Back at it…

Wow, I can’t believe its been so long since my last post, about 6 weeks!!!  My plan was to post every few days…oops!  With recent events in my family, my parents visiting for 2 weeks and a busy work schedule plus some travels I haven’t taken the time…I’m getting back at it now!  I forget how liberating it feels to write, I really do enjoy it

So much to share with all of you!  Winter has arrived for us…we are on day 9 (in a row) of snowfall and no signs of it melting.  Mind you the sun actually was out for a good part of the day.

We got a new puppy a week ago, a hearing impaired chihuahua that we have named Tia.  Life is great with our dogs, we love them so much and she is proving to be a fantastic addition to our family.  Pictures and post to follow soon I promise!!!

We have also made a final decision on our home.  The house in NB is up on the market again…fingers crossed it sells soon!!! We are continuing to rent in Fort Nelson in the same house we have been in for almost a year now.  We have decided that as much as we were looking forward to it, we will not be living in an RV full time.  We have not purchased one and I think it just wasn’t meant to be…for now anyways, who knows what the future will bring.

My goal is to be as positive as possible and enjoy every moment I have.

I will post about my crochet projects soon, I’ve been busy at it!!!  I love to crochet!!!

So that’s it for today, it is my only day off and I plan on relaxing for a while especially since yesterday I hurt my neck.  No idea how I did it, but I have a knot in my neck, left side and I can’t turn my head like I normally do….bummer!!!  Maybe I can convince Shane to give me a massage???

 

Life is better with dogs…

I believe strongly that life is better with dogs!!! We have 2 and they are special to us not to mention they have special needs.  We wouldn’t want it any other way!!!

Rahja is my 4 year old American Bulldog.

I wanted and English Bulldog first but knowing they are prone to health problems and they are an expensive dog to buy, I decided on an American Bulldog.  Boys did I get fooled on that one, lol.  Rahja has allergies which causes her to have skin problems and she requires daily medication to keep her skin calm.  If you miss a dose, well, she starts to get very itchy.  Due to her allergies, we buy premium good quality dog food.  Not cheap!!!  But she is worth it.  To top it off, she had emergency bowel surgery a few years back due to a bowel obstruction (my bikini bottom, long story, will post about it some other time) Annnnd….she needed extensive leg surgery a few years ago.  She had a TPLO surgery which means expensive vet bills, long recovery and a lifetime of worrying that her other knee will “let go” and require another surgery.

She tore her cruciate ligament and that is the same as a person tearing their ACL.  Easy for a person to understand, not so much for a dog.  Rahja is slowly becoming bald due to her skin problems so she does not like winter, rain or anything that could be close to cold weather.  We should seriously consider moving to California or Florida or Arizona for her instead of northern BC (we are only a few hours from Alaska)  Besides all her “issues” I love Rahja more than anything.  We had rough times together when I had to put down my first dog Dakota and we got thru it together.  She is my big, sad looking, almost bald, special needs baby…

Then we have Tucker.

He is our 2 year old Boxer and guess what….he has special needs to!!!  I found his picture online.  At the time I was looking for a second dog to add to our family and I wanted a small dog like a chihuahua.  Shane, not so much.  As soon as I showed him Tucker, he fell in love and wanted him right away.  I told him to call thinking this cutie would be adopted already but as luck would have it, he wasn’t.  We made plans to make the 3 hour drive (one way that is) the next morning to go pick him up.  He came home on Sunday and the following Thursday, Shane flew out to Fort Nelson for 5 1/2 months for work (we were still living in NB at the time)

Tucker was a handful as a puppy and some days I really resented getting this dog but fast forward to today, I love that goofball with all my heart and I understand why he was so difficult as a puppy.  You see Tucker is deaf, completely deaf, does not hear a thing, no need to whistle or snap your fingers or call his name, trust me, he is deaf!!! (people try it all the time when we tell them he is deaf)  We did not know when he got him that he was deaf, it took a few months to figure it out. I assumed he was just a goofy difficult puppy, lol.  He is trained on hand signals and often “listens” better than Rahja who may I remind you has perfectly good functioning ears.

