Glorious weather and Martin comes to visit.

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday ... so far this week has been stellar. The weather is fabulous, warm and sunny. Our irrigation system is on and helping me keep the new grass seed wet so it will germinate. The birds think I have provided them with a feast though. ha ha. The other new plantings seem to be happy.

 After Saturday's lake traffic and noise, Sunday was surprisingly very quiet on the lake. Ray and I took a drive over to where they are clearing trees on the other side of the lake on Sunday afternoon to have a look. They seem to be leaving a strip of trees so it won't be completely cleared. So far they seem to be putting in an access road.

Monday, the noise of chainsaws and excavator is still continuing on the other side of the lake. The neighbour to the left of us has a small crew hammering and sawing replacing the boards on the approach to their gangway. We can also hear another excavator further down the lake towards town clearing another lot for a lakeview house. Ray and I took off to Nanaimo for a Costco run and to stop in and pick up mail at Kristi's and Jason's. A great day to travel on the highway. I now have 3 new hanging baskets for the front of the house. (My Mother's Day present to myself lol) My garden room looks great.

Ray managed to finish painting the lattice for me on the weekend and we installed them today.

To hold up my sweet peas.

We also managed to have the boat pulled out of the garage for us by our electricians who were luckily working next door. Will be ready for launch sometime this week once the car's lighting system is fixed.

Kyle's Kraft emerges from its cocoon!

My strawberry planter finally arrived from Amazon yesterday so will need to pop into Duncan and purchase the plants to put it it. This is for Ray as he loves fresh strawberries and planting them in the yard with the deer is not an option. lol After this I am officially done with any planting, now I get to watch everything grow.

Tuesday went shopping to Duncan, had a pedicure and came back with strawberry plants. Another gorgeous day. We had a huge hatch of carpenter ants, a lot of them with wings. Wow. Ray and I were squishing them like crazy on our front driveway as we were sitting out there. By the end of the day with the driveway so hot from the sun they were "cooking" themselves. The next morning only a few were seen. This all happened over 12 hours. Very strange. Roy, our neighbour says this happens every year about the same time.

Wednesday was "boat day". First thing in the morning we tried to launch the boat ... dead batteries. Ray had charged them he thought too, but we did not think to check them. :( Oh well back in driveway hooked up to the charger again. I took Ray's electric motor and battery down to the beach and they were all hooked up and charger put on it as well. Washing the kayaks came next. At noon I launched and had a paddle around for about 20 minutes but came back as the wind started blowing. Did not want to hurt my neck either ... just need to slowly strengthen the muscles so I can finally get rid of this neck pain.

Now Ray will be able to fish early in the mornings ... the fish are rising and other people are using various craft to get out there, even a paddle board. lol

We also saw a bunch of kids learning how to paddle a large canoe.

I planted the strawberry plants into my new planter. Once they grow Ray should have tons of fresh strawberries to eat. That concludes all of my planting for this spring other than encouraging more grass seed to sprout in the bald spots in our lawn.

Ray and I had a date night and went out to the Chemainus Dinner Theater and saw the production "Foreigner". We had a great buffet dinner and the play was a hoot. Lots of laughing. A lovely venue.

Thursday, surprise another gorgeous day. Our new deck boxes arrived shortly after noon today. A fellow named Ryan came this morning and erected our new gazebo on the dock in about 3 1/2 hours. Unfortunately 2 of the roof panels are a different "black" than the rest. Hopefully the hot sun will bleach them this summer. Too much of a hassle to try and get them replaced!

Ray dealt with the battery issue in the boat by taking the battery in to Duncan to Monti's Marine. Monti's kept it overnight to confirm that it was shot ... it was as it only charged up to 11 instead of 13.



Friday morning out of the house early delivering the coach to Revy RV and pick up new battery at Monti's Marine. With our neighbour Darryl's help the boat was in the water by 11 am and shortly thereafter at the dock.

Here Ray comes ...

One happy camper!

The empty trailer was tucked back into the boat garage. Tonight, Martin is coming for the night and bringing us some firewood ... what a nice guy. Otherwise Ray spent some time putting a deck box together and I did laundry and did some dinner prep in advance of company. Freya spent her time in and out of the water, by noon it is 24C outside.

Our neighbours tree stump was towed away today as well. This arrived because of the high water in December and was getting stuck under docks so the neighbours tied it up to suspend it between the 2 docks.

And there it goes.

When Martin arrived at 3 pm it was 28C ... wow pretty hot. Martin after working in the woods all day was so hot he actually dove into the lake. It was a balmy 58F  Yikes, pretty cold he sure got back out of the water quickly. lol

After a cold beverage sitting on the dock, Martin and Ray drove back to Revy RV to pick up the motorhome. Once back it was time for dinner. 

After dinner we noticed all of the fish rising so Ray and Martin spent half an hour trying to catch them but were unsuccessful.

