back to normal life????

We are back to the big house and what you would think would be routine, but with my big project at work, I am putting in 12+ hour days.  We flew home on Tuesday morning at 7 am out of Vancouver and I was back at work at 10:30 am!  Donald's big chore is getting the RV ready to put into storage this week.  We have a place lined up so that is a relief.  Storage places are hard to come by here.  He went and helped our friend, Lorne, winterize his unit today.  Lorne bought this RV this summer, his first, and was unsure how to winterize. He bought a Bigfoot travel trailer, which is one of those fiberglass units. Easy and light to pull, resells great. The kids ( the newleyweds ) called tonight to let us know that my parents got safely on Westjet to go back to Toronto this morning and that they, the newleyweds, are now ready to go back to work after the busy wedding time!  They also got matching tattoos of their wedding date! Ok - Donald and I have a cross stitch picture with our wedding date and the kids have tattoos. I could make some crack about both having needles but I will let it rest..... they are super happy!

The new Mr and Mrs

 

Here they are - our son and his new bride!  A lovely church ceremony, picture taking at Beacon Park in Victoria and a small reception at the Bride's parents home.

We are now in Victoria .....

We are here in Victoria and enjoying the lovely warm day.  Kim's parents flew in from Toronto with no problems, except her Dad has a very sore knee, which is being iced up as this is written ( you know RICE: Rest, Ice, Compression and Elavation ) We also made a stop at Moore's Mens Wear to get a beautiful new summerweight suit for Donald.  Very flashy !  Our son, friends and his brother are enjoying his "stag" tonight.  I do not think we will hear from them till Friday night dinner, which we are hosting at a restaurant downtown.  Perhaps we will do some driving around the Victoria area, tourist style.  It is always a small world - our son is marrying a Victoria BC girl, and Kim's family is from Toronto, and it turns out Keira is working as a Dental Assistant in a clinic owned by Kim's 3rd cousin.  And the other cool thing today, was that we went into the tiny wee airport boarding room in Smithers BC ( northern British Columbia ) and there sitting is actor Tom Skerritt, who was in our area fly fishing.  YOu might remember him from the movie " A River Runs Through It" which featured fly fishing... had Brad Pitt in it....yadda yadda..Pictures tomorrow.

Soon to be Mr.and Mrs.

 Engagement Picture!

The wedding this weekend is of our oldest son, Nathan, and the love of his life, Keira.  This engagement picture is taken from near their home in Colwood ( near Victoria BC ).  I do not know how they got the dogs to stay still long enough as they are both still puppies!

a whirlwind of plans

the plans are getting frantic for the weekend in Victoria.  Kims' parents from Toronto and ourselves are staying at a lovely B and B ( no time to take the RV there - the ferry would be costly too! ) and dinner plans for Friday have been made, and High Tea at the Empress on Sunday. Oh yes - and of course the wedding is on Saturday! Now, we just have to finish packing.  Donald seems to think he will have trouble with the airport security guards with his Vinetarta cake - we will see.  His sister, Elizabeth has taken Vinetarta a few times when she has flown.  Friends of ours always take a big frozen home grown turkey, so I say we chance it! When we get to Victoria, we will have to find some kind of "topper" for the cake- this is not the wedding cake, so it can be a fun/weird/wacky topper.  Any suggestions?

wedding lists and chores

Vinetarta in progress

Whew! We are going like crazy trying to get things organized for our trip to Victoria ( BC ) and our oldest son's wedding.  Work for me is 11 - 16 hours a day as we have a major project under way and then trying to clean the big house for the house/pet sitter.. and it goes on.  Our youngest son moved out this week - only a block and a half away LOL! He left a few messes to clean and that is on today's list. He has decided to live in a rented house with 3 other young hardworking men, and that's ok. " Mom: if I don't like living with these guys can I come back? Yes.  Mom: When I go to school in Burnaby, it will be tough paying rent there and here, can I move back? Yes. Dad: Can I use your truck to move stuff? Ok then, I guess I will move out".  It is good to have a safe home base! He just turned 20, and did spend a year away already on his own at University, so he will be fine.  I only wanted to know if they had a washer and dryer - and yes they do - hooray!
   Donald's family on his mothers' side is Icelandic - and every special occasion like Christmas, an Icelandic cake is made.  It used to be made by his Mom, and then his adult sisters, and now he has joined in.  The cake is called Vinaterta. Apparently, the more layers you make, the more accomplished? you are. I think his sisters have made 5 and 6 layers, and Donald made 6 layers yesterday.  His 26 year old nephew last Christmas made 7 layers so I don't know if this is going to be bested or not - way to go Sean!  The cake is a shortbread/cookie type layer with a filling made of prunes, cinnamon, cardomom and other spices.  It has to sit for some time so that the cookie type layer becomes moist from the filling.  Then, it is iced using a white butter frosting.  It is cut into very small pieces to eat.  One of my co workers was married in Manitoba, and this was her wedding cake. It is extremely good!!! We will take the cake to Victoria for the wedding rehearsal night. - we didn't send it ahead, as we mailed one last Christmas to Victoria, and at 5lbs plus packing, it cost a pretty penny!

