Split wood. We had some large trees cut down last year and the pieces are too big to move, so while DH cut the logs with the chain saw, I split the other cut pieces with a sledge and wedges. We have more to do, but we made a good dent in it. No wonder my arms and shoulders were sore yesterday!

Saturday I went to a play and out to dinner with some friends. Sunday I did some laundry, gave the dog a bath, made some deviled eggs, after which I heard there was a recall of eggs due to salmonella. Just went out to the garbage to check the carton and mine were not from the plant causing the problem. Thank goodness because I ate two yesterday. :-))) Today I have bridge here so I must get some vacuuming done and set up some tables.

Friday night I played cards with friends at the club house. Saturday I went with other ladies to Baltimore for "light city" which is a city wide lights display. We had gone last year and enjoyed it but this year was so crowded it was hard to see much. We used the water taxi which was nice. We had a great seafood dinner and walked and walked I headed back to the hotel with two others while the other ladies stayed out a bit longer. Enjoyed sitting in the lobby and gabbing until almost midnight. Breakfast the next morning and then headed home. Always nice to get away.

Spent the weekend hoping and praying the power didn't go out. There could be two and a half feet out there and of all times to leave my car sitting out so took an hour to get the snow and ice off it so I could get the doors open so today if my plow guy comes back he can finish plowing. And it's still snowing but that horrible wind has stopped! Couldn't get out my back door as it was solid ice on the outside of it so had to go out front and wade through the snow....oh the joys of what....spring?

Had company. We stayed in and ordered food in because of the crappy weather. I was supposed to work yesterday, but I did not. Kind of wiped out. My friend did help with a couple of household tasks I have not been able to do because of my foot issues, which was great.

Large ice storm moved into Ontario. Over 700 highway accidents over the weekend. We hadn't even done grocery shopping yet, but there's nothing we need that's urgent. The freezer is full. We didn't lose hydro, but a lot of people have. There are still 65,000 people without electricity.

We did some cleaning, I made bread (which is pretty much a norm on weekends. I ordered 2 Lodge cast iron bread/loaf pans and I broke them in. I love them. Cast iron, so they're heavy.

Jadip, what is "we didn't lose hydro"? Do you mean water supply? The bread looks lovely!

Saturday was beautiful, sunny and dry, and the rest of my family went off on a day-trip, so i went outside and hoed in my little flower garden. After about an hour, I felt twinges in my back so I went inside, had a hot shower and quit for the day. My back is still sore two days later.

Saturday looked like a gorgeous day, but was COLD, with a strong cold north wind. Thank goodness the smoke from the Oklahoma fires had dissipated. I swam at our senior center, and later just searched online for my proposed new cycling tour. Sunday I worked in the yard, after it warmed up some, and in the afternoon I went to the knitting get together. All in all, an overall lazy weekend. ;)

Moni

Annie, Hydro means electric power in Canada

I ask over in cooking how to make my own maple flavored pancake syrup. Of course I was given recipes ( those folks sure know how to cook).

I followed the recipe except I used only maple extract as the flavoring and left out the vanilla and butter flavoring. ...so light corn syrup, brown sugar, water and maple flavoring. ..boiled five minutes, set aside to cool and omg...the absolute best maple flavored pancake syrup in the world. I can't stop raving about how good it is. LOL

I do not like pure maple syrup neither do the kids which is a good thing considering how $$$ it is.

So yesterdays dinner/supper was fried potatoes, sausage, and homemade waffles. The boys informed me they don't ever want Log Cabin again. Lol.

I don't know how I got to this age and not know how to make this stuff.

I did the usual weekend stuff. Tidy up the house, laundry, ironing. Thought about giving Little Lil a quick haircut and bath but decided to wait. Really did nothing very productive and certainly nothing exciting. Think I'm getting old.

Annie - I remember those days of splitting wood! The home I lived in prior to my marriage was heated primarily with a woodstove in the family room. It took A LOT of wood for the heating season. I always enjoyed both the splitting and the heat :)

Thanks Moni! Yes, the word 'hydro' means electricity. Hydro One is the largest hydro provider in Ontario, where of course the CEO gave himself a raise. He earns $6M per year, but that's a whole other can of worms.

What did I do? I listened to albums (Song For You, Carpenters, the soundtrack to South Pacific...) and cleaned. I spent all week going home early and putting seedlings into the ground because I knew perfect transplant conditions were on the horizon (cool with loads and loads of rain), and that I'd be inside, so I saved Saturday for cleaning. It's more fun to clean to tunes. That, and I picked up my son who had been out of town for days. He lost his wallet and dress shoe (just one), placed 20 something in a field of 30 something, and had the time of his life. All these kids are major geeks who were at a geekfest (school sanctioned state tournaments for STEM sorts). They spent their week doing their own thing when they could (seniors rule!) playing games in the indoor heated pool, going to the aquarium and eating overpriced bad tasting food. Such a blast. Sweet memories. He really enjoyed it and it was much needed. He has five AP exams in three weeks and is in the throes of applications into the next step of life.

Thanks for the clarification OklaMoni and Jasdip! We just refer to it as power, not by the means of generation. In fact, with the power wheeling that goes on, I'm not sure how a lot of power is generated...could be oil, nuke, gas and hydro with some wind and solar thrown in.

We went to see Tony Bennett at the Opera House in Boston. He was amazing, sang 23 songs and no breaks. Standing Os galore.

Jasdip, my son and DIL were hunkered down too. Freezing rain, dangerous roads.

