Bird Of Paradise?

I was about the business of killing weeds this morning when I came upon this little Mama bird. You have to look hard to see her as she blends well with her surroundings. She eyed me as I approached, but didn't back down. She watched my every move and I kept my distance so I wouldn't spook her. He who thinks he knows all says she is what they call a "deer kill". What? Or maybe a "kill deer". He is not sure and can't tell me why they are called that. I asked. I wondered if they eat dead deer, because I doubt they actually kill deer (or deers, as some folks around here are apt to say).

Anybody know what kind of bird this is. Yes, I know I could consult the Internet. I confess that I am lazy.

I hunted for her eggs after she walked away. They are good sized and gray, speckled black. Looks like she gathered some wood chips, but that is the only cushioning for them. They are in the gravel on the dump station. I hope they hatch this week.

I would hate to seem them squashed by a big rig, or worse, deliberately destroyed by some evil

doers. Such seem to come out on holiday weekends.

The text seems to have a mind of its own here.

Never mind, I have work to do! 

The Painting of the Pool

Twelve gallons of pool paint. The square footage of our pool indicates that ten gallons will cover it. Past experience has taught us to get a little extra ....

You cannot paint when the pool is in direct sunlight. Another lesson learned through experience. This what was accomplished by four people in one evening. We got the sidewalls done and most of the deep end. We only had two handle extenders and the men snatched them up right away. Marty and Michelle help us get the pool ready to open every year. This was the first year they helped paint. We all started with great enthusiasm, sure we could knock it out in just one evening.

With four people, we all started n the walls and then when we reached a certian spot, the men started on the floor. Michelle and I were left to fish the walls and cut into the edges that the rollers couldn't reach. After two hours it was apparent to all of us that we would not finish before it was too dark to see. We were also giddy from the paint fumes. I think we may have gotten a little loud with our laughter.

We had to quit as night fell. Seven gallons of paint had been slathered on. I decided to try my old trick with the plastic bag and freezer to preserve the rollers. The men were doubtful about my technique. But it worked and the next evening found the same foursome with the same rollers .... and two more extenders. When we got down to gallon number twelve we were all tripping over each other, so Michelle and I graciously departed and let the men finish.

Smurf blue. It is curing and there are a few more minor things to pick up and the water.

I woke this morning with a blinding headache. I suppose my fatique has caught up with me. I have so much that I need to do, but have decided to lay low until it is completely gone. I ventured out into the sun twice and only made things worse.

So here I sit, pondering the oddities of life and wondering what the holiday weekend will bring my way. So, I will share with you a joke I heard this weekend ....

A man enters a bar and takes a seat next to another on a barstool. He bemoans his lot in life, wishing he had more money and had not fallen on hard times. The man next to him suggests that he consult the genie in the men's room and ask that a wish be granted. He figures he has nothing to lose and seeks out the genie.

He returns to his stool and his companion is startled to see that the man's shirt is covered with ducks. He asks his new friend if he found the genie. "Yes, I did. I think he may be hard of hearing, though, because I asked for a million bucks, not ducks!"

"Well, that explains my 15" Bic!"

Old and Weary

 The baby birds are growing. Soon that nest will be way too small.

This is site 1. I have spent the last 2 days here. The water line broke and had to be dug up. Sounds simple, huh? I was down here weeding the garden and heard a hissing noise from the hydrant. When I say "dug up", I am talking about a huge hole 10 feet deep. The problem was fixed and it should have been a simple matter of filling the hole.

He who digs hit the retaining wall ...... well, both retaining walls. The wood was pretty much rotten and had to be replaced and the walls rebuilt. He who builds realized he lacked the skill and brute force to do the job alone and enlisted one of his cronies to help. They did a great job.

I was left will all the debris to clean up and make the site inhabitable. I raked, I dug, I seeded grass and burned tons of leaves and rotting wood. Two snakes gave their lives.

This is the garden on the back side of the site. Lots of hostas and day lilies lounging in the shade. I plan to cram so many lilies in that it will choke out all the weeds. Low maintenance and all ......

Dead tree needs to be removed. Could fall on the electrical line, so we called Ameren UE. A guy came out the same day. That, in itself was shocking. He said they would be out to take care of it "soon".

So, when a man entered the office late this afternoon wearing a hard hat and a shirt with Ameren's logo, what do you think I thought? Right you are, if you are thinking that I was excited at the quick response. I mean, the man had a hard hat on! He was about 6'5" and the hat added another three inches. So, I eagerly lead him to the tree, a little concerned that he is in an SUV, no equipment or bucket truck. But maybe he was going to haul out a chainsaw and snatch that big tree down.

