A Week In Review

Flowers from my children.

This past week has been a busy one.  After the most relaxing birthday ever (read the previous post), it was time to come back to reality.

Just when I thought my birthday couldn’t get any better, on Tuesday I received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from my wonderful children.  I had spoken to each of them on my birthday so it was a real treat to receive flowers from them a few days later.  It was a large arrangement of orange lilies and yellow daisy like flowers.  I’m not that well versed on the types of flowers … but I do appreciate them!  J

For those who have been following the blog for a long time, you might remember back in October I told you that I broke my tooth.  It was broken so close to the gum line that we decided that the best course of action would be a tooth implant.  It has been a long time but on Wednesday I received my temporary tooth.  Up until then there had been a gap next to my front tooth.  They still have to take impressions to prepare a permanent crown which will happen in about 3 weeks.  Then it will be another 2 weeks before the crown will be ready and I will finally have my smile back.  J 

On Friday I was flossing after dinner and wouldn’t you know it … I caught the temporary tooth with the floss and jarred it loose!  Now I have to go back to the dentist to get it glued back on!

As you read in my last blog, Ron bought me an Adirondack chair for my birthday.  I love it but I’ve caught Ron sitting in MY chair several times this week!  So for an “early” Father’s Day present I got him his own Adirondack chair.  I know that Father’s Day is 2 months away … but I want my chair back!  Lol  This way we can BOTH sit on the deck over looking the water with our morning coffee.  THIS is how we had envisioned our retirement and now it is a reality.  Life is good!

Today was such a nice day.  The sun was shining with a nice breeze blowing.  It was perfect for hanging out the laundry.  Up until now the weather had been too cold to hang clothes on the line.  I’m lucky this property came with a long clothes line.  I love the smell of laundry after it’s been drying in the sun.  It smells so fresh.  As I was hanging the clothes out to dry, Bailey was wandering around the property.  I couldn’t help think that Bailey must really love all the room to roam around.  Actually he doesn’t go too far away.  Even though we have 4 acres, he doesn’t stray too far from home.  If I think he is going too far, all I have to do is say, “come on Bailey, I’m going in the house” and he runs full tilt to the house.  It’s as if to say, “if you’re going in, then I’m going in too!  Wait for me!!” 

Well I don’t know where the week went.  Time seems to just fly by when you’re having fun.  And we ARE having fun!  Be sure to tune in next week for the Huybers Retirement Adventure.  You never know what we will be up to next!  J

My Chair

Hanging the laundry out

Nice long clothes line

Sitting in the front

Bailey doesn't stray too far away from me

Ron's new chair before staining

Ron's chair after staining

Happy Birthday to ME!!

Yesterday, April 21^st was my birthday or as my brother called it “Happy Heinz”.  If you think about it you’ll know how old I am.  J 

The day started off as usual with me waking up then going into the office to turn on my computer.  There I found 2 envelopes. There was a beautiful card from Ron and a very cute card from Bailey.  Inside Bailey’s card were 3 scratch lottery tickets (of which I won!).  Ron brought me my morning coffee then he left to meet his Ham Radio buddies for breakfast.  He usually goes for breakfast with them on Sunday’s.  Now most of you would wonder why I didn’t go out for breakfast with him since it was my birthday.  Well, I looked at it as … the day is going to start off with me having my own space.  How perfect was that!  J

When Ron returned home he came into the office, took me by the hand and said “come with me”.  I instantly began to get nervous.  I knew he was up to something.  He said “I know I’m not supposed to spend any money but I couldn’t let your birthday go by without doing something.  So I thought you might like this to go with your morning coffee.”  He then opened the front doors.  I stepped out and saw an adirondack chair!  I’ve always pictured myself sitting on the front porch in one overlooking the view but never thought we would get one.  I was speechless.  He had gone to the breakfast and then went to pick it up.  One of the Hams makes them as a side business and Ron had talked to him about it weeks before.  All we have to do is paint it or stain it to whatever color we want.  We are going to stain it to match the wood from inside the house.

