CAMPING - HIgh Cliff State Park in Sherwood, WI

Last weekend we were sitting around on Saturday morning. Can you imagine, WITH NOTHING TO DO?????    So I checked with our good buddies at High Cliff if there were any open campsites, which sometimes happens if there is a cancellation.  Yup... there was one open!  Soooooo in half an hour flat, we tossed in some groceries, some dog food, a few extra clothes (we keep a lot in the rig) and off we went to High Cliff State Park!   (on the NE corner of Lake Winnebago, just east of Appleton, WI.)

As most of you blog readers know, Steve retired from the park in January.  We still like to go back and hang out and visit with the rangers and staff.  This is our first time camping there for this season, and it was like Old Home Week.  The Rangers, the Camp Hosts, and even the Park Superintendent stopped by our campsite to visit.

High Cliff is situated on part of the Niagara Escarpment and it built on the remains of an old Lime Kiln processing facility and mine.  The park is large and narrow, encompassing almost 1,200 acres.

Here is their website: http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/parks/name/highcliff/

Campsites with electric are $28 for WI residents and $33 for non-residents
Campsites without electric are $18 for WI residents and $23 for non-residents.

We are pretty proud of this park, and it's like our home base a lot of the first year we were full-time in our motorhome.  We could stay two weeks and then had to move out for a few weeks to the county park nearby, then move back again.  Steve worked here for 4 and 1/2 years before retiring in January 2017.

We decorated up our campsite, set out our lawn chairs, put up our signs and flags, got the awning put up, hung out our camp lights ---- all settled in for three or four days.

 

Yep, this looks like home to me. Kind of fun to camp with electricity again and run the party lights out on the awning. We do turn them off at night. These draw more wattage than our other set, so we only use them when we have electrical hookups.  The other set are LED and draw much less and we put those up when boondocking.

It was a lazy Saturday afternoon, so I brought out my sewing machine and set it up on the picnic table. I keep this sewing machine in the motorhome closet all of the time, along with enough tools and material, etc. to sew on things when I want.  Less having to pack up when we go on the spur of the moment, like this weekend.  I was working on some little hot pads for a friend of mine, and just putzing and puttering around.

These came out kind of cute. I guess it's supposed to be roses or tulips? It is called paper piecing and then I use two layers of Insulbrite batting in the middle for better protection from the heat when using them on hot handles or baking pans.

The doggies settled in by our chairs and are Good Campground Doggies. I found one of these big carbiener hooks, bought at Home Depot, secures their leash handles right to our lawn chair. Very handy instead of tying them up to things.

They learn to not bark too often at passerbys, but sometimes when they see other dogs they get pretty excited. We try to keep them quiet and shush them and keep them close to us when sitting outside. They are never left outside unattended, and go back inside the motorhome with us. We try to be very good pet owners when camping in public places.

We are enjoying our new oven as well as the four burner cooktop on the stove that we installed aa few weeks ago.  The four burners are nice on top, compared to the two we were limited with before.  The propane oven is a nice alternative. Before we only had the microwave/convection combo. We made lasagna and also used it to brown up some barbecue sauce on ribs that I made in our electric pressure cooker.

On Sunday morning, our friend Vicki came out with her two Shetland Sheepdogs, Tara and Stuart. She enjoys walking out on the trails at High Cliff with the dogs, and we have joined her a number of times to go walking.

At one time, part of the campground had been part of a farm. The old stone walls remain and they make a nice border along a couple of the walking paths. We lined up the dogs and told them to sit and managed to snap this picture with all of them looking in the same direction.

(Left to right: Tara, Stuart, Binney, and Finney)

I made a map of of how far we walked on the trails. It was a pretty hot humid morning but we still managed almost 3 miles. Most of the trails are underneath the shady canopy of beautiful trees so it wasn't too bad.

There is a blossoming romance between Binney and Stuart. Binney on the left and Stuart on the right. Don't worry, both are neutered/spayed so there will never ever be puppies in their lives.

I wore my appropriate accessories for dog walking, which include these wonderful socks given to me by my friend Linda from Tennessee.

After our walk was done, Little Stuart was totally exhausted and fell asleep in Vicky's arms. He is just over a year old and this was a big day for him.  All of the dogs relaxed and drank plenty of water before napping.

Tara was pretty tuckered out as well and curled up at Vicky's feet to snooze for a while while we sat and relaxed under the awning.

Later that evening, the rain clouds moved in, so there was not going to be a campfire that night. We snuggled in our cozy motorhome. Steve watched a good movie while I did some more sewing. The dogs curl up in their little area under the dash. Home sweet home.

He looks pretty relaxed, doesn't he? 

He said it's kind of nice being retired.

Although, the next day the park workers had a problem with the big wide mower. One of the volunteers was using it and suddenly something broke. Steve buzzed on over to the shop and worked on it for a couple hours. He sent someone off for parts and had it back in shipshape and ready to mow again. Once a maintenance man, always a maintenance man!

We rolled back into town on Tuesday afternoon. A shipment had arrived at our home for our next project that I will write about in the next blog.

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Today, Saturday, a wee little munchkin came to spend the weekend with us---along with her two furball doggies. This is Claire, our youngest grandchild.

  

I collect blown glass paperweights. 

The grandtots love to play with them, being glass and all. 

Like a forbidden object they usually can't touch....

but at Grandmuddah's House, they sure can! 

She came along with her two fur balls named Ewok and Biscuit. They have all had a good runaround the back yard and are now begging Steve for some of his breakfast.  "Bacon Bacon Bacon" is what they say....

The dogs are all good around the kiddos, and ours give curious sniffs and then avoidance to not get their fur pulled.  Claire makes a beeline to their doggie tags and hangs on tight and the dogs are trapped! hahaha  The dogs soon learn to jump up on the couch out of her reach.   Smart Doggies!

It is nap time now, so I had a chance to write up this blog. We will have our hands full today and tomorrow with these three visitors in our home.  No projects going on, but I do have one we did during the week to write another blog about.

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