august 7 2023

not sure where my last 2 posts went to but here it goes again. Got home, planted garden, cleaned bathrooms for start of season. cleaned up sydney after our trip home. eric and family came for a short visit, kevin and family joined us for a day and a half also. had mom over to eat a few times, have taken her out shopping a number of times. seems like i have been too busy or its been too hot so havent gotten on my bike too much. went to cabin a couple of times . met tom and ginny miller for a weekend in june at the cabin. helped ed and pat finish staining the deck in july. went to the casino a couple of times. won a jackpot of $1300 in june. yay! chat with the neighbors here at pine harbor on the weekends.  took sydney out for a couple of days last week. val and ken met us in Sarona. they also came down to Pine Harbor for a few days in june. garden is doing horrible. something is eating the produce before i think it is ready to pick. or the seeds before they can even come up out of the dirt. very frustrating!! thanks to sister in law karen who gave me some green beans i got a few pints canned up. did corn today and strawberry/rhubarb jam in june. wont have to worry about hauling too much south i guess. it has  been a hot dry summer thus far. lots of 90 plus degree days in june. 

val and i at teddy bear tap in sarona

first blt of summer

poor pickings

surprise 70th for tom with our campground friendsgoo

good times with the neighbors

wine and music at Autumn Hill winery

yummy supper of kens walleye

most of the family

wade loves his uncle kevin

lainey and kolsyn enjoying some water time

mom with the babies

all of joels family plus sister cindi and all of us

breanna and Kolsyn

introducing Madison J Rykal. grandchild #9

 May 10 

Home again, home again. good to be back in Wi.!  Gratefully, an uneventful trip home.  Weather stayed pretty nice all the way home. But a lot of wind. Got home May 4. a day earlier than planned. but the weather was great the day we got back.  so we got a lot accomplished transfering everything from Sydney to the Beast. fortunately, no mice in the beast and no leaks! spent 2 days cleaning the bathrooms at the campground. they look great now. now time to start the garden!  had mom over for dinner the second night home. so good to see her! seemed like a lot of extra work going from house to camper to camper . we need to come up with a better relocating plan. hopefully, i will get all my projects completed and be able to enjoy the summer!

tom making sure greta is surviving being left alone while her parents jan and doug play for the day

kentucky derby party. abby and asha hanging out

sharon, donna and i sporting our derby hats

thanks aprill for the great bag, which pours wine!

madison wi. lake farm park

el paso illinois. we were just about the only ones there

atmore alabama casino campground. i won 200.00!

tallahasse rv park. new one for us. loved it!

morning coffee and a book with a great view

our welcome committee. he also starts crowing at 0330!

spo tnumber 5. $24 a night

april23

and here it is time to head north. after a very busy few weeks of cleaning, doing projects we wanted to get done and packing, we are almost done. a few new friends have come around to say good bye. and a few friends from my old job and our first yr of camping have stopped by.  it will be time to rest when we get to chippewa. ya right!

eric came and helped us do a number of projects. we let him relax one day 

lunch at Big Bass. Yummy. 

stopped for a beer

eric rebuilt the steps. big improvement

new rock landscaping

our family got together for brads 40th. great time!

erics family

jay came to visit at the condo in tampa . lots of laughs

da boys! they made their own cribbage board. 

2 yards of rock. took a while to shovel it all where we wanted

finished the front and side

brads 40th birthday card. couldnt resist grandma sperbers tactic

 april 8 2023

Happy Easter!  "winter" has been flying by. hard to believe that it is almost time to head back to wi. 

beth and todd have left the area and Laurie had to leave a bit  early d/t her mother in law becoming quite ill. fortunately she is doing better. so we have brought our sydney back to oak pond to wait for us to head back. laurie loved her and wants to use her again next winter. beth, todd and laurie are all going back to Paradise Oaks next winter.  

very excited, next week our 3 boys are coming to  Tampa to celebrate brads 40th birthday.; holy cow how did that happen!? we are going down for brads actual birthday. which i think will be the first time we have been with him on his birthday since he turned 18! crazy... kevin will spend a night here before his brothers arrive and eric will come after they party to help with a few big projects around the house. soooo excited to have us all together again even if just for a day. 

been  busy around the house  doing odds and ends. always something to work on i guess.  newest project is the flower bed in front of the house. hope to have that accomplished before we leave. also new windows going in the 3rd bedroom. and i want the big trees in our lot trimmed a lot to try and get rid of the moss crap.. my swimming classes did ok. had 2 people come every time. thanks jackie and sonny! its been very very hot here for the last month. setting records continually. no rain either. what little grass we have is getting quite brown. have gotten to know a few more people in the park. a community garage sale a couple of weeks ago helped get me talking to a few  more people. 

we organized a pot luck one evening. great turnout. this is my friend Rita

great food!

aprill and kendall came in feb and we spent smelling horses! GREAT time!

kendall sits a horse well

azala's in full bloom

jackie and sonny helped tom and i get the grill ready for the pot luck. fun people!

sharon and fred stopped over. (old friends from belle parc) she drank lauries wine! fun visit

ed and pat along with ross came for 3 days in feb.  a fun fun time. we ate, drank, played duck pin bowling, went on bike rides with a garage sale stop, swimming. and a  airboat ride for them. 

oh what the heck, just us

a couple of gators stayed at the park for a few weeks. one was 6ft long and starting to look hungary before he moved on. tom

tom and ray enjoying their near nightly happy hour

first tomato out of my southern garden. next year going to work on that garden a lot harder

full moon thru the palm tree by our house. pretty shot

edging in. now to start on the rock and next yr more plants 

once the windows are in it will look totally different. more plants, and get the grass to grow