The town of Nanaimo is hosting a Frosty Bucket challenge. Of course, we’re in!! Allan solved 11 of the clues, the one that eluded him was clue #7. Me to the rescue!
Wake up to snow, hopefully Nanaimo has less
We found all the clues in 2 days. Some of the hilights and what the QR codes look like.
And the 12 words are…
Submitted and received back this email….
“Well done Mary-Ann, I’m glad you had fun playing our competition. Your name will go in for our draw for our Gift Pack – unfortunately our Activate New Years Day event has been cancelled but follow our facebook for updates on other challenges we are going to offer instead.”
It was fun and we visited parks we otherwise would not have known about.
Heading to Kyle & Megan’s today to decorate the tree. But first our advent calendar opening
Allan’s second Dragon gift, a koozie
Only a little white knuckle with the pooling
Decorating time. goes quickly with 4 people actively participating
Whoops forgot the star, the falling star
Dec 12th
Go home day but will this weather ever co-operate. The Malahat Summit is challenging this time of year. Google maps drive time is 3h, should take 1.15m. Do we go or do we stay? While attempting to decide Kyle & Megan hook us up to VR, a first for us. It was fun but i’d rather just live in reality! Allan played the sit down, driving game a bit too long and became queasy.
Today we’d like to go to Ladysmith for the Festival of Lights. We ordered a Christmas take out dinner from the Legion. $20 a plate; dinner of 4 for $50. We love left overs dinner for 4 it is. Pick up is at 5ish so time to take in the lights and then pick up dinner.
Day’s not starting off looking nice.
It’s looking up!
Sure is beautiful!
Not so much!
Time to pick up dinner! We were going to invite friends to join us, that would have been embarrassing.
About 4 1/2 slices of turkey in our turkey dinner for 4, some ham-more than turkey, 3 buns… 2 tarts and 2 tiny bars for dessert. We did enjoy what was there 🙂
End the day opening our advent calendar. Allan got a Dragon gift, one of 4! A tree ornament.
Kyle purchased a new vehicle a Kia “TellURide” that should be delivered anyday. But wait….. the supply chain issue and a shortage of microchips is playing havoc with delivery.
Once it arrives Kyle, rightly, wants to park it in the garage so storage unit here we come!! I’ve been super stressed about this move cause of the flooding and unsettled conditions through the Malahat. The plus side is if the weather isn’t good we’ll forfeit the U-Haul rental or if the weather is bad once we are at Kyle’s we can delay our trip back.
Pick up 850a
944a – This is the where the Malahat washed out. Smooth sailing… We lucked out with the weather/road closures.
Load it up!
That went quicker than I thought 🙂 Loaded and back on the road at 1053
Clear on the way back as well. We are finally catching a break!
The good – we have our advent calendars! Hey yall for Kyle, Fireball for, I don’t need to say and the spirits for me! I wanted a wine one but inspite of there being 929 wineries in BC – none make an advent calendar.
We got lights from Amazon. The canapy is a game changer for enjoying the propane firepit
Nov 12th – A rare nice day, time for a real fire!
Nov 14th – Visit Kyle & Megan day. But first… you CC players know the joy!!
Pouring so a good time for indoors cards. Chinese for dinner and several card games.
Nov 15th – Time to go home. We are hearing of delays but the day starts off not raining, we think we’ll be fine. We make it to the first exit; way long traffic backup. Cars are coming the wrong way to make the exit. We take the exit and head back to Kyle’s. Heavy rain and floods have severly messed the Malahat in both directions. The drive is normally 1h15m. GPS is routing us to Vancouver, making it a minimum of 4h50m (if we were the only ones who came up with this detour & if the ferries to/fro contined to run in the storm)
Nov 16th – Take 2 on getting home. Clear skies with the sun a peeking are, hopefully a good sign. Turns out they closed the Malahat completely at 6pm yesterday, till 6a. It will be limited to alternating one-way traffic at Tunnel Hill , and be closed from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily.
Start out, GPS says 2h45m and over land. This is where we made it to yesterday, clear today – dare we hope?
Stopped waiting for the south bound traffic, they claim 30 minutes each way, not working out. We stop at 1034a
Peace Officer escorting dump trucks to the scene
On our way at 1107, slowly but moving
Make it to the single lane section at 1125. There is the escorted dump truck!
Home!!! 1236p so happy to be home. Unload then check the creek.
Nov 16th – We are loving this fire, more so because the rain is taking a break
Nov 18th – The water here tastes like chemicals. We have a great water external filter system, Clear Source I thought Allan was nuts to buy it but it does make a huge difference. It sits outside so needs to be insulated to avoid freezing. Allan comes up with a solution! Oversized boxes from Costco wrapped in Reflectix held together with foil tape. Voila!! Ingenuity at its finest!
Today is also the day that Kyle was called on a USAR (Urban Search and Rescue) mission to Comox… excerpt from story “The wing commander says an urban search and rescue team from Esquimalt, B.C. arrived at the site Thursday.”They’ve been searching all night long using acoustic and infrared technologies in order to see if there’s absolutely anybody in there,” Elliot told CTV News.” Full story here
This is the beginning of what they are walking into
Fast forward! We were relieved when they all returned safely on Saturday evening.
Nov 19th – No rain, we are off for an adventure to Stocking Creek Park.
The path in..
The creek, the stairs along the trail
The stairs to the falls……………………………….
The Falls
Why the big smile……………………………………Cause it’s reward time!
BC calls a state of emergency. The floods, mudslides are devasting. Fuel will be limited to 30 liters per fill.
This ship has been here for days, wonder what it’s waiting for?
Fire time
Nov 20th – Rain all day!
Nov 21st – Break in the rain. Today we head to Nanaimo’s water front, Spot the plane?
Sky not looking too happy, we’re heading back
Allan builds us a delicious dinner….
Then with the weather agreeable, a fire
Who gives a hoot?? I do, hence the smile
Nov 22nd – Rain all day
Nov 23rd – Yahoo, clear skies = a fire! Love our fires and chilling time. Does chilling time work with a fire?
11/25 – Pouring rain! Using the day to Christmas shop and may as well collect on my Indy win dinner! I choose Saigon Kitchen Delicous! Debt paid for this season. Allan is a gracious LOSER!! Or is he 🙂
11/26th – Rain is forecasted to begin anytime. We opt to attempt the trail that is connected on the park grounds. Put on out rain boots and off we go… The trails are full of mossy trees and ferns. I like them both.
We skirt the ponds, that are really just puddle build up. Some are harder to skirt than others.
Time for…. REWARDS!!!
Love that FB smile!
Mother Nature’s horseshoe tree, bringing all who see it the best of luck!
Hummm, where are we? There are 3 trails, which one is for us? No markers. Sure it should be either straight or turn right.
Google maps is no help…just wants to map us once we get to Timberlands Rd. If we knew how to get there we would not need the map!!
Wait what’s that in the distance? A vehicle is approaching…
We thought he may stop to ask if we were OK but no! Off he goes. He turned right, we will as well.
Back to civilization
Fire time to celebrate we aren’t lost in the trails
11/27th – Accuweather is not longer attempting to sugar coat this weather… Pouring rain! Can lead to flooding…
11/28th – After a day of rain, the sun is attempting a peekaboo!
And of course a FIRE!
As presented by my Fire God!
11/29: Rainy day
We did get in a fire later in the day,before the rain drops forced us back indoors
Nov 30th – Last day of this wet month. We think the day is not totally lost if we can get in a fire. Very nice..
Oh NO! What is happening… where is my 🔥 god???
Relief! Back to normal
November is done which means….. December and our advent calendars!!
