Wednesday, May 30, 2012

how does your garden grow??

Kris is a bit late this year with his garden, but I picked up some starter veggie plants to inspire him and sure enough tonite he borrowed a roto-tiller from a friend and prepped the ground.  I bought some different tomato plants to try - we'll experiment a bit. 

A couple of deals appear to be coming together this week - which is nice after several fell apart last week.  Interesting fact - for all that our government is promoting "green energy", CMHC won't approve a mortgage for a home with wood heat only.  Interesting......

So far this week, the weather's been great - bit hot for my liking on Monday, but yesterday and today were great.  I understand Ottawa had a big thunderstorm yesterday afternoon - missed us completely.  Which seems to be the norm, lately.  It is supposed to rain tonite, but then Environment Canada has been saying it's going to rain for several days.  So far not a drop!

Rick is getting closer and closer to having his tractor back together (this is his "winter" tractor, so as soon as it is painted and re-assembled, it will get put away for the summer.  Then he will probably start work on the that pellet mill we bought last year to make our own pellets.  (I don't know why I keep saying "we", I'm probably not going to have anything to do with the mill.....Rick and Kris are the ones who are keen to try it) 

We've been watching a three part series on the History Channel - "The Hatfields and the McCoys" and quite enjoying it.  Part three is on tonite and we're really looking forward to it.  I'm sure it will be re-run many, MANY times though, until we're thouroughly sick of it!

Todays picture - Kris manning the 'tiller with friend Jacob and Rick looking on.  I still maintain, it might have been easier with turning over the dirt with a spade the way my dad used to do, but apparently a roto-tiller was required for the job!








Sunday, May 27, 2012

nice weekend!

It's been a relatively quiet week - we had the air conditioners on a couple of times this past week.  Mostly we turn them on around noon when it is hot and most nights we've been able to shut them down by the time we go to bed.  I prefer to have the windows open, but some days are just too hot and humid.

Brother-in-law, John, mentioned in his blog today that he is waging war with "critters" in his house in Ottawa.  In all the years we've lived here, we've only ever had one or two critters in the house - once was when Rick installed a new stove and didn't plug the hole in the floor under the stove where the electrical cord goes into the crawl space (I don't know what happens after that - I just know the cord goes into the crawl space....) anyway, he left a bit of a gap and almost instandly we had a mouse in the house!  Cats cornered it - I grabbed a tupperware bowl with visions of putting it over the mouse and capturing it when it ran by, but wound up simply squealing and throwing the bowl at the poor mouse whenever it tried to escape - sad, really (me I mean)

And yesterday, Buddy brought a chipmunk home to show me - it was VERY much alive!  Once again, much squealing ensued (me again) and Rick (thinking I was having a stroke or something) came running in to handle the situation. He was able to "herd" it out the front door (with Buddy hot on it's trail)  whew!   Y'know I love Alvin and the Chipmunks, but it seems when confronted with the real thing, I'm not so amused.

Rick, on the other hand, had showed a house in the morning that had rats in the basement (don't EVER tell me real estate agents don't work for their $$$$)  so, he was having a rather rodent-filled day and the chipmunk probabley seemed rather cute after the rats!

The swallows trying to nest in our garage have moved on, thank goodness.

So, that is the wild-life report for this week!  haha

The picture today is just a lovely building in Arnprior- I think it might be the town hall - or at least was at one time.

Monday, May 21, 2012

HOT!

Last couple of days have been HOT!  But, it should be noted NOT humid - so quite bearable.  In spite of the heat, Rick's spent a lot of time in the garage tearing down and painting his tractor - big job, but he tells me it's nearly done. 

Last week, we noticed that some very cute little sparrows were flying in and out of the garage.  Unlike other birds that fly in by mistake and just fly around the rafters in a panic, these sparrows got in and out without an problem.  In fact, completely ignoring Rick working away, they set up housekeeping in the rafters - obviously these were mis-directed barn swallows who thought our garage was a barn.  And while they seemed quite friendly and were certainly entertainment for the cats, they do make a mess.  After Kris checked to make sure their nest really hadn't progress very far, we kept the garage closed up for several days forcing them to find another likely spot to nest. 

