TIMMMBBEERRRRRRRR!!!

It's drizzling  rain this morning, so I will take a break from campfire pit cleaning and write this blog.

Yesterday our camphosting site was the major hubbub of activity in the park!  At 8 a.m. volunteer Jeff came with all the gear and his truck to take care of a "widowmaker" on the lot right across the road from us.  See?

We noticed it last week and had to caution tape it off and relocate the folks who had this site reserved.  This big branch was dangling perilously overhead and the whole tree needed to come down.  Jeff is a real go-getter with the Friends of High Cliff group.  If something needs to get done at the park, and it's not in the meager state budget, call on Jeff. He will find a way to get 'er dun!  

Without the help of volunteers like Jeff and the Friends of High Cliff, very little extra stuff could ever be done around the park due to the steep budget cuts on the state end of things.  Instead of the expense of calling in a tree cutting company, we call on Jeff!

I managed to get a shot as the tree came crashing down----

TIIIIMMMBBBEEERRRRRR!!!!

And there it lays, ready to be cut up.

Soon to be many hours of campfire fun for park visitors! 

Now another volunteer came to help Steve and Jeff, this one named Ben.  While he was busy cutting up the rest of the tree into firewood (which the Friends Group sells to park customers to help fund their projects)  none of the firewood sales is state park revenue.  The money derived from the firewood sales by the Friends Group all stays here in the park. This is used for many great improvements like our Butterfly Pond, the restoration of the General Store and other wonderful enhancements we would not otherwise have.

Now, another project was needing attention! 

Steve and Jeff now brought out the "Big Boy Sandbox Toys"!   

Steve hauled out an ancient cement mixer that attaches to the tractor.  It hasn't been used in a long time, but he got it operational. Jeff started preparing the ground in front of the camphost site.

See, this is what was going to happen:  An eagle scout volunteer was making us a new kiosk sign for down by the Lime Kiln display. What a great donation to earn his badges!  Rather than just toss the old kiosk, it was being repurposed to a new location up here at the camphost site.

Originally, the legs of the kiosk were long and supported the sign well in the dirt down at it's original location.  But now up here at the camphost site, the shelf layer of limestone rock is only about 20 inches down in the ground, not enough to hold up the heavy kiosk.   This meant a base of concrete needed to be poured.

Jeff manned the big backhoe device to clear a spot, and then lifted the kiosk up into the air to move it into position.  The dogs were very excited to see this big stuff making noise right alongside of our motorhome.  It made their day!

Steve measured the needed depth on the legs and cut them to size.  Soon they had it leveled and into place, with the cement forms built around it.

The cement mixer operated well, and they got the cement poured into the form.  This is a good thing to know the cement machine works, because some people donated two commemorative park benches that needed to be set into concrete later today.  Now that Steve knows the machine works properly, it will save on park labor to mix the cement correctly instead of trying to use the instant bag post stuff.

  

Do you know how HARD it was for me to resist putting my initials in that fresh cement???  I had to slap my hands numerous times to keep myself away from it.  ARGGGHHH!!!!!

There.... done! 

Well, almost.   A volunteer is now making a row of bins to hold brochures along the bottom edges of the kiosk for information.

Ben finished up the wood cutting and hauling and loading... and soon our campsite was back to normal.  


The sun is starting to poke out now, so I am going out to finish cleaning the campfire pits in the campground today.  Maybe I will even get to the large ones in the group campsites too!  

My Brawny Lumberjack Man

Ooooh when Steve wears his plaid flannel shirt, it just makes me all giddy inside.  Must be echoes of my past, growing up in the U.P. of Michigan... ya know, lumberjacks and all that stuff.  This is my favorite flannel shirt on him in this pic.  Don't he just make your heart go pitter pat?

He came home from work early yesterday because he had put in extra hours last Saturday doing some plowing.  The DNR doesn't like to pay overtime, so instead he just took off hours to make up for it on Friday.  He decided it was a good day to play "Brawny Lumberjack Man"

In our backyard are two big old gnarly trees.  They had been lopped off at the top over the years, and were half-rotted and hollow in parts.  Even the neighbors agreed that they should get cut down. I stood by with the camera, and the cell phone to dial 911 just in case.  Ewwwwwwwww

One large section already fell off 2 weeks before we bought the house and was laying on the ground.  It was right where we planned to park the motorhome this week, so we figured we better cut down the rest of the tree.  Once both trees are gone, we will plant some new ones in the spring.

So he fired up the chainsaw and went to work on them (carefully)  making a notch 

and then cutting the backside free to let each one tree topple right where they needed to land.

TIIMMMMBBBEEEERRRRRRR!!!!

Here goes the second smaller one

Here is the straight shot right up the driveway, past the garage and right up to the trees at my back as I snapped this pic.  This is where the motorhome will be parked later today.   The plaster guy, Byron, plowed this all out for us last weekend.  

 Of course, we had an audience watching us as Steve worked --- they had to supervise! 

Now we placed an ad on Craigslist for FREE FIREWOOD to anyone who wants to come and haul the pieces away.  He cut them all up into 18 inch sections.  Hope someone comes today, so we can pull in with the motorhome and not have anything in the way.  Otherwise it can sit back there till Spring and we can clean it up then and stack it for firewood to burn in a back yard firepit.

(EDIT:  a guy is out there right now with Steve, loading up his truck and trailer) 

Hard to believe we have only been in the house for ONE WEEK!!!!   I think today I might start hanging curtains in some of the rooms.  Yesterday I spray painted a gaudy bright gold ceiling fan with a hammered metal brown paint.  I polystained the blades to a darker reddish brown.  It sure came out NICE!   Who needs to blow money on the newer colored ceiling fans when you can just spray over a perfectly good older one that still works?  Steve put in a new dimmer switch for the chandelier, and I started placing picture frames around the diningroom plate rail to see where I want to place family photos.

Later today I will start to unpack my Treasure Trunk!  That is where my lace curtains are.  Remember when I packed this up at the old house to save for the day when we MIGHT get one more house?  I had no idea at that time it would only be 6 months later.  LOL   This is what I fit in that trunk:

We are up and at em this morning, sipping coffee and I whipped up a tray of cinnamon rolls.  The house smells so good and the sun is shining outside already.  It's only 16 degrees out, but going to get nicer as the day goes on.  Good day to go winterize the motorhome and bring it home?


P.S.  oops.. someone asked yesterday if I could repost the floor plan photos of the house to refresh their memory.  Here are the new updated ones with furniture kinda drawn in:

MAIN FLOOR 

(we changed the way the livingroom furniture is placed and the kitchen is showing where we WILL place the refinished cabinets, sink and appliances once we tackle that job)) 

UPPER FLOOR