Nov 12, 2020

Still getting ready for winter

This photo goes back to November 6th. The traffic is backed up along the lake because of a second car wreck within a few days on Commonwealth and HWY 97. The location of this accident is in the exact same location that I had my horrific crash back in July of 2010. Despite living in this climate it appears that many here are not ready to drive in the snow.

November 8th we put up some outdoor lights.

These white fairy lights as I like to call them, are to remind us of all the white lights ( 15 or more strands ) that we string all along our site on the Isla. This particular string is 83 feet long with 1000 lights.  I purchased this set as it was rated for outdoor lighting.  The coloured lights are to be turned on at Christmas and these white ones will come on every night as they did on the Isla.

It began to snow about 2PM on Monday the 9th and the snow kept falling for 22 hours.

I have now taken down my fall decorations.

The snow finally stopped on the afternoon of the 10th.

We woke up on November 11th to this spectacular sight. A juvenile and an adult Trumpeter swan. They were an endangered species until the early 2000’s. You can Google them for more details. I was fascinated to read that they mate for life and often die of a broken heart when its mate dies.

They can spend their winters in our area or a bit further south. So perhaps we will see them again. Such a privilege to see them.  But I can’t help wondering where the mate is.

This was our second snow fall this winter. Does any one have any suggestions as to when I should pull my carrots and beets from the garden? How long can I leave them in the soil?  Will they freeze?

Thanks to my friend Joyce, I have a recent sunset taken from in front of RV2 on the Isla.

We got our 56 tuna pies shipped to us via Purolater from Ladner, BC last Friday. Today I picked up some specially ordered spanakopitas from a local Geek restaurant. I have always brought both the tuna pies and the spanakopita with us to the Isla every winter as a special Sunday dinner.  The tradition will continue here. I think that food wise we are ready for winter.  As to the vino, I have many many cases here, so I am prepared if we get snowed in for weeks 😉

A great location to take sunsets photos from.  You took some very special photos Joyce and we all thank you.

Today I went back to ‘Just Cozy’ at the mall and spoke with the manager/owner. She checked my leggings and told me that they have been sown upside down and that the nap was the reason my original pair were falling down. So I got a new pair and wore them in the store for at least 20 minutes and they did not fall down. Hopefully they will remain that way. They are so soft and warm. I also stopped at Marks today and purchased a pair of very thin T-Max Heat supersoft thermal pants. They are light enough to wear under my other pants. Tuesday I should get my two items from Amazon and then I will figure out what I am going to keep.  Looks like I will not be freezing this winter, thanks to all of your suggestions. I do have to say, that it was bloody hot in the stores.  Next time I go shopping I am going to wear Isla clothing. I kid you not, I almost passed out.

Sadly we are suddenly experiencing several Covid cases in our local schools.

We are now being restricted as to how many we can have in our homes. Not a concern for us as there is no one we would invite inside. So many of our friends are visiting with different friends every day of the week.  I would love to invite them over but I see by their FB pages that they have several bubbles and that is too much for us.

 

 

 

 

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Nov 11, 2020

Lest we forget

One of the first poems I learned in grade school.

The following was taken by a fellow blogger. Her blog can be found here.  This is the Kelowna City Park Cenotaph at sunrise, just a few days ago.

Touching.

.

November 11th will never be forgotten.

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Nov 09, 2020

Dryer vent cleaning & snow storm #2

We were out this morning seeing the chiropractor and picking up groceries and wine. Good thing. Just as we arrived home the snow started. I was enjoying watching it fall and forgot to take photos, too late now.  Basically everything is white out there.  It was dark at 4:45PM with an official  one mile visibility. The temperature is 27F / -3C and we are expecting 5 – 10 cm / 2 – 4 inches of snow overnight. Plus more snow Thursday and Friday. They did say that the east would have a warmer than normal winter while we here in the west are to have a colder than normal winter with more snow. So far they are right on. Of course for our first winter in Canada in over 20 years we get to experience bigger and colder.

Thank you all for your suggestions re keeping my legs warm.  I have ordered some thermal leggings from Amazon and found out that Marks Work Warehouse ( a Canadian clothing retailer ) might have some warm fleece pants that I can wear over the leggings. Meanwhile I am enjoying all my heaters.

You do know of course that this snow means that ‘the project ‘ will be delayed 😯 Just our luck. All I can do is pour another glass of wine 😕

How often do you clean your dryer vent? Not often enough! Our fire department recommends an annual clean out. The number one cause of fires is smoking and the second cause is dryer fires.

Someone here in the park was having a dryer issue and posted about it on our Neighbourhood Chat page. We have used this dryer for a total of three years since we moved here ( based on us being away in Mexico or elsewhere half the year ) and it was past due.