Life is busy with these 2 but we wouldn’t want it any other way.  Oh the stories I could tell you all of the things they have done.  I guess its part of puppyhood, right?

If you are considering adopting a dog, make sure you understand the commitment.  Factor in vet bills, food, training and all that comes along.  They are not just pets to us, they are our babies, we love them and put effort in their care.  If you are considering adopting a deaf dog, think about it long and hard, their requirements are different but the reward is great.  Shane and I have decided that any future dogs we adopt will have “special needs”, more than likely will be deaf.

Enjoy every moment you have with your pet, they are only with us for a short time…

To move or not to move…better yet, where are we going?

It’s been a big debate in our house lately…do we stay in Fort Nelson or venture to a new city?  Fort Nelson has been good to us so far but lately work for Shane has slowed down and we rely on his income to get ahead.  Although we really want to live in a 5th wheel camper, it’s not in the cards for us at this time.  Our first pick was to small and our 2nd pick was perfect but to expensive and the financing got turned down.  So back to the drawing board for us.  We can continue to rent here, my job is secure (my office is practically begging me to stay) but at the same time we struggle with being so far away and so remote and again, Shane’s work is more on the slow side in the last few months.  Rumours have it that the industry will be slow for possibly the next 2 years.  BC is beautiful, but Alberta has been of interest for us to.  We are considering a move to the Edmonton area.  The price of fuel is less, less tax, we have friends and family there and we would be close to a big city with all its amenities.   Shane would have steady work, good pay.  The down side, he would be traveling for work more and be away from home for long periods of time.  Decisions, decisions…

We are giving it a while longer to see what develops here and then we will make a final decision.  I try not to stress over these things as it has always worked out in the past.  It’s not going to be any different this time.

I just keep telling myself life is an adventure, may as well enjoy and… it all happens for a reason…

Life is to short…

Tragedy struck our family again this past Friday.  A young cousin lost his life in an accident.  The first picture in my mind was him as a baby, dressed in blue, wrapped in a white blanket sleeping in my arms.  My other thoughts were of him as a child, as a teenager and as a young adult smiling….always smiling.  He lived life, traveled, saw some of the world.  I will always remember his smile…

This re-enforces my saying that life is an adventure, may as well enjoy it.  I don’t want to live with regrets and wonder what if, I want to see the world and be happy, always happy.  It makes me want to simplify my life to not have as much stress and to have more time to enjoy it all.

We are getting closer to our move in to the 5th wheel camper.  I finally got to see it in person over the weekend.  Now we wait for financing.

If I can give advise, live your life to the fullest, every day because life is to short…

Shane can keep driving…

I’m so happy Shane is a truck driver!!! I don’t mind driving, I enjoy it most of the time but for long trips I just can’t do it…4 hours is usually my max and then I’m just tired and sore.  I’m proud to say due to circumstances I had to drive from Fort Nelson to Grande Prairie…all by myself!!!  Well, the dogs were there but they can’t drive.  Got up at 4am, left a few minutes after 5am and made it to the airport with a little time to spare.  The drive went very well, started to feel tired the last half hour or so which is pretty good considering its a 7 hour drive!!! Shane’s flight was on time, dogs went nuts when they saw him.  He had been away working for about 10 days.  Dropped the dogs off to a nice kennel for the weekend and then another 4-5 hour drive to Edmonton.

Now we get to go look at our new camper today (hopefully everything goes thru on the financing)  Eeeek….soooo excited!!! All I have seen is pictures of this unit, can’t wait to see it for myself

This is going to be a great weekend…Checking out the camper today, shopping at West Ed mall today as well, meeting up with Shane’s friends tonight, meeting up with my cousin tomorrow at the farmers market in the morning and Metallica concert tomorrow night…I might like it here….except the traffic…Shane can keep driving…he’s the pro at it anyways

Wordless Wednesday - No words need how awesome this grill would be

Reblogged from Particular Girl:

This looks awesome, I want one, thought I would reblog this for you all to see...I think this would be really cool to have in the camper, easy to clean, versatile....lots of ways to use it!!!  I wonder what Shane will think?

