HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYBODY!!!

Well looks like we'll be eating a LOT of chocolate for the next few days!! It is going on 8 o'clock and so far only about 20 kiddies - and I'm afraid the "rush" is over. I bought chocolate bars and chips for many, MANY more than that. In fact I have two large bowls of mini chocolate bars still left. Ahhhh, I miss the good old days when we got dozens and dozens of kids!

Funny, I see very few homemade costumes - cheaper to buy them at Wal-Mart, I guess.

Just got a two more trick or treaters - nice girls - said they always came up to our place because we have the best decorated house! We do make an effort - mind you, nothing like we used to do - Jamie & Kris used to always do a couple of stuffed dummies, fresh graves, axes and knives in pumpkins and Jamie used to line the front walk with flaming torches. The flaming torches always worried me a bit - but we never had an incident (or lawsuit - haha)

Today's picture is our flabby tabby - Missy - perched like a princess on a pillow and our "best decorated" house. It wasn't until I was downloading the pictures that I even noticed Buddy sitting beside the giant pumpkin. the perfect Halloween cat!!

where does the time go?

One day to Halloween!!! Wow - I cannot believe October is nearly over. I have enough treats for about 100 kids although it has been many MANY years since we have had that many kids. The last few years have been around 45 - 50. But, you never know - much depends the weather.

I'm trying not to get caught up in this H1N1 flu panic. I'm tend to not freak out over those things too much. Besides, I understand one doctor out here ordered 100(whoops - meant 1000 not 100) vaccines and received 120 - so I suppose no point in worrying about it - since there isn't likely to be enough to go around anyway!!!

It must be harder for those with kiddies, though. Rick has suggested we simply hibernate for a while, but where the fun in that????

Last weekend we had a fabulous visit with our friends Pam and Terry who are RV'ers. We had a great visit for a few days and then they were off to Sudbury and then onto the U.S. for the winter.

I haven't taken many pictures this week - it's just been raining and foggy and depressing, so here is one that a friend of Rick's e-mail him. A 1936 stainless stell car

where does the time go?

Much running around

It was one of those days where I seemed to be running a bit behind all day. Out at 9:30 a.m. to Mount St. Patrick property for a home inspection. Three hours or so there then back to the office for a bit of paperwork.

I had planned to get my flu shot this afternoon at one of the clinics - but turns out it is only for the over 65 group (me in few years, I guess) Us, young'uns will have to wait until November to get our shots. Oh well.

So, after the flu shot thing didn't work out, it was back to the Mount St. Patrick area and up to the very top of Kenelly Mountain to list a super house that looks over the Ottawa Valley - incredible views! MLS#741562 if you want to check it out. Unfortunately it was a rainy day so the pictures are a bit on the dull side. I'll try to go up there on the first nice sunny day to re-take the pictures. Anyway, the place is fabulous - fingers crossed that it sells before the winter.

So, after listing that house we came back home for a quick supper and then wound up going back into the office for an hour to get an offer signed. So - we put a few kms on the carr today!

Kris is a bit sore tonite after taking a blow from a sledge hammer to his chest - he and another fellow are do some renovations on a house and the sledge hammer slipped out of his buddy's hand as he was swinging it - nasty blow. Between that and his still slightly sore teeth, he's having a rough time these last few weeks

todays picture is from the top of Kennelly Mountain (it's about 10 minutes from Calabogie ski peaks, BTW) and Rick putting up my sign.

Another fine day in the Valley

We got up this morning with the intention of driving into Ottawa for the day - do a bit of shopping (both window and real) but on the way through Renfrew I stopped at the office and discovered I was on duty this afternoon.

Duty time is when one agent is assigned to answer the real estate phone lines and sometimes you get a few "cold calls" (inquiries from people who are not currently working with an agent) and also any people coming into the office looking for information on listings. Can sometimes be a long boring stretch, but can also mean a listing or buyer - so we all do our "duty time".

I should have known I was on duty since I make up the schedule - but I forgot. So, we put off our trip to the big city for another day.

And.....I had a looooong boring afternoon! Ha!

