Camping....

Grandmother.....it is not just a title, and it is not for the faint of heart!

I was able to take my beautiful 5 grand children camping again.  I had a coupon for one free night, but if you remember-I had already paid for that night.  It was a night we were not able to complete, due to the cabin having trouble with the air conditioner.  So they had given me a coupon for another night.

I picked a day, so we could go when hopefully we could still go swimming before the children go back to school.

So first I picked up the children, then we took our items to the cabin.  It was early in the morning, the usual check in time is after lunch about 2 pm, but for a ten dollar fee, I could obtain access  as early as 8 am.  So we went early.

Once we unloaded our items, we went to town to get a few more supplies.  After some interesting things happening, we were able to finish and get back to the cabin.  By 10:30 am we were all hungry so a lunch of cheese sandwiches and chips with lemonade for a drink, made a great lunch.

This cabin was nice, one bedroom had bunk beds, able to sleep 4 comfortably.  There were drawers under the bed for storage if needed.  The kitchen is the same size as the previous cabin, long galley style, but at least with the items that will help make your stay nice.  The bathroom had a tub, shower combo along with the usual stool and sink, but all items are jammed into a tight spot.  Its workable, but small.  The final bedroom had a full bed, it was about 3-1/2 feet tall, so I had to really climb into bed to sleep!  Maybe that is where they get the saying "climb' into bed?

The living room had a couch that was a sleeper, and the table was not hooked to the wall that you have to pull down like the previous cabin.  It was an actual table with chairs.  Nice.

I again rented a golf cart to haul everyone around.

First we went swimming in the  pool.

Then we went to the lake.  Here are the younger two running to the lake-they were so excited to swim in the lake!

Zach jumping into the lake!

Josiah jumping in!

Jeremiah showing me his 'treasure'.  They gathered rocks from the lake-their treasure.

Adreana swimming...

Logan playing in the sand...

After a long day of swimming, we went back to the cabin and the children went to the park across the road from the cabin to play.

Then we went to a restaurant with their Aunt Lana, my sister.  

After returning to the campground, we planned a time to go visit Aunt Lana again, at her camper (she has a seasonal-camping lot) for a camp fire and samores.

The children had fun playing on the golf cart, as much fun as roasting the marshmelllows!

Then after about 3 samores each (me -zero-I really dont like them-but I had a bake potato cooked over the fire!) We went back to the cabin.  The children went to play at the park, catching fire flies!  Once it was very dark, we all went in and cleaned up then went to bed.  

The next morning, after a breakfast of cereal while outside on the picnic table, we took a drive on the golf cart around the park, including the other side of the road.

Then there was some play time at another play ground.....

And then some more pool time before going home!

Grandmother Takes Grandchildren Camping...and Survives!

I took a couple of days off, a week actually, and for the first part of my 'vacation' I decided to take the grand children camping.  I wanted to 'really' camp  to let them experience tent camping...but thought-no, that is for the young ---like their parents---to share with them!  

So I rented a cabin....with a frig, a sink, a stove, and a bathroom and most important----air conditioning!  Yeah I know, a wimp...but this was to be a hot weekend and I am older, soooo...

It was a small cabin, just big enough for 2 bedrooms (with the bedrooms big enough for the beds and a closet) a bathroom, that was long enough for a tub, and a toilet that was almost inside the sink cabinet because it was so close!

The kitchen ---that was placed inside the hallway, literally.  

A small living room, with a couch and a fold down table with 4 stools to sit up to the table.

But it was enough.

Friday was a tough day, and a busy day for me. 

Then finally in the afternoon, I took the stuff down to the cabin, and then I went to pick up the children.  All 5 of them.  To the camp site we went.

After getting their stuff in the cabin and the camp chairs set up,we had a meal of fried chicken (KFC-grandma cheated) and salads.  And bananas for dessert!  

Then we decided to go swimming.....they were very excited!

so off to the pool we went.

After swimming for a couple of hours or more, we went back to the cabin and began to settle in for the evening. 

The children had fun in the cabin joking around..I thought of going over the their great aunt Lana's camper and roast marshmallows---so all of the fire and mess was at her place ;) 

but we ended up just deciding to go to bed and get a good nights rest, we will have a long day tomorrow. 

  Lana did come by, and said hello, the kids were excited to see her because she was on her golf cart...they wanted that.

So soon they were asking to actually go to bed.  They were all very tired and the sun was not even down yet!  We all got ready for bed, and by a little after 9pm we were in bed to sleep.

The next morning we were up about 7am, a breakfast of cereal, and orange juice and bananas, and even some pop tarts-- this is vacation!

In the morning, little Jeremiah was so interested in the suns rays coming down from the sky....

