It never ends

I stepped into the spare bedroom today, and there in the lilac that grows against the window was a brilliant Oriole. As I was admiring him, a flicker of motion attracted my attention – a hummingbird was also darting about the tree. I was tempted to stretch out on the bed for the morning for some bird watching, but alas, I had a million things to do today.

Let’s see… it was Wednesday when I last wrote and there have been adventures since then.

We have investigated the propane leak, and believe (100%) that it was due to a loose fitting. We’ve aired out the camper, and continue to air it out as the odour seems to have permeated every surface. The smell has reduced considerably, but is not totally gone. We’ve run tests with a new fitting, and can detect no increase of propane smell. Also, the propane detector has not gone off again. On Wednesday, the whole outside area around the camper smelled strongly, as well as inside.

I think we are lucky that we didn’t blow ourselves into the next township… dumb luck I guess. So REMEMBER – if you smell something, the FIRST thing to do is turn off the propane…

Next job, the house’s hot water tank. We changed the thermostat, but that didn’t work, so we called the guy who put in our heat pump. JP has always impressed us with his knowledge, and he’s a helpful guy as well. Over the phone he told Carm what else to check, and sure enough, one of the burners seemed to be finished. With very little help from me, Carm got it changed. It seems to be working now, but we have to do one more test: hot bath, followed by a shower.

More minor household repairs were required – thoughts of full-timing in the trailer stirred in our heads! Although, it seems that we spend more time doing repairs on the trailer than we have on the house!

Saturday was a day of ancestor exploration with my Mom and distant cousin Tanner. We all met at Mom’s house, and piled into her van for a trip to where my great, great, great? grandparents settled when the emigrated from Scotland in the early 1800s. It is a rugged part of the country – we traveled routes they must have frequented - what a difficult life it must have been. They were of hardy stock to live and even flourish.

One of the surprising places we discovered on our quest was a calcium carbonate quarry just outside of Tatlock. Of course we had no idea what all this white rock was, nor what it was for, but some sleuthing on the internet filled us in.

And still the fun wasn’t over for us! Sunday we met up with friends at the old Bierstube, now Sol D’Acapulco, for some good food and laughs.

Meanwhile, today I’ve been cooking, etc to get ready for our next outing. Over the last few days I’ve put much into the freezer: breakfast squares, grilled tofu, cooked brown/red/wild rice, tons of roasted green beans to make sesame lime green beans for the potluck, smoky black bean sweet potato burgers, grilled portabella mushrooms, hotdog treats for the dogs, oh, the list goes on.

 

“A farmer depends on himself, and the land and the weather. If you're a farmer, you raise what you eat, you raise what you wear, and you keep warm with wood out of your own timber. You work hard, but you work as you please, and no man can tell you to go or come. You'll be free and independent, son, on a farm.” 
~ Laura Ingalls Wilder, Farmer Boy