Annaliese's Visit

Since I don’t blog every day, it is not so easy to recollect all the activities of the past couple of weeks.  Some days just flew by and I am sure I was busy with something but thought it not worthwhile reminiscing about it.  There were some days I sure do remember.  In the spring it was my intention to give our deck a good sanding to remove old wood preserver and residue that the pressure washer didn’t take off. My trip got in the way and then when I wanted to do it, we had a lot of rain that made the job impossible.  Finally, the weather was right and I took the opportunity to get on with the task.  The Thompson’s Water Seal happened to be on sale that week also, which was just perfect.  There was a lot of wind the day I crawled around the deck with the sander in hand and I decided to leave the dust collector off because most of the sanding dust just blew off into the sky.  However, I sure needed a good dusting and brushing before coming into the house for lunch and a powerful long hot shower before crawling into bed for the night. That sanding job took me all day and I certainly was glad when it was done. 

Reapplying the Water Seal with a brush I found works the best.  In the past I had tried a roller, that created annoying bubbles and the foam brushes ripped and didn’t reach the gaps.  This whole job of rejuvenating the deck once a year is a pain. Especially for my back!  In hindsight we should have used composite decking even if the surface gets hotter in the sun and mold could develop I read online, but it seems that is the way to go nowadays and sometime in the future we might exchange the existing planking for it.  Anyway, the job got done and our two Doxies are enjoying the deck the most.

The town of Wheatley next to Leamington had its annual town wide yard sale this past weekend.  There were a few things we had been kicking around the attic that were no longer of use to us and this yard sale seemed a good way of trying to find new owners for the things and to even get a little cash for them.  When it comes to small stuff it’s no use trying to sell it on the Internet but rather to put on a table and let people see and touch it.  The sale was advertised to run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. town wide.  A couple of days before the sale we put all the items for sale on two tables in the garage and stuck price stickers on them before we would load everything into big plastic bins to be put into the truck.

Two years ago several neighbors held a street yard sale at which we participated. We sold almost everything and got complaints from some of our neighbors that we hadn’t shown them our merchandise beforehand, because they would have grabbed some of it. 

So this time we went over to the neighbors to give them the opportunity to check out our goodies.  I guess we had some fine looking tools from the house construction and good clean stuff because the load became a lot lighter to bring to the sale!

Waiting for the customers

On Saturday sharp at 7 a.m., Benno and I set up our tables on a corner of a public parking lot at a major road in Wheatley.  Before we had a chance to unpack everything there and stage the tables a couple of guys stopping their van to see what we had.  Tools, tools, tools!! Five minutes later we had sold already a few things and had a few bills in the till and it was not even 8 a.m. for the yard sale opening. Yep, it was a fun Saturday morning, Mennonite families with children, men in pickup trucks cruising looking for a deal, plenty of tables along the curb. Down at the harbor free fishing for the kids with prizes.  At 1 p.m. we called it a day to drive home.  We were really cleaned out good and my wallet got zipper troubles, all what we had left were a handful of things from the camper’s renovation like a new plastic sink and kitchen stuff etc.  We were quite pleased with the outcome of the yard sale.

This summer we agreed to host our two eldest grandkids for several days.  Our middle granddaughter, Annaliese, turned 6 years old in June and she was to come first.  We picked her up in London, Ontario, almost a two-hour drive from our house and about halfway to Waterdown where they live.  Our son brought her in his car after work. This way we only had to drive 4 hours instead of the 8-hour round-trip.  At past visits with our two Doxies in tow there was never enough time for our granddaughters to bond with the dogs or opportunities to play with them.  Well, it turned out that our Reggy was totally smitten with Annaliese. While our Elsa was very generous to give kisses to Annaliese, Reggy couldn’t get enough belly rubs.  He begged her to be petted every opportunity he got.

There was a lot of laughing and giggling when Opa explained at the dinner table how he’d messed up his shirt the first time he ate Spaghetti by turning the fork too fast. 

One day while it rained outside, Annaliese pieced together (in record time) a 100-piece puzzle and when that was done she then drew a colorful picture.  In the afternoon she helped fill dessert shells with pudding and decorated them with strawberries and whipping cream.  But best of all was that she got to eat her creation, too.

At bedtime we spoiled Annaliese with fun DVD movies she was allowed to watch before going to sleep.  The Doxies would not leave her site until we carried them out so that she could rest, but all three would have preferred to cuddle together for the night.

Way too soon it was to say goodbye to Annaliese and to drive her back to our rendezvous spot in London where our son was waiting for her.  During the drive there was another fun movie for Annaliese to watch, which made the time fly by fast.

Sorry for the blurry picture it was done with my iPad

Back here at home, I have discovered that the empty bird nest in the Clematis plant at my shed is no longer empty.  There are new eggs in it and a Robin is nesting again.  My goodness, there must be a lot of Robins hopping about in our area.

Elsa on Benno's lap

And some other news: we think our Elsa will be a mommy.  It is still early and we cannot say for sure, but time will tell.  So stay tuned we will update you in the coming weeks what is happening.