hope, disturb them less. Now if the Robins will only go along with the plan! You can see that these are less a house than a protected place for an open Robin's nest.

Kathie snapped this picture of me attaching one of the Nuthatch houses to a popple stump. We can easily see the new Chickadee and Nuthatch houses from our deck. I hope they find them and find them suitable for nesting.

On a different note, Kathie took the camera along this morning on her dog walk. The weather here has been wonderful during the day, but the nights still dip down into the 20s. She found two puddles in the road with very interesting ice formations on them. Quite the artistic shots, I think.

Today, I got the hot tub put back into operation, so we might try it out one of these cool nights. Otherwise, we have been cleaning up fallen trees and doing other spring maintenance jobs. Hope to see some of you faithful readers here this summer!

Knapp

2011-04-12T20:25:00.004-05:00

Early in March, I got to talking with son Will about a kind of sausage (for lack of a better description) that we used to eat when I was young (really! I was young once!). Anyway, it is called knapp, although the actual spelling may vary and alternate names do exist (e.g. grit, though not the southern kind, and head cheese, though not the kind you can find at some deli counters). I hadn't eaten any for years and didn't know where to get it. Dad used to buy it for me at a meat market in Clarence, but that market is no longer in operation. Nearly every German family I knew back in Lowden used to make their knapp from a hogs head (never waste anything when butchering!) and other ingredients, but I didn't have that recipe and wouldn't have wanted to use a hogs head anyway. I knew that what Dad bought at the market was made with pork roasts and maybe beef as well. Will and I couldn't find anything on the Internet about knapp either, in spite of some serious Google searching.

My cousin Phyllis doesn't use a computer, but her daughter Lynn does, and I thought one of them might at least have an idea where I could find a recipe or buy some knapp. An email to Lynn resulted in a cheery reply saying that Phyllis actually makes her own knapp. Yay! In fact, Aunt Irene evidently used to make it regularly. Lynn thought it sounded yummy and suggested we have a knapp party. So, Phyllis invited Kathie and me over last Saturday morning for breakfast with knapp as the featured dish. Here is our host and my darling wife.

Lynn was there too, along with Randy and Mariah. Somehow, I missed getting Bob in a picture.

Randy and Mariah are some of my favorite young folks (and relatives). It may have been a little early for Mariah's usual Saturday morning routine, but she almost always has a smile on her face, and Randy had lots of conversation to share. I think this may have been their first introduction to knapp. They both tried it and thought it was "not bad." I suspect they will be back for more some day.

And here is the pièce de résistance! One prepares knapp in advance in largish quantities, freezes it, and then uses it from time to time. To serve, it is first fried, and one is required to press it down, maybe to a 1/4" or so, to brown it on both sides and make it quite crispy. Then at the table you pour syrup over it before eating. Phyllis also had a nice fruit mix and made coffee cakes and zwieback as well. (You can find zwieback on the Internet, if you are interested--this is another delightful food item that I rarely see anymore and that Mom and others used to make regularly to keep my young appetite going. Their versions involved covering halves of buns with sugar and cinnamon and maybe butter and then toasting them lightly.) What a grand, memory-filled breakfast this was and with such good folks with whom to enjoy it.

To top the day off, Phyllis then taught us how to make knapp. Here she is mixing the oatmeal into the ground, roasted meat. She said she usually does this in the winter to make a quantity for use during the entire year.

Phyllis even sent a couple servings home with me. In turned out that Paula and Ron were visiting us briefly the next Monday, so I was able to serve some to her as well. She hadn't had any for years either.

Now, I know all you faithful readers are dying to have the recipe, so here goes. You will note that some free-lancing is required in terms of ingredient quantities and taste. Both these recipes are courtesy of Phyllis.

"Original" Knapp from 1946 Lowden Community Cookbook

1 hog head, if too fat remove some

4 pounds beef

1-1/2 cups steel cut oats or a box of pearl barley

Allspice

Salt

Pepper

Boil meat until tender and chop. Cook cereal in the broth. Mix meat and cereal, add allspice, salt and pepper to taste.

