Lake Days and Getting the Motorhome ready for it's first adventure in 18 months

Hard to believe another month has gone by ... today is Saturday June 1st.

This morning breezy and cloudy until 7:30 when the fog burned off. After our coffee and Carolan's, it was time to get to work. Ray disappeared downstairs to his workshop after walking Freya and I began cleaning the hot tub. I drained it overnight so I could scrub it out and refill it before the anticipated water restrictions come into place next week and would mean that I am not allowed to fill it. Timing is everything. lol

Lots of activity on the lake today. We saw more jet ski's than we saw all summer ... probably not but it seemed like it.

 A real tiny houseboat.

The lake level is quite low, sort of like last August ... does not bode well for the summer.

August 17, 2018

Tonight we went with our neighbours Pat and Darryl to the Chemainus Theatre for dinner and Mama Mia production. What an awesome show. We all totally loved. it.

Pat and Darryl

 Ray and I took a walk outside to stretch our legs during the 20 minute intermission. They have a beautiful venue.

The staff were pretty accommodating as Ray was able to bring his non-alcoholic wine in to be served to him at no extra charge.

Sunday, still windy out on the lake. The neighbour down the lake spent the day having 2 new pilings driven in so his dock does not get beached again.  They, then used an excavator to realign it with his walkways.

The excavator is pushing the walkways to move the dock out to the new piling.

Securing dock to new piling.

Adding a new section of walkway.

Our neighbour, Roy, had the piling driver come back to his foreshore area to fix a piling piling that they put in last year that was ended up really crooked. It was pounded down another 10 feet and seemed to straighten up. This is in preparation for a swimming dock in the future.

Today I did a run into Duncan to buy stuff to restock the motorhome and then hauled it in and put it away. That pretty much took me all morning. Left Ray at home as he was pretty sore from our adventures yesterday to the Chemainus Theatre. The afternoon was spent sitting on the lawn out of the wind. By late afternoon darker clouds had moved in and looked a little stormy so we moved inside. Another wonderful day at the lake.

Kristi and Kat returned home today with their culinary trip over ... poor Kat no more lobster. lol

Monday morning much cooler than it has been with some clouds but mostly sunny. The window guy is supposed to show up here at 10 am TBA!

He did show up at 10:20 am. Had a helper and was all done by noon. Looks pretty good, we are happy with the fix. Now Ray will have to have a discussion with Coulson regarding the remaining outstanding monies as they have charged us a bunch for the guy to come back and fix the hearth .... we are not paying that. We said we would pay for the slate piece but not the labour for installation as they did the rock hearth so poorly in the first place.

Stayed breezy all day although it calmed down somewhat in the afternoon and got warmer, a balmy 18C instead of the 26C we have been experiencing. No complaints. This afternoon I made Gin and Tonic popsicles for me and Watermelon popsicles for Ray in preparation for warmer days. The G & T recipe came from facebook. lol

Kristi sent us pictures of roast duck she had in Montreal and Ray was drooling, so I made him one on the barbecue rotisserie. Yumm.

Tuesday morning after dishes etc., I was off to Duncan to finish buying stuff for the Motorhome that I had forgotten. Ray spent part of the morning in his workshop building his tables. It's looking good and starting to take shape.

Wednesday, woke to cloudy skies as predicted. It is supposed to rain this afternoon. We sure need it for the forests and the lake. Ray headed in early to Duncan taking the car to Ford for them to fix the wiring for the front hookup to the coach. He got a rental car as he had a dental appointment in Nanaimo to have a tooth extracted later in the afternoon with a bone graft in preparation for an implant next spring. Poor guy, This seems to be the case for many of us over 60 ... our teeth start to fail. Fortunately we can afford an implant where many people cannot. The procedure went well and by the time he dropped off the rental car and went back to Ford to get our car he was home about 4pm. A long day for him. We had hoped that when he got the rental car and showed them my driver's license, that I would have been able to take the car back for him but no such luck even though the last time I got the rental car the guy told me I could do it this way....

I spent the day making lasagna and cabbage rolls in preparation for our 10 day camping trip to Port McNeill with Kristi and Jason on June 15th. Ray and I are heading out 2 days earlier and stopping at Campbell River to catch up with Steve and Dianne before heading to Port McNeill. We are meeting up with Kristi and Jason at the Cluxewe RV Park with Jason's parents for a week long family campout.

Today was also a big laundry day. I just sat down at 4pm and then Ray walked in the door. Made Ray Ichiban with egg and leftover duck for dinner as he is on a soft diet for a couple of weeks. His mouth is not too sore fortunately. Apparently they really had to yard on his tooth as it would not come out and finally they drilled it all out. I am amazed that other than it is sore to touch his cheek he is okay.

