An Afternoon Constitutional

Hey gang.

We had some decent weather today - sunny and in the low 50s - so, seeing how we weren't really doing much of anything around the house, Kris and I decided to take the dogs for a walk up at Midland City Forest.  I've been walking with a 20-lb weighted vest for about an hour a day lately, and I've been wanting to try it out on rugged terrain (I have a tentative hiking trip planned with the guys next month, so it's good training.)

Abby and her BFF, Ella, came along with us at the last minute, and we spent about two hours walking the wooded trails.  The dogs got absolutely filthy, and everyone was exhausted by the time we came home, but it made for a solid afternoon.

Check it out. . . 

Prior to taking the dogs out for their afternoon constitutional, Kris wanted to trim their nails.  It's never an issue with Watson, but we have to go through an entire song-and-dance routine with Samson (shown here, not happy with what's going on.)  We clip his nails outside, so he's somewhat distracted by the outdoor stimuli, and I have to hold him the entire time, with Kris swooping in outside of his line of vision in order to clip as many as his toenails as she can while he continuously jerks his paws away.  We only ever get like 75% of them at a time (on a good day.)

Arriving at Midland City Forest.  This is a perfect place to walk dogs - there provide poop bags and trash receptacles spread out through the trails to prevent assholes from leaving their dog's crap (or trash) throughout the woods.

After passing by the ol' Sledding Hill, we took the center trail back towards the heart of the woods (we let the girls walk the dogs, they were all about it.)

Awesome weather for today - had it been about ten degrees warmer it would have been perfect.

The forest hasn't sprung to live quite yet, at this time of year it still looks like the outskirts of Mordor (Ithilion, for you non-nerds out there.)

We veered off the main trails pretty early on, sticking to these more intense 'bike trails' for the majority of our time there.  They're more hilly, and wind up and down hills much more.

This was ideal practice for my upcoming hiking trip with Ryan and Mitch (tentatively slotted for April 28th) - tackling these inclines in a weighted vest was great conditioning.

The girls love this rippling plankway (whatever the hell it is.) They ran the dogs back and forth across it a few times.

Watson wasn't a big fan, but Samson loved it.

Consulting the trail guide, attempting to find our way back to the front entrance - we were miles in at this point.

Back on the main trail, headed for the front entrance.

We took a wrong turn at one point and ended up in a low-lying area that was totally submerged.  We lost the trail and had to double back to our starting point, losing about twenty minutes.

Fortunately no one but the two dogs got wet.

After a couple more miles, we made it back to the front entrance, where the girls sprinted the dogs down the still-snowy-in-spots Sledding Hill. 

Later in the evening, while watching a movie, it was clearly evident that the afternoon and wore out the dogs.  He never falls asleep like this.

- Brian

The First Juneteenth, Pt. II (or, Father's Day)

 (contd.)

Sunday morning, Father's Day.  I woke up early - like frickin' 5am - and couldn't go back to sleep, so after editing some pictures on my laptop, I went out on the dock to get some sunrise pics of the lake.  Check out the ducks (or geese or whatever) majestically flying across the sun - pissed I didn't have my SLR on me. 

Morning fog on the lake.

Later on in the morning, after breakfast (and coffee), Dad and I decided to try out these electric bikes he recently bought for the lakehouse.

Safety first.

We ended up taking these things all the way around the lake, with zero effort.  You can ride it like a motorcycle (holding down the throttle and not pedaling), or you can set it to 'assist' you with pedaling, with various levels of 'assistance': the electric motor kicks in whenever you pedal, propelling you - again, in varying levels, depending on what level you have it set on - far more than your legwork could do on its own.

I didn't get many pics of this, because it's hard taking pictures while riding a bike, but I was able to get the previous pic and this shitty video for ya.  We got these things up to 20 mph, more or less, which feels pretty fast on bikes as small as these.

Back at the cottage, taking the dogs - and the Cannonball - out for a walk.

Later on in the morning, time for another cruise around the lake on the pontoon.

Abby takes another turn at the helm.

Back on shore for some lunch.

The Whites came up in the early afternoon, so the kids were able to screw around with their cousins for a bit.

Abby finally gets a seasoned swimming buddy up at the lake. . .

Teenager, enjoying the cottage.

Shortly after the Whites rolled in, Brian decided to take his boat out for a spin around the lake.  His boat goes a hell of a lot faster than Dad's, so the kids were excited for the opportunity to cruise around on it.

After tearing ass around the lake for a bit, Brian slowed it down a for a bit for the standard putting around the lake.  What you see here, at this point in the cruise, is the mouth of the cove where our Original Cottage sat.  We always like to pop in to the Cove to catch a glimpse of the old place - bittersweet seeing it these days.

Meanwhile, back on shore, Blake passed on the boat ride in order to catch a nap with a dog.

Kris, having just arrived back in Midland from her Momcation in the afternoon, decided she didn't want to sit around an empty house and wait for her family to return in the late evening, so she drove up to Eight Point instead, showing up around 3pm, just in time to catch a boat ride.

