Ptooties, Shopping, Lining Things Up

The Ridge

On Friday, April 11th, we had a somewhat busy day planned.  I slept until 7:30 and that felt good. We woke up to a new covering of snow, crap! We had our breakfast together and after a bit of cleanup we drove to Murray's to pick up Ptooties.

Good morning!
It was wet & a bit white overnight,
but dried up soon enough.

I've missed my wheels and always relish in the freedom I get when she is out of storage. 😁 Murray has sold his farm so we will need to be looking for a new storage facility next winter. We'll pick up Jazz once the weather warms up a bit. 

There she is!
All ready to come home.

We parted ways from there and I drove in to Hanover to check on my laptop, pop into the BMO for M and then get groceries.  Our list was long! Bottom line in my laptop is that it is toast. It's my own fault and we both expected it. 

Murray's dog, Daisy.
Love how she sits patiently.

So, I picked one at Healthy Computers, I called it Superior Computers yesterday by mistake, and left Adam to transfer data from my old hard drive.  Yay, my pictures will be saved. He is also backing everything up on my external hard drive for me too.

The birds are loving the seed.
We had a Blue Jay, Mourning Dove,
Chickadees and Grackles with their
young'uns.

Groceries were not bad and we are now fully stocked on meat for many meals. It was around 1 when I returned home and we were both hungry for lunch. Walmart here doesn't carry any of the keto bread that I can get in the states, bummer, so I will be cutting back on sandwiches again. 😉

The clouds are heavy,
just hovering this evening.

Bill had his own errands when he returned ahead of me. He stopped in town to pick up our Catch the Ace tickets and to chat with Jay at Impact Tire. The afternoon turned cloudy after a beautiful sunny morning. Just a few murre days, we hope. 

Things are happening here for me. Robin needs me to clean the air bnb tomorrow, I'll clean the Mat Monday and help M out with some paperwork as well. Cash flow again! Yay! That will help with my laptop expenditure. 

Lunch was late and so will supper be. We went to the Curling Club for 6 on to watch the draw with fingers crossed.  We've been buying a ticket each week for Catch the Ace, it's a chance for some $$ and supports the local Lions Club.😁 It is a good social outing too.

Yummy, fries.

No luck tonight but we had a nice hour out and met a few more locals. Fish and chips for supper and a quiet evening at home. Supper was very good and I even pigged out on the fries. The heavy clouds seemed to be lowering the boom on the horizon tonight but it made for a pretty picture. We had a great day, taking strides in getting settled in. We reached 6C/43F at today's peak and it was a good day for doing what we needed.

Good evening!

Thank you for your visit. 

Winter - Not Over Yet?

The Ridge

On Thursday, April 10th I was able to sleep in a bit more than yesterday. I didn't hear the boys get up at 6 and didn't get up myself until almost 7:30. We stayed up and watched Survivor and The Floor until 11 so that's my excuse. Once I start back cleaning the Mat, that will change. 

Good morning!
A sentiment above that I'm sure we 
all share here in Ontario.

Speaking of which, it will either be Sunday or Monday.  I'm waiting to hear back from Sandy and just have to decide if I want to do laundry the same day. We had our breakfast and showers, now that water was flowing. 😁 We are quite joyful for something we took for granted. 

We puttered around this morning

Bill dragged the water bladder, which slept indoors last night, (with now water instead of ice) outside and emptied the 9 gallons into the tank. It was a cloudy day, the sun had no hope of being a part of our day.  Darn. 

Black Beauty isn't so clean anymore.
We must be home!

We went outside and did some more puttering, emptying some patio furniture from the Bunky. Bill lit a fire to burn some junk mail and purged bank papers. There will be more purging over the coming days when I get to it but it won't be burnable. LOL

A little warmth from burning
on a chilly day

As cold as it is, the snow is still going away, bit by bit. Gibbs is wondering where the white stuff has gone and runs to those few patches left on the berm. The pond has thawed again.  

A Chickadee and Red-winged Blackbird
are thankful for my efforts

I filled a bird feeder after cleaning up a mouse mess in the Bunky.  Only droppings so far, I haven't seen anything eaten. They couldn't get into the bird seed pail because I'm smarter than they are! I hope not to find any nests behind wall art as I did last year.

