WOW is all we can say. It has been a very busy busy month and a few weeks. We had no idea how everything would take off. On July 7th, Melissa, Darren and myself went to Campbell River. As we were crossing Johnstone Strait we were right in the middle of a flotilla of boats. I mentioned jokingly that they were probably going to tie up at our dock. Melissa and Darren were catching a flight back to Grande Prairie for a wedding and I had to pick up the truck in Campbell River. George and Doug had brought Big Bro home. I was in such a frizzle went I left home that I forgot my cell phone and had to use Melissa's. I was trying to phone home to tell George to phone her phone to get ahold of me. I did a couple of stops in Campbell River when I looked at the phone and realized that it was on silent. When I turned it on, Melissa phoned me and told me George was trying to get ahold of me. I guess my earlier joke was not a joke. I was in Campbell River for only an hour and George wanted me to come back as there were 13 boats at the dock and several moored out. Low and behold the 8 boats from the Royal Victoria Yacht Club showed up (we were told that morning that they were at least 2 days behind) and a few others. George was up to his elbows in Sticky bun dough and we also had 4 suppers to make. This was the beginning of a very, very busy week. We did quite a few pizza's and we are now known for the Port Harvey Pizza, or so we have been told.
Bob Hale from the Wagoneer was here twice and gave us a nice review. Marianne Scott from Salty Tales was here and well as Bob Lane from the Passagemaker (twice). Many boats that were here in June and early July have stopped in on their way home. We want to thank all those people on all those boats that have been excited for us and have been helping to "spread the word". You know who you are and the boats you have sent also know who you are. We have met some wonderful, wonderful people and have been thoroughly enjoying ourselves.
Melissa and Darren have had appointments to go to and it seems that everytime they leave - WE GET BUSY and fill up. Somedays, it is 14 boats (with one tied behind the barge) and other days it is 8 boats and we are full. Then there are the days that we have only one or two, which we do not mind as it allows us to rejuvenate abit and to work on getting the kinks out.
The store is getting great reviews. We now have some produce (some from the garden) and some dairy products and eggs, bacon and hotdogs (to go with the buns from the bakery). The restaurant is busy most nights and the bakery is busy baking (Melissa and George of course, with Darren once in awhile). I do not seem to have good success in the bakery department so do not do much. I concentrate on the store and the yard, garden and the books of course.
Since I kept breaking the lawn tractor, George broke down and got a new one. Doug needed one as well so we had two new tractors to play with. I was under strict instructions from Doug that I was not allowed to mow any of the lawn until he did his. His was quite out of control and quite tall. As a result of not being able to mow the mosquitoes became alittle out of control. The garlic wore off and the propane tanks were empty. We have not had time to spray garlic but the machines are up and running again and are making a little dent in the population. We suggest to customers to use the repellant that we have on a table on the dock, when they go for a walk. The little buzzers are bad at the back of the house and towards the well, which is of course the way to the trails.
The three C's were here for a week. Clint, Chelsea and Cael (Melissa and Darren are god parents to Cael and George and I are god-grandparents of sorts). It was fun having them here. They stayed on Big Bro and were a big, big help to all of us. Thank you Sooo sooo much to the CCCP's. Bevan and Val were here for a day and of course it was a day that Melissa and Darren had to go for an appointment (baby stuff). Were we ever busy!! We wish that it was a different day, because we could not spend as much time with them as we would have liked. I was able to take them on a short walk on the trails (this is when I realized that I had to mow or you could not find the trails) I had not been down the trails for almost two months and was surprised at how overgrown they were becoming. On the logging road, we were walking with a bear biologist and she was quite informative and I learnt a few things that I did not already know. We came across what we believe to be wolf scat and Doug has mentioned that we have timber wolves here now. We do not know how big the pack is but they were heard one night (along with a bunch of kids imitating them).
There is a cougar over at Mike's but so far has not tried to venture over here. Doug saw it once, but he chased it away. Doug has a little puppy now for Racer to train. We do not have anything here that would interest a cougar. Mike and Linda have chickens and a few other critters, so it is tempting for the cat. We have not seen many bears lately, but I surmise that they are coming out at night as the days have been quite hot lately.
We ran out of water as we had not had rain since the beginning of July. George tried to pump from the creek, but it was low so he moved the pipe to the pond we found. It was just trickling into the well, so he decided to get some water from Len. Len fills his landing barge up with water and then we just pump it right into the cistern. We did find out that the cistern only holds 5000 gallons and not the 10000 that we were told. It explains why we ran out of water a few times when we thought we had quite a bit more than we did.
Our pictures are on Melissa and Darren's computer and as soon as I get them I will put some on here. I will try to post again soon when there is time. August has been very busy so far and we suspect it will remain this way.
The baby bump is getting bigger and everything is as it should be so far. We are soo looking forward to November!!
