(DEUTSCH) And yet another ice storm in March! Yesterday morning everything was coated in ice, yet again, even the poor little daffodils. After it had rained all Monday, temperatures dipped just below freezing Tuesday morning, while it was still raining. It was not as bad as the ice storm on March 4th, but schools closed, […]

(DEUTSCH)    This winter has been a bit of a rollercoaster here in Central North Carolina, with temperatures in the 50s and 60s one day and then well below freezing the next. Earlier this week was a good example: On Sunday, we hit 71°F (21°C) and for the next 40 hours temperatures went straight down. At […]

Emus don’t like the snow. A few cold nights are no problem for them. They keep warm by huddling in a sheltered spot, tucking their feet under their plumage. But when snow is on the ground and it’s hard for them to find a dry spot where they can sit to stay warm, they just […]

This morning we had the coldest temperatures in over a decade: 8°F (-13°C) and that only 26 hours after a high of 59°F (+15°C). The data below are from our weather stations at the house. At RDU, the low was 9, which breaks the record cold temperatures from 1988 for the day. Of course our […]

Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit!

(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. […]

Today, our family bid a very sad farewell to my sister’s husband of 18 years, Karsten Hupfer. He died completely surprisingly on March 23 at a hospital in Waiblingen, Germany. He leaves a huge void in his and our family, and in my sister’s life in particular. Heute haben wir uns in tiefer Trauer von […]

Dies ist die Burg Hohenzollern, einer der definitiven Höhepunkte unserer Reise nach Deutschland im August.  Wir fuhren vom Rheintal in den Schwarzwald nach Hechingen, am Rande der Schwäbische Alb. Wenn man sich der Burg nähert, werden die Straßen schmaler und steiler, bis die Burg direkt üher dem Besucher im Wald aufragt. Dort parkt man das […]

Auf Deutsch hier … During spring break we took Wally and Cleo on their first over night trip with us. We loaded  them on their trailer and hauled them 100 miles South, to a horse farm near Southern Pines. The weather was great – dry and sunny and in the 60s – so not too […]

März ist Ausnahmezustand hier in NCAA Country – March Madness steckt alle hier an. Besonders hier in North Carolina, wo wir dieses Jahr 4 Basketball teams in der nationalen Hochschulmeisterschaft hatten. Vor ein paar Minuten hat es UNC  in das regionale Endspiel geschafft. Das heisst das Team ist eins von 8 Teams die noch von […]

This winter has been really mild here in North Carolina, but last night we did get a 1/2 inch of snow.  The ground was pretty warm after a mid-50s day, and so this morning there is no snow on the roads. Even so, there were some accidents and schools are on a 2-hr delay. We […]

Schönen Valentinstag, liebes Deutschland! Reporter: Sie haben doch bestimmt eine Liebste Zuhause … oder ‘nen Liebsten? Passant: Ich weise diese Unterstellungen zurück!! Unterstellungen sind ein journalistischer Trick … Ich könnte schwören dass ich bei dem Alten mal Untermieter war! “Der Globus dreht sich!” Fantastisch!

Is this what the natives do in Norway during those long winters? They drink and swim in the frozen fjords? This guy is nuts! And his videos are really entertaining and well crafted. By far the best storytelling I have seen on YT in a while. Was machen die Norweger während der langen Winter dort? […]

Auf Deutsch … 2011 was a rough year. I’m trying to come up with some good stuff that happened this year, and it’s not easy. One personal highlight was participating in the Doughman race with the 11-foot-8 team. We raised $340 and came in 8th place (out of 75 teams). Besides the race, I ran […]

[DEUTSCH weiter unten … ] Saturday, we took Wally and Cleo out on a road-trip for the first time. We borrowed the truck and trailer from friends of ours. We wanted to check out the truck’s towing prowess as we were planning to buy it. We had done a test-run the previous weekend and loaded […]

Time for a new truck crash video compilation. This is the Sergio Leone remix of the 2010 truck crashes at the Gregson St. railroad trestle. Enjoy! Es ist mal wieder Zeit fuer einen Kompilationsfilm der LKW-Enthauptungen an unserer beruechtigten Eisenbahnbruecke hier in Durham in North Carolina. Diesmal ist der Film Sergio Leone gewidmet undf seinem […]

We uploaded some videos of the Wally and Cleo to Laura’s YouTube channel. I shot this one on Dec. 26 after the snowstorm. Cleo was very excited about the snow. This might be the first time she experienced a real snowfall because she lived at the coast for most of her life. Wir haben ein […]

Boy – what a surprise that year had in store for us! Perhaps the greatest change in lifestyle for Laura an me since we had children … and a much bigger surprise than the children! Of course I am talking about our horses, Waldo and Cleo. While building our horsefarm and figuring out the ins […]

If you have read my posts over the summer, you’ll know that we pretty much spent our summer vacation building a 1200 foot (400 M) pasture fence. Well, Google Earth noticed too, and took some great pictures of our work – from space! Google hat vor Kurzem die Satelitenphotos von unserer Gegend erneuert und mir […]

Today we brought home our horses Waldo and Cleo! This weekend we got their run-in shelter (mostly) done, so we borrowed a trailer and brought them home from the place were we had them boarded for the last month. DE … Waldo und Cleo sind endlich zuhause! Wir haben die beiden heute abgeholt und sie […]