CHECKING IN

Well it's October and time I checked in.  As many bloggers will tell you there are times that blogging is more like keeping a personal diary.  Some things may not be interesting to my followers but in years to come, I will know what we did in September 2018.

We have finally finished furnishing all the rooms that we plan to furnish.  We have a games room that is still unfurnished but I did hear someone mention "pooltable".

Naming the rooms of this house is a bit of a problem.  Is it Craft Room or Sewing Room or my office?  Is it family room (we don't have any family here except us) or rec room? We are calling this one the fire place room.

Fireplace room because we can have a real fire here.

We have wildlife.  No not just the crazy cat and she is crazy often.  Smart but crazy.  One night at 3 a.m., we were awoken by a sound on the deck outside our bedroom window.  There were 7 or 8 raccoons out there.  We have deer visit almost daily.

In my sewing (or is it craft) room, I do sewing and craft projects.  For years I have wanted to take up quilting.   I registered for a quilting class but it was cancelled.  With a little prodding from a friend, I explored Youtube and came up with a plan.  I shopped for the materials I needed (holy cow - expensive!) and finished my first project, a table runner.  Not perfect but not bad for a first try.

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Yesterday we had a chance to explore the Summerland Ornamental Gardens.  We have driven by dozens of times.  The gardens did not disappoint.

Fall is about as pretty as spring I would say.

September in a Nutshell

In some ways this has been a very quick month, in others it was long.   Long was because we did a lot in September, short because, well, at this age time does seem to fly by.

First there was moving.  Moving wore us both out more than either of us realized.

Disassembling the recliner

Loading up the motorhome

Even the car was loaded

August and September were harvest months and I don't like anything to go to waste.  Canning and freezing.  We even made prunes.  We did our best to eat all the vegetables and even made grape juice.  Our friend just gave us another box of apples which I will get to tomorrow.

Tomatoes became sauce and canned tomatoes

Peaches became jam, preserves and frozen

Plums became prunes

We made a quick trip to Manitoba to see our daughter Charlette, her husband and their two teenaged sons.  They had just acquired a big dog, Ken, to add to their 3 cats and a rabbit.




In September we were thrilled to find a doctor.  Dr. Mackay 
(pronounced the Scottish way Ma key).  He and his family are not long from Scotland.  He seems like a real go-getter .   He had me going for  blood tests, chest x-rays and I had a trip to the Sleep Clinic (no fun believe me).  I have a follow-up appointment coming up and will have some kind of contraption to help me breath properly.

I was excited to find a quilting class, two mornings a week for the month of October.  And then it was cancelled due to lack of interest.  I will teach myself with the help of YouTube.

Seems strange but suddenly there is wild life all over.  Quail to torment Zoe in the yard.

And deer in the yard to show us that we have to put more fence in if we expect to grown vegetables.  

Not a good picture but that's what you get when you have to run, get the camera and shoot.

We have joined the garden club and went to our second meeting Thursday night.  Seems like a very fun group of men and women.  

Driving home after the garden club meeting we hit a raccoon on the highway.  Sorry guy but hey you cross a highway with a 100 km speed limit after dark chances are....

Strangely enough the following night, there were 7 or 8 raccoons on the deck outside our bedroom.  Doug took a bunch of pictures but we have screens on the windows and not one turned out.  He thinks the raccoons are seeking revenge.

Yesterday I got a tattoo.  Something I have been thinking about for a while.  Neither of us want to grow old so we do things that younger people do.  I chose to memorialize our cat Zoe.  I was amazed that it did not hurt at all.  Not at all.  I am so pleased.  The tattoo artist, a girl, was great. She made the stencil from pictures I shared with her.  The resemblance is unreal.

Monday will be the first day of October.  Let's see what we can get up to then.

A SHORT TRIP - A LONG WAY

We needed to make a short/long trip.  Our daughter who lives in Neepawa, Manitoba bought a new house and we wanted to see it.

So we packed up the motor home and headed out across the prairies.  

We expected to come across one or two wild fires.  We saw the smoking remains of one near Salmo, BC.  The highway seemed to work as a fire break as there were smoldering remains on one side and no evidence of fire on the other.

We spend the first night in an RV park in Fort McLeod and the second in another park in Moose Jaw.

We arrived in Neepawa, saw the house, hung out with the family and stayed in Riverbend Campground where we spend time the year before.

We did not take our car with us so we used theirs for a couple of errands.

And then....

We really, really missed our new house and headed home.

THE NEW HOUSE - We're in!

Monday evening we picked up the key to the new house in Summerland and dropped off a car load of boxes.  Tuesday morning we were on our way by 7:30 am with load after load of belongings.  I drove the car, packed to the rafters.  The motor home made a great moving truck.   We finished about suppertime.  

