Harrison Lake - June 2014

A weekend without camping?  How can that be?  On Wednesday, I booked a trip for the weekend to Harrison Lake State Park.  There wasn't an overabundance of campsites available when I booked, but there WERE sites available.

Previously, I'd written a post about Harrison Lake, thinking we'd not make a trip there this year.  I really think this is a hidden camping gem, so close to home.
Big campsites - check
Quiet - check
Nature-y activities - check
Fishing - check
Swimming - check

Decent shower house - check (the buildings with just toilets and sinks aren't anything to write home about, but you're not spending much time in there)
Organized kid activities - check
Playgrounds - check
Electric sites - check

Our campsite, Site 77, wasn't the biggest at the campground, but booking only 2 days out, it was nothing to sneeze at.  One of the best - BEST - things about Harrison Lake is that most of the campsites are large.  Making them even larger, there is a TON of space behind the campsites, between the sites on the next campground road.  We had a drainage ditch behind our site, which really limited the use of that space behind our campsite, but Oldest Kid still found a way to utilize the space.

Want to go fishing?  Youngest Kid caught an impressive number of Blue Gill and Sunfish.  Want to go swimming?  The park staff makes sure to tend the beach so you're not dodging goose poop.    Want to talk to your kids about the advantages of having a dam and what it does for the wildlife?  You can do that, too.

There's a neat little walking bridge that connects the North Campground to the dams and to the swimming area and to the South Campground.

Both the staff and the Friends of Harrison Lake State Park are great about putting on programs for park visitors.  Last year's visit, there was a bike rally and all the kids got free bike helmets.  This year, there was an ice cream social.  There are free crafts every weekend we're there during the summer.

While I was on my run Saturday morning, the dog and I went over to the other campground.  As we were making our way back, there was a crane standing on the dam.  I got a picture.  As we made our way closer, I tried to get another picture and the crane decided to not hang around a person and a dog (can't really blame it).  It was a neat moment and my kids enjoyed seeing my pictures.

It was a dam good morning to crane my neck - haha, I'm so punny.

I served the Strawberry Bread and Strawberry Butter to our friends that camped with us and earned rave reviews.  It's still strawberry season around these parts and you have the opportunity to pick your own strawberries to make your own yumminess.

It was a great weekend.  A little bit of rain, but it didn't dampen (get it? another pun!) our weekend at all.  Lots of bike riding and games.  It's time together, and I'm always happy with that.

Strawberry Butter

A friend shared this with me, and it tastes delightful on the Strawberry Bread.

Ingredients:

• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 2 tbsp confectioners sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup strawberries, diced

What to do:

In a small bowl, beat the butter, sugar and salt with an electric mixer (or by hand) until soft, about 1 minute.  Add strawberries and beat until just combined (or for smoother consistency beat 1-2 minutes).

Serve immediately.  Cover and store in the refrigerator.


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Strawberry Bread

We spent the afternoon picking strawberries - 26 pounds!  Last year, the strawberry farm had a few recipes out to take with you, including this Strawberry Bread.  We all really enjoyed it last year and I'm sure it will be a hit again this year.  Want to make it extra special?  Add some Strawberry Butter to your slice of Strawberry Bread.

You may be sitting there, wondering why I'm including a bread recipe on a camping blog.  I get it, I don't really bake while camping.  I do bake at home and take a loaf on a camping trip for a little something extra for breakfast.  Since prime growing season in Michigan is limited, I bake many loaves of bread and then put them in the deep freezer.  We're just now polishing off all the delicious bread that I made last year.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 4 eggs beaten
• 1 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 1/2 cups strawberries sliced and mashed slightly

What to do:

1. In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
2. In a medium size bowl, beat together eggs and oil until blended.  Stir in strawberries until combined.
3. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the egg mixture, stirring until thoroughly blended (do not over blend).
4. Spoon batter evenly into 2 greased and floured 9x5x3 inch loaf pans.
5. Bake 350 degrees for 1 hour or until a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean.  Remove from pans to cool.

