Lisa's Blog

We took a drive today northwards around Cape George. It was a lovely day, cold wind, but gorgeous sunshine.

We tried to get to the Cape George lighthouse, but the road is really snowed in with ice so it was a "no-go".

There aren't many places you can actually get to the ocean because it is all private land.  Here is a place we caught a glimpse of the waves on the Northumberland Strait. It's been really windy this week and the water close to shore is really brown.

I love pictures of old houses and barns. I should make a point of photographing them more often:

Cute little paw snow prints:

We found a quaint little wooden bridge on a snow covered gravel backroad that was crossing this creek.

Some ugly wind turbines are going up in this area, ruining the scenery. These turbines are about 10 minutes north of town and we can see them from 10 minutes south of town on a  clear day.

Back at the beginning of February, I was wandering around the yard when I noticed a problem!

We live part way up a hill, on the side of a valley, and even in the winter when things "seem" frozen, water seems to seep down the hill.

I discovered that day that ice was really starting to build up in the small drainage ditch across the back of our yard, and the ATV was frozen in the growing ice!

3 of the wheels were stuck in the ice!

Jeff, armed with a sledge hammer and an axe, saved the day!

(ok so 2 buckets of hot water worked a lot better than the hammer or axe)

And while I'm catching up on photos, we have a very plentiful wood supply after this mild winter. We might not have to get more than a couple cords next year!

The wood shed has worked REALLY well.  And because we don't get much snow, no drifts formed inside so the wood is very nice and dry and we haven't had to tarp off the front.

I met some great people today at the forestry conference, mostly thanks to an old friend of mine from the Sault, Chrissy, who is also at the conference.

Over a cookie during the coffee break, I was chatting with a nice, friendly woman all about forestry, the conference, the Christmas tree industry, and the real Christmas wreaths that are so popular here at Christmas time.

I said that I haven't had a real wreath until we moved to Nova Scotia and I love ours so much it is still hanging up outside because I hate to throw it out when it is still green and pretty.

She said she was in the wreath making business, and then she told me she was actually a world record holder!

She is in the Guinness Book of World Records for building the biggest Christmas wreath!

How big you ask? (as did I!)

251 feet, 9 inches !

She built the frame out of re-bar and it took 3.5 months to build.  It took 4,500 lbs of balsam fir branches to decorate.  It took her 27 hours, 42 minutes to tie all the brush to the frame.

Incredible!

Some links:

http://www.trurodaily.com/index.cfm?sid=200014&sc=68

http://community.guinnessworldrecords.com/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=6999174&as=7691&b= (has photos)

I love the Winter Olympics! I've been watching nothing but since it started (oh wait, I did turn the channel for Survivor!)

I like most events.  My least favourite is probably men's hockey and curling. Everything else gets me on the edge of my seat (or couch).

It is depressing when the ridiculous commentators make it sound like the atheletes failed their country when they get a 4th or 5th or even 12th.  I'm proud of everyone competing!

Jeff's been sick since Thursday night.  I think it's the Norwalk virus and you don't want details.  His fever left last night but he's still not cured. Luckily I haven't caught it!

I stayed home from work on Friday with him.  It seemed to be a flu and he had a wicked fever so I didn't want to risk spreading it at work.  (My coworker that I share an office with has two young children, and I think everyone is still H1N1 phobic.)

So this weekend has been another low key, Olympics on all day, weekend.

Tomorrow after work I'm heading to a forestry conference in Truro for a couple of nights.

We usually waste most of our Saturday going to town and getting groceries and running errands.

This weekend we didn't have anything to do in town and we have spent the entire weekend at home - most of it in the living room watching Olympic coverage.

Jeff is playing his new computer games on his laptop.  I'm on my laptop watching Twitter feeds, complaining about CTV's coverage, and doing mindless surfing.

I haven't turned my desktop computer on in my office all weekend.  I haven't done any work for clients or myself.

We took Monty to the park for a run in the enclosed ball diamond.

I fed the birds.

I replanted the lettuce and tomatoes in my indoor garden.

I went for a walk in the woods behind the house.

Jeff made chili that we've had for 3 meals in a row (can't help it - it's soo good!)

And Valentine's Day came with flowers and chocolates

Google Street View Maps have arrived! Here is our place - oh wait - you can't see our place because we are up on the hill behind the trees.

You can see our mailbox though and part of our driveway - and if you spin it around you can see the lake and our neighbour's boat.

Oh and the neighbour walking by

http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=972+hwy+7,+antigonish+county,+nova+scotia&sll=45.601548,-62.000141&sspn=0.050323,0.083685&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=972+HWY+7,+Antigonish,+Subd.+A,+Antigonish+County,+Nova+Scotia&ll=45.431881,-62.025622&spn=0.002846,0.010461&z=17&layer=c&cbll=45.431884,-62.025627&panoid=cJMJz9oOYmFu8kJCRJlH3g&cbp=11,131.54,,0,-7.74

Hey look! The flag is up - we had mail!

I'm just rejoining the land of the living after checking out for awhile due to a nasty cold.

I've never missed 3 days of work before due to a cold!

