Family Mellmann

Joerg and I enjoyed our second year attending the Oktoberfest in Burlington, down on the water front.  It's an "adults only" evening of beer tasting, (reasonably) authentic German food, and a little bit (this year much less than last) of "oompah music".  We ran into a few people we know, and Joerg was able to educate some local folks on the specifics of this brewery or that, or why Oktoberfest actually takes place in...September. Sunset, Bavarian flag suspenders, and a good beer.  "And that's why Oktoberfest is in September."

Last fall we had a big wind storm that resulted in power outages all over the region and tons of downed trees (months after the storm, tree services were STILL busy clearing away damaged and downed trees).  During that storm one of our large old pine trees was split vertically up the trunk.  In the wind, it groaned, creaked, and popped...those sounds you hear before a tree goes down.  This tree was located in just the right spot to land on our garage, possibly into the kitchen, or a propane tank - depending on which way the wind was blowing.  We were able to remove the danger that evening, but the event triggered our plans to have many of the tall "soldier pines" removed from our property. This past week we had a similar wind storm, but with no trees near the house to fall down we didn't have anything to worry about.  In the morning, after a long night of howling winds, we woke to this sight out the back windows.  The table and all six chairs had blown off the deck, inc