Summer heat wave continues and we are fully vaccinated! ... June 29 - July 9th

Tuesday morning, it was a little cooler first thing in the morning as the wind was up from down the lake instead of coming from town. Ray and I spent an hour emptying out some of the stuff from the motorhome. He headed to town for a dental appointment and I spent the rest of the morning doing laundry. Did not mind staying inside in the A/C. lol 

After lunch, Freya and I went down onto the dock. I wore my bathing suit, but realized pretty quick it was cool enough just sitting in the shade as the wind blew. lol There was even white caps on the water and the wind tried to knock over our side tables. Oh well, it was nice to be sitting down there anyways. Ray came home and joined me, but after 20 minutes we all came back up to the house and sat on the sundeck in the breeze instead.

Wednesday we woke up to 17C, wind and clouds. Seems so weird not to see the sun after this stretch of hot, hot weather. Cool enough today that we can get back to finish unloading the motorhome. I still need to do the "cleaning" so it is ready for our next trip. It was so hot at Pedder Bay my usual clean before travelling was not done this time. I still have the freezer to empty. I left it full to help keep the fridge cold during this heat wave. My appliance guy said an empty fridge is harder to keep cool.

After doing our chores, we sat outside on the deck for a few hours before I started our prime rib on the rotisserie. Not too hot out so a good day to barbecue.

Happy Canada Day

With the tragic discoveries of all those poor Indigenous Children buried from the residential schools, I don't believe most people want big celebrations, instead a day of family time and reflection seems to be on the menu. Ray and I are spending the day at home just reflecting on the current state of affairs. It certainly has been a year. The continuation of the Covid Pandemic, then our unrelenting heat wave this past week and now a terrible forest fire where the town of Lytton has burned to the ground yesterday in the Interior of BC. Those poor people losing everything. Temperatures in that area are still sweltering at 39C as of yesterday. They hit the hot spot in Canada 3 days running, finishing at 49.6C before this fire. Ray and I are very thankful that our families are all safe and sound and managed through this heat wave. 

This morning it is only 20C, with a high layer of marine cloud that should burn off later this afternoon. A great day for some gardening before it heats up again. Both of us puttered around and then decided to go out for lunch at the Riverside Pub. It has been having mixed reviews but we thought we would give it a try .... nope reviews are correct, crap food. Oh well an outing anyways.

View from the Riverside Pub Patio

Once we got back we decided to sit down on our beach in the shade, as it was a little too windy on the dock and too hot on the deck. Sent Freya in for a swim. A great place to spend a couple of hours.

July 2nd ... Happy Anniversary to us! 44 years wow. Messages from our granddaughter Stella.

Today we finally get our second Covid vaccination. A great present. :) Ray made reservations for us at the Farm Table Inn for dinner tonight on their patio. It will be nice to go somewhere nice and sit down for a meal instead of take-out for the past 16 months.

Vaccination done at 2:30 pm and then back home to get ready for our dinner. Ray took our picture together. :)

We had a 5:30pm reservation and were the first diners there for this evening. What a pleasant setting sitting in their garden with "Big Red" the rooster and their cat wandering around.

Big Red

They built a "house" for Big Red as he is no longer the boss of the farmyard and is picked on by the other rooster. Some of the regular guests were feeding him lettuce.

We spent a lovely 2 hours dining. Their menu was quite limited, but we were able to have some tasty choices. The downside was I got bit up by some bugs on my ankles and the back of my neck. (Still scratching 3 days later). lol I am unused to this as we don't have bugs at the lake.

Back home we sat on the deck for a bit and then it was bedtime. 

My friend Dianne Colibaba messaged me, they have been evacuated out of Tunkwa Provincial Park. They were given notice and were trying to pack up their trailer quickly, but then it became more urgent and they had to leave everything behind other than their truck and car which they drove out in.  So their home, as they are fulltimers, their boat and their quads all left behind. Yikes. They were able to find the last room at the Best Western in Merritt for the night but had to leave the next morning and headed to Coquitlam to stay with their son and family. Fingers Crossed! everything will be ok.

Saturday morning Ray was up early enough to capture this beautiful sunrise.

WARNING ... LOT'S OF BABY PICTURES. LOL

This morning Jason, Kristi and Amelia came and also their friends Ross, Layla, Layla's mom and their 1 year old baby, Nova. It was time to put the babies into the water. Kristi had purchased a cool little float with a sunshade for Amelia, she loved it and stayed in the water for at least 15 minutes floating.

Here she is in her new bathing suit.

Ross and Nova

Jason and Amelia

The babies together.

Ross, Layla and Nova

Layla's mom, Katherine.

After their swim it was time for lunch. Jason grilled wieners for our hot dogs. After lunch Layla attempted to put Nova down for her nap on Kristi's bed downstairs.