The next morning, the true moving began.  I had to be at the new house by 8:00 am because the Cable Guy was coming.  Doug rushed back to Penticton to pick up the rental van.  He met with our neighbour, Laura, and her pick up truck.  Together they brought one load each.  The big stuff was done so Laura was off.  Doug and the rental van brought two more loads.  Then we took the rental van back and made a Walmart run for a few needed household things.

The rest of this entry will be pictures with explanations.  Needless to say after 4 days of moving, unpacking and set up, we are exhausted.

The dining room.  The box on the wall above the sideboard is the central air-conditioning.  There is a separate unit in all the upstairs rooms which are independently controlled.

The living room. You can see the motorhome out the window. 

The kitchen.

The kitchen from the dining room.  Love the fact that there is so much counter space for baking and cooking.  The backside of the island is full of deep drawers.  The door beside the stove is a pantry with loads of shelves.

The deck.  Proper deck furniture to be purchased soon.  See the lake in the background

The hot tub is behind the louvered wall

Our bedroom.  Love blue-grey paint.  There is a deck off it too.

In addition there are two more bedrooms, a huge family room and a room that we have decided to call the library.  It will have a huge wall of books and this is the room with the working wood-burning fireplace.  These rooms are not yet furnished but we are working on that.  There is also another full bathroom and a fully kitted out workshop and the garage is also full of cupboards and shelves.

We have met a few neighbours but so far only cats and birds.

A very cool picture of a neighbourhood cat checking us out.

FIRES, FOOD AND FUZZY FRIENDS

Fires, fires, everywhere fires.  We don't see any fires from here but they are close and the smoke is depressing.  We haven't seen the lake for over a week.  We don't have much summer left and we really would like to see the sun.  We do see the sun but we don't recognize it.

The view from the lake on a clear, sunny day

Almost the same view, yesterday

Both Doug and I have developed slight coughs.  I would imagine that older folks and those with breathing issues are having really suffering.  It is still quite warm outside but we cannot open the windows because the smoke comes in.  

The setting sun through the smoke

With just 9 days left at our "summer" house, we are trying to harvest all our fruit and vegetables.  We are both learning the ropes of canning.  We have made jam and juice.

Fuzzy friends you say.  Well you have all met Zoe.  Zoe is part of our little family.

Outside the yard is full of quail chicks.   They are quite illusive and difficult to see in the yard.

It's hard to tell, a few chicks and a couple of parents?

Hard to see

There they are,  quail chicks

The New House

We did it.  We finally found a house to rent.  And it's a beauty.  We can be there for as long as we want.

The house is in Summerland.  Summerland is just across the lake from here.  Funny because the GPS shows it as being 5.1 k from here.  True, but that's almost all the width of the lake.  

Summerland is much smaller than Penticton and mostly residential.  We will continue to do our shopping in Penticton which is just a 20 minute drive.

The house:

From the front

The kitchen

The view from the deck.  There is more of a lake view that this picture shows.

The living room

The living room from the kitchen

The "family room" in the basement.  This fireplace is approved for actual wood burning,

There are a ton of amenities including brand new central air-conditioning, in ground sprinklers, and a hot tub.

In total there are 4 bedrooms and 2 1/2 bathrooms. The garage is all finished with closets and shelves.  There is a shop for whatever projects off the garage.  Doug is free to make as many gardens as he likes.

Yes, I know.  Why would we need a house this big?  Well,

seriously, because it's the Okanagan, there isn't much to rent.  We will eventually build our own home but for now, this is home.

We will continue to travel in our motor home in fact we will be setting out for Manitoba as soon as we are settled.  

By the way, there is still lots of room in our driveway for an RV or two.

ANOTHER MONTH

Wow, August 1st.  Where does the time go?

We THINK we have found another home to rent.  The owners are on holiday and we have been emailing back and forth.  We have not seen the inside but plenty of pictures.  I am not going to jinx it by showing you any pictures.

As soon as we have heard on the house we will start the unenviable job of packing up.  We will be able to use the motor home for a moving truck for boxes.

There are forest fires, now called wild fires, all around us.  Being on the side of the lake and high up we are very safe.  We do get the smoke though.  This morning is relatively smoke-free.  Last night we were in town at our friends' for dinner and the cars were sprinkled in ash.

Smoke makes for interesting sunset

Bits of ash all over our friends' car

We have found a little beach off the beaten track.  The people in the village are very friendly and invite you to join them.  Doug just wants to cool off and go.

We have a whole flock of quail chicks in our back yard.  They are just tiny balls of fluff.

When the fruit and vegetables are ready, I can or freeze them.  There will be a few things that won't be ready until the end of the month and a couple more that we will have to leave.  

We  have some peaches as well but most of them are not ready yet.  The ones that are well, let's just say, there's no need to can or jam them.