The backyard gets further along

The other day was miserable. It was windy and rainy like crazy. But it was followed by a huge rainbow. It arched over the backyard.

Last you saw we had moved the shed, moved the garden, and we had planted things in pots (raspberry bush and flowers).

Well now we have planted the full garden. The stakes in the earth mark the rows:

Dill, Rosemary, Chives, Green Onions

Lettuce, Spinach,

2 kinds of carrots

Peas

Beans

Cucumbers

Asparagus in the front left.

I also bought a couple of plants.

Tomato

Red Bell Pepper

Pumpkin

Butternut Squash

As well as the pot of herbs from Lorne and Janet:

Thyme

Compact Thyme

Tarragon

Mint

Sage

Savory

As I mentioned before we transplanted the strawberries. They seem to be recovering. The leaves that had already started coming in have died off. But there is a ton of new growth. We just may not get any strawberries this year.
We have also made some advances on the area to the left of the deck. You may remember that there were cedar plants there that Logan ripped out in the fall. It has been a big mud whole since then.

Here we are tamping down the dirt.

He we are nearly finished. We have stained the new stairs and rearranged the patio furniture since this photo. But it looks pretty good. We blocked the underside of the deck to hide the dirt and yuck that is below the deck. Laid some flagstone for the BBQ and new stairs to access the new BBQ place.

There is the shed in its new resting place.

The other end of the yard. The big square of dirt to the right of the garden (which used to be the garden) has had grass seed planted. It is really starting to come in.

Video is for the birds

I am working on a wedding video. I have been working on said wedding video for months.
I have never encountered so many technical difficulties and bizarre error messages like I have on this video.

I have spent countless hours on this video. I would say probably 80-100 hours without any hesitation or exaggeration. I was within reach of being done. I mean, one evenings worth of work left and it would be finished.

I left the video for two weeks while I started the show I am working on. But this weekend I thought I would get back at it and finish. Well guess what. The files wouldn't work. They wouldn't open. "The project could not be loaded, it may be damaged or contain outdated elements." Ceremony GONE.
I spent that whole night working on fixing it. Googling the error message. Trying what it suggested. Install, uninstall. I even tried installing it on my lap top as a last resort. NO GO.

So I have asked everyone I know for help over the last few days. Everyone has horror stories.

Tonight. I got back in the saddle. Still gone. Oh well. Go to the other file - the before the wedding getting ready. At the very least I will export the video and have that one in my hand. It opened the file no problem - but wait - the file is empty. What do you mean empty - there is nothing in it - it is like I opened a new project!
Are you kidding me. #$#%#%#*&%$@#*&(#%$&@(#$*&!@#(!*$)*^%$&#*(@(#$*%&$#@*!(*#&$%$#*&$%^$
Okay. So I had a little cry over it. No big deal.

I google some more.

I restore my computer to the day before I finished the file.

Still no go.

I text Jason (we are working on the wedding together) "all is lost. I give up"

He texts back an equally optomistic responce as I search "recover" for the tenth time.

BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess the restore brought up auto saved files.

I now have both files. I have backed them up on both of my external hard drives and on my CPU.

I am very happy right now (and exhausted over all of the anguish that it cost).
Only another eight hours wasted with no results.
At least I don't have to start from scratch!

Back yard developments

After the shed moving party we were left with a rather large hole in the ground.
So we cleaned up the crap, turned the dirt and moved the rocks and boards surrounding the currently garden.

A little action shot of Logan hauling the dirt from the current garden to the shed whole.

The strawberry plants were planted last year, so I needed to transplant them. Here they are awaiting their new home.

Almost ready.

So far my strawberries are in, the parsley was transplanted (we will see if it comes back) and I planted Sweet Pea flowers. The rest of the garden will go in any day.

A couple of days ago we picked up bedding plants from the Superstore garden center (much better than most of the garden centers we have visited).

We picked up Pink/Red Geraniums, Yellow/Purple Violas, Unknown Snap Dragons, Purple Petunias, White Assylum and Anouk (which ends up being a type of lavender, I just thought it was pretty).

