Packing Summer away

Monday - grocery shopping, for a few basic items and some cherry-picking of sale items. Three bags of groceries and $110 gone, poof! And I am fully cognizant that prices are only going higher due to the cost of diesel. I did read somewhere that some stations in Texas, in particular, have run out of diesel fuel. I hope we can avoid that here. 

On a happier note, at least for me, curling bonspiels are back on Youtube. I tend to watch those available through Curling Stadium as the channel has featured games with commentary. Not that I always agree with the announcers but it is nice to be able to keep up with the scores while I'm doing something else. 

For dinner, we made a new-to-us recipe, a tex-mex casserole. It used up some leftovers too. A crushed tortilla chips layer on the bottom of a casserole dish, ground sausage from the prior nights meal, heated up in the fry pan with the last of the salsa, chopped peppers and tomato added to the casserold dish, then a layer of sour cream (the last of the container), and finally, shredded cheese and sprinkled with green onion. We baked it for about 30 minutes - it was delicious! There was enough we were able to get a second meal out of it. 

Tuesday - this seems to be our housework day. Vacuuming, laundry, tidying and food prep took up most of the morning. D had to stop by the pharmacy in the grocery store, and did a wander around the store. She found this beef roast marked down 30%. Original price, just under $45! I'd bought another pork loin a week or so ago and had pulled it from the freezer to cut up. This resulted in two small roasts, four pork chops, two steaks, and three bags of stew meat in the freezer. I did the cutting, D did the vacuum sealing. 

I've been working on the cross-stitch ornaments in the afternoons when the light is better. Along with my neck light, I'm able to get in a couple of hours of stitching before my eyes start feeling tired. When D and Eli went to equine therapy, I enjoyed a nap. 

This is the near completed first ornament. I still need to cut off the excess Aida cloth and attach the backing, and a ribbon for hanging. 

Dinner was chicken Caesar salad. D had marinated the two chicken breasts in Greek Feta dressing (one of my favorites). I made up the salad while the chicken was in the air fryer. I like the croutons to soften a bit in the dressing. 

Wednesday - It was a cloudy, gray day, so when Eli went to school we tackled more housework. There tend to be piles left on the kitchen counters, things that need to go outside or to another room, and the window sill was lined with various items. I decided to clear the counters to scrub the window sills and backsplash. Meanwhile D was vacuuming her room (again) in preparation for using the carpet cleaner. When she finished I vacuumed my room (again) for the same reason. She ran the carpet cleaner while I folded laundry.

I picked up Eli at 2 p.m., while his mother had a much needed nap. My orders from Amazon had arrived at the post office. One contained D's birthday gift from Eli (her b/d is in early December), and the other more Aida cloth and the ornament hangers for the cross-stitch. 

Knit and Natter was held in the evening. I was on my own, but sat and did my cross-stitch. When she had time, J the librarian chatted with me. I suppose I could have gone home but I like having the time away. This month my group isn't working at the thrift store, we'll be back on Tuesdays in October. Thus my interaction with the outside world has been limited to a few shopping trips.

Thursday - the morning started off cool and cloudy, not conducive to yard work early in the day. We were all tired too, as Eli hadn't been able to fall asleep until after midnight. His mom was up and down, and I could hear their on-going discussion from my room. D was up at 5 a.m. and both Eli and I were up just after 6. She decided to keep him home from school, though he didn't get out of doing school work. D is a former teacher and is quite capable of working with him. By noon they had covered his French dicte (spelling), English - identifying verbs and adverbs, Math - multiplication, and had practiced the reading he will do in church on Saturday evening. 

Meanwhile I used a few ripe tomatoes to make soup. The fruit was showing discolouration, likely due to stink bug damage so I boiled them briefly to remove the skins. I cooked the tomatoes with garlic and onion, and after cooling a bit, used the immersion blender and a sieve to reduce it to a liquid. I added the juice to a roux, and seasoned it with a bit of salt and sugar. I ended with a SINGLE bowl of soup...but it made a delicious lunch. In addition, I made a pot of mashed potatoes for D as she wanted to make potato bread. I had a piece with my soup and it, too, was delicious.

By the time I was finished with the soup, the sun was shining. I took my tea and had a telephone chat with my brother. He had sent me several photos of the valley in the fog. 