I was wrong. He was here to check out the tree and tell me that Ameren would not be taking care of it after all. He said that if they had a crew close by, they would help me out, but that he could not justify the expense unless they had another job in the area. He suggested that I hire a qualified tree surgeon.

I weighed my options and decided not to applaud his frugal use of resources and suggest that he talk to the department in charge of billing and see if he could convince them to mail all seven of my bills in one envelope. Instead, I played the age card and told him that my husband was elderly and just shy of crazy and would no doubt attempt to take the tree down himself. I then reminded him that when his crews were working in our area we allowed them to park their equipment in our park overnight to save on fuel. I decided he didn't need to know it was a contractor  working for Ameren and that they gave me tons of mulch ........ I just told him that I allowed them to offload it here.

He finally came around and told me he would put the work order in, but that it wouldn't be a priority and might be as long as a month before they got to my tree. I am still patting myself on the back.

The new retaining wall looks good. The lighting was bad on this shot and I saw a kamper pulling in as I was taking the picture, so I had to go back to work.

I rented the site out and the new tenants will be in tomorrow. They looked at site last weekend and it was pretty rough. I cleaned it up, painted the picnic table and seeded grass. After that I mowed my back yard and did the dishes from two days. Then we painted the pool until night fell.

When my head hits the pillow, I will sleep. I hope.

People Are Strange

I harvested all my cherries today ...... all 7 of them. No pies this year.

My new smaller table in the downsized living quarters.

Love seat and chair. A make-do ottoman until I can make one with a hinged lid for storage and a nicely cushioned top for he who claimed the chair. The love seat is for me and the four legged creatures that long to be close to me.

That's it. Wall-E scampered about during the photo shoot.

I picked fresh flowers to adorn the table where Mom's could eat on Sunday. Just day lilies in bloom right now, so I stuck in a little greenery, weeds, and onions in bloom. Not very fragrant, unless you like the smell of onions.

Harvey presented me with this bouquet, all held together with electrical tape. Wonder whose garden he stole them from?

Coffee brewing and ready for drinkers.

Kamper Julie made the most delicious fish dinner for me. The least I could do was bake a cake!

It rained on Saturday, but the rainbow promised a wonderful Mother's Day. I woke as the sun was on the rise. My body protested, but I pushed myself to the kitchen to get the caramel sauce going. I had it all laid out the night before, but there is just so much you can do in advance.

The sauce cooked to perfection and the dough rose on schedule. I was tempted to catch a little nap during the rising time, but knew in my heart that I would not wake up after only 45 minutes. So, I did laundry and policed the restrooms and cut flowers. Finally the Mothers came in for the promised treats.

I woke he who made me into a Mother at 10 am and demanded my gift. All I asked for was a nap. I had a nice nap on the love seat while he watched the store. I woke refreshed, and somewhat disoriented. I had one dog clutched to my chest and another behind my knees. I was in that state of sleep that allows you to be aware of the goings on around you. I could hear the phone and the voices in the store.

During this gift of a nap, he who took charge of the registration desk checked in a couple requesting a tent site. No tent, just a car. I noted their presence yesterday morning as I was about the business of doing my chores. They had some sort of big rug draped across the car windows. Later I saw them sitting at the picnic table watching me mow.

It was late in the afternoon and I was inside trying not to scratch at my poison ivy rash when the woman came in the store. I had assumed they had left. Check-out is noon and it was now 4 o'clock.
She had a zip lock bag full of pennies, nickles and dimes. "This is $6.71 and I will give it to you for $4 worth of quarters. My husband is sick of all this change and I need to wash our clothes." I told her I would be happy to change her coins in quarters for her, all of it ( me being unaware that my quarters were worthy of being bid upon). "No, he doesn't want any of this change back, he is sick of it."

I started counting the change, I am not sick of change, but wanted to see for myself just how much change her husband was sick of. She meandered through the store. She complimented me on my sewing skills and I thanked her, but still insisted she take the balance of the change her husband was so sick of. She opted to rent three DVDs.

When I inquired about the length of their stay, she told me she had talked to "that man who checked us in" and they were going to pay for more days. Then she told me they wanted to live here. Before I could stop myself I said "In your car?" I did manage to stop myself from saying, "not here in my park".

She said she had fallen in love with my park and wanted to stay here indefinitely. The hair at the nape of my neck was rising, warning me about these kampers living in a car. She went on to tell me that they would get a tent, because the husband worked in Ohio and she would need shelter while he was working .........

