Happy First Anniversary

Today is the one year anniversary of the marriage of our son Korey to Cathryn. Time sure flies. It doesn’t seem possible that a year has gone by. We wish them many, many more years of a happy marriage!

We have had the most beautiful weather the last few weeks. Highs every day near 80 with gentle summer breezes and cool nights. We could actually use some rain, but I’m not complaining.
I have a bird feeder at the back of our site. I sure enjoy sitting in my chair in the morning and watching the birds enjoy their breakfast. Here are a few of the more colorful visitors we’ve had.


Not much else to report. It’s been a quiet summer. I continue to spend one day a week at our son Eric’s house, painting his living room, kitchen and dining area. I should be done before we leave in early October.  I volunteered to do this for Eric, and he is very appreciative.
Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Par for the Course

Okay, so I didn’t par the entire course, but I did par one hole; and that’s quite an accomplishment for me! Kevin and I went golfing on a beautiful Monday afternoon this week. I’m never going to be close to a pro, but I enjoy going out with Kevin.

I think for the first time my drive landed on the green on one of the par 3 holes on this course. I was still pretty far from the hole, but my second shot actually got very close. Then, a little tap on the ball and it was in the hole for a par. I’ll take that little victory on the golf course.

Yesterday I was back at Eric’s house doing some more painting. I really don’t mind helping him out, and the bonus is getting to spend some time with Eric after he gets home from work.

Things at the campground have been pretty quiet. We’ve been anywhere from half to near full the last few weekends. We did have an interesting family camp here for two nights last week. There were the two parents and then three kids around the ages of 10, 8 and 5. The interesting thing was that they arrived on bicycles. They had ridden their bikes from Wisconsin Dells which is about 60 miles away. The two older kids were on their own bikes, and the youngest rode on an attached bike to the dad.

I can’t imagine attempting that with kids. The dad told Kevin it was not going as they had planned due to some weather problems and all the hills they encountered. They had two small tents and it got pretty cool at night. After they left here, they were headed to Madison which is about 30 miles away and then back to the Dells. I sure hope they made it okay.

You may remember the picture I posted of a small quilt I donated to Korey’s camp’s quilt auction. It was about 40 inches by 20 inches and would be good for a table topper or wall hanging.

Korey informed me that it sold for $170. That just blew me away. I was hoping for maybe $50. The camp raised about $90,000 which was a bit less than the year before. The weather on auction day was extremely hot and humid, so lots of people didn’t stay around for all of the events. It was still a great fundraiser for a very worthy cause. I’m already planning my donation quilt for next year.

Not much else going on. We’re just living our day to day life and spending time with family and friends. It’s hard to believe August is just a few days away. In two months, we’ll be moving on again.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Screeching Hawks

It has been very interesting watching a pair of Red Tailed Hawks living in our park this summer. We first noticed them when they built a nest in one of the tall trees in spring.

We think they had one baby. We’ve seen a smaller hawk flying around the park a few times. It seems the parents are teaching the baby its life lessons. The two larger hawks fly around the park and there is lots of screeching going on all day long. I think they are telling the baby what to do.

We’ve also seen the adults sitting on the ground or on wires or in trees for long periods of time. They don’t seem to be bothered by people getting near to look at them or take pictures. A few times we’ve seen them tearing away at some small creature they’ve captured. One day Kevin found part of a dead squirrel at the base of their tree.

It’s quite interesting to see these magnificent birds so close for such a length of time. Usually, we see them along the side of the road as we travel sitting on a post or soaring above. I’ve never heard them screech like they are.

I did a little research and found out that the hawks stay near the nest with the offspring for a few months, so I think they will be here until fall. They also come back to the same nest sometimes, so we may have them back next year.

The last few weeks we’ve seen three boats with large nets on them parked at a nearby private boat launch. Last weekend while we were out walking, there were three guys working with the nets.

I asked them what they were doing with the huge nets. They told us they are fishing for carp. So far, they’ve caught 2 million pounds. Wow!!! They told us they sell them to the east coast.

Around here people hate the carp and wouldn’t dream of eating them. Apparently, there is a good market for them on the east coast. This is a win-win situation. Beaver Dam lake has way too many carp, these guys take them out of the lake and make a profit, people on the east coast get to eat carp.

I’ve mentioned before that I was born in Germany, and my parents immigrated when I was eleven months old. So, it was with pride that I watched my birth country Germany win the World Cup soccer match on Sunday. I know the Germans take their soccer very seriously, and I’m happy for them!!

