Hero Hubby on a High Cliff Holiday

We decided to stay home this weekend...  in case plans changed with my brother.  Soooo after a day of putzing around with this and that around the house, we got a phone call.

Seems some unobservant driver backed over a water spigot at the campground at High Cliff State Park.  (I am being kind in saying unobservant driver, because witnesses said she saw what she did and took off!)

Well, the ranger on duty and park superintendent took the initiative to turn off the spouting plume of water, which cut water access to that side of the park.  Mind you, we had 112 full family campsites on a holiday weekend. This limited the water access of half the campground.  Yes, they could still go to faucets on the other side or drive down to the potable faucets at the dump station to fill water containers.  But during a holiday weekend with a full park, what a pain!

As most of you know, Steve's job title is the Facilities Maintenance Specialist Advanced person for High Cliff State Park.  That means, as he puts it, "everything you see is my fault!"  haha!!!   But it's a Monday through Friday full time job with no overtime allowed and no weekends.  When things break, they have to wait till he comes in on his regular shift to fix them.  With Monday being a federal holiday, he would not be in until Tuesday to fix it!

Awww now how could he let half the park suffer?  How could he let our new campground hosts just into the second day of their one month stint to field out the complaints?  How could he push the happy families into the inconvenience of no water near their campsites?  They would have to drive to haul water back to their campsites, especially the tenting folks.

We put down our dinner forks, hopped in the car, and drove over to the park.  Good thing we hadn't gone up to my brother's cabin as planned.  We were only 14 miles away.  Steve gathered the necessary tools at his maintenance shop, and we hopped in the service John Deere gator and made our way into the campground.

Such wonderful happy families enjoying the great weather and wonderful campsites.  Just half of them were lacking access to the water spigots on their loop of the campgrounds!  Because of this:

LOL --- it's a dead water spigot! 

Because of the ancient outdated water piping system, 

there are not shut offs for each individual spigot,

it's only a main shutoff in each section,

to make it easier to drain the entire park come fall. 

Steve and the new host, Mitchell, set to work examining the post and broken pipe... and decided to cut it level, cap it off, and at least they could turn the water service back on to let the other spigots in that half of the campground work again.  It really didn't take a lot of time, and soon things were right again.

My hero!

It's only capped off and then on Tuesday when the park is more cleared out, he can turn the water off again.  Then he will have to repair the pipe and set the spigot back into place and turn things back on.


And the person who did the nasty deed had left the campground, but is still registered to a campsite.  You can bet the ranger will be over talking to her once she comes back to her site.  Ahem!

We drove around the park a bit on the John Deere and 

picked up some trash left by thoughtless people.  

We snapped a few pics here and there, 

marveling at the wonderful place Steve gets to work at. 

Here is a silly little YouTube clip I shot while we were 

climbing up the steep hill in the John Deere. 

This road used to be the only way up into the campground years ago.

The campsites sit high up on the top of the cliff, 

hence the name: High Cliff State Park.

The route is now closed to vehicle traffic 

and a nicer less steep road goes around. 

But I used to pull my little pop up camper up this hill to come here camping with my little girls many years ago!  And we would climb this tower to look over Lake Winnebago.

Yup, it's a great park to work at----

Even if stupid people run over water spigots! 

On our way out of the park, we stopped by The Chubby Seagull for a wonderful hand dipped ice cream cone!  Now THAT is worth the whole hassle of working on his day off Steve said.  His boss can just pay him in ice cream cones for overtime and he would be happy.  LOL

Once we got home, we finished our dinner, did a few lawn things, and now are relaxing with a bit of wine out on the front porch.  The occasional pop pop pop of a few home fireworks displays are shooting off, but nothing major so our dogs are just fine with us at home.

This is a rough time of the year on dogs, and many go missing because of the loud noises--- so please folks, make your pets comfy and secure during this crazy holiday!