She finally took the quarters and the DVDs, but refused the remaining 21 cents, asking if I had a penny jar she could put it in. The husband was adamant about that change, I suppose. I didn't bother to ask when she planned to pay for this night's stay. She did ask about monthly rates and I told her it was $400. She found this amount to be reasonable, being the amount she had paid for an apartment. I did not point out that it was not a good deal, since it did not include shelter and that they were on a site with no utilities.

When my own husband returned from towing and changing tires, I told him about the encounter and he said he would go check on the car dwellers after we ate our dinner. We got caught up in an episode of "Harry's Law" (did you know they are cancelling this show?) and, as usual, the door chimed as we watched. I put Harry on pause and my hero went out to talk to the infamous change hating husband. I could hear him, but couldn't make out all the words.

I did hear him say they were "checking out". The reason he gave was that I had been so mean to his wife and she was so upset that they could not stay here. Other than insisting that she take all of her money, I have no idea what he was referring to. We think that they didn't have enough money to pay and wanted to stay as long as they could. I still don't know why she insisted on renting those DVDs, since they were on a primitive site without power. And ........... why was he not at work in Ohio? They left with their now clean clothes, without paying for the extended stay. He tried to burn rubber as he left via the entrance drive.

I think we dodged a bullet of crazy.

Happy Mother's Day

The baby birds have hatched. Hard to tell how many. The little wings look like heads and the heads look like wings, but I see three little beaks. He who loves critters never listens to me and always touches the baby birds. He fondled the eggs, too. So, I guess it is a myth that the mother will reject her babies if a human comes into contact. I will be happy to see them take flight so I can dismantle their home and clean the shade up.

I painted a bunch of gourds this past week. I am trying to encourage the nesting to take place elsewhere in the future. This would make some fancy digs for the next bird considering a place to raise their babies.

I like this one, too. It makes me want a watermelon .....

Some of my ideas are better than others. This was supposed to spiral down in two shades of blue. The darker shade peeled off with tape. Oh, well.

The day lilies popped this morning. This is a little early for them, but everything has bloomed early this year.

The front porch has had a little face lift. I painted the front wall and the windows have been washed. I will paint the ceiling as soon as those birds take flight.

Since the front door is no longer being used, I had room for more checkers. I am going to remove the storm door and put up a bulletin board in it's place. You will note that one stump is cushioned. Kids will sit on anything, but the adults among us need a little cushion to sit long enough for a game.

Freddy the Frog will even alert you to the temperature.

More gourds await scrubbing .......

and more gourds on the old swing. The ferns hung in the store over winter and looked pathetic, but I put them out anyway and they are coming back with lush foliage.

If the other checker table is occupied, just go to the other side of the porch.

The patriotic side. Today has been long and slow. I have painted gourds and listened to an audio book. When I start to doze, I go out and pull a weed or two, then meander back in. I hate to be confined. The day is agonizingly long and I find myself counting down the hours until I can close. Twelve hours. T w e l v e. Half a day. I could go in and wash dishes, but that holds no appeal for me right now.

I could go sew, but I am in the last hour and a half and my brain is not functioning well. I lack inspiration. Tomorrow is Mothers Day. I will arise before the break of day and make the cinnamon rolls and sticky buns. All the moms in my park eat free tomorrow. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms in the land of blog!

What's For Dinner?

Strawberries and asparagus. This might be the last of the asparagus. I did not freeze any. We ate it all. We have had asparagus twice a week since it started popping out of the ground. Maybe next year will yield more and we will get sick of eating it ....... maybe. Strawberries are coming in so fast. Two days ago I picked about five quarts and two days before that the same amount. I shared my bounty with some of my campers and then froze about 4 quarts for my favorite son-in-law. He makes mead. Don't tell him I think the stuff tastes nasty ......... but I love him and will freeze more strawberries and peaches for him.

You may be wondering what I have been up to as the race to get everything done by Memorial Day continues. This little table was left in the trash by some kampers. It is a cool little table. The legs fold up and the table top rolls up. I painted the legs black and was about to do the same to the top when I put it on. Then I started looking at the slats of wood and thinking about a checker board. After carefully counting the slats, I found I had enough for two games. The table sits low, so we cut the legs on the stools lower. I am recovering them with a watermelon print and waiting for my frog erasers to get here to use as the game pieces.

The big leather sofa will no longer fit in my little living space. I wanted to remove it entirely, but he who threw his back out wasn't up to the task. Then I was struck with an epiphany. My small sitting room could handle two love seats. I suggested to he, who hates to hear "Honey, I have an idea ....." from me, that we cut the middle seat out of the sofa and then join the two ends to create a love seat. We could then use the middle to create an ottoman. He looked at me like I had two heads.

