Camping – Asbery's Echoes

Houseal Family Get Together

Dad and Mom on the right, us, Jeremy and Abby on the left. Uncle Jerry was down a couple of spots and Skip and Brandi were a little ways up the hill.

Another Houseal Family Get Together is in the books. We had the most beautiful fall weather this year and camping at Lake Darling is always a great experience. We camped Thursday through Sunday together with Dad and Mom, Jeremy and Abby, Skip and Brandi, and Uncle Jerry. Then on Saturday everybody else came for the day. I took lots and lots of pictures and still didn’t get pictures of everyone. And we didn’t get a group picture this year. Oh well, hopefully next year we’ll remember. I love that we try to do this every year!

I found a rock at our campsite! Thanks Brandi!

Joe and Uncle Jerry heading out on a trail. I drove them to the other side of the lake and dropped them off. I’m hoping to walk this trail yet this year.

We walked at least one trail each day and the kids brought their scooters along.

I wonder what Bayah and Great Grandma are discussing?

Brandi brought her paint supplies and rocks along and lots of rocks were painted and hid around the park. So much fun!

There was lots of corn hole played. Uncle Jerry and Jeremy won the tournament on Saturday!

Grandpa and Bayah may or may not have hid under the table to eat candy before we ate lunch!

An early morning walk before everyone before anyone else was up.

Dad and Joe – wonder what they were discussin?

Mom and Uncle Donnie (Mom’s baby brother)

Mom and Uncle Terry – Mom’s younger brother

Uncle Jerry. He’s not a Houseal but he’s always invited and I love that he camps with us too! He’s Dad’s brother-in-law.

Noah and Braxton (Braxton LOVED playing corn hole!)

We had morning fires and evening fires – lots of wood was burned over the weekend!

Stitching

We’ve been so busy lately and it’s been hard to fit in some stitching but I’ve managed! I’ve been stitching orders and stitching things to sell and once in a blue moon I stumble across a pattern I just have to stitch for myself!

When we were at the quilting/needlework store in Amana we found this cute cross stitch/beadwork kit. Two of us purchased the kit and are going to make Christmas ornaments to commemorate our camping trip. I haven’t done beadwork in a long time and it’s been fun to do a little bit of it again. I’m looking forward to finishing mine and seeing how Susie finishes hers. I’m sure they will look totally different from each other and yet both will be beautiful!

You can’t really see how the beads sparkle but they do. And they’ll really sparkle on the Christmas tree! It’s fun to have someone else stitching too as I don’t have anybody local who stitches and I’ve always thought it would be fun to stitch with friends!

Labor Day Campers

All set up for the weekend. It doesn’t always work out but these campsites were perfect so that we could set up all four campers with our doors facing each other. We had this whole area just to ourselves!

A few years ago we started camping with a group of friends over the Labor Day weekend. There are four couples in this group and we take turns picking out a campground. This year was our year to choose so we chose the Amana area. The other three couples live in the Clear Lake area and we live in southeast part of the state. Some years we have to travel a bit more, other years a campground that is more centrally located is chosen. This year was a lot closer for us but the others wanted to explore this area so it worked out great.

We all headed to the Amana Campground on Friday and set up camp, had some supper and sat around the campfire. Then on Saturday we headed to Mt. Pleasant to the Old Threshers Reunion. This is an annual event that takes place every year in Mt. Pleasant after the State Fair is over. Many people in our state will camp at the State Fair for two weeks then pull their camper straight to the Old Threshers. I have lived here my whole life and never visited so I was looking forward to this too.

It was wonderful to see all the old steam engines, tractors, vehicles, different motors, etc. and the best part was seeing all of the young people taking part. This is such a big part of our history and it would be so sad if people didn’t keep up the tradition of holding this reunion for all to see. There were so many young people joining right in with the old learning how to run all of these things and doing all the work involved. I would love to go back again and spend more time here taking it all in.

On Sunday we toured Main Amana. We walked through the shops and took it all in. The Amanas are a group of German villages established long ago. They lived in communal houses and each member of the village was assigned a job. One person may be a cook, another a farmer, a gardener and so on. They all worked together to keep the community going. Many of the old original buildings are still standing and being used as restaurants, shops and as houses. The General Store and the quilting shop were favorites among the women and the men simply tolerated the day! The restaurants are fun to eat at as they serve traditional German food family style but unfortunately Sundays are busy and we couldn’t get in without a reservation. So we checked out the Meat Shop, purchased some Amana meat and headed back to the campground with some yummy things to try. We went for a walk around the campground in the afternoon and checked out the dog show. There was an AKC Dog Obedience show going on all weekend and according to the lady when we registered, there were 3,000 dogs in the campground. It was fun to see all the different dogs and watch a small portion of one of the shows. It reminded me of the horse shows when I was young only with dogs!