I potted the plants in terra cotta pots. Some small ones spread through out the back yard and front steps.

I ended up picked up more flowers than could fit my pots because they came 8 in a pack. So I thought I would throw some in the front flower bed. We will see how they grow. There really isn't a lot of sun light and all of these plants ask for full sun with partial shade in the fine print. My tulips are up but no buds yet. I also planted Daffodil bulbs last year and they hadn't popped up yet. Being my first time I didn't mark where I planted them. So while planting today I dug some up, but quickly put them back in. They have started growing they just haven't broken the ground level yet.

We also bought a raspberry tree. Logan was reluctant because he didn't want it spreading. So we bought a big bucket and we will see how it goes. The tag says it will grow flowers the first year.

Movin' a shed

Yesterday we fulfilled Logan's dreams of moving our shed. Since we moved in he has thought and talked about moving the shed from one very conspicuous corner of the yard to one that is out of the way.

The Before. Everyone showed up at noon. We got started right away.
This is everyone's excited face. Yeah - we can do it!

I thought the first hour was going to be a struggle to get the shed started, up out of the hole. The boys gave a little push and it rolled right out. No problem.
A short celebration and the strategy session to figure out how to turn it 180 degrees as well as push it.

We used two 10' ABS tubes and two 2' tubes. As we were turning it we would pause to reposition the tubes. There were many occasions that we need to weight one end of the shed. One way we achieved this was to have the girls hop inside the shed and stand in the corner that was needed. This was the other method.
Another pause to reposition a tube.
Half way. Pressed right up against the deck. (Check out the new deck colour - Tugboat).

The move team: Logan, Lindsay (who kept Charlie out of the way), Jason (new mohawk and all), Dan, Craig, Jen and myself.

We complete the move at 12:38. From arrival at noon to completion 38 minutes. Wow. I honestly thought that at 2:00 we would be stopping for a beer and talking about how we were going to change our approach, or making a trip to home depot. nothing. It was great!

Almost as soon as we finished the sun broke through the clouds and it got hot.

Out came the beer and the snack on the patio set. And then out came the bocce ball.

It was so intense the bocce that the tape measure was used to ensure all points were awarded properly.

Charlie really liked the bocce balls as well. He chased the one red ball around the yard, pushing it with his paws and teeth - trying to bite the damn thing. He loved it.

Trip to Regina

Last weekend we drove to Regina for a visit.

We started the trip with a concert. Mom, Dad, Janet and I went to Sugarland. It was great fun. (Please ignore the double chin I am sporting).
We had great seats. Right beside the stage. The put on a great show. This was a delightful "unplugged" moments.

Very entertaining.They really put an effort into making the show interactive. On the way in to the Agridome (Brandt Center?) they gave everyone a bottle of bubbles and a glow stick. At one point they all had umbrella's (which were lit and used in perfect sync - I always love a little choreography). A very simple ballad began and a huge bubble maker above the stage started. The was our cue to blow bubbles. It was great fun. It didn't really fill the dome - the draft seemed to pull the bubbles from the wand of the person on the left and landing on the person on the right. But it was fun.

Then the people on stage pulled out their glow sticks and performed some choreography in the dark - our cue. This is a shot of the audience with their glow sticks.

Friday we had a huge family dinner at my parents house. Always a great time. I love that my whole family gets together all the time. There doesn't need to be an occasion, just Sunday will do. I love it.

Saturday was low key. Lunch with both sets of parents. Logan took in a soccer game and then we both went out for dinner with Derek and Rory. And then off to Derek's new place for a house warming party. Josh bought a house and Derek and Jesse are living in the basement. It was a good time.

Sunday we had brunch at the Kotlar's with both sets of parents and then we hoped in the car for the long drive home.

They are always too quick.

Unemployment

We are going home to Regina tomorrow. It is the first time we have gone home since we got our new Rouge. We leased it in September. It has been a while. A nice road trip to test out the new CUV.

In honour of Earth Day today I printed out the research I have done on homemade cleaners. You know, mostly vinegar concoctions. I think that as we run out of the cleaners we have I will sub in the homemade stuff and see how it goes. I have already started with a general spray cleaner.

