After I was finished the rock was much cleaner than I was.


The water draining from one side of the driveway ......through the driveway... to the other side.

We drained out about 2 feet of water from one side to the other.


The pieces of the dock went together really easily.....I was glad that we spent the time and built it all last year.



Done!


The dock all in place with the boat tied to it.


Things have been progressing nicely at the lot. We pressure washed the Rock surface and staked the corners of the foundation. We put the dock in, fixed the driveway and set up the bug room at the trailer, they came and did the health inspection for the septic system ...........then disaster struck! Shelly called around supper time to tell us that the basement where we stay while in Fergus, that has all our stuff stored in it, was flooded with 4 inches of water. The sump pump quit working and of course with the Spring run off there was lots of water to come in. We had to leave everything at the lot and head back to Fergus to assess the damages. My bedroom suite is trash, oak dining table and chairs wrecked, countless other pieces of furniture ruined but the worst of all was my Mom's china cabinet. There is water damage to the bottom and I can't replace that. Also a chair that was hers and some embroidered table clothes that she made. Thankfully all my pictures and stuff like that were high and dry so no damage there.

It is going to be a huge task to sort through all the stuff, pitch what is wrecked and repack what is still good and move it to a dry storage location.

I guess it had to be sooner or later.......I guess I would have preferred later.

Not too sure about this Rice Cereal thing!

This is what trouble looks like!


I am soo happy in my exer-saucer!

The Stump finally on the burning pile.


Drilling the hole ......and

Placing the spike for the lefthand back corner of the cottage.


The ice finally breaking up.



We had a visit from Luke, Shelly and McKenna for 2 days this week and Luke was a great help to Colin clearing the rock. Shelly gave it a valiant effort but due to the fact that she is still recovering from her operation on her knee, was limited as to how long she could help. I had some fun time baby sitting McKenna while her Mommy and Daddy were down at the bottom of the hill.

On April 24th the ice started to breakup and on the 25th it was pretty much all gone.

Colin and I finished clearing the rock off and placed the first pins in the ground to mark where the foundation forms can be constructed. Clearing the rock was tedious because every little crack in the rock had juniper roots in it and they don't like to let go! Good old back breaking labour!

Unfortunately we now have a stream running through the driveway. The last part caved in on Sunday April 19th. We have to buy a culvert and put it in to solve the problem.


Victory over the stump!

Colin has started to clear all the soil off the rock and removing some stumps of the trees we cut down last year. Little tractor.....Big stumps......lots of work! It was quite a task but he finally won out over the stumps and they are both burning happily on the burn pile.

I have started to build a stone wall around where my garden will go and have been busy cleaning up branches of trees we have cut down and some that came down over the winter.

Getting ready to cross the stream in the driveway.



Fighting he stump!

We already knew we were going to buy a little tractor to help put logs up but were not quite sure where, when and what. Colin found two that interested him, one in our hometown of Elora and one in Ottawa. The one in Ottawa was older but had a back hoe and a scoop so we decided since there was too much snow to do anything at the lot, we would drive up to Ottawa and check it out. It is 18 years old but runs great and everything works. The dealership did not have a trailer that we could use to take it home so we did a one way U-Haul rental and loaded her up and headed back to Monetville. There was no operating Manual so Colin had to figure out how everything works.....more importantly get it off the trailer. With a great amount of dexterity he backed it off without incident. We then took the trailer back to Sudbury and had dinner out at “Mr. Prime Rib” as it was my birthday.

Okay, so we kind of miss judged how much snow would be up at the lot. Luckily Shelly and Luke had to go up to Elliott Lake and on their way home they checked things out for us. They said that there was at least 2 feet of snow on the driveway and where we park the trailer.

We decided we better call the back hoe guy and have him clear the spot where the trailer had to sit. Good thing we did that!!!

We arrived and were greeted by a few huge piles of snow that had been pushed off the trailer spot. Underneath of course was a muddy mess as the frost is still not out of the ground. The driveway down to the house site won’t be passable with the truck for a while.

Parking the trailer was FUN to say the least.......but after a couple of tries we slithered in on the mud. Thank goodness for 4 wheel drive! We couldn’t wait to see down by the water so we left the slides in, put on our boots and headed down. We were sinking in up to our knees and the dogs were disappearing in our foot prints, but we made it down. We had lost a few trees over the winter and unfortunately one at the front of where the house will be going that we were really hoping to keep. The shed served us well through the winter and when we opened it, found it dry and neat like we had left it. The docks and stairs were all in good shape and were where we left them. The water level is still down about 3 feet and the ice is still in.

It is so nice and quiet up here......so we had a wonderful night of sleep!


We woke up to gently falling snow which is increasing steadily every time we look out the window. We managed to hook up the satellite cable so we now have TV. The dogs have had great fun running through the snow. When I walked them I managed to find an icy spot on the road and went straight down on all fours. Didn’t hurt myself but had to do a quick scan to make sure no one saw me.

Stay tuned as I have an incredibly slow Internet connection and will upload photos at a later date.

Our trip home took us 4 days with some wonderful stops at some of the best campgrounds in the world.......Wal-Mart parking lots. Our first night we even had internet. When you are just traveling it makes life so much simpler when you can just pull into the parking lot, drop your jacks, put out your slides and whalah........your done. We tend to travel later on in the day so you don't have to worry about pulling into a campsite in the dark.

Our trip was uneventful and our Border crossing one of the easiest ever......Where do live......where did you come from......do you have any alcohol.......have a nice day goodbye! Perfect. Our last night on the road we spent in the Wal-Mart in Cambridge and then in the morning carried on to Colin's Mom and Dad's to do their taxes .....with the side benefit of washing some of Colin's pants as he was down to shorts and it was just too cold! We had a nice visit and left for Barrie by 3:00. THis had to be the most miserable day of our trip, with rain, fog, and just generally undesirable weather. Parking in Corts drive way in the rain was a little less than fun but with the job done we went inside to see everyone. McKenna has grown soo much since I saw her in February and Shelly is back on two feet again. She still has a good limp but is coming along nicely. Sherri-Lyn is looking great and baby Logan is growing bigger by the day.....I am getting very excited to meet this little boy. I even felt him kick for the first time. It was really great to see everyone again and spend a little time with them before we head North to the Lot..