hay hay hay what a good time

 The dogs have settled back into their home routine and have recovered from their fatigue leaving them a bit racy at times. Alas, the hay was cut a few days ago and still hasn’t been bales leaving the dogs barred from their playground.

Let’s see… we were home on Saturday… Sunday and Monday were spent getting the house and food ready for Olaf, Stephanie, and Freya. Which drops us off on Tuesday, a day of fun and laughter with OSF. The weather mostly cooperated but could have been a tad warmer - still, we had some pool time and made a massive whirlpool. It was a grand ole time!

My little villetta vacation is definitely over… the anxiety that took leave for a few weeks has come back with a vengeance. It sucks feeling that being unconscious in one manner or the other is the desired escape. I’m doing an experiment with terpenes - we’ll see… update 7pm… interesting… it might be working.

Our veggie patch could use some heat units but there are some tiny zucchinis starting to grow. I’m excited/apprehensive about our harvest. The tomato plants have lots of big tomatoes that have started to turn red. Can’t wait for the first bacon & tomato sandwich fresh from the garden.

Speaking of produce, I still have some of last year’s bounty in the freezer. I didn’t use all the diced tomatoes - honestly, I usually forgot about them and used canned. We’ve got 1 ragu left, and a few roasted tomatoes that I use for soup. I hardly used the cherry tomatoes that we froze - they weren’t picked at an ideal time and are terribly acidic… I’ll probably toss them into the compost so their goodness makes more tomatoes next year.

Oh yes, and I have a few bags of grated zucchini. I had put a ‘fritters’ entry in my menu planning calendar, but each time it got closer I moved the entry another week or two. Maybe I’ll make a pot of minestrone and throw it all in. I’ll hold off until we have actual squash in our hands!

photo taken by Freya

Yesterday I ventured into Costco again. Well gosh! I came out with an armful of treasures. Shoes (imagine!) and shorts and flat pretzels slid through the cash out and into the car. At PetSmart we got a big food safe container for the dog food. We’ve been storing it in empty pool shock bins - are they safe? Never really thought about it but probably not.

The hay was cut a few days ago and as I write this they are loading the 11 bales onto wagons.

Awesome!

“finding the exact dog food container that we were looking for”

“$5 soft dog toy has lasted over 24 hours”

“Freya enthralled with Grace”

home from vacation

 A whole week has passed since my last post. I started writing a few times but somehow didn’t have the energy (I’d been having very early mornings), or there was something else to do, or my mind was blank… yes, lots of blank… my brain was on vacation like I was. In total I spent 20 nights on the villetta since June 2nd. And I loved every minute.

watching Kirsten mow from the comfort of our ‘patio’

For some reason most of my anxiety and stress dissipated over the weeks away, perhaps because of the company and also the simplicity of RV living. Two of those weeks were spent at Kirsten’s, keeping her company while her family were busy elsewhere. We chatted about everything and anything, spent time together, and alone. It was a wonderful vacation!

The dogs managed the 20 days well. At Kirsten’s we had the mowed trails to wear off energy and at the Ti reunion there were lots of long leash walks. Lupa is still frantic about being left alone and we didn’t practice the dogs together enough. Lupa is a little forward with other dogs when they’d prefer to be ignored. She has taken a shine to giant Atlas though. (darn, I meant to get a photo of them together!)

Carm was back and forth a few times - no golf and a lonely house was motive enough for the long drive which isn’t really that long at all.

Grace enjoyed her time camping as she got to spend time outside several of the days. 

The weather was on again/off again with some lovely hot days, a few cold days, and at least one day with a tornado warning. Our little rubber mat patio saw some good use, including a lovely morning spent with Ruth. 

Kirsten’s knee slowly recovered but is still painful for her. She’s a real trooper, pressing herself to do more every day, even through the discomfort. While she was incapacitated I got to do stuff with the ponies every day… it felt like old times when I was filling the hay nets (although I remember now why I got wall feeders instead of hay nets - those things are hard to fill!) In the morning with a heavy dew, and after rain, my shoes would fill with bits of damp chaff for a day’s reminder of having horses.

When we got home Lupa raced around the house, picking up one toy and then another to make another run through the living room. She missed her toys! She did have some on the trailer, but maybe these ones are special.

Awesome!

“Lupa running like crazy down the mown path”

“Adia with the zoomies”

“my snug little villetta”

“drunken noodles”

arconia

 We’ve been binge watching ‘Only Murders in the Building’ over the last few days - we are finished episode 7 so no spoilers please! It’s totally addictive and I can’t remember enjoying a tv program as much as this one. We might have to subscribe to Disney+ for this season's episodes!

