Summer is here so the exterior painting has begun and more company.

Monday morning was sunny and the wind calm. First morning in awhile.  We had a call from a good friend, John Mahon, Sunday afternoon telling us he is in palliative care in Lions Gate Hospital. We knew he had been battling cancer but had no idea it had come to this. We had John stay with us last summer for a few days while his wife, Joane, went to Africa with a friend, to visit their son working there. Ray left early on the ferry this morning to Horseshoe Bay and I stayed home as painters are coming to wash the house in preparation for painting in the next few days. I also have a chest cold, so Ray went over there on his own for the day.

John July 2018 dipping his toes in the lake.

Here are some pictures Ray took at Horseshoe Bay.

I spent the morning sitting out in the backyard with the 3 dogs enjoying the day while the house was being washed. The dogs really like being outside.

Seeing double .. Freya on left, Athena on right.

Dogs enjoying being together in the shade.

Kristi and Jason arrived back from Victoria just after lunch. This time Kristi stayed and Jason continued on home to Nanaimo for a couple of days to get caught up in their house stuff. Ray made it back on an afternoon ferry so it will be just the 3 of us for a couple of days.

Watching Global News tonight there was a story about a young Nanaimo man who died from contact with a bat and ended up with Rabies .... after the bat landed on my arm last Friday Kristi called a GP friend and she did a bit of investigation and told me to head to the Duncan Hospital in the morning to get vaccinated! Apparently because this was a daytime event and the bat looked disorientated and did not immediately fly off ,I fit the parameters of possibly getting rabies! Okay then ...

Tuesday morning Kristi and I headed out at 7:30 am for the hospital. With all of the disease prevention protocol in conjunction with public health, it was 5 hours before they got it sorted what they should give me and how much. After 5 stabbings in various parts of my body, I was good to go.  Still have to go to the Duncan Public Health unit every 3 days for the next week and a half for more stabbings. Yikes. Kristi and I did go out for lunch though and went to White Spot as we had not even had breakfast this morning. Couldn't decided what to have so we split a hamburger and a fish and chip order. lol

I can't believe we ate the whole thing!

Once back home, Kristi headed for a nap before her and Jason have to head back to Victoria for another appointment.  The sun came out, so she was able to spend a little time in the backyard enjoying it. What a day.

Wednesday the predicted rains started overnight. I woke up with a horrible headache ... not sure if it is from the cold or the multiple needles yesterday. Ray had to take Freya to her 8:10 follow-up vet appointment instead of me while I swallowed pills to try and alleviate this headache. Her anal gland problem has not cleared up with the antibiotics. Freya got up this morning hardly being able to move her hind right leg.  She has been having trouble with her limbs for a while now and having Kristi's dogs here has kept her busier than she probably should have been. We will see what the vet says this morning. Ray called me and they are going to do surgery tomorrow on Freya's butt. It is not getting any better so this will be a more permanent solution and she won't be in pain anymore from her butt. As for her back legs ... less running around and keep her on the cosequin and metacam medication.

We are having Malc and Kathy Warrington, our friends from Victoria who also winter in Arizona, to come and meet Kristi's dogs and have an overnight visit. They will be house sitting with Freya and Kristi's dogs for us while we all go on the cruise to Alaska in September. Hopefully the rain quits later this afternoon so they can enjoy the lake but somehow I doubt it. lol

Malc and Kathy arrived around 1:30 pm. Kristi and Jason shortly after. After visiting a while I got the barbecue going for our roast pork. Lots of laughs and the dogs had a great time visiting with new people. Unfortunately, the weather for the day was not great so we had to stay inside.

Yes Grandma .. we will be good for Malc!

We all had a great dinner including Kathy's English Trifle. Delicious.

Everyone was is in bed either reading or sleeping by 9:30 pm after our food coma! lol

Thursday morning was sunny so we were able to sit awhile on the sundeck with the heaters on as everyone was up by 6:30 am. After several cups of coffee I made breakfast of bacon and blueberry pancakes. 

