Brian has been making puzzles!!

Brian had a box of four puzzles out during Mina's visit and decided that he would start and see if he can get them done while he is on "holidays" !!  So far, so good!!  He has managed these three. They are small sized puzzles with smaller than normal pieces so they take a little less real estate when making them.  Maybe a good size for the trailer!!!!!!  We shall see.
You will notice that there is ONE piece missing in the butterfly one!!!!!!  Bummer and the bag was sealed so it came from the factory that way!!  Oh well, that is how it goes sometimes.
Therese

Visit with Emily

 We were in Calgary looking at a trailer and made plans to visit with Emily as her birthday is just around the corner!!!  It was great to have a good visit with her.  We picked her up at work and enjoyed some time over a hot drink catching up on what she has been up to!!  So happy to have reconnected with her.  She has graduated from high school and has also earned a certificate from Olds College which will allow her to work in a veterinary clinic which is the direction she thinks she would like to go and get more education in.  She will be taking the year off and finding work in a vet clinic in hopes of clarifying if being a vet is really what she wants to continue with and if so, what sort of specialist vet she would like to be.  We had a few minutes to visit with Beth as well.  She is busy with her regular job at AMA and also trying out a few businesses on the side.  She was working in her spa room doing eyelash extensions for her sister during our visit which she is hoping to translate into a viable business.  So it was great to catch up with both of them.  Did not see Rebecca - she was camping this week!      Therese

Cold Room reno

Brian has pulled out all the pink batt insulation from the ceiling of the cold room and replaced it with solid foam insulation.  He adhered all the pieces together with spray foam to make a very solid barrier between the cold of the wall and floor above and the cold room below.  We found that the room got too cold last winter and we had to monitor it closely to ensure that the contents did not freeze.  We are hoping that with this new insulation the cold will be less and therefore we will not be risking freezing the contents of the room when we are away for a few days.  I removed everything from the room last year rather than risk having everything freeze which sort of defeats the purpose of having a cold room.  It was a LOT of work and the ceiling looks no different than it did before but it has lots of protection behind it.  Therese

Ray and Gisele's 50th wedding anniversary!!

 We attended Ray and Gisele Cyr's wedding anniversary party on the weekend!!  50 years is always a good reason to celebrate and is certainly happening much more often than it did years ago.  These two are both active members of our church community and have lot of years ahead of them.  It was a cozy group of people and really nice to relax and visit with people we have not visited with in a while!!  As you can see there were antics about how short she is so out came the ladder when it was time to kiss the "bride".  Ray's brother Jerry was married to Sylvia Noel - our second cousin?? I think.  He grew up in St. Paul.  It is a small world.  Therese

Cherries and juice

I picked the Evans cherries from my neighbour's tree.  She does not use them and is OK with someone willing to pick them.  I had picked several from a couple of other locations as well and got 7 little jars of juice!!!!!!  Pretty happy with how that worked out. 

Therese

First tomatoes from the garden

 I picked my first ripe tomatoes from the garden this morning!

I have been watching them ripen and today was the day!!

Therese

Applesauce

The bag of apples had been sitting all week since we had picked up Mina the week before.  Fortunately, they had been sitting in the garage and were still in pretty good shape to make applesauce.  Suzanne had picked them off of Sal's brother's tree.  They are quite large - up to 3" and were at the end of their season so were no longer really crisp which was all good for making applesauce with them.  The skins are quite thin so there was very little waste after washing, cutting and coring them.  Took less than 20 minutes to cook them down to a mush which was very easy to put through the food mill.  I managed to get 11 pints from the bag which is a good.  I have several left over from last year which was pink because I got apples from the neighbour's tree.  They have cut theirs down this year to make room for the garage so I am hoping to get a few more from the neighbour on the other side if I need them.  Brian is working on the cold room. He has removed all the insulation he put in there last year and replaced it with rigid foam sealed with expandable foam.  He should be done by the end of the week.          Therese

Canoeing to Meridian Beach near Raymond Shores Resort

We took the canoe out on Sunday.  It was a bit cooler than it had been the previous week but out on the water it was beautiful!!  We put the canoe in the water at the public boat launch at the Raymond Shores Resort on the upper east side of Gull Lake.  We went south down the shore which was quite reedy but meant we would be with the wind coming back which is always nice.  Down a bit we found Meridian Beach.  A cottage community with a beach, swimming area and private diving platform along with a cool bridge across the inlet which the cottagers use as a boat launch.  The cottages were large and beautiful and we look forward to coming back to the beach for lunch on another day!!  Therese

