Thrift Store Therapy

Since I don't have any pictures that are related to this actual post, you'll have to make do with some that I took a few weeks ago, when we got our first real frosty morning.

The best part of Wednesday and Thursday were spent taking to my mother from her care home to a couple of different appointments each day.  Since it's a forty minute drive each way from here to the care home, and not a simple thing to get my mother and her wheelchair in and out of the car, I wanted to get as much done as I could each trip.

The first day, the two appointments were about a quarter of a mile apart.  I drove to the first one, and fretted as it seemed to be running longer than I thought.  I had to phone the second appointment to tell them that we might be a bit late.  I pushed her to that one, about as fast as I could walk, and we made it there just five minutes late.

The second day, I had to leave home at 9.  The first appointment was only five minutes from the care home, so we walked to that one.  The doctor was very late, so then I am once again anxiously watching the time.  We left the doctors office with 20 minutes to spare before the next appointment.

I walked and jogged back to the care home, pushing the wheelchair.  Got my mum and wheelchair into the car, and made it to the other appointment just on time, but then had to wait there for a bit.

That was a short appointment, but no doubt we'll have to go back again for an adjustment.  Got my mum back to the home in time for a late lunch. 

You might be thinking that it is so nice that we can spend this time together.  How do I put this............it's certainly stressful and a thankless task.  I am verbally abused at times.  Usually I just let it go, but this time I did tell her that it is NOT okay for her to speak to me that way.

I figured I needed some intense thrift store therapy after those two days. 

I got it today when my favourite thrift store had it's monthly half price sale.  I can say that I lined up outside a store on Black Friday.  Not intentionally, but it happened that I was a bit late getting to the clothing store when it first opened, so I decided that I would go in their furniture store instead, which opens half an hour later.

I'm not going to tell you how long I spent in those two stores, but I might share some of my 'finds':)

Projects

Sometimes people ask us if we are doing renovations on our 'cottage'.  I call it a cottage because it is so small, and it's a place that we are at only part of the time.  We didn't want to buy something that needed immediate renovations.  We wanted to buy something we could go to and relax and live a simpler life for a few days.  If we wanted to do renovations, there's a list of them waiting here at home. That said, although I love to read, I can only do that for so long.  We only get one channel on the tv, and we have no internet.   While we are there I do some sewing and jam making for the farmers markets, but we usually work on a few small projects as well.

This window is in the eating area.   We have a tiny table that you could squeeze three chairs around, and four if you flipped up the back flap that is down against the wall.  The window is not very tall.  My theory is that the taller window that is along the east wall of the porch, used to be the window in this wall.  Then someone decided to permanently build the air conditioner into the wall, and so used the top part of the window opening for that, and put a smaller window in underneath it. 

I had an idea for hiding the air conditioner.  I found a shelf with wooden brackets for $2.99 at a thrift store.  I cut the shelf and the brackets down so that it stuck out just slightly farther than the air conditioner.  I painted it the same colour as the wall, because I didn't really want it to stand out.

Then I found this fabric window topper also at the thrift store for $1.50.  I had to unpick the rod pocket sewn along the top to get enough coverage.  I put velcro along the top edge, and the other half of the velcro on the top edge of the shelf.  In the summer when we actually use the air condtioner, I can pull the fabric off, and then velcro it back up there once the hot weather is over.

We also started to replace the two gates that come in off the lane, and that we might eventually open so we can park our little travel trailer in the back yard.  The gates were rotten at the bottom and were really too low to the ground.  We took them off and put up a temporary barrier to keep the dogs in.  Those cedar lattice pieces were what someone had put out at the end of their driveway for free back in the summer.  They did the job.  We didn't get the gates finished this trip.  They are drying out in the basement so that maybe next time we can finish replacing the rotten parts, and then put a coat of paint on them before we re install them.  

During the process of putting up the lattice, Luna kept pushing her soccer ball out into the lane.  Later in the day we couldn't find her ball anywhere.  I walked down the lane (it goes down hill fast at the end of our property) and had a good search for her ball, peering under vehicles and into small spaces.  I didn't find the ball, but I did find the lid to our compost bin that had gone missing in the late Spring.  Sweet!  I made sure this time that is was locked on so the wind couldn't blow it away.  We did realize later that Luna had popped her ball over the fence and it was stuck in the neighbour's hedge.

Of course a daily project while we are there is exercising the dogs.  We made a couple of trips to the dog park, had a few shorter walks, and did two decent ones with Calli in her cart.  The first one was about 4 miles along the river.  Calli did well.  

The second one was the day we came home.  Also along the river, but south this time, on our way to Osoyoos.  It was a beautiful day, sun, blue skies, and snow on the mountains.  All the days but one were like that.

Crossing the river on a little bridge over one of the many weirs.

The drive home was pretty good, except for about 10 minutes when it was like this.  We were just coming down from Alison Pass which is at 1343 meters (4406 ft).  A little hairy, 8% grade downhill and icy.  There was a semi-trailer leading the line up and keeping everyone going slow.  

It wasn't long before we lost enough elevation that the snow was melting on the road and we had bare tracks.  The rest of the drive was fine.

The Off Switch

We've just got back from a trip to Wyndson Cottage in Oliver.  We were only there for four nights, which is about all we can manage since we are still going to a farmers market every Sunday.  I've been a bad blogger lately.  Hopefully I can do better in the next little while.  Some posts may be a bit out of order.  Oh well, better than nothing I guess?!

Sometimes when we get talking to other dog owners the conversation turns to the border collie that their friend/brother/sister/other relative owned, and how the dog just never stopped, was on the go the whole time, and just never settled down.  That to me sounds like a dog that isn't getting enough mental or physical stimulation during the day, or has had no boundaries set and is allowed to do whatever the h#ll it wants.  Everyone likes a dog with an off switch.  Luna demonstrates it admirably:)

Sometimes she is willing to share

And they are laying on my $1.50 pet furniture protector cover thingy that I found at a thrift store (of course!).  

Just to clarify, we do have a few dog beds on the floor.  One big one for Calli at the end of that green loveseat in the bottom left corner.  Two small ones, one in between the loveseat and the chair, and another one in front of the little table between the two chairs, out of the picture on the left.  The house is too tiny to have multiple big dog beds laying around, so we caved in and allow Jake and Luna on the loveseat as well.  Besides, they just look too cute up there, and it keeps them from sprawling out on Calli's big bed.