Changes in a Day, Last 'Summer' Day, Packing the Garden

The Ridge

On Monday, Oct. 6th I woke up from a dream-filled sleep. It was 4:45 when I first became awake enough to realize that Bill was no longer in bed. The bathroom light was on so that isn't unusual for him, but when I spoke to him, he said he was wide awake.🤭 Oh dear, that is because of his early bedtime.

Good morning, Daddy.
This is a cuter picture than
I first thought.

Bill is one who needs only about 6 hours of sleep. I need about 8. He would like more sometimes but can function perfectly fine for 12 - 15 hours. It's why he usually naps in the afternoon or early evening and I don't. So, he left for work at his normal 6:45 and I was, by then, up as well and wide awake.

After Bill left, I watched
the sky unfold out the back
window.

Thinking it was a quiet, at home, day went by the wayside when at 8:45 Robin messaged to see if I could clean today for her. She had a last minute booking. All I was going to do was set out a dog crate on her 'sales' step and putter around home, so of course, I said yes. Gibbs and I went and did that around 8.

Now, most bright colours are gone
but it is still a pretty picture going
down Baptist Church Road.

Bill and I have been talking about a couple of dining chairs for our new Suite set up, instead of the folding ones under the bed. In Robin's market shed, she had 3 identical wooden ones in good condition. I messaged about price for 2 and ended up bringing them home. 😀

I love it when a plan comes together.
I didn't even know Robin had chairs
and they are perfect for us!

They look perfect! Bill agrees, the cost was ridiculous! FREE! She says I help her so much that she doesn't want anything for them. She does that a lot! 💕 At 10:45, I was back on the road heading to Williamsford. It was a 2 hour job, 1 1/2 in the house, so that extra $40 will add to my account.

Our recycle and garbage was picked
up way earlier than normal but the 
big bin now means it gets rolled down and
up our lane.
Bill did the morning drop,
I did the afternoon pick up.
Gibbs wasn't fooled when I mentioned
'getting the mail'.
He knows they're on strike!

The chairs are indeed a great fit, so I put foot pads on the legs and tied seat cushions to the back rails. I was going to use one of Mom's high back wooden chairs but it would be hard to find a matching one. Bill likes 'matchy-matchy' where I'm not as particular. 

First drop/pick up = success

So, it is another hot day and I didn't feel much like crawling around the gardens in the heat. Instead, I began gathering up the garden decor. I'm unable to get to the storage bins in the shed until Bill moves some heavy stuff, so for now it is stacked neatly by the outhouse.

It just involved walking, no strenuous work. 😉 At 4, I came inside with Gibbs for a cup of tea and Bill called on Billy's phone. He'd forgotten his own phone this morning and I didn't notice until it made a sound while I was sitting at the table. Woops! 

So, while packing garden things up,
I almost missed my little friend.
He hasn't been here for 3 or 4 years!
Look closely, same colour as the 
watering can. 💗🐸

With rain tomorrow, Bill was hoping they could finish, or come close to it, the deck job at Port Elgin today. He may be done working sooner than he originally planned. I'm okay with that and so will he be! What's the saying? 'The further ahead I am, the behinder I get.' Anyway, we want to avoid that!

The sun sets on another nice day.

Nice to read that our blogger friends, Maxx Trails, are doing the same as we are. Heading to the warm southwest again this year. They stay near Yuma so we are never far apart - although never seem to meet up. Usually, meet-ups are by chance down there. Maybe this year!😊

Bill was home by 5:45 and for supper, I planned meatballs, vegetable and scalloped potatoes from M. He'd made a big batch and wanted to share. We'll see how good a cook he is! I'm just glad he is preparing his own meals again.

Everything was very good.
Great job on the potatoes, M!

Supper was great, and we topped it off with a Chapman's drumstick. We went out together so I could show Bill what I'd gathered today and the sweet surprise I found in the process. 

