March already. Spring on the horizon! March 1 - 14

Boy did the last two weeks go by fast. From winter, to spring and back to cold temps again.

Monday up in Nanaimo for some errands. Ray went to Coombs to get the pontoons for the little dinghy as we have to make it more stable. It's getting close to the time to start spring fishing. Our little boat was just a little too tippy with Ray's raised fishing chair so these pontoons will remedy that. No one wants to go swimming in the lake in March! We don't have the sail kit but it is available. (Update - they sent a set of tubes that do not line up with the predrilled holes in our boat so a new set is being shipped to us at no charge, so Ray waits to fish. lol) 

This morning Amelia had her cast removed. Boy did her leg look bruised, poor little thing. Keeping her cast on for two weeks instead of changing it weekly, I think caused this bruising. She has gained 3 pounds in 8 weeks so she is growing pretty quickly. Tomorrow she gets a new contraption called a Pavlik Harness to fix her left hip dysplasia. 

On the way back to Nanaimo Ray needed to stop for a leg stretch and decided to check out the Top Bridge Community Park just behind the Parksville Weigh Station. We had not been there for quite a few years. The pictures sure remind me of the Sooke Potholes. He took the pictures with his cell phone as of course his camera was at home! lol

He also managed to get out for a  short walk with Kristi and the dogs to get some fresh air. These are pictures of Mordon Collier Park

Tuesday, a quiet day for me as Ray headed into Duncan for a dental appointment. I spent my time wisely making homemade pasta. Needed to dust off my pasta attachment for my mix master. :)

Kristi sent me the picture of Amelia in her new contraption.

This should help with her knee as well. She seemed to tolerate the fitting not too badly, but her leg is definitely sore. Hopefully she will not need this brace for more than the 8 weeks and not have to have surgery. 

Wednesday, the sun actually came out and we were able to have a campfire and hotdogs for lunch finally! Ray, Freya and I spent about 3 hours outside enjoying the day. Dinner was easy as it was leftover pasta. :)

Thursday, I put together my other new kitchen tool ... meat grinder. After watching all of the Food Network shows this winter, grinding your own meat for burgers seemed to be the thing to do. :)

Being as I am vertically challenged ... needed a step stool to be able to see where I was putting the meat. lol

And Voila:  Brisket and chuck burger with sautéed onions and mushrooms with melted gouda and a homemade burger sauce on a pretzel bun to hold it all together. One happy guy. We did notice the difference in the texture of the patty with a course grind. It held together and was very moist and had a great beef flavour. Other than putting salt and pepper on it, I cooked the patties in a screaming hot cast iron pan. Definitely a do again. 

At some point I will probably try making some sausages as that also came with the meat grinder.

Amelia is finally settling down and sleeping once she is swaddled with her new apparatus. Such a cutie. Sleeping is good as that means Jason and Kristi are getting more sleep too.

Friday morning it was still pouring rain. What an ugly day. Oh well with our new "sun lamp" it seems to be making a difference, also the days are getting much longer. I have been making some reservations for RV camping this summer so we get some use out of our motorhome as we will be staying on the island. Somet of the planned trips, Kristi and Jason will come with us in their trailer. More things to look forward too.

Friday, Amelia had her brace adjusted to get her left hip socket aligned correctly ... her legs are even higher, poor thing. Fortunately at two months old she will never remember all of this.

She is not too happy with this thing so hopefully the strain/stretch becomes more manageable. It sure makes it hard for Kristi and Jason to change her, put her in the car seat etc. 

The plans for our new weir here at Lake Cowichan have been approved and now they will begin in 2022 and should take one year to complete. Basically they are raising the holding capacity of the lake by 27 inches for water to be let into the river for the fish and of course the paper mill in Crofton that the weir was originally put in for. They are also going to put a walkway on top of it for people to be able to get back and forth from the North Shore Road. Here is a rendered drawing. For us it probably means we won't have much of a beach in the summer but we will have to see. As long as they manage the water well so they don't hold too much back in the winter so we flood.

Saturday morning the sun actually came out after a lot of rain over the past 2 days. A playing in my kitchen day, grinding up more beef for burgers. Country Grocer had round roasts on sale and some brisket. I also asked for a hunk of beef fat as the roast and brisket was pretty lean and you need about a 20% fat content. Certainly cheaper doing it this way compared to a couple of days ago with only enough for 4 burgers. lol I went from $5 per patty, down to $1.82 per patty. Ready for some RV camping coming up in the next few months.

