Moo’s Blog

I went out today and bought a paddling pool for the two dogs! It did not cost many dollars but is made of rigid plastic and is round in shape. I put in a few inches of water and as I was putting the water in with the hose pipe Bosun was there playing with the water as it came out. jaxx was nowhere to be seen! I put the hose pipe away and put three toys in for Bosun to play with. He loved it! He splashed; he bobbed for the ball; he put his nose under the water; he ‘dug’ the water and got it over the edges! He was fascinated fro so long and I was getting hot that I decided to go for a swim myself! I watched him as I was in the pool. He was still there playing when I got out of the pool. Jaxx was not aroudn so I called him but he was not in the least bit interested and just went under the picnic table which was nearby. I gave Bo a few more minutes playing then tipped the water away and left the paddling pool for another day!

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I returned to the farm after a week in Vancouver. The newly grassed field had survived! A lot of the plants in the veggie garden had survived too. However the pepper plants have hardly grown and look sad, as do the blueberry bushes. They have needed water but not got any. Also the cucumbers, and melons, not sure which (or both) have suffered. I see no signs of any onions growing but then they hadn’t shown themselves before I left for Vancouver! The parsley in the greenhouse has died. The Marigolds and Cosmos that were put outside the back door are doing OK… the Cosmos just needed a good drink to revive!

The temperature here is in the 30’s. The pool water is about 26 degrees C. Lovely!

I am mowing the back field.. I would say I am mowing the grass but that would not be quite accurate as there are more weeds than grass!! However it is green and I am happy with it! More than half the field has already been mown with the sit-on-mower.

I have the irrigation going on the grass in the front of the house and on the back field and can only water the veggie patch on even numbered days between five and ten in the morning and the same at night. (water regulations) As yet we have no irrigation fitted up to water the veggie patch. Maybe next year!!!

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We have brought Bosun on his first visit to the apartment on Sunday 18th June. So far he is doing great. He seems to be enjoying all the new smells, sounds, and sights and coping with the lack of space compared to the farm. He has barked here much more than at the farm, due I am sure to all the activity that goes on in a city environment. He sleeps on the patio in his cage at night and apart from a few whimpers the first night, he seems fine. I took Jaxx to Petcetera to be groomed and while he was in there we (Bosun and I) browsed the shop for 40 minutes or so buying food, toys and chews as well as a new halter and collar for Jaxx. Then we went back to the apartment for several hours before going back for Jaxx. Bo was delighted to get Jaxx back!!!!! He really had missed him in those few hours. I guess he wondered where he was and why he was left behind!

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We decided to go to Nelson. It is east of Grand Forks and east of castlegar. We heard it was a really pretty place and everyone we met had told us how lovely it was and how much they thought we would enjoy it.

We set off soon after 9am with our dogs on board with us. It was Bosun’s first real outing and we loking forward to viewing Nelson with our dogs beside us on their leashes.

The journey to Nelson was great.. there were dam’s and waterfalls to view and we stopped several times to enjoy the scenery.

We drove into Nelson and looked for somewhere to park the car and more importantly somewhere to walk the dogs. We could find neither but eventually found a car space that said “visitos only” and across the road was an information place. We went in.

We found we were in a dog free area!! Hmmmm. The only place we coudl walk the dogs was along a road, beside the airfield, and along a path that went beside the river and the airfield. The first section was “off leash” , the second section “on leash” and the third section “no dogs allowed”. The dogs were not allowed in the city centre area at all.

 I have no idea how people in Nelson manage if they have dogs and no car and need to walk to an area where they can walk their dogs!

We walked our dogs by the river, went back to the car and drove back to Castlegar for lunch. We could see no reason to peruse the streets with the dogs stuck in the car. I had been hoping to find a pet store to buy new collars and leashes but am sure Nelson would not have one!!!!! Nelson is NOT a city to go to if you are a dog lover!!!!

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We congratulated ourselves last weekend because we set up our swimming pool at the first effort (last year it took two attempts to get it level and located in the correct space…. this year we moved it to a different location). Also we had bought ourselves a lovely metal gazebo with a canvas roof and mosquito netting all the way round. It was heavy and once in place it was too heavy for my husband and I to lift. We could only move it inches at a time. We pegged it down in place. It looked great and was lovely to sit in of an evening and watch the deer cross our land. We hadn’t used the gazebo much and the pool not at all as the weather hasn’t been warm enough. The water has warmed up to about 60 degrees F.

Last afternoon we were awaiting three visitors for the evening when suddenly a storm sprang up out of nowhere. Within minutes leaves were swirling through the air and the lid of the bin was opened (we have a wooden bin where the dustbin and recyclables are kept. The lid is quite heavy to lift).

“There goes our gazebo” I heard my husband say as he walked out from our back door toward the barn area.

 It had been moved from the west side of the swimming pool to the east side of the swimming pool, having been uprooted from it’s spot where it had stakes in the ground. It landed topsy turvey very near the greenhouse where my husband proceeded to tie it to the wooden posts there.

Later that evening after the visitors had gone we went to put the gazebo upright and to assess the damage. The gazebo has a few tears in teh canvas top; the metal bars are bent ; the upright corner pieces look fine. the swimming pool was obviously ’stabbed’ by some part of the metal as we have a sprung a leak. We have no idea if we can repair it but are hoping that we can patch it like you would a car tyre or bicylce tube. The pool is made of strong rubber.

We are immensely lucky. No animals or people got hurt. No car was in the way of the damge. We were there to see to things. It could have happened while we were both away from the farm.

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On June 7th 2006 I became a Canadian Citizen after being in Canada since Feb 2000. I became a Canadian Landed Immigrant on April 19th 2001 after applying in Sept 2000. I applied to be a Canadian Citizen in Dec 2005.

The Citizenship ceremony was held in an Elementary School in Castlegar.. very fitting for me since I spent my life in UK teaching children of Primary School age (4 - 11 year olds) and it was really really lovely to have as part of the ceremony contributions from the children; three children read out why they liked being canadian; a class sang a beautiful song and the whole school joined in when we sang the National Anthem.

 I was lucky to have two lovely friends with me who took photos of me becoming a citizen and took me out afterwards for lunch to celebrate. Unfortunately my husband was in Vancouver working earning our money, so was not able to celebrate with me.

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I am still getting requests to exchange links with different sites. Please note I only exchange links with sites that have a relevance in some way to colorwithin so if your site does not, then I will not be exchanging links with you. Thank you. I hope this makes it clearer.