It's easy to recall the joy of places past and the occasions that inspired that trip to a special place. Recently I had the pleasure of attending a Celebration of Life for my Father In Law and Mother In Law - my wife's parents. They were kind and rather exceptional people. Coming from farm families and lived most of their lives in Wisconsin.
Funerals are usually pretty sad affairs. The loss of a loved one is so recent in our minds that the emotions of grief tend to be foremost. A Celebration of Life - at least this one - was a year beyond those sad goodbyes and the balance and tempo of life going on diminished grief to humble memories, many happy ones were then allowed to come forward.
Family shared stories of adventures, picture albums recounted a life well lived and the community they were part of. It was truly a wonderful experience to share with all of my wife's family including the many grandchildren who have become young adults with careers and lives of adventure.
The event took place at an old log cabin lodge known as Garmisch. Garmisch is a Bavarian style log cabin over 100 years old and sits on the shore of Lake Namakagon. Rustic in construction it is a time capsule to be enjoyed by the lucky few who know about it.
This was a perfect venue for the event as they also had a cabin on this lake and would sometimes take their boat over to this lodge for dinner. Lots of fond memories of gatherings at their cabin including our reception banquet.
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| The view from the dining hall is beautiful |
Summer is now past us once again. Once again, I piloted our boat off the lake - the last boat off of our lake again! This morning I woke to see a thin layer of ice covering about half the lake. So the snow is soon to follow. This summer was busy for me. New product launches, technical problems to solve and darn it, a 90% complete outdoor pizza oven. We ran out of warm weather to finish the final 2 or 3 firebrick courses to finish the dome.
The loons were amazing this summer, and we got the opportunity to watch eagles, geese, deer, bear, muskrats, fox, porcupines and the random crane wade through the shore looking for minnows to eat.
This was the best year yet for our garden, we've canned dozens of vegetables and enjoyed fresh produce since about July. The berry production was incredible!
Life is good. I'll try to get back to making more posts. I do have thoughts to share and judging by my visits - a few hundred thousand from almost 100 countries - people must find my writing of some interest.
That's all for now. Time for that second cup of coffee. LJO
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