Doing the Happy Dance!

It rained this morning!!! It was only for about 15 minutes, but I heard the corn in the field behind us going “Ahhh”. It certainly wasn’t enough rain, but at this point we’ll take anything we can get.

We are about 30 miles from Madison. It turns out it was the driest June in Madison history. Milwaukee was third driest. June was also 5 degrees above normal in the temperature department. We are on track to have the warmest year in Madison history.

Yesterday we were under a heat advisory. Today they’ve changed it to an excessive heat warning until 10 pm on Friday. Today’s high is forecast to be 100 degrees and Thursday is forecast for 104. That’s the actual temperature. The heat index is supposed to be around 110. Dew points are near 70 which is tropical.

We only have one air conditioning unit in our 5th wheel. Normally, it’s not a big deal. But, when temps are near 100 degrees, we wish we had a second unit. Our next RV will have two air conditioners.

Our site only has two small trees which don’t give us any shade. So, we bake in the sun all day long. Yesterday afternoon our inside temp was 87. The air runs all day, but it just can’t keep up. We have all the shades down and have blocked every spot the sun shines in. We have three fans going. At least the humidity is lower inside, but it’s still hot by the end of the day.

It cools off enough to be able to sleep comfortably. That’s a very good thing. Kevin is working half days. There’s not that much to do anyway without the grass cutting. I’ve been staying inside and working on some sewing projects.

You may remember I wrote a blog post last September about some vintage camper fabric I bought. I was going to make a tote bag out of it. I cut out all the fabric for the tote last fall and started sewing it. The pattern requires you to sew the outside and inside parts of the bag separately and then join them together. When I went to join my parts together, I realized I really screwed up. I had cut the camper fabric in the wrong direction so my outer bag part was tall and narrow rather than short and wide like it was supposed to be.

I was so disappointed in myself that I put the project aside. This year I purchased some more fabric and ended up with two bags. The flip flop fabric is how its supposed to look. The camper fabric is my goofed up bag. I’m keeping the camper one for myself. The other one will be a gift. I learned a good lesson about cutting fabric from all of this!

I had two small quilt tops completed for donation to Project Linus. They give quilts to needy children. I’m now working on quilting those so I can donate them before we leave. Then I have a quilt pattern I’m anxious to get started on. It will be a Christmas gift.

I know most of the country is suffering from this excessive heat. So, try to keep cool everyone!

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

Fire Ban

Effective yesterday there are no campfires allowed in any of the Dodge County Parks including ours. The parks office had called people in advance to let them know, and we also informed them as they drove in. Kevin posted some signs on the bathroom doors. As of now, they are still allowing the use of charcoal grills.

Most people took it in stride. A few were not happy about it but understood. It is extremely dry. We haven’t had any measurable rain in over a month. June has gone in the record books as the third driest in history. Total rainfall was around .3 inches for the month. Many communities have instigated fire bans and are cancelling fireworks for the upcoming holiday.

It has also been very hot this week. Highs have been in the 90s each day. The heat is expected to continue through the upcoming week. I am so grateful for air conditioning. I sure am keeping my fingers crossed that it keeps on working!!!

The grass is BROWN. Kevin did not mow at all this past week, and he probably won’t mow this coming week either. He’s been doing other jobs such as repairing picnic tables and cleaning his work shop. This week he plans to spray for weeds, clean out fire pits and some other minor repair jobs.

Normally he spends two of his three work days mowing. If the grass doesn’t start growing again pretty soon, he’s going to run out of work to do. Less hours equals less pay :(

Yesterday we had our annual checkups. This morning the results of our blood tests were available online. The internet sure is a great thing. The good news is that Kevin’s blood sugars are good. Last year they were a little high, and there was talk he might be pre-diabetic. He had an A1C test which measures blood glucose for the past three months, and the results were very good. Good job, Kevin!

My cholesterol has been hovering just over 200 for the past few years. This year it is at 239. I’m guessing I’ll be getting a call from the doctor to start taking statins. My dad had very bad cholesterol numbers, so I figured it was only a matter of time. Kevin has been taking them for years, and his numbers are good. So, I guess my time has come.

