Ok - I'm actually going to sit down and type a bit. I'm waiting for more pictures to download from my camera and it's barely 9pm so I have about an hour to work on this for once! Wow! We had a pretty fantastic, beautiful day today - mostly relaxed and even had a bit of time to sit outside and enjoy the wonderful night.
So, I ended up sick last week, starting the day my parents lift (good timing!). I felt ok, but had a stomach ache until Friday and lived on saltines for the week. Of course, I went to work and for the most part it wasn't too bad. So, I'll try to fill in a bit from my parents visit.
They arrived Friday, July 8th and beat me home by 30-45 minutes maybe so the timing was great. I don't think we did much but catch up that night. The next morning, we hauled my dad out of bed(alarm goes off at 4:30) around 5 am to get out on the water and fish. I think Jeremy was the only one that caught anything. We had a great breakfast by The chef and then putzed around the house for a bit. Jeremy wanted to run over to Quebec in the afternoon to go see if we could find a farm for sale on the very edge of civilization. So, we piled in the truck and got just to the edge of our property and all the sudden there was a loud noise and Jeremy stopped. I was a bit confused, then realized, we could not go forward or backward. Anyway, long story short, the driver's side back wheel seized. We managed to get it back in to the driveway with a lot of humming and hawing. After Jeremy and my dad took some time to look at it, pry the wheel off and realized we needed some parts, we all hopped in my parents van and made our way to Quebec. There were a few farm houses we saw, but it was hard to tell which one might be for sale. We were also close to a ZEC which is a Quebec park kinda like a state park type of thing. We drove some more and finally found the station to stop and ask some questions. Jeremy's been talking about looking into fishing/hunting in some of these ZECs before, but we hadn't ever figured much out. On our way back, we had to stop in Pembroke and pick up some truck parts. Jeremy tried to work on the truck once we got home, but as all things go, it wasn't easy. We also stopped so my dad could get a fishing license.
Sunday, Jeremy ran back into town to get some more parts for the truck since we realized we needed some more bits. He came back and got right back to work. Finally by lunch time, my mom and I decided it was time to get out of dodge for a little bit. We made a trip to the nursery and she helped me pick out some more flowers and we also hit the grocery store. By the time we got back, Jeremy had the wheel back on. We decided we better leave more often - things actually got done! He finally got new break pads and rotors on the back tires, dissembled the emergency brake on the one side that was the cause of the wheel seizing and got everything put back together and even gave it a test around the block. We were good to go! I think we got out fishing that night finally - again! My mom came with, with her crossword puzzles. I don't think we were very lucky yet again - minus a fish or two from Jeremy.
The rest of the week went by. We ended up with a fair bit of rain and heat so my parents ended up doing things close to home and around the house. We went out to The Shanty house one night for dinner and got out fishing a few more times. The rest of us finally started to have a little bit of luck. I took Friday off and we headed into Algonquin to canoe the Barron Canyon river. We stopped at a nice campsite for lunch.
Saturday, we got out fishing once again and hauled my dad out of bed bright and early. We came home, ate and putzed around and napped a bit. Early in the afternoon, we got the boat back out and headed up river. We drove up close to the plant, stopped at a little beach along the river and then stopped to hike up to the overlook on the cliffs. We were nice and hot by the time we got to the top so my dad took a quick swim in the lake up there. Hayde also needed a swim since she ended up rolling in something I won't mention. We then headed to the lookout.
Sunday, we got up one more time to get out fishing early in the morning. This was my dad's day! He got some nice fish. Later, we were all feeling pretty warm so we took the boat back out and found another sandy beach up along the river. We had a nice time sitting in the water, periodically jumping in to cool down and and playing with Hayde. After a bit, we noticed clouds coming in - somewhat dark clouds. So, we decided we should start to head in. By the time we got back, we could hear thunder rolling in the back ground. Jeremy started to work in dinner(more fresh walleye from our catch in the morning), but all the sudden the lights went out. Ummmm.... a little bit later, there was more thunder and lightning and the wind started picking up. All the sudden, it started POURING! What a storm. The trees were blowing, the rain was coming down, lightning was everwhere, and it didn't stop thundering. We noticed Hayde was hyperventilating. I had never known her to be scared of storms, but this one was sure making her uneasy. I quickly ran out and grabbed some of my plants in pots to get them out of the wind as much as possible. We sat there for a while watching it. Finally I went out to the garage and dug out some of the camping gear. So, we had a nice walleye candle light dinner. It eventually stopped, but still no power. At about 9pm we decided there was nothing better to do than take Hayde for a walk. We walked the neighborhood and found several trees that had come down and lots of branches. So, finally, we went to bed with no power. Again, at some point in the night, the thunder and lightning picked up again and it started raining. Hayde started hyperventillating again. It was still the endless rolling thunder. Later, the lights flicked on for a few seconds, then went out and maybe a 1/2 hr or more later, they finally came back on so I got up and turned all the switches off.
I awoke to a phone call the next morning to find out my carpooling was calling to see if we should go into work or not. I told her we had power so we opted to go in. She said she still didn't have power, but a transformer across the street blew up when they had turned to the power on and then it caught a tree on fire. She picked me up and we headed in. There were more and more trees down. We went thru Chalk River and the lights were blinking and it didn't look like anyone had power, but we kept going. We made it to Deep River and their street lights were blinking. We pulled into our work parking lot to find our manager there with a few other people. No power. He sent us home. Short day for me. My parents decided maybe they'd stay another day(they had planned to leave that morning). Jeremy had a dentist appointment in Pembroke so was still home when I returned home again. He hadn't figured out what to do - if the plant was open or not. I had seen a lot of cars driving to work on my way home. Needless to say, we all hopped in the car (my parents and I decided to do a few errands while Jeremy was at the dentist), and before too long we heard on the radio that the plant was closed too.
We putzed around the house in the afternoon and made one more trip to the nursery and picked up our third trial of petunias for the flower box. My parents did leave Tuesday morning and I got to work and we had no power once again. They did finally get power Monday afternoon, but they were switching us to another grid so turned it off again Tuesday morning.
This weekend we got out fishing Sat and Sun morning. We found another new spot to try and had some luck - brought back 4 nice walleye. We did more work around the yard cleaning small bits of it up. Somehow I have countless weeds EVERYWHERE! We even sat outside tonight for a little bit enjoying the warm(cooler), fresh air. Well, it looks like I'll have to post the rest of the pictures later as it's almost 10pm now and I HAVE to get to bed since I haven't gotten any naps in. Someday soon, I hope to get this all caught up. I'm finally feeling good since we have no big projects to work on, just yard maintenance and small bits. The grass is coming in ok and it's looking nicer and nicer. The roses are starting to bloom again and our wild flowers are just starting to bloom.
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