Camp Sinawa Fall Family Days

I spent a delightful Sunday afternoon driving down to Valders and heading south of town out into the country.  Our fall colors are at their peak this week... and the sunshine and blue skies set off these corn fields and the hardwood trees to a flaming glory!

I drove past one of the flocks of Hidden Valley Woolen Mill and snapped these pics.

Our spinning guild meets monthly at the mill for our meetings.

Did you know many shepherds put in a llama as a guard animal with their sheep flocks? 

The llamas are much smarter, and more alert to dangers of predators... 

they give warning signals to the sheep.... sheep are usually clueless.

From those wide open fields, I drove down into the colorful woods to do a spinning demonstration at the Camp Sinawa. It's a lovely place hidden off in the countryside. Various groups can rent their facilities for retreats, bible camps, gatherings and civic functions.

Our Black Sheep Spinners Guild was asked to come and demonstrate spinning wheels and show how yarn is made from sheep fleece.

Here are some of the events that were going on:

Fall Family Days consists of the following Attractions and Events:

Fish Pond Popular kids attraction as they use a 'fishing pole' and soon catch a prize 

Pumpkin Painting  Kids pick a pumpkin and then decorate it using watercolors and their imagination.

Wood Carving Demonstration  Watch a local group of Wood Carvers perform their skills on various types of wooden projects. 

Sand Dig for Treasures  An event for the kids.  They can dig in a sand box and search for buried treasures.  

Glaciers End Sled Dogs  Local Dog Sledder Syd Lucas will give demos with sled dog team.  Has summer and winter sleds.  

Horse Drawn Wagon Rides  Ride on a wagon thru the Western woods of Camp Sinawa 

Antique Tractor Wagon Rides  Ride on a wagon thru the Western woods of Camp Sinawa 

Black Sheep Wool Spinners  Watch a local group spin yarn and create items with the yarn. (this was us!) 

Face Painting  Kids can have their faces decorated by local girl scouts.

Make a Nature Critter  Use your talents and local materials to create your 'Nature Critter'. 

Basket Raffle  Buy chances to win a 'Goody' basket filled with treasures.  Drawing to be held on Sunday.

Sawmill in operation.  Watch a local Sawyer operate his sawmill.  See how lumber is made. 

SCA Demonstration  Society for Creative Anchronism.  Watch Medieval 'fight to the death' battles, using weaponry from the Middle Ages.  

Medieval Re-enactment  Kids of all ages can fight a Knight in Armor.  

Flint Knapping Demonstration    Join local Flintknappers as they demonstrate the ancient art of making Arrowheads, Spearheads, Knives and other Stone Tools.

WOW of Wisconsin  They will have on display several animals which are in a rehab situation.

Hot Dog & Marshmallow Roasting  Enjoy roasting hot dogs and marshmallows at a Camp Fire.

They had a place all reserved for us to set up

in front of the fireplace in the main lodge.

Only Carrie Flores and myself were able to go.... 

Carrie was working on some bright colorful wool roving and making yarn that almost looked like candy!  The kids loved looking at the flyers, whorls and spinning on the wheels.  I enjoy watching their eyes light up as they recognized what we were doing, and learning about wool.

I had started spinning some dark brown alpaca but later I changed over to a bright blue variegated roving to add more interest to the spinning.  I would break off a piece of spun single ply, double it up and let it ply back on itself to make a "yarn".  Then I would tie it around children's wrists as a "fiber bracelet" for the girls or "fiber wristband" for the boys....  

Watching people was a lot of fun.  One woman came over and sat nearby us in some chairs, with her elderly mother in tow.  She went on to take the time to explain to her mother what we were doing.  It was so cute.  Soon they were both asking questions, and we had a nice chat. 

All around us, children were coming into the main lodge after seeing the outside events.  Inside they had games, nature crafts and of course... FOOD!  If it hadn't been for the food drawing them indoors, I think most would have wanted to stay outside in the great autumn weather. 

They had various kid's games set up, along with a roaming clown that was making balloon animals. 

One little boy got this monkey, which matched the one on his shirt!  How cute? 

We had a good crowd most of the day, moving in and out of the building.  We were cozy warm by the fireplace, but with all the people in the building, it soon warmed up a LOT.  I was glad when they stopped adding wood to the fire. LOL

A center table had an assortment of baskets filled with raffle of items donated by local businesses and clubs.  I bought some tickets and added to my choices of baskets.  Well, I won a lovely basket from the local quilting club, Pigeon Lake Quilters!   I got a nice homemade child's quilt, a lovely china vase and bowl, with dried fall flowers. Tucked around all of the edges were handmade soaps, lotions and other fun stuff. 

The china vase and bowl with flowers fits PERFECTLY 

on the antique plant stand I bought at the auction on Saturday. 

I nabbed the stand for $3.00 and it matched our house woodwork so well.

On anther Our Old House note... here is an update on the little half bath.  While I was gone to the spinning demonstration, Steve got the cute little corner sink mounted to the walls.  It's so sweet! He got it done before the Packer game at noon. (we won!)

Next we will add the faucet and plumbing... we ordered a different faucet for our upstairs tub that looks like a cute well pump water spout.  So we will install the left more plain looking faucet to this sink which will work just fine.  (plus I get the faucet I REALLY wanted on my bathtub!)

 old faucet going on sink                                                      new faucet going on tub

Oh, I had something else I wanted to post the other day and forgot!  On our way back from Manitowoc, we drove down through this little county park.  It was just a buzzing with fishermen!

These big salmon were running, and most people were hauling up large fish as they caught their limit.  I asked some folks if could snap a pic of their catch.  I had to get a pic with someone holding one, so you could see the actual size of these monsters swimming upstream in a tiny creek!

This is from the DNR report:

Along Lake Michigan, anglers have been fishing the Ahnapee and Kewaunee rivers heavily this past week as the salmon run continues strong. Chinook salmon are in the rivers heavy and coho salmon have also begun their spawning runs. The Strawberry Creek Chinook Facility in Door county processed more than 1,900 chinook last week, collecting about 350,000 eggs, enough to meet Kettle Moraine Hatchery annual chinook egg collection goal. With recent rains salmon have also moved into southern Lake Michigan tributaries and were being caught on the Sheboygan and Milwaukee rivers.

And another thing.. .my day started out with a poor doggie

who went out at 6 am and came back with a very POOPY BUTT! 

Ewwwww 

so into the doggie spa bath for a soak and suds and rinse rinse rinse----

(Actually he LOVES it and never wants to get out.  See him smiling???) 

Well, time to go run some errands....