Dirt

When I was young, my dad always had random projects to keep himself (and the rest of us) busy. I'd look at a pile of dirt like the one above and think, oh no, some useless dirt to move to some corner of the yard for some purpose or other.

Well, now I'm the dad. Since my kid is too young to move much dirt, I get to enjoy the majority of these projects on my own.

Our back yard was quite low when we bought the place last year, and this spring it predictably held a lot of water for a long time. We decided to build it up and make a bigger, friendlier, more level lawn. So out came a bunch of garden beds and in went a bunch of dirt. Lots of dirt.

This was a big load. A hefty 22 yards of nice clean soil. Fortunately the stuff was pretty light and it didn't get rained on, so my wheelbarrow and I got to work. Of course Lily helped...

...when she wasn't being queen of her mountain. She was a hit with the neighbours.

I did get some spousal support, which was nice. Most of my friends decided I was nuts for not renting a machine to do the hauling, but I rather needed the exercise. Once the pile was done, we came to the realization that the yard wasn't quite as high as we wanted.

YAY, MORE DIRT!

The second load was considerably bigger, and we somehow found room in the yard (plus top-dressing where it wasn't so low) for all of it. I got a bit more help with this pile, from friends/neighbours.

A few yards of soil went into these nice cedar garden boxes I built for the girls (they still need edge seating). Carrie had wanted a raised garden for some veggies and herbs. We'll see if they're high enough to keep out the rabbits.

Anyway, the yard's done, the seed's in, and we're seeing a healthy green haze over our lawn a week in. Looking good so far.

A week before the dirt entered our lives, Carrie was off to Geneva for work. Lily and I headed down to visit family. We had a good time, except I got rather sick, hacking up lungs and whatnot. We stayed a few days before heading home, having gotten in some quality geocaching and quail-cuddling.

We spend a few days at home convalescing (on my part), and then found Carrie back after her week away. She gets to repeat the trip in early August.

At one point with a mountain of dirt in the driveway, there was one tiny hiccup when after eating out at a taco place, I ended up in excruciating pain one evening. I managed to thrash around until 3am, when I finally agreed to a trip to the hospital, convinced my appendix had given up on me; we woke up Lily and headed out. After some very diligent attention initially, we hung around for a few hours waiting for a doctor. Somehow the power of time healed what ailed me, and I tried to leave; magically, the doctor appeared shortly after and decided it was probably something I ate. So, back home and in bed by 6:30, and up at 11 to shovel some more! I was almost disappointed that they didn't take my appendix, if only to see some fruits of my inconvenient ER visit. But on the bright side, I was able to shovel dirt instead of being bedridden.

Last weekend was Ottawa Race Weekend. Race officials were ready to cancel races because of the extreme heat (temps in the 30s). In the end, they just changed some start times to avoid the hottest times of day. We both ran the 10km race, as did a few friends. Just as I started my race, it started raining. Hard. Like drenched in no time at all. I imagine more than a few phones and iPods of ill-prepared runners got ruined. It would have been nice if the rain had started 10 minutes in, when we would have been overheating, but it was welcome all the same and cooled the day down considerably. All in all, another successful race. Even if I got out and trained only twice. I should probably change my strategy next year when I'm old and 40.

Spring

I found a shot of Lily at her ballet class final. She pretty much ignored the instructor and gave us a preview of how she might behave at school. It seems we have some training to do yet.

Carrie was asked to be a panelist/judge in a moot law court in Kingston (two hours' drive) in March, so we made a holiday of it. Not the best time of year to be enjoying the St. Lawrence waterfront, but it was relaxing at least. Lily and I visited some breweries, went geocaching, and went to an indoor play gym for kids. We'll probably have to come back some day when it's a little warmer and greener. And maybe next time I should take pictures.

Not long after, we had my sister Marian over with her family of six. It was nice to hang out with lots of space for everyone. All this with a boarder taking up part of the basement; he's gone in two weeks so we'll finally get our house back... totally need the space. Oh, and of course I didn't take many pictures of the family. I'll do better next time.

I've been looking at the back yard for a couple of months, trying not to think about all the work staring back at me. When the snow melted and the rain came, a rather large lake formed along the back of the property; I had to go and dig a big trench to get rid of the water. I'll need to do something to improve the drainage in the future.

Also, both (new) houses that we back onto have been moved into, so we must soon collaborate with them to put up a fence. Bylaws restrict the fence height too much, so we'll have to get creative with plants.

I'll be out there puttering quite a bit this year, I expect. Also on the list: dog run, raised veggie garden, way too many flower beds, and redoing the entire lawn.

Carrie found the time to make a headboard from scratch; the finished product is quite impressive! She may have recruited the occasional passerby, under the guise of Beer Monday... myself included. I guess she can blame any asymmetry on us.

Early stages. Bet you wish your garage was carpeted.

Random recruit helping with tufting (one of many terms I shouldn't know).

Perfect! Uh, except for the inherited blinds.

It looks professionally done, and everyone is very impressed (as they should be).

Happenings

Since I don't ever travel anymore (it's been years), the only thing worth blogging about is our little munchkin. I'll just start blabbing, and maybe I'll end up covering other topics. Hope not, but we shall see.

She's going to kindergarten! Our 27-pound weakling is enrolled in the local Catholic school for September. Does she need it? Not in the least, but the program is half in French, so free language training! Free as in we-pay-our-taxes-so-we-might-as-well-reap-our-public-school-benefits-where-we-can. I used to scoff at the idea of junior kindergarten since it sounds like free daycare for people who don't have time for their kids. But sometimes I sit down to a tasty plate of crow, and this is one such time. The cruel taste is mitigated by the prospect of our daughter learning that silly but oh-so-helpful (around here) language. But really, being multilingual can't hurt, no matter what languages.

