Camp Sinawa Fall Family Days

I spent a delightful Sunday afternoon driving down to Valders and heading south of town out into the country.  Our fall colors are at their peak this week... and the sunshine and blue skies set off these corn fields and the hardwood trees to a flaming glory!

I drove past one of the flocks of Hidden Valley Woolen Mill and snapped these pics.

Our spinning guild meets monthly at the mill for our meetings.

Did you know many shepherds put in a llama as a guard animal with their sheep flocks? 

The llamas are much smarter, and more alert to dangers of predators... 

they give warning signals to the sheep.... sheep are usually clueless.

From those wide open fields, I drove down into the colorful woods to do a spinning demonstration at the Camp Sinawa. It's a lovely place hidden off in the countryside. Various groups can rent their facilities for retreats, bible camps, gatherings and civic functions.

Our Black Sheep Spinners Guild was asked to come and demonstrate spinning wheels and show how yarn is made from sheep fleece.

Here are some of the events that were going on:

Fall Family Days consists of the following Attractions and Events:

Fish Pond Popular kids attraction as they use a 'fishing pole' and soon catch a prize 

Pumpkin Painting  Kids pick a pumpkin and then decorate it using watercolors and their imagination.

Wood Carving Demonstration  Watch a local group of Wood Carvers perform their skills on various types of wooden projects. 

Sand Dig for Treasures  An event for the kids.  They can dig in a sand box and search for buried treasures.  

Glaciers End Sled Dogs  Local Dog Sledder Syd Lucas will give demos with sled dog team.  Has summer and winter sleds.  

Horse Drawn Wagon Rides  Ride on a wagon thru the Western woods of Camp Sinawa 

Antique Tractor Wagon Rides  Ride on a wagon thru the Western woods of Camp Sinawa 

Black Sheep Wool Spinners  Watch a local group spin yarn and create items with the yarn. (this was us!) 

Face Painting  Kids can have their faces decorated by local girl scouts.

Make a Nature Critter  Use your talents and local materials to create your 'Nature Critter'. 

Basket Raffle  Buy chances to win a 'Goody' basket filled with treasures.  Drawing to be held on Sunday.

Sawmill in operation.  Watch a local Sawyer operate his sawmill.  See how lumber is made. 

SCA Demonstration  Society for Creative Anchronism.  Watch Medieval 'fight to the death' battles, using weaponry from the Middle Ages.  

Medieval Re-enactment  Kids of all ages can fight a Knight in Armor.  

Flint Knapping Demonstration    Join local Flintknappers as they demonstrate the ancient art of making Arrowheads, Spearheads, Knives and other Stone Tools.

WOW of Wisconsin  They will have on display several animals which are in a rehab situation.

Hot Dog & Marshmallow Roasting  Enjoy roasting hot dogs and marshmallows at a Camp Fire.

They had a place all reserved for us to set up

in front of the fireplace in the main lodge.

Only Carrie Flores and myself were able to go.... 

Carrie was working on some bright colorful wool roving and making yarn that almost looked like candy!  The kids loved looking at the flyers, whorls and spinning on the wheels.  I enjoy watching their eyes light up as they recognized what we were doing, and learning about wool.

I had started spinning some dark brown alpaca but later I changed over to a bright blue variegated roving to add more interest to the spinning.  I would break off a piece of spun single ply, double it up and let it ply back on itself to make a "yarn".  Then I would tie it around children's wrists as a "fiber bracelet" for the girls or "fiber wristband" for the boys....  

Watching people was a lot of fun.  One woman came over and sat nearby us in some chairs, with her elderly mother in tow.  She went on to take the time to explain to her mother what we were doing.  It was so cute.  Soon they were both asking questions, and we had a nice chat. 

All around us, children were coming into the main lodge after seeing the outside events.  Inside they had games, nature crafts and of course... FOOD!  If it hadn't been for the food drawing them indoors, I think most would have wanted to stay outside in the great autumn weather. 

They had various kid's games set up, along with a roaming clown that was making balloon animals. 

One little boy got this monkey, which matched the one on his shirt!  How cute? 