I was very surprised as to how comfortable the chair was.  We had tried sitting in some plastic ones at Canadian Tire but I found them to be too uncomfortable.  I’m a short person and I found that it was very difficult for me to get out of the chair.  Also the back of the chair seemed to be too far back and I always felt that I had to lean my head forward to have a conversation making my neck hurt.  The gentleman who made this chair brings the back a little more forward and the legs a little shorter so it’s easier getting out of it.  He also cuts out 2 half moons out of the bottom board so the back of your legs aren’t pressing against anything.  The chair fit me like a glove.  It was so comfortable.  I’m sure I will be enjoying many a morning coffee while looking out over the water. J

I spent the rest of the day doing what most people say they “wished” they could do for their birthday.  I did NOTHING!  That’s right … nothing!  No work, no laundry, no cleaning the house, nothing.  I received several phone calls during the day from all of my children, my family from BC and also my family in Europe.  I had many many well wishers on Facebook as well.  Thank you all for that.  It was so nice to be remembered.  J

As for my activities for the day … remember I had none.  The only thing I did all day long was catch up on the 50^th Anniversary Marathon of General Hospital … which is the soap opera I watch.  The show has been running for 50 years and to celebrate they ran the 50 best episodes from those years, starting with the very first episode of General Hospital.  I didn’t get to watch it or tape it when it originally aired at the end of March but through the magic of internet and You Tube I was able to see it now.  Throughout the day Ron would check on me to see if I needed anything.  He would bring me food and water while I continued to see episodes I’d never seen before.  I was a happy camper!  It was truly the best birthday ever!!  J

My new chair for the front porch.  I love it!!

Oh What a Beautiful Day!

It's been a long day!

Today was a beautiful sunny day in PEI.  We started the day sitting on our front deck in just a t-shirt.  It was so nice that I decided to have my breakfast while looking at our fantastic view of the water.  We couldn’t get over how the weather had taken a turn … for the good this time.  As we sat on the deck we couldn’t help notice how quiet it was.  You could hear a pin drop.  It reminded us as to why we moved here.  It was so relaxing … until Ron spotted a Red Fox watching us!  We decided to walk down toward where Ron spotted it.  As we got closer the fox popped up from his hiding place and started walking toward us.  I don’t know if he wanted to play or perhaps he thought we had some food for him.  Ron wasn’t going to take any chances and raised his arms over his head and yelled at him to get out of here!  The fox turned and ran away.  I actually felt a little sorry for the fox but on the other hand, we don’t really want him to get into a fight with Bailey.  Since Bailey has had no experience in fighting, I think the fox would win.

Then Ron wanted to take me on a tour of the property.  We started at the road and he explained to me where the property lines were.  They were marked with wooden pegs so it was easy to see.  We walked from one peg to the other.  I kept looking back at where we came from and kept saying “ALL of this is OURS?”  I didn’t realize just how big 4 acres were!  It’s huge!!

At the end of our property tour, we received a phone call from Home Hardware.  The planter boxes I had ordered for my garden were in!  I have a birthday coming up and my wonderful mother had given me an early birthday present of two garden planters (which I had to order) and a dump cart that attaches to our lawn mower.  With the weather being so warm, we decided to go to Summerside immediately and pick up the planters.

Once we arrived home, we put the planter boxes together and placed them out in the yard.  Then we got the lawn mower out with the new dump cart attached.  We had a big pile of dirt at the side of the property that the workers had scraped away when they built the garage last November.  Ron filled up the dump cart and drove it to the other side of the property to where the planter boxes were.  Then we dumped it into the boxes.  The dump cart holds a lot of dirt, but the planter boxes holds a great deal more.  It took four loads of dirt for each of the planter boxes.  Thank goodness we had the dump cart!  If we had to wheel barrow that amount of dirt that distance I’m sure it would have killed us!  Thanks Mom for keeping us alive to live another day.  J

The plants that I have started indoors are growing faster than I imagined.  My tomatoes are growing as well as my chives and peas.  Actually, my peas have taken on a life of their own and have taken off big time!  I had to put some chop sticks in them to help them stay tall.  They were already starting to droop down and wrap themselves around other plants.  When I mentioned that to a sales clerk today she told me that I would be reaping a crop of peas before I could put them in the ground!  And she might be right!

Anyways … I know I asked for some suggestions for my blog in my last post, but I just had to write and tell you what a fantastic day we had today.  Although with all the gardening I’m sure we will be in the hot tub soon!  I can’t wait until it warms up enough that I can plant my indoors plants outside.  They tell me that it won’t be until the first week of June!  I don’t know if I can last THAT long before taking a chance and planting them a bit earlier.  We will just have to see ... so stay tuned! 

Well there's one.

Now where shall we put this one?

This looks like a good spot!

Ron thinks his work is done.  Guess again!

These make good doggie pens.

Backing the dirt in.

This dump cart saved us a lot of work!

Smoothing out the lumps

The day was too much for Bailey

Have to make it perfect.

My plants will have a fabulous view!

Yes honey ... I'm working!

