Had a huge group of my friends at the trailer for May two-four and we had a blast!
He said
And we thought the moving sites was a lot of work… With last week being Mother’s Day and Danielle knowing that we were moving sites, her only wish for Mother’s Day was get some flora & fauna for the new site and the help in making our new site, ours. Last week was really about getting the trailer landed and our stuff on the site. This week was about making it settled. With it being the Victoria Day long weekend, and I already having from Tuesday to today off as vacation, Danielle chose to take the Thursday and Friday as vacation days as well and we headed straight to the trailer Wednesday as soon as she was done work.
Knowing that we had a lot of stuff still at the house that needed to get up to the trailer, after my bike ride Wednesday, I made an initial trip up to the trailer with the truck loaded to the gills to get as much as I could up in one load. As soon as I had that stuff dropped off at the trailer, it was right back to London to meet up with Danielle, so we could take load number two along with us up to the trailer so we could begin our extended weekend up at the trailer. The first thing we wanted to tackle was Danielle’s garden plan, which we would do on Thursday (after the bike ride of course). But, being that there was so much running around Tuesday for me, and that Danielle had worked a full day, we were fine to have dinner and just relax at the fire pit that evening. And, it was bliss.
There is a lot of current construction projects going on right now on ‘our’ section of the G2G, between Auburn & Blyth, so we decided to drive up to Blyth and ride the next section of the G2G to Walton and back. It gave me the daily distance I want, but both of us the chance to get the legs moving before the real work began. We headed in to Goderich to the Canadian Tire and picked out a hefty allotment that would give us a nice garden the surround the deck with. By the middle of the afternoon our hands were dirty and the sweat was running as we began the work that in three hours time would be a garden we were very proud of. And one that drastically changed the look of the site, making it really feel like ours. Danielle picked hostas, ferns, boxwoods & some tall grass and carpeted it with some red, cedar mulch encased in river rock stones we’ve been collecting in our years there.
By the time that we wrapped up that evening, I was ready for three things for sure: a beer, a shower and food. And, we took care of those, in that order. With all the hard work behind us, we had earned another evening of relaxing at the new fire pit. Only now it finally felt settled as aside from some little here and there projects, we’re pretty much set to relax and enjoy the season. Which given the amount of shock we got from all the new neighbours dropping by to introduce themselves, the one universal sentiment was, “wow, you guys don’t waste any time!” And, they have that right, cause we want to get ‘er done to get to the relaxing.
Friday it was another trip back to London, but this time to pick up Emelia and six of her closest friends as they were all coming up to spend the long weekend with her at the trailer. By 8pm we were back at the trailer with seven girls laughing and having a blast. Their tent was sent up in short order and then Emelia gave them a tour of the park and they struck off to seek their own fun. The one big worry Danielle had was overall this site might be smaller by measure, but because of the way that it is laid out and how our trailer is landed, it actually feels like we have more space than we did before. And the entire weekend we didn’t feel crammed at all. By all counts the girls had an absolute blast, and so do we seeing Emelia in her element with her ‘crew‘.
Sunday we retuned all the girls to home and Danielle & I turned right around and went straight back to the trailer to enjoy a nice, quiet evening with just the two of us. We’ve met a lot of our new neighbours and they already feel comfortable enough to come sit with us and chat by the fire. The one thing we’re really blown away with early on is just how quiet and serene it is up on Snob Hill. The one thing that we were really hoping to get, getting away from all the commotion of the transient sites was some peace and quiet and it seems like we got that for sure. But, the one thing we got that has surprised me is a space that really feels like it’s ours.
She said
This was a weekend we really needed. After all the heartache for our family over the last 5 months we were feeling the emotional drain and really knew we needed a big change that matched our family’s needs now. After 4 years of dealing with no plumbing hook-ups and the chaos of constant transients we were ready for a big change. As my friend said to me at work last week, after all that our family has been through this year it shows you one thing, if you aren’t happy – change. I spent much of the week at work getting things caught up and back in order so we could take an extra long weekend. Once I was able to secure the extra days off last week we shifted our mindset to planning our new site.
I do not have a green thumb, in fact I do not really like gardening. But I do love the end result. Our new to us site was a perfect location but the site was in not great shape, the previous owners had not done any yard maintenance and there was no garden. To bring it back was going to take a lot of work. After asking friends who garden a lot we picked out the plants that could handle little maintenance and a lot of shade. After 3 hours of work and a couple trips the the garden centre we are about 80% there. We love how it is coming along. We added a bunch of garden beds, a second path up to the deck and lots and lots of mulch. The next big task is trying to get the grass to come back, add a bunch of gravel to the driveway and the back area around the shed, and John has plans on building up a deck to put our shed on to let us add better storage. We got so many compliments from our new neighours, we are so proud of how it is already coming together.
Speaking about neighbours, after four years in the same spot and with friends down in our old area I was a bit nervous about moving to a new area. But everyone has been beyond friendly, so many of our new neightbouts have come over to introduce themselves, they have all made us feel so welcome. One even came over for drinks Saturday night. The entire area is so peaceful and everyone takes so much pride in their spaces. It is everything we hoped for.
After all our hard work Thursday and Friday we shifted gears and packed up to go to London to pick up Emelia and 6 of her closest came up for the weekend, a few of our besties were missing so we do need to plan another weekend and soon. The last 6 months have been the most gut wrenching for Emelia. To say her friends have been her everything would be an understatement. So we wanted to thank her close friends for being there through all her heartbreak. So have to have so many of them here this weekend has been exactly what she needed. Friends at this age is everything. Emelia has had a rough go and seeing her best friends really be there for her is all we have ever wanted for her. To hear this group of girls laughing, off on their own adventures and be teenagers was perfection! All the girls said it was the best weekend and that made John and I so happy.
This is the first weekend of the summer, a summer of hopefully amazing memories, lots of time with friends and family because that is what life is all about. What we have learnt over the last year is that life is far too short. Spend it doing what brings you joy.