Fall has arrived with a monsoon! And a weekend at Jason and Kristi's.

September 23rd

Wednesday morning we awoke to the predicted rain. Boy is it raining. We seem to be exempt from the winds though. No power outages for us.

I'm off to BestBuy this morning to purchase a new computer. My current one is past 5 years and starting to show it's age. When we moved into the lake house 2 1/2 years ago, someone inadvertently set a heavy box on top of my computer cracking the screen... I am surprised that it has taken to now for it to finally have issues, especially since it is a touch screen. Now I have stripes in pink making it really hard to see. If the screen can be fixed fairly inexpensively I will consider that instead as I hate transferring all my stuff to a new computer ... or see if it can be donated after being wiped clean of data.

Computer update... walked out of BestBuy purchasing a new HP Computer and left it behind to have all my data transferred onto it so yeah! Had lots of time as this did not take me very long ... 45 minutes to be exact so came home and prepped for dinner. Halibut simmered in butter with prawns, parmesan risotto and corn and tomato salad for dinner. Yum. Ray was a happy guy. :)

Thursday big trip to Duncan ... just to pick up my new laptop. :) They actually transferred everything over that the whole desktop was exactly like my last one. Impressed. Usually when they transfer files you just get one directory and have to move everything around yourself. Rest of the day pretty quiet with the huge dumps of rain.

Friday, another very wet morning as predicted. No wind yet but it's coming. Ray and I are headed to Nanaimo today to stay overnight at Kristi and Jason's for the weekend. Their turn to host us. :) By 10am the sun came out and the rest of the day was spectacular, the big rain did not seem to materialize. 

We all have been invited over for dinner tomorrow night at Jason's fishing buddy Jeorge's for a pirate themed dinner ... a week later than Pirate Day. Jeorge normally puts on a huge party with about 30 people every year but this year it will only be the 5 of us. Jeorge came a few weeks ago to stay with us and Kristi and Jason at the lake for the weekend and caught a huge trout from our boat. She basically has Jason as her bubble.

With social distancing in mind it will be on her open covered porch overlooking Departure Bay. Hopefully the rain quits by then. We all had to brush up on all the pirate sayings in advance. Being there are only 5 of us this year we did not have to be in costume. Jeorge also makes a grog ... rum based that takes her a week to make. Jason warned us that it packs quite a punch!

My contribution is a cheeseball shaped like a "Flayed Man" using prosciutto ham as it all is supposed to be Pirate themed.  Won't know how it turns out until I unveil it at the dinner. lol 

After puttering in the house until noon we arrived at Kristi's about 1:30 pm. A great afternoon and evening with them. Kristi ordered in Chinese food for dinner and of course Ray spilled on himself with that being his only T-shirt he brought!

Don't point at my spot!

Jason, the nice guy that he is, said "Ray I have a load ready to be washed. Do you want me to wash it for you?" Kristi told him he is a wonderful house husband and he most definitely is. He spent the morning making a great sausage pasta sauce and penne pasta to make a bunch of casseroles, two for Ross and Layla, their friends with a new baby, one for themselves and one for us that we froze, so we don't have to make dinner when we get home on Sunday. Awesome guy. Jason actually gets a salary as  Kristi's office manager, supply getterer etc. as she is way too busy being a doctor to do these activities or supplying her office with stuff with working so many hours.

After dinner we watched a movie and then all went to bed around 8:30 pm ... we all seem to get up very early so get tired early. :)

Saturday morning it sprinkled a little, hopefully better this afternoon. Ray and I took at drive up to Coombs to the Industrial Marine store to get him a new fishing seat for the dinghy and air rams for the deck box lids on the dock. We have been unable to source them in Duncan. Our shopping trip was successful and we were back home at Kristi's by noon.

Freya very happy to be close to her Auntie Kristi while Kristi has her "Dr. Perry" face on. :)

Tonight was the Pirate Dinner at Jeorge's and time to unveil my flayed man. He turned out as creepy as I hoped. 

