Monday, 12 August 2019: By the Bay

Yesterday we went into town to have lunch with Dave and Terry Gay, Ed and Joan Russo and Jim Bryce.  Jim and Justin met when they were still in college.  He lives in California and returns to Green Bay almost every year.  Jim came to visit us in Germany and since I had met everyone before, I felt like I fit right in.

Today, work continued on our breakwall.  

Look at our yard -- and we thought this was bad...

Little did we know what was in store.

The back hoe and the skid steer at the water

The cut made through the cedars for the access

The machinery is at Don's and another back hoe is at the McNally's two doors down.

Everyone needs repair work done!

Saturday, 10 August 2019: Green Bay

Erich and his family headed back to Milwaukee and Justin and I went into town to go to practice.  You have to embrace the green and gold, right.

We also want to watch TCU Alumni Ty Summers.  

I was floored when I saw this lady with a hand-held fan. 

 It was 79'!!!

Mason Crosby will no longer be "cross bar Crosby"

Friday, 9 August 2019: On the Bay

There was no work on our shoreline today.  Instead, we had over 5 inches of rain!  In the middle of the storm this morning,  Don's canoe ended up on the rocks and Justin went to save it.  I took a quick photo so we could send it to Don before I jumped up on top to pull it up.  Are we having fun yet?

Dellene sent a puzzle for my birthday -- Justin and I totally avoided and immersed ourselves in the escape.  We had started a tiny bit with the border pieces yesterday but basically, we completed the entire puzzle in one day!

at noon

at 6:00pm

and at 7:45pm -- all done!

Thursday, 8 August 2019: By the Bay then Green Bay

The electricity came back on somewhere about 3am.  Of course all the lights came back on and things started beeping everywhere.  Earlier in the night Lilly had come in to bed with Justin and me and she slept right through everything coming back on.  

Even though the electricity was on, we still needed to go to April's for breakfast.  And, even though the electricity was on, there was no work going on the breakwall today.  

Thankfully, the weather was all clear in time for the game this evening.  Erich found tickets for all of us for $30.  P
reseason and $30 tickets is only time we'd get to take an 8, 4 and 2 yr old.  THen I learned this was Holly's first Packer game too!

 

Pre-game warm up -- the stands were still rather empty

Brian Balaga, as right tackle, usually leads/blocks.  

But, this evening, returning to the locker room before kick-off, 

Aaron Rogers is in the front.

Holly and I pushed together to ensure we were there in time to see pre-game including watching the team enter the field from within the tunnel.  And, as expected, many of the starters didn’t start or even suit up.  We didn’t get to see Sternberger at all and minimal play by Kumrow early in the first quarter.  We learned later that Sternberger is in concussion protocol from a kluflufal during practice -- really bad form -- IMHO.  And, IMHO, Stenrberger and Kumrow are players to watch as they are "my guys."  I still haven't forgiven management for letting Jordy Nelson go -- grrr!

The kids lasted the WHOLE game. They were incredible.  Yet another piece of evidence that setting limits and expectations for kids pays off.

Finn might have needed his Nuk for the game but Lilly definitely had her groove on!

I am one cute kid!

Don't bother me with football when I have cotton candy!

The rosters are at 90 now.  They'll need to be down to 53 right before the season opener against the Bears.

Wednesday, 7 August 2019: By the Bay

Work continues...

Dave was here and the banana bread was in the oven by 6:45.  That’s too early.  

Those trucks have over 80,000 lbs of stone!  Plus the truck.

Erich, Holly and the kids came to visit -- yes, in the middle of this mayhem!
Oh, wait!  The electricity went out about 5pm.  Thankfully I’d already mad a pot of spaghetti.
And, thankfully we have a gas stove and I was able to light the burner to boil the water to cook the pasta.  But, above all else, thankfully Erich and Holly had a relaxed attitude so our dinner by candlelight was an adventure for the kids rather than a catastrophe.  

Captain Grandpa made sure all the kids were a safe distance and had ear protection.

Tuesday, 6 August 2019: By the Bay

Justin and Dave had agreed on the plan and the work was well underway. The team was here early, that meant we were wide awake and going too. Work began long before 7am and the noise was incredible.  The back hoe was loud and of course, the back-up beeper was to be heard quite often.  Stone was delivered close to the water and right at the street.  That would create a mess with the skid-steer having to run back and forth, but... oh well...

 

Did I mention that our yard is a mess?

 Justin made a few calls to line up stone from another source and then decided that we didn’t need to be here to supervise so we headed to Packer practice. 

The Houston Texans are in town in preparation for the first pre-season game on Thursday night,  they are having two joint, public practices.   I pulled out a Texan shirt just for grins and giggles.

We got the car washed...first time in a while.  They found 700 pesos under the mat in the front passenger seat.  Wow!

Errands in town and back to Brussels in time to meet Erich and his family.  They will be here for three days that means we will be able to go to the game together!

Probably my favorite picture if us of the season!

Later, we headed to Hartung to plant a few plants -- well, Justin planted, I supervised.  We moved a hydrangea from Bayshore to Hartung where it will get more sunshine.  

I love the backyard at Hartung!

Monday, 5 August 2019: 1429 North Bay Shore

Let the games begin!

At 7:50 am I heard noises that let me know heavy machinery had arrived at our house and the stones started coming soon after that..  Here we go!  

They were supposed to start at Don and Amy's but it didn't work out that way -- Not a good thing for us unfortunately.  

We watched the work on Don and Amy’s property throughout the day and I sent Don updates periodically.  I was really surprised that he wasn’t at home today to oversee the work but I guess it turned out ok.  

10:30am - second load just delivered

1:45pm -- large stone delivered

2:24 -- that's it for today

 Our project was not quite so compact.  Justin went off the reservation a bit and changed the plan.  Dave was good with it and he promised to "stretch" the stone as much as he could.  We have over 200 feet of shoreline to protect!

Step one was to move the gazebo.  Justin and I had planned to move the gazebo anyway so this was the time to do it, right?  First we move it snug up against the deck to allow the trucks to get down to the water.  Later, when the task is complete, we will move the gazebo a bit farther next to the creek allowing room to get a boat down to the water between the house and the newly placed gazebo.  Good plan, right?

By 10am the gazebo had been moved and we were on to chopping down trees.  Yes, we had to chop down two trees to allow the dump trucks better access.  The closer the rocks could be dumped to the shore, the fewer loads (and less time) it would take to get the stones placed in the water.

Tilt up just enough to roll pipes under.  

Then tilt up from the other side -- then roll.

Very carefully and very slowly!

Distance from deck to gazebo -- about five inches.

These peonies reminded me of the red shoes from The Wizard of Oz.  

They were rolled over and squished as the gazebo was moved.

  Justin chopped down two more trees to allow room for the trucks to get to the water.  

Gemma spent most of the day well out of the way with her tail down.  She didn't lie the noise at all!

 Eighty thousand pounds stone make a lot of noise!

Somewhere in the course of the day, we got the tires on the tractor pumped up, rolled the tractor out of the way, started the EOS and got it out of the garage so we could move the furniture from the gazebo into the garage.  

Meanwhile, the stock market is down, the Texans are in town for joint practice with the Packers and ...  we will see what tomorrow holds.

At 4:00 the bottom fell out and the rain started.  Thankfully it hadn’t rained in the last few days so the heavy trucks and machinery had only torn up the yard a bit.  With the way it was raining this afternoon I can only imagine that tomorrow this time we will be ready for mud wrestling.

Justin is really worried that the stone isn’t large enough to withstand the ravages of the lake waters, ice shoves and time.