Long time no see

I received a request for an update. I haven't written in quite a while and my public misses me LOLOL...

What have we been doing? Well we started our Keto lifestyle on December 1st. We have each lost approx 30 lbs so far (he a bit more and I a bit less)... we are loving the keto life. We get to eat all kinds of delicious treats which we never used to eat before, we were not dessert people. Now I make cheesecake 'fat bombs'... as our diet is 5% Carbs, 25% proteins and 70% fats there is plenty of room for what we would have previously considered 'junk' food (desserts). I make peanut butter cups, keto pizza... tons of delicious recipes all of which are popular with our friends. For anyone considering the Keto Lifestyle, I personally recommend using 'The Carb Manager' app, just put in your details and the system will create a meal plan, grocery list and gives you excellent recipes. We have not found a recipe we didn't like on the app, and that says a lot! 

We spent about 5 days in Jasper doing a dog sit in about February, I think. It was nice to get a change of scenery and the 2 dogs were very well behaved. All 3 dogs got along great.

Stacey is planning a trip out here likely in May and Meg will be coming out again sometime soon, although nothing definitive.

(don't tell her I put this here ;) )

My garden starts are doing fabulous and are just waiting for the weather to stabilize. We were in double digits last week but yesterday we got an inch or so of snow again.

What else? I dunno, just playing Pickleball, going to Cards, volunteering for catering events at the club...

I have begun to expand my Reiki thing, I wouldn't call it a 'business' but I am expanding it so that people anywhere in the world can book a personalized online session with me. 

Also, I have always wanted to do Pottery and so I have begun teaching myself how and Brad picked up a large craft table for me just yesterday.

Robbie is doing great. His cataracts were quite bad and as I know that Castor Oil works well for human cataracts I decided to use a dropper and try it on him, there was really nothing to lose as his eyesight was so terribly poor. It has made a huge difference for him (* not medical or veterinary advise), his eyes have mostly cleared up and he can see so much better now. His hearing however.... well, he takes after his father.

Our Granddaughter was in the Edmonton Cheer competition this past weekend and so we went to the big city for that. Her team placed 5th of sooo many teams. It was a fun day for her.

I think that about sums it up. Just day to day winter doldrums really for the past few months. Super excited to have Spring springing.

Oct 24 Salt Spring Island

 It was my birthday yesterday.... 55, let's not talk about that! LOL

Meanwhile, we wanted to spend some time visiting friends at our old island of Salt Spring so we found a house sitting job here for a few weeks.

Last night we went to Moby's for supper to celebrate my old age and then over to our friends (and former employers) Ian & Sandy's for a catch up and a drink.

I've been playing pickleball here with my old club as you might expect.

Not sure if I mentioned that I started a pickleball club in our new hometown as they didn't have one and that can't be allowed...

Anyway, its been fun playing with my old crew the last few days.

Today we are off to Gabriola to see Stacey and Ike for the day. Likely have supper at Woodfire but we'll see how the day progresses.

Ranger, we are looking after at our house sit.

Birthday girl

Brad

As you know Robbie thinks he's a human and has little time for dogs, especially 2 year old huskies. But the two of them are getting along fabulously and ride great together in the truck so things are going well so far.

I discovered a niche

Even whilst everything else is going on, I came across a niche which only one other seems to have discovered to date.

I have been researching this niche and contemplating how to make it work. It could provide us with what they call 'passive income'.

Also, I've been enquiring into house sitting jobs (we had begun house sitting, doing it just a few times before Covid-19) for the winter in warmer locales. No specific plans, just snooping at what is available. Not even sure we would leave Canada at this point in time, but maybe somewhere in the islands... or we could just stay home.

Home again

On our last night of housesitting and looking after Teddy we decided to go for Vietnamese. Long time readers will likely know that Vietnamese is our favourite and we are always trying local restaurants wherever we go. Our favourite remains our old haunt back in our Saskatoon days some 15 years ago (restaurant sold to new owners and just isn't the same anymore).

A few selections, we enjoyed the lemongrass beef dish the best although it was all palatable (not always the case)

I have heard from Dad & Ann, they are off the cruise ship and touring around in the Florida Cays before heading home to Windsor mid week.

Our first experience with www.trustedhousessitters.com was a good one. Although we failed to inquire when exactly they would be returning, only knew that it was on the 8th (today), what none of us considered was that their flight arrived very late and we had plans to be home by supper out with friends on Salt Spring... so arrangements were made with the owners family that they would pick up Teddy for the evening so we could head home on schedule. 

Note to self: confirm the return date/time.... had we known we would be needed until the 9th, we would have made arrangements as per but as it was, expecting to be home today we made other plans... turned out okay though, I believe. 

