Raising Cubs in a Campground

Last year by now I had been done working on blog books for three weeks already. I had a little motivation called a baby on the way. :) This year I still have one more book to complete before I can take my summer break. It has been a looooooonnnnngggg month. Very very long. I have about three hours each night work - three hours that I'd much rather be doing 10 other things. Don't get me wrong - I love my job, but in the camping season I always end up feeling pulled in way too many different directions to fully enjoy the process of turning a blog into a book. I used to be able to stay up until one or two in the morning and get a ton done, but with Elsa getting up 1-2 times a night - I am nodding off by 11:30. I'm up by 5:45 every day just so I can fit everything into each day. We are going on vacation soon and I'm determined to be DONE with work by the time we leave. That means in less than two weeks I have to: Finish editing one 228 page blog book. Start and finish an...

and you'll avoid tangled and messy vines in July. You'll also avoid this unfortunate detour if you don't have a trellis too close to your pumpkins. I put twice the recommended number of pumpkins in my straw bales. (2 plants instead of 1 plant) I get away with this by coaxing the vines to stagger which side of the bale they trail down. It also helps that the plants that have vines are on the extended side of bales. For a full view of how I configure my straw bale garden so I can get 54 plants in 17 bales click here .

FIFTY! Can you believe it?!? I'm surprised it took this long for Elsa to start taking her diaper off! Granted when she has clothes on it's not an issue. What IS an issue is her putting every.single.thing.in.her.mouth. Oh my. It's terrible. I sweep and sweep and sweep and it's never enough. She choked on a foil wrapper on Sunday the 10th - so so so scary! She was right there with me but she was drooling and every once in a while would gag. It was the drool that tipped me off that something wasn't right. It was so far back in her mouth that I really had to dig for it. It took us both a while to recover and stop crying. Moving on to a much happier moment....her first sign. NURSE* It was Monday the 11th and I was so excited because I've been signing for MONTHS with no response. Two days later she signed MORE when she was eating dinner. She also has started pointing at things and "reading" books. She squeals and points, squeals and points. Then she h...

Two years ago a camper lost his wedding ring in our campground. Last weekend a ring was found and turned in. When I heard about it I immediately thought of the man I had spoken with in 2010. My brain has this crazy way of remembering names sometimes so I knew exactly what name to look up in our reservation system. I called and left him a voice mail. He returned my call when I wasn't on duty so I didn't get to hear the surprise in his voice when our camp host described the ring to him and he realized it was his ring. His wedding band that had been lost in our grassy campground for TWO YEARS. Wow. Have you ever lost something only to find it much later? Do share!  

I don't have a good picture of Julia's hair today, a year after the big hair cut but I wanted to get what I had posted so we can look back on how much it's grown. I loved her hair short, but I think it will probably be another year before we cut it again.  Which way do YOU like it? Short or Long?

Elsa is looking and feeling much better this week. I ended up taking her in on Monday morning since her whole body became covered in spots - not just her diaper area. I wasn't surprised when the doc said it was hand foot and mouth disease. She had a few blisters on her feet and hands by this point so I was pretty sure that's what she had. The bad news is there isn't anything they can do for her except Tylenol and the good news is that she was long past contagious  and would be on the mend soon. (sorry zoo visitors! I had no idea when we went on Friday because the spots only were in her diaper area and I assumed it was irritation from being hot and in cloth.) Lesson learned: Hand Foot and Mouth can show up other places long before any blisters appear on their hands foot or mouths. She never did run a fever but I kept her on Tylenol for a couple of days because the doc said she was probably really achy. No wonder she wasn't sleeping!!! This is the face of a little girl ...

Elsa's 48th week brought many sleepless nights. She pretty much looked like these photos much of the week in the evenings. I did to for that matter since she was awake every hour of every night. Thursday was the last day of school though and we had plans to go to the zoo on Friday. She did great and it was a fun way to start our summer, celebrate finishing another work project as well as Elsa's 11 month birthday. I was concerned about a diaper rash and began my search to see if it could be yeast. Please don't be yeast. I've heard such horror stories about cloth diapers and yeast.  

Yesterday we woke to cool temps (53 degrees!) and blue skies so I quickly got the diaper bag packed and off we went to Apple Jack's Orchard . I've heard nothing but good things about Apple Jack's so I was excited to check it out. We weren't the only ones who thought it would be a good day to pick strawberries because when we got there at 8:45 there were already 20 other cars in the lot. I've never picked strawberries before so we got the scoop from the nice people who work there and off we went. Sam was a champion picker, Julia did really well too, and Elsa helped by being our taste tester. Eventually I had to stop picking and sit with Elsa while the other two picked. I offered to pick while they sat with Elsa but they were both very determined to pick as many as they could.  All their hard work paid off because we came home with over 10 pounds of strawberries. We enjoyed some on ice cream and then the rest were set aside for making jam. ...

