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Starkweather Beer Company

 When I moved back to Madison to attend law school in 1987, we moved to a crappy little apartment near the banks of Starkweather Creek on the unfashionable east side.  Today, the east side is booming, and one of the newer brewpubs is called Starkweather Beer Company. It was Saint Pat's Day.  While Guinness is a decent light-bodied stout, I opted for Starkweather's dry Irish Stout, named "Jamestown Jackdaw." Coming in at 5.9 ABV, it had a malty chewable backbone.  It's a new favorite stout for me.  Julia had Late Winter Haze, a New England IPA that didn't have as much fruitiness as she likes in a hazy.  It was still well-executed. We walked down the street to the Harmony Bar, where Julia enjoyed a complete corn beef and cabbage dinner.  I opted for the Reuben sandwich.  Mine was washed down with an Edmund Fitzgerald porter from Great Lakes Brewing.  Julia enjoyed her Chaos Pattern IPA from 3 Sheeps Brewing.  Both are great beers. Justin update:   After a long h

Boulder Lake

From Scott’s property, I drove about an hour or so east into the Chequmegon-Nicolet National Forest.

I was interested in two campgrounds that recently opened: Bagley Rapids and Boulder Lake. My original plan was to first spend some time at Bagley Rapids, an inexpensive primitive campground on the Oconto River. From one of the waterfront sites, you can hear the sound of the rapids while drifting off to sleep.

However, a road detour took me right past Boulder Lake. I figured that was fate; so I pulled in Monday morning. There were more people camped here than I expected, but I found a beautiful lakeside site without hookups that simply lured me in.


The campsite had its own trail to the lake.



As the sunset, looks called out that all is still well in the natural world. Well, I know it’s not, but the sound of the loons still brought me peace and joy.


On the next day, I was brought back to earth when I found a new form of campground litter.


I’m going to spend a few days here, focusing on the lake and the call of the loons. I need this.

Comments

greg said…
Your comment "all is still well in the natural world. Well I know it's not" reminded me of the TV series called "The End of the World", where most the scenarios they come up with are NOT end of the world events but rather end of the human species events. Right now, as it has done for billions of years, the natural world continues on doing what it's supposed to be doing. It's just that us humans aren't very happy with it at the moment. . .

State campgrounds here are scheduled to open July 7, but I'll be waiting a while longer I think as the as the 7-day running average of new Covid hospitalizations is skyrocketing
Brewed Journey said…
I agree with most of your first paragraph. I would add that human beings are putting a lot of pressure on the existing natural world. Nature will adjust.

I saw that there are quite a few growing hotspots around the country, including Texas. Wisconsin’s 7 day average has been trending slightly downwards.

Three families converged on my neighboring campsite yesterday afternoon. They were nice folks-just too many of them, including an off leash big dog. They each had their own site , but congregated at the one next to mine. This morning, I moved to a quieter part of the campground away from lakeside. The family across the road started moving into my old site before I was even hitched up. At least give me six feet, please.
greg said…
Yep, and despite the skyrocketing number of hospital admissions the governor opened up pools and basketball courts last weekend and allowed restaurants and bars to go to 75% capacity.

My sister is reluctantly taking 87 year old Mom to a family out-door cookout Sunday. (In Mihigan) Mom, being somewhat technologically challenged, as in she can barely handle a flip-phone let alone a smart-phone and put a computer in front of her and she'll have it "broke" within a couple days, hasn't laid eyes on any family other than sister and her partner since the beginning of February.

My brother's side of the family can act pretty young and dumb about things (Masks! we don't need no stinkin' masks!) but Mom, a very gregarious person, is showing signs of depression and really needs this so sister(s), who both work in the elder-care sector and understand what's really going on, are going to suck it up and try to endure an afternoon of keeping Mom safe among those that sometimes don't seem to have the same interest.

Oh, and though we do most our shopping on-line or curbside, when we do need to go into a store The Wife makes me wait in the car because I tend get pretty aggressive about keeping those without masks and/or social-distancing skills away from us.

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