Thursday morning was actually just a little cloudy with some sunshine. By 8:30 though, the clouds became thicker. I brought in the slides of the motorhome, lifted the jacks and we moved it forward in the driveway to get the car in behind to test out the lighting after it was repaired at Ford yesterday... they rewired the car but obviously didn't test for continuity before charging us $475 because the signal lights are still reversed and no brake lights!!!!!! So it was back to Ford at noon to say WTF. This whole wiring thing sure has been a pain in the butt! Fortunately, they are reversing the charge and sending us a cheque. We're never going back there if wiring is the issue.  If you remember this started with a burned out taillight

Later in the afternoon Ray re-examined the motorhome wiring again and we are suspecting that the cord between the motorhome and car might be suspect as well, since what had power before now does not. Ray dropped me off in Lake Cowichan for my hair appointment and came back home to work on the wiring. After an hour or more playing with it and becoming very frustrated an appointment was made with Revy RV for Monday morning to get this working properly ... Such a pain when I am trying to get the motorhome ready for travel next Wednesday. Revy although booked up, will slide us in as we are "such good customers". I'll say ... we have dropped a bunch of $$$ there this past year. They also need to fix the hot water tank access door that was installed last January. The tab does not line up with the hole to close it and has now broken off while trying to secure it.

Friday morning, cloudy again with the possibility of some showers. Although we have had on and off showers for the past few days ... it has not amounted to very much for the lake level. Our morning got a little more exciting when Ray cut his finger in the shop while using his mitre saw ... a piece of wood came up and jammed into his left index finger quite deep, so off to the hospital we went. Fortunately Emerg was not too busy and and hour later with 4 stitches he was out. Went to Original Joes for lunch as a consolation prize. lol

Rest of the day quiet. We had several thunder showers on and off all afternoon.

Saturday morning cool with high fog. Today is the Town of Lake Cowichan's Lake Days. We went out to the free pancake and sausage breakfast at the firehall.

Well attended!

An hour or so later we plunked ourselves down in our chairs to watch the parade. We set up at Saywell Park, which is just down the street from us .  All the other festivities, food trucks, vendors, a beer garden and live music were held there. Quite the event for our small town. At 10:30 the sun broke out in time for the parade. Tonight they even have a steak barbecue for $7.50 per person. Unfortunately with Ray's tooth extraction and bone graft he is on a soft diet. :)

We sat with our neighbour Darryl and his two grandchildren ... grandma Pat, was in the parade with the Pickleball Club. It was great to see lots of kids waiting for the parade to come by and the candy thrown to them. lol

Here comes the parade. Always nice to hear the pipe band.

The club that Steve and Dianne Colibaba used to belong to.

It's the Town of Lake Cowichan's 75 birthday this year.

Lady of the Lake Queen Princesses

Here comes Pat ... second in from the left.

Always love the Shriners clowns in their little cars.

More of the Cowichan ATV club.

Then it was over to Saywell Park for the other festivities.

Lots of food vendors.

Lots of free activities for the kids.

Too funny.

Although mostly sunny today, it was pretty cool out on the water with the wind. Good day for the festivities though as it was not too hot outside for all the people dressed up in the parade.

And that was our week. Looking forward to getting out in the Motorhome next week.

Last week of May and a "laundry tub".

Monday morning we were off early to Duncan to drop the motorhome off for it's final repairs. Hopefully they get everything done this time. After the drop off, Ray took me to breakfast at the Doghouse Restaurant, who are known for good diner food. I had a delicious eggs bennie and Ray .... had 2 pieces of pie!

Peach pie a la mode and coconut cream. Breakfast of Champions!

The guy sitting behind Ray said he always wanted to do that but was too embarrassed, but now the next time he comes that's exactly what he is going to do! lol Also one of the waitresses called Ray her hero! lol again.

Back home Ray headed back down to his "man cave" working on his lumber table while I did some house chores.

The rack is larger as it goes under a furnace which is suspended from the ceiling to avoid flooding.  Ray's hit his head enough on the support braces enough already.

The rest of the afternoon was spent on the deck. It was very hot out at 26C but felt like 29C ... almost hot enough to get into the cold water. lol All the heat generated a thunder shower late in the afternoon and then the sun was back out.

People are getting all of their "toys" back out to their cabin. This boat towing 2 sailboats ...

A Sail Past?

Tuesday morning I headed out early to Nanaimo for an doctor's appointment, while Ray held the fort down here. The landscapers came and fixed the irrigation today. Some of the heads needed to be moved as the irrigation was put in before the driveway was put in with concrete. Also we had extended the side garden in the back yard and needed to lengthen the small spray system. All complete now. While I was gone, Ray played in his shop for a couple hours.

