This is how I feel........

Must say I am glad Christmas is over and done with for another year.  I know New Year's Eve/Day is a day to celebrate but we never do much on that day.  It used to be the day I took down all the Christmas decorations as I had the day off work, but nowadays with not working I usually have them down sooner than that.  This year everything was put away on Boxing Day.  I wanted the house back to normal and not all cluttered up with Christmas stuff.

I do leave the Christmas cards up until the 12th night; you can read more about that here.  My hubby works for most of the Christmas period as he is in maintenance and the factory is shut down for the Christmas holidays, so all the machinery must be serviced, etc.  So I barely see him for the two weeks.

Our son hosted Christmas this year and it was lovely to see everyone and enjoy a lovely Christmas meal.  Dh and I were spoiled by the kids and I got a Nespresso coffee machine from them, and dh got a sound bar for the tv.  Santa was good to them as well from what I could see.  The kids got lots and lots of toys to play with, so they were happy.

I have taken a couple of weeks off from Appleby Lane and one of the jobs I am doing is decorating the downstairs bathroom.  What should have been a quick job has turned into an extensive renovation.  Dh started back at the end of November.  I will do a post about it all soon as we should be finished with it all in the next week or so.  If we had known what we were letting ourselves in for we wouldn't have started it when we did...........the joys of buying a house from someone who thinks they know it all😒

Oh yes I have eaten way too much, so need to get back into the healthy eating way of life again..........right after I have eaten the last of the chocolate😁

How was your Christmas?

Sorry for not being around.....been a busy week...

Of course the most important thing that happened last week was the arrival off our Jeina.  The photo below was taken today (Sunday).  She is sleeping under the quilt I made her and with her elephant.  She is a cutie with super long fingers and gorgeous hair.

I fell on Monday morning and twisted my ankle, sort of.  Its all bruised, luckily I was in the bedroom at the time so fell on carpet; this happened at 6:30 am.  As my mother said it helps if you put tonic in with the gin............

The guys came and finished off the drywall and left me enough drywall dust to coat the whole of the neighbourhood.............wasn't that kind of them?  So I have been a tad busy trying to tidy up that mess.  Who knew drywall dust can get into everywhere, and I mean everywhere!  However, they did a super job, very pleased with the results.  Now I have to get on with all the painting.

Due to all of that I was a tad irritated by the end of the week, so the poor builders got it.  You would think they were building the Taj Mahal opposite us with the amount of workmen parked outside of our house.  They park where ever they feel like and generally are a pain in the butt.  So I had a full "toddler meltdown," on them on Friday.  Not sure what will come of it but I felt better afterwards...LOL

This week our next grand daughter is due to arrive, so it will be all systems go.  I will get caught up with everyone one of these days!! Have a good week.

Been a bit sidetracked for a couple of days,

not sure doing what but enough to have "forgotten" to do blog post's.

Anyway here are a couple of things I have been thinking about/doing.

Actually got a little bit of gardening done, but for the past three days we have had frost on the rooftops in a morning, so need to wait a little longer before putting out any tender plants/annuals.

Been thinking about those poor folk in Fort McMurray, Alberta.  I can't begin to imagine what they have gone through and are going through.



Click here to read a recent article on the situation.

I am making progress on my Necessary Clutch that I mentioned here.  This one is going to be far from perfect, as I am figuring out things as I go along.  Suffice to say I know what I am NOT going to do the next time I make one.

Mother's Day has been and gone for another year.  Got to see the kids so that is good.

"R" is down to less than three weeks now and dd is around a month.  Glad when they have both had the babies, as both are looking weary now.

Got the drywall guy sorted out and he should be here before the end of the month.  Had the hydro inspector in to inspect dh's electrical work as we took out a permit because we had visions of one of our neighbours reporting us........yes I am being serious.

Funny thing the inspector was coming on a Thursday and the inspector was a woman.  A guy knocked on the door on a Wednesday and said he was the inspector and he knew he was a day early.  First thing out of my mouth is "you're supposed to be a woman?"

The lady inspector was on maternity leave and he was just filling in.  Luckily dh picked up his phone so he could tell the inspector what's what, as I am clueless.  We got the all important sticker so that's good.

Picked up some of the drywall/plaster board, to save us some money, and did indeed save $69 + 13% tax and doing that.  The other things we need we will have to get delivered ($50 charge) as dh's truck is not big enough.  Did you know the 8 ' x 4 ' sheets of Lite drywall are still flipping heavy???  Dh has a fancy handle thing he can use to lift them one at a time down the basement.  Plus we have the boys coming over on the long weekend, to move the bigger sheets down the basement for us.

