True to My Word

SUPPORT LOCAL BREWERIES! True to my word, I retuned to the Jolly Pumpkin brewery today to purchase a birthday gift for my dad. Knowing next to nothing about beer, other than it tastes yucky, the young man tried to help me choose as best he could. I knew I didn't want a dark beer, so he made a few suggestions. True to being a woman, I picked what I liked on the label. If you are into labels, you've got to go to their site and check out all their different lables, pretty cool! I know, so lame! I ended up getting a pint of Bam Biere Farmhouse Ale, and a pint of E.S. Bam Hoppy Farmhouse Ale. And naturally, since B lives in hoodies, I couldn't leave without getting him an advertisement to wear.

Bam Bière - An artisan farmhouse ale that is golden, naturally cloudy, bottle conditioned and dry hopped for a perfectly refreshing balance of spicy malts, hops and yeast.

E.S. Bam - Extra Special Farmhouse AleA Bam celebration of excess. More malt, more hops, same vivacious personality.

I'll let you know how dad likes it, when he finally opens the bottles and tries them. Cheers!

Odd Combination!

Can you guess what a labyrinth, a micro brewery, and wildflowers all have in common??? These are all things, plus others, that we came across today while we were out geocaching. Yes, even geocaching will open the doors to new things. Our Garmin did not let us down today!

We started our day in the woods and along the path found newly opening wildflowers, a babbling creek (from all our recents rains) and yes, the cache container - in which we traded some travel bugs.
You surely didn't think we would identify the wildflowers, did you? Remember we are an animal species motivated group, not botany. Maybe our botany prone friends could help?

Clear water.

B gets the 'find.'
A few caches later we came across a puzzle cache in which we needed to count the steps of the 5 circuit Cretan style labyrinth, do some math and then pace off 47 steps to actually find the cache container. If you had been a fly in the woods, I'm sure you might have found it interesting to hear what a 13 yr old, a 43 yr old and a 65ish yr old might have to say about the labyrinth - please let it be known - we all had differenting opinions and observations!

Center

Counting and figuring out the clues to which direction we should be taking our paces to find the cache.

Who knew??? Not us. There is a micro brewery right here in Dexter, and we didn't even know it. It is the Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales Brewery. (if you go to their website, you've got to click on their products link. Again, who knew?!) Now had it been a winery, I'm sure I would have been up on the details. It was closed today, and the Tap House is not to open until later this year. But it was fun to make this find, only about 5 blocks from our house. We are going to return this week to buy gramps a few bottles of the Jack O'Lantern brew for his birthday, which is this coming weekend. Should I pick a few bottles up for anybody else???

Taproom won't open until after we have moved. Reason to visit?

Here are the details about the brewery, for those interested:
Founded in 2004, this brewery makes use of open fermentation (wild yeasts) and oak barrel aging to produce delightfully sour beers and farmhouse ales in the Belgian tradition. No two batches are ever exactly the same, intentionally and enjoyably so. The brewery is named after two of the very favorite things of the founders: Halloween and pirates! There is no brewpub at this unassuming location, but they do have a small retail store and occasional tasting counter on premises which is open Fridays from noon to six. After Thanksgiving and through the coldest months you may also find them open on Saturdays. If they are open and you drop in, you will likely get a chance to say hello to the owners Laurie and Ron (the latter also being the the head brewer). If they are not open, you can find their product sold in wine bottles at various local stores that carry craft beers. They are surprisingly well known and widely distributed given the relatively small size of their largely family-run operation. This is no doubt due to the quality and uniqueness of their products, which have won awards at the Great American Beer Festival. Once we were visiting Tokyo, Japan and were pleased to find two of their beverages on sale at a store there!

So now do you see how a labyrinth, a micro brewery, wildflowers and caching all go together? LOL, for us it's just a 'normal' day of geocaching and enjoying the different things that we find along the way. The weather was perfect, the exercise needed and the company was - let's just say entertaining!!! The three of us added 12 'finds' to our geocaching find column, found 3 new travel bugs and dropped off 2 bugs we had with us, we found 2 things we didn't even know were there, and laughed at a couple of things along the way. It was great to be outside!!! We were hoping that spring and the warm weather was here to stay, but the next few days are going to be rainy and cold again. Thankfully, we enjoyed while it lasted.

Playing Hookie

It's Friday, sunny, and predicted to be in the 70s (and yes, it's still April). So what is a home schooling teacher/parent to do??? Suggest we cram as much as we can into the morning, attend Chemistry lab, and then head to the lake to play hookie!!!! The promise of hookie was a tactic to get B to help with some of the chores at our favorite place in Michigan - the cottage. So before the lab instructor could even get out of the drive, we hopped in the truck and headed for west toward the lake!!!! Next weekend is gramps birthday and we decided to the dock in for him. The lake looked pretty empty when we got there, but when we left we had remedied that!

Here's what it looked like when we got started. Yes, that is Saturn in the water. B said the water was cold, I had yet to find out. As you can see we've carted all the necessary 'supplies' to the sea wall.
Take this child to the cottage, and put him in the water - you get HAPPY CAMPER!!! (not sure Saturn shares the sentiment)

First section done, working on the 2nd section. Saturn is the ultimate supervisor.

