From sunny days to clouds and showers.

July has not started out very well with the weather. The upside is that with this type of weather it will limit the amount of people coming to the lake that don't live here.

Not much happening at Kyles Kottage. Tried smoking sockeye salmon on my Traeger for the first time and it was a success. Certainly more expensive buying salmon compared to catching it (of course you must ignore the cost of the boat and all the fixxins') like we used to. lol

Our First Nations people love the salmon belly, so thought we would try it.  Waaaay too fatty for us!

Quality control ... yes it tastes great!

For our anniversary July 2nd, we drove up to Nanaimo and had dinner with Kristi and Jason with takeout sushi. 43 years we have been married, hard to believe. Forgot to take any pictures. :)

Ray is busy making deck boxes for the dock now as the plastic ones seem to leak with heavy rain so no point keeping stuff in them. These (2 of) will be heavy enough to be lag bolted to the dock so we won't have to move them or worry about them in the winter. We will have to enlist some help though to get them down to the dock when finished.

Other than that, pretty quiet here this past week after Dianne and Steve left.

Freya can't decide which "lamb chop" to play with. lol

Dave, Leslie, Dave and Cheryl had a great meet up in Alberta at Dave and Cheryl's. They sent me this picture via messenger. Miss you guys.

I stole this one. lol

Sunday was a beautiful day on the lake. Our neighbours, Roy and June had all of their kids and grandchildren over for the day and wake boarding was on the menu ... apparently the first time for 

several years.

We even saw a shark. lol Love this little dogs life jacket.

The rest of the week was quiet. I did try another brisket on the Traeger ....

 Fifteen hours later....

It's amazing when you do all this work how tender and juicy it ends up being instead of dried out slathered in barbecue sauce when you order it out. Even though I put it on a 5:45 AM ... it was not done until 8:30 PM and had to rest an hour before sampling. Now that I know the Traeger works well all on it's own and don't have to monitor it, I will put the brisket on overnight instead. lol

Steve and Dianne come to visit!!!! Yeah

Thursday, June 25th

Wow what an awesome day. The first day that it really felt like summer. First time in bathing suits down at the dock. 

I started out the morning going kayaking down to the marina and back. Absolutely gorgeous day.

By 12:30, I was down at the dock for the afternoon.

Ray was in and out of the water in a hurry! Move it Freya!

Did not come back to the house until 5:30 pm dinner time. Had to enjoy this day as the weather goes downhill tomorrow for a day or so and the temps will not be near as warm for the next week.

Friday, busy day with preparations and shopping for Steve and Dianne to come for the weekend. Yeah.

Saturday busy prepping for today's meals. Also Freya got a bath before Steve and Dianne arrive. lol She loves to swim and get's really smelly. :)

Steve and Dianne arrived in time for lunch ... Steve does not miss meals if I am cooking ! lol Chicken wings on the menu with ranch dip.

All the pictures of their visit is a compilation of all three cell phones taking pictures. :)

We were able to sit outside out of the wind as more sun came out than anticipated. We did have to move locations a few times though. lol

So glad to see them after near 5 months.

Ribs for dinner off the Traeger were appreciated. Lots of laughs and conversation. All of us in bed by 9 pm.

Dianne and Steve are an awesome cleanup crew which I greatly appreciate. Ray helped a lot as well with the cleanup, putting away all the leftovers.

Ray preparing our dessert. :)

After dinner we went back outside to the deck for an hour or so before we all went to bed.

Sunday morning after Eggs Benedict for breakfast, the boys went out to try some fishing but were skunked. 

The weather was much better than anticipated for the day. We spent a lot of time down on the dock and went for a boat ride.

It was hot enough for me to go for a swim. Dianne was still pretty hesitant!

Dianne actually got quite sunburnt.

Even Freya relaxed in a floaty!

By late afternoon the wind had come up so we moved up to the deck where I had the roast beast on the barbecue.

And yes I made Yorkshire Puddings. :)

Another fabulous day and in bed again around 9 ... we watched a little TV and Steve and Dianne watched a movie on their iPad all happy to be in bed. lol

I was able to talk Dianne and Steve into staying for another day as Monday was supposed to be the best weather of the weekend. Did not take too much arm twisting. :)

After a quick coffee, the boys headed out fishing early around 7 as the lake was flat calm and you could see the fish rising. Dianne and I stayed out on the deck under the gazebo with the heaters on enjoying the morning. Steve managed to catch a "small trout", so we count that as a successful trip. lol

Again, we all sat down at the dock until the wind came up. I made beef dip for lunch with the leftover roast.

After lunch Ray set up the chairs on the lawn as it was quite windy and we played some Mooseball. Both Steve and Dianne beat Ray and I.

