A First For The Park

Yesterday there was a wedding in the park. As far as anyone connected with the parks can remember, there has never been a wedding in the park before.

It was a pretty small affair. I would estimate there were maybe 60 to 70 people in attendance. They rented our Quonset hut for the day on Saturday and held the ceremony outside in the park.

On Friday evening they came and set up an arch and some chairs in the shade. What a beautiful location to have a wedding ceremony. You can’t see it from this angle, but the lake is behind the arch making for a beautiful view.

They also did some decorating in the hut on Friday evening. It’s not the most beautiful location for a reception, but the price is right. It costs $55 for the day to rent it and they were only charged for one day even though we let them in on Friday evening to set up and on Sunday morning to clean up. Can’t beat that price.

Saturday’s weather was fantastic. It got a little warm with highs near 90, but the dew point was low. There was a bit of a breeze to help keep you comfortable. We sat out in the shade and watched the festivities.

There were about 30 cars here. We don’t have parking for that many cars, but since it was so dry we let them park on the grass. Once the reception got underway, they opened the back garage door you can see above. They had a bunch of picnic tables outside and spent most of their time outside. Eating was done inside.

Do you see the lake behind them? A beautiful site for a beautiful wedding.

One of the attendees told us it would be an Indian wedding. We weren’t sure what to expect. I believe the groom was Native American. The music and the man who conducted the ceremony were Native American. Otherwise, it was pretty much a standard ceremony, although very short.

They had a sound system set up so there was music and dancing after they ate. The wedding was at 1 pm and then they went right on with the reception. Originally they had asked if they could use the building until 11 pm. Normally, the rental period ends at 8:30 pm. Kevin said sure, but with such an early start they were actually out of there by 8:30. Several of them had rented campsites, and those that remained enjoyed a campfire. This morning they’re out there cleaning up.

This event got me to thinking about how Americans spend money. I just happened to hear on the news last week that the average cost of a wedding is now $27,000. Yesterday showed that it can be done for much less money and still be a meaningful and wonderful event.

Neither of our boys are married yet, so we haven’t had the joy of a wedding for our children. I don’t know that I’d be happy with the Quonset hut for a reception, but I also don’t buy into the media and marketing people’s idea that the more you spend the happier you’ll be. Our lifestyle is an example of how that’s just not true.

So, kudos to these families for putting on a beautiful wedding for their children on a limited budget. I’m sure their memories will be just as wonderful as if they had had a huge, expensive event.

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

I’m Sore!

Yesterday I was back at Eric’s house doing some painting on his garage. Last summer he redid the siding on his garage. It looked so nice, but the trim around the doors, the window and the top needed to be painted. As you can see, the paint was peeling.

He left me a 12 foot ladder to get the job done. I had no idea how big a 12 foot ladder is. It was too heavy for me to lift so I managed to get it set up and then dragged it around the garage. The routine was drag the ladder a few feet to the next spot, climb up and scrape the old paint off, climb down and get the paint can, climb up and paint the section. Move ladder and repeat. That was a lot of climbing up and down the ladder which has me rather sore today. I guess I’m not as spry as I used to be :)

I got all of the trim painted with the primer paint. I will have to go back and do the top coat in a few weeks. Next time I told him to leave me a smaller ladder. The next coat should be much easier because I won’t have to do any scraping.

Eric is very appreciative of the work I’m doing for him. And while I’m there, I get to use his washer and dryer and do our laundry. So, everyone wins.

Last weekend was very nice here in the park. About half of our sites were occupied. We had a nice group of campers and the weather was great.

One day last week a large truck pulled up to the boat dock across the road. There was a large water tank on the back. Two guys got out of the truck and began scooping fish out of the tank. They filled a five gallon bucket and released the fish into the lake. All in all, they released five buckets of little fish into the lake. They told Kevin they were from the DNR and were releasing Northerns.

The birdfeeder continues to be a busy place. We have lots of little sparrows visit on a regular basis. They knock lots of the seeds onto the ground when they are at the feeder. I had some grape jelly on the ground under the feeder and some of the seeds got into the jelly. This oriole seemed to like it just fine.

A blue jay also visited under the feeder. I’ve heard that they are very aggressive and mean birds. I think this must be true. Usually there are lots of birds around the feeder. But when the blue jay was there, no other birds came to the feeder.

Yesterday there were two birds at the feeder that I’ve never seen before. At first glance I thought they were orioles. Then I realized that they had yellow heads instead of yellow chests. I did a little research, and I believe they are yellow headed blackbirds. Very cool. As you can see, the sparrows were right there next to them.

On Monday we golfed. We both had decent rounds. I am definitely playing better this year. I guess the saying that practice makes perfect is true. I’m far from perfect, but playing more than a few times a year seems to be helping my game. We had a great time.

I’m not a very political person, but I must say that I’m very happy with the results of yesterday’s recall election in Wisconsin. Regardless of your political affiliation, I was very disturbed by this entire recall process. I believe the laws regarding a recall were meant to be for someone who was guilty of moral misconduct in office. I don’t believe a recall should be allowed because a group of people didn’t like a policy that was enacted.

It’s great to see that the democratic process is still alive and well. The people have spoken. Hopefully, this type of foolishness is over once and for all!

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

*Safety Sign*

Have you ever needed a special sign? Whether you are an individual or a business, safetysign.com may have exactly what you need.
They have a large selection of traffic and road signs. These can be ordered from their stock supply or customized. Their site has a live chat feature so you can get immediate answers. You can also contact them at their toll free number.
I can definitely think of several signs a campground could use such as “Slow Children Playing” or just signs saying “Slow” or “Stop”.
If you need a street sign, they have those as well. Wouldn’t it be fun to order a custom street sign with your family name or a special slogan. They have aluminum novelty signs just for that purpose.
There products are made in the USA. If you are in need of any signs, you might want to check them out.

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!