Today we had the most rainy day in a long time. So, consequently nothing much happened around here. Nothing else than me being absorbed in blogland. I have long since been interested in being able to take pages from my much older website AMERICAN-TRAVELER.COM and simply copy and paste them into this blog. That idea met two obstacles. First the old website was recently transfered to a new server. These guys simply erased the web content because nobody has been looking at the site for a while. That made me pretty angry. After I had re-loaded the website from my back-up files (thanks God I had them) Via FTP that took a lot of time today. 

Secondly the formatting of the old website was much wider than the blog. So I had to implement a few changes to the blog. We just try this for a while then see how it works. The following content is about:

The La Sal Mountains
Remnants after a wildfire			Beautiful Fall Colors in the La Sal
The La Sal Mountains are Utah's second highest mountain range. They rise impressively above the red rock canyon country of Southeastern Utah. The range contains 6 peaks that rise above 12,000 feet, the tallest being Mount Peale at 12,721 feet. Covered with thick aspen and fir forests and dotted with mountain lakes, the La Sals are a cool oasis within the often difficult environment of the surrounding desert. Numerous trails in the La Sals provide good hiking, biking and horseback riding opportunities from late spring to mid-autumn. In winter, the same trails are put to use by cross-country skiers and snowmobilers. The beauty of the La Sals can also be enjoyed by simply driving the La Sal Mountain Scenic Route. The La Sal Mountains are located on the eastern border of Utah, about 15 miles east of Moab. They occupy a relatively small area, running just 15 miles north to south and 6 miles across. They are most easily accessed from the west on the La Sal Mountain Loop Road that begins south of Moab.

October 3


Monday, Monday...  (The Beatles)
We are right in the middle of a period of rainy days which will last until Thursday. Apparently another of those crazy hurricanes, Ofelia, has been running up north, and even though this fellow stays out at sea it has caused and will cause a lot of rain. Newfoundland which is kinda sticking out East from the Canadian mainland has been getting the wind as well and as far as I have heard, the storm has caused a lot of damage there.


Yep, it was a dreary day over here. It's kinda hard to get up in the morning when everything outside ist still pitch dark. But of course that doesn't effect Molly. Nope, Molly has an internal timer which tells her every morning that NOW it is time to get aired out and get on with the morning business. 


So then I throw on my morning coat, try to find my slippers without waking up the wife and cautiously descending down that staircase without squashing Molly, who is following tight behind me. And on mornings like this one I can be seen, standing in the morning robe shivering like overdue autumn leaves, letting Molly cross the lawn repeatedly for finally finding a good spot to put her pee. Geez, as if it would make any difference. Think of me, standing here, freezing...and getting wet in the descending mist.


Finally she will return to the door. Back in the kitchen she just stands around staring at me. What? Anything else you want? Of course, I forgot....her morning cookie. So then while I start the coffee maker, Molly finds her way back to the stairs ascending up into the bedroom and MY BED!!  There she will snore away for another hour, while I am reading what my preferred literary blogexperts in blogland have been using the previous day for.


Today it took a while until the rain subsided enough for me to re-enter my shed-building project. But then I found out I needed several lengths of drip-edge. So I called the Hardware store in Lubec to find out if they had any, which it turned out they did. So, I got into my truck and drove to the border.


"Whoa you got the big one out today" was the first I hear from the CBP-officer. 
And here is our ensuing conversation from today:
Me: "Yes, and it is for sale", and I am holding up my home-made "for-sale" sign. 


CBP-Officer looking curiously through the open window.: How much are you asking? 


CBP-Officer: I am  looking for one but it needs to have a front bench so I can have room for six people"


Me: It is registered for 5 only. 
At this time I have received back my passport and start rolling away. 
I hear him shouting behind me:
"Maybe I should get rid of the wife".
I am shouting back " Or get rid of one of the kids". 


Nice border crossing!


During the afternoon hours the rain diminishes into a falling mist and I get out and on top of the shed. By the way neighbours were frowning when they saw the building.
"You call that a shed?" In their eyes this is not a shed but a shop. And whatever it is I couldn't care less, it is a place which pretty soon will be filled up with all kind of junk. Why do I bother to build something for storing my junk. No answer.

