About Me

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Cedar, Leelanau County, Michigan (near Traverse City), United States
I am a 76 year old (born 7/4/1937) retired Public Radio Engineer from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. Happily married to the love of my life, Teddy (nee Teddy Schlueter). Teddy is a retired Medical Records Clerk from Theda Clark Hospital in Neenah, Wisconsin. Two children, Michael and Lon. Lon passed away in 1994. Michael is married to his wonderful wife, Toni and lives in Appleton, Wisconsin. For photos click on link below or visit our photo site http://www.flickr.com/photos/igboo NOTE: Click on photos for full-size images.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

A Prairie Home Companion



Getting ready for the show
Last Tuesday evening, Aug. 10, Teddy, Teddy's sister Deb, and I had an entertaining date night at a "Prairie Home Companion" show with Garrison Keillor at the Interlochen Center for the Arts. It was a sold out crowd of us an 3,997 other (mostly over 50) folks at Interlochen's 4,000 seat Kresge Auditorium



It was the first stop in their month long, twenty-three city "Summer of Love Tour".





Shuffling scripts



We joined host Garrison Keillor, Nickel Creek’s Sara Watkins, the Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band, and sound-effects man Fred Newman for tender duets and ballads, poetry (Poe, Shakespeare, Anonymous), stories of passion and marriage.  




Garrison Keillor & Nickel Creek’s Sara Watkins


 During the intermission Mr. Keillor entertained the audience with a walk through sing-along of “Unchained Melody” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love with You.” All this and favorite elements of A Prairie Home Companion — Guy Noir, Dusty and Lefty, the News from Lake Wobegon.


It was a fun evening and bought back many memories of when I was on the staff of Interlochen in the 60s, both as a recording engineer and ultimately Chief Engineer of their Radio Station, WIAA. I left in 1968 when I became "The Director of Broadcasting" at Lawrence University in Appleton, WI.


Teddy and I have decided that from now on we will make sure to attend at least one major venue at Interlochen each summer.

Thursday, August 05, 2010

Wha's Up

Now that we are done with the inside remodeling, at least for this season, our attention is now directed toward our outside activities. 
Couch potato that I am...hey, I do run the garden tractor to mow the lawn but anyone that knows us knows that "outside activities" means Teddy's outdoor activities and busy she has been. When we began moving into the farmhouse last summer Teddy set about cleaning up the yard and flower beds and as these photos show, this summer she went at in full attack mode.  (Click on photos for larger size)




One of her first projects, started last summer, and continued this May was covering the cistern mound with iris bulbs. Although now done blooming they were in full bloom in late May.
Next she cleaned up this old rock garden that had been neglected for several years as her aging parents could no longer tend it.
Teddy's dad never threw anything away, he just stored it. She found a lot of old farm relics in one of the farm outbuildings including several old tractor seats, wagon wheels, an old kitchen sink, a hand pump, hand tools, & a hand cultivator  and has themed her gardens with them.



She also planted a variety of flowers along the front of the house.
These marigolds have been blooming all summer.


On the north side-yard of the house she made another flower garden and populated it with some more of her picks.
She isn't done, by a long shot, she scours the country side with her sister, Deb for old abandoned ghost farms where vintage flower bulbs might be ripe for transplanting. I often look out the window and there she is digging up another section of lawn.  ;-)


My outdoor efforts on the other hand have been more utilitarian.
When we arrived here in May we found that our cell coverage out here in the country was not reliable enough for internet use so I subscribed to HughesNet satellite internet and it works well. I am on a 24 month contract but can put it on time out winters when we are not here. (Oh..oh that means that it'll be about five years before I complete the 24 months)

Secondly, Teddy had been wanting an outdoor clothesline for some time so I had a welder make up this post from 3" pipe.
I told him that I wanted the cross section to be 4' long but neglected to specify the vertical length and when I got it it was 10' long which meant that I had to dig a 4' deep hole to plant it.
This did not turn out to be an easy job as he had welded two 12" cross members on the bottom to stabilize it. With Teddy's help we got the hole dug but it took about three hours. I mixed up a 50 lb. bag of concrete mix to set the pipe and this baby isn't going anywhere. Teddy spray-painted it green while  I lagged a 2 x 6 between two trees for the other end and we now have a first rate solar clothes dryer.