It rained Friday, and the weather man promised a sunny day on Saturday. All day long the clouds frowned and threatened, but when it came time for everyone to gather at Nan's the sun broke through!
The men gathered around the non-fire and gossiped a bit while the ladies were about the business of readying the chow. There were brats, hot dogs and burgers. Some in BBQ sauce .... some without (I don't like BBQ sauce). Potato salad, pasta salads, baked beans and lots of corn. Fresh corn on the cob. I took applesauce. Not from a jar, but fresh from my own apples I plucked from my trees, washed and cooked and sent through the food mill.
Here comes Patrick and Julie with the green beans cooked in ham. Yum! We needed special parking for all the golf carts that eventually made their way to Nan's site.
Nan's sister, Doris brought her own camper! She really needs to get a seasonal spot here and then she wouldn't have to bring it along ..... it would already be here! They brought all the corn, too. Enough for an army of corn eaters.
This is my gift from Nan. She knows me well. Why must I be a statue MOST of the time! She the necklace? I know, you recognize the fact that I have one on, but you can't really see it. It is a tiny dachshund. I love it and wear it every day. Barb knows me well, too.
Saturday was a pigeon day for me! Except .... now that I see this picture of myself, I notice that I am not as young as I used to be. The camera is brutally honest!
"Do you have potable water here?" Of course we do. "Well, I can't shower in it unless it is potable." We have our water tested monthly, I tell the man. "Yes, but is it potable?" Again, I tell him yes. "Because if you have your water on top of your septic tank, I won't use it." Another reassurance and he keeps saying "potable" and mispronouncing the word.
This is just too much work for the measly $5 I charged him to dump and fill his holding tank. "Where can I fill my water tank?" I grab a map and tell him that since he pulled into the exit drive he will need to turn around, then he can drive straight to the dump station. There is a hydrant there. "But is that water potable?" "You have the dump station and the water together." "How can that be potable?"
Please let this day end. Carefully, not giving in to the urge to laugh hysterically, I explain that the SOURCE of the water is nowhere near the septic lagoon. You have water in your bathroom, don't you? Doesn't mean you are drinking from the toilet bowl. Water pipes carry this to lots of locations ........ and they are all POTABLE. I over enunciate the word.
"Maybe I will just fill my holding tank later when I find some potable water."
Whatever.
As I sit here waiting for the oven to pre -heat, I am counting my blessings.
My asters are blooming!
I don't have to cook tonight. Tonight is my sweet Nan's annual July birthday celebration for those people she holds dear. I am proud to be among them. Yes, we know it is August. Who cares?
My Dad sounded good when I spoke to him this week. He had his second chemo of this round and said it wasn't so bad this time.
I will get to see my baby girl and her baby boy this coming weekend. We will only spend one night here, then head to Georgia to see my dad. We will be leaving Papa with 5 dogs to tend, as our grand-dog, Max, is coming with them.
My good friend kamper Julie will be out to clean my bathrooms in my absence! Maybe she will give He Who tows a crash course in the necessity of scrubbing the most used areas ...... the entire bathroom!
So, are you wondering why the oven is pre-heating? I heard through the grapevine that Nan's sister Doris (she is one of the July birthday people) was longing for some sticky buns. Far be it from me to deny her the pleasures of my cooking!! We don't need a dessert, but she will get some sticky buns all for her.
Last weekend I made some apple pies with my abundance of fruit and texted certain much loved kampers to join us for pie and ice cream at the office. We wiped out two pies and made a good dent in that ice cream. It was a new recipe I had never tried. I always like to try out these things on the core group of kampers. Some of them can be counted on to tell the truth about what they like and don't like.
This recipe caught my eye for it's simplicity. You just heaped the apple slices onto the crust, then covered it with lattice. You cooked up the sugar, cinnamon, and butter concoction and poured that over it all. Reminded me of caramel apples. So, Barb, another kamper I love, commented that she would probably like my sticky buns with chopped apple added to the caramel. Did that today, too.
Hope they all turn out good, cause if they don't, someone else I know and love (He Who loves desserts) will be eating a whole lot of sticky buns!
The unrelenting humidity has kept me drenched in sweat for two days now. Didn't stop me from mowing what seemed to be several acres of grass yesterday. Every time I went out and came back in I drank at least a quart of water.
Today is overcast with a strong breeze blowing. I mowed my dog's yard this morning and will get the dog park this evening when it cools down.
As I was going about my morning routine, putting a load of laundry on, then checking the bathrooms to see what paper product needed replacing, I heard water running. Not the water filling the washer. The men's bathroom door stood open and there was someone in the shower! Only the flimsy shower curtain between him and the whole wide world. I keep thinking that I can no longer be surprised, but this was a first.
Though sorely tempted to enter and start mopping, I ambled on to the ladies room and started my day in there. I currently have two tents with occupants. One site is a man and his wife and the other site has a couple and their two children. The children are boys, but that still leaves two female occupants in the park, in tents. So, why, I wonder did no one use the ladies room since my last visit? The paper towel roll was a new one and still unused. So, you are thinking, they must not have washed their hands. Ditto on the toilet paper. I tend to ponder such things.
Upon exiting the ladies room, I see the men's room occupant of the public shower leaving. He offers a "good morning" to me as he makes his way back to his site. Wonder what he would have said if he had found me scrubbing the toilet when he exited the shower stall?
Yesterday, after mowing, I turned on the sprinklers, in an effort to cause rain to fall from the sky. I also hung laundry on the line, but I did not wash my vehicle. I don't put fuel in it, so it stands to reason that I am not going to wash it. No rain fell, but I moved the sprinklers from dry spot to dry spot all day long. The rest of the time was spent answering the phone and taking care of swimmers and campers.