After our game the wind had died down and it got really hot so back down to the dock. Managed to get Dianne into a "floaty" this time in the lake. :) The wind on the lake is on and off again all the time so it is fortunate we have so many places to sit to enjoy the outside but stay warm. lol

We managed to stay out there for half an hour before our butts were too cold. lol

After another lovely afternoon on the water it back up to the deck where I was smoking chicken quarters for dinner and were able to use up the rest of the leftovers from the other 2 meals. lol

Again my cleanup crew did a fabulous job with the dishes and we sat outside on the deck for dessert. another great day.

Tuesday morning, Dianne and Steve were out the door by 8 am to catch the ferry back to the mainland with chicken sandwiches packed for lunch on the ferry. One of our neighbours has a burst waterline getting fixed this morning so the water would be turned off at 8:15 ... that spurred everyone to have their showers early. :)

So this weekend's theme was eat, drink, relax, swim, fish and go for a boat ride ... rinse and repeat. We had a great time visiting with them and hope they come back to our lake house soon.

Here are a couple of "Stella" pictures. :)

Kat's mom "Grana" with Stella

What are you saying?

Kat's brother Phil, with Stella

That was our "long weekend".

June 19-22 Father's Day and the first official day of summer

Friday was a hazy day but warm at around 23 C. Didn't go out on the boat today as we attended to things here at the house. The biggest chore was finally taking the motorhome up to the sani-dump as it finally opened to dump the tanks from our trip home from the USA mid-March. There was not a lot in the tanks, only the last 3 days of travel but nonetheless, I wanted it out! Of course I first loaded the tanks up with water from the hose here, so there was a better clean out at the other end. There is no way to attach a hose up at the dump to do a back-flush as the hose is fitted with two female ends. lol. Ray will have to get an adapter so he can do it for next time.

Kristi called and asked what was for lunch? She wanted to stop for a short visit before driving out to Kissinger Lake to meet up with Jason. Off to the store I went for some lunch fixin's. :) We had a great visit for an hour and off she went. The rest of the afternoon we spent sitting up on the deck where there was a little breeze. Down on the dock was hot and muggy as we found out putting the boat cover back on due to the predicted rain tonight.

One of my Iris's in the front garden.

Over in Squamish, the other grandparents arrived for their first meeting with Stella. Apparently the "fight was on" as to who was going to hold her. lol

Ana and Bill and one very much loved Stella!

Saturday morning was very warm and wet outside. Mostly drizzly, but I did hear the rain coming down harder in the early hours of the morning.

Ray was pretty sore today, an accumulation of a week or so of hurting more than usual, so it was a down day for him. First up "into the hot tub for him!

I saw a recipe in my Facebook feed for Tropical Margarita's so had to try that for him too.

In between rain showers, Freya spent her time on the back lawn, while Ray and I stayed up on the deck. Part of the reason for Ray's soreness is due to giving our lawn "measles" again ... reseeding the areas where he got rid of a bunch of weeds, a large patch of poor grass and many dog pee spots. lol

Our neighbours are spending quite a bit of time the past few weeks getting a rock wall built surrounding their lawn, and a new concrete walkway to their gangway to their dock. Also they built a hot tub platform with all the work entailed and finally yesterday, their new lawn was seeded and the hedge between us severely pruned. Definitely improves our view of the lake from the deck. :) Thanks Mike.

View from our deck

Fortunately for them the day stayed reasonably nice with only a few misty showers until late afternoon when the rain began again.

Ray went to Duncan earlier this morning and picked up some fresh spot prawns for a treat for Father's Day so that was dinner. One happy guy. The prawns were so fresh that they were jumping around in the bag when I opened it up. We have not eaten prawns this fresh since we used to catch them ourselves 10 years ago. :)  He also purchased some Honey Blue mussels from nearby Salt Spring Island.  Apparently the store rarely gets these and never this large.  They were excellent.  Feels like we're back at Newport Beach! 

Sunday, Happy Father's Day

Ray had his "Father's Day" a day early yesterday. lol This morning very grey and breezy outside. Hopefully it clears up for the afternoon. For Ray's breakfast I made a breakfast pizza with homemade dough. It turned out pretty good.

Talked with Garrett this morning ... his first Father's Day. Kat sent us this picture for Ray's first "Grandpa's Father's Day."

While taking these shots, Stella's "poop face" occurred and Ray almost got that pic instead. 

For dinner tonight I'm trying smoked pork belly bites on the Traeger Smoker. Should be tasty and it was. Down day for Ray as he continues recouping today, so he just relaxed and we managed to get outside for a while in the afternoon. Of course the sun came out late in the afternoon.

Monday Kristi and Jason stopped by on the way home from their fishing/camping trip at Kissinger Lake to celebrate a belated Father's Day with Ray. I made burgers on the BBQ. After lunch Jason headed home with the trailer and Kristi stayed a couple more hours at our campfire in the backyard. A great day.

This picture, Stella looks just like Garrett did as a baby.

And that was Ray's Father's Day celebrations.