Ray's Recovery, and Warren and Deb come to visit. May 15 - 25th

For lunch and dinner I decided to fire up my Traeger and cooked up some chicken wings. This is the first time I tried these and they turned out delicious. I'm surprised they only took about 35 minutes. After they came off, I rolled them in some teriyaki sauce. Delicious.

While Ray's doing his exercises, relaxing and reading, I briefly sat on our new patio and decided to get busy pruning a bunch of our shrubs in the front garden. The maple trees are creating too much shade for the shrubs underneath. I will have my gardener remove a maple tree and a yew tree on friday. They are too big for me to handle. 

Before picture.

I have quite the pile to be taken away.

What a difference a couple of hours of work makes. I was covered in tree bits, but it's worth it.

I finally sat down at 4 with Ray on our back deck for an hour. A surprisingly beautiful, warm day. Today is our other granddaughter's 4th birthday. Here is Stella in the dress we bought her. Apparently it is a hit.

Thursday, same stuff.

Friday a very busy day for me. First I had to head into Duncan and pick up Ray's pain medication prescription. Of course at London Drugs they are still recovering from their Cyber Attack 2 weeks ago. Talk about a gong show. I had to call our doctor's office and have the prescription refaxed as they couldn't find it. Finally an hour later I was able to do the rest of my shopping and head back home.

After our lunch, Sean, our gardener showed up at 1:30 to cut down 2 trees in the front garden. Not enough light for my purple rhododendron and orange azalea in behind. What a difference that made.

Here goes the maple tree!

Now for the Yew Tree. Look how much more open it is.

Yup, a lot of pruning :)

After he mowed our lawn and left, our friends Warren and Debbie from across the lake came over for a visit, sitting outside on our driveway patio. It's too cold on the lake side to sit on the deck. A great catch up of who did what over the winter. lol

At 5:30 we had a carpenter stop by. Our fence/arbor in the front,  have rotted posts and need to be replaced. They were never cemented in as far as I can tell. We are hoping to save the fence panels and replace the posts. If it cannot be fixed that way, we will change it out for a composite fence with metal posts. Unfortunately, my clemantis has climbed all over the fence and is blooming. Hopefully we can save most of it. The work won't be done until August anyways. There is a fence panel behind all that greenery.

Saturday woke up to a cloudy morning. It's supposed to rain today. Good for my new grass  growing in the back yard. We ended up with a pretty sunny afternoon to enjoy sitting outside on our "front patio". I planted some new shrubs in the space where the 2 trees used to reside.

Sunday, Ray took me out to Jake's for lunch, just to get him out of the house for a bit. 

Monday, not much happening around here. I put some Beef Rib Fingers on my Traeger for dinner. They turned out delicious. These are the parts between beef ribs that they cut out for Tomohawk Steaks.

Amelia has been busy at home in Nanaimo.

Helping Daddy

Tuesday, we woke to the predicted rain. Not going to be a very nice week apparently. Today is Ray's first physio appointment 13 days post op. His leg swelling went down and his exercises are going well. Definitely on the upswing. His therapist is very surprised at how far Ray came already and gave him exercises for 6 weeks post-op even though he is only just under week 2.

Wednesday, it's a beautiful day and we managed to sit out front quite a bit after our morning routines.

At 3:15 we headed out to Duncan to pick up our new car. As usual it always takes a bunch of time for all the paperwork, insurance etc, so we didn't get back home until 6 pm. A long 3 hours for Ray to sit without his leg elevated, but worth it for this! A 2024 Toyota Grand Highlander Platinum Max 500 Hybrid. Now that's a mouthful. lol

Thursday Ray had his physio appointment. He is doing great. This therapist is able to bend his leg to 118 degrees, awesome.

 Later in the afternoon I headed up to Nanaimo for a visit with the family for dinner. Boy is Olaf growing. Amelia gave me a hug and told me she missed me lots. Heart melting. :)

Olaf the shop dog lol

The kids landscaping project in their backyard is really coming along. Kristi is in gardening heaven. She has everything planted. The irrigation was finished yesterday and area with the plywood will have sod put down in the next week or so.

The three of them are always together. :) Jason always wanted a cuddly dog and Olaf sure fits the bill.

 

After dinner and a family walk, I headed back home to the lake. The new car is very comfortable. 

Home at 7:30, in time to cover the patio furniture etc in preparation for the rain tomorrow. Ray survived without me and cooked himself up some halibut for dinner.

 

Friday morning is miserable and very wet. Fortunately by 10:15 the rain quit when I took Ray into Duncan to the hospital for his xray and visit with his surgeon. Don't want the new car to get dirty lol. 

The xray confirmed that his new knee is in the correct place and Dr. Popovic is happy with his progress. 

Back home for 2:30 and we set up on our sundeck watching the showers come and go with our heaters on. I even had him hooked up to his ice machine as he's quite sore after our day.

