Doggie Duties and Sewing Basket Quilt Shop

We have been having amazingly warm weather here in Wisconsin for November. Sunday was promising to be a beautiful day, so our friend Vicki asked if we wanted to go take all of our Shetland Sheep Dogs for a walk. Where? Of course, High Cliff State Park! They have wonderful dog-friendly trails, adequate parking, and the out houses are open throughout the park. Even though the flush toilets are all closed down for the year, by having adequate facilities in a park is a must if you wish to have winter visitors. So many city and county parks only have flush toilets and they lock up the buildings. Without outhouse facilities it makes it hard to attract patrons.

Plus ---- I don't feel like going in the woods ''au natural''.

Vicky has two sweet Shetland Sheepdogs, a full-grown female named Tara and a little pup 5 months old named Stuart. Little Stuart was trying so hard to get Finney and Binney to play with him. If we had been in a fenced in area I bet they would have had a blast! But we were on leashes and taking a walk and enjoying the scenery instead.

Honest to goodness, can you imagine that I got all 4 of them to sit in a row together?

(left to right Binney, Finney, Stuart, Tara)

The walking trails at High Cliff are just absolutely stunning this time of year. 

The leaves are down and you can see a lot further into the distance.

The morning sun was at an angle and creating some beautiful shadows. We walked along, just rustling the dried fallen leaves under our feet. The sun was getting higher and we were getting warmer. Actually, just a heavy sweatshirt was good enough by the time we reached mid morning.

Now that the leaves are down you are able to see a lot more of the rock formations and cliff structures in the park. This is all limestone rock throughout the park, which is a part of the Niagara escarpment. If you look on this map you can see it run up all the way along the Eastern side of Wisconsin across through the Great Lakes and to the Niagara Falls area. It's all big one glacial formation.

The limestone cliffs in the park have some sections that were left behind to help lower pieces of the mined limestone down to the waiting boats on Lake Winnebago. 

In later years of the mining operation they ran a railroad spur into the lime kiln area and the lime industry would ship out blocks and processed cooked lime on railway cars. That was long before the land was ever established as a park.

What is left behind looks so beautiful and natural, 

but it really is the leftovers of a large-scale lime mining operation.

Now that the leaves are down, 

you can see off into the distance over Lake Winnebago 

more easily from different places along the trail.

We walked about 3 miles back to where we parked their cars. The dogs were definitely slowing down and done with silly romping and roaming around on the ends of the leashes. It was a great way to spend the morning. Thank you Vicky for inviting us!

Then Vicky loaded up my car with about ten zillion quilting magazines that I get to read through. Good reading for the winter months, curled up by the fireplace, and finding new fun things to make.

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Tuesday morning I got up bright and early and welcomed the sunshine shining on the Wisconsin Countryside. Time for a little drive.....

I was loaded up with Precious Cargo! I had a wonderful little male and female Sheltie from the Wisconsin Sheltie rescue to transport.

I was transporting them to the veterinarian in Sheboygan because they were scheduled for a spay and neuter and some dental work. The Wisconsin Sheltie rescue has taken in 23 dogs that need medical attention before they are able to be adopted. We all volunteered to transport them back and forth to different veterinarians in the area for getting their work done. I was able to take in these two little sweethearts for their appointment.

They were very well-behaved Travellers
and friendly and social while we waited for their appointment.

You see, if you do not already know, my two dogs came from the Sheltie Rescue. Volunteers had to haul them back and forth to vet appointments too, and help get them healthy until they were adoptable. So I am just paying it forward by doing it for someone else to be able to adopt these beautiful dogs!!!

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On my way back home, I swung over to the town of Plymouth, Wisconsin to make a pit stop. Of course! A quilting shop! I have been to this sweet little shop before and it is chock-full of delightful fabrics, tools, and friendly faces.

The sunshine streaming in the windows was inviting
and it made me want to spend a couple hours here perusing the beautiful fabrics

A very nice sales clerk help me find some additional fabric in a line that was discontinued. Now I think I have enough of the colors in my stash for an entire quilt of that particular fabric. It was from Kansas Troubles by Moda.  Such beautiful fabrics and I am going to make a Log Cabin snuggle quilt for the livingroom couch. It will match the colors in my livingroom and add a touch of Craftsman Charm.

They also offer classes in the back area of the shop. The quilting group that I visit in Kiel comes down here on Wednesdays for a gathering. They can bring projects they are working on and sit and visit.

I might start coming down here too, it's such a cheery place. Of course my budget will be strained because it's hard to leave a store like this without buying something! Here is their information in case anybody is interested in visiting the store, or find them on the Internet.

