Wasp Hives

We have a tenant here in our midst who has managed to enchant me. If you are here for any amount of time you will, no doubt, meet him.

He knows the goings on of the park and can tell me who is breaking my rules. All of 5 years old, he has become the heart beat of the park. I recognize the same spirit of independence in him that still lives in my youngest child. I try not to put names in here. Well, except for my own family, but if you have ever been here ...... you know his name!

Yesterday he gave me the details and locations of the wasp "hives" on the pavilion. His mother and I looked at him and said "hives?"  He just shrugged and said "like bee hives". Not long ago he informed his dad that I had witnessed him running my stop sign and told him he was going to get them kicked out!

Gotta love that kid! He knows it, too. He came in the store yesterday, face bright red from the heat and told me that he had been "all over the park" and that it was hot out there. Then he wondered if I could give him a Dr. Pepper. Of course I did, he thanked and went on his way.

HeWho battles winged intruders took care of those "hives" last night.

Gnome-like Creatures and Dwellings

I set about making a Gnome house for my garden of odd creatures. I was searching for a roof .....
Even I have to admit that the red painted bundt pan was a poor choice.

The house is a big plastic container that previously held pretzels. This was from one of those marathon cookie making adventures of Christmases past. I purchased $2 worth of rocks at the Dollar Tree and used a product similar to Liquid Nails to attach them. This resulted in a very heavy object that even our gusts of winds won't be able to blow away.

The door is lattice salvaged from the dumpster. I happened to see someone tossing it and grabbed it. This was a while back, but I knew it would come in handy at some point. I used a bottle of furniture scratch repair to "stain" it and found an old drawer knob among my carefully guarded junk.

But the roof had me at a loss. I looked at some craft stores on-line and decided that a thatch roof would look good. I even considered cutting the bristles off a straw broom ....... until I saw how much they cost! All of the brooms I currently use are nylon bristles, so sacrificing one of them was not an option. I decided to sleep on it while the adhesive dried over night.

The very next morning, as I was picking around in one of my many flower beds I came upon the solution! There it was, right in front of me. The tiger lilies had bloomed and gone, leaving the reedy stem. If you pull them just right, they will let go and you will have a nice long reed to work with.

Since the opening to the container was round, I had a round roof in my head. I even demonstrated one to HeWho was about to leave on a mission for electrical and plumbing stuff. Paper would not work, though, has to be able to withstand weather. I had a epiphany! A funnel.

It worked. So, what do you think? Would you live in my tiny house?

No hinges on the door, though. Not very practical unless you are a Gnome .....

A Good Dose Of Public Humiliation

With a short week, the weekend seemed to appear suddenly. The weather is hot and sultry, making mowing a miserable task. That being said, sitting here all day is boring. I think I might have dozed off for a full 10 minutes when the door flew open and the gentleman I had checked in earlier came in to enlighten me about wireless internet ......

Really, I don't care how it works, just that it works. He started to leave twice, opened the door, then came back to give me more advice. I have no idea what he said, I wasn't listening. My eyes were tracking the fly he let in. This new fly joined the old fly to annoy me and I was itching for him to go and leave me on a fly killing adventure.

The day had just begun when I noted that some children were on the porch. I had unlocked the door, but still had a few minutes before I was supposed to be open. A man came up to join the children and entered the store. He said he wanted to rent a tent site, so I grabbed a registration and laid it on the counter. This is when he told me they had already set up the tent. Taking this opportunity to educate the public at large, I informed him that check-in is not until AFTER NOON, since check-out is noon.

He said they could take down the tent and come back later. I asked how long he had been on the camp site and he told me they came in a 6:30 am. I had to bite my tongue before saying, "And here you are, already drinking." He reeked of alcohol and body odor. He told me it was him, his wife and two children, although I am pretty sure I saw three little heads. He handed me $22 and I gave him a receipt and he went on to embellish his tale of trying to give the children a nice camping adventure, even though he had "hurt his back" and was feeling bad. Maybe the alcohol was for medicinal purposes?

I lit a candle after he left to refresh the air. HeWho sometimes works here was out on a mission to procure a drill bit to drill out the lock on one of the coin-op washers. He had already replaced the lockset once, but lost the key. Now the box is too full of coins to operate properly. I don't think he has drilled it open yet and it is nearly 4:00. I can't say that he even purchased the drill bit, although he did stop at the bakery and get some fresh glazed donuts for his wife.

The donuts are long gone and I have just thought of the full coin box again. I did remember to ask if he had checked the drop box for after hour check-ins. This is when he told me that one of our campers who happened to be up late took note of a family setting up a tent. My ears perked up. No other tenters here except my early alcohol drinker and HE LIED TO ME!

The tent family was absent from the site when HeWho was dispatched to collect more money from the drinking dad who lies. I was biding my time watching to see when they would return. In the meantime, the phone rang at regular intervals. One call was from a man looking to tent camp next to his ex-wife and her family. I asked for a name, but already knew who he was referring to ..... since I had only one tent in the park. I am pretty smart like that.

