The end of April and hopefully Corona virus slow down.

Monday, April 20th.

Shopping day in Duncan for me. Yeah and outing.



 Left the house at 9 am and headed to Highway Rental and Sales to pick up our new pressure washer as mentioned in the last blog.



When you arrive, you have to call them and then they let you into the store briefly to show you their models of pressure washers. The two front desk staff all stay more than 6 feet apart and away from you. I paid, sanitized and then the pressure washer was loaded into the car.

Up next Home Depot, to pick up pellets for my Traeger Grill, floor cleaner and my summer planters for the sundeck. Again, strict rules about where you enter and exit the store and only one check out open in the Construction area. Back out of the store  enter the garden centre part and again, very limited people and strict rules how to check out. I did wear my N95 mask the whole time shopping today and majorly sanitizing after paying, my credit card included before touching my car.

Off to Superstore to pick up my online order. They are getting much busier so ended up waiting about 20 minutes before getting my order. Note to self ... get there at the beginning time of your time slot not the middle. Again, quite a few things missing. I drove by their outdoor garden centre but there was too many people in it so I drove off. I had been trying to get Gladiola bulbs for my front garden but have been unsuccessful. So my last stop was Walmart. I walked quickly through the store to the garden centre, picked up the bulbs and 2 pepper plants. In and out within probably less than 15 minutes with my N95 mask on. Checkout you leave your order, back up so it is scanned and then the cashier backs up behind the plexiglass screen so you can use the credit card machine ... again, I sanitized hands and credit card after I was done. There were not too many people in the store and no one in the garden area so I felt fairly safe. I now have most of the plants I need for this spring other than the 3 flower baskets that I will get from Costco later this week. Driving to Nanaimo for the senior time at 9am.

Half a block before getting to the gate for our subdivision, there was the female elk again. My first time seeing her and being so close to one. So nonchalant ... I stopped the car beside her, only 5 feet away and opened the passenger side window and snapped her picture. She didn't even concern herself with me, just kept eating the grass. I wonder where the rest of the herd is ... you usually don't see them by themselves.

Did not realize Elk have a mane like a horse.

While I was in Duncan, Ray called me ... he had a "little accident" in the shop. Probably needed stitches. Nothing urgent he said. Okay ... once I was back home and unloaded, I checked him out and yup ... you need to go to Duncan hospital for some stitches. Okay, new rules ... no working with equipment that can cut you while I am not in the house ....  We thought Emergency would be a short wait according to the news reports of empty ER's... Nope, what we call the "Ray" factor kicked in and he waited 2 hours.

While he was gone, I made a big batch of chili with the leftover Beef Brisket and ground beef. Of course I made way too much so shared a big pot of it with my neighbour Pat and Darryl. Ray ended up waiting 2 1/2 hours to get stitches before heading back home. I had a "stiff margarita" waiting for him.

The weather is going to start back to how April should be ... lots of rain showers so I will have to "baby" my plants for a few weeks.

Another reasonably good day ... Ray doesn't feel any pain at present ... we shall see tomorrow.

Tuesday I was out at 9 am trying out our new pressure washer I picked up yesterday. It worked fabulously. Wanted to finally finish up the last areas of our concrete, stairs, sidewalk and under the sundeck.  Two and a half hours later I was done. All in all the whole job took me 4 separate days and 9 hours. Glad to be finished. Not as young as I used to be lol.

Now into the hot tub and a couple of Ibuprofen and I should be good as new. lol The rest of the day spent relaxing other than making a batch of my Monkey Bread for Ray and I.