We are buying the supplies and the guy is providing the labour.

Well that's it for today, need to get on.  Will be back tomorrow, have a good one!

Before and after of the mud room.........

You can see some before photos here and here

Here are a couple of before photos:

Well as you can see the major change is there are now closet doors on the closet and no holes in the drywall above the closet.  

 I had painted the door to "nowhere" last Fall but dh put a frame around it to finish it off.  The door still does not open but does look more finished now.

 I bought a couple of cushions for the bench; dh curses them up and down everytime he sits on the bench!!

 We finished off and painted the frame to the door leading into the kitchen.  That was the original back door to the house, so we have exposed wall there.

Another view of the exposed wall.

 This is inside of the closet.  We reused what was already there.

The door to the outside and the window. 

Total for this project, probably in the range of $250 to $300.  The closet doors were around $120 and we needed a lot of trim and we had to buy drywall and plaster.  I did just use what paint I had on hand and we did use whatever wood we could, but there was barely any trim work in this room.

Big weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

We had our real estate agent over yesterday, her name is Sarah.  She wanted to pop by and see our progress.  She seemed pleased with what we have done; as we are.  During the course of the conversation the home stager situation came up.  As I explained at the beginning she charges $125 an hour and I wasn't in love with the woman.  Anyway, Sarah said there was no need to bring her in as between us we could do the rest to get ready for the photos.

Immediately I felt so much lighter and happier. I must have been worrying deep down about having to deal with her again.  Its not that her suggestions weren't right, believe me they were very, very helpful, but she was just a very overpowering person to deal with.

So we have decided to put the house up for sale around the middle of February, but it could be earlier or later depending on the weather.  Also our driveway is an ice skating rink and very dangerous, and there is no salt to be found anywhere at the moment.  I got a lead there should be some coming in the beginning of next week at our local Home Hardware so will call them.  We are putting ashes down at the beginning of the driveway as dh put his brakes on the other morning and went straight out into the main road.  Luckily it was just after 4:30 am so there wasn't much in the way off traffic.  We just don't want anyone falling on our driveway and suing us!!

We are not finished all the jobs, should be done 90% of them in the next week or so.  The mud room will be done by the end of next week.  I will then be able to take photos for you.  We will then be waiting for the trim to come back from Hope Acres and our kitchen table also from there.  Hopefully they will be back by the end of the month.

The house just then needs to be primped and polished and the final staging and decluttering done.  I do feel as though I can see the light at the end of the tunnel finally.

So that is where we are at the moment with the house.  I also got rid of another bag of clothing for another 25 things to leave the house this week.

Powder room renovation at daughter and son-in-laws house.

Last month dd and son-in-law decided to renovate the powder room.  I don't have a before photo which is such a shame, as it's night and day to what it was.  The floor was a beige and brown linoleum.  The walls were beige and there was a cheap wooden and sink.

First thing they did was pull up the floor and get rid of the vanity.  They painted the room a dark grey including the ceiling. and put in the white wainscotting at the bottom.  The put in a pedestal sink and little mosaic tiles on the floor.  Changed the light fixture and added new accessories.  They figured all in all this cost them around $700.

This is the floor tile, sorry the photo turned on me.  The floor vent is also a silver colour.

Dd is a huge fan of Young House Love and gets lots of ideas from them.

Gosh I'm tired amd a photo of our little Princess

Monday was another busy day.  I need to get a lot done this week.  I put the first coat of varnish on the stairs.  Yes it's stinky but it's not as bad as the stain.  My goal is to get three coats on this week.  I did a little bit of tidying up, as the place is still covered in dust (SIGH).  I got the baby quilt all quilted, so now have only the binding to do.  However I remembered I still have to sew together the block for my quilt club on Thursday.

I wanted to show you my newest "toy" 

Its that time of year when the cluster flies all wake up from their hibernation.  I find it hard work hauling my regular vacuum up the stairs every day, so I figured a hand held vacuum would do the trick.  This one is both an upright one and a handheld on and is quite compact.  And best of all cost a whopping $17!!!!

So far so good with it, just wish we didn't have to deal with the cluster flies period.

Our little Princess is two months old today.  I will be seeing her in person on Friday, so looking forward to that.  Doesn't she suit yellow?

