Back to Peace and Quiet

The busy weekend is behind us, and we’re back to our wonderful quiet and peaceful park.

All 24 of our sites were booked for the long weekend. On Friday morning we played 9 holes of golf. We had a great time. Kevin had an excellent round. I felt like I was hitting the ball much better.

By the time we returned around noon, several campers were already here and they kept on coming until it was almost dark. Although there were many people around here all weekend, we had no problems. Everyone behaved very well.

Most of our sites were booked by four separate groups. Because each group only had one campfire, we didn’t sell as much wood as we expected to for a long weekend.

Our friends Jim and Wendy had the site next to us booked. They arrived late Saturday afternoon. We played some games, enjoyed a few meals together and visited around the campfire.

The weather was quite a mixed bag. We had rain both Friday and Saturday evening which put a literal damper on campfires. Sunday had temperatures in the low 90s and high humidity. Monday was very windy with storms predicted.

The exodus Monday began pretty early and by noon almost everyone was gone. Storms did come through Wisconsin late Monday afternoon, but we were spared anything serious. Just a little rain and some distant thunder and lightning. Other areas weren’t so lucky. Not too far from us there was large hail and some building fires caused by lightning.

The boat dock across the road was also very busy all weekend. Because of the off and on rain showers, boats were in and out all weekend long. I don’t think that boating would be for us.

The orioles have discovered the food I’ve put out for them. This guy is enjoying one of the oranges I stuck to the top of my shepherd hook.

I also put some grape jelly out for them. I have seen some orioles eating the jelly, but this little bunny was checking it out as well. He must not have liked it because he didn’t stay long.

This is our second summer at this park. Park visitors have told us they’ve seen deer, but we never have. That is until last week. These three deer were running through the field right behind us. I hope they don’t discover my garden.

Sunday night was the last episode of Harry’s Law. We’ve really enjoyed this show for the two years it was on. I was sure bummed when I read that it has been cancelled. According to what I read online, it was the second most watched show on NBC, but they cancelled it anyway. Apparently, it doesn’t fit the demographics they’re looking to attract. Not enough young people watched it. I guess we old folks don’t matter.

We don’t have any big plans for this week. Kevin will be working his 24 hours in the park. I plan to wash my car and go through the bedroom closet to get rid of some stuff we haven’t used.

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

Windy!

It sure is windy and hot today. Feels more like July or August. We’ve had wind gusts near 50 mph and the high temp was 88 degrees. Thunderstorms are predicted for tonight, and more hot weather is forecast for the upcoming holiday weekend.

We are completely booked for this weekend. I’m sure we’ll be quite busy. It’s so nice during the week when we have the park pretty much to ourselves :)

There’s been quite a bit of activity at the birdfeeder. Even the chipmunks are getting fed. Here’s a shot of a bird at the feeder and a chipmunk enjoying the goodies down below.

In my last post I had a picture of a duck’s nest. A few days after that post, I noticed the mother duck wasn’t flying up when I walked past the nest anymore. I found the nest and saw that four of the eggs were gone and the others were broken. I think some creature had a duck egg dinner. I don’t think they would have hatched and left the nest that quickly. For some reason, it made me feel sad.

Last Sunday night there was supposed to be an eclipse of the sun. The news said that we wouldn’t have a total eclipse in our area, but they certainly were hyping the event.

I kept running to the window to take a look, but never really saw much of an eclipse. It did look like there was a half moon shape coming up from the bottom, but then the sun went down. Here’s what it looked like. Nothing much to see.

Not much else going on. Kevin’s been working. I spent a day at Eric’s house and finished stripping the rest of the wallpaper and did our laundry. Wednesday afternoon I did my four hours of volunteering at the hospital. We’ve settled into our summer schedule.

I’ll probably only be posting about once a week during the summer. No need to bore everyone with the same stuff every week. Of course, if something exciting happens, I’ll let you know :)

Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

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

Busy Birds

This is definitely the time of year when the birds are busy, busy, busy making nests, laying eggs and sitting on those nests waiting for their babies to hatch.

Last week we were walking along our regular route and all of a sudden a mama mallard duck flew out of the tall grass next to the road giving me quite a scare. It turns out she has a nest with seven eggs right next to the road.

Here she is in the farmer’s field giving us the evil eye.

A robin has built a nest in the park’s picnic shelter.

When I walked in she flew out into a nearby tree and gave me quite a lecture.

Robins eat worms so we often see them on the ground, especially after the grass has been cut.

I think the Canadian geese have left town. I haven’t seen them with their babies for over a week. The white pelicans are still here. They are so beautiful when they are flying overhead riding on the wind currents.

Last week I put out one of my bird feeders. I didn’t have thistle seed for the finch feeder, but I hung it up anyway. A few days later there was a finch sitting on it chirping away. I don’t think he was very happy with me. I finally got to the store and got some seed for that feeder. The finch was back lickety-split.

