Happy St. Paddy's Day - March 11 - 17th

It has been a week of interesting weather. We had snow, sun, rain and wind, cold temps to warm temps. Other than our exercise class Wednesday's and Fridays, Ray has spent most of his mornings in his workshop making planters for Kristi. (These were promised last year lol) I spent my time on household chores, laundry, cooking etc. I have also been planning out my greenhouse and garden situation and I can't wait for the weather to get better so I can start. I have to reorganize how I put my planters this year with the greenhouse now in the front of the garage and where to plant what as the tomatoes and peppers will be in the greenhouse.

On Saturday, March 14th, it turned out to be a beautiful day, but we had a very cold wind here on the lake. Too cold to sit outside. After morning chores it was time for a drive to enjoy the sunshine. We decided to have lunch at the Lion Rampant Pub in Maple Bay after doing a bit of shopping in Duncan. The Lion has great fish and chips.

Earlier this week Roy and June were caught in a traffic jam outside our gate! Some of the elk at this time of year have dropped their horns, but not these guys. Quick close our gate!

Sunday afternoon the clouds moved in. Ray went down to the boat and turned on the bilge pump to get rid of any water from the previous rain as we were going to get another extended "Atmospheric River". Here at the lake for the first few days wasn't so bad, only a few periods of heavy downpours, mostly overnight. There are flooding concerns up and down the island as this pineapple express has brought warm temperatures with it so all the snow we received the past week or so on the mountains is now melting along with the added rain into the rivers and streams as we are at a balmy 10C. Hopefully it gets colder up the mountains soon to stop the snow pack melt that we need for the summer. (As of March 18th, the lake has come up about 2.5 feet)

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

I decided to cook and Irish themed dinner and invited Pat, Darryl and Sevie along with June and Roy over. Irish Whiskey, wine and bubbly were enjoyed. lol Everyone had to wear green.

I had made Guiness Beef Pot Pies and June provided a tasty salad, in the colours of the Irish Flag. I had also tried my hand making an Irish Apple Cake for dessert along with Irish Coffee's. Pat and Darryl brought wine. (we all brought wine lol) Pat also made me a shamrock for my table. She is so talented!

Cheers!

Irish Whiskey

We had a great evening catching up as we really have not got together since Christmas.

Lots going on at Roy and June's new house. They are now getting their basement finished. Here is their gyproc delivery. That crane actually swung around and delivered the load down the far side of their house by the basement. Quite the tricky landing zone and of course it was raining to they wanted it done pretty quick.

My spring bulbs are starting to pop out.

Ray and I met the new neighbours (Roy and June's old house) Saturday afternoon on the driveway when we got back from Maple Bay. It was a beautiful day and they were sitting out front on their patio. They arrived on Friday, March 13th to take possession of their vacation house and had lots of family over to see it. How exciting for them and their 11 year old son who has lots of younger cousins that were also visiting. I predict lots of "happy sounds" coming from their dock this year.

It was an easy move in for them as they also bought a lot of the furniture with the house.

Ray finished another puzzle.

Another week gone by!

Dianne and Steve come for the weekend! March 1 - 10th

The weather has turned into spring weather. Warm days and showery weather with the odd sunny day thrown in. We did manage a campfire in between days of rain.

Someone trying out fishing before the Frostbite Derby on the weekend!

With the nicer weather, I fired up my pizza oven on the deck.

Ta Da! Only one edge slightly over toasted this time. :)

It was a bit of a cooking week for me. I even made fresh pasta for the first time in a long while. Used my new food processor I got for Christmas and of course used my pasta maker attachment for my mixmaster. Turned out delicious with my homemade tomato sauce from last year's harvest and mixed with ground beef and mild italian sausage. (Description for you Frannie!)

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday Ray spent getting stuff ready for Steve and Dianne's arrival on Thursday. Steve is coming down to go in the Frostbite Derby on Saturday and will help launch the boat Friday morning. Ray managed to finally get ahold of this guy across the lake from us, Dennis, that actually catches fish all the time. After a great conversation on the guys boat, Ray took a bunch of pictures of his gear. Then it was off for a quick trip to Nanaimo on Tuesday morning to Harbour Chandler for more fishing tackle lol.