And because I needed an excuse to post a few more cute pics of my dogs, here they are:

Tiebreaker Baby - Stomp on Cancer - Next Level Quilting

Whew--- so much to write about. I should have done a blog yesterday and put half of this in there.... oh well.  It is what it is!

First off.... Tiebreaker Baby!  See, we have six grandchildren, 3 grandboys and 3 grandgirls. Oldest daughter Erin is due in November with the Tiebreaker Baby.  She has been joking with the kids that it's a Baby T Rex  inside and when it wants something to eat, it gets hungry and makes momma eat ice cream, and candy, and all other nummy stuff.  It's the T Rex doing it.   Soooo they gave her this shirt for her birthday:

She is just glowing with 20 Week Mommyness! 

Thursday was Erin's birthday, but also it coincided with her 20 week ultrasound! 

Chelsea and Clayton got to go along too.

How exciting to see their new baby sibling on the screen. 

and... to learn it's gender! 

The kids were prepared for the big announcement on social media:

Yup.. the Tiebreaker Baby will be a GIRL! 

We rejoice that it is happy healthy and growing .... 

that is all this grandmudder needs. 

~~~~~~~

Our next spot of bright sunshine news is that my oldest brother, Butch (aka Steve) had his bout with cancer surgery.  He has cancer in his bladder and prostate. They removed the bladder tumor already. Now it was time for the prostate. He was operated on by a robot in Green Bay, and came through with flying colors.  The doc is optimistic that he got it all, and a complete recovery is in the future.  Whew! 

We went up to see him after the surgery, once he was moved into a private room.  Yes, it was while he was still a bit groggy.  But Steveio had to see his best buddy and we brought along a "Miller Bouquet" which I kinda brainstormed up.  

First, you wrap some beverages of choice in icy blue wrap....  celophane.  Then set them into an appropriate bucket.  We found this pretty printed popcorn bucket in the party favor aisle.  Now strategically arrange various flowers around the edges and in the top, concealing the contents. (I think the doc and nurses would frown on the presence of beer in his room--- It was not going to be indulged upon until he got home.   Ya just don't bring big grown macho Yooper men just flowers, ya know! So we brought him a bouquet of BEER! 

There ya have it then... Steveio was quite proud of the flower arranging we did in the parkinglot.  Oh, and we just about fell on the floor in the card aisle as we found this Get Well card.  Kinda fit the situation, so to speak.

It was quite delightful to see my brother awake and feeling good and the positive results of his surgery was even more to celebrate.  Steve had to get him to really look CLOSE at those flowers until he figured out the real reason why his silly sister and brotherinlaw gave him a bouquet!  hahahahaha

By noon the next day, they were ready to spring him from the hospital, and he was more than ready to sprung himself up and out.  His fiance Rox drove him home all the way back up to the U.P of Michigan.  He rested well and is doing fine today.

We kinda held off doing any Fourth of July plans, 

not knowing how things would go or if he would need to stay close

to Green Bay for return visit in a day or two.  

~~~~~~~

So it's kinda nice to hang out around home instead of joining that mad dash of folks out on the road today after work.  We grilled out this evening and now we are setting on the front porch as I write my blog.  Steve has his little puter going and both dogs are pestering us to go for a W - A - L - K  (yes, we have to spell it out in this house)  I think a relaxing weekend at home is fine with us.  We will practice for retirement. 

