J&M got Maui'd!

So the past weekend was spent mostly cleaning and unpacking. Cleaning the dust off of everything, and out of everything and then opening the various boxes that we had squirreled away throughout the house to fill out the kitchen. The kitchen is the biggest amount of stuff for unpacking so we concentrated on it as we needed to have a functioning kitchen if we wanted to move in. The bedrooms were mostly done and the basement was a little easier to clean up, as there was not much to unpack. However, we had our ducts cleaned over the weekend (which is a wise move after a lengthy renovation). There was a lot of dust and debris inside our ducts and we were happy seeing that all of this garbage was being sucked out of the house. Except when the main ducts were being cleaned. The compressed air that was being used to dislodge the dust seemed to have sprayed the dust back up out of our registers! The guy didn't close any of the registers in the house (just the intakes) and a few of our roo

We had a resident robin at our new house and I wanted do show Elsy the rearing cycle of these birds as they were easily accessible and mature quickly. We have robins nesting out our parents' place just about every year and she did see one nest when she was an infant but I doubt she retained anything. Anyway, yesterday I noticed that the nest was on the ground. It was a very windy day and I was not surprised to see that the whole thing had gotten blown off the light. The sad part was that there were three chicks that came down with it. One larger one, a small chick, and one that was still in the egg. None survived. I was much too late to do anything. I took a picture and my Nest camera even caught the fall on video. Apparently it happened just as we were arriving at the house. (So not our fault?) Well, I hope this doesn't deter other robins from nesting near us. It would explain why the bird was looking forlornly at me when I approached the corner when I first arrived (I didn&

So we went to visit the house on Friday and found the place packed with contractors and kids. They were making a final push to get all of the work done so that we could move into the house this weekend. They stayed at the house pretty late, past ten, but there were still a few things that were left undone. Still the place is move-in-able. The only issue being the dust that was everywhere. They tried to clean up after themselves, but the dust covered every surface, and we spent the weekend removing as much of the dust as we could. I think we were able to clean up maybe half of the house? We are getting there though, so I am hoping that we will be able to start moving our stuff in by the end of the month and taking stock of what we still need to get to furnish the place.

We finally got the permit for the renos yesterday and the beam is now up. Things are progressing very quickly now and the plan is to have is in the house by the weekend. Only four-and-a-half months late!

Yes, both Maggie and I have new jobs: as gardeners! We spent the past couple of weeks working on our gardens. i.e. our yards. Ever since the snow melted, we have been working at cleaning up the yards as best we could. Once the rains stopped we were able to make some progress with cleaning up the leaves and exposing all of the perennials that are now working their way out of the soil. All of our trees are budding, and many of our tulips our coming out. I really do not know what we actually have in our garden, but am surprised by the sheer variety of plant life that has appeared in front, beside, and behind our house! Of course, I have been trying to keep the dandelions at bay, but this is a never ending battle, made more difficult by the distance we must travel each day. I am sure that things will get easier once we move in but for now, we are still getting our feet wet in this muddy past time. At least we know where a couple of the drip hoses need to get plugged in now. Oh, a