Pretty 'after sunset' glow

He then went to the Hangar without making a lunch for tomorrow. Rain is expected from 3 am until 2 or 3 pm. He's probably done, done, done. 😃😃😃 

What a great day, 27C/79F, ending with a huge yellow moon that I can see out our southeast window as I type. 🌕 Bill will have no problem walking up from his hideaway later. 💓

Hunter's Moon tonight but
again, I'll leave the great pictures
up to someone else. It's huge!
Good night.

Thank you for your visit!

End of Our Work Week, Getting Ready to Move, Losing a Monarchy

The Ridge

On Thursday, Sept. 8^th I woke from more stupid dreams at 6:30 and I felt exhausted. Other than getting up to say goodbye to Bill, I would just as soon have stayed in bed. He says I don’t need to get up when I’m not scheduled to clean but it doesn’t feel right letting him go off without a kiss. ♥ When he left, in Ptooties today, Gibbs and I sat together while I wrote yesterday’s blog post and had my tea and cereal.

I watched the day begin with this sunrise

We took ourselves out for a walk, he took me and I took him, down to the corner. As we got to North Line, I saw Gloria, our neighbour from 3 homes to the east, coming our way. She’s always happy to see Gibbs and he loves to see anyone. We chatted for a while and then each went on our way. I was able to sit with the little guy and worked on my Wordle and Phrazle games and successfully guessed one of the Heardle songs this morning! 😊

I didn't take pictures all day so our supper
was the first one
It was good though!

I left for M’s before 9:30 and had a bit of a weird morning. I was in a good mood but he’d not started off so great for one reason or another. We are both tired of working on the truck, it seems Mike is getting very picky all of a sudden and every little pebble bump has to be re-sanded, re-primed and re-painted. Frustrating. Anyway, my mood deteriorated when M shared all this with me and ended up worse altogether when he and his ‘electrical/carpenter’ helper had me run into town twice for parts. “Make a da*n list!” is all I said. ☹

I thought I'd try something new
I'll let you know!

He paid me for our fuel and apologized for their oversight but that wasn’t the point. Just know what you need before I drive in is all I asked. Sometimes, a steady job of sanding, sanding, sanding is good for calming. I was pleased with how the tailgate and sides ended up. There is a happy medium, and I think I finally found it. M was happy with the job. I may not be working next week because of where he stands on the paint job but we’ll see. A week off would be fine with me!

Gibbs watches our every move

Back home, I was greeted by a quiet, happy pooch and he was well rewarded with loving and his favourite treat. I had my leftover lasagna for lunch and then started putting things away from the dressers and counters. I closed upper cupboards and those in the bedroom with the small bungee cord thingys. 😉 Yup, the Suite is going for a run tomorrow! With as much stored as I could today, I gave Gibbs another biscuit and drove into Durham.

A glimpse from inside of the sun saying goodbye

I needed to pick up milk, bread and a card for our retiring cousin. That’s where we’re headed for the weekend. I also dropped off my collected bottles and cans at the Beer Store and picked up a couple of Spritzers to try. Not sure if I’ll like them, depends on how much they taste like beer……..not my favourite taste, but I’ll drink them regardless.

The clouds are lovely

Bill was home at 4, which was a nice surprise for both of us. He changed and then took Black Beauty back into town once more to fuel up and fill a propane tank. The day had warmed up considerably, now resting at 25C/77F. A beautiful afternoon! I checked a lottery ticket that I bought yesterday and won BIG! I got a free play! Woohoo! I’ve learned not to grumble at small wins, because I usually get nothing. 😊

This should keep the hummers hanging around
until we return

We had toasted tomato and cheese sandwiches for supper. Neither of us were too hungry and that fit the bill just perfectly. I believe some chips might be the snack for tonight. This has been a great day and a lovely evening. Two days ago, my hummers had disappeared. I hadn’t seen them for a couple of days. Yesterday, they returned and today they are frequenting my feeder. I should boil some more food for them tonight so they don’t get discouraged over the weekend. Good plan!

