Old friends coming along for the ride

Some may remember me building this bench a quarter of a century ago, all recycled wood and still doing the job. It's travelling over to Sooke with us to find a new home in the bigger garage.

Saying Goodbye to old friends.

Ross Bateman, of Tweed, Ontario, hand made these two pieces for us back in the first years of Canada. They have been sold and as I was loading them into the new, happy, owners truck, we noticed that on the base of each was the date April 9th, 1990 and the original Bateman House stamp.

It was an exciting time back then, creating the plans for the units, and it was sort of sad to see them go, but there is no place for them in the new house. In the 26 years we have had them, these pieces have followed the pair of us around Canada and have been kept in good shape using Johnson wax and orange oil, just goes to show that you can make furniture to last a lifetime.

We hope the new owner has a similar quarter of a century or more with them.

Packing

Welcome to our world of deconstruction!.

Preparing for the move is keeping the pair of us busy and of course there is a great demand in the house for empty boxes, packing materials and red wine.

A Wine Pairing....

Tonight we feast!

The simple life, a reasonable and ridiculously cheap CabSav and a whole bunch of hot Italian sausage...

Ok, we'll add some veggies...

It starts....

House number one was initially moved to the George building site and was moved halfway up the hill early this morning. I think there are four more houses that will be hauled out and relocated before the building of the George Condominiums begins in Gibsons.

It will be a circus here in the next three years or more...

A to B

Go (further) West

It's been a while since our last post, and it's because we have been rather busy selling our house in Gibsons and buying a house in Sooke.

The town of Sooke is on the Southern tip of Vancouver Island and is considered the westernmost of the Greater Victoria region's "Western Communities." It is situated to the north and west of the Sooke Basin which you can see in the photo.

The blog address will remain the same, but in less than six weeks the nature watch will shift a little more to the left and we will begin our next exciting chapter exploring Canada's far West coast.

Quiche Mark II

The first quiche was quite deep and we had some separation of the ingredients, so we reasoned that the Mark II version would be done on a pie plate, and it worked a lot better with no layers.

I would have shown the whole thing, but wanted to show the profile, plus of course, we've just scoffed the other half.

Never too late for quiche.

We've never made one, but we did today.

Three Eggs, half a cup of milk, cheese, capicola, tomato, onion, basic whole wheat pastry. 10 minutes prep, 45 minutes in a 350 degree oven, we will both be waiting patiently as it cools...

Another year.

The Acura RSX is still ticking along nicely with a little less than 7,000 km on the clock since the last update and the new Michelins. So, we're now into the 14th year with the baby.

Odometer says 82,373 km today, I think the only parts required over the last twelve months have been gas struts for the tailgate although I suspect that the PCV valve needs changing. There also was a bit of a scare last week when a stone chip lodged between the disk and the dust shield, made a horrendous racket and then fell out after a bit of reversing.

I can also report that the sixteen year old Honda lawn mower started on the 7th pull this year and the Sorel boots are still working fine on almost a daily basis.

Spida Conga

Baby spiders, everywhere.

Two days later

We pulled our sleeves up and slogged through the remainder, went up to Quality Farms and bought two tractor scoops of bark mulch then ferried it back to the house with the trusty Acura (which really does need a good wash as it's covered in pollen dust).

Anyway, phase one at the front of the house is done, shrubs and plants to be added, along with the missing stepping stone.

Number Seven

Another week goes by and there is less grass, Karen pointed out that it's a big reverse number seven at the moment, but we'll continue filling in the blanks with landscape fabric and mulch, and a few shrubs.

But will it make toast?

We bought the weights bench from a good friend of ours, Bill Sutherland, who was happy to unload all this stuff for a twenty dollar bill and the promise of a good beer down the line.

After stopping paddling, we had noticed over the year or so that our upper body strength was falling apart, so we both need to do something about it, and pottering about in the garden isn't enough.

The middle bedroom is converted into a miniature gym, all we need to do now is use it....

Progress

A couple of weeks on, progress in the front garden :

There would have been more progress yesterday, but I ended up breaking our sixteen year old lawnmower height adjustment lever, so the rest of the afternoon was spent salvaging a part from the recycling depot and then modifying it to fit.

Lawnmower fixed, digging will resume at some point in the near future.

Planting - Part Two

The very real threat of drought again this year has encouraged the pair of us to replace our useless grass with some shrubs and drought-tolerant plants.

While Karen was planting her seedlings yesterday, I was out wrecking my elbows and knees in the rock ridden front yard, stripping the turf and weeds away to start fresh.

More joint deterioration planned for today...

Planting - Part One

A year ago we were just starting to build the greenhouse.

Yesterday, the first home produced seedlings, carrots and parsnips, went in. Today we plan to obtain some tomatoes and peppers and maybe something else we've not thought of yet.

Let the growing begin!

Bagels, first attempt

We're realising that almost everything can be made from scratch, a thing I am sure that our parents knew fifty years ago, everyday life back then when convenience food wasn't available.

The bagels are basic whole wheat bread flour, same salt, same sugar and just a tiny bit more work. The breadmaker has a dough setting, so the dough was made while we carried on our lives, then divided into 8 pieces, formed and then one last rise before an egg wash and application of seeds and stuff.

Sixteen minutes bake at 450 degrees.

And yes, there are only seven in the photo. I wonder why...

Six years on exactly....

Same place, same day, same boots, same coat, same me.

Seeing Triple after a beer at Gramma's

We were at the "Appy Hour" down at Gramma's on Wednesday 17th February, when the three Royal Canadian Navy training ships moored up at the new GLHA dock. Apparently they were in the area performing officer training and stayed the night (what sort of training is that?) anyway, it was fantastic to see them come in, one by one, and moor next to each other as we scoffed ourselves silly.

Sunday Lunch

It has been consumed and the judging panel have decided that the MK I meat pie works very well.

Gibsons Pie Watch

A lazy Sunday (well, they're all lazy days actually) with a few household baking jobs on the go, a molasses loaf, two meat pies and a couple of mincemeat turnovers from the leftover whole wheat pastry.

The meat pie filling consists of finely chopped inside round steak, onions, some potatoes and carrots and a rich homemade gravy. This is the MK I version of the meat pie and we have high hopes for it.

The pies will be eaten soon, we will be pairing them with some home made baked beans and we will be counting our fingers afterwards to check they're all there.

Launched

Down at the launch ramp where we have spent many a happy hour, the boat makes everything look small.

Coastal Craft

The latest sixty-five foot Coastal Craft Concord turning the corner from Venture Way onto the Highway last night on it's trip down to the Marina. Blackfish pub in the background.

Happy New Year

The first of January, the first loaf of the year, the first coins in the savings bottle.

This is an olive loaf, the addition of olive tapenade to the basic mix, the extra oil in the tapenade makes for a sticky dough at the paddle removal stage and a lovely crunch to the crust.

The house smells of baking, we've decided that 2016 is going to be the year of the pie, so watch this space for the experiments.