It’s been awhile since our last diary post. A lot happened since then, yet in line with this weird covid surreal existence, it still feels like nothing has.
Ontario is still in lockdown with gradual opening to roll out over the next few weeks. The hostages and us had our first vaccine shots, so despite the still high numbers of infections in Ontario things are starting to look more positive.
Getting vaccinated at a drive through site
Things are looking positive mostly because it’s spring. Spring always makes us feel better. The flowers are out in great numbers
and the birds and deer are back.
We even have a three baby robins chilling in the nest already. Right now they just look like fluff and beak.
We haven’t done much over our winter hibernation except make some very important life-decisions…
So here is the big news: finally, after several false starts, we are officially retired. We are now just tying up some loose ends, but we are now retired for real! Tony reserves the rights to go to work every now and then, but we’ll still call him retired (and find things for him to do around the house so that he doesn’t stray too far).
You may remember that we planned to move closer to a large body of water. Unfortunately, thanks to the pandemic, so does everyone else in Ontario now… The real estate market exploded in the very same areas that we are looking and prices have rocketed as did insane/intense bidding wars. Will we find our dream retirement home? We’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, we are preparing to sell our home: painting, decluttering, finally putting up permanent stairs…
After painting the house white, the little houses looked really cute above the bay window.
Remember we planned to make birch syrup after making maple syrup? We did and here are the results. It’s a little weird. There is some taffeee-like tartness to it and we may have overcooked it. The hostages were having none of it and they are sticking to the maple syrup. Maybe we’ll use it for cooking.
It’s much harder to guesstimate when the birch syrup is ready to take off the fire without a refractometer or a hydrometer so until we get one of those contraptions we’ll hold off making more of this syrup.
Look how much darker it is than maple syrup!
Other than making huge life-changing decisions we are not doing much else other than cooking amazing dinners every night and binge watching TV shows and movies.
We watched all of Eureka and really enjoyed it. Then the hostages made us watch all of the Marvel Universe movies and some of the TV shows. Strangely enough, not only did we enjoy the movies, we also found this hat during one of our walks in the forest.
What are the odds? Is the universe trying to tell us something?
And here are a couple of examples of our culinary adventures: a mouthwatering enchilada
and an amazing korean beef stew
There were many more culinary adventures. Too many to mention, but probably the reason for some fluctuations in weight around here.
We haven’t done much with the RV except cover it up…we picked up a cover from http://rvcover.ca recently and we highly recommend it. By coincident the very same company contacted us to ask if we will put their logo on our site and since we are happy with the cover, we agreed.
We will leave you with Penny who just turned one year old and had her first rafting trip down Lake Powell. She is sleepy, but so proud of herself!
We hope you are all keeping well and safe! Next, we’ll visit Lake Erie, so come back soon.
Oh, and if you are wondering about the header photo, that was a sweet Mother’s Day present to help me propagate plant cutting.
Congratulations on your retirement!!! It’s a big step that will open up new routines, a new life really. Celebrating our 3rd year retirement next month. Never been so busy! So busy I can’t find the time to blog. We’re in Maine now — but I need to get cracking writing stories from our trip here from California. We had planned to cross over to Ontario in early May, but the Canadian gods of covid decided otherwise. I don’t expect we’ll now go much before this fall. ‘Camping’ is crazy busy down here especially this long Memorial Day weekend that’s about to begin. 😱 Always enjoy reading your blogs — happy renovations!
Thank you. We are very excited about it! It looks like they may open up the border in June, but who know…Looking forward to reading about your travels from California to Maine and be prepared for the same crazy camping situation in Canada once you are able to cross over. Everything is booked. I am so itching to be on the road again!
What a great catch-up post. So much happening even during a pandemic. Congratulations on the official retirement. You will love it, love it, love it. But you already know that. Sorry that dream-house-by-the-water hunting didn’t pan out. Hopefully this crazy real estate state will settle down in the future and you will have more luck. Thanks for the syrup update. I was curious about that. Oh and the flowers are beautiful and the food looks delicious. Enjoy.
Thank you! We will just need to be more creative with our house search and perhaps expand our reach. We were thinking of moving to NB or NS, but it looks like Ontarians are ruining this for us as well 🙂
It is pretty crazy for sure. Not sure all the people coming know what they are doing. I say this because I have two new neighbours right next door on both sides from Ontario. Honestly they should have bought in town. You can’t have an Oakville lawn and perfect trees when you are in an area not defined by city lots. But there are beautiful areas down the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia that may be reasonable.
Some are buying without seeing the home they are buying, which can lead to some disappointment. We are still considering this, but will definitely have to wait until we can physically be there. We planned this so carefully, but did not take the pandemic into account 🙁
Well if you ever see something on line within a couple hundred kms from us, that you would like someone to check out, take pics and give you an honest assessment, let me know. We would be happy to help.
Thank you! That is a very generous offer ❤️
And your Mother’s Day gift looks so cool.
