A Few Projects Each Day Gets us Closer to Opening

WHERE ARE WE? Rivers Provincial Park, Rivers Manitoba

A little nicer day today, so we got busy and did some stuff around the shack.  The park has turned the water on, so now it is my turn to get it back on in the shack.  I cut a few lines to drain the water in fall, so I just have to put them back together.  I don't mind just cutting the pipes because Pex pipe is so easy to fix.  I got it all together and filled the hot water tank before turning it on.  We now have hot water with no leaks.

Another project for me was to make sure all the extra batteries were topped up after spending the winter in the shed.  Looks like they all made it.

The other big project today was to use the trimmer to clean up all the perennial flower beds and then to blow off the entire course.  It seemed to have more leaves on it this year.  I burned 2 tanks of gas in the trimmer and 4 tanks of gas in the leaf blower before I finished.  It took me about 6 hours to finish it.

The last little bit.

I blow it all outside the course for pickup.

work for the trimmer

Finished product

When I got finished it was supper time.  Wanna know how I knew?? The smoke detector was laying on the chair!!  LOL  Just kidding, we had an awesome supper of scallop potatoes and farmers sausage.

Had a little visit from Kaitlyn this afternoon.  She had just finished a massage so she was feeling good.  

And a little later we were visited by Donovan and Sheri.  Donovan brought his golden lab Cooper down and even though the water is still freezing cold, Cooper just had to go swimming.  Man that has to be cold.

Spent the evening watching Survivor.  We finished Season 1 and watched the first 2 episodes of Season 2.  It is neat going back and watching them again, now that we know how far the strategy has progressed over the years.  Right now its just like a big holiday on the beach, but I'm sure the strategy will start to kick in soon.  We are supposed to have rain for the next 3 days so our efforts will have to move inside the shack.  We have lots to do in there so we will be busy.  Good Nite!!!

Not Much Got Done Today

WHERE ARE WE? Rivers Provincial Park, Rivers Manitoba

Sheri and I went to Brandon today to get some supplies.  Nothing much exciting there but I did notice that the price of potatoes has gone up about 10%.  It looks like everything is increasing in price at a rapid rate.  When you are in the restaurant business, prices of supplies dictates the price of our end product so we pay close attention to it.

Because I have an Implanted Cardiac Device, in my case just a defibrillator, I also have a remote reader.  The remote sits near my bed and at any time, the Heart Failure Clinic can check out how I'm doing.  I do have to send a remote reading once a year and this year when I went to do it, these error codes came up.  Apparently the rechargeable battery has gone kafloowie!!  So I called Medtronic and they are sending me a new reader.  Not having the remote is not a danger to me because it has nothing to do with the operation of my ICD.  It is only a reporting device.

 So after supper my job was to get Dani to Drivers Ed in Neepawa.  Neepawa is a 45 minute drive from here so we headed out about 6 pm.  Dani drove going there and based on her driving skills, she doesn't need much training.  She has been driving for 2 years already.

While she was driving with the instructor for 2 hours, I snuck off and had a burger at DQ.  It is nice that you can still get a Cheeseburger for under 4 bucks.  

That was it for our day.  Sheri had been in Hamiota today getting Cj's on the Links ready to open tomorrow.  She dropped by to let us know how it went. We still have 10 days before we open the Snack Shack.  We didn't do much outside today because it was cold and windy and rainy today.  We will try again tomorrow.  Good Nite!!

A Busy Sunday

WHERE ARE WE? Rivers Provincial Park, Rivers Manitoba

Although its cooler than we have been used to, 12C is still not a bad temperature.  First thing on my agenda is to take all the coverings off the windows and get all the doors unlocked.  It helps let the sun get through the windows and warm things up.  Hopefully these windows will be busy again this summer.

We got a lot of stuff to deal with in the next week or so.  The kitchen turns into a big storage area for everything and anything and we have to just pour it all out onto the deck and then put it back in some semblance of order.

About lunch time I headed into town to pick up Max.  He will spend the afternoon with us.  Before we left his house we checked to see if the "Wood Run truck" would start.  Nope!!  Battery dead.  So I had to get the Jeep wiggled in there to put the booster cables on it.  

So we will come back later for the truck.  We might have to put a new battery in it but I will deal with that later.  So Max and I headed for the lake without the truck.

Max wanted to play a little golf but the mini golf course is covered in leaves and Pine needles.  

So I got busy and got the leaf blower going and fixed up the golf course for him.  Now he can play to his hearts content.  

I'm going to have to spend a few hours getting all of the rest of the leaves blown off the course.  I need to get that done before we get some rain.

