Seems Like We've Been Here a Month Not Just a Week

Well, not even a week yet.  Each day seems sooooo looooong, i love that, reminds me of when I was a kid and summers seemed like they'd last forever. I am writing from the Alberton library so no photos for you today:(

Kendra - what we need is furniture lol! But we're managing with our lawn chairs etc! Can you email me your phone #/address? Would love to connect with you while we're here.

j_harrison@rogers.com

Marguerite - thanks for the quick flower ID - I knew you'd come through:) We are going to be in Canoe Cove (on the beach) for a picnic with the Islanders by Choice facebook group.  Would love to see you! Can you email me your phone # and address?

Christy - let me know when you're on the island!! Would be wonderful to see you.

Cell# 519-671-5294.

Sorry you don't speak Canadian Mark lol! We were actually thinking about visiting some of the eastern states (have a friend in Connecticut we might visit)! I'd call you but I guess we'd need a translator!

Johanna - what an absolute joy to meet you in person and your family too. Thanks for including us in your vacation on the island and safe travels home my dear! HUGS! oh yes, Michael sends a big hug to Morgan lol!!

So we are heading off to Tignish and the North Cape wind turbine farm and much more today. We are finally taking a day to do some exploring and adventuring. Can't wait to get on the road. I miss you all and wish i could be posting daily and keeping up with all of you but it's just not possible, however i will try to get to the library as often as i can.

You'll be happy to know that the famous PEI potatoes are growing quite well in our neck of the island and the sun has shone every day since we've arrived. We had the laneway cut ( a post of its own!) and Michael loves getting out with his push mower to do the trimming around the trees and bushes. We've put up a clothesline and have great big fires in our firepit. It's been a great adventure so far, with many challenges (that we've learned a lot from:) and more to come, I'm sure.

Take care everybody!!

Hellooooooooooooooooooooooo!

 The PEI Adventure continues...I've only uploaded pics from the first couple of days...will do more as time allows:) The picture above is of the sunrise seen while driving bleary-eyed through eastern Quebec (not too far from New Brunswick). There is something very special about watching the sky change from black to...well...spectacular...very humbling.

 Here we are on Confederation Bridge heading into PEI - I used to hate bridges, but I rather enjoy this one!

 Perhaps it's because I can't see over the side (that's me waving) so I can pretend that the cold, deep Northumberland Straits aren't really there...instead there's a nice fluffy pillow that will catch us if our car happens to jump the barricade :)

 From sunrise to sunset...we saw both during one day of driving (22 total hours driving time...about 4 hours sleeping time). Try to ignore all the bug spatters on the windshield!

 There, that's a somewhat clearer, less buggy shot...I love the PEI sky!

 Our first pitstop on the island was to my favorite Richmond Dairy Bar where we enjoyed Almond Toffee Twist icecream. I am feeling rather giddy in the above photo.

 Unfortunately, that little pitstop meant we arrived at our home in the dark to a rather overgrown laneway. There is no dark as dark as this dark in the city!

 After fiddling unsuccessfully with our water pump we pumped up our king-size air mattress (nothing but the best for us) and went to bed around 1:30am. I slept til 10am but Michael was up jumping around at 6:30am. So he went outside and took photos of the house and property in the early morning light.

 There's our grassy laneway - we had it cut today so the ruts are more visible!

 Wildflowers in abundance, our lawn is covered in purple and yellow flowers.

 The seedlings we transplanted from the forest last August are doing well - spruce are very resilient! 

 The famous view from my porch.

 It's here, at Crofters Lane, that we get to really enjoy life's simple pleasures...one of them being a cup of tea while sitting on a rock in the early morning sun.

 Yes, we brought my swinging chair from the trailer. Look at the wind! Michael has since cut the grass around the tree - wheeeeeee!

 One thing I always wanted in a house was "billowing white curtains", I do have a romantic idealistic side, believe it or not. Well, I have the "billowing" in spades! 

 We've put a couple of lawn chairs here - we call this our "lookout". That's Casumpec Bay. I love to sit here and write in my journal, or close my eyes and listen to the birds and the breeze in the trees.

 This year there are potatoes as well as soya beans planted all around us. Like SW Ontario PEI had a ton of rain this spring and some fields haven't thrived, like this one. Makes for a great photo but few potatoes.

 The ferns like the damp cloudy weather though!

 Don't know what this wildflower is called, it's growing by our little forest.

Lupines seem to be doing well - we arrived too late last year to see them so really appreciating them this year!


