I Love Kiwi!

I suppose they wanted to get into the bathroom............, so they tried to punch their way in. Not a pretty door to start with, but functional. I wasn't thinking to replace it until we remodel the restrooms.

Time to get creative. Remember the Birthday Frog? Friend and camper Yvonne likes to think outside the box. Me? I am thrifty. So, when I get stumped for ideas I like to pick her brain. The Birthday Frog was her idea. We liked the happy frog that was directing cars into the entrance drive. We took an opaque shower curtain out to the sign and created a template. Using that same template I drew the frog onto the plywood and instructed he who saws to get busy. He insists that I will cut myself with the jigsaw! I am so delicate...........

The great thing about crafty friends .............. free labor!!

This little froggy successfully covers the hole and reminds those who enter the building to not smoke. I can smell the smoke in the living quarters and cleaning the restrooms has required my inhaler of late. I wasn't sure if I should add the "no smoking" to the sign. It may just make them smoke more.........

Since the frog has no gender specific name, we bounced different gender terms around. Guys and gals, ladies and gentlemen, etc. In the end I stuck with the tried and true men and women. Took less letters, actually. Before you count the number of letters............ it took less different letters.

This color is Kiwi. I like it. Not really green and not really yellow. Grabs the eye, though. Yvonne's dad, Clare, is my new best boyfriend. He has been busy with his scroll saw and has made 37 of the shapes you see above. They are sporting two coats of Kiwi and are ready for the next step ............

this is what the table in my store is looking like lately.

These will be the new signs to number the sites.

The stars you see on the numbers is glow-in-the-dark paint! The signs will now recieve a couple of coats of polyurethane so that the paint won't wash away in the rain.

The old sign was barn red with yellow letters and was in need of a good washing and repainting. I did say that I love this new color, didn't I? I have been told by lost folks that they did not notice the sign with the park name on it. I think I may have solved that problem. What do you think?

Meet Cooper

My sweet friend, Nan, has a new addition to her family. This is Cooper and he just arrived here at the kampground. He is cute ............ but look at the smile on Nan's face!

Cooper won't lack for attention and he seems to be very content in Nan's hold.

He was passed around like a new baby is and just look at that face! He even poses!

I have been told by he who loves dogs that I can't bring another dog into our fold. Look at him with Cooper. I have every confidence that should I present a puppy to him ............... well, you see him!

Good friends all gathered at site 36 and enjoyed a light supper as we celebrated Nan's new puppy. Cooper got lots of cuddles and kisses and I have yet to hear him bark. He who loves puppies and babies got more than his share of puppy time. When we came home we were both thoroughly sniffed by our canine crew. Oscar was pretty indifferent, he is confident that I will always love him the best, no matter what. Emmy was interested, she no doubt wanted to groom this new pup. Wall-E was okay with puppy scent on me, but a little indignant that Papa had betrayed him. He is, after all, supposed to be Papa's favorite.

Before and After

He who travels took a trip last week to visit his mom. He left on Monday morning and came home Thursday evening. I missed him, of course, but had plenty to do in his absence. I planned many projects to complete before his return, thinking that he could be pleasantly surprised........

Things seldom do as planned. Life gets in the way. Wall-E is definitely Papa's little dog. He was okay with his Papa leaving out early Monday, but when the sky darkened he began his vigil. The little guy jumped at every sound and watched for the door to open. When it was bedtime he dutifully went out with the other dogs and performed his nightly ritual and followed me as I turned out the lights and headed to bed. He looked at me as I climbed into bed after lifting the doxies up. I patted the bed next to me and invited him up, but he went to couch instead and began barking at the door. It was so cute. He missed he who sleeps next to him.

The barking continued about every 30 minutes or so until around 3 am when I spanked the dog and threatened to kennel him if he didn't stop. He quit barking, but did not get under the covers, as is his habit, but spent the night at the foot of the bed watching all night. He would periodically stand up abruptly, rousing the other two dogs................... and me. If I thought the second night would be better, I was wrong.

In spite of my sleep deprivation, I had work to do. See this apple tree. The limbs were touching the ground, in spite of the 2X4 trying to prop the lowest limb.

This is the view from the other side. The little garden was impossible to tend with those limbs. The fruit that had fallen was alive with honey bees. Not to mention that the tree looks downright spooky!

This is the same view after I finished a little pruning job. It took seven loads with the wheel barrow to haul all the fallen squished apples and the limbs away. The apples went in to the compost pile and the limbs are shedding the leaves. We will chip the wood for smoking meats.

I mowed and raked and weeded the little garden and groomed the tall grasses I am trying to cultivate. Looks better, don't you think?

This is the tree on the other side of the front drive. At dusk, I always think this tree should reveal a face and stalk unsuspecting campers. This is actually my favorite tree. It is a golden delicious and has the sweetest fruit.

