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Memorial Day has come and gone, but we tried to use the time as best we could.Getting our garden in the ground is always an effort for us. Some years we put it in early, take a trip, and come home to find the whole mess choked with weeds. Other years it takes us a bit of extra time to get it in because of a trip we take in May. This year was one of the latter. Because we went to Cleveland a couple of weeks ago, we didn’t get our garden in the ground until Memorial Day weekend. We’ve got an expanded garden this year because we’re using space that used to be under a spruce tree we had removed. We’re not growing anything too unusual this year. Tomatoes, cukes, kohlrabi, pumpkins, eggplants, green beans, zucchini, lettuce, sweet peppers, hot peppers, dill, basil, mint, oregano, and broccoli are the ones that come to mind. I’m also growing some hops for brewing (Cascades, Sunbeams, Willamettes, Mt. Hood, and Kent Goldings), but I’m not expecting to get a substantial harvest of cones from those until next year. Most everthing that would interest rabbits has been fenced off, which means that we should actually get some kolrabi and broccoli this year. Dalla is 100% effective at stopping rabbit browsing of the garden, but she’s only in the yard 15-20% of the time, so we still have to put out chicken wire.

Garrison went in for his four month doctor’s appointment recently. He’s still in the 70+ percentile for his age in weight, head diameter, and length. He got some more vaccinations, which put him into a nasty mood for the evening, but he was mostly over that by the next day.

Lest anyone think we forgot, we made our obligatory trip to Brat Fest over Memorial Day. As part of the successful effort to eat over 200,000 brats, Sarah and I each consumed three sausage tubes on Saturday. Garrison managed to sleep through his first Brat Fest, which I suspect he won’t do next year when he’s older.

Memorial Day, we decided to take some time off of working around the house and hike some of the trails at Devil’s Lake State Park. The weather was generally favorable and we brought a picnic so that we could leave the house a bit earlier. The park was crowded with people enjoying the last gasps of Memorial Day weekend, but we still found plenty of space for ourselves. The pictures below were taken during our hike.

Garrison, Dalla, and David

Dalla

Sarah and Garrison

It must be Spring because our lawn is a sea of dandelions. Last night our lawn got the first mowing of the Spring, Summer, and Fall seasons. Only 50% of the lawn actually needed to be mowed, but that 50% was distributed randomly around the entire property, so I ended up mowing the whole thing anyway. At a minimum, it cut the dandelions down to size for twelve hours or so.On the upside, our patio furniture is outside once again, and we had our first multi-family cookout on the patio a few weeks ago. There is so much more room to entertain on the patio, compared to our dining room, that it is easier to have larger groups of people over. The charcoal grill has been restored to its place of primacy and the gas grill relegated to usage on rainy days or for quick, small grillings.

Dalla has been reveling in the arrival of Spring since we’ve gotten in the habit of leaving both the patio door and the screen door open in what we refer to as our “open door policy”. Since there aren’t any mosquitoes out yet, we don’t mind having the screen door open to the yard. She loves running in and out as the urge strikes her.

Dalla upped her prey-tally this season by two mice and a rabbit. The mice she caught under our recycling bin; the rabbit was dumb enough to wander into the yard during early evening. She saw it and went sprinting out after it. Unfortunately, it was too big to fit through the chainlink fence, and couldn’t easily go under it. The rabbit was just halfway under the fence when Dalla caught up to it, so the struggle devolved into a contest to see if she could keep it in our yard or if the rabbit could struggle away into a neighbor’s yard where Dalla couldn’t follow. Given Dalla’s advantages of weight, strength, and grip (she had the rabbit’s hind quarters in her mouth), the contest was all but predetermined in her favor. After she ended the struggle, I rewarded her with a couple of treats, and the rabbit carcass joined the mice in our trash bin. With so many dead animals in our trash, we might have to rename the trash can the “carcass bin.”

The birds are back in our neighborhood, including some that we haven’t had in the past. Some white-crowned sparrows have been making an extended stay in our yard on their way north for the summer. An Eastern Towhee, which I’ve never seen in our yard before, has been hanging around for the better part of a week. I also put some sparrow-excluders on my birdhouses this year, which has encouraged some chickadees and wrens to check out the potential nesting spaces. It’s nice to have the wrens back this year. I enjoy listening to their songs much more than the cardinals’ endless braying.

As part of my ongoing descent into homebrewing madness, I planted five different varieties of hops in our yard this year. The hops are planted along our fences, so that they can use the fences for strength and guidance. This year’s harvest will likely be lean, but next year’s should bring an abundance (likely an overabundance) of hops that I can use in my own brewing endeavors.

Garrison is still a herky-jerky three-and-one-half month old. He doesn’t have much in the way of fine motor control yet, though he’s started reaching for objects and may even have a favorite toy or two. He likes to sing, coo, and howl in the morning and during dinner time, unless he’s sitting on someone’s lap. Putting him down for bed is still a real chore since he seems to think that he might never wake up if he falls asleep. However, Sarah (with whatever minor assistance I can offer) soldiers bravely onward and he generally gets to bed by 21:30 every night. When he’s upset, Sarah is clearly his favorite person, and that makes getting him ready for bed a major component of her evenings. We’ve been trying to read him books, but, of course, he can’t actually understand the words we speak. Regardless, he likes to smack the pages of the books with his hands. Since we had a real Dr. Seuss deficit (i.e., none), I bought him a twelve book omnibus that contains many of Geisel’s best known works like, “The Lorax”, “The Cat in the Hat”, “Green Eggs and Ham”, and nine or so others. His physical growth continues unchecked. He’s doubled his birth weight and is now over two feet long.

