Plop Plop Now but Bing Bing Bing later

We ordered a Carolina Carport to cover our camper. The main reason we are getting one is to protect our roof.

There are plenty of trees in this campground and the majority of them are nut trees or oak trees. Recently large branches have fallen but luckily none have landed on any trailers. There was a rather large branch that fell next to the camper which now occupies our former site here at Leisure Lake.

A few weeks ago we filled out a form to have some dead branches near our camper removed. This was done about two weeks ago.

We have lots of acorns and nuts falling here in the early fall. It is like a concert of Plops, plings, bangs, and bings.

When they land on our neighbor's wooden roof over his deck it is more a hard hitting sound. When they hit our camper roof it is more of a thud. But when we get the carport which is metal, it will be more like bing bing bing.

Our lot is pie shaped, narrow in front and wide as it goes toward the back. But right in the middle of our lot are three trees in a line. Between the angle of our lot and the trees which are in front of our camper, we had a tough time figuring out how to make the carport fit. Todd, our local rep from Carolina Carport, came out and measured and figured that out for us. After showing us all the styles, sizes and changes we could make, we narrowed it down to a 20W x 31L carport. Next was to choose the color. We chose barn red to match our shed and picnic table. Once the carport is in, we will paint the deck to match.

There is a second advantage to the carport. It will be wide enough to cover our deck. We won't need to use our awning which we have to remember to roll up before leaving or when it is going to storm.

Ken started getting ready for its arrival which we were told would be three to six weeks. He removed the decking and some of my flower pots. We are now sitting outside on gravel but at least it is level.

Hopefully the carport will come in the next week or two before it starts getting much colder.

Scary Sugar Sleuth

 

Boy did I surprise Mama Sunday morning. No, no, no….I didn’t skip out of church or anything like that.

She took me for a walk. She told me we were going to walk in the woods.

And that wasn’t bad enough. She said we were gonna walk in the “Haunted Forest” .

I heard the A-Team talking about that Haunted Forest thing. They said they went on a hayride through the Haunted Forest last year.

Well, that sounded like fun -a hay ride.

But Mama didn’t say anything about a hayride. She said we were gonna go on a long walk. Not so much fun if you ask me.

So anyway, on the way to the Haunted Forest, I remembered the boys saying how scared they got.

SCARED???      Sugar SCAREd????        Ummmm…No

Sugar does not get Scared!

Over and over I told myself, "Sugar Sleuth does not get scared."

But I had never been to a haunted place before. I don’t even know what that means.

Since the A-Team was scared to go on the Haunted trail maybe I should be ..should I say, something like cautious?

As we got closer to the Haunted Forest, I decided Sugar Sleuth needed to get into action and protect Mama and me.

I put my nose close to the ground, checking for any haunts.

Aha! I found one and snatched it up before Mama even saw.

Oh boy…..she wants haunted, I’m gonna give her haunted.

There was something sticking out of my mouth that gave me away.

“What do you have in your mouth?” Mama asked. “Drop it.”

I clamped those chops of mine down hard. I’m not giving this up. Sugar Sleuth found it on her own and she’s taking it to the Haunted Forest.

 Mama bent down and told me again to drop it. No way! Then she tried to figure out what I had. She said it looked like a piece of elastic sticking out of my mouth.

She tugged on it but I wouldn’t let it budge. Finally she got my teeth apart and pulled it out of my mouth.

“Boo!” I said.

 She didn’t hear me though because she was squealing and gagging. Sugar Sleuth pulled a Halloween prank on Mama. 

Mama pulled a mouse out of my mouth.

Mama was not happy with my surprise. But Sugar Sleuth put the scare into Mama!

You Never Know Where You will meet Good Friends

Yesterday I posted about it being Ken's birthday. I gave him his gift early so he could use it over the weekend. The kids bought his gift at the Canfield Fair so he got that early. So it seemed that on his actual birthday there was no real celebration going on. I felt kind of bad when I left for work, knowing he was off (he is off every Monday) and just doing stuff around the camper that needed done. The weekend was full for the whole family so we didn't get together to celebrate like we usually do for everyone's birthday in the family. Ken was fine with it, not wanting a celebration.

When I got back to camp after work, Ken had a fire going and the grill was getting hot. He made us hoagies and while he was cooking, our neighbors at camp came in. We invited them over for hoagies. They told me they would be over and had planned to come over anyway. I was surprised and said, "You were?" Their reply was, "Yes, for Ken's birthday."

They walked over carrying a cake for Ken's birthday much to our surprise. We sat by the fire after eating, talked and laughed and another friend came to celebrate and have cake with us too. Our friends didn't spend the night at camp but had made a special effort to come just to celebrate Ken's birthday. Now those are Good Friends.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEN!

Happy Birthday  Ken!

Today you start the sixth decade of your life.  How did it get here so fast? It seems like we have been pedaling hard all these years just to stay even but time doesn’t care. It just keeps going anyway.

So today, take a few moments to reflect. Think of all the people who have come and gone in your life, family or friends, or just acquaintances. Many of them contributed something to your life, sometimes without realizing it.

Count the blessings you’ve had in this life and look forward to many more, believing they will happen.

Don’t dwell on what is ahead of you, but take this moment right now and fly with it, enjoy it, savor it and get the most out of it that you can.

