Monthly Archives: January 2009

First step to our new kitchen!

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We have big plans for our kitchen, but realize we need to go a step at a time.

This week we took the first step!

The range hood fan we had has been shorting out and making weird noises since we moved in. The house inspection report said we should replace it soon. Twice in the last few months it has turned itself on when we weren’t even in the room.

So we bought a new range hood with the microwave built in!

My very skilled husband installed it himself on Thursday.

New Microwave

New Microwave

It has microwave buttons to activate the fan and the light underneath. The only thing I don’t like so far is how dim the 30 watt light bulb that comes with it is.

Next steps: replace the stovetop and the separate oven with a traditional-all-in-one oven/stove. Replace the 2 brown porceline circle sinks with a stainless steel sink (2 probably), replace the taps with a higher set, replace the cracked counter, turn the cupboard that has the oven now and hole for the old microwave into a pantry by adding pull out shelves and a new door, replace the ugly flowery handles on the cupboards, and #1 most important – get rid of the hideous green paint on the walls!

(In case you were curious from the photos, dinner tonight was bbq’d steak, steamed broccoli, scallops cooked in butter and garlic, and a spinach/feta/greek salad with cucumber. Delicious!

Trying out MyFax

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MyFax.com - Faxing Simplified. Anytime. Anywhere.I often need a fax machine but I don’t have one anymore and don’t want to buy one and set up another phone number.

I also don’t want to fax from work because I like to keep a real solid line between my day job and my other jobs.

Last night I decided to take advantage of the 30 day free trial MyFax offers. It is a fax service that is all online. They give you a local number or a toll free number. They didn’t offer local numbers in Nova Scotia, so I signed up for a 1-888 number.

I had to sent a business fax last night so I prepared it in OpenOffice and saved it as a .pdf. Then I opened the MyFax website, logged it, uploaded my .pdf, typed in the number I was sending it to, and poof! the fax went. I received an email a short time later saying my fax was sent successfully.

If anyone sends me a fax, it comes as a .pdf to my e-mail. After the free month trial, it is $10 a month for your number (local or toll-free) and you can send 100 pages and receive 200.

If you want in on the 30 day trial:


MyFax.com Animated 300x250

Yikes! What weather!

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It’s +2C right now and raining. We got some snow over night so the road in was a slush wet mess. I didn’t go over 50km/hr the entire way in to town.

Here in town there is a LOT of water and slush on the roads. A couple of the intersections I went through were full of water.

By this afternoon it is supposed to be -5 and by tonight it will be -18!

Then we have a few days of cold weather (-20′ish) and full sun. I love cold days with beautiful blue skies and sunshine. And really, -20 isn’t that cold at all compared to Thunder Bay’s winter temperatures!

Dangers of Living in a Cape Cod Style House

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Yes that is right. There are a specific set of injuries that you will acquire when you take ownership of a Cape Code style home.

And they all involve your head.

If you aren’t familiar with the Cape Cod building style, it is where the front roofline of your house is steep, with your bedroom window dormers sticking out front.

The dormers create a hazard in your second storey bedrooms. You can stand at the window and marvel at your beautiful scenery. But you must be careful not to daydream when you are near the window because if you attempt to walk to your right or left, you will konk your head with such surprising force that you will quickly find yourself getting acquainted with your bedroom carpet.

This weekend I added a new dent to my skull. Surprisingly it wasn’t from the bedroom ceilings. No, those I have become well acquainted with.

Saturday I decided I would lean over the oak stair case railing while I bounded up the stairs, telling Sally the kitten to follow me because I was about to fill her food bowl.

Unfortunately our Cape Cod style home does not feature an open layout so after I hit the fourth or fifth step, my forehead met the ceiling with such surprise that I was fully in tears before I crumbled to the steps.

Be careful out there home owners. Dangers lurk. Head injuries hurt.

Luckily my new 2 inch long soft spot is hidden within my hair line.

Sally is home

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Sally was spayed and declawed on Monday and was able to come home yesterday.

I feel so horribly guilty for mutilating her by having her declawed, yet I know that was the only way she would be able to stay with us. I felt even worse when I was softly comforting her last night and found an amputated claw and attached bone chunk lodged in her long chest fur!

My poor baby.

Her wounds all look well. She has some stitches from the spay that will need to be removed next week. They sure shaved a lot of her belly! She’s bald! Actually, I was surprised how small the spay incision is.

I can’t wait to get our spunky little kitten back. She is supposed to be kept off of high furniture so she doesn’t jump off and jar her healing front paws. I pulled the top mattress of one of our spare beds and dragged it into our bedroom last night. I made it all puffy and cuddly so she could sleep with me on the floor.

Of course as it turned out, she can jump just fine and she slept on our bed with Jeff and I slept on the floor…..

At least Zeus, our older cat, pulled him away from his winter hibernation down in the basement by the wood stove to keep me company on the floor.