Wednesday a very wet morning as predicted. Great for the gardens and forests but not great if you want to go outside. A very wet dog comes back in. lol I think this will be a puttering around the house day with a bunch of TV watching. :) The rain finally quit around 4pm but the wind also came up with the clearing so we did not get to sit outside today. Freya was not impressed with the rainy day. She is used to being outside for most of the day and was like a little kid who was bored. lol

Thursday started out very cloudy but not raining. Time to get a couple of things done in the garden before the rain begins again tomorrow night. :) Have some bulbs to plant. Took a run into the Country Grocer here in Lake Cowichan for a few things and saw they had their baskets in ... so I managed to buy the 3 I need for the front of the house. Also noticed that they had Clematis vines so bought 3 of them for the fence. 2 hours later everything moved (my bay laurel tree) and planted. Clematis against the fence interspersed with Gladiolas and Stargazer Lilies. Should be a mass of colour this summer. So I think I have all the plants I need this spring. Nice to get them local. I will have to put the baskets with the tomato plants in the garage for the nights for the next few weeks until the weather gets warmer overnight. The strawberries in the tall planter and hanging basket strawberries are fine outside.

Coming along. The bulbs I planted should fill up the rest of the empty dirt nicely.

Last week I saw this "old timer RV" parked across the street from the Country Grocer. Looks like it is still going strong!

For dinner tonight I tried smoking chicken on the Traeger. Looks delicious, hopefully tastes as good as the turkey I did.

Still waiting for my elastic to be delivered from Canada Post that I purchased from Walmart online. I also ordered some from Amazon to see which comes first. lol The Walmart order was made April 8th and it still is not here. Emailed the seller and was told it was delivered to Canada Post and had cleared customs so Canada Post is backlogged. They are saying today that this is like Christmas Parcel time at Canada Post and they cannot keep up with everyone ordering online!

Friday, another cloudy morning but no rain. Should be an OK day with rain coming around 2 pm. I will put my baskets and tomatoes out this morning but put them back in the garage when the rain starts. Our gardener Cindy, swung by and gave our lawn a trimming. After fertilizing it last week it is growing quite quickly.

The Province of BC is looking at relaxing some of the Covid 19 restrictions by mid-May, but social distancing will remain in place until there is a vaccine. Our "New Normal" will be somewhat different that what was last December. It will be nice to see family again in person though. New cases are remaining steady at this time but they are going to do more testing. I am sure the numbers are significantly higher than reported with the limited amount of current testing. Ray and I are heeding the advice and staying close to home and only shopping when necessary with our masks on and major hand sanitization. People here are definitely working hard to stop the spread. You meet someone in the grocery aisle and we all turn our heads facing the shelves as we pass to not infect the other person.  Most of the time people are courteous and wait for you to finish picking your item, although Ray had a few words with a gentleman at the meat counter at our Country Grocer last week, who budged in close to him. Ray had waited the few minutes for the person in front of him to finish picking her meat and then this guy moved in 3' beside him. Ray told him to back off 6 feet! "I waited and now it is my turn".

At all times you are watching where everyone is in relation to where you are. Kinda like a deer in the forest, always staying on alert for danger. No wonder shopping now is exhausting. I decided to do most of my shopping here in Lake Cowichan if I can. After stocking up my pantry and freezers most things can be purchased here at our little store. Ordering groceries online is frustrating when you only get some of your order and usually the things you want the most are missing ... our little store has usually something of everything with limits on it so a better deal. However some things will be still have to be purchased online so maybe a grocery order from Duncan every 2 weeks.

Ray spent the morning in his shop and I spent my time with housework. Yuck! I did make a chicken casserole for lunch though.

Saturday, boy is it raining. Teaming down out there. Got the pork shoulder on the Traeger grill after injecting it with apple juice and spices at 7:30 am. It should take about 9 hours.... I don't really have to do anything with it for 6 hours or so ... my phone will tell me when it gets to temp to do "part 2" and then it goes for about another 3 hours. lol  Don't have to go outside. They really stress with a smoker, that if you peek it does not cook as you lower the temp and it takes awhile to get back to temperature again. That is hard for me not to do. :) I have however, checked out the temperature probe temperature against a digital one, several times over the last few "cooks" and it seems to be right on so less peeking to confirm.

Busied myself making the "sides" for dinner, cornbread muffins, (also for breakfast, lol) and macaroni salad. So when the pork finally comes off, the rest is ready to eat. This way my kitchen is clean and most of the dishes are done. This pork cooked faster than suggested. Not as much fat on this piece as it was well-trimmed. With online shopping though ... you get what you get with your order!  It came off the smoker at 2:30 so we had a very early dinner. :) The flavour was amazing. Love my new cooking method.