Aunt Irene's Version of Knapp

Equal amounts of pork and beef roast

Quick oatmeal (about 1-1/2 cups per 8 pounds [total] of meat; adjust as desired)

Allspice

Salt

Pepper

Roast meats together, adding some water before putting in oven so as to have plenty of broth. When done, pour off and keep the broth, then cool and grind the meat to a coarse texture with meat grinder. Skim any fat off the broth and discard, if you wish. Cook quick oatmeal in the broth, and mix into ground meat. Add additional broth, if needed, to keep texture something like thick oatmeal. Add allspice, salt and pepper to taste. Put in oven at 350º and bake until heated through to mix flavors, stirring occasionally. Cool. Separate into meal-sized servings in bags, pressing flat. Freeze.

Notes

Paula and I remember that our Grandmother Hasenbank may have made her knapp with both barley and oatmeal. She may also have added a little clove. So, one could experiment a bit. Something I intend to do in the very near future. Mom used to serve knapp for breakfast or sometimes for supper, usually with waffles or maybe pancakes.

Reno

2011-04-08T14:07:00.009-05:00

About a week ago, we visited good friends, Cheryl and Gerry, in "The Biggest Little City in the World" or Reno, NV, as it is otherwise known. I thought Reno had lots to offer beyond its gambling and quickee divorce reputation. The casinos and shows are fun, of course, but the region is beautiful and is close to lots of historic and scenic sites. So there is plenty to do.

Cheryl and Gerry moved there about 2-1/2 years ago into a beautiful retirement community just outside of the city in an area known as the Truckee Meadow. Here is a view from the community lodge looking to the south. The weather was wonderful while we were there. Temperatures were near 80º the first two days of our visit. They said that the weather is relatively moderate all year round in this high desert region of the country.

In nearly all directions from their home, you can see mountains, which are foothills of the Sierra Nevada range. The homes are very nice, and the residents seem to be seriously involved with each other in recreational, hobby, and numerous group activities. For example, while we were there, a Johnny Cash/Patsy Kline tribute band played a concert for all of us at the community lodge--that was lots of fun (Anders would have loved it).

On Friday, we drove up to Donner State Park in the mountains just west of Reno. This was only about 35 miles away. Of course, this is the site of the famous Donner Party, which became trapped there in the 1840s while trying to emigrate to California. The park is just alongside Interstate 80, which now allows travel over the mountains (via Donner Pass) nearly all year round. This year there was a total of 68 feet of snowfall at Donner Pass, and we saw huge amounts of not-yet-melted snow near the park and around Donner Lake, where the snow reached the roofs of two-story homes there.

This monument was dedicated around 1914 to honor the many emigrants who passed this way, especially those in the Donner Party. It is said that the snow at the time of their entrapment was as deep as the base of the monument. Three of the children who were part of that unfortunate incident were still alive at the time of the dedication and were present. It is a sad, though interesting, story. Three good books that I have read about the incident, if you are interested, are: Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West, Ordeal by Hunger, and Impatient With Desire. The latter is an imagined journal of one of the women in the party, a journal known to have existed but which was lost. The first book listed is a very recent publication.

Gerry and I also visited the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City, also about 35 miles from Reno to the south. They have lots of equipment dating back to the 1800s with some of the nicer units having been restored and used by the Hollywood movie industry for westerns and other period films. Below is a Baldwin 4-4-0 engine, followed by a McKeen interurban unit (the only one still in existence).

We did a little gambling, of course, and enjoyed the historic downtown area. The Truckee River rushes and tumbles right through the town and is a favorite place for kayakers, one of whom is transporting his dog to the opposite bank of the river, if you look closely below.

Mostly, we had a wonderful time catching up with our friends.

HERO Robot

2011-04-05T14:55:00.010-05:00

Years ago (circa 1983), when I was still working in the Department of Computer Science, I assembled a robot for our laboratory. It was a Heathkit HERO robot, and it was capable of motion, motion detection, voice synthesis, distance detection, sound detection, and probably some other things I don't recall. The machine also had a head that could rotate. An arm was connected to the back of its head, and this arm could be positioned through pivoting, rotation and extension so that its gripper could be operated to grasp things. Faculty and students used it to study a variety of interesting issues in robotics, including programming and scene manipulation.

Here is what HERO looked like while I was in the process of assembling it. It is naked, and those are its guts you are looking at, but don't be squeamish!

And here is what I looked like, while I was assembling it. My grandmother used to say I looked like "one of those old guys in the Bible." You would think she would have liked that, given the reference and her religious leanings, but I think she thought I looked scruffy or something. I used to be able to grow hair--dark hair!!