We’ve been back in Wisconsin for a month now. The weather has finally improved. We had a beautiful week with lots of sun and decent temperatures.

The farmer was out plowing and planting the fields around the campground. I few weeks ago I didn’t think the fields would every dry out enough for plowing. It’s amazing what some sun will do!

Two-thirds of the sites in the park are reserved for this weekend. I’m thinking we’ll probably have some drive-ins as well since tomorrow is supposed to be in the mid 80s.

We have a camping club here this weekend. One of them was knocking on the door at 8:30 this morning wanting to use his coupon he had from a refund last year for a bundle of free wood. Kevin was still sleeping, and I wasn’t dressed. We were available all last night to get their wood, but they decided they needed it this morning. I told them they would have to come back later. I guess some people think everyone gets up early.

Tomorrow we’re leaving the park during the day to go visit our friends in the camping club we belong to. Although we don’t camp with them anymore, we try to join them for some day camping. They won’t be too far from us, so we’re going for the day. We’ll just put up a sign at the wood shed saying wood will only be for sale after 6 pm tomorrow.

Our contract says we agree to be in the park 15 hours a week, 3 hours a day for 5 days of the week. There are no set hours. We are obviously in the park much more than that, so we don’t feel bad leaving for part of the day. It all works out.

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

Finally Some Golf

We had planned on going golfing a couple of times, but each time the weather turned out to be worse than predicted so we didn’t go. On Friday we finally had a nice day to get out on the course for the first time this year.

We didn’t golf at all this winter. I don’t like to go to courses I’m not familiar with, and I don’t like to pay a lot either. Last year Kevin went by himself and with some friends. This year he didn’t get out at all after we left Wisconsin.

So, it had been since late last September since either one of us played. I was expecting a terrible round. On the first hole, I had a one over par. Things were looking good. Overall, I ended up with a decent game. I had one bad hole, and my drives weren’t all that good. But, for the first time out in over seven months, I was happy. Kevin struggled a bit. At least he got it out of his system.

I forgot my camera, and wouldn’t you know it we saw a family of herons. I don’t know what kind they were, but they had a red patch on top of their head. I’ve never seen that before. There were two parents and two babies. What an awesome site.

The weather has gotten better. We haven’t had much rain over the last week. Things are starting to dry out. There are still some very wet areas in the park.

About half of our sites are occupied this weekend. Summer must be here because we have our first tenters and a few pop-ups. Wood sales have been brisk as it’s still dipping into the low 50s at night. I’m glad the weather is decent this weekend for the campers.

I’m volunteering again at Beaver Dam Hospital this year. Last year I rocked babies at their daycare center. This year I thought I’d try something new. I’ll be spending four hours every Wednesday afternoon at the 2nd floor reception desk. Mostly, I show ladies where to undress for mammograms and make reminder phone calls for upcoming appointments.

Tomorrow we’re meeting my family at a restaurant for Mother’s Day. No cooking for the mothers in this family :)

A very Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there in blog land. Enjoy your day and relax!

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

Enough Already!

It seems all I’ve been blogging about lately is the lousy weather. But, it really has been rotten!

The entire weekend was cool and rainy again. I feel so sorry for the campers who come out for the weekend. We don’t even see them. I hope they are enjoying relaxing inside their trailers.

We had several units in the park this weekend. We didn’t even sell any firewood. It was just too crummy out. It rained pretty much all day Saturday. By the end of the day we had waterfront property again, reminiscent of our stay in Coffeyville, Kansas. At least the water here drains better.

Here’s what our front yard looked like. Do you see the overflowing hole. That’s our fire pit with some charred wood floating on top. Gee whiz, enough already!!

Here’s the farmers field outside our back window. It may be July before they can get out there and plant.

So, we spent most of the weekend inside. We were able to get our for a walk on Saturday. Yesterday was just plain nasty. Kevin watched Nascar and baseball. I watched some DVDs on my computer that I got at the library.

I’ve discovered the shows Brothers and Sisters and Lost. I’m on season two of each of them. Don’t you just love the library!!

Today is still cloudy and cool. Warmer and sunny weather is predicted for later in the week. I sure hope that’s true. I’m beginning to think we should have stayed in Arizona. Never mind, it’s too hot there now.

I did pull out my sewing machine again. I’ve got several projects started. That should keep me busy for a while.

Tomorrow I’m going to Eric’s house to help him pick out new bathroom vanities. On Saturday Kevin is going to help him install them. Once that’s done, his bathrooms will be pretty much finished. Just the tub and shower surround need to be replaced.

Next up will be the living room and dining room. At least there’s only one small wall with wallpaper. I’ll mostly be painting. I’m really glad I’ve been able to help him with his house. It will look so nice once it’s all spruced up.

