Month: July 2023

We left on a road trip to Vancouver this morning. Hope to be back late Tuesday ( August 1st ). This is a big step for us in more ways than one.

We are leaving the twins at home with a puppy sitter. She is a fully qualified sitter as she owns two dachshund but has to keep them at her parents as she is unable to keep them at her apartment. She loves all dogs but has extra love for doxies. I am sure that you all know how difficult it is for me to leave the girls. We have never left these two alone for more than ten hours. Our sitter just happens to be an RN who works in our only hospital in the operating room. I do  have confidence in her.

However I will be missing my girls so very very much.

Yes, this  is a task that we have to do in Vancouver.  Fingers crossed that it all goes well.

Taken September 14, 2021.  Wish they stayed babies for at least another few years.

I know they will missing us as we will be missing them.

We are not traveling in the RV. Where would you park this thing?

Not long after my birthday, the end of May we began to have trouble in that the house breaker kept tripping. We suspected a transformer but in the end that was fine. It took about 6 weeks for Jordan, our electrician, to have time and check out our problem. It took hours of trying this or that, much trouble shooting. Colin spent hours trying to find a replacement transformer. It also took many many phone calls. Our 2012 transformer cost $350.00 but a replacement ( if it worked ) cost $1000,00. Being a special order it had to be prepaid and there was no refund.

Jordan came back June 21st  ( he is regularly employed and often works 12 hours days ) as he had been thinking about our situation. He wanted to re test the transfer yet again and discovered that the transformer will not show voltage unless there is a load attached. So there was yet another problem.

So he started to take it all apart and was shocked. Possibly an install error back 2012.

As you can see the wires had melted. We could have very easily had a major fire. Jordan said that we were lucky. He replaced and rewired and once again we had full light in the kitchen. We had been doing our cooking before dark so we could see.

Jordan returned for a third time on July 21st. He insisted that he needed to install fuses to protect the circuitry. That way, there could never be a fire.

As you see our kitchen lights are somewhat unique. We had to invent a curved rail that includes two types of low voltage lights, including five Rock Candy lights and four Swarovski Crystal lights. All on individual dimmers. Photos taken a few years ago by Colin when we entered our home into the Tommies Awards. We won several Silvers but no Golds. No matter, we love our home just as it is.

While were he changed our door handle ( faded from the sun ) and lock. We are in great shape electrically. The girls love Jordan, who wouldn’t? He is so handsome. He is looking for a girlfriend, but he works too much.

Does your dentist come to your home?

Is anyone else concerned about what is happening with the climate? No wonder ocean birds are dying by the hundreds. They can only dive so deep and those fish have died because of the extreme heat.

This fire was back in June. Love how the six planes are coming in to load water, great photo. We continue to have wild fires around us. The newest came across the border last evening from the US ( Oroville, Wa area ) to Canada in Osoyoos, BC.  Over 700 evacuations and another 2000 on evacuation alert. Saying prayers for our friends in that area.

Shawney, Carlie, Ciela and Colin. All three girls are within 4 -6 months of each other. Mom Heather came over for a walk and a visit.

I spied this little robin as we passed by.

Quick visit to show Heather our garden. All three were drinking at the same time but I was too slow with the camera.

On the way back to our place we stopped for snacks at Inger’s and Steve’s. Inger has trouble with our terrible two but Steve had immediately complete control of all three like magic.

They sat at his command and waited for their turn for a tiny piece of kibble.

Heather, Colin and I could not believe it. I suspect that Steve must have been the disciplinarian of their family.

Back home relaxing with the girls. Shawney did get up once but was not too sure.

Just last Wednesday on the 19th, Heather had a “hot dog” party. I think there were 8 doxies there.

Heather and Ciela have a ‘thing’ going.

Not one but two pools with soft balls.

Carlie being offered a treat in exchange for photo. Photo by Tim Tish, Svens’s Dad.

Even Ciela got a photo sort of!

Sven and Carlie.

It was a great few hours spent in a lovely shady garden with happy dachshunds 😎

Good thing we did not show the doxies this movie clip!!

Thank you all for the anniversary wishes and Colin’s special birthday withs. So nice to know that you are still out there 😉

We had a visitor the morning of Colin’s birthday ( July 22 ).