Tonight we decided to have movie night and as we ate so early, we each had a bowl of homemade popcorn. Managed to stay up to 10 pm on a Saturday night. lol

On one of Ray's walks over at the park he noticed this "conk".  Never seen as many on one stump, usually it's one or two. It really shows how wet it was this past winter.

Sunday morning woke up to clouds with a few sprinkles but no wind. Hard to believe another week has gone by. Time is certainly not dragging being in self-isolation. Kristi popped by this afternoon to drop off some parcels for us that were delivered to her house. Sometimes just having a PO Box is a problem with certain items being shipped. It did not rain so we were able to at least sit outside for a bit with her. Freya was happy to see her other packmates, Zeus and Athena for the visit.

Dinner tonight was Pork Chow Mein, using the leftover pork from the smoker. Delicious.

That was our week.

Spring Days, April 13 to 19

April 13th

Happy Birthday Jason. Kristi set up a Zoom Conference this afternoon with us and Garrett and Kat for 40 minutes so we could all wish Jason a Happy Birthday. Great to see their faces all at the same time. Got to see our "grand puppies" too.

Ray puttered in his shop in the morning while I did a bunch of cleaning and washing up the kitchen after our dinner yesterday. Kind of a big job. lol

Had a cushion that fits the bench. Now just have to get some plants to put in it. lol ... Done

I put an order in early this morning with Country Grocer and it was delivered by 10am. Again they don't get it right .... but for the most part not too bad. I think it is the shopper that has trouble and I am getting more and more explicit with my list as they don't have a website to pick from. Managed to get a dozen small herb plants to dig into the new planters though.

The gardens are starting to look nice. My Bay Laurel tree survived the winter too.

My garden angel from Dianne and Steve.

The rest of the afternoon we sat outside on the back grass out of the wind for a while enjoying the sunshine.

April 14

Another beautiful day. This morning I decided to make a couple of quiches with the leftover turkey and took one of them up to Nanaimo today to see Kristi and Jason. I needed to drop off Kristi's masks I made her. Forgot to give them to her when she came down last week. lol At the same time picked up a few things Kristi purchased for me from Costco. After a short visit with social distancing deployed. I ventured into their Country Grocer before heading back to the lake. I picked up some limeade for Ray and a few more herbs to plant. Kristi had told me that their store was really good about sanitation and safety, only letting in a few people at a time and sanitizing the carts before they give you one. I found it to be great, only about 20 shoppers in their store at one time and it's a huge store. They had security people positioned everywhere to ensure distancing.

Once back home I joined Ray to sit outside for an hour or so. Another great day.

Kat sent me a picture of her latest ultrasound of baby Stella. You can really see her face now.

April 15

A little mist on the water this morning at 4C. Supposed to get up to 18C today. Nice. Heading into Duncan this morning to pick up our grocery order at Walmart. Ray and I separately went into Canadian Tire first, me to get some plants in the outside garden centre and Ray inside the store for a few items. He said everyone in the store was very good about space and had no problem getting in and out. We had some gift cards to use up before June 4th from a bunch of tools Ray returned last spring (appropriately named MasterCrap not Craft!). 

Next up was picking up our online order from Walmart before heading back home. No room in the car to stop at Home Depot ... I had a list for there too, but will have to do it another day.

Ray took Freya over to the park for a walk and she started barking before Ray could see what she was making the fuss over. Turned out to be a small female Elk, which did not seem to pay very much attention to Freya.  Probably the same one we got a pic of a couple days ago.

The rest of the afternoon Freya swam and we sat on the dock enjoying the day. The lake level is still up a bit so our beach is still under water.

Say Cheese!

Had some people from across the lake stop by to say "Hi" in their pontoon boat, Dorothy and Peter. Longtime residents of Lake Cowichan. They winter in Yuma at Fortuna Del Oro Park in a park model so maybe we will look them up next time we are down that way. They told us there are many Lake Cowichan residents in the park as well.  We are starting to meet more people who live here on the lake. While we were talking an otter came up right beside their boat and then swam under our dock. Lots of wildlife sightings lately. :)

Another great day.