Sarah has been keeping herself busy with keeping Garrison fed, happy, and alive. She has been diligently seeking day care for him that is reasonably priced, somewhat conveniently located, and staffed by caring individuals. As anyone who has looked for daycare can likely attest, finding care that meets those three simple criteria is not easy. She is also looking forward to getting back to work come June 1st. She recently attended a professional convention here in Madison while I looked after Garrison for the day. She said it felt good to be back amongst professionals, but that she also missed her time with Garrison.

With the arrival of the vernal equinox, we’re starting to get some real signs of Spring.Almost all of the snow around town is gone. The big snow mountains that get built in large parking lots in all their brown and grey glory stubbornly refuse to melt, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a lawn with snow on it. Unfortunately, the date of last frost is still a good two months off, and the ground is distressingly soggy, so working in the gardens is out of the question. Regardless, we brought in our garden tools and lawn mower blade to be sharpened this week. We don’t want to be caught off-guard by the arrival of weeds and green grass. The screens were reinstalled on the windows this week and we had the windows open on both Saturday and Sunday as the temperatures here were in the sixties. It’s always a revelation to have the fresh air blowing through the house again.

Garrison went to the doctor this week for this two month appointment. He weighs north of 12 pounds and is now 23 1/4 inches long. All of his measurements are at the 61st percentile or higher for babies of his age, so he’s growing right on schedule. One of Sarah’s doctors labeled him ‘verbally precocious’ several weeks ago as he’s making all manner of coos, goos, and other baby talk. Apparently, many babies his age are still grunting while he’s practically singing already. But, lest we get too caught up in his verbal abilities, Sarah recently met another baby about Garrison’s age who can already turn himself over, something that Garrison hasn’t figured out yet and doesn’t seem too keen on practicing.

As part of that appointment, he got his two month immunizations, something he greeted with a full-throated roar. Can’t say that I blame him, really. Getting stuck three times in the thighs wouldn’t be my idea of a good time either. Fortunately, he didn’t suffer any of the dreaded side effects (‘inconsolable crying for three hours or longer’), and he is just fine despite his most recent encounter with modern medicine.

My sister has been kind enough to do some babysitting for us, which has been great. We recently got to take in Richard Shindell‘s concert here in Madison when Amy babysat Garrison for us. Shindell’s show was very good, much better than the Springsteen show that we saw in St. Paul last year. Shindell was much more engaging and spontaneously and had a much better rapport with the audience. I’m not ready to pass judgment on his new album because I haven’t listened to it much.

I’m finally healthy again after a bout with a nasty cold that kept me out of work for several days and kept me feeling less than 100% for more than a week. Fortunately, neither Sarah or Garrison caught whatever it was that I had.

Since I last wrote in this space, both my Mom and Dad have been out to visit and meet their grandchild. Both were kind enough to do some babysitting for us so that we could run some errands and take in a couple of hockey games.

Finally, there are some new photos in the Photo Gallery for those interested parties.

Now that we’ve had Garrison at home for a bit more than a week, I can reflect upon our lives with an infant in the house.
I’m currently staying home on a three week paternity leave, which has been great for helping Sarah around the house. She has been really busy with feeding Garrison at times, especially in the evening, so I’ve been doing the cooking, cleaning, and the like. We laid in a stock of meals and ingredients before Garrison’s due date, so the meal preparation hasn’t been too onerous.

For the most part, Garrison has been what most people would call a “good baby”. He feeds almost continuously from 20:00-00:30 at night, takes one more feeding around 02:00, and then can sleep for four to five hours. He only sleeps for a half-hour or so unless he’s in our bed. If we leave him in a crib or bassinet, he sleeps fitfully, when he sleeps at all. He generally doesn’t cry without a reason. If he’s crying, he’s most likely either wearing a messy diaper or he’s hungry. That makes it fairly easy to figure out what’s wrong in his world.

He’s been spending more time awake and alert, but not crying or feeding in the last couple of days. He still doesn’t really react to people or objects, but that’s fine. It’s just good to have him awake and alert for reasons beyond “I want” or “I need”.

Dalla and Garrison have been getting along generally fine. She wants nothing to do with him when he’s in full roar, but otherwise tolerates his presence. She does try to lick his hands, feet, and face when she’s allowed, but so far she doesn’t seem threatened by his presence. Garrison doesn’t seem to know her from the sofa at this point, which is probably to be expected.

We took our first post-baby outing as a family to a series of locations that did not include a doctor’s office yesterday. Fortunately, Garrison likes riding in the car, and he seems soothed by the car’s motion. His car seat clips on to shopping carts, and those seem to mimic the car’s motion enough that he did OK on our trip. It’s possible that we got lucky in that we went earlier in the day (when he’s not quite as fussy), so a trip later in the day might not be as smooth.

Dalla’s doggie door broke earlier this month during one of our colder weather stretches. The plastic that she pushes aside to get through the door broke off in some -5F weather, so I had to craft a new door out of some left-over vinyl and some bits of the original door. Fortunately, the replacement door seems to be holding its own, even in cold weather.

