Camping

Next year we're thinking of staying in Ottawa for the Canada Day celebrations, with their excess of people and red and white and marijuana smoke. We've done it only once, and while I'm not thrilled about doing it again, Canada's 150th should be memorable and worth experiencing.

This year, however, we stuck to the script and headed off to the campsite. Twenty-four people this time, but with more adults than kids, so still a sane ratio.

We ourselves haven't learned to pack any lighter, and we have to either borrow utility trailer space from friends or get creative with our car.

This year, creative included a spare piece of 3/4" plywood I had lying around. It took up a shockingly large fraction of the allowable weight on my roof, but it got the job done.

One day the car shall buckle.

I bought a nice big tarp a couple years ago and never had an excuse to use it until now. Rain was in the forecast, so the tarp went up on day one.

Unfortunately, we failed to anticipate the wind. And boy, was it ever windy! Who knew a 30x40 tarp would catch a breeze so dramatically? After some struggling, and the immediate loss of many grommets, one end of the tarp was collapsed into a hardly intended but very welcome wind shelter.

At any rate, the tarp gave guys legitimate reasons to hang out in trees. I think it provided more enjoyment than angst. Now to replace some grommets for next year.

Most of our sites were on the water, which gave us our own private beachfront. Very handy.

Next year we're replacing her 12-18 month swimsuit.

Lily had the misfortune of grabbing the hot end of a metal marshmallow stick one evening. After much hollering, a necessary distraction had me turning into a doctor with her as my patient. No kid can resist the satisfaction of a fancy bandage, no matter how overkill it is!

When it wasn't raining or cold, a canoe, a motorboat and fishing kept some of the water lovers busy. And an aerobie... y'know, those frisbee things that don't float. Sigh. I'll be sure to order another for next time.

Good times. Still, can't wait till we own a camper.

Abe Lincoln with a bright idea?

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?