Thursday, April 16.

My chore today was pressure washing our sundeck so I could get the rest of our deck furniture out of the garage. Unfortunately after getting half of it done, the pressure reduced to just regular hose pressure??? and it made noises like something was flying around inside the motor. Yikes. Turned it off and Ray made an appointment to take it in tomorrow. Apparently it will be at least 10 days before we get it back. I arranged to borrow Darryl and Pat's pressure washer tomorrow so I can finish. The pressure washer is probably 30 years old so it really does not owe us anything. :)

We spent the afternoon sitting down on the dock. There was absolutely no wind today until about 3:30 pm. Ray's missing going out for lunch, so for our "take out" I made halibut and chips for him tonight with homemade tartar sauce.

Friday, April 17

Today Ray took the pressure washer in for servicing. Hopefully it is fixable at a reasonable price. Update ... the pump is the culprit and would be $250 to fix if it comes off the shaft easily. Famous last words! The new Honda of the same size is $629. After 30 years I don't think it's worth putting the money into this one as something else could go or has gone and would be more money. I see a new honda power washer in my future. lol

Meanwhile, Darryl's pressure washer and I finished the sundeck and did most of the ramp going down to the dock. Managed 3/4 of it before I ran out of water hose. lol The bottom part was not as dirty anyway.  The sidewalks and under the sundeck are yet to do, but that will be another day. Our gardener is here today mowing and fertilizing the lawn. She also weeded the back garden so things are looking much better

We made sure we put all the outdoor furniture away undercover as the forecast is for rain tonight and it did indeed start. 

Dinner tonight was chicken wings on the Traeger. Yumm.

With the clouds coming in tonight we were treated to a lovely sunset.

Saturday morning was cloudy with some showers although the forecast is for sun with clouds this afternoon. It's great a little rain fell overnight to wash in the lawn fertilizer. The plants really needed an April Shower after it being so dry (We've just completed 15 day no rainfall record, fifthe longest in our weather history). By 10 am the sun is back out with a few clouds but didn't last too long before the clouds thickened up again.

By 9:15 am I put the beef brisket on the Traeger. We shall see how this goes. It needs to cook for 6 to 8 hours. (I thought!!!!) First time cooking one. Seasoned overnight and ready for the grill.

After cleaning up the kitchen and doing my usual morning chores, I decided to make Beignets for Ray. They take a little longer to proof so I think he will end up having them for dessert after lunch. lol  I took some over to Pat and Darryl and Roy and June.

While I was messing in the kitchen, Ray  proceeded to "Tuck Tape" between the styrofoam insulation panels in the downstairs storage room, to stop heat loss.

Jakes at the Lake is making Prime Rib Beef Dip and fries for lunch today so I called ahead and placed one order Ray and I will share. They have put in a "take-out" window so they can still serve some food on Wednesdays through Sunday. Daily they have a lunch special from 12 noon until 4pm and a dinner special 4 to 6 pm you can take home and pop in your oven to cook. They offer delivery after 6pm for those few that cannot get out of their homes. We plan on supporting them when they are cooking what we like to eat ...

Beer in our Jakes at the Lake glasses and Beignets for dessert.

Well I kept an eye on the brisket all day ... afternoon and evening. The darn thing really did take 12 hours and did not come off the grill until 10 pm. Good thing I had wings as leftovers for Ray. lol We stood around the island and ate some of the brisket at 10:30 pm. Delicious. Won't need to cook dinner tomorrow. :)

Lovely "bark" dear - Ray

Sunday morning woke up to another cloudy day. At least it's not raining.  The sun did manage to come out later after lunch so we were able to sit outside for a couple of hours. I purchased some sticky film for our kitchen window. I don't like looking out and seeing our neighbours porch .... right in my face or them looking at me as we are really close on that side of the house. Ray installed it today. Looks pretty good. A "real stained glass window" would look better, but I did not want to spend the money. lol

For lunch I used some of our delicious brisket and made a few tacos. Delicious. Tonight we will have the dinner we should have had last night. lol

And that was our week here at Kyle's Kottage.