Sarah has been recovering from labor at a good clip. She said that she wanted to walk the dog yesterday and she came back from the walk pleased with the exercise. She found it invigorating to get out of the house and stretch her legs.

Garrison Edmund Bogen joined our family at 01:34 CST on 17 Jan 2009. His stat line:

• Weight: Seven pounds, seven ounces.
• Length: 19.5 inches
• Labor: 13.5 hours

Both mother and child are well.

If you’re interested, there are a couple of photos in the photo gallery.

"No baby yet," was the theme of the weekend.The first words out of the mouth of everyone we meet, everyone who calls us, and everyone we call are, "Have you had the baby yet?" Our neighbors at the bus stop this morning all asked, "Do you have any news at your house?" Clearly they weren’t asking if we had anything interesting in the fridge, if we saw any interesting birds in the back yard, or if Dalla got another squirrel. So, when I said that everything was the same, they all made me promise to let them know when something changed.

We’re still struggling with a boy’s name, so perhaps the late arrival is a good thing if we end up having a boy.

Sarah’s doctor told her to get plenty of exercise as that usually moves labor along, so we went hiking both Saturday and Sunday. Both days we had nice hikes in the woods since the weather was mild (for this time of year).

My thought to move labor along was to start some home improvement project that would be inconvenient not to finish before the baby arrived. So Sunday, we bought a new faucet for the bathroom sink and I installed it in the afternoon. I assumed that her labor would start just after I got the old faucet and drain off and before I got the new ones attached. Nothing doing, however. Even after I had to make a trip to the hardware store 3/4 of the way through the process. Regardless, we now have a new bathroom faucet that replaces the old ugly one we got with the house.

Dalla now understands all the intricacies of the doggie door, which is nice given the cold weather barreling down on us. We can send her out into the garage, and she lets herself in and out of the yard when she’s ready.

With the close of 2008, we relaxed (generally) and got ready for a new year.
Last weekend, the winter weather moderated a bit and we took advantage of the warmer weather (upper thirties) to install a doggie door for Dalla that leads from the garage to the back yard. That was as much a treat for us as it was for her. We get tired of always going out to the garage to let her in and out late and night (in the winter it gets a bit cold). However, with a doggie door we can send her into the garage, and she can make her way into and yard and back into the garage again without any intervention from us. It’s been a bit of a learning curve for her and us. She has no problem charging through the door and into the yard when there are critters in the yard to be chased. However, she will often wait for a clear sign from us that it’s okay to proceed through the door if her mind isn’t otherwise occupied with the possibility of bloodshed and mayhem. On those occasions she goes into the garage, we close the door, and then look for her to come out into the yard from the patio door. When we don’t see her, we have to go into the garage, tell her that it’s OK, and then she goes through the door. I’m sure that she’ll eventually fall into a rhythm with the door; it’s still new and she’s stuck in her ways. Olive, on the other hand, has no problems with pausing at the door and waiting for an OK. Her big problem with the doggie door is a failure to grasp the fact that only one dog at a time can fit through the opening.

Last weekend I also gave in to the urge to brew up another batch of mead. This one includes blackberries, raspberries, some orange zest, and far less honey than my first batch. It’s currently fermenting in an open fermenter in the baby’s room (I like to call that “the beer room” since I’ve been fermenting beer and mead in there of late and Sarah likes to correct me that it’s the “baby’s room”). I had some problems getting the whole mess warm enough to ferment once I pitched the yeast because we generally keep the house colder than 70F when we’re not around. My solution was to put a little electric heater with a thermostat in the room and close the door. That has kept the temperature warm enough to get the yeast going.

New Years Eve day here in Madison was a gorgeous day with temperatures in the mid-teens and sunshine in a cloudless sky. Both Sarah and I wanted to get out hiking, so we packed up some ski poles for her to use for balance, the dogs, and a camera. We spent an hour walking on a trail at one of our favorite natural areas and everyone had a great time. We couldn’t walk as far or as fast as we have in the past because Sarah is so near to term, but it still felt great to be out and about on a nice day. For those interested parties, there are some pictures in the photo gallery.

New Years Day we took down the tree and all our other Christmas decorations down in the morning. Other years we’ve delayed that for a week or so after New Years, but this year we got right on it. We didn’t want to be left with all of that on our plates once the baby arrives.

With Thanksgiving nearly upon us, we spent almost no time getting ready for the holiday.
Earlier this summer we ordered half a hog through one of the local farmers at one of the farmer’s markets near our house. We’re splitting that half with another couple, however, so in reality we’re only getting a quarter hog. We placed the order in July, and only in the last couple of weeks did get get any signs that the order hadn’t been lost as we started communicating with them about cutting instructions and delivery options. Sunday morning we picked up almost one hundred pounds of roasts, ribs, bacon, ham, sausage, and lard. Our agreement with the other couple meant that they got almost all the ham while we got almost all the bacon. In addition, each couple got almost seven pounds of lard. So, if you know of any good uses for that much lard, let us know.

Our original plans were to make jambalaya and a few other New Orleans dishes for Thanksgiving dinner, but now that we’re swimming in pork we changed course and will be making a pork roast on Thursday. We need to start eating the pork because we expect to get our annual 1/4 bison delivery any day now. That’s another hundred-plus pounds of meat that will strain our deep freeze capacity, especially since we’re not quite done with last year’s bison yet.

