Landscaping is done and Happy Birthday Jason

Monday we woke up to a very foggy morning. According to our forecast it will be another wet day.

No bats in the "bat cave" this morning or bat poop, could it be that we solved the issue? Our neighbours said they have not seen any on the side of the house and there is no poop evidence either. Let's hope.

This morning Ray headed off to Nanaimo for a doctor's appointment while I held down the fort for the stone mason to come and put in our stone hearth downstairs. (the replacement from the crappy rock job they did!)

UPDATE: The hearth stone is BROWN instead of gray!!!! So no work done again. This wasted 1/2 day for the mason's to pick up the stone in Nanaimo (ahhh too bad...not!) and David Coulson is working with the K2 people to remake the correct colour!

Tuesday woke up to a beautiful day.  The landscaping crew arrived at 8am Yeah!!! They had 4 guys plus the excavator operator. We moved the motorhome to the street to make room. These guys are fast and very clean ... all dirt swept up and left us with a clean driveway after all the material dumped on it. Day 1 was very successful and tomorrow they will finish.

Here are the before pictures of the front gardens.

February 2018 the day we purchased the house.

Driveway before the landscapers come.

Other side of driveway before garden is redone.

They were tasked with taking out the little path and redoing this garden. They used the mini excavator to move the rocks and to take out the old tree stump in the garden as well as getting rid of the old dirt in both gardens. Using a machine sure sped up the whole process.

Moving the lilac bush.

Taking out the tree stump.

Placing the rocks.

Ready for the plants tomorrow. Overnight we noticed deer footprints in the garden ... hopefully the new plants are not too tasty for them!

Ready for the lavender hedge to be planted tomorrow.

Moved all of the rocks out of the far side of the garden and used them alongside the stairs to the back yard to make a dry river effect.

 Ray had them clean up the path to the backyard with gravel too.

Dumping the gravel into wheelbarrows and the boys running it down Roy's driveway.

They also fixed our path in the backyard and got a good start on cementing the rock around the grass so it will be easier to mow the lawn.

These stones need to be moved to match up with the new stairs to the deck.

At 3pm their horticulturist Mark showed up, and we discussed garden design and what plants we would like to see that are deer resistant for both the front and back yard. They will be picked up tomorrow ready for planting.

The were done by 4pm for the day. Looking forward to seeing it finished tomorrow.

Wednesday morning the rain showers began as forecasted at 7:45 am. The guys are going to get wet today ... good weather for planting though. By 8:30 am  Ralph (job site supervisor) and his helper had arrived to start work. Today they worked on the stacked rocks on the side garden, fixing the fallen rocks on the stairs to the beach and finishing cementing the top rocks around the gardens on the left side of the stairs to the beach.

Ralph did a fantastic job with the dry stacked rock garden. The side of the house from the new stairs to the back patio now looks awesome, not just a place for junk. We had enough flat rock to finish this up too.

Also new soil and grass was planted on the damage parts of the lawn from the deck demo. Looks awesome.

The plants did not arrive until 2:30 pm ... my HGTV moment. :) The rain had stopped by then so good time to plant.

Hope the deer leave this stuff alone. It is all supposed to be deer resistant.

They managed to get the front garden on the left planted before the end of the day and all the rest of the plants layed out to where they were to be placed. Unfortunately they ran out of time for today and Ralph cannot be here tomorrow but his helper David, will be here to finish the planting and cleaning of the driveway and sidewalk from the dirt.

Lavender hedge all lined up to be planted.

Deer footprints ... they checked out every plant but did not chew. Yeah. I guess the neighbour's yard has more tasty morsels.  Lots of room between plants right now but all of this should fill in in the next couple of years so very little dirt will be exposed. I still have room for some pots of colour with bedding plants.

Our son-in-law, Jason, and his friend were supposed to be on a fishing trip at Kissinger Lake on Wednesday, but the gate was closed as the campsite is not open yet. They had Ray check out the campsite next to us to make sure it was open and it was. They moved into there for a few days. We can see them from our driveway lol. 

Thursday being such a wet day we all went out to lunch at Jake's at the Lake and then they went home for naps. lol They did spend a bunch of time here at the house. I made a big batch of spaghetti so they came back for dinner. Bonus for them. lol 

Looking pretty comfortable. lol

David, from Living Stones, finished planting by the end of the afternoon and hosed down the driveway from all of the dirt. Job Done.

I finished planting my herbs.

Yup, you can see Jason's trailer from our driveway. lol 

David replaced all of the fallen rock on the sides of the stairs.

We are "over the moon" that Ray's landscape plan he envisioned last June has now come to fruition ... even better than he dreamed.

