April 24 - May 4 A tale of two towns...and car shopping.

April 24
This week will be very different for us. Leslie is going to Bonnyville to do her work training and Margaret and I will be staying in Seba Beach.  First time in a very long time we haven't been in the same place together. Leslie has this strange smile on her face?!?!
Leslie needs to print some papers, sign them and send them back for her license stuff. We need a couple things from the grocery and propane so we will be doing a trip to a small town/hamlet to the west called Evansburg. We can use the library there for a computer and printer and get everything we need at the same time. Evansburg is quite small, about 800 people, but has all the necessary stores. There is a bakery there that is so good. My truck seems to pull in there on it's own lol. Apple fritters the size of a small plate! My favourite.
We got everything we needed plus an apple fritter to go and drove back to the rig. Leslie made a batch of dog food for Margaret and then jumped right into making supper right away. After supper and cleaning up we made a big mug of tea and walked over to the clubhouse to watch Survivor at 7 pm. We get it in the trailer at 9 pm but it is an excuse for a short walk. Not a tough day.
April 25
We started our morning taking care of some banking stuff and expense tracking. It's better to do this together before Leslie heads to B'ville. While Leslie is packing stuff up for her week I went out to see if we have water pressure. Nope. The jumper hose is working and right now there are only 2 rigs with people in them on our loop so we just fill our tanks and we're good for a few days. Still would be nice to have water. As I think of ways to try to move the ice plug I give them a try (after I check with Jeff the property owner, of course.) We are both power engineers so he trusts my trouble shooting skills but he needs to know what I'm trying.
At lunch time Leslie has her Mustang all packed and ready to roll. We said good bye in the driveway and Margaret and I watched as the tail lights faded in the distance. Sniff, sniff.   PARTY!!!!
Margaret gets treats for supper and I'm having barbecued hot Italian sausages with ketchup and bread. No salad, no vegetables. Just meat and bread... man food haha. I did actually feed Margaret but she did get more treats than usual. Then we just sat and watched TV like normal. Woohoo right?
Leslie texted that evening that she made it safe and sound to B'ville. She's nervous and excited to go back to work tomorrow. She made herself a nice salad (Yuck!) then watched a movie as well. The WIFI at the house is much better than our phones at Pineridge. She got a really nice sunset picture from the front porch.

Beauty !

Leslie update: I am taking advantage of our time apart to try a low carb diet to see if it helps my belly issues (as the ER doctor suggested). I'm sticking to protein and veggies. Fingers crossed!

April 26

Leslie's first day back at work!! She spent most of the day behind a computer doing online training and emails. Mentally exhausting after not having to do that stuff for a few months.

I had a leisurely morning and then went for a nice run. In the afternoon I packed up some stuff for Margaret and I to go to Bonnyville for a night. Paul's brothers funeral is on Saturday and of course we are going to offer our sympathies to the family. Derek has moved out a little early just because of his shift at work so Leslie and I are back in our room and our king bed in B'ville now too. Nice. 

April 27

It's really strange waking up at our house again and we don't have all our stuff there. For example; making coffee with a drip basket sitting on the mug as the coffee maker is in the rig. We got through our morning alright and took both vehicles to St Paul, AB for the funeral. It's a short 45 minute drive from our house. After the funeral I'm on my way back to Pineridge. Bad news is that there is a heavy snowfall warning on the highway west of Edmonton where I'm going this afternoon. That's just lovely. Hopefully it's mostly done and melting by the time I get there.

We attended Dennis Levasseur's funeral at the Catholic Church in St Paul. Again our deepest sympathies to the whole family on Dennis's passing. We hate cancer and how it is affecting so many we know and love. It was a nice service and as we went outside afterwards they rang the bells in the steeple. Dennis was a very well known and respected member of the local business community and he will be missed.

I had Margaret sitting in the truck with blankets to keep her warm. It's not freezing outside but not far above it! Leslie and I went to the luncheon to say hello to some friends and then I said good bye and headed west back to Pineridge and the snow.

Roads are good but they got a few inches.

Our view out the window :(

Leslie stayed for a little while visiting at the luncheon and then drove back to Bonnyville and just relaxed for the afternoon/evening.