It is, isn’t it? I should post a link to it actually…
That’s great to beable to live life in a fun way. Happy Retirement. Love these garden flowers . Hoping we get through this pandemic and get back to reality.
Thank you! I am also hoping to be back to normal soon. Things are looking up 🙂
Congrats on retirement. It is the best promotion you will have ever worked for. I have almost 7 years experience in the position. Good news on the jabs and yeah, the real estate market is crazy all over. We are staying put as we love where we are. Thansk for the update. Stay well. Allan
Haha, that’s a perfect way to describe retirement! We are very torn about moving since we love our farm, but it is time to experience something new (and have a place with a bit less maintenance). Thanks for reading and keep safe!
In a sense it’s nice to find your footing in retirement by easing into it. What am I saying? Embrace it! Go for it! Live it! Your home is looking great, the pup is beautiful, and you guys are young enough to fully enjoy retirement. Now I have to check out the show Eureka since we live in Eureka, CA.😊
We love it already! I was thinking about you when I wrote about Eureka. We now need to do a pilgrimage to the show’s namesake, don’t you think?
WOW! The street won’t be the same without you guys. You’ve been very busy with cooking and renovating. Very nice. 👍😉
It’s going to be bittersweet to move, regardless of how amazing our new place may be 🙁
Looks like you have had a lot of fun with nature and cooking. Glad you got your shot!
We are having fun. What else can we do 🙂
Exactly! I’m happy for you 🙂
❤️
Congratulations on the retirement, I retired this year too, and I’m confused but excited about the future and how it will look! Here’s to us, C
Well, congrat to you, Cheryl! It is a bit confusing, but the excitement overrides it all 🙂 Now all we need is for Covid to go away and to stay healthy.
Congratulations on your retirement. Sounds like you’ve started it in a relaxing way and it’s spring so even better, you get to enjoy the warmer weather. Enjoy all the freedoms!!
Thank you! We are giddy with anticipation for what’s to come next!
What a wonderful way to be! 😊
Congrats on your official retirement! Time has flown for for us since we took a very early retirement in Aug 2005. Nearly 16 years ago. Possum is de-winterized and back to picnic and day trip duty but hopefully ill see some camping this summer. Property values are soaring here in Port Dover. I’m tiring of the gentrification that continues to make it harder for our families to purchase homes here. Even the sleepy, but very picturesque town of Waterford just north of us is growing exponentially. Rode my bicycle there today and three separate areas are being developed.
It looks like you are having a good time and I do hope we’ll all get to go camping this year! We’ve been looking at properties along Lake Erie as well, and just kicking ourselves for waiting, but oh, well…we’ll end up somewhere nice and not too gentrified I hope!
Nice to read another post from you! And of course, congratulations on retirement! My dad’s retired, and I can imagine that it must be a liberating feeling to no longer be tied down to work. Springtime is definitely looking beautiful for you guys, and I can’t wait to hear about your adventures on Lake Erie!
Thanks, Rebecca! We sure are excited about retiring and about spring! Hard to believe that we are writing about Erie now, six months after our trip there. Hope we can all travel again soon!
Lovely post 💕😊🌹
Thanks for reading 🙂
Hey! Congrats on retiring!!! I can relate to the crazy housing market. But the fact that you are polishing up your home to get it ready to sell makes me think that you’ve managed to finally secure something!! I gotta ask … what you were using for stairs before you put up permanent ones?
Thanks! Nothing is secured yet and we will probably need to up our budget. The stairs…we had temporary pine treads that ended up staying much longer than intended. They were fine, but looked a bit shabby and had an unsturdy feel to them. We now have “real” stairs that feel solid underfoot and are no longer an adventure. We just weren’t sure if the next owners will be as adventurous as we are 🙂
Best of luck selling your house. I can’t help but laugh at the budget we came up with when we initially started to look at houses. Needless to say we had to make a few adjustments (both in terms of price and standards)!
congratulations on your retirement, and I wish you many happy adventures in the years ahead. that is a shame abut the housing prices – but the upside is that hopefully you will get a great price for your house. and thanks for explaining what that top photo was!
Thank you! Yeah, we are hoping that our house will bring in a bit more than we previously thought!
fingers crossed!
Congratulations and wishing you a happy retirement filled with fun and happiness!!!
Thank you so much, Jyothi!
Congratulations!! How exciting to be starting a new phase of life. Enjoy your creative projects and I hope you get that lake house sometime down the road.
Thank you so much! …and fingers crossed 🙂
So much to catch up on is an understatement! I don’t know birch syrup, but not surprised because I’ve had birch beer soda. I’d try it! Glad to see the Ontario is in the process of re-opening. Hopefully soon for all of us. Congratulations on retirement!
Thank you! The sun is shining and things are looking good 🙂
You’ve been busy. Stairs look awesome!! Prices are skyrocketing in Denver too! One reason why I sold. Good luck finding what you want. Penny is so cute!
Thanks! Penny is growing nicely and hiking in and around Denver. Too bad I didn’t know you were selling…her mom was looking to buy.