The Weekend Was Long 2

I  had to read my last post, I needed to orientate myself.  A lot happens in two weeks.
We have been to Saskatoon and had a chance to visit with some friends. There were a number of items on the agenda.  Staying with Bailey, Slow Book Club windup potluck,  trips to home reno centres, Pat to Rabbit Lake and Key Lake, spending time with children and grandchildren. It was a whirlwind kind of trip.
Zachary, Heather and the girls were out of town for a wedding for the first couple days.  We stayed with their dog Bailey.  Bailey loves Pat. 

Zach et al returned Sunday evening.  Monday and Tuesday Pat went to the lakes and I spent time with Brooke and Norah.  Brooke is big enough to sit in a booster seat in the car now and loves to go places with Nana.  So Monday Brooke and I did errands and took Auntie Carmen out for lunch.  We had a great time!  Tuesday was Story Time at the library, it has been awhile since I have been with that many young children and it was wonderful to watch the dynamics and their play.

Norah is of the age that she changes quickly.  During the six weeks between visits she went from a chubby baby to tall lean toddler. She is walking but remains cautious, reverting to crawling if she needs to get somewhere in a hurry.

We drove home Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning I was a flurry of activity. The pantry was ready to fill and I was in heaven.

  

There is still tweaking to do, it will change again when the kitchen is done.  But I am in heaven. Did I say that already?  I have places to put food and dishes and stuff. 

Pat started his weekend Thursday at noon and the focus was the basement.  The plumber installed the drain while we were in Saskatoon so we were able to what we needed to do.

The before picture is really Pat's way of keeping track of where pipes etc. run but it does give you and idea of where we started.  It is still what we call the mechanical room but the difference is huge. The Dirt floor is covered!  The floor is a rubber side walk block made from recycled tires.  It was a lot of work particularly for Pat.  A loader bucket of gravel wheel barrelled in and tamped by hand. I was in heaven (filling the pantry) while this was going on.  I did participate in rubber block installation and again did some reorganizing. We were able to move the chest deep freezer to it's permanent home, I will move some food into it today and then the upstairs freezer won't be so stuffed.  
The pantry made shelving available so I was able to put shelving in the cold room and put some food on those shelves.  That has left a book shelf with nothing on it and so it goes. My ultimate objective is to get to the point where the only items we will have in boxes  will be Christmas decorations!  It was a long weekend but we felt a real sense of accomplishment at the end.  A couple of key jobs off The List.

We started the work week with a walk this morning.  It was glorious!  Pat had the camera and got a couple of nice photos of Yellow Headed Blackbirds male and female.

Next week I will give you an update on the garden.  Between Friday and today the potato plants grew 6-8 inches.  I can taste those new potatoes.