Her face is really changing and she is more active as per her mother.

Our Old Basement......

is the total opposite to the new basement.  As I explained yesterday we have two basements due to the fact a family room extension was added to the house in 1974.  Due to the thickness of the original stone walls in the house, they didn't knock through to the extension, so we have two totally separate basements.  

The old basement was an earthen floor, but was concreted over in 1954; they marked the date in the floor.  This is what it looks like when you open the door to the basement.  The stairs are original and its all dusty down there with cobwebs and the odd mouse!!  Dh is wanting to drywall all this area, just to clean it up and make it even brighter.  We however have to do some repair work to the staircase going upstairs as it squeaks like crazy.  So don't want to drywall that yet.

We have done a little bit of work down there as we blocked up two windows and installed two new windows.  We found a little bit of dry rot so that was all torn out and the coal shoots were also blocked up.  We had to get someone in to do all that and that cost us around $5,000.  Which in a way sucks as it's work other than the windows you don't see or honestly appreciate.  It has however made a huge difference, as the old windows were blocked up with insulation as they were that old and drafty.  So now we have daylight in there.  Plus it was mouse central down there and we had the holes blocked up so they can't get it..........mind you they are still getting in somewhere, we now think under the front deck.

I am in the process of cleaning up this side of the basement.  Nearly all those boxes that you can see is Christmas decorations.  Would you believe I had a huge clean out a few years ago and donated a big pile of Christmas stuff.  I need to go through it all and see if I can get rid of more.  That is the water softener in the back of the photo, by the window.  My old washer and dryer is still down there.  I am planning on putting an ad on Kijiji and getting rid of them by advertising them for free.  They are as old as the hills but work fine.

This is the other side of the basement and that is the oil furnace.  To the right of the furnace just outside of the photo is our oil tank.  I hate going on this side as it's icky.  I would love to whitewash all the walls as that would brighten up the whole basement.  One thing though the basement is dry and does not smell musty, partly because we have a dehumidifier going down there most of the time.  It has made a huge difference and well worth the investment.

I made a start on the baby quilt over the weekend and have got a lot of it cut out.  I decided to do make a Double Four Patch pattern.  Don't know why as I will be cursing it up and down trying to get all my corners matched!!!

I have to have this completed by the middle of March, so need to get on with it.

New Basement

We were busy down the new basement this weekend, as we are getting close to finishing it...........I know for those of you who have been with me since the beginning this has been an ongoing project since 2010, check out this post. 

We have two basements in this house.  The old basement which is part of the older part of the house, and the new basement which is under the family room extension.

Now to be fair we stripped the new basement down to it's bare bones and even replaced the two windows and patio doors as it's a walk out basement.  Everything has been replaced as nothing was worth saving.  When we moved into the house, this basement was cold, smelled damp and we even found some black mold.  

We re-insulated the whole place.  Used blu-wood for all the studs.  We had new stairs made in pine as the other ones stunk of dog pee.  Divided the basement into two, with one side being a laundry room and a main room which I think I may use as a sewing room, as it's nice and cool down there in Summer. 

Dh is now back in the laundry room as we have to put up the drop ceiling and main light in there and then we have a back splash to install.

Here are some photos though of the main room.

This photo is taken from the back of the room looking towards the stairs.  I have stained them, but haven't varnished them as I can't open the windows and doors to ventilate the place.  Dd made the piece of artwork.  To the left you can see a glass door, that is the door to the laundry room.  There is a window in the laundry room.  I do have a question for someone though.  The glass door is frosted, and has paint on the frosting, and I am not sure how to get the paint off, as it's in the grooves of the frosting any ideas? (By the way the factory put the paint on, not me!!)

Although you can't see it behind the art work wall is a closet.

If you live in an old house, one thing that there is never enough of, is closet space, so dh made sure we put in a double closet. I have made good use of the space, and cleaned up quite a bit in the old basement.  Yes those are some of the kids toys, including the blue clear box which has the Brio train set in it.

We are looking towards the patio doors.  We have done everything ourselves other than putting down the ceramic tiles and we paid a guy to do that.  

This is looking from the laundry room door towards the other end of the room.  The bottom of the stairs is to the left of the photo.  As you can see we have a fair bit of light in there and as I painted it a pale beige so it keeps it bright.  I am so pleased with the flooring it was well worth the price; $500 for the main room.

