Back at Home and Getting Back Into the Swing of Things

Our two week gig as camphosts has come to an end.  The regularly scheduled hosts were able to return to the park on Tuesday to finish out the month of May.  We are scheduled for August and will do a whole month then.

I got the rig "road worthy" to head on home on Monday... while Steve was working his normal hours.  It rained almost all day, so I couldn't go out and shovel any firepits or clean any grills in the park.  I had wanted to leave a clean slate for Mike and Judy, but was not able to get out and about.

It didn't take long to get things ready to roll, and I even packed up the things to be carried into the house into big Aldi's shopping bags for hauling into the house again.  Also the dirty laundry was bagged up and ready to come in to get washed.  When it's done, we put it right back out in the rig again so it's ready for the next outing.

Steve was done at 4pm and he helped me with the last few things. Our awning was rolled up wet and needed to be unrolled later while parked in the yard to dry.  The mat was all muddy too, so we put that in a big trash bag and into the trunk of the car to take it home that way.  Why get mud in the carpeted compartments on the motorhome?

At 4:30, Steve drove over to the dump station to get rid of 2 weeks of "stuff" and give our holding tank a good rinse and drain.  I drove ahead with the car and had two silly doggers sitting with me.  Once we rolled into the yard, they were delirious with excitement about being back "HOME" ....  and got to pee in their little potty yard, and play with all of their toys again.

Steve got into Chilton at about 5pm  and lo and behold, the sun came out!   I sat on the front steps waiting for him so I could go out and block traffic on all four lanes in front of our house. He needs to back the rig into our yard.  We have a gravel parking area in the back section of our yard, and it's much nicer to back in rather than pull in nose first.

While I block the traffic, Steveio gets the rig into place, and I smile and wave nicely to the disgruntled drivers who have to wait a few seconds, less than a minute, to get the rig into the drive.  Geeesh!   Everyone is in such a hurry!  It's only 25 mph in front of our home, but you would think I was blocking a major expressway the way some of them act.  LOL

HOME SWEET HOME

Everything was fine with the house,

and we had gone home during the week to cut the grass.

Our week was full of "catch up" with laundry, getting groceries, paying bills and putting away all my sewing and weaving things I had along for the 2 weeks at the park.  I was finally able to get to my looms and finish up three rugs for my etsy store that I had woven but didn't get hemmed up until tuesday.  http://kareninthewoods.etsy.com/  

We decided to get some yard work done today... around Our Old House.   The last two years, this lovely hedge of variegated shrubs had been going downhill. This is how it looked before ..... in 2013

The bitter cold of 2014 really did a number on it, and last year it was only about 1/4 full.  And this is how it looks now.....   

 We got out the shovel and rake and set to work

 There was a tiny bit of growth on four of the stumps, 

so we dug them out to put them elsewhere in the back yard. 

And THIS is my Mother's Day Present from Steveio!!!!

A trunk full of new plants!!!!

(5 dwarf barberry shrubs, 3 ferns and some spikes and vinca vines for my geranium pots) 

I missed a finished shot of the barberry shrubs all in a row now where the old ones were.  Oh well, I will take one tomorrow after we spread some mulch around the plants.

In the meantime, we put these three fern clumps over on the north side of the porch in a shady area where we had to remove a dead arborvitae from last year.   Now that we removed that big dead bush, we can see more of the detailed lattice work under the porch. I have some clematis starting up the trellis and a hosta down below.

I added the spikes and vines to my white pots out on the front stoop.  The geraniums were part of my mother's day present too.  I love putting them out on the front steps each year. It's becoming a tradition.

The geraniums had originally started out in this pot, 

but I move them to the outside pots instead. 

I put my indoor ivy into the special Mother's Day pot. 

It has Chelsea and Clayton's feet on it so far, and room for 

Jameson, Allegra and Mason's feet next time they come. 

Yup, that's painted kids feet 

pressed against the sides of the pot 

and made into butterflies! 

I want to keep this pot inside where it will be protected and cherished! 

Together, we went around the house, pulling weeds, 

watering plants,  and picking up sticks.   

It felt good to do some yard stuff, when we work together like a team.

I still need some white and red impatiens 

to put along the white scalloped borders across the front flowerbed. 

Yup... 

Our Old House

ps... it was Bath Day today at our house...

The doggers need to get spruced up for the big "Bark in the Park" gathering 

with over 60 shelties at the 

Timberattlers Ball Game in Appleton on Sunday. 

Wet Binney                                     Saturated Finnegan 

 Two doggers wrapped up like burritos, commiserating together....

and here is a little video clip of them after their baths.... 

VACATION - A Quilt Museum!

How do two men get hornswaggled into attending a quilt museum???? Not willingly, that is for sure!

We started out the morning with breakfast out at A and A in Bronson....  it was a nice treat!

