Negligence

This summer, we've spent the least amount of time in our backyard than in any other summer.

Because the weather was warmer than usual in the spring, we tended to make dinner at the barbecue and eat under the gazebo. We even invited friends over to join us in our backyard.

But when summer got hot and the rains came, I would only venture into the backyard to mow the lawn or pick vegetables that grew in our garden. I would still grill food on the barbecue but because it was often too hot, we'd dine indoors.

I knew that the space at the side of our house was becoming overgrown. It's an area that I don't mow because there's no grass. There is a strip of dirt and some concrete tiles that separate the dirt from the house, but that's basically it. We don't access the backyard from this side of the house so letting the weeds take over has never really been an issue.

But because we've had so much rain, this summer, this neglected part of our backyard has grown out of control. Creeping vines had taken hold, goldenrod had sprouted up, and we even started growing bushes with thick trunks.

It was becoming a small forest.

Last weekend, we repaired parts of our wooden fence on that side of the house. The cedar boards that we had erected more than 23 years ago were rotting in some spots and we even had some slats that had fallen off, leaving large gaps that looked into our neighbour's backyard.

We replaced all the rotted lumber but had to do all of the repairs from our neighbour's side of the fence because we have a tended garden through much of that side of the yard, and our little forest also prohibited me from setting up a ladder.

I made the decision that enough was enough, and I had to cull the overgrown space. At the very least, I needed to clear the area with the cement tiles, where we wanted separation between the weeds and our house.

I knew that I just couldn't go in wearing a t-shirt and shorts, which is what I often wear when I mow the lawn. Who knew what was living in that space? And one year, when I cleared out that space, I found a tick on a sensitive spot when I showered afterward.

I needed rubber boots. I needed to protect the back of my head and neck from bugs. I needed to protect my face from any flying debris and from the spray of any liquids in the branches and roots.

In essence, I felt I needed a HAZMAT suit.

Not having one, I improvised as best as I could. In retrospect, I should have also worn an N-95 mask.

I snipped. I pulled. I broke up.

I could see an unused rain barrel through the growth before I started work. What I discovered, as I cleared space, was that we also had a disused fire pit and a wheelbarrow.

In just over an hour, I filled four yard bags. And I was hot and exhausted. Also, my lungs were on fire.

That was enough work for the day.

I managed to make a substantial dent in our mini forest. The path is mostly cleared but there is still a bit of work to do to finish it up. But that was as far as I was able to do on a day that I really hadn't planned to do on Labour Day.

This was supposed to be a day to relax, wasn't it?

Labour Day

I always wondered why they called it Labour Day when it's a holiday and I don't have to work.

Back when the kids were small and were still in school, it was our last hurrah before the new semester started and new routines were formed. Now that they are grown and living mostly independent lives, it's DW and I who usually relax on this holiday.

But actually, today we have some chores to get done. The lawn needs to be mowed (please hold off, rain!), household cleaning is required, and we have a bunch of surplus dirt and concrete to take to the city dump (thankfully, they're open today).

At least yesterday, we got to take some time for ourselves, putting our kayaks in the Mississippi River, at Appleton Falls, and paddling with our friends to Almonte, some eight kilometres away, halted by the falls that run through that picturesque town. Round-trip, we covered nearly 17 kms.

The lower part of the falls in Appleton.

The beginning and end of each leg of our trek were pretty enough, but the in-between part was pretty dull. But kayaking is always relaxing for us.

Today, after the morning chores are out of the way, I'll work on my next YouTube video and will hopefully have it completed by next weekend. Stay tuned.

I hope your Labour Day is relaxing and recharges you for the rest of the week, whether it's back to the same-old grind or the start of a new routine.

Happy Monday!

Paddling Plaisance

If you look at my YouTube channel—and I really hope that you'll visit it and even subscribe—you'd think I didn't do much this year.

There are a few videos of DW's and my trip to Portugal, but that trip was almost a year ago. It just took me several months to edit the video footage and put stories together, with the final video coming out last July.

There are a couple of videos of our trip to Mexico, which was in 2023 but all the way back in January. Oh, and there's a hyperlapse video of me shovelling my driveway.

Exciting stuff, that video.

But there are no videos of me riding my bike, no videos of us camping (I've gone twice, this year). And, I haven't posted a video of any of the kayaking treks that DW and I have done.

