Fish Friday

Sunny yet -7 when we woke up. It was a good time for coffee in bed, followed by the second cup with breakfast.

At 10 a.m., S headed out to scoop the pile of hay and poop while the temperatures were still below freezing, as a warm spell is coming. I ordered the BBQ parts he found and wrote a Hometalk post for the drop leaf table. Now, I need to get the coffee table posted for sale on all the sale sites.

S had his load ready and took to the pit with his “new to him” skid steer mover implement.

He finished up and was back in before noon. I made salmon sandwiches, completely forgetting that I had taken a salmon out for supper. It seems we are very much upholding the fish Friday of Lent. S left for town at 12:30 p.m. to drop off a return parcel and hit the ice at 1:45 p.m. He claims his hamstring is feeling much better.

I started working on the bluegrass jewelry box tutorial. While doing so, a customer inquired about the coffee table I had posted less than two hours ago. Of course, she wanted to negotiate the price and have it delivered!

this child melts my <3

I headed to the garage to begin stripping the furniture. I hand-scraped the nightstand edges, flipped it over, and applied the product. I then vacuumed, removed the hardware, and applied stripper to the other three curved drawers. The drawers had two steps of stripper, with the faux yellow finish layer coming off first. I scraped and neutralized one side of the nightstand, leaving the other side to work. Back inside, I made an iced coffee and continued working on tutorials.

I returned to the garage to scrape the three drawer fronts and the other side of the nightstand, scrubbing and drying them. I was finishing up when S arrived home from hockey and picked up the monthly jumbo veggie box at 4:30 p.m. He put them all away before I snapped a photo of our bounty. I must say, this program is amazing, and everyone should participate if they’re looking to get fresh produce at a better deal.

He cracked a cold beer, and I joined him once I was done. We had our daily staff meeting, then I went on with making the salmon supper. As we were eating, Britt and Coop were out at 5:30 p.m. with Britt home from work early still not feeling well. She left after 6 p.m. just as the neighbour pulled in to drop off a case of beer for Sheldon’s yard grading service. Britt had brought an Amazon parcel delivered to her house—it was cat food! This gave us a large enough box to ship the three Bell receivers, so we boxed them up, weighed them, and got a shipping quote for the buyer.

As I was getting ready to take Harley for a walk in the golden hour sun, S remembered at 6:40 p.m. that the Easter Mass service started at 7 p.m. He rushed by the seat of his pants to change and rush in to make it on time. Harley and I enjoyed our walk, but it was a hustle with a bit of a chill even at plus 5 degrees Celsius. Back at the house, I worked on Spanish lessons taking advantage of the super duo week.

S was home after 8:30 p.m., and we wrapped up the night watching another 1883.

More snow but sunny

The ground had another fresh coat of snow when I woke up. It was also sunny! Bonus. Such a lovely setting for coffee in bed. I think I’ve had yogurt for breakfast four days in a row, so I’m hoping this will become a new habit. I applied a second oil-based clear coat to Kaylin’s desktop and hope this will be the final step so S can affix it on Saturday when we go in.

We set S up to learn Spanish, and while he was practicing, he realized it was almost noon. He needed to hurry up because hockey is at 1 p.m. He’s going to try hockey again, but let’s see if he can skate despite his hamstring limitations. Skate like you're 60 and in a beer league Sheldon. :) I worked on yesterday’s blog and tutorials before heading out to sand the drawer front and prep projects.

B was out at 2 p.m. to feed the horses because she stayed home with her cold again from work today. While she supervised the horses, I took Cooper and Harley for a walk. Even though it was sunny and -1, there was a biting wind, so I walked along the north tree line. Once we got back, B and Cooper headed home.

I brought the desk wood inside and sent photos and videos to K to get her approval. It is a go ahead, yay. Photos were added to the new project tutorials as I have a few on the go now.

S returned at 3 p.m. without any injuries. We celebrated and had a staff meeting over a cold beer. Afterward, we took a soak in the hot tub under the blazing sunshine. I worked on preparing supper while S measured and sourced new BBQ parts. It appears that we need a new burner, heat covers, and possibly grills. I suggested that we simply buy a new one, but after reviewing the prices, I now agree that it would be more cost-effective to purchase the parts.

Additionally, he programmed a new garage door opener, and it turned out to be an excellent Amazon deal, costing only $13 compared to $53 through the garage door dealer. After supper he also spray lubricated the garage door rollers and such getting it back in spring ready shape following an hour and a half phone conversation with Craig! The Flames game then consumed his evening while I relaxed in bed reading Let Them.

Winter returns

The snow continued to fall, and the ground was well-covered in a pristine blanket of white. As I began my day, I picked up a book to read. I prepared coffee using our new coffee pod order, and S was up, making his porridge to have with his coffee. I enjoyed my yogurt and then headed to marketing.

