Dad at His Best

Today is my Dad’s 76th birthday. This picture was taken this past summer on Big Birch Lake.  For as long as I can remember sailboats have been a part of my life. The first sailboat I remember was one that Mom gave Dad for a Christmas present and he built-in the dining room during the winter months after Christmas. They had to do some remodeling in the kitchen to get the boat out in the spring.

Next it was a bit larger version that he rebuilt in the backyard. It was an old wooden boat that needed much TLC. There were many trips to Johnson Boat Works that summer.  Dad had this boat when I was learning how to drive so I learned how to back the boat behind a large van down the boat ramp and into the water.  It’s a skill that my husband has come to appreciate over the years as we’ve launched our speedboat at the public access on our lake.

This sailboat we pulled on a trailer from Minnesota all the way to the South Padre Islands in Texas in the middle of winter so Dad could try sailing in the Gulf of Mexico.

After that it was the more adventurous stage in sailing when he bought a catamaran sailboat,  There were many wild rides on that boat. One ride in particular I remember well because it was the Fourth of July and we tipped the boat over and were bobbing in the lake for a while as boats passed us on all sides including the sheriff.

His current boat is the one in the picture. The past few years I haven’t gone sailing much but made a point to go one afternoon with Mom and Dad. Mom packed wine and cheese and crackers for our afternoon. A pleasant afternoon with many pleasant memories of past sailing adventures.

Happy Birthday Dad!

 

Advertisement

 

My Chariot Quit But My Birthday Rocked

Yesterday was my birthday, my husband and I took the day off from work.  We didn’t have any plans in particular but I told him I just wasn’t going to work on my birthday. 

We haven’t had a day off of work since September 30, 2010, working six days a week.  The only days off have been Christmas and New Years.  I was on strike. 

We  stayed at home in our pajamas until around 11 am and decided to hop on our snowmobiles and hit the trails near our home.  My husband led our trip down the trails and to the nearest gas station because both sleds were almost on empty. 

 We got almost to our destination, a gas station, when my snowmobile went slower and then stopped.  I figured that I must have run out of gas so I sent my husband to get some gas and I waited on the trail for him to return. 

He returned with a gas can and poured it in and pulled the rope.  Nothing, no compression.  The problem appears to be bigger than no gas.  He got a chain from a local logging company and pulled my snowmobile off the trail.  I hopped on the back of his sled and we continued on our way. 

We went to our local favorite bar/restaurant for lunch and were provided each with a birthday beer.  My husband’s birthday was last Saturday.  After lunch we got back on the sled and on to my parent’s home just down the road. 

I wanted to get a picture of the ice houses on the lake from my parents home for my photography blog.

After I took this photo I walked into Mom and Dad’s kitchen and I saw this wooden box on the kitchen counter. I said “What’s the box for Dad?” 

He said “I use it for raising bread dough.”  There is a local bakery that sells frozen bread dough that Mom and Dad like.  It’s the only bread that they eat other than bread that Dad makes from scratch. 

Dad said they usually try to speed up the rising process by heating up their oven and putting the frozen bread dough to rise and the later bake it in the oven.  Dad didn’t like how long they had to have the oven on, but still wanted to speed up the process.  

Dad is a retired Electrical Design Engineer so he made his own box for his bread dough. The box is complete with a heat source and thermostat to keep it at the temperature he desired.  This is what the inside of his bread box looks like.

 He sets two bread pans in the box on the screen, sets the temperature and closes the lid until the bread is risen.  He then transfers the loaves to the oven for baking. 

In a previous post, I mentioned a hammered dulcimer that my Dad made.  Yesterday I took this picture of his dulcimer. 

After visiting Mom and Dad we got back on the snowmobile and headed home.  When we got home we headed into our shop to get the flatbed truck to pick up my snowmobile.  We dropped off the snowmobile at our home, took the truck back to the shop and came home.  Exhausted from all the fresh air and exercise, I was in bed with my latest book and asleep by 9:30pm.

One of my favorite parts of snowmobiling is all the things that I can see on the snowmobile trails that you can’t see from the car when driving in the same area. I had high expectations of taking a lot of pictures with my new camera but riding snowmobile didn’t allow for many pictures. I will have to take my camera on a walk on the trails to see if I can capture a few of the beautiful sights I saw yesterday.