On Tuesday morning at 8 am we have to have the motorhome at Tri City Glass for double windshield replacement... so that will probably be our next motorhome outing.  We get to stay in the rig while it''s there, and remain on site overnight while it cures.  I guess we will be camping out in the parkinglot and enjoying city life and noises for a night! 

~~~~~~~

Now on to my last item in my title.   On Sunday I saw my quilting friend Nicole post a wonderful photo of her new long arm machine and frame. It's one I have lusted over since seeing it at Nancy's Notions warehouse sale.  The pricetag is a bit steep for me, ($5,000.00) but I was really glad to see her get a new toy and hope she enjoys it.    I decided to hop into Craigslist... ya know... just to "see".  You never know what people are selling.  Not that I could afford a lot, but well, ya know...

Lo and behold a lady near Sheboygan was selling the neatest setup.  It's a big banquet table (heavy) and a frame of tracks and racks and poles and a sliding device.  It's made to set an ordinary household sewing machine into (of which I have FOUR)  and you can then work on bigger quilts in the somewhat limited throatspace.  But it still IS letting a person do longarm work in a smaller scaled fashion.   I looked up the You Tube on the device and watched it set up and being used. It made sense to me! 

I contacted the woman and sure enough, it was still available and we could come right away to see it.  It was 33 miles away, and we had to be back in time to help at the museum by 1pm.  It worked right into our timeline. 

We asked how long the table was.... and her husband answered in the background it was 7 feet.  Good, we didn't need to go get a trailer to haul it.  We could take the Tracker and bungee cord the back door shut a bit and make it work.  Well.... we got there and it was over 8 feet long!  OH well... we made it work by golly!   New price, the Handi-Quilter frame setup was $600 plus $200 for the Handi Handles control module and then about another $100-125 for the heavy formica banquet table. The husband had reinforced it with four big 2x4's for stability and vibration reduction.  I got the whole shebang for $125.00.  Not bad! 

Some fancy quilt aficionados would pooh pooh such an idea or such a set up.  They would be turned off by a smaller workable space to sew the free motion quilt stitches in. I would make the best of it, and learn how to how to have fun and find creativity with this next step up in my level of quilting.

We struggled to get it up the stairs, which have THREE turns in them.  But we did it!  Now... remember I said the table was over 8 feet long? Guess what?  My sewing room is only 9 feet 3 inches wide!  It JUST FIT! 

Wow.. this was gonna be FUN! 

I set my Janome sewing machine into the carriage and figured out how to load it up with a sample.

I had a lovely piece of preprinted fabric in squares that would be a good sample,  and fun to make some creative stitches on.  I loaded it up on the roller, along with some back fabric on the other roller. I added a generous piece of batting and sat down to work! 

The machine lets me do fancy patterns and free motion designs. The sky is the limit and your imagination can take you away as the machine whirrs along.  I was really enjoying this! I did all these stitches from my mind as I went along.

As I got familiar with the machine riding on the track, I got better at controlling the movements.  The setup was kinda awkward with stitching from the far back left of the machine. I had to kinda sit sideways to see the stitches.  The lady on the original video said it was like driving a car, with your foot on the pedal as the gas and the steering kinda to the left.  It was interesting and fun, but kinda hard to see at times. But it worked.  

The more I did, the more I was thinking. How can I make this better? How can I improve it? I got Steve's brain in there to think too.....

The handles have a speed control knob and a little stop and go button, but it is not functioning right now. The end of the plug is for a different brand, a Brother Machine.  Steve pulled it apart and checked out the innards. We ordered an extra Janome brand foot pedal online to rob the correct plug from!  It will be here tomorrow, so then once Steve rewires it, the button and speed dial will work and we can omit the foot pedal altogether. But for now it worked well, and I was able to complete my sample piece!

Today I trimmed the edges with binding and sewed on four hanging tabs. Imperfections and booboos, that's okay, I hung it up on the wall in our front porch today.  WHEEEEEEEEE

So I am off and running with my new toy as I graduated up to the next level of quilting experience.

 Here is the other side of my porch, with two happy yappy doggers!

It feels so good to not be on the road today, fighting the holiday traffic.  The temp outside is perfect, the humidity is wonderful, and we are going to go take the dogs for a walk before it gets dark. 

Nineteen Years Ago Today

June 28, 1997

Nineteen years ago on
