CAMPGROUND REVIEW - Boulder Lake in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest

This is a blog post from camping during the second week of September. It was going to be one of those absolutely beautiful Autumn weeks to go camping, with lower temps and no bugs in the National Forest Campgrounds of Northern Wisconsin.

We hopped in the motor home and hit the road!!

The sky was blue, the roads were clear wide open and away we went. This is my favorite season of the year and it's time to get in some camping.

We headed north west over to the Chequamegon Nicolet National Forest. There are a number of nice campgrounds up in this general vicinity around Mountain, Antigo, Lakewood, Townsend and Wabeno area.  We chose Boulder Lake this time. It's been quite a while since we have been there. It is a very popular and busy lake during the summer time. So we decided we would go there for some fall camping and maybe be lucky enough to score one of the electric sites. 

Not many National Forest Campgrounds have electric sites, this one happens to have electric in two small loops out of the 82 campsites in the park. The rates are $28 for an electric site but after the Interagency Senior Access Pass, it brings it down to $19 a night. That's kind of reasonable, so we thought we would see what we could find. Potable water is available to fill your fresh holding tank at the dump station, but there's no water or sewer hookups at the sites. There are a few fresh water faucets located throughout the park for filling water jugs.

Of course, we are comfortable camping without electricity and relying on our solar and our catalytic heater, but sometimes it's nice to just be able to plug in and not think about solar exposure in the heavily wooded National Forest campsites.

Here is the link to the information about the campground:

Boulder Lake in the Chequamegon Nicolet National Forest

It's located on quite a large lake with a lot of cottages and vacation resort activity in the area. But the campground itself is far away from that, secluded and quiet on National Forest land.

There are two nice new shower buildings with flush toilets, and other pit toilets located throughout the campground. Everything is neat and clean and well kept on blacktop roads.

The campground has basically four different loops of newer campsites with other ones scattered along the waters edge. Those are older sites and shorter and mostly tilted, not good for the big rigs. The only drawback about being back in the loops is that it's quite a walk down to the lakeside to the beach or the boat landing. Since it is quite a ways, my kids never liked camping here when they were little. We would have to pile the swimming gear and kids into the car just to drive down to the beach. 

We drove in to the main parking area by the kiosk and unhooked the towed Saturn. That way we could drive into the campground through the loops and find a site that we liked without driving all the way through each one with the motorhome.

We found a very nice level site number 44 that also happened to have electric hookups. Of all of the sites in this loop with electric 40 through 54, they are all level and even and big enough for our rig.

We backed in, put down our levelers, and we were all set to enjoy three or four or five days of nice comfortable camping.  Ahhhhhh

All of the campsites are spaced far apart with a lot of lush vegetation in between. With all of the leaves still on the trees yet at this time of year, our solar access is somewhat limited. That's why we opted to go for an electric site. We prefer to not run the generator to charge up batteries either.

It was so peaceful and quiet. We took little Binney out for a walk and we went a little further than I think her idea of fun had gone. She said enough is enough and gave out and put herself on a sit-down strike!

(after all, she is 10 years old and has had serious health issues her entire life)

What more could we do but pick her up and take turns carrying her back to the campsite? It was either that or I could sit and wait somewhere with her until Steve could walk back and bring the Saturn to come and get her. She had just decided enough was enough and she wasn't going to walk anymore. Spoiled baby.

Another added benefit of camping with electric hookups is that I can run our electric pressure cooker. I keep a mid-sized one in the motorhome at all times, and I keep a larger one and a smaller one at home. I tossed in a big pork roast for close to an hour with seasonings and onion soup mix. I did a quick release of pressure. Then I added some potatoes and carrots at the halfway point, closed it back up and let the pressure increase again for another 15 minutes.

The smell was amazing and it came out perfect!

It was so fall apart tender, 

it just fell off the fork!

We each ate our fill, and then the leftovers were packaged up and put into the freezer to make some stew on another day. Food always taste better when you cook it while camping. Why is that?

After supper, we settled in with our portable wood pellet fire pit. It's called a Flame Genie. We opted to use this instead of firewood this weekend. Many parks are banning the importation of outside firewood due to the emerald ash borer. This fire pit uses bagged hardwood pellets, and presents no danger of moving invasive insects around from park to park.