I got back from Nanaimo about 12:30 and after lunch we sat out in the yard as it was quite breezy on the sundeck. Noticed that the smoke from the wildfire in High Level Alberta is now here high up in the sky causing a haze.

Will, our gardener, came to mow the lawn later on so we moved back up on the deck. With my right foot sore again from the nitrogen burn ... I stayed off my feet for several hours. (I managed to pick up plantar warts on my big toe probably a couple of years ago from a pedicure in the states we are guessing. As it was on the bottom of my toe I did not notice it until it started to hurt and then it had made more!) Now into week 12 of going in every 2 weeks and getting it burnt with nitrogen.) Can you say OUCH. Ray fed me internal medicine ... i.e. a margarita for pain. lol The warts are almost gone now I'm told ... maybe only one more treatment.

Wednesday morning, marine fog again on the lake. The motorhome should be finished today so we can go pick it up. It will be nice to have everything functioning again, ie water pump and know that all the caulking has been done. It has been about 3 years since this was partially done as the last 18 months we have not used the unit. We have tried since last fall to have this completed, but Revy RV did not have a bay large enough to put the MH in and the weather outside was not conducive to doing it. They have rented a bay for the summer to handle rigs as large as ours. I need to get it packed ready for our two week trip up island leaving June 12th as there are no "food stuffs" in it at all. That is only 2 weeks away!  I also still need to change the filter in the fridge and sanitize the water lines as it did not get done when I did the tanks. Hopefully everything else works ... time will tell. At least this will be a shakedown trip before we leave for our winter USA trip and we will have time to get anything done if we find there are still things not working well.

Ray and I picked up the motorhome at 4:30 pm. All done. Took them 2 days with 2 guys to redo all of the caulking on the whole rig. New water pump, rock guard fixed and new outdoor shower assembly. (The old one was leaking too.) So after a hefty bill we should be ready for our next adventure. While in Duncan we decided to try out a Sushi place called Japan Town ... not bad but not great, so we will strike that restaurant off the list. Back home some more deck time. A lovely day.

Kristi and Kat are currently in Nova Scotia and PEI enjoying a whole bunch of lobster. They are on a touring and eating extravaganza for a week. Wish we were there to eat all that lobster as well. Here are a few of  the pictures they have messaged me. The start of their trip the weather was not all that great but they persevered. True explorers.

My gorgeous girls.

Ahhhh Lobster Roll

View waiting for their table.

Kat had a whole lobster .. "the Money Shot"

Kristi with her clam fettuccine

Thursday morning more fog. Supposed to get up to 28C today and tomorrow. Today the plumber is coming to hopefully install a laundry tub in the garage. We are really missing one to use for cleaning dirty things instead of my kitchen sink. The fog dissipated by 9 and it was a gorgeous day.

The girls picture today ,... enough said, lol

What beer should we choose?

Gerry, the plumber arrived shortly before noon. As usual nothing in this house was put in the usual way so the laundry tub installation ended up taking 3 hours, but it is done now yeah!.

Nothing fancy but will do the job.. Ray will have to build me a shelf beside the sink so I can put paper towel, soap etc. next to it.

Ray and I hooked up the car to the motorhome for the first time ... and you guessed it NO TAIL LIGHTS! Ray went to Lordco and bought new plugs and rewired them and there is power to the plug, still nada. So Ford must have wired the car incorrectly when we purchased it over a year ago. We did not get a chance to try it out as moving the motorhome at Dad's was difficult.  Then, when we bought this house, Ray came over with the motorhome a couple of days before I came over so it was never tried out. The hitch hooks up correctly though. So now the car will go back to Ford next week for them to fix the wiring. As they ripped out a bunch of wires while fixing the rear wiring to tow the boat perhaps they took out the front cables as well??? The only good part of Ray trying to rewire he could work on tanning his back sitting on a chair. lol

Friday started out foggy again but the sun broke out again around 7:30 am. Another hot, gorgeous day. First up was giving Freya a bath. We can sure tell she is swimming lots as it does not take long for her to get really smelly. lol

I spent a good part of the morning using my laundry basket to restock the motorhome. That was a lot of heavy carrying back and forth in the hot sun. I also completed sanitizing the water lines. I will be ready by the 12th of June to head up island. lol

The rest of the afternoon we sat down on the dock as there was just the right amount of breeze in the shade to stay cool. At 4 pm Ray and I decided to take a short boat ride down the lake as it was still fairly calm out. Freya could not wait to get into the boat. My first time in the boat this season. Ray has been out fishing twice.

A lovely little tour around. A great day.

May 20 - 26th "A little of this and a little of that!"