Boat batteries were dead as a doornail .... someone forgot to turn off the battery switch over the winter and did not periodically put the charger on them????? They were dropped off on Monday and we picked them up on Wednesday as I had some grocery shopping to do in Duncan. Fortunately, as they were only a year old, the charge came back up ready for launching the boat Friday morning. 

My Aerogarden is doing well on my counter. Soon I will have fresh herbs outside at the end of April.

Jason dropped Olaf off about 9:30 am as we have him for 5 days while the kids are in Vancouver. Dianne wanted to meet him forever..... Olaf turned 2 years old on February 2nd. Part of the deal if we took him, Dianne would have to help walk him. lol

Steve and Dianne arrived around 2:30 pm on Thursday and we were able to sit outside on the deck and enjoy the fire table and heaters.

I made a Prime Rib Roast on the barbeque for dinner with the fixin's.

Hang on Dianne!

Friday morning after a big breakfast, the guys pulled the boat out, and installed the bimini cover. Soon after, they headed out to launch the boat. Fortunately it started easily and Ray was soon at the dock, while Steve drove the car and trailer back.

Here he comes.

Ray got the boat all tied up and then Steve and Ray put the trailer back into the garage. Now my greenhouse can move up to the front of the house. :)

Steve helped Ray get the greenhouse bolted to it's platform and then they pushed it up Mike's driveway and down ours to in front of the boat garage. Got a little snow on it Monday morning. lol

Since the sun had come out we decided to go for a drive to Duncan (Ray need an extension to his downrigger power) and have lunch at Arrowsmith Brewing for a little outing. Tonight will be beef dip leftovers anyways. Thanks for lunch Dianne and Steve. They had this cool sign there as this used to be motorcycle shop, now a brewery.

Back home we were back out on the deck for the rest of the afternoon. Good thing I got those heavy poly curtains. :)

Friday morning, the boys were out of the house and in the boat for 7:45 am to hopefully catch a fish for the Frostbite Derby. Unfortunately 4 hours in the morning and a couple more after lunch they were unsuccessful. It was a windy, grey day but at least it didn't rain. Ray was warned by Dennis that this time of year is not great fishing. There were 20+ fish turned in though, but we think they caught them at the end of the lake near Shaw Creek or Bear Lake, and it was too nasty on the water for the guys to go that far in our boat.

These guys stayed out really late, we saw them come by our dock later in the afternoon.

2 guys fishing from shore

The guys were in by 3 and called it a day. After sitting outside for an hour or so, they headed out to the legion at 4:30 for the weigh in and prizes. Dinner apparently was disapointing. Dianne and I just relaxed and had leftover Split Pea Soup with buttermilk biscuits I'd made earlier in the day to warm the guys up.

There apparently were lots of prizes to give out by a number drawn. Steve got a fish gaff/bonker, Ray got a pair of boots that hopefully he can exchange for a proper size. There was probably 100 people there that had entered. They guys sure didn't see that many boats out though, but you were allowed to fish Bear Lake too.

While the guys were out, Dianne and I chillaxed. :)

Sunday morning I made crepes for breakfast after a relaxing morning.

After breakfast, the fabulous kitchen crew did the dishes, then the group took Olaf for his walk in the park next door. I went shopping for some dinner ingredients. Baked chicken quarters and fried rice and lots of veggies. I prepped for dinner when I got back from the store. Lots of chopping for a quick cooking dish. :) and the rice had to be made and cooled in the fridge until cooking it later.

Since the weather turned out so nice although very windy, we decided to go into Youbou and have a late lunch at the Youbou Pub. Our treat this time. With the time change last night the day got away from us. Good thing today was not the derby with the wind. Whitecaps everywhere.

Again the rest of the afternoon spent on the deck.

