Wow, the fall colors are great this year.

They usually are, but I don't tired of seeing them arrive.  :)

I guess I better be able to shoot if I am going to teach it… ;)

We had special targets and a longer list of competitors this past week.  It's nice to know I can finish strong.  I was running a whole new subcompact gun from deep concealment too.  :)

I liked the perspective and colors going up the steps in Spain

RetroBlog 2006-03-19

Another unique feature of Spain, the graffiti…

There were places like this where just about every square inch was covered!  It was cool looking as a visitor.

RetroBlog 2006-03-19

Just another rendition of our course of fire league

Of course, it had to be Zombie themed since we're in Halloween season, haha.

THIS is what happens if I try to do push-ups at my house…!

Zoe "helps" and wants to play all at the same time…

I loved the Spanish architecture!

Especially in this shot with the palm and orange trees right in the middle of the city square!

RetroBlog 2006-03-19

I enjoyed seeing this beautiful Spanish cathedral!

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I’ve always enjoyed the view out the kitchen window…

…Especially this time of year with the fall colors.  Even the random neighbor chickens are kind of cool.

Most of the entries from my family.

It was fun to watch all the fun and pranks of pumpkin carving with all the kids.  The cousins enjoyed themselves and some parents and grandparents even joined in!

Johnny and Savannah’s entries in the great pumpkin carving contest :)

Back in 2006 now, I find myself off to a trip in Spain

I thought this pedestrian bridge was pretty cool! This was back in the day when you had to stop and set your camera up on a beanbag or tripod to get this kind of picture in low light… ;)

RetroBlog 2006-03-19

After the work was done, we enjoyed some R&R

Cheyenne had the idea for a fire and pumpkin carving.  We had good food and made more memories at Susan's fire pit. 

Last Saturday morning had the crew planting posts.

It's amazing how well a shop vac does at cleaning out the leftover dirt at the bottom of the holes once the auger has done its job.

Last Friday evening…

…Zoe and I enjoyed a long walk in the woods and Fall colors.  We stayed until dark and even had some bats flying around us.

Larry figured out the right way to drill holes!

 The weekend after our first attempt we hired bigger machinery, and the remaining five holes were finished in less than thirty minutes for Laura's deck!  Now all we have to do is plant the posts, then build a deck on them…!

A walk with Zoe on a moonless night.

I like the reflection of the tree line in our pond. :)

If you’re sighting something in at 25 yards…

…and this is the result, I guess you've done pretty well.  Bench rest pistol with a red dot. The best part, it's a sub-compact conceal carry piece of hardware.  Not too shabby.

And then a spontaneous game of tiny cards broke out!

I live the look on Savannah's face.  She doesn't seem excited by her hand, haha.

You never know WHAT might happen while waiting for a table…

 

Ian was on the way to his PA school interview

I love the brotherly camaraderie that shows in this shot.

The great news is that Ian found out he's been accepted before I could even get a chance to post this, haha.  Good job mister!  Not to be outdone, Isaac entered his first 50K and WON it.  Overall top finisher.  Wow!  These two…?!

I like the Taj Mahal picture hanging on the wall.  I have that same view in my archives from my travels.

It’s been really fun teaching Emily how to use my some hardware :)

The biggest and most powerful was her favorite.  She had a great chuckle in between each attempt and left with a smile on her face!

A really great pic of Itty Bitty

She was just sitting there waiting for me to start my day of work. :)

Dinner with Andy…

…and of course balisongs were involved.  We tried a new place.  Slim's in Spring Valley.  It was swamped, but the food was good!

Julie and I went browsing antique stores in Waynesville for a date.

This was one of the upstairs rooms that we discovered.  It was all done up in an early 1900's theme and pretty cool looking.

We wore Zoe out…

…just from having to watch all the effort of drilling post holes.  Supervising is hard work!

Larry and I tried this approach for digging…

We had ten holes to drill for Laura's deck but only finished five and a half and a half before we'd worked all day, worn ourselves out, and decided to pay for some bigger machinery…

You can see Zoe at the base of the tree in the background… She’s working hard to supervise us while she lays in the sun, haha.   

Just an attempt to capture the beauty of this hotel

This was where we held a district meeting in downtown Milwaukee.  I think it was called the Hilton Garden Inn.  I couldn't really capture the whole scene or do it justice, but hopefully you get the idea!

I headed to Milwaukee for a meeting one day last week.

We stayed in the hotel building on the right. It was cool on the outside and beautiful on the inside.

I drove by the Fort Knox of Gummy Bears…!

Andy was jealous!

I was enjoying the fall colors on my walk last week!

This is what happens when you have spicy Chinese food leftovers…

 

A quick video of Demo Ranch

I managed to capture this quick video on my adventures to central Texas. 

A perfect picture of my black cat…

I love this shot of the moth that hatched for Julie!

Isaac got some great senior pics of Emily!

 

I almost ran the pool table on Andy!