Here is a top view of the finished HERO with its arm, programming pad, and teaching pendant displayed.

The cool thing, though, is to see how far robotics has progressed. Kathie's investment club owns some stock in a company called Intuitive Surgical that makes medical robotics. Here is a video of a doctor in Seattle using some of their technology to make and throw a paper airplane. It may not seem like much at first, but be sure to watch all the way to the end. You'll be surprised. You couldn't do this with HERO!

Weekend in Minneapolis

2011-04-05T10:54:00.008-05:00

I recently spent an extended weekend in Minneapolis with Will, Sandy and Anders. Naturally, there were lots of activities with Anders, beginning with a walk. Anders rode his bike.

Sandy and I walked along. They are taking care of Jean's dogs for a spell, so Zeke and Gracie were along for some exercise.

You may know that Anders absolutely loves Johnny Cash, especially the songs Ring of Fire and I Walk the Line. Using "his" computer (an old Mac that his folks no longer need), Anders navigates to YouTube and finds videos of Johnny singing these and other songs. Then, he plays along on his guitar. He is very serious about this, but we are going to have to restring his guitar for left-handed playing, if he wants to keep using it this way.

Sometimes, he prefers to look for Johnny on his mom's iPod or his dad's iPhone, or he might play a game or two.

Bath time is a very involved process, with lots of water and suds and toys and singing and other loud, joyous noises.

After the bath, he dons a favorite special towel.

Later that night, we found him zonked out as seen below. He had taken his doll to bed too, after carefully undressing it. Puppy is there with him too, of course.

While I was there, Will and I celebrated our respective birthdays. His was actually yesterday! I failed to get a picture of him cutting cake while I was there, but here is another just for the record.

My birthday isn't for awhile yet, but Will was very thoughtful about his gift for me by suggesting I come to Minneapolis to hear, with him, an interview of John Thorn by Garrison Keillor. We had dinner together first and then went to the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul for the event. You can read about it here. John Thorn has written a new book about the early history of the game of baseball, which is my favorite sport. I intend to read the book in the near future.

New Trike

2011-03-24T18:37:00.004-05:00

In 1947, evidently, when I was just three, I received a new tricycle. I remember having that trike for a very long time. Its whereabouts today are a complete mystery--it is probably a pile of rust somewhere. Grandson Anders has one that looks very much like it, however. In the picture, I seem to be having trouble reaching the pedals. My hairdo is nicely in place, though, and I've got my bibs on, but no shirt. That's a pretty smug look on my face. I'm thinking that this is probably right around my birthday. I don't recall for sure, but a good bet would be that the trike was a birthday present. The location is definitely the farm south of Clarence where we lived when I was that age. What else was going on in 1947? Well, the war had been over for around two years. My sister would have been about one and one-half years old, and my folks were a young 29. All was right in the world for me, with loving parents and lots of loving relatives and friends nearby.

Where's The Justice League When You Need Them?

2011-03-22T22:39:00.005-05:00

Old-time avid readers of DC Comics may remember the Justice League that appeared in the 1960s. For the unenlightened, a more recent image of the league members appears just below.

In my previous posting, I introduced the original Wonder Women. Here is another original. What biceps! What an impressive grimace! Able to leap small items in a single bound! Faster than a speeding spitwad! Look! Up on the couch! It's a bird! It's a boy! No! It's SuperRobbie.

Wonder Woman

2011-03-20T15:58:00.005-05:00

You may have heard that an update of the old Wonder Woman TV show is being prepared for the fall of 2011 on NBC. You can read about that here, if you want. Want to know what the new star, Adrianne Palicki, will look like when the show opens? Just take a gander below.

Well, I'm here to tell you that NBC has it wrong. The real Wonder Woman look was demonstrated years ago by my niece and daughter. Proof appears below. They are much cuter. Read it and weep, Adrianne.

Mixed Feelings

2011-03-20T10:08:00.002-05:00

This photograph always brings a smile to my face. It was taken at Lake Itasca, where the Mighty Mississippi is merely a small stream emanating from the lake. People go there to wade across and to enjoy the very pretty Minnesota state park within which the lake resides.

