We Have a Mess and it is COLD (again)

Well we went from winter to summer back to winter, hooray for Indiana weather. Been here my whole life and you should never pack away your winter clothes until after July 4th. :)  We had the air conditioner on one night and the furnace/fire place the next.
Oh well not boring that way, I guess. We are supposed to get up into the 70's this week that will be so nice.

We have a little mess on our site now.  Oh goody! More sticks to pick up.  The Forest Service cuts down dangerous trees that are dead, diseased or dying to prevent injury to campers. And unfortunately we had some around us. They had so many to cut this year due to the Ash Bore bug that is killing the Ash trees and the Popular dying due to the drought from last summer.  So basically in a nut shell it is just not a good thing to be a tree right now. 

This used to be a beautiful Sassafras tree. The Forest Service brought it to us after they cut it down since we had to do this......

Yes, that is us sitting out in the middle of the road.  They wanted us to move since 2 of the trees they had to cut down were behind us and they were big!!!

It had grown up into a V shape. So one went left, one went right.

The one that went to the right sounded like a bomb when it hit.  That is because it exploded when it hit the ground. See the inside is starting to rot. 

They also (Forest Service) said Woodpeckers are not helping the situation either. They love of course to put these holes in the trees and that isn't healthy and ends in them dying alot of the time. But oh Woody is so cute, how can we be made at him?

But not all is lost.  Aren't these nice "sit around the fire" chairs? They really go with our decor don't they?  My only complaint is they are hard!

This is a new view out of our kitchen window. :(  I hate seeing trees cut down. I know they need to be for the safety of the campers but seems like a life is gone. 

We worked most of the morning cleaning up our site. I don't like to see brush laying around and there were many big logs we moved.  I bought this new plant called a Senetti. This is the trademark name for a plant from the Pericallis plant.  Nope didn't mean anything to me either. But I thought I would throw that in there to appear smart :)  All I know is it is gorgeous and it attracted butterflies almost immediately.

This Western Tiger Swallowtail looks gorgeous with the yellow color against the purple. 

Cleaning sites all morning just wore Effie out. As you can see it was cold outside in the wind and so she was sun bathing in her camouflage sweater.

She is getting a nice tan wouldn't you say?  She seems never to burn. :))

Poor little Cooper is all worn out too.  He just conked out in the trailer.

This morning almost all of the hosts went out to a local restaurant where they serve a breakfast buffet. It is one of those little restaurants where all the chairs don't match, the silverware if not perfect, but boy do they serve great food! We don't work all the time we have fun too.

Starting top right is Mickey her husband Kevin, then Dee her husband Al.  Then top left is Jim, Jack, his wife Kay,  then Donnie and my plate, then Art (you all know him by now).  Al and Dee are the managers here and Kevin and Mickey are the assistant managers. Just a wonderful group of people.  But next time I am going to have them all say "cheese."  :)))

Here are their homes while in the park.....

Kevin and Mickey's on Holland Loop

Donnie's on Bluegill Loop

Jack and Kay's on Southern Point Loop

Jim's also on Southern Point

This is Bill and Abbie's. They are on White Oak Loop. They were not able to go to breakfast with us this morning.

Here they are slaving away cleaning the sites on their loop.

This is Al and Dee's motor home. It sits up at the office and affectionately called the 'Grey Ghost.'

There is still one camp host position available, so if any of you out there are wanting to come and join this amazing life style let me know and I will put you in contact with Al and Dee. 

This Swallowtail landed on the blue paint that they put around a tree that needs to be cut down.  Funny he landed on the exact middle. Maybe he was protesting the cutting of this tree.

     From Hardin Ridge in Hoosier National Forest best wishes and take care everyone.