From Winter to Summer ... April 1 - 16

Thursday, April 1st, not too much to report. lol Ray ran into Duncan for a few things and I finished up washing all the linens in the Motorhome getting it ready to use again next month. By late afternoon it started sprinkling out. I also busied myself making Beef Wellington with mushroom gravy and roasted cauliflower for dinner.  Ray's been in too much pain this past week, so kind of was off his food.  It's time to make a great dinner to encourage him to eat. It was a success!

Friday and Saturday was spent on a little of this and a little of that. lol Mostly laundry as all the bedding came out of the MH so I could wash it all after it spending a year in there without use.

I did a bunch of prepping for our smoked turkey dinner on Sunday. I find as I age, it is easier doing some of the work a couple days before, like the cranberry sauce and gravy as I roast turkey wings for stock so all I have to do is smoke the turkey, roast some vegetables and cook potatoes. Otherwise a quiet Easter Weekend for us.

Easter Sunday, turkey day, even if it is only for Ray and I. The sun has finally returned so it will be a nice day. Last year I smoked a turkey for Easter Dinner for our neighbours, all socially distanced as that was the beginning of this Covid 19 mess. Little did I know that we would all still be in the same position a year later, still socially distanced.

This year both neighbours have some of their family living with them so they are all celebrating at their own places. Roy and June have one daughter, son-in-law and 2 kids living with them since October as they sold their house and recently bought another one. All their kids work with them at their business so are all in their bubble. Cory brought his brand new trailer over for his family and they camped in June's driveway to try it out.  What a camping spot with a complete outdoor kitchen, and heaters. They also have a jungle gym playhouse and swing set for the kids.

Kids going for a short fishing trip. :) All those little ones lasted over half an hour. I was surprised. The whole family is mad for fishing.

Ray and I got the bat house installed so hopefully the bats use it this year when they come back and not try to get into our house again. The house has been totally sealed so that's their "eviction notice". lol

Ray got his "Klinker" all together with the new pontoons and motor installed ... ready for fishing. We launched it to make sure his new roller and winch system works for bringing it back up onto the dock. (not shown in the picture)

He still needs to put the extension on the control handle so he is not twisting so much. The new motor moves the boat along really well. The boat is certainly more stable with the pontoons. Now I don't have to worry about him falling out of the boat into the cold water.

Where you going Dad!

Yahoo ... it works.

Once I got the turkey on the Traeger to smoke, I finally moved all the linen back into the motorhome and put it away as well as organized a few cupboards.

The turkey cooked in 4 hours so we ate a little early. Easy dinner since I had made most of the sides in advance and just needed reheating. The turkey turned out beautiful and moist. Brining for 24 hours certainly does make a difference.

Quite the spread for 2 of us. lol We will be eating turkey for a few days.

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE

Monday morning was beautiful so Ray finally was able to take the Klinker out for test fish even though it was quite cool out at about 1C this morning.

A quieter day today as I had cooked a lot over the past few days, it was a day off with leftovers. lol After finding my kitchen, after Ray went fishing we were able to sit down on the dock for awhile before the wind chased us up to the back yard. A lovely day.

Tuesday stayed foggy for quite a bit as Ray was busy securing things to his dinghy lol I worked on making things with the Easter Dinner leftovers. We had eaten it for 2 dinners and 2 lunches so it was time to process it into something else. lol  2 smoked turkey quiches, one large shepherds pie using the dressing for the crust with all the vegetables, turkey and a bit of cranberry sauce dumped together with gravy topped with mashed potatoes. I also put the bones on for turkey stock, soon to be soup. Otherwise a quiet day here at the lake.

Here is a picture our neighbour took of the moon coming up with our dock.

My daffodils are all up and the garden is looking great, especially with the driveway nice and clean after it was pressure washed.

Wednesday the forecasted rain came around noon. Not too much happening today. More puttering around for both of us. The time just seems to go. lol We ordered fish and chips for takeout from the Deep Fried Ice Cream place at the end of our road. I had heard that it was good and it did not disappoint.

Saw this guy trying to fish from his kayak when the storm blew in. He is going backwards trolling, being pushed by the wind and rain. lol

Thursday we ran up to Nanaimo for a few errands, takeout lunch and back home. Mary Brown's Chicken just opened. It was OK, kind of like KFC but without the spices. 