It looks a little scrawny now, this tree of mine, but I am sure it will be much happier next year and will bear larger apples.

Since I was there, I paid some attention to the tiny garden around my exit sign. It occurs to me that I need to make a bigger more eye catching sign.

I worked on the third tree and it still needs one limb sawed off. I also pulled up all my corn stalks and weeded my vegetable garden to get it ready to plant collards and turnips and maybe spinach. The corn stalks will be used to decorate for the fall, then go to the compost bin. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Waste not ............ want not.

Cloudy......

It rained yesterday. A soft , steady rain that was good for the gardens. It didn't start raining before I pruned one of the apple trees and mowed a side yard. I hauled two wheel barrels of spoiled apples and debris to the compost bin. The apples will draw bees and I don't want anyone to get stung while picking an apple. I accomplished quite a bit so far this week, so I took advantage of the rain and had a lazy day. I took several reservations and put in a couple of rigs before closing for the night. One of the phone calls had said they would come in after 9 and I told him to use the night reservation and drop box. I was still up at 9:30 and saw the lights when they pulled in. I confess that I did not check the box before I went to bed.............







The sun shining in my window greeted me as I woke this morning. I stretched lazily and made my way to the kitchen to make coffee and lets the dogs out. Still clad in my sleeping attire, I heard a rig coming round the corner to the exit and decided to check the box. Fully expecting to find a registration and payment, I stuck my hand in and found .......... nothing. The man got out of the truck pulling his 5th wheel and made use of our dumpster while I grabbed some clothes. I was coming out my door as he saw me and turned out the entrance drive and left as quickly as he could. I heard something scrape against the big rocks guarding my flower bed and I sincerely hope that he sustained some damage. I did not have my glasses on and could not see his plate number. I am thinking that we should keep binoculars at hand for occasions such as this. The registrations were all gone from the clipboard, so they had covered all the bases, probably had it on board all filled out in case I caught them on the site.







A cloud has partially blocked the sun and my mood is cloudy, too.

August Site Winner

Site 2 was the winner for August. Only two votes were cast and both were for this site. As you can see, Yvonne is a pet lover.

A very patient pet lover. Meet Frank, Tango and Tank. It occurred to me that they might be a little confused, since all the names sound alike. See.......... they all looked up when she told Tank to sit up.

Yvonne has been working on her site since she moved in. Here she put up a bird condo to hide the ugly power box. She used an old paint pail as a flower pot. She warned me that she was a big fan of artificial flowers.............

....................but I must have rubbed off, since she did plant some live flowers around the tree.

Jim and Yvonne are big race fans as you can see.

Really big race fans. Like me, Yvonne likes to use discarded items. The table is made from tire rims and an oil pan. Clever.

A concession to the kampground theme. A lone frog. He glows in the dark.

Cowboy boots and sunflowers ............

.......................they are from Kansas.

Wonder if a bird will make use of this nest?

The conservatory................ see the hammock in the back?

The dining area.

Remember the hammock? Frank and Tango look comfy, don't they?

Even though I handed out ballots and begged folks to vote Labor Day weekend, I got nothing!! I will have to post candidate for this month and let my bloggy buddies choose again! Come on, people, VOTE!

New Kamp Kat In Town

This is the cat That was terrorizing the old kamp kat. They have come to a sort of truce. They stay away from each other and now we are feeding both. She is a beautiful cat and will now let me pick her up. He who should not be allowed to name pets has been calling her Marbles, while I am calling her Callie the calico.

As I have been busy with the fall garden harvesting, I am finding more gourds. I never planted seeds this season, so all of them are volunteer plants. My gourds from last season are dry and ready to scrub and paint.

My tiny rosemary plant grew big. It pairs well with the freezer full of pork. Just have to keep it a secret from he who is not adventurous with herbs.

Zinnia and cosmos are still blooming. I even saw an apple blossom on one of the trees yesterday. The cool nights and warm days have clearly confused my gardens.

My gardens aren't the only things confused! My humming birds are back!

Had to take this picture! Looks like the Keebler Elves kamp here, too!

Autumn is here, though. This maple is getting ready to shed her colorful outfit.

Murphy's Law......

Who is this Murphy? He must have led a less than charmed life to have the law of "whatever can go wrong will" to be named for him. I feel like Murphy lately. The pool is closed and you would think that would make my life a little easier, not having to deal with swimmers. It is, but fall is as busy as spring with outdoor chores. I get to stay out and play in the dirt that I so love.


