Starting the garden

Our landlord came by yesterday with the rototiller which had been in the shop being repaired and he made short work of tilling the garden soil. We promptly set about getting the garden starts planted.

Our wagon was sure handy yesterday

My prized organic potatoes

Most everything here is grown from offcuts. Eat a romaine, put the end cut in water and re-sprout it, etc. -- and it's all organic.

Sexy boots

Dug up these potatoes prior to tilling and replanted them.

The Supervisor was ensuring it was done correctly.

Green peas, 6 varieties of tomatoes and romaine in this grid square.

When it started raining we called it for the day and Brad started making his specialty... 

He has asked a few people to sample it as he is thinking of selling it at the market... (well, likely me selling it at the market)... 

More garden and specialty to come...

Day trip to Nanaimo

We went to Nanaimo on Wednesday to return something that didn't work and saw some new hanging baskets in yellow and thought they would stand out better so grabbed them....

Yellow hanging baskets

Also picked up this cute gnome

Not quite a G-string, but close... I just couldn't resist him.

Found a nest under all the grape vines, not sure which bird but did see remnants of a blue egg on the ground under it.

Finally got around to buying a new sewing machine, mine died around the time of Covid and I've been itching for a new one but just never got around to it. Now I have one again. Yesterday I made curtains for the ensuite bathroom, curtains for one dining room window to keep the morning sun out and now a new cover for the dog bed... but need a large zipper to finish it.

Needs a proper cover, for sure.

Today (Friday) we are off to Salt Spring for the day, have to pick up mail and visit with some friends.

Before & Afters

We've been keeping quite busy puttering around the house the last 10 days. We have got a lot done, for sure. Still a fair bit to go but for the most part the yard is where we want it to be...

Front of house before

Front after

Woodshed before

Woodshed after

(still needs the inside cleared out as we've ordered wood for the winter- just 2 cords)

Left front after

Right front after

West side before

West side after

Before

Big entry point where mice were getting in to the basement

After

All sorted - they wont chew through that wire anytime soon!

East side before

East side after

Decided to take a break so we went to the market. With people so offended by tourists these days I  opted to take this pic from the car instead of  while wandering through the market. It will take time for people to recognize that we are residents, longer now that summer has opened to local tourism.

Gabriola Saturday market

One of the market venders gave us this white tomatoe plant,

a sort of housewarming gift

All the while His Lordship Robert was relaxing quite comfortably on the deck watching his minions do all the work.

We are still waiting on the landlord to get his rototiller back from the repair shop so we can get the garden planted- should be early this week, we think.. Fortunately, we have plenty of other bits to do in the meantime.

Puttering and congrats

Hung around the house today, got several pics of the ferries going by.

Went to the local garden shop and picked up some vegetable starts and a few hanging baskets.

Cleared more of the orchard to create our yard area and draw your eye to the ocean

Robbie overlooking his empire from the top deck

Sunset through the trees.

Sunset

Looking down from the top deck on my vegetable starts that are awaiting planting.

The washer and dryer died on me yesterday, so I called the landlord and they have ordered a new set and we await to find out just how long that will take to arrive. Costco?

The last of the boxes have been carried upstairs now and I have only a couple of boxes to go through and then everything will be finished as far as unpacking goes.

Congratulations to our friends/neighbours and fellow bloggers Ray and Deb on the birth of their 1st grandchild, a bouncing baby girl named Stella. Stella arrived early at 4lb 5oz. Super tiny and she and Mum are doing well.

Back to 'normal' ? !

Not that anyone ever knew what normal was, and now this year 'normal' has a whole new meaning and absolutely No One knows what it is....

We however have moved in to our new rental house on Gabriola Island. Moving day was Saturday, we stayed here Saturday and Sunday nights because the old spot is 2 ferry rides away and we were exhausted anyway from having to clean the house before we could move anything in. The first load was put away by Sunday evening and we even managed a trip to Nanaimo for some shopping.

The house has a cistern, I do not like this concept personally, although I know its a thing and people have used them for ages... its just not my preference. So while I don't mind washing in it and cleaning with it, neither of us wants to drink it - so off to Canadian Tire for a water cooler, also the whole house was surrounded in overgrown grass/weeds so Brad picked himself out a weed wacker extraordinaire.

