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.