Holiday Time!

I have 1 week left out of my three week vacation and the time has just been flying by. We have done lots of interesting, fun stuff and have spent a ton of money. I said I was on vacation right?
I bought myself a new bike!!!! I got one that fits my frame size with lots of accessories for serious bike travel. I can pack great lunches, throw in some beach clothing and away we go. We have been riding the trails and loving every minute of it. My legs are very sore but I guess I have just been that out of shape. There are lots of very steep hills in our area so my new bike gears are getting a work out also.

Here’s my new bike on the day it came home. I got all the accessories to go with it, too. I got a bottle holder, a trip computer, a kickstand and a carrier rack including a soft bag big enough to carry lots of stuff.

On its first day we took a ride around the block to see how it would go. I didn’t realize that it was that big of a block!

We have also been out for the maiden voyage in the canoe we bought from a co-worker this spring. The day was beautiful, sunny and calm and we paddled around for about 3 hours. I even got out into the middle of the bay without getting scared. I’m just getting so brave!

What a perfect day to go canoeing. The water was just dead flat for the first 2 hours. We were able to travel around the entire bay and check out some of the homes that can’t be seen from the road.

We paddled right out into the bay and under the bridge just to see what was on the other side. Well, okay. We knew what was over there but we did get to see under the bridge!

We have visited lots of restaurants and sampled some of the finest foods out there. I’m glad to be exercising or I’m sure I would have gained 10 pounds easily.

I’ve had lots of time to fly my kite, build beach art and play Rummoli.

I found this funky looking piece of driftwood at the beach and decided that he looked like he wanted to dance so I propped him up and gave him a stage.

The dancer looked so good that I made him a dance troupe to back him up.

Of course, every artist needs to sign her work!

We’ve played lots of Rummoli this summer but this was the perfect evening to play outside. Needless to say that I won again!

There’s something so relaxing about flying a kite. It just hangs up there fluttering in the breeze.

I’m leaving you with some great pictures and hopefully I’ll get back on track financially and will have more blogging time in October. Oh wait that’s Halloween Pumpkin season, the Witch’s favorite time of the year!

No, this crab is not sun tanning. I assure you that he is quite dead and I’m okay with that.

We’re not sure what kind of birds these are. They might be semipalmated sandpipers but that is just a guess. They were taking a siesta on a nice warm rock until we showed up.

We’ve been able to spend a lot of time at this beach this summer. The weather has been crappy all year but it has been perfect ever since I started my holiday.

Now that’s a summer meal! Fresh oysters and corn heading off to the BBQ as a side dish for smokey chicken wings, mmm.

This red fox came out to greet us while we biking down the trail. He was quite happy to pose for pictures and even brought a friend out to play.

We had a great ride on this afternoon. We rode along the trail for 8 or 9 kilometres until we got to this fishing village. We found a small dockside café and had a bowl of mussels and a beer and then rode back again.

Being on vacation means that there is lots of time to make breakfast and one of my favourites is blueberry pancakes and fresh fruit, peaches in this case.

We're BBQ'ing Again!

What comes in a really big box and takes almost 1 ½ hours to assemble? Our new BBQ!!!

We have been looking at BBQ’S for over two weeks now and this is the one we both liked the most. It is a Coleman model and is mostly black. This is something that I really wanted because I found the stainless steel on the last beast to be a royal pain to keep sparkling clean and new looking. The price was right, too at just $499.00 but next week I‘ll receive a $100.00 back because they are going on sale. We’ll just have to bring in our receipt and they will (HOPEFULLY!) refund us the difference. This seems like an incredibly stupid system. Why not just give us the sale price to begin with? I guess the store is betting that some people may not bother to go back and get the money. NOT THE WITCH, though. We will definitely be going back to get our refund, the taxes, too!

After we got it all assembled (something that required at least an hour and a half and by the way it’s a good thing there is a engineer in the family to show Hubby what the instructions meant) we had hamburgers which were to die for. This BBQ will cook 25 of them according to the manufacturer, which seems to be some new kind of rating criteria. The store we bought from had all their BBQ’s rated by amburger capacity. Why hamburgers and not, say, chickens or maybe hot dogs? We cooked 9 burgers last night so that we could freeze some and there was room for lots more, but I don’t know if we could have put 16 more on the grill. This seems like kind of an arbitrary system to me.

Buying a new BBQ now means that you also have to buy a new propane tank to go with it. They have changed all the regulating valves over to a new system with a new thread pattern. Now the old tanks will not work and are obsolete. I guess that the landfill sites weren’t full enough. Is this just another consumer rip-off scheme to make you spend more money? I don’t know but now I have a tank to sell. Maybe they will exchange it for the new type.

Our new BBQ has a great feature to measure the propane left in the tank. The tank hangs off a hook inside the base of the BBQ. The hook is attached to a hydraulic sending unit which is then attached to a dial on the front of the BBQ. The weight of the tank shows whether it is full or empty. What a great idea!

So now, here’s a consumer tip for you. The store offered to assemble our new BBQ for us for a fee of $25.00. Hubby sneered and said that he would be building ours when we got it home. Let me tell you, BBQ s definitely take lots of time and tools to put together and the assembly results in lots of garbage to dispose of after wards. It may be worth the $25.00!






As for us, Hubby and I had a blast building it. Now we’ll just see how long this one lasts. I will be buying a cover for it sometime this week as I do think it will help stop the rust from starting. So far I’m very pleased. BBQ season has arrived!

New Clothes. Thanks, Granny New Year!

Here's just a short post to show off my new clothes.

