Feels Nice To Do Some Outdoor Work

With Corbin's help I unloaded the van and had him help me with a few chores. I had him bring out the indoor plants into the garage.

In the garage, I asked Corbin to sit on a milk crate and hang out with me for a few minutes. He turned on the radio and I emptied a bag of potting soil into the new wheelbarrow. Took it over to the hose and with Corbin's help, I moistened the soil.

I then began re-potting the plants with Corbin's help. Even got him to shove his hands into the new soil. No complaints. After a little while Corbin got bored, and asked if he could water his tree (a Rose of Sharon). I said sure, after which is hung out in the backyard for a while. I continued my re-potting.

I decided that a Coffee Tree plant would not come back inside and planted it outdoors. I still have to re-pot my Yucca Tree plant but that requires some hacking - maybe next weekend. I washed the old pots and let them dry in the warm sun. I also hosed down the easel so Tina could use it with Jeremy.

Back in the house, I worked on replacing the old thermostat with the new one I purchased. Installation was simple and straightforward. The packaging says 15 minutes or less for installation and it took less than 15 minutes. There is an error on the packaging in that it says you need two AAA batteries. You need three.

With that work done, I relaxed and enjoyed the warm and sunny weather.

Posted by Adam

Weekend Away: Brantford

This weekend, Tina and I went our separate ways.

I travelled down the 401 and 403 in the Wave to Brantford to help my mom with whatever help she needed. Tina had the van and headed up to Goderich with the boys and Bev.

The drive on the 401 and 403 was uneventful. I arrived in Brantford around 5:00 PM. Because of Alex's surgery, the vegetable garden and flowerbeds had yet to be planted.

So we headed out to buy plants. I said lets go to Lowe's - my mom had never been. She bought plenty of plants and some soil - enough to fill the back of the wave. We also stopped at Canadian Tire.

The next day the real work began. After an excellent breakfast, my mom and I attacked the great outdoors.

The vegetable garden had to be rototilled. While my mom picked out weeds, I got the rototiller down and filled it with a mixture of gas and oil. It took a few pulls but eventually the tiller started up and I began tilling away.

My mom's vegetable garden has about 30 or so years of work. The soil broke up very easily. Not like the clay soil here in Windsor. In about an hour or so, the garden was tilled. Good thing because it was getting hot.

Later we headed out to a few stores for some more plants. We stopped by the cemetery to plant some flowers at my father's grave. Then we had supper at Red Lobster (I had the arctic char and my mom had the salmon).

I relaxed by reading the newspaper and playing my Nintendo DS.

After yet another good breakfast, I loaded the car with my stuff and the rototiller, and headed back to Windsor. I stopped in London to checkout some things at the local Canadian Tire. The drive was uneventful. There seemed to be fewer vehicles on the 401. Looks like gas prices are having an effect.

Posted by Adam

It's Been A Few Weeks

It's becoming hectic around the house. All of us have been sick - some worse than others - over the past few weeks. I got beat good and had to take three days off from work. Tina has an ear infection that is finally improving.

Tina's mom, Bev, is down for two weeks. That meant moving Guinea, the Guinea Pig, from the living room to Corbin's room. Tina sat down with Corbin and laid down the ground rules. So far, it seems to be working out, though Guinea has become more vocal and more demanding with all the traffic walking by in the hallway.

Jeremy is settled in his 'new' room, which also doubles as our 'office'. The room needs a good spring cleaning and I have to move Jeremy's stuff from Corbin's room into Jeremy's room. He doesn't seem to be touching anything he shouldn't be, but I'm sure that will change in time.

I finally got around to planting some more perennials in the Rivard corner flower bed. Tina provided much needed assistance since I also bought four flats of annuals to fill in the blank areas - hoping to stop people from cutting through the bed. She has a good green thumb. Eventually, I want the entire bed filled with perennials. I'm looking at a three to four year time frame.

I also got more mulch and topped off the Rivard bed, hopefully locking in the moisture and soften up the soil some. There were some deep and long cracks in the soil last year - yes it gets that dry here and the clay soil does not help. My next project is to relocate the sand box and have some concrete poured beside the garage to

Having a couple of flats of annuals leftover, I asked Tina if she could plant them in the vegetable garden flowerbed. She said yes and she did an awesome job. But she was achy for a few days. Even Jeremy helped her out by watering each plant with his small watering can. Tina tells me that he wants a bigger watering can, but not as big as Daddy's because that would be too heavy.