I have been experiencing shoulder pain for the past two years. I thought it was arthritis, but after describing where it hurts, the doctor says it is tendinitis in the rotator cuffs. He gave me a pamphlet with exercises to do to help get things back to normal. He actually recommended physical therapy, but with our high deductible insurance, I told him I wasn’t willing to pay for it. I can do the exercises myself.

Otherwise, we are both in excellent health. Honestly, we haven’t felt this healthy in years. Our less stressful life is definitely agreeing with us. Even the doctor commented on how he felt less stress in our lives was keeping us healthier. 

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

She Lives!

The very good news is that our car seems to be just fine. When Kevin got back from golfing on Monday, he tried to start the car again. After some sputtering, she fired right up and has been working fine since. I had filled the gas tank over the weekend, so we’re thinking there may have been something bad in the gas. We’re not sure why it wouldn’t start Monday morning, but are glad the problem seems to have corrected itself.

It seems the weather is causing havoc all over the country. Flooding in Florida, fires in Colorado, lots of disasters for many people. The scenes of homes burning in Colorado are hard to look at. I feel so bad for those people.

Yesterday we got notice that our county is now under a burn advisory. Our fire danger is HIGH. We are on track to have the third driest June on record. Temperatures for the next week are expected to be in the 90s with no rain in sight. Some communities have already cancelled the 4th of July fireworks.

So far, we are not under a burn ban. We have been instructed to tell people to keep their campfires small and in the ring. Fireworks have never been allowed in the park. Crazy!

The birdfeeder continues to be a busy place. It’s rare to see cardinals in the park, but one of them did visit the feeder a few days ago. Someone told me that cardinals like pine trees. We have very few pine trees in the park, so maybe that’s why we don’t see many of them.

There was another new bird at the feeder yesterday. I haven’t been able to identify it. Maybe someone out there in blog land can tell me what kind of bird this is.

It’s funny, but it seems the sparrows are the main birds that actually sit at the feeder. They knock food down and then the bigger birds eat the food off of the ground.

I’m off for my morning walk before the heat gets too bad. The rest of the day will be spent inside the air conditioning. Stay cool everyone!

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

Can You Hear Me Now?

Things were very busy in the park this past weekend. All of our sites were rented and both shelters were rented for Saturday and the hut was also rented Sunday. It’s graduation party time.

With the graduation parties came some young people. Most of our clientele at this park is usually older people who enjoy peace and quiet. Saturday’s graduation party group had five sites in the park rented as well as the shelter. They brought more noise and commotion than we’re used to.

On Saturday Kevin had to deal with some teen boys who decided it would be fun to set off a firecracker in the bathroom sink. They were very apologetic and behaved after that. Luckily, no damage. I had to shoo some little kids out of the bathroom. They were filling squirt guns in the sinks and had the floor soaking wet and very slippery. I sent them to an outside water faucet. What is it with kids and bathrooms. Overall, nothing serious happened, just lots of activity.

There was another group in the park with ten sites reserved. They were from the Rock River Radio Club. They come on this weekend every year to participate in an international ham radio event. They set up all kinds of antennas in the park and spend most of their time inside their units talking to other ham radio operators all over the world. One site had this trailer on it. I think they slept in it. Do you see the antennas they put up on top the trailer?

The event is to help practice in case there were some type of emergency where regular communication was not available. It made me think of some of the movies where the world has some kind of catastrophic event and ham radio is the only type of communication available.

There is a contest involved for who talks to someone the farthest away and the number of people you talk to. One of the guys told us he was able to speak to many people in Europe, but the weather in Asia was bad so he didn’t reach anyone there. He also spoke to people in every state except Alaska.

These people had a small tent but a very large antenna. It’s on the left side between the tree and the tent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They spent a good deal of time throwing wires into the trees using fishing poles. I guess these wires boosted their signals. Some of the wires had rectangular pieces between them. If you look closely at this picture you can see the wires between the trees with the white boxes between the wires. This was then attached to a pop-up camper. (Click on the picture to enlarge and you can see it better.)

