New Year, New Life

Happy New Year!

We have definitely settled in here, become involved in the community and made sooo many new friends.

Unfortunately, we lost our closest friend because she had to leave her husband on Boxing Day. After they spent a fun and fabulous evening here at our place, things went south on the walk home and after returning here for the night, the police escorted her home to get her belongings and she has left town. This, of course, is the super short version.

All in all we had a wonderful Christmas and we feel very welcomed in our new community.

Like pretty much everyone else we will be going on a diet in the New Year. I intend to lose 30 pounds (I'll be happy with 20, but.... that last 5 lbs.... so 30! ) Covid has done one hell of a job on our waist lines. We will be doing the Banting diet (carb free).

Talk will soon begin on how we want to garden this year, greenhouse, raised bed and in ground options are available and need to be sussed out.

I swear I intend to write more often, its just been so damn busy with all the events in town.

We'll talk again next year, we hope you finish this one out on a high note! xxx

Betty saved the day

Christmas morning began like any other, Robbie & I piled onto Brad at 6:15am screaming that Santa had been and left presents! Time to get up!! Robbie is very patient but sure does love Xmas morning and opening presents. I bought a stocking from Walmart with a bunch of toys in it and wrapped each toy individually so he had a lot of presents to unwrap. He just loves it so much!

A gift from my Mum

Robbie opening one of his presents, we just hold it and he pulls the paper off. He gets soooo excited.

A gift from Brad's Mum, a letter opener from his Father's desk

Excitement 101

Opening another gift

Psycho Xmas morning dog

Elephant gift from Stacey

Robbie had about 8 gifts under the tree, including cookies from Grandma, which he looooooves

By the end of it, he was worn out from the excitement

On to making our Christmas dinner....

Brad always makes Christmas dinner so he was in the kitchen having just put the turkey into the preheated oven, we were talking through the pass through when something went bang.

The cooktop and oven are each on their own and separate individual breaker boxes which are in the cupboards below them and they are each about 6 feet apart.

The cooktop flipped a breaker -- except it wasn't even on! I flipped it back on and it started sparking. I quickly reached in to turn it back off while Brad was yelling at me not to touch it.... I didn't think we should leave it on given it was sparking and smoke was billowing out of the knob which is missing (we have to use needle nose pliers to turn it because the knobs are made of plastic and the stove is often hot - go figure, so they have all to some degree melted and split making them hard or impossible to turn anymore)....  Man, the electrics in this house are certainly questionable, this isn't the first time this sort of thing has happened since we moved in.

Cooktop in question

Flipped breaker

Oven stayed on.... 

Since the oven remained working, and the potatoes were in with the Turkey, we decided (since we can no longer use the cooktop) we could boil the kettle and finish our meal that way. We had Stove top stuffing (in a box), and plenty of freeze dried food so I went downstairs and found some freeze dried gravy I made last year and corn. We just boiled the kettle, added the hot water to the gravy and corn and managed to salvage a smaller but wonderful Christmas meal regardless of the cooktop. 

I messaged our Landlord and advised her of the situation and she is having someone come and fix it after the holiday. We don't have a operational woodstove either, she has been sending someone to fix that for the last couple of months. Hope the cooktop gets fixed faster.

Turkey out of the oven

Freeze dried foods soaking in hot water

A lovely dinner in spite of it all

Robbie with his new toys

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with as many friends and family as possible given the state of the world today. 

PS Betty is the name of our Freeze Dryer.

Christmas is coming

You may remember a  Christmas tree I picked up a few years ago for $10 off a local FB page, we had it outside in our spot after leaving the campground.... anyway, we tossed it in the trash before moving out here....

Monday last week while Brad was having his massage and before I went for mine, I was perusing Home Depot - I don't remember for what and I was in a rush as it was almost time for my appointment since I'd already been to 2 other shops... I found the most beautiful fake tree for $318! 

But didn't have to time get it so...

We don't get up to 'town' very often so this Monday when Brad was getting his massage, I went to go get it. (My tree goes up Dec 1st every year)   Sold Out! Man I was fit to be tied... I should have gone earlier. 

So I checked Canadian Tire.... Do Not get a tree there this year, what a ridiculous set of trees they look like those trees from a fake train set. Soooo bad!

So I checked Walmart.... yeah, nothing worth getting. (I like unique things)

Picked up Brad from massage and while having our lunch in the truck I noticed a 'Rona' next door. We decided to look there.

Found it! The original tree I had wanted from Home Depot was only about 6ft... this one is 7.5ft. Essentially the same tree though. Very different branches with acorns on them, frosting and pre-lit... All for $159!