The candle party last Monday was very successful. And as a bonus April had an offer that if you have 10 buyers and a booking for a subsequent party you get 40% of the sales in a credit. Also there were some nice looking host specials with items 50-75% off at $20. Also, the total of my sales was enough to get me two half price items of my choice. I got tons of stuff. I am excited.

It is snowing here right now. Not just snowing but accumulating. Saturday was so nice that while I was working on the deck I had to take a couple of shade breaks. Yesterday it reached 21. Today we have a couple inches of snow. Why do we live in this crazy country.

Any other random bits of information I can put into this post... My mystery shop was successful and they have asked me to do more. I found it when I was looking on line for money saving ideas (the homemade cleaners were one of them). I got onto the Smart Cookies website and they suggested being a mystery shopper. I clicked the link to the company they thought was reputable and I got started. I had to go to Joey's in Eau Claire on one of the two days listed between 12 and 1. I had a 6 page survey I had to complete after lunch with very specific things we had to do while there. We will be reimbursed for $35.
It was a pretty nice day but when we arrived and they offered the patio I was skeptical. But the other option was waiting for 45-60 minutes for a table. The hostess told us that if we gave the patio a try she would throw in free coffee and bailey's. Not one to turn down a drink we went for it. It was nice. Good meal and free. Our bill with tip and tax was $38.

Have a good weekend!

Since we have been home *update/correction

It has been a busy week.

Sunday was Easter. Happy Easter to everyone.

We hosted supper for Lindsay & Dan and Stef.
We used our new dishes and napkins.
I made a pineapple mustard glazed ham. Martha Stewart's recipe. It was delicious and I was very proud of it.

I also made scalloped potatoes, asparagus and carrot cake. Lindsay brought a salad.

We were also celebrating both Lindsday and Stef's birthday. We purchased a purse for each of them from Palm Desert.

Logan went back to work for 2 shifts. I wrapped up our taxes. We did a mystery shop of Joey Tomoates, I spent many hours on a wedding I am editing. The last two days we spent outside working in the yard. Logan is getting ready to move the shed across the yard so was digging about. I used a wire brush and scraped the whole deck down. My arms are killing me!!!!!! And then we stained it "Tugboat". I think it looks great.

***UPDATE: I had incorrectly stated that we were moving the deck. We are not moving the deck we are staining the deck. And I guess 10 hours scraping and then staining the deck made it hard to think of anything else. We are moving the shed. To the space beside the house. It is still up in the air what exactly we are going to do with the space.

Palm Desert

April 2nd
We had a very bumpy ride into Palm Desert's open air airport.
Logan and I couldn't help but just have a drink and sit on the patio. Beautiful sun and hot weather (between 80F and 88F)

With the fresh citrus growing on the trees just outside the door it influenced my drink choice. The grapefruit tree across the street poured a number of sea breezes.

April 3rd
This was our shopping day. We drove to the city of Cabazon. What you may not know about Palm Springs is that it is right next to a huge natural wind tunnel. There are tons of windmills to create power for LA in this area. On top of this wind tunnel , which I assume is always windy, the Desert cities were experiencing wind warnings. It was very hot in Palm Desert that day, so much so that I changed my outfit twice to find lighter clothes. When we got to Cabazon it was cold, overcast and extremely windy. We spent the first hour of our shopping trip going from store to store looking for a jacket or sweater.

Once we got that sorted, you can see that we didn't have a problem finding anything else.

From Top left to bottom right: Banana Republic short sleeve button up (Logan), IZOD bunny hug (Stacey), Banana Republic bunny hug (Logan), Nike Runners & Sandals (Logan), Sketchers (Stacey), Teal Banana Republic tank (Stacey), Brown Banana Republic tank (Stacey), Quicksilver Golf Shirt (Logan), Lucky Brand Jeans (Stacey), 3 Roxy T-shirts (Stacey), Fossil Sunglasses (both of us), Rozy purse with pink and orange, Rozy purse with brown and teal, 2 Quicksilver T-shirts (Logan), Billabong Blue shorts (Logan), Quicksilver shorts (Logan)

That pretty well took all day. We returned to the condo (where it was still very hot) and then went out to dinner at a very fun Mexican restaurant. The portions were ridiculous. Logan and I shared a platter for two that easily could have fed four.