We played some cards and lots and lots of bags at the campground. Spent each night sitting around the fire talking and enjoying each others company. Kelsey made us sugar cone s’more one night. Yum!

The weather was perfect, overcast and cool when we were at the Old Threshers and warm and sunny on Sunday. The evenings cooled down and the fire felt so good. It was another fun Labor Day weekend spent with good friends!

Weekend at Lake Darling

It was so nice Thursday as we were pretty much the only ones there!

My daughter contacted us right after we came home from our Clear Lake camping trip and asked if we would want to camp at Lake Darling with them the following weekend. And of course, we made it happen! How could we not make it work when it meant spending time with her and our son in law and our grandkids? We had such a great time in a beautiful setting.

We had such a pretty view across from our camper. These guys visited a couple of times.

We spent the weekend relaxing, hiking, playing games and just enjoying each other’s company. There was some really good food to eat too. Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Ward and Uncle Jerry and Cousin Todd came for a visit Saturday afternoon/evening which is always a treat. Great Grandma brought homemade peach cobbler and homemade strawberry pie!

There’s nothing like camping to enjoy family. Days and evenings with nothing to do but be together. Very little internet reception meant the kids didn’t beg to be on devices and us grown ups couldn’t spend much time on devices either. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and we took advantage of the cooler temperatures. There are paved trails along the lake and through the woods that are great with little kids as they can ride their bikes and scooters. There are also trails to hike that aren’t paved which we plan to walk someday too.

There was a mink running along the shoreline here. He ran under the bridge we were on when I took this picture, crossed the creek and ran back under the bride. He was a pretty little critter!

A little coffee and early morning reading for me! I like to get up before everyone else and have some alone time and listen to the campground wake up.

The early morning sun peeking through the trees

Grandpa and Braxton having an early morning discussion

Drew starting an early morning fire to warm me up

Bayah may have gotten tired so Daddy gets to carry her scooter while Grandpa gives her a ride

UNO in the evenings. When Abby and Jeremy were dating we would play UNO at the campground, now we’re playing UNO with their kids!

Grandpa is trying hard to convince Bayah that there’s a crocodile in the lake. She knew better!

Camping has been a favorite of ours for quality family time for years now. And it makes my heart happy to have my daughter and her family camping now too. She said once that she has such great memories of our camping trips when she was growing up and she wants her kids to have those same memories. Joe and I are blessed that she wants to include us in those memories!

Clear Lake

We spent the past weekend camping at Clear Lake. It’s a trip we try to do annually. We have friends we enjoy camping with who live there and they invite us every year as Clear Lake also has a big car show this same weekend. So we combine the two, camping and cars. The guys love it!

The weekend starts out Friday night with a parade of cars cruising around the lake while spectators sit out and watch them go by. We sit in lawn chairs and enjoy the show. I have to be honest, for me, this is the most enjoyable part of the car show and yet about halfway through I get tired of watching vehicles going by. Drew and I rarely last the whole cruise, we pack up our chairs and head back to the camper early and enjoy a little quiet time before everyone else comes back!

There was a bed and a TV and some pretty neat decor inside this guy!

Saturday brings us uptown to walk around all the vehicles. It was interesting to see which cars Drew was drawn to. They have them all. Old, new, high dollar, old jalopies, you name it they are there.

As quickly as I lose interest watching the car cruise, I lose interest even more quickly when it comes to walking around in a crowd of people looking at cars. I do enjoy seeing the old vehicles, they have so much style and class. And I enjoy the muscle cars, they remind me of my teenage years. But I can only be in a crowd for so long before I have had enough and the same with looking at cars. But I tag along and try to enjoy myself as Joe and Drew have a great time and I enjoy seeing them bonding and having fun.

About halfway through the car show uptown we come to the lake which makes a nice break. Behind us are the cars and the people and the noise. But if you can tune all that out for a few moments, you can enjoy a beautiful view, the sound of the waves lapping against the shore and watch the sailboats go by!