The dock guys arrived around 9am and started working on putting some new decking on the dock as well as "button washers' to prevent any more screws from getting pulled through the wood. A good portion were done, but lots more to go. They had to leave around noon to go to another job but will be back.

At 9:30 the painters arrived and started on the right side of the house that had the most paint damage due to the bats.

No more white strips of caulking. Yeah!

Malc and Kathy left at around 9:30 am as they had a bunch of stuff to do before they leave for England next week and I had to take Freya to the Vet for surgery on her butt.

Everyone assumed the same positions but with different food. lol

Freya came through her anal gland surgery well apparently, but is really feeling the effects of the anesthetic. Practically dead to the world all afternoon. She is so still I check to make sure she is still breathing every now and again.

She stayed pretty quiet all afternoon and into the evening. Poor Freya. The vet called me around 4:30 to update me on her surgery and she believes the cleanout of her anal gland was successful. Check up in a week to make sure. If this does not fix the problem she will have to have further surgery. Also Dr. Wiley told me that her back leg problem is a partially torn ACL. Options are surgery for about $6000 or physiotherapy to build up the surrounding muscles. We are picking option 2. Swimming is the best thing for her and we have the lake, right out our back door. At nine years old I think it would be too hard on her for the surgery especially since her front shoulders also have arthritis and are sore. Garrett's dog had a similar injury and managed to adapt her walk so she has no problem. Freya already does a lope as her leg has been sore for a while. All of our other shepherds have only lived until 10 or 11 years of age and Freya is 9. We shall see how it goes. On the up side, her teeth are in pretty good shape and she does not require any dental surgery at this time. It sure is the pits getting old.

Friday I headed into town to get one of my 3 more rabies vaccines ... and did some grocery shopping in preparation for company this weekend. When I got back Kristi, Ray and I went for a slow boat cruise.

Whatcha looking at?

Otherwise we sat outside and enjoyed the day. Only one of the painters were here today.

Saturday, my old boss Glenn Matthieson and his wife Maria were coming to spend the afternoon and have an overnight with us. We have not seen them since we went on the road 6 years ago. Kristi helped tidying up the house from all the dog hair ... lol while I prepped dinner so we could enjoy ourselves down at the dock. Jason was in Nanaimo attending one of Kristi's work function barbecue's on her behalf bringing her contribution. While waiting for them Kristi and I went for a float in our water loungers.

Athena decided to try out the lounger. lol

As it turned out Glenn and Maria had their boys overnight so ended up leaving later from Port Alberni and did not arrive until 3:30 pm.

Dock Time!

Maria and Glenn 

Glenn 

Even Ray went swimming.

Dogs too.

Maria

Glenn and Maria brought steaks for dinner and a Korean fire roasted chicken appetizer. Thanks a bunch. Had a fabulous evening with lots of laughs. All of us in bed by 9:30 pm after the day in the sun.

Sunday morning first thing, Kristi went for her first summer kayak ride. Once everyone was up after sitting on the dock with coffee and Carolan's it was time to have breakfast. Glenn and Maria have to head home as their boys are staying at the house this weekend.

This morning in the Lake Cowichan River at 9am. they had Guiness Book of Records representatives here to see if we could get the longest string of tubes in the river. They had special sunscreen for everyone so not to bother the fish in the river which has been a big bone of contention over the last few years with low water in the river. 

Apparently we broke the old record. There were 219 tubers but they measure the length. Pictures from facebook below.

And a lovely weekend was had by all. After they headed out around 10 am, Kristi Ray and I headed back down to the dock for the day. This was the hottest day yet since May at 28C.

Jason came back to the lake from Nanaimo in time for barbecued hamburgers for dinner. A quiet evening after the day in the sun. I was in bed by 8 pm to watch some TV and lights out at 9pm. Kristi has a couple more days of holidays before heading back to Nanaimo for work.

And that was our busy week with lots of company.

The dock gets some new boards.