Robbie's water is cistern tap water which is being run through the Berkey water filter. The Berkey isn't big enough to serve all 3 of us so this is how we decided to do it. #SpoiledPuppy.

Monday we went back to the site and packed the rest of our things in to the truck and dropped the rig off in Nanaimo at a storage facility before heading back to our new home. Once home, we didn't even unload the truck we were so exhausted.

Tuesday we unloaded the truck and put most of it in to its new designated spots and Brad even managed to do a small amount of weed wacking before we called it a night from exhaustion again.

Wednesday Brad had an MRI in Victoria (military injury stuff) so I was up at 4:30am afraid to oversleep, we rushed out at 7am to get the 7:20am ferry and just made it in the line up about 3 cars from having to wait for the next ferry... whew! Clearly summer and the country are back online so plenty of time will be required to make a ferry nowadays.

Brad managed to get some more done on the weeds.

Wood storage shed cleared of brush

Formerly known as a peach tree but the others in front of house and grapevine are visible.

A lot of brush cleared along driveway

East side of house

What a difference

West side of house, yet to be done

The whole house looked like this beforehand

Well, most everything is now put away, 2 boxes and the dehumidifier left on the livingroom floor - tomorrow's job.

I'm one of those OCD people who has everything done day 1 -when I move, everything is cleaned, organized and done before dinner -- every time... however, due to my recent brush with death I have taken the slow road on this one. I would just like my family to note that this is Day 6 and I still have boxes to sort away!! Likely someone won a bet and I want a dinner out of it...

We have 3 peach trees in front of the house and a grape vine crawling up to the upper deck. There are lots of different herbs along the side of the house also.

Peach

Different peach

Grapevine

To my knowledge we have nothing else pending for the remainder of the month, and we will need every day of it to recover from this move. I am almost back to 'normal' (there's that word again) but I do still tire eventually and I am able to feel it coming which is handy although the charlie horse cramping all over my body has disappeared finally.

I have put on so much weight through this - first 'typical winter weight', then 'sick and didn't want to go to the doctor and everyone is on lockdown so you can't even walk much due to a pandemic' weight happened and now I'm suffering from 'thyroid recovery time' weight. SOOOO done with it!

Good news is the local Pickleball group has been reignited, they are playing for the 3rd time sincer restarting on Thursday(21st) and while I have not been yet, they do know I'm here and I'm coming as soon as I can. 

I need to do some serious walking and get myself into shape enough to play Pickleball and the added advantage is that they can sort out the bugs of pandemic protocols so I don't have to be kerfuffled by changing rules for weeks on end. I intend to get back to playing at the beginning of June.

A return to sticks and bricks

Our next chapter:

We have rented a log home on Gabriola Island, BC

Beautiful view of an orchard, ocean, ferry, mountains and sky

After 2 years and 8 months of RVLife we have decided it is time for a change and we have rented a log home. The West coast offers amazing scenery and phenomenal green spaces which come at a cost of a lot of rain.... and in an RV that tick tick tick on the roof has become too much. 

Time to return to sticks and bricks, we intend to keep the RV in storage at least for the short term, just in case sticks and bricks isn't all we remember it to be... Unfortunately, due to the number of tourists that seek out Salt Spring it is almost impossible to find accomodation here that you won't be tossed out of in lieu of higher paying tourists so after much 'discussion', we have managed to find a different island to call home.

On the surface: 

* Gabriola offers all essential services that we need, from Dr's, dentists, hardware, restaurants and coffee shops. Nanaimo is a 20 minute ferry ride away which offers Walmart, Costco, Tim Horton's, Home Depot, etc. The island offers plenty of beaches, forests, trails and wildlife too.

* The population on Gabriola is only about 4,000 residents = 10,000 in summer, compared to Salt Spring at 10,000 residents = 50,000 in summer. Note: these are ballpark numbers.

* Gabriola appears to have all the things we love about Salt Spring without all the annoying things we do not love about Salt Spring... and we are very much looking forward to our new adventure. Perhaps eventually we will settle down here?

** OH, and most important of all --- Gabriola apparently has Pickleball courts!! Actual Pickleball courts, not converted tennis courts -- actual PB courts! Only a player will understand the importance of this. Score!!

Now, we do hope you stay with us even though we are transitioning away from RVLife and follow us through our next phase of our adventurous life.