Life at Kyle's Kottage, April 8 - 12

Wednesday, April 8th

Another lovely day. Did not manage to get outside though as my project was to make some surgical masks for Kristi. She had dropped off some scrap material and elastic and said "go to it Mom"! You can get a pattern online. Ha Ha... This material must have been from Halloween ... very bright! Kristi needs the masks to put on her patients when she has to see them in office. Took me 5 hours and I had 9 made. I will be much faster now that I know what I am doing! :) First one was a bust until I figured out an easier way to make them, so she will have 8. I have more material and elastic on the way to make more.

Thursday was glorious, I had to go into Duncan and pick up Freya's meds. Finally I have a supply that will last a while so we can start weaning her to a lower dosage of her immunosuppressant medication.

At 1pm, Kristi showed up with a couple of my Amazon parcels and we were able to have a little visit in our driveway, 20 feet apart before she headed back home. The rest of the afternoon was spent on the dock or the back lawn enjoying the sun.

Flat calm.

Friday, another warm sunny day. I had to go back into Duncan and pick up my grocery order at Superstore and Save-on-foods at 10 am. First time ordering from Save-on so we shall see how that works out. Update ... it worked well with them delivering my order to the car but I only received 1/4 of what I ordered! Fortunately Superstore gave me almost everything I ordered including TP. Don't know if I would bother with Save-on-Foods again.

Tonight's dinner on the Traeger was Prime Rib and Yorkshire Puddings in the oven.

Saturday morning we were up at our usual time and had our weekend treat ... Carolan's and coffee. By 8:30 it was off to the races. Ray downstairs and I started my big driveway pressure washing gig. Darryl decided his washer was bigger than mine so hooked me up to his lol. Three and a half hours later I had the driveway done. It took three washes to get all the "green" off of it. After I did the front part, Ray moved the motorhome onto the cul-de-sac so I could do the rest. We also managed to get the boat out of the garage ready for launch tomorrow. A very successful day of chores.

What a job ... After some ibuprofen and a hot tub I was still feeling pretty sore. Ray made me a margarita for some "internal medicine" which definitely seemed to help. lol

The rest of the afternoon we sat outside on the sitting area on the driveway out of the wind. Got up to 17C today. After a couple hours rest I came in and made the dressing for the turkey and roasted the neck and innards with vegetables for the base of tomorrow's gravy. 

Sunday, April 12 ... Turkey Day - Easter Dinner with the neighbour with driveway social distancing. lol

I had the turkey smoking on the Traeger by 10am after it was brined for 24 hours. Followed the directions with the different temps at different times and finished with a "boat load" of butter after putting it into a roaster and tightly wrapping it in tinfoil for the last hour and a half. It turned out fabulous.

While the turkey was smoking, Ray and I got the boat launched. Nice to get it out of the way. We moved the coach ahead and were able to push the trailer back into the garage so we have lots of driveway space for dinner tonight.

The rest of my day was spent cooking the rest of our meal. For those of you that care: ha ha, Dave and Cheryl, here is the menu.

Smoked Turkey

Sausage and cranberry dressing

Mashed potatoes

Honey and ginger glazed carrots

Roasted asparagus

Gravy and Cranberry Sauce

Cheesecake for dessert with Raspberry Dessert Wine.

Everyone gathered around 4 pm and dinner was served about 4:30 pm once everyone had themselves set up to eat with their own tables, chairs and utensils.  Roy had the jazz music running quietly in the background. We all went separately to the set up food table, sanitizing before touching utensils and sanitizing after to make sure our hands were clean to eat. No one talked or coughed while filling their plates. :) I had Ray take a "group shot"  before we started.

Roy and June, far left, Pat and Darryl in front and behind Ray and I.

Pat's picture

Pat's picture

Pat's picture

Superstore, with my last order, gave us 3 small frozen cheesecakes due to our large order.  So I gave each person one so they could cut it up themselves and we would not contaminate it. 