I made a separate one for Jason as he does not like cream cheese.

Jeorge made a batch of Pirates traditional grog. Takes her a week to make it. It was delicious and very strong. lol She did a fabulous job of decorating for this. A lot of trouble for just the 5 of us. 6 if you count the guy at the end of the table. :)

There usually are 30 people stuffed into this space for her annual party.

ARRRRRRR Matey! Deb and Jeorge

Kristi and Jason

Had a fabulous time, good food, good drink and lots of laughs. Thanks for hosting us Jeorge. We all had lots of fun.

Sunday up at 6:30 am and the dogs assuming their position getting pieces of arrowroot cookies, Ray's morning staple with coffee in the morning. :)

Later in the morning, Kristi made us all a big breakfast. After cleanup and packing the car, we were back on the way home to the lake. A great weekend. Jason made sure we felt welcome, down to making sure Ray had arrowroot cookies available for when he wakes up. Thanks a bunch guys we had a blast with you.

We headed back home at 11am leaving the kids to their lazy Sunday. 

Smokey skies continue Sept 15 - Sept 21

Tuesday woke up to everything wet. It rained a bunch more than forecasted ... apparently the smoky skies are screwing up the computer modelling at Environment Canada. So the boat got a little wet as we did not put the cover on. Also, another smoky day with fog/cloud/smoke right down to the water.

Last year at this time I was madly filling the motorhome up for our winter trip down south after just getting back from our Alaskan Cruise. We left Lake Cowichan on the 22 of September for a wonderful winter coming home March 12 just as Covid 19 restrictions came into place in BC. We all will just have to amuse ourselves with previous pictures of the warm Arizona sun this year with the ongoing pandemic. :)

Wednesday, took Freya for her annual vet appointment. Everything is good. Yeah. Ray worked on more deck tiles ... the never ending job, with his back limiting the time he can spend on it. I was back home shortly after lunch, did my chores and then we spent some time sitting out on the deck as the smoke was not too bad. I made us a "Happy Hour" plate for Ray and I ... of course I always make too much. :)

The guy down the way is finally doing something about his gazebo that sunk into the lake as it came off the pilings this past winter with the high water.

Thursday, the skies are even lighter so hopefully this smoke blows away soon. I spent the morning emptying planters and replanting with daffodils for next spring. Lots of bits and pieces to do, clean garden solar lights and put them away for the winter. They are full of spiders, yuck! The first year here, I left them out and the snow decimated them knocking them over etc. so now I know better. :) Ray continued putting in a couple of hours on the deck tile leveling project. He is finding more and more spots where the contractor did not support the tiles correctly so they tip when you walk on them. Totally pissed off at our contractor again ..... hopefully he gets to the end of this soon. He must have 40 hours in this so far, not to mention the $400 on new supports. He has been working on this since last spring!! He's almost at the finish line though, just in time for the winter!

My sundeck is looking emptier. lol Once Ray is all done, it will be time to haul out the pressure washer so I can clean the deck from all the summer debris from the planters. Still smokey outside. I also managed to empty and move all my planters from my front garden to the back of the yard and planted them with daffodil bulbs for the spring. Still have to plant bulbs in the front garden but need the perennials to die off a bit first. 

The gazebo has been dropped to the ground ... don't know what he plans to do now though.

Another good day other than the smoke in the sky. Rain tonight so hopefully that will clear more of the smoke out of our skies.

Friday the showers arrived as predicted. Ray headed to Duncan early for an 8 am dentist appointment. We had to change dentists as our here in Lake Cowichan could not get a hygienist since the pandemic for his part-time practice, so we have not been able to have our teeth cleaned for 18 months. Ray was set up with this dental office in Duncan from his Endodonist who installed an implant in August. Our dentist here at the lake also does not do anything with implants. I switched as well as I need my teeth cleaned and checked too. He spent some time running errands in Duncan including buying two live edge slabs of maple for some shelving I would like in my laundry room.