Leaves

Naked tree

Pre-lit lights in yellow

and pre-lit in multi colour

Lit up in the evening

Our first prezzie under it, thanks Ma.

Finally have our nativity out of storage. Love this concrete set. Big and Heavy.

Our first Christmas card arrived today too from a frequent commenter on the blog - LW

Thanks ol' girl!

Picked up 2 advent calendars too

Next on the agenda: Quality Street and After Eights. Christmas just isn't complete without those.

One. More. Sleep.

 It's Christmas Eve!!!

We have finally made it to Xmas Eve... soooo excited..... Brad is like a kid at Christmas, so I do the whole excited/can't wait thing which he just loves. Robbie gets excited too... I do a countdown with him, he has a vast vocabulary - so I tell him "Santa's coming, go sleep, go sleep, go sleep, Prezzies!!!!" (with proper finger showing, of course), anyway he gets it.  He's 11 now... almost as old as Grandma LOL TeeHee.

Merry Christmas One and All

Santa Anticipation

Our week in pictures:

It Snowed!!!

Not dandruff -- SNOW!

Can you see it falling?

Can you see it now?

The orchard from the upper deck

How Christmassy is this?, Right?!

Tonight Santa comes and tomorrow morning I will awaken Brad with a cup of coffee bright and early, actually probably well before the bright part starts, to open all the prezzies - You know, because 'I can't control myself' ;)) He will moan about being woken up so early, we will open all the prezzies and ooh and aah about everything. Robbie will sniff out the Grandma gifts and his little tail will wag, he opens his own prezzies, we hold the prezzie and he pulls the wrapper off all by himself - did I mention he's 11 now?! Big Boy, but still gets excited about Santa, just like Daddy.

What happened to December?

My Mother-in-law rang yesterday and noted that she keeps checking the blog for an update but I haven't posted anything for a week. Having had my hand slapped - here I am, posting.

In looking back at pics to see where I left off I realized I haven't posted any for all of December! My Dec picture folder is (was) empty... I have taken plenty of pics but haven't uploaded them to the laptop so I have now corrected that and here is December in short form.

I asked my Daughter-in-law what the kids favourite cereals are. I thought they would find it cool to get their morning cereal in FD form.

One Granddaughter likes Fruit Loops, the other Granddaughter and our Grandson both like Krave which I had never heard of before, but its tasty (I tried a few pieces) with chocolate in the center.

Lined up on the trays and ready to freeze

'

Once frozen it was off to Betty's belly

Freeze Dried Krave cereal

Packaged up and ready for Santa's bag

I did up some Xmas advertising photos

Made a Candy Gift Basket (3 -all sold)

A few times I have seen a few people flogging their wares on the corner by the grocers, so I popped by to say hi and ask if I could join them. I was invited to come that very day, so I did. A very quick grab of whatever I might need and off I went. Today (yes, its every Saturday without rain or other bad weather) I have a banner which will change the look of things quite dramatically I think. I haven't tried it yet but I guess I will have to do that before I go and make a fool of myself on the street corner ;)

My quickie setup at the pop-up market last week

There are about 6 turkeys that live wild around the market, they are treasured island birds.

My new pop-up friend Megan trying to sneak up and take a picture of them.

One night we decided to try some of our FD'd Beef Stroganoff, I enjoyed it which is weird because I do not like Beef Stroganoff usually. Brad is a good cook, let me tell ya.

Brad had given some of his Beef Stroganoff to his massage therapist to try as her husband is a hunter and is familiar with FD food (Mountain House and the like). So they made both and compared the two. Apparently, there was no contest. Brad's was far superior to the commercial version, as one might expect.

Fruits, yes Tomatoes are a fruit so I put them there with the Banana and Apple since I only have those 2 fruits ready ;) Although Strawberries are in there now.

Asparagus, Brussel Sprouts, Kale, Pickled Beets

Rainbow Chunks, Unicorn Poop and Reindeer Poop

I've been crazy busy just trying to keep up with orders. I am currently at the point of making mass amounts of 1 thing each time instead of a bit of this and a bit of that so I guess that is progress.

I created a FaceBook ad yesterday on a Salt Spring page - of Candy- and 1 person enquired about Strawberries, I said they were in the machine currently and now have 3 people who are waiting for Strawberries, one also wants a few candies too. So it looks like I'll be on the hunt for some more Strawberries and taking a trip down to Salt Spring again very soon.

Well that is December in pictures. Mostly just making product, selling product, eating product.... 