Since you are getting older and most likely more forgetful, I have listed a few things you might want to remember or think about:

Your Early years:

Grandma Mills nicknamed you “Menace” after Dennis the Menace. Did you earn that nickname rightfully and live up to it?

The Geritol years – for your mom I mean.  She said she would get so exhausted when you were little and try to take a nap on the couch. You’d lift her eyelids and ask her if she needed Geritol or ask her, “Do you have the gray sickness?”

Going night fishing with your dad to Fowler, Ohio and sleeping on a blanket?

Grade school:  You had a PTA Mom who knew all the teachers AND the principal. You couldn’t get away with anything. Mom didn’t hesitate to walk to the school to see what you had been up to. And by the way, who really threw that boy’s shoe into the light fixture of the classroom?

Do you remember seeing your mom standing in the kitchen screaming at you with one leg in the wastebasket as she tried to escape the dead rat you held precariously in front of her?

Junior High:

Poor Tom Gordon – you used to tell the teacher to “Make an example out of him” when he was accused (rightfully or wrongly) of doing something wrong.

Do you really know why that one teacher left the room crying after your class gave her a hard time and never returned to teach again?

High School:  How many times did your car “really” break down that you had to leave Mr. McCoy’s class? And how, if that car didn’t work, were you able to show up at my high school to pick me up?

Did your mom appreciate the frog you left in your lunch box?

How much money did you make from Lynn Russell when you caught him “Using one of my phrases” and made him pay you to use it?

Youth Group:  I can still see you now. I was sitting in the choir behind the preacher and you were opening and closing your hymnal like a frog singing.

You met this skinny, shy blonde who thought you were the funniest and nicest thing on earth. You helped build her confidence, exposed her to lots of new foods including a corn dog at the Canfield Fair. I’ll bet now you wish that skinny blonde didn’t like so many foods because she is no longer skinny, although with help she is still blonde!

Twenties:  Working in the steel mill, stopping for a beer with your dad at the Royal Gardens.

Best friends with Barb and Ed, spending most weekends doing something with them, from playing board games, bowling, camping or going out to eat. Remember Joe’s Riveria and the polka tunes?

Fishing at Mosquito with Bob and Ed. Ed fell in and you gave him your jacket to wear which was down to his knees.

The time you three were fishing at Pymatuning and fell asleep, the boat drifted into PA territory and you were caught with fishing poles but no PA fishing license? They left you to take the blame, went for a beer, and you had to come up with the money for a fine.

Having children. Karin at age 22 and Kenny at age 25. Young parents learning as we went. Two toe-heads who gave us so much satisfaction in life, so much laughter and joy, and now so much pride.

Treasurer of church:  Did you ever imagine holding such a position?

30’s:  Jobs changing over and over, trying to make a living for your family. And then you landed in an art museum after having worked in a steel mill. Who would have guessed?

40’s:  Becoming a grandparent. One of the greatest feelings in the world, yet coupled with lots of fear at first. Miracles are shown to us over and over during this time.

50’s:  Photography and becoming very good at it. Something that you had wanted for so long and finally fulfilling a dream.

Camping again.

Planning for retirement and how you want to spend it. “Homeless and Trailer Trash.”

Now you are 60 and we are buying you toys again for your birthday. Maybe retirement or the golden years is actually fun times, reverting back to our carefree days of childhood, not caring what others think of what we are doing, saying or wearing, enjoying the moment, laughing at ourselves and able to see so much good in the world. Realizing now how fast time goes and not wasting a minute of it.

I love you Babe. Happy Birthday!

 

 

"Who's Your Daddy? Sandwich"

Ken and I tried a new recipe today over the fire. Ken found it online at this site:  http://www.bbqpitboys.com/ The recipe was for an onion chili sauce to be used on hot dogs, sausage or any kind of meat.

He nicknamed it the “Who’s Your Daddy?” Sandwich.

Ken got the Weber ready and cooked smoked sausage, getting that good smoky flavor added to the meat.

I started off by thinly slicing six sweet onions. Ken put some oil in the bottom of our cast iron skillet and got it hot over the fire, then added the onions. We cooked these down and got them somewhat browned and soft.

Next we added a thinly sliced sweet red pepper and two jalopena peppers also thinly sliced. (The recipe called for four jalopena peppers but we knew that some of our guests did not like hot stuff so Ken decided to cut it down to two).

After these were cooked together for a while, we added about one pound of ground pork.

 Once this was browned we added approximately one pound of chopped smoked sausage that had been cooking on the grill while we cooked our onions and peppers.

Cooking over the fire like this required lots of stirring to prevent burning.

 

Next came four jars of Chile Sauce.

About two tablespoons of honey.

Some pepper to taste.

And Tobasco Sauce to flavor.

We simmered this for a while over the fire until it blended together and got thicker.

At the grocery store, we were going to buy sausage rolls but then our eyes caught sight of this scrumptious bread.

We decided to make our own rolls from the bread by cutting it into the lengths as needed for the size of smoked sausage each person chose for their sandwich. We sliced it lengthwise and made it into a bun.

Next we put the smoked sausage from the grill in the bun, then ladled the sauce over the sausage.

YUMMY!! This was quite a sandwich, especially with the huge bread being used as a roll.

The flavors blended together well. The sandwich was messy but pretty good. We decided that it would have been better on a regular sausage roll because it was too much bread.

I also think the four jalopenas that the recipe called for would have added a needed kick to the sauce.