We’ve been enjoying Kirsten’s trails - ‘we’ being the 2 leggeds and the 4 leggeds. We’ve found a few ticks on Lupa and one crawling on me so I’ve had the heebie jeebies and feel things crawling on me.  Today I practically soaked my clothes in bug spray and even gave a bit of a spray under Lupa’s belly.

Now for the bad… Kirsten tore her meniscus in her knee, so is in a tremendous amount of pain. I’m trying to help her out with some of the trickier things but feel that I’m not helping enough.

On Friday Mom, Kirsten and I went for a tour of Rideau Ferry. Lunch was great and the tour through the ‘antique store’ was astounding!

Awesome!

“my honey helping out”

“drifts of daisys”

“Kirsten’s smile when she got a message from the girls”

my best life

 I’m living my best life in the villetta again this week. Visiting, walking, eating, visiting and visiting. It’s been a wonderful time with Kirsten and Mom. 

The dogs have been ecstatic running on the wide grassy paths that Kirsten mowed in the back 40. Yesterday Lupa was running so fast she almost went head over heels but she had a big grin on her face as she zipped between interesting smells. This morning I lost her for several minutes - I was almost ready to panic - I think she was lost in the tall grass. She stuck pretty close to me after that.

We’ve been slowly getting the dogs used to one another. Adia is fine and melds in, staying out of trouble, but Lupa is more of a challenge. After a bit of a walk together, she’s good with Atlas the giant black great dane. The smaller dogs are more of a challenge for various reasons, the biggest being her intensity. It’s a pain but we’ll spend some time with them together every day.

Awesome!

“peonies”

“Kirsten getting into the cold pool even though I know she doesn’t love it”

“spending time with Mom and Kirsten”

“watching the dogs have fun on our walks”

“Kirsten mowing the paths”

tractor pull

 Sitting here at home, snuggled up on the sofa with Lupa, our adventures of the last few days seem distant. While we were in the thick of things there was no room for thoughts other than how to get out of our predicament…

The rally had ended on Thursday morning and we were on the road to Kirsten’s by 11am, before the rain started again. We drove into it. The plan was to park the RV at her place in our little spot of heaven. Well, that was the plan, and in the end it worked out, but not without some help from our hero Shawn and his mighty tractor. 

We arrived. Carm backed into the laneway like a champ. He lined up to pull us into our spot. He hit the mud. And got stuck in deep mud. The ruts were a good 6 inches deep! We couldn’t go forward, we couldn’t go backward. We tried putting rubber mats in front of the truck tires. We tried boards. Nope. We were stuck. 

Luckily for us Shawn had a break in his work day, so after searching around for enough chains to pull us out with him on the road (there is a fence between the trailer and the road), he got the mighty blue beast out and with the ease of someone with super powers, pulled us into our spot. The trailer is ‘mostly’ level but a bit racked. The board under the trailer tires is half in a trench. But we figured we were golden and got set up. We’ll have to bring the truck back once things dry up a bit to jig the trailer around but we are happy for now :-)

It’s a rare moment when the thought ‘I need a drink’ flits through my brain but I think everyone had the same idea… 

After all the excitement I was glad that I had brought a simple supper to serve our hosts :-)

The last day of the rally was quiet as almost everyone had gone to the theatre for a play and then out for supper. This year we passed but hopefully by next year the dogs will be champs at staying alone.

Another year of rally has come and gone. I think this was year #10 - hummm… that seems like too big a number. Regardless, it was a fun time.

the dogs: they did way better than I had feared. Adia barked once, which is more than I can say for the other dogs around us, but Lupa was a bit more yappy. Still, she did well, and the neighbors said they only heard her occasionally. She did regress a bit after the attack but at least was mostly okay when we passed other dogs on our walks. She pulled on the leash and cried a bit but generally no barking… except when we passed the attack dog… then I had to pick her up.

She didn’t bark at people at all when we were out and about. She does still bark when people come into the camper. That will be a work in progress for a while I think. Hopefully with Kirsten, et. al. coming in all summer she’ll settle down. 

The park still has great walking. It was easy to get the dogs out for their poop walks. It was a good 20 minute walk, through a grassy landscape dotted with trees, from the trailer to the point and back. At least once a day we’d go for longer so they were tired and happy to sleep :-) In fact as the week wore on they became more and more tired. 

