I am way behind in updates,  if you care!   It has been a very busy summer.   Marie Chris and Mary Jane are home from Switzerland.   They had a wonderful time with wonderful friends and family.   I am working on getting pictures downloaded and will try and load them to an album.

My homebrew club had a successful outing at the Oshkosh Brews and Blues.   We have been eating and drinking way too much (is there such a thing?).   We prepared for Door County and July 14th to 28th we spent in Penninsula State Park.  Well except Marie who stayed at Julie’s Cafe and Motel at the edge of the park.  It was her first time ever to Door County,  and I think she had a very good time.   It was great to see old friends, and how the many families have grown.   We started going there 30+ years ago at the end of July and have every year since.  Funny we were youngster’s then, now our children are older than we were.  As usual our 2 weeks went by far too quickly.  I worked 4 hours most days, a benefit of my job that as long as I got an internet connection I was able to accomplish some work.   Although I will still be trying to catch up this week.  It has been a busy time at work.  And over the last few weeks my reporting structure has changed, I now report to Corporate.   So I need to work on this first impression!

And I started that by trying to catch up this last week and then taking off Friday!   Thursday we drove to New Glarus and spent Friday, coming home today.   We went to see New Glarus,  since the girls had seen Glarus in Switzerland.   We actually went to see old friends of Marie, Karl and Kay Gmur.   Karl played many years with the Roger Bright Band in New Glarus and around Wisconsin.   They treated us wonderfully, and spent a lot of their time with us.   And we thoroughly enjoyed it.  Oh, and we did get in a tour and tasting at the New Glarus Brewery and around town.   New Glarus has always been a special place for Chris and Marie because of their Swiss Grandmother.  The time went much too quickly there also!   And we had more than enough to eat and drink, as is our custom!  And this morning headed to Wautoma, so we could make it to the celebration of Andy and Ann Dekeyser’s marriage.   There were married in Oregon a couple of weeks ago and it was an honor to be invited to the celebration.  Andy is our god child and they are a wonderful couple.

The disturbing part of our drive this weekend was seeing so many dry corn fields.   Much of the state we drove through the corn is stunted and drying out.   Many many fields will not produce this year because of the dryness and the heat.   Lot’s of hours spent preparing and planting will be lost.

So as I said I will try to share pictures soon.  Switzerland looks beautiful.  We hope all of you are well and enjoying your summer.    And the Olympic’s.

Somewhere in Switzerland

Family hike

OK,  I will work on getting the day and date correct!   I survived the weekend.   Noel and JoAnn were here to watch over me!    Thank You Thoma’s for a great fireworks show.  It is not often Bartalotta comes to your backyard to put on a show,  it was great!   It was a warm weekend but we spent some time on the water catching some breezes.  Life is good.   Tom and Barbara thanks for the post.   Glad your trip was a great one.  I am sure you enjoyed the time traveling with the family.   And I can’t imagine Tom had lobster more than 3 days in a row…….

And the girls will be home tomorrow.  Their trip is coming to an end.   It sounds like every day has been a new adventure for them.  I can’t wait to see more pictures, everything looks beautiful.   Kathy and Charles thanks again for your hospitality  and I know the girls want to thank you again and thanks to your families.

My evening has not gone to plan tonight.   The warm weather kicked up some storms here in Oshkosh.   I have seen the lake very rough over the years,  but tonight may have been the worst.   They say over 60 mph winds.   A number of branches down, some damage to the wood pile, the aluminum roof on the pontoon started to buckle in the wind gusts,  but the boat kept bouncing and secure.   And lots of rain and hail.   But from what I can see other than branches down I don’t see damage at the neighbors,  hopefully that is true.

So have a great 4th of July.  I am sure my girls will be trying to catch up on sleep after flying back.   We will give them some time to relax!

And most importantly Happy Birthday Mary Jane.

the roof picks up a bit at the front now

Some cutting and rebuilding needed

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

Time for an update,  I need to do this so I can look back and remember what we have done!   So it has been a couple of weeks and we have had a lot of fun.  We may run out of money some day,  but we are going to have good memories!    The last post we had been to a bed and breakfast in Neshkoro for our anniversary.   Both of our jobs are affected by accounting department month end closings,  so work was hectic for both of us right after that.   But we had a treat planned to start May.  My work had given us a gift certificate to the White Gull Inn in Door County Wisconsin.  One of our favorite areas to go to relax.  So we went up Friday and Saturday night.  We had time to walk around the town of Fish Creek and visit the shops and restaurants.  We went to visit our friend Judy at her house, and walked her woods.  A terrible wind storm hit Door County last fall and Judy lost a lot of tree’s.  She recently had some of the fallen tree’s logged out and some of her walking trails renewed.   And we went out to dinner with Judy Saturday night.  A great chance for us to get caught up on the last 6 months.

