John Mahon comes to visit and It's my birthday!

Sunday, after feeding Martin breakfast, he was on his way to play golf, meeting his son at the club in Duncan. Another warm sunny day. Ray and I spent quite a bit of time on the dock and in the water ... such a hard life. lol

Monday, our gardener Will showed up with a very strong young man, Clayton, to rebuild our rock retaining wall. Some of the rocks sloughed down last winter, so Ray's plan is to reinforce it from the bottom up.  Some of the wall is too steep, so using a bunch of rock already in our yard, he got the guys to lessen the slope. The rock used is from our yard Ray wanted moved anyways.  Smart guy ... killed 2 birds with one stone, or many stones. lol

The before picture

Clayton works at a local rock quarry so is quite used to lifting rocks.

The after picture

Both Will and Clayton worked very hard moving all the rock. Now the rock wall should hold for the next winter. We thought we had tons of rock but they used most of it for this side.  The other side only required a small area to be resloped, so we ended up with just enough. Whew.  The stairs will be redone as well, as some of the rocks are wiggly and we're worried someone might turn an ankle. While Ray was supervising them, I was meeting with the HVAC company regarding getting A/C upstairs to the guest bedrooms. With the vaulted ceilings it positively cooks up there. This company put in the furnace and heat pump 2 years ago.  They'd tried to convince Louise to put A/C up there but she declined. Can't say I blame her for the cost, when she was selling the house anyways. We should have this remedied within a few weeks hopefully.

I spent the morning on the phone with cancelling all the services at my Dad's house as of August 29th when the new owners take over. Also trying to track down the gazebo I purchased last week from Home Depot for our dock. I purchased it through Duncan Home Depot who purchased it from the Victoria Store and arranged for ACE Courier to deliver it here. Somehow it was not picked up for a few days and then was shipped up from Victoria to Duncan and then shipped back to Victoria yesterday without any notice or phone calls, etc. What a bunch of hooey. The Langford store in Victoria is certainly not very customer friendly compared to the Duncan Store. Needless to say I have left it in the hands of Duncan yesterday where I purchased it. So we shall see what happens today. I told them I'm not paying all the shipping back and forth, only the $63 I was quoted. 

Ray and I spent most of the afternoon on the deck as we needed to stay out of the way of the rocks and the housekeeper was here for a couple of hours late afternoon. We managed to jump in the lake a couple of times to stay cool as it was a cooker up on the deck.

All in all, another busy day. (Ray sat and supervised from the deck). Ray did take me out to lunch at Jake's on the Lake as it is Monday, seniors day and our food is 25% off.  (Did not want to make a mess in the kitchen with the housekeeper coming ... my excuse anyways. lol)

Tuesday another beautiful morning. Ray even managed to sit down at the dock first thing and play his guitar. 

Today Will and Clayton were back to do more rock work. They worked most of the day finishing the rock work and Clay took apart the existing rock stairs. Wade's Irrigation was supposed to start today fixing the irrigation system that was put in so badly. He called me at dinner time apologizing for not coming. He has come down with cellulitis and is now on antibiotics and not able to work for a few days. I guess we are on his list now for next week. Kristi managed to have the day off as she was not busy on call last night and managed to sleep. She came down for the day and went home for dinner. Our good friend John Mahon, arrived at 11 am to stay with us for a couple of days. His wife and friend are in Africa visiting their son and touring. John was unable to go as he is recovering from some surgery. Spoke to Jo Jo at 10pm with John and she is having a blast. Joane was just waking up and we were all just going to bed. lol (Ray had already retired at 9. He is having a lot of pain in his hips currently and having trouble walking.) Most of the day was spent on our deck supervising the guys doing the rock work. Ray and I hopped in and out of the water a few times to stay cool. Once the guys were done for the day at 5, I moved our chairs down to the beach so John could get cooled off with his toes in the water. Great conversation. It was nice catching up.

Wednesday another beautiful day. Ray and I were up at our usual 5:30 am. John still snoozing. Today we have to go to Duncan and see our designer for samples of what to replace the sundeck with. Exciting. The plan is to dismantle it the week of August 27th. Landscaping work continues and Ray has ordered another load of dirt for the guys to move into the back yard which should arrive sometime today. We will leave John to supervise it. :) Actually, John took himself on a tour of the town and brought me back flowers and a card for my birthday tomorrow. Thanks John

On the way back from the appointment we picked up our boat from Monti's Marine and plan to launch it so we have it back at our dock. It will be nice to get out on the water again. Launching it is so easy and only 5 minutes from our dock. With Will here working, I can get him to move the boat trailer back into the garage so it is not too hard for me. Ray will just have to move the motorhome temporarily down the street so I can do this.