This kitten reminds me a lot of Surf – one of my Golden Retrievers who passed away in 2005. She’s so cute and funny. Sorry Jeff. I think she’s staying. “For now” .. I mean :)

Blizzard Hibernation = Over

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Jeff gets really antsy staying home on vacation in the winter with nothing to do so we took a trip into town.

It was a white-knuckle adventure down to the road. There was a layer of ice on the driveway before all the snow fell and it is still really slippery with snow on it (another inch fell this morning). Jeff put it in 4Low and hugged the right tires in the snow bank. He went nice and slow and I think it took 5 minutes to get down to the road, but we did it nice and slow and we didn’t land in the lake. Whewwww.

In town we learned that the snow removal here is incredibly poor. It almost seemed like they just moved as little as possible and are hoping it melts and goes away…. which is likely when it hits +5C on Wednesday and rains.

We noticed that there was a roof that collapsed!! At Central (our small Atlantic Canada version of Home Depot) they have 3 adjoined greenhouses where they keep the gardening supplies and other outdoor things. It is open year round and they have a display of their wood and pellet stoves in there. Well it looks like they didn’t bargain for the weight of the heavy snow that fell on Jan. 1st. Take a look:

Central's greenhouse collapsed

Central's greenhouse collapsed

Central's greenhouse collapsed

Central's greenhouse collapsed

Here are a few more photos from around town.

Bald Eagle

Main Street

Main Street

Intersection of Hwy 104 and Hwy 7

Dig out Day!

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While Jeff was deciding if he should close his offices today, I went downstairs to see if I had enough coals in the woodstove to start today’s fire (because I ran out of kindling – it’s out in the shed).

Luckily I had lots of hot red coals to catch the logs on fire, but I did have to shovel out the loose ash and coals.

I went to take it outside to the outdoor fireplace where I dump them, but I didn’t get there using my usual route.

Here is the door in our basement walk-out:
Blizzard 2009

I opened the door and saw this:
Blizzard 2009

The snow is way too deep for me to try to get out there!
Blizzard 2009

The drifts are huge!
Blizzard 2009

Blizzard 2009

I carefully carried the ash bucket upstairs and out the side door. The snow to get to the ash dumping place was over my knees the entire way. We don’t have to go anywhere until Monday. Eventually our neighbour Buddy will come and plow us out – if he can! He usually drives his tractor up and plows his way down. Not sure how he’ll do it today!

Webcam is on focused on the top landing of the driveway right now so if Buddy shows up with the tractor, you can watch. :D

I’ll take more photos when the sun comes up all the way.

Most stores and businesses seem to be closed – at least until noon. The hospital has declared a code gray – asking people to only come it there is an emergency. They have asked for anyone with a four-wheel drive on the road to give them a call to help getting their day staff to the hospital.

Yes… it is still snowing…. :D

Update 10:13am. Here are some more photos for you!

Our cars:
Blizzard 2009

Jeff shovelling out the car and truck a bit so we can move them if/when Buddy arrives.
Blizzard 2009

Blizzard 2009

Jeff checking the level of snow in the driveway – yep! Knee deep!
Blizzard 2009

Blizzard 2009

BLIZZARD STRUCK

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WOW!

The blizzard hit over night and is supposed to continue until tomorrow.

Every one of our windows is covered with snow. The winds are really picking up. Supposed to hit 100 km/hr today. I can’t see more than a few feet in any direction.

If you check out my webcam, you’ll just see the snow that is covering the window! I’ll see if I can go get a broom and clean off the window.

This is exciting!!!!!!!!!!

Updates:
At 5:30am all the plows and equipment were pulled off the highways.

8:54am – While I was downstairs getting the fire going, the side door of the house blew inwards. By the time I noticed Monty was outside, there was snow in the house and I was terrified Sally got out but I eventually found her inside. The snow outside is knee deep (we had no snow yesterday) and there is 60cm more forecasted :D

11:03am – Just went out to broom off the window for the webcam again. The snow is over my big winter boots. Some of it is over my knee now. It’s extremely windy. This is an old fashioned incredible blizzard. I love it! Too bad it didn’t hit on a work day :D

11:08am – Power just went out briefly! PLEASE stay flowing Mr. Electricity. We are way too dependent on you! We have filled up 3 pails of water, and the tub.

12:05am – A dozen evening grosbeaks just flew in to our empty feeder! Just went out to fill the sunflower seed bird feeder and cleaned off the window again. You can see them on the webcam!

10:18pm – It’s been a long time since I’ve experienced a storm like this one! In the Sault it snowed a lot and I was always shoveling – but never a prolonged blizzard like this one. It’s still really gusty and snowing and drifting. Jeff had to clear out a bit of the back yard because the snow is too deep for the dogs to move around in. Glad Jeff doesn’t have to go to work tomorrow. I am curious to see how much snow is piled in the driveway but I think I’ll wait until tomorrow. It’s difficult to walk around out there!