Then it was time to get some work done. I cleared out several of the annual containers, though left the gerbrera daisy and the two containers of ivy, geranium, and verbena. The front of the houe is looking rather sparse. I used the wheelbarror to carry the heavy clay pots to the shed to be stored for the winter. I had two containers of pansies that I am trying something with. In the new perennial bed, I dug holes and placed the containers upside down in the holes, covering most of the pot with dirt. We'll see if they survive the winter - I've heard of success stories with other plants, and at the very least the pansy seeds will be in the ground.

After lunch, I went back out to do more yard-work taking Eli with me so his mother could nap or at least rest. While I'd been outside in the morning, she had made potato bread, as well as garlic bread, while keeping Eli on task with his school work.

I didn't accomplish much as he really doesn't like bugs! One of the major tasks was taking up the one raised bed and placing it on top of the other. I moved as much of the dirt as I could, then put down some grass seed where the second bed had been. I hadn't left room for D to mow between them, and while it will give me less room to grow things, I am going to be a bit more strategic next year. A few pieces of outdoor furniture and plant stands were stored in the shed as well. 

Speaking of bugs, Wednesday's photo was a centipede I found in one of the pots. Alongside it was a slug. Both ewww! I've never had slugs before so I'll have to do some reading on what they like to eat in the garden. Apparently, I need beer too, as they will drink and drown in a small container of it. 

Dinner was penne with a sausage meat sauce, baked in the oven with cheese and accompanied by D's garlic bread. That's a fall meal!

Friday - Another morning of yard-work. Mostly reorganizing things in the garage and shed, and putting things away, furniture and such. 

We emptied the rain barrels and turned them upside down. We were able to extend the drains so that the water will flow away from the house, should it rain. I did start the process of weeding the garden, but will putter at that over the next week or two. The ground is very hard, so I'll want to add compost to it before I add a straw layer for the winter.

I was sore from both Thursday and Friday's efforts so took the afternoon off. There was more laundry to fold, but other than that, I relaxed and watched a bit of curling. Our football team was on the field in the evening. 

Dinner - homemade pizza with chicken, red onion, peppers, basil pesto, with cheese. 

Today, we're off to the city for a Costco run. There are a number of things on sale, enough to make up for the cost of the fuel to go there and back at least. D's pantry will be full, and she should have enough garbage bags, dishwasher tabs, and various other items to see her through the winter. There are socks on sale too, a gift for my son's birthday! :)

Have a great week ahead everyone!

A weather rollercoaster, a birthday, and a short visit

The storm blew in on Sunday afternoon bringing heavy wet snow and windy conditions. It must have warmed up slightly, as we had ice pellets most of the evening. By morning, there was a crust of snow and ice on the driveway. Neither the son nor I had any reason to go out so I left it, hoping it would melt. It didn't. 

We had a bit more snow overnight into Tuesday, and it remained cloudy and cold. I went out to feed the birds that morning and then went in to the dishes and watch the feeder. It doesn't take long for the word to spread - these photos were taken about a half hour after I was out. Not much later, a squirrel showed up for a feed as well. 

I like how the snow settles on the branches of the trees - though I didn't want it stay, just yet. And it didn't.  

My son didn't work on Tuesday either, he'd taken the two days off as he celebrated his 35th birthday on the 25th. His idea of celebration is sleeping late. Not so different from the weekends. :) I generally don't give gifts or cards for birthdays any longer, but do order in dinner of their choice. C chose pizza; I ordered from Dominos where I could get brownies for dessert. When the delivery I told him, "you even got cake!". If you can't tell birthdays aren't a real big deal. 

Wednesday I went for groceries and managed to stick to my list, except for a bag of seedless grapes, and the budget didn't take too big of a hit. At stitch and chat that afternoon there were just two of us. S had a call from one of the other ladies the night before and their household has been infected with Covid. S's neighbour didn't come either and she hadn't had her lunch yet. We chatted and got to know one another for a couple of hours. She was working on a knitted scarf while I working on knitting a Christmas tree. I'll share a photo next week.

Thursday was a catch up day on housework. While I was running a load of laundry, I even got some sanding done in the basement on the door casings. About time! My thought is to finish off the main room and laundry room next week, and then I'll turn my attention to the new room and my son's old bedroom.

On Friday morning I was out the door by 7:45 for my drive to D's. She dropped Eli off at school, and I arrived shortly after to pick her up. We drove into the next (larger) community for a bit.of shopping. Our first stop was Value Village where D found several t-shirts, a few pairs of sweat pants, and a Halloween silicone mold. She's using the latter to melt broken crayons into Halloween shapes. These will go into treat bags for Eli's class. 