Until now.

True, I haven't been in my kayak as often has I had been last year or the previous two summers. July was pretty much a write-off for me, health-wise, and August flew by. But I did get in my kayak in May and June, and I was paddling on two different rivers in two different provinces, on two different days over the Labour Day weekend.

DW and I have wanted to paddle in Québec's Parc de Plaisance, which is along the Ottawa River, across from Wendover, since we first acquired our kayaks, in 2020, and had paddled the South Nation River from Jessups Falls to Wendover.

We had, at that time, considered crossing the Ottawa River and linking up with the Rivière de la Petite Nation, but we've learned that the current in the Ottawa River is strong at that point, and crossing might leave us too tired to return. So we decided that some day, we'd drive to Plaisance and start our paddle in the park.

Our goal was to paddle the Rivière de la Petite Nation from the park's interpretation centre to the Chutes de Plaisance and back, a 10-kilometre round-trip trek. Last Sunday, we packed up our gear and did just that.

The trek is fairly easy, though you are paddling against the current. If you stop paddling for some length of time, you will eventually start to drift downstream, slowly.

Very slowly.

It's only when you get within a few hundred metres of the base of the falls where you actually feel the current. But you also reach a rocky, shallow stretch of the river where you can't paddle, anyway. There's a muddy shore where you can get out of your kayak and walk, uphill, to spots where you can get breathtaking views of these grand falls.

I've put together a video of our trek, which you can watch here:

I don't think this will be our last visit to Plaisance Park. There are other areas to explore by kayak or canoe, as well as some cycling trails.

I have kayaked less frequently than in previous years but more often than this one paddle. I have three or four other outings that I've recorded but I haven't really looked at most of them. I have cycling footage, too, that I'll eventually get to.

I'm currently working on the video footage of our trip to Rock Lake, in Algonquin Provincial Park. I'll have that video ready in the next couple of weeks.

And I have more videos planned soon, when DW and I head out for vacation.

Stay tuned.

The Longest Weekend

I almost feel as though I've been on a short vacation, though I didn't leave home.

Yes, this past weekend was the Labour Day long weekend, but it was made even longer with an extra day, given off from work, on Friday. The director of my company's development team gave everyone under his leadership last Friday off, which meant that all of my co-workers would be away, leaving me and the writers alone. So I spoke with my manager, who spoke to his boss, and we were also given the extra day to ourselves.

Gotta love that.

I made excellent use of my time. I spent Friday morning getting fitted for new reading glasses (no eye surgery in the foreseeable future—pun intended) and then worked on some writing and an upcoming Brown Knowser YouTube video: stay tuned. (Incidentally, another video dropped yesterday: give it a view when you can.)

That evening, we went to my parents' place for dinner and had a lovely evening catching up. It had been a couple of weeks since we had seen each other, even though they are a five-minute drive away.

I awoke early on Saturday and decided that I wanted to get a sizeable ride on my bike. DW and I cycled to Manotick together, but when she wanted to stop at a coffee shop for a snack, I bid her adieu and continued on my way. At first, I wasn't sure where I wanted to go and just maintained my regular 42K route, taking River Road south of Manotick. It was shortly into that part of my ride that I would follow River Road to its end, in Kemptville.

The route there was just under 40K. I made one stop to stretch, sip some of my iced tea and eat one of the fig bars that I had packed with me, before heading north, toward North Gower, and onward toward home.

Total distance: 82.6 kms.

When I got home, I had a quick bite before I changed into some shorts and a t-shirt and headed out to mow the lawn. I knew that after a long ride, I'd only have so much energy left before I'd want to take it easy. I got the front and side lawns cut but it was too hot in the backyard, so I decided to wait until later in the day, when the house would cast the backyard in shade.

I ran out of steam shortly thereafter and took the rest of the day easy, working more on my upcoming YouTube video.

On Sunday, DW and I decided to head downtown for breakfast. We weren't sure where we wanted to go, so I asked my Twitter folks for suggestions and received a lot of very good recommendations. Ultimately, we decided to make our way to Elgin Street and settled on the Ministry of Coffee. Afterward, DW recommended that we go for a walk, since I knew I wasn't going to get on my bike that day but wanted to accumulate some distance for my virtual Appalachian Trail challenge.