Ray and I spent the afternoon watching a movie. Since we subscribed to the Disney Plus, we now have a lot of movies to see that we have not watched over the last 10 years or so. :)

Sunday, more rain ... it sure rained overnight and the mountains across from us all have fresh snow on them, probably only about 200 feet above us. Ray's project of his Vancouver Island Map is complete. This is going to hang on the wall downstairs.

Monday, finally a nice day as forecasted. We actually heard the birds singing first thing for the first time. Spring is almost here.

Kat sent me some more pictures of Stella last night. She is now starting to walk. Pretty happy with herself. lol

Tuesday, the sun came out on and off but we also had heavy showers. Quite a mixed bag of weather. Wednesday we did manage to sit down at the dock for all of 30 minutes in the sunshine before the wind came up and we had to move to the driveway. I invited Pat over for a very distanced Happy Hour on our driveway. It was nice to see someone else. :) We only lasted about 45 minutes before it became cold and that was that. lol

Signs of spring are everywhere ... getting excited about gardening and camping. Thursday we had a spectacular day in the back yard. Blue sunny skies and very little wind all day. We puttered around and sat down out there for about 4 hours. Glorious and 10C.

Our little angel with wings. lol March 11th picture.

Saturday morning I decided to make Japanese hotcakes for breakfast yum. It was supposed to look like this ... but after adding our toppings it was hard to tell it was like a cake. lol

My dish with berry compote and whipped cream.

The sun was out and it was 12C so we had a campfire and hotdogs for lunch. Freya sure enjoys it when we stay outside with her for the afternoon. Make lots of coals for cooking once this burns. Our view that has been in many pictures. lol Quite a few boats on the lake today with it being Spring Break.

In honour of the lovely day I am also smoking BBQ ribs on the Traeger and serving it with a side of baked beans for our dinner. 

Kristi and Jason were able to take Amelia out for a walk. She's all snuggled in. Happy family.

Sunday, time change! Hopefully this is the last time we have to do this. Woke up to rain so we were very glad we spend the day outside yesterday. Our usual quiet day with puttering in the house. :) Temps tonight are supposed to get colder again with the possibility of wet snow! Spring is really trying hard to come but gets sidetracked with the different weather systems moving through.

More Winter ... the groundhog was right! Feb 16 - 28th

Tuesday turned into a lovely sunny day. Great to see some sunshine and melt the snow. Wednesday was another awesome day with sun.

Kat sent me some pictures and short videos of Stella who is now 9 months old. Wow.

No longer laying down for her "monthly" pictures. lol

I can stand!

Wednesday, Amelia had her trip to Victoria again for her cast change. Nice that it was a sunny day for her adventure. She now weighs 8 1/2 pounds, and she is now 40 weeks so she is finally a "full term" baby. :)

Time for lunch. :)

Nice enough for a walk in between appointments as she had one in the morning for a cast change and one in the afternoon for imaging.

Thursday was another cold "chunky rain" day. No accumulation of snow though. I made a turkey dinner with roasted thighs and fixing's . Yummy. Ray spent some time in his shop making his wooden Vancouver Island piece and I just played in my kitchen prepping for dinner. Now that we signed up for Disney Plus, we have been re-watching the Star Wars movies including the Mandalorian Series that we had not seen before. We are enjoying actually watching the movies in order of a timeline and picking out stuff we never actually paid attention to before with the timeline.  Bonus... two of them we hadn't seen.

Friday -1C. Still quite cold outside. Forecast for showers today. We won't see the sun again until maybe Tuesday if we are lucky. I ordered myself a new winter coat, originally from Amazon and sent 2 of them back as they did not fit as per the sizing. Finally ordered from Hudson's Bay and got it yesterday. I have only been waiting a month. Maybe it's a good thing winter is still here. lol NOT!

Ray headed to town this morning to pick up some shop supplies and it's laundry day for me. :)  Spent the afternoon watching another Star Wars movie.

Saturday woke to clearing skies, not for long though as there is another "Atmospheric River" heading our way apparently. While Ray worked in his workshop, I had a "kitchen day". Ray has been busy making an art piece of a wooden Vancouver Island cut out. It's coming along well.