Brian stopped the boat at one point so Jax and Abby could repeatedly jump off the boat and swim in the lake.  Whatever works.

After about twenty minutes of swimming the kids were tired out, so we continued on.

Picking up speed once again.

For Father's Day this year, Kris checked out some website where artists turn people into Simpsons characters.  I guess she went back and forth with the artists to make sure all the details - Masonic hat, pipe, rings, etc - was accurate.  Turned out pretty awesome.

Beer Can Chicken.  Eight Point staple.

Chowing down.

Post-dinner pic of the girls, shortly before we left for Midland (we ended up getting home around 7pm.) Next time we return to Eight Point will be for the annual, family shin-dig - with the extended family, Cornhole tournament, etc. - in mid/late July.  Stay tuned. 

- Brian

Everything Else March

What's up, gang.

So Winter '21 is finally starting to thaw somewhat.  This month has been pretty busy, what with St. Patrick's Day, my trip down to Kalamazoo, Spring Break, you name it.  We're still in the school/work grind, and during this third quarter slums, we're all just trying to survive until the end of the year (this is usually the low point in the school year, after the Holidays and before the good weather decides to get its ass in gear.)  

Anyway, here's your monthly round-up of all things Hough, March Edition.

Enjoy. . .

After Lodge, the first Thursday of the month, Erik and I had a couple post-meeting beers over at Whichcraft.  This one was fairly decent.

That weekend, Mitch decided to bust out some of his mad-scientist grill/smoking skills and threw this slab of brisket on his pellet burner.  Awesome as always.

Some shots with the boys to chase down the meat.  I wasn't sure I was gonna be up for hanging out on this particular night, since I had taken my 2nd dose of Moderna earlier that day and that one usually puts folks on their ass with fever-like symptoms.  I managed to hold it together for most of the night, though - I didn't start to feel shitty until about 4am.

Hanging out at the wives table.

Our snowman family isn't holding together so well these days. . .

Our girls like adding 'inspirational quotes' on our weekly meal menu on the side of the fridge.  None of it makes a whole hell of a lot of sense.

The second week of the month, I dropped Alayna off at the orthodontist to have her grill removed. . .

The end of Phase I.  She'll need to wear a retainer for awhile, then might need to get more stuff done in the future.  She's pretty excited.

Erik and I, who co-lead our Masonic Community Initiative, have been working to build our lodge's presence out there in the local area, and have been working with reporters to have articles printed in the Midland Daily News.  Here's Part II of a series they did on our lodge's 150-year history in the area.

Cleaning up dog shit in the backyard.  Always fun.

Testing out one of my lenses for our upcoming St. Patrick's Day party.

This kid is weird as f***.

The Johnsons took Abby out with them to visit some ole timey something-or-other one weeknight, somewhere where you can collect your own maple syrup.  They sent us this pic of the girls checking out the syrup-making process.

Mr. Hough.  For the children.

Questin' with some ESO.

While I was down in Kalamazoo, adventurin' with the ol' Sausage Pad, Kris and the girls enjoyed a male-free weekend.  The moms got together one night at our house for some drinks and nail-accessorizin', which is all the rage these days I guess.

Out for lunch with Kris and Courtney. . .

Grease Fest

(Not sure what they're doing or where they're at.)

Hanging out with Ella downtown.

The girls had their nails done, too.

On a scavenger hunt down at Kris' church, Sunday morning.

The sign that is currently hanging on Abby's bedroom door.  Kids are awesome.

A glimpse at the Hough's March.

Taking the Dynamic Duo out for an afternoon stroll. . .

I forget which kid drew this.  Both girls are getting more and more into drawing lately.  They come by it naturally.

While shopping at Kohl's with Kris one weekend, I noticed they had a ton of suits on clearance.  Since I wear suits a lot these days (mostly for Lodge), I decided to stock up.  Kinda hard to pass up $200 jackets for a mere $35 (seriously.)  They're not custom tailored, so they have that off-the-rack fit, but still - you can't pass a deal like that up.

Part of our annual Lawn Resurrection process:  burning all the debris in the yard that's accumulated over the course of the Fall/Winter.

This is how our girls 'help' us with yard work. . .

Kris focuses primarily on our ridiculous amount of garden beds.  It's a non-stop battle.

This fire burned all damn day.

A hearty meat offering off the grill.  I don't get down with 12-hour smoking like some of the other dads I roll with, but I can handle my own with traditional fare.

Having a beer/bathroom break at the Collier residence while out on an evening walkabout with Erik and Mitch.

A coworker of mine has a daughter currently enrolled in Delta College's Dental School, and she needed a child to log some hours with in the chair, so to speak.  So I bribed Abby into spending two morning having her teeth worked on over Spring Break (cost me a bit, but it helped out a college kid with her coursework.)  While Abby was occupied with this, I nerded it out working on some side projects in one of the nearby study lounges.  Just like old times.

On another walkabout with the families in our friends group.

A solid easy-drinking offering from Bell's.

Erik and Ryan, prowling the streets of Midland.  We'll be doing this more and more frequently as the weather starts to heat up.  Finally.

- Brian