A few spatters on the window
as we approached Hanover

After lunch, we just lazed until it was time to get ready for our meal out.  I did finish my book though, another good read. ☺️ I have chosen my next one, a Louise Penny story called A Better Man. I like her Inspector Gamache mysteries. We all left the house before 4. I had Donna and Gerry's 'thank you' gift (I forgot a picture!) for collecting our mail, some puzzles, a book for her and my laptop.

Supper was delicious, Donna!

First stop was at Superior Computers downtown Hanover. After 2 months, I wanted to see if they could do anything with my Lenovo laptop. At the very least, I hoped for the retrieval of my pictures because NO, I didn't have them all backed up. We were at my sisters by 4:30 and it was good to see them again. They loved their new sign and will find a good spot for it, I'm sure. We were eating Donna's lasagna before 6 and were stuffed to the brim after her apple cake with ice cream for dessert. Yum! and I didn't have to cook!

Our Chapman's ice cream is equivalent
to Tillamook in the southwest.
Creamy and yummy.

We continued visiting and had a good time. Gibbs was being his normal excited self when we first arrived and kept insisting that his Auntie Donna had something tucked in her magazine rack beside her chair. The little bum remembered from our visit last fall (?) that she had a ball in there for him to play with. They are so smart! 💘 He had no problem jumping up on their couch all evening. 

It was after 8 when we said our goodbyes, for now, and headed home. There had been some snowfall but it was light, at least.

While we ate supper,
this good little boy lay on the floor between
Mom and Daddy

He's totally relaxed. 💕💕
He whined on the drive over but
was quiet as a mouse on the way home.

This was a good day, with a few more things taken care of. We reached 3C/38F and that wasn't too bad for not having any sun BUT this is April and we all expect better than this! I hope you had a good day too.

A spooky moon in a blurred photo.
There was a skiff of snow on our stoop steps
but that is all it amounted to tonight.
Good night!

Thank you for stopping by.

 

All is Well, Fun at the Auction

The Ridge 

On Wednesday, Apr. 9th I was up before 7. Bill asked Gibbs when we came downstairs if he got Mom up early. But, no, it was me who woke him up to get started on our day. 😊 We'd left the furnace on last night in the hopes of warming up the basement and the water tank. That was out of the norm, so it was warmer upstairs than we're used to. Regardless, we both slept well and then Bill informed me that the water still was not yet flowing. 

Good morning!
Doesn't this look like a Christmas card?
It was yesterday morning's picture
looking east.

This was last night's sunset

This was what Bill did yesterday,
only about 10 times!

We had our breakfast, checked the weather forecast for the day and basically watched the snow disappear. Yay! It was a cold night again, -9C/16F, but today would be about 10° warmer than yesterday and that in itself was a bonus! Another bonus was being up before the sun rose so I got a few pictures (too many!) of the sunrise. First one on the Ridge this year. 😍

This was this morning,
much nicer.

Bill went to town to get a bottle of propane filled and 2 bottles of drinking water. When he returned, he got the mailbox out of the Bunky and set it up for mail delivery. What did I do? Well, mostly I stayed inside and did nothing. Bill didn't need help outside and there wasn't much to do indoors. Reading was the order of my morning. Being lazy. I bundled up and went out for a walk down the lane with Gibbs before coming in for my mid morning coffee.

The pond in various areas
has frozen over

Since the snow was disappearing, Bill went out to check the water bladder in the back of BB and the ice that had formed yesterday was still there. Ingenious as he is, his plan of heating it with our electric heater didn't quite do the job. It helped but there was a still a chunk of ice inside. We were able to get some water out of the bladder, enough to fill a couple of pails to bring inside for flushing the toilet and heating to wash with.

Next door, Dot and Gord were having their roof
done.
7 guys and they were done by 6:30.

The best news of the day was when Bill flipped the kitchen tap on and water came out! That meant we were home free since that was our last really, really cold night! We still chose to use up the water he brought in but remained diligent with checking the tap every so often to keep the flow going. 😌 What a blessing! 