Garage next door

Our neighbours have cleared the back of their lot and added a garage!  They ordered the garage to fit in the space they had prepared and it was delivered on skids.  It took only 20 minutes to get it situated on the prepared pad of crushed rock and concrete!!  Sure nice to have an instant garage!!!  They dealt with the Hutterite Community in Holden and are very happy with the end product and the price they paid.     Therese

Mina - BBQ lunch and finished the puzzle

 We attended the BBQ lunch at Wolfcreek Building Supplies on Friday!!  It was a good lunch with hot dogs and burgers along with salads and squares for dessert!!! 
We hurried to finish off our puzzle before we went.  It was a bit of a challenge but in the end having all the crayons facing up meant that you already knew one of the directions for all the pieces.  With all the pieces ordered in he right direction to fit in the outside frame helped with the finding of the pieces.  We made another puzzle which was a bit more difficult but it is a surprise so I will add it once it has been revealed to the world!!!   Therese

Mina - candle holders and cute little owls from the lids

 One of her craft books had a project in which they created votive candle holders using fabric wrapped around a jar.  We went looking for some jars!!  We went to the give away box and found these ones which we embellished with paper napkins and our "slime".  The glue/starch very nicely collaged the paper napkins to the jars and we added ribbons to some of them once they were dry.

We had lids leftover and Mina thought we should see if we can use them in some way so we did some internet research and found some cute owls which had been painted on jar lids.  We printed the example, found some sandpaper, paint, brushes and a few other tools.  We started with sanding down the lids to remove the shine and create some tooth for the paint.  We used craft paint and foam brushes to put on our first layer of colour and in some cases had to put on 2-3 coats to get good coverage.  We punched a hole in paper which helped us draw circles which we painted white.  We had found some little spongy tools which we used to finish off the eyes of our owls.  We "stamped" the green circles and used the smaller tool to stamp the black circles.  We drew guidelines for our wings and forehead and painted those in a coordinating colours.  We added highlights to our eyes after they were dry using a toothpick and white paint.  We are pretty happy with our creations!!!!!!!  Mina had not yet decided just how she was going to finish them off.  They could be badges, magnets or decorations!!       Therese

Mina - new books and some swimming

 The sky is smoky due to the large amount of forest fires in BC and California!!!!!!  The sunsets as a red ball and comes up looking pretty much the same in the opposite side of the sky!!  Mina bought herself a few new books to read which is always a treat!!

Mina always enjoys going to the swimming pool when she visits.  She is getting very good at using the swinging rope in the deep end.  They also have a climbing wall but they cannot be used at the same time as they use the same end of the pool.  There were no takers for the climbing wall this time around so they each took turns with the swinging rope!! She is a very good swimmer and likes spending her time in the deep end.  I chose to read my book on the side lines this time around. 
Therese

Mina - hot dogs on the fire

With the heat of this past week it was nice to have a fire and eat outside!!  We had hot dogs on the fire pit and the OH Henry experiments for dessert!!

Therese

Mina - experiments with OH Henrys to learn about the Earth's crust

 This experiment was to learn more about how pressure and heat affect the rocks and soil in the Earth's crust.  How bad can it be to experiment with OH henry bars!!!!!  First she used just pressure to manipulate her "rock" sample by apply the weight of the cast iron fry pan while the bar was still in the wrapper which nicely contained the results - a bit of oozing goo and a few cracks in the surface.

Next she decided to use heat and pressure so we took the next little bar outside.  It has been very warm here with temperatures in the high 20C so the asphalt was HOT!!!  She brought the frypan to add pressure and I encouraged her to add yet more pressure by standing on the fry pan!!  That resulted in much more changes.  A spreading of the whole lot which redistributed the "top layer of soil" along with the "rocks" and other materials into a flatter more dense layer.  We had the experiments for dessert with supper than evening.    Therese

Dishwasher repair

 In the midst of our experimenting Brian was working on the dishwasher.  It has been washing dishes - intermittently but decreasingly so in the last few weeks.  He had it apart while I was gone blueberry picking and had managed to clear the codes and get a diagnostic with no errors but it had started acting up again.  So it was a full on process of getting the error codes and finally a new part and putting it all back together.  It is working better now and all back together. 

