An Afternoon of Pa and Mas Rugs at Shanty Days in Algoma

Sundays are pretty quiet at the campground as the weekend folks pack up and head out.  We really can't clean firepits till they leave and let the fires die down.  (when we haul smoldering ashes and coals in the metal cans in the Cub Cadet, they are known to flame up as we drive down the road)

So we took the afternoon "off" from our camphost duties and headed up to Algoma.  Our friends Jim and Norma Burkett of Beloit, WI had their sales booth set up for the Shanty Days celebration.  It was only about 60 miles away so we headed on over for an afternoon visit!

Here is their website: 

 http://www.paandmasrugs.com/

I met Jim long ago at a weaving workshop and we have been weaving buddies since.  Norma is a dear heart who prepares all his fabric from jeans, wool fabrics, draperies, or whatever else they find to weave up.   Jim does the weaving and Norma then finishes the hemming, measuring, tagging and inventorying.

We got to their booth about 1 p.m. and hung around for the afternoon. They take a double space to hold all their tables and rugs.  Last year I sold them my large canopy which they are using this year. Theirs had been damaged in a storm at a show, so it was good to have my old one as a replacement.  They added their logo and were right back in business.

They handle the sales from their little podium and greet the shoppers as they browse among the tables of rugs, and rows of hanging runners.

Such a nice variety of colors, textures and patterns.  

The festival was still in full swing and we did a little looking and a little shopping.  I bought another tie-dyed shirt from the same lady I bought one from 2 years ago. That one is just as good as the day I got it, and its in the laundry almost every week.   I figured it was worth investing in another since that one has lasted so well.  Yes,  I am a child of the 60's and need to wear tie-dye to feel good once in a while!

 The grey storm clouds overhead looked threatening ... and some folks started to pack up their wares.  Jim has things so organized and figured out in their trailer, that we started to tear down at 4 p.m. and we were done and packed up and finished by 20 minutes to 5!~    all the rugs organized and boxed according to size and style, ready for their next show.  Their tables break down, the cloths folded up, the canopy dismantled and all is stored in their show trailer.  Done!

After the stuff was stowed, we headed over to the Hotel Stebbins in downtown Algoma.  We ate a wonderful meal (wayyyy too much food so I brought my leftovers home for lunch tomorrow)   They insisted on treating us because we helped them tear down their booth!

(Steve took the pic for us) 

But that's okay, because in a few more weeks,

 they are coming to Chilton to do a booth at the Crafty Apple Fest!   

We will get them back at taking the dinner tab away when they come to see us! 

I plan to have enough socks, towels and hot pads done to add to their booth and help with the sales on Saturday in Chilton.  We will have a good time and laugh and enjoy the camaraderie of weaverly crafty fibery folks together .....

We drove back to High Cliff, and saw that it sprinkled a little bit.  Dukie Palookie was mad that we left him all day (in the motorhome with the tv on loud enough to drown out outside noises so he just sleeps while we are gone)   We let him out and walked around the campgrounds.  Touched base with a few campers, answered a few questions, and now are turning in the for the night.   

I think I am going to sleep in my new tie-dyed tshirt.! 

4,000 miles and almost home!

Yup.. our whole trip is putting just over 4,000 miles on the odometer.  We are in the last 100 miles as I type this.  Winging our way through frozen farm fields and salty roads.... sigh.   It looks pretty....  but....

The temps are still in the single digits, and the wind chills are below zero! 

We left Bethel, Missouri yesterday (Wednesday) in the morning after saying our "see you laters" to Rosie.  As we drove, it was SNOWING on us!  Nothing much accumulating anywhere on the ground, but it was coming down pretty good. The clouds were thick and heavy with snow, but the weather reports into central and northern Illinois looked good.  We pushed onwards. 

We stopped at a fuel station off I39 at Winoma that advertised RV hookups.  We paid $5 to dump our holding tanks there, so we were completely winterized now to head into Wisconsin.  We had a couple gallons of drinking water and a five gallon jug of water for washing up.  We heat in a teakettle on the stove, because Steve had all the water blown out of the lines and our fresh water tank drained out too. 

We were okay for the last 24 hours with limited water resources.  As we drove north, the temps kept dropping, but at least the snow flakes quit!   We made it to our friend's driveway in Beloit, WI ...we were finally back in Wisconsin!  And look at that danged snow...arggghhhhhhh!!!!

Parking in our friends' driveway, --- 

Jim and Norma of Pa and Ma's rugs, 

http://www.paandmasrugs.com/

Soon, we joined up with more weaving friends---

 Juanita and Norm Hofstrom of Vavning Studio   

http://www.vavningstudio.com/

We all went out to a nice dinner at a place called Damenico's in Beloit.

After much gabbing and laughing (and eating!)    it was  time to head out.  It had been a long long day for us, because we had travelled 376 miles!  whew..... 

Outside by the parking area, Juanita got out her new creation for me.  Juanita is an art major and retired art teacher with her studio in Shopiere, WI.  Her husband, Norm, is a photographer.  A while back, Juanita made me a sign for the Loom-A-Tic Workshop. Seeing as I don't do many events any more with the whole group, I consigned her to redo the other side of the sign for me when I do sales with just myself as the sole vendor.  This is the result! 

Normie helped us unwrap it ... outside in the bitter cold!  Brrrrrr but it was worth it! 

 I was soon warmed up by all of the LOVE 

from this dear friend and her lovely sign!!!!