We had a good crowd most of the day, moving in and out of the building.  We were cozy warm by the fireplace, but with all the people in the building, it soon warmed up a LOT.  I was glad when they stopped adding wood to the fire. LOL

A center table had an assortment of baskets filled with raffle of items donated by local businesses and clubs.  I bought some tickets and added to my choices of baskets.  Well, I won a lovely basket from the local quilting club, Pigeon Lake Quilters!   I got a nice homemade child's quilt, a lovely china vase and bowl, with dried fall flowers. Tucked around all of the edges were handmade soaps, lotions and other fun stuff. 

The china vase and bowl with flowers fits PERFECTLY 

on the antique plant stand I bought at the auction on Saturday. 

I nabbed the stand for $3.00 and it matched our house woodwork so well.

On anther Our Old House note... here is an update on the little half bath.  While I was gone to the spinning demonstration, Steve got the cute little corner sink mounted to the walls.  It's so sweet! He got it done before the Packer game at noon. (we won!)

Next we will add the faucet and plumbing... we ordered a different faucet for our upstairs tub that looks like a cute well pump water spout.  So we will install the left more plain looking faucet to this sink which will work just fine.  (plus I get the faucet I REALLY wanted on my bathtub!)

 old faucet going on sink                                                      new faucet going on tub

Oh, I had something else I wanted to post the other day and forgot!  On our way back from Manitowoc, we drove down through this little county park.  It was just a buzzing with fishermen!

These big salmon were running, and most people were hauling up large fish as they caught their limit.  I asked some folks if could snap a pic of their catch.  I had to get a pic with someone holding one, so you could see the actual size of these monsters swimming upstream in a tiny creek!

This is from the DNR report:

Along Lake Michigan, anglers have been fishing the Ahnapee and Kewaunee rivers heavily this past week as the salmon run continues strong. Chinook salmon are in the rivers heavy and coho salmon have also begun their spawning runs. The Strawberry Creek Chinook Facility in Door county processed more than 1,900 chinook last week, collecting about 350,000 eggs, enough to meet Kettle Moraine Hatchery annual chinook egg collection goal. With recent rains salmon have also moved into southern Lake Michigan tributaries and were being caught on the Sheboygan and Milwaukee rivers.

And another thing.. .my day started out with a poor doggie

who went out at 6 am and came back with a very POOPY BUTT! 

Ewwwww 

so into the doggie spa bath for a soak and suds and rinse rinse rinse----

(Actually he LOVES it and never wants to get out.  See him smiling???) 

Well, time to go run some errands....

Another Week at Our Old House

We are blessed with a sunshiney day here in Wisconsin again... perfect autumn weather!  Yesterday we were able to get some projects done and still get outside and take a nice walk with the dogs.

Steve finished up the heat vent he ran to the bathroom on the main floor. (see my last blog for details) ... and here is the finished result:

NO MORE COLD TUSHIES! 

Next project, we will work on the little corner sink and 

reverse the swing of the door into this little half bathroom. 

We also wandered over and scoped out a big auction at a neighbor's house...  the elderly gent had passed away and this was his life long accumulation of tools and guns and interesting collections.  

Now as for tools..... well..... I swear the man not only had doubles, but triples and quadruples of the same power and hand tools!  Honestly!  I think he would start a project, and not know he already had the proper tool, so he went out and bought others exactly like the ones he already had!  I mean, who needs 20 staplers? 3 identical hand held DeWalt shop vacs? 10+ identical sets of Craftsmen tools? 4 pad sanders? 3 routers? 2 paint sprayers etc.   We stocked up an few items to complete what we needed.  Many of tools were either brand new unused in the boxes or barely used.  

I bid on a collect of old kerosene lamps for $12.50

We nabbed this $60 paint sprayer  brand new in a box for only $10.

There were literally hundreds of toys--- tractors and car collectibles still in boxes, brand new condition.  We got a bit tired of all the toy tractors being interspersed between other items, but we sat patiently through them all. The auction lasted 6 hours, and at the end, many things were going for $1 or $2 a box. 

There was a lot of antique furniture that went for very reasonable prices.  We really didn't need anything, but I did get a nice wooden antique plant stand for $3.00.  Steve got a drill press, palm sander, heat gun and a big box full of hammers.... our total for the day was  $73.00!