Friday, I headed into Duncan early to pick up my online grocery order at Walmart and had my pedicure. Back home by 11 before the rain really began. What a cold blustery day. Spent the afternoon cooking up a batch of meatballs, sauce for spaghetti for dinner. 

Saturday managed to get a walk in with Kristi up in Nanaimo, a beautiful day.

We got smiles on our phone. So cute. Amelia sure is growing fast.

Both Saturday and Sunday had very cold mornings and then a very cold wind all day. Nice to see the sun though. Here are some pictures of Stella, our other granddaughter, she is motoring around now on 2 legs. lol

Look I have 3 teeth!

New way of feeding herself breakfast. lol

Look mummy, no hands.

Where did it go!

Helping daddy in the garage.

Monday, another lovely day. We did manage to sit outside in the backyard for an hour out of the wind, but then it came up so much there was white caps on the lake! Ray and I made haste to get back into the house and watch the lake from inside. :)

Looks like we are going from winter to summer this week with the temps in the high teens. Great to see so much sunshine in the forecast. Definitely gardening weather. Ray has been busy staining my planters after sanding them this winter. Time to get my herb garden back up and running.

Tuesday, nothing much to report other than beautiful weather. 

Wednesday, I drove Ray to Victoria for his eye appointment we have been waiting for since last fall. Ray has black "floaties" in one of his eyes and this was finally an appointment to find out what they will do. He now is to have surgery to drain out the "bad liquid" and replace it. A few months after this surgery he will have to have cataract surgery on both of his eyes. He has been dealing with this "Asteroid Hyalosis" for several years now and it's getting worse affecting his peripheral vision. This is not a common condition and they really don't know what caused it but suspect High Blood Pressure.

On the way home we stopped at Bridgeman's Bistro in Mill Bay again for a takeout lunch. Sure enjoy their food. Back home I managed to sit down at the dock for awhile as it was 22C with only a slight breeze. Ray had to stay inside as his eyes could not stand the brightness after having dilation meds from his eye appointment.

Thursday another sunny warm day. Making smoked burnt end pork belly today on the Traeger. Yummm. Tempting to start hauling out more summer furniture but I'm sure this nice weather won't last and then everything will be back in spring rains. lol

Managed to buy a couple of tomato plants and pepper plants as well as my herbs. Was worried that if the Provincial Health Officer shuts more businesses down that I would have the same trouble purchasing stuff like I did last year. This is a start. 

Friday, Ray decided it was time to go fishing. The morning's temps are now warmer instead of frosty. First try in the boat with all of his modifications. Everything worked well ... until he ran out of gas. lol

Our new gardener showed up on the arranged day ... amazing, and thatched and mowed the lawn for the first time this year. Next week he will put some sand down and some more grass seed as well as weed and feed. There certainly was a lot of moss in the lawn.

Ray has been busy with the staining and planter production. :)

Don't they look beautiful. Matches the arbor perfectly.

That's our update for the past 2 weeks. Nothing too exciting. lol

 

Sunny Days and Hail. March 15 - 31st

A mixed bag of weather over the past 2 weeks.

Monday turned into a gorgeous day. Ray puttered in his shop in the morning, while I puttered with laundry and preparing 10 lbs of pork shoulder for sausage making tomorrow. Also a homemade pizza was in the works with the dough being processed in the bread maker.

We spent in the afternoon at the front of the house and out of the wind, Ray even managed to get into his shorts for the first time this year. :)

We even ate our late lunch pizza outside where I received my first sunburn of the season. lol Of course I did not realize I had a sunburn until the next day. :)

A chilly start to the morning at -2C and fog on the lake. We have a fellow coming by this afternoon to caulk up the areas on the house that the bats still manage to go into. Hopefully this ends our ongoing "infestation" since this house was built in 2008 according to the neighbours. We have caulked up a bunch of areas 2 years ago, closed off the peak over the front door, but  I noticed that they had found other "cracks" to get into the soffit areas of the garage/house. Tricky little buggers. Don't want Ray to be up on the ladders leaning over to fill moldings with steel wool and then caulking.

Today for the first time, I am going to try and make Italian Sausages. I cut up and seasoned the meat yesterday and will grind and stuff it today. 10 lbs of sausage here you go. Two hours to make the sausage and of course an hour to clean up!

