Back again from my little break............

My aunt passed away last Monday (4th).  Now as  we all know when people pass it's a very sad occasion for all involved.  My aunt had been ill for a while, and was hospitalized 10 days prior before we went to visit her in hospital last Monday afternoon.

We stayed for a couple of hours, and had a "good" time catching up and putting the world to rights.  After we left she told my uncle she wanted to have a sleep as she was tired and less than an hour after us leaving she had a heart attack and died.

We hadn't been home long, it took us over 90 minutes to get home, my dad called and said she had died.  We were in shock.  Absolute, total shock.  I was lost for words, as less than two hours before we were having a good talk and laugh.  So that's why it hit me hard.  I am a very practical person in dealing with things and in cases of emergency I am a take charge person; but this threw me for six.  

We also had a pig of a week with a couple other things last week, that included having a shouting match with one of the neighbours.........which I did not start and really upset me, as I wondered what hit me!!!  As a side note this particular neighbour has fallen out with all the neighbours, everyone hates him.

And ended up with our daughter having to put her cat of 17 years put to sleep.

So a deep breath now will be taken and we will start this week fresh and with positive vibes.........

A huge thank you for your suggestions..........

and yes I will be offering mixed fabrics with the produce bags.  Went and bought sweet corn and peach fabric to add to the collection.  Again thanks for the suggestions.  Sometimes the most obvious things don't occur....LOL

I am excited to be hosting a "Porch Sale/Open House" on Saturday for Appleby Lane.  Figured it would be a great way to meet the neighbours and introduce the business to my local neighbourhood.  I will let you know how I get on.

For people living in the Barrie, Ontario area, give me your email address in your comment, I moderate all comments, and I'll email you my physical addresss.  If you know people living in the Barrie area, let them know about it.  Also if you fancy a mini road trip, it's also Barrielicious at the moment, so lots of deals on at restaurants.  Plus a chance to pop in an visit me!!

Death comes in three's.......

or so they say.

I was talking to a neighbour and she has had three deaths in the past week.  Luckily they are not human or animal deaths, they are car deaths.  Her car, her husband's car and their son's car.  

So a brand new Ford Escape and a brand new VW Jetta is sitting in their driveway, and their son is waiting delivery on an Audi of some sort.  Thankfully they have enough money to cover all these "death's."  Their son though is buying his own car.........

Expensive time for them.............

Why?

If you look on the middle left hand side of this photo you will see a house and a garage door partially open?  Can you see it?  To the left of the arch, just below our blinds?

I am confused a couple of our neighbours constantly leave their garage doors open a couple of feet during the day; why?  Is it too air them out?  Is there a benefit to doing this?  Granted they only do it when its not raining or snowing; but I am still confused as to why.  If you have a garage do you do this?  Should I be doing this?  Lots of questions.........

I didn't want to post a closer photo as they do have a car parked on the left hand side of the garage, it is a double garage.

I answered in the comments, but am putting it here.  no animals, that particular neighbour is not an animal lover, and no laundry, no one does that.

Feeling just a tad bit smug with myself......

Why, because I have moved one rung up the ladder from being the total city idiot who lives around here.  Our new neighbour lady now has the bottom rung, as it turns out she is a city girl who has moved to the country.  Mind you I could be in for a bit of a competition, as she at least owns a horse and has two dogs.

Bumped into her while I was walking Molly yesterday and she was walking her two and just happened to mention about our resident coyote that is still wandering around.  She wasn't awfully thrilled about hearing him, and decided to walk back to the house rather than walk via the field.  As I pointed out to her, she had no need to worry with her two dogs, one is a boxer and the other is a black Bull Terrier, so they would over power a coyote.  Happened to see our coyote friend a bit later on by the way, he's now looking scruffy.

One good thing did come out of our meeting, Molly although interested at first with her dogs lost interest fast, as Molly's nose took her in other directions.  So I know she'll be fine with another dog being around.

The cluster flies are overtaking the house again.  I did however book the guy to come and point outside of the house for next month, so that should help in the Fall.  I also have a guy coming by to give me a quote on re-shingling the garage roof and I have been calling around to see how much chain link fencing is per linear foot.  From what I can gather $11.50 is the normal around here?  I don't have much in the way of knowledge of this product, but would like to have an area fenced so we could let Molly out off leash.  I was thinking four feet high would be fine?  If anyone has more experience in this any advise would be welcome.