Here is a link to a short video clip

 of Steve using the Flame Genie

 that I shot 2 years ago:

We got ours from Amazon:

Fire Genie on Amazon

We put up our awning and our party lights. It's nice to get settled onto our campsite with our "outdoor living room", which really is just the space under our awning. We like sitting outside and watching the squirrels and chipmunks run around --- as long as they stay away from the wires on our Saturn! We put out bags of mothballs to help repel them from under the vehicles.  Read back a couple blogs were the little buggers chewed up the wire harness on the Saturn and we had to replace things!!!

The campground was very quiet and we were relaxing and enjoying our week.

Sometimes I bring along my spinning wheel. I sat back and spun up a couple nice bobbins full of soft creamy white merino. It's a very soothing and relaxing task as the fibers slide through my fingers and onto the spinning bobbin of the wheel. I like to keep busy.

On another day, I brought out my little singer featherweight sewing machine. It's a gorgeous little antique that sews so perfectly and is easy to transport. I am working on a new quilt with some beautiful autumn colors called a pineapple block.

Underneath the motorhome we carry this big folding table in one of our compartments. I like to set it all out along with the little folding tables for my ironing and cutting surfaces. I bring along all of my tools that I need, and keep a duplicate set in the motor home at all times.  

It is a Quilter's Dream to be able to sit out in the relaxed afternoon weather, and creatively work on a quilt in the peace and quiet.

Of course, a sip or two of a favorite beverage helps make the work go along with enjoyment.  I drank a toast in honor of Fred Franzia, the creator of  'Two Buck Chuck,' who has died at 79 (my beloved favorite wine)

fred-franzia-two-buck-chuck-wine-bronco-dies

Here's to you, Fred!

After we were all settled in for a couple days, we looked up to see a Saturn exactly like ours driving slowly through the loop of the campsites.  It looped around again and the people got out and hung a tag on the site.  Looks like we were getting neighbors!   With the same tow behind vehicle as us, same color and almost the same year! 

They left, and then a few minutes later they came back with a beautiful vintage Grand Villa Foretravel motorhome to back into the site next to us!  We could tell it wasn't his "first rodeo" by the skill and finesse that he backed into place and set up all in one swoop. 

We met this delightful couple named Norm and Mary from the middle of the state. They travel in their Foretravel, which is just as beautiful and vintage and well taken care of as we try to do with ours.

The commander of their vehicle is this elegant and noble gentleman named Rocket. He tells them where to go and they obey his commands.  They said the rig belongs to him. They only drive it. 

Steve and Norm found about a million things to discuss and talk about on their motorhomes. Steve went over to help him figure out something on the generator which happened to be just like ours. And it happened to be just the same exact problem we had been having with ours. It was great to lend a hand and know exactly where the wiring snafu is that tends to erode over time. They were able to figure it out and get the generator functioning again. 

Although they didn't need to have the generator running at this particular time, because they had electric hookups, it still was good to repair it. Norm was extremely happy to have Steve help troubleshoot and trace back to the wiring connector that was giving him grief.

