Tuesday, July 3rd - back to work day

This morning is quite overcast although there are a few holes forming in the clouds. It's 16' right now (at 5:00 am) but it's going to be a hot and humid 25' later, which will feel more like 29'. It would be a great day for the beach if we didn't all have to go to work  That is, of course, unless you're a substitute school bus driver! But I'm sure she'll have lots to keep her busy today.

It was brilliant and sunny when I got up yesterday morning but then it clouded over severely and rained quite heavily for only a few minutes but just enough to take the edge off the visit to the beach. Once everyone in the RV was up they decided to just hit the road and see if they might be able to get to St. Andrew, NB. I see from the list of visitors that someone viewed the blog from Saint John, so perhaps it was them on the ipad. If that was you guys, welcome and have a safe journey!

The RV just leaving - Katie got out to take a photo at the end of the lane

Katie brought me a beautiful orchid. I'm not usually good with plants but she tells me they are extremely hardy and require very little maintenance. I hope she's right. Patti has one that's been sitting on her kitchen counter for a number of years so maybe that's true.

So after they left, Lloyd set about getting his smoker up and running. He had caught a bucket load of mackerel when he was out on Sunday and his plan was to smoke it. He began by mixing together a brine and soaking the filets in that for a while. Then he started a fire in the smoker, using some dried branches he'd trimmed off the apple tree back in the winter. Fish doesn't take long to smoke so before long we had some lovely smoked fish. He took half of it off when it was still quite moist and left the other half on for quite a bit longer to get drier. They are both tasty but one is definitely drier and smokier than the other.  I have a couple of pork chops brining today that we'll try smoking tonight on the BBQ.

The fish being smoked

I attempted to do laundry but after the first load I ran out of water. It seems there's some sort of switch that's leaking so we called the local plumber. Lo and behold, he was here within the hour but the switch he put on was not a good one. He said it would be temporary until he can get another one today. Good thing because it doesn't work any better than the old one, except it doesn't leak. So after you run the water for 5 minutes, it runs out. Then you have to shut it off and wait a few minutes and then it goes again. Not so good for laundry or showers. But at least we have some water so it's not that big a deal for the short term. Hopefully it will all be fixed tonight.

We were invited to go over to visit some folks I recently met in Mount Stewart so we went over there around 3:30.  Besides Roy and Barb, there were Roy's parents who were visiting from England, as well as an uncle and his wife who live in the Souris area. We sat out on the deck all afternoon and we were amazed that there were no mosquitoes. I believe that's because the entire mosquito population of the area lives between Websters Corner and Pisquid! We could never sit out on a patio all afternoon like that here. They were told there would be lots of bugs but so far they haven't landed in their yard as yet, and they are in the country surrounded by trees and you can see the river off in the distance. Don't know what the difference is but it's quite remarkable. We had a pleasant afternoon and came home around 8:00.  Just in time to read a little bit then off to bed.