Ziplock Omelet

My mom found this recipe years ago.  It's an easy way to feed a crowd and ensure that everyone gets what they want.  I've seen similar ideas with mason jars, but I think the Ziplock saves on space for travel.

What to do:

• Have everyone write their name on a quart-sized Ziploc freezer bag with permanent marker (very important).
• Crack 2 eggs (large or extra large) into each bag (not more than 2).  Shake to combine them.
• Put out a variety of ingredients: cheeses, ham, onion, green pepper, tomato, hash browns, salsa, etc.  Each guests adds prepared ingredients of choice to their bag and shake.
• Make sure to get the air out of the bag and zip it up.
• Place the bags into rolling, boiling water for exactly 13 minutes.
• You can usually cook 6-8 omelets in a large pot.  For more, make another pot of boiling water.
• When time's up, open the bags, and the omelet will roll out easily.
• Nice to serve with fresh fruit or bread.

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Are we there yet? Car activities for kids

Kids get bored in the car.  Technology keeps them occupied for only so long.  The other day I shared about Car Travel Bins but was all secretive about what goes in them.  Well, except for using cups to keep colored pencils in, I shared about that.

All this build-up.  You'd think this was something far more exciting than kids' car activities.  Lemme open the super-duper secret vault for you (I can feel it, you're on pins and needles, I know it).

Composition Notebooks.  They're like $.89 each (big spender, eh?).  They're open-ended, the kids can do whatever it is that they want in them.  Draw pictures.  Write a story.  Play tic-tac-toe.  Play hangman.  I try to get cheap-o stickers (check out the dollar stores, I got 1000 stickers for $1) and stick them in the notebooks.  Then, the kids can get creative with the stickers as story inspiration or making designs or who knows what they come up with.

Tangoes.  They're magnetic puzzles.  You get a handful of pieces in varying shapes and sizes.  You get a booklet of pictures using the shapes and you have to try to figure out how to make the picture with the pieces.  The answers are included, not that I've had to look at the answers or anything (nuh-uh, nope, not at all).  We've got the Animals set, Objects set, and People set.  When my kids get tired of figuring out the puzzles, they make their own fun shapes.  My oldest even put faces on the pieces in one set and spent 45 minutes making them interact with each other.  After I saw what she did, I thought about saying, "Hey, don't do that," but she was content and I'm not the one playing with these puzzles, so it wasn't an issue for me.

Mystery bottles.  Originally an idea from Pinterest (you can follow me, I'm not super active at this time),

we've also had campground hosts do them as an activity at their campsite for the kids.  Take an empty water

bottle (easy after a camping weekend), clean it and make sure it's completely dry.  Find a bunch of small objects, between 10-20, depending on how big your bottle is.  Use a funnel and start filling the water bottle with uncooked rice, adding the small objects intermittently.  You don't want to fill the bottle all the way to the top so that there is movement inside the bottle as the kids try to find the objects.  As you're searching for small objects, get creative or use things that aren't used much anymore - silly bands, coins, hair ties, paper clips, beads, a bell, game pieces from a game missing too many pieces, paper clip, small toys.  I try to keep a list of what is in the bottles to help with knowing what to find.  When you're done filling the bottle, add some glue to the lid as you put it on to minimize rice explosions in the car.  My kids want to make more, even though we've got 4 already.

Activity Books.  There are all kinds.  I've got these pictured Lego activity books tucked away for our upcoming trip to Gatlinburg.  I've got Mad Libs, tucked away, too (can't lie, I'm looking forward to those).  Youngest spent countless hours working through her My Remarkably Sparkly Sticker and Doodling Purse, there are other versions, too.  We've also got some fashion design activity book that I can't search for because of sleeping children.  Before our trip to Alum Creek which involved a trip to the American Girl store, I picked up some AG activity books on sale specifically for the car ride.  Basically, if your kid has an interest, there's an activity book for it.  I might get my act together and print some worksheets for Oldest to practice her math skills on the way to Gatlinburg.