 (our obligatory photos across the table shots!) 

From there we went up to Chiefland to see the flea market.  We didn't buy any fleas, but got a few odds and ends.  On our way back, we had seen two rummage sale signs so we convinced Lowell to turn into the first one.  BARGAIN!  They found some welding/cutting torches, gauges and tanks for a mere $15!!!!   So that spurred them both to drive us to the next rummage sale sign.  

THAT sign said "rummage and CRAFT sale"   on a corner, so Lowell turned the truck and headed down a country road. Tee heeeeee --- we drove up the road watching for the sign, and it happened to be at A QUILT MUSEUM!   The Levy County Quilt Museum...

here is their facebook page link: Levy County Quilt Museum in Chiefland, FL

and here is their webpage link: http://www.levycountyquiltmuseum.org/

The guys reluctantly pulled in and parked the truck, as Mom and I were bouncing up and down with glee in the back seat!  HAHHAHAA  the lure of another possible good tool rummage sale deal tricked these unsuspecting two guys into a quilt shop visit!

The museum is located in a wonderful log cabin on a quiet country road

The inviting front porch has plenty of room for cranky hornswaggled husbands to hang out 

while their wives check out the inside of the museum. 

The front porch also comes with a Shop Cat who greets the visitors

to the inviting area.  Great tables too, made from covered wooden wire spools. 

Inside was a lovely display of vintage sewing machines! 

We found everything very interesting

(look at that jar of thread spools.. how pretty!) 

My Singer from my Grandma Groop has a wooden case like this! 

I use that machine to sew all of my handwoven rug hems.

The guys finally came in to see what was taking us so long,

 and at least they found the big elk head interesting!  LOL 

 

The back room had a large quilt in progess on a rack, 

and I imagine the quilting guild that met there is working on it

Mom and I found a whole bin of zip lock bags.... full of scraps of fabrics and laces! 

She picked out four 50 cent bags 

and I found five 1.00 bags! 

Between items for sale, racks of quilts,

crocheted items and placemats and runners

 there were display cases of old pieces of sewing machines and information.

It was quite a lovely place, fresh clean and neat. 

I wanted to look some more and more, but our guys were getting ansty! 

The weather was nice and they wanted to get home and do some more body work on a different truck.

There were a lot of beautiful quilts for sale...

In the front of the store, a lady was working on another quilt on a big rack.

The gal showing us around, (sorry I forgot to catch her name) 

showed me their newest project! 

They built frames and put in 13 inch blocks that will be sealed behind plexi glass 

and mounted all around the porch OUTDOORS!  Set up high under the protection of the roofline. 

We reluctantly got back into the truck to head on home to the folks' house. 

I think I am going to go on back there, and take my Mom and Auntie Lois with me! 

(we will leave the guys at home)

Once we got home, Mom and I unloaded our grab bags of scraps.  Wheeeheeeee  There was a lot of fabric fat quarters, and lots of usable scraps for my hot pads and coasters.  

I also bought two bags worth of flannel triangles and squares already cut out, ready to go into a quilt! Maybe I will mix them with some denim?

It was such a nice sunny afternoon, temps in the mid to high 70's.... these two doggers have gotten awfully dirty and sandy playing around the yard.  I decided to pop them in the tub in the motorhome and give them a good scrub-a-dub-dub.  Little Finney is showing EXACTLY what he thinks about that!  (look closely)

As they dried out on the deck, I snapped a few shots of them, trying to get them to both face me at the same time.  Do you think that happened?  Noooooo  So I made a whole collage of them! Even though they had to have a bath, I think they are both pretty happy dogs.

We tossed some steaks on the grill, and had some baked taters and salads, to eat like kings after a long day of vacationing.   Later on, both my Mom and Auntie Lois got on their computers to practice more with Facebook, Emails and now photos!  Wheeeeeeee  At one point, Auntie Lois got stuck and called on the phone ..."HELP!"  Good thing she only lives 2 houses away, I could trot on over and give her a hand.  With more and more practice, they soon will have this new confounded computer contraptions mastered!    I hope.

Mad Dogs

Oh yes, we have two VERY MAD dogs....

Because we will be leaving this park in the morning, we still have unlimited use of the water yet today... so time for a DOGGIE BATH!

Because of being in all this warm Texas weather, they are shedding off their Wisconsin Winter coats.  Needless to say, with all this dusty desert camping, they are quite dirty.  Much of their white fur on their legs and feet is a dirty grey.  If you pat them, a cloud of dust comes up off their coat into the air!  So it's a good reason to scrub them up!

Right after breakfast, I decided I would wash them before we left for the day.  Then they could dry while we were gone.

Duke was first on the list.   Actually he enjoys his baths.  If you fill the water deep enough, he will FLOAT!   He relaxes that much in the water. If you hold his head up for him, he gets so relaxed he will fall asleep in the tub.  I kid you not.