Let’s try this again….

Well after turning away from the 5th wheel camper we chose in Chilliwack, we have now found a better one in Edmonton!  We are going with the original plan, a 5th wheel toy hauler.  This is one big camper….can we even call it a camper?  It has  42″ Tv and a fireplace, It’s nicer than some houses!!!

We have spent the last few weeks looking and looking and …looking some more at floor plans and weighing all our options.   Shane and I both think this is the one….actually, we know this is the one.  Now, let’s try this again, need to get our ducks in order here, get financing approved…fingers crossed!!!  With a little luck, this will work out well

As for the RV place we talked about earlier, they have surprised me and offered to fix their poor customer service.  I appreciate their effort, it’s a kind gesture, they have offered dinner, overnight accommodations and also offered to pay for the hitch and installation.  I think that goes to show they do care about our business….its to bad we decided on a better camper.  Oh well, such is life.  I will be sure to send them an email to show our appreciation for their gesture but telling them we prefer to still hold off on purchasing at this time (from them anyways).

It all happens for a reason…lets see what’s next…we might become gypsies after all…well kinda…will post pictures soon…

Redneck turtle burgers…YUMMY!!!

Before we go any further, let it be known that NO turtles were EVER harmed in the making of these!!!  Glad we got that out-of-the-way  We are meat lovers and I do apologize to those of you who are not, this may be difficult to look at, viewer discretion is advised…

Pinterest is a wonderful thing, I keep finding all these recipes I would love to try, the pictures on the site are just amazing….then I stumble upon this turtle looking burger thing…couldn’t resist as I could see bacon was involved….life is better with bacon!!! This is the first Pinterest recipe I try…yay for me! It turned out pretty good!

This fantastic masterpiece consists of ground beef or if you prefer like we do, ground pork, some cheese, bacon and hot dogs.  These are staple camping food people and once we move in the 5th wheel you better believe I will be making these.  It’s a versatile one to, you can cook it in the oven or on the BBQ. (yes this is my attempt to make these sound so awesome that you don’t notice they are possibly not that healthy)

So this is how you make these little (or big) guys.  Make a patty with your ground meat (beef, pork or even turkey or chicken, I don’t judge, it all works). Take some cheddar cheese or whatever cheese you like, put it on top of you patty.  Take some bacon and make a little basket weave with the slices.  Wrap the ground meat of your choice with the bacon.

Last step, take a few hot dogs, cut them up to make legs a head and a tail and place accordingly in the burger patty/ turtle shell…VOILA…redneck turtle burgers!!!

I put these in the oven 400° for like 45 minutes.  Now to make my life easy I always line my pan with tin foil, makes it a breeze to clean, I also put a little rack in the bottom of the pan, like the kind you use to put your cookies on to cool.  This lets all the grease and fat drip in the bottom.  Don’t forget to cover it with foil to, stops the grease from splashing all over the oven and helps with the cooking.  We didn’t use buns or bread, just a little ketchup made it perfect.

Shane and I discussed we need to have these once a week….I think for our sake the rest of the week we should eat salad with no dressing, LOL

Now that I’m almost done writing I’ve been thinking on how our vegetarian friends could enjoy this…I’ve had meatless burgers before and there are vegetarian hot dogs out there…cheese is optional if you don’t eat dairy…now bacon, how does one replace bacon…this may need more thought, I’m sure I could find a vegetable to make it work!!!  Some spices and VOILA…the vegetarian version!!!  Some days I amaze myself at my creativity.