Now, before you picture a chainsaw ripping into the sofa, I had a plan. It involved carefully taking the stitching out of the leather across the back of the sofa, the cutting through the frame on each side and uniting the pieces, then I would either sew the leather or use decorative tacks. I know it would work. I watch HG TV, for heavens sake.

But my kampers all voted to keep the sofa in the store and I am too busy to implement my plan. Just don't be disappointed when it is gone next season and I have had a whole winter to play with my idea.......

 Pool toys at the ready and plenty of Coke product for hydration.

I am still playing with this wall. I like the clothesline and spent a rainy afternoon putting the rope lights up. Now I don't like them. I had over 60 garments to display. I have sold some and will need to get busy making more.

Sock monkeys hanging on a rope, tea cozies and stained glass in the case. My Daddy built the case.

Used to be the living room. The church pew and tables fit just like I imagined they would. Those gourds are the ones I cleaned last weekend while I was stuck inside.

Wide shot of the room. Another table and chairs. TV on the wall. Movies to rent. I am still not done displaying merchandise. I will do that this weekend when I am confined to the store. Too much to do outside right now.

T-shirts ready, flannel pants, too.

Need more candy and chips. He who loves chocolate has been eating the Hershey bars!

I will enjoy my freedom until the pool opens. Then I will be confined to the store and the snow cone machine. Such is the life of a kampground owner!

As I have been out mowing sites and weeding, always weeding, I have had much solitude and time to ponder. I think that is why I like to mow. The noise of the machine isolates me and my mind is free to complete a thought. While I like to paint, I always have the phone at my side. Have to get those reservations, you know. And answer questions.

My new favorite is the young woman who called to inquire about camping. I answered lots of her questions about the amenities of the park, the hot showers and the pool. She asked how much a hot shower cost and I told her it was included with her stay ....... "Do you charge money for camping?"

"Look, Daddy, they got snow cones here!! Can I have one? It's only a dollar."  Daddy answers with, "Nope, they must be out, I don't see none made." I had to explain that you can't make them up and display them ......... they will melt. Just like snow.

Kiss My Ashes

My peony before the storms ........... I didn't take a picture of the beat up bush with the stems bending to the ground where the flowers lay beaten by the rain and wind.

I left this morning at 8 am to run errands ...... not the least of which was a much needed haircut. The sky was dark as I was leaving and a few big plops of rain hit my windshield as I headed east. I kept an eye on the sky in my rear view mirror. It was scary dark and seemed to be chasing me. I put the cruise on 75 and gained some ground. After my hair was cut and styled the sky fell. It caught up with me with pounding rain and lightning.

I got soaked, but still managed to get everything done and drove home with dry skies. I have been on my feet all day. My right ankle is swollen. Doesn't hurt. Every time I try to sit and prop it up the door sounds and I have to jump up. It is good to be busy .........


I gave up on the foot propping and started working on some gourds. I flipped on the TV in the store to keep me company. It was that show on Oprah's network about strange addictions. I half expected to see the highly tanned woman who has been in the news for supposedly taking her child tanning with her. Whether she did or not, she certainly needs to seek out some help for her addiction. Well, that is my opinion.

The first addiction I heard was a woman who liked to eat dry wall (sheet rock). I am guessing a quarter sheet of drywall was what the Easter Bunny left in her basket. Then there was a man addicted to cycling. He could barely walk and had worn out his hips, but still was loathe to give it up. He cycled 7 days straight once and had a bottle handy for urine. Really, bad enough to be obsessed, but why did he want to share it on TV.

The most bizarre one was the woman who was eating her husband's ashes. Said it made her feel closer to him and that by consuming his remains, he would be with her forever. She admitted that it was not tasty, but said she could not stop. She then went on to describe how she would lick her finger and then dip it into the ashes, then eat the ashes. Her mother even appeared and begged her to stop, asking what she would do when the ashes were gone.

After that bit of enlightenment, an older gentleman entered the store and demanded to know where the state park was. Actually, he slapped the counter top and said, "I just want to know where in the hell the state park is!" I bit back my reply that I had hidden it when I saw him approach. I gave him directions and he turned to leave, then stepped back and asked how much it would cost for him to stay in my park. I told him and he informed me that I was gouging the public, since the state park is $6 cheaper. I didn't bother to point out that I did not receive any state monies to run my park. As the door shut behind him, I said, "I hope your wife eats your ashes."