I did have to use the prong collar on Adia sometimes because of the multitude of rabbits out and about at dusk and dawn. I can manage her, but just. Generally she walked well on her leash - all that time training her before the pandemic has paid off in spades.

Lupa needs some guidance on leash walking and I’m afraid I let a wonderful training opportunity pass me by. She was good about waiting at the door but did manage to almost escape 2 times.

It was good knowing that Grace and our house/plants/pool were well taken care of by Pat. It was just as well that Grace stayed home as our site was underwater with nowhere to put an outside cage, so she would have been stuck in her small cage inside for the whole time. We did have people in 3 or 4 times over the week which she would have enjoyed - I also know she enjoys Pat’s company :-)

Awesome!

“getting unstuck!!!!!”

“

the sixth great lake

 It’s Tuesday already… on two days left of the social sunami! Carm has been getting his fill of conversation while I stay back with the dogs. I could take them with me (and I have), but my need for group small talk has diminished with the black cloud I’ve been under. That’s okay, I’ve just learned to take it in stride.

Marilyn came over for tea in the afternoon while Carm and Mark went shopping. I guess Carm’s got some pent up shopping bug as he came home with waterproof sneakers. It’s actually a good buy as he often gets out of walking the dogs cause he has nothing other than regular runners. They’ll live on the camper for the summer.

There’s heavy rain in the forecast so we’ll be underwater AGAIN… we will be sure not to book this site again. There’s standing water everywhere. The sewage tote that we have along for the ride (full hookups here!) was sitting under the trailer… the high water mark on the tires is about 2 INCHES up from the ground. That’s not the only place with puddles - when it rains the water pools under the truck making it impossible to get in without wet feet.

Sunday supper was potluck at the end of the lane. I thought I’d risk some disturbance and left the dogs locked up. Lupa in her crate, Adia loose in the darkened bedroom. I spoke to both neighbours and I guess they were pretty quiet. I did leave them for close to an hour, so I considered that to be a huge win!

And Lupa? Well, she seems a bit more reactive to other dogs, but it’s hard to know if that would have happened as she became more comfortable here or if it was the evil dog. Luckily that dog left later in the day Sunday, but not before going crazy at us as I walked up to the coffee gathering with both dogs. The dog was almost in front of where everyone was sitting so they got to see/hear the aggressive barking. I had to carry Lupa past as she was acting scared.

This is not as wet as it got!

Aside from rarely leaving them alone, the dogs have been very good campers. Of course they love their walks. We’ve done enough walking that they are mostly quiet while I chill out. It’s gone much much better than I hoped/feared.

End of the day… we packed up the dogs into the truck and went to the Outlet mall. We went a little crazy at the Columbia store! Then Edna and Andy came for supper. Now it’s time to recharge for another fun filled day.

Awesome!

“having a nice walk with the dogs”

“finishing supper outside just as big raindrops fell”

attack of the evil dog

 Saturday afternoon… My hands are still shaking while I type this… we were just out for a walk and another dog attacked Lupa! She was screaming in fear but luckily she didn’t get hurt - luckily the other dog was small and didn’t get a chance to get a bite in. We’ve been working so hard on her getting over her fear of other dogs… not sure what the effect of this attack will be… but needless to say I was pretty angry and flipped out at the woman who didn’t even say sorry, just that it was okay and to calm down. WHAT! Your fucking dog just attacked my puppy and it’s okay. Oh gosh… I’m starting to wind up again.

Other than that things have been going well. We went on a ‘pack walk’ with Sylvie and her two dogs this morning then hung out at the coffee meetup for a while. Both dogs were great. Marilyn and Mark dropped by for a visit after lunch - we were able to find a few dry spots to put our chairs! Actually, the water has somewhat receded leaving giant puddles instead of lakes. Across the way from us their kayak was floating yesterday after the rains! And our carpet was actually floating!

Last night it was too wet for a campfire so we chilled in the camper burping giant garlic burps from the chicken shwarma that Carm brought home. It was good but didn’t hold a candle to our local shwarmerie.

I still feel like crying with anger. I think that most people I know would be shocked at my ferocious response to that ‘lady’. And the bad language that spewed from my mouth! WHY would you not keep your dog tied up if you knew it was aggressive? Dogs are supposed to be on leash in the park for obviously good reason! 

I might not have gotten so angry if she would have apologized because accidents do happen.