This man, when asked how many people would be in his reservation, took the time to tell me the ages of all his children, ending with a 4 week old baby and asking if he had to pay for the baby as well. I was not in a happy frame of mind, having been lied to earlier by his ex-wife's husband, so I said yes.

I doubt they will be showing up. When the dad who drinks  and lies was confronted, he chose to break camp and leave, rather than pay for another night. He informed HeWho confronted him that he was "just trying to let my kids have a good time", that he is from Georgia and the game wardens don't act like this. Game warden? Are you hunting?

So, looks like drinking, lying dad makes a habit of over stepping boundaries, as far as truth is concerned.

Since my chair nap was interrupted, I meandered out to the pool to see that my posted rules are being blatantly disobeyed. Why is it that everyone thinks they are exceptions? Not only do I have the rules POSTED on a 4' X 8' sign, I tell people checking in what my expectations are. I do not slur my words and I do not need amplification to be heard. I speak slowly enough to be understood and I enunciate well. I even look you in the eye and ask you if you understand what I am saying.

So, don't act surprised when I catch you red-handed and publicly humiliate you!

Fireworks

Thanks to a kamper, I can see the fireworks I missed while dealing with issues. What a great shot!

You can see that the surrounding area where HeWho likes to light up the sky with kamper Terry in the danger zone. The rest of the kampers were in the safe zone, with the pond in between.

I heard about a fire at the end ...... I didn't worry much, as there was no report of screams of pain. They had water close by, after all.

Open To Suggestions

I am open to suggestion .......

How to make people pick up after their animals? Today is mowing day. The dog park gets mowed on Mondays and Thursdays. Who does this task? Why, me, of course. I am usually not so incensed on Thursdays. Mondays, however, are awful. It is hot, the sun baking down as I police the park for poop and scoop up not one, not two, but six very substantial droppings. Had to have been big dogs, making me think back to all the dogs I saw this weekend.

The tenter that comes to mind is the woman who took two big dogs into the ladies room with her. I know this, because I was cleaning and restocking when she stood waiting at the door. Why, I wondered did she need to take the dogs into the restroom? I admit that I checked after she exited to see if the dogs had relieved them selves. They didn't and might be wonderful, obedient dogs for all I know.

I thought of her because she was the reason for most of my misery on Saturday. During the parade, as we were dropping dogs and dragging them she called me three times about a tent site. Every question she asked could have been answered on the website she told me she was looking at while she talked to me. To say that I was extremely busy Saturday would be an understatement. She came into the office and began with questioning me about tent sites. She then told me that her daughter was "having a fit" on 58 because she saw that big RV's were parked on the sites around her.

First of all, it is customary to check-in and be assigned a site before you begin setting up. Though I voiced this, it seemed to not matter to her. Thinking she was on site 58 I marked that spot as taken and moved on with my day. Thanks to many helping hands I was able to get the picnic area set up and ready while DJ, Best Kamper Ever!, cooked all those burgers I had hand made. HeWho was running about taking care of fire wood deliveries and interacting with all of our guests. A big rig arrived and needed a substantial spot to fit in. Since we had just hooked up sewer and had rock delivered to the newly leveled site, I drew the route on my map to site 52 and sent the people to the site. I no sooner went back outside to finish setting up tables and getting the area ready to receive covered dishes than my phone went off.

HeWho usually texts me was calling "Why did you put a tent on 52?" I responded that I did not put a tent on 52 and went on to ask him if he thought I had lost my mind and why would I use one of my few 50 amp sites left for a tent. I must have been on speaker, or maybe I was talking loud, because I heard the woman say I had assigned the site to her!

This is when it all fell apart. That rig went to a spot already reserved for a rig that had called to come in a day early. As luck would have it, another huge rig pulled in without reservations and I insisted that HeWho is non-confrontational go make the tent woman mover her vehicles, because, although I was told there were only three people and one of them a child; they had three tents and three vehicles.

Now I was left to find a space for the day early arrivals. I put them in a water and electric site and compensated them with a $12 discount. The man said that he was okay with that and he was the only person I dealt with during their stay. As I always do, I invited them to join us at the pavilion for food and entertainment and later fireworks. I have no idea if they came over to participate.

I got a call Sunday morning from a very irate woman with a litany of complaints. She began with her reserved site being given away. I apologized and told her I thought I had compensated them. I could barely get a word in. She then told me they had no water on their site. I remembered then that DJ had told me that the man had approached him and he had taken care of it by adding a "Y" to another hydrant that was working. I told her that and she told me that she was not notified that the problem had been resolved.

Her next complaint was that the ladies' room shower had no cold water. I apologized again and told her there were two other showers in the park. Once again, nobody "told her". I always go over the map and tell people where all the amenities are located. Most people do not pay attention to what I say (proof would be the dog poop, because I always point out the dog park and tell them they are welcome to use it, as long as they clean up after their dogs). Not only that, if you are not present when I say these things ...... should I be required to follow you to your site and prepare a speech for all present in the camper?