We have thirteen pounds of ground bison left from last year’s animal, and until this weekend we had a whole slew of soup bones, stew meat, snack sticks, a liver, and a heart. The snack sticks we took to work and curling and that took care of them. Sarah made a monstrous batch of broth and soup this weekend with the stew meat and soup bones, so those are gone (or in a different package, anyway). I boiled, diced, and dehydrated the liver, which makes it a tasty treat for dogs. The heart was too fatty to dehydrate, so I diced it, cooked it for two+ hours in a slow oven, divvied up the bits, and froze them in small containers for future dog consumption. Now if the freezer wasn’t so full of veggies, berries, and the like I’d be less nervous about getting all the bison in there.

We also worked hard on the baby’s room this weekend. I finished up with my painting in there this weekend, removed all the remaining office bits (printer, books, bookshelves, etc.), and threw myself into crib assembly. That took about two hours of sweating, swearing, and puzzling over contradictory instructions (“That illustration says this is ‘Wrong!’ while these illustrations seem to indicate the exact opposite. $#%&*!!!). Finally, the crib was assembled in place, and stocked with the crib mattress. The changing table is in place, as is the glider. Sarah started the curtains this weekend and got several of them done. She also cleaned and mended the fabric for one of the strollers that we bought at a garage sale.

Sarah has also been busy mending a rug that her Grandmother made a long time ago, but she finished with that mending on Thursday night so we dropped it off at the cleaners on Friday. That rug will likely end up in our living room.

The mead that I started some time ago is now in bottles. We bottled it Saturday afternoon. It’s really strong, compared to most beers. Based solely on my sensory perception, I’d say it’s close to 15% alcohol. We drank a bottle Saturday night when my sister was over for dinner and it’s quite harsh right now. The honey is overwhelmed by the alcohol. It definitely needs some aging before it realizes any of its potential.

For the most part, we’ve gotten ourselves and our house ready for winter.Last year winter hit us early and often and we never really got the chance to catch up. We weren’t left completely unprepared, but there were a couple of loose ends that we would have liked to tidy up before the snow flew.

This year, we’re in much better shape. This morning we raked the lawn for the lawn for the last time and put the rakes away. Then we mowed the lawn nice and short, put a tarp over the potting bench, cut down any standing, but dead, vegetation in the gardens, and finished up a few other minor details. There isn’t any snow forecast for the week, but at this point we’re ready. It feels good to have everything put away.

Both Sarah and I were off of work yesterday due to illness. I had been fighting a cold most of the week and she was congested and fatigued so we both called in sick and laid around the house. We’re both feeling better today, so after the yard work, we took Dalla, picked up Olive, and went hiking south of town. I’m always mystified that more people aren’t out the woods this time of year. That’s not a complaint as I enjoy seeing almost nobody every time we go hiking, but I wonder what they’re doing instead of enjoying the scenery and the weather.

Curling season started two weeks ago for me and my team is currently 2-0. I have no illusions that we’ll go through the season undefeated, but it’s a good feeling to start off the year with a couple of wins.

For some unknown reason, Dalla is in the midst of another case of heavy shedding. We vacuum the floors just about every other day and we still can’t keep up with the tumblefurs. We were wondering if the 70 degree weather we had a couple of weeks ago somehow confused her fur management system into thinking that spring had arrived. Hopefully, she’ll give up on this shedding kick soon so that we can go back to our normal floor cleaning routines.

Sarah and I have been busy getting the baby’s room ready over the last couple of weeks. I’ve got all the pictures off the walls, and am ready to paint all the spackled holes. The cuckoo clock that used to hang in that room is now in the hallway and a light that would have been directly over the crib has been relocated to the basement. Sarah picked out the fabric for the curtains and she’s started the process of sewing the new valances. We’ve still got plenty of work to do in there, but at least we’ve started the process and can see what have yet to do.

It’s a few minutes after 9PM here in Madison and we’ve turned off the light over the front door.

The total number of kids who came to our door this year? Two. A witch and a pirate.

Don’t let anyone tell you that door-to-door trick-or-treating isn’t dying.

Fall arrived here about two weeks ago and the weather seemed to go from warm and sunny to rainy and chilly with almost no transition. We had our first frost of the season last Friday, though it was mild and didn’t kill off any of our plants.
Sarah and I have been busy putting up food for the winter over the last few weeks. Our basement shelves are weighed down with pickled green beans, cauliflower, cucumbers, jalapenos, and green tomatoes; pasta sauce; jelly; tomatillos; and tomatoes. We’ve also been drying herbs and hot peppers. Last weekend I started a batch of mead and it is happily fermenting away.

We finished with our soffit replacement project a couple of weeks ago, and it’s been nice to have that monkey off our backs. We really enjoy hiking in the autumn and we went out for a nice long hike last weekend. While we were hiking we found some hickory trees that were dropping nuts. We gathered a couple handfuls of the nuts, took them home, cracked them, and baked them into some chocolate chip cookies. Normally, I’m not much for nuts in cookies, but the hickory nuts have a well-rounded, nutty flavor that doesn’t overwhelm the other ingredients in the cookies. In addition, the nuts soften nicely so that they blend in with the other textures in the cookies. If you can find and crack the nuts, I recommend them.