More pictures to come!
Putting my contact info here so my fellow PEIers can contact me. I am on my computer only sporadically as we don't have internet at the house, so please give me a call or a text or an email with a phone # so I can arrange a time to meet!
cell 519-671-5294
email j_harrison@rogers.com
I am also on facebook if you would like to send me a "friend" request. 

We're Here and We're OK!!

Just a quick note to let you know we've arrived safely and are busy with getting all the little details (like running water) worked out!! We didn't know how to PRIME our pump (we have our own well) but some helpful neighbours (honestly, EVERYONE around here is so helpful!!) got us sorted out but we still don't have HOT water but a fellow is coming to help us out with that today!

Just at the local library in Alberton right now so can't add any pictures just yet, but soon. We have connected with a fellow IBCer (Islander by Choice) and she has wifi at her Bed and Breakfast that we can use, so will post some pix soon.

Gotta go, be back soon!  Miss you all!!

Last Post til PEI!!

 Hello everyone! I wanted to connect with you good people before we head off into the sunset (except we're heading east so technically it would be the sunrise!)
The last 10 days have been a bit of a blur. It all started with the inimitable Sarah McLachlin concert.
Then I spent another stressful week at work - nothing has changed there...I still have two educational assistants with grievances filed against the school board :(

 Last weekend we went and said au revoir to the trailer :( Though I have to say that selling it to friends was a great solution. These are Michael's feet... I know, I know you thought it was the Eye of Rom, but no...not quite so magical!

 We decided to mark the event of our last weekend at the trailer with sparklers - we thought we should celebrate all of the memorable times we spent there - family reunions, girls' weekend etc

 Here's me putting the last log onto the fire. We burned everything we had...including the fire stick! 

 The last sunrise was spectacular, in true Bayfield fashion. It did my heart good to capture it on film. 

 Last night we gathered with friends at the Wortley Roadhouse and toasted each other with beer and chicken wings - yum yum! Then we carried on to a friend's house where we continued to share good cheer and favorite dance songs - yes, we boogied the night away.  I'll miss you guys!


Tonight (any moment now) we are heading out to Jack's, where my daughter is working later (much later) to have yet more chicken wings! It will be Michael and I and our two kids, Kazi and Dane - a little family time before we get on the road. Yes - we are heading out tonight instead of tomorrow - the car is packed so what are we waiting for???


If you're looking for me, try the following locations:

 one of many lighthouses...

 traipsing through the fields...

 wading in the water with the herons...

 on the Confederation Bridge....

 watching the sunrise through the mist...

 walking up...or down....my laneway...

 sitting on my front porch watching the storm clouds...

 checking out the neighboring farmer's crops....

 visiting any of a number of beaches...

 checking out the local natural wonders....

ok, so I've been told that it's time to pack up the laptop and put it in the car, so au revoir my friends, when next I talk to you I'll be in PEI!

You'll just have to enjoy the rest of the photos on your own!

Gone Loco

Well we finished cleaning out our trailer and shed this weekend bringing the total carloads of stuff brought home to four.  Our living room and dining room and basement look like a rummage sale waiting to happen. We will take what we can to PEI but the rest we'll have to store until our next yard sale hopefully at the end of August. 
Tomorrow is my last day with my students and Thursday is my last day of work! Friday is CANADA DAY and Saturday is ROAD TRIP!!!  And of course I got struck down by a virus this past Saturday and am spending the week sneezing, coughing, sore throat etc. Sheesh!
Posts will be pretty sporadic the next week or two til we get settled in, but I'll update whenever I get the chance...

This Hour has 22 Minutes

Rick Mercer is one of my heroes. He epitomizes what is best about Canadians, ie. our sense of humour and especially how much we love to make fun of OURSELVES!! Oh yeah!  We Canadians have THE BEST comedians in the entire world. People who EXCEL in finding the funny side to everyday occurrences, otherwise known as "crap!"

Almost every Canadian is a funnyman or funnywoman. (I like to be politically correct, unlike some people I know who are reading this blog and thinking "funnyman" applies to EVERYone - NOT!) We are also known as an extremely self-deprecating people, and when we goof up or "make a funny" as my daughter likes to call it - we don't mind drawing everyone else's attention to it - in fact, we insist upon it. We replay the incident (mistake, funny, goof-up, faux pas or whatever else you want to call it) over and over again throughout the day/evening/week/month to anyone who will pause long enough to listen. It gives us something else to talk about instead of the weather. We love to say..."how stupid was I to do ..... etc etc".  What makes us this way?? I don't know. But it's better than being miserable, mean, petty, small-minded, boring, depressing....oops, I seem to be heading off down another alley...sorry!