Our dryer can’t be pulled out, unless we deconstruct how it was installed. So the only way to check it is to go on the roof. They have a special tool that weaves its way down to the dryer that cleans everything out.

A photo of a photo. Austin our dryer specialist, was surprised to see how little came out. Those white dots are bits of fluff.  The orange piece at the bottom left is our dryer vent on the roof of the house.

Austin took photos with his iPhone so that we could see what was going on up there. This is not good.  First of all we don’t have a screen or flap on the vent, decision made by the builder????  Austin did not like what he saw.  All that white and black is dryer vent fluff that is simply sticking around the vent opening.  Each time I use the dryer that stuff should just float out and away. But it is not.

I always clean the lint off the dryer screen each and every time that I put a load in.  Not once in two or three loads but every load. So Colin started asking questions as to why of the build up surrounding the vent opening on the roof.  Finally Austin did a major check inside the dryer.

The space between that screen with the square holes and the solid piece at the bottom is where my dryer screen sits. The lint does stay on that a screen but for some unexplained reason a good deal of fluff that should be blown up the vent pipe and out over the roof is being stopped in this area.  The white stuff is a large collection of debris that comes from the dryer.

That white stuff is this. Compressed soft and fluffy materials.

Quite a bit of it as it turns. out. We even found sand sitting at the bottom of that area. Sand!

A strange mix.

A good amount is dog hair from our red coloured doxies.  The hair likely came from my washing their bedding. When we came back from Mexico each year I would wash everything in the RV, blankets on the sofas, dog blankets, etc. That is where the red dog hair and sand came from.

Austin still couldn’t figure out why the dryer does not have enough force to send all this stuff up and out.  So Colin has some new jobs to add to his lists. One is to add a mesh screen over the went so that critters nor birds can come into and down the vent. He also will check every six months if there is a build up under that checkered screen.  It might all have started from the dog hair. We certainly plan to be on top of it. Maybe now we will no longer have that build up.

Hopefully this might motivate some of you to clean out your vents on your own or to hire someone to do it. It cost us $209.00 before tax to get this done and in the process Colin has learned what to look for and how to check for problems. Worth every penny. Likely we will get this done every two years – professionally. Meanwhile he is confident he can stay on top of it. So when was the last time you got your dryer vent checked?

I think that we could all use a good chuckle.

So sad to see this in grocery carts. We saw a few like this today.

 

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Nov 08, 2020

Que Pasa

It sure is cold out there. Going down to -9C / 15.8F tonight. We got a lot of things crossed off our to do list today. We are really trying to get all the outside jobs done asap based on weather. While Colin was turning the soil in the garden, I was raking leaves. I can’t even remember the last time I raked leaves.  I must have at some point but truly have no memory of it. The last big thing left is to bring in the Christmas bins and sort through them. I will sell what we won’t use.

Something I saw at the grocery store the other day.

I need some advice ladies. My legs are cold. I have fleece pants but the wind cuts right through. My ears, hands and upper body and feet are warm but not my legs. I purchased a pair of faux fur lined leggings at Just Cozy.ca here in the mall. They fit great and actually kept me warm on my walk around the yard in them.  However they very quickly began to slide as in down from my waist. The crotch was many inches too low. I certainly won’t be able to wear these for a walk. I’d be hitching up my britches every ten steps. I loved how they kept me warm but they are impossible to wear. Where should I go to buy warm pants?

I am still selling odds and ends. So far ( since June ) I have made $442.50 from items that I might have just thrown out. We have a FB swap and shop here in the park. I got those free cement footprints for the garden last spring, some 24 x 24 x 2 inch cement slabs which will fit in with our new project, that saved us $80.00. I try and get a few dollars for my items but often give things away for free as well such as our Webber BBQ and some patio furniture. The other day I saw a used small chest freezer come up for sale for $75.00 but someone pounced on it within seconds.  So I sent a message to the lady buying it and asked her if we could have her old freezer. She said it kept frosting up. Turns out that the lid simply needed a few bricks on top to keep the lid closed tightly. She was happy to get rid of it, problem solved for her and we were happy to get it as we needed space to store our frozen garden veggies plus food for the winter.

Colin had a neighbour help him load it and unload it.

Not too heavy but awkward to carry.

Colin did a deep clean. We are very happy with the freezer and bought the lady a bottle of wine as a thank you. She was inspired and we lucked out by getting a bottle of her favourite red.

Many mornings we wake up to ducks all across the lake. This was a sunrise!