Monday started out pretty cloudy and remained that way for most of the day. It was warm and muggy out though. Ray headed out this morning to Nanaimo for a dental appointment and Freya and I stayed home. Hot tub time. lol Ray took a few pics of the waterfront while up there.

Really cool cherry tree bark.

Nanaimo Harbour

Port Theatre

This guy was playing the bagpipes outside the Bastion.

At 2pm the dock guys came to replace the cupping boards on the dock. About 1/3 of the wood planking has cupped since it was originally built last September. Awesome that Cliff stands behind his product and is fixing the problem.

We decided to go out to Jakes at the Lake for dinner ... 25% off for seniors on Monday. lol The sun finally broke out and it was a spectacular evening.

Tuesday morning was sunny. Today the Motorhome went back to Revy to get the 300 amp fuse replaced that we blew due to the power outage while camping at Cluxewe. We left it there for a couple of days so they could get everything ordered. Found out that they are closing down their location as per corporate and only will be operating out of Courtenay after August 31st ... bummer. Now we will have to find another RV place, probably Gregs RV in Duncan.

The dock guys came back for a bit, but there are so many boards cupping the job was stopped until Cliff rethinks what he is going to do about it.

Clouded up later in the afternoon and the rain began. Rained for the rest of the night into Wednesday morning.

Wednesday morning still showery out. Not much happening here today other than we picked up the motorhome at 4:30 pm. A bunch of stuff is on backorder, ie toilet gasket and lid etc. so it will have to go back again. They did replace the 300 amp fuse and that solved the inverter problem as I suspected.

Thursday, cloudy with sunny periods. I went into Duncan to get some shopping done and a pedicure. Once back home Ray made me lunch ... thanks a bunch sweetie. By 2:30 Kristi arrived with her 2 dogs in tow to start her weeks holiday here at the lake. She has a bunch of appointments in Victoria for the next week so it is easier to stay here than go all the way back to Nanaimo every day and we love having her. Jason will come tomorrow. Of course I barbecued a prime rib for her ... A lovely afternoon and evening.

Kristi's picture ... yup she is relaxing. 

Friday woke up to sunny skies. Yeah. After making breakfast for Kristi, Ray and I, Kristi headed to Victoria and I headed to Duncan for a bit of shopping. Back at 12:30 Ray and I had lunch sitting outside.

While sitting outside on the deck around 1pm I had a bit of a freakout. A small baby brown bat landed on my arm like it was a butterfly!!!!!! Screamed and shook my arm and it fell to the floor. I scurried closing all our doors to prevent it flying up into our vaulted ceilings inside. Saw it crawling along the deck trying to hide, poor thing. When I came back out it was gone. We have had bats roosting in our house until last fall when they migrated and then all the holes were sealed. Also Ray screened in the front porch so they couldn't roost there anymore as well. We have not seen anymore evidence of them recently so imagine my surprise to have one land on me!!! Yikes. Picture below from google.



Kristi arrived at about 1:30 and Jason about an hour after that. The whole crew is now here.

Freya takes all the toys, her stick and Athena's new ball.

Relaxing dock time.

For dinner tonight I barbecued a whole duck as it was Jason's request. Turned out quite well. An early night for us and after Kristi and Jason did the dishes with Ray's help for clearing, everyone retreated to their own spaces ...

Saturday morning everyone up by 6:30 am. Ray walked the 3 dogs and I got the coffee on. A cloudy start to the day. Being Saturday it was a coffee and Carolan's morning. lol A slow start. Kristi and Jason are expecting their friends this morning and we will be heading to Victoria for our friend Derek's Celebration of Life.

Derek would have wanted a party, so that's what we had, a backyard barbecue with mostly family attending. Derek was the fifth of seven siblings.

Displaying some of the pictures showing Derek's life.

 Our friend Laurel managed to put this wonderful party together with the help of her and Derek's family in spite of her loss.