Friday morning was sunny with clouds and cool at 3C. A little break from the showers until late this afternoon. Great for my new plants. Our hearth for the propane stove downstairs is finally installed and the stove will be rehooked up next week. 

Still wet from washing down the mortar.

Jason and his friend Adrian finally decided to attempt fishing ... from our dock in comfy chairs. lol Too much work to launch his boat since this was the only sunny day.

After several hours of that, it was time for a shower and a hot tub.

Kristi made it down from Nanaimo at about 5:45 pm with 2 dogs in tow. Her dog Zeus and she is looking after her friends dog for the week adding to the mix. Nyx is a 2 year old mastiff/pitbull cross, so friendly and full of energy. Freya is down a few toys as Nyx has ripped them to get the squeakers out! Jason had Athena over at the campsite where it is much quieter.

Nyx

My roast beast turned out well, according to the birthday boy Jason. I even made him homemade horseradish. Jason's friend Adrian tried it, loved it but it made his eyes water. lol We were all laughing at him.

Adrian, Jason, Ray and Kristi

After dinner we had birthday cake that Kristi brought with her.  Happy Birthday Jason!

We woke up to rain Saturday morning. It had been raining all night so good for our new plants. Quiet day except for the dogs. lol No deer damage to the new plants. It poured all day until about 3:30 pm when the sun finally came out. Jason and Adrian left their campsite by 10 am this morning to go back to Nanaimo. Kristi and Jason switched out dogs ... Athena, their shepherd came here and Nyx, the high energy 2 year old went back with Jason. Nyx barely ever sat down, running around the house like a lunatic. Other than chewing up Freya's toys she was very well behaved but busy.

"Back off dogs ... this is my Aunty Kristi

 Kristi invited a friend who she went to school with in the Charlottes, Robyn and her husband Cory, for dinner tonight ... they have a new baby that I will get to cuddle. Yeah.

It was great seeing them. Cuddling did not happen. Cory is away from home with his work a good portion of the time, so Robyn is often on her own and so the baby is really only used to "mommy" and quiet. Well our house is noisy, had 3 large dogs running around and lots of people so Amalia was not very happy. Had to laugh though, she pooped herself so bad that it leaked on to Robyn's pants and Kristi had to give Robyn a pair of pants to wear.  The baby only had a sweater and a diaper to wear after that episode. Of course this all happened as I was putting dinner on the table!. Good practice for me, ha ha ha.

Robyn, Cory and Amalia

What is making all of that racket!

Happy now, she's going home.

And that was our week.

Rain is finally here!

Nothing too exciting to report this week ...

Monday was bright and sunny and ended up 19C by 4pm. Another lovely day to sit outside in the afternoon enjoying the view. We made the most of it before the rain starts Tuesday night.

Tuesday it was off to Costco for me to pick up new deck boxes for the dock and our sundeck. Our other ones were damaged with the storm December 20th. Once back home Ray and I sat outside for an hour under cloudy skies, but it was 19C. Not too shabby. While out there we saw a huge otter on our neighbours dock scratching his back. He obviously has eaten well over the winter. This picture does not show it well as I only had my phone. lol The black lump! Glad he does not visit our dock as they leave lovely smelly reminders ... our neighbours dock is covered in poop. This picture is really expanded so it appears grainy. lol

Wednesday overnight the rains began ... finally. We sure need it. Rained all morning but lightened up for the afternoon with the odd thundershower. Quite warm out.

Thursday turned out to be another spectacular day. Warm at 14C and sunny.

Freya enjoying a "sunbeam", just not right now.

Both Ray and I did chores in the morning and then after lunch spent the afternoon in the back yard with a campfire. Freya loves it when we go outside. Ray managed to take down the skeleton of the gazebo on the dock in preparation for our new one.  I finished cleaning and setting up the motorhome, a week long project. We practically forgot what our "home on wheels" looks like as this is the first time it has been "set up like home" for 18 months. Looks pretty inviting ... it will be nice to get back on the road next fall but first up a 2 week trip up island in June.

Ahhhh Kastle, home sweet home.

I managed to get a little gardening done, dumping out flower pots, in preparation for the landscapers. Ray also hung my new herb planters on our arbor in the front. This will be our "garden room", a warm place to sit when the wind is up on the lakeside of the house. This is a space right behind our motorhome.

We try to take advantage of sunny afternoons being outside whenever we can. A habit from 6 years on the road. The heather is blooming. We may finish these gardens with different colours of heather with different blooming times. This will keep the gardens low maintenance and Ray wants the foliage to grow down over the rocks. We shall see what the landscaper garden specialist suggests next week.