Jeremy and Corbin are both in gymnastics - on different days - and doing well. Corbin has a few more horseback riding and tennis lessons.

At school, Corbin received a Student of the Month award for Determination. He was very proud of this achievement. Corbin is doing well. He does times tables in the games room and does very well. Jeremy is, well, Jeremy. He knows more of his letters and his attention span has improved since the surgery and glasses. But boys will be boys.

Recently, Tina accompanied Jeremy as a chaperon for a class trip to the Lazee G Ranch. The kids got to see horse and other animals. I'll have to post some pictures from that outing.

Posted by Adam

The Sound Of Silence

Tina took the boys and her mom up to Goderich so that Bev could spend some time with Gerry before coming back to Goderich. That meant I had the house to myself. That meant I could sleep in without being woken up by a 4-year old wanting to be fed.

I slept in until 8:30 am. I know it doesn't sound like sleeping in, but trust me, that is at least 90 more minutes of sleep I get on your typical day.

I took my time getting to breakfast. I cut up some bacon and fried the pieces up. Next was 5 or 6 farm fresh eggs, scrambled. I put the bacon in and voila, scrambled eggs with bacon. It was heaven.

The rest of the weekend I did some chores. I cut all the dead perennials and cleaned up the leaves from the flowerbeds. I vacuumed the upstairs. I cleaned the bathroom. I watched TV. I browsed the internet.

Most importantly, the house was quiet and peaceful. Good times.

Posted by Adam

Gardening, finally

This morning we headed to the Maple Leaf for breakfast - which was excellent as usual. Tina and I had no desire to go back home, so we went on a drive. We stopped at Mic Mac Park and let the boys run around and get some steam off.

Then I drove over to Pre-Dawn Nursery to buy some perennials. The place was very busy but we managed to find a good parking spot. We all got out, but quickly learned that Corbin and Jeremy were unable to listen, so Tina escorted them to the van and put on a movie on the portable DVD player.

Tina wandered around for awhile, picking some perennials and vegetables before checking in on the kids. I looked around some more and purchased a bunch of plants - mostly for the corner flowerbed at the front of our house.

Arriving home, I dove right into gardening. Last year I placed about 2 to 3 inches of mulch on the corner flower bed to help lock in the moisture and help soften the clay soil. Digging the holes for the plants, I noticed there were plenty of worms - a good sign. There were some bare patches - usually where people cut across the flowerbed - so I topped up the mulch in those area. I'm thinking I'll need to get more mulch to top off the various flowerbeds, again.

After a couple of hours, I was exhausted but satisfied with the work I had down. I need to get some ground cover for the flower bed along Rivard. I still have some more planting to do - I'll be busy every night.

Posted by Adam

It's May Already

Wow, April flew right by. It was cooler than expected, though we did not get much rain. Hopefully, the weather will warm up over the next few weeks so I can work on getting the vegetable garden ready and start planting perennials in the flowerbeds.

Posted by Adam

A Day With The Boys

Tina was attending a local conference today, which meant that Adam was the sole parent for Jeremy and Corbin. It was also compost day at Devonshire Mall, an event where you can buy compost and other items such as composters, recycling bins and so on. Adam tries to go each year and buy a bunch of compost for use in the vegetable garden and flowerbeds.

After finishing breakfast, Adam packed the boys in the van and headed out to buy some compost. The crowds were lighter than usual (when you schedule the Home Show and the annual Perennial Flower Sale on the same day, I guess that is to be expected). Adam got his compost and a shiny new stainless steel compost bin for the kitchen. Hooray.

Arriving back home, Adam set up the boys in the house and went outside to unload the compost. Back in the house, Adam spent time playing with Jeremy, who had no interest in watching what Corbin was watching. Around 12:30 it was time to get Corbin ready for karate. This was a struggle since Corbin made his intention of not going clear. But rather than get into a heated debated with a 7-year old, Adam told Corbin the decision was his to make, but that if he did not go to karate class today, he would have to explain to Sensei why he missed a class. That seemed to change Corbin's mind. Next was getting Corbin to wear his gi (the karate uniform). Adam explained not wearing the gi to class would be disrespectful of Sensei. To Adam's disbelief, Corbin put on his gi. Karate here we come.

An hour or so later, it was time to head home. Adam stopped at KFC to pickup a meal. Corbin had his drumsticks and fries, while Jeremy stuck to the french fries (for some unknown reason, Jeremy does not like chicken). A quick clean up and the boys were back to playing. Corbin's respite worker arrived, followed shortly by Tina. Boys day was over.