I tend to get a little ambitious with my projects and then find it hard to find a stopping point. This makes for sore muscles and sleepless nights. The sleepless nights makes for a clumsier me....... and that is why I titled this post. It has been a Murphy's Law weekend for me. It all started when I moved my desk chair while relaying a list of items needed to he who was on a shopping mission. I had just prepared for my bleary-eyed self a nice tall iced coffee. You all see where this is going, don't you? I knocked the coffee over on my desk. I am thankful that my computer was not on that desk. But...........the registration book was. I said some words to he who was not at fault and scooped most of the mess into the floor. The puddle narrowly missed my camera............


I decided to try to turn this into a positive and go ahead and mop the store a day early. I drink my coffee black. My hot coffee, that is. I like to add a squirt of vanilla syrup and half and half to my iced coffee, though; so the mess was sticky. I was drinking this because my head was pounding and a bartender once told me that the best thing for a headache is aspirin, sugar and caffeine (Excedrin?). I find that it does work well, but still was wishing that it had been black coffee I spilled as I wiped up the sticky mess and laid out the sheets of the reservation book to dry. Fortunately, it is all still legible.


While the floor and the paper dried I decided to throw a load of laundry on. The living quarters of the building housed a private laundry room and I did have a washer and dryer when I moved here. But....she who likes to move walls took over that space to make a new kitchen. The washer and dryer were moved to the utility room that houses all things related to water and electric. The washer died, as washers will do. He who tinkers said he would fix it and she who is reasonable said it was not a priority, since we do have a coin-op laundry here. But, it has been 5 years, and she who was reasonable has become less than reasonable. I have another washer and it works, but he who tinkers did not hook the washer up to drain into the sewer line. Instead, he has it emptying into a large barrel in our back yard. It is true that this is a good idea to recycle this water for watering purposes. The detergent in the water keeps bugs out of the grass and it makes an amazing looking lawn. But our backyard tends to get soggy wet when it rains and it takes some time to drain. So, this means that the only time I would want to wash clothes in that washer would be during a drought. We are not having a drought. This means I have to schlep said dirty clothes to the laundry room and feed quarters into the machines and take the detergent out there and bring it back. I made the mistake of leaving my Gain out there once and someone used it.....all of it. One advantage is that I can two loads at the same time, but if someone in the park is using the facilities I have to wait. I use powdered detergent because I am cheap and he who wears clean clothes likes the fresh smell of Gain. I am getting there, hang on. So, I put the clothes in the washer and put the coins in, shut the lid to let it start filling and went back to get the Gain. I took the scoop and went out to the laundry room while answering the phone and put the powder in the wrong washer, the empty washer, not the one filling with water. Great. I really don't have anything else to wash and how does one retrieve the powder out of the washer? My other option was to pull the wet clothes out of the other machine and put them in with the detergent.


I know you are all wondering why I just didn't leave the Gain in the washer and put more in the other washer. I did just put more in the other washer and then washed some rugs that really didn't need it. I was afraid to leave the detergent in the washer, lest someone put in clothes and add more detergent. This would bubble up out of the floor drain and create a huge mess, that I would have to clean up. Anticipating a crisis is what I am good at. Sort of. Which leads me to wonder why I thought it was a good idea last week to carry in my arms a load of dirty laundry topped with two scoops of detergent balanced precariously on top. I bumped into the door and spilled the detergent. I went into my t-shirt and bra. I shook out what my sweat did not grab. I can report that I did smell good all day in spite of the sweat.


Today has progressed much like the weekend began and I have been harvesting the abundance of apples while pruning the trees and cleaning up the area around them. So far I have managed to break the set of clippers, trip numerous times on the mound of apples, hit myself in the face and head with branches and just removed a tick from my arm. That is why I have decide to take a break and sit here reading in the land of blog while nursing all my injuries. I need a vacation, Murphy!

Where Are You?

"Are there any over passes between me and your place?" Hmmmm.......... what should I say? "Where are you?" "At the Conoco." Like that helps. Which Conoco? Are you even in the same state. Are you east or west of me. Is this some kind of a test?


When I finally determine where this caller is, he then wants to know if I think he can make it to my place with a bad axle. Bad? What is bad? How would I know? Does everyone call the campground host for mechanical advise? He says that he called AAA and they couldn't help him and then wants to know if I can send someone to help him.


I was of no help to this frantic man stranded pretty much in the middle of nowhere with a bad axle. I am still a little baffled that he thought I could.

Drug Money!!!!

My face is better, no scars. I think I know why my outbreak was so bad. I usually rub baby oil into my wet skin after I shower ............ Not only did I spread it, I locked it in with the oil. My face has healed, but now I have second and third outbreaks. Some areas are actually peeling. I won't be using baby oil anymore.

Since I am captive here in the store this weekend I decided to do a little re-merchandising. I had made some teapot cozies awhile back. With the little nip in the air (got down to 43 Friday night) I thought I should display them.