On Sunday our son Eric and my mom and her friend Richard came for a visit. It was a belated Father’s Day visit since Eric was on call last weekend. We had a nice visit together although it was a bit hot and humid out.

Eric was pretty exhausted from a long week at work due to hot weather. Unfortunately, the second half of this week is supposed to be hot and humid again with highs near 100 degrees. Eric is looking forward to fall, not winter. Winter brings the opposite problem for someone in the HVAC business.

On Friday Kevin replaced our water pump. A few weeks ago he was sitting outside and noticed some water dripping from under our fifth wheel. Upon investigation, he found that our water pump was leaking, causing our basement area to be quite wet. He rigged up a ramp made out of aluminum foil to divert the water down the ramp and into a bucket since the space under the pump was too small to place the bucket. Even though we aren’t using the pump, it was still leaking. Twice a day he would empty the bucket.

The pump is in the top right hand corner of the picture. If you look closely, you can see the discoloration on the wood near the bottom left from the water that was in the basement.

This is the second water pump that has failed on this unit. Last year in April the original pump was replaced by an RV dealer because it had stopped working. Now, just over a year later the second one was leaking. Jayco agreed to send us a replacement pump. Kevin was willing to install it so we didn’t have to unhook to go to a dealer. We sure are pleased with the service Jayco has given us. Our unit is almost four years old, and they are still standing behind their product.

This new pump is supposed to be an upgraded model. It was tight working in the confined space, but Kevin was able to get the new pump installed. It’s working great and is much quieter. Hopefully it will last longer than a year. Kevin’s thinking about purchasing a seal repair kit that Shur-Flo sells for the leaking pump. That way we’d have a back up. Does anyone have any experience with the repair kits?

Today Kevin is off playing golf with some friends. He was planning on driving the car, but it wouldn’t start this morning. It would turn over, but wouldn’t start. He was running late so he just threw his clubs in the truck and took off. Hopefully, nothing is too seriously wrong with the car.

It’s a 2000 Grand Am with 184,000 miles on it. We only use it when we’re in Wisconsin in the summer. The rest of the year we store it at my moms. It is sure nice to have two vehicles in the summer. The car gets better gas mileage than the truck, and we don’t have to put all those extra miles on the truck.

We did one other small project on Sunday. Our storage cabinets above the big window in the back of the unit have glass inserts in the doors. The glass is frosted, but you can still see the stuff behind the glass, and I didn’t like how it looked. Two years ago I bought some frosted contact paper and put it over the back of the glass. It looked better, but you could still see some of the stuff behind it. After two years, the contact paper was starting to come off, so I needed a better idea.

Kevin suggested poster board. I bought some black poster board and cut it to fit. We secured it with some duct tape at the corners. It looks more like smoke colored glass, and you can’t see what’s inside. The two on the left have the poster board, much better. No one needs to see all my junk, I mean treasures, in those cabinets.

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

Amazon Wants You

As you may remember, we will be working at Amazon in Coffeyville, Kansas again this fall. Although it was hard to be on your feet for 10 hour shifts, we feel it is worth it for the pay and benefits provided.

Amazon is offering a new referral program this year for the Coffeyville, Kansas facility only. For any name we submit of someone who is interested enough to receive a phone call from Amazon, we will receive a $10 Amazon gift card. If you are hired, we receive another $10 gift card. If you work for 30 days, we receive a $50 bonus. They had the bonus last year, but the gift cards are new.

So, if you are somewhat interested in possibly working for Amazon in Coffeyville, Kansas this year, let us know. We can submit your information to them and they will call you. This is not a commitment on your part, but you do need to be at least interested in speaking to them about it.

They are hiring beginning in mid-August and will continue to have start dates for work campers until the beginning of November. Like I said, we found it a great way to make a decent amount of money in a relatively short period of time. The pay is about $11 an hour with overtime for any hours over 40 per week. They pay for a full hook-up site at a nearby campground. If you stay through the end of your contract, they give you an additional $1 per hour bonus. Between the two of us, we made over $10,000 last year in a 10 week period. That allowed us to take the winter off. That’s our plan again this year :)

If you have any questions, send us a comment or email. We’d be happy to share our experiences with you.

