Time seems to go by quickly.   I have all these things I think about doing and don’t get to them all.   But I do get to a few.   Warm out in Wisconsin like pretty much the rest of the country.    But better than floods in Florida, although Duluth did have the same floods.    And much better than the New Mexico and Colorado fires.   We pray for all those in it’s path.

More importantly the girls are having fun.   Sounds like they had a great time with Marie’s friend Kathy.  Lot’s of sight seeing and shopping.

And from Chris:         MJ, Marie and I are having a wonderful time. We are now in Einsiedeln (my grandma´s village) visiting with our cousins. We visited the beautiful cathedral here… it’s most famous landmark, this afternoon. Half of the trip is over already. Time is flying by.

Sounds like Charles made them feel very welcome on their first day there.  Chris said they did a lot, had some great meals including at Charles home, visited a monastery and other places.   And as I write this they will be getting up in a few hours to do some hiking up a mountain.   Get them in good shape Charles!

Marie, Chris and MJ going up the Mattehorn

MJ is getting great pictures

OK, I am not sure what to guess, I think it says have a drink.....

Just a quick update.   We have had some hot weather in the 90’s, we already have had as many days in the 90’s as a normal full year will have.  And we have the hot months of July and August ahead of us.   Not everyone likes it,  but I do OK.  You know I will take the heat rather than the January low temps.   We had a front and some rain go through last night, and today a high of 80.  And a strong breeze off the lake so almost everyone could enjoy today’s weather.  Very comfortable.   We had been very dry until this week, but the girls kept the sprinklers going and the gardens are doing well.  There are some peppers and tomato’s on the plants.  And the zucchini plants growing quickly.  The flowers filled in nicely and the raspberries are ripe about a month early.

Lucky for the rain this week,  because Chris is not here to water.   Chris, Marie and Mary Jane are in Switzerland.   Sounds like their flights on Tuesday went well.  Everything on time and landed in Zurich as planned.   A tough day yesterday since they left New York around 4pm Tuesday and landed in Zurich at 6 am Wednesday.   I think they stayed up most of the day as everyone told them would be best.   Last night a good night of sleep and sight seeing today to some Swiss towns.  And tomorrow (is that today?) will be the Matterhorn and Zermatt.

Sounds great http://www.ski-zermatt.com/zermatt.html

Have a beer for me girls.   Had my homebrew club meeting last night.  The SOB’s http://www.realsob.org  are a fun group.  Last night a great night as we did a beer and cheese tasting.  How could I go wrong?    We had 11 combinations brought in by members.   I like my apple cider with Asiago, a surprisingly nice combonation.   But they were all good.   Hinterland Saison with mango salsa cheddar,  I have to find some of that.

So enjoy life.   Here in Wisconsin summer is short so we will make the most of it.  And I am sure the girls will have lot’s of pictures and stories from their trip!

Anglers Haven in Hayward, a Port in the Storm

I do catch some fish!

It feels like I need to do an update because time is flying by.  Thanks to you who put the nice comments on the last post.  Tom and Barbara are on their own adventure with Sandi,Max and grand kids.   We hope you are having a great time across Florida and up the East coast.

Marie has arrived since my last post.  We are happy to have her here.  She arrived in time to prepare for us to make our Memorial Day Hayward trip.   Up to far north western Wisconsin.   We had a great time with Dick and Carol.   They are great hosts and show us around the area.  Dick and I spent a fair amount of time on the water.   We caught a lot of great eating 16-17 inch walleyes on Sand Lake.  Unfortunately  the size limit on Sand Lake is 18″.    But we did OK on Crappie and Perch, enough to do a fish fry.  I wanted Marie to get a fish fry this year.   It started out well,  but before it was done I was trying to fry in a rain storm.   The last batch did not fry up quite as well,  but I ate those!

But beside time on the water we had plenty to eat and drink.   We had very nice weather and some buckets of rain, spaced out enough to have a great time.  We stayed up there Thursday to Tuesday, then the almost 5 hour drive home with the trailer.

We have taken Marie to our favorite places, seen some old friends.  And put her to work helping out around the house!   Saturday I worked a community booth at the Oshkosh Farmers Market,  they had given it to my homebrew club.  We sold some glasses and T-shirts and talked about beer.   And possibly have some new members coming to the next meeting.   Then we spent in the gardens.  I am late planting,  for having such a nice spring.  And the girls picked up lot’s of flowers on Saturday that we planted.  So we are further ahead now.  I still have a few things to finish up with but it is what it is!  The yard does look better.   And Chris has been keeping the new plants watered so they get a good start.

I brewed this week with a friend.  He lets me brew with him once a year and we share the 10 gallons.  He is a great brewer and I come away with some great beer.  This year Mark named it Octopple Bock.  We wanted a big malty Octoberfest/bock.   And everything went well on the brew and seemed that everything came out as planned.   Now just have to let the yeast do it’s work.  Marie and Chris came over so we could teach Marie a little about brewing beer.  Maybe we can get her a new hobby!    She is wanting more flavorful beers!

Our sympathies to John Ebel and family,  John lost his mother this week.    Never an easy time.

Chris and Marie are getting even more excited.   June 19th they will be heading Switzerland with Mary Jane.  So the time is getting close.   I told them to work on their German, but as usual I don’t think they are following my directions!  But they will have a great time and can’t wait.  Charles good luck keeping them out of trouble!

Get out and enjoy life!

Dick, Marie, Carol and Chris in front of our trailer

Hard to keep the oil hot in the rain