Monday after Dianne and Steve left ended up being a very quiet afternoon. We were pooped. Ray got leftovers for lunch and dinner. lol

Tuesday back to business ... major laundry, and vacuuming up all of the dog hair from Kristi's dogs as well as Freya. lol By 1 pm I was done. Ray puttered around his shop and took the Motorhome to the sani dump and got the propane filled up. I had filled the black and grey water tanks when I was sanitizing the water system to freshen it up a few weeks ago after the MH was sitting for 18 months. Tomorrow it goes back to Revy RV for the backflush valve to be fixed as well as a few outstanding items, ie. replacing the water pump. (They cancelled this appointment until next week.)

Our painters, Mona and Andrew stopped by this afternoon for a beer while kayaking on the lake. I had started a fire and was ready for their arrival. After an hours visit they headed off. The weather turned out nice and warm this afternoon and it was nice to sit outside again.

Wednesday, another lovely day. Freya had to go to the vet and after I brought her home, it was back to Duncan for grocery shopping. At 3pm it was dock time. lol

Thursday, Ray headed off to Nanaimo for a Periodontist appointment. He has a tooth that is probably dead causing some bone loss, so now he has to have the tooth pulled and a bone graft that will have to heal for at least 5 months and then he's looking at an implant which is not covered by our dental plan. :(

While he was gone, with the lake flat calm I decided to go for an hour's paddle in the kayak. Absolutely beautiful. Love our "backyard".

When I got back, Andrew from Kurtis Electric arrived and the electric plugs were put back in the downstairs kitchen so the basement suite is officially finished. Now as long as the window guy shows up this weekend as he promised on Wednesday after measuring up the window repair, we will be done with David Coulson. This is to fix the damaged window frame that was smashed during deck renovation. To remove the window and replace it would be a huge undertaking as the window is rocked in so it is not a case of removing a few boards to access the sides of it to remove. Arrow shows frame that has a big hole and crack in the frame. As this was damaged way back in September it is a good thing that it is protected with the new deck that does not leak as this has been exposed now for 7 months!

(Old picture before renovations)

Below, this ominous cloud came over and it turned out to be quite a cell.  Just a mile down the lake it hit a trailer park and pissed and blew so hard many residents experienced leaky roofs.

That night Ray took a nice sunset shot.  Not quite as brilliant as Arizona sunsets, but still very pretty with the lake as a backdrop.

Friday morning a little cloudy and we had a rain shower overnight. Stayed pretty cloudy for the rest of the day. I put all of the deck cushions away as rain is forecasted for later today and tomorrow. Deen came and finished putting on the sealer on the driveway so it is finally done and the Motorhome is back in the driveway ... apparently our next door neighbours were not too happy it was on the street during the long-weekend with all of their company. (Ahh, there kids to walk an extra 20', boo hoo!) Oh well, they usually take up the whole road on weekends with all of their kids so don't feel too bad about the whole thing.

Ray and I went into town for a little shopping at Home Depot and then went out to lunch at a place called Hudson on First, a lovely old house with a restaurant.  They have a limited menu but one of the items was fish and chips using snapper. Absolutely delicious. They do change up their menu frequently they say. Unfortunately it was too cool out to sit on one their patios.

Saturday morning we woke to a cloudy, drizzly day. We are hosting our annual strata meeting here at 10 this morning. Should be a short and sweet meeting. Three of the couples have to be somewhere else by noon. There were 11 of us in total. Got to meet the people who own the "yellow house" Todd and Tyra who rent the upper floor and live in Victoria themselves. They have also bought the empty lot next door that will close on June 7th.  So now all of the lots in this strata are taken. Nice to know all of our neighbours. House #1  with "Jo" has no representation today but we met her last October at the last strata meeting.

Roy, Tyra, Debra, Pat, Donna, June and Ron. Mike, Todd, Ray and I are not in the picture.

Saturday afternoon was spent hunkered down in front of the TV watching the storm move through. Here we did not receive very much precipitation as it just drizzled but hopefully the other end of the lake received lots as the lake is quite low for this time of year. By late afternoon the sun began breaking out of the clouds.

The house that had it's dock beached last winter had tried with a pickup truck and then a dump truck pulling on the dock to try and float it again earlier this week ... this did not work. Today they brought in a bulldozer and were finally successful.

 After dinner we watched a movie and managed to stay up to 10pm. lol Ray noticed that we were getting beautiful sunset colours so jumped up and went down to the dock. We had a spectacular sunset with all of the fluffy clouds in the sky.

Sunday breezy and sunny. Ray off first thing to take the recycling to Meades Creek Waste Management. We have a lot of cardboard taking up residence in the garage from the deck boxes and various other purchases for his shop. We met up with Mona and Andrew for a late lunch at Jake's at the Lake meeting their friend Joy. A fabulous day.

That was our week.