We walked up Elgin Street, cut through Confederation Park, and cut through the Rideau Centre, where DW decided to do some more shopping for comfortable shoes and travel clothes, for our upcoming trip to Portugal (10 days to go!).

From there, we wandered through the ByWard Market. Because I wanted to practice capturing some cinematic video, as practice for our Portugal trip, I used my smartphone to play with video settings (even though I'm not really planning to use my smartphone for video captures). You can see some of the video I captured on my Instagram account.

Back at home, we decided that we had procrastinated enough, and it was time to give our backyard fence some attention. When we returned home from Cuba, last December, we discovered that two of our fence panels had blown down, and that two of our fence posts had snapped.

In the spring, I tried digging out one of the post stumps but found the clay and cement wouldn't budge. And so, I gave up. On Sunday, I dug the hole a little bigger, went deeper, and used a heavy iron rod with a chisel-like head to try breaking up the concrete. It worked and I was able to break about a foot off the concrete. I then wrapped a chain around the post and, using a tall jack, was able to pull the post out of the concrete.

The post didn't move, so DW and I put a new post into the hole, hammered it a few feet down, and then sealed the hole with expanding, hard-setting foam.

One post down: one more to go. But by then, the sun had set and we hadn't even located the other post stump (dirt had filled in after the fence fell) so we called it a day.

I started Monday with another bike ride but didn't plan on going as far as I had gone on Saturday. I did my usual route but added Long Island in Manotick to the return leg. Total distance: 42.9 kms.

As soon as I got in the door, I made myself some breakfast and then changed back into my yard clothes. Sure, they smelled sweaty from the day before but I was only going to get sweatier (and I was already sweaty from my ride).

Back outside, I located the second fence post stump and started digging. I had to dig more than a foot to find where the rest of the post was, as the wood had rotted and the post had snapped off much lower than the first post. I got down about two feet before I struck concrete.

There was a lot more concrete surrounding this post than the previous one and the clay seemed much more dense. It took me all afternoon to chisel about a foot of concrete and when I tried wrapping the chain around the post and pulling like the first one, it would not budge. I used the iron bar until my arms just wouldn't lift it anymore, and I called it a day.

We barbecued some tandoori chicken and called it a day. (I barely had the energy to type this post, and my wrists were killing me.)

Four long days.

It was an extra-long weekend but in some ways, it felt like a mini vacation. With only 10 days to go before DW and I fly across the Atlantic, it was a great pre-vacation vacation. With a lot of exercise.

Mind you, we'll be getting our fair share of exercise in Portugal, with walking, climbing, kayaking, and cycling. I just hope our muscles wont ache at the end of each day.

I hope you had a good long weekend. Happy Tuesday!

They Don't Call It Labour Day for Nothing

We didn't toil all weekend with our home reno. We did take some time to enjoy the fabulous weekend.

Two evenings of dinner with old and dear friends: wine, beer, and a hot tub, which did much to soothe my old and aching muscles. Especially, my feet, which can no longer hold much more than my own weight, and not for very long.

We tore down the family room: our wall unit got separated, the various parts now stashed in corners around the house, their doors and contents not accessible for about a month or so, while we lay down the hardwood and affix the kitchen cabinets.

With one sofa put out to the curb, last week, the other has been carried to the basement. I'm fearful that while we managed to carry our shorter, red sofa down the narrow steps, getting it up will be a chore that will require someone with stronger feet to bring it back to the family room.

The worn and stained carpet is now gone, with nothing left but the plywood floors. Care was taken to ensure every nail and every staple was removed, so that there would be no obstacle for the hardwood. We discovered one challenge, as we removed the transition strip between the kitchen and the family room, where a quarter-inch particle-board layer separates the two rooms. It looks like we'll have to add another layer of plywood to the family room to make everything level.

The track lighting that hung over the fireplace is now gone. It was removed to make painting the ceiling easier, but it was a light fixture that we never liked, and so we're replacing it. The first coat of ceiling paint has covered the sloped stipple, where the ceiling starts at nine feet and ends at 11.

My back started to feel sore as the day wore on.

On track for this week is to paint the walls. New colours will hopefully give new life to this living space. On the weekend, I'll start pulling up the kitchen counters and cabinets, and removing the vinyl flooring.

That's when the easy stuff will be done. Stay tuned.

Wordless Wednesday: At The Lake