The diverter valve was not working properly because it had been collecting hard water deposits which clogged it.  So we will have to do a vinegar rinse more often in an effort to reduce the accumulation of deposits in the valve.  Dishwashers have LOTS of little wires and electronic motherboards to make them programmable!!!!  Who knew all of that is hidden on that front cover!!            Therese

Mina - experiments in slime

Mina was wanting to create some slime so we investigated some of the books she had brought along and some online instructions before headin out shopping for the ingredients we needed.  We were not able to find everything and had to substitute spray starch for liquid starch.  In the end we are not sure why our first attempt was an epic fail because we had seen videos on line that had worked with the spray starch.  In the end, it was spray starch and glue and we used it on one of our projects later in the week.  Oh well, onwards!!

 She came closer to success with this batch which included glue, starch and salt.  It took a bit more time for the reaction to start than the video would have suggested but eventually she had a nice little ball of slime which was not as stretchy as we expected but held together.

 As time went  on though it started getting less and less stretchy and got to the point that it was crumbling.  We let it sit over night which did not improve anything so it was considered another epic fail in the creation of slime.  Not much could be done with it so it hit the bin.

Her last attempt combined flour, water and oil!!   It was more successful though quite gooey but very slimy!!!!!!  Unfortunately, not a fun experience when the slime stuck to the fingers and had to be washed off.  So though more successful than our first try this one was a bit of a failure in the end due to the stickiness of the slime. 

It was fun to experiment!!!                Therese

Mina's visit - clay charms

We had the pleasure of having a visit from Mina for the past week!!!  We started on the right foot with a bit of crafting - clay charms!!  She brought her supplies and book from earlier this year and I went looking and found (yeah!!) my little stash of clay and the tools I got from a kit years ago which Loraine had given me.  I also found my stash of screw eyes which was nice because of how small they were.  So we got started after supper!!  Mina made all sorts of wonderful charms.  I got a close up on the right and the photo below is the lot of them which we baked the next day.

We added quite a few Christmas one as Suzanne had requested at least ten Christmas ones for a project she is working on.  As you can see there are a lot of them.  I made a set of beads.  We added glitter and mica powder to some of them before baking.  They take only 20 minutes at 250F to cure.    

We had to build a new drying rack as the original had been left at home.  In any case with our large amount of charms we would certainly have to have made a new rack anyway.  I cut up a tray and punched holes in the top with the awl tool that came with the clay kit.  We modified paperclips to make suitable hooks for hanging the charms after they had been painted with the clear sealer.  So we had two top rows and another middle row which accommodated the large charms and a few on each end.

Mina chose not to clear coat some of her charms preferring the more matte finish of the clay.   It was fun to create with her and share her excitement for charms that were coming out the way she had imagined!!!
Therese

Suzanne's garden

Suzanne is very happy with her garden this year!! She has cut back to some large layered pots on the sunny side of the driveway and a few vegetables in her squares in the backyard.   You can see here that the sunflowers the kids planted are doing very well!!!!!!  One of them has a large seed head which the bees are visiting regularly.  They might even be lucky enough to get sunflower seeds from it which they can snack on!!  The squash/pumpkin is growing up the stock of the sunflower and hanging out very nicely in its shade.  It is the largest squash/pumpkin they have every grown and will likely make the best Jack O' Lantern come Hallowe'en!!!  We were in town picking up Mina for a visit at our house!!!            Therese

A few photos from around the yard

 This dragonfly somehow made its way into the house and was just chilling out in the livingroom window one morning.  Not sure how long it had been there but it was gently encouraged to find its way outside but because of how cold it was that morning it was not feeling to energetic!!   
 These little butterflies have been visiting the garden very regularly over the summer and I have finally taken a photo.  They are very wary so you have to be very patient and still to get a photo. 

 I had one poppy come up in the garden and it has produced more than one head and so we are enjoying this poppy this week.   A good harvest of carrots, onions and  cucumbers from the garden. The carrots are quite large for July and I am very pleased with what I managed to pick.  You can see below that some of my tomatoes are starting to turn red!!!  Yeah!! 

Suzanne gave me a lavender plant for my birthday and I transplanted it to find that it was dying off.  After a bit of internet research I found that I had used soil with too little sand which was not providing it with the amount of drainage that it likes.  I removed most of the new soil and mixed in a LOT of sand and repotted it and it is doing much better!!  Not sure if it will bloom yet this year but I will be able to bring it inside this fall and nurture it until next summer when it will go out again.            Therese