Last night was one of those rare summer gifts: temperatures in the low seventies; a clear sky; a gentle breeze; a generally quiet neighborhood; and only a handful of mosquitoes. After dinner outside, Sarah left for yoga and I planned on mowing the lawn. However, once I noticed how pleasant the evening was, I decided that the lawn wasn’t going anywhere; poured myself a beer; and spent the evening outside with a book.

Nights like last night only occur a couple of times a year, so you’ve got to enjoy them when you can.

For the Fourth of July this year we had spectacular weather for a generally lazy day.With gentle breezes, sun, a few wispy clouds, and temperatures in the 70s, we had glorious weather for the Fourth. Sarah and I originally planned to hit some garage sales that morning to look for infant-appropriate furniture, but there were almost none so we scrapped that plan. Instead, we rode our bikes to the local miniature golf establishment and played a round of 18 holes. After the first nine, Sarah had a two stroke lead, but I rallied on the back nine to take the title.

Friday evening, we walked up the hill to watch a nearby fireworks show, something we’ve done for the last few years. This year we left Dalla at home since she clearly doesn’t like fireworks that are reasonably close. It’s too bad that we couldn’t leave the mosquitoes at home, too. They got pretty ugly while we were waiting for the show to start, but we persevered and the show did eventually start. Normally, the show we watch is nothing special, but worth the walk, nonetheless. This year, it was amateur hour. I’ve never been to a show that was so badly paced. It went something like this: *firework*… *firework* … … … *firework* *firework*… *fountain* … … … … … *firework* … … … … .. … *firework* … *firework*. Even the grand finale was paced such it wasn’t a grand finale in anything but name. Apparently nobody told the folks manning the firing tubes that if you shoot off the grand finale fireworks one at a time, instead of all at once or several at a time, it isn’t any more impressive than the rest of the show and people never know when you’re done.

We hosted our second cook-out of the week on Saturday evening as several co-workers of mine came over. The menu was burgers, potato salad, green salad, cheese bread, cheese curds, homemade ice cream, and strawberries. The mosquitoes left us alone long enough that we were able to enjoy dinner on the patio for several hours.

Sunday morning we went hiking at a nature preserve south of town for an hour or so. We picked some yarrow (which went into my next batch of beer) and a handful of blackberries. A bumper crop of blackberries should be ready in a week or two and we’ll likely go back then. Sunday afternoon I brewed said batch of beer while Sarah knocked a couple of holes in the front of the house as part of our soffit-replacement project.

A friend of mine from Tufts came through town earlier in the week on his way from Vermont (where he used to live) to Olympia, Washington (where he’s moving). A picture of his luxurious rolling home is below. We cooked a meal for him and his father who was helping with the drive on Tuesday evening.

Oscar, the campervan.

After a winter with record precipitation, June hasn’t been much different in Madison.As you might have seen on the news over the past few weeks, the Midwest has gotten record rains over the last month. Madison has been no exception though we’ve been spared the devastating floods that plagued other communities. In a normal June we get 4 inches of rain; we’ve already gotten just short of 11 inches this month. Fourteen of the twenty-nine days this month have had measurable rain, and many of those days had thunderstorms. We’ve started to feel a bit out of sorts on those days when we don’t get heavy rains and some hail. During one rainstorm I took the picture below to document the river that our street became. Normally, it’s a four-lane street with a 12′ grassy median running down the center. As you can see in the photo below, all of that was under running water during one rainstorm. I felt like a real bumpkin when I was out taking pictures of the street until I saw our retired neighbor across the street doing the same. He’s lived in this neighborhood since it was built, so if he was out taking pictures it might truly have been unique event.

Water flooding our street.

I was listening to our weather radio the other day when I heard the following after a tornado watch was canceled for a neighboring county: “Residents of Dodge County can still expect torrential rains, dangerous winds, and flash floods.” Well, gosh, that’s all? At least that pesky tornado watch was canceled.

All this rainy weather has had a detrimental effect on gardens and fields around us. Last July 4th our raspberry bushes were doing so well that we were able to harvest enough berries to make a batch of raspberry jam. This year, we’ll be lucky to harvest a single berry by July 4th. The raspberry bushes got a real late start due to the cold and wet spring. Some of the flowers in our flower garden are delayed in their blooming, likely due to the weather. Many area farmers have fields full of water and corn in the fields is much shorter than it should be for this time of year.

Sarah and I bought a half-share in a local CSA (community supported agriculture) this year, so we’ve been enjoying the fruits of that investment, even though it has also been affected by the weather. We’ve gotten two boxes of produce so far. The first was overflowing with spring greens and spinach, much of which was harvested after some heavy rains threatened to drown it. The second box had strawberries, swiss chard, garlic scapes, broccoli, and lettuce.

Even though we got strawberries in our CSA box yesterday, we dropped by a pick-your-own strawberry farm this morning so that we could make our annual batches of strawberry jam. The strawberry fields were in rougher shape than usual due to the weather (sense a theme here?), but we picked enough strawberries to make three batches of jam, put some in the freezer, and have a few leftover for morning cereal.

As a natural side-effect of all the rain, the mosquitoes have been worse than usual this year. All of the flood water has been a boon for the floodwater-species of mosquitoes which has made being out around dawn or dusk a bit inconvenient. It must be said, however, that even at its worst around our house, the mosquitoes aren’t anywhere near as bad as they were in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Two weeks ago I was in San Francisco again for work. This time I spent the week downtown, just a couple of blocks from somewhere that I used to work. It was great to revisit some of my own haunts and eat some of the great food in that area. The flights there and back were predictable bummers, especially when the airline I was flying (American) decided that my luggage ought to travel on another airline (United). Two days later it finally caught up with me in San Francisco, but not until I’d already been authorized by American to purchase $100 of new clothing. So, even though I packed lightly for the trip, my suitcase was bulging on the trip home.