Yesterday we had a record low maximum temperature for July 15th of 66 degrees. I actually had to turn the heat on. It got down into the high 40s at night. Our son Eric would much rather have these cool temperatures than the heat. So, at least he’s happy. The rest of the week is supposed to get warmer and be quite nice.

I’ve been working on some quilt projects. I finished my first attempt at machine applique and was quite happy with it. I had planned to use it to hang over the back of the couch. When I was visiting Korey, he asked me if I could make a donation to a quilt auction his camp has every summer. Last year they made over $100,000 through the auction.

I had taken my project with me to finish hand sewing the binding in place. So, I finished it and left it with him to donate to the auction, which takes place on July 26th. They have 400 quilts to sell. Wow.  I guess I’ll have to make myself another one.

Thursday I’m headed back to Eric’s to do some more painting. The ceilings are done. Next, I’ll be doing the baseboards and window trim. Then, the walls. Hopefully, I’ll be done before we leave in October.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Happy Fourth of July

The campground is full for the long holiday weekend, and the weather is expected to be fantastic. I’m sure everyone will have a great time. Sometimes we get some interesting campers in the park. This one is definitely a classic oldie. I’m guessing maybe the 1960s. What do you think?

Korey and I had a great time last Saturday celebrating his 30th birthday. We started out by visiting The Sunken Gardens in Lincoln, part of the city’s parks system. It is a small park with beautiful flowers, statues and koi ponds. Unfortunately, it started drizzling just as we got there, but we did a quick walk through the garden and enjoyed the beauty. At least I did; I don’t think it was on the top of Korey’s to do list.

Then we went to see the new Transformers movie, which was enjoyable but a bit too long. We had dinner at Old Chicago Pizza. It was a great day, and I was so happy to have a few days to visit with Korey.

Monday was drive home day. It took me 10 hours to make the return journey. There were storms throughout the entire Midwest all day, but I managed to stay ahead of them almost all the way home.

My GPS decided to take me on a different route around Cedar Rapids, Iowa than the way she took me on the way there. One of the roads was closed, so I lost about 30 minutes being detoured back to the highway. I don’t know why the GPS does that, and it drives me crazy. It was my fault for not paying close enough attention to the route she took me on going to Lincoln and following her blindly.

About 20 miles into Wisconsin the storm finally caught up with me. I pulled into a parking lot and called Kevin to let him know I’d be late. He was watching the storm coverage and informed me that there was a tornado warning just ahead of me. I waited about 30 minutes to make sure I wouldn’t be driving back into the worst of the storm. The last 100 miles of my journey was driving in a light rain.

When I got to Madison there were flooded streets and lots of backed up traffic. It took me about an hour to get through Madison. I finally made it safely home and was so grateful to be home safe and sound.

We had more rain and cool weather all week. Wednesday night we were treated to this beautiful double rainbow.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Having Fun in Lincoln

On Wednesday I drove 8.5 hours from Wisconsin to Lincoln, Nebraska to spend a long weekend with our son Korey. His wife is in Fargo for the summer fulfilling her clinical requirements for her degree. Korey turns thirty tomorrow, and I didn’t want him spending his birthday alone. Besides, I missed him and wanted to see him :)

The drive was long, but pretty uneventful. Just lots of road construction and semi trucks. It’s rained quite a bit since I’ve been here. Just can’t seem to get away from the rain this year. I did notice the corn in the fields is quite a bit taller than in Wisconsin.

Yesterday I spent the day at Korey’s workplace, Carol Joy Holling Camp in Ashland, Nebraska.

The kids that attend summer camp do a service project, and volunteers were needed to help. I signed up to volunteer for one of the days I was in town. The kids are making treasure boxes and bean bags for residents of Mosaic, an organization for people with intellectual disabilities. The kids had fun using mod podge and tissue paper to decorate the boxes. Here are some of the finished products.

The second project was bean bags to put in the boxes to be used for hand therapy. There is also a men’s group making bean bag toss game boards. These games will be sent to Tanzania, Africa.  The kids had a lesson on friendship, advocacy and respect and then made their projects. Most of them really got into it.

It was discovered that I can sew. Therefore, I spent most of the day at the sewing machine making the bean bags and closing the ones the kids filled. Since we are in Nebraska, the bags are being filled with corn, not beans. The corn was donated by local farmers.

I had a great time with the kids and also meeting many of the camp counselors and support staff. I heard over and over again what a great boss Korey is. It makes a mother’s heart swell with pride to see their child succeeding at a meaningful career.

Today while Korey was at work, I visited the International Quilt Study Center and Museum, part of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This museum was listed in the top 10 things to do in Lincoln on a couple of web sites. Admission was $6, which isn’t that much, but I was a bit disappointed in the amount of quilts on display. They have over 3,000 in the collection, but only about 50 are displayed at a time. There was a cool sculpture out front.