Beside Bill's Hangar,
I stepped on some ice and was surprised
at it's thickness in just one night.

Lunch was grilled cheese and then we left Gibbs in charge and took a drive for a couple of errands. First to Priceville post office to start mail service again, second to Foodland in Durham for a loaf of bread and some lottery tickets, third to 6 & 6 Auction site on Hwy 6. The online auction runs from Monday to Friday and we wanted to take a gander around at a few of the items offered. It is always fun to see things in person and we weren't the only ones! It was quite busy. 

Our afternoon drive
Top left corner is one of my favourite trees
before it gets it leaves.

Back home, Bill snoozed upstairs, Gibbs snoozed downstairs in my recliner while I curled up in Bill's recliner and read chapter after chapter of my book. It is so good and I'm so close to the last page! For supper, I fried our bacon, cheeseburgers and warmed the buns. On the side, we finished up the last of the salad (a lot of 'lasts' this week for sure!) and it was a very tasty, filling meal. I can't take the honoured name of Burger Queen here in the household, but my burgers were very good too! 💕

The lot at the auction house was full
of equipment and the building inside was
jammed as well.

Nancy, know any horse people? 😃
BillThere are a lot of saddles in this sale.

We followed her part way up the lane
before she flew off

Bill cleaned up the fry pan and metal utensils while I started my blog. Tonight is Survivor and we'll share that entertainment together. The competitive 'games' always have us on the edge of our seat and the Tribal Council has us biting our nails in suspense. I wonder who will go home tonight!? 

Tonight's supper.

Today has been a bit windy and there have been a few flurries but nothing that remained on the ground. We reached a better high of 1.6C/34F so above freezing at least. It was a good day!

Bill got our mailbox set up

We got rid of a lot of snow today.
Good night!

Thank you for your visit.

An Inside Day, Snowbunny Gibbs!

The Ridge

On Tuesday, April 8th it was to another 'unfortunate' surprise that we woke up to. I slept in until 7:30 (!) although I did wake up when I heard Bill and Gibbs getting up at 6:15. Bill was out and in a couple of times and informed me as I got up that we had no water. Well, isn't that fun? You think you do things right but some of the water in our fresh tank has frozen. It is probably the very bottom near the exit point but for now, we will be living like Eskimos. 😕

Good morning!
Last night, Gibbs was exhausted.

It wasn't full, so there should be no concerns about the tank being damaged. We've decided to leave the furnace on all day, rather than using our other sources of heat like we did yesterday. Gibbs and Bill, mostly Bill, went out 7 or 8 or more times to gather snow in a pail to melt on the stove. This would enable us to flush the toilet and wash throughout the day. The temperature for today will not get much, if any, better than -6C/20F and another -9C.16F overnight. 

The pond's edge was frozen
Shadows on the berm.

Other than that, we are plenty warm and although a bit discouraged that we can't be out doing stuff, we are quite fine. The sun is peeking through the clouds periodically but mostly a gray blanket hangs over our heads. We just relaxed for the morning, doing a few things online and biding our time. We had our sandwiches for lunch continued to monitor the water situation. When Bill got the bladder filled at Pat's on Sunday, there was more than we needed so at least we have more to use if necessary - from that source.

My Eskimos
looking for 'clean' snow.

Bill needed something to do so while I started today's post, he got out our portable file cabinet and began purging files. There isn't much point in me going through the book/dvd cupboard at this stage since there is no room in the Bunky to take the overflow. I'll just bide my time and either do more quilling or sorting through clothes. Joanne, my niece, has invited me, among others, to our Spring Clothing Exchange on May 3rd, so I have an outlet for clothes, at least. 😃 I already have a bag started.

It isn't Bill or I, but
we have a snow bunny in the house.

I think he is having fun,
don't you?

Turns out, all I did was start my blog post, read and watch YouTube videos upstairs. I tried to have a snooze when my eyes got heavy but that just isn't me so it didn't work. 💁I came down around 5:45 to start supper. It was a better plan, at least a better meal, than yesterday and I knew it wouldn't take too long to prepare. My sister, Donna, called to check on us and invite us over on Thursday, so that will be nice, giving us each a chance to catch up on the winter happenings.

