Coming Back for A Big Adventure

Sorry folks, we kinda took off most of the summer here. But we are back! 

I am sure some of the readership numbers have fallen off because we haven't been posting regularly. Hopefully this will increase now that people will see we are back and starting out on a brand new adventure. 

This week, we are gearing up and ready to leave the country. We are going to scrape together our pennies, forget about the high cost of diesel, and enjoy ourselves. After facing a few health issues, it's better to get out and do what we want to do before it's too late, right? 

We are heading up through the Upper Peninsula and Sault Ste Marie to cross into Canada. From there, we are going to work our way across to the Canadian Maritime Provinces!

We are thinking about being gone for about a month or two. Basically, return when it starts getting colder, maybe??

Our tentative route is going to be somewhat random. We only picked a few of these destination numbers to get mileage ideas and distances between different provinces.  Nothing is set in stone, and we haven't made any reservations for anything. Probably about 4,000 mi round trip.

Any suggestions on interesting things to see would be greatly appreciated.

I've been checking my lists, yes even twice, and we are just about fully packed. It doesn't take us very long, just that we like to pack along our favorite things that maybe we can't find along the way. Compared to planning for our trip to Alaska, at least this trip we know there are stores along the way and more access to interesting local foods. On our way to Alaska, stops for refueling were few far between.  We really had to plan ahead for fuel, groceries, and comfort items like fresh water or dumping our holding tanks.

One of the things that we will be doing this week before we leave is harvesting our five apple trees in the backyard. They are just hanging so heavily with fruit that we've had to prop up some of the branches with boards!

These four trees were given to us as a gift from Steve's father before he passed away. They have grown immensely fast over the last 5 years and are bearing tons of fruit. We are going to pick what we can and store them in dark cardboard boxes in a cool dry area of the garage. When we come home, we will process them into canned apple pie filling or frozen apple filling. Two trees are honeycrisp, and two are mutsu. The fifth one was a gift from our children when we first moved here and that is a Granny Smith.

I've been working on some quilts this summer, and I will be taking along my little Singer Featherweight machine and a quilt project to work on while we travel.  Steve just made me a cute little table top for sewing inside of the rig in a limited space. We will see what we have time for. It's a great way to pass time on a rainy day.

We've been spending time this summer with the grandkids. Our oldest grandson Jameson graduated from high school! I can't believe that little guy is that old already??? It seems like not too long ago I held him in my arms. 

The grandkids have been picking a lot of raspberries in their yard. They came over to work on jam at my house. They said it's much more fun doing jam here because "I have all the stuff"! 

Even 14 year old Clayton got into the hot water bath and timing of batches and helping out with our processing.

Chelsea is the Queen Jam Maker. I think we processed up about two and a half gallons of jam. She likes putting them in these little jars that are perfect for gift giving. Last year at school, she even gave jars to her teachers.

Claire is the little pest in the kitchen, but she does help with picking the berries. She's a little too young to be manning the splattering hot bubbling jam pots, but she did help with washing the jars and playing with the soap suds. 

We did some upgrades to some of our camping equipment this year. Since there have been so many fire bans on and prohibitions on transferring firewood due to diseases, it was time to pick up a propane fire pit. The pluses are that we don't stink like campfire smoke when we go to bed at night, and it's easier to turn off and cool down in a relatively short span of time. I know, it's not the same as a real fire. Many times when out in the desert or boondocking, firewood is not readily available. So having a propane fire pit kind of makes sense. It rides nicely up in the front tip of the cargo trailer, tucked away when it's not needed 

We did get away for a couple little camping trips. One of them was to check out some of the dispersed camping sites within an hour's drive of our home. This one happens to be a favorite. It's along McCaslin Brook and it is all by itself in a beautiful serene setting. Yes, the brook really babbles... 

We did enjoy the peaceful setting in the woods, and found it good to get away for 4 days of relaxing comfort, just to unwind.

