Interesting things that we find

So I'm going through some more stuff in the basement, and there's a bin with a bunch of old clothes in it. Looked like some of it belonged to Ruth's mother at some point. And there's an old purse. So of course before you send the stuff off to the op shop, you check the pockets and the purse to make sure that nobody inadvertently left a wad of hundred dollar bills in there.

And of course there was no money. But there was something interesting!

We'd rather be out hiking or exploring

Well, we're still puttering away at the work around the house. Ruth is probably 3/4 done the gardening... she only has one bad section left to do.

I started cleaning the exterior siding on the house. The beige colored vinyl siding is turning green. It probably hasn't been cleaned in over 15 years. I started with the worst part first... the hardest to get to area at the top of the back of the house.

Our preference is to die while still in good condition!

I hesitated to write this article because I don't want to come across as preaching. After all, we are far from perfect. But, I had an email from someone yesterday who said that this blog had motivated them to exercise more... and that's a good thing!

It's pretty common knowledge that exercise is good for you. And yet statistics say that most parts of the world don't treat exercise as the medical wonder drug that it is.

Are we rich? No, but perhaps we are wealthy...

Of course it's easy to think that the two words are interchangeable. The dictionary definitions are certainly similar... essentially both words mean "the abundance of valuable financial assets or physical possessions which can be converted into a form that can be used for transactions."

But I read about a new book coming out next month called "The Psychology of Money" where the author makes a definite distinction between the two. I've only read previews of the book of course, but it seems that one can be rich... without being wealthy. And the other way around.

Four weeks

Hard to believe we've been back here in the Ottawa area for four weeks already. Two of those weeks we were under house arrest, and even then they went by fast enough, but the last two weeks went by much faster!

And we feel like we've got a lot accomplished already, but when we look around there is still sooo much to do. And we're only here for another 7 weeks. Not rushing things by any means, but it will be October before we know it!

Before and after

Ruth's mother was an avid gardener. In fact, when she looked after the property years ago, it was suitable for Better Homes and Gardens magazine. And in fact, she won local awards for her garden.

 I don't have many electronic photos of what it used to look like, but I can give you an idea...

Busy day, with Black Forest cupcakes!

Busy day yesterday as we once again headed into the city. It was our daughter Lindsey's 34th birthday and we were headed in to visit with my mother. My sisters were going to be there too, so it only made sense for us all to visit at the same time.

Lindsey brought Cameron and Sadie with her. The kids hadn't seen their great-grandmother since Christmas!

We are shopping for a European motorhome to use in Europe

Our original plan was to be traveling Europe in a European motorhome by next April/May time frame. However, we plan on being in Germany by the end of October... at least temporarily. This will be a kind of a scouting trip, however we may end up buying and traveling then and there... or we may end up buying and storing something for a few months, or we may end up ordering something brand new, for use the following spring!

I never ever thought I would consider buying a new motorhome. In North America, I just don't see it as a good value proposition. There are a ton of much cheaper used options available, and new ones lose 20% as soon as you drive them off the lot. Of course not everything has to be a financial decision... if you have lots of cash, then it may not matter to you.

Lots of fun with the grandkids, but it's good to get back to our own schedule too

Once again, Ruth took the grandkids over across the road to the river yesterday morning to look for critters. They sure do love doing that!

Then we had an early lunch and hopped in the little red car to take them back home. It was great fun for 2 days, but it's also nice to be able to give them back to their parents!

If they're going to hang around with us...

They had better like to be outdoors and do some hiking! Day two with grandkids Cameron and Sadie and what a busy day we had! Poking around looking for snakes and other critters, then hiking and more critters, then some time at the beach!

By 8:30am, they were ready to go across the road to look for more bugs and things. I was still doing some computer work, so Ruth took them over there.

More time with the grandkids

We went for a bike ride fairly early yesterday morning. They were calling for some showers, so we figured we had better get out while the getting was good. Plus, our son-in-law Justin was dropping of grandkids Cameron and Sadie after lunch for a two night stay with Grandma and Grandpa!

There are lots of back roads that we can ride on in this area... mostly gravel country roads, although some of them are paved.

Where do we keep our "stuff"?

Comedian George Carlin once did a funny piece about where you keep your "stuff", and how owning a house is really only because you need a place to keep all of your stuff. In fact, I'll look it up for you.

Here it is...

George Carlin - stuff

When we sold our house in 2007, we no longer had a place to keep our stuff. Of course we sold most of it, but there were a few things we wanted to keep. So for a few years, we had some of our stuff stored in the basement of my sister's house.

Goodbye Sherman... it was a great run!

Yesterday, we drove an hour and a half away to drop off Sherman to his new owners. The drive was fine, and he didn't let us down on his very last day with us. Rather than being sad, all I could think about while driving was "please don't break down now, buddy!"

And we are not sad. The time had come, and we knew it. But, we sure do have lots of memories... and photos! In fact, if I go into our photos file and search for "Sherman", 1,400 photos are displayed. Sherman has to be the most photographed motorhome on the internet!

We are off to deliver Sherman

We are heading across the border this morning to deliver Sherman in the province of Quebec. Sherman will have to learn how to speak French, because he's about to become a Quebec resident. I hope he does alright with the road signs... they are all in French as well.

Yesterday we sorted through what is going with Sherman and what is staying. Of course we now have all of our "stuff" to get rid of. It almost feels like when we sold the house back in 2007.

Turtles on top of turtles!

Ruth's brother Colin is a retired machinist, but he enjoys his new work life as a part time (closer to full time at this time of year!) bicycle repair technician. Ruth had asked him if he would take a look at our bikes and do some adjustments, and sure enough he took them away last week.

He brought them back on Monday... and wow! They looked like they were brand new! Being a machinist in his past life, he's pretty good with attention to detail. So with everything now operating within their designed specifications, the bikes are a pleasure to ride. They were even before this, but now they are like new!