We didn't have an exact budget for this as we did it as we had money.  I would like to think we didn't spend more than $10,000 for it all, and that would include the new windows and patio door, and the new stairs.  Regardless it was well worth the money and we have more usable space.

Before and after photos, and a funny!

They are not great photos but I thought I'd show you them anyhow.


This is what the stairwell of the family room/new basement looked it before:

This is the after one, you can see the bottom of dh's legs and he is taking up the tiles in the basement floor:

We removed the old railing and replaced it with a drywall half wall.  Because the one wall in the new extension is the old stone wall from the house, there are no electrical sockets on that wall.  Dh has wired in new sockets in the new wall, so we won't have extension cords all over the place.  We need to have some wooden tops made to go on the top of the wall to cap it off.


I will post some photos of the new basement at a later date, as we still have a lot to do.  My goal for dh is to have it all finished by Christmas!!!


Thought this was amusing.  You can read the full article here

Suffice to say a neighbour isn't happy and has complained to the local council about it.

Out and about on Saturday.......

Dh and I went to Barrie on Saturday as we had some errands to run.  Total cash out of pocket expenses under $15.  Total added to credit card, $210.

Our first port of call was to Solutions - Your Organized Living Store.  It's as it says, keeps everything you need for organizing your home.  They have a sale on for their closet systems.  We have used their system before and it works a charm. It is however a little more expensive than the big box stores but I am sure even I could install the system and the quality is well worth paying that little bit more, plus it's a total custom fit.  I should work there as I know as much about their system as the sales person did...LOL  So all in all that cost just under $210 which dh put on his credit card, as it's a renovation cost and we keep track of those purchased via dh's credit card.

In the same mall were both Future Shop and Best Buy   Dh was given a $100 gift card for Best Buy.  It's not a place we shop at regularly, but hey, we're not going to turn down a $100, so we went in and bought the Software for preparing our taxes Turbo Taxes  While we were there I mentioned that my McAfee Internet Security would be expired in the next month or so.  Dh remembered seeing it on sale in the Future Shop flyer.  We asked and yes Best Buy price matches.  So we popped to Future Shop and picked up the flyer and priced matched it at Best Buy.  However not only do they price match it, they beat the price by 10%.  So all in all we still have to $40 + on the gift card to spend at a later date.

We then went for some lunch at a restaurant called Herb 'n Sage the kids gave us gift cards for their for Christmas, so we used one of those gift cards for lunch.  Total cash out of pocket $7.25 for tip and extra above gift card.  Still have another gift card for there for another day.

We then popped into Barrie Humane Society to see the dogs.  We have been thinking about getting Molly a companion.  They were ever so helpful and answered all our questions and advised us against a couple of the dogs we liked.  There was a gorgeous little Beagle there, who won't be available for adoption until next week, as he has to have "The Snip!!"  However this gorgeous little guy had two things against him.  One, he is a boy, I prefer female dogs and two, he has hip dysplasia  They said as long as he is given Glucosamine on a daily basis and something stronger when he seems worse he will be fine.  Dh does not want another dog with medical problems, as Molly costs us enough.  So we will continue looking until we find the dog for us.  I would dearly love an English Bulldog, a female no younger than 4 years old and no older than 7 years old.

We then headed to Chapters as I still had money on a gift card from Christmas.  I bought a box of Christmas cards for $2.50, 75% off and then I bought a 2012 day to day calendar called "Posh Suduko,"  which is a daily page by page calendar with a Suduko puzzle on it each day, again 75% off , so I paid around $4.25 for that.  Out of pocket it cost me 53 cents for both.

We then called in at Tim Hortons on the way home.  They have their $1 Lattes at the moment, and I enjoy the plain one with no sugar.  I had that along with a blueberry and cranberry muffin.  Dh had a coffee and a carrot muffin, and it only came to $3.80???  Dh paid for that, thank you dh.

So all in all we had a lovely day and other than the closet organizer, it was a cheap day out.

Did you have a good day on Saturday?

I must say I was a tad concerned............

I went into a couple of stores on Wednesday to see not only did they have all their Fall decorations out, but the Halloween ones as well.  Plus in Michael's there was even a shelving unit of Christmas stuff.  Now if that wasn't bad enough, on the way home, I passed a pick up truck with a snow plow on it's front. 

I remember checking the weather forecast that morning, and I don't remember seeing snow in the forecast?  I wonder if they know something I don't know?