Our timing worked out well. We came back home and just parked the boat on the street temporarily waiting for the dirt to arrive. Will was madly clearing out the last of the previous load into the backyard. Here is Will doing the "wine crushing dance", trying to compact the dirt.

The topsoil was delivered an hour and a half early at 12:30 pm. Good thing we were home.

There she blows!

With the dirt delivered and we a bite of lunch, off we went and launched the boat. I dropped Ray and John off with the boat after it was launched and drove the trailer back to the house. Ray and John arrived at our dock about the same time it took me to drive back. 

Next project was to move the motorhome out of the driveway to get the boat trailer moved into the garage. Once again Will did the heavy lifting and it is now snug in our garage until the fall. (Will had made more room in that garage by moving all of the left-over wood down to the basement earlier in the week.) We left the motorhome out of the driveway for an extra hour so Will could move the dirt from that side to make accessing the house easier once the motorhome was backed in again. Ray and I had a swim as soon as this was done as it was a scorcher outside of 32C. and very little wind. John stayed on the porch under the umbrella supervising our yard transformation. lol 

Ray took John for a short boat ride while I stayed supervising Will. Mostly because it was so hot outside and he works like a Trojan. I was worried he might keel over.

A few dips were had by Ray and I on and off the remainder of the afternoon to stay cool.

By 6pm it was time to come in and have dinner. We all had enough heat today so it was quite enjoyable sitting in our airconditioned house. Another enjoyable day here on the lake.

Thursday morning Ray and I were up early, alas John did not get up until 7:45 am again..... He said he has been sleeping like a rock, the bed so comfy and of course with the benefit of Kristi's portable A/C unit she bought, it was lovely upstairs. As Ray and I retire about 9 - 9:30 ... John stays up to around 11 so we plugged him into the upstair's loft TV.  

Thursday morning once everyone was up it was down to the dock for coffee. So flat, calm and peaceful.

I think John enjoyed his stay with us. As today is my birthday, Ray took us all out for breakfast at the Country Grocer Cafe, and then John was on his way back to West Vancouver. A wonderful visit.

We spent the rest of the day supervising the "lads" rebuilding the steps to the beach. Mostly we were making sure they had plenty of ice water to drink and took the appropriate breaks by going for  a swim. With the temps so hot, we didn't want them to have heat exhaustion. Will forgets to take a break and did have some dizziness but is stubborn about stopping. We made him stop at 3:30 for the day instead of 5 pm.

Gazebo Update: Ace finally delivered our gazebo this afternoon. Fortunately the 2 guys were still here working in the yard to help the driver ... it was 375 lbs and there is no way one guy could have moved it. Now is it in the garage awaiting the new dock.

For dinner, Ray took me to the Farm Table Inn a short distance down the highway. We've heard good things about this place and were waiting for an occasion to go.

"Farm Table Inn is a farm to table Restaurant and country style Inn that offers a fabulous dining & hospitality experience in the Cowichan Valley, BC Canada." (Google)

Owners Evelyn Koops and George Gates welcome you to the Farm Table Inn. Evelyn is the Hostess, Inn Keeper and Marketing Specialist. George is a Red Seal Chef and has spent many years in the food industry. He's very passionate about food as each dish he creates is made with love. The Farm serves local, organic and home made food and offers a leisure dining experience so do expect a minimum of two hours for dinner. They hope you will "savour the experience" of the Inn sometime soon!

With a write-up like this, sign me up. Ray and I had a wonderful meal. Although the place did not have air-conditioning, it's location in the trees is very pleasant. 

We came early at 5:30 as they were expecting a wedding reception outside on the patio.

For me, Duck Breast with Blueberries.

Lamb Shank for Ray.

We had a fabulous meal, that started out with freshly made herb crusted bread and both of us had an appetizer of scallops with bacon. Yumm.

Ray and I watched the free-range chickens run back and forth, as well as the chef bringing in a bundle of fresh picked herbs.

The chickens even wander around the guests on the patio. lol

After our meal we decided to sit outside for dessert as the inside tables had all filled up and it was quite warm.

A wonderful birthday. Thanks to my fabulous husband. Love you lots.