Holly Homemaker

Just call me Holly Homemaker.  Not only did I go to the Farmer's Market in Cedar this morning...



I also braved the spiders and spider webs and buggies to hunt for apples in the tree out front! 

(And by braved I mean I put on a jacket that was long sleeved and came up tightly around my neck and whacked at the air and tree limbs with a branch for a couple minutes before I went under the canopy.)

 

Any here? Nope.

How about here? Nope.

 

 

Oh! Here's a bunch! :(

Ugh, and here.  :(

 

 

Found 7 still on the tree -
peel, core, slice, bathe in salt water, repeat

and repeat...and repeat...

 

 



 

woot! woot!  Finally done!

And now we wait for them to freeze.



 

The plan here is : April the fam-damly is coming out.  Both Mum and Sis know how to bake, whereas I don't.  Bwahaahahaaa!  But I know how to eat Apple Crumble and Apple Pie really well!  Bwaahahaaaa!

That wasn't the plan, Stan

Dad came out last week, after a few days fishing salmon by Bamfield.  He had a second trip that fell through so he was at our place.  For days and days.  Which is a lot to take given he's a crazy man.  He does this weird thing where he works and works and works and doesn't take any breaks.  It's practically lethal for the rest of us, but he just powers through everything and gets shit done.

And so it was with this trip too.  He asked for a list of projects.  I came up with a list of projects.  And then I made the mistake of digging out a log that was infested with ants (which was super gross, by the way) and bam-o! we were digging out and levelling an area and laying down bricks to create a patio.  This went on for a couple days before we took a break and went to a few markets in the area, but at soon as we were back home, bam-o! we were back at it.  That wasn't my plan, but it is what it is.

We had a fair amount of bricks the former owners semi-buried in the garden, and then a whole schwack of them along the house extending the skinny pathway.  But the majority of them had mortar on them, so, in the hot hot sun, we rubbed the bricks on the pathway to remove the mortar and then hauled them over to Dad who was levelling the area and laying the bricks.  He had the toughest job, I think, because he was on his hands and knees.  I tried it and got through two rows before my knees gave up and went on strike.

The gazebo frame was already on the lawn, so Dad started building it, and then we all discussed how to get it to not blow away, and then Scott and Dad drilled into the huge concrete block (upon which sat a hot tub in a previous life) and bolted the gazebo to it.  We had to purchase a few more bricks from a guy who dismantled the Grand Hotel, so we have some bricks with "Nanaimo" on them, a few with "Clayburn" and the majority with "Dominion".

I have no idea how many bricks we laid, but that last 100 only did a row or so, and there's quite a few rows.  The dust!  The dirt!  The hot sun!  Ugh.  I will not be repeating that experience any time soon, that's for sure.  We did enjoy local corn, steaks, chicken wings, potatoes, salad, ice cream, Jamaican ginger ale, ginger snaps, date squares, coconut balls, ice cream, and black berries in between all the work, so it wasn't all bad.

Et voilà!  The process and the result, for your viewing pleasure!

 

 

 

Jiggidy Jig

I took off at the start of August, and here it is close to the end of August already!  Where did the time go? 
I went to Langley, Red Deer, Calgary, back to Red Deer, back to Calgary, over to Victoria, and back up to Nanaimo.  Whew!  I guess that's where the time went.

While I was gone, Scott and Dad built the shelves in the basement, got a freezer, put in the pump/fountain in the pond....well, a lot of stuff really.  I played with my niece and nephew, hung out with friends and family, and ate a lot of good food.  I even managed to squeeze in a couple client meetings.  I missed out on Harrison & Sunny's visit here on the Island, and I didn't see everyone I wanted to see when I was in Alberta, but I did not a bad job of fitting in as much as possible, if I do say so myself.

I had put in my request to have gnomes come and clean up the studio and put everything away, but I see they didn't bother coming over.  Bah humbug.  I guess I know what my next job is, don't I?

Before I left I managed to get my technical administration website changed over to Wordpress, so if you wonder from time to time, "WTH does Michelle do?" you can check it out at www.kennedyink.ca.

-shell

although delayed, it was a pretty flight into Victoria yesterday