Had a super busy day shopping......thanks goodness I worked the last couple of weeks, to pay for what I bought!!  I got the paint for bathroom.  I picked up the closet organizers.  Had a good look around Homesense and Michael's.  Went into Home Depot, Rona and Lowes looking for some wood trim for the baseboards, and couldn't find any to match the one dh wants.

Manged to get home by just after 2:30pm.  I had put a large load of laundry out before I left and I had all that to iron........where is that ironing fairy when you need it???

After supper I tackled Kamikaze Hill and got half of it cut.  By then I was pooped.  So all in all it was a crazy day.........

Let's hope Thursday is a quieter day!!

Those builders!!!

Have to say they are great guys, but I think they made more mess this time than when they did the attic, which surprised me as I always thought drywall dust was the worst.  However concrete dust seems to travel further.  They were working primarily in the old basement, and to get there they travelled back and forward through the kitchen.  All the concrete, the blocks and everything was to carry through the kitchen.

So everything was covered in a layer of dust and the floor was just plain filthy.  Dh spent part of Saturday reconnecting the outside water supply, as that was to cut when they blocked up the window under the deck.  They ruined 7 deck boards so we had to buy them, dh will get them replaced through the week.

They finished off the attic as well by putting MDF board on the corners.  I am reserving judgement as to what that will look like until I have painted them. They told me, I wouldn't notice them once I had painted them..........I am not 100% convinced about the whole situation!

Saturday was a busy day for me around the garden.  I picked up another hydrangea on sale on Friday.  This one is called PeeGee and has a white flower.  I also got the 12 small spruce trees planted.  Here is a photo of them, I planted them along the property line just to be on the safe side:

However as dh mentioned, we'll be dead and buried before they reach any great height.  Still every little helps as far as the environment is concerned.

I also spent the rest of the day in between the showers cutting the grass, and I see that bloody field could do with cutting again...........I mean I only just finished cutting it........I tell you it's a never ending job.  However it looks so good when I have just cut it. 

I have a hundred and one jobs that need to be done in the garden, but have to say I am pleased to hear that the forecast on Sunday is rain all day....YEAH!!!  I get a break from the garden.

Here is a photo of the house taken May 1st.  Notice on the bottom of the photo to the left is the yellow magnolia I just planted.  I have to edge all the gardens yet, as they are so overgrown.  It's on my never ending list of things to do!!

I am the official greeter again at church, plus I am helping with the coffee morning after the service.  I picked some rhubarb, so will make something with rhubarb for everyone.

Enjoy your Sunday.

A little more of a relaxed day on Wednesday....

as I had company over on Wednesday, my dad and step-mum, along with two of their good friends a smashing couple, who brought me gifts!!!  They bought me a lovely oven mitt and a matching apron.

The builders were here all the day on Wednesday.  I just wanted to show you one of the old windows in the old basement.  This one is going to be blocked in, as it's under the deck.

This is what one of the new windows look like.  The piping in the window is from our water softener.

There was nothing much on squirrel tv on Wednesday, as it was so cold.  Though they did come out to play after supper.

I didn't get out in the garden on Wednesday, just too cold for me.

Happy Anniversary to us and another busy day at The Acreage...

On April 28th, 2009 we closed on The Acreage......what a year it has been, and how time flies by when you are having fun!!!  Funny thing is I don't feel like writing about the past year at this moment?  Maybe leave that for another day!!

Meanwhile it was a cool day on Tuesday, with a windchill of minus 3oC in the morning.  However the sun shone all day and if you could get out of the wind, it was lovely.

Molly watching squirrel tv again!!  Look at her paw.

The guys arrived to do the work, and ended up putting in the four windows on Tuesday.  What a difference having natural light again in the old basement.  They have been blocked up for many years.  The ones in the new basement are also really nice, and we took the iron bars off the outside as well, as honestly there were only four screws holding them on, and if someone wants to break in I'm sure there are easier ways of breaking in.

I wrapped up well in the afternoon and cut Kamikaze Hill for the first time this year.  It really makes a difference when the grass isn't knee high!!  I also made a start on my quilt block for the block of the month club, this month it is a "T Quilt Block."

I have company visiting today, so it's going to be another busy day, I hope to get caught up with your blogs later on in the week.

Just when you think things can't get any busier/chaotic......

Something else happens.

We are having some work done down the old basement, and some new windows put in both basements.  As far as we were aware the guys were booked in to start the job on May 18th; which by the way took me two weeks just to get a date out of them.