April 4th
This day was also a bit about shopping. We went to the Palm Desert Street Fair. The huge parking lots of the College of the Desert were filled with tents of stuff.

Here we are having a hot dog lunch.

After the Street Fair we hit up a few department type stores in the search for new dishes. We tried JCPenny, Macy's, K Mart and Gottschalks. Macy's had some nice stuff but a scary sales lady. No success.

So we headed back to the condo to relax.

This is a view from the patio. The condo is right on the 7th green of the golf course.

Their condo is the second one in from the corner.

April 5th

We started the day by going to the club house for breakfast. It was delicious. This is us in front of the club house. Another beautiful day.

It was an odd thing to see snow at the top of the mountains when it was so warm outside.

This was the day that I was most excited about. Our wine tour. It was a fair drive to get to Temecula, the city in the valley that all of the wineries were close to.

The first winery was Wilson Creek. We tried 5 wines each there. We tried their Almond Champagne, which was very good. Logan had their creamy sherry which was surprisingly smooth and Janet and I tried the chocolate port. All very nice.

It is still very early in the growing season. We did see some plants that had leaves, these just had little buds.

The second place was Callaway Winery. We had the tour of this place before the wine.

We got to try six wines at this place...and it is starting to show.

At both places we got to keep our souvenir wine glass.

The view surrounding this places was beautiful. They were on a bit of a crest and we could see the surrounding beauty.

On the ride home from the wineries the GPS took us a totally different route. It was a very exciting route. Both directions we had to drive up and over the mountains to the valley on the other side. On the way there we saw surprising farm land that was very similar to the landscape we see around here. On the way back there were many photo opportunities. This one Logan came to a quick stop to grab this view looking back at the valley that we had just come from.

Notice the lake on the right side.

When we hit the very top edge of the mountain range we stopped at the turn out to get a good look.

From here you could see the Desert cities below.

We drove down the mountain on a very quick switchback road. All of a sudden we hit the bottom and a sign that said Palm Desert City Limits. It was quite surprising how close the mountains are.

Logan and I took out the golf cart to explore the gated community.

We took the fruit picker with us and began our harvest. This is the best lemon tree in the place.

Our bounty. 3 Lemons, 2 Oranges and 1 HUGE grapefruit.

April 6th

We started the day with another breakfast at the Country Club.

Logan and Lorne went out for their second round of golf, on another beautiful day.

While the men were golfing Janet and I headed out on one last effort to find dishes. We went to Kohl's, TJMax, Marshall's, Target, SteinMart and Bed, Bath and Beyond. We had great success at Target. There were a couple sets of dishes that I really liked there. They are square, chocolate brown dinner and salad plates with thick, different sized stripes of a glaze. I also bought cream place mats, blue napkins and striped blue/green/brown/white hand towels from Steinmart.

After shopping and golfing there was more sitting and relaxing in the sun with cocktails.

After we lazed about we got ourselves ready for dinner. We went out to P.F.Chang's. A very upscale chinese restaurant. It was delicious, and again, way to much.

April 7th
Our last day in Palm Desert. On the way out of the complex we stopped for a photo.

We drove Lorne and Janet to the airport with the rental car and then continued on to Vegas. We drove up and over the mountains. This is not a great photo through the back window but a great view.

A Joshua Tree. There were plenty on the side of the road as we drove through the Mojave Desert.

At one point we rose to over 5000 ft altitude. This is us on our desent back down the mountains and into Vegas.

We arrived in Vegas at shortly after 4 o'clock after our four hour drive. And Logan will tell you that it was not an easy drive. Two lanes divided highway the whole way. But the semi trucks have to stay in the right lane and have a lower speed limit than the rest of the traffic. It cause the traffic to constantly be changing lanes, no one settled in with their cruise control. I think he was glad to arrive.