Oh and by the way, Molly is in a state of confusion at the moment, as I walked her three times yesterday........she has never been walked as much since my brother was here!!!

Finally this photo was taken Sunday evening, we are very fortunate to see such beautiful sunsets:

Back again........

Thought I'd include a photo of one of my roses.  Not a huge fan of roses, but have to admit this one is really pretty.

It's been a hot and humid few days and it's only going to get worse this coming week.  Although dh got the electrics all done for the central air, it won't be up and running this week, as we are now waiting for the central air guy to show up!  So we will be suffering for all of this week no doubt with the heat.

The yard sale was a total waste of time.  6 people actually stopped over two days and I sold 12 vhs video's for $5 and three of my dad's bird houses for $50.  Plus I got well and truly burnt, so I am even redder than I normally am.  One good thing I did do was catch up on my reading, so that was good.  I will not be having a yard sale again though.

We were invited to the neighbours on Saturday.  I popped down for an hour.  They're Italians and they were barbequing.  I had a lamb chop and some wings.  I passed on the lamb's liver, kidney's, heart, lungs and as it was a little boy lamb his pee-pee!!  The host was very generous to offer it to me though, wasn't he...LOL

I hope you will think of me around 2 pm-ish on Monday as I am having my tooth extracted.  Can't say I am thrilled about it, but I am fed up with having this toothache.  Mind you after 10 days of antibiotics, it's only a minor throb, but I bet that it will flare up again. When this one is extracted I will be down to one back bottom tooth in my mouth. 

A bit of this a bit of that........

When I looked out through the family room windows today, our neighbour was busy with a back hoe digging out the stream on his property. He worked on it all day. If there hadn't been as much snow as there was and a nasty wind, I would have wandered down the field to see what was going on!!

(click on the photo's for more detail)

Sunday afternoon I spent most of it sewing, and finally got one of the block of the month blocks done.  It's called Balkan Puzzle  I got all the pieces cut out for the black, white and red block, so want to get that done this week.

I bought material to back my latest english paper piecing project, but am not 100% happy with my material choice.  What do you think, and what colour do you think would go well with the paper piecing?

Did you remember to put your money in your daily savings pot today?

Today's Money Saving Tip:

Check the insulation in your home. Extra insulation can easily pay for itself in one or two years, and it helps save the environment, too.

I was not a happy Camper......and other stuff!

On Saturday we went down to Mississauga to do some shopping.  Where we were going we had to sort of go past our old house.  As dh had not seen it since we had moved we decided to go round that way.  BIG, BIG MISTAKE!  As you can see by the photo below I tried to keep the outside of the house tidy.  We paid a lot of money to have the curbs and the footpath installed.  We put in a sprinkler system in the lawn and planted a lot of plants and trees etc.  When we went past on Saturday, there was a car parked across the front lawn.  What the heck?????  Dh will confirm this I was lost for words, then I was so bloody angry that they would do that.  Goodness knows what happened to the tree, as the car was parked over that piece of garden???

As dh said its not our house anymore, but even so why would someone do that???

Anyhow, we carried on our merry way, me complaining for a while about what jerks we sold the house to.  Dh took me out for lunch and that shut me up for a while.  However why is it that when you go to a place that is a help yourself buffet, you have to stuff yourself senseless and then waddle out of the place with a rotten stinking bad stomach, and every place you visit after that you have to use the bathroom?  Or is that just me!!!

The reason we went to this particlar shopping mall is that they have a store called Solutions and they sell storage equipment, and closet organizers.  So we wanted to price out a closet organizer for our new closet.  They plan it all out for you and sell  you everything you need.  We have used these people before and the quality is awesome; plus at the moment until February 14th there is a sale on closet organizers.  To fit our closet out is going to cost close to $500, but it will be well worth it and it will take advantage of all the space.  So dh just has to double check the measurements and then we will order that next month.  Dh put another coat of mud on the closet on Saturday morning, we should be at the sanding stage by the beginning of next week I hope.