Camping Snacks. My kids know that they get "camping snacks" for the car ride to and from a campground.  In the cookie aisle, there are plastic cups of Nabisco treats.  I don't normally buy Chips Ahoy or Teddy Grahams or Oreos or Nutter Butters, so these are treats in every sense.  The plastic cups are self-contained, they're easy, they have a lid (of course, plenty have been dropped/spilled/given to the eagerly awaiting dog).  When these are on sale for $1, I stock up.

The kids will help pack what goes into their bins, they may add a few things that I didn't include here, they may not put in all that I've said.  This is just the ideas I use to help start and end our trip on the right foot and in the right mood.

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Cooking over the fire

Cooking over the open fire goes with camping.  Lots of ways to do it, you've got to find what works for you.

You can see in the picture that Husband is cooking the Hearty Breakfast (yeah, it's the same picture because that's how I work) on our trip to Wilson State Park.  Breakfast is cooking in a cast iron dutch oven - don't forget your liners for easy clean up, like these.

Husband put the dutch oven on our own grill over the fire.  Some camp fire rings at some campgrounds have some sort of grill that you can lower down over the fire.  The fire ring in this picture is standard at most Michigan state parks (definitely not at Grand Haven state park, you don't get a fire ring there at all).  If we're planning on cooking over the fire, we make sure to bring our own grill.

The grill we have has a single stake to put your food right over the fire.  You can swivel it out to check and adjust your food so you don't scorch yourself.  You can adjust the height for optimal cooking.  I checked several camping sites trying to find our exact grill and this was the closest to the exact grill we have.  It works for us.

What do you like to use to grill over the open fire?

Car Travel Bins

Long car rides.  They can be torturous for kids.

"I'm bored."

"Are we there yet?"

"How much longer?"

"I can't find my _____!"

"She has my _____!"

It's enough to make any easy-going parent snap when you're in the car for hours on end.  And for the not-so-easy-going (you know who you are), well... good luck to you.

Technology has certainly changed since I was a kid.  BUT, my kids can only play on a device for so long.  They'll want something else to do.

On the way home, the bins are a bit messy

That's where these bins come in handy.  I've tried bags in the past.  The stuff in the bags ends up in a heap, burying the bags.  Stuff is falling onto the dog.  No one can find anything.  It's a big mess.

The beauty of the bins is that they're open, the kids can see everything in them and grab it easily.  What they put back goes right into their own bin.  The responsibility of keeping the bins neat rests solely on the bin owner.

What goes in the bins?  I'll write another post about that later - heh, heh.

Ok, I'll tell you one thing.  I'd like to point out that you can see a pink cup in the picture.  Colored pencils go in a cup, one cup for each kid.  Why colored pencils?  They don't melt in a hot vehicle like crayons.  They don't accidentally mark the vehicle when dropped and they don't dry out.  I really like the twisty kind of colored pencils by Crayola because they're easily sharpenable (yea! I made up a word!) with just a small twist.  Buy one package of these things, split them between the kids, and everybody is happy.  When the kids were younger, the Crayola Wonder markers were my go-to.

The bins are stacked nicely at home, easy to get ready for the next trip.  Though, honestly, they're still sitting and waiting for some items to be put away before I can put the bins where they belong.  Yeah, my process of unpacking from a trip sometimes involves laziness.

Wilson State Park

Site 28

Back from another trip.  We typically take a weekend trip with both sets of our parents every year.  My father-in-law is scheduled to have replacement knee surgery in a few weeks time.  We scheduled our trip with them earlier in the camping season than previous years.  Looking at where they live and where we live, I studied the map of Michigan state campgrounds and found Wilson State Park in Harrison, Michigan.  It was fairly equidistant.  Having never been there, I figured if it sucked we'd just never go back.

First of all, we're definitely in camping season here.  No doubt about that.  It's June.  Kids are out of school.  The park is right on Budd Lake (yeah, I'd never heard of it, either).  I booked this trip pretty recently and found there to be plenty of sites to choose from.  As we got off US127, there were lots of Mom & Pop motels on the lake that had No Vacancy signs.  Huh, wonder what the campground is going to be like, will it be busy?