 Now that school is out and the weather in BearCountry has been pretty decent we've been spending much of our time outdoors being active in some way. Today that meant a bike ride on a nearby trail. So far I'm really enjoying spending our mornings at home and then venturing out after Elsa wakes from her nap. It's cheaper to eat lunch at home instead of out and about and after nine months of packing Sam's lunches I appreciate the options I have when I can use my stove and my oven. Sam NEVER took hot lunch in Kindergarten but he did take it occassionally in first grade if he liked what they were serving. I admit that as easy as it was to send $2 with him in the morning I felt guilty doing it. I much preferred knowing what was in the food he was eating and that it was up to my standards of healthy.  But....I can't control his food options all of the time and I want him to enjoy his lunches so we tried to find a middle ground. That is why when Foster Farms contacted ...

Our summer is off to a great start. Nice weather has something to do with that but I think one of the biggest thing is that I'm not running to town 2-5 times a DAY playing chauffeur. The thing I feared the most is turning out to be my favorite part of vacation so far. Having Sam at home all day. Yes, I said I feared that. Not because of him, but the combination of him and his sister. From the moment I would pick Sam up from school the two of them would start going at it. How was I going to deal with that all.summer.long?  But here's the thing. They are doing great. There have only been three times when I've had to send them in opposite directions so I could think straight. As I type this they are playing quietly TOGETHER in the playroom.  This is why: Sam was giving his best at school and was completely worn out by the end of the day. He didn't have the energy to be at his best any more. Now that he can sleep later (not that I EVER had to wake him in the four years he...

We did it. We saw Venus in front of the sun and have the picture to prove it. See that little black dot below the black band from the tv? That's Venus. This event won't happen again until December of 2117. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity that we'd be silly to miss out on considering the observatory is a four minute walk from our house. We waited in line for one of the observatory telescopes but afterwards we were able to look through lots of others that people had brought and set up in front of the observatory. Now we can check that off our summer bucket list! Did you see the transit? If you are local and interested in learning more about our observatory let me know. We have one of the best telescopes in the country that is available for the public!

Since last Thursday when school got out for the summer we have managed to pack in a lot of fun in less than a week. Thursday PapaBear and Sam went to a local baseball game. Now that we've lived here four years we are finally starting to get to know some of the families that the kids go to school with. Sam spent much of the time shagging fowl balls or playing on the playground with his friends. Friday we went to the zoo. We could have easily spent another three hours there but I needed to get home to help check in campers. Saturday morning the kids helped me with a pond life program we put on for the campers and then that afternoon we had friends over for a campfire. I introduced the instructor for the evening program later that night so all the kids came over to the amphitheater for that. Coffee Ground Fossil Prints were a big hit with everyone! The kids and I slept in the tent that night or attempted to sleep that is. Elsa was not having it and I gave up around 3am. The ol...

Our 11 year wedding anniversary fell on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa babysitting we were able to spend Sunday, just the two of us. We had a lovely day together. We went out to eat twice, we looked over the brochures PapaBear had sent to give me as a way of surprising me with a trip to Voyageurs National Park where we met 14 years ago this week, and wandered through a pet store. The next morning we took the kids swimming at the hotel & then walked up to the parade and program that follows. The parade is nothing to write home about but the speeches, music, and tributes afterwards make it worth it. It's the least we can do! Later that day we had family over for a fish fry. To top off a fun filled weekend, I went out to eat with my girlfriends, Aubrey, Alyssa, & Hilary. How did you celebrate Memorial Day?

It's been a while since I've done a straw bale gardening post. I get emails from time to time and I always reply to comments left on old posts, but those don't show up on my blog so I thought I'd take a few minutes and document some of the common questions and comments I get on straw bale gardening. As always feel free to leave any additional questions in the comment section and I'll do my best to help you out! First up... How many plants can I put in each bale? I have pushed the limit many times with the number of plants. Except for not having the room I needed to move around in my garden, I've been able to get away with putting more plants in that I was taught to do. Here is a visual of how I get 54 plants in my 17 bales: As you can see I use the sides of the bales sometimes and even the edges depending on what the plant is. One year I grew zucchini out of the sides of the bales. I couldn't give them away fast enough they grew so fast. Anot...