Labor Day Weekend

We had a terrific time camping. Mom, Sweet and I had our birthday trip to the mall for manis, pedis and orange chicken. We shopped till we dropped and shopped some more.

We had great food, great family time and got some much needed relaxation (and sleep).

I didn't take many pictures this year. Not sure why I didn't but here are the three (besides Sweet's fire) that I took.

This was our last night. Notice Gracie curled up by the fire like a good dog? Now notice Millie the Wonder Dog? She disappeared and when we got the flashlight to locate her we found her curled in the chair. Millie is very old, doesn't wander and can't hear. So it was concerning when she wasn't laying by Grace.

This was also Sunday night. The moon was pretty incredible. I thought my camera did a pretty good job photographing it.

Also Sunday night. Cool built up the fire and the flame was at least 6 feet high. Here is Cool next to the fire that Cool built.


Not much in the way of pictures but we have terrific memories.

(c) 2008-2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

The Fire That Sweet Built

This is the fire that Sweet built.


This is Sweet posing by the fire that Sweet built.


This is Millie the Wonder Dog coveting the almighty pork chops that cooked over the fire that Sweet built.

One thing I have noticed during my camping excursions through the years is that people do not know how to start a campfire. I have seen people squirt lighter fluid that created a whoosh and a 6 foot flame only to have it die down to nothing. I watched a guy a couple years ago tear strips of paper off sheets and throw them, one by one, into the fire ring, light them and not have anything else to lay atop it to actually keep a fire going. This past weekend I watched a guy bring a fan out of his camper and use that as a bellows to start his fire. I wish you could see me shaking my head right now. My dad taught me to build a campfire when I was pretty young. It has been a skill, though not used alot, that has come in handy through the years. This year was the year Sweet was taught how to light a campfire. We talked about renting her fire lighting services out to the other campers this past weekend.

Good job Sweet! Keep up the good work!


(c) 2008-2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Treehouse Envy

While doing our siteseeing tour during our camping trip we saw this treehouse. I have MAJOR treehouse envy.



(c) 2008-2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines
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Campfire Pizza

When we camp we usually have the same thing to eat. Brats and hotdogs, hamburgers and chicken grillers. These are usually accomplanied by macaroni salad, potato salad or cole slaw, veggeis and dip, jello salad and beans. Boring but 4 times a year we know exactly what we are eating. Easy schmeasy.

Right before we went camping Cool was cleaning out the garage and found the pizza maker thingamabobs that he used when he was growing up and thus our menu changed. We had campfire pizza for lunch one day. If you want to make campfire pizza just follow these directions.

Place a peice of buttered bread, butter side down, on one side of the pizza maker.


Put pizza sauce on bread.


Place pepperoni on top of sauce.


About 5 peices will do.


Top the pepperoni with mozzerella cheese. We used shredded but any mozzerella will work.


Put two more dots of sauce on top of the cheese. Not sure why, that's just what Cool did.


Top with other peice of buttered bread, this time butter side up.


Put the other peice of the pizza maker on and squeese real tight to get it to shut. Then latch it with the hook.


You then tear the crust and extra bread that is hanging over the side off. Throw it to the eagerly waiting dogs.


Stick the pizza maker right in the coals of the fire.


After a few minutes turn it over.


I cannot tell you how long it takes to cook this. It really depends on the heat produced by the coals. You just kinda know when it is done.

You slowly open it up...


Pick up the fork you find laying on the table and wipe it clean...


And gently lift the pizza out and let it fall on a paper plate.




I let me dad cut it open because pizza is his favorite food and because he has never had campfire pizza before.






And for those of you who don't like pizza (like me) it also makes really good grilled cheese sandwiches.


(c) 2008-2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines
All Rights Reserved

Abbe Creek

We left the campground on Friday to do some site seeing. We camp at the same campground every Fourth of July in the same site. And each year we see signs for interesting things. Each year we say, "We should go check that out." Each year we don't. This year I told Cool, "We are doing this, this, this and this. Just so ya know." Cool, being the loving, wonderful husband that he is said, "OK. Anything you want my love, my friend, my queen." OK, maybe he didn't say those exact words, but we did go site seeing none-the-less. Our first stop was Abbe Creek School.

Unfortunately, the school wasn't open for tourists on the day we went. But we still got to take in the beauty of the old country school. Built in 1856, it is the oldest brick school building still standing in the state of Iowa or so I read.


The history carved on the outside of the building was neat. 1925 was the oldest date I saw. I wonder who DMA is. Would I have been friends with them?


I love puppy love. I hope they are happily married now.


Abbe Creek School is next to Abbe Creek, DUH! But in these parts we don't call them "creeks" we call them "cricks". But Abbe Crick doesn't sound as good as Abbe Creek so for arguments sake, I will keep referring to it as a creek unless I decide crick sounds better.

This has two set of steps. One set on this side of the fence and one set on the other side of the fence.


So as we walked up the one set and down the other we found ourselves walking along the crick. It was very peaceful and had quite a current. I am not sure if cricks have currents but this one did. Abbe Creek was the water source for the school back in the day.



We realized the fence was to keep the cows on the other side off the school lawn. The cows were cooling themselves in the crick. It was quite clear that we were disturbing them. In this instance and the one above, crick is the proper way to describe the body of water, just for the record.


This mama is glaring at Chip who is way too close to her youngun. The calf is running to it's mama cause Chip is scary, really he is.




You will need to picture the following scenario because I don't have a picture to show it....cause I was running ya see. Chip, the blue speck, in the above picture was the cause of the ruckus in the scenario you are going to have imagine. That mama cow was not too happy about him being so close to her babe, ya see. So, she stared him down until felt his life was in peril and decided to leave. Well, after turning to leave, Chip decided to run.

What Chip didn't know is that by starting to run he could spook the cows. Cattle can spook easily. So by running, Chip spooked this field full of over protective mamas and caused a, um, er, a stampede of sorts. See those cows in back of Chip? They started to run after him which in essence caused us to start to run because, well, we didn't want to be cow fodder.

I'm guessing they just wanted to play. Maybe a game of cat and mouse or bovine and human? Who said the smart cows live in California? These here are Iowa cows and they are pretty darned smart. They got a family of 5 to run for their lives.

Regardless of the fact that we were chased by Bessie and her friends and that the school wasn't open, we had a great time exploring the crick and the grounds of Abbe Creek School.


(c) 2008-2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines
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Creatures of the Campground

The picklets are known for heading off into the woods and coming back with creatures.

Some alive






Some not.


The picklets also spotted creatures right near our campsite and excited all of us. Like the doe and fawn that walked by our camper 3 times over the weekend. Didn't catch the fawn any of those times but our memories will get us by.

Sparrows were everywhere.

These two kept taking turns feeding each other. At first we thought they were mother and birdling but they both flew off and both were the same size.

Because of all the wonderful wild flowers my picklets brought to me all weekend, we had fun watching polination in action.



(c) 2008-2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines
All Rights Reserved