When we got back from town Drew and I walked down to the beach. He was wanting to swim and I was needing some quiet time. Unfortunately when we got down there we discovered the beach has become a place for all the party boats to congregate so there was loud music and people. But thankfully they were all out on the lake and not up on the beach so even though we had the pleasure of seeing and hearing them, we weren’t actually with them! Drew swam a little while I sat and watched. We enjoyed a little bit of nature on our walk back and found this really interesting rock that looks like a silhouette of a person. The rock is in the camper and has joined a few other treasures we have collected from past camping trips.

The evenings always mean a campfire and s’mores. The weather was great as it was warm during the day, it cooled down enough to enjoy a fire in the evening and then a little rain overnight. It couldn’t have been nicer.

Sunday morning saw me up bright and early before anyone else. I enjoy getting up early to sit outside with my cup of coffee and listen to the sounds of the campground waking up. I love camping. Joe and I have camped pretty much all our married lives. We started out camping with friends. Those friends have changed throughout the years as circumstances have changed for all of us. But as I get older I’ve discovered that I really enjoy camping with just us the most. No schedule, no agenda, just setting up camp and taking it day by day. We’re taking the camper back out this weekend to camp with Jeremy and Abby and the grandkids. I’m looking forward to this. Chances are we won’t ever leave the campground unless we head over to visit Uncle Jerry and see what new animals he has for us to enjoy. We’ll go on hikes and bike rides and just enjoy the lake and nature and being together. This is what I enjoy most. The days of being with a group, constant talk and noise, games and being loud, I just don’t enjoy that anymore. I guess I’m getting old!

A Productive Day

We were supposed to wake up to 6″ to 8″ of snow on Saturday. Instead we woke up to ice. Ice everywhere. I was so thankful Eric came home Friday night before the nasty weather started. He needed an oil change, he had two tires leaking and his door handles weren’t working right. Well, his dad changed the oil and replaced two leaky valve stems but the door handles we picked up at the salvage yard awile back were the front handles and not back handles so that means Eric will have to come home again some other time. Yeah!!!! So what to do on a cold and icy day? Well, I had started the process of mustard making and that was ready to be finished.

Gotta let these sit for two days to absorb all the moisture.

Oh my goodness – the beautiful colors, smells and taste of Homemade Lavendar Mustard. And it was so very easy. I’m positive I’ll be making this again and I’m thinking it will be a perfect Father’s Day gift for my dad as he loves mustard.

Then Joe helped me pull Drew’s bed out so I could finish painting his room. This kid and all his treasures. After getting the room done and everything moved back the way he wanted it, he went through the house, through cupboards and drawers, all the nooks and crannys and he “shopped” for things to decorate with. It’s funny what he chose to use from around the house. My old roller skates, some of Grandma Houseal’s dishes, old Sucrets tins, whatever he could get his hands on. Gotta love him!

Then sweet Humphrey got a nice clean rearranged home. Drew decided on a camping theme this time around. With white bedding so he’s camping in the snow! We found some timothy hay and something called Nature’s Salad for him and also scattered some carrot and celery pieces around the cage for him to find. He was one happy camper when we put him back in the cage and he explored for ages. Then he knocked his camper over, decided not to bed down in the timothy hay and instead made a new nesting area and promptly fell asleep!

Not a good picture but this little guy is constantly on the move. I have yet to get a decent picture of him!

We had bacon and eggs for breakfast so instead of crushing the eggs up this time around and giving them back to the girls, I let them dry all day and crushed them up and put them in a jar. Since then I’ve added egg shells two more times to the jar already. Those shells will go in the ground this spring along with the tomatoes we’re going to plant. It feels good to get started planning for spring even though we’re living in an ice covered world at the moment!

Stitching Keepsakes

Now, a few months ago my uncle gave us a vintage camper. A very very old, very very well used vintage camper. It has a whole story behind it. And it’s going to take lots and lots and lots of work to get it usable. Well, Drew absolutely loves it. He talks about it all the time, reads about vintage campers, asked for vintage camper books for Christmas, I think he dreams about vintage campers! So when I told him I wanted him to draw me a picture of course he drew one of the camper that he named Ruby.

Here’s Ruby, the little vintage camper. She’s been spiffed up with the power washer and Drew and Rambler decorated her for fall! Oh she needs soooo much work!