There is that moon again, in the southeast sky

The pink sky to the west

The Suite looks heavenly in the moon's glow 
She has no idea she's moving out tomorrow

Today, as you all know, we lost a Monarch. Our Queen Elizabeth II was born 4 days after Mom and Mom never forgot that. She thought it was pretty special to share her birthday month/week with the Queen. 💖 

this is how I think of her

A picture I found on line from 2000

The Queen held reign for 70 years plus 214 days, the longest of any British monarch. Can you even imagine holding a position for that length of time and as she said herself, a position that was constantly linked with her 'home' life. I think God truly Saved the Queen as she can now reunite with her husband and touch His hand if she chooses. RIP.

My favourite
so natural, happy
Probably laughing at something Prince Philip
said to her 💗
A question that will come back often in the coming years:
"What were you doing when.....?"
Good night!

Thank you for popping in!

A Calm Day, More Puttering/Packing

The Ridge

On Thursday, Nov. 4^th after his initial ‘outing’, we managed to keep Gibbs in bed until almost 8 o’clock. There was no early agenda today, really nothing timed at all. That’s kind of nice too. No additional precipitation overnight but the occasional light flurries through the day. It was calm, no real wind to speak of so it was a good day for Bill to be outside doing the ‘last minutes’. It was quite a different morning from what we've woken up to the last two days!

Bundled up against the cold -2C/28F
Bill checks the tires and batteries, tests the generator
and brings in the flag pole (for starters)

The tires on the Suite got checked and topped up where necessary. She has sat all summer so some badly needed it. Bill also took his flag pole down and went about the arduous task of packing our ‘basement’. Everything in its place and he has been a bit concerned about how things were going to fit. I’m never too worried, he always manages to make it work. Sometimes when we get down to Arizona, he rearranges depending on how easy it is to get things out and back in again. 😊

Inside, Gibbs waits for Daddy

Other than keeping Gibbs entertained, in and out, I didn’t venture outdoors too often. I did let him run with his leash while I scraped and swept our ‘new’ stoop and shook the two mats off and set them out to start drying. Only one will go with us, the outside door mat will go in the Bunky. Bill also looked after closing up his cargo trailer and the Hangar for the last time, leaving nothing major for tomorrow.

Walking down the lane and a view
of the stone house in the clouds

Bill had a couple of phone calls to make (Gibbs is not helpful in this regard) so I took him for a nice long walk, down the lane, North Line and Baptist Church Road. With the heat of the sun, it was quite a nice day for a jaunt.

With leaves off the trees, our home is quite visible from
the road
Time to move! 😀

We had bacon and egg sandwiches for lunch and then I got my dust mitt out to take care of that job. Most of the woodwork got wiped down, including the leather sofa and I washed our grimy looking mirrored closet doors. When we heard a tap, tap on the door, we were pleasantly surprised to see Jamie. He said he would connect with me before we left and pay me for last month but I honestly didn’t know how we’d make it happen. 😊

Gibbs was walking so well, we carried on down 
North Line and turned right at the corner

Aiming for a selfie without my tripod

We had a nice visit and then when he opened the door to leave, Gibbs slipped out without his leash. Crap! It is never easy catching him and I never thought to grab his treats for temptation. For approximately 10 minutes, Jamie and I tried every ‘coercement’ possible to try and grab hold of him. ‘fast little devil, isn’t he?’, Jamie remarked at one point. He was so patient but I felt bad for delaying his departure out the lane. Finally, we got him in the Suite with the enticement of a treat and my ‘boss’ was able to slip down the lane. Good grief!

On our return, again a zoom in from the road
Bill is packing up the basement

Inside, I finished with the closet doors and then got the vacuum, dust mop and wet mop system out of the hall closet. As I went along, I packed up the knick knacks on the table, entertainment centre and dresser. Bill slept through it all and Gibbs felt quite protected from those scary floor things by sitting on his lap. Even a dust mop has him running at it, around it and away from it. It’s quite hilarious what gets him going. When I finished, Gibbs had rung the bell so we went for a walk down the lane to check the mail.