www.sewingbasket.biz

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On my way back out to the highway I thought I would swing by the St. Vincent DePaul in this town. This isn't a normal dumpy little Thrift Shop, it is actually arranged very nicely and their items are very good quality. I have wandered through here a couple times and I always find nice things to buy. I found some blown glass paperweights that I collect, amd some big bags of beautiful Christmas ornaments that I will write about in my next blog.

~~~then I found this wonderful alpaca jacket from Peru!~~~

The buttons were all missing so I got it for half price. I am assuming there were some beautiful horn buttons made from antlers that were removed by someone before they donated the jacket?  I wanted a warm wool jacket for winter dog walking. This one is very heavy and thickly felted wool. My nylon lined ski jacket is sweaty once we start walking and I get chilled from the silky fabric that does not breathe or absorb moisture. This wool one will be much nicer!  Alpaca is some of the warmest wool you can wear!

I need another visit to a sewing shop to get some cool new buttons,

maybe this Saturday up to Green Bay I will find some. 

Now it's back to the sock knitting machine. I am working on orders for people for Christmas gift orders and shipping out a bunch today. It is December 1st and I need to get caught up on all of my work around here for my holiday customers.

Steve's Retirement countdown is at 15 working days. 
His final day should be December 22nd!

P.S. I used my new electric pressure cooker for supper last night.  Spaghetti and Meatballs in 10 minutes!   Dump in frozen meatballs, uncooked raw noodles, a tall jar of sauce, and a jar and a half of water, some spices and I added some freeze dried onion bits.  10 minutes.... done! Stir it up once you open the lid and supper is ready.  It took longer to make the garlic bread in the oven while the pressure cooker was running. Yummmmmmmm

Winding down the month as Camp Hosts at High Cliff State Park

This is our last week as hosts!  

It has really flown by, and we have enjoyed the process and chores that go along with being a camp host for the State of Wisconsin.  We do realize that some other hosting positions in county, municipal, and even federal national forests have different job descriptions, and more duties to perform.  For the Wisconsin State campgrounds, this hosting position has been a pleasure.  We are also attending a Volunteer Jamboree next month at Point Beach State Park which is put on by the DNR park system as a "thank you" for all the volunteers around the state.

We made it 24 days on our holding tanks!   We had hoped to make it to the end of the month, but 24 days is pretty danged good, so we furled up the awning and drove over to the dump station and did the deed.  

I decided to snap a few pics around the park as I did a clean up run the other morning.  The park is home to a flock of Turkey Vultures.  They hang out and roost on the roof of one of the picnic shelters.  They are kinda ugly, but I thought it was cool to see them all in a group.  Sometimes they soar in circles all along the cliffs and look pretty awesome!

Every Thursday morning I drive my Polaris down along by the Marina to clean the grills and firepits down there for the boaters.  It's such a pretty scene as you look out across the harbor...

But if you go up close to the water's edge, you see the "blue green algae" that is blooming about this time of year.  The winds from southwest blow it all up into the harbor and it's not too pretty....

 plus it kinda *stinks*  .... ewwwwwwww

Anyone want a sail boat?   

It was "abandoned" here in the marina's parking lot, and they are unable to reach it's owners.  

Now they have to go through all the proper channels to get it moved out of their parking lot! 

At least this sail boat has a happy owner, taking across the big Lake Winnebago.  

One day I took a ride around the "Butterfly Ponds" which were a lovely volunteer effort from the Friends of High Cliff who created it on the north side of the park.

Handicapped accessible trails round the ponds and wind through the woods. 

A lot of wildlife is habitating by these ponds this year, they were dug out and created last year.

Besides being campground hosts, we have had the honor of family and friends coming to visit us here at the park.  Although we don't get any "deals" on campsite fees, we do get a certain amount of firewood from leftovers on campsites that we can burn.  So our company can join us around a few free campfires?

On Sunday afternoon our good friends Mel and Paula pulled into their reserved site for four nights next to us.  (same site as Pa Pfundtner was on last week)   It's always fun to get together with them... Steve and Mel love to fiddle and futz and finagle on our Safari Motorhomes (we both have the same year)  then Paula and I get to do some quilting or go thrift store shopping!   Matches made in Heaven!  LOL

We had a dinner out at the same High Cliff Country Club as last Sunday with Pa Pfundtner.  Mel and Paula treated us to a fine dinner (they stole the check!)

Monday we took a run to the quilt store in Plymouth, WI called The Sewing Basket.  Here is their website:  http://www.sewingbasket.biz/    or you can follow them on Facebook  if you search their name.

I think it's the nicest quilting shop I have been in so far.  I saw two different interesting table toppers that I am going to try to make (branching out from just hot pads)  and I bought all the fabrics to piece together to make these.... I am going to change them a little bit, but will be interesting to work on.

(Paula held them up for me to photograph --with the shop's permission) 

We had a "stalker" in the store with us.  Mel grew too hot and uncomfortable waiting in the car, so he came in and wandered around.  He said the ONLY thing he found in the quilt store that was for a man was a CHAIR!   LOL LOL ..... 

We enjoy cooking together too, so another meal was tenderloin steaks on the grill.  There is a little meat market in Wausau that has excellent meats, so we beg Paula each time before they visit to pick up tenderloins to fill our freezer again.  We laugh that it's "imported meat"---

They had to run back to Wausau for their son's anniversary dinner tonight, but will be back later tonight or else tomorrow morning.

We had a huge storm just pass through here tonight... not a single warning on the weather radio, nor anything on any of the four Green Bay tv stations?   The Park Naturalist Cindy texted me from her home to warn me it was coming, as she lives west of the park and it hit by her first.  We rushed out and removed the awning lights, and rolled up the awning fast.  Whew....  just as we finished and got back in the motorhome, the big drops started falling.  Then the sky got very dark, and rains came down in buckets!   Not much wind which was a good thing, since we are surrounded by trees.  But the rain and rumbles and flashes of light were pretty exciting.  When it seemed to be settling down, oh no... Cindy texted again, Round Number TWO was on it's way.... sure enough... a Double Storm Whammy!


Now all is calm as I write this, and I am heading to bed.  It's Tuesday night.  Thursday noon will be the "CHANGING OF THE GUARD" as the next camp hosts, Rosie and Luke take over our site. Sadly, I will turn over my badge, my vest, my keys and my clipboard.

I will drive the motorhome back to our house about noon, and Steveio is going to spread a little more gravel on the site and level it out a bit more before Rosie and Luke put their RV in it's site in the afternoon.   Then it's back to Life as Normal again.