Canada Day Eh!

We had a Canada Day Potluck dinner on our crescent yesterday.  We have a number of events during the year on our crescent; it's a great little street.  This is the longest I've lived anywhere in my life. There's a new crop of kids on the street now. The people who were children or young teens when I moved in are now grown adults, married and moving into their own homes. Even the little ones in this picture have grown up so fast, seems like they were all babies just last year.

We had a wonderful potluck. Some of my neighbours are great cooks, we had ribs, wings, pulled pork, burgers, hot dogs and all the fixings. Me, I'm not so much of a chef so I made a dill potato salad and brought potato chips. The socializing started around 5pm although my neighbour started smoking the ribs around 1pm; they sure smelled good. We ate at about 6pm. 

It had been threatening to rain all day but it was supposed to clear in the afternoon so we all thought the weather had missed us; we were wrong! Luckily it happened after we had finished eating and had put most of the food away. I had just got Liam out so he could meet a neighbour's dog, then this happened...

The kids certainly enjoyed it. Most everyone got soaked and had to go home to change but the party wasn't over. 

Most everyone on the crescent, at least on our half, chips into buy fireworks and around 9:30 pm we head to the end of the street. The guys set up for the fireworks display in the park across the road. One of my neighbours said when they started doing fireworks, they were the only group that did them in Barrington Park. Last night, there were three groups in the park setting fireworks off and another group probably at the next park as we could see their fireworks over the library roof. This was actually the first year, I've gone down to see the fireworks; in past years I've just watched from my bedroom window or tried to keep the dogs calm. 

Video of the

Smithers Crescent Fireworks

The fireworks display went on for about an hour. The guys didn't rush it but tried alternating with the other groups setting them off in the park.

When I got home, Teddy and Liam both seemed to be quite relaxed. Maybe without me there to try and calm them they just settled down somewhere to wait out the noise.  

Teddy and Liam want to wish everyone a very Happy Canada Day eh! But they're really happy those fireworks only happen a few times a year.

Beat the Heat

Our last camping trip was to Voyageur Provincial Park which is very close to the Quebec/Ontario border and not very far from my place so it was a very easy drive for me. It started out very hot but at least the first day there was a breeze so in the shade it didn't feel too bad. That is until it came time to go to bed, my AC in the trailer isn't cooling so it was very hot in the trailer. I left the fan on high, opened all the windows and left the door open. I didn't even need to get under the sheet. 

The next day it was just as hot. After a late breakfast, we went to Beau's Brewery as dogs were allowed in the taproom. I think they both enjoyed the concrete floor while we enjoyed some cold beer. I also took the dogs over to the boat launch in our campground and even Liam didn't need to be convinced to come in wading.  Again I left the door open on the trailer that night to sleep but it did cool down some and I did need the sheet later on.

The following day we went to Higginson Tower in Vankleek Hill and to Confederation Park in Hawkesbury. The temperatures had moderated somewhat.  The Higginson Tower was built as a grist mill but the winds in the area were inconsistent and the mill failed. The tower was then used as watch tower during the Fenian Raids and later was converted to an observatory by the original builder's son. Confederation Park is a park on a small island in the Ottawa river that looks over to Quebec. They have a sculpture to the Franco-Ontario families and some sculptures built of recycled materials.

Again that night, I slept with the door to the trailer open but actually turned the fan off during the night and got in my sleeping bag. Liam actually got up in  bed with me too. 

On our last day we did a wine tour of two local vineyards.  Stonehouse Vineyards, located in Alexandria, is owned by two former RCMP officers. The land the vineyard is on was part of a land grant to one of their ancestors. In 2012, when they had the chance to buy some of the land back, they took the plunge. The vineyard was planted in 2012 and the winery opened in 2017. The dogs were allowed downstairs in the tasting room. We went outside where they have a pavilion and a number of other seating areas.

The second vineyard we went to was the Vankleek Hill Vineyard.  This vineyard has one of the Eastern Ontario Popsilos. You might recall during COVID, I took a day trip to drive around and see the ones nearer to me. Here we all enjoyed a glass of wine while Liam enjoyed a dog white wine. 

Before heading back to the campground, we drove to the other Popsilo in the area, the Farm or Country Boy silo.

It was considerably cooler now this night so I closed the door to the trailer and and I slept in my sleeping bag. Liam again slept in bed with me while Teddy still chose the floor. 

We had a relaxing start the next morning as for me it wasn't a long drive home.  So while we beat the heat during our camping trip, I came home only to have my AC fail. Luckily, the repair company was able to get me an appointment the same day I called and the repair technician soon had it up and running again.

Summer Travels

This summer, we're staying close to home for our camping trips. We've already had two trips and have two more booked. 

