These Days....

'Tis the season...for camping here at WillOaks. I don't think I've discussed this on the blog here yet, but from May 1 through mid October, our family owned and operated campground, called the WillOaks Campground, is open for business. And running it is mostly my job. I have put a little travel trailer back there to use while we're open and the Memorial Day weekend, a semi-official start of summer in this area, promises to be full and very busy. In fact, although the campground is rather small, it will be completely full over this long holiday weekend and we've been working hard to prepare things.

It's a beautiful property, abundant in nature and wildlife, and tends towards the best of "old fashioned" camping in either tents or RV's and travel trailers. A one acre swimming and fishing pond features catch and release fishing and a swimming beach and raft. Some of the sights and sounds can be amazing and no doubt, as I capture new images this season, some will appear on these pages.

Last year, I was delighted by regular visits by this great blue heron (this bird was an amazing fisherman!) and finding many different frogs, toads and snakes who all call the park "home." The bird life includes cardinals, finches, redtail hawks, many different woodpeckers, bluebirds and sandhill cranes, among many others, and I've identified numerous wildflowers, shrubs and trees.

My little trailer is undergoing a renovation right now as I had some pretty bad damage inside of it over the winter. This has been a perfect excuse to remove some of the furniture that's built in and after the new floor is installed, I hope to create a kind of workbench in one end of the main room instead of standard camper fare. This way, as I switch hats back and forth, from artist to campground manager...maybe I can squeeze just a bit more time for the creative side of my life into the "regular summer job."