Of course I had to look for yarn. And of course, I found several bags. I walked out with $20 of yarn to add to the stash. There was one skein I particularly wanted for a specific project. 

We made stops at Dollarama and Walmart before heading to her home for lunch. A bit of housework was accomplished before we sat down to watch some television and I did some knitting.  We picked up Eli from school about 3:30. He had no idea I was coming. He was happy, but not overly excited to see me. But by bedtime he was ready for some bedtime story reading. AND he slept in the twin bed with me all night...as a result I was awake many times during the night and by morning, he had pushed me nearly off the edge of bed. Time to get up anyway.

I helped D with a couple of things, watched the Home Alone movie with Eli, and did some knitting before driving home this morning. I didn't stop anywhere along the way to take photos but I can assure you that all the snow was gone. Only the shaded spot on my driveway (where I'd piled the snow earlier this week) still had snow on it. We're going to have a warm Halloween. I only have candy for 45 kids so I suspect I'll be turning the lights off early.

Speaking of which, there is football on the television, so I think I'll curl up on the couch and take a nap. Have a great week ahead everyone!

My winter vacation?

The week started out cold, got colder still to stupidly cold (-32C with windchills of -41C on Wednesday for most of the day) before we are finally getting a bit of a reprieve on Thursday.  Thank goodness as today is the day I am heading to my daughter's home.  Her place will be my base for this weekend's Grand Slam of Curling event.  

There are four games tomorrow and Saturday and the two finals on Sunday (men and women).  The first two days the opening match starts at 8 a.m. and the last match will end around 10 p.m.  There is usually a 75 minute break between matches.  This will make for long days so I probably will go later in the morning to catch the end of the first game, and come back to D's in the evening to watch the last game of the day on television.  I really don't want to have my car sit all day in a parking lot even if the temperatures improve as much as they are supposed to.  Plus I'd rather drive in the daylight hours.  

I'm about to start packing the car but will clean cat litter and feed the birds first.  I should be on the road by noon or so, as I'll spend this afternoon and evening with D and Eli.  He's begun to say "hi Gramma" on the phone, and he was excited this morning to hear I was coming to visit today.

Have a great weekend everyone. I'll be back with photos from the event and my visit early next week.

Stay warm wherever you are!

It's a waiting game

I'm one of those people....I hate having to wait for someone else to get back to me. I want to know now! Or better yet, 10 minutes ago.  However, with the long weekend, we're in a bit of a holding pattern with the house in Melville.

The broker found two different mortgage companies willing to finance the property. That was a positive as it more difficult to mortgage a second property, and especially one that is in a small town coupled with a low mortgage amount.  The interest rate is slightly higher, but just a 10th of a percentage point.  I've conservatively calculated the mortgage payments to be $120 bi-weekly.  It seems such a crazy small amount, but of course there are other costs associated with owning a property.

Oh, is that last statement true!  We had our inspections (mostly) completed on Friday.  D, Eli, and I drove up on Friday morning, arriving just after 9 a.m.  The selling real estate agent and the inspector were there.  She was busy putting pads on the bottom of the chairs and the table legs, while he was checking out the laundry.  Later, she left and he headed back down to the basement.  

I'm sharing a few of the cellphone photos D took - they are dark as her flash doesn't work since Eli threw it in the tub.  The kitchen is quite large but long and narrow.  The refridgerator is to the right of the sink, and the washer/dryer combo are directly across from the cabinets to the left of the stove.  That is a small deep freeze on the far left hand side.  



The flooring has been redone on the main floor with the exception of the bathroom and small porch.  The door you can see on the far left opens to the small porch with the bathroom to the left of that.

The wall between the kitchen and dining room/living room combo has been opened up (though the door to the original living room is still there as well).  

This photo is taken from the dining room into the small living room.  There would be more  room to get past the couch but the owner has an old grandfather's clock against the wall.  

D plans to turn the dining area in to a play area for Eli.  The current tenants are also using it for storage, so I suspect it won't look much different...though a little messier when Eli is through with it.  At the bottom right of the photo, they have a blender set up.  The little stinker figured out how to turn it on!  
He loved the space and ran back and forth between the rooms and then discovered the stairs to the second level.  