I may have to stop advertising as I can see it has potential to soon be too much and I'm not (right now, anyway) interested in it becoming a 'thing'... although Brad did try to order a second machine a couple of weeks ago - I stopped him, at least for now but we shall see. They hold their value anyway, so if we were to get one and not need it later on, we won't lose anything. I just think we need to build it a bit first, its actually only been 2 weeks as a 'live' business..... although it seems like forever.

Here is the banner on the table, a bit wonky but I'll work on it.

I bought a stand for the shower yesterday but the shower floor has too much slope - so I shall use it on the table so I can add more product as it's a small table and I ran out of room last time.

Most likely will post again Boxing Day, unless something good happens in the meantime.

Christmas comes early 2020

In her last blog my friend and distant neighbour Deb from Kastle's Journey posted about filling their home with Christmas cheer early because-- well, it's 2020 and we all need a little extra cheer this year. This post inspired me to do ours as well.. traditionally, I put up Xmas on Dec 1st every year but I think Deb is absolutely right - we all need a little extra cheer this year.

Having moved to this house from living in our RV for 2.5 years, because I made the decorations last year, we needed some stuff so off to Canadian Tire we went and I bought a bunch of decorations and because we had tied the shopping to Brad's massage, I was doing it on Black Friday.... yup, that Friday. I managed -- but someone almost lost a kneecap... ;)

This is the tree we picked up for $10 off of the exchange on Salt Spring Island 1.5 years ago, we used it outdoors last Christmas as you may recall... so it needed a good wash first off. Then a good shake and finally left to drip dry in the corner with the fire on to dry it out. Once dry, I set to work putting it together... turns out, we didn't need more stuff after all and now I have to take some back. I did use the tinsel and garland and I am keeping the nutcrackers and acorns for product pictures but the massive box of ornaments I spent $80 on is going back next massage day (Monday)...

Having purchased a 200 light string to run along the pathway outside I noticed as I was setting them out that they were indoor... yup, it was black friday alright... so crazy I bought the wrong lights, so I strung them up around the windows instead. I think it looks pretty good but this picture doesn't really do it justice.

Back to normal life now:

Pickled beet challenge

I am in the process of making a deal with a local woman famous for her pickled beets to use her product for selling freeze dried, I put her quart of beets on 1 tray and mine on another ( I only processed the one but made 2 several weeks ago). I must say I much prefer the flavour of mine but we shall see what they taste like once they are processed in betty as that can make a big difference.

I am making pictures to use for my online store.

I have submitted the paperwork for the local online shopping store but have yet to hear anything back. I will finish setting up my etsy store in the meantime because as we all know bureaucracy rushes for no one.

I have a decent amount of the candied items prepared now and have begun the vegetables and fruits. I now have 3 different size bags: Small for the Unicorn Poop, Large for Asparagus and Astronaut Ice Cream Bars and Medium for everything else. Naturally, I will have a large option for fruits and veg as well.

The Merry Good Son

So we had a lovely Xmas day after Robbie (yes, the dog) woke us up at 4am, I made him wait until 5am and finally got up and took him outside. Robbie really loves Xmas morning presents so he tends to wake us up early (perhaps we shouldn't tell him which night Santa is coming).

We had just finished our Turkey supper and were relaxing on our computers when I saw headlights go out up the hill but parking lights could still be seen. Odd. Anyway didn't think too much of it because Mark sometimes sits on the hill texting or whatever before coming down to his trailer.

The truck drove down the hill and we assumed it was Mark but then it parked backwards in the parking lot. (Military training) Brad was going out to see what was going on and I told him to leave it because its not our business for another week. He went anyway and when he saw the silhouette of the driver, he knew -but I was still inside blissfully unaware, watching a video.

He snuck up on this intruder and surprised him. They both then snuck into the RV and surprised me!! Was not expecting to see my oldest son, especially on Xmas day!

Robbie absolutely LOVES Lee and the two of them always have a great time together.

(Lee doesn't like having his picture taken)

We had a great visit last night catching up but Lee was tired after the trip so we had an early night. This morning we went for breakfast to The TreeHouse Cafe but it was closed, as was Salt Spring Inn so we drove over to Harbour House Hotel and they had a buffet that was exceptionally good. Only one cook, one waitress (that we saw) and they were working very hard to keep up with the demand.

Lee and Brad at the buffet

The place wasn't packed but it was very very busy, there are still a lot of people without power on the island and this was the only place open that we saw when driving around.

Lee is due at his Father's for Turkey supper tonight (also in BC) so he was only in for the night. A long way to go just for one night but I guess this is how much he loves his Mummy! LOL 

He has just left in order to make it to the noon ferry back to the mainland.

What a good son to come all this way from Saskatchewan to surprise us! xxxoooxxx