Thursday overnight the rains began as predicted. By 7am Friday morning the first storm had mostly passed and we were down to a misty drizzle. The next storm should be here late morning. Keep on raining ... need the lake level to rise.

The rain did begin in earnest at noon ... very loud on our roof. lol

Tonight we went out for Chinese Food with Andrew and Mona, our painters, at the Cow Cafe, here in town. They serve it buffet style every Friday night. It was awesome  to catch up with them again. They had invited their friends, Cliff and Sue Gibson with their 2 adult kids. Cliff's company built our dock last September.  Once back home at 7 pm the rain began again teaming down overnight.

Saturday morning, still drizzling. Supposed to be really windy today on the coastal sections ... probably we will miss most of it being inland. Ray is working on the "bat cave". We tried to put some spray foam into the corners at the top of the front arch but it looked terrible.  So Ray scraped it off so it could be painted when we get the whole house painted this summer. As Ray climbed the ladder he saw a bat fly off the foam an land on ground by the ladder ! Yikes. We have a line with a pest control company that may help us get rid of this problem. Fingers crossed.

The black dots around him is bat poop!

The "Bat Cave" is complete after many weeks of Ray doing only a little bit every day. Ray finished putting in the removable screens. Take that bats!

Just poured all day so we know the lake level will be coming up.

Sunday the rain stopped and the clouds at lightened up significantly. By noon it had started up again and rained off and on afternoon and finally stopped around 4pm. This will be another quiet day at Kyle's Kottage, with a few chores and relaxing in between going outside between downpours.

That was our week.

Spring showers are here! ... apparently not yet!

Monday I went to Duncan to get some shopping done at Walmart, my monthly pedicure and back home before our company arrives. Our RV friends Brad and Katie from Gone Rogue came over from Salt Spring Island for an afternoon visit and then treated us to dinner at our neighbourhood watering hole "Jakes at the Lake". They arrived around 3pm and we spent a couple of hours sitting outside on our sundeck under the radiant heaters and fire table. We were all quite cozy although Katie felt the cold more. As usual, when we are with these guys we all forget to snap a picture or two!!! They are having some repairs done on their motorhome in Duncan and are staying at an AirBnB in Maple Bay. They may have to stay an extra night on Wednesday, if the repairs take longer than anticipated so they will stay here if that happens. The predicted rain started around 5pm so we came in and went to dinner at Jakes. It rained all night. we sure need it. The lake only came up slightly so much more precipitation is needed.

Tuesday am I was off to Nanaimo for my doctor's appointment and ran into an old next door neighbour, Lori Sherriff from Port Alberni. She now lives in Nanaimo and works for Paladin Security providing security for the Port Place Mall where my doctor's office is. She was right in the thick of it with the "tent city" across the street from the mall for many months. It's amazing with all of the times we have been to the doctor since moving here we have never run into her there at Port Place Mall! It was nice catching up with her and hopefully she will find time to come visit us at the lake this summer.

Lori Sherriff

Got back home by 12:30pm and it was so nice out we decided to have a campfire. What a lovely day, Ray and I spent a few hours sitting out and enjoying our view.

Wednesday morning, Ray was out the door by 8am taking the motorhome into Revy RV to finally have that passenger window that was broken from the breakin last December, put back in after it was fixed. With all of the snow and cold weather,  we've been unable to drive the motorhome out of our driveway to get it done. It will be nice to get it back and levelled properly so I can finally get in there and clean it up from all of our stuff thrown everywhere from the thieves. I know what I will be doing for the next few days. lol

Ray was back by about 10:30 am with the new window installed. Fabulous. Unfortunately on his way to Duncan the cardboard flew off on the highway and the roller blind was sucked out the window and ripped off. lol Oh well, that blind did not roll back up very well and we were thinking of replacing it, now it is going to be replaced for sure, Revy is sourcing it out now. We also need to get our caulking done so they can put the blind back in at that time. Good weather is needed though as they don't have a bay tall enough to put the coach into to do the work so it needs to be warm and dry outside for this job.

All fixed.

Ray spent some time levelling out the coach for me so I could open the slides, now my work begins, first up was taking out all my linens and washing them. After a few hours of that it was time to sit outside out of the wind and enjoy the sun.

By the end of the day you could not see my dining room table with all of the clean linen. lol I won't be putting it back in until I have wiped out all the cupboards. I had the motorhome detailed inside a while ago, but after sitting unused for 18 months and the recent breakin, it sure needs a good cleaning now.