Kristi with Amelia, Ray, Jason, Ross and Katherine. Of course Zeus and Freya are in the mix.

Nova did not go to sleep so Ross and Layla decided to go home so she would sleep in the car. The rest of us retired down to the dock for a bit. We definitely have our "lake baby". :)

Our Lake Baby

It was lovely entertaining again. We all were fully vaccinated which also was great. Ross and Layla have been in Kristi and Jason's bubble the whole time so it was nice to finally see them again.

Sunday, we had a young fellow, Tyler Harding, come and do the sanding of Ray's deck boxes that was too hard for Ray to do. He spent 5 hours today and is doing a great job. He will come back tomorrow to finish the sanding and then they will be stained.

We have a few small planes come and go here on the lake too.

While this was happening I was smoking pork belly on my Traeger smoker. Ray asked for pork belly a few days ago and since I was stuck inside, hiding from all the noise, I decided to get dinner going early.

I smoked it for 2 1/2 hours and then cut it into chunks and smother it with apricot BBQ sauce and put it in the Traeger for another hour. Served with Mexican Corn, Elote.

One happy guy. :)

Monday, we woke to marine fog and a little breezy. Should clear off though and be another sunny day. I headed to Duncan for a shopping trip and Ray stayed home to supervise more sanding of his dock boxes. A longer shop today as I had not been to Duncan for over 3 weeks.

I got back home about 1 pm. Tyler was still working down on the dock and it was too hot anywhere else in the yard, so I stayed up on the deck for awhile under the gazebo until around 4 when the sun came around to heat up.

Tuesday marine cloud again to start but by 7:30 it was already burning off. Freya is really struggling with her left hind leg that she is mostly dragging. I will have to take her to the vet to up her pain meds, I think. So sad to watch, but she seems to still be happy for the most part and is eating and wagging her tail, so the big decision is not here yet. She has a vet appointment on Friday to assess her pain meds.

Tyler finished staining the deck boxes and lifted back the rocks on our retaining wall that had fallen down with the high water this winter. Nice to have that done as well. 

Ray and I spent the afternoon down on the dock swimming. It sure was a warm one at 28C but feels like 32C. Heard yesterday that one of Lake Cowichan's fire trucks, #2 tanker and 2 fire fighters have been deployed to the Lone Butte area of the interior, near the Deka Lake fire to protect structures. Nice that our community could help out. The fire department put their older truck back into service here for our protection in the mean time.

At 4:30 we came back up to the house and relaxed inside. It was way to hot on the sundeck to hang out there. I made a Prawn Pesto Bucatini with my fresh cherry tomatoes. Ray was moaning over it still by bed time as it turned out so tasty. Now I have enough for dinner tomorrow as we have a busy day.

Had my first float in my lounger today. The water was quite warm, at least on the surface.

Wednesday we were up early at 5 am so we would have time for coffee, and showers before heading to Nanaimo at 7am. Ray is taking the big boat up to Nanaimo to have the big motor serviced under warranty. It appears that the hydraulics to lift and lower the motor has a leak ... right from the get go 3 years ago. Monti's Marine, where we purchased the new boat and motor, told us at that time it just is the way it is! Turns out that is not correct and that the hydraulics are leaking into the motor which is bad as there is no residue being left on the ground so we don't know how much damage has actually been done.

We dropped off the boat and the owner, Steve, is on holidays for a week so it looks like the boat will be there for a couple of weeks. :(. Also, if major parts are needed the supply is limited due to Covid.

A visit to Nanaimo also means "Amelia time". lol  Reading time with Grandpa.

Once Amelia went back down for her nap, we headed back to the lake. Both Ray and I got busy with some chores before relaxing on the sundeck for the afternoon. Too breezy down at the dock.

Thursday, both of us got busy fairly early and then Ray took me out for lunch at the Youbou Bar and Grill. Lovely lunch on their patio. They make great fish and chips.

Oops took the picture before he smiled. lol

Friday woke to a little breeze and marine cloud again. It's to burn off soon though and be a warm sunny day of 28C.

Off first thing to the vet with Freya. As expected more meds and a change of dog food. Apparently she does not have a dislocated hip just bad knees on both back legs. So as a senior just making changes in meds to keep her comfortable and no stairs if possible is all we can do. She is basically still happy so her expiry date has been lengthened thankfully. :)

After her appointment a quick stop at Home Hardware for stainless screws and then home. Dropped Freya off, a quick bite to eat and then off to my haircut appointment. My stylist sold the building her salon was in and set up again at her home in Honeymoon Bay. Very Cute.

By the time I came back to town, picked up new dogfood for Freya, her new meds and some freshly made sausage rolls from our Deep Fried Ice cream place it was 1:45 pm. Finally into the lake for a dip at 2pm. A rather long day for me. :) A lovely couple of hours enjoying the dock and then up to the house for the evening.