Me, I helped a neighbor change a kitchen faucet then listened to some good music yesterday. Women of Jazz and Great American Songbook. (on Spotify)

Our kids came home this weekend! Friday evening we just kind of hung out, ate dinner and drank some wine because they didn't get here til late. Saturday morning the guys went golfing, the girls and I hung out again. Then we all went to bingo in the evening! First time for the guys going, I think they actually didn't hate it, haha.

Sunday morning mass, then they all headed home, ugh, so sad. It is never, ever enough time. I truly cherish every minute we get with them. They are both doing well, are happy, good jobs, a parent can't ask for more than that. I just wish we lived closer to each other.

Idstarr, I don't like doing wood, in general. I prefer to split by hand rather than machine only because it's quieter, but it's so much work! We have so much to split though we do the majority by machine. We burn about 2 cord a year. And as DH always reminds me, I may not like to do wood, but I sure like burning to to keep warm!

We finally had a really nice day on Saturday where it wasn't raining for once. We went for a longer trail run of 13K in honour of that, and on Sunday I made cookies and a loaf.

Hot 88 and sunny on Sat. so took the dogs on the Appalachian trail for a four-mile trek. Sunday it was 39 and misty so took them on the three-mile trek at our nature preserve. Too iffy to plant yet.

You folks are so busy and productive! You put me to shame.

I sewed four small strips onto two 12”’quilt blocks! I also prepped and hung 13 of my 16 Purple Martin gourds in anticipation of their return for my 15th season.

I need to run a bead of caulk along the porches of two more gourds and touch up the paint on my favorite natural gourd. Those will be finished today and hung tomorrow.

I hung three more gourds after taking this photo. It was too cold to go back in, and come back out, :) just to get another photo.

Yes, that’s snow and ice on the ground. There is no green grass, no deciduous tree leaves, nothing growing...but the Martins are winging this way. I tract their progress on the Purple Martin Conservation Association’s site. They should be here between April 23 and May 10.

Friday and Saturday were two beautiful spring days to get out and do whatever. Enjoyed fried oysters and seafood gumbo with two friends, on Friday, and Saturday was a great day for open windows. BUT Sunday was entirely different, big cold front blew thru and was a stay at home day and get some cleaning accomplished. Still windy and cold, today, but it's sunny, and I have to get out.

DH built it. I did the design & purchasing. :0) I found a deal on the decorative spindels($3ea/reg $25ea).

A couple of weeks ago a massive windstorm uprooted a tree on our property. One fell over a fence and got caught up in another tree on the other side of the fence.

I found that my chainsaw would not stay running, so after trying to fix it, and having no luck, I bought a new one of a better brand, and this weekend tried the new saw out on the mostly downed tree.

I sawed through the trunk near the fence, from the bottom up, and as I got most of the way through the tree sagged down onto the top board of the fence. I made a cut on the other side of the fence but as the tree fell the rest of the way it knocked off the 3 fence boards and cracked them somewhat.

They were still in good enough shape to put back up and since there was a horse in the field I felt I should do so ASAP. So I got screws and the cordless drill and put the boards back up, exhausting the battery before the last screw was all the way in.

I then decided that with a couple more cuts I could get the part of the tree that was still caught in the other tree completely on the ground. So I did one cut. Being slow and careful since trees snagged in other trees are unpredictable and dangerous. And then did another cut. And the top 15 feet of the tree came down nearly vertical, and then slowly fell straight back through the fence right where I had just repaired it, breaking all three boards into bits.

It felt like a scene from Laurel and Hardy or the 3 Stooges.

Brushworks, we discovered AccuRadio. We love listening to Jazz on weekends, via the laptop to the tv.

Nicole, there's no job worse than cleaning the oven. I did ours a couple of weeks ago. Horrid job.

I hope there were some surreal elements to the wedding.

Perhaps the minister saying "I now pronounce you giraffe and artichoke" :-)

There were a few 'interesting' touches. Mostly traditional, but different enough to be fun.

Idastar, are your lilacs in bloom yet? I have leaves but no blooms.

Handsome newlyweds.

Bob, I have to hand it to you for being lighthearted about the tree/fence mishaps.

Everyone is so busy and ambitious! You accomplish so much in one day.

This weekend my granddaughter and grandson almost 13 and almost 12 spent the weeked with DH and me. DH and grandson played golf after school Friday; Saturday we enjoyed two basketball games, shopping with granddaughter, dinner out. Sunday, my husband and grandson went to brunch, then DH dropped him off at a birthday party. Granddaughter and I went to her soccer game. It was a splendid weekend.

I shoveled snow, then rested.

happy2b, nope our trees and shrubs are still leafless, but the buds are beginning to swell. This morning it is snowing, again....., and we have a couple of inches on the ground. I'm more than ready for spring, but this weather is good for the transplants.

Sorry you all are still dealing with wintry weather.

Bob, what a day! You do have a great outlook on the fence mishap though.

Bob, you made me laugh as my husband and son just had a similar incident with a ginormous tree which had to come down. They had it all planned out as they've been felling trees for years. I went out and said "I have a feeling it's going to fall towards the street and pull down the wires." They looked at me like I was nuts but they forget that I'm psychic. I went inside, peeked out the window, one truck with lines on it to the tree and my husband cutting. Two minutes later I hear a loud crash and the house shook. Sure enough the tree fell towards the street, wires are down and the entire neighborhood is outside. I stayed inside. Neighbors were not happy but didn't hold a grudge. They worked on the clean up till nightfall. The surreal line made me laugh too.

There was an ice storm in Toronto over the weekend which probably has caused a lot of falling trees needing to be cleaned.

This video shows a dog just getting out of the way of a falling tree in time.