Our Halloween dinner, a slow cooker curried  lentil soup ( Madras curry powder from India and garam masala with fresh ground cumin )  with our own fresh Swiss chard.  So very yummy.  Accompanied by some ‘Coffin Crisp’ and a spooky shadow with a very scary movie.

A tranquil and beautiful start to an overcast day.

A bonus shot because the hedge is gone. Thanks for all of your comments. They have all been answered. You will just have to be patient for part three. We have done part two and I will post about that soon.

This was November 1st and we had some new ducks on the lake. It was like watching a ballet as they flitted here and there so very quickly. Difficult to capture on camera but this will suffice to bring back those moments to me ten years form now.

We have been doing many smaller projects. Once the hedge was gone the first thing Colin did was to get rid of all the spider nests high up at the top of our windows and under the eves. He also power washed those areas as well as the outside of the entire house. Hopefully that will take care of the active spider population. They love cedar hedges.

Another small project. Those who spend the winter here ( and that would be us this winter ) put a cover on their golf cart. We bought one. It actually was a reasonable price of $90.00CAD.  Except Colin had to spend around $50.00 to buy parts to make it fit.

He had to extend the roof in order to be able to cover the back seat ( which we no longer use – but we can carry two others if needed ).

And there he goes. Perfect to take the garbage out and pick up the mail. Then there are those trips over  to the RV to make sure that all is right. The cover does keep the wind out and apparently the carts run well in the snow.

We haven’t been very still – always something to do.  So looking forward to it all being done and just sitting and relaxing with the fireplace at full heat.

Foggy glasses!!!

No kidding!!!

I leave you with a spectacular sunset taken October 29th.

 

 

 

 

 

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Nov 05, 2020

Busy with a huge project

As we are not going south to the land of sun and heat we have decided to invest that money into something we would not have been able to do otherwise. We have no choice but to stay home so now is the time to get on with the big project.

It started with selling our wooden arbour and gate. Thinking no one would want it I priced it at $25.00. I had five people wanting it.

The entrance to our yard looks bare. Each time we left the yard we went to shut the gate that was no longer there.

Next Colin had to rip out the three foot high plastic mesh fencing that we had to put in to keep the girls in the yard. That included removing the rebar across the bottom as well as every few feet keeping it in place. The hedge has grown since we purchased this place back in May of 2009. It was a visible struggle for Colin to pull it out.

We have 142′ of cedar hedge and one Alberta Spruce in the corner. I was looking forward to decorating this tree with lights and Christmas baubles. When we had our few days of cold and snow back in October, I so enjoyed seeing the snow on top of the cedars and on the branches of the this tree.

Part one of this project is to remove all 142′ of the cedar hedge. This is one of the first cuts on Friday, October 30th. I had tears in my eyes. I love my hedge and my privacy. We have been told that we likely only have two or three more years before the hedge dries up.  We moved here in 2003 ( across the road ) and this hedge was there then. You can see how very little green there is on each side and the top.  The rest is dead and very dry.

Quite the mess for just this short section.

There goes my Christmas tree.

We had a two man crew, the fellow cut the hedges and between him and his tiny female partner, they dragged the trees over and she ran the grapple to guide the trees into the chipping machine.

They moved quickly and made a huge mess. We were quoted to cut the trees, chip them and grind the stumps. At this point Colin and I realized that there was no way we could get this cleaned up in two days ( before part two started ) never mind two weeks. I called the office and asked if they could clean the debris up for us. It cost us an extra $600.00 but it was worth every penny.

Not even halfway there. It was a very cool morning made even colder with the wind whipping off the lake. That tall tree of ours was bending in half at times due to wind gusts.

You can see the wood chips spewing out of the machine into the truck. We did manage to fill that truck to the brim.

Almost the end. This was the tree that we had the duck nest in back in the spring. I wonder what mamma is going to due next spring.

Blowing the debris away to expose the stumps. All that dark brown is from the dried cedar tree innards.

We are now fully exposed and naked to the world.

This stump grinder is bigger than some cars.

Once he started on the straight narrow area down to the lake, I began to hear pings in the windows. We are floor to ceiling windows for a length of 44 feet. We got him to stop until we came up with this table to block the tiny pea gravel from flying into our windows. You can see mid screen how the stump is being shredded.

Quite the difference from the fourth photo from the top. From total privacy to full exposure. The next day Colin did a full day of further clean up.

So that is why I haven’t posted for a few days. So much happening at this time as we try to stay ahead of the next snow fall. I just counted and I have 12 folders of photos which means 12 more blogs to write but just no time.  Not to worry I intend to write each of those post plus more – just at my own speed. I think that I might be slowing down. Age or relaxation, who knows?

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