A friend of mine shared an article with me about taking a child’s drawing and turning it into a keepsake. I had seen this before and at the time I thought it was a good idea but then I totally forgot about it. Well, I’ve joined a group on Facebook that is more of an embroidery group versus cross stitch and I have been wanting to try my hand at this form of stitching. Specifically the split stitch that Lori Brechlin uses. (Lori is an absolutely brilliant designer of all things handiwork and primitive!) So all the stars were aligned and I jumped in! Here’s Drew’s drawing:

And here’s my progress so far:

This has been such a fun project. And Drew is loving it! He’s planning on hanging this in Ruby when we get her done! I think I’ll have to have the grandkids draw me pictures next so I can make keepsakes for Abby!

Under the Weather Hammy Escapade

I think the fire is a little big compaired to the tent but oh well – it was fun to make anyway!

Yesterday Drew and I were both under the weather. Thanks Joe – it all started with him over the weekend! Anyway, we spent most of the morning sitting together in our easy chair watching YouTube videos on hamster habitats and Drew decided it would be fun to change out Ollie’s cage to a camping theme. We just cleaned him out over the weekend so we won’t be doing a complete overhaul again for two or three weeks but as we were both feeling a little better in the afternoon I helped him drag out all our supplies and we got to work. I really get frustrated with YouTube and Drew wanting to spend his time watching pointless videos of other kids doing nothing but there’s also some really good videos and tutorials on there too. My one stipulation was we could only use what we had on hand as whatever we make is going to get crawled over, chewed on, pooed on, and basically destroyed, so we’re not going to spend extra money. In the end we came up with a tent, campfire (with a battery operated tealight) and a cute little sign. I also want to try making an adirondack chair out of popsicle sticks at some point too for little Ollie to enjoy!

Who knew a little tiny hamster would provide so much entertainment!

Later, while watching the Queen and Adam Lambert Story, Drew decided he’s watched enough videos on taming hamsters to try and get Ollie out and hold him. This has been his goal from day one when we first brought Snowball home. He was so excited he could hardly contain himself and we had to get him to calm down so as to keep the poor hamster calm too. But, this little guy took to being held right off and Drew and Ollie had a blast together. As least Drew had fun anyway! Ollie on the other hand, decided to crawl into the sofa and we had to find him and contain him before Pierre realized there was a free running rodent in the livingroom to try and play catch and release with! All in all, even with none of us feeling the greatest, we had a nice day. Drew learned a few new things on YouTube regarding his hamster and Ollie I think decided he liked having some human contact and love!

Wedding Weekend Fun

We attended the most beautiful wedding over the weekend. We have what I like to think of as our camping family and this weekend a young woman I would never have known if it hadn’t been for Joe’s work and camping got married. Joe and Steve have worked together for years and have become the best of friends and our families started camping together quite a few years ago. We don’t see each other a lot. We live three hours away from each other. But we camp together at least twice a year, over long weekends, and when you camp you get to know each other well. So, we’ve known Steve and Wendy’s daughter Whitney since she was a young girl and we have grown to love her. Then she started bringing Matthew along on our trips and we’ve grown to love him too! We felt so blessed when they asked Drew to be their ring bearer in their wedding. It amazes me how lives become so entwined and time and distance just don’t matter!

Our Home Sweet Away From Home!

After much debate and weather watching (cold and rain was in the forecast) last week we decided on Thursday to haul the camper out to Belva Deer. I’m glad we did. It was chilly. And it did rain. But fall is still the best time to camp. We just threw on layers and toughed it out and had a great time!

We found time to go for walks in between raindrops! This was a Sunday morning walk before Dad and Mom pulled out. Uncle Jerry and Todd came too but they pulled out Saturday afternoon. Uncle Jerry got up Friday morning and discovered he had a window missing in his bedroom! He’s not sure when he lost it but assumes it flew out while he was pulling. They were able to track one down right outside of Sigourney and ran and got it Saturday morning. There are times when technology is worth having! In the meantime they duck taped a piece of cardboard up and he said it kept him nice and warm and toasty! We didn’t pull out until later Sunday – it was nice to just have the campground to oursevles for awile. Joe and Drew went for a bike/scooter ride and I sat and enjoyed the fire.

The best part of the weekend was enjoying the campfire. There’s nothing better than cool air, a warm fire and good company! This may have been our last outing of the season and it was a good one!