Pat's picture

Pat and June discussing making masks

Dinner was a success and we all stayed outside for about 3 hours talking. The turkey turned out fabulous and moist. Definitely a "do again". Everyone had a second helping so they must have liked it too. Roy and June gave us a couple bottles of wine and 1 dessert wine. Thanks a bunch guys. We shared the wine out with our dessert with everyone bringing their own liqueur glasses backing off so Ray could pour and then coming to retrieve their glass. We all have this physical distancing thing down pretty good. lol A great get together.

Self Isolation and the first week of April.

Warning !!! Not too much interesting going on with self-isolation so I am now taking pictures of me using my Traeger Smoker instead. lol

April 1st

Our house played an April Fool's joke on us at 12:48 am in the wee hours of the morning.The smoke alarm went off. Ray and I woke up and sniffed ... no smoke WTF. Ran out to the garage to shut of the breaker for the hardwired smoke detectors but that did not shut it off. It was the one high up in the loft so I took a broom and moved the air underneath it and it finally shut off! Ahggggg. I guess the smells of the big Chinese Food Dinner I made irritated it. Fortunately everything was quiet for the rest of the night. Of course I laid there awake for another hour expecting it to go off again. lol

Another rainy day but the extended forecast is looking better with some sunshine. We have been home for three weeks but it sure seems much longer with all the changes in everyone's lives with the Covid 19 crisis. Being in the sunshine in Arizona and California seems like a lifetime ago, especially with all the rain we have had in the past two weeks. 

Over at Pat's house she snapped a picture of the beautiful rainbow. She had a better vantage point than I did. lol I stole it from her facebook.

My picture:

Called our friends on the phone in Alberta, Dave and Cheryl to check out how they are doing with the very chilly weather they are having. Highs of -12C and lows of -25C ... Burrr. They are managing to stay warm and the furnace never stops. Click on their name and you can see "what's up". lol It's great hearing their voices.

As most people who know me, know that I love to entertain and cook for friends and family every once and awhile. This won't be happening any time soon so I have come up with a plan. I am going to make a lovely dinner and deliver some of it to my neighbours Pat and Darryl on their doorstep. Then we will have a "virtual dinner" by having our computers hooked up to Zoom and have a live dinner party. lol We shall see how this goes.

Picked up a small order at Walmart this morning, went very slick. Love that I don't have to go into the stores myself. Back home by 9:30 am. The best news was that today my Traeger Smoker Grill arrived. Will leave it until tomorrow and then "Glove Up" to unpack it. The inside of the box will be okay from the virus. Will try it out Saturday as the pork roast I have thawed needs to marinate overnight.

The instructions for the Traeger indicate it is a 6-pack beer job to put it together. lol With tunes on. Very funny. I will help Ray put it together tomorrow. I have the pork roast marinating so this has to be put together. :)

Ray took a picture of our "Kyle's Kastle" sign that he sanded and made a new backing for it as it was starting to crack. Now it is all glued and screwed. The main reason for the picture is to show me "yes I'm using all the stuff I bought"! and "still not enough clamps"! lol. I will have to repaint it though after being sanded down.

Saturday morning, Ray put together my new Traeger Smoker Grill so I could use it for dinner tonight. Took a bit but he did not follow all the instructions ... the 6-pack of beer for assembly wasn't consumed as it was 10 AM when done. lol

One happy girl!

Kristi stopped by briefly this afternoon to drop off some stuff, regular surgical masks and hand sanitizer for us. She was also able to pick up her things we had brought back for them for looking after our house for nearly 6 months. She also left me some scrap fabric and elastic to make her some masks for her patients when she has to see them in her office after their C-Sections for delivery. Staying 10 feet apart we had a short conversation and she was back on her way to Nanaimo. I sure miss spending time with her and Jason as well as Garrett and Kat. As my Aunt Norma always says ... this too shall pass.

For dinner, pork roast and roasted cauliflower smoked with apple pellets.

Dinner turned out great, very tasty. It was cool that the grill was hooked to my phone and let me know temps so I did not have to keep going outside and checking it. When roast is up to temp and done, your phone beeps to tell you that too. Pretty cool little computer.

