BRRRRR Frosty Cold Weekend at High Cliff State Park

Temps are due to dip down into the 20's.....  we put my hanging flower basket into the Tracker to keep it from freezing. Maybe we can get a few more weeks of blooms out of it if we are careful.  I have had it since Mother's Day and hope to keep it a bit longer. Heard there is 1-5 inches of snow forecast for the U.P. of Michigan this weekend.  Brrrrrrrrr

I drove Steve over to the maintenance shop this morning, (that long 1.6 mile commute)  and kept the Tracker for the day.  Our kids Heather and Jesse are celebrating their anniversary this weekend, so we offered to take little Jameson down to High Cliff State Park.

I scooped him up, along with his winter coat, hat and mittens for his weekend attire at the campground.  On the way to the park, we stopped at a roadside stand to get some pumpkins!

He picked out three of the best ones, and we loaded them into the Tracker.  He will help me decorate them with black foam cutouts and a glue gun.  That way I can bake them later into pies.  All of the campers here in the park are gearing up for the Halloween season already with decorations and lights are adorning almost every camper.  So we also stopped at a dollar store and stocked up on decorations.  We will wait to put them out once the winds die down, as tonight they are in the 20-30 mph range.

I tried to get Jameson to nap in the afternoon, but that only developed into a "Monkey Jumping On The Bed" routine.  So we played around outside and walked the dogs for a bit.  He was collecting the hickory nuts and acorns, just like a little squirrel!  

Park Ranger Amanda also gave Jameson a "ranger badge" sticker for his High Cliff sweatshirt.  Now he said that he can arrest Granfaddah for speeding, and he said Granmuddah ALWAYS stops at the Stop Signs, so I don't get a ticket!  LOL

When Granfaddah was done with work, we drove over to his workshop to pick him up, and then headed back to the motorhome to make supper.  Jameson helped arrange these little pizzas (Pillsbury Grands flaky biscuit dough split in half and squished out flat, then pizza sauce, pepperonis and cheese)  

What a treat!  That little guy gobbled up two of them and the rest of my second one! 

Before it got dark, we headed out for the playground and shuffled in all the leaves along the way.  It was delightfully crisp and cool, and the winds were dying down as evening fell over the campground.   The dogs enjoyed getting out and about too.

We walked around the loops, admiring all of the decorations and efforts to bring Halloween into the season all month long. Crunching our way through the leaves, making rhythms and beats with our feet, I recalled a time on my way to Brownies when I was crunching through the leaves.  I was 8 or 9 maybe and remembered wanting to keep crunching and rustling the leaves under my feet instead of going to the meeting!   I told Jameson about that, and he just looked at me with that secret smile of a child.  He knew the feeling....

We had such a fun time at the playground....

Imagine his surprise when Granfaddah came down the slide after him!

Before bedtime, we decided to heat up the motorhome a bit with some baking!  All my grandtots learn to bake chocolate chip cookies.  Plus our secret touch of adding extra chips to the top of each glob of dough, for extra full chocolate gooey goodness.   Excess chips go IN the mouth....

 (pssst friend Paula Pfaff--- please note the towel clipped around Jameson as an apron)

Finally it was time for BED!   Jumping into Jammies, then teeth brushing, and a final hug and kiss... and crawling into his Blues Clues Sleeping Bag.   Granfaddah kept a dutiful eye on him (well... on the laptop next to him)  till the wee man was asleep.  And yes, he fell asleep in about 6 minutes.. no kidding!

And now we are ready for bed, too! 

Steve 3 - Mice 0 and Halloween fun

Well, that Steveio is a madman with the mouse patrol. He rushes out to check the traps each morning, then as soon as he comes home from work, and again before heading to bed!   They are pretty sneaky and get the peanut butter off some of the traps without springing them.  So now he is putting 2 traps side by side, hoping they will set on one while nibbling at the other!  hahahahaha This is getting to be fun, he has also set traps outside all around the rig by each tire!  Plus moth balls and dryer sheets.

I still think we should just borrow the neighbor's cat and their litter box and set them inside the motorhome for a day or two?   Heck, it's just parked in our driveway, so the cat would not be far from home.



We are gearing up to Halloween here at our house.  It's kinda special to me cuz it's that big FIVE OH day for me too.  ACK!   Yes.... I am a witch, I do not just play one on tv, or in politics.  tee heee joke there.  But I was born on that trick or treat day, which ruined my big brother's outing.  Mom went into labor and it cut short his trick or treating event.  So I think he still holds a grudge, to this day.

I told Steve that for my birthday I want to go camping.  I told the kids all I want for my birthday is *Good Kids*.   That is what I always say.  Tee hee.

Little granddaughter Allegra is getting all geared up for Halloween.  She went pumpkin hunting with her parents and found the best one.  Don't ya just love her tie-dyed tshirt???

Granddaughter Chelsea is getting excited too and practicing her Pumpkin Grins

Now I need a pic of grandson Jameson in his puppy dog costume! 

As most of you know, some huge storms have been our focus the last few days.  Wisconsin kinda got hit pretty hard.  Lots of people are still without power on the 3rd day of storms, one of which is my dad.  It has him all wound up and excited about it.  He calls me just about every hour with updates on his power situation.  LOL    He has a generator at the cabin and has an LP heater we got him a couple years ago, so he is warm and has his precious tv.   But he is going through all his gas cans of fuel quickly.  The hard part is finding a gas station with power to run their pumps to get more gas. This is the third day and they might not get power till maybe tomorrow, according to the news reports. 

At our house, we have not lost our power.  We are not part of the big WisPublicService power company, instead, we are part of a small co-op power company that derives it's power from the little dam upriver.  Some times we are the only ones to go out in a storm, and other times we are the only ones that don't go out at all! Like this time.

We only lost one tree in our woods from the wind gusts, some which were clocked in excess of 70mph.  It sure made the house creak and groan and shudder.   But now, finally, on Thursday the winds are dying down to only 30 mph, or so the weatherman promises.  Our river is up a couple feet, but not near flood stage, so we are okay with that.

While I have been holed up here for a few days, I got ahead on some sock inventory and some orders for customers.   (For my newest blog readers, I have an antique circular sockknitting machine that is about 100 years old and I can crank out nice wool or acrylic socks with it) 

 

As soon as I got these socks done, I got an order for three more pairs last night, in different sizes and colors than what I had on hand.  That figures!  So today will be a cranking day if little Chelsea naps this afternoon for a while. 

I got a few more rugs woven too, and hemmed up the edges.  I have a few more rugs on the loom that need to get finished off.   I suppose if the weather doesn't get any better, I can get to those this weekend instead of camping.  Sigh.   As much as I love weaving, I would rather be camping right now.  There are only a few weekends left before the *SNOW* flies, and I have all winter to weave and play on the looms. 

Well, naptime is over and the coffee cup is empty.  On to my day, and hope you have a good day too! 

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