Posts

The Brewster House - Club Cheese Spread from Wisconsin

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There's a whole world of cheese spreads (cold pack or Club Cheese or Crock Cheese) that I've been introduced to with our trips to Twin Lakes in Wisconsin.  The breadth of the offerings in the Club Cheese category at the grocery store is simply amazing in Wisconsin.  I feel like I just woke up.  The latest is this stuff from Shullsburg Creamery.   Shullsburg makes tons of cheeses , but they also have a strong entry in the Club Cheese category. Called "The Brewster House Old Fashioned Spreadable Cheese", this isn't topping the King of Clubs from Mars .  Nope.  But this is different.  More like cream cheese than anything else.  It is smoother, easier to spread that Merkt's or King of Clubs.  But is super tasty.   Won't hold up to all of the applications, but works really well on things like pretzels.  With King of Clubs or Merkt's, when you take it out of the fridge and try to spread it, you end up breaking your various chips and pitas and what-have-

Whittier School Playground Update

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Whoops!  A week ago, I posted about the new playground going into Whittier Elementary School in the Randall Park neighborhood in Downers Grove and talked about how the PTA worked to raise money to install new equipment.  That part...was all true.  But the rest?  #FakeNews!   I posted a photo of the wrong playground.  Sorry.  Still getting my bearings. The one I posted showed a new concrete curb going in, but oddly, all of the equipment was staying put.  And the shape wasn't quite the right shape as the one in the rendering . Earlier this week, I was walking by the school and noticed that there is A SECOND playground!  See the red arrow.  *That's* the one that is getting overhauled.  Whoops. Here's a zoomed-in look at the progress they've made.  Much of the equipment has been installed and while the fencing is still up, it looks like they're just awaiting the play surface. The playground in the foreground is likely just getting a new concrete curb, bu

Two Months In - Our Dawn Redwood

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Two months in the ground and here's what our little Dawn Redwood looks like in our #newoldbackyard.   We planted it on Earth Day this Spring .  After buying it at Menards (of all places!) and storing it on the driveway for a few weeks .   We planted it about 2/3rds of the way back along the north property line.  It is going to spread out quite a bit as it grows (slowly) so we might end up 'limbing' it up based on where the fence ges, but I'm pleased to see some new growth on some of its extremities.  It has a slight lean to the trunk, but you can see in the photo that I just brought out some yellow cord and a few stakes that I'm going to apply to it to see if we can help straighten it out.  Nature, of course, will do it's own thing, but we'll try to lend a hand.  The lean is heading to the north, so I think over time, the sun will pitch in and straighten it back out by encouraging southern growth. This is the 2nd of a few updates coming on some of the

Unloading the POD

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Hello friends.  Nice to see you all again.  I'm speaking to our 'stuff'.  Yep...You're staring at the open end of our POD that was delivered to our driveway two years after we haphazardly packed it in the summer of 2015 when we moved out .  Opening up the boxes contained in this POD and our storage units is going to take some time, but I've set a firm 1 year deadline on things:  If we go a full year without touching something - and it isn't old - then it will be going to the curb.  At least I'm talking tough right now.  Who knows what will happen come next summer if I get all horde-y and wonder if I'll ever use that certain thing.  Stay strong, Jake!

4th of July - 2017

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Not my current view, but this year's NYE's show from the folks at the Magic Kingdom may have spoiled me for every other fireworks show in existence.

An Update On Our Flowering Cherry Tree

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Back at the end of May, I posted a few pics of the new flowering cherry tree that we picked up for Nat for Mother's Day this year .  It lived in the driveway at Equation Boy/Man's house for more than a month while the girls kept it watered.  Last week, we finally got around to putting it in the ground in our #newoldbackyard.  We found a nice spot that can be easily seen from the kitchen/family room as well as upstairs from the bedroom, but far enough back and to the side that it won't interfere with any future plans. We dug a good sized hole, the girls helped me get it situated down in the earth, then we covered it up with earth (and tried to put the grass back in place!) and applied one of these Treegator watering bags .  We've been filling it up every other day since we planted it and looking at the tree over the weekend, I see some new growth. So, hoping that whatever shock this thing will get from being transplanted into the ground is being absorbed by copiou

Vintage Flocked Christmas Tree With Happy Santa Topper - One That Got Away

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A few days ago, I posted a photo of some vintage window Christmas candle lights with these sweet orange bulbs that I came across at a church sale in Westmont .  I passed on the candles .  Right next to them (you can actually *see* one of the candles in the photo above) was this sweet flocked Christmas Tree that is adorned with fake poinsettias and this very jolly Santa Claus.  I took this photo and picked up the tree.  Thinking that I really only wanted Santa himself.  Then... I remembered my collecting mantra .  And set it back down on the table.  Hoping another owner came along and put this thing in it's proper place and saving this treasure from the dumpster.