By the way, we did get some rain last night and it is cooler today!

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

Are We In Arizona?

Kevin asked that question today. It’s been extremely hot, dry and windy lately.

As much as I complained about the three weeks of rain we got when we first returned to Wisconsin, it has hardly rained since then. Our area is extremely dry. The grass is brown which usually doesn’t happen until late July or August. At least we’re not dealing with fires like they are in the southwest.

The corn has still been growing, but it definitely needs rain. I was always told that when the corn is too dry, the leaves begin to curl up and get pointy looking. That’s exactly how it looks right now. We’ve been watering our little garden every day.

Its been in the mid 90s the last three days. The weather people are promising rain tonight and cooler temperatures the rest of the week. I sure hope so. I feel so bad for our son Eric in this type of weather. He is an HVAC service technician and this kind of weather is brutal for him. He’s pretty much working round the clock. Hang in there Eric!

The weird thing is they’ve had lots of rain in Minnesota to the west of us. In fact, parts of Minnesota are experiencing flooding. Their weather usually comes our way, but not lately. Its been going through northern Wisconsin and missing us completely. I sure hope we get that rain tonight!

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

I’m Back

I drove back home yesterday. There was quite a bit of traffic so it took me about 30 minutes longer to get home than it took to drive there on Wednesday. The weather was good for driving and other than a lot of traffic, it was an uneventful drive. Just long! I’m not used to being in a vehicle for 8 hours anymore. But, it was worth it to spend time with my son.

On Saturday was Staff Family Day at the camp. There were about 80 people that came for the day. Some spent a night or two, but most just came for the day. The majority of the camp counselors live within a few hours of the camp.

We started the day with a delicious breakfast cooked by Korey and Laura. They are both full-time program directors for Pathways Camping Ministries which owns the camp.

After breakfast Korey opened the ropes challenge course for any family members who wanted to try climbing the rock wall. I’ve tried twice before, but got scared of the height and have not made it to the top. On Saturday about 25 people tried it including one grandpa who was celebrating his 78th birthday that day. He not only made it to the top, but he rode the zip line down. Wow!

Here’s Korey explaining to one of the moms how he is going to hook her up for the zip line. He’s wearing the red shirt standing on the platform. The wall is over 32 feet tall. There was one dad who didn’t make it to the top. He had the same problem I have. He got about half way up and couldn’t deal with the height. I thanked him for making me feel better about not being the only one who didn’t climb to the top. I really am amazed at the parents who climb it successfully.

After two hours, everyone was done and Korey made his way back down using the telephone pole on the right side. I’m very proud of the job he does. He is the High Adventure Director so the challenge course is a big part of his job. He’s so good with encouraging everyone and helping people conquer their fears. During the week he works with the older kids and they do all kinds of amazing things on the course. He is also in charge of the Wet and Wilderness program which involves the kids and counselors going out in canoes and camping out along the river for a week. Korey certainly works hard during the summer.

It rained for about 2 hours during the middle of the day. We were going to go canoeing, but the weather wasn’t that nice. So, instead we took a long walk on some of the trails on camp property. They have about 300 acres so there are lots of trails and campsites they use for overnights with the kids.

I stay in the lower level of the retreat center. There are several rooms with separate baths, and they let family members stay for free. Much better than staying in the cabins or a tent :)

The sun came back out and we had our picture taken on the back deck of the retreat center. The lake is behind us.

Then it was dinner and evening worship. I think they have a great group of counselors this summer. They all seem very enthusiastic and seem to work very well together.

Kevin and I took our walk this morning. Now I’m chilling out inside. It’s supposed to be in the mid 90s, very humid and windy through Wednesday. Tomorrow I’m going to Eric’s to start painting his spare bedroom. I’ll finish the outside painting when the weather is a bit cooler.

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