A New Year

Happy New Year Everyone!

We've made it. We are the new Managers of Mowhinna Creek Campground. Didn't think we'd make it this far but here we are, finally in our new spot - The Manager's Spot.

For those just joining us, we got bored this summer whilst sitting in our tin can in the middle of Saskatchewan in +35C temperatures. We had gone to SK because that is where we are from and where our family still are. Unfortunately, the kids are all working, the grandkids are all in school or daycare and so we were left with nothing to do, so we decided to look into Workamping - the art of working to earn a free camping spot - essentially (and sometimes wages as well).

We spent a few months July - October workamping in Alberta and then applied for and were given  this position on Salt Spring Island so we headed here once we finished in Alberta. We have now become residents of British Columbia and we love it here on Salt Spring having made so many friends on this island already. Worse case scenario, if this job doesn't pan out for some reason we will just move to Vancouver Island where I have already scouted a new campground (from a time when it didn't look like we'd be staying here)... the best part of RV Life is the ability to simply move should the need/desire arise..

Here we are all tucked in.

Quite a bit of room back here.

The workshop

I'm planning to make this add on at the back of the office into an indoor seating area, plenty of work to do in there. Then we can have people over as our little rig is just too small to comfortably entertain in the rain.

Our (read my) nice clean workshop - well mostly clean anyway... Wait, whats he doing in there?! I'll be going over it again but for now everything has a bucket - screw bucket, plumbing bucket, washer bucket, bolt bucket, etc. 

P.S. any container is a bucket to me.

Inside our soon to be outdoor livingroom, the front section is for gardening but the back will be the livingroom once I take those shelves out of there... anyone need an old door? LOL

Recently I've been having a thing about Narrow boats, ie Canal boats... (longtime readers will be rolling their eyes here). I'd love to (and we're English, so we could) buy a Narrow boat and cruise the Canals in the UK... Brad won't hear of it - of course... we'll see. LOL

I've been watching video's on YouTube by CruisingTheCut, quite a funny guy (English humour) and informative. His videos are roughly 5 min long so its easy to catch one here and there without tying me up for 20 min at a time. As always, when I start following someone on YouTube I am watching from the beginning, I am currently at episode 36 but have paused to write this blog post and no doubt His Lordship will expect his dinner before I begin watching again.

YouTuber Cruising The Cut

Because of YouTube copyright yadayada, he is drawing a diagram of his anticipated route... not to scale but hilarious if your familiar with the country.

It is raining at the moment and expected to rain all day tomorrow (15-20mm, at roughly 30mm/inch you can do the math... at least that's what I do since I don't do metric but I know its roughly 3cm to an inch, and 10 mm to 1 cm, so...) about 2/3 of an inch or in layman's terms - a lot. Haha.

Hoping this year will be better than last year, although in fairness to 2018 our day to day was pretty good but the overall life stuff sucked. We just have to put it out of our minds and carry on.

When we first saw our new site, I know I wondered if we'd made a mistake selling the Ranch but once it was cleaned up, I think it looks pretty good.

Besides, friends we made at the Ranch are also mobile so they can always come to us, seems only fair since we went there so they could meet us in the first place. Right Karen?! :D

Riding the bus

Yesterday we returned the rental car to Hertz in Nottingham. For a small fee (41 lb - I don't have a pound sign on my keyboard so thats how I will do it) we didn't have to go all the way back in to London.

Because my phone is acting up we decided to take the camera so we could get some good pics and leave the phone behind. After dropping the car and jumping in with Brad's brother who I will call Bob (hello Bob) and his wife who I will call Jane, he dropped Brad, Jane and I in Nottingham shopping district so that I could get my jewelry repairs started. However, Brad realized he didn't have the camera which he was in charge of... Jane promptly called Bob who had to pull off and rummage in the back seat to look for the camera. Not finding it, he then drove back to Hertz and had them rummage through the rental car. No luck. We were positive it should be in the rental because we recalled specifically having it there earlier.

The 3 of us walked around to the Jeweller and both my heart pendant and my Grandmother's ring are being repaired. The ring is getting all new diamonds as somehow the diamonds were replaced apparently with very cheap knock off diamonds, so my most wonderful husband agreed to me having them replaced. He said to get real diamonds put in but that would be around 1500lb ($3000CAD) -um, NO... that just seems crazy to me so the jeweller is putting in some very expensive fake diamonds. The ones in it currently are crystallized he said because they are very cheap but these new ones (200lb/$400CAD) will look just like my wedding ring diamonds and will wear far better than what is in the setting currently. Works for me.

Then off to the mall, man there are a lot of people in that mall! A quick perusal there and we were off to the bus stop for our first bus ride in years. Brad hasn't been on a bus since his bus accident in the military some 30+ years ago and I think I rode a bus last in the early 90's just because I thought it would be a novelty. So its been many moons since then. What an experience, so different than we are used to with a stop and go every 200ft. This bus went and went fast, stopping every couple of miles I'd say. Going so fast around corners, remember its the wrong side of the road for us, and getting so close to buildings, walls and other cars it was shocking at first. As I said, they know how to move the masses over here. Anyone who has been on the roads over here will know what I'm talking about. Freaky anyway.

Back to Bob and Jane's house only to find the camera on the dining room table! Brad had evidently put it down when he put his coffee cup back in the kitchen. (Brad always has coffee in hand) So today at least we will get some pics. Jane made a lovely steak pie and mash dinner for us all which was sooo good. Different than Canadian/American steak pie's in that it has meat in it! Large chunks of steak not tiny slivers of steak and the flavour was amazing too. Kuddos to the Butcher she picked them up from to be sure.

Today Brad and I are on our own for a short while as Bob and Jane have things on the go so we will be doodling around in the market square and getting some grocery shopping done, undoubtedly stopping for a coffee at one of the local cafes and watching the people go to and fro. This evening I believe the plan is for us to take Bob & Jane out for a nice dinner, then likely a cuppa at theirs before heading back to our cottage for the evening.. hopefully we can get some good pics through all of this. This is such a lovely town, our cottage is several hundred years old and only a block away from the town square where there is a Butcher, Baker, Grocer, Hardware, Hairdresser, Pharmary.... everything you could need is within a couple of blocks.

Having lived in the boonies for many years now it is lovely to have everything so handy and I greatly appreciate having fresh vegetables/fruit/meat that I can purchase each day for the evenings meal. I believe Brad will be making Lasagna today (his favorite culinary contribution) for his brother and sister-in-law. I (yes, me) may even get a nap in today....