5C's Que Pasa

A few days ago I mentioned that we had come home to a tree with a split branch due to a wind storm.

Colin and my lawn guy emailed back and forth and came up with a plan which they put into effect yesterday. It did take both of them to execute the operation.

It was precision surgery. Clamps, drills and bolts. It totally reminded me of my hip replacement.

I was a mere observer but I did feel the tree’s pain.

Our lawn guy, whose close up I am not allowed to use, decided that as head surgeon the branch needed a second bolt.  It really was quite the break.  We also removed a few branches to alleviate the weight on the wound.  I really truly did feel the pain of the surgery.  Just too sensitive for my own good.

Breaking news…….Copper River Salmon is baccckkk 😆  I even talked my lawn guy into buying some.  Hope he didn’t overcook it.  Finally we can dine in style and what better night to celebrate but the very day that our Frankenstein tree was created.  I mean how many of you have a Frankenstein tree

Be still my beating heart, not to mention my salivating mouth.

Mere seconds after Colin brought everything in from the grill the sky opened….the rain and the winds were ferocious.

Dinner was divine and every morsel was to die for. Thank you Colin 🙂

Meanwhile the poor tree was being battered from one direction then the other. The wind went on all night and all day today. But it seems just fine now that the winds have abated.  A successful operation.

Just wanted to mention that we drove 2747 miles/4421Km the last two weeks.  It cost us $1534.20CAD for the fuel.  It was a duty trip and one that won’t be repeated in the RV for some time.

We had a very long telephone call with our vet yesterday and discussed a number of things.  That included the many suggestions from you my readers from elk velvet antlers to Cushings Disease.  I will fill you in on some of the details tomorrow.  We are so fortunate so have Susan Wales of Panorama Vet as our vet as she is very dedicated and is always there for us.  We have called her day and night from many parts of the US and as far south as Acapulco and she is always there for us.  Once she was hosting a Super Bowl party but still took the time to help us.

We may go overboard in keeping Carmeh and Caeli entertained.

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed some movement on the patio. A family with a few young ones feasting on our lush green lawn.

As if rehearsed, they waddled down the steps to the beach one by one once they caught sight of us.

Their extended family was waiting. Thank goodness they all didn’t come to visit.

We usually go for a least one stroller/walk per day.  When it is too hot we take the girls for a spin in the golf cart.

Yesterday we took Carmeh out of the stroller so she could have a few sniffs and a walk a few steps and do her business.

It has been difficult creating a routine of work and trying to ignore the girls.  They have had our undivided attention for 3 weeks now and are not used to us sitting at our desks for eight hours a day.  Colin has to start leaving the house to get some jobs done and the extra burden will fall on me.  I have used the last 2 days to get caught up and now will only do what needs to be done urgently on a day by day basis.  When Carmeh sleeps ( Caeli is always sleeping ) I will be able to get more done.

So many beautiful flowers in the Park but I am partial to these Calla Lilies.

These are grown in pots. I must ask the owner when I see her if she grows them from the same bulbs year after year and how she stores them for the winter.

One of our trees has a split in it. Apparently there were some severe winds off the lake while we were gone. My landscaper comes on Thursday and we will discuss how best to save the tree. He feels we have to chose which branch to keep. I am hoping we can somehow keep both. Any ideas?

Oh yes…..where did we find the $1000.00?  It was under our house in the misc. storage area just laying in plain sight.

Any idea what this is?

Well is it worth over $1000.00 plus tax.  We need two of these.  We had one and needed to purchase a second one.  While Colin was routing around under the house looking for a few things yesterday he found this in the far corner.  Neither of us remember purchasing it.  We both knew we had purchased the one.  The thing is we need two of these to make them work.

Any ideas?  Give up?

It is an airbag.  We need two of these under the back end of the RV to raise us and cushion our ride.  They are air springs and it is like driving on an air filled balloon.  Ours are 14 years old and need replacing this summer.  Now we only need to pay for the labor to install them.  Sure nice to find that $1000.00 😆

Saturday and Sunday were considered work days.  I got 7 loads of laundry done and everything from the RV was put away.  Colin worked on the outside.  All the tools were returned from the RV to the shed and other things under the house.  Weeds were pulled front and back.  I really should have done some before shots. The weeds lakeside were higher that the flower pots.  I even manged 6 hours of desk work on Sunday of which 90 minutes was estate stuff.  It never ends.

We were both surprised at how much tar was spread all over the car.

This was just one small area of the front fender.

In the end Colin had to resort to using the power washer.  Here it is Monday supper time and Colin still has work to do.  Now he has to wax the rest out.  We have yet to check the RV for tar, heaven forbid.  Likely we won’t be doing any more back roads in Saskatchewan, too much work at this end and we simply don’t have any free time.

Getting rid of the weeds at the front of the house. We really need to apply a 2 inch strip of cement between our driveway and the road and those weeds will be gone forever. I will be sure to add that to the ever growing to do list.  Colin also washed both cars and the golf cart.

Carmeh overdid it on Saturday, up and down the ramps.  She even managed to go down the stairs to the beach which she never does.  I had my back turned for just a minute looking at a flower pot.  I finally put her in the pen as a timeout.  She needed to slow down and rest.  She fought the pen for about an hour before she finally fell asleep.  She is wearing us out.