I felt it coming on hard and fast last Tuesday.  I had the feeling of razer blades in my throat, pressure in my face, runny nose, headache, mush brain and it went down hill from there.  Unfortunately the symptoms were all miserable and none of them let me peacefully sleep so I was a zombie for most of the last week.

Mom said she's been sick too. But she is several provinces away, so I swear it wasn't me who spread the germs!

The Seaside Communications installers were just here to install our wireless internet.

Buh bye Xplornet Satellite Internet!  Now we'll have faster high speed for half the cost ($54 instead of $107 a month).

Here is the antenna:

And here is my latest speedtest result.  I should have done one before, but with the latency of satellite internet, it was no where near that.

Jeff gave me an indoor light garden for my birthday!

I love growing plants.  We tried out a vegetable garden this past summer, but the vegetables weren't ready for harvest until the frost was setting in so this year we are going to try to grow some starter seedlings for outdoor planting to get a head start.

But I just couldn't let an indoor light garden collect dust through the winter!

On December 30th I found some herb seeds I had left from an unsuccessful herb garden attempt.  So I planted the remaining coriander, basil, and oregano.  The grow lights are on a chain so they can be lifted or lowered and I set up a timer to control the light period.

We set up the garden in a corner of the basement near the wood stove.  Jeff put a peg board on the wall for me so I can hang up my gardening tools

Here it is:

After Christmas we finally lucked out finding seeds at the garden co-op store.   I did a bit of research to figure out what we could grow inside, so we selected tiny tim's (cherry tomatoes), parsley, chives, and a lettuce mix.

The lettuce mix was sprouting within 48 hours!

In this one (shown above), the first row from the left is tiny tims, then a vertical row of chives, then parlsey. The 3 rows on the right were the herbs planted a few weeks ago - oregano, then basil, and on the far right, coriander.  ( confession: I have no idea what coriander is.)

Here is the lettuce mix.  I planted an entire tray.

I learned that the oregano is very sensitive to watering.  I killed off almost every oregano sprout in the back two cells from overwatering I think. They turned brown and rotted away.

The coriander is the tallest and has started to fall over.  I don't know if it is growing too fast, or if that means I need to light the lights up, if they already need to be transplanted, or if coriander usually falls over.  I will have to Google

I'm fascinated by the show 'Hoarders'.

If you haven't seen this show, it is an hour long look into the miserable life of a hoarder.

It seems there are 3 types of hoarders.

• Those that can throw nothing out and life in a house full of garbage.
• Those that have a shopping addiction and have a house full of things they've never used or worn.
• Those that pick up garbage and bring it home, thinking they can 'recycle' it or fix it up,

And sometimes the people featured are all of the above.

These people are very very mentally ill by their hoarding.  They don't see their clutter, can't smell it, and don't acknowledge that their hoarding is a problem.

The show features a therapist and a clean-up crew.  They are called to help when the hoarder is faced with an ultimatum.  So far I've seen hoarders who have had their children taken away, a couple hoarders who were facing eviction, one that was facing a divorce, and another who's house was about to be condemned.

Tonight we just watched a husband and wife who had their children taken away and put in the custody of their grandparents.  The wife was the hoarder.  Every room was stuffed with trash and clutter.  Some of it was waist high or higher.  The entire kitchen was full and every surface covered.  There were barely paths through the trash.  There was dirt, mold, and mice feces everywhere.  The woman was unable to throw away anything.

These therapists have found that they achieve the best results when the hoarder acknowledges their hoarding, and makes the decision to start throwing their stuff out.  If they simply come in and remove all the junk and clean it up for the hoarder, the hoarder will focus on the resentment and the loss of their stuff and will feel victimized.

This woman on tonight's episode wanted her children back, but could not throw out anything.  She was up in a dump truck that was waiting to be filled with her stuff, her house was full, her yard was full, and her driveway was full, but she jumped into that truck and took out a 7-11 plastic slurpie cup because she didn't want to part with it.

Because she was faced with a tight deadline and wanted her children back, the therapist and clean-up crew simply removed the garbage and put everything else in a storage facility for the woman to sort through later.  A cleaning crew cleaned the house.

At the end of the show the update on the screen said the authorities were not convinced she had addressed her hoarding and did not return the children.  Six months later the couple filed for divorce, she moved out, and the father regained custody of the son.

This show fascinates me, and drives me to clean

I'm sure there is a little hoarding instinct in me.  I'm a pack rat. But over the last few years, after moving a few times, and now having a nice house I want to keep clean, I am getting really good at having pitching sessions.  I don't want my house overrun with stuff.  I crave cleanliness.

I wonder how these people started hoarding.  Were they born like that?  Did they have a tramatic event?  A period of depression?

How do they think it is okay to live in a garbage dump? Some of the houses are full of feces. One didn't have a working toilet.  In that one the clean up crew found the flattened carcasses of 2 cats under the trash.

Most of the houses featured on the show are cleaned out with shovels.

Yes. Shovels.

Hoarders is on A&E. You can watch full episodes at http://www.aetv.com/hoarders/