I spent the day in my happy place, my kitchen. After giving Freya her Fall Bath of course in my ensuite shower. Of course then I needed a shower. :) Poor dog was smelly and very itchy after swimming in the lake for the past few weeks. I do bath her in between in the lake with eco friendly shampoo, but she gets smelly pretty fast after swimming again within a couple of days. To not have this happen you have to dry her off completely every time she gets out of the water ... not happening. lol She was not impressed.

I made breakfast mini quiches, apple crisp and prepped my shortrib dinner for the InstantPot. While this was going on all of Freya's bed covers and towels were washed... she has 3 beds scattered in the house. :) So hopefully the "Eau de Dog" is managed for the fall. No more swimming for her!

We ended up not having shortribs tonight as Ray came home armed with a fresh crab and fresh mussels for dinner, so shortribs will be tomorrow. Just have to make some mashed potatoes and some kind of fresh veg.

Saturday morning we woke to cloudy skies and it seems to be "smoke free" at present.  More puttering today putting some summer stuff away, like the white loungers off the dock. Ray was back at his tile levelling project. He is 3/4 done I think. Yeah.

I managed to get all the summer stuff off the dock and the wicker chairs and cushions that we had just put into the basement, stuffed into the space under the stairs out of the way until next year. With the air clear we were able to sit out on the deck for a couple of hours watching the squalls come through periodically. Definitely a fall like day.

The Covid 19 news is not great here in BC with the kids back in school. There are several schools in the lower mainland and others in the province that now have positive cases. I think this winter is going to be awful. I feel for the teachers and kids as they are at the mercy of  other people in their bubbles at home that could be infecting them and so they bring it inadvertently into the schools.

We are getting the highest new cases per day in BC that we have had since this pandemic started. Friday had 179 new cases and 3 more deaths. The worst number going up are hospitalizations at 59 people with 20 in the ICU. We have only had a handful of people  in the hospital and maybe 3 in ICU since the high numbers in March, so this is not a good trend. Fingers crossed that the younger people smarten up with their gatherings to protect them and others. B.C.’s active cases climbed to 1,803, a new record, while another 3,075 people were in isolation due to potential exposure to the virus. About 74 per cent of B.C.’s 7,842 total cases had recovered. Ray and I are very fortunate to be on the island where the numbers are significantly lower than on the mainland, at least so far. We are so thankful that we have Kyle's Kottage to stay at for this winter. No way would we go down south with their numbers exploding and no direction from "the powers of political will" so help stem the spread of this horrible virus and no vaccine. 

Sunday morning a few low clouds moving through but no more smoke, a lovely morning. Jason and Kristi arrived at around 11 am and Jason began helping Ray with the deck. 

Fed the dogs their breakfast. lol

Here is a current picture of our Granddaughter Stella. Such a cutie.

The guy with the "tipped gazebo" has finally had machinery come and take it down to the water. They put floatation under it and have secured it to the other dock and piling. Also they cleaned up their beach.

The dogs helping. lol

We brought back some memories for Kristi. She took me on a rowboat ride in Kyle's Klinker ... we were a little heavy in the stern end with me in it. Just like when she learned to row with my Dad all those years ago at 6 years old. :)

After Ray and Jason were done for the day, we all were able to sit down at the dock for awhile.

The dock is looking very empty!

Monday morning, after Jason helping Ray with a few more tiles and blueberry pancakes, the kids headed back to Nanaimo. Another great visit. Ray and I decided to drive into Duncan as he needed more parts from Slegg for the remainder of the deck project. After a quick shop at Walmart while Ray waited in the car and since is was actually sunny we decided to go to the Lions Rampart Pub in Maple Bay for lunch. They have a great outdoor patio overlooking Maple Bay. Delicious fish and chips. The forecast by Wednesday is "buckets and buckets" of rain so we were happy to take this opportunity.

