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!