We really had an enjoyable time camping at Boulder Lake. But then the weather was going to turn stormy and cooler so we decided we would spend one more night and then pack up and headed on back home. 

~~~~~~~~~

As for projects around the house today, we did a couple different things. One was that I wanted to get all of this rooted coleus planted into fresh new soil in window boxes and move it down to the basement. I have kept these same strain of coleus going since the late 1980s, and it was a gift from my friend Connie Schultz from her home. The plants are too tender to winter over in Wisconsin, so they need to be either cut down and dug up, or new snips rooted in water, to plant indoors over the winter. So that's just what I do. I snipped these a few weeks ago and look at the abundance of roots I have in the bottom of each jar.

Steve helped me fill these two large window boxes with new dirt and carry them down into the basement. Then I got all of the little rootings settled into their winter dirt home. 

These two large windows in the basement face to the South and allow them to grow throughout the winter. I'm able to water the window boxes and let any excess water run out the bottom and it just leaks down onto the basement floor and out through the sump pump.

A few different years I tried wintering them over up inside of the house. But it's so warm in the house that they grow rangy and long and awkward and they make a real mess with dropping leaves as they keep growing taller. It's easier to grow them down in the basement and keep the mess contained to that one area, instead of on my hardwood floors of the upstairs

Now that that is all done, I can comfortably know that the coleus will be preserved again for another year. We have had a couple of harsh frost outside already and some of the outdoor plants are looking worse for the wear. Another strong killing frost and they will all be shriveled up for the season. I'm glad that I was able to rescue these and keep the strain going.

I also took in three hanging ferns from our front porch and two of them from our oldest daughter's house. I transplanted them all into indoor house pots and I hope they will become nice plants indoors, at least till next spring when I can move them back outside again. 

We took a nice ride this afternoon in the convertible, but we kept the top up as it was only 55° outside. 

We cruised out to the Breakwater which is in the harbor right near our home. It is on the shores of the Green Bay which opens up out into Lake Michigan. 

This is the end of the Breakwater, where we can turn around and drive back to the main harbor.

Such a beautiful day with blue sky, but there's clouds coming in on the horizon from the west. They are talking about a turn in the weather by the weekend. So we better enjoy these days while we can

We like to buzz out here and look around a little bit and see what's going on. Lots of fishermen coming and going even for a Monday.

I will go over this now and check for any typos and boo boos and get it posted before supper is ready. Tonight Steve is cooking his favorite casserole,  so I am off the hook for making something.  

I am starting to roll my newest quilt into the frame,  I will post about it tomorrow. 

What a Way to Start February?

Ugh.... this has not been a good week.  Definitely not a good way to start February. 

But I try to look at the good things.  And one good thing are these blossoms! 

In my last blog, I had posted about the blooms on this amazing amaryllis plant. I have never had a plant like this before. It was given to me during the fall and I never really knew how to care for it. I didn't even know it was 7 or 8 individual bulbs in the one pot! 

My friend Connie sent me this email with some really nice explicit instructions:

 This is how I treat mine.

Usually the single flower stalk will have four blooms.  It's good that
you have propped up the flower stalk.  Cut each blossom off as it droops
down and be careful of the sap as it can stain. After all are done cut
the stalk as close down into the leaves as you can do it without
damaging the leaves.  Set the pots outdoors when the weather gets warm
enough and water all summer.  I usually put them on one side of the
house for partial shade.  Stop watering about Labor Day and it'll take a
long time for the leaves to dry out.  Bring the pots in before a severe
frost and take off dry leaves as they get brittle.  Then I put them in
the basement. This year I brought the first one up in mid-December
watering it and putting it in a sunny window.,  I've brought one up
every two weeks since but the three are all at about the same stage of
development.  The first one took forever, it seemed, to put out a shoot
and the third one popped right out so maybe the sun intensity has
something to do with it.  Last summer as I put them outdoors I divided
the new shoots, which are little bulbs off of a big bulb, into separate
pots.  As gifts they came in pots without drain holes which I think is a
BAD idea.  I've repotted all of mine into pots that can drain."

I now have four tall stalks full of beautiful peachy orange blooms. There are five more stalks poking up their heads, ready to give me more as these die off.

It's hard to get a good pic against the open window---

I tried with the mini blind down.

I think all of the blooms will be the same color.

It sure is a cheery sight to walk around the corner and peek into the office each morning. Seeing the sun streaming in on these beautiful blossoms reaching 2 ft or more higher than the flower pot that they reside in.

~~~~~~~~~

I am finally starting to feel a little bit better after being sick for more than 7 days. About 3 days after I started feeling sick, Steve fell right into step after me. So he's about three days behind me on the increasing wellness factor. 

I did take a home covid test that said negative. But I am beginning to doubt that. I have heard a lot of these home kits give false negatives. I suppose short of actually going in and taking a PCR test at a clinic or at the doctor office is the only way to know for sure. 

But since I'm starting to feel better and Steve is slowly getting better behind me, I think we will leave it as it is. But I'm pretty sure we have covid again because this is no ordinary flu.  And yes, we both have had our flu shots, as well as our covid vaccines and boosters. Sigh.

~~~~~~~~

We put on hold our beadboard project of last week because neither of us had any energy to do anything. I did wake up yesterday morning feeling the urge to get the final coat of paint on the beadboard that Steve had added around underneath the windows and by the cuckoo clock. Honestly, it took all of the energy I could muster to get that much painted. But it's done!

The last step will be to add the rest of the little bit of trim where the bead board meets the baseboard. Plus the top cap of what ever of the two designs that I had previously talked about.  But we can't do that until we feel better and take a run to Green Bay to the Home Depot to pick them out.  

Sometime later this month, when we feel better, we will start the beadboard in the bathroom. 

~~~~~~~~

Last week the littlest granddaughter had helped me weave the caterpillar rug. I posted about it in my last blog. I had finished it up but never got around to unrolling it or cutting it off the loom yet. After a little bit of rest from my painting, I got up and decided to unroll the rug and see what we had created. 

