Klopf's Visit

Gail and Greg Klopf (Gail is Kathie's sister) came to visit us here in WI the last few days. We had a great time. On Tuesday, we went for a hike on an area trail that we had wanted to try out for some time. We ate way too much food, and we played lots of games of "Hand and Foot." Here are some scenes from our visit.

Greg went for a walk on our lake (when we still had some reasonable snow on the lake).


All of us trekked through the woods on a local trail.



Gail and Greg prepared a great dinner, after lubricating themselves for the work involved.



We played lots of games of "Hand and Foot."


There were several rounds of ping pong and many games of pinball.


And, we had a final dinner at "Famous Dave's" before Gail and Greg, sadly, had to return to the Chicago area.

For the birds... (and bats)

With some snow on the ground (not as much as we wish or as needed for the Birkebeiner) and with very cold temperatures, we have been concerned about our little feathered friends. So shortly after arriving here, we put one of our bird feeders back up and filled it with sunflower seeds. In return, we have been blessed all day every day with nuthatches, chickadees, purple finches, and gold finches. Today, I'll have to refill the feeder for the third time. The birds seem very happy, and we very much enjoy their cheerful presence.



When I stepped down from my assignment as Interim VP a couple of years ago, my friends in the office gave me a few "farewell" gifts. Aware of my growing interest in woodworking, their gifts included a book of birdhouses that I could build. In anticipation of spring and using this great book of plans, I decided to build some wood duck houses to dot around the property. The book also has a plan for bat houses, and since a population of them in the vicinity can do much to reduce insects (especially mosquitoes), I decided to build a couple of bat houses as well. Here are the finished products, pre-painting and hanging. I intend to get them all placed in trees (wood duck houses) or near the garage (bat houses) before we head back home at the end of the week. It will be fun to see if we find tenants when we return.

Relatives, Boots and Skis

I don't know whether to model this posting on This American Life and announce three different acts, as Ira Glass does, or to claim that I'm following Betsy's lead and indicate that I have collected a set of photos and now need to post them all, along with their several related stories. I guess it amounts to the same thing.

Act I: Relatives
Patty and Pat Von Behren were in Iowa City late last week to visit Rex and Chris. Rex called on Friday evening to invite us to join them for breakfast on Saturday morning. Pat's sister, Marie, was also able to join us. Rex suggested we try the Grounds for Dessert Coffeehouse, which is located in the Transporation Center in downtown Iowa City. I guess I've been retired for awhile, because I didn't even know the place existed! They make interesting waffles with all kinds of added ingredients of your choice, and they have a great selection of coffees. From the menu, it appears they also offer a nice selection of panini, which we will have to sample for lunch sometime. You can see their complete menu at the web site. Anyway, the main reason for this posting is to mention how great it was to see everyone. We really enjoyed catching up with each other. Pat is retired now too, and they are living in the bay area of California to be nearer their children. Here we all are, waiting for the waffling to begin:


Act II: These Boots Are Sort of Made for Walking

(Please hum the famous Nancy Sinatra song while reading what follows.) After the above-mentioned breakfast, we packed up and drove to Minneapolis to spend Sunday and a couple of evenings with Will and Sandy before heading further north for some R&R in our place at the lake. On the way, we stopped at Cabela's to see if we could find some dog boots for Josey. When we have been outdoors in the snow for long periods of time, Josey has sometimes gotten snow and ice packed between her toes, and then she starts lifting her feet or tries to get out of the snow to a place where she can nibble the snow out. Otherwise, she handles the cold weather very well. We thought she might do better if she could wear some boots. Will and Sandy had informed us of Lucy's adventures in boots, so we decided to give it a try. Below you can see Kathie lacing Josey up. You can also tell by the look on Josey's face, that she isn't at all sure about the necessity of this. The next shot shows her giving the boots a first walking. Will and Sandy had warned us that Lucy tends to lift her legs really high when she first has boots on, as if she is trying to pull them out of something. Josey did this too, and it looks really funny. I wish I could post a short movie of that. All in all, she did pretty well with them. I think we need to learn to lace them up a little tighter. She would probably rather do without them for short outings.




Act III: The Mostly Ups of Cross Country Skiing
When we arrived at Will and Sandy's on Saturday evening, we ate at Rix Bar & Grill, a good, local neighborhood restaurant. This is right next door to our favorite northwest Minneapolis coffee shop, which is called Steamworks (try their Highlander Grog sometime!!). On Sunday, we decided to do some shopping at REI, since we needed a few outdoor items. When we found out that REI had a clearance sale going on, we decided to set ourselves up with cross country skiing equipment too. Will and Sandy fixed an absolutely wonderful dinner that evening, with walleye, potatoes, and salad. Sarah Benfer came over to join us for dinner and contributed to the salad, as well as providing ice cream for dessert. After Will and Sandy left for work on Monday morning, Kathie and I stopped at Steamworks for coffee and waffles with lingonberries. Then we drove up to the lake where we are at present. This afternoon, we broke in our new cross country skis on the frozen lake. A few shots of our attempts and the beautiful frozen countryside appear below. As the title of this part indicates, there were mostly upsides to the skiing. A few crashes occurred, but there are no broken bones to report. We got better as the afternoon went along. This was my first time on skis in over 20 years, and it was Kathie's first time. We will definitely be out again, and we plan to go watch the experts in a couple of weeks at the American Birkebeiner event here in Hayward. I wish we were getting the snow up here that Iowa is evidently getting today!!