Once Ray was back from Duncan and I had cleaned up we went down to the dock for a couple hours. The lake was absolutely like glass. I saw a fish jump 4 times right in front of the dock! Ray's tubes for the dinghy were not the right size as I had mentioned. Unfortunately all of the 3 boxes the store had were all labelled incorrectly. We managed to send Jason to pick up a proper set from Harbour Chandler in Nanaimo yesterday so Ray should be up and running to fish by next week.

At 4:30, our "handyman Jon", arrived to do the caulking on the house. Yeah! This side of the house had a bunch of bats last year that we noticed for the first time.

Once he got to the other side of the house that has been the worst, he found this huge hole above the bedroom window. The existing hardy plank board is incorrectly installed. I think that we will have to stuff the hole with steel wool the best that we can and then paint a board red and just glue and nail it over the hole. The space between there and the above soffit is so narrow Jon was unable to even get the caulking gun into the space and the hole is so large. DAMN BATS! So hopefully when we solve this problem that will be it for the bats. I have ordered a bat house to put up across our driveway on a light pole in our strata ... hopefully when they come back this year they relocate over there. That way we can still benefit from them eating all the mosquitos. 

Wednesday. Happy Saint Patrick's Day.

In honour of the day, for Ray, I made an angel food cake with green icing, corned beef and a cabbage and noodle side. Served with green beer. 

Thursday a wet day as predicted. Ray made a quick trip into Duncan while I "found my kitchen". lol 

Last week I did some summer clothes shopping from my chair. :) The stuff arrived today, all of it fitting me well which was a big surprise. Now just need warm sunny weather to wear the stuff. I got peeved that all the larger clothing departments in stores will not let you use their fitting rooms which require you to go back to the store to return it. So being in Lake Cowichan, 30 miles from Duncan and 50 plus miles from Nanaimo, it was easier ordering through Amazon, The Bay and a couple of other more local stores and returning stuff to the post office 2 miles away if the clothes did not fit the way I wanted them to.

The rest of the week pretty quiet puttering. Ray in his shop and me in the kitchen. Saturday we had our handyman come back and work on sealing the other areas of the house so the bats do not come back hopefully.

Sunday rained all day ... hunkered down.

Monday the sun came out to play. After Ray and I had done our morning stuff we decided to go out to lunch at Jake's on the Lake on their patio. A bit breezy but I had packed blankets to sit on so it was not too bad. This is the first time we have eaten there other than take out since we left for our winter holiday to the USA September 2019! Too many people there in the summer with the tubing on the river so we stayed away. The rest of the afternoon we sat out on our driveway out of the wind for a couple of hours. 

What difference getting out of the wind!

Ready for nice weather!

Tuesday, shopping day in Duncan. We managed to order take-out at the Rick's James Street Diner, a sandwich place that was featured on CHEK News a few weeks ago. Ray and I have to agree, their homemade sandwiches were delicious. They set up a table outside their store for just us to enjoy our lunch in the sun. Thanks a bunch.

Amelia is now starting to track things with her eyes and they are getting some smiles.... 

Hi Daddy.

Wednesday, was Amelia's day to go for an ultrasound in Victoria to see how her hip is doing. Unfortunately not great news, she will need surgery and a Spica Cast at probably the end of April. Poor little tyke. A lot more work for Jason and Kristi to care for her. She will be in the cast 3 to 6 months. If this small surgery does not work then she will have to have a more major one and a longer time in the cast at a later date. Fingers crossed this one works.

All snuggled into her car seat for the ride to Victoria.

Thursday we had a date with Steve and Dianne to meet for lunch in Mill Bay. A perfect spot as it was halfway for them and us to meet up. A wonderful socially distanced visit with take-out lunch including a brew from Bridgeman's Bistro. We even met a couple whose boat was moored at the dock beside us, Dean and Lana, who made us all expresso coffee. We must have looked cold. lol They moved to a live a board situation 4 months ago and are loving every minute of it. They manage to work remotely from the boat.

Here comes the coffee.

Captain Dean

Our "besties" Steve and Dianne

Off they go.

Steve unhinging his jaw to get that burger in his "piehole" lol Food was great. (Ray here, I would've taken a picture of Deb doing the same, but wasn't so sure of the outcome....)

The police boat came in to fuel up. Boy can it move with two 450HP motors on the back.