And the White Gull is a treat to stay at.  After eating there for 30+ years this was our first stay.  An older building but very nicely done.   Our coffee and the morning paper were brought to the room in the morning.   In 2010 a National morning TV show presented the White Gull the award for the best breakfast in America and the wait for a table can be long.  As a guest we got to call down and walk past the line to our table.  And John; the corned beef hash was as good as ever.  So it was a rejuvenating weekend!

Our weather has been up and down this Spring.  We had some very warm weather in March,  then back to cool.  And a Wednesday night in May we had 6 inches of rain in Oshkosh.  Most of it in a few hours.   So lot’s of flooding in the area, main roads closed.  Quite a mess.  Our house did well, although our road out was flooded.  but so were main highways in the area.   And the run off continued for days.  The lake level rose quickly, over a foot.  for a large lake that is a lot of water.   And the lake was brown from run off.  And we lost lot’s of reed beds that have been protected, due to the quickly rising water.  It just pulled up large clumps at a time.   The lake looked like 100’s of islands floating all over.   Along with a lot of other things that were pulled off shorelines and ditches.   The lake is still high, but starting to clean itself.    But everything on land is growing  with the above average temperatures we have now.  The grass is growing fast, and the spring flowers are weeks ahead of schedule.  So some good things come out of everything.

We spent some time with Mom for Mothers Day.  She took us to brunch and is doing well.   Skip had taken her to the eye doctor and she has some new glasses to get used to.  One eye, that she had cateract surgery on some years back, is very good.  The other eye not as good, but the good eye compensates.  And she has a new set of hearing aids coming to try out.   Hopefully they work well for her.   Hearing is a challenge at times.

And Chris and I took a ride to south Chicago Sunday night.  Chris’s home office from work is there.  So I drove her down and Monday we went to her work.   I worked from a conference room and Chris had a chance to meet a lot of the people she had only e-mailed or talked to on the phone.  And they took us out to lunch with about 20 people.  We were celebrating Chris’s 45th work anniversary.   They treated her very well, including cake and flowers.  So it was a fun day for Chris.

Now some time back at work and trying to get some yard work done.   The gardens need work and some planting.   And we have started getting the trailers ready for the summer.   Chris’s sister Marie will be here in a week.  And we will all make our annual Memorial Day trip to Hayward.  Camping with friends Dick and Carol at their summer place!  Always fun, and the most fishing I get in all year long!  So a week of work and then more fun to come!   Hope you all can do the same!

Judy and Chris

White Gull Inn, Fish Creek Wisconsin

Chris's cake

Monday,  my least favorite day of the week!  Probably because I have a wonderful weekend and then need to forget it to concentrate back on work.   We did have a fun weekend.  Friday night we met  with friends to share some cocktails and stories.    And went out for a nice dinner to end the night!  And Saturday we slept in to start a relaxing day.

We took a ride to the Appleton Barnes and Noble to get Chris a new Nook Tablet for her anniversary present.  We spent some time there to learn a little more and did some testing over a coffee and scone.   I think it is a hit,  she has not put it down very much.  And we took a nice ride through the Wisconsin country side.   Stopped at a Winery near Poy Sippi.  did just a little tasting!    Stopped at a Mexican restaurant in Wautoma, inside an old fast food restaurant.  The food was unbelievably cheap and very good!  My chorizo and huervo  torta with a Negra Modello was a hit.  A place to stop again.

And then on to Neshkoro to a bed and breakfast for Saturday night.   A women who was a professor at Valparaiso  University who moved back home to take care of her Mother, and turned the house into a bed and breakfast after Mom died.   Very personable and welcoming and did a nice job with the house.  We enjoyed it very much.  It was a cool day.  We walked down the river and to the dam in town that creates the mill pond behind it.  But it was too cold to linger.   From the house we had a nice  view of the mill pond and even a bald eagle fishing.  And we took her recommendation on a local supper club, and the food was worthy of the recommendation.  Once I saw roast duck was one of their specialties I made my decision.  And it did not disappoint.   And Chris had a nice tenderloin she was thrilled with.

Sunday was a wonderful breakfast, and a slow ride home.   Home was back to a little reality, getting some weed and feed on the grass and some round up on the driveway.  Of course I had heard it would not rain until Tuesday night, and it rained last night.   So I will wait a couple of weeks and see if anything took hold.   And we put the Bayliner boat in the water and out on the lift.  And put the canvas over the boat lift.  Some stretching and lots of tieing of strings.  It would have been easier with a warm sun to help stretch the canvas, but that was not to be!   But it is done and I could put my truck back in the garage.  And next will be putting the 5th wheel hitch back in the truck!

So we hope your weekend was a good one, and the week is even better!