In other news, Sarah and I are expanding our family. She is pregnant and expecting a baby in January. Our families seem pleased; our local tax attorney seemed chagrined that it was unlikely we would have a child before 01 Jan 09. I’m sure we’ll manage, regardless.

Spring finally arrived in Madison. The forecast calls for patchy frost on Friday evening, but let’s hope that’s just a particularly brutal winter trying one last time to hang on.Dalla spent most of Saturday trying to dig something out of the woodpile near the patio. We’ve seen chipmunks run into there before so that’s what we assumed she was after. She spent at least two hours running around the woodpile; sticking her nose into space between logs; digging big holes at strategic locations; and even moving logs off the pile. I tried several times to distract her once I saw she was moving the logs around because I didn’t want her to get hurt doing that. She tended to move logs near the bottom of the pile and there was a real possibility that she could cause a cascade of logs onto her head or feet. She wouldn’t be distracted, however, so I started unstacking the woodpile. Once she realized I was helping, she got very interested in the process. Eventually, I got most of the woodpile unstacked and took a break for lunch. She carried on, however, and after moving another log, she came out of the woodpile triumphant…with a juvenile rabbit in her mouth. She was quite proud of her prize, so we let her have it for a while before bartering a treat for it (and then putting it in the trash). There’s a photo of the mighty hunter and her prize in the photo gallery.

Sarah and I have been quite busy installing replacement aluminum soffits on the house. I took Monday off of work and spent almost twelve hours working on a ladder to get both the north and south sides of the house done. The east side of the house is almost done, we just have to remove the gutter (somehow); nail up the fascia; and then replace the gutter (somehow). The west side (the front of the house) is started, but it is the most complex and will take the most time. Sarah has gotten to be quite comfortable with the reciprocating saw, so she’s been working on cutting holes into the soffits that can be reached with the 6′ ladder while I’ve been laboring on the higher gable ends with the extension ladder. The goal of the whole project is to increase our attic ventilation so that house will cool down faster in the summer and prevent ice dams in the winter. In addition, we shouldn’t have to scrape, prime, or paint the soffits ever again.

While I was in San Francisco, Sarah took the reciprocating saw to the remaining evergreen bushes in front of the house and now there are none left. We never really like them and how we can plant something we like better in that space.

Other than tearing things out, we haven’t done too much gardening yet this year. I planted some peas about a month ago, but the rabbits ate them. Sarah planted some more peas last weekend, and since she surrounded them in chicken wire, we’re hoping for better results this time. Dalla, of course, did her part by reducing the number of rabbits in the neighborhood.

Finally, I took a reasonably nice photo of the capitol building with part of the usual array of tulips that surround it in the spring.

It’s official, Madison has gotten over 100″ of snow so far this winter.

We got 7.7″ of snow on Friday; Sunday threw another 0.7″ of snow our way. The forecast calls for 2-3″ of accumulation on Thursday. I think I speak for all of us when I say that we are completely, wholly, unreservedly, in every way, one hundred percent tired of winter.Curling season ended for me last week. My team ended up just short of the playdowns, which was disappointing, but not unexpected. We played hard, but didn’t win consistently enough to merit a spot in the playdowns. Sarah has one tournament left and then she’ll be done for the season, as well.

Two weeks ago, I attended a chainsaw safety, operation, and maintenance class offered through the Aldo Leopold Woodland School. For someone like myself who doesn’t know the first thing about chainsaws but finds himself in possession of one, the class was really interesting. The best part of the day was when we went out into the woods and practiced taking down trees. The class has four levels and I’ve finished level one. I’m hoping to find the time to get back for some of the higher levels in the course soon.

Ira was recently diagnosed with bacterial pneumonia. Sarah took him to the vet hospital where he got x-rayed, poked, prodded, and the like before he was diagnosed. Suffice it to say that he didn’t agree with any of that treatment. Now he has to be injected with antibiotics every three days until the infection clears. There is probably no member of our household who is looking forward to spring and summer more than he is.

Dalla started her any semi-annual shed-fest last week so she’s been getting regular brushing to pull out all the undercoat before she helpfully layers our furniture in dog hair. It’s best to brush her outdoors so that the wind helps blow away the undercoat. In addition, the birds like to use her surplus fur to line their nests so it doesn’t go to waste.

It’s been something like five days since we got a measurable amount of snow here in Madison so, to make up for the unseemly pause, Mother Nature scheduled another five-seven inches for tonight after she coats everything with sleet and freezing rain this afternoon.We had a nice weekend with relatively pleasant temperatures in the low thirties, sunshine, and gentle breezes. We took advantage of the nice weather to get out and about both days.