Next, the house is being put on the market for only $112,000..... so if any of you would like to be my neighbor, it's just down the street from me at 316 N. Madison in Chilton, WI  Big beautiful stucco house with tile entry, wood floors, pocket doors to the dining room with built in hutch, fireplace, etc.  We only peeked at the main floor while registering, and will wait for a proper open house to explore the rest. LOL  (if you read my embarrassing Open House blog a few weeks ago, you will get my joke!)

Later today I am going to Camp Sinawa with a group of my Black Sheep Spinners Guild .... we are going to demonstrate spinning with wool for the guests. So I better get my wheel packed up and some fiber dug out to spin up for visitors.  Here is some info about the camp:

Camp Sinawa is a non profit entity which provides recreational and educational opportunities for youth groups, church groups and other organizations wishing to spend time in the great outdoors.  

In order to provide funding to keep this facility operational, several annual events are held at this facility to raise funds to maintain this area.

All events are organized by Friends Of Sinawa.

Here are a few pics of my spinning gals at last week's meeting:

We meet out at Hidden Valley Woolen Mill near Valders, WI 

 http://www.hiddenvalleyfarmwoolenmill.com/ on a monthly basis.  

How great it is to have a woolen mill so close to my house! 

I am so fortunate to have such a creative bunch of fibery folks to gather with, since we moved to Chilton.  This is the spinning guild, but sometimes we overlap with other loves, such as quilting.  Here Pat Filzen is working on a quilt that she is hand stitching.

I also have a weaving guild that meets monthly in Menasha, WI, about a 30 mile drive away, and then a casual knitting group that meets at our Chilton library one night a week.  To top that off, our little coffee shop down the street has a monthly craft meeting where you can bring anything you are working on!  Such a good fibery creative area we chose to live in!


Oh, speaking of creative, here is the finished result of my stenciled etching door painting I had in the last blog. I think it came out pretty nice!  Next I will work on my french doors to my studio room.

Steve is outside pulling out my dead tomato plants, so I better go help him before I leave for the Camp Sinawa demonstation.  Later Gators! 

Our Old House Project - Faux Etching a Front Door Window

Here is another project I thought I would tackle before the cold winter sets in. The front door.

Our 100 year old wooden front door has a large pane of plain glass... about 60x25.  Normally I keep a lacy curtain over it.  But during the winter months, on terribly cold days, frost sometimes builds up on the inside glass when the curtain is hanging in front of it.  Mainly along the bottom and in the corners.  It's ruining the wood along the edge of the glass when the frost melts.  If we take the curtain down and with enough air circulation, the frost goes away.

I was thinking.... (and inspired by the HGtv program Rehab Addict), that I thought I would try something.... Hmmmmmmm ...

I bought some assorted stencils, and stencil spray-on adhesive from a craft store.  Then I went to Menards (it's like a Home Depot or Lowes) where I found a faux etching paint that looks like an etched window when applied. It does not permanently etch the glass, and can be removed at any time with a razor blade and some acetone.  

I practiced first on a mirror and it came out pretty cool! I had a lot of overspray because I did this outside and it was windy....  The stencils kept lifting up in the breeze, even with the adhesive spray.

When Steveio got home from work, I prompted him to help me remove that VERY heavy front door and lay it on sawhorses indoors out on the front porch. I draped it with tape and paper towels for overspray protection on the wood.

At first I tried one stencil, and didn't like it.  

So I scraped it off with a razor blade and re-cleaned the window. 

It was easy to get rid of the mistakes! 

I finally settled on this pattern:

It was frustrating to work alone as just one person, because the adhesive glue on the bottom of the stencil would sometimes remain stuck to the glass.  I had to have someone hold the stencil up out of the way while I could clean the area with a razor blade and lay the stencil back down in place to respray it.

If I had another set of hands it would have been easier.  Steve was outside cutting the lawn so I couldn't ask him to help. I think if I did it again, (and I may redo it) I would have an "assistant" hold the stencil up in the air in between sections, rather than lay the stencil aside on the plastic covered table. The stencil stuck to everything and had wet paint on one side and sticky glue on the other side. ARGGHHH!!!!

 I like the overall appearance of the lacy border....

It's kinda hard to photograph it, being white against the outdoors.. 

or against a cream wall, but you get the idea. 

I might add a center design cluster... not sure yet. 

