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Cruise on Lake Champlain

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T he weather forecast changed for the better one day last week so we changed our rainy day plans and headed toward Burlington to do a day cruise on Lake Champlain.  We do this cruise every summer with whichever kids and grandkids can meet us there.  This year, we had a rather small group but, as always, we all enjoyed ourselves.   We order snacks and drinks during the cruise and then, after the cruise, we walk up the hill into Burlington to visit one of the pubs to have an early dinner.  This is always a relaxing time even when Sheila and I do it alone.  We haven't done it alone in more than ten years but we've always enjoyed ourselves.   Below, we have the view of our backseat for the ride up to Burlington... Here is the group photo (minus the photographer) on the boat.  We always get the back corner tables on the top deck and this time was no different... One of these days, we're going to do a cruise on one of these two boats...  (we'v...
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Giant Jenga

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A few years ago, I designed and built a Giant Jenga set for our backyard.  It still gets a lot of use today and we happened to have enjoyed it over the past week while Kenzie and Lukey were staying with us! The blocks were fairly easy to make...  I cut 2x4s to size...  each piece the same length as three pieces side-by-side so they would stack evenly.  The hard and very time-consuming part was all the sanding that was required.  I needed to ensure each piece was perfectly smooth.  After the tedious process of sanding to a 400 grit (80 to 120 to 220 to 320 to 400), I waxed every piece so it slides easily without hanging up on rough spots.  These blocks are now nice and slick. Since this giant game is to be played on lawns which are never perfectly level, I made a base for the game that provides a stable and level starting point for stacking the blocks.  I installed leveling feet on this base so I can level it anywhere on the lawn.  You can't ...
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A Surprise Evening Visitor

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T his evening, we had a surprise visitor.  Sheila and I were in our new pergola in the backyard just before dinnertime and I noticed a gray fox just on the other side of our horseshoe pits just standing there watching me from about 40 feet away.  At first glance, the gray fur made me think it was a coydog but, within another second, I realized we had a gray fox visiting us at very close range. Sheila couldn't see him from where she was sitting so I was quietly saying, "fox...  fox...  fox..." while staring at our visitor.  I was careful not to move because I didn't want to startle the fox and have her run off immediately.   At first Sheila thought I was cursing (I was working on a tabletop heater at the time so I could have been cursing if something was going the way I desired) but she quickly realized I was saying "fox".  She stood up and slowly walked to where she could catch a glimpse of our little visitor.  I thought for sure that this fo...
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