Saturday, we took the dog and went in search of a geocache that had eluded us several times previously. This time we were not to be denied. We wore our snowshoes and by the time all was said and done we had used just about every technical aspect of them. We waded through deep snow up to our waists; we hiked up steep snowy and icy hillsides; we tramped across frozen streams; clawed a path through innumerable tightly woven patches of thorny raspberry canes; carefully crossed barb-wire fences; wove through forests; and slogged across frozen marshes. In the end, we found the cache in a pleasant and previously unknown (to us) area. Dalla was with us throughout, though she tired at the end and was forced to follow in my steps as I broke the trail through the deep snow. I’m glad we found that geocache as getting there and back was easily the most physically challenging trek we’ve encountered while caching.

Fortunately we had dinner reservations at Lombardinos a local Italian restaurant for that evening. We shared dinner with Amy and her current beau and all had a pleasant time. I was starving after our caching experience and ordered a pasta dish with a heavy cream sauce and sausage mixed in. It tasted great.

Sunday we out hiking again, but without the snow shoes this time. We were only out for about an hour but the dog enjoyed running and playing in the snow. We did our hiking on the Ice Age Trail segment that we steward. We started taking note of branches that we’ll need to cut in the near future and other items that could be changed. When we got home we spent some time breaking up all the ice on the sidewalk and shoveling the ice chunks on to the lawn. We try to keep the sidewalk passable for all the pedestrians who walk by our house while traveling to and from bus stops, schools, and the mall. There wasn’t much point to working on the driveway ice because we knew that sleet and freezing rain, along with more snow, were on the menu for today.

For those who are interested in seeing what our house looks like with all the snow, I put a few photos of our house and yard in the photo gallery.

I appreciate a snowy landscape as much as the next guy, but this is getting ridiculous. This winter is officially the snowiest ever recorded in Madison and it is still far from over.We’ve had over 79 inches of snow so far with more forecast for tomorrow and Sunday. When we shovel out the end of our driveway (after the plows helpfully fill it with snow from the street) we have to carry the snow fifteen-twenty feet from where we pick it up because the snow mounds on either side of the driveway are already five feet tall. There are numerous spots around town where visibility is nonexistent due to large snow mounds. When I was at the curling club last night someone described the experience of driving around town as something similar to navigating a large white maze.

According to National Weather Service statistics, we’ve gotten measurable snowfall just about every other day this winter. Then, on the weekends we’ve gotten those arctic blasts of air that drop temperatures below zero. All of this conspires to keep outdoor ice skating rinks unusable (the snow insulates the ground and keeps the flood water from freezing) and the snow piles from shrinking (due to the extreme cold).

Many cities and counties are running out of salt for the roads due to the fact that they weren’t exactly planning for a historically snowy winter. Snow plow drivers are working sixteen hours days seven days a week and have been since December.

On a personal level, all this snow means that I haven’t ridden my bike at all this winter. In a normal year, we’d get snow and I’d take a day off from riding to give the City time to clear the roads. Then I’d likely be able to ride for a week or so before we got more snow. This year, we get snow one day so I don’t ride that day. The next day I take off to let the City clear the roads and the very next day it snows again! Argh!

I enjoy winter at some level and fully expect that we’ll get some cold and snowy weather but this is winter taken to an extreme. When you’re in Antarctica you expect some cold and maybe even some snow so you aren’t disappointed that cold and snow are all you get. When you live in Madison, expectations are a bit different and un-ending snow and cold are greeted less amiably.

In the time that I haven’t been writing in this space, Sarah and I have been busy both in Madison, and elsewhere.Last weekend, we left Ira in my sister’s care and headed out for South Dakota by way of Minneapolis. We left Friday morning and in a quick four and one-half hours we were in Chaska at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. We’ve been to the Renaissance festival a number of times over the past five years, so this year we decided to change things up and bring Dalla with us. I won’t go so far as to say that she enjoyed the Festival, but she did enjoy all the food that people left on the ground. All the time I wasn’t actively engaged in keeping her away from food I spent pulling food out of her mouth. She didn’t need to eat turkey skin that had been sitting on the ground for at least a week. Nor did she need to eat turkey leg bones that could perforate her digestive tract. Despite her single-minded interest in scavenging morsels of yuck off the ground, she was a people magnet. More than a few people asked if she was a Norwegian Elkhound and wanted to greet her. As Sarah noted, we met many more people there because of Dalla.

As usual, we went to see the shows as much as the arts, crafts, and food. My favorite is the Dew Drop Jugglers. This year, they had a new line-up and we saw their Danger Show. In the past, the line-up was three high-quality jugglers. This year, there were two jugglers and one professional knife thrower. This changed up the act quite a bit. Perhaps the most amazing trick they did was when the knife thrower hurled knives at a wall and the jugglers caught them in mid-air before they hit the wall. That was an amazing trick.

After we left the festival, we spent the night at our friends’ house in St. Paul before heading out for South Dakota. We were a couple of hours out of the Cities on a two-lane highway when a dump truck came roaring down the highway in the opposite direction. Just before it passed us, a stone slightly bigger than a golf-ball came off the back of the truck and right at our car. It hit the windshield with a loud *CRACK* and placed a bullseye pattern about four inches in diameter right in the middle of the windshield. The crack was mostly hidden from the driver by the mirror, but it was obvious that we would have to get the windshield replaced.

Fortunately, we made it to Watertown without any further car-related mishaps. Once there, we helped my parents pick the apples off their apple tree, which yielded about five grocery bags full of apples.

On Sunday, we went out to the Dakota Sioux Casino for breakfast. It was supposed to be brunch, but I figure that if you eat brunch early enough in the morning, and follow it with a meal around lunchtime, that you can call it breakfast.