RIP Derek

Ray and I headed back to the lake at 5:30 pm. Fortunately the traffic was much better coming home than it was earlier in the day heading to Victoria. Kristi, Jason and their company had just sat down to dinner when we arrived so Ray managed to get fed too! Thanks guys.

After dinner Kristi took her friends for a slow boat cruise on the lake as it was pretty windy out there so they were not gone very long.

We even had some people hold on to our dock as their boat quit on the lake in the wind. One girl ran back to the campsite and picked up a battery charger but it did not enable them to start the boat. Jason helped secure them to our dock and then our next door neighbour Roy, towed them back to the boat launch ... their fun was over!

Ray and I headed to bed quite early as my "plantar fasciitis" has returned in my left foot and is quite painful so I needed to get off of it and Ray's back had a long day. Also I think I caught a cold as my throat is sore ... must have forgot to sanitize a shopping cart a couple of days ago, which is usually the cause of catching a cold for me.

Sunday morning the sun is out but it is still windy on the lake. Kristi and Jason headed to Victoria for  a couple of days with Ray and I on dog duty. A quiet day for us as at present I can hardly walk with my foot and am coming down with a horrible chest cold. Yuck!

That was our week.

Happy Anniversary ... 42 years

ALERT: Boring blog of just stuff so I can remind myself later. lol

July 2 2019 Happy Anniversary to us ... we have put up with each other for 42 years. lol We were so young.



This morning the predicted showers began. We were out the door by 8:15 to take Freya to her vet appointment. She has an infected anal gland as I thought and requires antibiotics for the next three weeks, poor girl. This should fix her right up again. She is pretty tired after her ordeal.

While out, Ray and I stopped at the GMC dealer to look at GMC Canyon pickups to see if that would work for us after the fiasco at the Ford dealership with our Edge. Also with having a house now it would be nice to have a pickup to haul recyclables to the dump and pick up building supplies for Ray, so a truck might be a better option. Turns out that the seats are way too uncomfortable for Ray, especially the headrest position for his neck. Anything bigger, such as a Chev 1500 is too tall to easily get in and out of ... so I think we will just keep the Edge and I will have to deal with the service department and leave Ray at home .... Love my Edge anyways. Told Ray to either get a utility trailer or a beat up mini truck. lol

Once we were back home Ray took me to lunch at Jakes on the Lake for our anniversary. Brian, the bar manager, bought us a free round of drinks, beer for me and Sprite for Ray and when we left gave us two celebratory beer glasses. What a surprise.

Wednesday morning under cloudy skies Ray and I headed to Nanaimo for a Dr's appointment. Ray's results from his MRI showed his degenerative disc disease has only changed minimally for his thoracic and lumbar area. We had hoped they had done his neck as well but that was not ordered unfortunately.  Consequently when at the doctors, an x ray was prescribed to check his neck out first to compare with an old 2011 film before another MRI will be ordered. We were lucky that Madrona x ray was not busy and Ray got right in. Next up Costco and the mall. We stopped for Chinese Food for lunch and then it was back home to rescue Freya. lol (X-ray update ... not much changed since 2011, just a lot of osteoarthritis.)

The afternoon cleared right up so we sat down on the dock for a few hours enjoying the day.

Thursday morning, cloudy again ... rain in the forecast for tomorrow though. Today we are finally getting our snow lid put on the heat pump. This has only taken 5 months to come up with a solution and a fix.

After chores Ray and I went over to Pat and Darryl's to meet their friends and talk about the "motorhome life". They are planning on taking that route in a couple of years. After a couple of glasses of wine for me, we remembered that we had dinner reservations for the Prime Rib Buffet at the Farm Table Inn for our Anniversary Dinner. Fabulous dinner and a great date night with my guy.

The next few days, cloudy with the odd sprinkle. Not the best of weather but still warm at about 18C. The lake was pretty quiet this weekend compared to the previous long weekend. I just wish if it is going to be cloudy that it would just rain and fill the lake ... Not much happening here with the so so weather. lol

That was our week.