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!

*Disneyland Tickets*

About two years ago our family visited Disneyland in California. We went the week before Christmas. The weather was beautiful with warm temperatures and sunny skies. The great thing about visiting Disneyland is that the Southern California weather is almost always fantastic.

We had a wonderful time and enjoyed many of the attractions at Disneyland Park such as the Matterhorn ride, Haunted House, Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones Adventure, Space Mountain, Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain and many, many more.

We watched the parade which featured magnificent floats and many Disney characters. We also ate some delicious food at one of the many restaurants.

At night we watched the spectacular fireworks display. We also saw Fantasmic! which uses digital projection, fireworks, live performers and larger-than-life set pieces to recreate the fantastic imagination of Mickey Mouse. It was a magnificent show!

There are two theme parks at Disneyland. Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park. The adventure park has thrill rides such as roller coasters and Tower of Terror.

Disneyland tickets are easy to purchase online. Get your tickets ahead of time to avoid waiting in line at the park. Disneyland is a magical place for everyone. You won’t be disappointed. Get your tickets now and have the time of your life!

Busy, Busy, Busy

We’ve been so busy since we’ve been back in Wisconsin. We had our hair cut by our favorite stylist, Carol. We’ve run errands, Kevin has worked his 24 hours, I did laundry and some shopping.

On Tuesday we picked up Eric and went to the Brewers baseball game. It was an exciting game with lots of scoring and the Brewers won. It was great spending time with Eric.

Tomorrow morning Korey arrives. I’ve been cooking and baking for days making some of his favorites. Kevin’s favorite cake is a poppy seed cake his mom used to make. It literally takes all day to make and uses every pan and utensil I own :)

I used to make it for his birthday, but this year we were at Amazon and I was just too tired. Korey loves the cake too, so I promised Kevin I’d make it when we got home and Korey came to visit. So, today was the day. I’m finally done. I have to say, it is a very tasty cake.

Tonight we’re going out for a fish fry with a great group of friends. We used to get together with this group once a month for fish fry before we left. Now we try to get together each month we’re here. Last year one of the couples actually came to Arizona for Spring Training.

Oh, and we also managed to find time to buy a new truck!!!

We’d been talking about buying a diesel since we started our fulltime journey. Our current truck has a gas engine, and we knew were at our weight limit for towing.

Kevin had been talking to one of the salesmen he used to work with and in February he ordered the truck for us. He was kind enough to order it as a vehicle to put on the dealership lot so that we could wait until some good rebates were available before we had to take delivery.

General Motors actually had some good rebates that end on April 30th including an extra rebate for your trade-in. So, we were able to trade in our truck and get more for it than we think we could have gotten privately and don’t have to hassle trying to sell it.

It’s still a big chunk of change so we’ll be working at Amazon for a few years to recoup this expenditure. We’ll definitely feel safer with this more powerful truck.

It’s a GMC Sierra 2500HD diesel with all the extras needed for towing. I don’t know all the exact details, but Kevin assures me it’s what we need. I know that I like the color I picked out. I’m also excited to have dual climate control so I don’t have to freeze when Kevin has the air on.

They’re putting the bed liner, tonto cover and hitch in it so we’ll be picking it up early next week. Here’s a picture of it on the dealer’s lot.

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