Acorn turns into an oak tree

There were tons of sites available all weekend.  Maybe 1/3 of the campground was in use.  Mostly the perimeter sites were where people picked, certainly the sites lining the tree lined lake.  The campground is a little bit hilly, so you'd better get your speed up when you're riding your bike to climb those hills.  There was great tree coverage and our site was very shady - great for the hot days of summer, not so great when your Friday night low is 40 (in June!!) and the wind is going crazy.

Right away, we noticed countless acorns that had split open on the ground on the campsite.  Most of them had red roots poking out them, headed into the ground.  Some of them, like the picture I've got here, had a root going into the ground and another part pointing up and making itself into an oak tree.  It was a fun science lesson for all of us, seeing the differing early stages of the oak life cycle.

As I mentioned Wilson State Park is right on Budd Lake (did you Google it because you'd never heard of it?).  In theory, our campsite backed up to the lake, but there were tons of trees blocking our view.  The site next to us had itty-bitty glimpses of the lake, others had slightly better views of the lake, but none had great views (at least that I saw, feel free to prove me wrong in your comments).  A short walk, and 37 steps down (207 steps fewer than what we went up and down at Holland's Mt. Pisgah), we were at the beach.

Beach at Budd Lake

Budd Lake beach at the state park is unusual, there is a small upper level with sand held in place with a retaining wall and about 10 steps lower you're at a small, regular beach.  The kids loved putting their toes in the water, finding unusual rocks, and seeing curlicue snail shells (with and without the snail).  Husband and Grandpa took the kids fishing where they all caught (and released) several kinds of fish.

On our walk to the beach on Saturday morning, we had our other, cool sciency moment.  Walking along, I saw a butterfly.  Typically, butterflies have their wings pointed up while sitting.  This butterfly had it's wings laying flat as it sat on the damp sand of the beach.  I called the kids over to see it.  I wasn't sure if it was trying to dry it's wings or if it was hurt.  We watched it kind of move it's wings a bit.  Oldest kid went off to find more rocks.  Youngest stayed with me.  Then said, "I want to blow on it's wings," and blew gently.  Suddenly, the butterfly takes flight.  It flies around for a minute.  Lands about 5 feet from where it was when we found it.  Youngest and I keep watching it.  Butterfly does the same thing with it's wings.  I say to youngest, "Hey, will you blow on the butterfly's wings again so I can get a picture?"  Youngest does her

Butterfly dries it's wings

magic and - POOF - butterfly flies again.

Let's be clear.  I'm a kid at heart.  IT WAS SO COOL!

The downside to this otherwise nice campground is that there isn't a whole lot to do unless you're boat people.  We're not boat people, as much as Husband wants a small row boat, we're still not boat people. We biked the entire, small campground 3 times in about 20 minutes.  There aren't hiking paths.  There isn't a nature center.  You're in the middle of no where, there aren't exactly sights to see away from the campground.

We had a lovely weekend, despite the cold and windy Friday night.  We have plenty to keep ourselves busy and entertained at our campsite (UNO anyone?).  Kids wanted to use their Rainbow Loom to make bracelets and rings and made so many I couldn't keep count.  They even taught Grandma how to make her

own bracelet.  For a brief moment, even the dog had a rubber band loom ring on his tail.

Wilson State Park is a nice little campground with a beach.  They have a handful of special event weekends (Memorial, 4th of July, some Harvest festival thing).  It's right across the street from the Clare County fairgrounds and I expect that the place is hopping during fair week.  While it was fun weekend, Husband was very clear he'd prefer to go somewhere else for the same amount of drive-time.  I'd have to agree.

Dill Pickles

Another post from my archives of canning.  This is from the same neighbor that gave me the Bread & Butter Pickle recipe.  As I'm getting ready for another camping trip this weekend, you can bet these are ready to go.

For each quart of pickles, you will need:

• 5 or 6 4-inch pickling cucumbers
• 3 or 4 heads of fresh dill
• 1 teaspoon mustard seed
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon pickling salt

What to do:

Pack cucumbers loosely in hot, clean quart jars.  Add dill and mustard seed to each quart.  Make a brine by combining water, vinegar, and salt.  Bring to boiling.  Slowly pour hot brine over cucumbers.  Prepare lids and rings.  Wipe jar and place lids and rings on jars.  Process in hot water bath, 10 minutes for pint and 15 minutes for a quart.  These pickles need to set for about 4 weeks before they are ready to eat.