I published my IKEA dresser tutorial  and shared it on various link-up sites, Facebook pages, and with the paint company. Now to the workshop, I sanded Kaylin’s desktop and applied a coat of oil based clear coat to the top side. I then brought the coffee table in and, while doing so by myself, accidentally dinged a leg against a wall corner. Fortunately, I was able to remove the mark with a soft scrubber. Now, it’s ready to be staged, but this step requires moving around a lot of things. The snow stopped around 11 am, and the snow that had fallen was starting to melt. S finally installed the new RO filters.

Seeing an opportunity for a new project, I pulled out a drawer from the curvy front dresser I recently acquired and applied stripper to it. While the stripper worked its magic, I went in for a bowl of soup for lunch. Britt and Coop were out as I scraped off the first layer and applied another coat of stripper. She finished up and headed back home to rest still feeling unwell after 1 pm.

I then carried over one of the nightstands and applied stripper to its damaged top. While it worked, I went ahead and placed the coffee table in position and snapped some photos. S continued working on computer tasks after tidying up the bathrooms. I managed to maneuver the coffee table downstairs without dinging it this time and rearranged the furniture back into its original place.

The stripper was scraped off the drawer, revealing the lovely wood grain underneath. It was scrubbed, wiped with a towel and left to dry. Now to do all the other drawer fronts.

In the city the Boysis family is cleaning and packing for their big move. Even Renn, who loves to clean is doing her share. XOXO

The nightstand was vacuumed, the top scraped, and the entire thing scrubbed clean and wiped dry. As the sun peeked through the mid-afternoon, it was time to take Harley for a walk. The snow was now all gone. S took his turn reading the library book in his big brown chair.

Supper consisted of leftover pork roast. While S watched hockey, I began working on the jewelry box tutorial. Once again, the book was passed back to me for reading in bed. Around 10:30, I decided it was time to take my Spanish lesson. Amanda had reached an impressive milestone of 1500 consecutive days! That’s dedication, right? Britt has the family bonus week, which includes AJ and me, so I took advantage of my free hearts and time bonuses. This is the first time AJ and I have encountered real people we know on the same level, and it’s us!

April 1st

What a beautiful day to wake up to, with full-on sunshine! I spent some time reading until S woke up, then I made our coffees. I used the last two regular pods and had a second cup of decaf. We had breakfast, and then I started working on marketing, while S went to his laptop.

Uncle Elton sent this old article to Sheldon, there are many names of people we know including Mom and Dad, Dick, Connie, Joe etc and apparently Elton's uncle Stephen Millar AKA Mickey used to be the pickup man each stampede.

For lunch, we used up leftovers, I put the chicken carcass on  to make soup. Then I went out and flipped Kaylin’s board, applying a second coat to the “top” side after lightly sanding it. I swept the garage floor while S took out the recyclables and loaded them into his truck. We then took Harley for a walk.

Back at the house, I staked up one of the newly planted little evergreens that was growing crooked. S headed to town to have coffee with a friend, look for hockey gear, and pick up Cooper. Britt is trying to get us in a contract to pick him up four days a week in exchange for a babysitting fee. I went back to the garage and applied a second clear coat to the coffee table, hoping it would dry well.

It was then on to an hour on hold & chatting with our internet provider about the lagging service. They’re sending us a router to try and improve it. Here’s hoping! I managed to finish yesterday’s blog posts while doing this task, which was okay.

Kaylin sent this memory from last year, how sweet is this little angel? XOXO

S got home after 4:30, having picked up the coffee pod parcel from the mailbox. Awesome! He did not pick up Cooper as B was home early from work feeling sick. She feels she caught it on the plane.

I finished my chicken soup with veggies and noodles. Next I made an apple crisp using apples Kaylin had sent home with me. I had also prepared vegetables to accompany the pork roast I had put in the Instant Pot earlier. Britt was out at the same time as the Amazon driver delivered a parcel before 6 p.m. She prepared the food, gave it to the horses, and then joined us for supper while they ate.

After supper, Britt and Coop left for home, taking her bowls of soup and apple crisp with her to enjoy tomorrow on her day off. She gathered the horse feed buckets before leaving and refilled for tomorrow then was off before 7. S washed up the pots and then graded the yard for a bit before heading to the neighbours who had bought Stout’s house and are now selling it. He has been offered a case of beer to grade their yard. I worked on today's blog before moving to bed to do a Spanish lesson and read.

The horses raced around as the skies darkened to the west and moved this way. Ugly weather and snow is to roll in tonight and next 2 days. So long sunny plus 9 day today, you were enjoyed! The rain started at 7:30 with the temperature dropping. Good bye sunny springlike day. S was back at 7:45 having gotten the neighbour's yard done just in time. He headed to TV room for hockey and I watched the storm roll from bed reading.

It was really odd just before midnight when the power bumped in the stoma and the range hood came on full power, the blue deck lights turned on and the hot tub speaker started blaring. S shut them all off only to have this happen about 5 more time with the lights and hot tub.. all which were derived from S's cell phone. He even turned it off as I suggested but the net power bump turned it on as it was plugged in charging. How eerie and bizarre!! It was quite the April 1st.