Sunday morning… well, it seems that the attacking dog lives in a trailer just 4 down from us - I guess they were visiting a friend. Last night as I was taking the dogs out a man ran over to me to apologize for the dog which I thought was a nice gesture. I also apologized for my outburst and shared with him why it was so upsetting for me to see Lupa screaming while a dog attacked her… duh.

Unfortunately their trailer is between us and where all the gatherings happen :-(

I think Lupa is a bit more reactive to the other dogs she sees since yesterday, especially those passing by the camper. On a walk she’s a bit more reactive but okay… when we went by the attack dog who barked like crazy at us, she reacted. I had to pick her up to calm her down (it worked).

We had another pack walk with Sylvie this morning. It was lovely chatting while we walked through a beautiful setting.

I’ve forgotten to mention the pollen… it is pouring down from the pine trees dotted around the park. Everything is covered in a green haze. So much for washing the camper!

Now off to enjoy the rest of this beautiful day!

Awesome!

“the villetta”

“a cool breeze to keep the mosquitos down”

“the poo tin”

a good start

 The morning and early afternoon were gorgeous with a blue sky. Alas… a huge thunderstorm rolled in just as I was getting settled in a chair outside (and after the 2nd long walk of the day). Boo hiss! The rain has turned the roads into a mucky mess and wouldn’t you know it, Adia has to go out for a poo sometime soon.  I can see a little slip of blue sky but the thunder is still loud.

Adia has been great, and aside from another rabbit and some guinea fowl has been reasonably good on her leash. Lupa has been surprisingly good with just a few barky outbursts at a passing dog. We are right on it so with any luck she’ll settle down. On our walks we’ve passed several barking dogs but aside from pulling on the leash, she’s been good. 

The two walks have both dogs tired - yay! Adia is asleep under the table, Lupa goes between our laps, or looking out the window.

Carm had a fun coffee time this morning and I’ve visited a few people on the lane but it hasn’t been a super social day for me. I’m happy.

I did end up with some ribs yesterday! Marilyn didn’t finish hers so passed them on to me and I was too hungry to worry about eating leftovers ;-)

Later in the afternoon: It’s pouring cats and dogs with a bit of hail thrown in. The mud has extended beyond what might be considered reasonable. The roads are a lake 😱  - I expect to see some mud pout swimming.

After supper: the rain stopped around 5 leaving the place submerged. I wondered if my boots would be tall enough! They were :-)  The dogs wolfed down their supper, then the dogs and I headed out for a walk while Carm hunted down supper with the truck.

The route I took for our route had some big puddles on a river rock type base. In other words, mud free! The dogs are getting better at walking on a leash. 

The dogs have been great all day. They quietly chilled all afternoon as we were trapped in the trailer by the torrents of rain and a shake of hail.

Awesome!

“ribs after all!”

“beautiful walk in the ‘back 40’”

“Adia being such a good dog”

“Lupa greeting people without barking”

“sleeping puppy cuddled onto my lap”

tally ho to the rally o

 A light drizzle accompanied us for the two thirds of our trip to the rally, but it dried up (mostly), letting us get unhitched. The air was only a mist but gosh almighty - our sight has lots of bare mud and deep puddles. Unfortunately we didn’t get the same site as last time but we’ll survive (with hip waders!).

Getting out of the house and down the road was challenging at times. There’s so many little things to remember and our memories were dim. However we got safely on the road right on the planned time. After pulling out of the laneway we realized that I had forgotten to turn on the back camera… simple fix… put down the steps, pull out the handle, unlock door, extend slide 10ish inches… Done, now for the reverse… I forgot one crucial step and didn’t see it until several miles down the road! YIKES! I didn’t retract the slide!!!! Luckily no damage.

I’m getting a bit stunned.

So we got here, unhitched and set up with no problems. So far Lupa hasn’t been horrible with barking even though she’s seen lots of dogs and met lots of people. She’s out of her element though so we’ll see what happens as the days wear on and she starts to feel it’s her territory. I guess I should focus on how well it went today and not awfulize.

I did have to take both dogs out for a walk by myself and that almost ended up badly… a rabbit jumped out from a bush right below Adia’s nose. It’s a miracle that I stayed upright as she is STRONG. Oh my gosh it takes all my strength if she wants to pull. I’ll dig out a prong collar for her at least for when I’m walking the dogs by myself.

Man, I’m starving. Most people went to RAXX for their rib special. I stayed behind with the potential barking dog and ate cheesies and licorice. Not satisfying at all… edited to add: no takeout for me - they ran out of ribs!

Awesome!

“making it to the campground with only a few oops!”