I make her read random words (in English, for now), and it's surprising what a few simple reading principles can result in. This week's big word was "facility"; if she focuses on one syllable at a time, the length of the word doesn't matter one bit!

Speaking of taxes, I just paid my first property tax bill ever... and that was just the first half. I darn near swooned! Apparently owning a house is a big waste of money... ouch! We'll certainly miss some tiny aspects of renting.

Lily has taken to drawing on the whiteboard. Some serious skills there, kiddo. "This is Rapunzel and she even has glasses!" I would have guessed Olaf, but the specs are certainly impressive. The girls just got back from Ikea (at 9pm) with a big stash of stuff, including a whiteboard easel for our aspiring artist.

We just had a record snow day, with just over 50cm or so in a day. It didn't seem like a whole lot until I went out to shovel it. That was the point at which taking Lily for a walk seemed much more appealing. And this was all well and good... until we got back home, by which time I was too tuckered out to do much shovelling. When Carrie got home later, she wanted to go to the gym. I told to give me a couple hours while I made the car accessible; she took the unintended hint and settled for shovelling a good chunk of the driveway as her workout!

No more front steps.

We love having a garage (that actually gets parked in).

It's surprisingly challenging to keep the driveway two cars wide, but rewarding to come home to a warm view, knowing that the nice clean driveway is worth the sore back and will never warrant buying a snowblower.

Home sweet wintry home.

So I went out yesterday morning, and when I got home the driveway was so slick I couldn't make it into the garage because the car kept sliding sideways. (It doesn't take much for our dumb sealed driveway to slick up; I think I need to burn out a belt sander on it in the spring.) So I pulled the car up as far as I could and left it. A few hours later I happened to look outside... wheee! Nice skating rink.

At least the driveway levels off before it reaches the street.

Would you look at that magnificent beast of ours. Why would we ever want to upgrade to a minivan? We'll have had the car for ten years this summer, having racked up 200,000 km. I guess it's served us well; may the next 200k be equally cheap.

The old heap just keeps on trucking... er, carring? It was shaking/rattling us half to death for most of the summer/fall, so I replaced a part or two. That didn't do it, so I had the pros take over; they replaced a motor mount which alleviated the problem somewhat but methinks a second motor mount needs doing soon. On the one hand this car is ridiculously cheap as far as vehicles go, but on the other hand it's increasingly difficult to spend on repairs far too close to what the car is worth. But we're not ready for car payments (or outright purchases for that matter), so the Corolla needs to last just another 25 years.

I did get roof racks for it last year finally, and I also installed a hitch. A friend very nearby has a trailer I can borrow, though I would rather like to own one myself. All this to say that I'm not helping at all when it comes to our family outgrowing this heap!

The pre-hitch days: 300 pounds of lumber, anyone?

What's new

While I rarely get around to blogging, I always mean to. That counts for something, right?

So let's go back a bit and talk about the fall. You know, when snow was just wishful thinking and we all walked around with toques on in anticipation.

Since Carrie had some time off, she took it upon herself to get some painting done. And I happily let her do it; painting is the absolute worst. I helped with fun things like removing shelving or hardware, but that's about it; she got to do the actual painting. Oh, and all the removal of old paint from existing trim. The inconsiderate louts who'd painted inside this house last didn't put much stock in finesse. Or second coats, for that matter.

Anyway, the dust and fumes have long settled, and Lily is the proud new resident of a pink bedroom, my office is freshly redone, and the guest room and master bedroom have been revived. Even the hallway and stairway upstairs got a repaint when Carrie's parents came over for Christmas. All that's left to do upstairs is the bathrooms.

How lucky is this kid? She gets her own bathroom.

One thing I have learned: paint is ridiculously expensive. Or at least it can be, and the kind that Carrie has decided works for her is not cheap. So it was with great joy that we learned of the mis-tint pile: some paint stores have steeply discounted gallons of paint that were returned for one reason or another. There may not be much variety for colours, but we found two reds for the guest room that happened to fit well. She mixed them together and had two gallons for $15. Sure beats $130!

After the move Lily's room started without a bed, but we eventually found a used one for her to fall out of, uh, I mean enjoy. She did fall out a fair bit at first (THUD! ...and she'd just climb back in without really waking up) but that has mostly ended.

A bit of pink.

We found an old church pew that fits very nicely in our entrance hall. It's very solid and has nice details; it could use a bit of work (notice the water stain) but we're in no rush to refinish it.

Carrie and Lily made it out to BC twice in 2015, making Lily much better travelled than myself lately. It was the first year in many that I didn't visit BC at all. (Buying a house didn't help.)

We put Lily in ballet a couple of months ago. It's a class offered by the city and costs a whopping $27 for 10 classes or so. She loves it! We haven't bothered to get her the legit ballet garb, but we make do.

While she's at ballet on Saturdays we tend to whip over to Costco. Yes, as suburban dwellers we've joined the obligatory craziness. Hard to get in and out of there in half an hour, but we manage... although doing this every week is getting expensive. Turns out ballet classes aren't as cheap as we thought!

Lily likes Costco, but her all-time favourite store is Ikea. The post-shopping ice cream probably doesn't hurt!

Winter did arrive, albeit a tad late. It came in with a bang and has since forgotten to keep up the pace. Not much snow left here, but we take advantage when possible.