I made a double wedding ring quilt last summer for Korey and Cathryn’s wedding, so I know how much work it is using a sewing machine. This one was done all by hand. I can’t even imagine the time and love put into this beautiful quilt. The lighting was subdued and flash photography was not allowed, so the colors aren’t true.

There were quilts on display from around the world. It definitely seems quilting is an international activity. Many third world countries have quilting co-ops where women can make quilts to sell to tourists and earn some money to help their families. This quilt is from India. All of the design is done by sewing rows and rows of tiny stitches. Amazing.

One of the exhibits was a collection of wall hanging quilts done by Nebraska residents. The theme was trees. I love the one in the middle. The mirrored effect in the water was done by putting tulle over that portion of the quilt. Such talented people.

Tomorrow is Korey’s birthday. We are going to see the new Transformers movie and then out to dinner. Should be another fun day.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Rain, Rain and More Rain

We’ve had over seven inches of rain since last Monday. The strange thing about the storms is that they’ve been occurring in the morning. Usually, we get storms in the late afternoon or overnight. Luckily, we haven’t had any severe weather, although there were some tornadoes not too far away.

On Wednesday morning we had three inches of rain in two hours. That caused the ditches at our entrance road to overflow at one point. Those ditches are at least two feet deep. We’ve seen them fill up before, but never overflow across the road.

In the picture above, the water had already started going down. On the very left, you can see the entrance road. The water had been flowing across that road into the ditch on the other side. It was quite a site. Here’s what it looked like after. You can see the debris from the farm field just behind the dumpster.

On Friday morning we had over two more inches in a short period of time. As the ground was already saturated, the water had nowhere to go. Here’s a look out our front door. Lakefront property!

Do you see our fire pit next to the plant. We leave that little table in there when we don’t have a fire to keep people from falling into the pit. It took two days for the standing water to recede from our site.

Four sites in the park had to be closed due to standing water. Luckily, we weren’t fully booked this weekend so we switched some people around to other sites, and everyone was happy.

The weather pattern that has been sitting over us for over a week has been very wet. Even when its not raining, it is very humid, and we’ve had very foggy mornings. Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy all day. After that, there is hope that things will dry up. I sure hope so.

Last Monday I spent the day at Eric’s house painting ceilings. I’m working on his living room, kitchen and dining area this summer. After he got home from work, we went out to dinner and had a very enjoyable visit.

This Wednesday I’m driving to Lincoln, Nebraska to visit our son Korey. It will be his 30th birthday on June 28th, and I didn’t want him to spend it alone. I can’t believe my baby will be 30 years old. I sure don’t feel old enough for that to be happening.

His wife is working in Fargo, North Dakota this summer as part of her field work experience for her doctorate in occupational therapy. I’ll be in Lincoln for five days, and am very much looking forward to a visit with Korey.

Yesterday was the first official day of summer, so happy summer everyone!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Happy Father’s Day

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there. Kevin and I have both lost our dads. In fact, Kevin’s dad has been gone for 37 years. I lost my dad 8 years ago.

Our wedding pictures are the last photos we have of Kevin’s dad. He died three months after our wedding at the very young age of 58. My dad died at the age of 70. In fact, his death was one of the reasons we decided to being our full time RVing journey. You never know what lies around the corner, and we wanted to make the most of our life. We’ve been loving every moment. So, to those of you who still have your dads, treasure your time with them. We are lucky to be the parents of two wonderful young men. Time marches on.

Speaking of our wedding, we celebrated our 37th wedding anniversary last Wednesday. We sure were young back then. I’m so lucky to be married to such a wonderful man!

The park has been quite busy. We’ve been near full the last few weekends, and our enclosed shelter has been rented as well. That means lots of cars and people all over the place. Overall, people behave quite well. My biggest annoyance is the people who don’t have their dogs on a leash. The fine is $175 if someone calls the sheriff on them. Hardly seems worth the risk. I just keep reminding them.

I also don’t understand why it is so hard to get the hand towels in the women’s bathroom into the garbage can. I’m constantly having to pick up the wet hand towels off the floor and put them in the can. The men don’t seem to have nearly the trouble with this as the women do.

I guess if these are the worst of our troubles, things are really not so bad. I know there are other campgrounds with far worse problems. Our little campground is truly a gem.

The Canadian Geese were very busy reproducing this year. The boat launch area has several families of geese. Kevin counted between 40 and 50 babies one day. The paths around that area are mine fields of goose poop. There’s really nothing we can do about it. Just one of the joys of living in nature.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!