The infamous 'bed bone'

I had my afternoon tea around 4 and then began making meat loaf for supper. Bill’s favourite. We have two potatoes to eat up and some onion as well. Neither are on the list for acceptable border crossing so we never take chances anymore. Gibbs has what we call his ‘bed bone’ that came with his new bed, way back when. For a long time, he never chewed it in a way that it split open but as he grew, he was rougher with it and it has split apart, revealing that green fibrefill inside. Which he likes to eat, of course.

I’ve stitched it up once after taking it away for a couple of weeks. He has now opened it again so rather than throw it out (it is like a soother at bed time – “where’s your bed bone?”) I pulled all the fibrefill out and stuffed an old pair of my ankle socks inside. At least, that is something he can’t swallow easily once he gets into it. Right now, he is the poster boy of innocence as he sleeps on the sofa, hard to believe he could ever do the things we witness! 😊

Innocent, yes?

It was certainly a different day out there
This view is out our tv window

Supper was ready shortly after 6 and it was delicious. Nice to have leftovers again for tomorrow night. After dishes, we watched some tv and had a quiet evening. 

And the sun sets again
Somethings we can always count on

It will be bitter cold overnight, -5C/23F but the word is that we are expecting a slow warm up for the weekend and into next week. We’ll take it as it means a mittful of sunshine for our beginning travels. Fingers are crossed here and from a few friends and family that we’ll hear early word about Black Beauty being ready for us. ♥

It was a yummy supper and we can finish
much of the leftovers tomorrow night
Good night!

Thank you for coming by for a visit!

Buddy Cleaning, Bill Spots a Bulge, Family Departs, Final Pack-Check.

The Ridge

On Monday, July 29^th, we woke up to another hot day. No doubt about that when at 6 am it was already reaching 65F/15C. We both got up and drove into the Laundromat. This was Bill’s ‘training’ day so we did a Buddy Clean. He will be looking after the Mat on Wednesday and Friday for me while I’m off 'hi-faluting' with the girls. 😊

I don't think I showed you there little set up in yesterday's blog

He knew the basics but just wanted to go over the things that I did while he would do the floors. It didn’t take us long, 40 minutes maybe but it was an hour’s work. I found a dime and gave that to him as a tip. Don’t worry, when he works my shift, he’ll earn that money. So, we were back by 7:30 after filling Ptooties up with fuel. Now I’ll be set for my week. There will be 4 of us driving with our vehicles, coming from different directions so we share the ‘touring’. Because there are 6 of us, everywhere we go, we need 2 cars.

This morning's sky as we left for town

Patrick came to the door around 8:30 to get Molly some water in her dish and then he returned a bit later with Nate’s cereal, milk and juice so they had their breakfast in the Suite. The morning was slow and easy and Bill did a few things down in the Hangar. If it hadn’t been so windy, and the wind picked up as the hours passed, he could have taken the Timber out for another flight. He would have let Nate fly it but the wind just wasn’t conducive. Another time.

These were from last night
Patrick and Nate playing with their little plane

It was a dud so we laughed a lot

So Bill showed them how to do it

I knew Bill was getting hungry so around 10 I made him his eggs and bacon. I’m glad he has accepted that if I’m not hungry, I’d rather not eat. We cleaned up those dishes and Patrick and Chaela started the pack up. They are heading to Collingwood to a campground for 3 nights and plan to tour the Blue Mountain area. They will have a good time, all of them and possiblyget into Georgian Bay for some swimming.

Bill had fun and Nate was in awe

I made myself a B.P. coffee and went outside on the patio and watched, staying out of the way. I was impressed with how Chaela was helping and learning how to pack the trailer. Nate was back and forth, probably saying goodbye 3- or 4-times way before it was time to leave. Bill helped Patrick check the tire pressure when one looked low and it was a good thing because he/they noticed a bulge and some cracking on the tread. The tires are so small compared to our big ones but just as important!