Now what should I plant in this one?

A view from behind the house

Back in the shed.  Good job dump cart!

These are my plants on April 5

These are my plants April 15.  Only 10 days after planting!

My peas are growing fast!

I have already cut some chives and they are only 10 days old!

What’s New?

Where is Spring??  This was taken April 13, 2013.

As I sit down to write another post for the blog, I find that I seem to have a bit of a writers block.  I’m finding it hard to think of something interesting to write about.  I could always write about the weather, but I think that most people are tired of reading about snow.  Yes … I know it is the middle of April … but yesterday and today it has been snowing … again!  At times I think PEI only had nice days when we would come for a visit.  Now that we are living here it’s another story.  But enough about the weather.

For this week’s entry on the blog, I have decided to let my readers suggest topics for the blog.  Maybe there is something you would like to know about in PEI or maybe there is something you would like to see, and if I could, I would take photos of it for you.  Maybe there is something that you would like me to revisit here on PEI.  Is there anything you would like to see or know about? 

So put your thinking caps on and send me an email or post a suggestion at the bottom of this blog.  I will do my best to grant your wishes.  I would love to hear from you!  J

It’s Gardening Time!

I have never been much of a gardener in fact I usually kill any plant that dares to cross my path.  I even got a cactus once, thinking that this had to be a plant that would survive my lack of gardening skills.  It would be strong enough that even I couldn’t kill it.  I was wrong.  That poor cactus plant didn’t stand a chance under my gardening guidance.  It was dead within a month.  At least it didn’t die in the first week!  I gave it extra points for lasting so long before going to the prickly plant place in the sky.

However, with owning 4 acres of land, one feels the need to plant something.  So I have decided to give it another try.  I bought a big tray that holds 72 mulch pucks that all you have to do is add water and they swell up so you can plant your seeds in them.  I thought to myself … well that looks easy enough.  So I bought some flower seeds and added the water to the pucks.  When the pucks were swollen I carefully added the flower seeds to them.  I put the dome lid over my precious flower seeds and anxiously awaited their arrival to sprout.  I then waited … and waited … and waited!  Finally I saw a couple of pucks had some green things growing!  I was so excited!  But wait … what about the other 48 pucks?  There is nothing growing in them!  I suppose they heard about my gardening skills and thought … why bother coming out.  She’s only going to kill us!  To this day, 2 months later, they have not come out.  Oh, and those green things that came out and gave me such hope, well they haven’t grown much more and come to think about it … a few of them could be weeds. 

I’m either a glutton for punishment, or I don’t give up easily but I’m trying again.  This time I got some different flower seeds, another 72 puck tray and thought with all this acreage I would have a vegetable garden too.  I know, I’m feeling very ambitious!  For the vegetable garden I thought about what we like to eat and got seeds for growing peas, beef steak tomatoes, green onions, chives, English cucumbers, corn on the cob, beets and carrots.  I heard that you could start some of the vegetables indoors so I got some little containers and potting soil and planted the peas, green onions, chives and tomatoes.  I wasn’t too sure about the tomatoes because they said to start them in a “soil less environment”.  Since I didn’t know what that meant, I planted them in dirt.  I know … planting them in dirt isn’t “soil less” but then … I’m not a gardener so I figure we are even.  J

After they were all planted, I gave them a little pep talk and asked them nicely to try and grow as hard as they could.  I know talking to your plants sounds silly, but many of my friends talk to their plants and they do well.  At least I hope they are talking to their plants.  I might just have crazy friends who pretend to talk to the plants but are really talking to themselves.  Either way it worked!  Three days later I looked in on my efforts of gardening to find that they had sprouted!  My babies were growing!  How exciting is THAT!!  I was thrilled!!

Now all I have to do is figure out when the last frost is (they always mention that on the package) and when I should put them out in the garden.  It will be fun picking things out of the garden and cooking them.  You can’t get much fresher from garden to table on the same day.  I feel like Scarlet O’Hara from Gone With the Wind when she said … “As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again!”  Well ... maybe that is a little too dramatic, but it will be nice to eat what we grow.  Now let’s hope they continue to grow!  J

Planting the seeds

Making sure they get plenty of light

This was my first try at planting.  Not much grew.
The pots on the end are plants from my second planting
that grew so quickly they didn't fit under the dome.

My version of a hot house

They are growing!!

My second attempt at growing flowers

They are popping up too!  Maybe it will work this time!

They are off to a good start

I don't know if the pucks are going to develope flowers or weeds!

My gardening centre

This looks very promising!