Lots of Catchup!

 I know it’s been awhile, but these blog posts seem to get harder and harder for me to do. I’m trying hard to not let them peter out entirely the way so many seem to go by the wayside. Seems like vloging on You Tube has become much more popular but my life is not that exciting to share constant video of it. 

We wrapped up the camping season with a couple of trips in September and October; I had made reservations to a state park on Lake Michigan where we had camped before and also to an entirely new to us state park in the driftless area of WI out of Madison called Blue Mound. Before we headed out though, Marc continued to work on and improve our solar charging system. We’re now to a point where we should be able to go easily for three-four days without plugging in if we don’t need a/c. 

Point Beach SP sits right on Lake Michigan north of Two Rivers/Manitowoc and features a trail which accesses both towns. Much of it runs through thick forest which you can’t see out of, so Marc wasn’t too impressed with that portion. We had two good days of weather which allowed me to set up my chair for beach reading during his absence. The campground has extended linear loops and was probably only about one third full, so it made for good walking as well. The beach was extremely lightly used as you can tell from the photos. The lighthouse is run by the Coast Guard and is not available to the public but makes for scenic photos. Most WI state parks have both electric and non-electric sites with a significant difference in price. Usually during summer, most electric sites get reserved well in advance but being on a budget we prefer the non-electric anyway. 

Our second trip to an untried and unseen state park did not go as planned; Apple GPS routed us on the curvy back roads making the cats carsick. By the time we arrived late in the afternoon we were all tired and cranky, especially when we saw our hard to get into and totally unlevel site. This campground had offered refunds due to their well water being out, so we checked with the camp host to switch sites for one night only and get a refund on other reserved nights. The bike trail was too steep in spots for effective E biking and was way too thickly forested for our tastes, especially as we heard dropping tree branches all night in the wind. 

Knowing there were trails galore around Madison we headed out the following morning and found a small Dane County Park very close to downtown but far enough off the freeway as to be quiet. It sits in a huge recreational area that gives the sensation of remoteness even though it’s not. The maples were glorious and the trails very well used by hikers, bikers, roller bladers, pet walkers and others. All of them however, tied into Madison’s bike trails and Marc found them very confusing to navigate without local knowledge or a map. It was a pleasant enough stay and even though the sites were fairly close together, we weren’t crowded and the view out our ramp door was just fine. We left a day early because rain and winds moved in. 

We’re no longer too enamored about urban or even suburban camping, preferring the larger sites and forests and lakes of the countryside so it’s doubtful we’ll head south again. After a lifetime of camping and RVing I just can’t get excited about any commercial park; they are all giant yawn for me. 

Moving into Fall, I again participated in helping out at a Halloween Victorian House tour, with vendors, which a shelter supporter organizes in her 1894 home each year for our benefit. Mainly, I stood over the goodie sweet trays, explained the tour, and collected the $3 pp donation. We had a good turnout and we made a little extra this year by offering a raffle of several gift baskets the shelter had made up. 

After putting the garden and outdoor chores to bed, I’ve been moving into getting back into sewing. I’m starting to make small cell phone bags and have gifted several of those and should have a good supply by the February auction. I’m also doing more totes of course and will have several very brightly colored ones to offer. They are so fun and useful!

fabric chosen

fabric chosen

No special plans for us for any of the holidays; Marc is back volunteering daily at the high school wood shop class, mentoring the students and keeping himself from becoming a couch potato. 

You may want to stay tuned; I do plan another update before the year’s end on a surprise coming up if it works out! 

 

 

 

Sick of Humidity!

 Summer has gotten away from me. It wasn’t a very good one, even though we did have some nice trips out in the camper for Marc to ride his E bike in different territory. I’ll include some photos of those.

beautiful huge site at state park

another beautiful large site

camping at the Green Bay Fairgrounds

Mostly, it’s been terribly hot, humid, and severely lacking rain. Many weeks our lawn turns so dry it’s brown and crunchy, then we get some rain and it tries to spring back to life. Some of the larger shrubs, like the honeysuckle and most of the lilacs totally dropped their leaves even though I do have some water going to them. 

We won’t talk about the garden. Despite planting six squash plants, only one came up and it flowered but never produced anything. The only tomatoes that have done well are the volunteers that came up in the compost bed but they’ve only ripened within about the past week or so. Chives and chard did well. Even our apple trees produced a measly number of apples, which usually got eaten by either birds or deer before I had a chance to do anything with them.