The next step is to cut it free from the loom, fold-over the woven header ends three times, and hem each end securely on my grandmother's antique Singer sewing machine.

~~~~~~~~~~

Steve was finally feeling good enough today to get up and put on some clothes. We've been wandering around the house in jammies and slippers and sweats for the last 7 days. Today he got dressed because he needed to get down into the basement and change our whole house filter, as well as check the little filter on the new tankless water heater system. We are proud to say that both are operating perfectly and it was worth it to double-check everything and maintain it. Even if it took all of our energy to do so.

(the ceilings are very low in this half of the basment,

that is why he is down on his knees.)

While he was taking care of the water heater, I was watering my boxes of coleus that I am wintering over in the south-facing windows of the basement. I also have a pot of ivy growing down there as well. 

The basement windows are large enough that they can bring in the sunlight even though they are at ground level. If I kept these plants up on the main floor they get a little messy when the leaves fall off and new ones grow, as well as the stems get rangy and kind of awkward.

I'm glad that I can keep them down in the basement. I can water them liberally and let the excess trickle out and down the basement drain. It doesn't matter if they are messy, I sweep up the dead leaves every few weeks. By Spring, they'll be ready to be brought outside after the danger of frost has past. I distribute them in the flower beds around the yard for summer color.  I have kept the same ones going since Connie gave them to me in about 1990 or so. 

From time to time I snap off the longest rangiest pieces and stuff them into a vase of water, and place them upstairs in the window. There they have a chance to grow new roots. Then I can plant them alongside the other more mature plants or I can put them into a new pot.  See the tiny roots starting in the vase below?

I also take snips off this ivy plant from time to time and root them the same way.  This ivy is from way back when we first had our house in Chilton in 2012 and I had the pot growing inside the front porch. It's just plain old basic ivy that used to grow outside and  then moved inside to one of my flower pots, common garden-variety stuff from garden center for 99 cents.

I stick it in a vase of water until it grows roots 

and then I pop it into some potting soil to create a new house plant.

Amazingly, I have been putting some of these ivy plants out around the pergola each summer and they make it through the entire winter to grow again in the spring. I had no idea that ivy could winter over in Wisconsin. Especially this plain old regular potting ivy. I guess it's pretty hearty stuff.

Well I really don't have a lot to blog about today other than my beautiful flowers that are blooming. I might get a little quilting done but I haven't gotten an awful lot done this whole week. I do have a nice beef roast in the pressure cooker today and I'm just about ready to add potatoes and carrots to finish it off for dinner this evening. We don't have very huge appetites but a pot roast is always good to save for leftovers or to turn into a hearty beef stew. Good to stick to the ribs on these cold winter days.

In the meantime, we are inside, staying warm.  The dog is helping to pick out next week's specials at the grocery store. Our soninlaw offered to pick things up for us as needed. What a sweet guy.

I am relaxing and planning on just watching winter happen:

Stay in. 

Stay warm. 

Stay safe. 

Day 13 --- We Broke Our Self Quarantine Rule!

My oh my! We went and did it. We broke our self quarantine rule and left the yard!!!

Well, we still didn't have any direct contact with anybody but we had some errands to run.

We had a check to be deposited at the bank. We used the drive-up, wore gloves, and did not even ask for a receipt back. Instead we checked online that the deposit was verified.

We drove to both of our daughters' houses to drop off packages at their doors while they were not home. So we did not see anybody or touch anybody or go inside. It was little variety packages of things for the grandkids, whom we miss dearly, and birthday presents for our youngest daughter Heather.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HEATHER BEAR! WHEN THIS IS ALL OVER WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A HUGE BACKYARD FAMILY PICNIC PARTY WITH STEAMED CRAB LEGS AND ALL THE FIXIN'S!!!!

From there, we went to the ATM and pulled out some cash. Steve wore gloves and wiped his card off the moment he brought it back into the car. We handled the money with gloves, we sprayed it all liberally with Lysol immediately on both sides and laid it across our dash to dry in the sun.

Steve had been in contact with a guy on the Facebook Marketplace. He was selling a brand new unused Liberty sump pump. It was open in the box, but unused with the cord still coiled up, twist tied, and tagged from when it was manufactured.

This model pump runs in the $150 to $160 range, and he was only asking $55. We made arrangements to meet him at a rural vacant parking lot of a closed restaurant. Both parties agreed in advance to social distancing. When we arrived, Steve set the now-dried $55 in bills in an envelope on the bed of his pickup truck staying 10 ft away. The seller than pulled the pump out of the box and showed it to Steve from a distance, including the instruction manual and the packing material. He put it back into the box and we popped the interior release button for our car trunk. The seller placed it into the trunk of our car, took the money, and we both drove on our merry old way.

On our way back, we took a side road and drove out near Geano Beach. The "ice shoves" are coming in. That's when the wind blows strongly from the East as the ice is breaking up on the bay waters of Green Bay and Lake Michigan. The ice chunks are pushed up into great big huge mountains out on the frozen lake surface yet. The ice tumbles over and over makes these huge piles out on the frozen lake... not up on the land.  Very strange formations.  These were only about 20 feet high here at this time. But at other times they had gone even higher.

The ice under pressure gets a bluish cast and you can actually hear it going tinkle tinkle tinkle as the ice cracks while the winds drive it in towards shore. By the time we got there, the winds had died down, and this is what remains along the shoreline.

It was good to get out and about a little bit, even though we didn't have any direct contact with anybody other than the 10 ft distance with the seller of the sump pump. I never even left the car.

When we got home, Steve immediately sprayed and wiped it all down, and disposed of the cardboard box. All while wearing gloves. Then he plugged it in and made sure it operated correctly. Which it does. We left positive feedback for the seller.

This morning he is down in the basement, installing it already. We had originally thought to purchase it and hang on to it as a backup, in case our pump ever fails.

Instead, Steve decided this one was so nice, more horsepower, and much better than the one we already had. Plus, it is rated as being quieter! He is installing it now into our sump hole pit, and he is going to keep our original pump as a backup.

Here he is, hard at work, 

as soon as he finished his coffee this morning.

Besides the regular sump pump, last summer, we installed a secondary backup pump that is level with the basement floor. If our basement ever does flood, the secondary pump can also kick and pump directly to the outside in case of an emergency.

We are at a very low elevation and the water table here is very high the last few years.  In the previous history of this home, in 2015, the power had been cut off after the last renters left. This of course made the sump pump inoperable at that time. Water backed up about 2 ft deep into the basement and ruined the entire furnace, air conditioner, and water heater. That happened in 2015 so everything had to be replaced at that time. So we know that our original sump pump is only 5 years old.  It was fine, but now this one is better Steve said.

