Friday, August 28, 2015

puppy update - woohoo!

it was a beautiful day in the neighbourhood! check out this beautiful sky from mid-day:


and look at these very straight and in formation clouds out back!


we found out today that we are getting our puppy this evening.



so we gathered up the puppy supplies.


and jam threw together little puppy enclosures at the front porch:


and the back deck:


talk about gonzo construction! but we didn't think we'd be getting the puppy until mid-next week. these enclosures will give the puppy the ability to come in and out of the 3 cat doors on her choosing. the chairs and milk cartons are for the cats to be able to get in and out of the enclosures. we will keep the puppy with us for the next few days - showing her the perimeter of the land, letting her get used to the cats (and the cats to her) and getting her comfortable with the house. we are picking her up this evening in a large cat carrier which she will probably want to use for the next few weeks. we have puppy food for her and we are very excited. jam will build a proper dog run with a dog house but she will live in the actual house and have the ability to come in and out as she pleases once she's older and doesn't turn into a "run-awayer"...time will tell.

many puppy updates to follow!

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

finally at the harvesting stage - woohoo!

here's a beautiful day when, because we were busy, instead of walking down to the river for dips, we cheated and took the atv.



it makes quick work of getting down and back...with a couple of dips in between!

is there anything in the world like your very first tomatoe?


sliced up with fresh basil, chunks of feta, olive oil and balsamic vinegar - yummeh!

here's our first carrot (called icicle), first cucumber, first zucchini and second tomatoe - woohoo!


there will be lots of caprese-style salads in our future!


we have been harvesting peppers (from the ones we overwintered) and snow peas and shelling peas as well. but kids, i'm a cape bretoner through and through and regardless of it being summer, i had a hankering for some good old fashioned boiled dinner (roast in broth with our own potatoes and our own carrots).


i can eat this for breakfast, dinner, supper, snack....and have it again for every meal the next day!

off to check your blogs! hope you are all having a nice week!

Sunday, August 23, 2015

guerrilla fishing!

jambaloney here with guerrilla fishing!!

well not THAT guerrilla but still...

first off a story...

When i was 15, my dad and i went on an adventure fishing trip to northern Ontario in his old caprice classic. We drove for about 10-12 hours before finding a camp spot somewhere north of timmins (hi wendy!). the camp spot was at a little lake that was stocked with trout, and although the dingy barely held us, we caught quite a bit of trout and had a great fry-out. The next day we moved on to another camp site near a small river. After 5 minutes of putting the tent together, the black flies drove us to a nearby motel. The next day dad decided we needed to go for it, so he found an ad in one of the papers (this was 1979) for fly-in fishing. So we went to the dock, got on the float plane and took off. I was amazed at flying so low over such a vast watery area! We dropped some people off at a remote camp before the pilot took us to a place where the outfitter had stashed a canoe on The Lady Evelyn River. We fished all day, caught some really nice trout and as we were waiting for the plane to pick us up, there was a massive thunderhead not far off in the distance. Dad told me we might have to spend the night under the canoe. However, just before it looked hopeless, we saw a small black speck coming in on the large still water. It was the plane and he picked us up JUST IN TIME. It was quite an adventure and a good example of guerrilla fishing!

you all remember that last year a beaver built a damn at Strachan's brook and created a whole new lake right across the street from our property. this has created a guerrilla fishing opportunity for me, as there is no way for anyone to be able to get there easily. but, i borrowed my friend d's canoe and walked it across the road and into the new lake. it was fun! that white speck in the distance is the manor!!


here is a close-up -the only way you can see our house is from here!


here i am going up the narrow part..


further still, but the water is shallower here


so back to the still water...

our house is waaaaaaay off in the distance..


i often see trout surfacing there - the fishing was awesome - i got these 5 in 45 mins - the top trout is 13 inches and about a pound - 3rd largest i have caught here!!! these are for my dad  in memory of that trip!


that evening the sun was blazing...


a few mornings later - i was up for the standard morning trip down to the river and the dew was heavy so the spider webs looked awesome...


i am always amazed at the shapes


and more - hey it is my blog ;-)


we have TONS of spiders here!

look at all the webs!!!


down to the river


a purple iris...


and some trout for sandy and pioneer p!!!


hope you are all enjoying some fine august weather!

cheers!






Monday, August 17, 2015

are we wimps? yer darn tootin's we are!

some backstory. saturday morning, up at 4:30 in order to go and serve at our community hungry man breakfast. we had a great turnout as usual, worked our butts off and then got home to water the garden - it was hot, bright day. after spending several hours working in the yard, we went to have a nap before our friend d's 50th birthday party on saturday night. did we make it to the supper? no. we had naps and slept through the alarm. no one at the party was surprised - they were surprised that we actually made it!!! that's how often we miss things due to getting up super early in the AM and needing afternoon naps - bahahahah!

to be honest, it took all week to get over last saturday night's party where we danced too much, drank too much and partied too much. who the heck in their 40's parties until 4:30 in the morning. us. that's who.

back to our friend d's party - holy moly! what a crazy party! dancing with my besty c the whole night. hanging out with our friends c&b, s&d, r&d....and c&b's kids, r&d's kids, s&b's kids and all of the husbands/wives/boyfriends in between. it was beyond crazy!

we also met up with our friend v who we haven't seen for at least 2 years but were able to re-establish our relationship pretty quick. he's friends with our other friends k&b and b's brother s. and we got to meet k's daughter. she is truly beautiful. and smart.

so now for 2 saturday nights in a row we closed the hall in grand mira. not a good idea. last saturday we went to s&b's cottage after the dance and paid the price. did we learn our lesson? that would be a resounding NO!!!