After he got good and scrubbed, he laid down and soaked a while.  He really didn't want to get up or get sprayed off, so I think he was MAD that I took him OUT of the tub!  LOL     He curled up on a couple of towels and went to sleep.

Look at that face! 

(I think he is mad I took him out) 

Next was Duchess (a.k.a. Ducky)  She may be called Ducky but she sure don't like water.  Unless it's a lake or a river, then she will go right in.  But as far as having to be in a tub, no way.  She chatters her teeth in fear, and with her long nose, it echos in the mouth cavity and sounds like a woodpecker!   Look how dirty she was!

At least in the tub with the glass shower surround, I can shut the door and she can shake shake shake all she wants and it doesn't get all over the place.   I open it up to spray her a bit, then shut it again so she can shake.  Then I left her in the there to drip dry for a while.  That made her even MORE mad at me!

Once both dogs were washed up good, we left them out for one more walk around the park to dry off a bit before we put them in the motorhome for the day so we could take a long ride in the Tracker.  The dryness of the desert really dries them fast!  At home, their thick fur would be damp even into the next day and leave wet spots on the flooring or furniture where they lay.

We decided to drive over to the west through Terlingua, then into Lejitas along the border.  Northwest of Lejitas is a long twisty windy road called River Road that goes all the way up to Presidio, TX.  It's one of the ten most scenic routes in America. 

The first thing we ran across was a movie set.  These buildings were used in nine different movies, including The Streets of Laredo, Rio Diablo, The Gambler V Playing for Keeps among others.  We walked around a bit and enjoyed some of the morning sunshine.

I guess now we will have to rent some of those movies to see the set?

This plaque was near the entry point with more information.

Back in the Tracker, we headed northwards.... This road wound along the banks of the Rio Grande River.  It was another gorgeous blue sky day, only in the high 60's low 70's as we went along.  Dips and turns, hills and canyons, the scenery changed with each mile. 

I took photos on the way north...  and tried to snap some shots on the fly, 

for others we pulled over and walked around a bit to see things close to the road.  

We made it up to Presidio, and decided to have a little picnic lunch at some tables set up by the state park headquarters.  We chose a nice table, but had to watch out for the bees clustering around the water faucet nearby.  They were after the drips coming out of the faucets.  Down the road we saw boxes of hives set out, so that is where they must have come from. 

On the way back, I drove the route so Steve could take in the scenery.  It was fun dipping and turning and climbing along.  Many times we weren't going over 30mph as the road was that twisty-turny.

He grabbed the camera and snapped pics as we went along. 

He was doing pretty good, and I am worried he is gonna take over my picture-taking duties! 

I did snap this one after I pulled over, I had seen it on our way north
and I wanted to get a shot of it on the way south again.

 Some sections of rock were very yellow and soft and smooth
other sections were dark and craggy and reddish ore.

This section of the Rio Grande has more water than further south in the park area.
We saw groups of rafting and canoeing companies going out at various places along the river.

The photos don't really show the height and depth of this mountains...
but it was AWESOME!

We got back to the campground by 4 p.m., just in time to get supper started.  I had a frozen turkey breast I wanted to make up.  I pop the frozen breast in the pressure cooker with a cup of water, some spices, and let it simmer at 10 pounds for 30 minutes.  Then when it comes out, I put it in the oven to "brown up" a bit.  Yummmm by the time my scalloped potatoes and canned corn was done, the turkey breast was browned up perfectly.  We cut off slices for a meal, and save the rest for cold turkey sandwiches in the upcoming days.  

Sure made the motorhome smell good!


Oh, we stopped by a cactus seller and picked up a little reminder of our fun time here in Texas...
I think this is going on the south-facing windowsill of my Loom Room.

Watching the weather right now, and we are gonna get down in the 30's again tonight.  Brrrrrr

Tomorrow morning we are going to get road worthy and be doing our prep work to move on.  We will dump our grey and black tanks, top off our fresh water tank to the brim and head north.  We use the fresh water for showering and washing dishes, but use bottle water for drinking, coffee, cooking and for the dogs' water.  Stocked up on that again at the little Cottonwood store here in Study Butte. 

We need to be out of our campsite by 11 a.m. and we are going to hit the road probably well before then.  I think next stop might be Fort Davis, TX?   We will see.... back to plans made in Jello! 

We have been here in the Big Bend area since March 4, and have put on just under 600 miles running around in the Tracker seeing things and experiencing all that we can in such a short time.  There is no way to see it all, and as Barney OLM says, it takes months to even know one little part of the park.  At least we got on all the main roads, 2 of the back roads, and sat in the springs.  That was enough for this visit, but we will be back..... 

We will see where the next day takes us... sooner or later we have to head north, back to Wisconsin. 

(honestly, I think I am missing my new house....) 

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