A great day catching up. We all were in bed by 9:30. Martin tried to stay up and watch TV upstairs but found himself asleep on the couch shortly after turning on the TV. When he woke up an hour or so later then he went to bed he tells me.

Saturday morning after coffee and Carolan's, Ray and Martin headed out to fish in the boat. This will be the first time Ray has been out fishing in our boat as we never seemed to have the time last year with all the work going on at the house and yard.  For "Mother's Day" Ray purchased a new casting rod for me from our local fishing store and Martin will get to try it out this morning.

And they are off!

After a couple of hours the boys came back for breakfast. Ray caught a real small fish but otherwise no luck. They had a blast though and fished a spot that Ray has been thinking about since we checked it out last summer.

Martin and I unloaded his truck with the fir rounds and took them to the back yard so he could split them for me. As he worked through the rounds I did all of the stacking. We now have double the wood all bone dry.

Martin was so hot from chopping he actually jumped in the lake and popped out just as quickly. Next into the hot tub ... back into the lake and back into the hot tub. Thanks a bunch for the wood Martin. He has been working really hard with 12 hour days lately and working in the bush with the hot temperatures this week. He is pretty pooped. One beer and it was "lights out". lol

Ray and I took him out for lunch at Jakes on the Lake as a thank you. Back home he had a half an hour nap and then we sent him on his way back home.

For Saturday night we had been invited to dinner at Pat and Darryl's where we met some other neighbours, Paul and Lynn. Fabulous evening. We had a blast. Thanks for a great dinner Pat. Of course we were so busy yapping we forgot to take any pictures.

A great week of wonderful weather.

Spring planting... Is summer here already?

Bring on summer! Forecast for next two weeks warm and up to 27C for a couple of days.

Freya loves laying around our backyard.

Sunday went into Duncan to see the Cowichan Valley Spring 2019 Home & Wellness Expo held at the arena. Specifically to see about getting painters to paint the exterior of the house this year. Other than that not much that we found interesting as we have done all of our work. lol

Monday I emailed David Coulson regarding the broken window frame again ... he has been bugging the manufacturer he says, and will apply pressure through Slegg Lumber today. While at the home show we did talk to a window installer about Milgard and they gave us their customer service number so we may be taking that route ourselves if we don't get an answer by Wednesday. Still not completely happy with the deck tiles by the stairs. Jason's step-dad Dale, stepped on the outer tile and the whole thing tipped. Coulson's carpenter had fixed this tile previously by blocking it as these tiles by the stairs lifted before. The installers when they came back recently to fix the tile support system as per specifications,  removed all of Chris's wood pieces and then left it unsupported! When we received our last invoice from Coulson's this week, a large labour charge was on it for the installer ... don't think we are paying any more $$ for that! Ray will have to put a wood support under it to make it safe again. Otherwise the deck is fabulous.

A beautiful day with sun and clouds with a high of 18C. A great day to spend some time sitting on our deck after morning chores which was working on the motorhome. Ray checked out bins to see what is going and what is staying, now that we have a bricks and sticks place to leave extra stuff.  I filled up the grey and black tanks with water and "freshening" chemicals. Also bleach and water filled the water tank to sanitize. During this process I found out that our water pump is not working .... oh well the coach is going back in for service as we need the caulking done and the blind replaced that blew out the missing window earlier last month. lol All will be well by our trip up island mid-June with Jason and Kristi.

Motorhome scheduled to go in next Friday to get fixed.

Tuesday another beautiful day. Ray and I headed into Duncan for a little shopping. I noticed on Sunday that one of our signal lights was out. Today we tried to fix it.

My facebook post:

"Left rear signal burnt out in our Ford Edge. One would think it would be an easy fix.... NOT!!! When we couldn't figure it out we stopped by the Ford dealer and apparently a whole rear panel needs to be removed to replace bulb ... but we also have a "short" in the taillight system. So now we take it back tomorrow and we get a rental car for the day...all for no left signal." 

Wednesday morning another beautiful day, not as cold but breezy. I went back to Duncan to take the car in at Ford and will get the rental so Ray does not have to do it.

The grass seed is now growing, albeit slowly, as the mornings are so cold. Thankfully I have the sprinklers up and running as I need to keep the seed wet to germinate.

Today I took the car back to Ford and got a rental for the day ... turns out the light problem is from the trailer connection that we had installed with the hitch last year, so probably not warranty at least from Ford. Spent the rest of the morning shopping for bedding plants (supposedly deer resistant and came home to drop off the plants and have lunch. 

Got these geraniums almost for free as I used my SuperStore points. 

These tomatoes and pepper plant of course, are not deer resistant, but they will be planted on the back deck in a planter with our gate closed a. Too cool yet to plant so they will move into the garage at night to protect them from the cold and the deer. lol As there is no rain for the next week and warm temps, I will plant the planters this weekend.

Shortly after Ray and I ate, the call came that the car was ready so back to Duncan I went to turn in rental and pick up our car. Bonus they washed it. Back home about 3:30 pm ... what a day. lol New part ordered but lights work for now. New wiring assembly needed to tow the boat so we can launch it next week.