Ok peeps, don’t knock it till you try it, I know it’s possibly not that healthy but its soooooo yummy!!! If you change it up with ingredients, let me know, I might want to try different flavours of this bad boy!!!  Now when I made these last week, as I was checking to see if they were ready, we saw a bear in our backyard (see previous post).  Lets hope next time I make these, no bear.  Ok, I better thaw some meat…now that I’ve written about them and I’ve looked at my pictures, I want these for dinner….MMMmmmMMM….

Repurposed Antique Chairs. Cool!? You Decide!

Reblogged from BrentOtt.com:

I might need these for our dogs, I think they look cool and would match our house in NB....not so practical for the camper though...

There’s a bear in the backyard!!!

We currently Live in Fort Nelson BC, its far north and definitely in bear country.  We did our research before moving and fully understood that at any given time, a bear could stroll in our yard.  We live on about 4 acres of land on the outskirts of town.  It’s a heavily wooded area and full of wildlife.  From the start I was kinda apprehensive about bears because of all the stories you hear of people being mauled not to mention that people have died from bear attacks.

As a safety precaution we did purchase 2 cans of bear mace so that if we do go for a walk, hiking or camping, we have something to possibly keep us safe.  When Shane first met our landlord and looked over the property, our landlord warned us of bears.  He had one on the property the previous year that was a little to comfortable and getting close to the house.  He just didn’t seem to want to go away.  He was eventually shot and disposed of.  It’s just not safe to have it stay in the yard over days and weeks.  Unfortunate but reasonable as the neighbours have kids and pets and no one wants to risk safety.

So far, no bears for us in our yard….until last weekend that is…

Shane and I decided to cook some diner, redneck turtle burgers (you all need to know about these, I promise a post coming soon on this subject).  I decided to go check the oven to see if they were cooked.  The window in our kitchen overlooks the back yard which is a 2 acre open field, followed by our neighbours driveway and then a heavily wooded area.  I saw a big black blob and of course did a double take on it.

Yup…a bear…a big one!!!

I yelled out to Shane “there’s a bear in the back yard, THERE’S A BEAR IN THE BACKYARD!!!  Well Shane came running and I ran for my camera…can’t miss out on these photo ops right?  The bear was grazing in the back of the field and our neighbour advised us later that evening that there are berries of some kind growing there which attracts them.

As a safety precaution, we put both dogs in their crate in case they try to sneak out the door to go see the visitor.  We decide to fire off our paintball marker to scare him away…that didn’t even make him turn his head.  Shane thought best to drive up with the truck and try again to scare him away.  We have dogs, so do the neighbours and more importantly, the neighbours kids play outside sometimes in our back yard, can’t risk their safety, none of us want this bear to get comfortable.  So up the hill Shane goes, scares the bear away and then goes to give our neighbours the heads up.  As Shane is talking to the neighbour, guess who comes back out…yup, the bear.  He checked out the garbage bin and continued his dinner with whatever vegetation he likes.  This bear was pretty big.  More than likely and adult male that Shane estimated between 300 and 400 lbs.  When Shane came back from the neighbour he drove towards this bear again to scare it off and this time it worked.  He ran to the front of the house, across the road in the woods.

Our neighbour down the street has become a good friend to us, he lent us a flare gun just in case this bear comes back, gives us something better to scare him away with.  It acts the same as a “bear banger”  All I know is aim straight up and be ready, it’s loud.  Luckily we haven’t had to use it and hopefully we won’t but we have to be on guard all the time.  We have 2 apple trees next to the house and in a few weeks this could be a major attraction for more wildlife, including bears.  Rules are once the apples start getting ripe, take them off the tree, don’t leave any on the ground and you either eat them or dispose of them.

We NEVER leave any garbage outside, if we can’t get it to a bin right away, it stays in the house or the garage until we can dispose of it.  Any time we let our dogs out, we scan the yard to make sure nothing is lurking around, same as when I leave for work, quick scan of the yard.

If ever you travel to an area that could have bears, be on guard.  bear attacks are rare but they do happen and no one wants to be a statistic!!!  Now I wonder if I should worry any different when we move in our 5th wheel camper???