While we were in the store I noticed a line of items called Piggy Wiggy, and picked a couple of these mini whisk's.  One for me and one for dd......yes dd this is the surprise gift I got you!!  Piggly Wiggly is also a chain of grocery stores in the States, funny name for a grocery store isn't it!!

We went to Homesense and I picked up a new teapot as dh broke the lid on ours.  I thought it was quite cute and for $12.99 pretty cheap as well!

I also picked up this metal piece that I am going to put on the house wall outside.  It was on clearance for $11.00.

Went to Roots and picked up a couple of things that included this hat. The proceeds from the sale of this hat was donated to the "Right To Play" organization.

On the way home we called into Fortino's close to where we used to live and met up with Rupa our next door neighbour from the old house.  She has just come back from India and Cambodia, and she brought me back this silk scarf from Cambodia.  It is beautiful and so soft. 

I have to say we had a good day out other than the time we went past our old house.  I got new running shoes, or should I say trainers, as hell will freeze over before I run anywhere...LOL  My old ones were dropping to bits, and dh got new work boots, as he says his are letting in water..........

Now today is the last day of the month, did you remember to put your money in your pot for the Daily Savings Club?  How much did you end up saving?  Are you going to keep it in there for another month and carry on doing this?  I managed to save $41 this month, so am pleased with that.

Today's Money Saving Tip:

Install a programmable thermostat. These devices regulate the temperature in your house automatically according to the schedule that you set. Thus, when you’re not home, it allows the heating or cooling to turn off for several hours, saving you on your energy bill. A programmable thermostat can easily cut your energy bill by 10 to 20%.

Look what my dad made for me......

Isn't that the neatest thing ever? I asked him for a "thingy" to put our wet wellies and snow boots on to dry. I need to get a plastic boot tray to put underneath it. He made a smashing job of it, all from scrap pieces of wood he had in his workshop.

Dh had to work on Saturday until after lunch. We then went to dd for our supper, roast beef, mashed potatoes, carrot and turnip (rutabaga) and gravy, it was yummy. She lives on the 21st floor of a condo building , and there are other condo building and townhouse complexes around her. She was telling me and pointing out the condo, where the guy does his cooking in his kitchen in the nude :00 She was also saying she hasn't seen him in a while; I suggested maybe he had an accident in the kitchen and chopped something off ;0) When you are surrounded by other condos you don't wander round your condo in the nude with your blinds open now do you!! Or do you?

Buddy Friday - Sharing

I have an over abundance of raspberries and due to my allergies, and the rotten weather I haven't wanted to spend every waking moment out there picking them. So rather than the birds have them, I decided to share with family, friends and neighbours. It has proved to have given me more than I had ever expected.

I have made a number of new friends and acquaintances; one lady in particular will become a firm and close friend I am sure as we "clicked" right away. One neighbour came over with a dozen brown farm eggs........yum, yum in exchange for some raspberries. Another neighbour brought me some seeds from her poppies. One couple will be making raspberry jam for the first time in years, as they find it too expensive to buy raspberries from the store. I could go on and on, but you get the gist. These raspberries have proved to be a blessing.

So if you have an over abundance of something share with others, as sharing pays you back ten fold. I for one get more please out of giving than receiving. How about you?

I made this cake on Thursday with some raspberries, Very Berry Summer Cake

For more Buddy Friday posts pop over the Margaret's Ramblings

Sharing with your neighbours and are you a "local?".......

I picked a pile of raspberries on Tuesday and was going to take them down to "B" to sell. However he didn't open up on Wednesday, so I decided to take some of the raspberries to the four neighbours closest to us.

I have met two of the neighbours before, but haven't met the other two yet. One of them turns out to be a 72 year old farmer who is a widower and such a super nice guy. Has only been on the farm for the past 40 years, so a bit of a "newcomer," to the area........LOL

The other neighbour wasn't in, so left them between the doors, with a note, saying they were from "Gill at the old "Perry" place"; as anyone who has lived around this area, knows it as "The old Perry Place." Even the farmer was saying although he has lived at his farm for 40 years, it still goes by the previous owners old name when talking to the "locals!!" So I am guessing I won't be classed as a local anytime soon!! I wonder how long you have to live in a place to be classed as a local?