My father, Sarah, and I went out to a Game Fish and Parks shooting range in the early afternoon to give our .22 rifles some exercise. We brought along all the accoutrements you might expect: tin cans, paper targets, and (Sarah’s good idea) rotten apples. For an hour or so we happily plinked away at those makeshift targets and a good time was had by all. The apples were especially fun to shoot as they often exploded quite satisfactorily if you shot them just right.

Today we dropped almost $400 to get the windshield of the Avalon replaced. Our auto insurance deductible is conveniently $500, so we got to eat the entire cost ourselves. We’ve owned the car a bit over 18 months and it has been rear-ended twice and now has a new windshield. I like the car but I’m starting to wonder if it isn’t snakebitten.

Sarah made applesauce yesterday from the bag of apples that we brought back from my parents’ house. She didn’t process the whole bag, but maybe two-thirds of it. In the end, she ended up with three jars of very attractive looking pink apple sauce.

A couple of weeks ago Dalla was swarmed by bees while she and I were out for a walk. She ended up with multiple stings that bothered her for a day or so. For two weeks after that I didn’t take her near the area where the attack started because I didn’t want it to happen again. Since then, however, we’ve walked by the area, on the other side of the street, and everything appears to be normal.

Undoubtedly, you’ve noticed the new look by now.We’ve gone from a month of dry and generally reasonable weather to a week of hot and humid weather with plenty of night time thunderstorms. When it gots hot and humid, I’m not too crazy about going outside and sweating just for the sake of sweating. So, I don’t feel too bad about spending a few hours updating my web site’s look and associated software.

We’ve gotten so much rain of late that we actually are ahead of our average rainfall schedule for the month of August. Of course, with all that rain, I’ve had to start mowing the lawn again and the mosquitoes are back.

Sarah and I took in the Wisconsin State Fair two weeks ago. We last attended four or five years ago, so we felt it was time to go again. Besides, Sarah had a flight to catch at the Milwaukee airport, and the State Fair was on the way.

The State Fair is lots of fun if you have an open mind about what constitutes entertainment. If any of the following activities sounds truly dull, you may not find much to like about the State Fair:

• Watching a goat milking demonstration.
• Walking around the Swine House to find truly massive pigs.
• Watching sheep judging when you can’t understand a word the judge says because the sound equipment is awful.
• Cheering on racing pigs, ducks, goats, and pot bellied pigs.

The State Fair has a good number of things to do, see, and eat. Especially eat. There are 40 or so foods on a stick to try; there are numerous beer tents and music venues. Just about every type of meat grown on a farm in the state is available for purchase and consumption. Even soy sauce gets its day in the sun as much of Kikkoman’s soy sauce is produced here in Wisconsin and they setup a booth at the Fair.

We enjoyed ourselves at the Fair, and we even tried some of those foods on a stick. But we don’t need to go back for another four or five years.

In other news, the Avalon was rear-ended again a few weeks ago. I took the day off to take in the EAA Airventure air show up in Oshkosh and started driving up there around 09:30. About twenty minutes from home, I was rear ended by a girl driving a 1987 Pontiac Firebird, one of those big muscle cars from the 80′s. We were coming up to a stop sign and the truck in front of me slowed suddenly, much faster than I expected, given the conditions. I slowed adequately, but looking in my rear view mirror I could tell that the girl behind me wasn’t going to stop in time. I tried to steer the Avalon off to the left and onto the shoulder of the road (it was a divided highway) with the vague hope that I could get out of her way, but she hit my car before I could leave the roadway. I was less than pleased even though my car didn’t sustain much obvious damage. Apparently, the front end of her car slid under the tail of the Avalon and my trailer hitch carved up her hood. The only obvious damage to the Avalon is some scratches on the bumper. So, the car is going in to get those scratches out next week. After all, I just got a new bumper put on the car in February after the delivery van rear-ended/side-swiped the car.

Even though the car didn’t appear to be obviously damaged, I decided not to take in the Air Show and go home instead. That may have been the right move as there was a crash in the air show that afternoon and a pilot of one of the two planes involved died.

Dalla is sick with a disease that the vet calls “garbage gut.” Essentially, she ate something that gave her diarrhea. She woke me up twice last night to go outside even though it was pouring rain. Anytime that she’s willing to go outside in the pouring rain, something is wrong. Thankfully, garbage gut is relatively easy to cure (a shot, some special food, and a handful of pills) so she should be back to normal soon.

We have a bumper crop of yellow tomatoes in our scattered gardens. We’ve been eating tomatoes at nearly every meal and have just barely been able to keep up. I’d really like to get some brandywine tomatoes this year, but even though they are on the vines none of them show any sign of ripening. Some speculate that they need hot weather to ripen. Well, we’ve had all the hot weather those plants can take short of burning them out, so I don’t think a lack of hot weather is the problem. Our hot pepper plants certainly like this weather as they are producing a bountiful crop of peppers. We’ve eaten a couple of jalapeños and a couple of banana-style peppers, but the habañeros are still green and unripe.

It looks certain that I’ll be going back to the South Pole again this year. I’ve physically qualified and am on the deployment schedule for a month at the Pole stretching over Christmas and New Years. It’s a bummer that I won’t be around for the holidays again this year, but you don’t get many chances to go to the Pole so you’ve got to grab the ones you do get.