A late swimmer came in. I know this guy, but could not tell you his name if my life depended on it. He thinks himself to be quite the ladies' man and flirts with me in front of his current girlfriend. I am probably old enough to be his mother and find him to be ...... greasy? Just really don't particularly like him. He tends to show up with women and their young children and makes a big show out of paying for everything (like $3.50 to swim and a coke is a big deal).
Upon finishing with the check-in and the long decision over which soda to buy, I went out to move my sprinklers again. Just in time to see him reach up to my apple tree and pluck an apple off, then throw a grounder as if the apple were a ball and he was coaching little league. If I was not particularly fond of him before .....
I briefly entertained a fantasy involving a baseball bat and his head ....... I am at bat. I may be suffering a severe case of camp-host burn-out.
We buy our pool chemicals and supplies at Sam's. It is the cheapest and most convenient. We do buy the paint from on-line vendors.
The previous owners used "In The Swim". Since we didn't change the name of the park when we bought it, we would get catalogs and phone solicitations from time to time from this supplier. We have not ordered anything from them for the past 6 years. Every time they call, I tell them that we get our chemicals elsewhere, giving them the opportunity to come back with a sweeter deal. They never do. They could offer free shipping and a better price and I would buy in a heart beat.
This year, they have changed their tactics and assigned "account specialists". The same person calls every time. Mine is a young man who could not sound more indifferent. Sometimes I ignore the call and let it go to the answering machine. Sometimes I tell the guy that I am merely a desk clerk and would be happy to make a reservation for him, which frustrates him to no end. Then there are times I will argue prices with him, before telling him that I am not in charge of ordering supplies. I am easily amused.
Last week he called while I was indisposed (I was cleaning bathrooms). When I came in and listened to the machine he was reciting his job title and asking for a call back in a sing-song voice. Poor guy, I would hate to have his job. But ....... I bet I could do it better! I could make that account come back to life, like a "specialist" should.
Monday again. Another sleep deprived Monday. An amazing thing happened Friday night. Oscar, the cantankerous old doxie, slept ALL NIGHT!
That is not to say that I slept blissfully through the night. I did wake at the times he would normally be whining for me to take him out. I admit that I did check to make sure he was breathing before I slipped back off to the land of slumber. It was almost like sleeping all night for me. I woke feeling quite rested. Oscar and I had a long talk about how very happy I was that we both got some sleep.
Saturday night was a nightmare. He got up three times before 1:30 and then all the dogs were up at 5:50. I gave up and got up, too. It makes the day unbearably long. I was lucky enough that He Who tows was kind enough to watch the store for 2 hours and I got a nap. Lucky, because he did not get a call that would have ended my blissful sleep.
So, all rested, I cooked up some tomato sauce using up all my ripe tomatoes. I threw in some of the shallots from my garden, as well as some basil, and oregano picked along the way. It smelled heavenly as it simmered. I even baked a loaf of bread to go along with the spaghetti dinner I had planned.
He Who finally came home from his latest tow. Before we could sit down and eat, though, he announced that a part of his hearing aid was stuck in his ear canal. I couldn't even see the thing. Apparently he had been digging in his ear, trying to dislodge it and only pushed it further in. I tried, with the aid of a flashlight and tweezers to grab it and pull it out. He tried and only succeeded in gouging his ear canal.
I suggested a trip to the nearest ER, but he declined. We ate and watched some TV, then went to bed. He did not complain once. I suppose he was hoping it would fall out while he slept. I offered to drive him to an ER before I let sleep envelope me ..........
Oscar, the dog was sleeping soundly, but something had wakened me. It was the light of the cell phone bobbing around the room. He Who sticks things in his ear was attempting to dress in the dark. I watched for a bit before I spoke. He seemed confused as he searched for a shirt.
All of his t-shirts are stained with grease and oil. I have hidden a couple for occasions just such as this, lest he simply grab one out of the store. He finally decided on one that had no stains on the front, but had an impressive streak of axle grease on the back. I thought about getting up and handing him a decent shirt until I looked at the jeans he had pulled on. He was all matched up. I was not going, so ..........
Wall-E, the wonder dog was leaping from bed to floor and back again. He aroused the other dogs and I headed out with Oscar in my arms, the other three at me heels. This accomplished, we all headed back to bed and slept until the master arrived home with empty ear canals some time later when we made another trip out of doors.
Now, lest you be wondering why He Who tows could not take the dogs out while his wife slept, let me set you straight! This never happens. The nightly potty run involves picking Oscar up and carrying him to the grassy yard. Oscar will try to bite him, despite the fact that he does not have the teeth to complete the task. As long as I am in sight, I am the only one allowed to tend to his needs.
As special as this makes me feel, it is sometimes a curse! A good night's sleep would be preferable.
It is looking like fall too soon! As much as I am enjoying the cooler weather ..... it just makes it seem like time is passing too quickly. Mums are blooming already!
Apples are falling, too. Should be a few more weeks until they are ready. This tree has branches laying on the ground. I had to clip some of the limbs, as they were about to break. Some of the fruit was rotting. I have three huge containers on the table in the store. Drop by and I will give you some!
I only harvested two lone peaches. The rest of the fruit is still hard and green. I watched one peach start to ripen and was waiting patiently for it to be at it's peak of perfection. I reached up and plucked it down, only to discover a bird had feasted on the top!! I cut that part away and ate the rest. It was sweet and juicy and I would have licked my arm, but for the Benadryl cream covering the rash. Same thing happened to the other peach. Must have been the same bird.
The purple Martins that nested on the eaves of the porch earlier this Spring are back and have built another nest. I had taken down the nest after the babies flew away. There are four adult birds swooping at me as I go about my business now. Must seem like Spring again to them!
