Tuesday 28 October 2014

Fallen Soldiers

It is a sad state of affairs when our soldiers are killed on Canadian soil. This is just wrong!! They should be safe when they come home. We honor their memories and their commitment to our country. RIP gentlemen.

 

 

When the mason jars come out you know fall is here. We planted a half dozen cherry tomato plants last spring and had our fill of the delicious little guys all summer long. But the weather is turning colder and there has been frost overnight. There were lots of tomatoes left on the plants but they were all still green. Not one to waste anything I had my tomato assistant (Tom) pick them all for me.

Last night I chopped them all up, along with a bunch a onions and let them stew overnight. This morning I turned this:

 

Into this:

 
A lot of work for 4 little jars of Green Tomato Chutney. It it will be well worth it. Yummy.
With the leaves fast falling it looks like it should be time to start thinking about heading south again. Can't wait to be on the move. Until next time - safe travels.

 

 

Tuesday 21 October 2014

Toronto Fall RV Show

No work at Stu's this weekend. We had all decided that it would be nice to have a weekend off. Saturday afternoon we had a nice surprise when our friend Helen called to see if we had our turkey last weekend. Well no. We had tacos for thanksgiving. She said neither did they and they were having a turkey dinner tonight if we wanted to join them. Didn't have to ask me twice. I love turkey.

We headed up to their place. Their son, daughter and grands were all in attendance for dinner. It was delicious and nice to see everyone. It was also Dave's birthday last weekend And a birthday cake topped off the meal. Thanks again guys.

Helen was pleased to have her bird back after I had refinished it for her. But she told me to take it to Florida with me to see if we can find someone that can make the bird for us. If I can get more made I can paint them. Tom found her bird on the internet. Someone in California sells this bird for $300.

Sunday morning Tom's cousin, Rodger called to see if we wanted to meet them at the Toronto International Centre to take in the fall RV show. They recently had an electrical fire in their 5th and are looking around to see about a possible replacement. We headed over in the afternoon.

We looked around to see if we could trade our 5th for something newer. But when you look at the quality of the products it is pretty hard to see where we would be better off. Anything in our price range lacks all the amenities that we have in Tara. We have the niceties such as a fireplace, central vac, washer/dryer, a real fridge with an ice maker, electric awnings and jacks, corian counter, leather furniture, 3 slides and quality finish. Some trailers have some of these features but none have them all nor the quality finish. To get this we have to look at Model Suites or comparable and these run in the big buck category. Or a coach which is way out of our snack bracket. We had done the same research last winter in Florida and came to the same conclusion.....we are keeping Tara.

But it is always fun to look around and see what is out there. Every year there is something new and sometimes something strange. We stopped at Hughes to see what they had on sale since this was the last day of the show.

Nothing on sale that I could see. Boy you can pay through the nose at an rv store. We bought last winter these things that you use to tie down your sun screen at walmart for about $1.50 each. They are in the pet department for tying up your dog. Hughes had two in a package with a couple feet of rope for almost $30.00. What a rip off. For those people that think they have to buy all their rv supplies from an rv dealer they sure get taken advantage of. Of course there are some things that you have to buy from them but lots that you don't.
 
Rodger and Terry came to our house for a visit and dinner after. Hope their repairs or replacement work out for them as they are planning on heading south this winter also. We will have lots of company in Florida this winter!!
It has been cold and rainy here most of the weekend. It was 27' in Medicine Hat, AB yesterday. Twyla said it was over 20' at her place today. They are having a beautiful fall now after having the early snow in Sept. Hope it gets nice here also before the cold really arrives. Since we don't leave until early December it will be cold. Our trailer is at our friends in Orillia. We have to get it further south before it gets snowed in up there. So far we have not found any place we can take it for 6 weeks. If anyone knows of a place between Toronto and Windsor that we could drop it off please let me know.
Until next time - safe travels.

 

 

Monday 13 October 2014

Happy Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving in Canada. A day that is usually celebrated with a family gathering over a big turkey dinner. I know that Twyla had all her in-laws for the weekend and a big turkey dinner yesterday. Unfortunately Alberta is too far away for us to pop in for a drumstick. I love turkey and my daughter is one awesome cook. And her mother-in-law is another one. Between the two of them dinner would have been superb. Wish I could have been there.

We got up early this morning and headed north to Stu's to continue with our work. For Heajin and I it was to get rid of the Toronto Maple Leaf room. It went from this with a million pin holes that we patched yesterday:

To this:

Tom and Stuart finished putting the shed together and building shelves to go inside. It looks kind of small in this picture taken for up on the deck but it is a very large shed. Lots of space for all that important stuff.

Here is the hot tub that they moved out of that spot. Stu has to get it on kijiji and get it sold and out of the way.

We finished lots of other little jobs and then Heajin made a big batch of tacos for thanksgiving dinner. Homemade salsa and homemade guacamole. They were delicious.
Home again and time to rest up for the next project, whatever that might be. I think we may take a weekend off. Sounds good to me. Happy Thanksgivng Everyone.
Until next time - safe travels.

 

Sunday 12 October 2014

Montreal Canadiens

Last weekend my project was to turn a Montreal Canadiens bedroom into a normal one. Heajin and I spent last Saturday morning sanding, filling holes and painting trim before she had to go to work. I got a coat of paint on before we headed home. Tom and Stuart spent the day getting an old hot tub moved out of the way to prepare a spot to build a new storage shed.

Sunday morning we returned to do it again. Two more coats of paint. By the time we got home we were exhausted and ready to have a few days off.

Today we headed back again. We finished up the Montreal room with the fourth coat of paint and all the trim. Here is the before and after.

Quite a difference. The room is smaller now due to all the extra paint but it is sure brighter.

We started on the next room. It is a Toronto Maple Leafs theme room. That is as bad as the team!!! Pictures to follow tomorrow. Tom and Stuart got the new shed all put together. Pictures of that to follow also.

Tired but tomorrow is another day.

Until next time - safe travels.