No brown bread?

With the sporadic nature of our summer posts to the blog, it's about time to do another! Life has been busy here at the lot, with the excavator building a new driveway, new flower beds and moving car sized rocks all over.  Only Canadians buy ( and not cheaply ) dirt and rocks. Like we don't have enough. Could it be that we are picky about the type? Let me see, dirt from Smith Farm is better than dirt from the Lewis yards.  Lewis rocks are better than the Spooner rocks and gravel. 

Do you remember that when you were pregnant, almost everyone looked pregnant? Or whatever else was happening to you at the time, that is what you would notice with others?  Today we went off to Vernon to the Pantry Restaurant to have a monthly breakfast with our Okanagan Chapter of the Escapee's RV Club.  What do I notice driving around? Signs for quarries, places selling gravel.... must have rocks in my head!  It was a great breakfast with about 20 people showing up at 9:30 am from all over the Okanagan.  However, there was no brown bread for toast as the restaurant had already hosted a group of 80 earlier!!! Speaking of bread, the price of a loaf is about $4 here, so I am back to baking bread. No preservatives, better for you anyway. You just have to restrain yourself from grabbing a slice when it smells so good!

We made a couple of stops on the way home, picking up some perennials, and fresh B.C. fruit: apricots, tomatoes, pickling dills, peaches and blueberries.  The panic was on for the blueberries because our little one ( and his parents and dog, Cooper ) are coming on Thursday!!! Whoo Hoo!!!!
He loves blueberries!!!

We are getting prepared with a kiddie pool, a beach tent for the pool, a new little life jacket and some more goodies. 

The Excavator makes it annual appearance

Whoa, I think we are on the frequent flier ( no, 'digger') list for the Excavating company.  This machine has made an appearance by request at the lot every year for the past 3.  We better be done!  In anticipation of further building structures here, we have widened the upper driveway.  Well, since the machine is here, why not build new flower beds.  Well, since the machine is here, why not build some retaining walls. Well, since the machine is here, why not widen the other driveway. Starting to think we have rocks in our head, as well as buying them to put into the ground.  Who else but Canadians buy rock and dirt?

This is the 'before' picture, even though it was taken in the spring when we returned.  So, not much of the flowers and perennials had grown to any stage.

After we dug up the perennials and before the machine started the BIG DIG.

The start of the dig.  The dump truck is dropping boulders the size of my car.  See those plants next to the excavator treads? Yep, he picked those up with one shovel full and away they went into the side bush.  Ah, they'll live.  Plants seem like they grow on steriods here. hopefully.

How on earth is this ever going to look right?  Of course, the neighbourhood seems friendly because everyone has to drop by and see what the !@#$ you are doing. When he drops the load of rocks it kind of feels like an earthquake, so they all knew.

Donald said to get a picture of this.  When your Iris plants multiply, and they sure do, you have to pull them up and divide them and replant some elsewhere, or at least throw/give some away. This is what we call Extreme Transplanting. No mercy.

Stay tuned. Day 3 pictures tomorrow.

Australian/Saskatoon Visitors

Just when there seems to be nothing to write about, we are crazy around here in the Shuswap.  What fun to have the pleasure of hosting visitors from Adelaide, Australia who are touring Western Canada, cruising to Alaska and visiting the extended family clan with Don's sister and brother in law.  It's too bad that they were only able to stay a couple of nights because after getting to know them, they may not have wanted to miss what started here at the lot the day they left - more on that later!  The weather was hot and humid, but there was a slight chance of rain, so we made a coffee and tea 'station' under the fifth wheel hitch, and that worked quite well. Jeff looks like he is ready to supervise and he would have loved to have seen what is taking place at the lot now!!!  The girls visited the local winery to have a glass of white wine overlooking the lake, with a couple of heritage chickens cooing in the grass around our table.  Jeff wanted to check out the nearest hardware store ( something about tool withdrawal while on vacation ).

 

See the tree trunk behind Jeff? Yep, it was gone later in the day!!!! Stay tuned!!!!!!ARGG ARGGG. Big boy stuff.

Fun in the Shuswap

I have come to the conclusion that summertime will see only sporadic postings to the blog.  It is not that we are run off our feet, only that when we are in one spot, I never feel there is much to write about.  Our rainy weather left us and immediately turned to 35C temperatures and of course, we are not used to that and spent a few days melting.  Yesterday, we didn't put the rig air conditioner on till almost 3 pm, so we must be acclimated.

June was a month of travelling - both out to the island, south to Winfield and north to the Bulkley Valley.  Whew.  The warranty is now over with the 5th wheel, and hopefully we have found and managed to get all issues looked after.  The little blue building is completed on our Shuswap lot, and I have been back to happily quilting. The amount of insulation we had put into the building last fall, is paying off quite well, as it is warm when it needs to be and nice and cool in this weather.

There is no sitting around though = the excavator will be back, to rearrange our 2 driveway entrances, clean up the area in front of the blue studio, dig a flower bed, put rock retaining walls for that bed, and bring in a whole lot of 3/4" crush.  We hopefully will be moving the 5th to a new location on the lot this year. I have been moving large rocks from one side of a driveway entrance, and will be moving plants and more rocks. Fun. (not). I need to eat more spinach.

We are VERY excited to be getting some visitors: Donald's sister, husband,and friends from Australia will be here for 2 nights next week, and the first week of August will see all our little family here. Whoo Hoo! Fun with our grandson.The whole family together.  How many more sleeps???????