So on Monday the secretary called just before lunch time and asked if they could start on possibly Wednesday afternoon, definitely Thursday at the latest.  So I said no problem, but they were going to have to take up the deck, as dh wouldn't have time to do that......

Around 2:30pm on Monday she calls again and asks if they could move it forward as the Tuesday and Wednesday job they had planned had fallen through.  So I said fine, meanwhile me and dh had to clear out the old basement so they had room to work.  This was a job I hadn't planned on doing until Tuesday morning.  Infact this wasn't a job I had planned on doing until May!

I spent the morning cleaning the house, or attempting to.  Did a couple loads of laundry, that needed ironing when it had dried.  I planted some onions and lettuce in my cold frame.  Planted the two shrubs I had bought on the weekend.   Saw the first snake of the season, quite surprised as I didn't think it was warm enough for them.

I had bought some pork chops on clearance on Saturday, so had to cook them.  Made enough for a meal for Monday night and a meal for the freezer.  I had pulled out some ground beef/mince out of the freezer, and hadn't got around to using it.  So made a couple of shepherd's pies for the freezer.  Plus as we have workmen in all week, that will be handy as a quick meal for us.  Then while the oven was on for the chops, I made an apple crisp with some apples that needed to be used up.

After supper I tackled the grass again and got the field finally finished.  Also took a stick and got rid of the caterpillar nests in some of the trees.  Figured if I keep on top of them, I will hopefully stop them eating the trees this year.

Being the church greeter on Sunday was good.  I made sure I was pleasant to everyone, and reminded a few people I needed the recipes, and everyone was very friendly.  This coming week when I am the greeter again, I will also be helping out setting up for the after service coffee and cake meeting, that they have once a month.  So that should be good.

Here is my column for the Eden Valley Messenger. I think I will do the same one for the Orangeville Banner, this week as well, as it's relevant for those readers as well.

Spoke too soon and those silly squirrels.........

Woke up on Saturday to it snowing, I was not impressed!  It continued to snow on and off all day.  Granted it didn't amount to anything, but I was in my shorts and t-shirt earlier on in the week.  Very, very strange weather we are having!

I admit to putting out the bird seed, as much to attract the squirrels as the birds, as Molly loves to watch them both.  However, it's the squirrels that she loves the most.  I have discovered they love the sunflower seeds the best and take the skin off them and eat the seed inside.  They also seem to know that Molly can't get them when she is inside the house looking at them!

However it seems though that only one squirrel is allowed on the table at a time to feed.

So the other squirrel has to sit in the tree and try and eat from this birdfeeder!!

We managed to get to the dump on Saturday and dispose of more building material from the closets.  Only cost us $8 so we were all happy about that. 

It's Earth Day on April 22nd, so here is something you can do:

Leave your car at home. If you can stay off the road just two days a week, you'll reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 1,590 pounds per year [Source: EPA]. Combine your errands -- hit the post office, grocery store and shoe repair place in one trip. It will save you gas and time.

Are you still putting money in your Daily Savings Pot?  I hope so!

Today's Money Saving Tip:

Using old towels and T-shirts instead of disposable wipes and paper towels will cut down on waste and save you money. Plus, cloth is softer, so it's better for cleaning delicate items.

Another busy day and OUCH!

Remember what I did with the closet on Tuesday?  Well did the same first thing Wednesday morning.  Then I cleaned out the fireplace, brought in some firewood.  Washed the bathroom floor and the stairs and upstairs landing.  Hoovered the dog hair off the sofa, chair and ottoman.  Had a shower and did a load of ironing, plus spent some time on the computer.  All before 9:45am.

I then had to pop into town for a "business meeting" for 10am.  I was bartering my "expertise," about advertising and building up their clientele in exchange for them repairing my lawn tractor tire.  The meeting went well. 

Didn't get back home until 12:30pm.  Had lunch, then went outside and lit the firepit fire.  Had to supervise that to make sure it didn't get out of control.  While I was watching that, I moved all the lathe I had thrown out of the bathroom window onto the firepit.  When the fire had died down a bit I came inside and typed a letter to a friend, keeping an eye on the fire.

By this time it was 2:30pm and my arm/shoulder was killing me.  Obviously carrying another seven garbage bags of plaster down the stairs again hadn't done me any good.