Dane from the landscaping company was here earlier this week ... they should be starting in a few weeks to put in our lavender hedge between us and the neighbour on the right and plant the garden on the left. Ray has a few things to be done in the back yard.  These include a dry stack retaining wall, some planting of gardens, fixing all the damaged grass from construction, etc. They have a horticulturist on staff who will pick out deer resistant plants for us.

Thursday morning I spent 4 hours working inside the motorhome. A lot of carrying stuff to and fro ... Managed to get the carpets cleaned inside the bathroom sink cabinet, closet and under the kitchen sink with my little carpet shampooer. Tough being on my hands and knees for an hour, but the carpets came up great. I even made my own shampoo for the machine instead of buying a bottle of it with ingredients I had anyways. Thanks google.  You can also use this in a spray bottle if you don't have a carpet shampooer.

The bathroom has been wiped down inside and out of all cupboards with new liners and now ready to be restocked. So far so good no evidence of critters inside after 18 months of non-use!

Another fabulous sunny day. Again, we sat outside on the slate patio overlooking the water for a couple of hours relaxing. The forecast had called for a possible shower ... we did have some dark clouds pass by but stayed dry. Still no significant rain.

We had Price Alarm's here this afternoon to install a motion sensor in Ray's workshop. A lot of $$$ in that room that was not protected since the walls went up so the sensor in the main area does not reach that area anymore. Dean was also able to get the infrared working on the camera under the sundeck. For some reason it stopped showing the night shots after hanging for 5 months during the reconstruction of the deck! lol All good to go now.

Ray was able to get the lift for the hot tub cover installed today finally. We had been waiting for 4 1/2 months to receive the correct hot tub cover and lift system to work. (We had to exchange the lift they sent the second time while we were in Vancouver and now have the correct one.) Now Ray or I can use the hot tub whenever we want without having to have two of us lifting the lid. We definitely gave it a try yesterday after all the work I did in the motorhome and it worked beautifully.

Friday was spent with Ray working/painting our "bat cave boards" to put screening up in our front entrance to keep the bats out of our entrance pooping. They are back .... I carried dishes back and forth to put in the dishwasher out of the motorhome. After lunch Ray and I sat on the dock enjoying the sunshine for an hour until some big black clouds came up and we could hear some thunder in the distance. Time to come inside before it rains ... which it did not. Half an hour later the clouds moved off and the sun was back up but the wind made it too cold to go back out. Even if we did not go back outside, there were 4 young boys swimming at the park!!! Brrrr. I noticed them because of their screams and splashing in the water.

Checking my facebook on my phone noticed an alert that a Cougar had mauled a 4 year old boy. After delving deeper noticed that it happened on our street about 1/2 km away. Yikes. Called my neighbour Pat, to warn her regarding her 2 grandchildren.

COWICHAN VALLEY GAZETTE NEWSPAPER:  Police have confirmed a cougar has mauled a child near Lake Cowichan. At about 5:40 p.m., RCMP spokesman Cpl. Chris Manseau said “front-line members are currently working along with BC conservation officers in an attempt to locate the cougar.”

6:20 p.m. Lake Cowichan mayor Rod Peters has said a four-year-old boy sustained non-life-threatening injuries to his arm and was flown to hospital in Vancouver.

“It was in the Point Ideal subdivision right near the centre of town down by the marina,” Peters said.

“There were at least two and they think maybe three cougars,” he added

Peters said he went to the scene at roughly 5:30 p.m. and while he was there the conservation officers had located and shot two small cougars and were still scanning the area as they think there might be one more.

“They had the cougar hounds out,” he said. “They were just small cougars, yearlings or something like that.”

I walk Freya down our road. Wow. Told Ray to take his big "walking stick" when he takes Freya to the park behind us for the next while. We do live very close to the wilderness here and sometimes the "wilderness" spills into the residential spaces. There had been reports earlier this month of 3 cougars roaming together which is very unusual as they are solitary, at the other end of town in the "Slopes" subdivision and they were caught on a trail camera just behind the subdivision where residents walk their dogs. These were probably the same bunch of cougars which leads me to suspect that there is one more out there. No other news about this so far.

Saturday morning dawned sunny and 3C. Another glorious day with light fog blowing off the lake and the reflections of the trees in the water. Supposed to get up to 17C again this afternoon. This is my first day of wearing summer capris on March 30th ... Our son Garrett turns 38 years old tomorrow. Wow hard to believe.

I headed into Duncan to talk with Canadian Tire about our dock solar lights ... all 16 of them are not working. They were not cheap so "what to do". Even though I did not have my receipt they were able to look it up from the beginning of last October. They kindly told me to bring them all in and they would exchange them. Thanks for that! They list as weatherproof but all of them had water in them... we shall see what the next batch does.

