Ducks

I was working on my boat this afternoon. The anchor winch had jammed up when we were fishing last night, and I discovered a broken spool, which needed to be removed. With my attention completely focused on the boat, I did not notice that the following critters had quietly snuck up behind me. Josey came down to see what I was doing, and that caused a major fuss in the water. When I turned around to look, here is what I saw:


Surprisingly, they didn't go away and didn't seem much bothered by my presence or Josey's. I got Kathie to bring the camera down, and she also brought some stale bread to feed them. One wonders if others have been feeding them, since they seemed so unphased by our presence.


In the next shot, you will see that a second mother and young ones soon arrived. If you look closely, you may see that the two mothers are in something of a stare-down. Soon after I took this shot, a major fight ensued. I don't think there were any serious damages, but the end result was that the new arrival and her brood soon high-tailed it for another part of the lake.

Weeds

As we are now owners of lake property, we pay more attention to the problems associated with invasive species, including forms of vegetation. There are numerous plants that have invaded WI, and two have caught our attention. One is called Purple Loosestrife. This one is rather pretty.


However, it propagates rapidly and crowds out other species, having especially bad effects on cattails and other shoreline vegetation. We have been pulling it when we see it. Our property owners association has started a program of introducing a beetle that eats it, and this is having good success. (I wonder, though, if we humans ever truly understand the effects of such introductions. What other unintended consequences might there yet be from the beetle introduction?)

The other plant of interest to us is called Eurasian Milfoil.


Any of you who have owned aquariums would likely recognize the plant. They have sold it for years for use in aquariums. You can read more about it at a couple of sites. One is here, the Wisconsin DNR site, and another is here, a USDA site. The USDA site has an image that you can enlarge. If you do so, you will get a good sense of what we are dealing with near our property.

What are we dealing with here? Well, for some reason, this plant has decided to take over our little bay. The picture I mention above at the USDA site is fairly typical of what we see here. All of the six or so property owners on this bay are struggling with the Milfoil. It creates a distinct odor that hovers around. Though not terrible and though breezes keep it away, it can be unpleasant. The biggest problem is the way it crowds out the lily pads and reduces oxygen levels for the fish. In addition, it makes boat traffic very difficult, as it tangles in the propeller to the point where a boat will almost not move. Most of us have been working to create paths to open water in various ways, some by simply raising their propellers to be near the surface and then "chopping" their way through. The bad thing about this is that the pieces can float away and may root elsewhere. I wrote to the DNR but haven't gotten much reassuring information. They begin by saying that owners may pull weeds as much as they like, as far out as they like, and within the permitted 30 feet of cleared shoreline. This is a reasonable, though labor-intensive, short term approach. We are discussing other remediation approaches with the neighbors and may talk further to the DNR or to an area aquatic vegetation specialist.

In the meantime, I have acquired two new "lake rakes." Both have very long handles. One has a wide cutter blade, and the other is a somewhat more traditional rake equipped with floats and ropes to enable retrieval of materials from the surface or (with floats removed) from the lake bottom. So, I've been busy removing this Eurasian Milfoil from our dock area and well out into the bay. The results have been good, so far, but you might not believe the quantity of vegetation we've had to dispose of. My spouse has been successful at burning most of it so far, but we have to let it dry first, at least partially. (I can't help but think of the hay we used to cut and dry before bailing. These plants almost have that nature to them when they are spread to dry, and the skill I acquired with a pitch fork when younger is paying good dividends now.)

Kathie took a few pictures of me at work. I tie our canoe to the boat to use to transport the weeds I pull out with the rake. Then, I remove the boat seats so that I can stand in the boat and work with the rake. Yesterday, I just about sank the canoe by filling it so full of weeds.





So far, so good. We now have a very nice, clear area around our dock. And, we are able to do some fishing in the evenings. Even though the vegetation reduces oxygen levels, there still are lots of bass and pan fish lurking around under the weeds. With the areas I've cleared, we can now fish at the edges of weed patches. Kathie caught two nice bass last night from the dock.

Truck

Betsy recently updated everyone on what she is reading. I thought I should do the same, mainly because I want to encourage individuals to read the following book:


All my male friends and relatives should give this book serious consideration. I know that Will, Rob, Pete, Mike, and Travis would love it. Maybe Will, especially, would enjoy it, given his work on an old Scout. (Whatever happened to that old Scout, by the way?)

Eleanor Ruby

As proud grandparents, we can't miss this opportunity to announce the arrival of our new granddaughter. Her name is Eleanor Ruby, and you can learn full details about her arrival at Rob and Carrie's blog site. Just click here.