 June 28, 1997,

 I married my best friend.   

It was a magical day-- we were married in a historical church in Heritage Hill State Park.

How fitting for two folks who love camping sooo much, to get married in a State Park? 
We also camped for our two week honeymoon in our RV, circling Lake Superior.


Our wedding day weather was perfect, and we arrived at the park in style.

We had a driver with top hat and tails, a pair of fine horses

 and a white carriage like Cinderella! 

I felt like a princess in a fairy tale... and had found my Prince Charming! 

We shared our vows in front of our families and friends.. 
with our children taking part in the ceremony. 

Oh gosh, this is the Happiest Day of our LIVES! 

Our four lovely children were our Best Men and Honorly Maidens.  

Karen, Erin and Heather                  Steve, Dan and Mike

And here is our new family! 

The carriage had escorted us to the church, and then brought us to our reception 

in a lovely park setting on the grounds of Willowbrook. 

We rented a large tent, catered in a Spanferkle (pig roast)  and had a great picnic afternoon family picnic type reception.   My boss offered this lovely park setting for the reception location on the banks of the Fox River.  

It was a warm sunny afternoon.  We didn't care for a late night drunken dancing party, 
so an afternoon picnic was more our style.   Friends helped with the setup for us.
Soft music, good food, family and friends was all we needed to celebrate our marriage.

Steve later swept me away in our little Fiat Spider convertible...
 to a cozy bed and breakfast for our wedding night. 

He bought me this little car for a wedding present!

  

Thank you, Steve, for making my life more wonderful than I could have ever expected!!!!!   

.

Cancer Again in the Family, and Our Old House Lights.

It's been a rough time for my family....  we laid to rest another member who had cancer rapidly spread all over.  With such sadness we said goodbye to my dear cousin Roger.  A proud Vet... a family man, husband, father, brother, uncle, grandfather and all around good guy. My heart breaks for his wife Meg. His family gave him a very dignified military funeral. We attended last Saturday and shared our sadness with all of our cousins and parents.

Cousin John flew from Wisconsin to Florida, and drove up his parents and my mom in time for the funeral here in Saukville, Wisconsin. Afterwards he drove them all the way back down and flew home. Thank you John, you are earning your angel wings here on earth! 

Roger and I were "kissing cousins" as kids. We were born only a month and a half apart. Our mothers were only siblings to each other and very close.  They took turns having babies, until each one had six kids!  Mom and I are on the left, Auntie Lois and Roger are on the right....

Roger is the first boy I ever slept with...(at the age of two!)  We went to Parkview School together during the week, we were in catechism classes together on Saturdays, and then begged to sleep over at Grandma's to be together on Sundays!  He always swore that he loved me and wanted to marry me---- awww Meg was a lucky gal to be married to him.

With six of us kids in our family, and six of the Statons in their family, we had to take turns sleeping at Grandma's house. Sometimes it was us four oldest ones, (Butch, John, Pam and myself)  so Roger Dodger would get left out. Awwwww   But we made up for it during the week and always found ways to get into mischief. Our families were always together and we were more like siblings than cousins.

All of us would converge on Grandma's house on Saturday.  Our moms would catch up on grocery shopping or laundromat runs if their washing machines were on the fritz.  All of us cousins would hang at Grandma's house to play and take turns walking the few blocks to church for our appointed times for catechism classes.  Different ages went different times of the day.  Rog and I were in the same class together, so of course we had to walk together.

I remember during the winter, we would stop at the green wooden box on the corner of Western and Washington.  We would lift the lid and take out the biggest and least dirty pieces of rock salt from the mix!  We would suck on the rock salt pieces during catechism class and again refill our pockets on the way home.  One time, while we had both of our heads holding up the lid, as we were filling our pockets, our mothers drove by in the station wagon and beeped the horn at us!  Oh my!  We dropped that lid as fast as we could and beat our little boots up to the church!   We sure got in trouble afterwards, and I don't think those nuns at St. Francis Borgia could have reprimanded us any harder than our own mothers did.

Yes, we were part of a huge "TRIBE" 

left to right: 

Laura, Dan, Randy, Roger, SueSue, Linda, Pam, Bruce, me holding Umpee, John and Butch.

(plus the "grocery getter" station wagon and our old Camper Bus in the background!)

Good bye, Rog Podge.  

Share some time with Grandma Kafehl in heaven 

until the rest of us tribe of cousins get there! 

