Eight weeks away..

The countdown for the move to Huntsville has begun.  In eight weeks, we will be packing up the house and moving to Huntsville.  We are at the point now where we just want it to happen.  This has been a year long project and we look forward to resuming a normal life.

This past week went by incredibly fast, probably because of the holiday Monday.  The weather was spectacular, although perhaps a tad too hot for Cooper.  He spent a lot of time just lying down on the front or back porch, cooling himself on the flagstones.  He drank lots of water and we went for shorter walks.

We had dinner with our friend Margo on Thursday night.  It was nice to see her again.  It looks like she will be our first guest in our new home in Huntsville in August!  Friday, we took Cooper to Fur Babies for a bath.  There is so much pollen and stuff falling from trees that it gets caught in his hair.  Russell and I had lunch on a patio while he was being groomed.  We picked him a few hours later and he was, as usual, so fluffy and smelling so good!

Friday was also a bittersweet day.  We sold the Corvette.  We realized many months ago that the Corvette would not adapt too well to Huntsville, with gravel roads, especially with a car that has been lowered.  So we decided to sell it.  We sold it to a retired man from Goderich.  We wish him many happy rides. So, it was a bittersweet moment as the Corvette was Russell's 50th birthday present.  We had our good times with it and it is now time to do something different:  we plan on buying a pontoon boat once we are settled in Huntsville to cruise the lakes.

On the log home front, progress continues.  We went to Huntsville today to check things out.  The cedar shingles are being installed on the roof and the logs have been blasted and are ready for staining.  The blasting is to bring the pine logs back to their original colour.  But what a mess the blasting makes.  We didn't expect to walk on about one inch of dust inside the house.  Needless to say that we didn't put Cooper down until we were on the deck area, where we had our lunch.  It was a great day nonetheless and it is always good for us to see progress with our own eyes.  On our way to our property, we saw a fox cross our road.  Another reason why Cooper will never be left alone, even in his fenced in dog run!  Speaking of dog run, the highlight of our day was to discover the Freedom Dog Park, which is 5 minutes away from our new house.  The best part about this outdoor leash free park is that they have an area for small dogs only and even a fenced-in pond for swimming.  We don't even have that in Mississauga!  We were so happy to discover this place, but Cooper was even more happy.  He had fun even though he was the only dog at the time but it gave us the opportunity to practice his recall in a leash free environment - he did awesome recalls...bounding through the tall grass like a jack rabbit.  On our way home, we stopped at our mailbox just for the fun of it.  Russell unlocked it and sure enough, we had mail:  the local newspaper called "What's Up Muskoka". Interesting reading!

So, today was a good day.  The weather was quite nice and warm.  The Muskoka region, like Mississauga, is in great need of rain and there is a fire ban at the moment.  Not a whole lot of rain in the forecast unfortunately.

Anne and Cooper in the soon to be screened porch!

Cedar shingles going on the roof...awesome smell of those shingles!

Cedar shingle supply...it will take 51 squares to cover our roof...that is lots.

Inches thick dust from the bead blasting of the pine logs pre staining.

Front porch taking shape!

That's about it for this week's blog. I include a few pictures taken today.  Hope you enjoy them.  I wish you all a great week.