Around 3pm one of the neighbours popped over to see if we had found Molly and was slightly ticked off that I hadn't been around to tell him we had found her.  So after he went, I called around the other neighbours houses, and left a thank you note if they weren't in.  The one neighbour was in, so talked directly to him.  I took Molly with me in the car. I will maybe bake a cake for the ticked off guy, as an apology?

It was 3:45 pm by the time I got back , so put some pasta sauce on to slow cook.  Watched Eastenders at 4pm.  Then washed a pile of dishes.  Put dh's lunch up for Thursday, put pasta on to cook, so we could eat supper at 5pm.

Meanwhile the pain in my shoulder was going from bad to worse.  Spent the rest of the night watching tv and relaxing in the hopes my shoulder will be a lot better by Thursday morning.

So due to my shoulder hurting me, I wasn't on the computer much after supper time.  So I'll hopefully catch up with you all on Thursday.

Busy, busy day at The Acreage

My first job of the day on Tuesday was to clean out the closet.  This is what it looked like before hand. 

I threw all the lathe out through the bathroom window, and all the plaster I put into garbage bags.  So an hour later and seven garbage bags of plaster this is what it looked like.

I know I have to do the same again today, as dh ripped out more on Tuesday after work.

In the afternoon I finished off raking under the willow tree, the grass is greening up there nicely.

This is a photo of the fir tree and the other willow tree behind it.  I also raked under the fir and willow tree.

So now I need to have a fire as the firepit is over flowing.

That's the raspberry bushes behind the fire pit and they are not looking well at all, so don't think I will be harvesting raspberries this year :0(

Molly spent most of the day on the back deck protecting the house from those pesky squirrels.  They (the squirrels) have taken to sunbathing on the top of the logs in the sun.  Between me and you I think they do it just to annoy Molly!!

In my column this week for the Eden Valley Messenger I talk about the fighter jets that fly back and forward in the Eden Valley.  Here is a link to the column.

Did you remember to put your money in your Daily Savings Pot today?
Today's Money Saving Tip:

Manure. Visit local farms (even city farms) and see if they have any manure they are willing to give you. If you offer to muck out a pen for it yourself they may be more agreeable.

You could even make it a regular agreement and you would never have to buy another bag of manure.

If you don't want to use manure in your garden or you have difficulty getting hold of it you can also make your own fish fertilizer.

Oh Molly - Part II

Molly normally sleeps in our bedroom on a large comforter/duvet I have on the floor for her.  However these past two weeks or so, she has stayed downstairs all night and slept on the sofa, which is obviously more comfortable for her!!


Personally I have no problem with this, as it's one less person in our bedroom that snores!!  On Sunday night/Monday morning, at 1:30am we were awoken from our sleep by Molly barking like a crazy dog.  So I trot downstairs and what ever had wandered through the property had obviously gone, as I couldn't see it, but Molly was bouncing around the family room, like a dog on drugs!!


So I yelled at her, and "ushered" upstairs into our bedroom for the rest of the night.  There just isn't words to describe being woken up from a deep sleep by a barking dog, well no words that I can write here anyway!


So what is interesting Molly do you think?

Yep, it's a squirrel sunning itself on the log pile.  They have got a nest in there somewhere, and I am sure they take great delight in tormenting Molly by just sitting there, knowing full well she can't get off the deck!

Then to confuse the situation, another squirrel appeared in the tree.

Both squirrels were chatting back and forward, probably making fun of Molly!!

Ended up with a blister on Monday!! We have a huge willow tree at the edge of the driveway that "sheds" twigs all through the winter.  So I spent an hour raking them up and carting them to the firepit and that's how I ended up with a blister on my hands!!  I got around 3/4 done, so I'll finish it off today.

Dh made a start on another project on Monday.  Where the old stairs were in the attic, we are going to make a linen closet, and we are also going to re-do the closet in the spare bedroom.  So this means removing plaster and lathe in the linen closet and pulling down drywall in the spare bedroom closet.  So another messy job, but it will be well worth it when we get it done.

The attic is on hold until the guys come back to finish off the corners in May.

Did you remember to put your money in your Daily Savings Pot?

Today's money saving tip:

If you do need to purchase some plants, be sure to buy the kinds that will pay dividends. Buy perennial plants which need dividing every 3 - 5 years.

You can also start your own cuttings from woody stemmed type shrubs. Flowers like dahlias & calla lilies come from tubers that need to be divided regularly, too. Over just a few years, an initial investment in these types of plants will yield a very full garden.