While in Duncan I also had to pick up some things at Walmart and realized that it was the Duncan Walmart's MacDonald's where some person drove into the wall on the outside!

UPDATED: Car crashes into Duncan’s Walmart

Driver taken away by ambulance ... apparently the lady had a medical emergency.

Lights out ... No french fries for you!

Sunday morning was foggy but soon the fog burned off. Another beautiful day on the lake. I spent more time working on cleaning everything in the motorhome, and Ray puttering with his projects, including our "bat cave".

About 12:30 pm, Ray decided to take me out for lunch and get me away from working so hard. What a nice hubby. He decided on the pub at Maple Bay. We had great fish and chips ... enough leftovers that Ray will have the rest tonight for dinner. What a beautiful afternoon. Our view from the pub.

As of next Wednesday they are predicting about 6 days of rain ... we sure need it for the lake levels so I won't complain much. lol

And that pretty much was our week.

Is it Summer or Spring?

What a difference from last week. Tuesday, March 19th is spectacular. Temperature is 20C at 3:30 pm. Ray and I did our chores in the morning and spent a couple of hours in the afternoon sitting in the sun on the dock. There was some wind down there so we needed our fleece.  In our driveway, at the front of the house, you could have been in shorts and a t-shirt! Unfortunately our lake is really low and the weir has not been put in yet.  Hopefully, when they install it April 1st, it rains for a couple of weeks or we will be in trouble this summer. See how much beach is showing ... it should be up to the shrubs at this time of year.








Wednesday morning, up early dealing with the paperwork for Dad's final Estate Taxes that are due by the 23rd of March. Just received paperwork from the accountant at 9 pm last night and will have to priority post it back this morning. This should be the end of it other than waiting for the Clearance Certificate. Then I will be able to shred all the boxes of old tax info that I have stored. Shaping up to be another stellar weather day.

Ray and I headed to Duncan to pick up a few things and then back home for the first Wiener Roast of the season at our neighbours, Pat and Darryl's with all of the grandchildren and family. It was a balmy 20C out. What a great way to spend a few hours. They have a beautiful sandy beach in front of their house.


Pat's grandchildren, Ashton, Sevie and Emily.

Pat's family.

The hostess with the mostess, Pat!

Thursday was also a nice day although not as warm as yesterday. We did manage to sit for an hour outside on the back lawn out of the wind to enjoy the sunshine.

Friday morning, David Coulson and the tile guys showed up around 9am. David is definitely supervising them himself and he is also doing the hearth for the propane stove downstairs himself ... he really does want us "out of his hair". The feeling is quite mutual.




The new hearthstone will take about 2 weeks to be manufactured after the template was made so work still to be done. So here we go from finished to "unfinished" again due to poor workmanship and not having the correct materials on site ...we had asked for slate and agreed to the stone only because they did not have it and did a crappy job using stone. At least Dave agreed with our opinion.  Stripped down now for the slate piece.




The tile guys finished shortly before 3pm... David gave up about 1:30 pm complaining his back was too sore and he'll have to stay supervising.

Glad today is over .... and the deck is finally finished since it was demolished on September 4th, 2018, only 6 1/2 months later!

Clouds are coming in with rain forecast overnight. We certainly have not had many days with that just snow. lol

Saturday morning Ray was up pretty early ... I did not get up until 6:15 am, a sleep in for me. lol

Once we had our weekly Saturday morning coffee and Carolan's and later breakfast,we headed into Duncan to the Farmer's Market for my massage. Here is a picture of the old Duncan Train Station which is close to the market.



Next up was to Dinter's Nursery to discuss deer resistant shrubs.There appears to be quite a few choices for me to further investigate.

Picture from google

On the way back we stopped at the Old Farm Market. Several people have told me that they have great mostly local produce with reasonable prices. I found this to be true. Definitely an eclectic place.

They have a really huge oak tree out front.




They also have a small deli restaurant attached to the market. This place is hopping in the summer.






Next up, a place we have talked about checking out since we moved here, Red Arrow Brewing. They are owned by the people who own the Craig Street Pub in Duncan and Jake's at the Lake here in Lake Cowichan. This brewing company makes all their beer for both places. On site at the Brewery they have a Food Trailer called Jake's on the Road where they provide burgers for the clientele visiting the brewery. Lunch was great and we shared a flight of 3 brews. You could eat inside or out on their patio. We started at the patio but it was too cool so went inside.

Nice and cozy in here.

After lunch it was time to come back home to rescue Freya. A lovely morning interlude doing something different. Back home to relax for the afternoon watching the "moods of the lake" with the sun and clouds and sprinkles of rain.

That was our week.