Sunday morning she came up the back steps to the house.  One of us had neglected to place the screen in front of the steps so she could only use the ramp.  However she seemed fine.  She was more relaxed Sunday and lay on the bed more which was good.  Her legs were much more wobbly but she was still mobile.  I think her body was sore and tired but she did not seem to need any pain meds and by suppertime she was active with her toys.

That is Caeli on the left keeping her sister company.

It is a full time job keeping an eye on Carmeh but it makes us feel so good that she has some freedom.  We ( Colin ) carry her in and out as best we can which is something I won’t be able to do when Colin is at work.  I just am not stable/strong enough to carry her up and down the stairs and move the gates to the stairs at the same time.  I don’t want to hurt her back by carrying her in one hand.

Squirrel photo taken at Rae’s.

It was good to stop on Sunday night about 6:30PM, have some vino, feed the girls and us and just relax in front of the TV.  Carmeh has been asking to be held and loved and of course we indulge her.  As I mentioned 2 posts ago I am doing amateur Therapeutic Touch on her and she loves it and keeps asking me to do it.  Our days are filled to the brim but then that is what we 5C’s do, always busy and something dramatic happening.

I leave you with a few shots of Caeli cleaning out the peanut butter jar…..

She really does get into it.

Caeli must have the longest tongue of them all.  Her tongue is touching the bottom of the jar but then as you can see her eyes are right in the jar.

…but no post tonight.  Carmeh is needing extra love today and now tonight.

Hasta manana.

The girls hanging out on our final night in Banff.  Caeli in her usual recumbent position.

Caeli the morning of departure, she really didn’t want to get up.

The weather was still great when we left at 8:15AM.  We could have spent another day but we were ready to leave Friday. The extra day at home before work Monday was going to be a huge bonus.

It wasn’t long before the forcasted clouds and rain headed in.

Soon the rain was coming down in buckets.  It was good to get all that Saskatchewan dust cleaned off the RV and car.  The day was a mixed bag, some sun, some clouds, heavy rain, a few showers and wind.  In a nutshell the best way to describe the trip home was bumpy and curvy roads with lots of wind.

The weather in Kelowna had been perfect the entire time we were away.  Thursday was a mix of smoke from the Lytton fire and wind and rain.  We had no idea what to expect when we got home yesterday.  I forgot to mention that we had found one tick in the bed Thursday morning and four on Friday morning.  It was definitely time to leave.  The girls have not been on tick medication since the beginning of April and we don’t use it here as we have few ticks here in BC, at least not in this area.  However they seemed to repel these, thank goodness.

We traveled the Trans Canada Highway as far as Sicamous before we turned off onto Hwy 97 to home.  Some really great creativity in the construction of this highway.  One needs to be an alert driver to travel this part of the highway.

Making progress…..Rogers Pass.

Carmeh seemed to be extra needy this day.  Our massage lady in Edmonton aka Casa Maria from the Isla taught me a very quick method of Therapeutic Touch which she has used often on Carmeh over the years.  It takes the heat away from her spinal area.  Carmeh really responds when Mary does it.  I have done it off and on since leaving Edmonton and she seems to relax more.  As we were traveling yesterday, Friday, she actually was asking me to do it over and over.  I can’t explain how she asked but those of you who have fur babies will understand.  Sometimes it was with a paw or her nose nudging under my hand or just a special look in her eyes.  So I spent most of the day hunched over doing my thing on her back and if she wasn’t satisfied when I stopped she let me know.  She also spent most of the drive awake and looking out the window.  Usually she sleeps the entire time we were driving.

Here she is, about Armstrong, BC, wanting to sit on the dash and just look at everything.  At first I thought she was up there for just a few minutes but she wanted to stay so I covered her shivering body and put a pillow under her chin so she was comfortable.  It was very strange.  I said to Colin that I thought that she knew this was her last trip in the RV.  He just told me that dogs don’t think that way but I really do think that she did think that.  If not her last RV trip then her last trip along this particular route.  She just kept those big brown eyes wide open taking in the sights.

It is a 300 mile/480Km drive from Banff to our home.  Google Maps says it should take 5.5 hours.  Well driving the speed limit and slowing down for all the bends in the road took us 7 hours and we only stopped in Golden to take on fuel and pee the girls and once again in Sicamous to let them do their business.

We got home at 3PM but I had not yet set our clock back that one final time zone change between Alberta and B.C so it was only 2PM local time.  We had rain showers right until we pulled up to our home when they stopped and the sun peaked out.  We worked for four hours non stop.  The girls were both in the pen in the living room of our home.  The RV was emptied and Colin moved it to a friend’s site to dump and flush the tanks and then put it onto our storage site.  Meanwhile I worked hard to get 99% of our things put away.

Next step was to remove any stools that Carmeh has used in the past to jump up on and to block off any areas she used to jump up onto.  Ramps were set up to the bed and the sofa and outside down the steps to the lawn.  We let her out of the pen and she went loco.  She walked/ran here and there and was so thrilled to have some space. We also pulled a few runners out of storage as carpet is easier for her than our flooring.  We both had tears in our eyes.  It was wonderful to see her reaction to so some freedom after 2.5 weeks of being confined.  Finally we all settled down to a relaxing first night at home with dinner and some vino.  So happy to be home 🙂