after this party we all headed back to d&r's...d being who the party was for. it was a jungle. hanging out on d&r's deck, yakking with everyone, having a blast, should NOT have still been drinking! but man did we ever enjoy ourselves! and now for the last 2 days, neither of us have a voice and we have sworn off drinking FOREVER! otherwise known as the next dance!

we didn't get home until 6am!!! ugh - ye gods - HELP! sunday sucked bad as we were really hurting!

today we still were suffering but as it was 29C out - we headed to the river for some river medicine. it worked!


we love hanging out with our friends but 2 weekends in a row??? that's just asking for trouble!

here's our snacks for down at the river.


it was fun taking dips every 20 minutes and helped cleared our heads. it's only 2:00 but we are just not used to that kind of heat and i didn't want us to get sunstroked. after being sick from bug bites for the past 2 months, sunstroke is not what we need!

we need a week of detox and no more parties until september. bahahahahahah! we hope that you all had a nice weekend too!

Sunday, August 9, 2015

what an awesome dance!

the day of the dance (on saturday) was grey and cloudy. but the day before looked like this:


such clean, clean, delicious, salt-filled air here. i should bottle it and sell it - bahahahah!

some shrimp salad for lunch with greens from our salad bar, peas, a carrot also from the garden and nasturtiums! and a kick-you-so-hard-in-the-head-dressing that we made it to the dance!


it was our friends' a&d's 40th wedding anniversary! what an awesome party!!!

i don't even know where to begin???we get there and see a bunch of folks and give out hugs and then find our friends s&d. i hug her. she is wearing a beautiful summer dress with the back cut out of it...i feel her back (come on guys - you know i am a touchy-feely person)...and i feel something raised on her back!!!

"did you get a tattoo???". and she replied yes. a beautiful tattoo of the date of her marriage and 2 raised wedding rings. so beautiful. but it was dark. i need to see it in the light. i loved it!

ok - on to crazy dance-party. we danced. we partied. we laughed. we had such a great time that my head is still hurting. and jambaloney is back in bed - bahahahahah! we went back to s&b's cottage after the dance ended at 2am. not a good decision.

but we had such a blast with s&b. and their beautiful daughter T! she is so talented and mark my words - she'll be showing up in a music video or movie soon! remember folks - i told you about HER first.

my jambaloney gets along with new people so well. T's boyfriend came down with her from toronto. kids, when i say cape bretoners are not the easiest people to understand or get along with - THAT is an understatement - bahahahah! but her boyfriend from the city fit right in! and we loved him right off the bat.

her boyfriend and jam were in a deep discussion....as you know, jam has a philosophy degree but also has a year of biology under his belt. T's boyfriend is studying economics and mathematics. the discussion ran deep! but our friend T - who will be a superstar one day - listened to their conversation and did what any proper girl would do in that situation - she didn't step in to correct them when she knew they were wrong (cause that's what proper smart women do when men are yakking it up and making a bunch of mistakes!) - she did what any proper girl would do -

she drew pretty shapes on jambaloney's hands.



did i mention dancing with my besty c? did i mention that our friends' d&b had their grandchildren out for the weekend? did i mention how gorgeous s looked in her dress and new tattoo? did i mention how awesome the dj was? did i mention our favourite comedic act t (he's s's boyfriend and s is the daughter of our besties c&b. figure that one out PP - i dare ya!)

did i mention the heart to heart i had with b? she's r&d's daughter...i love her so much!

did i mention that we didn't leave s&b's cottage until 4:30am and didn't get home until 5:am???

kids - we had such a good time. and we have to turn around and do it all again next saturday for our friend d's 50th party!!! these cape bretoners are the best people on the planet...but man they are wearing us down - bahahahahahah!

i am sending love to all of you. if you don't hear from us for a week - it's because we are still recovering. yes, it's that bad!

Monday, August 3, 2015

more gonzo fixing and building..

jambaloney here!

on a rainy night a couple of weeks ago i was JUST getting ready for bed, k had already gone off  but i couldn't sleep - finally after doing some work on my contract, i was ready to sleep when i heard one of the cats playing with a mouse.... after checking and finding no mouse, further inspection of the noise revealed water seeping in from the ceiling - NEVER a good sign...it was here in the teevee room..




cross-eyed i managed to get into the attic and get a bin under the drip - that sucked at 3 AM let me tell you - next day i got out to get on the problem... here is the generator shed...


the genny shed in NOT what i will call robust, so to spread the weight i screwed in this old table top..


 and got up there to inspect....


bingo!! down to the wood...


here is another angle...


it was raining out and i have no spare shingles on hand  so we measure...


and again...


and cut some 6 mil poly to double up...


and fit it...


looks good but it is wrong... experience sometimes helps you take a second look and reveal that this will still leak  where the crack are...


whereas this won't - tucked under nicely now and shimmed with a v at the bottom to keep the water going down  - it worked great the other night when the skies tried to drown us - i will get shingles to replace soon!!


i tried to do it from the ladder, but had to get right on the roof - never seen the land from this high up!!!


bugs were awful - thanks bugsuit!!!

 vandura, junk and atv shed...

stracchen's brook and hills...

 front yard...

bodadie tires


time to get down...


july 29, 4 days of rain and stracchens brook is a LAKE!!


i love my husqvarna weed-eater and chainsaw... so what is this???


secret free lumber!!


slats and whatnot... angle grinder got rid of old nails..


hey - it is a crate from a riding mower - i planned to build a s*it shack at the river and tarp it... this came already started...

 turned sideways...


cover for extension cords - it is wet out...


on the base i added "G's boards" to re-enforce...(G's boards is a bunch of wood that i salvaged when our friend G was taking down a shed)

 here is another look...


it will sit on these old 4x4s...


more to come - cheers all hope you are having fun with summer nonsense!!!