Back Woods Wife

Riley's Canada Day Ballet

Turn the volume down before you play this! :)  The sound system in the park was EXTREMELY loud. 

Forest fire smoke and sinus colds...

Ow, ow, ow.  Sinus colds are not fun.  We all have one.  Stellar.  To make matters a little bit more interesting we have lots of forest fire smoke in the area right now as well.  You get to guess if you are having trouble breathing because of your cold of because of the smoke! ;)  Thankfully the fires don't appear to be very close by, it's just that the wind is blowing in our direction.  I am so looking forward to the rain forecasted for Sunday and onward.  That should knock some of the smoke out of the air and also cool things down a little.  Our high for today is supposed to be +28C.  

The kids and I are going to take over Mom and Dad's this afternoon and make use of their cool basement and their washer and dryer. :)  I don't really want to hang clothes on the line and bring smoke dried clothes into the house.  

I think I will dig through our box of videos in the shed and see if I can find "The Sound of Music".  Some of the songs were stuck in my head yesterday and it's always a fun watch.

Now to find something to eat, gather up some laundry, get the kids into their car seats, and off we go!

Steel drums at the Ontario Science Centre

The kids had a blast at the Ontario Science Centre last month.  There were so many things for the kids to DO, not just look at.  We spent a lot of time at KidSpark .  It was AWESOME.  If we lived in the city, I'd buy a yearly pass and go there instead of the playground on rainy or cold days.  The kids had so much fun and it was easy for the adults to watch them run.  One of the things they liked best about the area more geared toward slightly older kids and adults was the steel drum activity.  There was New Orleans band music playing and a room with steel drums for the kids (and adults!) to try.  They loved it!!!

Helmet races

A new kid-derived game of late is helmet racing.  You wear your bike helmet and race each other in circles around the house.  There don't appear to be any apparent winners or losers as the racers begin when they feel like it and all chant, "I'm the fastest.  I'm the fastest."  Great for a pre-bedtime tire out session.  Here is a tiny helmet race clip.  It would have been longer but I ran out of memory on the camera. ;)

One step back...but the sun is shining and the greenhouse is open!

More power inverter troubles.  Urgh.  Oh well, as long as the generator is running we have electricity.  So for now it's planned spurts of productivity and TV watching.  This afternoon I ran everything I could all at once - dishwasher, water pump, washing machine, toaster, TV, DVD player, computer, hot water heater, etc.  Once I'm done with this post I'll shut the generator down and we'll go without power until Dwayne comes home from work.  I'm trying to save fuel.  Maybe the next time I have things powered up I'll get the photos from our vacation off the laptop and onto the Mac.  Hopefully!  

We went to the greenhouse today.  This is the first day of the season.  We got a few plants and veggies and herbs to grow.  It was so good to see so much green and to see things flowering.  That was one of the things about coming back up north, I had gotten used to seeing a lot of GREEN in Ontario/Quebec/P.E.I. and then we came home to mostly brown and then snow.  Thankfully, things are greening up and within 2 weeks we can plant outside without risk of frost. :)

Off to tackle supper, piano theory, and some from of paper sorting.  It's tempting just to load the stacks of paper right into the wood stove and light a match...

"Quiet" Time

Today I had had enough of sibbling squabbles and children who were tired but wouldn't admit it themselves.  I instituted "quiet time".  I haven't used that one in a LONG time.  However, desperate times called for desperate measures.  I have had a lack of down time lately due to the whole water and power situation and much of my days have been spent heating water on the stove to do something or other.  I needed to sit on my backside for a few minutes in relative peace.  I marched everyone upstairs with two out of three of the 5 and under set complaining bitterly along the way.  I read everyone some stories.  Actually, at times I yelled (this implies volume not tone in this case) the stories over the bellyaching.  After 45 minutes of them being upstairs making noise and me being downstairs mostly ignoring said noise, it was quiet.  For 2 whole minutes.  At which point I hear, "Mommy?  Come over Mommy.  I need my Ariel shoes."  Earlier comments in the quiet time were along the lines of, "I don't want to have a quiet time, I want a loud time."  In the end, 2 children napped, one rested for a bit, and we are all slightly saner than we would have been otherwise.  I plan on doing the same thing tomorrow.  I definitely wouldn't call it "quiet" time just yet though...

Hallelujah!

Hot water heater working - check.

Power inverter working - check.

Van running - check.

I LOVE HOT RUNNING WATER.

I LOVE DWAYNE who fixed above broken stuff.

I am deliriously happy right now.  It's a little bit unsettling.  Pretend to go without hot water at your house for a week or two, then turn it back on.  Guaranteed euphoria!

Everything at once!

We are having some technical difficulties right now.  Here is a list of things on the fritz or needing repair/replacement:

- hot water heater (not fun!)

- electrical panel

- inverter

- water pump (not critical, thankfully! we have one to switch out to now)

- our van

It is taking a lot more thought and effort to do ANYTHING around here at the moment.  Water has to be heated up on the stove for cleaning, dishes, and kids' baths.  The adults have to go to town to shower.  The cold water only runs when the generator is on or when the generator is off, until the pressure tank is empty - not long.  The electricity only works when the generator is on - our power inverter will not cooperate, so no running off the battery banks.  

To top all of this off, I was on my way home last night after picking up replacement parts for the hot water heater from the bus depot, and showering at my parents' place in town, when I got literally 5 seconds down the road and our van died.  Would not start again.  No dice.  Ugh.  Thankfully Dad was home and was able to tow me into their driveway with the beasty wood truck.  Thanks Dad!

Poor Dwayne has been having to put in a full shift at home after he gets home from work just to try to sort all of these things out!

The kids and are home today as we are van-less.  That's okay though, it's cool and damp so we've put a fire in the wood stove, read stories, played, and made banana chocolate chip muffins.  Dishes will have to be done soon, but while the generator is running I figured I'd get my computer time in now while I can.

Running hot water is one of the most taken for granted modern conveniences.  I think it has to be my favourite "convenience"!  

Homesteadin'

Well.  We are home from our holiday.  It was lovely!  We had a fabulous time visiting the extended family and friends we hadn't seen in years.  We took in some new sights for the kids (and some for us too!) - the Ontario Science Centre, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Green Gables, Oka Beach, and made a repeat visit to the Toronto Zoo.  We travelled Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island.  We also were thrilled to be able to attend Amanda & Ben's wedding!  It was the first wedding of any of my cousins. :)  I will post more on our trip as time allows.  Right now I'm consumed with unpacking...

Our hot water heater is still out of commission.  We ordered replacement parts that we thought would do the trick.  They didn't.  We ordered another part yesterday.  HOPEFULLY this one works!  In the meantime, we are showing at Mom & Dad's (Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!) and heating water on the stove to do dishes and cleaning.  We still have cold running water so we're alright.  Just a little more rustic than we were hoping for this week.

Springtime snowman

Here is the snowman we built with Dad yesterday afternoon. Niki and her daughter Amy were also over so it was quite the collaborative effort.  Dad and Hendrik did the rolling. Dad also did the stacking, Niki picked out and placed the arms, and I did most of the facial features.  The little girls mostly supervised production.  Here he is the day after as I didn't have my camera with me yesterday.  I had to do a little bit of facial reconstruction surgery so he isn't quite as handsome as he was yesterday, but close.  Much the same as most plastic surgeries I imagine...