dec 8f

full moon over lake. view from our camper. #18 gulf shores state park

hale hale the gangs all here. dave, phil, tom, beth, todd, scott, gail, me, jan and jo. fun group

angry gulf of mexico on one of my beach walks

tire snowmen around the park. cute!braden is home! after 13 months away serving our country. they got together for thanksgivning. braden, dalton, tamara, breanna holding Kolsyn, tamar, heather and eric

brett and bode. new grandaughter coming in May

beth and i trying out my new exlarge chair.

update time! Now in our home in Inverness Fl, got here nov 30th and spent 6 hrs unloading camper sydney of the stuff we brought down to put and mostly hopefully  keep in the house and not haul back and forth. then took the camper over to Bushnell so Laurie can use it all winter. she says she loves her tiny winter home. 

we had a get time in Gulf Shores. first 2 weeks the weather was beautiful! then 9 days of cold and the last few days it was just ok. had a ball hanging with all of our old friends from the last 6 winters. 

now the house is mostly settled and in place. they are putting in our carport as i type. nearly an $18000.00 cost. ouch. now tom wants to do windows in the 3rd bedroom. guy coming next week to give an estimate on this project.. broke a crown last night so now need to find a dentist to replace that. same one that has fallen off a couple of times. grrrr..   Went over to  laurie and beths on tues and hung with the girls for a few hours. put up christmas decorations and it seems way weird to decorate so much when its 80 plus degreees. 

 November 8 2022

Lordy i am getting worse about updating blog! We left Pine Harbor on oct 12. it was pretty chilly the last couple of weeks there. But we stayed longer for the oportunity to meet up with brad, mallory, brett and bode in River Falls where they were coming to for a wedding of mallory's cousin. fun time and so good to see them. havent seen the kids for a year already and they have grown so much! after leaving PH we spent 3 nights in River Falls. while there we got to experience a 2 inch snowfall. ICK! we moved on and spent a night in southern Illinois then got into mississippi for a bit of time. stayed in tupelo again but at a different campground . liked it a lot. tom caught bode's cold so was a bit under the weather for a few days so we ended up extending our stay a few days. met up with friends we met in gulf shores last year. then onto Quitman Ms for a nice stay right on the lake would definitely stay there again. After a week at Atmore Al Wind Creek Casino ( a loser i was) we ended up at Gulf Shores state park . Have had a great week thus far with friends beth, todd, jan, phil, jo, dave and gail/scott. always nice to have our friends around. lots of laughs and someone always has an idea of something to do. 

so far Sydney  our new to us travel camper is doing well, with no major issues! yay!!

fall at Pine Harbor. Chippewa

bode is enjoying hot tubbs and snow

kolsyn is getting big fast

hail hail the gangs all together

4 generations

bretts 14!

brett and  great grandma sperber

DuQuoin Ill. Fair grounds. $20 excellent spot!

Campground At Barnes Crossing. Tupelo Ms $45. good wifi and cable

Archusa Creek water park.  Quitman Ms. # 24. good wifi and tv. #22

beautiful sunsets from site!

 sept 28 2022

Wow. time to pack up and leave already.. we moved a bunch of stuff over to second camper "Sydney". and still have a bunch of stuff to move over last minute. she is filling up fast. glad we took a bunch of  down with us when we went to florida mid august with the u haul.. plan on leaving oct 13, go as far as river falls and meet up with brad and his family for one day. then go south where is hopefully be warmer. last week and a half has been chilly and windy with some rain. got most of the garden cleaned out. just need to till it under for the winter. it ended up producing well. canning count (mostly quarts) is 7 rhubarb, 12 strawberry/rhubarb jam, 12 salsa, 6 chili, 14 pizza 3 stewed tomatoes, 3 tomato juice, 10 frozen corn,   2 qts refrigerator pickles, 5 pints green beans.  along with at least 20 # of potato on the last dig and around 15 # onions and one head purple cabbage to take with.  . not bad including all the stuff we ate all summer long.  lots of work but i love the benefits in the winter. except for strawberries all came out of the garden.  we spent a few days at the cabin and had val and ken join us for a night. also, went to a wedding in minong and saw a bunch of folks we havent seen for a bit. stopped at our old neighbors the Ruuds  in minong and caught them home. great catching up. also went for a bike ride on the Old Abe trail in cornell with some hayward hospital friends. great day with them also. also spent a day with the rykal  sister in laws while the guys golfed and had a fabulous day. sister in law donna had a 70th birthday party in cadott and saw yet again more old friends we havent seen in awhile. been a busy 7 weeks. also went to florida with the  u haul and dropped a load of stuff off at the house. starting to look more like home. weather in august in florida. very hot and very very humid. uff da.  as of right this moment Hurricane Ian is hitting florida gulf coast. hitting Port Charlotte area where friend gail has a  winter home..predicted to be really bad. initial projections were to hit  north of tampa but the angle changed.. whew! missed the bulls eye there. have not done much  bike riding this year. always seem busy doing something else. looking forward to meeting up with beth/todd, jan/phil, jo/dave and gail/scott for the month of november in Gulf shores alabama. 

