Wednesday 16 March 2022

Summer & Fall 2021

 

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! 

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