Thursday, 2 August 2018: Brussels and Door County

Tom and Joan came to visit for a couple of days.  Tom and Justin have been friends since college days.  Most recently he has moved back to Wisconsin after living in Alaska for many years; Joan is his new friend. 

Justin was pleased to talk to Tom about the breakwall and they set out a new plan of attack. 

Our exploring led us into Door County and into Peninsula State Park.  I bought more cherries as well as apricots for out next claufoutis.  Back at home, I served Shrimp tourkilimano in the gazebo.  We haven't used the gazebo nearly enough this summer but for this evening, it was perfect!

Tom on dish duty

Monday, 30 July 2018: Brussels

We’ve spent a lot of time lately reading and getting ready to jump into the stock market.  We've been reading all kinds of information and doing our research.  Both Justin and I feel that the bottom could drop out any day, but, ... here we go.

We poured concrete today... ten bags... goodness!

Lyneea came today. She is the co-owner of "Keep Door County Clean".  At first it was hard for me to think about spending $75 for her to clean this small house, BUT I got over it pretty quickly.  

Best cleaner ever! 
This is the stock we need to buy!

Ian rode his bike from New York.  His 26 day trip was over 1300 miles.  Holy moly Batman.  Justin was Ian’s third grade teacher and Ian and Erich have been best of friends since that time.  We met Ian and Adriana last year in Celestun.  They just happened to be in the same sleepy little fishing village.  We spent a great day with them and now we get to see Ian again.  Erich and Holly and the kids were here too; they were on their way to Minnesota.  After a bonfire where Jordan and Kris and their kids were able to join too, Ian and Erich set up two tents in the front yard.  Lily and Brody were happy to sleep out there with their dad while Holly and Finn opted for the front bedroom.

 



Lily and Brody face the new day

Friday, 27 July 2018: Brussels

Jason came over today.  He had his two youngest kids with him

We’ve finally made a decision about our countertops.  We are going with granite.


He marked where he'll cut off the laminate soon as we will install on top of the existing countertops.  His will help with weight distribution.  We also made plans to change out the funky support rails and have the new one match the post at the end of the bar!

In the early afternoon, we followed Jason to his land where he is building his new shop.   They have the site for the house marked and while Amy wants him to get the house up this season, Jason thinks he'll only be able to finish the shop.

Justin was pretty excited to see the big equipment and took the guys name down as maybe he can help us with our breakwall -- our never ending saga.



Wednesday, 25 July 2018: Green Bay

Green Bay hosts Farmers Markets on Saturday mornings and Wednesday afternoons throughout the summer.  We go periodically.  Lots of locals go to see and be seen; beverages of the adult variety abound (basically beer) as well as local produce and "fair food."   This trip we bought corn, cantaloupe, onions, squash and cherries.  Door County is known for their cherries and man, they are good!  They have sweet, Bing, and sour cherries -- each has it's own distinct end game.  This year, I've been perfecting my Clafoutis, a very basic French (peasant) dessert.  So far our favorite has both apricots and cherries.  I've tried a few different recipes; Justin is content being the guinea pig.  I bought a pitter contraption that is making easy work of removing the pits.  I tried a straw and even a chopstick as suggested on the internet;  the $10 was money well spent!

As far as tomatoes are concerned, we are growing a few of our own.  Justin seems to have found success as the few we've harvested are simply delish!

After our walk-about at farmer's market, we settled at Keggers to listen to some music.  Justin was invited to participate in a blind beer tasting.  Had he known they were both lite beers before he started he might have passed, but as suspected, he chose Miller Lite over Bud Lite in the end.