I dropped off a larger container to the neighbour behind us, as he scraped the driveway for us. He also offered to help us spread the gravel on the driveway when we get it. That was super nice of him, wasn't it?

I have decided I am going to make jam with the rest of the raspberries I picked as they are really ripe. I may also pick some blackcurrants and make some blackcurrant jelly, if I have enough sugar. I bought a jelly bag especially for this job, but I needn't have bothered, as when I was talking to my mam about it, she said they always used a pillow case tied up to strain the berries. I could have saved myself a little money there.


On the allergy front, the medication he gave me to take on a night for the allergies, is much too strong for me, I spent Wednesday in a complete daze and half asleep. I did sleep like a log though, but got barely anything done, which is no good at all. I did get the rest of the attic vacuumed out. Got a little bit of grass cut and did laundry. Here's hoping Thursday will be a better day.

Tuesday - A day away from the Acreage....

I had the honour of being invited to my neighbour "R's" swearing in ceremony for becoming a Canadian citizen on Tuesday morning. It was in Mississauga, which is where I used to work and is a pretty big city of around 700,000 people. It was held at the busiest citizenship court in the country. 107 people were sworn in from 24 countries, including the States, which I thought was very strange, an American becoming a Canadian?

R's dh sat with me and I sat next to a lovely man from Nepal, his wife was being sworn in. R's co-workers had given her a "I'm Proud to be a Canadian" red t-shirt, which she wore. I am sure the judge probably commented on it. Must say it was a long ceremony, it took an hour and a half just to get everyone processed and seated. We became Canadian citizens back in 1993. I had a little chuckle though, as you could have your photo taken with the judge and the police officer at the end. So R and her dh went up and insisted I go with them. So that confused the heck out of the judge as he thought we were two families, as R and her dh are Indian and I am white. Funny thing is, when we are together I totally forget we are from different backgrounds. I don't even notice the strange looks that people give us anymore, as R and I are so close, like a mother and daughter relationship, so we are talking up a storm whenever we are together.

We had to be there for 8:30am so I had to set off around 7am to get there, and had to travel through rush hour. I have to say I don't miss travelling in the rush hour, as its stop and go the whole way. I saw so many police cars also. Will admit I don't miss it, all the traffic and the people. It made me realize how lucky we are to have the Acreage, even with all its problems.

Although I did go to Chapters to pick up the June issue of the Prima magazine, as that is the only place I know where I can buy it. I also picked up the OK! magazine, the June 9th issue. I like to catch up with the celebrity gossip! I also had a pedicure while I was down in the area, as I still have a couple of coupons for free pedicures, from the Herbal Essences promotion last year.

I got home just before 4pm, and will say I was pooped, but it made a lovely change, and gave my car a good run out, which it hasn't had in a long time. So now back to normal!!

Sunday at the Acreage......

A couple of observations first. Since moving here, it seems to rain on Wednesdays and or Thursdays. Why does this matter, well it's garbage day on a Thursday, so generally I put the garbage out in the rain. Also on a Thursday we get our weekly newspaper. Now first of all I am really grateful I receive the newspaper, but every week the newspaper delivery person throws the newspaper at the end of the driveway and it always lands in the pothole at the end of the driveway and due to the rain, the pothole is full of water. So every week I have to dry the newspaper out.

So on Sunday morning, our neighbour called round with his tractor to scrape the driveway, so we don't have any potholes now in our driveway. I think I had mentioned it before, but when I went to introduce myself to them, we got talking and to cut a long story short he would scrape our driveway, in exchange for some of our raspberry plants. To be honest I wasn't sure if he would ever turn up, but he did. We need to order a truck load of crushed gravel by the end of summer to put on the driveway, as it hasn't been attended too over the years........nothing new with that given the state of the rest of the house!!!

Dh spent the morning and part of the afternoon cutting the long grass with the brush cutter. I got some more of my veggie garden dug and before and after supper I got some more grass cut, including part of Kamikaze Hill. I was very proud of myself, and only got stuck once.

It was bitter cold here on Sunday. Super windy and cold, infact when ds called he said he had woken up to snow, and he is only 4 hours north of us. I wore a coat and hat when I was outside. I am ear infection Annie, so need to keep my ears covered when it is cold.

