A Fabulous Weekend

We had a very enjoyable weekend. First of all, the humidity has finally dropped, and we had beautiful, sunny days which allowed us to take some comfortable walks again.

On Friday Kevin went to the pre-season Green Bay Packers football game in Green Bay with a friend.  They had a great time, and the Packers won.

This was the weekend the camping club we belong to had their August outing. They were only about 40 minutes from us, so I drove to the campground and visited with everyone yesterday.

Kevin stayed behind to man the campground. Only about half of the sites were occupied this weekend. However, the Quonset hut was rented on Saturday for a family reunion, so Kevin stayed in case those people needed anything.

Today, we took out one of the rental paddle boats we have here at the campground. It’s been so hot this summer, we hadn’t wanted to take one out on the lake until now. We paddled around for a little less than an hour, and it was great. I definitely want to go again. Here we are before we pushed off from shore.

 

 

It was interesting to see the lake houses from the lake side. We’ve been walking past many of the houses on the road for months now. Most of them are nicer looking on the lake side.  Here’s our home as seen from the lake.

Here’s part of the campground as seen from the lake. If you look closely, you can see a few of the campers that were still here. We sure have a beautiful location.

Much of the lake has homes along it. Here’s a view of the north side of the lake. For some reason, there is no development on that end.

As you can see, the water is not very clear. We’ve been told that’s because it’s a very shallow lake. Three different times I saw a fish jump up out of the water. Cool! Kevin said they were carp. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a jumping fish before.

Near the pier was a cluster of lily pads. They are so pretty.

That’s the end of a wonderful weekend. We feel so fortunate to be living this life!

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

A Birthday Win!

Yesterday was my 54th birthday. Only one year to go before I can start collecting my pension :)

Kevin worked for a few hours while I spent some time on the phone with my mom and a few other birthday well wishers. We left around 3:00 pm to go to Dairy Queen and have a birthday Blizzard. Yum!!

We ran a few errands and arrived at Eric’s house at about 5:00 to head over to Miller Park for a Milwaukee Brewer’s baseball game. For quite a few years, Kevin and Eric used to have a 20 game season ticket package. I’d usually go to about 3 or 4 games a year.  This year we are about 1-1/2 hours away from the stadium, so this was our first game. We’ve been in a bit of baseball withdrawal.

The Brewer’s are in first place in their division, and have been playing very well. Brewer Fever is rampant. They were nice enough to win for my birthday visit. 

We had gotten four free tickets through a BP gas promotion. I guess all that gas we’ve been buying paid off! Eric invited his friend, Adam, to go with us. You may remember that Adam is the friend that did the drywall skim coat on Eric’s bathroom walls. Eric is also godfather to Adam and Kristen’s baby boy. I enjoyed spending my birthday at the game with these three wonderful guys.

Too bad Korey couldn’t join us. I think every mother would agree that the best birthday present would be to have her entire family with her. But, Korey is coming to spend a week with us around Labor Day. So, only 2 more weeks until I have my family together again :)

Today I went into Beaver Dam to do some laundry. I haven’t had to do laundry at the laundromat since May. Eric and Adam haven’t finished sanding the bathroom walls, so no work for me at Eric’s house this week. Eric has been kind enough to let me do my laundry at his house while I work on the bathrooms.  The nice thing about the laundromat is that you’re done in no time.

After that job was done, I stopped at Nancy’s Notions Quilt Shop. They are a drop-off site to donate quilts for the Linus Project. I had made 4 baby quilts over the winter with scrap fabric I kept when we got rid of all of our stuff. The Linus Project distributes blankets to children in need all across the country. Since 1995, over 3 million blankets have been distributed. Wow!

I refrained from buying anything, although I spent some time just browsing. Fun! I have a couple of projects I want to finish before I buy any more. Also, I’m signed up to volunteer at the Quilt Expo in Madison in September. I know I’ll find some projects there that I won’t be able to resist.

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

Busy Week

This past week was quite busy for me. On Monday I worked at Eric’s house and went to his softball game, Tuesday volunteered at the daycare, Thursday went to lunch and Jersey Boys with two of my friends, and Friday I ran some errands. Whew!

Jersey Boys was a wonderful show, and we had a great time. I didn’t recognize all of the songs, as The Four Seasons were a little before my time, but I still thoroughly enjoyed the show. I did a little research on Frankie Valli.  He’s 77 years old and is still performing a full schedule of shows all across the country. Wow!