The photograph also makes me feel some combination of guilty and sad about the way this nation has diminished certain peoples and nations. Our history is quite poor and shameful in that regard. This kindly Native American gentleman was doing something fairly common at the time at tourist locations around the country. That is, to offer opportunities for pictures like this to be taken in exchange for a contribution. I have no recollection of how much money we may have given him, but it was surely not enough to compensate for what may have been to him a somewhat humiliating or degrading place in his life or for the state into which we put his peoples. It is difficult to believe that he could make a very good living this way. On the other hand, maybe I give him too little credit.

Snow Days of Yore

2011-03-19T09:37:00.000-05:00

Spring is almost here, and we can begin to put those snow days behind us. Here was a snow day that is way behind us (way behind me at least). You think we have had serious snow this past winter. Naaaah! Here's real snow and no snow blowers to move it. Just good old dad scooping away, while I watch with admiration and play nearby. Sometime later, I fell off the snowbank onto the sidewalk, and my play shovel came down behind me and hit me on my forehead. Old Doc Smith didn't believe in stitches. Hence, the scar high above my left eye.

Yikes!

2011-03-11T08:41:00.000-06:00

Imagine being greeted like this when you walk into your kitchen. Well, actually, this is a pretty good way to be greeted. Not everyone has three lovable munchkins to make their lives brighter. The trouble is that they grow up and move away and end up being greeted each morning by their own munchkins. So I have some advice for these three: savor every moment like this, because they all pass by too quickly.

P.S. No, I was not feeding them wine. I'm pretty sure that was a bottle of sparkling grape juice that at least a couple of them seemed to like at the time.

Those Wonderful Cows

2011-02-21T09:23:00.000-06:00

I can't think about my father without also thinking about the herd of Holstein cows he cared for and which provided him with a good income when other parts of his farming operation varied with the whims of the markets. Dad was many things with this herd: manager, strategist, veterinarian, planner, breeder, and caretaker. He actually did have a special relationship with each animal, and they responded to him in ways they would not with others. They were much better behaved in the barn than other dairy cows I happened to be around. Milk from the herd was tested monthly for quality and quantity. I still have some of his herd record books. He occasionally received awards for the production levels of selected cows or the overall herd. Dad was a very good dairy farmer. He didn't have a proper barn or the money to invest in a grade A milking operation. Grade A is for human consumption and means pipelines and bulk tanks and a level of cleanliness that simply wasn't possible with the resources Dad had available. Instead, his operation was grade B. That milk was dried and used for making animal feed and other products. Dad always said that it was the cows who put my sister and me through college and allowed him many other benefits in his later life.

I did a share of work with these cows too, including feeding them, cleaning their barn, assisting with the births of calves, and herding them to/from pasture. When I first got involved at a young age, Dad was selling cream instead of whole milk. That meant processing the milk through a cream separator. This was my job. I could start when Dad was about half finished milking and then be done only a little after all the cows had been milked. We used the skim milk (left over after the cream was removed) to make feed for Dad's hogs (we called it slop) or to feed calves. When I was old enough, Dad sometimes left me in charge of the farm so that he and Mom could travel. Getting up at 4:30AM every morning to do the milking and then doing it again at 5PM every evening with lots of other work in-between makes one appreciate how hard farmers work.

Betsy was pretty small the last few years that Mom and Dad were on the farm, but Rob and Will remember being there. Here are some pictures I love. Rob, with his curly blonde hair, is watching his grandfather milk a cow and then pour the results into a tall pail.

1963 Mercury Meteor

2011-02-19T07:37:00.005-06:00

I don't always have current events or news to report, and since I've been spending lots of time lately organizing my old photographs and documents, I thought I might share an occasional story. When I look at these old pictures, I usually recall things that are not evident in the pictures alone. For example, here is a picture of me with my first car. This was taken in the spring of 1964 in City Park in Iowa City looking east across the river.

