Two week progress report

We have been in our new house for two weeks. We're still surrounded by stacks of boxes but now, instead of being of tsunami magnitude, the stacks are more on the scale of the wake of a BC Ferry - enough to cause trouble should you get caught out but not enough to bring about your demise.

So we are making progress.  We finally have all of our stuff from the moving company. No, they did not deliver. Instead we had to rent a van and Mike had to make a day trip to Vancouver to retrieve the final bits and pieces of our belongings. As well, we had to rope in the assistance of some friends who happened to be coming over for a visit and who also happen to own a minivan. But, no matter. We have our things. And, joy! We have our barbeque, for what is summer without a barbeque at least one a week.

Unfortunately, when we fired up the barbeque to get that warm, summertime feeling going, we had a hotter experience than expected. Halfway through cooking our halibut steaks, flames started spewing out from underneath the barbeque. So, fire down the barbeque and flip the the steaks into the fry pan on the stovetop. Somehow, it just wasn't quite the same thing. Another project for the list - if we ever get around to putting the list to paper, which we really don't want to do since we'd have to slay a small forest to produce enough paper to accommodate all the items on our project list.

Other items underway that we can check off that non-existent list?

Our team of manual labourers (Mike and Liam) have been out working on the septic system.  You'd be surprised how much dirt an almost-four-year-old can move when he think it's play. Our front yard cum septic field is now full of a bunch of 18 inch deep holes with which we are going to monitor septic field "activity." I think that when it comes time to do the actual monitoring which involves measuring liquid levels, I'll be busy indoors alphabetizing my spice rack. Don't laugh! When you're in the middle of cooking and the crucial moment to add spices is upon you, you don't want to be caught out unable to find your turmeric or cardamom.

Our new dishwasher has arrived and thanks to a generous offer from my brother-in-law to assist with the installation (okay, I admit it - do the installation) we now have the quietest dishwasher I've ever had the pleasure to not hear. When it's running you actually have to put your ear up to it before you can tell that it's on.

We've enlisted the services of a neighbour to come and cut our dandelion field for a small fee until we have a chance to do a comparative analysis of John Deere versus Husqvarna.

Garbage collection has been arranged. Yes, we must arrange private garbage collection. No city collection here. Up until now, our method of dealing with garbage has been to stash our bags in an old, defunct chest freezer outside by the sheds. Seems the perfect set-up. No hungry animals can get at it and any smell is contained. As I said, perfect. That is, until the chest fills up.

To do?  Get rid of the old dishwasher. Although, it kind of makes a nice set with the old chest freezer. And with our dandelion fields, all we're missing is an old, rusted car parked up on blocks in the yard to make us look like some kind of junkyard hillbillies. There's been a bit of a problem with home break-ins around here recently, so maybe cultivating the junkyard look isn't such a bad idea. Really, what are the chances that we'd have anything worth stealing?

Those are the highlights of the last two weeks. Stay tuned for a cultural experience report.