The real competitors take it pretty seriously…

The intensity and concentration was palpable as they stretched, hydrated, and practiced their tricks all with a little fog machine effect. ;)

BBQ worth the trip for sure.

To me, real barbecue can be enjoyed without sauce.  These ribs are a dry rub style that are perfect.  I had half a rack and a little pulled pork to go along with it.  I like to have some of it without sauce to get all the smoke flavor and some bites with the sauce for some added sweet spice. 

THIS is why I compete!

Especially at this venue.  It's for the BBQ! We've built a tradition of me running our for ribs, pulled pork & brisket while we watch the rest of the competition.  This is one of our favorite joints.  It goes way back to Andy Andy and me stumbling onto it at the NRA show years ago.  

My few minutes of fame…

Johnny got this pic of me competing.  I was going to be happy if I landed a trick on stage and ecstatic if I got a point.  I managed to land two tricks.  Lunar and Bird.  I was happy!  I couldn't do either of those reliably off stage last year.  Regardless, it was fun to enjoy the vibe and adventures.  In the meantime, it keeps me a little bit sharper than I'd otherwise be.  There sure aren't many of us old dudes in the hobby… It takes good eyes and fast muscles to really be any good, hahahaha.

A busy day when…

…you've already been on your feet for twelve out of 14 hours into the day… I reached my daily stand quota at 1400 (2p for you twelve hour people) during our kendama competition this past weekend.  It made for kind of a long day, but we sure enjoyed it.  Good guy times together with my boys.

Meanwhile, back in Dayton…

…Andy also had an early start getting to the city building before 7a for his journeyman test.  He says he felt like it went well.  Once he was finished and checked his work, he headed down a little later then we did.

A little goofiness on the way…

It's fun that John is joining us for BATB (Battle at the Border) this year, but where's Andy…??!!

We were off to an early start this past weekend.

Our kendama competition started around noon do we work up and hit the road pretty early.  Johnny provided the coffee while I showed up with the ride.  We were on the road by 6:15, Kendamas at the ready.  :)

Some of the internal mechanisms are starting to take shape.

The tiny screwdriver and even tinier springs…

Putting this together is going to keep me busy for a bit :)

This should help you figure it out.

These are only a third of the instructions for assembly…

Julie bought me a puzzle for Christmas…

I started working on it a little bit this past week.  There are LOTS of little pieces.  See if you can figure out what it's going to be when it's finished…?

It’s getting hotter!

This is supposedly the hottest pepper you can get these days.  Good news, the dairy of the cheese mutes some of the heat, but it still lights you up for sure!  

The cats decided to cuddle

Then Pepper starts cleaning Bitty, which is a prelude to some disagreement, then the fun end.  This time around wasn't any different. ;)

So it’s time to breakout my backup kendama.

It's close to the old one, same brand and shape, but different woods.  I don't care for the shiny/sticky coating on the tama as much either.  Hopefully, I can get a decent replacement for that at the competition from one of the vendors.  But it will be fun refining my trick skills on a freshly and getting in broken in by the time I go on stage.

It finally gave out…

My competition Kendama finally chipped enough that I better give up on trying to get it through my competition that's less than a week away…

PSA, probably a good idea to turn this on.

Update your phone to 17.3, then settings, FaceID & Passcode, then turn on Stolen Phone Protection.  It keeps people from turning off tracking and signing you out if they manage to observe your passcode and swipe your phone.

My cheese is getting hotter AND even better tasting!

Proud of Susan and what’s she’s doing for pregnancy care.

These are screenshots from a video she put together that they played at our church last weekend. Very well done. She starred in it as an actress and narrator. Probably producer as well if I know her. ;)

Andy’s creepin’ on my mom‘s birthday cake

Too many adults! ;)

We enjoyed some more family time celebrating my mom's birthday last weekend! The kid's table has become the adult table, and the other table has become one for the old folks, hahaha. 

I finally feel like I can give a good try at all my tricks.

It's a good thing. Just in time for Andy and my tournament coming up!  I even managed to run through them on a different kendama so I'm getting a little more resilient…

I’ve progressed more this time…

It's been interesting getting ready four our upcoming tournament.  Andy encouraged me to compete at one level higher.  That means I started out practicing several tricks I've never even been able to even get decent attempts at lacing.  As the month has progressed, I've actually been able to lace a couple reliably.  Even one of the ones I never thought I'd get, I have started having to assume I will get it so that I cushion it properly when it does land right.  End result, I routinely do tricks I never thought I would be able to, and added a couple new ones to my repertoire. 

