Not much happened at the brewery, as I decided to not try any alcohol. But, back at the cabin, while sitting at the dining table enjoying a snack of more venison sausage and salad, Troy put an ice-cold can of Busch Light in front of me.
"Ya ready to be baptized?" Jess asked, smiling.
"I damn sure am!"
"Hell ya!" Jess cheered.
Once everyone in my family (who was old enough to drink) was seated or standing around the table, Busch Lights in hand, we all cracked open our cans, clinked them together, and drank.
"Mmmmm... sparkling beer water." I smiled.
"So, ya like it?" Stacy asked.
"I do! I like it a lot, actually!"
"She's a Nibbe alright!" Troy shouted.
"Wait, you're tellin' me she's not adopted?!" Junior facetiously grinned.
"I mean... she is pretty short and small." Jess added.
"Oh, shut the hell up, y'all!" I laughed, taking another swig of my beer.
"Can we play Hammer-Schlagen, now?" my youngest cousin, Jake, begged, "Please?"
"Sure. Why not?" Uncle Wade said as he stood up, "The weather's not too bad yet."
Most of us headed back out onto the front porch and stood around the Hammer-Schlagen log. Junior and Troy quickly pounded in a nail for everyone, then held out the hammer for whoever wanted to go first.
"Wait." Jess interrupted, "How are we gonna play this? Is it last-nail-standing or first-nail-in?"
"Let's play last-nail-standin'." Stacy said, "It's more fun to hit everyone else's nails instead of just yours. Troy, you first!"
"Alrighty. Last-nail-standin' it is!" Troy nodded as he tossed the hammer into the air and caught it perfectly.
For a moment, he hovered the hammerhead over the nails till he chose one to hit. That one being Dale's. It was a perfect strike.
"Ah, you son-of-a-bitch!" Dale chuckled.
Troy handed the hammer to his wife who was standing on his left. Because she was eight months pregnant, she didn't get to drink and she didn't have to toss up the hammer. But, she flipped the hammer anyway while Troy protected her from getting hit by it. Quinn then immediately went for Junior's nail, but missed. Next, it was Liz's turn.
The game lasted for roughly a half hour as the hammer was passed from person-to-person. For that round, instead of playing, I decided to sit back and film, getting an idea on how the game worked before I participated in a round. Still, I had tons of fun just standing by and watching. Towards the end, the game got much more intense, especially as another approaching snow-squall really lit a fire under everyone's asses. However, the added excitement made it harder for everyone to hit the nails. Hitting the nail in Hammer-Schlagen is surprisingly hard. It's harder the faster you try to pound a nail.
Unfortunately, when only Wade's, Junior's, and Troy's nails were standing, my phone died, and most of everyone had retreated to the great indoors. Worse yet, the storm was upon us with a straight east wind. But, instead of tucking our tails and running inside, we just toughed it out, huddled closer together as the snow and wind whipped around us. When another ten minutes or so went by, Troy's nail was the only one left standing. By then, we were all shivering hard and had almost an inch of snow on our shoulders.
Thank God Jess had a roaring fire going in the cast-iron stove for us when we got inside.