The woman was so intent on complaining that I could barely get a word in ...... and let me assure you, that does not happen often! She wanted a refund for the $26 I charged them. It was on a charge card and I guess she thought that I could access that information. You do realize that once the transaction has occurred, that information is no longer accessible to the merchant. If I have taken your information on the phone, the very first thing I do after you set off to your site is destroy that information with a black marker. I had to get somewhat rude to make her hear me and give me the credit card information again. I did refund her, although I didn't think I should have. I realize she will no doubt give me a bad review and never ever stay here again.

But, it is tent lady with the two big dogs and numerous vehicles, who, apparently cannot read numbers that remains a thorn in my side. She is the one who set the chain of events in motion and the dog poop was just the right size for her dogs!!

The Mouse In The House

In the midst of the festivities going on all around me, I made a mad dash into my domicile to check on the animals and get a bathroom break for myself.

Being the selfless one that I am, I tended to my pets first. As I was opening the back door, I noticed that Eddie was intent on playing with the many toys he had gathered at the door. He always has a menagerie of toys at the door, sometimes he will choose one to take outside with him. I was in a bit of a hurry and almost missed the fact that the "toy" Eddie was playing with was alive.

The mouse seemed to be happy to play with Eddie. He would pick him up and them put him down in order to chase the rodent. I demanded that Eddie "get the mouse". Eddie looked up at me and the mouse scurried under the cabinet. I was not upset with Eddie, he is just a baby. I was, however, annoyed with Martha, the boy cat, Martha was right there in the midst of the action, He was watching and made no move to retrieve the mouse. He just stared at the tiny rodent, as if deeming it to be too small to interest him. Martha being a big game hunter of rabbits and squirrel and once a crow.

How did the mouse get into the house? Not sure. HeWho fixes things could be to blame. He recently replace the door knob on the back door. The old one was locking upon closing and required a screw driver to open it. HeWho procrastinates bought the new door knob immediately, but chose to "fix" the situation with some strips of electrical tape. Didn't really work and made the lady of the house complain. When he finally installed the new knob, it would not close properly. I woke one morning to find the door open. I wonder why a mouse would want to take refuge in a house full of animals, but, I am not a mouse and apparently Eddie befriends all the creatures he meets.

It is just as likely that Martha, the boy cat, brought the mouse to his favorite canine. While Toni Louise, the only female in the pack, lacks any maternal instincts whatsoever, Martha seems to think that Eddie is his baby. Martha grooms Eddie and Eddie can bite Martha and jump on him ..... things the other dogs would not dare to try.

Doesn't matter how the mouse got in the house. The mouse must go. Traps have been set.

  

 

Eddie and Cujo .... waiting for their cat.

Pets on Parade!

Where to begin? The fireworks were fantastic ..... I was told. I did have a chair to seat myself in, just never sat down. Maybe the middle when I ran in for a quick bathroom break and decided to let the dogs out, only to discover a mouse in Eddie's custody?

In an effort to get the information out to all the campers and avoid lots of questions, I put a sign on the door. Bright green, to catch your eye. I did see some people actually reading it, but soon felt like I might have wasted my time and energy ......

I was ready at 11 AM, really I was, but just at that time people began coming in for purchases and campers started to arrive. Really hard to judge when a camper will appear, but CHECK-IN is anytime AFTER noon and one would have thought that the sign on the door would suffice as an explanation that the store would be temporarily closed during this time. One would be wrong.

Wall-E ditched his hat first. He was having none of my patriotic mumbo jumbo. I even tried to apply duct tape to his head ..... It was a job just to keep his harness on. He jumped from the cart at one point and was being dragged along like Aunt Edna's dog in Vacation.

Since we were leading, the shouts from those behind us alerted us to his predicament. He was unscathed, golf carts don't go that fast. I jumped off to rescue my most senior dog and HeWho was driving then drug me along with only half of myself on board. I am still unsure if this was intentional or not. Toni Louise must have thought this was a bizarre game and she was next to jump.

This is Roxie ..... She won the prize for the most patriotic dog. I hope I spelled her name right! I think the award should go to her people, Terry and Sharon for being able to make her keep that costume on!!

The golf carts were dressed for the big affair.

Bikes were not to be out done!!

 

 

 

 Dixie and Trixie seemed as happy as my dogs!

 

Miss Kitty has captured my mood! Miss Kitty is somewhat dainty compared to Martha, the boy cat. Martha hunts all night and was not available for costuming and parades ...... he was sleeping on my pillow.

Miss Kitty is a hunter of different sorts. She likes to roam around and check out décor. If you leave your door open, she will go right in. She won't stay long, just wants to look around. I think she has a secret language and tells her people, DJ and Andrea what other people have done to their campers.

So, are you wondering about the mouse in Eddie's possession? Tomorrow .......

Eddie and Cujo stayed on the cart for the duration.