Home a week and it’s been brisk!

We left our daughter and son-in-laws last Wednesday and spent the first night at home in the RV. 

Packed up and ready to go home so Eric says bye to Erika and the dogs.

Chloe and Tikki….Maple showed up back at the house and I penned her up!

Ellie couldn’t care less that we are leaving….that’s a cat for you.

Chloe is tied so she won’t wander off and that’s the other cat Casper in the middle.   What a zoo!

The skunk cabbage are up in Erika’s gulley.

 

Still lots of snow at the edge of the bottom road as we come off the highway.

A few days ago there was a big pile of snow at the gate until son-in-law Wade got our tractor out and cleared it.

Much better now than then.

A beautiful sunny day and everything looks okay.  That’s one of Eric’s building where he stores his stuff!

All the machinery lined up and ready to go. 

The Cyclone safely under cover.   We made it all the way from Mexico with only a few drops of rain.  Rain is the enemy of RV roofs.

The garden is quiet and sleepy!  I used to have all this dirt in vegetables but now I just use the two rows closest to the shrub border.  The rest of the dirt is slated for more lawn.

Looking southwest towards the barn in the field.

This is the view we see every morning when we drink our tea.

Far in the distance at the end of the field you can see Sleeping Beauty mountain from our sunroom window. 

The little tiny house that’s just big enough for us.  We moved here in June of 1978.  Eric had planned to build a bigger house but when the girls left home it was big enough and especially now that we are travelling in the winter and spend most of the time outside in the summer. 

The first order of business was to get the water going in the house.  Eric shuts off the water from our gravity water system and then blows out the lines in the house with a compressor and then we put RV antifreeze in the washer, dishwasher and toilet.  A few years ago we had a leak in a pipe in our bedroom wall as water had been trapped and it froze so….always a little bit of worry that it will happen again.  This time….no problems.  All the appliances started up and there was minimal dripping from reconnected taps.  Good to go!  Last fall it rained so hard in the last week before we left home that it filled up the dam with rubble and we and the neighbours were out of water for a week.  Unfortunately it was the week before we left and it still wasn’t on when we left for the winter.  When the water is really high you can’t get near the dam to clean it out.  Too dangerous.

Back in the house on Thursday and it’s been hair straight back.   I spent the first day unloading all the food from the RV and anything else that we needed in the house.  I have tried to double up as much as possible in the rig so I don’t have to unload everything.  Eric got busy getting all the machinery running…his and mine.  He put the new starter he’d ordered on line while we were in Kelowna in the riding mower as it had crapped in the last week before we left home.   Then it was a trip to town to fill up our tidy tank with marked gas for a summer’s mowing.  225 liters for $279….we have big place and there is a lot of mowing to be done.  Eric runs diesel in the tractors and backhoe so that is another tank of fuel.  I opened six months worth of mail while I was at Erika’s and now it was time to get the taxes sorted out.  That done I took them into the accountant to be prepared and the papers to our insurance agent for our ICBC rebate on insurance for the time we spent in Mexico.  The weather has been good this week so we have both been outside catching up before the rampant growth that we get here takes over!  When it rains…like today I’m inside doing housework and…the blog.  Tomorrow we are off to the doctor for our yearly check-up and then we’ll pick up Erika’s tow behind thatcher so Eric can clean up the lawns.  He tows a lawn sweeper to pick up the moss and then it will be time to fertilize so….I can mow all summer.  Terrace is not noted for long stretches of clear hot weather so everything we do depends on ….the weather!  There was so much snow this winter that it snagged all Eric’s new fences and pulled out a bunch of the staples.  More work for him. 

Eric took the 5th wheel over the scales here for the first time ever.  He was concerned that uneven loading with Big Red at 900 lbs on the slide side which is already heavier was contributing to our tire blow outs on the passenger side.   Turns out that the passenger side was only about 150 lbs lighter than the slide side.  So that’s not it.  We are no where near to the maximum weight for the axles so the blowing tires wouldn’t seem to be weight related.  However the combined weight of the truck and trailor is slightly over what the truck is licensed to pull.  No where as near as bad as we thought it was and the truck has no issues hauling the RV.  We are putting replacing our tires with Sailun 14 ply steel walled tires this year so we’ll see if that helps.  Eric will pull the brake drums, repack the bearings, change all the spring bushings and replace some of the slide seals that have turned to jelly and then he’ll wash and wax it.  Never a dull moment!   I will continue to clean the inside and wash it down from top to bottom and then we’ll be ready for next fall. 

Blue has been up on blocks for the last three years and hasn’t been ridden since 2014.  Eric got her down and gave her a bath and she is just the prettiest thing ever!  Unfortunately she isn’t as comfortable as Big Red so she isn’t the motorcycle of choice.  Eric is going to insure her for three months and get her out on the road.  She’s just so pretty he can’t bring himself to sell her so I guess he’ll keep her as a pet just like all the other machinery that he doesn’t use anymore.  You never know when you might need something. 

This is five days later and things are starting to grow rapidly.  I’ve managed to run my mower with a bagger and pick up all the leaves I didn’t get to last fall.

The birch trees are starting to leaf out.

I tie up my boxwood bushes for the winter so they won’t break from the snow like my little spreading maple that lost a main branch. 

A few years ago my friend Barb and I made leaf imprint stepping stones.  I really should put them somewhere!

To the right of the rhodo is a hosta border that is still sleeping.  I’ll take a picture when it’s in it’s full glory and post it then.

Within a couple of weeks this will all be green.

Stepping stone on the dry stream bed. 

I try to cut everything down and mulch it in the fall so there isn’t so much work when I get home.  Even so I will spend my summer on my knees “ praying to the God of weeds!” 

For the first few days Eric and I were both exhausted from our flat out efforts and Eric said “ I guess some walking, doing weights, swimming  and riding my bicycle in Mexico isn’t as tiring as what we do here!”  Too right.  We are both starting to rally now but it will take a month to get back into shape.  We still both enjoy what we do and as long as our health holds up and we go away in the winter we’ll stay on our acreage for a while yet.   Keeps us busy and fit and it just so quiet here.  We are about 1/2 mile off the main highway and are surrounded on three sides by a Provincial park so it’s pretty darn nice after the hubbub of Mexico and the travel.  It has been a big stretch for us to adapt to the closeness of the RV park and all the people and neighbours as our closest ones at home are at the other end of our forty acres. 

As we have data on our AT&T phone while we are at home I will do the occasional post when I have something interesting to report.