Catching Up

It's been a busy time here at Crabapple Landing and beyond. The last time I posted was on Tuesday - since then I've been too occupied elsewhere or recuperating from a head/stomach ache. So I'll be posting about the (recent) past playing catch up!

Wednesday was trailer day. Wow, the weather was so nice! However...the difference in temperature between London and Bayfield, where the trailer is located, is about 6 degrees. Here's why...

The ice on Lake Huron, which was especially thick this year due to our month or more of -30c temperatures, is still breaking up!

Despite that the temperature was a balmy 12c while it reached 18c in London. It was warm enough for me to be in short sleeves after raking for several hours. About 6 hours to be exact!

My yard was full of leaves...and I mean FULL! In the midst of my travail the original owners of the trailer stopped by, Ross and Linda, very nice people. They've offered to help me in any way they can as they've always been fond of their first trailer but have since purchased a year round trailer instead just down the road from me. How fortunate for me! However when they told me they regularly raked 30 bags of leaves.....!!!

This is the area at the back of the trailer - there is a nice cozy area where there is a swing - a quiet spot for a book and a glass of wine:) To the left of this picture is the shed which you can see in the next photo...

That's my fire pit and unfortunately there's a massive amount of my leaves...

Ross told me all about the shed...it was originally built as a bunkie with a large storage box on the left side which accommodated a single mattress. The shed has a couple of windows and a small porch on the front. There is also overhead storage which he showed me how to access. There's all kind of stuff up there so I'll have to explore next time I'm there.

I didn't get all the leaves bagged as I ran out of bags! But all of these in this picture are gone. I filled about 20 bags so far. Then I filled a few with the refuse left behind in the trailer. The previous owners, not to be confused with the original owners, didn't do a very good job cleaning it out. So quite a few more bags went to the dumpster with children's toys (they had 6 kids!) and crap from the cupboards and closets. Nothing I wanted to keep and use.

I took a lot of bins of stuff up to the trailer - towels, sheets, dishes etc but didn't unpack anything as I haven't cleaned inside yet. It could be another week before I get back as the mild temperatures we have been enjoying are not sticking around past tomorrow and the water isn't turned on yet at the trailer park. Tomorrow I have a 16km hike and then it's rainy and much cooler next week.  It was nice while it lasted - I went on several hikes and rode my bike twice - 2 hours at a time. My patio is all cleaned up and the kitties and I have really enjoyed being outside. The kittens spend most of their time trying to swat bugs out of the air - pretty comical!

CUTENESS ALERT!!

Gee, who does this remind of you of SonyaAnn? Lily looks a little concerned about the fact that she's making a cozy nest for herself in the messy linen closet. Or perhaps she's telling me to clean it up!

Luna almost disappears into the furry blanket she's napping on...

Lily's having a snooze on my lap - I love it when she lays on her back with her paws in the air:)  She looks pretty pleased with herself.

And that's a wrap for today. I'm off to volunteer at a fundraiser - there's an Elvis impersonator and everything!! More later!

How Entertaining!

Wow, do I really feel out of the loop - what a great feeling!!

It's a hot and sticky day here in Alberton, PEI, and Michael and I are using the free wifi at the local library.  The first thing I had to find out when I was finally able to get on the internet was the time of the men's 100m dash this coming Sunday (I'm rooting for Usain Bolt!). No matter that's its summer holidays and that it might be a gorgeous sunny day I'll be rooted in front of the TV rooting on Usain!

Yes, this is our island TV! We've left behind our 40" HD colour TV and we're watching our 3" x 4" black and white relic that Michael has owned since the 80's.  One channel, no Netflix. Whenever we're home it's on. We can tell by the volume and tone of the announcer's voice when something exciting is happening and then we run and squint at the screen. The vertical hold was causing a few problems one day but I've found that reception is much better in the living room with the antenna pointed southwest. Entertainment at its best!  If it weren't for the Olympics we would only be using the radio function (yes, it has a radio TOO!!) to listen to one of the local PEI radio stations - Michael especially likes the station that plays "music to set your traps to!" which is especially relevant as "setting day" for our local fishermen is next Thursday.  If I can get myself up at 5am we'll  go and watch.  Now THAT will be entertaining!

When we're not glued to the Olympic coverage we're taking in other forms of entertainment - here's a few examples:

 Our friend Julie's (centre) CD launch; she's also a server at the Albert and Crown pub. Over the summer she travels around the island with her band playing at a number of bluegrass festivals. Her band includes her mom who Julie calls her best friend. Family is #1 on the island and multi-generational get togethers (parties, drinking at the local pub, celebrations, musical groups) are commonplace. The people of PEI value their elders very much which is why many of our friends are "young people". This is very different from the way we are treated by the younger generation in Ontario....VERY different!

 Nothing beats gazing into the firepit!

Unless it's listening to Matt Minglewood, a well known Maritime musician.

A parliamentary re-enactment was quite impressive...

and getting to share an evening with the Hay Babies before they left for Europe was quite a treat!

No PEI summer would be complete without a jam sessions with Jay and Tammy at their recently purchased home in Skinners Pond.

 They also play at our local pub and it's just one big singalong with lots of folks getting up to sing at the extra mike or using Jay or Tammy's guitar to play along.

