How Goes the Vacation?

Only two days left before we have to return to the real world. So, how are we doing? We had intended to do a number of things around the house and to have some fun. Have we accomplished what we set out to do?

Well, the grass is cut and we’ve been watering. A few things died, a few are struggling and some are going pretty well. Unfortunately, the weeds aren’t among the things that died! We’ve been debating over how to get rid of them.

On one hand, we could borrow a rototiller from friends in town and mow it all under. The disadvantages are that it’s a lot of work, we have to have the van in order to borrow the rototiller and when you churn up all the weeds you release a lot of weed seeds that then start to grow.

Or we could try the extinction method. Basically, you cover the area with layers of newspapers, then cover the papers with a tarp and weight it all down with rocks. The disadvantage is that it doesn’t happen right away but it’s not a problem if time isn’t an issue. Since we’re only here some of the time we could cover an area just before we leave, then deal with it on our next trip out.

In a way, we did just that already on a limited scale. One of the things we accomplished the other day was to hire someone with a truck to haul away all the construction debris, leftover junk from the previous owner, etc. It had all been stacked in a particular area of the yard and, once it was removed, the ground underneath was pretty bare.

Hubby painted the master bedroom, which is now a very pale blue that looks different in different lights. We put new hoses on the washing machine and I’ve done laundry and demonstrated that it no longer leaks. We also had a plumber in to work on our pipes and more than half of the job is done, although he’s going to return after we’ve gone to replace the trap under the sink.

On the fun side, we took our Dear Child to the beach yesterday, over her strenuous protests. She just wanted to go home to play with the girl next door and gave us quite a list of reasons why she absolutely would not go to the beach. It stinks, there’s seaweed, the water is disgusting, the sea dragon in the lake might come and get her, etc. We pointed out that she’d never been to a lake before and that most of her objections were based on her previous trips to the ocean. I ignored the Ogopogo red herring, just drove to the beach, parked and we all got out of the car.

She loved it! She splashed around with her PFD on (we were in an area where there is a bit of a drop off), made a sand castle, tossed rocks in the water and just generally had a riot. In fact, she cried when it was time to go home! We’re planning to go back later today (and probably to take Dog with us because there were quite a few dogs there yesterday).

I need to go to the credit union today while it’s actually open and order more cheques. I’d like to lay the laminate flooring I’ve got in the master bedroom so we can move our beds and night table back in there and I still want to drive around in the nice weather and tour a couple of wineries. Plus, we were talking about maybe painting one wall in the living room and putting up the new curtain rods and the drapes I have for the room (instead of the nasty ones from the previous owner). We’ll leave sometime tomorrow afternoon for the drive back, but we have to remember to buy gas today before the price goes up tomorrow when the carbon tax kicks in.

The more we come here and spend time like this, the more I wish we could just stay. That isn’t possible right now, so I’ll just enjoy what I have and come back as often as we can.