April 28

Part of the reason I drove back yesterday is to attend our annual AGM for the condo board here at Pineridge. They are not earth shatteringly interesting but there is usually some news we pick up. It's also a good chance to meet some of the other lot owners. The meeting lasted from 10am until about 12:30 and then I met up with Jeff (the property owner) and Derrick (a board member) who owns a plumbing and heating business in Edmonton. Brings a lot of piping knowledge to the table. We walked the whole water system and hammered out a couple more scenarios to help Mother Nature thaw these lines out. That's what I'll be doing for a couple days now. The short version is we are hooking up hoses to commercial hot water heaters and flowing warm water through the adjacent pipes to hopefully transfer heat to the frozen one in the ground. Not expecting miracles but it's something.

Leslie has a whole day to herself in the house and she is building a big pot of homemade chicken soup for her lunches and if I'm lucky she'll bring some home. She makes fantastic soup! The other project she is tackling is packing up her Mom's china and crystal  and giving it to her daughter Sam. So nice to be able to pass it along with some of the memories those dishes bring back.

Lots of pinwheel crystal to enjoy

Some of the good China that got passed down, hope you enjoy it Sam.

Here's the part where I'm jealous a little. Leslie is enjoying a big bowl of homemade chicken soup for supper and then watching Game of Thrones downstairs on our 50 inch TV. My internet is only off the phone so no G.O.T. for me. Getting closer to the final episode!!

April 29

Leslie is going back to work this morning for more training and emails. Pretty soon she'll be able to take an X-ray again! It's just part of the deal when you have been away for so long, a little boring but necessary.

My plan for today is to get the warm water flowing past where we believe the line is frozen in our loop. There are two sections where I can hook up and flush through. We're calling this the short section and tomorrow will be the long run from the water header building all the way to our lot at the other end of the development. I'm using a bunch of hoses and a 60 gallon high efficiency hot water heater as a source. I want to try to limit the water temp at around 20C/70F so we don't do any high heat damage to the underground line. I got it all hooked up and flowing and then got geared up for a run. Between my run and walking back and forth I put on 16 km's or about 10 miles for the day. Still no water at our lot. Try again tomorrow on the long line.

April 30

The long run is about the same as the short run yesterday. I hooked up to a different source and got warm water flowing from one end to the other. No running for exercise today. I'm actually using my truck today it's quite far from one end to the other. Long story short; I ran water for over 4 hours and we are still frozen. Can't say we didn't try at least. Jeff is buying a hose and heat tape to hook up as a jumper line for our loop. I'll gear that up tomorrow.

Leslie is working from 7am to 3:15pm and then she is driving to Pineridge after work. It will be a long day but she wants to be home again. There is a risk of snow this afternoon but hopefully it holds off. She's really enjoying being back with the gang at work. She missed them.

The girls hard at it.

Leslie and Mallorie, get to work!

Leslie made it home just after 7pm and luckily didn't see snow all the way. We've had a little rain and it's really close to freezing but she's home safe so that's good. We had supper together and a couple glasses of wine while sharing the stories of the last couple days. Margaret is very happy to see her Mom again. She immediately jumped up on her lap with her blanket. Ahhhh... everything is back to normal.

Leslie update: After a week going low carb I'm feeling way better! My pain level is way down and I've lost a few pounds (bonus). I've decided to go "all-in" and try Keto. Stay tuned for more updates :)

May 1

Welcome to May in Northern Alberta!

It got below freezing last night, obviously, but is starting to melt while we are having coffee and breakfast. We're not moving fast this morning anyway. After the roads cleared and most of the snow disappeared we hopped in the truck to go to Evansburg for groceries and some electrical supplies for the garage. I found a local electrician named Devan who owns Just Wired Electric. Great guy. He stopped by to estimate the job and helped me build a list of stuff that will be needed to complete what I already have. He agreed to let me be his helper so I can learn a bit and he'll do the work to get our garage all wired for power. Perfect. I like being involved and learning some stuff. What I definitely learned.... if you have never wired a garage, hire a professional! There's more there than "just a couple circuits". 