What a gal! 

We went back over to Jim and Norma's for the night.  Steve was tormenting sassy little Taffy.... and the stinker was checking out my camera up close with a sniff sniff sniff so I let her have it... right in the eye!   I guess that is really giving me the ole' stink eye, eh? 

Taffy rules the roost at Jim and Norma's house. 

 We get such a kick out of her each time we visit. 

 So we sat around inside for a while, chewing the fat and catching up and making future plans.  I will be seeing Jim at the Jason Collingwood workshop coming up in May at Juanita's studio... and we have a few other plans for over the summer and fall too for getting together.

Steve and I were getting pretty tired and headed out into the cold frosty night to bed.  The motorhome was nice and warm with both propane heaters running, and we kicked on an electric heater to warm it up a bit in the back before bed.  Plus our electric mattress pad heater was on HIGH to keep us cozy and warm.

We woke up to 7 degrees, and wind chills below zero... ack!  Our side windows are all dual thermopanes, but the front windshield is like any car windshield and is single pane.  This frost build up was on the INSIDE!   Yup.. Jack Frost left his mark!

   

Jim took off the morning from work, and we all went out for breakfast.  We tried to treat them for the overnight parking space in their driveway, but they threatened the waitress to give the slip to them.... and she complied because they come in there all of the time and we are strangers to her!  LOL.. she knows which side of the bread is buttered for her.

Thanks Jim and Norma! 

As I type this, we are about 20 miles from home.  Our plan is to swing around the block and park on the sidestreet. We can unhook there and bring the Tracker into the driveway to survey the conditions.  Our neighbors were going to keep the driveway cleared while we were gone, but in no way did we expect them to have kept the entire parking space for the motorhome plowed too.  We may be facing some snow shoveling  snow blowing and ice chipping this afternoon.  It will be a cold one, because the temps only came up to a mere 21 degrees.   The high MIGHT get to 28....

WHY OH WHY 

DID WE COME BACK TO THIS??????

"LASTS" plus Sock Cranking and Visitors

Well, with only 20 days left to own a house, we are going through some "LASTS" here.  Like, Steve cut the grass down alongside the river and remarked it was probably the "LAST" time he will need to do that.

We were outta dishwasher packets and I was at the store.  It dawned on me that this was the "LAST" time I would need to buy dishwasher soap, and why grab the big 60 packet container???  I was only going to be using the dishwasher for less than 20 days.... so the 16 packet container went in my cart.

Steve hauled down the big bags of water softener tablets, the "LAST" time we need to buy those and haul them down to load the big water conditioner unit.   And he changed the two water filters on the lines coming in from the well... "LAST" time to do that too.

I am going to clean the oven this week, and perhaps get all the windows washed, and steam clean the carpet down in the loom room... all "LASTS" in my book!

They are not sad "LASTS" obstacles to overcome, but instead kinda poignant markers of the times leading up to the final days of owning this house.  Now it's time to look forward to the "NEXTS" !!!


Monday morning our sock machine group met for a gathering at Oconto Falls Library.  We were a small group this time, only 6 participants.  But that was okay, we had fun, laughed and cranked and shared and learned.

This won't be a "LAST" sock cranking gathering for me though, because we meet four times a year and I will make the trip back up here from wherever we are the next 10 months to attend.

We own antique circular sockknitting machines (but one gal has a new one now made by the Erlbacher Gearhart Sock Knitting Machine Company )    They are fun and funky and we love making socks and other items on them too.

 

On Monday afternoon, our good weaving friends Jim and Norma from Beloit, WI of http://www.paandmasrugs.com  stopped by on their way up to Canada.  We had a good gab fest on weaving stuff till Steve got home from work, and then we cooked steaks out on the grill.  After a little tour around the tiny town of Oconto, we headed back for apple pie for dessert (I whipped that up in the morning before sock cranking).  They stayed in our "Hotel Pfundtner" in the driveway, to awake refreshed and ready to head north on their second honeymoon!

After they were well on their way, we got a call from our RVing friends, Paula and Mel from Wausau, WI.  They own a Safari motorhome the same vintage as ours and we have a lot of fun camping together with them.   They had been camping just north of us in Peshtigo, and were heading back past our house on their way home to Wausau, WI.  They stopped in for a visit, and we tossed some brats and burgers on the grill.   Paula treated Steve with a pan of rice krispie bars (his favorite) and we sure had a nice time.

Steve and Mel solved all the Problems of every Safari Motorhome In The World during their gabfest, fixed the brake light problem on theirs, fiddled with the generator on ours, and just all and all had a good time.   

Paula and I killed a bottle of wine, and we shared lots of ideas and hints and tricks of motorhoming from a woman's point of view.   And we ignored the guys who were busy busy busy...  I had some things for Paula's quilting sewing room and I got rid of a few other things she could use.

Finally we convinced them to stay overnight in the driveway rather than drive back to Wausau (only about 100 miles) ... so they turned their rig around in the driveway and Steve held the tree back a bit to allow backing in easier for Mel.  Then they could plug into the power and have their AC running for a while to cool off their interior.

It was a SAFARI SLEEPOVER!!!!

By the time we headed to bed, it was well into the night, and I think the guys were gabbed out.  Steveio had to go to work today, but the rest of us will visit for a while longer before they head out this morning.  I have more stuff to sneak into their rig or their toad car, as we are still getting rid of things here in the house.

Only 20 more days...  

.