The homes that raise us.These 3 lovelies grew up at a nearby Wandawega cottage. (Slide to see the years blow by).The middle sister Irene with Pat & Alice would meet the boy next door, fall in love, see him through the war & back, get married, have kids & spend the rest of their long lives together.The girls kept an album of their years spent growing up, growing families & growing old at their little cottage.The album is full of everyday lake life: mowing, sawing trees, birthday cakes in the yard & one sad shot waiting for the bus to take them back to the city.Decades after these photos where taken, our friends @brianguysmith1 & @geyer.morford found the cottage & restored it back to its glory days in spectacular fashion.Then one day Irene knocked on their door.They opened it to her, to share their labor of love restoration of her little cottage.This would turn out to be the first of annual visits, with Irene making the pilgrimage with her family to tour the house that had raised her.I only met Irene only once, at her 91st bday party that she came back to celebrate at her childhood cottage.(Nobody knew that it would be her last visit- she passed away soon after).Flipping through the album, it hit me that when we restore old homes, were also restoring a sense of pride for those who called it home first.If you live in an old house, and someday get a knock from a prior owner dont worry about letting strangers in (for fear of them seeing dirty dishes & laundry).See it as honor for you, a blessing for the home, and a gift for them.Because all they are going to see inside is their own childhood.Opening our door is more than opening up our homes & ourselves -it’s what connects us through generations, & stays with us long after they – and we – leave.Here at camp, we say that were just the current caregivers in a 100-year-long line.(We dont know if Charlie will choose to take over this place or not).But someday when we get to be as old as Irene was, we plan to come back here (with our memories in tow) and knock on the door.We hope theyll let us in.In the meantime,it’s an honor to always keep our door open.RIP, Irene
Back in the day, Hunting & Fishing licenses used to sometimes come in the form of pin-back buttons. We still find them at fleas and thrifts on old sporting jackets, angler caps and in antique tackle boxes.Weve always had a soft spot for them & wanted to make our own Sportsmans Badge Set as an homage.So we asked our lake Wandawega neighbor & good friend @busychristen (of @busybeaverbuttonco) to make our own custom set. So she did a bang-up job (we are adding them to the campstore this morning)Christens personal button collection is so impressive, that she opened up the worlds first & only @buttonmuseum – a must-see.The culmination of more than a decade of collecting has resulted in her new book with Ted Hake: Button Power- A Visual journey of buttons through the last 125 years. If youre a Design nerd/history buff/ culture fanatic, its the holy grail. Milton Glaser gave the best cover quote for it: A button is such a primitive communication device. We think about electronics and social media when we think of things going viral, but ideas can be spread just as easily by wearing a buttonTo check out where to get it (and to support a female-owned small business) visit busybeaver.net. We hope that you will join us in congratulating Christen by supporting Button Power. (It is honestly one of the most educational, inspirational and beautiful books ever ) We are damn proud to call her a friend, a camp neighbor and an inspiration. #ButtonPower #SupportSmallBusiness #LadyBoss(5th and last shot from the book)Thanks @marina.kozak for your mad design skills!
Some of our favorite friends (human and canine) gathered here on a fall weekend a few years ago to learn how to master some basic outdoor skills.Among other things, instructors taught campers how to :Clean a trout Shoot skeet Hurl a hatchet Split wood Master a crossbow Learn differences in bourbon Cook over open flame We want to host another one of these next fall (and are gauging interest for it first). We aim to offer more great social distancing in the great outdoors. (But we do have a very long liability waiver to sign, though – these activities are not for the meek).Photos by Daniel Davis Sponsored by @basilhaydens @llbean @defybags
Who has ever tried to cook dinner on an open fire? Weve been hosting some chefs, foodies and photographer friends the past few days who have been trying it out. (And theyre a helluva lot better at it than we are.)@mindysegal made a huge crock of her famous hot chocolate to share with guests (and also to test out our new FAV little project together) *deets coming soon.@nathanmichael @julia_and_child @thefoodiest cooking up a storm at the campfire and in the #wandawegahillhouse (All shots here were snagged from their behind-the-scenes, texts theyve been sharing and Insta stories )If you are a foodie- these talented folks are definitely worth a follow
The ten Wisco fall weekend road trips everybody should take in their lifetime. (And if you live in the chicago area- youre in luck).This issue makes us want to go soak up all the color drives, apple picking, antique barn salesIn the next two weeks (while we still have all this autumn loveliness).Seeing our old girl on the cover here – is making us think that maybe its a sign that we need to fill up the thermoses with hot cider and take our old mascot Travelall on a road trip.Cause Its been too long.The days are getting shorter.The leaves seem to be falling faster this year. October Issue cover photo by @bobcoscarelli feature story photos guests and friends of camp.