Let's get the obvious things out of the way first. Yes, at a mere 20 years old, I was thinner and had more hair. The car is a 1963 Mercury Meteor, a mid-size model. Fins were still popular, but the ones on this car were not quite as outrageous as some. I thought the lines of the car were quite nice, actually. The color was a deep burgundy, and the interior was a medium brown. White wall tires were still around, although these were the thin stripe versions that replaced the full white sidewalls of earlier years. I liked these better and still think they look nice. At the time, license plates in Iowa denoted the county in which the vehicle was licensed followed by a vehicle number. So, this car was licensed in county 16 (Cedar County), which was my official residence while I attended the State University of Iowa (later just the University of Iowa). My parents still operated a farm then near Lowden, Iowa. Other things that I notice about the car are its very tall antenna and its double headlights. One had to actually get out of the vehicle to adjust the height of the antenna in those years. Forgetting to put one all the way down at a drive-through car wash could be disastrous to the life of the antenna. Double headlights had been around for a few years on many cars, but that was a relatively recent approach for handling high and low beams. I don't recall anything about the mileage the car got, but gas only cost about $0.35 per gallon in 1984, and so I suppose good mileage wasn't much on my mind or anyone else's, for that matter, much to our eventual distress as a nation.

Now, regarding the non-obvious aspects of the picture. I think the picture was taken by Jim Inghram, who was my college roommate in an apartment we rented a couple blocks west of City Park. I came to own the car through some good fortune. Sometime during my early high school years, I had become interested in the stock market. My Great Uncle Mark dabbled in the market and nurtured my interest by explaining the market to me and discussing stocks and companies and the like. He was a very generous man, and at some point (a birthday, I think) bought 20 shares of Burlington Industries for me as a gift. I recall that the price per share was then about $17. When my father and I began to discuss my having a car of my own, we decided to sell the stock, which had risen in value to about $70 per share. This yielded enough to purchase this low-mileage used car from someone dad knew, also from Lowden. I remember dad being considerate about asking Great Uncle Mark if he minded our using the stock in this way. He didn't mind, and I recall his commenting that he should have bought a number of shares for himself when he bought mine.

This car served me well for several years until I eventually bought a new, gold, 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle with a floor-mounted stick shift and bucket seats. That car was ultimately badly damaged in a hail storm the size of baseballs. But that is another story.

Conehead

2011-02-18T09:07:00.003-06:00

From Tighe: It was bad enough that they subjected me to the loss of my essential maleness, but then they abused me further by making me wear this dumb cone. I tried, with some success to rip it from my neck, and I made a point to crash into everything I could with it so as to be really annoying. I feel like nobody loves me. Everybody hates me. If the ground wasn't frozen, I'd go out to the garden and eat worms. (But then, that isn't beyond me at any time!)

Wisconsin Winter or Winter Near Winter, Wisconsin

2011-02-14T09:02:00.006-06:00

Late last week, we drove up to our place in Wisconsin to enjoy some of the winter fun here. On the way, scenery along the Mississippi river south of Lacrosse was pretty this time of year.

Will, Sandy and Anders came to visit us for the weekend. The fun started with a required Friday night fish fry at one of our local restaurants.

Anders and his mom enjoyed the fireplace Saturday morning. Anders is holding a "snowman kit" that I bought. I suppose one could just use natural things, but the plastic carrot nose, pipe, buttons, and eyes, along with a scarf and cap will be good resources for snowman building for a long time. Besides, Anders thought it was a fun item and that is good enough for me.

I had gotten a new bread machine for Christmas to have at the lake. So, I thought Anders and I should make some raisin bread. He did a great job putting all of the ingredients into the baking pan. Then later, he and I enjoyed watching the machine mix everything up.

He is very careful with the "dumping", and having your mouth open and sometimes your tongue out helps too.

Anders has gotten to be quite the puzzler.

While mom and dad did some cross-country skiing, I took Anders for a long pull on a sled down our lane and back across the lake. After that, Grandma treated him to a nice warm dip in the tub. I'm not crazy about Macaulay Culkin, but I have to admit that this picture reminds me of him in Home Alone. Anders is definitely cuter and will grow to be a much nicer boy.

The next day, I showed Anders how we used to slide on scoop shovels when I was young. We didn't need saucer sleds! We just sat on the shovel, hung onto the handle, and pointed downhill. As long as you didn't spin sidewise or get backwards, it worked great! If that happened, you often enjoyed a bailout or tumble. With a little practice, you could learn to keep the edge from digging in and do a complete spin. Give it a try! I highly recommend it.

You may have seen the earlier pictures that Sandy posted of Anders' outing on the cool little snowshoes that his dad made for him. Here he is trying them out again on our lake.

It got warm enough on Sunday to make a snowman and try out the snowman kit. See! It does work well. Anders liked it!

While dad and mom loaded the car for the trip back home, Anders practiced driving. I don't think he actually drove home, though. Rather, I imagine he was asleep by the time they got to the end of our lane. What a fun and rewarding weekend it was for us for them to be here with us.