So here he is showing me the suns rays!

lots of fun in the morning....waiting for grampa...

waiting for grampa, they were watching him drive down the road...

and finally, grampa arrives!  He has the firewood, the fishing poles and a few other camping essentials!

they started an assembly line to carry the fire wood over

everyone wanted to be in the back of the truck but that would only leave a couple of them to carry the fire wood...so the youngest one decided to sit down and supervise with grandma, while the older children...

carried the firewood!

then it was time to go fishing.  

MORE BUSY TIMES!

Well, its been a very busy couple of weeks around the keeslar farm.  As you can see, we are gardening a lot-the new boxes (got a wonderful deal, talked the managers down to a great price on the lumber this early spring at a certain store!  I always talk them down on the price of stuff in the discount area!!!)

So got the 4 new boxes built behind the house, and 4 more out by the other boxes...(see photo below)

Still need to add the landscape timbers around the boxes (we have those, just need to do the work!)

The saw dust comes like this:

all bagged up.  I traded for these this last late winter, and finally got to pick them up this last 2 weeks!  (they have been ready but we were not ready to get them!!)

I like this around the boxes, the plan is to allow the saw dust to break down into soil, and then flip that into the boxes, adding more boards to make the boxes taller (as we grow older we will have to bend less that way)  this spring we picked up tons (yes TONS) of free compost (like the FREE stuff) and filled the boxes!  That was a lot of shoveling!  Mostly by me-until the last huge load...then Scott helped a lot!  

The garden is growing well, as long as we water it often.  It is so dry!  Our grass is so very dry!  I want to water the lawn where the animals eat, but it would prob drain our well.  So got to just buy some hay.

I had the grand children over a few times, a week or so ago, had the older 3 over for a week.  We went bowling...

Here is Zack and Logan!

Adreana with Auntie...Adreana was not feeling well, she was to have surgery the next week, ear tubes, tonsils removed, and anoids removed.  She has a 40% hearing loss, and since this day-has had the surgery.  The doctor who operated on my children (adreanas dad, uncle and aunts) did her surgery!  He said that she had the worse case he has seen in a very long time!  She is hearing better now!

I was very grateful for Stephens and Anastasia's and Nalanis help that day!

The kids "rescued" a baby bunny from Todd the cat, because it had a piece of fur off from it, and was bleeding.  We decided to just "let the bunny go" over in an area where maybe Todd could not find it.  Dont know if it lived or not, but the next morning, the children found a dead baby bunny under the back steps, with out -well with out its head- so they think it did not.  :(  They were sad.  But we had a talk about the abundance of rabbits (eating my garden) and Todd doing the job of keeping them away....

It is called life.

This past weekend I had all 5 grand children here!  We took them to the drive in movies...

Before we went, we had a pizza party at the house.  We arrived to the drive in before the sun went down and set our chairs out, we drove both the truck and the car.  We sat out in the chairs eating junk foods (pop corn, chips and snacks.  This was the first time the kids had been to a drive in.  They thought the screen was huge!  Zack asked me how many times we had been to a drive in, and I told him too many to count!  (when we dated, it was the thing to do-drive ins all over the area....)

Zack telling his story!  

Then the next day, Grampa took the kids swimming... they all about drowned grampa!

yes that is grampa about under the water in front of one of the grand children!  

Well its been busy, and its not slowing down any time soon!  Must rebuild the chicken house (already built the new little baby chicken house) and re-do the front steps before some one falls (me) !

Keep enjoying your summer! 

GRAND CHILDREN WEEK, garden, goats and sheep!

Photos will come later---------


All week we had grand children here -first were the older 3.  They came to hour house last weekend, and I took them home on Thursday.  We went bowling, and spent time swimming and relaxing as much as we could.  Watched the meerkats re-runs on Netflix, went out to eat once-(did not have meerkats ) and gram-pa took them for a tractor ride...in the lift on the tractor!  They saw a newborn deer....hiding and sleeping in the woods, gram-pa said it was brand new....and he wished he had a camera along  (silly, you have one on your phone-I reminded him later) 


Then today, the other 2 grand children were over to visit.   We went out side, even though it was not a very sunny day-spent time on grandma's play ground, and then a wagon ride.  I went back to the woods -giving them a ride in the wagon, then up to the front yard, all around-the yard-circling...circling...then stopped under the mulberry tree so they could pick mulberries and eat them-and turn purple!  Then grandma watched them do cartwheels for awhile-as we waited for gram-pa to come home so they could show him how they do cartwheels.  After each cartwheel (only about 25 each child) grandma had to say "yeah! "  and clap a lot! They would say "grandma----say yeah! "  If I forgot to say that!


Grandma also watched the neighbor mow while watching the grand kids do cartwheels- because the neighbor keeps mowing into the keeslar mail box, trying to tip it over.  


Grandma just put rocks down beside the base of the mailbox so maybe he would stop doing that.


  Funny thing is, he kept waiting to mow that area (along the property line) until I was gone-but I would not leave.  I love frustrating people sometimes like that.  