And that was the week at Kyle's Kottage.

The neighbours come to dinner. Sept 8 - 14

Tuesday was a warm sunny day but we had quite a bit of smoke from the fires in Washington float up our way. These pictures were from the morning, but it got quite a bit thicker in the afternoon before clearing out at dinner time.

I spent a good part of my day in the kitchen prepping for our neighbour dinner tomorrow and dealing with leftovers. Laundry was also happening as our sewer system is having some alterations for the new subdivision above ours that will hook into the main system tomorrow. They asked for minimal flushing and laundry while the connection is being made. 

Made Chinese pork steamed buns for the first time. Yumm. The "pleating" is not uniform as bought ones, but what the heck ... they tasted good. They went well with the ham and split pea soup that I also made in the InstantPot.

Finally when I went to sit down outside at 3 pm I found it too hot and too smokey, so came back inside. That basically was our day.

Wednesday morning was not as smokey with only a little haze outside. Will be another busy day with guests for dinner. With the prep I did yesterday, Ray and I were able to sit down at the dock for an hour or so and go swimming in the afternoon. Boy was it hot out, even the breeze was warm.

Got the Roast Beast on the barbecue at 2:00 pm as I was not too sure how long it would actually take. It actually took 3 hours exactly so I will know for next time.

Everyone arrived right on time at 6 pm. After appies of stuffed mushrooms and chips with fresh salsa and guacamole, we went on to the main event.  Lots of wine and laughs. Pat made a wonderful salad and for dessert, June made a raspberry cheesecake.

Social distancing in effect. :) Everyone went in one door, filled up and went out the other patio door. I didn't even need arrows on the floor. lol

Also toasted Pat and Darryl with Champagne as it's their birthdays next week, 13 and 14th of September

The birthday pair.

After dinner we moved under the gazebo to enjoy the rest of the evening. A great time again with our neighbours. June and Roy are up next some time in October. :)

Thursday another gorgeous morning and going to be a hot one. Not much on the docket today, just kitchen cleanup and lots of swimming and dock time.

Friday woke up to very smokey skies. We were going to go for a drive to Port Renfrew today but I think we will pass on that. Ray's pictures would not be the best.

We then decided to head into Nanaimo for a shopping expedition. There were a few things that we cannot get here or in Duncan. Freya came and we dropped her off at Jason and Kristi's to spend the afternoon with their dogs, which she loves. Met up with Kristi at Original Joe's for lunch. Yumm. Ray and I both ordered the Friday fish and chip special.

Kristi's "cheeseburger". Delicious.

Back at Kristi's to pick up Freya and a bag of Kristi's Italian plums from her tree, we were off back to the lake. A long day but a successful one. Still very smokey here at the lake. It was not as bad in Nanaimo until later in the afternoon. Robyn and Amalia stopped by for a quick visit to pick up the bag of plums Kristi picked for her.

Saturday morning we were up early by 6am. Still very smokey outside. We probably won't be outside too long today, as it really gets us both coughing.

The weather is changing next week so Ray and I started some outside chores before the rain begins. I harvested my tomatoes on the deck and emptied out the tomato plants. The pepper plants need a another couple of weeks before I pull them out. Planters on the lawn also emptied of plant material. Both Ray and I worked until noon and then spent the rest of the day inside due to the smoke. It was supposed to be a warm 27 C but it only came up to 20C with all of the smoke. It actually felt quite chilly after many days of warm weather.

Sunday woke up to another smokey morning that looks like fog. I don't expect to see the sun today either. Ray and I will still work on putting summer stuff away now that we are into the fall time of year. Ray took a bunch of yard waste to the dump in our new little trailer. Sure is nice to have it to use when you need it. 

It looked like that all day, no sunshine making it through. Even our neighbour put away all of their summer stuff on their dock including pulling their boat for the winter. Summer is done. :(

Got a message from Kat yesterday for "Grandparents day" with a picture of Stella. So cute.

