Weekend relativity

Two months in the making just to find a date we could get together most of my siblings with what of our grown kids that could make it gathered at my brother Dennis and his wife's place for a Saturday afternoon cookout. Of course there was plenty of great food, I almost filled up on the appetizers, grilled burgers, hotdogs and kielbasa and naturally plentiful beers, wines and mixtures. Topped off with a couple of rounds of croquet, our family style which means a fight to mockery. Given the sprawling irregular shaped, obstacle enhanced backyard the field of play was more of an all terrain affair which made for more than a few extra follies.

Brother Dennis about to start a campfire

My brother-in-law Marc and Carol.

My other brother Dave and his wife Carolyn

Carolyn, my Mom, Dave and our sister Kathy.

Most of the gang.

Dennis and Debby piling up some dessert.

Nephew Danny making some serious dessert choices.

Nephews Jim and Eric

Kathy savoring her dessert.

Danny and his cousin Jim.

Strategy session in the midst of a round of croquet.

We're having a heat wave

It's a official heat wave, temps in the 90s for three days in a row and it's been pretty hot before this. When I left work yesterday the car thermometer was reading 105 degrees. About 5 of those degrees were sun baked pavement temperatures but 100 degrees was official setting a record for the date. To add to the steamy conditions we lost the electricity three nights during this week including the last two evening. None were for a long period, about a couple of hours the first two times, then last night was around 45 minutes and I broke out the generator for that one. As hot as it's been there was a concern for the perishables in the fridge and freezers. Got to keep my beer cold too.

getting a little sticky

Finally the summer temperatures have shot up and humidity has increase in kind. That means sleeping on top of the bedding and listening to the dogs panting throughout the night. Generally I can sleep well in the heat and carefully note that I am not complaining. As I like to say, "you can't shovel heat" but snow you have to, not to mention being cold outside for a long time. Last summer the air conditioning in my old truck stopped working and I haven't gotten around getting a price to recharge the cooling fluid. Seems I only really need it half a dozen times a year. As it is I usually drive around with the windows open. So what do we do when it gets hot – we grill damn it!

Steak for dinner with tin foil potatoes and stir-fry broccoli.
Homemade blueberry pie for dessert.

Vacation over, back to retrieving rocks

It's been a good week off, didn't seem to go by too fast and I'm ready to get back to work. Today we installed the gates on the fencing (shown in the photo's foreground and background). The double set are driveway gates but workout well for the gap we needed to span and provides flexible access to this part of the yard particularly the lawn tractor. We finished up by lunch and its just as well, started getting quite hot so we kicked back for the rest of the afternoon. Always nice to not rush through things the day before returning to the office.

Everyday is a Saturday...

... well, when you're home on vacation. Once returning from the holiday weekend in Aroostook County we've been working around the homestead mainly finishing re-fencing the the backyard. We completed that today as Carol and I attached light kennel fencing to the post and rail that we've started and stopped over the last year and a half.

Tomorrow I'll add some gate work in a couple of places. This makes the dogs area smaller and easier to maintain both summer and winter. We've broken up the labor part of the remaining week, Thursday with a genealogy info gathering trek for Carol's work on tracing our family's lineage. In searching for data on my side of the family we traveled to the town offices of Bristol and Pittston where she acquired birth/death records and local cemetery locations. On the way to the next destination we stopped off at the A-1 Diner in Gardiner for a terrific lunch then up the hill to the St. Joesph Cemetery. There we located graves of several relative including my grand and great-grand parents and photographed the grave markers. In addition we were able to connect up with a second cousin who lives next to the cemetery who has done a lot of genealogy work and provided insight and grave site direction. Once finished there we had accomplished the trips goals by mid afternoon so with time to spare we visited with my mother who lives a nearby before heading home. The weather couldn't have been better and we managed to drive routes we hadn't been through before all making for a great day. Friday while picking up the kennel fencing we also purchased our first gas grill. My reliable charcoal grill will now be regulated to camper duty. For the remainder of the summer we'll be doing most of the cooking outdoors.

The new addition to the deck.

The first meal on the grill - chicken thighs, grilled
potatoes and onions, stirfry veggies accompanied by
Yellow Tail Moscato for Carol and Yellow Tail
Cabernet Sauvignon for myself.

The conclusion of the weekend at the camp

I did end up doing a campfire for Carol and myself Sunday night as we worked our way through a couple of bottles of wine. We got into a little game of naming a song and the other one of us coming up with the group. That was going pretty well in spite of our wine induced mood when the clouds that had prevailed throughout the day decided it was a good time to rain. Bummer.

Here's our front row seats for Stockholm's 4th of July Parade. L-R, Ian, Carol, Lois and Jim. Patches doing his best impersonation of a rug.

Johnny, (sis-in-law Bev's dad) on a classic tractor driving in the parade.

This is Graydon, Johnny's son, like father, like son.

After the parade for lunch I'd cooked up some burgers for Carol, Ian and I, then... more rain, by the bucket load came barreling across the lake. This photo was taken through the screen from the porch where we had to seek refuge inside as the wind bellowed even harder. Lots of thunder with flashes of lightning with that old time hand of doom effect.

Later that afternoon at the invitation of Graydon we joined his family for a cookout. Ian and I began with a four way game of cribbage with Jonathan and his grandfather Johnny who I teamed up with as we took two games from the youngsters. By then Graydon had grilled up some chicken, a large Angus steak and a pile of Alaskan Copper River Salmon he had brought back from there himself. With a huge potato salad Lois made and a garden salad with a macaroni salad by Graydon's wife Jaymie we managed to stuff our self silly. Ian, Jonathan and Graydon's grand daughter Kristen had the energy to play lawn bowling.

Finally - a sunset. Next month there will be more when I take my vacation at the lake.

Lois, Carol and Patches celebrate the 4th after sundown and before a final campfire for the weekend. Sadly there wasn't much for fireworks over our end of the lake this year. Should be better next year.

Weekend at the camp

Independence day weekend has arrived and Carol, Patches and I arrived at the camp yesterday. Jim and Lois are here also, setting up their RV behind the camp and after the holiday will drive into Canada for the rest of the week. Nothing fancy planned, we ate at the local American Legion hall last night, a bean supper affair followed by a local "talent" show. Today's lunch are take-out chicken dinners from one of the region's churches and I believe we'll just be chillin' the rest of the day with maybe a campfire if the weather holds out. Little cloudy in the early part of the day though when Carol went intown to pick up the dinners it was sunny there, maybe three miles away. If the skies clear enough perhaps I'll get some sunset shots to post. Stay tuned.