We will try again later in the week.

Rick has managed to get a good supply of wood for the winter - all pretty well dead-fall and still more in the bush. Kris has cut and split a lot of it too. This is the perfect time of year for a fire - we are certainly enjoying our fireplace.

Today's picture - Kris and Rick's wall of wood! (and Nibbles having a cat nap)

Happy Fall!

Isn't this super weather??? I love this this time of year! I know most people like Spring, but I like this time of year when it is a comfortable temperature, no a/c's needed, no bugs - and Halloween just around the corner.

Must have been a good year for pumpkins this year - I think No Frills had hundreds of large pumpkins for sale! I can't remember EVER seeing so many for sale - I'm sure the stores will be giving them away by October 31st. I have a giant inflatable pumpkin that I will get set up on the front lawn soon.

Rick's been busy this week - finishing the venting under the eaves and painting the back of the house. Tomorrow he is putting in 3 new roof vents - these are much larger than the old ones. The idea is to increase the amount of air-flow in the attic. I think the last job will be to blow about 6 more inches of insulation in the attic. whew! He's been very busy this summer

I'm keeping busy as well - although real estate in Renfrew hasn't re-bounded quite like it has in Ottawa - it's picking up now.

Kris had 2 wisdom teeth pulled on Thursday - I think he was expecting it to be much worse than it actually was. He was back at work today and out to a friend's birthday party tonite - I'd say he was back to normal

Seeing it was such a nice day, we took the Pony for a drive towards Dacre, then on to Calabogie. Many of the trees have already lost their leaves as you can see by these two pictures I took at a bridge on Mount St. Patrick Road.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a nice thanksgiving dinner with the boys this afternoon. I had not planned on cooking a turkey, actually, but changed my mind yesterday while shopping, and I was lucky enough to snag the last fresh bird at the grocery store. At Jamie's request, I made a cheesecake and at Rick's request, I made tea bisquits.

I must admit, I don't bake like I used to, but things turned out okay, anyway.

Jamie wasn't feeling great - he's fighting a cold. Ditto for Rick and Kris - I'm fine - (so far anyway) - but the boys were reaching for the Buckleys quite a lot.

But didn't stop them from cutting some firewood in the bush before dinner. In fact, they all said the fresh air felt good. Personally, when I'm sick, I prefer a good book, cozy fire and hot tea....

Rick snapped these pictures of the boys playing lumber jack!

SNOW?????!!!!!!

I swear it was trying hard to snow up in Griffith today!!! Rick and I took the Pony for what might be one of it's last runs of the year. On the way, the weather turned a bit nasty and I'm sure it was almost snowing for a few minutes.

Showing in Griffith went nowhere - as I suspected, but fortunately over and done with by noon - so time for a quick stop in town for groceries and then home in plenty of time for the race!

BTW - a warning to anyone planning to buy a new stove DON'T BUY A GLASS TOP STOVE!!! Last year I bought a GE smooth top, convection, self clean and I am THIS close to throwing it out and buying a plain old stove with coil elements. Don't get me wrong, the smooth top is very pretty, BUT, it can't boil water!!!!!

I'm not kidding, it cannot bring water in a dutch-oven sized pot to a proper boil!!! The problem is the element continues to cycle on and off...and on.....and off.....and on.... and off....

And because the damn element doesn't stay ON, as soon as the water even starts to boil, it cycles OFF again and the water stops boiling (well simmering, actually, doesn't ever really BOIL!

It is sooooooooo stupid, I can't beleive they don't sell these useless stoves with a warning "pretty to look at - but can't boil freaking water!!!"

I have learned to adjust my cooking times over the last year, allowing an extra 20 to 30 minutes to cook certain things - And I don't use large pots, and I've given up trying to use a pressure cooker.

Lately, I've taken to hanging around the appliance departments and making sure any unsuspecting buyers looking at these useless stoves are quickly informed (by me) of their complete lack of cooking ability!!!!!

whew!

today's picture is an old one from our trip to the Westmeath Lookout Point. We plan to go back there in the next day or two as the leaves are turning now and should get some great shots.

what have I been doing?????