Anyway, I managed to get the roof shingled which was a good thing as the tar paper had let through a stream of water last night. With that Ofelia storm around I have a good feeling about my new shed or shop.


Have a nice rest and stay out of trouble!

October 02

Tag der Deutschen Einheit

(Reunion Day)

BRD-Flag

DDR-Flag

Tomorrow is a day off for Germans in Germany. It is the day of the reunion of the two German countries DDR and BRD.  On October 03 1990 East Germany, Deutsche Demokratische Republik was absorbed into Bunderepublik Deutschland. Already during the fall of 1989 thousands of DDR residents fled the country by going through Hungary and Tchechoslovakia. Both countries allowed DDR residents to pass through the border into the west.

Soldiers watching from  Berlin Wall 
at Brandenburger Tor

DDR was a financially drained country. Russia had taken everything out of the country, leaving DDR with the scraps.

It was a time of major political change in Central Europe.

In 1991 I passed though the former DDR. At that time there was still a lot of decay on buildings and roads, and I saw a lot of Russian soldiers still being on the bases simply because Russia did not have enough accommodations for tens of thousands of their soldiers. In order to get the Russian troops out of the country, Germany spend a lot of money for construction projects in Russia.

When we heard the news that the Berlin wall was crumbling and that East-German border officials had opened the border to West Germany, we were sitting in our kitchen and it wasn't impossible that tears of joy found their way down the cheeks. To understand that emotion one must know that we were educated and grew up with the divided Germany. We were always told how bad life was for our Eastern neighbours. Grandpa and Grandma knew a couple in Dresden and they sendt Christmas packages to that couple every year. 

DDR-Border strip w. observation tower

Especially bad was it when another attempt of fleeing the DDR had ended in a rain of bullets fired from border officers from the border towers. How desperate for freedom must one be to risk being shot at. But there were also those who succeeded and got into the West. Some of them came across the sea in a canoe, others chose to travel through neighboring Eastblock countries and sneaked across a foreign border. Many had to leave close family behind. They couldn't even say Good Bye to their friends as one never knew whether these would keep the secret. 

Not the U.S.-Mexico Border

We can't imagine it, as we have always been free.

By 1989 the DDR-population was completely disillousioned and the pressure for change ended in a peaceful revolution and the end of the country.

The 3rd of October is a day where we think back on what has been and what happened.

East meets West in Berlin

East Germans cossing the border at
Helmstedt

Hope you all had a great Sunday and thanks for being here.

October 1


The Story of a Cake
Today I made a coffee cake with apples. The recipe for that cake is forever lodged in my brain, as I have made this cake for so many years that I don't remember the first time. But it must have been when I was in my twenties.
That cake is so darn easy to make that it MUST work out.


When my future wife showed up in my life, I needed to impress her, at least that was my intention. So what can a man do to impress a girl? Drive a big fancy car? Go to an expensive restaurant? Show off with a lot of money? Tell a daring hunting story?  Nawww, nothing like that for this guy.  I had no nice fancy car, could not afford to eat in a fancy restuarant, did not have a pile of money and did never go hunting. What I had was a small working kitchen and a recipe for an apple cake.

As the readers here are used to either metric or imperial measure units (or both) I will not use grams, oz, cups or pounds. I will just say this: Whatever measure unit you use, you take the same weight for all of it. This means same amount in weight of: butter (or margarine), flour, sugar, eggs. And an approbriate amount of baking powder.  Mix melted butter, sugar, eggs, in a blender. Add flour and baking powder. Take your greased baking form and pour the runny dough into it. 
Take apples, cut out the center, and if apples have a tough skin peel them. Cut it in boats, slices or whatever form you prefere. Drape the whole apple stuff on top of the dough. Now you sprinkle with cinnamon, spread almond flake and raisins on top and bake at 350F. for 35 to 40 minutes. 

After 5 minutes of cooling this cake is ready to be enjoyed with real whipped cream or whatever surrogate you prefere.


Oh, I almost forgot, my girl was mighty impressed and decided to get married. 


Meanwhile she makes the cake as well.  But today's cake was made by me.


Try it, it's a treat. 


Keep the dough in the bowl! Thanks for visiting!