It was a different celebration this year. Our park had a huge back to the 80″s party on July 22nd. We loved the band but Colin really wanted to spend his actual birthday at home. Turns our the event was sold out. Here it was just us and the girls and we had so much fun. What surprised me is that Colin spent the morning doing a deep clean of the house. His choice. I kept trying to get him out of the house so I could put up some decorations. That did not happen. He  finally did go out and then I had to wait and wait for him to come back home. He had left his phone here.

We began the party by opening a lovely bottle of champagne that just happened to be in our wine rack. A Winter Edition, 2021. Freixenet Cordon Negro from Spain. It was the best champagne that we have had in perhaps forever. It is no longer available. A great choice this his 73rd,

Then we decided to do a ‘go find it’ with the girls. That means they hide in the bathroom which they did with Colin and I go around hiding bits of their kibble all over the house. Then the race is on as they find the various pieces hidden all over. They love the challenge and excitement and of course getting some extra snacks.

And so began our party. You likely recall that Colin did riddles and hid my birthday gifts which I only got once I answered correctly. We have been busy ( when aren’t we ) so I only had yesterday to get ready once he left the house. First of all I had to find where I had stashed his presents.  It took a while. Then I had to find and figure out the riddles ( thank you Google ). I wrote one up for each gift. Except today I discovered another gift  😀 Then I numbered the gifts and hid them here in the house. I did make a note of where I had hidden the gift. Actually I forget some hiding places and I forgot to write the answer down to a few riddles. we had a blast.

Once the girls had their fun it was time for us to play I had to create a system. Colin waits with his drink.  Those were how many beans he picked that afternoon. Want some? Each riddle was on a separate piece of ‘recycle’ paper and a number from 1 – 19 as well. Colin would pick a price of paper randomly from the bowl and hand it to me. I then read the riddle and he had to figure it out.

Once he figured it out – he was good at this, I read the number and checked my gift list. Then I gave him a clue as to where to find it. So two challenges to solve before he got that gift. I did have to give very few clues. Colin is very clever. Then Colin started asking if it was food or whatever. Example – what room has no doors nor windows? This was a tough one. He asked if it was one work or two, many questions. Yes bit was food, yes it is something we eat, yes it is in the fridge. Finally he said “mushroom”. Good one, eh 😎

He got the riddle correct but then had to root thru his two sock drawers to find the gift. The clue to find the gift was where do you keep the things you put on your feet?

A pair of socks but these have our very own girls on them. I will get a better photo another day. Meanwhile we kept sipping our yummy champagne.

Can’t remember the riddle but the location clue was where do we keep things at night that are only out during the day. I was referring to the corner where we store the bed pillows at night. This big and heavy box was there. He got the riddle easier than the location clue.

It took forever to open this box but has not been put together yet. Perhaps manana.

The girls hoping to be let out onto the patio.  Not yet, have to wait until the sun goes down a bit. No burnt paw pads on our patio.

The party went on and on. It took close to three hours to finish the gift hunt. We both had a wonderful time.

The stash included limoncello and limoncello biscuits.  Many socks of course, a few lights  for the Isla, chocolate, wine, Amaretto and on and on.

Colin wanted to make a meal at home. So with very little help from me, he created a shrimp ( yes from the Isla , I have been saving it )  Alfredo fettuccine with penne. The green stuff is Swiss chard from our garden.

Wonderful white wine, a great movie and scrumptious dinner. After a bit we enjoyed Dairy Queen ultimate chocolate ice creme cake. Colin purchased his own birthday cake. He actually bought two. So tonight I imagine we will be having the apple crumble pie with ice cream following our Isla shrimp burgers.

It was a very fun day.

Isla sunset tonight taken by Dallas.

It is now 6:00PM here at home and I only just realized that today is our 36th wedding anniversary 😮

July 18th, 1987. We were married in a private garden and it was ever so hot. But we were too much in love to notice.

We are still very much in love. I have no idea how I would function without Colin in my life. Our lives are very intertwined. We live in an open area RV and as well as we do here in our home. Somehow it all works. We have melded and just make it work. Everyday is a holiday and we just go with the flow. I do believe that large eyeglass frames are coming back into fashion 🙂

Happy Anniversary mi amore. Wishing us many many more years together.

Carlie has been on constant patrol since we saw the bear last week. She does not relax.