I can't believe I haven't written anything in my blog since Monday!!! Not sure why - guess I've been busy.

A lot of running around with real estate "stuff". Been a nice week for weather - I like this time of year.

Had a garage sale today. Last week my neighbour, Joan, asked me if I wanted to do a garage sale with her - I THOUGHT she said the week AFTER Thanksgiving weekend - but, she meant the THIS weekend!!! So, I was sort of scrambling to get my stuff ready. Actually we didn't have much to put out for the sale - all summer, we've been cleaning closets and throwing things out - so I didn't have a lot.

Besides, garage sales usually mean getting up at 7 a.m., hauling all your "stuff" out and then around 3 o'clock in the afternoon, after having made a whopping twenty or thirty bucks, you get to put most of it BACK in the house!!! We did manage to make around $30 - yeah!!!! And Rick sold an old welder for $100 to some guy, who said he would be back to get it and pay for it later, but he hasn't come back yet, so that is technically not a sale....yet

Rick continues to work on the house - has finished the venting on the front of the house and has moved the scaffolding to the back of the house to do the venting and install eavestroughing & paint - big job!!

We're heading up to Griffith tomorrow to show a property, then back to Renfrew to get some groceries for dinner on Monday & then home in time for the race. Jamie should be up on Monday - will be nice to see him and hear how his course is going.

Picture today is our fireplace with some lovely new tea light holders that our friends gave us last week - can't have toooooooo many candles!

A super day weather-wise in spite of some rain - at least the rain came and went quickly. I really like nice Fall days.

Spend most of the day in the office, but got out for a quick walk at one point! I do like working "downtown" Renfrew - it's nice to be able to walk to the grocery stores or just take a jaunt down the main street for some window shopping.

Rick's tackling the last of his renovation projects - he saved the nastiest for last! He's trying to get our rather damp attic better vented by cleaning out the eave venting that was plugged with vermiculite, installing new venting and new roof vents.

At least we were fortunate in being able to borrow 3 sections of scaffolding from our neighbour, which is a big improvement from trying to work on a ladder.

Today's picture is Rick & Kris on the scaffold and my new glass paned door that I think I mentioned in a previous post. It's a demo door from the hardware store - a showcase for all the different types of glass available. I saw the door in the clearance bin and it was a "must have"

Rick was able to hang it between the kitchen and dining room where we used to have a plain white door. If you look closely you can see the different types of glass - one of the bottom panes is actually mirror.

Hard to believe it is October already!!! Yesterday was a nice day - Rick and I drove up to the Home Depot in Pembroke for some lumber and stuff. We took the truck - nice to take it out for a run once and a while! Later he cut some wood - we are getting our firewood this year exclusively from fallen trees on our property. It's been many years since we have done this - in recent years we have bought 3 - 4 face cords. But, having picked up a small trailer that works well with the tractor in the bush, Rick has already cut and split at least 2 cords of wood - another 2 should do us for the winter.

the weather wasn't great today, but we were on the road to visit with some friends who live in the Almonte area. A nice drive there via Calabogie and down through Tatlock and past the Tatlock Quarry where we stopped at the lookout point, in spite of nasty weather, to snap a few pictures of the open pit quarry - it is absolutely HUGE!

A super afternoon spent at Bill and Andrea's watching the NASCAR race and enjoying a great steak dinner by a nice fire - thanks guys!

Today's pictures from the quarry near Tatlock

will it ever stop raining????

Nothing to do on a nasty day like today, but curl up by a fire - at least that's what Tigger thinks. Other picture is Buddy in a sort of weird pose on the couch.

a neighbour called the other night to ask if I was interested in participating in a multi-family garage sale. So, we're having garage sale! The weekend after thanksgiving I guess. Now, I have to find some items to sell! All summer we have been cleaning out stuff and taking it to the dump - now I'm thinkin' we should have kept some to sell. Oh well, I'm sure I'll find a few more things to put out if I look hard enough...

Pictures today of Tigger by the fire and Buddy in a weird pose on the couch.