see you next season to a great park

 

View out the rear RV window at our site

The nearest Provincial Park closed this week on the 15th.  So, we were probably the last visitors to the park when we left Monday afternoon.  There are still many RV tourists passing through our area, but the Provincial Parks are managed by a commercial operator and this company feels it is not worth the effort to stay open past the 15th.  That is a shame - the weather can be beautiful and last weekend there were at least 20 units per night in the 52 spaces available.  The staff working there thought it was a shame as well. There are 2 bears in the park right now though! Donald saw the young black bear when he pulled in on Saturday.  The young one has been pulling down all the saskatoon trees to get at the berries at the top. The trees are down all over the place and he is not even eating all the berries as they are all over the roadways as well.  The staff were spending lots of time going up and down the roads with equipment to clean up behind him. The old big black bear mostly stays on the perimeter and away from people. I had my camera at the ready, but the young one did not come by our site - he had already pushed down all the saskatoons near our site and we were talking and listening to CBC radio outside.

View out the dinette window

By the way, we are "bear aware" having lived in Jasper, Alberta for 20 some years and then here. We are careful!

last weekend?

In Northern B.C. it starts to get chilly pretty fast come September. We usually have to quit RV'ing in our area about the third weekend. So, we did go out this past weekend to the local Provincial Park, and Saturday night was so warm we had the windows open for sleeping - most unusual! We could go this coming weekend, but we are in countdown mode for our oldest son's wedding and the 'TO DO' lists are daunting. So, we will have to see how much we can get done during the week. Our son seems to be taking it in stride - he was sailing last weekend and hopes to be in a sail race this weekend. I asked him if there were things to do for the wedding " Not much to do, Mom" - hmmm just wait til his mum gets there!

Beeping Chickens

I thought this picture was soothing - it is Madge Lake Saskatchewan, where the family cottage is. I must admit - I love every day that comes and we're generally happy people but this was a crazy day at work so I was glad to get home! We were going to head out in the RV tonight to the lake closest to us, and then I would go into work for 5 hours or so in the morning, but it's pouring rain, so we stayed home tonight and we'll make a decision in the morning. Donald decided to experiment and make beer can chicken for dinner - with his own secret "rub". It is a serious undertaking - he has his own digital meat thermometer for his own use. I use the old fashioned stick it in and look at where the red needle goes kind. After using tech equipment all day long, I don't need anything else beeping at me and flashing words I can hardly see - especially about a chicken - Ha!

Fall chores

As the weather turns cooler, chores await! Yuck. We still live in the big house as I am working, so yesterday I started making the 'minor' list of chores and the 'major' list of chores. The minor chores are the regular around the house things - the major chores are the things that we should/must do before we sell the house. New countertops for the kitchen;paint the kitchen; painting the laundry room, 3 of the bedrooms and one of the bathrooms; ripping out carpet for laminate in the den.... you know how it goes. We also have the last 1/3 of the back deck to complete and a new front door to purchase and install. Donald said he was so busy today, he was leaving a room, closed the room door with his foot as his hands were full and neglected to see the cat and the door hit the cat in the head. She's fine! We just like our animals so that was a little bit of trauma. Oh yes, and we are getting ready for #1 son wedding at the end of the month. Ah - we look forward to tomorrow and heading back out to the serenity of the lake in the RV.

A Fellow B.C. Blogger orders Rain - its ok!

Even though we had a big weekend planned to RV at the local Provincial Park, we did get that rain that was forecast. It was badly needed, and it is always soothing to listen to the rain on the RV and read a really good book. I am making my way through Wilbur Smith's books at the present. We did take in the Farmers Market Saturday morning and napped through some of the downpour in the afternoon. A local group, The Trainwrecks were playing at the market - they were very entertaining. Next weekend some of our gang are playing. Sunday was a beautiful day, with some of the gang kayaking on the very calm lake. We had a lovely potluck dinner together that evening with lots of laughs, cuban cigars and some scotch around the campfire. This summer, most of the province had a campfire ban, so that was something that we all had missed. I don't miss the campfire smell in our clothes!