This is the view looking into the house from the front porch door.  The living room is on the left, the stairs on the right.  Being an older house, they are fairly steep and on his first foray, Eli was pretty cautious as he climbed (crawled).  But after he went up and down a couple of times he wasn't the least bit afraid.

I have no photos of the upstairs as the photos D took were just too dark.  It was clear the tenants have just moved in, and we were told they are there for two months for a firefighting course.  It was good to see their items in the room as it gave us a better idea of the size.  All rooms look big when empty, I think.

While the inspector completed his work, we took some measurements of windows, doors, the bathroom vanity and other spaces.  D's friend A arrived, and they took Eli outside where he ran back and forth in the front and side yards.  There was a pregnant kitty who came to check him out and the poor thing was chased about until she decided enough was enough.  

Meanwhile a locksmith came by to try to open the garage as it was locked and the realtor didn't know where to find a key.  However, he needed a drill that he didn't have with him, and the inspector had to leave so rather than go through the report, the inspector left it incomplete and headed out.  He was to meet with the locksmith today (though I've let him know Tuesday is soon enough) so I expect I'll hear more at some point.  

So the inspection report....I'm not entirely certain how much I can rely on it as he missed some things we noted - the flashing above the front windows and the broken window in the front porch for example, and put a lot of emphasis on the fact the house has sloping floors. He did, however, note there is some rotting at the bottom of the posts in the basement though assured me the house won't fall in on itself.  The plumber's report was separate and while I anticipated the recommendation to have a sump pump installed, there was one surprise.  Apparently when the water heater was put in, the chimney insert wasn't changed out to a smaller width as required.  The plumber doing the inspection was the one who installed it and he indicated the owner didn't want to spend the money.  I thought he would fail it, but he didn't....I guess he didn't want to be negative about his own work.  

I'm going to give him a call Tuesday morning and request an estimate of the costs to install both the sump pump and the chimney insert.  Maybe, just maybe he'll give me a bit of a deal?  At that point, I have a decision to make as depending on the cost I anticipate we'll be going back to the current owner for a price reduction.  I'm quite willing to share the cost, but I really think he should be on the hook for the chimney insert because he should have had the work done already.  If Google is right, the cost will be between $65 and $100 a foot - with a two story house it is going to cost a pretty penny.  I've been in touch with my realtor's co-worker (he's on vacation this week) and she is prepared to go back with a revised offer.  

There was also another surprise, this one a good one.  The inspector discovered that the entire house has been re-wired.  Between the new windows, the newer room (5-10 years), the furnace and water heater (10 years), and the wiring, I'm confident that much of the expensive repairs have been done.  Yes, there will need to be more money spent - I'd be foolish not to think so but I'm happy to know so much has been done to bring the house up to current standards.  

D is getting quite excited and packing is well underway.  The garage is starting to empty out of all of the extra items; although that is happening less quickly than I would like, she assures me it will be done in the 60 days or so before the move.  She's got a quote from a local moving company as well - we've used them before in the move to this house, the cost was reasonable and they were very efficient.  

So the finish line is in sight...

******

I've spent the rest of the weekend, thus far, doing regular weekend things - grocery shopping, laundry, washing floors (gosh this kid drops things and mashes them into the floors), and cleaning my bedroom and bathroom.  This morning I relaxed in bed and read with a cup of coffee.  My brother lent me a book he'd recently read, "The secret diary of Hendrik Groen, 83 1/4 years old".  The book was written by an "inmate" of a nursing home in Denmark - his word, not mine - about a year in his life. It starts off with the caution "Another year, and I still don't like old people." The almost daily diary entries are amusing, hilarious, sad, poignant, and sweet as he shares tales of bad food, the many complaints of the inmates, the escapades of the "Old but not dead" club, and the inevitable health issues that arise with age.  R brought it over on Friday and I finished it this morning - it's the first book in a long time that I've had difficulty putting down.    

We've been having lots of rain, but hopefully tomorrow will be clear and I can get out into the yard.  The lawn is in desperate in need of a mow and good weeding, and the containers need to be dead-headed.  I'm looking forward to the time when I don't have to squeeze chores into a certain day but can do a little every day (as long as the weather cooperates).

My wait won't be much longer though - just four months until the end of November!  The marble jar is looking very low.  

On that note, I'm off to make pasta salad for dinner this evening.  Have a great rest of the weekend everyone!