Second section done, third section is the toughest because of the end posts - they have to be screwed into the lake bottom (vs the other ones just sit on the sandy bottom). Saturn wants to make sure B is doing it just right, 'Make sure you get it straight kid, and level. I hate to walk on the dock when it is runs downhill on one side.'

Still smiling, while working. It's because we both went to the lake with a different motive. The deal was, once the work was done, B could work on his koi pond and I would get to kayak. Did that happen???? Doesn't look much like a boy does he???

JOB DONE!!! Plus we got all the sticks in the yard picked up and burned, all the outdoor furniture hauled out of the garage, the porch swings hung (hard choice, would have loved to have time to curl up in one of them and read - but not in the cards today), and the boat lift to the water's edge.

AND - we both got to 'play' after the work was done. B uncovered his pond to find his koi had weathered the winter just fine (only lost one fish, the gin matsuba butterfly koi). He began the clean up work on the pond and I filled my kayak in the water and got a chance to paddle. About an hour on the water, bliss!!!! The water was cold, I could feel that through the boat. The sun was amazing, and the there was not a sole around - so the only sound was the paddle in and out of the water and the movement of the boat. Heavenly bliss!!! I've missed kayaking. The lake level is SO high - highest we've ever seen. The neighbors 2 houses down, their sea wall is completely underwater.

Anyway......picked a perfect day to play hookie. It was VERY HARD to get in the truck to return to Dexter. If we didn't have a family commitment tomorrow morning we probably would have stayed. We can hardly wait to finish things here in Dexter so we can make our move out there. We'll have at least 3 1/2 months of living at the lake. Motivates us to get home, get the school work and chores done here so we can return!!!!

Horsing Around

Best part of my day - watching B work with River, all the while sitting the sun getting warm! I think, spring is here - although I'm careful to say that. Today B assisted with therapy riding at the barn, and then he got his time with River. They worked in the outside corral - only doing ground work. But you can clearly see, River doesn't care what they are doing - he likes B! River's owner is complimentary at how well River responds to B. I wasn't sure I would be able to get B and his big head (ego) in the truck to come home.
It's not all fun and games at the barn. B had to give River a bath and groom him. B actually likes to do the grooming, so he never tries to get out of it (like some of his chores at home). River looked awesome, and B looked worn out. In this pic B is distracting River while the owner is doing something with his hoof.

Sculling or Crewing or Rowing???

Finally, a beautiful late afternoon (we are tired of damp, cold rainy days)! This afternoon, when we were tired of school (okay that happens when B gets up, but that's a totally different post), we decided to enjoy some of the outdoors. B, Saturn and I headed to an Ann Arbor park where we were placing a cache. So we walked the dog, got our cache container placed perfectly, and noticed boats on the Huron River. It was the U of M Rowing teams - both men's and women's.
While we were watching we got into a conversation about what the difference between rowing, sculling and crewing actually is. So are these terms interchangeable??

What we decided is, the sport is called sculling - and what the people in the boat are doing is either crewing or rowing. But in many cases, the terms are used interchangably. Next time we're there - we're going to ask.

Now guess who wants to try it??!!! When we left the park I wanted to head right to the cottage and put the kayak in the water. I want to get a 1 person crew boat. B suggested a rowing machine, but I don't think that will do the trick. Part of the experience is actually being in the water, and a machine does NOT simulate that. B suggested a rowing machine that he would install on the dock. Gotta give the kid credit for creativity - but the momma is not buying it! But the momma such does want to try it!!

In any event, we enjoyed our time outside at the park. The dog got a walk. We got some fresh air, exercise and the treat of seeing these teams on the water. Afterwards we went downtown Ann Arbor to eat dinner at Tios, and then home to finish the last of today's language arts. Great way to spend sometime in the sun and with the son. Maybe???? Just maybe, spring is here. Hopefully!

TRYING

I know, I know - I have been horrible at keeping this updated. But thankfully my homeschooling friends (and the others that read this) are understanding enough to know I'm like that, patient enough to wait, and frankly have way more pressing matters in their life. lol

I am going to try to keep more up to date on here. Some of you are really good at it - daily even. I strive to be like you, ha ha. Keep checking back - you never know when I might hit a few days in a row.

Fly Boy - Lucky Boy!

When an opportunity falls in our lap we run with it - today one of us got to fly with it! That would be B. He got to actually fly in this plane!! My dad called and asked if B was free for a few hours. With 20 minutes notice, off B went for his first experience in a private plane. My dad's broker, took them up today. And they could not have asked for a more beautiful day to fly. They flew over our house, my parent's house, the lake house and many key Ann Arbor landmarks. The first thing B said when he got home, "I want to go again." All I could think was, 'next thing I'm going to have to pay for is flying lessons.' But really, it was so much fun to see his excitement. Not to mention, to see your child experience something you have never done - simply AMAZING!!! Thank you gramps!!!

Cirrus SR 22 - this is the 4 seater plane, B, and gramps - ready to go
Instrumentation - highest elevation about 3000 ft.

Grandma and gramps house - right at the end of the first green

Our house, but not for long!

Cottage

Big House - UofM football stadium