 

Ray has his Right Knee Surgery. and Planting Season May 8 - 14

SURGERY DAY! 

Ray's lucky to be first on the slate and after 2  hours is through recovery and back in his day bed. Fairly drugged up lol with a smile on his face. His knee bend is great at this point. everyone is quite surprised with his mobility. He's ready to be discharged by 1 pm but had to wait to be seen by physio first.

Finally, the physio came at 3 pm to see Ray. I went out to Super Store and picked up his prescriptions so we were all set to go home when he finally got discharged at 4:30 pm. Our pharmacy at London Drugs is still closed due to a Cyber Attack last week.

Keeping up with his meds every 2 hours took a toll on both of us. When Ray is on morphine, he can't sleep and he's not able to take his regular sleeping pill for one night after having general anaesthetic. Made for a long night for him with no sleep. 

I made bread this morning instead of going to the store. After my bread came out of the oven, we tried for a nap at noon but no luck ... we got 15 minutes I think.

After lunch being such a beautiful day. I'm able to set us up on our front "patio" area and plug him into his ice machine to enjoy the day. I'm busy getting out the umbrellas, and checking on my front mini irrigation.

This picture just before I got out the ice machine and extension cord. lol

After an hour and a half it's time to come in for a bit, as his leg is swelling being outside in this chair and the ice machine couldn't keep up with the heat outside. (29C) Back to bed for Ray for a bit. 

With him medicated and comfy, I headed back out onto the back deck and finished planting the planters. It should be beautiful in a month.

After his lay down, we moved him out onto our sundeck for a bit. Ray enjoys being outside and it's great for his overall happiness. :)

After dinner, once I got Ray settled and the dishes done, I headed for a much deserved "moment" down on the dock. Couldn't stay too long as it's soon medication time at 7.

Friday, Ray spent the whole day laying down either on the couch or bed. His leg is quite swollen, probably from doing too much yesterday. Ankle above the heart with ice machine, managed to take it down considerably in a few hours. I watched our gardener redo seeding of the lawn. The darn birds ate all the seed last time. It rained so much, the seed floated to the top from under the top dressing. This time, he put peat moss on top of it and I have made 2 scarecrows which seem to be working.

I spent the afternoon checking on my micro irrigation to get it set just right. I did manage to sit down at the dock for 1/2 hour. I don't like being that far from Ray for too long.

Saturday, same as yesterday. lol  Another beautiful day. It's up to 29.5C yesterday, really warm for this time of year. It's too hot to plant my pots today, so I waited until tomorrow.

Sunday, Happy Mother's Day. Received a call from Kristi and Jason and a short video from our granddaughter Stella.

Ray's able to spend some time outside again today, sitting in our new front patio area on the driveway. I planted all my pots around the lawn in the back yard. 

Great scarecrow!

I also bought myself my Mother's Day present, a window box for our patio area to hold down the rug. lol.

Usually Ray takes me out for Mother's Day so I don't have to cook. Not being able to today, I decided to make it easy on myself and cooked up a pork shoulder on my Traeger. The picture below is at 1/2 time before wrapping it in butcher paper. Mouth watering lol

After 8 hours of smoking and 30 minutes of resting ... Voila! I also made a macaroni salad earlier in the afternoon, so dinner is very easy to put together.

Monday we woke to a high level fog. Much cooler today and windy. I planted the last flat of bedding plants in my front garden. Then decided to rip out the 5 dead lavender bushes. I replanted 2 other plants that seeded themselves. By 11 am I'm pooped, but it sure looks nice. Ray out doing a little deadheading for me. When the swelling is down in his leg he is able to walk without any support.

Ray wanted to get out of the house, so I suggested a drive across the lake to view the changes in the new subdivision we see from our deck. He also decided we would go for lunch at Jake's for Seniors Day. I wasn't sure that's a good idea day 5 post-op. After sitting for 10 minutes he agreed that probably he shouldn't have gone there as there's no comfortable spot for his leg. Fortunately we were first in so were served first and were out of there in 30 minutes. Back home he laid down with the ice machine 

on. 

Both of us were tired so we ended up having a nap. When we woke up the sun was out so we were able to get outside again. He has quite a good "bend" in his knee after surgery when the swelling is down.

By night time though he seems to swell up again. More ice. Thank goodness Pat loaned us her ice machine.

And so ends week one of Post Op for Ray. He starts physio twice a week next week on Tuesday.

Bye bye Kastle - April 24 - May 7th

This past week, nothing much to report, rain, rain, and grey skies for the better part of a week. Produces lovely rainbows though.

We spent most of our time sorting through things and getting stuff done before his knee surgery. On Sunday, April 28th, we completed a deal on the Motorhome, so officially sold. After two hours of looking in and under every nook and cranny, they took it for a test drive.

Ron from Kelowna, sent us our deposit in parcels over the next 4 days via e-transfer. He will pick up the coach to take back to Kelowna after giving us our final payment Monday, May 6th.