Kris had a rare two days off in a row - he pretty well works at least 5 1/2 days a week and often goes back in the evenings - I think he was almost a loss as to what to do for the two days.  He wound up  cleaning  his car inside and out and puttering around the house, but he today loaded his dirt-bike into the truck and took off for the day - I'm sure he'll come home sun-burned and tired.

Jamie and Julie spent the long weekend at Julie's parents cottage in Aylmer - they used to spend a lot of time there, but now that they have a larger apartment, a good queen size bed (our old one) and two PC's for gaming, I think they almost prefer to stay home - still they had a lovely weekend to open the cottage up.

Real estate was quiet for Rick and myself - much is done from home anyway.  I can draw up offers, fax documents, email clients etc. all from home - so even a "quiet" weekend usually means answering emails and phone calls. 

Haven't been taking many pictures lately - but today I snapped one of Rick mowing the lawn - it's a tad on the dry side - we're supposed to get some rain tonite - we need it!




Friday, May 11, 2012

gorgeous day!!!

Well after having to wear a jacket, sock and shoes yesterday, today was much nicer - back to "scandals"!!!  nice!

Did a fair bit of running around - lots of back and forth from Renfrew to Douglas - but that's the way it goes.  Last year I seemed to do lots of back and forth from Renfrew to Calabogie! 

We got the Mustang out from storage last week.  Tonight we had to run back into Renfrew - it was so nice out, we went in the Pony with the top down - wheeeeee....  

The cats are loving this nice weather - Buddy is out all day - the "girls" not so much, but they like to go out too.  It seems their favorite time is after dark - which is when we're trying to get them in.  They particularly like to play "chase me, chase me" all over the front lawn.

Black flies are out in force!  I have trouble standing around outside when they are this bad - mozzies next I suppose - oh goodie.

Rick's up early tomorrow showing a bunch of houses and I'm heading into the office to deal with an offer.  Home inspection on Sunday - and that pretty well takes care of the weekend.

What can I say about today's picture - other than - it's a Sphinx and it is on the top of my office!   In fact is is one of a pair of Sphinx's my boss picked up from somewhere and has installed them on the office roof.  Not sure what the connection is between fake Egyption artifacts and real estate - but, hey, sure catches everyone's eye.  Maybe gives Renfrew a touch of "Vegas".....lol

 



Tuesday, May 8, 2012

busy busy

been a while since I checked in here.  we've been quite busy last couple of weekends - always good in our line of work.  I actually had to meet a client at 8 a.m. this morning in Eganville - waaaaaaaaaay to early for me!!!  I managed it though.  Much of our business is afternoon, evening, so usually no rush to get up early - this is NOT a 9 to 5 job!  But every now and then an early morning is called for - first time I've been up and out of the house before 7:30 in a long time!  Mind you it was nearly 7  when we got home tonite, so still a long-ish day.

Weather's been nice except for today - it's been rainy and dull all day long and rather cool too.  In fact, it was cool and damp enough in the house that we fired up the pellet stove and now the house is much nicer.  We won't leave it on long - just enough to take the chill out.

Much the same weather expected tomorrow - then nice and sunny into the weekend.

Rick's been busy dismantling the used tractor he bought last winter - he's torn it all down and is in the process of painting it.  There were several bad rust spots and and it really had to be done.  Should be good for a while and sure makes short work of cleaning our rather long laneway.

He's already cut the grass once - this rain has really "greened" things up. 

Other than that nothing new to report - today's picture is one I took at a house I have listed.  The sellers' daughter has done several very nice murals on the walls and she did this really cute little painting on the wall over the kitchen sink.  Being a cat lover, I had to get a shot - shame if someone buys the house and paints over it....