banner day!

what a lovely day - weather wise!!!  started out cool but warmed up nicely by mid-afternoon.  Good laundry day!

Rick and Kris played lumberjack this morning and went into the bush behind the house to cut up some fallen trees.  Most of the trees on our property are quite old and every now and then the wind will take one down.  We don't burn a lot of wood in our fireplace, but this time of year is a nice time for the odd fire in the evening.  They managed to get about a half cord of wood in a couple of hours.  A few more sessions like today and we'll have enough for the winter.   Kris did manage to get stung by a wasp - in his ear, which is quite painful, apparently - I wouldn't know - I've never had one sting me there

Quiet weekend for us for real estate - well, quiet in that we didn't have any showings for ourselves, but several showings booked on our properties for other agents.  Last week we listed a very nice little bungalow on the edge of town that is generating a lot of activity. 

Jamie just texted me that he was at the Gatineau Air show all day - and said it was AWESOME!!!  They needed volunteers, so he offered and said he had a great day getting close to the planes.  I think he would love to fly if he could.

The newest member of our feline family is settling in nicely - amazing how quickly and easily cats/kittens adapt to new surroundings.  She keeps the other ones on their toes - her favorite amusement is chasing them around - this may NOT be their favorite game, though.  She's out a lot during the day, but never goes far from the house - at least not yet!   And, with the exception of one or two minor mishaps, she has the litter box thing down perfectly. 

 

 

Today's picture is Kira (that's the name we finally settled on) waking up from a nap on a pillow that used to be Nibbles's pillow  -  she's very cute

not sure quite how this happened.....

Over the weekend Kris mentioned that there was a a stray kitten down at the shop.  He had been taking it food, but, he was worried about it.  So, then I started to worry about it and  Sunday morning (while Rick was at the Gun Show in Eganville) Kris brought her up to the house.

I'm guessing she's about 7 weeks old.  She's eating wet kitten food without any problems and appears to be quite healthy.  The fact that she's comfortable around people and that she was all by herself makes us think she either got lost OR she got dropped off.  And Kris might as well hang a sign around his neck saying "need a home?  call Kris" 

Anyway, she has settled in quite nicely (for those trying to keep count - this makes 5 cats) although the older cats are rather grumpy about the entire situation.  They run away from her - which just makes her chase them more!   Nibbles spent the morning sleeping in a tree.  Missy is pretty good around her - but then Missy was the "put-upon" cat, so she seems to be a bit more sympathetic to "new cat syndrome".  Buddy, on the other hand, feels that a serious mistake has been made and he's been sulking....a LOT.

To be honest we haven't actually named her yet.  I started calling her Baby (for obvious reasons) which has sort of become B-B which Rick says is dumb.  So, if anyone can think of a more appropriate name, feel free to pass it along. She's off to visit the vet tomorrow and it would be nice if she had a nice name.

As you can see, she a very cute little tabby cat - they just have the most beautiful faces, I think.

Is it just me????

Is it just me - or does this little leaf on our front lawn look exactly like a Ninja mouse....????  I see a mouse with his back arched and his nose pointing to the right.....    but might just be me.....

Last night, we stayed up late watching the closing ceremonies for the Olympics - we were really looking foward to the Who's performance at the very end.  However, at midnight, even though the ceremonies were still on-going, we found ourselves watching a dumb sitcom instead of the Who!!!!!!    Bell had cut off the final few moments of the ceremonies - quite possibly the BEST PART!!! to run the sitcom as usual.   How stupid was that????  

And, yet in a totally perverse switch-a-roo, earlier in the day, our friends, who have only a Bell Satellite dish, had to come over to our house to watch the NASCAR race with us, because the Olympics were on the channel they they usually watch the race on.  Now, I'm NOT saying the NASCAR race was more important....but if Bell felt the Olympics were important enough to pre-empt a regular Sunday NASCAR race, surely the Olympics were important enough to pre-empt 10 minutes of a stupid midnite  sitcom re-run!!!!!!   idiots!

Still, the good part of that story, is that we all watched the race together and had a nice impromptu visit as well!

Rick and I been low-carbing it lately.   I generally have one little ol' egg for breakfast which I do enjoy - so it was particularly depressing to read an acticle in the Citizen today that eating egg yolks can be as bad for you as smoking!!!   really???   Maybe I should give up the egg and take up smoking again. 

Here's a picture I took yesterday morning as we drove down a cottage road near Constant Lake - good thing we were going slowly...  those cottage roads can be tricky!

Back to the Olympic closing ceremonies that also featured the Spice girls - Rick quite cleverly has re-named them simply Old Spice -  no matter HOW much cosmetic surgery they've collectively had, they ain't girls any longer......

break in the weather

well, the hot weather has finally gone - for a while, hopefully. It was wonderful to turn off the a/c's last night and open the windows!!! Looks like it will be nice for the rest of the week - now, if we could only get a bit more rain.....   the lawns are looking pretty brown. 

We've been experiencing a rough patch with our Rogers internet connection.  About 2 months ago, we noticed a bit of a drop in the speed, but several times now, it has been completely unusable  -  just hangs up.  On Friday, I think I must have reset the hub and my lap top half a dozen times.  Saturday night our neighbour called asking about our service - he has the same Rogers hub that we do and he said his service was awful.  We also had a couple of "lost in cyber-space" texts lately.  So, I called Rogers (again) and while, they couldn't offer a solution, they did say they  would report a general problem in the Haley Station area - we'll see what happens.  All, I can say is that after this past 3 days with Rogers, I'd be tempted to go back to dial up - slow, but reliable!!!

We've been pretty quiet this weekend - had a few showings arranged, but later cancelled - so just chilling for the weekend.  Rick took advantage of the down-time to give the pellet stove a good cleaning - which involved disconnecting it and getting into the back of it.  He also made a couple of "modifications" which should allow him better access for future cleanings.  Disconnecting and pulling it out from the wall is a pretty big job.

We've been catching what we can of the Olympics - sort of hit and miss - it seems whenever I have time to watch, all I can find is soccer or basketball.

Today's picture is our cutie, Buddy - having a quick nap on the back of the couch.

well....it's been a while....

It HAS been a while since I posted here - just lazy I guess.  Once I sort of get out of the routine, hard to get going again!

Anyway, summer is certainly moving right along!  August is nearly here and hopefully will bring a bit more rain than July did.  I don't think Rick has cut the lawn in a month!!!  We've got a large patch of white wild flowers, that I have not cut either -  I'm not sure the neighbouts approve - but they are much prettier than burnt, brown grass!   We've also planted some trees in the front lawn this year - just ones we got from the bush, but I think they will do well. 

We drove through the village of Calabogie today and heard lots of generators going.  The damage from Monday's storm was quite evident with downed trees eveywhere.  Many trees already cut and pushed off to the side of the road to be dealt with later but still lots leaning against the lines.    Didn't see too much in property damage, but I'm sure there are lots of houses with some damage.  Clean up will take a long time, I'm imagine.  In the Ashdad area, there were still hydro poles down and lines lieing across the roads.    Lots of clean up crews around.

We are keeping busy with real estate - our weekends are particularly busy.   Don't think we have much on the go tomorrow, though, so might take a drive into Ottawa. We're running low on Costo "must-haves".  Costco is the only store we have found that sells 1-ply toilet paper - which is what one should use when on a septic system.   We are pretty selective with our purchases  - easy to buy more than you need.

Today's pictures came from our drive to Calabogie - you can see what a mess the storm made.

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!

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.