A few more picnic images

The troops in action.

Here are a few more images from last Friday's Stumpjack Picnic at Point Beach State Forest. Click here to go to the Stumpjack Flickr site where I've placed the image set. And don't forget to check out Brian's and Marty's sets, the links to which I've indicated in the post from Saturday, July 11.Keeping them warm.

John gets the bocce ball started.

Molly eating a strawberry.

First Stumpjumpers Picnic in the books

The first annual Stumpjumpers Picnic took place yesterday at the group camp site at Point Beach State Forest. The weather was awesome, the food was awesome, the beer was awesome, the company was awesome. I reckon we had, by my recollection, 26 stumpers enjoying the evening (not counting the grumpy ranger dude). We think we're going to do a picnic again in October for our annual anniversary party, and we'll put that info out there when it draws near.

Below are a few images that Brian took.You can see all of his pics from the evening on his Flickr site by clicking here. My Dad also took a bunch of photos and I'll post those when he gets them to me.

Pat smuggles in some questionable beer (Schlitz, fabulous marketing program, but so-so beer). We brought New Glarus Stone Soup and Dancing Man for everyone. Pat was forced to endure much ridicule and pelting with pine cones.

Pat, Pat, Peggy (looking very hip), Larry and Jayne. I believe they are discussing what would be the proper punishment for Pat for bringing in the Schlitz (you'll notice that Pat, on the far left, looks worried and is starting to back-walk away from the group).

Grilling some steaks I got from a couple of stumpjacks I harvested during a late 2008 northwoods hunting trip. My Dad in the background taking a picture of the ground for a photographic series he's calling..."ground."

Everyone observing the masterful skill with which Larry cuts his steak. The guy is an artist I tell you.

"Who wants the first slab o' stumpjack!?"

The food that everyone brought was fabulous. Who doesn't love potluck picnics.

Kim, I and Bobbi get schooled in bocce ball by Mike. The guy was seriously humbling the rest of us.

After we ran out of pine cones to throw at Pat, we resorted to the bocce balls. Pat is just out of the photo, buried up to his head in the ground. Kim throws the first ball while I mentally measure the distance.

Chillin' round the fire...what a great way to cap off the week.

Thank you, John (right) for bringing the bocce ball set. I think Molly is playing catch football with Glenn in this picture.

Kim placing stones and hard pine cones under the tent on the side where I would be sleeping, while Becky waves a magic wand at Mike to try to turn him into a Taylor guitar.

Great color in this picture by Brian. We got rain around 11:00 or so at the end of the evening. Stayed overnight and listened to the rain dance on the tent.

Mike and Kim. Photo by Marty. Click here to see Marty's pictures from the picnic.

A little R&R...

We spent the last few days (Sunday afternoon through Wednesday) beneath the trees at Point Beach State Forest here in TR. The weather was beautiful (with great thunderstorms Monday and Tuesday nights), the bugs were nil, the ground was hard, the coffee was superb (one brew pot of Puerto Rican and one of Kenyan). This is the first real time off I've had since we opened (took a week in February, but that was really a work week where I still came into the shop each night or did paperwork at home, and then spent the last three days of it in Chicago at CoffeeFest, so there hasn't really been a good break since early last summer).

But the three days at Point beach were great...very relaxing. Came up with several good ideas for Stumpjack. I've decided I'm going to make use of the campground every month from now on, for at least a couple of days each month until winter.