Happy 90th Birthday, Uncle Ed!

Last evening, relatives gathered to celebrate Uncle Ed's 90th birthday, which occurs on February 7th. We had a wonderful time getting reacquainted and visiting. We also enjoyed a soup supper that the catering company of Phyllis, Robert, Edwin, and Karilyn prepared. There were three soups to choose from: potato/ham, chili, and chicken noodle. (I admit to having sampled each one, declare them all great, and wish I had some available for the Super Bowl this afternoon.) After supper, Uncle Ed entertained us by responding to memories and questions that all of us shared with him. We learned, for example, that he was once (and may still be) the Cedar County shotput record holder. We also found out how he got his nickname (Windy). Evidently, he was accused of talking to the batters incessantly when he played catcher on the Clarence baseball team. He also told us about how he and my father were raised by their grandmother after their mother died, how they got to school in Clarence--sometimes by pony, and many other things.

Naturally, there was lots of picture taking going on. Here are some from our camera. First of all, here is the honored guest, his lovely bride, and their children, followed by a second shot that includes the spouses.



All of the grandchildren and many of the great-grandchildren were there too.



Here is one of the whole family.


Finally, just to prove that we were there, here is one taken of us by Uncle Ed's great-granddaughter Mariah. I think she is going to be a fine photographer--she made us all look pretty good!

WI in January

We have been at our place in WI for a week now and plan to be here yet another week. There is very little snow so far, and the locals are very concerned about the effects on the economy and spring lake levels. Usually, there is a significant influx of tourists who enjoy snowmobiling, ice fishing, and cross-country skiing. There is some ice fishing going on, but we haven't seen the adventurous driving of cars onto the ice that we have seen in other years. Still, it is pretty and quiet here. With the lake frozen and a bit of snow, the view from our place is quite nice.

I forgot to bring my camera along, but I rigged up the iSight camera on my Macintosh computer and took a few shots. They aren't the highest quality, but I thought you would like to see what we are doing.

We have done lots of relaxing, including reading books (I finished two so far), completing a picture puzzle, and watching a few movies. Kathie bought me the first season of Six Feet Under for Christmas, and we have been watching one episode of that each evening. (What an interesting show. I highly recommend it.)

A few days ago, we trekked into Hayward so that I could get a haircut and check on how to install a different chain sprocket in one of my chainsaws. We also made the mandatory stop at the bakery and the local coffee shop, and Kathie bought a pair of gloves to replace the ones we seem to have lost on our way up here.

We brought some new wall hangings along with us and have put those up, including two very nice fishing-theme needlepoints that Mom did for us. There has been some pinball playing, and we plan to play some ping-pong today. Hunkered down in a cabin in the woods like this, it is also easy to overdo the snacking and eating, but we are enjoying that too. I've been working on a DVD project for my kids, and Kathie has been working on an afghan.


Josey has been lounging on the deck and chases squirrels every once in awhile. We have also taken her for walks on the frozen lake, where she can run and run (and slide). She seems very at home here. We think she has begun to know "go to the lake" and "go home" as two important phrases in her limited vocabulary.


We spent quite a lot of time the last few days clearing out a couple of dead trees (which I had worried might fall on parked cars sometime). That wood was tootsie-rolled (this is what you call cutting up a long tree into short fire logs) and stacked, and the limbs and some other brush we had cleared up has been burned. I also got around to trying my hand at some chainsaw carving. This is something I've been contemplating for some time. I have the right equipment, but I don't have very good technique yet. I started with a little bear, which is the usual subject matter for carving. The only books I could find with which to get started all concentrate on this basic carving. They claim that once you master this, you can branch out into other things. We shall see. Anyway, here are my results so far. Clearly, this one will have to be scrapped as a first experience!!

Christmas, 2006

The major snowstorms in Denver interfered with Travis's travels home for Christmas. He was supposed to fly home on the 20th, the day over 2000 flights were canceled. However, he did eventually make it home on Christmas Eve. Jessica had arrived on the 20th from Providence as planned. Both had to return to their respective homes on the 26th, but we did get to enjoy Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and part of the 26th together.


Josey was the first to dig into her presents. She worked on her stocking for awhile and then moved on to the devouring of unwrapped goodies. She even dressed up for the occasion with a gold ribbon.



