My New Normal

I'm waiting for a 100ft Ethernet cable to arrive.  Until then, or the coronavirus is over... whichever comes first, this is my office, much to the chagrin of Rob, whose gaming PC is in this room as well.  Happy sunrise.

The desk I vacated.  I was the last person to leave the office that day and frankly, it was a bit of a sad feeling.  This feeling has been officially noted since every Monday morning is spent lying in bed trying to figure out ways to not have to go into work.

And one of my favorite things every year, as simple as it is, is when the Chives show signs of life!  They are so soft and flavorful this year.  I have a creamy potato soup mix that I plan to make this week.  A little crumbled bacon, cheddar cheese and fresh chives sprinkled on top!  If that won't kill the 'rona, I don't know what will!

Schmitz 2018 Vaca, Post 19 - The Alchemist Brewery

The Alchemist from the road driving up to the legend.  Yes, it was a legend for me being from Iowa and knowing that their flagship beer, Heady Topper, was only availably locally, either at the brewery or possibly a local restaurant.

The backside of the brewery which is actually the entry of the joint...

A pic of where all of the magic happens!

One more example of why I absolutely love Vermont!!  Screw the tailgating, the idiots who complain that you're driving the speed limit, buttholes in big offices and so on...  I'll take this and clean shitter's somewhere for a living.  This is beautiful!!!

Pics of the taproom.

Their primary tanks of wholesome goodness!

He's The Man In The Box

Caleb and I took Steve to a 1 night, loose-leash walking class.  Of course,  we had the back room to ourselves for a short moment, so we had to ham it up a bit!

No Boots? No Problem!

Caleb had his friend, Ben (or as Caleb used to call him, Benny, but is now Benji) over yesterday. Ben brought his Xbox over and they did hook it up, but I think out of the 9 hours that he was here, I think they were outside for about 8 hours of it. 

Which, of course, is awesome!!

I played a little football with them over my lunch and when I was done working for the day, but they played baseball, basketball, and probably a few other things that I didn't witness.

At one point, they got the idea to go play in the creek, but didn't have any good boots to wear.

What to do, what to do?

At first, they tried plastic grocery bags with rubber bands, and after much struggling and giggling, they came to the conclusion that it probably wouldn't work.  So I suggested garbage bags that would cover more of their legs. 

They thought that was genius so off they went.

I present to you:

That's blue painters tape.  Caleb extremely impressed with their cunningness, and exclaimed, "This is how adventures happen, Dad!".  

I'm not sure we have any tape left, but, oh well.

This is after they came back up.  They're muddy from the top of their heads to the tips of their toes and the garbage bags tore so their shoes were soaked and muddy too. 

LOL!!!   I don't know what to say...

Ben was having a rough time getting all of that tape off. 

I had the boys put their muddy clothes on the towel and I went and did a load of laundry as to not send home a bunch of muddy clothes with Benny's dad!

Ben took a shower in Rob's bathroom downstairs and Caleb took a shower in his bathroom upstairs...

This is how adventures happen!

In Memory of little Sydney Marie

The Schmitz family in our "Heart Warrior Sydney" shirts in honor of what would have been her first birthday.

Caleb's up, ready for school and waiting for Robby.

Steve wanted to get in the pics!

Rob, freshly showered and ready for the day in his Sydney shirt.  Right before I snapped the pic, he said, "I don't know what to do with my hands!".  LOL!!!

Caleb yelled, "Jazz hands!" and as such, we have this beauty.

The whole Chaos unit in our duds.  The lighting is bad as we currently have zero window treatments at this time due to having the house painted.

Not to be outdone by Steve, Juno jumped up to get into the pic for the back of the shirt, which reads,  "The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all   In memory of Sydney Marie".

Yesterday had to be a TOUGH day for her family.  If you're reading this and believe, please say a little prayer for their struggle.

Schmitz 2018 Vaca, Post 18 - Smugglers Notch Road, Hwy 108

Our next voyage was to traverse the real smugglers notch. The real mountain pass where they smuggled goods over the border.

For a little history of the this:
Smugglers' Notch namesake comes from the smugglers of the early nineteenth century, who used the thick forest on the mountain range, and the caves and caverns along the Long Trail to transport illegal or embargoed goods across the Canada–US border. The notch was most likely involved in bootlegging during the Prohibition-era of the 1920s, using the same caves as a cache for smuggled Canadian beer, wine, and spirits. Scenic Smugglers' Notch proper comprises Sterling Mountain/Spruce Peak ridgeline to the east and Mount Mansfield to the west. Extremely steep terrain drops down into the notch where Vermont Route 108 winds through switchbacks below, connecting Smuggler's Notch Resort with adjacent Stowe Mountain Resort a few miles to the south.


So there you have it...   If you have to do illegal "stuffs",  you may as well be doing it where it's stinking beautiful, right!?

Random waterfall.

Random distant mountain...

Random kiddo climbing betwixt two very large stones...  oh wait, that's Robby!  Have I mentioned that he has been loving climbing out on every, and any, rocks and formations that we've been running across?

Calebber in front of another rather large stone!

A natural "tunnel" formed when one rock fell up against another stone that was already happily in it's place.

The climbing...  not sure what he was going for here, but he was having fun and that's all we can hope for on family vacations!

Some more family hiking!

That's Rob in there.  He disappeared for a while and then reappeared here.  Then disappeared again, much to the dismay of his parental pair!

A random dude with Rob reappearing in the background.



The Schmitz Mobile Chaos Unit in all of their (supposed) glory!!



Calebber on top of another big ol' rock!

Both critters on top of another random slab of God's beauty!

Schmitz 2018 Vaca, Post 17 - Hill Farmstead Brewery

I had heard some amazing things about this place from a magazine (now belly up...) I subscribed to called All About Beer.  They said, "It's in the middle of nowhere, VT. but worth the drive for both the beer and the scenery.". 

 

They were right!

 

A co-worker who just happens to sport the last name of "Hill",  gave us tickets to a beer tasting event in Des Moines earlier in the year so we decided to pick the fella up a couple of gifts from here.

 

The parking lot.  I'm not kidding...  it's an old pasture down the road a bit from the brewery.  Kinda gorgeous too!

 

That's the brewery with the picture having been "tookin'" on our walk up.

 

 

 

The boys were THRILLED that the food serving ended about 3 minutes after we got there and we didn't realize that they were shutting it down...  we could have simply got the food first, had we known.  Oh well, I wasn't there for food!

The taproom.  The lady in the white shorts should see a doctor about the shape of her left leg!

Not much around the area...  that's a pretty wide shot and hard to see, but gives you an idea of the area.

 

The big grassy area in the bottom right quadrant of the picture is the parking lot I mentioned at  the top of the post.

 

 

Happy 15th Birthday to Robby!!!!

On the couch opening some of his gifts...

More of the same and making it seem that the gifts are more of a nuisance than truly a gift.  I recall this trait when I was around the same age and only wanted music related gifts but received only clothing.

Him eating at Buffalo Wild Wings and his 20 wing order and him not wanting to be photographed.  Love him!!!