That's another thing about Canadians, we always seem to be saying "sorry", even if someone else is at fault!! Someone could bump into me and knock me down and as I was heading face first onto the floor I'd be calling out "sorry!" We're very funny, very apologetic, politically correct  weathermen/women.

Is there a point to this post? YES! I wanted to say THANKYOU because my page view count broke through 50,000 sometime last night and I find that extremely gratifying and exciting.  Sorry I didn't mention this earlier in the post, I kinda got off track.

I wonder if that is another Canadian trait, or just one of my very own.

I leave you with a clip of Rick Mercer visiting the Canadian Mint - I hope you laugh as much as I did:)

Remixed and Revisited

Cover for Madonna's Remixed and Revisited CD

I've just finished having a long conversation with my educational assistants...in my head.  Actually not so much a conversation as a diatribe...well, maybe not so much a diatribe as a tirade. Yeah, I think that pretty much describes it.  See... I can't really have this conversation with them as there are some grievances lodged with their union against the school board and every word I say gets analyzed, dissected and ridiculed. Yup, ridiculed.  And yes, these are grownups in the physical sense of the word. For the record, I just want to say that I am really really tired of all the excuses I "overhear" of why they can't do this part and that part of their jobs. Things that they said they could do when they were hired and HAVE to do as part of their job description.

Man, I'm really off track, I was going to talk about my financial goals in this post...and I will...I've just got to get this off my chest.  One of my students was sitting on the floor and didn't want to stand up and go out to the van that was waiting to take him home.  So a lift was required.  Well....one can't lift because they have arthritis, one can't lift because 8 years ago she hurt her back lifting someone and was off school for 3 weeks and she doesn't want that to happen again and wreck her summer.  (Aside: has she bothered to get training so she can lift properly and thus not injure herself??? NO!)  And on and on it goes. Meanwhile poor Todd is sitting on the floor and the van driver is in a tizzy because she has to stay on schedule. Perhaps Todd could just spend the night at school so no one would have to be inconvenienced!

Out of 6 EAs I have TWO who do all the lifting and restraining----TWO!!! And one other one who will sometimes lift and rarely restrain.  Of the two who WILL both do lifting and restraining (and without whining mind you) one injured himself playing soccer and the other one (my right hand woman) is posting out to another position because she is sick and tired of working with LAZY USELESS "colleagues", and I used that term loosely.  Huge sigh....

There...I feel better now.  Hopefully you're still with me and haven't moved on to the next blog to get away from this crazy shrieking maniac! (That's me by the way)

Ok, let's see if I can switch gears and talk about my Remixed and Revisited GOALS:

These goal bars are also available for your viewing pleasure a WAY down on my sidebar. So far down that I've forgotten to update them for a couple of months. A few things have changed over the past six months so one bar has been renamed and a couple of goals altered. I'm flexible that way:)

Saving is going well and I will reach several goals before the end of the year.  I lowered the goal on my RRSP because the only addition to that will be interest over the next few years until I begin to withdraw the money and put it in my TFSA instead (to avoid such high tax penalties).

I will reach my $2,000 EF goal by August and once I do I will set a new goal as I don't feel $2,000 is enough of a buffer.  I also lowered the goal on Christmas/Gifts as I have already used some of the money for Michael's birthday, a wedding gift and Kazi's birthday in Sept. I will have $1,000 by Christmas and that will be more than enough.

Having sold the trailer I did away with the Trailer Fee savings account and renamed it the PEI Home Maintenance Fund as I plan (at some point) to start saving so I have the recommended 3% annually of my home's value available for repairs and updates.

The PEI Insurance/Taxes is low right now as I just paid $522 in taxes on my PEI property but the saving continues. Between what I have to pay in taxes at the end of Aug. and Dec. and the home insurance renewal $1000 will cover it.

Big OOPS. I see I didn't type in LINE OF CREDIT for the last bar (red one at the bottom). My LOC sits at a nice even $41,000 right now and by the end of December should be at $30,000. The wheels are turning in my brain right now wondering if I could possibly pay off that $30,000 by Dec. 31, 2012 - if so, that would be one hell of a New Year's Eve partay!!

So, that's it for now. I think those adjustments should carry me through until Dec. 31st when once again I will Remix and Revisit!

Have you had to alter any goals so far this year??

Leaving you with a little Madonna. I'm not a fan but there are a few of her "older" songs that I find pretty catchy...

(Don'tcha just feel better after a bit of a rant?)