We had another full weekend in the park. About half of the sites were occupied by members of a family reunion that had our Quonset hut shelter rented on Saturday.  Although we didn’t have any real problems, the group seemed a bit “rougher” than the clientele we normally have.  There seemed to be quite a bit of drinking going on.

The only real issues we had revolved around the bathrooms. Someone stole two rolls of toilet paper from the men’s bathroom. And, an adult female thought it was an okay idea to let five little girls play in the women’s shower and get the floor all wet.

That really annoyed me. If I would have seen it earlier, I would have said something. But, I came upon it when it was all done. I went into the women’s bathroom to check on supplies. I walked in as a woman with five little girls between the ages of about four and seven were coming out. The girls were fully dressed, soaking wet and complaining how cold they were. The woman said, “Well, you wanted to get wet.”  I found a plastic cup in one of the shower stalls. They must have been playing in there for quite a while because the floor of both showers and both toilet stalls were soaking wet which caused the entire floor of the women’s bathroom to be slippery. 

The weather on Saturday was drizzly and cloudy with a high of about 71 degrees. Absolutely no reason for anyone to need to get wet. And, in what world did this woman think it was okay to let kids play in the showers of a public restroom. I am just amazed by the unthinking, rude, inconsiderate, disrespectful behavior of some adults. And, what a lesson to be teaching those kids. Do whatever you want, no matter how it inconveniences everyone else who uses the PUBLIC restroom. Okay, enough of my rant. But, come on now, really??

Otherwise, the rest of the weekend was fine. Just a bit more activity than normal.  I think we’ve just become spoiled by how quiet and peaceful this park is, even when there are lots of people camping here.

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

Another Family Visit

Last Saturday it was my turn to have a family visit.  My mom and her friend, Richard, along with my brother, Ron, and his wife, Laura all came for an afternoon visit.

We had a nice day. It was still a bit hot and humid, but not as bad as it had been. We sat outside and chatted for a few hours. This was the first time my family had visited us at our site in Beaver Dam. They really liked our “backyard” and were amazed at how few bugs there are.

Kevin grilled some brats and burgers. I had made beans and tortellini salad, and my mom brought a carrot cake for desert. Plenty of good food! We ate inside our screen tent, just in case a few flies wanted to bother us. Kevin was happy to take the picture and sacrifice being photographed :)

On Sunday evening, we went to the Must-Skies Waterski Club’s show on Beaver Dam Lake. They put on a very nice show. Next week they’ll be competing at the National Competition in Janesville, Wisconsin.

We’ve never been to an amateur waterski show. The lady behind us was telling me that Wisconsin has more teams than any other state, and the national competition is almost always in Wisconsin. I had no idea.  Here are some pictures from the show.

The jumpers were pretty awesome!

This doubles pair won at Nationals last year in their category. Hopefully, they’ll win again this year!

Yesterday I spent another day working at Eric’s house. I painted the ceilings in both bathrooms and put a primer coat on the door trim of both outside doors.  Eric and his friend, Adam, put a coat of mud on the walls last week, but they still have to sand it before I can paint the walls. The end is in sight!

I went to watch Eric’s softball game before I headed back home. I must be good luck since Eric had three hits and three RBIs.  I forgot my camera so here’s a picture of him playing in the outfield using my cell phone camera. He’s the guy in the back. Great game, Eric!

Today the heat and humidity have finally left town. It was the first day in many weeks we didn’t have to run the air all day!!! The windows are open, and there’s a nice refreshing breeze out of the northeast. Ah, what a beautiful day. I went for a nice long walk this morning.

In my last blog, I posted a picture of a strange mud patch on the side of our shower building. Blog reader, heyduke50, sent a comment letting us know it was a mud dauber wasp nest. I did a little research to find out how to remove it. Turns out it is a nest built by one female wasp. She stings spiders and grubs and paralyzes them and encases them in the nest for her babies.

Kevin took a screwdriver and pried it off. We thought it would come off in one piece, but he had to scrape it off in chunks. There were all kinds of grubs inside of it. We’ve never seen or heard of this before. Very interesting. I didn’t take a picture, because I thought it would come off in one piece. It really was amazing seeing all of those grubs inside of the nest. Cool!