A lovely socially distanced "meet up" with our friends. No hugging .... but nice to get outside for lunch. Steve and Dianne met up with us to return our de-humidifier that they used all winter as they are leaving for the mainland April 1st. Unfortunately this is the first time we have been able to visit with them since October, due to Covid. So nice to see them finally. They brought us a gift of tequila and triple sec for margaritas as a thank you. CHEERS. :)

After our visit, we headed back to the lake, stopping in Duncan so Ray could pick up his new scroll saw that had come in. For projects like his Vancouver Island map, the current saw is not quite up to the job. While he was there, he purchased a new dust collection and ventilation system that I have been nagging him to get for the past year. The amount of dust from his projects in the workshop is choking me up with my allergies....as it's being spread through the air in the entire house, not to mention the dust everywhere. We stuffed all the boxes into the car as best we could but not all of it fit so he will have to come back tomorrow for the last boxes.

Friday morning, another sunny day it looks like. Ray headed into Duncan to pick up the remaining parts for his dust system and I just puttered with laundry etc. and went for my massage. My shoulder is still causing me some grief so I go monthly now for a "tune up".

Amelia had her first real bath today after getting her Pavlik harness off and for the first time since she was born she could be bathed completely. She loved it apparently in the tub with her Daddy.

Saturday, we had our handyman come and do all the concrete pressure washing for us as well as the sundeck. I normally do it myself over several days, but with my shoulder still causing me grief Ray thought it was best I don't. :) This means we also move the motorhome out of the way so when we put it back it will be in it's "summer" position further up the driveway so we have a warm sitting area out of the wind. Then I can start to work on cleaning up the inside in preparation for our adventures this spring and summer. It has not been used for a year so definitely needs a little wiping down of counters etc.

Good thing the pressure washing was yesterday. :) This Sunday morning is very blustery and wet with possible power outages predicted on the island. White caps on our lake. Brrrrrr. By noon just a slight drizzle and the breeze had stopped. Ray spent the morning rearranging his shop again to accommodate his new dust collection system. No problem since everything is on wheels!

Here comes the hail!

Five minutes later this is how much landed on the ground!

Monday, a gorgeous day but a very cold start after yesterday's wacky weather. Our handyman Jon did stuff steel wool everywhere to protect from the bats but one window trim where they mostly went needed a new piece of hardy plank cut to fit over the hole. Ray took care of that today, so hopefully now we are completely "bat proof". 

Amelia got an outing today too up in Nanaimo. They managed to catch a smile.

We also got the motorhome moved into it's "summer" position, moved ahead, leveled, slides out, so we have our spot to sit out of the wind. I had picked up the new rv toilet from Walmart on Saturday and our RV tech came to install it. Unfortunately when we opened the box it has been smashed. Someone must have dropped it and the china bowl is broken in many places. So now I wait to see what they are going to do about it! 

Starting to get excited about plantings in my gardens ... got all the solar lights put back today.

Well Covid numbers are rising really fast with the variants now in play so our province is back on lockdown for three weeks. Certainly hard on restaurants and fitness places but necessary until we get control of this nasty virus. It's hitting a lot of 29 to 40 age groups now, showing that those people are the ones doing the service industry jobs coupled with socializing and hence transmission. We were not eating at restaurants without well ventilated patios anyways until we are vaccinated which hopefully will be in April sometime.

Tuesday cool and sunny. Ray's back is quite a bit more sore than usual, so he is having a "resting day" today. I started hauling out all the bedding and towels out of the MH to wash. Everything has been left other than food, in the MH in "stasis" since we made the mad dash home from the USA March 2020. Thankfully no evidence of varmints. Looking forward to getting out in it again this spring and summer.

Wednesday, Ray needed a "down day" to recover so I had a "road trip" by myself to Port Alberni. Ray had purchased a little motor for his dinghy and that was the only place that had one in stock. Again anything to do with boating or rving is having distribution problems. It had been a few years since I went to PA and we actually sold our house there 13 years ago. After picking up the motor I did a little tour of memorable places ... first up was the J & L Drive-in, noted for their burgers. Lunch was as good as I remembered.

Then I took a drive past our old house. It is being looked after nicely.

Stopped along Cameron Lake and took a picture of the trestle across the lake.

On the way back home I met up with Kristi at the Green Thumb Nursery and we both purchased some items for our gardens. It was such a nice day to be outside. A lovely little road trip for me.