Family fun, neighbours, and harvesting

Good golly, Miss Molly! August is half over, and today is the anniversary of my maternal grand-mother's birthday. She was born in 1906 near a small community in southern Saskatchewan. Her parents and two older siblings had moved from Grey County in Ontario to Saskatchewan about 1905, when the youngest child was a year old. Her parents went on to have five more children, the youngest of which died at birth and her mother passed away less than a week later. Nan was sent to live with relatives, though I've not been able to determine which family she spent time with. Great-grandpa married soon after and had another six children with his second wife.

When I started writing this post, I hadn't thought I'd be sharing family history, but the date brought to mind my grandmother. She refused to be called Grandma, hence she was called Nan. She was a tall woman and quite strict. She kept a weighted paddle hanging on the wall, and we children knew it could be used if we didn't behave. On the other hand, she spent hours teaching and playing Canasta with us on Sunday afternoons. She and Grandpa always came to the farm for Sunday dinners.  Sadly, she died when I was only 13, so my memories are few.

Back to today, or at least this week, it passed by in a flash. Monday is merely a blip in my memory, though I do now recall we cleared out the storage area in the basement, and I went into the thrift store to clean for a couple of hours. 

Tuesday was a busy day. D and I drove into NTO, dropping Eli off at his morning program before heading to the stores to do a bit of browsing and shopping. Later we brought lunch to Eli, which he ate in the car before he went off with the afternoon program to play mini-golf at a nearby provincial park. It had rained in the morning, but cleared up nicely for them. 

Meanwhile D and I headed to a sit-down restaurant for lunch. We relaxed, read the news to each other (we're weird like that), I watched a bit of Blue Jays baseball, and enjoyed a leisurely meal. Before we picked up Eli, we stopped to pick up a head of garlic for planting in the garden. I'd found it advertised in FB, and the woman had harvested dozens of heads of garlic. I'll be planting it once I've removed the pea plants. I thought the peas were done but they are blooming again.

We picked up Eli and were home about 4 p.m. where we were met by three hungry and vocal cats. :p After unpacking our purchases, I fed the cats, washed dishes and we all collapsed for the remainder of the day.

The photo on Wednesday was taken at the pool on Saturday. We had such a great day; there was a parade, garage sales, lunch at a Chinese restaurant, and ended with time at the pool. The photo shows the portion of the pool that is considered the lazy river. There is nothing lazy about it - when one enters the space the water pulls you into the current and one has to be careful not to bump into others sharing the space. Eli does enjoy it very much, but first he had to go down the water slide a few times.

This is the waterslide. Since I've never been one and there were two slides, I decided I'd join Eli in the fun. Ha! It all was fine until I reached the spot where the slide dropped...I shouted OMG and fell onto my back which sent me shooting out into the water. First and last time I ever do that!

The parade was short but fun, with Eli the recipient of many pieces of candy tossed from the vehicles. There was a police car, a couple of firetrucks, several older vehicles, and a float carrying a few Ukranian dancers. Other dancers were dancing on the street alongside the float. 

Garage sales were meh to interesting. One of the best, though we didn't buy a lot, was a house where the current owners had been left with many of the previous owners possessions. There was jewellry, kitchen gadgets, china tchotskes, and everything CHRISTMAS! One went through the garage, into the back yard where the Christmas items were laid out on the grass and in the garden shed. I do know we bought some labels, and maybe a small wreath. Prices were reaonable. The husband mentioned he's tired of living with all of this stuff.

Back to the remainder of the week. Eli had his activities; library program and the last of his morning program on Thursday in NTO. D and I cleared out an area in the basement where Matt will be removing the wall next to the furnace and putting a new wall to create another storage space. This will allow D (or I) to access the area that tends to collect water when we get a heavy rain. Plus D will have room to store toys - she plans on using see-through tubs that Eli can access easily. One of our purchases this week was two 6 foot shelving units that fit bins.

I spent the late afternoon and evening with my cousin B and her husband G. They arrived at the Yorkton City camp grounds mid-afternoon, and were set up by the time I arrived. They are driving a Class A motorhome and towing a Jeep. They've got a large octagonal gazebo where they keep out the bugs and use their propane firepit. Inside the motorhome, they have a king sized bed! The latter was apparently a must have, along with proper cloth storage. Pretty nice, and if you've got to camp, that might work for me. :)

Friday was a quiet day - I worked on some Christmas ornaments for Eli's teachers and E.A.'s. I'll show you these when I actually finish a few. At the moment I'm crocheting all the pieces and will put them together later. I also did a very important job - Eli's kitten stuffie had sprung a small leak. As I told him, it now has a scar but it's all better now. 

Garden update: I've been harvesting lettuce and cucumbers every couple of days. The tomatoes are finally starting to ripen, and to my delight the corn is starting to show silk. I thinned out the carrots and pulled a few small ones and I ate them, yum! The red onions stems seem to be falling over, which I'm told are a sign they are done. I dug up a few on Friday - they look more like shallots than onions but we'll use them in salads anyway. The rain in the forecast for Friday didn't amount to much, just enough to give everything a decent watering.

Next door GL (good landlord) has been working hard to remove the garbage and other items from the garage. She told D there was a good year's worth of garbage that never made it to bin, and it was never wheeled to the street for pick-up. The homemade trailer they are using has been filled at least six to seven times, not only with garbage, but mattresses, bed frames, tables, chairs, and so forth. GL says she'll need to fumigate the garage now that area is cleared. The trailer has been moved closer to the house and I suspect we'll seem the trailer filled multiple times.

AND LND (landlord next door) has listed his property for sale! He did this a couple of years ago, but pulled it off the market in just a few days so I'm not holding my breath. He texted to mention he'd like to have the fence built on the other side but Matt has told him he hasn't the time this season. I didn't have the information of the other fellow so he'll have to find someone else on his own. So much for saying that a fence doesn't improve the resale value...or at least that's my thought. The realtors were by on Thursday and it wasn't long before someone showed up whipper snip the weeds in the dog run (some were 5 feet tall) and in the xeriscaped area on the side of the house. I'm not sure if he sprayed as well, but so far the perennial bed isn't showing any ill effects.

Today, I've no real plans for the day. I should get the spirea into the ground and perhaps do a little more weeding. There is a Rider game this evening, with an earlier game...so I might end up planted on the couch where I can continue crocheting. 

Have a great week ahead everyone!