The summer sure is flying by. In two months we’ll be leaving for Kansas to work at Amazon. I hope we have some nice weather in the meantime!

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

More Golf

The weather was a bit cooler today so Kevin and I went out and played nine holes at Fox Lake Golf Club. Our tee time was 9:00 a.m. and they sent us out on the back nine. We had a nice relaxed game with no one in front of or behind us the entire round.

It’s still pretty warm, but not unbearable. I think I had my best round of the summer. I had two bad holes, but the rest were pretty good. If I could only figure out why my drives keep going to the right, I’d be quite happy with how I’m playing. Kevin did not have such a good round. We spent a lot of time looking for his balls in the long grass :(

On Monday, the farmer finished harvesting the wheat field behind our camper. I was a little concerned that he would create a lot of dust when he got right behind us. But, the wind was blowing away, and there was very little dust.

Here he is out our back window. The edge of the field is only about 25 feet from us.

Something unusual has appeared on the side of our bath building. I think it’s some kind of hornet or wasp nest. It’s hard as a rock.

And, this moth was also on the bath building. It’s the biggest moth I’ve ever seen. It was just a little smaller than the size of my hand. Wow!

I’ll end today with the beautiful sunset we had a few days ago.

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

Another Peaceful Weekend

Our campground was almost full again this weekend. We only had one open site.  There was a little bit more activity than last weekend, but overall another very peaceful weekend. Have I told you we love this place!

Kevin golfed with a friend on Friday morning and that afternoon we went out for a fish fry at a place in Beaver Dam called Game On. They had a coupon for an all you can eat cod fish fry for $9.99 with a second one for half price. Well, the price was good, but the food not so much. The fish was heavily breaded and quite greasy. We won’t be going back.  Wisconsin is pretty well known for Fish Fry Friday. Most every restaurant and bar has it on their menu.  We don’t eat out often, but we do enjoy a good fish fry. We’ll keep trying new places until we find one we like.

We haven’t been doing very much. It’s just been too hot and humid to really get out and be active. We have two rental paddle boats available at the park. We’ve only rented them three times so far this season. I guess no one wants to put forth the effort in this heat.  We have plans to go out in one of them ourselves, but not until it cools off.  The same goes for bike riding. There’s a bike trail not too far from us called the Wild Goose State Trail that we’d like to explore, but not until it’s cooler.  I guess we’ll be busy once this heat breaks.

I have been walking early some mornings or doing my Wii exercise program. The new EA Sports Active 2 gives me quite a workout. Much more than the Wii Fit does. I’m trying to stay fit for our job at Amazon.

I’ve been seeing signs for a Farmer’s Market in Beaver Dam so yesterday morning Kevin and I drove into town and checked it out. I bought some delicious pecan rolls from the Amish vender. They make the best bakery and it’s so reasonable. As you can see, there were several vendors, but nothing else caught our fancy.

Kevin needed a new golf glove so we stopped at Dunham’s Sporting Goods. They had some great sale prices, so we both ended up with a new glove and Kevin got some covers for his irons.  I forgot my head covers in the golf cart the last time we golfed. Hopefully, someone turned them in. If not, I’ll be back at Dunham’s. You get a 10% discount with your AARP card. Being old has it’s advantages :)

The farmer has started cutting the wheat in the field behind our camper. Even though we’ve lived in a somewhat rural area, it was mostly corn that was grown around our house. This is the first time I’m seeing a combine in action.  So far, he’s  been on the far end away from us. I’m thinking there will be quite a lot of dust and noise when he gets directly behind us.

 

Here he is shooting the wheat onto the tractor carts to be pulled away.  Cool!

The beginning of this week is predicted to be hot again. It’s supposed to cool off later in the week, but we’ve heard that before. Maybe we’ll get in some golf late in the week, maybe not. I’ll do my two hours rocking the babies and spend a day painting at Eric’s house. Not much else going on.

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

*Canadian Online Shopping*

This post is for my Canadian friends out there.  I came across a website that you might find helpful.  It’s an online shopping site called Canada Post.

I did a little looking around on the site, and it looks pretty cool. You can search for all kinds of items including electronics, clothing, outdoor items, etc.  You can discover deals, compare stores, and check out pricing trends.

I did a search for utility trailers, and found all kinds of choices. You can narrow down your search by the amount of money you are willing to spend or by the brand you are interested in.

So, check it out. It looks like a great site.