Meanwhile we've been filling our planters with soil in preparation for the bedding plants. Still too cool outside to actually plant them, but I've bought them and they are all out of the wind and rain waiting for better weather.

My herbs are in for the vertical garden in the front of the house and my veggies are planted on the deck.

Our front garden is pretty with our flowering shrubs.

My Lilac is just starting to bloom. It didn't have very many flowers last year but has quite a few now.

Jason and Kristi's puppy Olaf, continues to get bigger and gets into everything. lol

Amelia finally got her knee brace from Germany. She'll wear it at night to help get her left knee bending as it should. She doesn't mind as she wants her leg to bend "like the other kids" at daycare.

Wednesday, May 1st, we're off to Nanaimo early for my Doctor appointment and then a Costco shop for hanging baskets. :)

My hanging baskets and the important things in life, coffee and baby cookies :)

Thursday, we spent the morning filling up all the planters with dirt ready for planting. Too soon yet with the cold. I got tired of moving all the flats of flowers separately, so came up with a plan to use our multi-use dolly with a piece of plywood so I can move them in and out of the garage all in one go.

After getting all the dirt in, we moved our old chairs from the deck to the front driveway. We'll be making a patio area, once the motorhome leaves the driveway on Monday. Too windy to sit in the back, but this is nice and warm.

Ray finished the puzzlet Pat and Darryl gave him to do. It's really hard apparently, but it only took him 5 days to do it, so couldn't be too bad. lol He will have to exchange it for another. Kept him busy on the rainy days.

Friday we headed into Duncan for Ray's dental appointment. Just a look at the tooth extraction area to make sure it's ready for an implant down the road after his knee surgeries. We'd be looking at this December :)

Lunch at Brunch on Third before heading to our appointment with Toyota to check out a Grand Highlander, that's supposed to be there today. These cars are hard to find and as this is a new model this year, very few are out there. The Sales Manager has one as his family car. We want to actually see how much bigger it is in length compared to our Ford Edge. 

As we were early after our lunch so we decided to go for a stroll through Somenos Marsh. We drive by this everytime we go into Duncan, but I have never stopped and walked the boardwalk. Lots of birds in the houses with their babies at this time of year.

After our stroll, off to Toyota where Liam, told us the sales manager did not come in today, so his car is unavailable to view. Bummer. The picture below is a Grand Highlander in the colour we hope to get.

The weekend is wet and gloomy. Not much to report. Ray did get my irrigation all set to go, so I can just turn it on after planting. 

Jason took this picture of Amelia, so cute. She sure is getting taller.

Monday morning and Ray's out the door at 6:30 am, hooking up the MH for it's last journey with us. He's off to Nanaimo to meet Ron, the buyer, and trade documents, deposit the cheque and cancel our insurance. 

Their she goes ..... sure is a good looking coach. In all our travels we never saw another one with the exact colours.

Wow our driveway looks huge!

Tuesday, we were very busy getting all the last things I needed Ray's help with before he's incapacitated for the next 2 months after his right knee replacement.

My tomatoes and peppers need to planted on the sundeck. He cuts off the bottom of the pots with the zip cutter and lay the pot into my planters. That way, I don't disturb the branches in the cage.

Next up, assembling our new replacement e-bikes, so he has his to ride for physio in a few weeks.

As I've mentioned, we've been looking for a new car, a Toyoto Grand Highlander Hybrid 500 Max, Platinim package. Talk about hard to find. We'd stopped in Duncan Toyoto last week and were told that it's an 8 to 12 month wait if you order one. Each dealership is only awarded 7 units for the year and they have 4 spoken for and don't know when the last 3 will arrive. Imagine our surprise when we got a call Tuesday morning at 11 am. The car's at the dealership and we can come at noon to see it.

We needed to go into Duncan to turn in the motorhome plates and cancel our insurance anyway. As the MH is in both our names it required both of us to be there. Another chore off our list. 

We went to Toyota and were able to test drive the demo. It drives like our Edge which I love. Lots of power. A little different feel with the hybrid part. Imagine our surprise, as they decided they could sell it to us (2400 kms/1500 miles) on it. With the shortage there's no deal on price, so it's at MSRP. The only stickler is, we have to trade in our Edge. We'd contemplated keeping it as it's depreciated so much (as Ford's don't hold their value), but we've not experienced a lick of problems with it. This is the only negotiating option we have, and they really wanted it. They really wouldn't sell us the new car if we didn't trade it in as their inventory of vehicles is so low. We negotiated a better deal on that end than we would have. End of the story, 3 hours later, we signed the papers on our new car, with delivery May 22nd so Ray can come as we both will be registered owners of the car.

This saved us buying new tires for our car \,which is necessary. Towing wore them out faster. The new car is not the exterior colour I would have preferred but it still looks nice. "Blueprint" with a tan leather called Portabello.

Tomorrow surgery day!