~~~~~~~

Another close family member of mine is facing a cancer surgery this upcoming week. Please pray for him in his battle.  When oh when will there be a cure for this ugly disease?

~~~~~~~

I know I haven't been blogging much.  It seems like all this family stuff has come up. Cancer has been hard to deal with when your loved ones have to keep battling it.  I don't know if there is more cancer now, or just more diagnosis.  I think years ago it was called "consumption"  meaning your body was wasting away?   It just is so awful.

~~~~~~~

This weekend is hot hot hot and humid in Wisconsin.  Not the best weather with my lung problems.  So we decided to stay close to home today.  Steve had a few projects in mind.  I was the "gopher" and the picture taker.

When we bought this lovely home in 2012, there was never an outside front porch light.  The few times someone wanted to find our house in the evenings after dark, the number is not visible and the big tall pine tree blocks out the light from the street lights. (thankfully)    But the times that we have wanted some light out front, we don't have a switch to flick or a light to turn on.

Two weeks ago, when Steve and I were in the Menards home improvement store, I found this wonderful old craftsman looking light with stained glass in a pleasant square shape.  It came home with me, and I decided to spray paint the frame dark hunter green to match the house, instead of the black metal that it was originally.

Steve analyized the wiring and the best way to get power out to the front was to connect to power at the current ceiling fan in the inside front porch.  Then both lights could operate from the same existing switch in the foyer. From there he could shoot out with a long drill bit and mount the light outside over the front door.  Perfect plan!

He grabbed the drill before 8 a.m. this morning and went to work on it.  You know him, Mr. Zoom Zoom!  I hadn't even finished my first cup of coffee and I was getting this, grabbing that, holding this or taking pics of that.

We never really liked the ceiling fan out on the porch, and never used it much.  But we did still have an antique light shade unit that matched four others in our home!  We picked up a new white base for it to coincide with the new junction boxes and new wires that Steve installed. I just adore these old clear ribbed glass shades. The previous owners left us a stack of them on a shelf in the basement, and we have put them up in the hallways, our walk-in closet, and in my fiber storage room.

Once Steve removed the old ceiling fan, he cut the hole bigger to hold the junction box.  Checking inside with a flashlight, he realized the ceiling wasn't a normal one with joists nor having an open space spanning across to get the wires out to the front porch. Nope.  It was all blocked in with wide boards and no way to drill or fish a wire through unless we ripped down the porch ceiling boards! NO WAY!

Sooo --- on to plan B.    After careful measuring (three times!)  Steve grabbed the drill and made the final hole from the inside to the outside while I watched for it to come through. We bought a strip called a wire channel that was white and would blend in with the ceiling as best we could.

In just a few short minutes, he had the inside light wired up and operational,

and the new line fed through to the outside for the new light out there! 

It was heating up outside, nearing 9 a.m.  so we better get this thing done quick.  The porch is on the east side of the house and we were beginning to drip with the humidity.  I brought tools and helped measure, but soon it was a One Man Job up on the ladder.  I was able to sneak across the yard (in my jammies yet)  and snap this pic.  What a guy on a Saturday morning....

In no time, again, he had the outside fixture wired up into place. Both the inside and outside lights are connected to the same switch in the foyer.  I got to throw the switch to see if it worked.

 YIPPPEEEEE!!!!  

We now have an outside light!   The inside light has a pull chain, so if we want to flip the switch for only the outside light, we can turn off the inside one via the pull chain.

And there it is... I am hoping tonight after dark we can turn it on to test it to see if it illluminates the old wooden house numbers to the right of the door.  It only carries a 60 watt bulb.  I would hate to have to move those numbers, they are very old and would leave marks and holes in the white spot they are at now.

It's after 8 pm and temps are finally dropping. 

We might get out and about with the dogs for a walk before dark.

Thunderstorms due later tonight.  Ewwwwwww

(on edit---- yes the light seems to work quite well!)