All too soon the visit was over. It started snowing this morning while the Colibabas were getting ready to leave. Apparently it was only snowing here and once they hit Duncan, it was dry roads and sunshine all the way home to Courtenay. We had on and off snow showers, hail, wet snow and sunny periods all day. What wacky weather. Only here though. A delivery driver came at 2:30 and it was still sunny in Duncan, while snowing here.

Tomorrow our car goes in for servicing in Duncan for an oil change and regular maintenance. Hopefully the roads are ok, more snow forecasted for tonight.

Jason will be here around noon to pick up Olaf. 

Tuesday morning, snowing at the lake, but as soon as I was on the hill on Highway 18 there were dry roads all the way to Toyota. Glad I left early.

The snow started in Duncan at 8:20 am, an hour after I left the lake. Ray took a picture at 8:30 and we have more snow.

Our maintenace took 6 hours, from 8 am to 2 pm. Good thing I went instead of Ray. After doing a couple of errands and lunch at Whitespot, I managed to get back home by 3:30. No snow in Duncan and 6C. Coming home I hit heavy snow about 13 km from home. It is only 1C here. There was apparently a big 3 car accident earlier this morning on Highway 18 and one of the trucks was still in the ditch. Nice to be home safe and sound.

Hard to believe another month has gone by! - Feb 19 - 28

Thursday is a pretty cool day at 2 C (35.6 F) with a very cool breeze. Defnitely toque and glove weather. Next week is supposed to warm up and be more like spring.

We managed to sit outside on our deck a few times, with the new curtains and heaters on, it is very pleasant.

Not much happening here the past week or so. We've been to our exercise class Wednesday's and Fridays. Ray's working downstairs finishing up the greenhouse base and making shelves for his antique tools in his workshop.

Had to place the shelves and buckets so he knows where to drill drainage holes in the base and then slap some waterproofing on the bottom and in the holes to prevent rot later. He only wants to build this once. :)

Tuesday, February 24th, we decided to go out for lunch to Mother Hen's BBQ on the way to Chemainus at Russell Farms. We'd heard that they have great BBQ. Ray ordered a huge meal platter, so he could try everything! It was expensive, and not the best smoked meat I've had. It lacked seasoning. They do have great fries and large quantities of food. I would definitely be back for some of their sandwiches and breakfast, but not so much the smoked meat.

Enough food for 3 meals for the two of us!

On Wednesday, the 25th, we met up with Jason and Amelia in Duncan. They were on their way back from a doctor's appointment in Victoria. We met up at Bright Angel Regional Park to give Amelia some exercise since she'd been sitting around all day.

We'd decided to have dinner at OJ's Bar and Grill. Amelia used Ray as her personal jungle gym.

By the end of dinner, Amelia was definitely tired, you could see her just slump. Time to go home.

Thursday, we met up with Ray's cousins, Brian and Sandy for lunch at the Sawmill Taphouse in Chemainus. A great 2 hour catch up.

Friday, a stay at home day and Debbie's Diner is open for business lol. After exercise class, I spent the afternoon prepping and cooking for a big dinner for us. It's quite a blustery day with off and on showers and lots of wind. White caps on the lake and rainbows!

Pecan crusted chicken thighs with a honey mustard dipping sauce, mushroom risotto and grilled veggies with a garlic and herb vinaigrette. Ray tells me it's delicious.

Saturday morning, low clouds again. At least the wind stopped. Ray decided we were going into Duncan for a few things and a walk through the farmer's market since the sun is out for a change. First though he had a dump run to get rid of all the cardboard boxes stored on the boat. 

The boat is being launched next Friday for the Frostbite Fishing Derby, Saturday March 7th. Ray and Steve entered and Dianne and I will just stay home and yak. We also get Olaf next Thursday as Jason and crew are in Vancouver for the weekend. Dianne is excited about Olaf time. :) Goldies have always been one of her favourites. Be prepared for lots of petting duties and OMG the hair!

Back home and onto the deck with the heaters for a couple of hours.