Our next door neighbours, Pat and Darryl, had a painter coming by for a quote that they procured from the Home Show. As we also need the exterior of our house painted, we all sat and listened to his "spiel".  He sells a product called "CHIC vinyl coating. 

"The CHIC Advanced Coating System is not a paint, but is a unique liquid-applied coating system specifically engineered to be the best defense for your walls against the elements. Beautiful, low maintenance & exceptionally long-lasting, CHIC is the ideal finish for all types of stucco, masonry, cement based siding & properly prepared wood siding."

Ray and I have seen this product in the past as it was applied to a condo complex downtown Nanaimo and we had spoke to the builder about it 10 years ago. In fact the Peace Arch at the border in Blaine has been done with this product. This stuff is not cheap, however it has a lifetime warranty ... never have to paint your house again. So when you think you have to paint your house every 10 years and the house is huge ... it seems to be quite cost effective. Need another "painter" quote first for a traditional paint job to compare and have someone coming over next week for that.

Thursday morning was quite cloudy although fairly warm. Time to plant my bedding plants in their pots in the front gardens. While I was doing that, Ray was redesigning his workshop again to make it easier to move material around without lifting. Here he is making himself crazy. lol

New workshop design "Take 20"

Managed to get the front pots filled with bedding plants today and the arbour garden planted. Things are looking great. I have interspersed marigolds which supposedly the deer don't eat. All of the plants are "deer resistant" but who knows if they try it or not. Every morning there are new deer tracks in the garden but so far they are leaving things alone.

Each planter has a marigold to keep the deer out hopefully. 

Plants for our "Garden Room".

I also planted zucchini to grow up the fence. Ray still has to paint the lattice and then we will hang it off the fence to support the zucchini vines. The other panel has sweet peas. I have interspersed marigolds to hopefully keep the deer out of there and begonias for colour in front. 

Across the lake  from us there were many sounds of chainsaws and we could hear the timber falling to the ground. I guess the Cowichan First Nation development has started. There are guys still working on the viewing platform as well. It will be interesting to see what they are up to. Last summer they did a sewer and water upgrade and the North Shore Road was repaved. This year, they have built a washroom, made a safe pedestrian walkway and ran a fence along the road limiting the steep access to the water. According to the local newspaper their original plans included:

“The infrastructure improvements on North Shore Road are the start of the redevelopment of a brand new neighborhood that will become a mixed-use area that will see a proposed health and wellness centre, a First Nations-infused café, and proposed marina, along with various forms of residential buildings. It will definitely transform the area into a variety of economic generators not only for the First Nation, but also to the overall community,” 

We will be able to view this action all summer, I suspect. Here are the "beginning" pictures Ray took.

 You can see they have started to cut down some trees through the opening where their viewing platform will be.

Friday morning high level fog. At 6:30 am the chainsaws were running again but on the other side of the hill. Sounds like they will be taking all the trees off the hill on both sides. The First Nations do own the land between the highway and North Shore Road. By 8 am they had moved back to our side of the hill and we could see the trees dropping.

Today's plan is to finish my planting in the backyard. The weather forecast is for warm dry weather for the next two weeks so putting bedding plants in 2 weeks earlier is going to be okay this year. The deer did not eat anything in the front yesterday ... yeah! All done other than the veggies on the back deck and hanging baskets that I will pick up next week.

Here is a picture of the garden ornament Dianne and Steve got us for a housewarming gift. Her dress lights up at night. Thanks a bunch, I love it.

Ray was busy painting the trellis for the front garden this morning. We had lunch on the dock as it was sunny and warm serenaded by the chainsaws cutting trees across the lake. lol Soon after lunch the wind came up as did the clouds. Time to relax for the afternoon inside instead of outside. Oh well, it is pretty noisy out there with the chainsaws and our neighbour to the left of us is having his approach to his gangway replaced today so a lot of hammering and sawing. 

We also had our gardeners here to mow the lawn and Will cleaned up our lower beach and put the fallen rocks and gravel back into the retaining wall.

Saturday morning foggy again but 6C outside. Supposed to get up to 20C today. Going to feel like summer except the lake temperature is only 54C Brrrrrr. No swimming anytime soon. Our neighbours put their boat into the water yesterday. Their daughter was out "surfing" behind it yesterday afternoon. She did however have a wetsuit on. Later on the rest of the kids showed up next door and they all went out in the boat to surf. Lots of boat traffic today for the first time. We are now ramping up to summer traffic.

Lunch was barbecued hamburgers and we ate down at the dock on the picnic table. Gorgeous day.

Ray and I puttered around a little but the majority of the day was moving to different patio areas as it was our "day off" to recover from our busy week. I did manage to plant my tomatoes though as the weather for the next week is over 20C.

Freya sure enjoys us being outside most of the day.

Another week that has flown by.