Camp Nana & Bumpa

Our timing was perfect, our grandson Nathaniel is here for a visit for a few days and we do not have anything pressing to be done in the reno as we are waiting still for HVAC & the building permit. Once the HVAC is in, we can drop our plumbing in and once we get the permit, we can have an inspection and then put our subfloor down and really start making hay! That will be a happy day. Many people, neighbours and contractors have said that we have made a mistake getting a permit but I am steadfast to do it right thinking that it will improve our resale value.

Anyway, our week with Nate was fun. He helped us a little in the house, working with Nana placing outlet boxes on the exterior walls (we don`t have interior walls yet – read the above rant). Barb had a couple of crafts planned and we set the patio table up in the house so we would be out of the elements. While Nate and Nana were painting a miniature bird house, I made a wind spinner for Corrie – she thought mine was cool and I buckled and committed to make her one. We took Nate Geocaching with us last year and he was very eager to go again this visit. There are many caches in the area and we loaded up our GPS units with a few and headed out. Our first one was the smallest cache we had ever found – it was so small that it could have been disguised as an insect cocoon – luckily this one wasn’t or we may not found it. Today is Canada’s birthday and what kind of celebration would it be without some fireworks. We took out blanket and parked near the Fort and walked down into the park and picked us a patch of grass to watch. We kept teasing Nate that our time sitting would only be a few minutes – hey, Fort Erie is a small town but we were pleasantly surprised how good the fireworks were – good quality and lots of them!

I had a doctors appointment on Wednesday so we did a few geocaches on the way into Hamilton and then a few here in Fort Erie when we got back. Our success was only 50% this time. We left a couple of geocaches out there and we got caught in a rain shower but we didn’t melt even though I am made of sugar!

 

 

 

On Thursday, we made a dump run to clean up the garage of lots of building materials. Nate loved standing in the truck bed and tossing what he could in the dumpster – see, it’s fun when it’s not work. Anyway, after that, Nana had another craft to do, melting beads to make sun catchers. They were supposed to use the oven to melt the plastic beads but Barb used the BBQ instead to keep the stinkies out doors. Barb & Nate made 3 sun catchers with improvements in each one. It was fun and a neat craft that even our neighbour wants to try one – I hope she knows she has to use her own BBQ!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, Nathaniel`s last day with us so, we are going on a picnic, hike along some of the Friendship Trail and tour the Old Fort Erie before we drive him back home. We learned some of Fort Erie’s history as we walked along the Friendship Trail and read the story boards along the promenade at Erie Beach. Where did the glory of those days go?

 

 

 

After our picnic, our guided tour of the Fort was great. Everyone was in period dress and we witnessed the soldiers firing a canon and 3 other soldiers firing their muskets. We toured the barracks, kitchen, stores shop and the grounds. This area was one of the bloodiest battle grounds of the War of 1812. It is hard to imagine life here back then but the tour and video help to drive it home.

 

Our week off with Nate was fun and somewhat restful. We expect our HVAC guy to start and we have been in touch with the town regarding our permit and we may even have that next week too. Hope all is good where you are….