Sunday the sun finally came out. Yeah. Certainly more activity outside at neighbours alike as everyone was soaking up the sunshine after 2 weeks of rain. We had a fire and roasted wieners for our hotdogs. A great afternoon. Managed to stay outside for over 3 hours before the clouds took over the sun. Lucky for me dinner was leftovers so piece of cake literally as I had made cornbread earlier in the morning to go with said leftovers.

Monday morning another fabulous start to the day although a chilly -1C. Today I prepared our ribs for smoking later this afternoon for dinner. To go with a batch of baked beans with a smoked pork hock in the InstantPot. Yesterday's smoked cauliflower made itself into a bacon and cauliflower salad.

Today is Freya's 10th Birthday. She is quite "limpy gimpy" but remains a very happy dog, especially when you throw her stick, her most favourite thing. She loves that we are back home and spends most of her day on the back lawn waiting for Ray to come out of his shop and throw her stick. lol

While I was busy with getting dinner stuff together and cooking the beans, Ray spent the morning working on my vertical herb garden and planter with a bench for the front of the house. It's going to look fabulous.

Just before lunch Ray took the car to fill up a tire with air as the tire monitor came on the last trip I made to Duncan that I had low pressure in the rear driver side tire. While out he noticed this Elk eating away on the corner of our road. Glad we have a gate as they will eat up all your shrubs.

Around 11:30 the high clouds came in with a breeze so probably no sitting outside today unless we go to the front of the house. I am having my housekeeper come this afternoon and clean the inside of the motorhome. All the woodwork etc needs to be cleaned from all the Arizona dust. I had planned to do it myself but as she is not allowed to come and clean our house with the pandemic I don't want her to be out of pocket too much so offered up the Motorhome. Took her 4 hours to get rid of all that Arizona dust! I will not go in and look at the Motorhome for 3 days ... to see how "pretty" it is again.

The house is not too bad to clean as we are not having any company so that cuts down 3 bathrooms, the upstairs and most of the downstairs, I don't have to clean anyways.

Ribs on the new smoker.

4 1/2 hours later the ribs were done. Dinner with the ribs and baked beans delicious. Another successful "cook". One thing about this cooking method you need to prepare whatever you are cooking in advance, often at least 24 hours earlier and the cooking process takes quite a few hours. With it hooked up to my cell phone I can adjust cooking temps from a distance and as there is no direct flame you never have to worry about flare-ups or burning your food. lol It's keeping me busy.

Tuesday looks to be another sunny day. Not as cold out today. This morning I will drive into Duncan and pick up a small grocery order at Thrifty Foods. They have fresh fish so I have ordered some to freeze.

Found out that at Thrifty Foods you actually have to go into the store to pick up your online grocery order ... not what I expected so I will not shop there again while we are all in this Covid Crisis!

Back home after sanitizing everything, Ray and I spent the afternoon outside with a campfire in the woodstove enjoying the sunny weather. A beautiful day.  Ray and I took Freya for a walk to the park. As usual she was in the water. lol

Ray also finished one of my vertical herb planters. Beautiful.

That was our week!

Self-Isolation Continues March 26 to March 31

This March 30th, 2020 woke up to this. The snow is pretty close after all the rain last night. View across the lake from our sundeck.

Last March (2019) the weather was also a gambit of temperatures. We had snow, rain and some warm sunny days. We also had get togethers with family and friends ... the self-isolation situation of today makes us really appreciate those times.

Dinner with Kristi and Jason, prime rib.... yumm. I had bought one to have this year but had to freeze it instead. Prime Rib is Jason and Kristi's favourite dinner.

Some warm afternoons later in March last year.

An evening out at the Chemainus Theatre with Pat and Darryl, our neighbours.

March 2020 Different times.

Friday, March 27th

Following the "rules" that the government stipulates and our daughter, Dr. Kristi Kyle imposed upon us which are even more stringent for self-isolation.