I missed my last stripe.  Otherwise, I would have been shooting for the eight ball from my break. :) I would say that's the closest I'll ever get!

And here’s Andy all moved in…

…He's found the perfect use for his Gerstner tool box.  It holds all his skill toys, maintenance tools, and even has a slide out tray where he can work on cleaning, lubing and adjustments.  It looks great on his dresser!

Here is a little of the story behind it…

My great grandfather lived in the Flint, Michigan area.  He was a machinist and machinists love to have their Gerstner tool chests!  The interesting part is this is a Dayton, Ohio company.  So, when I inherited this after my dad died, it came back "home".  In the top center, you can see it had collected some dust, dirt from use, and wear & tear.  You could still see the name plate and "God Said It" saying he'd attached to the front.  It turns out, he won the tool box and all the tools in a raffle from a man that had retired in 1956 (he saved the flyer showing the date, inventory, and price of the tickets).

On the top left and right corners, you can see the price of new ones (left) and what used ones are going for on eBay (right).

The lower right and nameplate insert show when I discovered it was indeed a real Gerstner box (Missing nameplate, but we could still make out the name with low-angle lighting.  It was also printed inside the box under the last drawer).  I checked on-line, and they offered to send us a replacement nameplate as long as we could prove ownership. :)

The lower left and center show how it looked after we were able to clean it out, clean it up, and give it some TLC.  The wood grain turned out great!  I love the little drawer for the machinist's handbook that pulls out of the middle!  It still has the original book it came with.  That was printed in 1939 so gives us timeframe for when the box was built.

In a final funny twist, Andy was at a customer's house two days later and noticed one of these sitting on the husband's work bench.  They got talking and enjoyed stories/pictures about the origins of both of them with each other.  Two days after that, I had a few things for sale at the street (including some scraps of steel from the tool box) and a guy stops by wanting to buy them.  He said he used to be a machinist and always wants spare steel stock… I told him they came from my great grandfather's machinist tool box.  We both smiled and laughed, then he said, "I bet I saw pictures of that box two days ago!"  It was the customer of Andy's…!  He went on to rave about my son, his work, his professionalism and his pleasantness.  He thought it was especially neat to see how much pride Andy showed in his work and having his great great grandfather's heirloom.  

What a small world and a proud papa to share all this with my son. :)

And this is Andy figuring out that I was giving it to him!

This is what it looked like after we finished :)

Andy and I decided it was time to restore my great grandpa’s tool box

This is what it looked liked when my Andy's great great grandpa Jesse was using it as a machinist.

Johnny and Julie goofing around with cameras…

 …we had to have something to do while we were waiting in line for food. ;)

Of course we enjoyed the Sauerkraut Festival again this year!

We managed to get all six of us there on Saturday!  It was fun having the boy's girls along.  We park downtown and then hit all our favorite food and craft vendors.  I was even able to pick them all up at the end of Main Street after.

I’ve always loved this picture of Stef and her cat Milo

He was her favorite cat!  Mango was Josh's.  Those names are too similar so I always forgot which one was which?!

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I was headed through the pass and enjoying the beauty

This was another of my trips out west from years ago.  I always liked the colors in the layers of rock.

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The cool, frosty weather was a surprise when I arrived home from Texas…

But I did enjoy the sunrise and the way it peaked through the trees of the "neighbor's" house.

Some more central Texas wildlife…

One specific memory I have of my grandma Barton

I remember this being in her window sill of their "big house" in the laundry room.  It was a water spritzer for ironing.  When we would arrive I remember seeing her in there working and always liked how the rose looked along side her.  Somehow, it managed to survive until we cleaned their house out when my grandpa died and it's now part of my collection of their things that I cherish.

RetroBlog 2006-02-08

Bike treadmill before its time.

This is how my grandpa got his exercise in later years.  We found it set up like this when we started going through his things.  I have many fond memories of the ahooga horn and the stories to go along with it.

One year, while I was training for a triathlon or something, I did one of my road workouts on it while visiting his house.  I even took it to the family reunion one year for my transportation around the camp ground.  

I still have this bike, in beautiful shape, from the late 1930's hanging in my basement.  

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I found my yearly photo summary interesting…

These are just the thumbnails my iPad chose for each year since I've been capturing digital images.  It pretty well summed up the last 23 years or so. 

It looks like I get my garage decor from them too…

A lot of these look familiar.  I love it.  I see my dad got his ideas about finishing drywall from his dad too… This was how my grandpa decorated his garage and shop.  I remember him showing me all these antiques and letting me guess what they were for then telling me a story he remembered from using them.  The old fashioned "better" mouse trap was one of my favorites.  It still hangs in my garage. :)

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Goin through my grandpa’s shop back in 2006

It brought back good memories to see his tools, as he left them, with his name and fingerprints on them.  Many of these have been assimilated into our current tools.  I think about how much my dad and he taught me over the years… and all the fun adventures they set me on.  I certainly come by my handyman nature, photography, and work ethic from their examples.  

RetroBlog 2006-02-08