Since I still had enough apples that we were given by our neighbours in September to make a pie, that's what I also made and a Dutch Baby Pancake for breakfast. Next up was cabbage rolls.

Finally sat down at 2pm after the cleanup was completed. Dinner is done. Another enjoyable day.

Sunday another cloudy/rainy day. Managed to get out for two walks with the dog though in between showers ... Freya insisted I go too, much to Ray's delight. Bark, bark, bark ....right at my feet. You are coming momma! I watched a show on Food Network and promptly made one of the recipes for lunch. Pantry Orecchiette. Had bacon in it so very yummy. I bought a pasta strainer pot that I wanted to try out. :)

Monday morning it looks like the clouds are clearing. It sure poured overnight, we definitely were in the path of that "atmospheric river" the weather forecasters talked about. lol I made a run to the Duncan Walmart to get a bunch of pantry items on my list. I put this trip off for several weeks so that it was not snowing or freezing, time to get it done. Superstore had their 3rd outbreak of a Covid exposure so I crossed that place off my list for now.

The sun did not manage to come out as we had hoped today so going shopping was a good choice.

Tuesday woke to clouds and a few sprinkles but it cleared up somewhat for the rest of the day. Had some shopping to do so Ray and I headed up to Nanaimo for a quick trip.

Someone is not happy having her bath!

Stella is over 9 months and keeping her parents busy.

Wednesday, sunny skies ... yeah, but apparently we will get some snow this evening. Hopefully this is the last gasp of winter. They say it will be gone tomorrow as it will go up to 8C and melt everything. Fingers crossed this is the truth. :) Yup the storm's a commin!

Thursday morning woke up to a couple of inches of snow but by 7 am it was sprinkling with rain and melting the snow already. Road to town already bare and wet according to our local Facebook page. Sun is supposed to come out this afternoon so it could turn into a nice day. By noon it was evident it was going to be a blustery wet day with intermittent showers. Turned into a laundry and cooking day instead. :) Ray spent the morning in his shop with his current project, the wooden Vancouver Island Map. Picture to follow once it is complete. :)

First up Monkey Bread ... too bad Dave McMechan, Dave Roche and Steve Colibaba you could not be here. :) Some of our favourite friends that love my baking.

Cooked up a batch of eggs and cream for the ice cream machine for Ray tomorrow. It has to chill overnight before you can churn it. The ice cream attachment for my mix master was his Christmas present from me. :)

Tonight's dinner is huge Yorkshire Puddings topped with beef short ribs done in my InstantPot. with honey orange carrots. Yumm. I picked up the short ribs as they were on special at our little Country Grocer a couple of days ago, so it will make enough for 2 nights meals. The huge Yorkies rose extremely tall.

Ray is struggling with all of the "grey days", so I feed him to help make him feel happier. I will be glad when Covid is over so we can do some travelling again, and have some warm sunny days during winter times.

Hardly see the Yorkshire Pudding under the beef ribs. lol

Friday woke up to a sunny but breezy day. Too cold to sit outside unfortunately, but it certainly is cheery looking out the windows over the lake. Ray's project is coming along with his wooden Vancouver Island Map. My project was to finish the laundry and finish the ice cream for Ray from the batter that I made yesterday. It makes about 2 large sour cream containers worth in a batch.

Picture from this morning, yup Amelia has a full belly. :) Momma makes good milk. She is doing really well for almost 2 months old in spite of getting a new cast on her left leg every week.

With the sun out, but windy, we managed to find a warm spot in front of our garage to enjoy some sun rays on our faces. So nice. Definitely makes you feel warm and fuzzy. lol

Saturday morning has started out with clear blue sky and the wind is now a slight breeze from the opposite direction, from town. By noon time it was clear that the breeze off the lake was too cool to stay down on the lawn so I fired up the heaters on the deck and fire table and we sat there for a couple of hours bundled up. Lovely just to be outside enjoying seeing the sunshine. Our gardener was busy today putting new dirt in the gardens at the front and back of the house. Sure looks much nicer.

Ray is getting close to finishing his project ... just needs to be glued to the backing now and then stained. The project is coming along very slowly as Ray must limit his time cutting the small pieces due to his back.

Sunday morning very cloudy, the beginning of a week of showers, at least that is what is forecasted at this point. Glad we took advantage of the sun the past two days. Nothing much else happening at Kyle's Kottage.