Same old, same old. raining so no time spent outside other than walking Freya. Hot tub in the morning and then more house cleaning just cuz ... Lots to do if we feel like it. :)

Ray popped out today to fuel up the car, pick up our mail and pick up a prescription (paid for already) for our neighbour who is in quarantine at present. He masked up, and gloved up for the trip. Once back the same routine, clothes in the washing machine, and lots of hand sanitizer for the car, door handles and anything else he might have touched and then washing and sanitizing his hands. We definitely make sure we are not going to get this virus! This whole process makes us feel quite a bit of anxiety leaving our safety of the house. We notice that going out raises our blood pressure, usually our chest feels tight and Ray's usual sore throat feels a little worse before all the symptoms subside.  All this just caused by anxiety.

Found out tonight that Garrett probably has the virus, so has quarantined himself with his office desk set up in their master bedroom for the next 2 weeks. Bummer for Kat who is 6 1/2 months pregnant and had to spend all day disinfecting their townhouse including Garrett's dog, Kira. Pretty tiring and emotional for her. Hopefully she does not get it too.

Saturday, time to pick up a big grocery order from Superstore in Duncan this afternoon. Hopefully this process goes as smooth as the Walmart order on Thursday.

This morning Kristi and Garrett got us set up on "Zoom" so we could video conference with all of us at one time. What a fabulous visit seeing their faces just like they were here in our living room.

Turned out the grocery order was ready on time... I had my doubts as they had sent an email to me at 7:45 am that they were running behind. I did get most of what I ordered except TP again and a few meat choices. I also received a frozen turkey for free as my order was over $250. I guess I will be cooking turkey for Easter for just us.

Will add the missing items to the next grocery shopping list. I was there at 1pm and loaded 15 minutes later and on my way back to Lake Cowichan. I spent the next hour disinfecting all our groceries and putting them away. I will repackage all the meat tomorrow.

We are in for a very drizzly week and quite cold temps. This week we have had days with new snow on the mountains around us and then it would melt. Ray says the lake has come up a couple of inches overnight.

To occupy my time, I did some baking and after getting my groceries made cabbage rolls.

Wow I forgot how long it takes to make a good batch of cabbage rolls ... 3 1/2 hours later they went into the oven finally, after making the homemade sweet and sour sauce and meat mixture with bacon and rice in my big turkey roaster. Dinner is made. I will be able to parcel them out for some quick meals as no going to a restaurant if I don't feel like cooking. lol

You sure don't feel very motivated with the rainy weather. Ray is spending his mornings in his shop, working on my new herb planters for the front garden while I do some cooking, laundry and cleaning. Regular house stuff. Certainly not anything too interesting to report.

Is there "light" at the end of the tunnel ... will the sun come out to play?

Kat had her ultrasound this week for baby Stella at 6.5 months. The baby is still being uncooperative showing her complete face as her hand is always in the way. I suspect she is a thumb sucker as Garrett was. lol Everything is going well for her. Yeah. Hopefully when she is born the crisis is over and we will actually be able to hug her.

More snow on the mountains and -1C this morning ... burrrrr. At least the rain quit for now and there are some blue patches in the sky.

Received my grocery order from our little Country Grocer this morning. I actually got almost everything including toilet paper. I had asked for a bottle of bleach and they substituted a large container of Lysol Wipes.  So I will probably do a lot of my shopping here in town supporting them in the future.

I

t appears that Spring has Sprung ... at least for the wild life. Heard this horrendous screeching so went out to our deck to look. "Twitter Painted" as they say. lol

Monday, March 31st was Garrett's birthday. Being in quarantine in his master bedroom, he does not look like he is suffering too much. Kat baked him a pecan pie

Garrett's dog Kira

 Ray and I have been "hankering" for some Chinese Food. Being bored I decided to tackle it myself. We had Spicy Shrimp and Pineapple Fried Rice, Cashew Nut Chicken and Chicken Chow mein. I made enough to last for a couple of dinners. lol

And that takes us to the end of March still in the midst of this Covid 19 crisis and continuing self-isolation. The news from Dr. Bonny Henri, our Provincial Health Officer, tells us we will be in this same situation until at least July and possibly longer if there is resurgence in the fall. Only time will tell.