May LW: Tyhee September LW: Tyhee

Tyhee Lake Provincial Park is only a 10 minute drive from home. The gang always starts the summer season on Victoria Day weekend at this park, because being so close to home you can run home for whatever you forgot to pack into the RV. This year, there were no leaves on the trees and it was quite chilly - the furnace ran lots in the RV. But, as you can see, we still BBQ and there is a little bottle of sha - la -la to make a pretty special coffee to keep warm. We camp there on the September Labour Day weekend to take advantage of the Farmers Market in town on Saturday. There used to be teenagers to keep track of as well on those weekends, but as of this year, the gang no longer has any teenager at home to worry? about. I don't know if that's a good thing or not, but life proceeds on. We all have good kids/young adults so the problem was not with the kids, but rather with us as slightly? overprotective and involved parents. And as some have remarked in the last couple of days, that's a good thing. So, here's to another weekend at Tyhee and some fun around the campfire! ( ok - you're going to ask what sha - la - la is? That's what we called a coffee liquor when are kids were little - I don't know why!)

September and THE Corn Roast

We won't be there this year, but last September Donald and I flew to Toronto to visit my parents and go to the family reunion and THE Corn Roast. Why is it so special? Well, a sunny Sunday afternoon, a couple of hundred people ( mostly family ), fresh corn, potluck, live music and best of all it's held on a family farm just outside the Greater Toronto Area. ( One of the largest farms outside of Toronto, still owned by family ). There were games, a corn maze, good laughs, catching up with relatives I had not seen since I was in elementary school, visiting the cows at milking time and listening to some really good country music played by family and friends.OHHH and that fresh corn picked minutes before being put into the big boiling bags and into the huge pots. What could be better. The interesting thing, was that most of the talk around our little group area was about Rv'ing! Many of the first cousins ( to my mother ) are retired and most belong to the same RV Club as my parents and travel south for the winter. So, even though you haven't see relatives for a long time or perhaps never met them as in the case of Donald, if the conversation is about RV's there is lots to discuss. Have a great time this Sunday to those family and friends attending!!!!!!

rv blog of the month???

Hey - not too often I do this, but I had a look at Sitemeter to check some stats, and noticed in the referrals that some hits were coming from Hitch Itch ( thanks guys! ) and from rvresources.com. I had a look at that particular site and it seems were are RV Bloggers of the Month. Who knew! Thanks rvresources! Now I feel this heavy pressure to write something extraordinary. Not. Life for us is just day by day normal with a love of the rv lifestyle. If we can encourage others to enjoy the same pursuits, or perhaps visit some of the great places we have managed to see in our area, well, I am happy with that. I read other fantastic blogs for the same reasons. My BFF called tonight ( she of the turning 50 and the pink dress and other strange clothing - see earlier August blog ) to arrange the next 3 weekends of RV'ing. Those rv'ers in the Hardwall Hippy group who are in the teaching community are back to work this week in anticipation of those students starting back on the 8th, so they will only have weekends off now. That's ok - we will stick close to the area, having our short times away from home and potlucking our gourmet meal on the Saturday nights. We have some lovely Coho in our freezer, thanks to our youngest son, that will bbq up nicely!
Photo: checking out Elizabeth Lake Forest Service ( BC ) Site - 3 RV sites, very private, dock, looks like a great lake to Kayak on.

take the hints and helps from other rv'ers

Last time we were at this dumping station, the fellow behind us advised that the pavement was sloping the wrong way, and that this pavement movement had been happening for a while. We had already commenced our dumping at the time as we were ahead of him. We watched afterwards when he put some big boards under his further tires to lift up the one side. This time, we managed to take his advice and put at least 4 - 5 inches of board height on the opposite wheels to tilt the rv towards the drain. Worked great. This is always a busy dumping station during the summer as : 1) the scenery is spectacular 2) the station is set up great for getting in and out 3) lots of room to park afterwards 4) fantastic info centre on site 5) usually some vendors selling vegetables, fruit or fast food. We always like to take a look at the other RV's there - and sure enough HUGE fifth wheels ( Presidential ). One of them was being pulled by a Freightliner M2. There were about 7 units parked there, and most of them had a yellow number on them, so likely it was a caravan group coming back from an Alaska trip. Have fun guys!
( FYI: the dump site is Hazelton, BC )