Little Teddy sure is a delight. What a good doggie, he loved to cuddle with me specifically which Robbie was none too keen about but suffered the atrocity in disgusted silence time and again... poor little guy. We sure are going to miss little Teddy, just soo cute. It was a great place to be with some great sites to see but with all the bloody rain we just were not able to get out much and experience it particularly. 

We did get to Denman Island, but every other day we were there we'd wait until the rain stopped long enough to take the dogs for their daily walk and then the rain would start again... and not just a bit of rain - torrential downpours,    all   day   long  !! Which is why we wanted to do the sit in the first place, as an opportunity to get out from under the tick tick tick on the roof.

Funny enough today the sun came out and it is 'supposed' to be sunny for the next 5 days or more. Go figure.

Day on Denman Island

Yesterday we went to the Village of Cumberland for a Pickleball game. Nice crowd, not the same as my familiar SSI crowd but they were friendly enough to a stranger. Had 3 games and headed out.

Someone in town had built his entire fence out of skis. Picture worthy for sure.

This is what I have in mind for us, although this is on a lot and Brad wants a couple of acres. I like the small house - simple but not too much.

After walking the dogs for an hour today we went to Denman Island. We are close enough to the Denman ferry from this house sit that we decided to check it out.

Denman Ferry

No side walls to speak of so nice view all the way across (10 min) and this ferry runs on cables somehow...

Our first stop was for lunch. Google suggested a spot so we headed there right off the ferry. What an amazing find this place was. On a bit of land that has been in his family essentially for almost 200 years, he has a little chuck wagon set up beside the house where he cooks a variety of items and offers an incredible atmosphere you really need to experience. The food is delicious, definitely something to write home about- Brad's onion rings were the best I've ever had - I stole one off his plate... amazing. If you are ever on Denman Island - go here to eat. In bad weather, eat in the car - but go regardless.

Nearly 200 year old barn with a chandelier

Fantastic timberframe barn

Outdoor restaurant only

another barn

The original Chuck wagon his father built many years ago

Chuck Wagon now has an add on for the BBQ

You can't get lost here

Incredible views of the ocean and the mountains of Vancouver Island

The ambiance was incredible, old classics playing discreetly in the background and today's much needed sunshine after record breaking rains made for a very memorable experience.

Cheeseburger and fries, delicious.

Burger and onion rings, try the onion rings - fantastic.

Shack n Wagon on Denman Island folks

Be sure to try this, it gets my vote!!

Drove all around the island checking things out. Not a lot on the go here but some really beautiful properties and reasonably sized housing (important to me anyway). Comparatively reasonable real estate pricing also. 

Ferry leaves Buckley bay every hour on the hour and leaves Denman island every hour on the 40 min, only 20 minutes to a walmart from Buckley Bay.

The rains have turned creeks into raging rivers here also

Local real estate office

View of Vancouver Island mountains from the ferry heading back

All around it was an amazing day, we saw some fantastic sights, experienced the incredible Shack n Wagon and finally got out of the house for more than an hours walk with the dogs.

Simple update

Ann & Dad sent another pic. Looks like a communal area of the ship? Again, never having been invited I wouldn't know, but it looks like that. :D

I promised house pics so this is the livingroom. To be clear, they keep blankets on the furniture for Teddy & other family dogs - I didn't do this to someone else's furniture for Robbie.

Kitchen

Friends

Brad had had a rough night so cuddled up with Teddy on the couch

Out for a stroll with his Daddy

Teddy is with me

I haven't slept well since we arrived here. The first morning the owners were leaving so while I slept well that night I was up early to see them off. Sun/Mon am Teddy woke me up at 5am eating Robbie's food and generally making whining noises. On Monday I read on the local community FB page that two strange men were on someone's property and our dogs were set off at 6am that morning also so Monday night - no sleep for me with a fair sized doggie door on the house. Tuesday Brad secured the doggie door but then he had a rough night which kept me awake. Wed (last night) the power went off at 1am and as most of you know, Brad uses a CPAP... off to the couch with him once we found the flashlight and ensured the problem wasn't localized to our breaker box. Power returned at 245am with brightness and beeps. However, I feel like I slept even given last nights events so probably won't be near so miserable today. So take that Steve!!! (private joke)

We went to Comox yesterday as we needed a couple odds & ends so I got my outfit on, grabbed my paddle and away we went for a game of pickleball. Except the info I had found was for an outdoor court and of course no one was there. I will perhaps try again today, the sleep I had should help.

We will be going to Denman and Quadra Islands at some point soon, dependent upon weather.

1st official house sit

We have just been offered and accepted a house sit on Vancouver Island.

We had had a different house sit lined up previously but in the end it was cancelled. Today we went to town to have a cup of coffee and while I waited for Brad to get our order I checked the TrustedHouseSitters app. There was a new sit listed, once Brad returned with the coffees I read it to him and we decided to apply.