We nipped out in the afternoon for a break and I picked up some veggie plants, I know I am cheating not growing them from seed but I am behind schedule this year. So all in all a productive day. I must say with all this fresh air I am getting, as soon as my head hits the pillow I am fast asleep!!

Time does fly by when you're having fun!!!

Can you believe we have lived in this house now for just over a month? We moved in on May 1st, though actually took possession of the house on April 28th. Now as we live here day in day out, we don't notice things like others do. We had our dear neighbours from our old house up for supper yesterday and "R" had popped up on Mother's Day to give me a bunch of flowers, so she had been before albeit for 15 minutes at the most.

Anyhow, she was saying what a huge difference the way the place was looking to what it looked like back on May 10th. So that was actually quite encouraging, as it makes it worth while all the hard work we have put into the house so far.

It was great to have them over, as one it was lovely to see them and catch up with them. Two, "M" did get on the lawn tractor and cut some of the grass for an hour or so!! Three, they went to Paris for the long weekend two weeks ago, so I saw all their photos from there. "M" proposed again to "R" and gave her a gorgeous ring under the Eiffel Tower, romantic or what? By the way they are already married, just thought he would do it again. Dh got the evil eye when they were telling me that....LOL So dh said he had already got me a present, the LAWN TRACTOR.......gosh I am married to the most romantic person in the world, aren't I?

The hotel room they stayed in had a lovely canopied bed, and he had a dozen blood red roses delivered for "R". They are such a great couple, no kids yet, but not for the lack of me whining on to them to have kids, so that we can spoil them!! (If dd is reading this, be grateful that I am not whining on at you to have kids!!) In dd case, I am always harping on at her and "B" about when they are going to get married, I think they have just celebrated their 9th or 10th anniversary of being together!!

I am writing this Sunday morning, so my plan of action is to spend the day in the garden. I made a start yesterday on digging out some more of the veggie plot, but didn't get much done, so will have another go today. Plus more of the grass needs to be cut, no shock there, plus a hundred and one of jobs. Dh made a start on trimming the edges of the property with the brush cutter, as it is so long and thick. He is hurting badly at the moment. He went and hurt his shoulder when moving and he is still in agony with it, making it difficult to do most things. So I don't want him doing anything that involves lifting things above his head at the moment, so cutting the edges is actually a good job, as the machine has a shoulder strap on it, so its not heavy.

Well that's enough rambling on for one day!!!

****UPDATE ON THE LAUNDRY SINK, THE BAKING SODA, VINEGAR AND BOILING WATER WORKED, IT IS NOW UNBLOCKED.....FINALLY SOMETHING HAS WORKED****

Been to the "big" city twice today!!!

Now by big city I mean a population of 27,000, however it is the biggest city closest to where I live. The reason I had to go there was to pick up the new Emergency Number sign I had ordered. Our old one you can't read half the numbers on it.



We have to have one of these at the end of the driveway in the country, so the emergency services can locate us in an emergency. I was wondering is this something that everyone has who lives in the country, regardless of which country (i.e. States, Australia, etc) you live in, have?

One of the things I bought today was a hummingbird feeder, as I know we have hummingbirds around here.



Now where is the best place to locate a hummingbird feeder?

I also went across the way and introduced myself to the neighbours, which as resulted in us getting our driveway scraped after the next rain, and in exchange me giving him some raspberry bushes!!

"K" came by to measure up for the new windows and patio doors, and he took our old mud room door away as it was steel, so I made another contribution to his beer fund!!

Went back to the "big city" tonight (Tuesday) so we could return some stuff and I picked up another apple tree, as Carol rightly pointed out to me, I need two for cross pollination. I got a Gala one this time, as I love those apples.

I also managed to give upstairs a good clean and strip down the light fixture in the spare bedroom and dispose of the dead fly graveyard that was residing in there!! I didn't manage to get out in the garden today though.

Oh and I never thought I would whine about this..........but here goes, I swear it was too windy today to hang out the washing!!! I used multiple pegs, and they hardly held at all. Mind you it was all dry within the hour, and that included the big bath towels, so that was an upside. Told you it was an unusual whine!!