MEET THE NEWEST MEMBER OF OUR FAMILY (We still need a name for our sign painter to letter her- ideas welcome)Last month my little brother texts me at the crack of dawn:SAM: You awake? I got you guys something.ME (thinking- oh shit. the last time, it was that bucket truck. And then the rusty ambulance. And then a firetruck.)SAM: Dont worry, I got it for free as a partial trade for a tree cutting job. Its a 46 Ford 2N. Shes not pretty, but runs great – Ill get er fixed up. And you need a machine up there, youve got too much work to not have a workhorse.(2nd picture top is what he texted me as the before.)I was legit scared- trying to picture where to hide it, and whos gonna keep a 75 year old tractor running. Fast forward 6 weeks. Sam managed to get her an overhaul, stripped the whole thing down for a paint job. Then loaded her up with our buddy Jack and hauled her 500 miles round trip to deliver her. (On his birthday).Goes to show that we shouldnt be so quick to judge anything thats showing its age. Underneath an old patina , there can be a workhorse that wont quit. (They may just need a spitshine & someone to believe in them).We put Wanda (new name TBD?) through her paces this past weekend hauling trees, wagons & kids. She will make her debut at camp this Halloween, pulling the camp wagon we that we just outfitted for the kids.Thanks, for the present, Sam.(Its funny how you always seem to find a way of doing things for other people when this day comes around).
Who wants one? The newest addition from the (very) unofficial Camp Wandawega Infirmary. DISCLAIMER: THIS ISNT GONNA SAVE YOUR LIFE…..But it could make it slightly more tolerable, should you suffer rope burns on the tire swing, need to bandage a bluegill bitten nipple or any number of other minor camp-inflicted ailments. Introducing : The Wandawega First Aid Kit.Its a 41-piece-emergency-set in a backpack-sized metal travel case.Its honestly unremarkable, other than its the only set whos helvetica wrapped bandage packaging made us – and you wont find this anywhere in the world other than our campstore. We held out for years buying every vintage kit that we could get our paws on (7th shot)…. until we found one that has the rounded metal corners like the original 1950s Red Cross Kits. Be still our little OCD design loving hearts Shout out below if you want us to mail you one – (and tag a friend, well ship them one, too) . Picking four people at random cause the only thing that we love more than making these little historic throwbacks is giving them away to fellow design nerds.Picking a few folks tomorrow night to give them new homes – well wrap up in our little swag bag care packages to ship out to good homes.Cause nothing says camp more than coming home with battlescar stories dressed up in bandaids.Love,CampWandawega.com/campstore
Omg!! WHAT DO WE DO – he looks like a young one. And scared and trapped and has a bleeding leg-we have been trying to coax him out with marshmallows but he just freaks out and shakes and is barking at us. The local@animal rescue we called wont take him (they said they dont do raccoons) Anybody know who to call?He cant be more than a few months old and it looks like a coyote may have gotten him by the looks of his leg.Hes hiding in our boat shed and just shaking UPDATE: thank you everyone for all of your helpful advice! We came back to check on him with a have a heart trap and he (she?) was gone… assuming back to the woods to find mom. Hopefully fine
Once upon a time, we hosted a little fall dinner party in our backwoods. We did crafts, played games drank hot spiked cider (and then we ate all the decorations & the tablescape).If youre hosting a fall get together & in search of weird art that you can eat, here are some of our favs from this TB:.(Zoom in )These mushrooms are actually marshmallows with apples hats. These pine cones are really a block of creme cheese crammed with almonds. These acorns are Hershey kisses with vanilla wafer hats and butterscotch chip tips. These stems on the caramel apples are just tree branches shoved into the cores Feeling the social distancing blues these days – miss styling dinner parties for friends here. (There will never be enough time for dressing up with friends and dressing up tables and dressing up the camp taxidermy in tiny hats to take a seat at the table). *See if you can spot the five different stuffed creatures hidden in these scenes.Wishing that this Wisconsin peak fall season could stretch out farther. Miss these friends & fall models : @alliesnail @naimanaito @minimalist.ish , Olen Photos: Tillie Barbosa
The rustic camping cluster is our favorite place to be in the fall. Its tucked away in the hilltop overlooking the lake where you get the best view of the changing colors . … we are coming to the end of the first season of breaking in our new tipi. With its bigger size, rebuilt deck, zip down screens, its the nicest wind-and critter-tight, rain-free, version weve ever had here. And we finally got the custom mural graphics painted on it that weve wanted to do forever. … given that this is the 6th one weve tried in a dozen years- its about time that we got it right.Fully furnished with rugs, chairs, trunks, side tables, lanterns, two twin proper bed + mattresses, extra blankets and portable power pack, makes this thing down right luxe compared to our old school earlier versions.But that still may be a stretch- Its still camping. You still have to head to the woodshed to make your own coffee in the morning over the open campfire (but well get you started with the gear)#camperswelcome Photos: @katebe_ @theobergoasis @rbamericana