Time for an update.   We are just going along,  enjoying life!  We were in Milwaukee for Easter, Mom wanted us to join her for brunch.    So my brother Skip and wife Claire, their daughter Denise, and Chris and I joined her.    It was a nice day but a bit windy.  We love the brunch at the restaurant in Mom’s complex, and Easter was no exception.  Ate too much as usual.  It was all good including the perogy and Polish sausage!   A nice day to get together.

Other than that I have been keeping busy with spring shores.  Getting boats ready,  working on garden beds, general clean up.  It is usual for us to have so much done by only mid April.  Everything is growing well and Apple Trees starting to bloom.   It has been a dry spring and the State of Wisconsin has fire warnings – with the dry spring the dead grasses from last year burn quickly.   And the lake level is very low yet.  But we had rain last night and today and should have more rain the next few days.   We hope to miss out on the tornado’s and storms hitting the states south of us.  And after a couple of days of 70 degree temperatures it probably won’t hit 50 tomorrow and a forecast for snow north of here.  That’s the Wisconsin we love.

Chris has left me again.   She headed to New Mexico.  So I have been trying to survive living alone.  I’ll try to get through another week.   Marie sent a note!

HI to all  The cousins are welcome to New Mexico and so are any of my new friends from Wisc. anytime. It would be my pleasure to show you around our beautiful state and my humble abode. Chris and I are having a great time. The credit cards have been used more then we care to think about. Good thing Randy isn’t here to see it. Our weather hasn’t been the greatest, lot’s of wind and cooler. This week is shaping up to be much better. The shorts will be taken out of the suitcase for sure. We are trying our best not to eat to much. HA HA. I know Randy would like to see Chris come home svelte but the Mexican food is just to tempting for her. Yesterday we went to our favorite hotel the Marriott Tamaya, on the Indian reservation and she had Huevous Rancheros for breakfast. She said it was delicious and just think we have another week yet. So I’ll keep you posted about all of our escapades.  Love,  Chris and Marie

So a rainy day,  I am making soup for my homebrew club meeting on Wednesday.  Something new we wanted to try.   So I am making a chili using Sprecher Black Bavarian.  It gives it a roasty base.  Add some over-winter onion I dug out, and some peppers and tomato’s from the freezer (last years garden)  and it is simmering away.   Other than that I think I will keep it a quiet day and prepare for Monday.   I did finish my taxes last week so they are sent and accepted.  Hope all of you are having a relaxing Sunday!!

Thanks to all who post comments on the blog,  good to know you do take a look at it!   Allen you are welcome again to see the  remodeling!  Let’s hope we have a long, warm summer though before we head back to Florida!   Craig, stop by for cocktails anytime!  Bring some of your homebrew.

Our prayers stay with Deb and John, as his Mom is battling through a tough time and John’s MS is challenging him also.  And also prayers to the Madrids.  Marie, you will see  Chris soon!   Chris will be spending 12 days in Albuquerque.  I don’t get to go,  but I am sure the girls will keep busy!

And Charles yes we don’t build our houses to last the centuries as the Europeans do!   We Americans don’t want to stay in one place for a long time!    And I enjoy being able to open up a wall to change electrical or put a new opening!   And you are right, a good Swiss Army knife would do it!

We are enjoying a wonderful Wisconsin spring.   We continue to be blessed with temperatures well above normal.   I am sure I have not had the dock and shore station in this early in the past.   There might still be ice on the lake.   We have some freeze warnings, since flowers and trees are blooming,  But normally a freeze would be normal most nights!   I received some extra firewood from the field next to us.   IT was not welcome,  but some dead branches have been hanging over our wood pile for some time.

And a picture of Marie, Chris, and our friend Vivian down in Florida.  This was when I was not there,  looks like the girls planned on a night out.  By the way, Viv is 90 and ready to go!

So just a wish for a  Happy Easter.

Happy St Patrick’s day!  OK,  one day late.  We celebrated with friends, a party at the pool and catered in corned beef and cabbage.  But very good, and the Irish coffee’s topped it off.   We are in Florida since Tuesday.  Weather in the Midwest is record breaking, but we do love Florida.   Once the sun goes down here it is still warm and comfortable.  We booked awhile back, and to get decent airline rates stayed a week.  And my boss let me work some days from here so I did not have to burn up vacation.  That works great.   And weather has been wonderful here also.  Every day sun shine and ocean breezes.

I have worked some hours on our kitchen plan.  We did cabinets in the dining room last year with a plan to extend to the kitchen eventually.  Just a small kitchen here.  And some condo’s had opened up the wall, and we really like how that opens up the kitchen and dining room.   So I feel good that I have made that progress.  This may be our last time down until next winter,  so we can plan with how it looks now.

So everyone enjoy the wonderful weather.   We are all blessed!

opening of the wall startedbright and airy

new look