Blackberry Ranger birthdays

This past Saturday was Bill's granddaughter Taylor's 1st birthday.  Of course we went to the party which is more for the parents and family friends than actually for the birthday girl.  Oh she loved her baby dolls and a child sized chair she got but really - she was more interested in just crawling around on the floor. 

 

The obligatory ice cream and cake was served to the guests as Taylor smashed her individual cake to pieces and consumed it with just her hands.  She dove right in like a champ and proceeded to demolish everything in a matter of about 15 minutes.

 

Sunday Bill and I went blackberry picking.  We have wild blackberries on our property as well as up the road so first we donned long sleeves and bug spray (Oh how I hate that stuff!) and drove the mule up the road to start there.  One particular blackberry bush was so big it was mostly in the farmers cow pasture next to the road.  Bill braved the barbed wire fence and the poison ivy and bugs to get to those small black jewels that would have remained just out of reach. 

 

Then we proceeded back to our yard and picked about a gallon of berries.  When we got back home I put the berries on the counter and proceeded directly to the shower!  No passing go, no collecting $200 for me - no I wanted that awful bug spray off! 

 

Monday was Bill's birthday.  I had to work so he puttered around the house all day and then we went out to eat when I got off work.  Blackened Salmon with mashed potatoes for him and steamed veggies for me. 

 

Oh, and Sunday night we also managed to go see The Lone Ranger.  Bill wasn't impressed.  I thought it was a funny movie and I love Johnny Depp so it was good for me.  :)  We also managed to get all of the linens and towels washed and back into the camper this weekend.  Bill doesn't have it placed back where we plan to store it yet as he wants to pull some stumps and level the ground a bit first.  We also have some rocks to pull from around the house and move to the campground to create a small fire ring near where we plan to set up the camper so that when we are out there by ourselves we don't have to walk so far to the big fire ring for dinner!  LOL We will be bringing his grandson Noah out in a few weeks for camping so we plan to do that whole cooking on the fire while he is with us. 

 

The shakedown cruise.....

This weekend was a great weekend! Beautiful weather, a new camper, and the woods to ourselves. At first I was a bit bummed that no one was able to join us for come camping but it turned out fine. We sat around the campfire and plotted and planned and talked about what we needed to do in the campground and what we needed to get for the trailer.

We found a few issues that will need to be fixed - have called them already this morning to set up an appointment. We found a few things we will need to get - like shelf liner, shelves, some 6x6 wood blocks for the stabalizers, etc. We spent time together, cooked over the fire, slept in the woods and just really had a great weekend.

We also managed to get some work done around the homestead. Bill is hanging the perlings for the ceiling in the bedrooms and bath and I helped him measure for the boards. We got both yards mowed and the campground. I weeded in the campground. We measured for the electric and water leads for the shower house. And we made plans for camping with his grandson (have to talk to mamma about this one first.)

All in all it was a great weekend - too bad this work thing gets in the way of our fun! :(

Here are a couple of pics for the trailer out in our woods:


This one was right after we got it parked and leveled.


Here is a closeup of it after we pulled the table and chairs over. I didn't get one of the awning out (forgot) but it provides some nice shade (not that we need it in the woods). Bill is planning on building a small fire pit nearby for when we are out there by ourselves - it's a long walk to the community fire pit to cook on! LOL And our friends Ana and Jim told us last year that we need a potty on this side of the road... I think I agree!

June Part II: What I did when I got home from summer vacation

So, I had looked around the campground at all the people that were in campers - everyone was just fine, dry and warm.... I think I'm done with tent camping. We went out on Saturday after we got back and were just going to look at campers... well here is our new camper:


This is from the brochure - the picture is just what our's looks like


Standing at the door looking back toward the bed.


Standing at the bed looking back toward the bathroom and closet but the front door.


This is the guest bed (Aubri's bed) when the kitchen table is down and the the booth is made into a bed.


This is the kitchen counter.


Kitchen from another angle.

It is just right - sleeps 3, has a bathroom, and awning and we can plug in solar panels too! We pick it up on Wednesday (just in time for the 4th) and I'll be spending my weekend loading it up from the old trailer so that we can camp in our campground this weekend. I told Bill that we need to take it to an RV park so we can plug it all in (water, sewer, electric etc) and try everything out soon. :)

So, it looks like I'll have a lot of camping gear for sale soon. I have a few friends that have already asked for a few things but once we get everthing organized - I'll put a list out of what I have to sell in case anyone is interested.

June: What I did on my summer vacation

June marks the time when we take our annual 2 week camping trip. This year was quite an adventure! We arrived on a Wednesday, set up our many EZ-Ups with tents hanging in three of them and had just gotten our tarps over the entire thing when it started to thunder and the skys got really dark. So, Aubri and I started putting all of our stuff in the tents because it won't get wet there.

As we got everything in our tents someone came by to tell us that there was a Tornado Warning - where do we go? The campground had a stone house with a basement - we should go there. I looked at Bill who then said to me "I'll be fine". Yeah - like I'm going to leave him in the camp when a tornado is raging through. We had a few words and exchanged eye contact... meanwhile, Aubri and I decide to walk up to the gate to see out across the fields at the storm. There is this beautiful tourquois color in the sky but no rotation. We stand there watching the sky for a while with some other folks when I start to see the updrafts. Then I see the rotation. Then Aubri points out the rain. A wall of water is headed our way!

We run to the stone house and get in the basement just as the rain hits. It rains hard for about 15 minutes. I wasn't worried about Bill at this point as the wind is not strong enough for a tornado. When we come back out of the basement, I can see our camp and everything looks fine. But once we get there - Bill has been sitting in the truck during the storm so no one was inside the camp to make sure the rain didn't pool in the tarps.... and pool it did! We had so much rain in such a short period of time that it had pulled the back side of the EZ-ups down. We lost one entire EZ-up and broke two more (brand new ones). We had to cut one tarp to drain the water. Everything got wet!

I was devastated! I have been camping for so long with never a drop of rain inside of a tent before... and now everything is soaked! We ended up going back into town to dry our clothes and stay in warm dry beds one more night. I returned the next day to fix our tents and replace the broken EZ-up and stayed our entire time this year. But... I decided that I was done with tent camping now.

Here is our set up this year:


Our camp from the road


Our back door


Our kitchen


Another view of our kitchen


Our common space