Rainy day in Western Wisconsin

Avatar for quite_contrary
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Rainy day in Western Wisconsin
4
Mon, 05-05-2003 - 12:27pm
Things here are really greening up and getting gorgeous. Many trees and shrubs are flowering and new spring leaves bring such a variety of color almost like fall but a bit more 'springy'. Anyway it is nice to see color again.

Since it is raining my satelite won't work so I am coming to the garden thanks to my old dial up and it is so slow it kind of take the fun out of it. I will try to catch up on posts when I can. Rain is predicted for the next couple of days at least. We can use it. I didn't get my ponds done yet but at least I now have all the biological additives and things I need to get them up and running just need to wait for the weather to co-operate.

One thing about living here in Contraryville is: There is never a dull moment. Saturday morning we got up very early to go find carpet for the new office. We got some really nice stuff then went to Best Buy to exchange my broken new camera. The camera at that store they would have given me had some problems and so I exchanged it for a Sony which is what I had originally gone to buy. It is still small but much larger than the Cannon was but has a better picture and does almost all of the same things. Now I have to take the camera bag that I bought back as it is too small to fit the larger camcorder. After we went to breakfast we stopped into a place to get all the pond stuff I needed and then got a call from DD that Isabel was running a very high fever and she had nothing to give her. We stopped at a store and brought her some advil and tylenol for children and visited a few minutes. She is better today but still running a temp. As we left DD's DH turns the car away from home instead of towards it and I asked what we were doing. He informed me that he was taking the rest of the day off and we were going up to our favorite camp ground to look at what was available. So off we went it is about an hour and a half drive.

We got there and saw advertised on the bulliten board a park model for sale. They are like big campers or little trailer homes that stay permenantly in the camp grounds. DH called the owner and insisted that we wanted to look at it and so they came out to show it to us. 1/2 hour later we were the proud new owners of a park model home in the most sought after area of the park, right on the creek. I am still in shock. I had no idea when I got up that morning that we would be doing anything like that. The funny thing is that the sellers left everything. All the furniture, bedding, grill, dishes, pots pans towels, EVERYTHING! All we needed was a toothbrush and the key. It is in excelent all most new condition even though it is 10 years old. Looks as if it has never been used.

My DH is one crazy man. We have always talked about doing this but I wish it were in Florida instead. We have always talked about buying one down there to stay in while down there. Who knows maybe we will buy one this year. I don't even know how much we will get to use it as my summers are pretty busy with the grand naughties. The campgrounds are open from April through October. I guess I will just have to take them with me. Don't want them to wreck it though. The camp ground has a lot to offer as far as fun things to do. It is half way between where my sister and my brother live so it is nicely located for visiting family.

Since we owned it we decided to stay overnight and come home in the morning. My sister met us there and we went out to dinner bought a few groceries, then back to the 'little house' to enjoy and visit. We had a leisure morning then drove home. We still haven't told our kids about it. We may keep it a secret.

Sunday was the day for the great launching of Dragonfly, Drew's boat. He spent 9 months building in one hour increments in his independent study class. He is the first student to build anything as big as a boat and the school wants pix to put in the paper. We brought it home Thursday and planned to have a picnic at the boat launch at 4PM Sunday after DH's open house. About 25 people were coming. However as the weather got nasty we thought to postpone the launching. The wind was blowing rain and it was down right cold and awful. Nobody in their right mind would come out in this. Drew and his friend and I were already in St. Paul to pick up his girl friend and her mother and DH said let's do it with just us. It began to blow and rain harder as we got to the boat launch but Hey we are tough blooded "Minnesoooootans" ya'know. We launched the boat and it is very impressive. Not even one tiny little leak. The wind was blowing so hard that we put a line on it so it wouldn't get blown over the dam. I got some video, was afraid the rain would wreck my new camera but we got lots of digital and regular stills. We only stayed there about a half and hour after the boat was launched. We were all soaking wet. He took his girlfriend out in it and rowed across a few yards but with the wind so powerful we did not dare loose the rope. She, Dragonfly, is a beauty though, rides very high in the water and rows easily, skims across the water. He can't wait to put it in on a good day. We brought all the snacks and pop back home to enjoy in our dry warm house and watched "Maid in Manhattan" It was a very good 'chick flick' I thought. Another friend came from Minneapolis who is a very good friend of Nics and ours. She had just come back from visiting Nic in the Dominican and brought along her pix and journals form her time there. She couldn't make it in time for the boat launching but we played back the video for her and showed her the dig pix. We had a lovely time in spite of the weather. In a way it was nice that it was just a few people.

And now we begin another busy week. My sister is coming for a visit on Wednesday should be fun. She wants to see Robins new/old house. The bathroom is finished except for a couple of details and we need to carpet the office and hallway. The family room needs a thurough cleaning after all the construction and I am still getting a lot of dust to wipe up even up stairs. We have changed the furnace filter so that should help.

Well that is the weekend report from Contraryville. Hope everyone in the garden is well and no one got blown apart by the tornados yesterday. South Dakota was as close as they came to us but I am sure our nasty weather was providing the cold front to set up such violent weather. See everyone in the garden soon. Glad I still have dial-up. Have a good week. MM

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-05-1999
Mon, 05-05-2003 - 12:43pm
Wow, MM! you had a busy weekend!

I hope Sweet Isabel is feeling better today. There's nothing worse than a sick child.

I'm jealous! I have wanted to create a pond for the longest time, but something has always prevented me from doing so. This may be the year! I'll start off really small ... perhaps a teeny tiny for our frontage. Then if I think I can manage something larger, there's lots of room in our backyard.

Congratulations on your new vacation home! I know you will enjoy it tremendously!

Here's to sunny skies and no need for dial-up! ;-)

F.

 

Avatar for brenner129
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Mon, 05-05-2003 - 1:06pm
Oh, Mary, how exciting. You should keep your private getaway a secret if only for just a little while. You will have to name it something special and restful, too. I am happy for you.
Bren
Avatar for quite_contrary
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Mon, 05-05-2003 - 2:15pm
Hi Brenda yes we were only partly kidding about keeping it a secret. It is in such excellent condition but it won't be if it has to survive through either my grand naughties or my brothers 6 kids. There is a campground rule that you can have all the guests you want while you are there but NO ONE can be there unless we, Mary or Roger, are there with them. At first I didn't like that rule but more I think about it is a good excuse not to let others misuse it. We really are going to see how it goes and how much use we get out of it and if it becomes a burden we may want to sell it in a couple of years. Sure wouldn't want to loose money on it.

I think we are going to name it "La Casa Piquena" Spanish for the little house. I would like the word 'dulce' (Sweet) in there too but need to consult my Spanish friends for the correct placement of the word in the phrase.

Avatar for granh
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Mon, 05-05-2003 - 7:34pm
Well, MM, what a busy, exciting weekend you had. Congrats on the new purchase. The campground we go to in MB has them, also. I've wanted to buy one, but I think we're getting on on the riva here in VA. Congrats to Drew on his boat launching. To bad about the weather, but NO LEAKS!!!! Hope Isabel will be feeling well soon. Have a good week. Hugs Lynda