DECEMBER 10 , 2019

 Where has this year gone.

This is what I need.

The pile od sawdust at the mill has gotten out of hand.

I took my trailer and loaded it about 40 times with the bobcat .

The pile has been moved to a cliff in the back 40 of the mill yard.

I also finished my new deck and pergola this week.

Ruth managed to stain this section before the weather turned cold.

We'll have to do the rest in the spring .

DECEMBER 8TH, 2020

 We had a taste of winter three weeks ago but the last two weeks have been quite warm.

Daily temps are usually around 5 degrees.

No need for Mexico this winter.

Carrie and I put up Christmas lights last week.

There is something about Christmas lights that make everything feel Magical.

We are getting these guys living on the property now.

I'm not sure but I think these were the one's that were born in our back forty last spring.

It's Ellie's birthday on Sunday so Ruth baked the traditional Angle Food Cake.

We've never seen one puff up like this one before.

The birthday celebrations included a nice brisk walk down the rail trail.

Brad introduces the latest member into our family last week.

This is 2 pound Sarah who when full grown will weigh 4 pounds.

The kids love her to death. She is cute.

It took about 45 minutes to do our hike.

it was a very nice afternoon.

Ellie was cold so she put on a mask.

I managed to get everyone in the picture as Ellie opened her presents.

She cleaned up in the present department.

Ellie is a real party girl. Just like her Nona.

She had a great day.

This blog is a catch-up blog to November

We're planning on doing renovations to our house to make it a little more comfortable.

We did a lot of renovations since we bought it but there’s more to come.

I’ve just installed New French doors at both ends of the great room.

Next job is to rebuild the deck on the front of the house. I’ve just completed the first section.

I taught Jack how to make apple pies. It’s his favourite so we made half a dozen small ones.

They turned out perfect.

The biggest problem with the log home is the wasps moving to every small crack and cranny.

 It’s an ongoing job to get rid of them.

This was my September haircut. 

I look so cool.

September is peach season and our friend has an orchard. 

I loaded up on wonderful, juicy, tasty and ripe peaches.

I love making pies. 

Actually, I love eating pies more than making them.

The pastry I make is done the French way. all butter. Yumm.

They tasted as good as they look. No wonder I’m gaining weight.

We live in a beautiful place.

September was the cabbage rolls month. We ate alot of these, and Ruth show me a new way to break the cabbage leaves apart which made it easy to roll up with a stuffing.

We did a camping trip on the island with friends that we met in Zihuatanejo.

 They live in Victoria and invited us out to camp for a week on the island with them. 

It was a lot of fun.

Our campsite was across the gravel road from them and I hung our Mexico Hamic’s for us to hang out in.

We took turns having dinner at our campsite. It was a nice week.

I love our little bus. I can never be too comfortable.

These guys are professional campers. They had a nice set up with all the amenities. 

We learned a lot from them this week on how to relax. That was interesting.

The elk on Vancouver Island are huge. 

Too bad it wasn’t how do you season or we will be set up for the winter.

This is what a motley Crue looks like. We laughed a lot this week.

In September I came out to help Carrie pull her boat out of the water for the winter. 

It was quite an adventure. 

She had to go in through neck to push it onto the trailer as I drove it out. 

We sure laughed.

Ruth thought it would be nice to build the deck across the front of the house.

 I had to move the cover over the hot tub as well as the hot tub.

 It was too heavy to lift but I figured out a way to do it using the tractor.

I also took the windows out of the front of the great room, Cut some logs out and put in an overhead beam and some support beams before I could install a new set of French doors and two small windows.

 It changed the total ambiance of our living room.

We’re still happy that we decided to continue all the way across the front of the house.

Building the foundation for the deck.

This is about the time that I started wondering why I take on such crazy projects. 

While starting the deck we decided to do the sidewalk at Carries.  

 

This sure beats the paving stones we put down after we built the house. 

 

we are getting a lot of these guys coming around lately. It’s the true sign of winter coming. 

This is late September and the raspberry bushes are still supplying us with fresh fruit. 

It took about 10 minutes to pick this lot. 

Ruth planted these raspberry plants along our driveway last year and

 I’m guessing we got over 75 pounds fron them this year. 

I'm picking up the post and beams from the mill for our pergola. 

They hung out the back of the truck more than I liked. 

I still managed to get them home without a ticket or accident. 

This says it all. 

Beams home and ready to start assembling the pergola. 

I love my new BBQ. Thanks Ruth. 

We did the ride around the lake with our friends who lived on their boat

 in the Caribbean for the last four years.

 They are back and full of exciting stories.