Bread Making Adventure

While waiting for grandchild number two to arrive, we were treated this weekend to a visit from grandchild number one (oh yeah, and his parents). Henry and I spent some quality time playing with the "Field of Dreams" farm set that Great Aunt Paula made for us some months ago. (If you need a refresher on that story, go back to my July, 2006 archive.) We also practiced hitting a baseball, enjoyed a breakfast outing with Rob and Carrie, and watched Toy Story.

One other highlight of Henry's visit, which took place while Betsy and Pete went on a movie date, was a bread making adventure. OK, I'm not accomplished enough to do everything by hand, mixing and kneading dough. I could probably do that, but some years ago, Kathie bought me a great bread-making machine, and it does a very good job. Besides, it is a lot more fun to watch the technology at work.

So, I put Henry in charge of depositing the ingredients into the machine as I rounded up each one. He did a very good job of this, naturally, and then, with his refined high-tech button pushing skills, I guided him through programming the machine for the raisin bread we were making. Then it was time to press Start and await the results. Of course, both Henry and I found it difficult not to peek inside the machine to see what was happening along the way. There are lots of fascinating shifts in speed as the dough is mixed and then kneaded, and there is a point, when a beeper goes off, that extra ingredients (raisins and cinnamon) must be added--another opportunity for Henry. Here we are checking things out.



Because the total time required is about three and a half hours, Henry and I were off to bed while the baking finished up and filled the house with good aromas. It was exciting for the two of us to go look at the finished loaf first thing this morning. Better yet was the wonderful toast we had with our breakfast. Here is Henry showing off the remainder of the loaf.


P.S. Although I can't find the photograph right now, this experience with Henry reminds me of a time that my mother involved Will and Rob in making butter in a churn. There is a photograph showing Rob turning the crank, while Mom and Will look on. For me, there are lots of parallels between these two stories.

Nashville

Earlier this month and after graduating from Johnson & Wales University) Jessica and Mike relocated to Nashville from Providence. Kathie and I drove to Nashville too, arriving just a couple of days behind them. You may recall my prior posting about the bedroom set we refinished for Jessica, along with building a few added pieces for the set. We had carefully wrapped everything in plastic and furniture pads, loaded them into our trusty pickup truck, and were now delivering them for use in the new apartment in Nashville. Jessica had been using one piece of the bedroom set, a chest of drawers, so we refinished that upon arrival to match the other pieces.

Although I didn't really get pictures of the new apartment, I did get shots of some of the fun things for the two days we were there. After spending the early morning on the final refinishing project, we headed out for a tour of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. The museum is very nicely organized and was great fun to visit. There is so much history associated with country music, both in terms of pure American history and in terms of its influences on so many other forms of music. I loved the tour. That is the museum across the street behind Jessica and Mike in the shot below.


Although we didn't make it to the current Grand Ole Opry, we did make a stop at the famous old Ryman Auditorium, which is where the Opry was staged for many, many years before moving to a new location away from downtown Nashville.


Downtown Nashville is fun, with lots of music venues, restaurants and bars, and outstanding guitar and record shops. Nearby is music row, home to numerous recording studios. Downtown is also home to a building that locals refer to as the "Batman Building." Can you see why?


On our second day, we visited the Hermitage, the plantation home of Andrew Jackson. The grounds are covered with the most amazing trees, including the most beautiful, tall, straight cedar trees I've ever seen. Here are Jessica and Mike walking beneath a couple of the trees. Then there is a shot of the front of the home itself.



That night, we dined at J. Alexander's, the restaurant that hired Jessica (who started her new position today, June 18). I urge you to visit their web site and to examine the menu! The food was absolutely fabulous and the service was exceptional. We also enjoyed meeting some of the people Jess will be working with. Here is the outside of the establishment and the four of us after some pretty serious gluttony.



Finally, here is a shot of Jessica's cat, Ozzie, who is (pick one): (a) less than excited about our visit, (b) unaffected by the move to Nashville, or (c) all of the above.

Happy Fathers Day to Me

Here are all the people who make everything in life worthwhile. I'm a very lucky husband, father, and grandfather (and on that last count, I'm going to be lucky soon twice more!!).

Children's Museum

One of the days we spent with Betsy, Pete, and Henry involved Kathie and I spending the day with Henry, while his parents were off at work. A trip to the Kohl Children's Museum was, therefore, a requirement. Henry loves that place, and I do too, having gone there once before with Henry and Betsy. For Grandma Kathie, this was a first-time experience. Betsy and Pete have a membership at the museum. This entitles Henry and his guests to enter a half hour early. The place is literally swamped with kids when the regular opening occurs, so it is fun to have the place almost to oneself for a little while.

