Kastle's Journey: 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