We've been trying to catch up some things around the house. Some stuff got put aside last year while we spent the whole summer in Alaska. Then in the Fall we were busy with projects and replacing the roof and dealing with contractors. The year just really seemed to get away from us. But it's great when the grandkids come over and help us. Here Clayton is giving Grandpa a hand moving the fences into a wider circumference around the apple trees.  The deer are really hungrily going after them, and we have to keep them far enough away to not damage the branches or destroy the fruit.

The tomato growth this year was rather disappointing. I had bought indeterminate tomatoes, Early Girl and Better Boy. They are supposed to produce all summer right up to the end of the season.  As the tomatoes started growing they were smaller and more pointy, much more like a roma tomato. We only really got one batch of flowers and fruit. And now they aren't producing anything else for the rest of the season. Very disappointing. They are not the big beefy slicing tomatoes that we were waiting for. I think somebody changed the little tags around at the nursery racks and they were all mislabeled. Maybe it was somebody's idea of a joke? These are really growing like determinant varieties. One blooming, one batch, and then done. We ate some and only had enough to can up a few jars!

Our other big upgrade to the motorhome we just finished up. These were the two Trojan wet cell deep cycle batteries we had on board under the steps. They worked fine, but we would really like to consume a lot more power. Unless there was enough sunshine, solar just wasn't cutting it. We knew it was time for an upgrade...

We invested in a Vatrer lithium battery of 300 amp hours. That, in combination with our Bluetti ac200L power station, will now give us more than triple of the battery power that we had before. 

Our Bluetti power station rides in a side compartment of the motorhome. We have a DC to DC charger hooked to it from the engine's alternator system. It charges up while we drive and in turn it can also charge our new lithium battery under the steps.

The best part is, we snaked a 30 amp extension cord through the interior portion of the motorhome from the rear power bay up to the Bluetti. It plugs into the 30 amp outlet. This allows our motorhome to function the same as if we were plugged into an outside power post. We no longer need to use an inverter, and this is now clean pure sine power throughout the coach. (Our original inverter was only a thousand watts and modified sine wave).

This will be a big improvement to our power system, plus we have our additional solar panels or the option of running the onboard propane generator to recharge things as needed. 

Also, we did a couple other silly little upgrades too. The kitchen faucet was fine the way it was, but I really like the idea of having a pull-down sprayer and a pause button. It will help conserve water when we are boondocking.

There's a recent video of the swap over on our YouTube channel, the link is down below at the bottom of this blog post. We liked this faucet so much, we also changed over the one for in the bathroom with one similar of the same brand.

This summer was also a difficult one for our family members that were down in Menasha, Wisconsin where the tornadoes touched down. We helped where we could, and Steve lent our Bluetti, our solar panels, a generator and extension cords as well as refillable water containers and assisted with tree removal and debris. Our supplies helped keep his brother and sister-in-law functioning within their house. They now had their refrigerator running and they were able to have hot water which was a lot more than most people had. They had five holes in their roof and a lot of damage to the yard and surroundings. Others lost their entire homes. It was devastating and the area is just slowly gaining back a month later for some of the residents.

Others were not so lucky. Miraculously, there was not one single death or serious injury!

On a happier note, we spent quite a bit of time this summer transporting our granddaughter back and forth to her summer job. She worked 4 days a week from 10:00 a.m. till 3:00 p.m. She never missed a single day of work and was never late. We also spent a lot of time with her getting in her required driving practice hours behind the wheel. We had her drive us all over the place, even in busy areas of Green Bay and through roundabouts and to shopping centers and parking lots. Successfully, she passed her driver's test and now has her license! Congrats Chelsea!!!

We did manage one other getaway during the very hot and humid and horrible weather that we had this summer. We escaped up to the shores of Lake Superior. We were able to go to Ontonagon Township Park and secure a site for a week.  The sunsets were absolutely spectacular!

The first night we had to stay in one of the wooded campsites across the road. But by the next morning we were able to move up to site closer to the beach. We were right across from the beach access and it was absolutely beautiful. The breezes were calm, the temperatures were great, and we only had rain one day.

