It’s Almost Time

As we wind down the summer here, we start to think about our trip south to our winter perch in LA. This is the first year we are doing it without pulling our home behind us, like when we came north, what to take and what to leave behind questions are in the backs of our minds. After being on the road for 15 years and homeless, it is new to us on what we need to do as far as fridge on or off, what tools do I need to take with me and of course, what clothes can we leave behind. Now that question could be more difficult to answer as I can’t remember what clothes I left behind when we came north! Anyway, enough of this for now, let’s see what we have been doing.

If you recall, we have sever wetness here with a high water table and as you may remember, I mentioned that we get standing water in the garage after a moderately heavy rain. Putting drainage in the driveway has helped and now we are adding an eave trough to the garage to help drain that water into the driveway drainage getting it away from the foundation of the garage. It appears to be working good and all the bit and pieces are adding up to a dryer garage floor making it usable for creating a small workshop.

 

We found time to attend a quilt show in a nearby burb, lunch on the patio of He’s Not Here and picked up more compost and sod for the side yard. But one of the more noticeable improvements is the installation of aluminum capping of the window and door frames plus the addition of storm doors on the front and back of the house. We had a crew come in to do this work as Barb & I sat back and watched! We didn’t plan on a storm door on the back until the installer said that he couldn't really cap the back door until he knew the size of the storm door so off we went to pick up and identical storm as the one on the front. After all the work was done – 2 full days – the exterior of the house looks fantastic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bill and Ann, our good friends at the Plantation stopped by for the day on their way through from Yellowstone to the Plantation via the Finger Lakes. It was a wonderful day/visit as we chit chatted on the deck and then had lunch ‘on the patio’ at our favourite spot here in Fort Erie. But all good things come to and end and they headed off back to their rig and then off to the Plantation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s all for now, we hope all is good where you are….

Some Finishing Touches….

It has been a long time since we published an entry so I hope I didn’t lose too many loyal readers.

After Larry & Marti departed, we took a few days off to catch our breath. It was a busy week going here and there and helping them enjoy their trip so maybe they’ll come back again.

But we still have things to do around here before the cold weather sets in. We decided that facia and soffits on the garage before we painted it would improve the looks. We also wanted to cover up the gravelled drainage trench around the house. In order to continue to drain the perimeter, we chose small river rock and used small block to separate the grass from the rock. It worked out and looks pretty good too.

After all that slugg’n, it was time for a break. We took a trip to Owego, NY to visit friends from the Plantation for a few days. Owego is a cute village and Tom & Cheryl are wonderful hosts in their beautiful hillside home above Owego. They took us here and there, through the shops in Owego – yes, there is a quilt shop there! We viewed some waterfalls, some of the the beautiful finger lakes region and even did a wine tasting.

 

Tom is an excellent wood craftsman – he built their kitchen cabinets and they look outstanding. In our ‘spare’ time, Tom & I ‘played’ in his workshop. He has a wood lathe and he taught me how turn a block of wood into a honey dipper. He also made Barb a cutting board from some of his ‘scraps’ of hardwood. It was finished and ready for use by the time we left. The ladies? Well they had some quality time together, chatting about what ladies chat about with a glass of wine or tea in hand. We had a great time.

 

Once back, we still have a few outdoor items to complete before the cold weather arrives. Painting the garage was pretty easy as we covered the old siding last year. We had enough paint left over from the house painting to gett’r done. The weatherman worked with us and we were able to finish it in 3 days.

 

 

To finish off the side yard that we have been working on, we need topsoil and sod. A little more slugg’n but when it is all done, it looks great. We can’t believe the progress we have made on our little hobby house and yard from a year ago to now. It’s getting time to put our feet up and we’re counting the days we turn the truck south and head on down to the Plantation.

 

 

Hope all is good where you are….

Friends from Alabama Visit

In our last posting, we still had some gravel left and decided to spread it out in the back yard to have it ready for next years project – a deck! As I mentioned, we rented the sod cutter again to remove and grade the area and then after laying landscape fabric to help manage weeds, we started moving and raking out the gravel. The end result greatly improves the look and usability of this part of the yard. It has always been muddy after a rain and now we can get to and from the garage without putting on the wellies!

 

 

 

 

Now that we have some liveable outdoor spaces, we need to start and pretty up the little house. The first flower garden is in the corner of the deck and the house. After using a garden pick to loosen up the rock hard clay, we can dig out an area and replace that crappy dirt with some decent plant friendly soil. Once that was done, we were off to the plant store (read CTC) to pick up some color. We also started some Euonymus cuttings from Corrie’s garden and planted them too. In all this activity, Barb found time to build some quilted panels for the back room and a matching seat cushion cover for the bench. This girl never stops…

 

 

 

On Saturday, Aug 8th, Marti & Larry came into town for a visit and stayed at a nearby campground. After they checked in and got set up, we picked them up and headed out for lunch and a few cool ones. Once we washed away the road dust from their travels, we toured a bit and ended up back at our place. They were excited to see all we’ve done. You see us here, enjoying their company on the deck!