I went to Sears and found quite a few bargains and clothes that really do look nice on me. Everything mixes and matches well, too. I was so pleased and I still have a few dollars left from Granny New Year, so next time I'm out I would like to find a nice top and sweater set and some comfortably shoes. I'll probably be able to find a jacket to go with all my pants at the Village along with a few more blouses. Plus, I received lots of gift certificates from the Village for Christmas so I won't have to spend any money out of pocket. Sweet deal for me.

The weather has been whacky, lately. One day we are BBQing on the deck (I know, I know, but the old thing is still out there) with the grass all green and temperatures way above zero and the next day we are getting buried with snow, then rain, lots of rain.

Today will just be the regular Sunday routine - cooking, cleaning, laundry ,baking and maybe some meal planning. That will keep me busy enough but then I haven't done much while being off. I'm back to work tomorrow after having had such a wonderful break, so I guess I'd better try and get my MoJo on. It's going to be forever until my next holiday, that is as long as I don't get snowed in.

p.s. I've got the baking done already. Here's a picture of them before I go.

Happy New Year Everyone

What a year it has been! No regrets, I'm just hoping 2010 is as good to us. We have our health, each other, family, friends, and good jobs. Life doesn't get much better than this.

Thanks to all you blog followers for all the lovely and kind words thoughout the year and I look forward to reading all your fine blogs in 2010. I'm joining the daily savings club which is a great idea from Gill "That British Woman". Check out her site if you are interested in joining too.

Actually I might be doing a lot of challenges this year. Meal planning, No Drive Days and No Spend Days (ala "Saving4Later") and maybe some exercising to try to lose a few pounds would also be nice. Hopefully I'm up for all these challenges. I'm going to start focusing more on savings so we can both retire sooner. And I'm really going to start saving for one mean looking BBQ this spring. Wish me luck! Now I just have to start working on getting that raise this year.

Cheer's to you all and I hope everyone rings in the New Year safely. I'll be waiting for Granny New Years to stop by sometime during the night. It's a Scottish tradition and I'll leave you in suspense till tomorrow to explain.

The BBQ - Just One More Time!

The night was beautiful. It had been a warm sunny day all day on Friday here on The Witch's Island and it felt even better considering that it is the middle of November. We thought to ourselves that it would be lovely to cook a couple of big old steaks on the BBQ for dinner. So, that's what we did; pulled one last meal out of the old beast. We even took a picture or two but look at the poor thing. This picture says it all. What a shame. The meal turned out great, though. Big rib steaks grilled to medium rare with garlic bread and cheese and a side of Caesar salad. The owls where hooting somewhere out in the woods as we cooked. I was warm in Hubby's old canvas coat, even as the temperature started dipping towards real November levels.

The night was magical really. Sometimes you have to look around you and realize how very lucky you are, even with a funky old BBQ. I seem to be doing this a lot more often.

Yesterday I finished the last of the Christmas shopping for my family back home and this afternoon I finished wrapping it all. Ya HOOO!!!!! All I have to do now is mail it off and then I just have hubby to buy for. Next week I'll start my Christmas baking and then I'll be mailing another parcel home. Oh, what a busy girl I am!

Last night for dinner we made pizza and it turned out to be quite a marathon event. We bought some dough for the shells from the local bakery but when we started rolling it out we found that it was contaminated with streaks of something black. It sure looked like mouse shit even if it was something else. So, we had to choose whether to abandon pizza completely or make our own dough from scratch. We chose to do our own but, start to finish, dinner took us almost three and a half hours. Today we are making homemade baked beans and oven-baked bbq ribs. Much less hands-on thankfully. There will be lots of left overs to freeze, too. That's great at this busy time of the year.



I planted my Amaryllis bulb this afternoon. It had already stated to grow inside the box so I guess it's getting a head start this year. My Christmas cactus, which has been in the family for years, has also started to bud out. I'm in such a Christmas mode I might even decorate the house next week.

BBQ Waste land

I often wondered why they can't make a BBQ to last.
At our local dump there are always lots of dead BBQ's. Mostly cheap ones but not always. I thought for sure the BBQ that my Father bought for us as a home warming gift before we even started building the new house (you don't want to know) would last.

Why you ask?

Well it cost over $500.00 at the time we got it which is, I'm thinking, at least seven years ago. It's a big heavy thing, all stainless steel and cast iron. We thought that it would be hardier than a battleship. Well, it was, for the first year.

The first thing to go was one of the hinge pins for the lid. Hubby fixed it by replacing it with a nut and bolt and luckily he had another set for the other corner when that one broke shortly after. Then the igniter wires started burning off. That was annoying but at least there are two holes in the sides where you can shove a lighter in (almost like they knew we would need them). Then the burner control knobs went, one by one, getting stickier and stickier till we couldn't even turn one of them which means we can't use one of the 4 burners at all.

Then there was the day that the gas line going to the extra side burner melted and then caught on fire. Hubby was just able to get in to shut off the tank before it burned the place down.

Oh yeah, and the inner liner to the lid is now so rusted that we have to be very gentle when we close the lid to keep the loose scale from falling onto the cooking food. No amount of scrubbing seems to be able to eliminate the problem.

In all the time we have been dealing with this stupid thing we kept telling ourselves that it would be a shame to get rid of it because of the stainless steel cabinet and the initial cost of it. However, this week one of the door hinges has rusted through and the door is just hanging off. No way we're fixing this. It's time the damn thing goes to the dump.



The really sad point to this story is that it was the last thing my Dad bought us before he passed away and Hubby has been fixing it every time something breaks down on it just because it was from Dad.

Why can't they make stuff to last? I guess because they have us for suckers. We really don't want to be without a BBQ so I guess it will be something to add to my side bars to save for.

Sorry Dad that we have to junk it, I know you were so proud when you bought it for us.