I had enough leftover jewelry and sewing projects of totes and bags that I was able to supply the animal shelter with enough for their summer online auction which just wrapped up. I had twenty items I donated and all of them sold, so I was very happy with that! Shortly, it will be time to start sewing again in earnest to produce things for the next online auction in February. It’s still very difficult for me to go there and work on fundraising things and meetings because Buster hasn’t been adopted yet. It continues to be all I can do to not run in and scoop him up and bring him back home. We miss him so much! Our two old girls are doing much better without him around though, so it was the right decision. What hurts the most is giving up on a cat that was one of the best we’ve ever had. He was such a joy and a character; he added immensely to our lives and we sure miss that. The two girls mainly sleep and give us problems with finicky appetites, health issues, and cause problems when we travel with them in the RV. They never used to, so it’s been an adjustment for us all.

We did make it up to the property recently and I’m always amazed at how quiet it is there. It calms me down like being in some Zen Garden. We got a final burn pile out of the way on a rainy day so the property is about as clean as it’s ever been. We listed on July 7^th and have only had one showing so it’s been a total disappointment as to activity. I think the real estate market is a LOT worse than anyone is letting on.

 

Marc has already started back in mentoring at the high school again. He does this M-F for most of the day and the teacher loves having his help! He’s been having a lot of trouble with a torn rotator cuff though, which limits what he can do. Hopefully, he can have surgery on that this winter. I do have another couple RV trips planned yet this year; to a shoreside state park on Lake Michigan with great bike trails and another for October. I’m sure those will wrap up the season for us this year. 

 

Loss

 

We’re up in the Northwoods on our property this week, trying to get it in shape for selling. After a year and a half’s absence, there is a lot to do. One wouldn’t think the vegetation would grow so fast in the forest, but it even took over all our graveled driveways so weed whacking is one of Marc’s major chores here. Burning off all the deadfall, downed trees and old pallets is another major chore. I raked many Mule loads of pine needles up from around the camper spot and our sitting/fire pit area and garage, and hauled them off to dump in the “south 40”. There’s also been a ton of sticks to pick up but I’m primarily just catching the easily seen area right by the drives and not venturing off into the vegetation. I’d be at this forever if so. I’m leaving tomorrow and will get this posted by the weekend. Marc will follow for a doctor’s appointment on Monday before we return next week to finish more. We’re leaving the new camper by the lake for now. 

Speaking of camper, we got it out for its trial run last week to a nice state forest campground on Big Lake that only had less than ten other campers there. Many of the sites are huge, well spread apart and feature views of old growth forest. Except for the mosquitos just lovely! It had great proximity to a 52-mile paved bike trail which Marc said was fantastic. He upgraded the camper to two lithium batteries so it was a test to see how long we could go without recharging and it looks like it will be around three days, which is great. This camper has a 12v refrigerator, which for people who like to dry camp, does not work out very great. In their efforts to cut costs, RV manufacturers are turning to things that don’t work out so well if you boondock. Other than being a tad snug due to no slides, I think this camper will suit us just fine for the way we want to use it for short jaunts and stays. And having the drop down back screen in the rear is just the bomb! It brings the outdoors in and feels like we’re sitting in a bug proof screen room. 

We had quick success in selling our big RV through Facebook Marketplace, which was a relief since the RV market has shown significant slow down in this bad economy. The buyers wanted it for a close by riverside permanent site so Marc delivered it and we said goodbye to that one. It was a nice trailer but we think our property will sell better without including it.

Finally, I come to the main subject of this post. We had to give up Buster! He had been getting more and more aggressive with the other cats to the point where both of them didn’t want to come out from the bedroom and he managed to slip past me one day when I opened the door and attacked Spirit very badly. If we hadn’t intervened, I’m sure he would have killed her. Both of our girl kitties are getting fairly old and it just wasn’t fair to them that they had to continue to live sequestered away all the time so we made the tough decision to return Buster to the shelter.

Oh my God, did that hurt. It was like he had become the soul of our house in such a short time with us (18 months) and it is excruciatingly quiet and empty without him. The tragedy of the situation is that he is a far better cat than either of our two old girls and he always brought a smile or laugh to us on a daily basis. He was a character through and through and such a happy cat! Not at all moody or standoffish as the girls can be and he was so affectionate with both of us.  Yet, to be fair to the others, he’s the one we had to give up. We both cried for days and I won’t be able to volunteer or set foot in the shelter until he is adopted again or I’d be tempted to snatch him up and run home with him again!

Next up is deciding on a price for the property after the Realtor’s analysis and he’ll send out a professional photographer with a drone for photos once the place is cleaned up. Then we’ll hope for a quick sale, even though I know the real estate market is on the skids and in the tank right now. However, the Realtor assures us there are folks with money always looking for lake property. All we need is one, right?