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.