Archive for the 'Adventures' Category

Iceland vacation

Saturday, November 11th, 2023

From August 26 to September 8 this year, Laura and I went on a little adventure to Iceland. First we spent a few days with my dad and his partner Marion exploring the area around Reykjavik, then Laura and I went on a 6-day horse riding tour on the Snæfellsnes peninsula. Finally, we drove South […]

Biting dogs, bucking horses and Julia’s Ghana trip

Sunday, April 9th, 2023

Winter came early and vigorously in December 2022, and then Spring popped in and out in January and February this year. Here is Patou enjoying spring weather in February. In fact, on Jan 2nd it was so nice I took my shoes off and went for a jog in the neighborhood, only to get attacked […]

Bees – Bienen

Saturday, March 26th, 2022

Für DEUSCH hier klickenIn Early March, we bought a beehive from a local bee-keeper and set it up on our little farm. Laura had been taking beekeeping classes with the local beekeeper’s club, and one of the members put up his three hives for sale because he was planning to move to a different state. […]

Deutschlandreise 2019 – Tour of Germany

Sunday, September 29th, 2019

(Deutsch hier klicken) Once in a while, I like to take a trip back to the “old country” to visit friends and family. This year I traveled from Sept. 12 to Sept. 23. I flew into Frankfurt airport and picked up my rental car there – a brand-new BMW 220d. The car was really comfortable […]

Brrrrr – crazy arctic cold

Sunday, January 7th, 2018

Auf DEUTSCH hier … Last week was crazy cold here … this morning RDU recorded 3 deg F and it was 6 Deg F at the house at 7 AM. Almost the entire week, temperatures stayed well below freezing, and the on the only slightly warmer day we got snow! Taking care of all the […]

A weekend in Uwharrie

Thursday, March 30th, 2017

Last weekend, Laura and I rented a cabin in Uwharrie National Forest. A weekend away from the farm (and  the kids) was just the ticket for us. The cabin was a couple of miles from a trailhead for the Uwharrie trail and a 5-minute drive from the Badin Lake Recreation Area. We drove the truck […]

The summer of independence

Saturday, August 29th, 2015

This summer was the summer of independence for Jacob and Julia. First, the two of them went on an adventure, then Julia moved out. Let’s start at the end: last week was Julia’s 18th birthday. In the morning, Laura took her to the DMV to get her permanent driver’s license. In the afternoon we took […]

Pluto

Tuesday, July 14th, 2015

Amazing!! Pluto nearly fills the frame in this image from the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) aboard NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, taken on July 13, 2015 when the spacecraft was 476,000 miles (768,000 kilometers) from the surface. This is the last and most detailed image sent to Earth before the spacecraft’s closest approach to Pluto […]

Empty nest

Sunday, July 5th, 2015

Yesterday afternoon, we took the kids to the airport and sent them on a 3-week vacation in New Hampshire. They are staying with Laura’s brother and they are helping him to fix up the house on Squam Lake where he intends to retire soon. So for the first time in 17 yeas, Laura and I […]

The Great Beer Quest of 2015

Saturday, January 31st, 2015

I am happy to report that for the fifth year running, I successfully completed the Great Beer Quest and acquired my allotment of the Special Release bottles of Sexual Chocolate Stout. Once again, we froze our butts off in 20-degree temperatures camping out on the sidewalk in front of Foothills brewery in Winston Salem, NC. […]

Summer Adventures

Monday, June 16th, 2014

Summer is here and today Laura, Jacob and Julia all embarked on a new adventure. Laura started her new job at Unique Batik, where she will help Sharon grow this great company, and take it to the next level. After her stint in an academic environment at Duke, my dear wife will now foray into […]

Fowl drama

Wednesday, January 22nd, 2014

Last night was rough. Around 4:00 PM yesterday, one, maybe two, dogs got into our pasture and attacked the emus and one of the emus (Sidney) jumped the fence and ran away. Then the dog chewed his way through the wire fence of our neighbor’s chicken coop and killed 10 of their 14 birds. We […]

Paris – days 3 and 4

Tuesday, December 3rd, 2013

Last week, Laura and I returned to Paris for the first time in 20 years. Laura flew out during the previous week for work and I followed her on Saturday for a few days of fun in the City of Light. After exploring the city over the weekend (see here), Monday’s primary focus was the […]

What a weekend …

Monday, August 26th, 2013

Phew … brutal weekend – I am hurting all over! Saturday morning Jacob and I did our usual 2 hours of Karate with Sensei Kevin. That’s usually pretty intense, but Saturday evening we also went bowling for 3 hours with 6 of Julia’s friends, to celebrate Julia’s 16th Birthday last week. Thank god they had […]

Vacation Photos

Sunday, July 28th, 2013

Photos from our week in the Virginia Mountains. Open the post and click on a photo to start the gallery. Urlaubsphotos! Hier öffnen und dann auf ein Photo klicken um die Gallerie zu starten.

Urlaub in den Bergen

Friday, July 26th, 2013

(English) Letzten Samstag packten wir unser Gepäck, Futter für die Pferde und Jacob’s Kayak in den Pferdeanhänger, luden die Fahrräder auf das Fahrradgestell und die Pferde auf den Anhänger und dampften ab in die Berge für eine Woche. Wir fuhren cirka 150 Meilen/240 KM nach Virginia in die Nördlichen Blue Ridge Mountains am New River. […]

Dog attacks my emus

Monday, January 28th, 2013

Crazy weekend … Friday we had a snow/ice/freezing rain mess, so Laura and I had to leave work early to pick up the kids from school. Saturday morning – I was just on my first cup of coffee – Laura noticed a large Rottweiler chasing the emus in the back yard. I put on some […]

The Great Beer Quest of 2011

Monday, July 18th, 2011

Last Saturday I got up at 2 AM, picked up two fellow Footheads and drove to Winston Salem to get in line for some awesome beer. We got to the Foothills brewery at 4:00 in the AM, and there were already 160 Footheads in line! And still 6 hours to wait for the awesome beer, […]

Summer

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

Nothing says “summer is here” more than a couple of muggy mid-90 days over Memorial Day weekend, building a tree house and catching fish in the pond. Last weekend, I completed our treehouse. Well, it’s not so much a “house” as a platform in the tree – about 15 feet (5m) above the ground. It […]

The Doughman 2011

Sunday, May 29th, 2011

We did it! Yesterday, the 11foot8 team @Overheight When Flashing@ participated in the Doughman – “the world’s premier Team Relay Quadrathlon” – and we finished in a very satifying 8th place (out of 75 teams). The race has 5 legs. Each leg starts with an eating challenge before the athlete goes on to run or […]