Playing Catch Up: October 10-14

 Friday:

We have a slight hill from the second house to ours and it's fun for the kids to bike down the road

Finding worms

Saturday:

The previous owners came to collect more of their things. We had given them until Saturday to take whatever else they needed/wanted and after that we said we'd deal with what was left. We didn't see anything of them until Saturday at 2pm when they finally came and started hauling out some more vehicles and stuff. 

It was good entertainment for us all but there were a few things (like the school buses) where we said, "Aw, they are taking that?"

We were grateful to have had the old owners remove some more of their things, but also grateful to be done with them. We just didn't quite feel at home in our home with all these strangers walking around outside. 

A good before photo! Here's the dog pee room. Which isn't what it was called on the listing, but it was the room that had a green carpet which was soaked in dog pee. So while the name is not very creative, it is fitting. The carpet was removed the day we got the place and we kept the window open which helped tame the smell some. This before photo is before cleaning and painting over all that nasty. 

Sunday:

Our new drive to church takes us over a different section of the Fraser River, this part with a train bridge! 

We got to host a family from church for coffee on Sunday afternoon who we haven't had over yet. This was very exciting as we were limited in the trailer to only having over two adults and one child before it felt full.  So to easily add eight additional people to our house was so much fun! 

Monday:

Out on another exploration walk and we uncovered two bikes in the bush

Also found some goodies in the garden shed which will come in handy while caring for the property. 

Here's a before of our water. 

Before moving we had asked the previous owners if they had had the water tested before or just drank it and not died. Yes, hahaha, that was my wording. And I was told that they drank it just fine for 60 years, so don't worry, we can drink it. 

But when we came to the house and found the water looking like this, we were sceptical.

On Monday Will replaced our water softener and ordered several (I think five?) filters for different elements to rig up his own pre-softener filter system. Those filters came in a few days later, so keep this image in mind when we get to the after photo of the water. 

Monday was Thanksgiving so we had a simple dinner of ham and potatoes with the added effect of a candle which we don't usually do so it made it feel cozy and fancy. 

With a Costco pumpkin pie for dessert

We discovered that Clara loves whipped cream!

Tuesday:

This middle yard between the two houses has been a great spot to play as it gets the most sunshine. 

The kids had lots of fun raking the leaves and making leaf houses, by raking lines of leaves to make different rooms and walkways for the different homes

And we got dogs on Tuesday night! 

Floki (dark) and Rollo (light) are 10 month old brothers. 

Getting dogs was originally a bit farther down on our to-do list, but with the number of bears, moose, and the occasional cougar (!!!), we decided that safety for the kids playing outside was most important. 

Unfortunately they came to us completely untrained (no commands, not house broken) so it has been some extra work but we haven't had a bear wander through since we've had them join the family