Another thought is to buy a jar of the frosted window paint and do it again with a brush instead of spray.  I am thinking I would have more control with the stencil and a brush in sections instead of big sweeps of the spray. This frosted paint goes on kinda translucent and it's hard to see if you have enough spray in each little section of the stencil.  You can easily spray too much or not enough. It later dries to a more frosty etched appearance.

I am thinking I might tackle my french doors next and put a lacy pattern over each pane of glass.

Then my messy Loom Room studio can't be seen from the dining area....

I have a few stencil patterns to try out.

It's a lovely fall day and the sun is shining, though it's still pretty cold out.  Being October in Wisconsin, that is to be expected.  Some more of my tomatoes ripened over the weekend so I should get those canned up this afternoon.  

There is always something going on in Our Old House. 

Our Old House Projects and Babysitting Grandtots for a week!

Yup, a whole week of babysitting grandtots!  Whew!

Actually they were really good....  and I only had them from Monday night until Friday morning.  Our oldest daughter had to go out of town on business, and our youngest daughter drops her son at the older one's house every morning at 5 am before work.  So someone was needed to stay at the house for Jameson to come in the door at 5 am... and then transport all three to the daycare at 7am.  Then the older ones are transported to school and back to the daycare until 5pm.  So it's pretty important that they are babysat up there in Oconto instead of down here at my house in Chilton.

Each morning it's a routine of getting them up, dressed, eat a snack to hold them over till breakfast at the daycare, teeth brushing, backpack gathering, coats, shoes and finally strapped into the backseat of the car! Whew!

But we got it all done each morning, 

with only one tiny meltdown 

when a certain Diva insisted her shirt was too loose.  LOL

I was even brave enough to double up and have Jameson spend a whole night as a sleepover!  His parents wanted to finish a coat of paint on their own house's basement, it would be good if the 6 year old was out of their way and they could get it all done.  I let the kids create "octopus hotdogs" for dinner....  

They had so much fun constructing them by shoving the long noodles into each double sized chunk of turkey hot dogs. After boiling them up, they were ready to consume.  Yummmm  (yup, I ate them too)  We also had cauliflower and carrots.  I hope we are making wonderful memories! 

While the kids were gone during the day, I had brought my sewing machine along.  It was kinda fun sitting at my old dining table where I had sewn for so many years.  Years of sewing at that table where I made all of my kids clothes, their baby quilts, and even my business suits.  I also sewed many many ruffled country pillows in the 80's and 90's on a contract agreement with a craft seller who had me do the sewing for her.  Later Steve refinished that dining table and we gave the set to our oldest daughter for her home.

The boys were kept busy with my tablets creating race cars and playing the "socks and underwear matching game"  ... and Chelsea wanted to do some "needling" (her name for quilting)

Here is a little Utube clip of her working on a quilt with me:

The week went by fast, but I missed being home with my Steveio. We try to never be apart this long, but sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do.  Because of all the turmoil in Chicago, and snarled up air flight schedules, Erin's plane was first delayed for a late Thursday return, then later cancelled completely.   Oh well, I spent another night up in Oconto.... and got to share watching the Packer - Viking game on tv.  The little Cheesehead Fans wore their jerseys and had bowls of Cheetos to snack on while watching their favorite players....  (Aaron Rogers and Clay Matthews)  ...

 They cheer loudly for the players, and understand the concept of
"downs" meaning they get three more tries if a First Down is achieved. 

And, of course, the Packers won! 

Friday morning all went smoothly as I dropped all of the kids off at the daycare.  It was a sad goodbye for me, but they went on to play with their friends. Normal routine --- uninterrupted --- for them so they could stay in their schools and daycare while the parents all had changing schedules.  I was so glad I was able to help out.  

But then this very tired Grandmuddah went back to the house to pack her bags, load the car, and head on home to Our Old House in Chilton. 

The last of my tomatoes had ripened and needed to get canned.   I spent an enjoyable afternoon canning up the ripe ones....   skimming off the peelings by simmering them and then plunging into ice water.  Then cutting up into chunks and canning with a bit of lemon juice and salt in quart jars.  PING PING PING the sounds of jars sealing is music to my ears! 

The very green tomatoes were brought in my biggest bowl, and the half ripe ones set out on the counter to finish ripening.  I put the green ones in layers on trays with newspaper covering them and they should ripen up during the week.