We did our shopping and went back to the trailer. Leslie made a batch of dog food for Margaret. Thanks again to Earl & Allison's recipe. Margaret is doing great on this food! Then we just relaxed and watched TV. It's cold and nasty outside so we're staying inside.

May 2

Jeff had left all the stuff to heat tape and insulate a hose for a jumper so Leslie and I had done that yesterday in the garage. Forgot to write that above. I was all ready to hook up our jumper and insulate the ends but thought I had better check our supply.

WE HAVE FRESH WATER AGAIN!!! It thawed out by itself. Thank you Mother Nature! Maybe the warm water flushes helped, we'll never know, but we have water supply to our zone now. I checked a few different sites and they are all running. That's good news. I texted Jeff to let him know. He's really happy and relieved too. 

Les and I spent the afternoon in Spruce Grove test driving the Hyundai Tucson and Ford Escape that we had looked at earlier. The Hyundai dealer wanted to bring in the exact one Leslie was interested in from their storage and they had called us to say it was in. That took most of the afternoon and when we got home we both went on the laptops to compare some numbers and really dig into the comparisons. We both really liked the Tucson so far, the Escape was nice but the Tucson offered more stuff for less money. The rest of the night was just relaxing.

May 3

Devan, the electrician, is coming over today to wire the garage. He has a small job elsewhere first and then our garage. Awesome! Leslie built a list and hopped in the Mustang for a trip to Spruce Grove for groceries. Devan pulled in about 10am to get started. It's a mix of snow and rain outside and only 3C/37F so it's a good day to be working inside. We were done in less than 4 hours and Leslie bought us some sandwiches in town and I made coffee for us. We chatted with Devan and ate our lunch. Glad that job is done. We still have to trench in the supply power but that's a whole different job from getting the inside ready. I need to trench 36 inches deep for 23 feet through hard clay/sand and gravel. I see some sort of trencher in my future. Not doing that by hand. We said good bye to Devan and went inside for the rest of the day. This weather is ridiculous, it's freezing outside and it's May already!! Good thing we have propane and power!

May 4

We are driving into Edmonton this morning to continue our car quest. We have compared stuff online but Leslie wants to drive each one on her list and "feel" the difference. I totally get it and will support whatever decision she makes; this is her car. I dread the sales people at times, they can be really annoying in my opinion. Leslie wants to drive a Honda CRV, Toyota Rav 4 and a Subaru Outback or Forester. Going to be a long day.

We test drove all 3 brands and were a little overwhelmed with all the options and prices. We needed lunch so we texted Leslie's sister, Lorin. We are very close to her neighbourhood. We met at Sherbrooke Pub. Even better, we get beer with lunch. We discussed a bunch of car stuff over lunch with Lorin and left the pub a little more relaxed and refreshed. No decision yet and we think it's best to head home and mull it over. Leslie has her favourite right now which is the Subaru Forester. She just liked the way it drove and handled. Plus the new Subaru's have all the tech stuff like lane departure and autonomous cruise control. It was nice but my pick so far is the Tucson. They were all pretty nice really. They all have their good and bad points.

As we are driving on the highway back to Pineridge we get a call from the sales guy at Subaru City. It's after 5pm but he's just checking to see where we are on our decision. We haggled over a couple points and Leslie looked at me and shook her head yes! That's the one she wants and the price is where we are comfortable, deal done. We'll go in Monday and sign everything up. I was surprised a little that she chose that one but she's a happy wife. (You know the rest of the saying ;)

So we say good bye to the "Muzzy"

What a fun car to drive!

Soon to add this to our garage!

That's a big decision behind us now. Of course we need to sell the Muzzy but hopefully that will be easy being spring and it's a convertible. Well technically it's spring! There is a warm up in the long range forecast thankfully. 

We'll show the pictures of Leslie picking up her new ride in the next blog. Need to get registration and insurance taken care of Monday and then pick it up. Personally I want to go for a rip in the Mustang, last few chances to enjoy the V8 and 5 speed manual. Plus it just sounds so cool, sorry Les the Subaru SUV just ain't as cool. It's so much more comfy though lol.

Cheers everybody!