The first trip was to Murphy's Point Provincial Park. We went there the week of Victoria Day weekend. The week before was nice weather as was the week after but the week we went, it was very cold. Luckily it wasn't too wet; there was only one day where it rained most of the day. We did have a campfire each night though. We all had pull through sites, so I was able to get in my site by myself. 

Podrick and Strider

I did need help getting the awning up. My brother in law can get the rope up higher and tighter than I can.  The power posts were quite far away. My sister had to borrow an extension cord from me and I had to use one as well. I was camping with two of my sisters, their husbands and another couple, friends of one of my sisters. 

This was the first trip out with Strider, other than bringing Podrick home from storage. Everything seemed to be working fine, a new converter was installed last year but I found at the end of the trip that the battery still wasn't charging when the trailer was plugged in.

One sister and her husband bought a bigger fifth wheel last year as they live out of it for two to three months and found the smaller fifth wheel to be tight especially when they have their grandsons to visit. That trailer was most welcome on this trip as we ate every meal in the trailer. It was just too cold or wet to eat outside. The weather did keep the bugs down.

In the glamping trailer

Even though the weather wasn't great, we did get in a couple walks to two old homesteads that are in the park. If it had been later in the summer, there is also an old silver mine you can visit.

And it's still a good camping trip when you set up in the dry, pack up in the dry and have a campfire every night!

Last week my youngest sister, her husband and I went to Bonnechere Provincial Park. It's one we hadn't been to before but it's only about a two hour drive from my place. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere though. I arrived before my sister and her husband did. I had planned to try and back into my site myself but when I saw how tight the road was and that there was a big tree that I would need to get around I knew that wasn't happening. I went back out the waste disposal site and messaged them to see when they'd arrive. I walked the dogs and then went to the dump station while waiting for them. It turned out to get into my site, you had to come the other way down the camp road.  There happened to be someone parked in my sister and brother-in-law's site so they had to book another. They ended up taking mine and I took the site that they had just booked. My brother-in-law still backed me in as this site is on the passenger side. I did get everything set up myself, even the awning.

We had much better weather here. It still wasn't really warm but we didn't get much of the rain that had been called for. We ate outside for every meal. The first day we just hung around the campsite. We did do the FIT trail. It's not an exercise trail but stands for Footprints In Time. That evening we also saw the Strawberry Moon rising over Round Lake. The picture doesn't do it justice, the moon really was strawberry red.  The next day we drove into Petawawa; it's about a 40 minute drive. We went to Centennial Park and then to the Dog House Brewery.  

The next day we drove into Pembroke, again another 40 minute drive. They have a series of art murals throughout the downtown area and a nice waterfront park on the Ottawa River.

City Hall

Again we ate well and enjoyed a campfire every night. This was our last night's meal, Italian sausage and Corn and Tomato Gnocchi. The Gnocchi side dish is done in a foil pack with white wine, butter and red pepper flakes served with Parmesan and fresh basil. I had bought Gnocchi filled with Asiago cheese. It definitely was a do-over side. 

We are off again next week, all of our trips are booked Monday to Friday. I noticed this past week the campground got busy on Thursday night as people got a jump start on the weekend. 

I did pop the GFCI plug on my trailer and so far have not managed to get it to reset so for now I have no outlets that work. I'll have to bring extension cords on the next trip until I can get Podrick back in for service. Oh well, we managed without electricity when tent camping.

Ain't it Great!

Teddy had his eighth birthday with me just a few weeks ago on 6 April, it seems hardly possible that the first birthday he had with me was already five years ago, during our first COVID lockdown.

We had a little party with cookies and presents. We got the birthday photos done pretty quickly, perhaps Teddy is finally understanding that the photo taking will be done sooner if he looks at the camera. 

We had the party in the morning as it was kind of cold and wet as has most of this Spring been. It did get nicer in the afternoon so we went to the Cumberland Heritage Village Museum for a special walk. The museum is closed until the May long weekend but you can still walk the grounds. 

Teddy has an interdigital cyst between two of his toes on his left hind leg. He's on the fourth course of antibiotics since Christmas. The vet says sometimes they are hard to get rid of as it has to do with the structure of their paws and rubbing between the toes when they walk. It comes up just like a blood blister, then it bursts and then we have to keep the open sore clean. Teddy has been wearing a collar each time they cyst bursts and he's also been wearing boots when it's wet outside. We'll see the vet again before this round of antibiotics are finished. It's healed up again pretty nicely but it did each of the other times too. 

It doesn't seem to bother Teddy much when he walks but without the cone he does lick the wound. Poor boy, he can't do the stairs with the cone on. I do take it off if he wants to come upstairs with me at night but usually he only decides he wants to come up after I've gotten in bed. 

Well, it ain't great that Teddy has the cyst but it is great that he's eight.  Hoping there's better health and a few more birthdays in his future.