 He usually mows that area first, then does all the rest of the yard-but today-I was out watching so he mowed in a different order....ha funny.  He has to be doing it on purpose- but I wonder why?  I think he is just plain mean.  He has always been untrustworthy as a neighbor-  he shot our dog, his grand son shot at me and our dog while we were walking on the road...his son shot towards our sons direction while out hunting, not paying attention to anyone who might have been in the area-


They-as a family who handles guns-- are not safe. duh! They are members of the NRA---I think the son even owns a gun shop--- but they are not safe. 


  So he keeps mowing into the fence-trying to knock it over.  Why do people have to be so mean?  Today though, he waves to me like he is trying to be friendly.  Ok, I  wave... but think-meanie.


Tonight we go out to eat, nice meal with our second son, his wife and their children.  Scott and I drove home slowly, enjoying the quiet evening as Sabbath begins-even holding hands as he drives....talking as we take back roads, we even went out of our way to get home!!!  We are doing the 'old person' thing of driving around on back roads as we look at the fields and peoples homes....(wow!  Never thought I would turn into my parents!)   But-Peaceful.


Passed 4 buggies driving close in a row.  Went past the first buggy and heard a auto horn honk.  It was rather quiet-but did hear one, then after the last buggy, heard another car horn, louder-we laughed.  I told Scott we should pull over and I would get out and stand in the middle of the road to stop all of those teen Amish kids, telling them   "turn over your horns.  Do your parents know you have auto horns?  Does your bishop know? now hand them over and I will not tell anyone"  You have to know about the Amish to find this funny, esp in this area of Michigan where they are more old order --unlike their Indiana (Shipshewana) cuzins, who are not so old order---so this group is not allowed to have fancy things like car horns that other Amish children might be allowed to have!  


Still peaceful evening.....


Then we came home to see all of the sheep, goats and the cow out---eating my garden!  ALL of my peppers, cabbage, lettuce and on and on!  Thank you GOD that the tomatoes survived!  I am very frustrated!  Scott says the gate was unlocked, but why would someone go into the yard and unlock just that one?  No the grand children were not out there, not at all.  None of the other gates were unlocked-so that is just weird.  It is a chain lock, so the animals can not unlock this one, others, yes, but not this one.  Sigh.


All animals ran back into the yard, (the fenced area where my garden is!)  Oh yes, lets run to the other garden since you have ruined the first one!  (they could have ate some of the cilantro that I have an over abundance of-but nooooo, just the peppers, lettuce and cabbage....) 


We have had a terrible rabbit problem this year, and I thought that SOMEONE (cough-scott-cough)  needs to go out there and shoot all of those fuzzy little bunnies that are the culprits... those fuzzy little rat / bunnies who were eating my cabbage, peppers and such, but now maybe they (the rabbits) will go somewhere else since the goats, sheep, and cow ate them down all the way! Sorry, no more food here for you rat rabbits!


sigh.

Gra-ma's Day Out!

This last Sunday I took the 5 grand children bowling.  What a trip!  The children's ages are 2 to 9. 

Well we started with picking out bowling balls that were light weight, and yes the children liked certain colors on them.  We had two pink ones and a orange one which they used all 3.  

choosing the pink ball

The youngest grandchild picked up a ball and ran down to throw it -but was in the wrong lane, which was shut off, so the ball slowly rolled down the lane to the pins, bounced back, slowly rolling down the gutter area back towards us.  It stopped about 6 feet from the area where I could reach it. So out went grandma to get the ball.  I stepped over the line at the end of the lane where we are normally to stop when bowling, and I went right down onto my back side. I had forgotten that they are very waxed, they wax the lanes so the balls roll easier.


 I am still limping, bruised, and I threw my back and pelvis out.  Now I need a trip to the chiropractor sooner than I would have, and not sure if I will get into there yet this week!  But hope fully he will be open this week yet!  


So after laying there for about 30 seconds, I started crawling towards the ball, grabbed it and crawled out of the lane and waxed floor.  


I was able to bowl for a few times, starting with a strike, but each time I was hurting more   and because of that, not doing very well so decided to let my daughters bowl in my place.  


We worked with the younger children until they understood the basic rules of staying in your lane (which we continued to work on for safety reasons) and how to roll the ball...

giving instruction then watching the ball go all the way down the lane!

Daddy helping his sons...

By the end of the first game (which only took us about and hour and 40 minutes to play) each of the grand children were picking up the ball themselves and taking it down to the lane and rolling it. 

 It was funny sometimes to watch it roll so slow...but they actually did pretty good.  We had the bumpers up for them too, which helped, and when Anastasia set that up, she told them to do it for everyone but me.  Thanks!  One of the reasons you bowl with kids is the advantage of using the bumpers!


This bowling ally is nice, the bumpers are nets that are controlled by the computer and come up as they program them to, so actually if you only need them for one person, it works well!
So that is the day of bowling...

The youngest  guy carrying the bowling ball himself!

We will do it again but give grandma time to heal first!