Actually it was July 1st, after a very long and fun day, that the bear paid us a visit. Three nites ago someone posted they had a bear in their yard, they are also on the water. Yesterday afternoon, more bear sightings. In fact, about 6 people saw the bear here in the park. From our neighbourhood it moved to the gardens and then to two condos on the lake before it swam across to Turtle Bay. Security did call the authorities…they are not going to do anything until someone is harmed 😯

Keep an eye out and watch your pets!!”   per security this morning 🙁  This morning our hounds did a sniff pattern search thru the entire yard, patio and along the fence. They were on a mission and kept rechecking what why had already sniffed. They never lifted their noses. Obviously we had some sort of visitor last evening.

There tomatoes are growing here in pots in our yard. This large one just might be ready to eat tomorrow. Someone gave Colin a cucumber from their garden in exchange for one of our zucchini. So I am planning on a greek salad for dinner tomorrow.

Our weather has been all over the place, wind smoke, heat, no wind and so on. Unusual for this time of year. This gal was just relaxing with her dog as the sun was setting.

Last Thursday I went to kinesiology. I thought that I had not done a good job last week as I likely had not interpreted 3 of the exercises correctly. Instead I was told that I had done a great job. Lise also told me that she could not believe how far I have come since last August when I started.

Car show in the park today. It was so hot: 33C/92F but there were many many more vehicles than last year. Breakfast was served by one volunteer group and another did lunch. We do live in a wonderful place.

After my kinesiology I went for my long awaited mind test. I definitely was nervous. There was almost 30 minutes of direct questions about how I perceived what was happening to me, my mind and thinking and now I reacted to certain situations. Next there were three different tests. It was not easy and was difficult to concentrate, I had no idea how I did. At the end she told me that I was above normal which was 11 out of 30. She did not think that I had dementia nor Alzheimers. However having said that it was possible ( she was covering herself ) that I might be I the very early stages. I pressed for my scores and was told that I had 26/30, 28/30 and 28/30, above average. One question that I blew was to say as many words as I could starting with the letter ” F “.  All I could think about was fart and fat 😳 I came up with maybe ten more but my mind was a blank. I think I also lost points retelling a very long story she had read to me, back with as many details as I could. One story had to do with football and all of that was way over my head. At one point she gave me five ( hey that starts with and F )  words to remember for later.  As in 15 minutes later, I did not get them all but I think I got three. It was interesting and I could see how someone who had memory loss would not score well. Drawing, numbers and letters were also involved.

I was so relieved when I left. Next stop was to pick up a few belated birthday gifts from Colin to me. We just never had that time to do it together and I was just 2 blocks away so I went. I actually parallel parked twice that day and learned how to feed a meter with a credit card. My brain continues to function. Of course as I parallel parked I had my father sitting on my shoulder giving me instructions 😎

Even a pink Barbie trailer. It was for sale.

They continue to hang out together.

First time planting patty pan squash. This was todays haul from the garden. The squash have been hiding from us as have the zucchini.  Colin wanted to keep this large one to hollow out and make tuna BBQ boats! Anyone have some patty pan recipes to share?

This is how I feel. Going to do what makes me happy…..PERIOD!

 

 

Life has settled down in our home. We have all gotten over the doxie races but more and more especially cute photos are coming out. I will share once I get all my weiners in a row.

Our garden is finally beginning to produce. It’a a jungle.

Our garden is doing well considering the odd temperatures we have been having. The past four days we have been up to 95F accompanied by strong winds and thunder showers in the afternoon. We have heard the thunder but have had no rain. The winds have caused trees to fall across roads and block traffic here in Kelowna and in our yard tree branches keep banging up against the house. Colin had to go out and do some trimming.

The peas are growing and we can only hope that this hot weather will not kill them.

No beans yet but there are quite a few flowers. Same as with the cucumbers.

Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong with my cilantro? It does good for the first 6 – 8 weeks and then it starts to go to seed. Any suggestions on how to prevent that or on how to keep the plant growing so that I can use it?

Last year we only had one zucchini so Colin planted six seeds and we have been eating young and tender zucchini for almost two weeks already.

We might be moving! What do you think? If I could build this on our new location on the Isla, I would move right in.