Stella at 4 months

Monday morning still smokey. We did not get any rain that was advertised yesterday. The possibility of some rain has been downgraded significantly. This smoke certainly does not make you want to get outside!

I went to Duncan to pick up some stuff, while Ray worked on redoing more of the sundeck tiles our contractor $%^& up. Once I got back home it actually sprinkled with some rain. Kind of goes with the smokey skies. Worst day yet. More summer things brought inside.

I made a special ham and cheese sandwich for lunch called a Croque Monsieur, basically a very cheesy ham sandwich with a bechamel baked and then broiled in the oven. It was very tasty.

Weather outside still way too smokey so I spent the afternoon making 2 kinds of ravioli, some for dinner and the rest for the freezer. Italian sausage ravioli with my homemade marinara and meatballs and the second was chicken and 3 cheese ravioli with sage brown butter and walnuts. Both very tasty according to my chief taster who thoroughly enjoys his job. lol

Hopefully the skies clear soon as we would like to get out in the boat to fish.

August 31 and the first week of September Wow.... Long Weekend Fun

Monday was a repeat of most days ... work in the morning and relax on the dock in the afternoon. Left overs for dinner ... I needed a break from my kitchen. lol

Tuesday, our painter's came and put the second coat on our gazebo. Looks fabulous. We also had them paint the gate to the park at our expense for our contribution to the strata. 

Andrew

Mona

My kayak is patiently waiting for me to take it for a ride on the beach. lol That water is finally starting to recede exposing more of the lower beach. Need more to go so there is room for the fall rains.

Ray worked on varnishing the deck boxes on the dock, while I worked on catching up with the laundry and tidying the house after having company. Later on we sat on the dock until 4 when the clouds came in.

Wednesday was pedicure day for me and since I was in Duncan I did the shopping at Superstore and Walmart as well. Back home at 1:30 pm. While I was gone, Ray put another coat of varnish on the boxes so they are finally done except for the air rams for the lids that we still have to purchase. Covid-19 is causing a shortage of  air rams, as Ray went to many stores and all were showing no inventory. Another gorgeous day.

Thursday we woke to clear blue skies. It is supposed to get up to 27C today. We went to Nanaimo for our doctor's appointments and then back to the lake as Ray also had to make an optometrist appointment later in the afternoon. Nice to have that available here in Lake Cowichan. Of course we managed a stop for the "World Famous Cinnamon Rolls" in Ladysmith. We took our breakfast down to Transfer Beach to eat with a view before making our way to Nanaimo. 

Coming back through town we saw this colourful RV'er parked across from the museum. Wow

We had our painters, Andrew and Mona with Andrew's mom Carol, over for happy hour this afternoon, with physical distancing on our sundeck. Carol moved here from Ontario and is finally out after 2 weeks of quarantine. lol Of course I did not get a picture ...

Earlier this afternoon when I was back from Nanaimo and saw a bat fly around our living room ... don't know if it came in yesterday or today. I opened up all the patio doors, closed all the bedroom doors and left the stereo on loud to encourage it to leave while I went down to the dock for 30 minutes. Came back and used my extension pole with the duster (bat persuader!) to check the spot I saw it climb into where the beams reach the wall and it seems to have left. Fingers crossed until dark when we will know for sure if it left or moved to another spot in the house. More drama at Kyle's Kottage. lol

Bat Persuader!

Bat update. I think the bat that I saw left but Ray watched as we opened up the middle patio doors at dusk to encourage it to fly out if it was still here. I decided to check the side of the house where the bats used to live...... as I had noticed some bat droppings there recently, not much but I started to wonder.

Ray sat in his chair and watched inside the living room and saw a bat fly into the house not out of it!!! and I watched about 5 bats fly out of the side of the house somewhere around some window trim on a second story window. Yeesh! 