Jessica modeled some new undies and also the scarf that was picked out for her during our recent trip to Italy. In one of the shots below, Jessica and her Mom both model their new Italian accessories.




Travis loved his new audio mixer and immediately began to delve into the owner's manual.



Kathie and I also did well on the gift front. She received a new Palm Pilot, and I received a new high-accuracy miter guage and crosscut sled for my table saw.



Later, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner, and then Jessica taught Kathie and me how to do an official wine tasting. It turned out that Jessica had to miss one session of her wine tasting class back at Johnson & Wales. Her instructor said that would be OK if she would do this make-up work with us, even offering extra credit! Because Kathie and I were still recovering from seasonal coughs and colds, we weren't sure that our aroma-detectors or taste-sensors were fully up to the job, but we had fun anyway. The process is quite involved.

Expanded Shop

For those of you who care...my sweet wife was kind enough to allow me to expand the size of my shop. Previously, I occupied about 1/4 of the basement, and now I have essentially the entire west end of the basement as my shop. This has allowed me to arrange my power tools better, as well as my benches. Part of this was necessitated by my acquisition of a couple of new power tools as well as an expansion of the size of the table on my table saw. I can now work more efficiently, I think. I also gained the ability to more easily work with larger pieces of wood. My lathe is much more accessible too, and I improved the dust collection system layout.

I'm sure this is all as thrilling to you as it is to me, so here are some pictures.

Travis's Steamer Trunk

One of my recent shop projects was an old-fashioned steamer trunk that I made for Travis. Here are some shots of him with it. It wasn't really meant to be a Christmas present, but I did surprise him with it when he was here for a very brief holiday. (The Denver snow storms trapped him there, and he was unable to get here until Christmas Eve and then had to return the day after Christmas.)



The chest is made of oak--some solid and some oak veneer plywood. I lined the chest with aromatic cedar, and there is lots of brass hardware, as you can see. The finish was a mix of burnt umber oil paint and linseed oil that I hand rubbed onto the chest. Two coats of polyurethane varnish completed the look. This was a fun project--one I had wanted to do ever since I first saw the plans. I was pleased that Travis was interested in having one for clothing and other storage.

Six Word Memoirs

On yesterday's edition of Weekend America, I heard a segment on a contest sponsored by Smith Magazine. They are sponsoring a Six Word Memoir Contest.

I couldn't help this weekend but think about what six words I would use to describe my life. So far, I like this best: Stubborn, constructive, committed Iowan; adores family. I know this isn't as cute as some others I've seen on the Smith web site, but it feels best.

Way back when all of you were first starting these blogs and encouraged me to join in, various challenges were put forth. I specifically remember the challenge to recall what you were doing exactly ten years ago--I think I failed at this one. However, that doesn't stop me from challenging all of you to write your six word memoirs!! And, if you are truly inspired, you can enter them in the Smith contest too.

Pfefferneusse (Peppernuts)

Each year, in memory of my mother, I'm obliged to make peppernuts, or pfefferneusse, as my German ancestors would call them. They aren't nuts, and they don't have pepper in them, so go figure. Anyway, most of you know what they are--tiny little cookies made from flour, lots of butter, Karo syrup, sugar, a tiny amount of milk and baking soda, and two spices (allspice and cardamom; some use anise, but I don't care for that).

Many years ago, thoughtful, sensitive son Rob made a gift for me based on Mom's peppernut recipe. I have had it framed and hanging in the kitchen for over 16 years.


I didn't take a picture of the dough or the dough "in process", but you would be correct to imagine modeling clay. The dough is very, very stiff and thick. In the last stages, it is a real bear to stir. Then it is cooled further before being rolled out--like the snakes you used to roll out with modeling clay in grade school.


These rolls are cooled further overnight, and then the baking process commences. Each roll is cut into many, many, many, many, many, many small 1/4" or smaller slices. These are then, of course, arranged in rows and columns (the obssessive-compulsive in me requires this) on a cookie sheet and baked.



The results are wonderful, little, golden brown goodies that combine to fill up an appropriate container. The one you see here was filled to overflowing by the time I was done, with the extras filling another mixing bowl.


Now, there are many ways to eat these delights. Personally, I dislike just chewing them up like cookies, although to each his or her own. My prefence is to just let each one melt in your mouth (resulting in slower consumption) or to drop a handful in a glass of milk and fish them out with a spoon after an appropriate amount of time. Yum!

When I worked at NSF back in 1998-2000, I made some of these for friends there. They didn't recognize them, though they claimed to know what peppernuts were. Later, they brought me some they had purchased. They were enormous and were frosted! Naturally, I didn't think these qualified as peppernuts, but I guess there are lots of ways to make them. Just "google" for peppernuts or pfefferneuse on the web, and you will see what I mean.