The waves lapping on the shore gave us visions of the seaside, and it was a good time to unwind and relax. 

The camping was a little close together, closer than we prefer. But to be right near the Lakeshore was worth it. This was our view right out of our campsite:

The sites were sandy, and we had to vacuum out a bunch of sand from the motorhome when we were done. But it felt like our own little beach house perched on the shore.

The other thing that happened this summer is that I was dancing and prancing my way out of a quilt shop, and I happened to suddenly step on uneven ground between the pavement and the gravel. My knee gave out underneath me and I could not walk! Steve had to help me off the ground and scooch up my butt back into the motorhome. He drove me straight to the emergency room. After x-rays and some pain pills, they sent me home to my own doctor. 

From there, seeing an orthoscopic surgeon, getting braced up and on crutches, and subsequent MRI showed that I totally tore free my meniscus! At this point I am slowly healing and off the crutches. We are going through therapy treatments and low impact exercises like walking in the swimming pool and slowly riding my bike. No high impact activity. I'm finally able to walk about half a mile. But at the store, I have been regalated to driving the hilarious motorized shopping cart!

Those things are not easy to drive, and they jerk and lurch and they do not ease on and off with a throttle. Now I see why people are so dangerously careening around the store in them things...

So that's about it to catch things up around here. It's been quite a summer. We are looking forward to wearing flannel shirts, wool socks, sipping spiced apple cider and checking out the colored leaves as they change in the Canadian Maritime Provinces.

Please join us? 

In the meantime, you can check out the last five or six videos on our YouTube channel of what we've been doing this summer: 

You Tube channel: 

RVing:What-A-View You Tube Channel

Mother's Day Celebrating in our Motorhome for a Picnic

My last blog post detailed with the Top Ten Upgrades that we had done to our motorhome. We had put together that list while we were waiting for our food to cook on Mother's Day. Now here's the rest of the blog actually talking about Mother's Day itself...

It started out with a bouquet of beautiful roses from my darling husband Steve. He said he gave me red roses for all the grandsons and white roses for all the granddaughters. All because of being a Mother. Being a Grandmother is the fruit of my labors from raising children. So I guess we were celebrating Mother's Day along with Grandmother's Day, all rolled into one.

Erin and Waylen and kids sent this pink azalea bush. I might be able to plant it outside. We are right on the edge of its tolerance zone in Northeast Wisconsin.  Along with some fragrant diffuser sticks and essential oils. What a beautiful thing to wake up to and look at on the kitchen table each morning. But I think I will try planting it outside a little bit later as it warms up.

The flowers are so delicate and detailed, the blossoms almost look fake and unreal!

In honor of Mother's Day, here is a photo of my mother holding me as an infant on her lap. She passed away 5 years ago in a tragic car accident. I miss her every day.

Steve started out the day with a lovely home cooked breakfast. We really appreciate our breakfasts cooked at home with the sun shining in on the start of a beautiful day. Combined with a little bit of humor. 

By about noon, the sky started clouding up a little bit. But we didn't care. We had something in mind to do...

Just south of town 3 miles away is a beautiful little city park. It's located on the shore of the waters of Green Bay leading out into Lake Michigan. It's a nine site campground loop (rustic camping, no hookups) across the road from a large park with pavilions, playground equipment, restrooms and a sandy beach with pretty shallow water quite a ways out.

It's called Oconto City Park. Both Holtwood and Oconto City Park are on the same link: 

https://cityofoconto.com/camping/

We weren't here to camp, we were just going into the park area near the shoreline for a picnic. The waters of all of the Great Lakes are low this year. No exception for Lake Michigan and the waters of Green Bay.

There was only one other car in the entire park, way over on the other side of the restrooms. We pulled parallel in the parking lot up to the edge of the shoreline and the sandy beach. That way we would have a really nice view.  If someone else came, we could easily move to park nose first if they needed us to.