We watched for awhile inside and did not see anything flying around in the dark so hopefully it flew back out again. They are really fast so Ray may have missed it going back out the door. So today we will be on the hunt up in the beams to see if it's still here. The outside we will have to wait until the bats leave at the end of October before Ray can get up there and seal around that window to prevent them moving back in next spring. I thought we had this all dealt with 2 years ago with our contractor!!! At least it was not 100 or more bats ... that's what used to live up there! Obviously they did not fill all the crevices on the siding and windows as they were instructed to do!

Friday. Another gorgeous day. Never did see evidence of a bat still in the house so hopefully it went back out!

Ray headed into Duncan quite early to pick up a few things and then spent his time resorting our firewood pile so the new tarp would fit, and I tackled my herb garden as well as pulled out the gladiolus bulbs to dry for next winter. By 1:30 both of us were hot and sweaty. After a quick bite to eat it was into the water. Sat down at the dock until 4:30 when the winds came up and were quite blustery before moving to the sundeck. Kristi and Jason will come tomorrow morning as Jason's tee-off time for golf was not until 2:45 pm this afternoon which would make it quite late in the evening before they got here. Did not want them driving on the highway late in the afternoon anyways due to all the holiday traffic for the long weekend. There is always an accident ....

Saturday morning by the time I got back from the store with some groceries, the gang was here. I spent most of the day preparing for the barbecued roast beast and sides. Jason stayed with me and helped while Ray and Kristi went out fishing for a couple of hours. Robyn, Korey and their daughter Amalia arrived about 4:45 pm and Amalia had to go for a quick dip in the lake before everyone was ready to sit and have dinner for 5:30. Jason snapped a few pictures.

Amalia just loves our beach and comes usually a couple of times a week.

Robyn brought a wonderful dessert, carrot cake and some roses from her garden. I would love to grow some but the deer around here would just munch them up. lol

We had our "social distancing" dinner.

Kristi and Jason with Zeus, the photo bomber. lol

Robyn, Amalia and Korey

We had a great visit with them. At 8 pm they left to take Amalia home to bed. She did really good on the sundeck running around, so our sundeck has been "toddler approved". :) 

Ray, Kristi, Jason and I sat outside for another hour on the deck before coming in to retire. I think we were all in bed by 9 pm except Jason.

Sunday morning, Ray got up to go fishing early. He dressed etc before looking outside. Nothing but fog. 

Around 7:30 it had lifted enough that Kristi went with him. Jason opted to stay in bed when he saw the fog. Soon after they left it socked in again until about 8:30. First time for the navigation lights! They had fun but no fish and back by 9am. Kristi piloted the boat and managed to dock it quite well without hitting anything. lol

Kristi and I spent some time in the kitchen once she had breakfast, making salsa and tomato sauce from her huge harvest of tomatoes she brought down with her. We also put on a batch of foccacia bread in the bread maker. The rest of the afternoon was spent down at the dock. Kristi and I went for a kayak ride while the boys just chilled on the dock. We did manage to get a few dips in the lake too other than Jason. 

The dogs all pack up together.

At 4 pm it was time to come up to the house for dinner. I had focaccia bread to bake and our ham dinner with roasted potatoes. :)

Which drink should I begin with? lol

After dinner we sat outside again on the deck. Beautiful sunset.

Another great day at the lake.

More Stella pics.

Awwww so cute.

Monday morning after everyone had sufficiently woken up, I made Eggs Benedict for breakfast.

After the kitchen was tidied we took a drive past Skutz Falls, to walk down to the 66 mile trestle. Unfortunately it was being refurbished and we could not go across. A nice outing none the less. The dogs sure enjoyed it.

The Cowichan River way down there.

66 Mile Trestle

Back at the house by 11:30 am the kids decided to go home now and miss a bunch of the holiday traffic on the road. RV dumping facilities are limited in Lake Cowichan, i.e. one site, and we noticed a 20 RV lineup.  Ray and I sat down at the dock for a while and up on our deck. Everyone pooped, including Freya. :)

A fabulous weekend with the kids.