It’s been a long ten months of staying fairly close to home, with very few visitors. We did have 2 people over for Thanksgiving dinner, but all other holidays and celebrations there was just the two of us.   We did participate in some Zoom calls to at least see some other faces.  In November I officially retired from the Canadian Grain Commission after 31 years.  My retirement party was hosted on WebEx- there were about 50 people logged on and several people spoke about my career.  It was not the way I had envisioned my last day of work to be.  But I am grateful to now be retired.

I have been occupying my time by making masks,

doing puzzles or learning French on-line and reading for book club, as there is only so much bad TV that a person can watch.  We also did some house improvements, including painting most of the main floor, laundry room and the two upper floor bathrooms, and spare room. We selected mainly grey tones, except for my bathroom, which had to be a shade of purple.

We had a fairly mild winter, and it actually rained on December 10^th, the little bit of snow we had came later.  In early March I started planting seeds for my garden, this included about 30 tomato plants, peppers and some herbs. 

Our snow was gone relatively quickly, and we had some warm weather starting in April, I had 7 yards of soil delivered to supplement my garden and for reseeding the lawns, and that kept me busy for a few days. No we have not been invaded by Moles!

In early May Andy started to revise the waterfall for the fish pond, here’s what it looks like now, we moved the lighthouse, and it looks great there too- hiding our pond filter.

I planted my garden in May and all seemed to be growing well, however the cutworms really liked my carrots, beets, cucumbers and some of the peppers- so many of them were lost.  I also had to deal with a couple of bunnies who came to the garden to eat. Fortunately, they didn’t like the asparagus, so I was rewarded with several asparagus’ meals in early May.    The weather has not been cooperating, we have had almost 6 weeks of hot dry weather with very little rain, causing a lot of brown grass and cracks in the garden. 

In early June our neighbour put up a chain link fence between our properties, as well as across the back of both his and our yard. 

I’m hoping this may keep the deer out of the yard and garden, but because it is only 5 feet high—I’ve been told that it can be easily jumped. It definitely won’t be a bunny barrier as I think the bunnies live under our shed, and I’ve already seen them leave the yard through the chain link gate.

We both have had our two Covid shots, I got my second shot on June 27^th in Swan River, as by the time I was eligible they were booking into mid July here in Winnipeg.  We left for Swan River early that morning as it is about 500 Km away, and drove back late afternoon.  Restrictions at the time did not allow us to stay overnight with family.  We did however visit with my 2 sisters and mother at my sister’s place, while we had lunch. 

It was a good visit but short- I hadn’t seen them since the previous August, my mother is now 91 and has deteriorated since that visit.

Since travel is not recommended until 14 days after the second shot- we have been waiting and gather things for our trip.  With the MB-ON border open again we are embarking on our 22 hour road trip East tomorrow– July 10^th and hope to have the boat in the water by July 13^th.    Similar to last year, we have a date with the electronics technician in Penetanguishene to complete our electronics upgrades that was started in 2019.  So, this will be our first destination.  We hope to spend a few weeks on Georgian Bay and possibly the North Channel before heading back to the Trent Severn waterway.   Our plans are very fluid, we learned last year that they can changed at a moment’s notice or by a doctor’s phone call.  Our travels can be followed using our in-reach tracks on Map share using this link: https://us0-share.inreach.garmin.com/share/BYK46 and password: T&A2019.    I will attempt to blog an update on a weekly basis or whenever something exciting happens.