 ~~~~~~~~

While he was down there, working on replacing the pump, I also went down there in the basement to pot up another clump of my rooted coleus stems.

I have been wintering over four large pots of my coleus plants. I dug them up last fall and we put them by these bright large sunny windows that face South in our basement. It's nice to keep the pots in the basement, because I can water them and not worry about over spilling onto the hardwood floors if they were growing upstairs.  As the plants get long and rangy about mid-February, I snip off the longest stems about halfway down. I put the cuttings in jars or clear vases of water in the windows and they grow new roots. Since I've been doing this, I have four more little pots of shorter coleus plants started.

That way, by Spring I will have eight new plants to transplant outside for the 2020 growing season.

I have kept the same plants going or cuttings from them re-rooted, growing since 1989 or 90. I forget exactly when. I got them from my friend Connie way back when I still lived in Green Bay. I have carefully nursed them indoors through every single winter, relying on friends to come and water them when we would take long winter vacations. One year my plants almost didn't make it, and were in pretty sad shape.  But my darling friend Juanita kept 5 big pots of my plants growing at her house. I was able to pick them up from her in the early spring and restock my own dwindling supply. I have passed on these plants to other family and friends over the years. Mom keeps a batch going down in Florida year-round outside, and only covers them up when they get frost warnings.

~~~~~~~~

On the sewing front:

I have two panels of 

these cute cut-out 

Easter Bunny Families to sew. 

I carefully cut out all of the figures and sent one set over to granddaughter Chelsea to sew on with her new sewing machine. I kept the other panel for myself. Next week, her brother Clayton can hold the FaceTime camera phone aimed at the sewing machine while she sews each piece. I will sew the same pieces here, simultaneously. That way I can give her on the spot sewing help as she sews while I work on the exact same thing at the same time at my house!

With Clayton being the camera man, it will include him in the activity so he doesn't feel left out.

When they are done, 

they will look like this:

Well, it's 10:30 now. Steve is done with replacing the sump pump. He will come in and get cleaned up and I will get some breakfast Sunday brunch going.

Stay in. 

Stay healthy. 

Stay safe.