From Snow to another Atmospheric River! January 10 - 25

Monday, the 10th of January, when all of the school kids finally go back to school. Woke up to the forecasted rain. Over the next three days we should see up to 100mm/4 inches of rain. Not as much as  last November with all the flooding, but with all the low snow on the mountains. it could be a problem with the temperatures rising significantly.

Cowichan Lake Marina

The puzzle is coming along, I'm sure many more hours needed.

Week One Progress

Tuesday we were out the door early heading to Nanaimo. Baby time!!! Yeah. We arrived shortly after 9am and picked up Kristi. She wanted to Costco shop as well, so off we went. Back at their house by 11:30 for lunch and then a few hours with Amelia before heading back to the lake shortly after 2:30pm The predicted rainstorm started, so we wanted to get back to the lake before the roads were too swamped with water. Amelia a little cranky today and wanted mommy mostly as she is teething. 

You are funny Grandma!

Wednesday, dark and dreary. Pouring out all night. Clouds so low they are practically touching the lake. Ray's project for the morning is to see if he could level my walking washing machine. lol It's unlevel and moves and scratches the wall on the spin cycle. In order to get to the back of the washer we (meaning Ray lol) took the door off, unscrew the shelf over the washer/dryer, and then move the dryer out to get in the "hole". What a fiasco. 

After an hour spent levelling the washer, I put a load on to test and it's still wandering all over the floor again. I ordered some anti vibration feet from Amazon to keep washers from sliding on tile floors, which will be here in 10 days ... so the disaster will stay. Ray did hook the dryer back up though so I can at least use them. I thought I'd lost him hanging over the dryer into the hole trying to attach the dryer hose. lol Certainly not the best thing for his back .... he's benched tomorrow.

Thursday the rain finally quit. The lake came up about 2 feet overnight, but by this afternoon it's already starting to go down and inch or so. I think it is still pretty cold at the top of the mountains around here, so the snow has not melted as much as they thought. 

Friday, cloudy with showers all day. Shopping run into Duncan is my "big event". lol

Saturday we woke up to fog but no rain. By 11 am the fog cleared and the sun's actually out with the lake flat calm. Yeah. At noon Ray started a fire outside and we roasted hot dogs for lunch. It sure is nice to be outside. Unfortunately, our yard doesn't get much sun at this time of year. The dock does, but it's usually too breezy. :)

Such concentration, don't burn that wiener. lol

We stayed outside until about 2 when the wind came up and fog started to move in so decided to come inside. Wow within 1/2 an hour the fog was completely back and the wind had really picked up creating waves on the lake. It stayed that way for the rest of the afternoon. Glad we had a short break.

Ray has been spending his afternoons on the puzzle and I have been working on next year's travel plans with the motorhome going to the USA. There is still so much we have not seen in the south west. Evenings have been watching shows on Netflix or Prime Video. So with all this "winter weather" we have been keeping busy.

Sunday, foggy again! It stayed pretty dreary all day until late afternoon when it changed to high marine cloud. lol Spent the day planning out next year's Motorhome trip to the USA in the fall. Yippee. The day flew by. I already reserved sites at Lost Dutchman and Catalina State Parks in AZ for next year. Turned out only one site is available at each park for the days planned. Unbelievable. If I have to cancel I will only lose the $5 booking fee and the rest of the money returned ... and yes they required payment in full.

Monday, repeat of Sunday. lol

Tuesday we were out the door at 9:30 heading to Nanaimo. Baby day! lol Jason asked us to baby sit Amelia for a couple of hours while they went to an appointment and picked up Jason's truck. She is such a happy baby. Ray briefly played on the floor with her. She can sure crawl now, with or without her brace.

Peek a Boo

Back home by 3:30. Another day of the week gone. 

Wednesday morning woke up to more fog. I ran into Duncan for some errands in the morning before the predicted rain started. Ray puttered setting up the washing machine on it's new rubber feet to stop it from travelling. Ray still needs to hook up the dryer. Good thing I did all our laundry a couple of days ago. :) Ray took a walk to the marina down the road while the sun is out and took some pictures.

Thursday, both of us up early listening to the rain pouring ... down the downspouts next to our bedroom window. lol I went out the door at 10:15 am for my hair appointment. While I was gone, Ray did some chores and then continued with his puzzle. lol Our "dock guy" Cliff, stopped by to show Ray the design for the new breakwater to protect ours and our neighbour Roy's docks which we agreed to early last fall. With delivery problems Cliff had trouble getting the decking for Roy's new swim dock he is having installed. Things should be happening soon.

Weather here at the lake can change quickly. When I left for my hair appointment it was sunny. On the way back at 1 pm I stopped at Country Grocer for a couple of things. By the time I came out 15 minutes later, the clouds moved in, the wind came up and it continued to be a stormy afternoon with waves on the lake. No rain though.

Friday, foggy start. We might have this for the next couple of days instead of the sunshine originally predicted. Shaw cable guy came today to diagnose why our internet signal is so slow at times. Turned out to be a bad connection in the basement. Someone cut and reattached the line during our renovation with incorrect parts? Surprised when we had Shaw Cable come earlier, they did not find it earlier.

Saturday, sunny day for the most part. We went for a walk but otherwise a quiet day.

Sunday morning, Kristi and Amelia arrived at 10am to spend the day and night. Amelia is sure growing fast. We enjoyed a wonderful visit. Pat brought over the quilt she had made for Amelia. She really likes it with all the different textures.

Chewing on Grandma's beads.

Monday morning Kristi was back on the road at 9am in time for Amelia's first nap on her way home. Ray completed his puzzle today after three weeks. All 3000 pieces found their place. Looks amazing.

At noon the guys arrived towing Roy's new dock next and the logs/anchors required to install our breakwater for our two properties. They only managed to set the first two of six anchors and will be back tomorrow to finish. Started out really foggy and then cleared somewhat in the afternoon before the fog moved in again at dusk.

Over it goes!

They finished the day after sinking 2 anchors and moving Roy's new dock into place.

Tuesday, another foggy morning. Myles returned to wrestle the remaining 4 concrete anchors and the rest of the breakwater into place. Halfway through his deckhand went home sick ... probably Covid. It's quite the scene to see him use both boats by himself to position the barge so he could push the concrete anchor off himself. WELL DONE!

By noon Myles finished installing the breakwater and headed back to their yard towing a boat and barge. There's quite a bit of work to do next door as they have to build the landing for the ramp to hook to and then put the ramp on the new dock. After the ramp is placed the brackets will be installed around the pilings to hold the dock in place. Roy is also getting some logs installed from the breakwater on his side, to his beach to stop all the junk coming onto our beaches. This will also help keep the people visiting the park from paddling in kayaks between our docks and shore. Myles told us we could get "gates", small logs, to hook between the two openings in the winter to virtually cut off anything floating in. Sounds like a plan. Ray at this time is constantly pushing out logs and debris to keep them from settling on our beach.

Very foggy morning.

The sun came out so Ray snapped this picture this morning. Of course with panoramic it puts a big bend on the log. lol

We also have asked for boom solar lights for the ends of the logs to prevent anyone hitting them in the dark. Last year apparently some yahoo last year launched his seadoo up onto the breakwater on the other side of the lake from us, all caught on surveillance camera.