May 13, 2007:

Mothers’ Day! Not a bad day, a bit cool and partly cloudy, but no rain. Doreen figures since it’s Mother’s Day, that gives her the whip hand, so I have been slaving away outside, working up a sweat. (I must confess, though, that she got more done while I was having a nap than I did while I was “slaving”.

I took Doreen to the Beach Café for lunch today; things had slowed down after an early rush so we had no trouble finding a table. We had a great lunch, and a visit with Ted and Birdy Krzak. Connie’s fried chicken is second to none! I gather it was pretty steady all day. Some people walking by said they had to wait for a table; others said there was no problem that way. Connie was giving away a free plant to each mother. Ronnie Hirtle said he thought he should have one too, and Connie told him to go home, shave his legs, and come back with a skirt on, and she would give him a plant.

Yesterday, the girls had their annual greenhouse run. Jenny, Laurie and Margaret came here, and Mike and Danny came along to keep me company. We had lunch here, then took the motor home and visited Revoy’s Greenhouse at Archerwill, Plants O’Plenty at Star City , Four Seasons Greenhouses at Tisdale, and Kinnee’s Greenhouse at Crooked River . Our plan was to stop at Ma Helen’s at Chelan on the way home, but by then the wind had come up and it was raining, so we just headed for home. Mike and I and Danny took pictures and the girls picked up a few plants at each place, filling the motor home. After a hot supper, the rest took off for their own homes. What a great day!

At Plants O’Plenty, there was a young girl wandering about, looking as if she was more than just another visitor. After awhile, a lady came to me, dragging the young girl by the hand, and insisted she tell me what she wanted. The girl was very shy, but eventually it came out that she wanted me to take her picture. Of course, I was thrilled, so I took a few pictures of her then asked for her name and address so I could mail her the pictures. She went running to the front desk for paper and pencil and the lady there took her to task for giving that information to strange men. Then, when she found out it was me, she gave the girl the go-ahead. That little episode topped the day off for me!

Glorious, glorious springtime! Just being outside on these warm days is like taking a tonic. Then every once in awhile there is a day like Wednesday, with a very stiff wind and dropping temperatures and a touch of frost at night, to remind us that we can’t have everything our way!

Sitting at coffee the other day, watching the geese alternately mowing and fertilizing the lawn, I asked Joe Ottenbreit, Park Supervisor, if the Park was going to round up the geese and move them away this year. The answer was an unequivocal “Yes!” The summer before last, the geese disappeared on their own for some reason; last year, the Park delayed acting to see if the same thing would happen, but it didn’t. By that time it was too late to do anything. There is a narrow window where the adults molt and are unable to fly, and that is the only chance the Park gets to round them up. They truck them over to the Pei Wei lakes and release them. Because the young ones are unable to fly at that stage, they don’t come back until fall, just before they take off for the south. Too bad they won’t adopt the Pei Weis for a new nesting place. They would be welcome over there.

There has been a lot of traffic by our place today. After lunch, we took a tour of the Park, and there were vehicles at a lot of the cabins. The roads, of course, are terrible, but there’s not much can be done about that for the time being. The lake level is just about perfect; the floating dock at the Marina is at the same level as the fixed dock, and it has been stable there for some time. Lakeshore Campground looks great. It had the big, over-mature poplars cut out some time ago so has lots of shade from young, fresh trees. We couldn’t get up to Hilltop but I know the Park maintenance crew has been working at cleaning up the fallen trees there. There are a few in the core area to be cleaned up too. One of these years they will have to do a major cull along the road to Uskatik – I wouldn’t trust some of those too far.

There have been a few boats out on the lake, but I haven’t heard how fishing has been. There are often a couple of people casting at the south end of the Marina . I noticed a couple of boats that looked like they could be rental boats tied up at the Boat House so maybe they are getting ready to do business.

It’s a busy weekend coming up at the Park! Besides the usual Victoria Day cabin goers, there is an open house at our place, yard sales at Miller’s and Renneberg’s, half a mile south of the Park, and a moving sale at Drobot’s, in Uskatik. And those are just the ones I know about. Lots to do!