50th class reunion with my old friends carla piehl and deb ellis

just one picking from the garden

niece hanna and her family along with niece marisa came to joels for a visit. 2nd generation of kids are now coming too. Lainey and Louie joined in

sister in law fun day. debbie, kathy , myself and donna. we had sooo much fun and laugher

karri, gail, mary and i on our bike ride

moms 91st! lunch at Fill Inn, Lainey loved joining us

payton at her first horse show. she got lots of ribbons. love that the girls love the horse world!

kendall did great too! she is a natural

val and ken joined us at the cabin. we had a fire! i think the first one i have ever participated in at the cabin,

hail storm at pine harbor

daughter in law mallory is very involved in the DART program. they successfully launched a spaceship into and asteroid and hopefully will push it off its trajectory. just in case anything like that would come towards earth. very exciting science!

August 9 2022

Crazy how fast the summer is going. for the most part is has been hot and a bit dry.  garden is producing but slowly. and not as prolific as other yrs. critters have been having a feast out there too. peas were eaten repeatedly by something. same something is now dining on tomatoes daily and the potato bugs and japenese beetles have been eating a lot of leaves. i had great looking squash plants but something killed the vines and now just a few squash are hanging from nearly dead vines. disappointing....corn looks great. i tried something new this yr and canned my rhubarb.. trying to save freezer space. my strawberry/rhubarb jam/syrup is done and freezer corn has been completed. just tomato stuff to process yet. will probably have to buy tomatoes again. Friends from florida Fred and Sharon stopped for a visit on their trip around the upper USA. good to see them. Friends from hayward Mary and Karri came down for a day and we kayaked, had lunch at the Sandbar and kayaked back. Kevin and girls were here over the 4th for a couple of days. all  visits were great!

We bought a second camper in late june, because u know, everyone needs 2 campers and a house!. named her sydney and she is a lovely 2012 and in great shape. going to leave the big camper in chippewa year round, travel with sydney and live in home in florida.  our friend laurie will use the camper for her winter visit. now have to have 3 of everything! sorry boys! you'll have a lot to clean out after we are gone! took one trip to cabin for a 3 night visit over my birthday. managed to get to a few casinos. 

had to cancel our trip to canada to see laurie. different medical issues with family members that needed to be dealt with. hopefully, summer will slow down a bit so i can enjoy a bit more bike riding and kayaking. everyday just seems so busy.

mary, karri and i kayaking during their visit

burned up some dollars for a firework display on the 4th

rare view of sunset from our PH campground

Kendall loves her jumping horse Tommy. Her love of horses reminds her of me. she is an excellent rider already

toms godson travis wenzel is the drummer in "the big Deeks" fun night at city park in chippewa. excellent band

joel,karen, tom and i enjoying the beautiful evening

 june 1 2022

been back in chippewa for over a month already. got my garden planted and replanted and replanted. the beans froze while we were in montanna. glad i didn't put in my tomato and pepper plants before leaving. lots of seeds just didn't come up.  finally feeling like i am caught up around the campground. brett the owner redid the bathrooms this spring and that was a bit of a mess getting them ready to go. hopefully they will be easier to keep up. havent been bike riding too much. the wind this spring has been somewhat gusty. a lot.... and a fair amount of rain. the tree  between us and neighbors dean and mary  came down the other night in the storm. well, at least half of it did. fortunately, no damage to any campers. 

we went to erics in montanna for Wades high school graduation. proud of that kid. he received $14 thousand in scholarships and received 1st place at state tournaments for shotput and discus. got to meet our new great grandson Kolsyn. what a cutie! helped eric do some renovation and cleaning on the trailer he bought for breanna to rent from him. stayed busy the whole week we were out there. our flight on the way home was cancelled from dallas to minneapolis so we had to do some rebooking and stayed there an extra day. it was cold for the most part while we were there. 

mothers day pedicures and lunch at red lobster

ready for the kentucky derby party 

us ladies were stunning in our finery. 

abby, sharon, laurie, patti, donna, peggy and myself

wade loves being an uncle!

kolsyn is a happy boy

kolyn. 4 months

didn't think i would like being a great grandma but i do,.

dalton and his girlfriend Tamara

last grandchild in montanna ready to leave the nest

dalton and wade

wade is a bit taller than tom and  i

breanna and kolsyn

when did wade get so tall

breanna, tamar and kolsyn

wade throwing for first place at state. 

only missing braden. wish he could have been there,

trying to can rhubarb this yr. going to be hard pressed to get my canned stuff to florida this fall without a freezer to keep it in.