16 Saturday May 2026
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, circulating, family, garden, moments, music, pond, prep, pumps, widow, working
started work on the pond…
first step was to empty out the water… that was done last Saturday…
on Wednesday, after using the wet-vac and vacuuming the leaves and other crud out of the bottom, the pumps were set in place…
then the water flowed in and the pumps started circulating… which also means the waterfall began making wonderful music…
what a treat…
16 Monday Jun 2025
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
bathtub, bathtub pond, big girl pants, blessed, garden, larvae, moments, nature, pond, pump, weather, widow, working
this morning I finally got around to sorting out a working pump for the bathtub pond…
I had switched the two pumps between the main pond and the bathtub, but not long after that change the pump in the tub stopped working completely…
and because there are no fish in that pond, the chance of mosquito larvae growing in it was a problem…
happily, the first extra pump I came across worked, although it didn’t have a piece extending out of the water… luckily that doesn’t matter as the water just needs to move to ensure no larvae can survive…
hopefully this one will continue to work…
happy to get that job off the list…
14 Friday Jun 2024
Posted in garden, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
yesterday I went into the pond to take out the small pump and clean it…
it was very dirty, ugh… the process of getting in and out of the pond involves a chair, towel, watershoes, and this time, a bucket to put the bits that needed to be cleaned…
then I used the hose to clean everything… dirty business, lol…
after I put the pump back, it was working better, but not as well I was hoping for…
and I cleaned out the main pump while I was in there;-)… glad that job is done…
20 Sunday Aug 2023
Posted in family, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
apartment, big girl pants, blessed, declutter, family, goal, light, memories, moments, parents, put away, rearranging, Technology, widow, working
as we declutter the basement, we have found a few things to move into other areas of the house… and our goal is to set the items up as they get moved, lol…
most recently, a light fixture that originally came from my parents’ apartment made its way into the den…
it got screwed into the wall, a smart bulb was added to it and connected to Google Home…
working nicely and it will be great for guests when the couch transforms to a bed;-)…
11 Friday Aug 2023
Posted in business, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, dryer, fixed, fritz, Hameed Appliance Repair, Home Depot, moments, repair, shopping, Technology, tube, widow, working
the dryer has been on the fritz for a week or so… we’d tried a few things, but nothing made a difference…
I sent a message to Hameed Appliance Repair on Wednesday and this morning Ron arrived and had a look…
he was able to replace a piece (even for this old dryer) and got it working;-)…
he advised we needed to change the vent tube, so we went to Home Depot again, lol… we’ve been there a number of times in the last few days…
now the tube has been replaced, the dryer is back in its spot, and laundry is being done;-)…
13 Thursday Jul 2023
Posted in business, garden, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, bunny, chewed, connect, dig, family, garden, irrigation, irrigation system, moments, nature, oops, plants, rubber, teeth, tubes, water, widow, working
been trying to figure out why the irrigation system hadn’t been working properly…
no matter what I tried it kept sending water over the waterfall and nearly into the cushions on my chair…
we discovered that some of the smaller rubber tubes had been cut… possibly by bunny teeth;-)…
we were able to fix a few, but needed more tubing…
went to Lee Valley and picked up another of the systems so that it can also water the vegetable garden…
laid the main hose out in the sun to soften the curves and then stretched it out to see if it would go where I wanted it… looked like it would work fine…
we attached the new unit to the end of the main line so that it could send water to either the garden beds or the veggie section…
then the main hose was dug into the ground between the connection point and the veggie garden…
the hose was run along the back of the planters, holes were punched into it, the watering heads were added to each of the pots… another hole was made leading to the file cabinet planter and then the last bits were added…
it works perfectly and I am absolutely thrilled with the outcome;-)…
hmmm, wonder if we can figure out how to deal with the pots around the deck and in the centre of the garden🤪…
15 Thursday Jun 2023
Posted in business, family, garden, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, busy, family, fencing, garden, grandsons, happy, helpers, moments, project, son-in-law, widow, working
the latest project around the house has taken a little while… we began discussing it in February, lol…
the actual work started on Thursday, June 8th, when my grandson and son-in-law took down the back fence as well as the small one in the front yard…
it involved hammering, using the car jack and a great deal of muscle… once it was down, all the pieces were loaded into a truck… then we moved soil, cleaned up the leaves from the cedars and Virginia creeper, and filled many bags of yardwaste…
midway through the day the lumber was dropped off, but had to be brought onto the driveway a few pieces at a time, and by the end of the day we were worn out, lol…
on Friday, my grandson met our handyperson at the hardware store where they rented an auger and picked up a big bag of screws and nails…
they used more muscle to get the old holes redug and finished the day with all posts installed…
Sunday, the oldest dug up excess dirt around the shed while we waited for the rest of the crew to arrive, including one of his brothers…
they worked well together and got the back fence 99.9% finished, with a nice wide gate and the framework up for the front portion of fence…
on Wednesday and Thursday my oldest grandson put the finishing touches on the fencing and both sections look great…
so pleased with the final result as well as how smoothly the process went and what great help we had from everyone…
20 Saturday May 2023
Posted in business, garden, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
bathtub, bathtub pond, big girl pants, blessed, cushions, garden, hammock chair, happy, moments, perfect, pump, screws, umbrella, weather, widow, working
Friday was a beautiful semi-warm and sunny day…
I spent some time reading on the upper deck and when it warmed up a bit I found the screws for the hammock, removed the umbrella, laid the whole thing down, and attached all four legs tightly… put everything back together and then added a couple of cushions to the hammock chair and it is now perfect;-)… I may have had a short nap in it while taking a break from reading…
I am very happy as the shape of this chair is much more comfortable than the previous one… I think it will get more use, but we shall see…
a little later, I used the fishnet in the bathtub pond to clean out all the dead water hyacinths from last year… then I brought out the wet-vac and sucked out the dead leaves and water… next I put together the pieces for the new pump and set it into the pond… after filling it up, turned on the pump and it worked… yay…
now it is burbling nicely…
feels like I got quite a bit done;-)…
14 Sunday May 2023
Posted in business, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, clean-up, condo, cushions, garden, goldfish, happy, Hilda the Gardener, moments, nature, pond, water lilies, widow, working
Friday was a great day in the garden…
first time this year I took the time to put out all the cushions… and then Hilda the Gardener arrived and began cleaning up the space… yay…
while she was working away, I climbed into the pond to reset the second pump and cover the cords…
next I brought out the water lilies from the tanks in the house and set them in the pond…
finally I caught and put three goldfish into the pond to see how they fared… maybe next week the rest will move out of the condo…
all in all a great day…
07 Monday Mar 2022
Posted in business, family, life, loss, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, grandson, happy, iPhone, moments, Technology, tp-link, widow, wifi, working
I am so happy…
over the last week more and more of my Google Home products have gone offline…
at first it was 2 tp- link plugs, then a switch, then more of the plugs and finally my Geeni cameras… made me crazy…
and then the printer stopped because it couldn’t find the wifi…
my grandson got the printer going… yay…
the suggestion was that I should delete and then add all of the products back in… I did not want to do that… my plan was to call my provider to see if there was an issue with my internet…
was waiting for another call so didn’t get around to contacting the provider…
just for fun, I went in and turned off my wifi and then turned it back on…
getting ready for bed, I went to turn one of the plugs off manually only to discover that its light was blue, not the orange that meant it wasn’t connected…
checked all the others and they were fine too…
yay 😀…
herbiggirlpants 