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

Second Anniversary

May 1st was the second anniversary of our fulltime RVing life. With all the excitement of buying the new truck, I actually forgot about it until two days later.

Upon reflection of the last two years, I can honestly say we have zero regrets and are so glad we decided to take a risk and pursue this lifestyle. We are so happy!

When we originally told people what we planned to do, so many expressed fears. The phrase I heard over and over again was what if. What if you get sick, what if you don’t have enough money, what if you don’t like it, what if you don’t get along, etc., etc., etc.

I finally began responding with what if we have an extra ten years of retirement and enjoyment. Although we are not completely retired, we are semi-retired and free of the stress of our previous jobs.

So now we have two of those extra ten years behind us, and they have been fantastic. As in any lifestyle, we’ve had a few minor problems. But, overall, it’s been excellent. I have no reason to doubt that the future will be just as wonderful!

If only the weather would improve. We’ve had mostly cool and rainy weather since we’ve been back in Wisconsin. Every weekend has been lousy. Two days last week were finally warm, but with the 80 degree temperatures came very high dew points. Now we’re back to cool, cloudy and rainy. I miss the sun!

We’ve also had some storms. With the hot and humid weather on Thursday came some severe thunderstorms. They were predicting hail. We sure didn’t want our two day old truck to have hail damage. Luckily, we have a Quonset hut on the property so Kevin pulled the truck inside. It barely fit, but it was safe and sound.

The hail was small and didn’t cause any damage to our RV or car. But, better safe than sorry with the new truck. It was nice and cozy parked inside this building.

Today was opening day of the fishing season. The boat dock across the road from us has been pretty dead up until today. When I got up this morning, there were already lots of cars with boat trailers parked in the parking lot. These people take their fishing seriously! The parking lot was almost full and it was only 7 am.

On Thursday I went to Nancy’s Notions in Beaver Dam for a mini-class I had signed up for. The first weekend in May is their special sewing weekend. Nancy has a show on PBS called Sewing With Nancy. She’s been on the air for 30 years.

The class was on machine embroidery. My machine has limited embroidery capability, but I’ve never tried it. I was hoping the class would teach me how to do it. It was basically a sales pitch to buy their $1,400 machine. I didn’t learn much, and I certainly don’t plan to spend that kind of money on a sewing machine.

There were tons of women at the shop. I had to park quite a ways down the road and fight my way through to see any of the products for sale. They did have some pre-cut yards of fabric for $5 a yard. There was no way I would have stood in the line to have bolts of fabric cut. The check out lines were equally long. I did spent $15 and was able to go to the express check out line which wasn’t as bad.

I don’t like crowds or long lines. I was definitely out of my comfort zone with all of these people. I doubt I’ll ever go again. After that I went to Beaver Dam Hospital to get signed up for volunteering again this year.

Last year I volunteered at their daycare center rocking babies. I was ready to try something new. So, this year I’ll be at the reception desk on the second floor to guide people to the outpatient and imaging departments. I’ll be volunteering on Wednesday afternoons from noon to 4 pm. We’ll see how it goes.

I sure do hope these clouds clear out so we can see the super moon tonight!

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

It’s Here!

We picked up the new truck yesterday. We really like it. Kevin is looking forward to towing with it. It should be much better than our old truck was. Here it is parked at home. I think the color matches our RV better than our old truck did.

We had a very nice visit with our son Korey. We went to my mom’s for dinner and it was great to have the entire family together again. I managed to get everyone to pose for a family picture. We have a small family consisting of my mom and her significant other, my brother and his wife, and the four of us.

Kevin and Korey sure enjoyed the poppy seed cake I made for them. Since it’s a lot of work, I don’t make it very often. So, I told them we were celebrating both of their birthdays, Kevin’s is in December and Korey’s is in June. Trust me the cake is under the ice cream!

Korey ran into some severe weather on his trip back to Minnesota yesterday. At one point the rain and hail were so bad he had to pull over to the side of the road for about 20 minutes. Unfortunately, his car now has some minor hail damage. Bummer! The same storm came through our area last night. By the time it reached us, it was just some thunderstorms. Today the warm air has finally arrived. It was 80 degrees and humid today :)

I’ve really been enjoying the walks I’m taking around part of Beaver Dam Lake. The tulips are blooming.

There are lots of swallows flying all over the place. I love their beautiful blue color.

The white pelicans love sitting on this little rock outcropping in the lake.

And the Canadian Geese are having lots of babies. They’re so cute.

I’ve started some spring cleaning inside our home. I’m going through all the cabinets and closets and getting rid of stuff we haven’t used and washing the shelves. This weekend we plan to wash the outside. Then the windows will get a good cleaning, inside and out.

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