Upstairs, there was some play time
Left picture: his little butt is in the air.
Top right: there's a puppy dog under that blanket.
Bottom right: sound asleep with a tummy rub
(& full exposure!)

Supper was fried chops, cheese rice , corn for Bill and more squash for me. Yum, it was good. The chops were quite thin so frying them was the best option. We did dishes with melted snow heated on the stove. It feels very pioneer-ish. 😄 I finished my blog while we ate another ice cream cone from the freezer. That shows how we are bearing the cold........it is toasty in the Suite as we are trying to thaw that water!

The clouds are moving on.

This has been a fine day and now you know who in the family loves the snow. He is so funny and had a wonderful time before crashing on the bed with Mom. The afternoon reached the forecasted high of 5C/24F and the beautiful sun filled the sky. I hope you had a great day.

Supper was good.
Good night!

Thank you for checking us out and for all your comments. I try to answer them so if you had a query, please refer back to the previous blog.

A Joke or Christmas?

The Ridge

On Monday, April 7th there was nothing going on and that felt great. Of course, we would get outside and do what we could and I would tidy up inside. 

Good morning!
These are last night's pictures.
Top right: reflections behind Bill's
Hangar are in laying water in the fields.

The sky was clear, and although I missed the sunrise, it looked like it might be a decent day.  Until we checked the forecast, that is. Rain, snow mix by early afternoon. Yeuch! No surprise though, we knew that before we left Ohio.

Gibbs still loves to look outside
Whatever is he thinking?

I wanted to vacuum but Bill suggested waiting until we were done with the 'in/out' business over the next few days. He didn't want to have to remove shoes, methinks, so I agreed and just used my Norwex mop today. 👍The floors were driving me nuts.

Mother Goose has a nest
Lots of water everywhere

We all went outside for a while and I picked up some downed branches as Bill puttered, straightening things up in and around the Hangar. No point in bringing stuff out of the Bunky yet, with snow on the way, but he did pull our firepit out. We often have sticks, cardboard and junk mail to burn. 

My garden is ready for some sunshine
Along the fence line it's nice to see the
plants showing some life.

After lunch, golden mushroom soup and toast, Bill and Gibbs went upstairs for a snooze. We chatted with Marilynne to let her know we are home and yesterday had a nice call from daughter #3, Krystal to catch up. 💕

Is someone happy?

I needed to do something so drug out my paper quilling and started creating.  I'm not great at coming up with ideas but I just let it go wild, starting with making a tree from my kit. Well, not much wildness, but I had fun just puttering away for a couple of hours. I did finish a pair of earrings that broke after a class last winter. 🤗

A family outing.

There's the Suite up there on the hill.
Across the fence into the neighbour's front
field, it is a lake. Yeuch!

My afternoon - I quilled a lot

Gerry showed up around 5 with our mail from the winter. He and Donna collect it for us and he was in the area. Thanks Gerry! At 1:30, things turned white outside. Crap! It WAS a lovely start to the day at least!

Pictures from around the property.
Goose the Spruce in the bottom left corner.
Huge and healthy.

Gibbs didn't waste time outside today, doing his business, a nose poke in the snow and back inside. What is that, Mom? 🤣  For supper, we went simple, since we won't be doing any shopping until Friday. Toasted bacon, cheese and tomato sandwiches. Yum!

Tasty and it filled us. Bill had
2, cleaned up the tomato.

Our programs are on tonight so NCIS and NCIS:Origins will keep our attention until my bedtime at least. We are toasty warm in here with two heaters going. Some propane and some electricity being used. It's working. We called our insurance company to reinstate Ptooties and called Murray to have her out and ready for pickup from storage on Friday.  The bad weather should be done by them. 🤞🤞

No words.
Well, maybe a few
HURRY UP AND GET IT OUT OF YOUR SYSTEM!
good night!

It was a great morning and a fine afternoon in the comfort of our own home. It says we reached 5C/40F this afternoon but I'm sure it was colder than that with the winds. A low of -9C/15F tonight so we'll be cuddling up. 💕

Thank you for popping by!