It’s been a
year since I have written a blog post, so again I have to play catch up!
We returned
“home” to our campground at Elk Island Retreat in the spring of 2021 &
shortly thereafter received our first Covid 19 vaccine!
We resumed
helping out around the campground – wrapping bundles of firewood, painting
picnic tables, garbage pick-up & some outhouse cleaning. We like to keep
busy & it helps pay our rent.
Of course we
got back into selling at Farmers Markets but due to Covid things were different
– more spacing, fewer vendors, facemasks required, more cleaning. We tried out
the Sherwood Park market for a while but were not able to sell any jewelry due
to their strange rules, so we decided to only do the weekly Farmers Market in
Ft Saskatchewan. We sold at a few larger events as well; Ardrossan parade Day, Vegreville
Fair, Ponoka bull riding event, Ft McMurray Fall Tradeshow & Lloydminster
Christmas Craft Fair. We still enjoy crafting so we have to keep selling!
|
Ft McMurray Tradeshow - we used to fit on one table, not now! |
|
Lloydminster Christmas Craft fair |
|
Sherwood Park Farmers Market |
|
Ft Saskatchewan Farmers Market |
|
Vegreville Fair |
|
Vegreville Fair |
I got into
gardening in pots & in the ground in a bigger way this year, lots of color
& good eating.
|
unexpected snow on all my pots |
Our Honda
CVR had served us well but we couldn’t fit all of our market stuff inside &
had to utilize the roof racks – so we decided to upgrade to a Honda Pilot. Much
more space especially with all the back seats folded down. Problem then was
that the Pilot is not flat towable behind the motorhome so a shopping we must
go. We found a used 22 ft enclosed car hauler trailer which is now also a nicer
“man cave” than the white 10x10 tent.
We got out
camping with Adam, Jen, Emma & Ty only once this year as we had a couple
issues with the motorhome that took forever to finally fix.
|
we don't often see caribou, quite a treat! |
|
Ty & Emma, out hiking |
|
Grandpa's birthday |
|
hanging out at the fire - Adam, Emma & Ty |
|
Ty, Jen, Emma |
|
Birthday #11! |
We spent as
much time with the kids & grandkids as we could manage, always a highlight
for us! Visits at their houses & at the campground, as well as a fun trip
to Ft Edmonton Park.
|
Bowling with Rosemary, Shane & Sarah |
|
Campground visit - Adam, Jen, Scott |
|
rain barrels & kids |
|
Ryan, Teanna, Lesia & Colin (my brother) |
|
Karen's birthday, with Scott |
|
hiking in the Rockies |
|
Shane's birthday |
|
hiking on the campground trail |
|
daredevils |
|
our campground, Elk Island Retreat |
|
early spring picnic, note the pile of snow |
|
Rosemary's soccer |
|
Scott's cats |
|
Ft Edmonton Park |
|
horse back riding at Ft Edmonton |
We made it
out canoeing to Black Nugget Lake, not as many birds to see as in previous
years. We love watching birds & always have our feeders up.
|
Robin's waterfall & fairy gardens |
|
canoeing |
Our health
has thankfully been good - I got put on a diuretic for newly diagnosed
hypertension, plus needing an iron infusion for a persistent low iron, Robin
required sutures after a skill saw mishap while building his birdhouses and
otherwise we keep chugging along, hiking regularly & trying to live well!
|
Robin's hippy hairdo & finger bandages |
We had hoped
to travel south to Arizona this year but the Canada-US border remained closed
until the end of October – there was no indication of when it would open &
it was getting pretty chilly in October in the RV so we made the decision in early October to stick
around in Alberta vs another rainy winter on Vancouver Island. We rented a
fully furnished apartment (right down to silverware & linens) in Edmonton
with the promise to each other that we would travel to sunny destinations to
break up the cold. We kept up our crafting & hiking in our tiny apartment.
|
more seaglass earrings |
|
our campground in the fall |
|
our tiny apartment |
|
walking in the North Saskatchewan river valley |
|
Robin's newest spiritwood carvings |
|
puzzle making |
Being around
in the fall meant that we were included in Ty & Rosemary’s birthdays
& "trick or treating", loads of fun!
|
Rosemary's birthday, #6
|
|
Trick or Treating
|
|
Ty's birthday, #9 |
I will
include too many photos so I will end this post here & continue on with our
winter adventures in a future blog.
|
early snowfall, Robin out shovelling |
|
freeze up on the river |
Definitely still Living the Dream!
Love the puzzle!!
ReplyDelete