Midsummer Check-in

- Buddy finally learned how to swim at age 3.  Previous to this he loved walking on the beach, even wading but was scared to try swimming.  We were at the beach one day and he was wading in higher than normal water and I gave a little tug on the leash and all of a sudden he was swimming!  We practiced several more times by walking out to deep water and letting him swim in and he did great! He is still not keen on big waves, neither am I for that matter so we will only try swimming with him in calm water but I am so proud of him.  It is so funny though to see hubby pick him up and hold him over the water, his feet automatically start doing the dog paddle like a little wind up toy


- We had some American cousins fly in for a few days.  They kindly stayed in a BNB on the ocean as we were so busy with work at the time it would have been impossible to host them.  It was so nice to see them and meet my newest 4 year old cousin whom they recently adopted although she has been with them through the fostercare system from age 6 months.

- My 20 year old stepdaughter flew in for a few days on a different weekend.  We spent a lot of time at the beach working on her tan and it was good to see her.  She has done some maturing but still has a ways to go.  She has come such a long way in the last few years from not being able to hold down a job to recently being promoted to supervisor at the restaurant where she works after 1.5 years.  She also ditched her on again off again boyfriend (since age 14) we think for the final time but I am not holding my breath.

- We have more company coming in a couple of weeks in the form of my oldest stepson (25) and his girlfriend.  They live in Ottawa and this will be the first time we meet her.   It is very likely these two will get married as are super serious so it is good that we are finally meeting her.  I asked him point-blank a few weeks ago when they were getting engaged and instead of dodging the question he said after he completes his college and gets a full-time job as a cop.  He just finished his 3 year stint in the military (they met while he was stationed in Ottawa) and goes to school next month for a 2 year course to try and enter policing.  He is also learning French (high school French doesn't cut it) as if he gets a job policing in Ottawa they also police in part of Quebec as it is so close so he must be able to speak French.  He has been taking classes all Spring for that.

- in anticipation of their visit I have broke down and ordered new bedding for our fold-out couch.  I managed to get a bed-in-the-bag on Amazon(no I don't get a commission on that link, just wanted to show you what I ordered).  Did you know they have many items in their own brand Amazon basics line including bedding?  We've purchased other amazon basic stuff but mainly electronic things.  Cost was $58 plus tax and is highly rated.  I am just waiting for it to be delivered now (tried locally, they seriously had nothing in the pricepoint I was willing to spend) Time to gather up all our mismatched sheets/old comforters and downsize/reorganize the linen closet.  They will be taken to the thrift store and those that aren't in good enough condition for that will be taken to the SPCA for animal bedding.  I tend to hoard old bedding :)

- I also purchased a table setting for 8 minus a couple of dishes through our Facebook bidding site for $7.  It is really pretty - and would have been about $150 new.  All the dishes we own are from before hubby and I even got together and are not great for entertaining which this year we have been doing much more of.  I needed a minimum setting of 6 as we have a big family when together and this met that requirement.  Have you priced out new dishes recently?  Even though I was thinking about buying new I couldn't find anything I really liked, this will do the trick.

- I am still getting lots of strawberries, so far 55 for a cost per strawberry of .40 cents.  I have harvested 3 large cucumbers but then all of a sudden all the blooms no longer produced baby cucumbers, they shriveled up and died.  I googled, it may have been there were no boy flowers to polinate the girl flowers.  I looked yesterday though and it appears I have 3 more bigger cucumbers coming so perhaps it has sorted itself out.  Next year I intend to plant several more as love having fresh cucumbers, they grow fast and taste fantastic.  With several plants I shouldn't have any more polination problems as we have a lot of bumble bees helping us out here if they have the right kind of flowers. Cucumbers also grow extremely well in pots, the only thing is they need to have moist soil almost all the time or become bitter and love the sun.  I water twice a day.  This is my favorite item this year for growing and was so proud after harvesting my first one.  This plant has more than paid for itself already.

Long English Cucumber

- My tomatoes are so slow this year compared to other years.  They are coming, have at least 55 regular tomatoes and 30 cherry tomatoes on the vine now.  2 of the tiny cherry tomatoes are trying to ripen - they are the first of the year.  I do have 2 nice green peppers coming as well but think I will no longer grow peppers next year, just more cucumbers as I have never really had a decent harvest of them.

- The blackberries are in the process of ripening, I tried two yesterday and they are still too tart to pick, give it another week or two and my friend and I intend to pick loads to make jam.  We are going to also try making a habanero blackberry jam this year as she found a recipe, that should be interesting.

- We sold Mom's car (at her insistence) as she decided for sure that she wanted to give up driving instead of just waiting to see after her cataract surgery.  We managed to get $1700 for a 20 year vehicle but it was in fully running condition and well taken care of.  Now her expenses will be lower and we can hang out more.  We still don't have an exact date on her cateract surgery but are hoping the first eye is done in September and the second a few weeks after that.

- Yesterday we traded in our 15 year old truck and bought a 4 year old Toyota Tacoma.  This is still a secondary vehicle to our car (we use that for business) but it is nice to have a 4x4 as recent winters we have gotten much more snow and our old truck was not a 4x4.  We paid cash and we think we paid at least $500 less than we would have as bought it on the last day of the month at a dealership.  We weren't thinking of trading our truck in as didn't think they would offer us enough - but it was in such great shape that they immediately gave us a really good price for it.  We had already negotiated a price for the newer truck so could live with that as well.  One of the purchasing factors was that it had to fit in our garage as living near the ocean, even 1 km away here is hard on paint jobs if you leave vehicles outside all the time. It is larger than our old truck but still fits - they have made most newer trucks so much larger than the old days now that it was difficult to find a model that would work for us.  Financial freedom is not paying interest to anyone - so nice not to have payments to go with this truck.  And no, we didn't buy an extended warranty either.  It has 8 months left on a power train warranty and we will deal with whatever comes after that in terms of repairs.

- We are really looking forward to our fishing trip in a week and a half, I have been following our fishing guide on instagram and people have been catching so many fish, I hope the same for us.  Mom loves fishing and is looking forward to it too.  Again, I am trying to ensure we have some space in our freezers should we come home with loads of fish (fingers and toes crossed).  Last year we ended up with only one keeper but it was a 15 pound coho salmon and hubby ate it all winter (I don't like salmon).  I hope we get a ling cod this year, that fish is so good for fish and chips and one I would enjoy as well.

- I've got almost all the Christmas money saved - $1060 so far.  I am still contributing to the other funds as well, medical, travel, house (appliances/big bills) as they all need to be fed.  Our trip to Mexico in January is all saved for, costs were lower as tickets were on points.  I am now saving for our next trip with one of the kids.  Stepson #1 likely to Europe in the next year or two and after that Stepdaughter, perhaps to Thailand which we talked to her about.  As always, we will pay for the trip as long as they understand we choose the destination and if they don't want to go there they can wait for the next one.  The boys who went with us to Europe loved it and already have plans for much more world travel in their future now that they have the travel bug.

Work has slowed a tiny bit as many of our clients are on holidays so we are enjoying a slighly slower pace of life.  We have been spending more time kayaking and on the beach and with friends, all those things you should do in summer.  We had a higher liquor bill (I blame it on family visiting :)) and went over on our grocery budget - but have no regrets as the time spent with family and friends is for eating and drinking.   And that is about it for an update, I will check back in a few weeks.  Have a great rest of the summer everyone!