 The Alberton parade was good fun - we got to meet Miss Alberton in person when she came in to celebrate her win at the pub the night before the parade!!

One of my favorite entertainments was the STRONGMAN competition which took place during the local exhibition. During this contest the men had to lift a series of concrete balls of increasing weight up onto platforms!! Yikes! The final competition was lifting and carrying a 310 lb. field stone as far as they could. The fellow in the above picture carried the field stone for 183' which clinched the competition for him. He and the second place winner will be going to Quebec to compete in the national strongman competition!

So as you can see life is pretty entertaining around here. Even when there is nothing to do at all but sit and watch the weather!

Life Changing Earth Shattering Stuff

I'm a day late, but what the heck - there are no rules in the blogging world...are there? If there are, that's it, I'm done! Hah!

So, picture this: Friday afternoon at the trailer - the grass freshly cut, wood stacked by the firepit, weeding all done, supper on the grill (jerk chicken, lots of roasted veggies & sweet potatoes mmmmmmmmmm), cold beer. What could be better?


Well, add to that good conversation, great tunes on the iPod/dock, a blazing fire and a spicy-sweet single malt....it was heavenly! When a Bob Marley song came on the conversation turned to music and how meaningful this particular song was in Michael's life. That led to us talking about how certain songs are like "signposts" in our life - marking the way to changes, turning points, high points, low points, relationships beginning (or ending), momentous occasions like births, deaths, weddings. 


There are so many songs that when I hear them on the radio or on my iPod I am immediately transported back in time - I can remember where I was, what I was wearing, what I was doing and who I was with. 


There is a certain Neil Diamond song that takes me right back to my friend Jill's basement - I'm 13, it's dark, my steady is sitting beside me holding my nervous, sweaty hand.  Andy Kim's "Rock me Gently" finds me rollerskating at our local arena (you don't want to know what I'm wearing lol), "Last Kiss" (sniff) has me slow dancing in my highschool gym.


When I hear the opening chords of "House of the Rising Sun" I think of my brother Gord, trying to learn to play the guitar and repeating those chords about 10,000 times a day! "Hurt", the Johnny Cash version, always has me in tears - Johnny sounds so much like my dad when he sings that song it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.  


It's like we each have a soundtrack to our own lives. There was a song we hit repeat on about 10 times Friday night while sitting by the fire - from now on when I hear Beyonce's "Halo" I am going to remember May 13th, 2011 as a very special night.


Here's a song to remember me by. Next time you hear this song, think of me!


What songs are on the soundtrack of your life?

Making Your Own Firepit

As I sit here by the fake fireplace at Starbucks my thoughts turn to Crofters Lane and the firepit Michael built there in August.  The house wasn't "officially" ours yet but the owners allowed us to "camp out" in the house until we signed papers at the lawyers in a few days. Michael had some very definite ideas about what he wanted to accomplish during the week we spent at our new home - first was the firepit, then he wanted to transplant some spruce seedlings from our forest to build a wind break to the north of the house.

It was an interesting week - we had a small bar fridge and ate a LOT of sandwiches. We had an old table in the diningroom and a couple of mismatched chairs. Upstairs we had a king-sized air mattress, some towels and toiletries. Although the owner loaned us a TV we had brought our own source of entertainment - a six-inch black and white TV with AM/FM radio. We found K-Rock 105.5 and turned it up high. This was one place where we'd be able to play our music as loud as we wanted to!

And then, Michael got busy!

 We used rocks from our driveway which had recently been levelled. There were literally hundreds of rocks in the culverts on each side of our .4km driveway to choose from and Michael spent a good while hauling them up in a wheelbarrow.  He picked the perfect spot for the pit and started digging.

 We didn't have a lot of tools but we had enough. Michael worked up a good sweat digging the firepit hole in the distinctive red PEI soil. Me - I was cleaning all of the woodwork inside...hence the yellow rubber gloves:)

 A spot was carefully dug for each rock and each rock chosen for its particular shape and size. Nothing left to chance.  Gradually the firepit began to take shape.

 Michael really gets "into" his work:) However, I would suggest that next time he pick a different coloured T-shirt...perhaps reddish brown??

Certain flat stones were chosen to be "set in" for seating or as small tables for holding candles and/or drinks:)

Looking good Michael but I think it's starting to get dark! The sun is starting to dip down behind the forest.

 Let's put out some candles - it gets REALLY dark around here at night - it's nothing like the city!!

Michael brought up a lot of extra rocks - he's thinking about expanding the "lip" of the firepit, or he might save them for another DIY project.

                                                                             It works!!

                                                                  All cleaned up.

And this is how you cook when you don't have a stove or a BBQ! A couple of good sturdy sticks long enough to reach across the top of the firepit and a small metal rack to hold our food.

There's a well-seasoned chicken inside that foil - we felt a bit like pioneers:)

Except I don't suppose they had tinfoil.

It was scrumptious!

Working hard.

Isn't it beautiful??

Functional AND mesmermizing!

We burned up a lot of stuff - two musty old dressers that were left behind, we broke them into pieces and fed them into the fire.

There's enough fallen limbs in the forest to keep the fire going for a long time.

If you're driving down Butcher Road next summer and you see a glow from a campfire, drive on up our laneway and sit a spell by the fire.

You'll always be made welcome:)