A Sad Day

Our wonderful next door neighbor, Francis (Doc) Adams was killed by lightening this morning at the Odana Golf Course in Madison. I am numb. Doc has been our neighbor for six years and was always available to give gardening as well as great neighborly advice. We will miss him dearly.

Life is lived in the moment, today! Grab it, embrace and learn from it. And make sure your people that matter to you know it!

Lights out at home

Wednesday was a night without electricity as our neighborhood was plunged into darkness for about 6 hours after heavy rains and lightning took us off the power grid. Being the ever resourceful folks that we are, we managed to make spaghetti and meatballs by candle light. You can do quite a bit with a gas stove and 25 candles. Power came back on right before we sat down to eat.

It's funny how you don't even think about electricity until you don't have it. Raine called me on my way home from work to remind me not to try the garage door opener. I said "well, duh". And Raine counters with "Well, Dad tried to open the garage, just wanted to make sure you didn't make the same stupid mistake..." Thinking I was so much wiser it wasn't until another hour or two without lights, that I decided to check Channel 3 online for a weather update. Duh.

Alice Cooper Rocks

Due to some unforeseen technical difficulties, my post about Alice Cooper is coming a week late. (I misplaced my USB cable...) We did get to see Alice at the Dodge County Fairgrounds and had a great time. Alice is timeless and his band played hard and tight. The fairgrounds were surrounded by cornfields which must have been really something for Alice and entourage to come into. The crowd was all ages from bikers to grunge. And the beer was $2 a can. Can't beat the price. Alice sang all of the favorites: Eighteen, School's out for summer, No more mister nice guy. Raine got some really fun video using the camera. When I figure out how to show a 150MB video, I'll post it....

Heading to the county fair to see Alice Cooper

File this under "Only in Wisconsin". Todd and I heard the other night from a Barrymore contact that Alice Cooper will be performing at 8pm tonight at the Dodge County Fair. So we're heading to Beaver Dam as I speak to see the classic Rocker! (even though he's a republican and born-again christian.....) Todd says "Regardless, we still think it's going to be a great show!" Will report more tomorrow.

Awesome new photo album

Found this awesome photo gallery tool from Picassa. It takes a bit of getting used to it but I really like the slideshow function.

The Great Taste of the Midwest Beer Festival

The usual gang of suspects - Todd, Eric, Paul (the brewmaster), MK and I were joined by newbies Ankur and Ashwini as we spent a gloriously hot and steamy day quaffing samples of beers from over 200 breweries and brewpubs from across the midwest! The 21st festival did not disappoint.

Favorite beers this year? Mine were Brugge's Old Dog Cru and Tripel de Ripple, and Two Brothers Brewing Company's Domain Du Page Real Ale (from the ale tent). Our resident brewmaster Paul said " I loved the Huma Lupa Licious from Shorts brewing Company, Bellaire MI An incredible hops explosion, intense, powerful, aromatic. Not a beer for the weak. I'm going to have to make a road trip to Bellaire." Ankurs added his two cents by agreeing with me on the Old Dog Cru as well as Paul's vote for the Huma lumpa licious and adds local favorite -
Lake Louie Brewery's Brother Tim’s Tripel

Pygmy Elephants in Borneo

It's not often that a new species of animal this large is "discovered". The Borneo Pygmy Elephant , a new sub-species of the Asian elephant, was confirmed by the World Wildlife Fund. They are now tracking many of them to learn more.

Garden Close-ups

Here's some pictures I took last night of the ripening garden. Below is a nice close-up of the golden cherry tomato plant. Notice the hairs on the stem. The actual size of this tomato is about half of what you are looking at now. I had super-macro going on the camera.
Next we have one of seven basil plans (genovese, thai and curly) growing in the garden. There will be a lot of pesto to be made made this fall. Let me know of any freezing ideas for basil leaves by leaving a comment.

And finally, a wonderful shot of a cantalope that is about two weeks away from eating. Not the greatest producers these vines, lots of flowers, good vine growth but only three maturing melons. Not sure if this is normal or not.

The Plethera of Tomatoes

Help!!!!!! The tomatoes are coming on full force. I'll be putting some up (canning or freezing) this weekend. You'll notice the split skins on many of the larger tomatoes. I think this is due to explosive growth over the past few days. The tomatoes have literally grown out of their skins. And this in about three days. On Sunday there were only about 3 ripen ones and last night I have about 50. If you have any other ideas about the splitting skins or suggestions to improve this, please leave a comment.

Another trip to the yooper land

Spent another weekend up north at Beatons The weather was wonderfully warm and sunny except for Friday night when the temps dipped down to about 40 degrees - that's cold when you're sleep/freezing in a tent.
On Sunday morning the mama loon and her two babies paid us a visit - The babies are almost adult size now and can they swim, dive and make noise. It's amazing to see how fast they have grown since Memorial Day.
Saturday night found Todd and Eric on the pier trying their luck at fishing - well at least Todd was actually fishing, I think Eric was just coaching....

Grama Loves

Had a great birthday party for Grama Dorothy and Frank on the last weekend of July. The whole clan partied by the pool on a wonderful Sunday afternoon. And of course we had more food than we needed, but Todd once again amazed us all with his grilling techniques. Here's a sweet picture of Todd and Grama giving some love....