The rain was splattering a bit and then would stop, then it would splatter again. But we didn't care. It was a beautiful view out the window. 

Someone had created and erected these beautiful clusters of birdhouses for the purple martins. They were clustering and flying around and making their nests and getting ready to have babies. They would all fly in and flutter around and then they would all take off again! It was really interesting to watch them. Many people make purple martin nests out of gourds. And they make very small openings that's just big enough for those particular birds to fit through. It keeps the big bad birds like startlings and blue jays away who would come and kill their babies! 

As a kid, I remembered the purple martin house in my grandmother's backyard. My grandfather had made it with such care and precision. It was really detailed and ornate like an old Victorian house. I wonder whatever happened to it? It probably stayed with the house when she sold it back in the 1970s.

We walked around on the beach for a while and admired some of the birds. In between rain splatters we were doing some filming, which is on the video link down below.

Nick really enjoyed his time on the beach. But we had to watch close to make sure he didn't roll on any stinky dead fish!!

The storm clouds made an interesting backdrop, on this windy crazy day. But it sure was exhilarating and nice to get out in the wind and the fresh air and sometimes the sunshine.

How great to bring our "kitchen" with us for a picnic! 

We always carry a pair of binoculars in the motorhome. Steve was taking a gander here and there and everywhere across the bay. At some point you could see Door County on the other side. 

We popped a pizza in the oven for lunch, one of our favorite frozen store pizzas called Lotzza Motzza pizza from Brew Pub, Sister Bay, WI. 

It's not quite as good as Godfather's pizza, but it's okay for a store-bought one from the freezer.

While the pizza was baking, we had kind of remarked to each other how much time we spend in this motorhome. We totaled up the time, and during the last 12 months we have spent 6 of them living in the motorhome. That's pretty amazing! We started talking about some of the upgrades we had made, starting with replacing the mattress on our queen size bed. Then we decided since it was kind of blustery outside, we would make a video of our top 10 upgrades we had made for the motorhome. We filmed it right there in the motorhome while we were waiting for the pizza to cook.  The link to that video is down here at the bottom of this post if you want to watch it. Also, my last post detailed each of those items if you wanted to read up on that. 

https://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/2026/05/top-ten-motorhome-upgrades-we-have-done.html?m=0