I have to confess that I am having some issues with my mind. I tend to forget things and the other day at the eye doctor I kept saying left to her when I meant to say right – of which two images could I see more clearly. FYI I got 3 types of eye drops and all is better. There have bee a few other issues that bother me. Colin thinks that I am fine but it is taking me twice as long to get any bookkeeping done.Yesterday it should have taken 90 minutes max but it took hours and hours. I could not figure out where I went wrong. Finally I got it completed but I was very frustrated. I often don’t have the time to concentrate enough to do a post even though I know what I want to say. I keep losing photos and papers on my desk. I just may the posting things twice, sorry about that. Actually I would appreciate you telling me if I messed up. So this Thursday I am going in to be tested for a variety of mind deficiencies including Alzheimer’s. Of course I will let you know once I know.

The girls love fresh produce from the garden. I had put this pile of lettuce on the step for two minutes and when I came back they had begun to tear it apart.

Ciela does not like the fresh peas. I had to remind Colin the other to not give all the peas to the girls as I would like to enjoy some myself. Our carrots are slow as are my beets but I did plant a lot. Long dogs, eh!

I just remembered something that happened recently  😳  We went to our hair appointment on June 23rd with the girls as we always do. I opened the door and let them inside. Tana works out of the lower level of her home. She is the one who will get the twins should something happen to us. I thought it strange that the lights were out. The girls went barking upstairs to the main house level. I followed them and then saw Tana at the top of the stairs. Long story short they just got back from her special birthday celebration in Vegas and two days later they tested positive for Covid and were both quite sick. Okay, no worries I said. However she did not have me on the books for an appointment on the 23rd, but rather the 27th. I messed up again. I was already booked that day but made changes and there we were again. The girls were happy. another long story short, Tana asked what had happened to my hair. Turns out the the back of my head hair was breaking in various layers. I had noticed in the past 6 weeks that every morning my hair was full of knots and even as I gently detangled my hair I pulled a good deal of my hair out. 😥 every morning.

May 22nd birthday hair.

Sadly Tana would not colour my hair lighter as she was trying to protect it from further breakage. She did however put a darker colour on.  Both Colin and I were in shock. I can’t recall my hair ever being that dark. My good friend Heather came over the next day and told me how much she liked the new colour. That helped me perk up a bit.

Doxie race July 1st hair colour. I am slowly getting used to not jumping when I see myself in the mirror.

So I have been thinking about why my hair was breaking. One theory was because I always have to wear a hat and likely that was beaking the hair. Colin analyzed ( as he always does ) the situation. I really don’t wear my hair that much during a day. I toss and turn many more hours every night. So just two days ago I ordered a Blissy silk pillowcase. $90.00 CAD 😮  I did order a similar pillowcase last fall but only spent 19.00USD on it. I did not like it at all.  I guess you get what you pay for. The reviews are fabulous about the Blissy product with so many no longer having hair tangles nor snarls in the morning. Also those with thin hair like I have highly recommended it. Best of all, after 30 nights I can get a full refund if needed. I will keep you posted on how it is working. I vaguely remember reading that I can give others a $20.00 discount. I would have to look that up though.

This is how the girls have been sitting to look outside. I have mentioned before how they are much more content being able to see the front road.

Perhaps a month back I started looking for a cushion to put on top of our “old hallway bench” so that they could sit higher and be able to simply lift their heads to look out. They love it. And one of our ramps worked out for them.

How special is this? Two new calves have been spotted in the past month. Yeah they are ever so slowly coming back.

I have to say that I agree with this. You?

Kudos to the photographer. Great shot.

I have to say adios for the night. OMG 7:40PM already, I have been at this since 5PM.  So happy to have written all of this. However I must do my exercises before dinner. I almost fell three times last week but my kinesiology exercises have helped strengthen various muscles and I did not fall  😀

Thank you so very much Dallas Autery for allowing me to use three of your remarkable sunset shots. Dallas climbed up a bit on Cerro los Chivos to get these spectacular sunset views. As we are moving locations on the Isla this fall, we will now be able to see a different sunset. Sadly we have had a lack of local sunsets thus far this summer.

Taken with his iPhone X and shown exactly how they were photographed. Thank you Dallas for allowing me to share these stunning photos.

Wishing all of my readers and friends a very special day.

July 1st was a perfect day and the shade from the casino parking lot was welcome.

Putting on their Canada Day shirts for the Parade.

At the start line. These were all puppies. Colin took the next photo of them running.

Another heat taken by Colin.

The rest of these shots were taken by me on my iPhone. The fellow in the red hat is a wrangler. He volunteered to help ‘launch’ dogs off the finish line.