After a wonderful welcome home from my Stevio, it was great to snuggle up in front of our fireplace and reconnect after being apart so many days.  We don't like to take such long periods of time away from each other, and try to do just about everything together. 

We got a few yard things done on Saturday but it was raining and cold and icky most of the day. 

One project I wanted done was to buy some grow lights.

We found four old iron bed rails in the garage attic, 

and spread them out over the old sawhorses in the basement.  

Recognize this room Paula, Laura or Debbi? 

I set out my pots of coleus that I have been prepping to winter over in the house. I have kept these same coleus strain of plants going since the mid-90's.  I keep snipping off and rerooting and wintering over inside.  The last two years I had them set in the guest bedroom up on the second story, but this year I will try the basement and have additional light from the grow light bulbs.  We set them on a timer to give an extra 4 hours of daylight now, and will adjust to about 6 extra hours in mid winter.  In the basement it will be easier to water them and not worry about drips from leaking flowerpots.

With the impending cold weather, we also turned on the furnace.  ACK!  Heat bills, here we come!  We also started to turn on our electric mattress pad heater on the bed at night. Yes, winter is on it's way, and there isn't much we can do about it.

One project for Our Old House is to add a heat duct to the half bath on the main floor.  The room originally was a closet near the back door of the kitchen.  The previous family, the Kopf's, had added a toilet to the closet to make an extra bath.  With four girls, that kinda made sense, eh?  But I can tell you, with NO heat vent in that room, it's one awfully cold blast to the hiney to sit on that seat.... it's in the back hallway of the house between two different exit doors, and not really in the main heated area of the house.  brrrrrr  You do manage to get in, do what you gotta do, and get right back out again fast in the winter months!

We still have the yellow kitty cat toilet brush holder from the previous owners!

There was never a heat duct in there of course when it was a closet, who heats up their jackets and umbrellas?  We had an extra register grid on hand from when we adapted the kitchen and changed the ductwork around... so we were all set to add new ductwork now, and top it off with an old register to look authentic.


Steve dug out the old register from storage in the garage attic and I cleaned it up. He figured out all the ductwork needed and measured and realized it won't be such a hard job afterall.  We ran to Menards today and got all the proper ductwork and boot unit to put it all together sometime soon.  I just LOVE these old copper register grids and so glad we saved this one to use again.

The other thing this little bathroom lacked is a sink.  For the last year or so, after using this bathroom, we have always walked into the kitchen to wash our hands at the kitchen sink.  That is kinda strange, and not quite what we want.

Recently I saw a program on HGTV called "Rehab Addict" where this spitfire of a young gal named Nicole Curtis rehabs old homes that are slated for the wrecking ball in Detroit and Minneapolis. A link:  The Rehab Addict on HGTV   Instead of ripping out and putting in all new stuff, she rehabs and reuses old stuff whenever she can.   I think she is my new HERO!   I watched enough of her shows at our daughter's house to know I will take the time to watch them online now.  (we don't have cable so don't get that station here)


She had found a nifty corner sink for a house that had a tiny little powder room bathroom. Today while at a few stores,  I tried to find one like it, but kept coming up empty handed.  Has to be special ordered they said. So I bit the bullet and searched online.  I found many in the $100-300 range, but most were still too big for the bathroom we had. Finally at this website: Vintage Tub and Bath  I found the PERFECT one! On sale for only $69.99 plus FREE shipping!  Wheeee

After the heat duct is done, this will be next on Our Old House list of projects.... Just have to pick up a cute faucet and some drain pipes and fittings, and Steve can tackle this one too.

Steve is also going to reverse the door in that closet. It opens inwards, and we will want it to open outwards.  Just pry off the jams, hopefully not cracking any of them, and reversing it to open outwards into the back hallway.  It should work, but the door will have to be in the closed position all of the time to get by in the hallway.  Now with heat going in there, that should be okay.

By the way, I LOVE the tacky yellow wallpaper in there, and it's in great shape, so I am leaving it. Steve's brother Pete gave me a cute original artist creation with homemade paper in an interesting frame that just suits the room perfectly.  We stained and poly'd up some oak trim for a top rail, and we added a "garage sale find" cabinet for holding essentials (toilet paper)

Then my friend Paula gave me this wonderful light fixture. 

It had been in her sister's house and she now passed it on to me. 

I think Nicole Curtis of Rehab Addict would be proud of me!