Our pizza was finally done, and we enjoyed the rest of the afternoon at the park. Then it was time to fire up the engine and drive the long arduous journey of three miles back home. LOL

~~~~~~~~~~~

Back at home, there were some other things that I wanted to get a start on around the house. Every year I carefully winter over my precious coleus plants. I cut off snips and start new sprouts all of the time. They root easily in containers of water. These are all descended from the original coleus plants I got from my friend Connie way back in the 1990s. Even when we go away for the winter, we bring large window boxes full of these plants over to our daughter's house. They take care of them while we are gone. They are pretty precious to me... Soon we will be able to plant them outside once the danger of frost is over.

Also this year I invested in three new baskets for hanging ferns on the front porch. These are heavy vinyl baskets with a thick liner inside. I wanted them for my ferns that I buy to hang from the front porch. I don't winter those over. They are too messy indoors. I usually give them away for free in the fall to anyone I can find on Marketplace. Then I buy new ones in the spring. 

In the past, I was using wire baskets with cocoa matte filler. But I think they dry out too soon and don't keep the moisture in. Ferns love moisture.  So this was kind of a Mother's Day present to myself because I wanted to get three of these to reuse year after year.

We were fortunate to catch the delivery day of the new ferns being brought to our local Menards store. They go quickly. Actually we had stopped at the one in Marinette and there were only two beat up battered ferns left on the shelf. So we called to the Menards in Howard and they said the truck had just arrived. We know they sell out fast, as they go on sale for only $9.99 for a large potted fern.  We zoomed down and bought three beautiful fresh ones. 

They get quite pot bound right away in the store bought pots that come with them. So I needed to get some good lightweight potting dirt and put them into my new gray hanging planters. We have been hanging them out during the day but bringing them in at night so they don't fall victim to the frost.

Steve and I have been catching up on some of the yard work and doing a bit more here there and everywhere around the house. It's best to get this stuff done in the spring, that way we can spend more of the summer months camping and traveling.

Look at this happy man... I find more and more things to clean up and spruce up. And he is very accommodating to haul things around in the wheelbarrow, and help me dig holes and shovel the dirt.

The Baltimore Orioles are back as well as the beautiful yellow finches. In the backyard we put up oranges and grape jelly as well as thistle seed and plenty of bird food for the rest of the little critters. The bear has not been seen around the neighborhood the last week or so, but we still take in the feeders at night. 

Up on the front porch I have this beautiful old fashioned iridescent hummingbird feeder. I got it 2 years ago at a rummage sale. But the dang hummingbirds just don't seem to like it. We know they are around but they're not drinking it. So I am going to ditch this one and buy the little cheap plastic one and see if I can attract more. I never use the artificial store mix. I only boil up the sugar and water on the stove to fill my hummingbird feeder.

I helped Steve work on a project that we've wanted to do for quite some time. Adding an extra exterior porch light on the driver side of the motorhome. He does the ladder work, and I am the "Gopher"--- (I go fer this and I go fer that)

We were able to find an exterior LED light that matches the one on the passenger side. We found it online through a Walmart reseller of all places. This is an original fixture that came from Winnebago on the passenger side. So we were glad to find a matching one now to put on the other side. This would be good for when we take Nick out at night for last call and circle around the motorhome until he finds just the "perfect spot" to do his thing before bedtime. It's also nice to flick on if we hear something outside and want to see what critter is rambling around???

Steve carefully measured and drilled from the outside and got it all mounted into place.

Inside we had to tear apart the bottom surface of the cabinet a little bit to access the wiring that was already in place. Steve is really good at this and got the 12 volt fixture all powered up and added an additional switch. It works perfectly and looks like it it always been there.

Another project facing me this spring is that I need to get a fresh coat of paint on the walls of my she shed. This is beautiful cedar siding, but it does not retain the paint as well as our LP Smart Siding or clapboard wood on the rest of the house. The cedar siding is probably from when the garage was added back in the 1940s. It's porous and ripply, it needs to be freshened up from time to time. In 7 years I have only painted it once. But it really could use it again. I would like to get it done before any of the flowers start to grow in this flower bed. I asked Steve to carefully unscrew the trellis and lay it down. There are some clematis vines attached to it that I don't want to disturb the roots.

Now I painted just the area behind it and he put it back up into place. Next week while he's gone on his fishing trip, I will paint the rest of the wall with a wide roller with thick nap. I just didn't have time to do it all before the weather changed and things got wet and yucky.

The clematis isn't growing that well so we decided to invest in another plant to kind of intertwine with it. We will see if this trumpet plant will take over or share the space. I know they can kind of get crazy after a few years, so I will have to keep at it and trim it back from time to time.