Our sweet Ciela, she ran in the heat before Carlie’s first heat. I took this photo from someone else on the KDC facebook page. Colin was certain that she had come in first ( we have had our dogs in training for over a week ) and they knew the drill. Instead of running straight ahead Ciela diverted to the extreme left of the field and came into the finish line at an angle which the judges did not see.

The finish line was a wee problem. The dog owners were supposed to be back five feet from the finish line. However because of something being on the ground behind them they could only back up three feet. I noticed that many of the racing pups would slow down right before the finish line. Also someone was spotted reaching over the finish line grabbing their dog by the collar. Its a first time event and mistakes were made but this is how one learns. It was a great day and next time will be even greater. We found out that it takes two to run a doxie and that one needs a special photographer to concentrate on us and also the finish line.

Our friend Heather and her pup Shawney are on the far left.

And they are off.

Great view from the top of the parkade.

There were several heats and then semifinals and then the finals. Shawney came in second overall. It was a photo finish. Her Mom, Heather, was the one who organized and created this Wienerama. I can’t imagine the hundreds of hours she put in. Fortunately many others volunteered to help.

Here I am at the start line holding Carlie. She won her first heat and I believe this was the semifinals. She did get a break between these two heats.

You need two people to race a doxie. One at the start line ( me ) holding them back and the other at the finish line, Colin. Here he is enticing her with an extra special treat. Then Colin backs up to the finish line calling to her to come and get more cookies. My job was to hold her securely until the “go” was heard.

Everyone had their lures to get their dog to the finish line.  Our plan was was working, sort of. Colin had Carlie all worked up and she could see him at the finish line. However it seemed to take forever ( maybe 5 minutes ) of standing there. Carlie burst out of my hands and made a mad solo dash to the finish line.

Colin brought her back to me. He also was carrying her twin sister as an incentive. By now I was hot and had shed my hat – which you know is so important for me to wear but at this point I was worn out.

Special thank you to the lady who was standing behind our chairs, I simply handed her my cell phone and asked if she could take a few photos. Fortunately she did a great job. You can just see Ciela’s butt and tail under Colin’s left arm. Poor dog on the extreme bottom right, looking for a cookie hand out from us. So sorry puppy.

Ready to race once again but dang another wait. Carlie wanted to run but more announcements were being made behind us. You can see that all three doxies were ready to run. So we waited.

Oh another dachshund coming to race and putting herself between us and the gentleman on the right.

Carlie lost her focus and became distracted. At this point she had been ready to race at least 7 minutes ago.

And they are off and running. Great start to the long haired on my right ( your left ).

Mom we want to go home.

Colin and I both were certain that Carlie had place first in her semi final heat. But according to the judges she did not. Don’t know who Stella was in the finals as she was not listed in the semi finals.

It was a wonderful event and I believe much more popular than expected. There were judges everywhere and photo finishes. It wasn’t important to us, the girls raced and had a good time, we hope. But they were very worn out. I heard that there were over 125 dachshunds either participating or watching the races 😀

Ciela was giving us a clear signal.

As we left for home we could see the fire burning on Knox Mountain. Many had been evacuated.

As we unloaded the car this dog bed was left just inside the front door. Ciela immediately climbed in and fell asleep.

Carlie went into the very back of their shared dog crate to rest. They slept for hours.

Just after dinner they came and sat on my lap all wrapped up – security blanket.

Colin and I had planned to attend the dance at the rec enter but we as well as the girls were exhausted. We picked up a tuna foot long at Subway on the way home. Great dinner with some good wine.

Ciela when younger had chewed a few holes in her favourite blanket. It was so cute to see her paw sticking out through one of them.

At about 8:30PM we looked up from the movie we were watching to see a bear on our patio just walking along. The girls spotted him and burst out barking at the top of their vocal range. Colin was on his feet in a moment trying to get the girls inside and closing the screen door. The bear obviously bothered by the girls jumped into the lake.

Click on the link below and then click again on the tiny image. It shows how fast the bear was swimming.

IMG_5502

We were surprised at how fast the bear was swimming.

July 1st has been a very loooonnnngg day for us. The fire is contained, the girls are still tired and the bear is long gone. Really hoping for a quiet night tonight July 3rd. We all need the rest. Hope that you enjoyed my July1st trio of posts.

Thanks for checking in.

In case you missed yesterdays post ( July 2, published very late in the day ) click here. It contained photos of the July 1st parade and the start of the wiener races.