Got the tractor going and then Sue and I headed in to get the truck.  We stopped at the store for some hamburger.  Wow!!!  Almost $18.00 a kg. We have been having a tough time deciding how much our prices have to go up this year, but if you consider we paid between 8 and 12 bucks a kg last year, the increase needs to be significant.  I hope people can still afford to eat.

Of course the truck battery will need some time on the charger, so I got all the batteries lined up and will give them all a charge in due time.

We brought back some wooden pine trees to put on the golf course.  Kaitlyn uses them for Christmas decorations and we use them in the summer.  

I got the chairs out on the deck ready for some morning coffee's on the deck when the weather warms up.  I do enjoy that time of day.

Sheri and Donovan came for a short visit after supper.  Sheri has been at a youth retreat with Dani all weekend.  She said she enjoyed it.  After they left we watched a couple episodes of Survivor Season 1.   It has been a long time since we saw that first season and we have forgotten most of it.  Then it will be off to bed.  Good Nite!

Lincoln's 4th Birthday

WHERE ARE WE? Rivers Provincial Park, Rivers Manitoba

It's a bit tough catching on to these seasonal temperatures.  It was like +6C when I got up this morning so I stayed in the MH soaking up the heat.  Archie didn't even have much of an appetite for going outside this morning either.  Max thought he might like to wear his Jets hat for a while to cheer him up!!

Today is our grandson Lincoln's 4th Birthday so we are going to his birthday party in Brandon.  Kaitlyn picked us up around noon and we headed into Brandon for a bit of shopping and lunch at Boston Pizza.  I always like to fiddle with things at the table while waiting for our meal and today I was trying to do the leaning salt shaker trick.  While I was trying unsuccessfully, Grace said "Hey gramps look!!"  She was watching me and managed to get the pepper shaker to lean!!  Good job Grace!

After that we headed over to Nikki's parents house for the Birthday party.  All the grandparents were there including Great Gramma!!   This was like the old folks party I guess.  A couple of aunties were there too which helped keep the average age in the room down.  

Lincoln got a garbage truck cake for his birthday. Nikki is sooo creative and even had garbage pouring out the back of the truck.  The cake tasted good too!!

Then back home and take Archie for a walk.  We sure enjoy our strolls by the lake.  This time of year it is peaceful here and the birds are all making their happy sounds.  Archie loves to just explore without anyone around to distract him.

Although we don't see much of a sunset from the Motorhome, here is what we get.  We had a good day and now its time to call it quits.  Good Nite!!

We are Finally Home

WHERE ARE WE? Rivers Provincial Park, Rivers Manitoba

Today is the last leg of our journey back to Manitoba.  We have about 2 weeks to get Cj's ready for business so we have to get there and get busy.  

When we woke up it was raining and after taking Archie for a quick walk he cuddled up with Sue on the couch.  He is not spoiled she says.

So we pulled up our legs and headed north in the rain.  

Our trip took us North past the Minot Airforce Base.  This is the base that the B52 bombers fly from and they used to fly at low level over our farm when I was young.

A quick stop at Dales Truck Stop in Dunseith for fuel.  $3.49 a US gallon which equates to about 1.08 a liter in Canada with all the exchange factored in.  Gas in Brandon is about 1.48 a liter right now so that is a good savings on 200 liters of fuel.  

Border crossing went without a hitch.  5 minutes maximum.  The border agent was not interested in doing paperwork so she said no problem when we declared the $1000 e-bike.  So we headed into Canada.  It still feels like home every time we cross the border and we are happy to be here.  It wasn't long and Rivers came into site.  Rivers is about 1.5 hours north of the US border.

First stop was to pick up Max and Grace to come for a sleep over.  Our babysitting duties began even before we arrived home!!!  Actually Gramma Melaine was doing a good job of the babysitting but we stole the kids from her.

We got to the park around 5 pm and got unhooked and set up in our parking spot for the summer.

First things first, we got the bonfire going and had some supper.  Max and I ate outside because it was rather a nice day.

Then it was time to put the kids bed down.  Sue pressed the button and nothing happened.  Oh oh what now.  So I spent a couple hours figuring out how the whole system worked and where the fuses were and where the wires ran.  

After a lot of head scratching I went right back to the battery box and wiggled wires and found one loose and poof, the power came back on to the bed and down it went.  Problem solved.  I guess all that rattling down the roads of Mexico has some consequences.  

While I was busy fixing the kids bed, they were in our bed watching a movie and eating popcorn.  Later when I went to get into bed I was met with a bit of a mess.  Apparently popcorn doesn't all get in their mouths.

Anyway it was bed time.  This is what I will dream about tonight.  The joys of RV ownership is the satisfaction of fixing things.  Good Nite!!!