Underneath the porch, we are still monitoring these three robin eggs. We hope that they will hatch soon. Mama and Daddy Robin fly back and forth and back and forth taking turns.

Now that the front porch is completed with the new lattice work we really like the look of it. We spend a lot of time out on the front porch, especially in the morning with a cup of coffee while it's still in the shade. By late afternoon it gets rather warm out there with the sun shining from the West. I take out my spinning wheel and I put some soft music on the MP3 speakers, and that's how I like to spend part of my morning. This is soft creamy white merino wool. Some of the softest sheep all there is. I love how it spins and slides through my fingers.

This little guy got a bath so we could loosen up his winter coat. It helps with the shedding process to give a nice hot bath. He didn't appreciate it. But he does enjoy the brushing. Just look at all that fluff!

I filled up a complete paper grocery sack with all of his fluff. I leave some little bits out on the branches along our woods line if any birds want to use it for their nests. The rest of it goes in the trash.

One time, long time ago, with my first Sheltie and our Collie, I saved all that fur. I spun it up and blended it with some mohair and merino from sheep. I spun enough of that to weave this beautiful throw. It's gorgeous....

But the only problem is that it sheds just as much as the dogs did! If you lay down and pull this throw over you, expect to get up and be covered in dog hair!!! 

After Nick was all brushed, he looks pretty dapper dandy do... doesn't he?

Another little project I was thinking about doing, suddenly cost us a lot of money. But then it cost us nothing because we brought it all back to the store!!! 

The cushions on our front porch rocking chairs and porch swing etc we're all getting faded and ripping and tearing. So we took some measurements and went to the store. We bought a whole load of very expensive patio cushions in beautiful bright red. We brought them back home. They didn't fit our chairs good at all. They were too thick. My feet were dangling. We couldn't rock comfortably. They pushed us forward too far in the chair. Put us off our center of gravity. The swing was uncomfortable and felt uneven. 

So we hauled them all back to the store and got a refund! 

Next, we bought a second style of cushions thinking it might be a little better. We bought all of them and brought them home. Put them on the chairs and the swing. They didn't fit right and they didn't look right. 

Then we hauled them all back to the store and got another refund!

The last ditch choice was to repair the ones that were ripped and maybe get another year out of them.  See?

I got out my handy dandy sewing machine from my dear friend Rosie. It has a really nice zigzag stitch that I could catch all the shredded edges of this polyester waterproof fabric. I was able to sew them all up and make them look neat again. 

We will get another year of use out of them. In the meantime I think I will look for some more waterproof fabric and just cover the existing cushions. They are all the right sizes and right thicknesses...

Now with the cushions in place, the ferns hanging up, the lattice replaced on the front lower portions... I think our front porch is DONE! 

The plants are starting to grow up around in the flower beds. Now we just have to keep up with the weeds.

In the backyard, I decided it was time to start working on my tomatoes. Other years I've planted as many as 10 or 15 tomato plants. I have a hard time keeping up with that many. It seems like as they are the most ripe, it's also the hottest and muggiest time of the summer. And then I have to keep processing and canning them to enjoy during the winter. We really do enjoy them, but some years I end up with a surplus and give a lot away. It's time to tone down a bit...

So I asked Steve to help me out and only dig five holes for me. We spread landscape fabric and mulch, to keep down on the weed growth and help retain the moisture.

I carefully chose 2 Early Girl, and 2 Beefy Boys and only one Julienne Grape tomato plant. Yep, five plants. That's it.

We got them all in and planted and watered. We've been covering them up on the nights that we are getting frost warnings. But then we take it off in the morning and let the sun's rays hit them in the sheltered area that faces to the east. 

Over in the flower beds along the front porch, some of my perennials are popping up. The first on the scene are the bleeding hearts. How appropriate for Mother's Day. My Mom loved bleeding hearts and I remember the plant growing alongside of our door at our little home in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. I remember her showing us gently leaning over and squishing the little hearts open and seeing the stems and pistils inside. We had to be very careful to not pull the blossoms off the hanging boughs. So delicate.

A pretty little hyacinth popped up its head. A lot of these bulbs and plants are from the people who owned the house before us. Sometimes things pop up one year but not another year. Then a year or two later they come back again. Go figure?

Steve already serviced up his lawn mower with sharpened blades, oil change, filter and fresh fuel. He takes care of all of our equipment quite well. It felt good for him to get out and start cutting the grass. With two and a half acres, we have quite a bit to do. Sometimes the grandson comes over and helps too. Everything looked so neat after he took care of the winter shagginess.

We ended up the day with a quick ride north to Marinette to return the last of the cushions. We were treated with a beautiful sunset on the way home across this iconic Wisconsin countryside.

Here's the YouTube that goes along with today's blog: 

I know by the time you read this it will probably be a week later. 

Happy Mother's Day to all of you out there who are Moms.  For those of you who are lucky enough to still have your Mom in your life, I hope they got a wonderful hug from you.