We were not even finished our coffees when we got a message that they would like us to agree to the sit, which we did. The sit is from Jan 25 (this Saturday) to Feb 8 (2 weeks). After messaging back and forth we then spoke on the telephone and they have asked us to come over on Friday as they leave Saturday..

They are very close to the beach where we can walk the dogs (they have 1 Westie Terrier) every day.

Excitement is just around the corner and given that it basically hasn't stopped raining since a week before Christmas, we are excited to get out from under the tic tic tic... and explore a new area of British Columbia for a couple of weeks while accommodating someone else's holiday. Win Win.

We moved here for the weather

I picked up more Xmas lights to extend the run the length of the fence.

Yesterday we had a sprinkling of snow

Larry the Lizard (bearded dragon?)

33 Geese, Chickens and Ducks.

This morning we awoke to 4.5 inches of snow

We are supposed to be getting a blizzard today and by 6pm 'they' say we'll be in + C temperatures... high winds expected. Will be checking the trees above us once daylight arrives. By Saturday the overnight temps will be above 0C and we'll be through it...

Today: Dentist for us both. Brad for extraction and I for a finish to my pre-christmas cleaning.

New truck?, HouseSitting and Dentist

It doesn't seem like anything has happened so I wasn't writing but now sitting here it seems a few things have happened...

We have a tentative deal on an F350 Crew cab. It is plated in Alberta so has to be put through a safety for BC, assuming all is well -we will buy it. The next few sections all hinge on this truck.

As previously mentioned (I think) my Dad is getting married in May (*** Longime Readers: yes she did and yes he's ready, as it was a 6 year process.) in southern Ontario.

A friend of ours needs his trailer pulled out to eastern Ontario this spring.

We need to haul our belongings west from 'hell'.

So, the friend is paying us for the delivery of his trailer and we are using that to help offset the cost of the truck. Win Win.

We will drive the truck pulling the trailer to southern ontario for Dad's wedding, perhaps staying in said trailer (yet to be decided) and then drop trailer in eastern Ontario, visit with now 2 sets of friends in this area before heading further east to hell (and you thought hell was down - ha!), grabbing our belongings and coming back home to BC. Of course, each way we will undoubtedly stop in Saskatchewan to see the family...

We have also been looking into the whole 'get a new 5th wheel' thing again since we will now have an F350 to pull the bloody thing with... still very much up in the air since we've heard from plenty of RVers that dealerships will not give us what it is worth - I personally think if we can swing it it would be better to sell our current RV privately and then buy another. Trick is to find accommodation and space for our belongings in the between time. Not easy to do on this island.....

Anyway, that has really been our excitement so far this year other than the regularly scheduled Pickleball 4 times a week and dentists appointments.

I will say that we started a new 'diet'... there is an online program www.eatthismuch.com and its actually been really great. The meals are fantastic, and we've been finding ourselves looking forward to each nights dinner to see what unique dish it will be.

The program lets you set the boundaries, including all the foods you can't/won't eat, calorie intake, vegetarian vs pescatarian, etc... a wide range of options there.... it gives you the weeks plan which you can edit via drag and drop, provides you with the weeks grocery list and you just click the item on the plan and it gives you the recipe. You can also include items that you already have in your pantry and it will try to use them up.

A complete all in one meal planner. I don't like to call it a diet, we're not (well not specifically) trying to lose weight but just looking for a more balanced meal plan and this provides it. Unexpectedly, the recipes are really delicious.

I wish to request of the weather guessers to MAKE IT STOP RAINING! Thank you.

We are expecting evening wind chill temperatures in the -18C (-0.4F) range, this is not ideal when you live in a summerized RV, this is to last apparently for at least 5 nights. Daytime temps hovering in low single digits and even overnights are under -10C, must be expecting winds... I'm too fed up about the weather to even bother looking and I can't do anything about it anyway except huff in the other direction.

The rain has been falling quite consistently since at least Dec 15. The ground is saturated and if the winds do pick up then living under a bunch of 30 ft trees also will not be ideal. We will be monitoring this situation closely and should it appear necessary we will go to a hotel for a couple of days. Not the end of the world but you can see it from here. LOL

Our landlords left today for their Bermuda holiday and I am looking after the multitude (seriously about 20 of them) of Ducks, Chickens, Geese, 2 Cats and a Dragon somethingorother lizard. I am also looking after the home of one of our picklers but she returns before our landlords do so I can't winge about that.

This of course means that we will not be starting our HouseSitting travels until they return on Jan 20th. After that though..... Mama wants to go places. I have our profile all set up and some wonderful friends have given us great references, I have my eye on a couple of sits on Vancouver Island in February but need Brad's input into choosing one and he is in a world of hurt lately with a tooth that is giving him trouble, so I wait.... patiently... mostly...

Okay, anyone got a skate and a Wilson volleyball?
(We just watched Castaway again last week - love Tom Hanks).