A nice shot of our pond

They changed the tire and topped up the spare that came with the trailer. When all was set, they were very appreciative for Bill’s help and eagle eye. We said our goodbyes and I got a family picture before they left. They have an old unit so things are going to go wrong and need to be replaced. Bill gave Patrick a few tips on things to do and when to do them. This can be a fun adventure if things are looked after on a regular basis. If we were closer, I know Bill would help him out but right now, it is just advice.

It was 12:05 when they pulled out of the laneway and turned right, following their gps. I think the dark clouds that we were watching were ahead of them so they should arrive at their destination by 1:30 and get set up before any rainfall. They have confirmed that their site in the park has plenty of shade so they shouldn’t have any problem keeping cool. I’m excited for them, Patrick especially, because this is something he loves.

It was hot to be working in the heat
but it had to be done
Molly watches, just a little afraid of what was happening

We enjoyed seeing them all and I value every moment alone with my son to the nth! I don’t see him often enough. No matter who visits, there is a sense of peace when they leave. Not that we want to see them go, that is inevitable, but when it happens, we enjoy it for what it is. Aloneness. Our lifestyle is very complacent and when families visit with children, we realize how complacent we really are. We love them dearly but the void after is still a pleasant one. 😊

Nate looks after Molly while waiting

Now it was time for me to eat and I’d found a package of chicken hearts in the freezer yesterday. Hmm, good! I fried them up in butter and fully enjoyed the treat. I need to get more of those! They are hard to find packaged by themselves, usually gizzards are in the same pack and they don’t appeal to me as much. I did buy a package of calf liver yesterday at Foodland so divided that up for two meals for me, me, me.

checking the tire pressure

Thinking of the next 3 days, I changed my big bulky purse for a smaller cross-body one, easier to carry. I was sitting writing my blog and playing online Scrabble when a knock on the door surprised me. Why was Bill knocking? It was UPS with my little Avon package. He could very easily have left it in the mailbox but kindly drove up to hand deliver it. He’s a nice guy. Then I went upstairs to go over the items I’m taking to Gayle’s tomorrow.

And another little family says goodbye

That didn’t take too long but it was a good thing because of the heat upstairs. We have the a/c on down here with the door closed to the bedroom so I was quite warm by the time I finished. With a quiet afternoon ahead of us, we dozed some, read some and then watched some tv. It was much more comfortable inside than out. I walked to the end of the lane around 4 to check the mail and touched base with Patrick. They had arrived at their destination so I could relax.

The wind picked up and the sky darkened around 5:30. Donna kept me informed about the weather as we seem to get what they get, 15 minutes later. True enough, the sky opened up around 5:45 and we got a heavy rain for about 10 minutes. As the storm (high winds, thunder and rain) moved to the east, the rain remained so we had some much waited for showers into the evening until about 8 pm.

My Avon arrives

We had planned burgers and salad tonight but I changed that to Tilapia loins instead. Something I could cook inside for an easy and tasty meal. I steamed broccoli for me, cooked mixed vegetables for Bill and we were eating by 6:30. The fish was really good and a great choice for this rainy night. There was one dish each of custard left in the fridge so that topped supper off perfectly. We cleaned up dishes after watching the rest of the news and I watched our regular Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy programs. Bill went upstairs to watch a Mash episode instead. 

Here comes the rain

But thankfully, it was only wind and rain for the most part
and the wind soon let up

We were doing dishes and Bill said “this is the last night to do this together for a little while”. Aaah. We have discussed his meals for the next 3 nights and I think he might feel my absence in the evenings more this year than previous ones. for obvious reasons. He’ll keep himself busy down in the Hangar and by spending time over at the Acreage with John and Gerry. Not only the gals get together and for that I'm happy.

We had a nice supper

with custard for dessert
Gosh, I love this stuff!

This has been a good day, some time with family, some time alone and a good rainfall. I hope you also got some rain (if you need it) and had a wonderful day!

No sunset tonight so I'm sharing last night's with you

Good night y'all!

Thank you for YOUR visit! Thanks also for any comments you leave me.