If you want Kosher pickles, omit the mustard seed and add 1 clove of garlic and 1 small piece of hot red pepper to each quart.

Sloppy Joe

It's no secret that I like easy meals for camping.  Sloppy Joe fits the bill.  I make it at home and then put it in the camper fridge.  All we have to do is reheat it when we're ready to eat.

What you need:

• 2 lbs ground beef
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 2/3 cup ketchup
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 TBS lemon juice
• 1 TBS brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp Worcestershire
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 or 2 tsp vinegar
• 1 TBS mustard

What to do:

Brown the ground beef, I do it in a big sauce pot.  Drain excess fat.  Stir in remaining ingredients.  Simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes.  Serve on your favorite hamburger buns.

Bread & Butter Pickles

Not long ago, I shared my recipe for Zucchini Relish.  What goes with relish?  Pickles, of course.  What do pickles go with (and on)?  The most common foods eaten while camping, hamburgers and hot dogs and brats.

Early in my canning phase, I walked down to a neighbor's house and she was in the middle of canning pickles from her family recipe.  We had an abundance of cucumbers in the garden that year.  A day or so later, the neighbor dropped off copies of her family recipes and I found myself further into the world of home canning.

These are just as good as my neighbor told me.  Everyone who has tried them enjoys them.

What you need:

• 4 quarts sliced pickling cucumbers
• 6-8 medium onions, sliced
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1/3 - 3/4 cup pickling salt (you can use regular salt, pickling salt is courser)
• crushed ice
• 5 cups sugar
• 3 cups cider vinegar
• 2 TBS mustard seed
• 1 1/2 tsp ground tumeric
• 1 1/2 tsp celery seed

What to do:

Combine sliced cucumbers, onions, garlic (speared on wooden toothpicks) and salt.  Cover with crushed ice and mix well.  Let cucumber mixture stand for 3 hours, stirring occasionally.  Drain well. Remove garlic.  Combine sugar, vinegar, mustard seed, tumeric and celery seed.  Pour over cucumber mixture.  Bring to a boil for about 7 minute.  Pack cucumbers and hot syrup into hot jars.  Use knife to remove any air bubbles.  Wipe jar rim with cloth to remove any debris.  Cover jars with hot lids and rings.  Process in hot water bath, 10 minutes for pint and 15 minutes for quart.  Pickles are ready to eat in about 2-3 weeks.  They will be good right away but it is worth waiting at least 2 weeks before eating.

Applesauce

Applesauce is another easy side dish or healthy snack.  So far, I've only done homemade freezer applesauce.  This year, I'd like to expand it to a shelf-stable applesauce.

First, the recipe I've used for a couple of years.  It is from http://thatscountryliving.com.

What you need:

• 18 cups of apples (one variety or mix and match), cored, peeled, and sliced
• 3/4 cup water
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp cinnamon

What to do:

• Turn slow cooker on low.  Simmer apples on low for about 5 hours, stirring every so often.
• Apples will break down into mush.  Turn slow cooker off and let apples cool for an hour or so (until it's cool enough to handle).
• You have several options when it comes to preparing your applesauce, which depends on your consistency preference.  If you like chunkier applesauce, might just use a potato masher.  If you like it with a smoother texture, you can run it through a food mill or other processor.  I use my immersion blender and leave some chunks.
• Your applesauce is now ready for freezing/canning!

When freezer canning, I like to use Ball Freezer containers.  What size I use depends on how many people I'll plan to feed with the container.  The smaller containers are great for a couple of school lunches.  The bigger containers are great for a side dish at the dinner table (or picnic table).

Like I said, I want to make shelf stable applesauce this year.  Looking the applesauce recipe in my canning bible, it said to pour sauce into hot jars, pint or quart.  Then adjust the 2 piece cap and process pints and quarts for 20 minutes in a boiling-water canner.