Grandma and Henry pose near the entrance to the museum. By the way, this is more an interactive, play-time, but very educational museum than it is a set of exhibits.


Henry has been to the museum so often and loves it so much, that he almost disappears in a blur once you pass the entrance. He knows where everything is and has definite favorites. Maybe because he wanted to impress his grandfather, Henry stopped first at a computer-based exhibit. The boy loves to press buttons! Among other things, we found all the letters for his name on the keyboard.


Next, what we found exciting was a gadget that I will call a "coin funnel." You drop coins down a slot, and they exit rolling on their edge onto a large funnel, where they go around and around and around. At the very bottom of the funnel, the coins have accelerated to a point where they are almost horizontal in the neck of the funnel but still rolling around and around. Finally, gravity defeats centrifugal force, and they fall to the bottom (safely into a fund for the museum, I presume). We didn't capture coins in action, but here is a shot of a coin launch and another of Henry focused on the traveling coin (with the required Decker-related tendency to have one's tongue out when engaged in thoughtful or intensive manual activity).



This part of the museum focused on physics and engineering. So Henry and I worked the generator to light up the model of the Sears Tower and also tried floating various shapes in a stream of air.



Each area of the museum is sponsored by an industry trade group or a company. One local company sponsors a play deli, where children can prepare sandwiches, serve them, and then go through the motions of cleaning up afterwards. Here is Henry making a sandwich for us. Again, help from that tongue is required.


He loves musical things. There is one room in the music area where you can enter and dance around. Your image is captured and displayed on a screen with all sorts of psychedelic effects--great for those of us from the 60s. There is no way to capture that here, but Henry loves it. I hope he doesn't become inhibited about dancing when he is older. I did catch this shot of him and Grandma playing with one of the many interesting percussion toys.


My favorite part of the museum, and maybe Henry's too, is the area sponsored by the local plumbing trades. There are all kinds of interesting things to do with water, most of which involve getting a little bit wet--hence, the supply of aprons for the kids. Here we are with the water cannons (shooting streams at bells and wind chimes) and various pumping devices.




There was lots more to do, but here is one last shot of Grandma and Henry operating a crane.


Finally, although this last picture has nothing to do with the museum, I can't help but include it. Henry loves Josey, but he is a little unsure of her, I guess because she is so much bigger than Franklin. Can you see that by looking at this picture?

My Daughter, The Wood Worker

Some of you may have already seen Betsy's posting (if not, click here) about the gardening workbench we built together for her. That was a really fun day for me, and I think for her. We haven't worked together on projects very often, so it was a real privilege for me to get to do something with her. Anyway, I took my own share of photographs that day and thought you might like to see them as well.

For starters, in spite of what her brothers might think, Betsy proved to be quite proficient when it came to operating the power tools. Here she is cutting a piece of wood with my miter saw. She paid good attention to such things as "measure twice, cut once" and to properly keeping her hands and fingers away from the spinning blade. I liked it that she was willing to give everything a try, but then what would I expect from a daughter of mine?


Here is Betsy fastening one of the supports that connect the upper workspace to the lower part of the bench.


In Betsy's posting, there is an action video of her driving a screw down to fasten a shelf to the back of the bench. Here is the companion still shot of that same step. I guess these pictures prove that Betsy did most of the work, while I watched and took photographs.


Finally, here are the happy builders with their finished project. Note the proud father!

New Walkways

I'm a little behind on my postings! As you will know, we were in WI again recently enjoying a visit from niece Kris and boyfriend Tom. Before leaving, Tom assisted me in setting two new stone walkways in place. You may know that we already have red flagstone walks to the front door and from the back deck to the lake steps. I wanted to add two more--one from our new hot tub deck to the stone steps at the rear of the home and another from the foot of those stone steps over to the rear deck. It took a half ton of stone to do the job, and several of the individual stones were very heavy. Without Tom's help and his experience in doing jobs like this, I would surely have struggled, simply to get it done but also to do it right. Many, many thanks Tom!!

I started by laying out a pattern with the stones I had previously selected. Then we marked the edges, laid the stones aside, skimmed out about 3" of soil, put each stone back (carefully leveling and supporting each one with sand fill), and then finished the job by packing the cracks and edges with soil/sand.







Here are the final results as seen from a spot near the hot tub and looking down toward the back yard and another from the back deck looking down. In time, with a little settling of the fill and some washing by the rain, everything will look even better. It has a very nice overall flow.