At the Feet of the Master

2011-01-29T08:35:00.001-06:00

This is what happens at our house when a bowl of popcorn is present.

Maia Moves

2011-01-24T07:54:00.003-06:00

Maia, with a little help from her dad, has already developed some moves. (You will also see why Maia's dad is still working to get his grin under control. It may be a losing battle. That's only right.)

Little Baby Sparkle Princess

2011-01-22T08:24:00.004-06:00

While Liam awaited the arrival of his new first cousin, he decided to call Maia "Little Baby Sparkle Princess." Uncle Mike may have provide Liam with some help in coming up with that name. Yesterday, Little Baby Sparkle Princess and her parents left the hospital and went home.

The front of her traveling outfit said "Daddy's Angel." There are even two cute little wings embroidered on the back.

Aunt Betsy provided a cap. Maia was all snuggly warm in her car carrier.

Barney was quite fascinated with Maia. Ozzie was rather indifferent, but then Ozzie is a cat, after all. Barney often whimpered whenever he heard Maia crying.

After a nice dinner, Jess and Mike put on a movie, and so Maia watched (?) her first movie with her dad. For the record, her first movie was Prince of Persia. Kathie and I saw the whole movie. We suspect Dad, Mom, and Maia slept through most of it.

Meet Maia June

2011-01-20T12:54:00.002-06:00

Maia June Stalbaum was born to Jessica and Michael Stalbaum on January 19, 2011 at 10:03PM. Vital statistics: 7 pounds 4 ounces, 20 inches, long fingers and toes, and a head of very cute, soft, black hair (which the hospital staff immediately adorned with a tiny pink bow). Mother and daughter are doing very well. The father is still working at getting his grin under control.

For starters, here is a three generation picture. Grandmother Kathie is very impressed with her new little granddaughter. Once we can get these three together with Great Grandmother Novy, we can do a four generation picture!

Here are the proud parents with Maia. What a great looking family.

Maia is busy learning about her hands and how good they feel in her mouth. She has taken to nursing very quickly and to the related task of using up diapers.

Everyone thinks she is quite the pretty little girl.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow

2011-01-15T08:45:00.009-06:00

Our lake home has a camera that looks out over our deck towards the water. When it sees a sufficient level of motion, it sends us a 5 second video. Nearly always, this is a result of weather conditions: wind making the trees move or falling snow. Occasionally a bird flies by, and once in awhile our trusty neighbor can be seen clearing snow from the deck. In all cases, it is fun to receive a pleasant winter reminder of a place that is giving us so much happiness in our retirement years.

Here is a little taste for all of you faithful readers. We definitely need to get up there next month to do some cross-country skiing, to enjoy the beauty of the winter, to visit our neighbors, and maybe to enjoy a fish fry at one of the local eateries.

Christmas, 2010

2011-01-02T10:15:00.008-06:00

I'm a little late getting this posted, but here are some miscellaneous shots from our holidays. First of all, our tree was smaller this year but especially pretty, I thought. It has been sucking up water like crazy and even sprouting new buds! I wouldn't be surprised to see that it has sent out roots!

Josey already knew how to open gifts. For Tighe, this was a new experience.

Here is Kathie's new cocktail shaker for use in Iowa. We already have one up in Wisconsin.

Kathie's mom and I are always joking about sporting events. She likes to tease me with silly questions about the games. I guess I do subject her to watching quite a few. Anyway, I thought two rule books would be fun surprises in her stocking. She seemed to really enjoy getting them and even asked me to autograph them for her.

On Christmas Day, Kathie's whole family was able to come and spend a couple days with us.

A few days later, Will, Rob and Betsy's families arrived for a Christmas gathering. Henry, being into dinosaurs these days, had gotten a paleontologist's kit from his Uncle Van. He brought that along and worked on it in my shop.

Eleanor and the rest of the grandkids were eager to begin opening gifts.

Clara consulted with her dad about the appropriate gift-opening protocols.

Meanwhile, I managed the extrication of gifts from beneath the tree.

Betsy received a book containing a record of her blog postings from 2005 to 2006. Similar gifts were given to Carrie and Sandy.

Anders was especially into gift-opening this year.

And there was lots of chair-lift riding. Dad would have found this hilarious.