I researched and finally found the thermal lining that will insure a warm pot for up to four hours. I made two different kinds. I made two that sit over the entire pot and look like the small appliance covers of old. The other ones encase the whole pot with an opening on each side for the spout and the handle. I made some small ones perfect for that personal teapot and then larger ones, too.

I went in my house and grabbed the small teapot that I keep handy. I was tying the strings that hold the cozy on when the lid flew off. I caught it before it hit the floor and broke, not noticing right away that there was something in the pot. I am notorious for sticking money in odd places and going on about my business until I can open the safe and put it in there. I found a wad of twenties that totalled $580 !!!!!!!! I have no idea how long it sat in the pot before I accidentally came upon it. Now if you think you know the reason for the title, you may be wrong. I am not calling it drug money because it was in a "pot".

I plan to buy drugs with the money! Prescription drugs that I did not know how I was going to afford this month. Having no insurance sucks..........

Once upon a time he who has great ideas bought a lot, a whole lot of white tees and some tie-dye kits. He was sure that we were going to get rich with tie-dye shirts. This was about ten years ago and we still had the tees in the original boxes and the kits when we bought the campground. So, when Miss Martha and Crazy Tom became seasonal campers and it came to my attention that they screen printed shirts I told them to put something on the shirts with our info and use their own judgement. This was pre-frog days. I just wanted to get the shirts out of my way and figured this would be better than having them dry rotting in the box. I think they did a wonderful job with so little to go on. Then I asked Miss Martha about putting a frog in the logo and we got new shirts in day-glo colors.

Those new shirts made the white ones look sad and insignificant. Since those tie-dye kits were just sitting there collecting dust and I was all covered in an itchy rash and could not go out and play in the dirt good camper Yvonne (aka my personal shopper) and I had a serious tie-dye adventure! She went online and learned folding techniques. See the spider on the yellow tee? I was admittedly less than enthusiastic and approached the project with a "let's just get it done" attitude.


Then she added a frog and I was on board with the project of recycling those plain tees!


I like the green, myself. I have four orders for the distinctively hot pink, magenta, fuchsia shirt. All men. One of them my very own he who is color blind and thinks pink is purple. I suppose I will admit that he was right about the tie-dye coming back. He was just ten years early.

Labor Day .......... Literally........

Found this treasure hiding in the vines. Can't wait to see how big it will get.......

It is Friday and the weekend is upon me.............. I have battled the rash that engulfs my entire body all week. My face is much better, though still red. My abdomen is still very tender. I am very clean, though. He who went to the pharmacy and returned with a product to wash the poison oils away. It provided lots of relief ...... for about 3 hours. That means I was taking 3 to 4 showers every day and followed it with a good coating of Ivy Dri. If that didn't kill the urge to scratch, I slathered Caladryl or cortisone ointment on.








After two days of this, my skin was really dry. On day three, when he who loves me sprayed the Ivy Dri on my belly I thought I would scream .............. I think I did. It set my skin on fire and I was in agony until I returned to the shower. After washing that off I applied a thick layer of Neosporin and finally got some relief. A chemical burn, I suppose. I took Benadryl in the evening to help with the itching as well as to help me sleep.








Felt better yesterday and I even went outside to survey the neglected gardens and see what I could see. I was pretty weak after laying around itching and watching Lifetime movies, so I had to come back inside. I only had two showers yesterday and found ice on the belly to be helpful. I felt so much better by bedtime that I didn't take any Benadryl. I was awake with HGTV until about 1 am..................








I am usually the first one up every morning. I get up quietly and scoop the dogs out of the bed to take them out and then get the coffee going. If he who sleeps like a rock is not awake by 9 or 9:30, I go wake him. He knows that I have had a horrible week and has been very sympathetic. I felt a dog rolling on her back this morning in that hazy prelude to wakefulness and knew that he who never gets up early was up and I could hear the sounds of him dressing. I felt the thump of a tail wagging and I lay there trying to hold on to sleep .............. sure that he would gather the animals and take them out. He didn't and I heard one, then two dogs jump from the bed and tap across the floor in search of he who should have taken them out. Emmy is unable to get down by herself, so I got up and gathered my four legged babies to get them out to relieve themselves. He who drinks too much Diet Coke was in the kitchen filling his Bubba Mug with his vile brew as I headed to the back door.








"Why didn't you take the dogs out?" "I thought they would go back to sleep." I admit that I wanted to punch him, but decided it would take too much effort and fully intended to just let it go ............. "That's what you always do." No, it is not and he really would have done better to keep his mouth shut. Let's just say that our initial morning exchange wasn't conducive to a pleasant day. All is forgiven now, since the first of our holiday campers has arrived (before 9 am) and the weekend has officially begun.








My belly is still tender and I am still a little itchy (hey, I feel a rhyme forming ......... ), but duty calls. I decided yesterday to put make-up on today and pretend that I feel great. It might work ... I will let you know.