I grabbed this pic the first time I landed a juggle.  It was quite by accident, as I was only working up to mechanics of the releasing and reacquiring the ken and the tama, but I was just as happy.  So was my teacher. ;)

Almost out of light for the night

Zoe and I barely got our ride in without a flashlight earlier this week.

Then Andy came over and hung out for the evening.

Two kids in one day, a good time❣️

And Johnny even brought me coffee!

He even treated me to his own personal mug.

You know it’s bad when people steal a sandwich…

Our local breakfast dive had to switch to a new ticket system because too many people under reported their order when getting rung up.  So now you get a number AND your order to take to the cashier to keep people honest.  

The sandwiches are just as good still.  No worries there!  Johnny and I were hitting brunch last week.  Fun yum!

It’s pretty bad when this is the level you start with…

I got a few hot pepper cheeses on our trip.  This is the first one I tried.  I figured I would start lower and work my way up.  It was hot, for sure, but really good flavor too.  

How am I supposed to get any work done…

Zoe is always nearby!

We enjoyed the view and our cheese on the way home.

The process of making cheese.

1. Refine the curds and separate the whey (seasoning and flavor is added here)

2. Auger out the curds

3. Fill the molds

4. Press out the extra moisture to shape the cheese.

We really enjoyed out trip to Amish Country and Heini’s Cheese Chalet. We learned something, AND made a nice lunch of our meat, cheese and fudge purchases on the way home. :) It was a nice present for Julie’s birthday. 

Now on to cheese SHOPPING!

Once we finished watching the cheese being made, we went on to the fun part of picking out what we wanted to take home!  There were lots of selections, of course.  We mostly picked a variety of smoked and super hot cheese.  Julie didn't have much to do with the extreme hot pepper cheeses… ;)  I liked their scale model buggy display too.

Lastly, they press out the excess whey

Third, they separate and prepare the molds

Then they auger out the curds

Four steps to yummy cheeses…

First they curdle the milk and drain out the whey.  The repeated churning refines the consistency and size of the curds. They add salt and other seasoning/flavors as needed for the recipe.  

You could see the factory or shop for cheese

We chose to do both! :)

We finally made it

Welcome to Heini's Cheese Chalet. 

A pretty, Amish winter homestead scene

Various homesteads were still working on bringing in the corn shocks. You can see some of them still stacked here.

We picked a great day for a road trip…

Julie and I were off to see a cheese factory in Amish Country.  I thought this pic gave a good feel for what life is like there.  

I loved this scene in Waynesville!

Julie and I were on the way out to Amish country early in the morning this past weekend.  This was the scene on the street downtown.  I love the street lamp, Christmas lights, antiques sign, snow, and old time shop window.  It captures the heart of the little town well!

A nice little low carb meal on the go

I think I was headed out to class.  I can eat this on the way. :)

Andy carrying out the old stuff

If you follow him or his company on Instagram, you saw the basement drain replacement this past week.  Here, he's hauling off the 130 pounds of removed cast iron!  I like the look on his face.  Seems to be having fun and pretty proud of himself, hahaha!

Now we can have a nice warm house for the rest of the winter

We had our yearly oil fill this past week.  I liked their invoice envelope.  Totally fire. 🔥 ;)

I started practicing with my second kendama just in case

It's good to have a backup in case you get a hopeless knot or have some kind of failure.  I figured it would set me back a bit since the balance and play is different, but I didn't do too bad.  I was having a good kendama day that day.  I had just been happy with 8 out of 10 of my tries on the tournament tricks with my New Laced Grunt Wood Line Kendama.  Then I tried with my Sweets Nick Gallagher mod and kept that same 8/10 performance going.  That includes getting a personal best of one turn lighthouse trade spike in two tries. :)

A moment of coexistence…?

Pepper decided she liked sitting on packing pillow in this box.  So much so that she didn't run off when Zoe got near.  I don't think Zoe knew quite what to do with herself at that point, hahaha.

Plumber boy is ready to take his test!

It's at the end of this coming week.  He's going for his journeyman certification.  Then we'll be off to Battle at the Bortder with our kendamas. 

The cold didn’t stop Zoe or me this week.

We headed out for our lunch bike ride five times this past week.  I just added another layer.  Zoe couldn't have seemed to care less that it felt like 3º out!

Zoe eagerly anticipates Julie each morning…

I guess I’ve been practicing kendama too much…

…and not spending enough time practicing my balisong knife skills.  I have some good advice for you, pay attention to which handle you've grabbed BEFORE trying a flashy opening!  Just a dumb move on my part.  Good news, a couple bandages fixed it right up.  

Some of Savannah’s family enjoying time in the kitchen

Her brother Dakota and her are watching Nash clean up after dinner.  What a cute little chef hat!