Our week with Marti & Larry is action packed and fun. We visited - the Lock 3 Visitor Centre & Museum of the Welland Canal, watched a ship squeeze through one of the locks, Niagara-on-the-Lake, wine tastings, a distillery stop, bus & boat tour of Toronto and of course, Niagara Falls. It wouldn’t be complete without a stop at one of our favourite lunch stops, on the patio of He’s Not Here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On their last day here, Barb & Marti hit a spa and then we showed them a little more of Fort Erie, Crystal Beach and Port Colborne. They were on their way again on Saturday but way too early for us so we said our farewells on Friday evening.

Our excitement continues in the next edition….. hope all is well  wherever you are…..

Almost Done…. but is it?

It has been another action packed summer. Last year at this time the furnace and ducts were installed and we could start the plumbing! Wow, it only seems like that was yesterday and now we’re finishing up this years outdoor projects. I think it is true, when you get near the end of the roll, everything moves faster!

While we waited with baited breath for the gravel – Jim took a 4 day holiday so we had some extra time – I installed facia and soffits on the garage and Barb found something to do in her quilt room! I’m sure I have lamented about the Ash trees that have to be taken down due to the Emerald Ash Borer but they are not being taken down soon enough but rather coming down by themselves! On Sunday morning, we heard a load disturbance outside. We found a large limb laying beside the house and lots of leaves and debris on the roof. There was no damage but when I called, the on call guy came around to see us. Of course, our delay is because of the electric wires and the removal had become a politicol football and no one wants to claim responsibility for the job – they’ll wait until something more serious happens or someone gets hurt!

So, the gravel has arrived and Barb & I are psyched up that it is a small job to distribute and rake it out, after all, it is only 15 tons! You know that it also had to be one of the periods of hot weather just to make it more interesting. We tried having Jim spread it with the truck but the electric and telephone wires were in the way so he dumped the rest in the middle on the driveway. Bring on the wheelbarrow, shovels and rakes, let’s get this done! After a couple of hours, both our clothes were soaking from sweat and we were ready for a break – it must be happy hour somewhere! While we were sipping a cool one, we noticed a Red Headed Woodpecker busy with the kids in a nearby tree and we were able to get a couple of good shots.

We didn’t do much else for the next 4 days, shovel, dump and rake and finally, the driveway was done. As you can see from the photo, we have gravel left so we were going to move it to clear the driveway but we didn’t fancy the notion of touching it more than we have to so off to the rental centre and get that sod cutter again – we decided that it would be smarter to spread the gravel where we finally want it but we have to prep the yard first. It didn’t take us long with the sod cutter or exert too much energy and by the end of the morning, we were ready to spread more gravel – hurrah!

 

 

 

Hope all is well where you are….

More Driveway Work to be Done

You might think that after our week
with Nate, we would take a few days for ourselves - wrong, we have a driveway to finish.... but first we're off to a friend's 50th wedding anniversary in St Thomas Ont. We made it a day trip so we could get back to get started removing the asphalt on the driveway. John & Di celebrated their 50th with family and friends in Di's brother's new restaurant. We had a nice time, saw friends and then back on the road for home. Our trip back was uneventful but we decided to see if there is a more expedient way to get to our little house. Again, wrong.... even our GPS got angry with us for not following his directions and the trip took another 60 minutes longer!


We had removed
some asphalt earlier but that was just to get some trenching done for drainage but now that we have all that done, it is time to pull up the rest of the surface, move some of the 'old' mud laden gravel that provided no

drainage and widen the foot print so we can have space for guests to park - and maybe an RV can set up for a few nights too! With a pick ax, shovels, rake and a couple of old people pulling, raking and shoveling the crap into the back of the truck for disposal at the landfill. The truck was able to handle about half the driveway but we were dodging rain storms - we were half way to the landfill when the clouds opened up and dumped lots of water on us and not wanting to unload the truck in the rain, we turned around. The total job to get
all the asphalt up took a little longer than we expected but we persevered and finally we were ready to widen the foot print.

We decided to rent a sod cutter to remove and reuse the grass along the one edge of the expanded driveway. It was a beast to maneuver but after a quick lesson, Barb was able to do the job! We took the cut sod and placed it along the
street side of the deck to finish that off. After we were done, I had just enough energy to wash the truck. This showed us that we still had a drainage problem where we removed the latest turf so we dug yet another trench along that edge of the driveway. Will it ever end - oh the joys of home ownership!

Randy & Norma came over for a day of Fast Track, food and beverage and some good times. I couldn't talk them into moving any asphalt but Randy did help me with the empties! It was a welcome day off for us and we had fun to boot.

The next day, we're off to the landfill in Welland to be rid of the 'old' driveway. Our first trip cost us $11.00 and this one was $16.00! Their rate for disposal is $10/ton so we're sure our poor old truck was happy to see the end of that stuff too - I know our old bodies were. Now we have a trench across, down the centre and along one edge so we're confident that we won't be stepping out of the truck into muck or puddles again.

It has taken us awhile to decide on a border for the driveway. We want to minimize the amount of gravel that will overflow onto the lawns. We checked out wood products, cement products but decided on a rubber garden curb. It looks good, easy to install and it was on sale! Once the curbs were in, we were ready for gravel. Our gravel guy thinks a load (15 tons) might be too much but we have plans for next year so bring it on..... Wow, 15 tons....

I'm tired just thinking about it so I'll stop here. Hope all is good where you are and come back again to read about more fun times.....