I am going into my last week of co-op. I have loved my placement so much and will miss it so much. But not going to lie going to be happy to have a lot more free time to spend with my friends

He said

Basically when we wrapped the blog last week, we ended at the trailer ready for a week of vacation there. It was our first official, full week there since landing the trailer in our new location at the start of May. That week was filled mostly with getting the trailer ready for the season. This week, with us more than settled, it was all about Danielle and I getting in some much-needed time together relaxing and enjoying the new site. Make no mistake there was work to be done this week, but each night would end with us relaxing by the fire pit. And we got to ride the G2G Rail Trail every single day we were there—in fact Danielle and I cycled 183km in total this week!

The first order of work this week was to build a deck to have a solid, non dirt floor base to our shed. That we picked Monday to do in order to get the biggest task of our week out of the way. The hardest part was going to be the foundation as the area where we put the shed, at the back end of our trailer has a significant slope. Thankfully we were able to use a combination of two cement 4 way deck blocks at the back end and two, low profile Tuff Block. The combination of the significant difference in height of the two meant minimal digging to get all four corners level. In a lot less time than I had anticipated, we were installing the joists and support joists. While it sounds like it was easy-breezy work it was anything but as we were still in the crazy heat and humidity that I was challenged with in the Reggie Ramble. But, by dinner-ish time Monday evening we had completed the deck and were moving the shed onto it’s more supportive and final home on our site. I am surprised with our lack of deck building experience how level and actually good it turned out.

The next order of work came at the mercy of job number one, which was replacing the sting lights around the fire pit that we broke moving the shed around. But as that was an Amazon order delivered to our home, we’d have to do that another day. So job three rolled up which was finally get a load of wood from Gert – the local in Auburn that we’ve been buying wood from for the last five  years. He loads into the pickup bed which doesn’t take much from us, but the real ordeal is then unloading it and storing it back at the site. And if you’ve ever unloaded a face cord or pickup bed amount of fire wood,  you know that’s a lot. We got that done and taken care of on Tuesday which uncovered the new job/problem—we needed a way to store that wood. The old site we used a combination of a 4 foot wood rack we were gifted and the railway ties that came on our site that served as the edge of the tent. This site didn’t have that, so it was back the Amazon cart for an 8 foot version of a wood rack.

With Mom moving to a more assisted living situation, the last few weeks have been about getting over there as much as we could to help her pare down and pack. With us being off this week Matthew and Shawn had been carrying a significant part of the workload, but we decided to come back into town Thursday to help out with the work. With master packer/parer-downer Danielle at the helm we got a lot done in very short order. Aside from maybe a couple visits this week after work, we are ready for her move this Thursday. We were also able to get some laundry done and get some supplies restocked at Costco before heading back and being at the trailer in time to have dinner and a fire pit. Perfect way to end a very busy day.

With a lot of the work out of the way at the trailer, it meant that rolling into this weekend we could spend a lot more time focused on relaxing which is exactly what we did! Friday a friend of mine that I met through cycling, Andrew had decided to revisit some of the G2G trail so he started in Walton, we over to Blyth to meet him there, then rode back to the trailer with him to visit for a bit before he got on his bike and headed back to Walton. Through the weekend we tinkered about doing little tiny things we wanted to get done and by the time today rolled around and it was time to think about heading home, as we looked back on the week it was the perfect combination of getting a lot done but also having a good time away! We really could ask for any more—we had an amazing week!

She said

This week was what we really needed. To say the last 8 months has been a lot would be an understatement. Not only have things been so stressful with all the health challenges with John’s family it has been stressful at work and Emelia’s life is generally so busy that she doesn’t get much time to breath.

John and I have not been able to get up to the trailer as much as we wanted by this point in the summer so we were happy to get up there this week. We had a pretty solid ‘honey-do-list’. The biggest one on John’s want list was getting a deck under our existing shed. The shed is more of a tent that has no floor. So the mud and uneven land under has always made placing and using the shed efficiently a real challenge. With a morning of rain John and I got a bit later start on Monday waiting for the rain to stop. With the rain almost done we headed into Goderich with our supply list and filled the back of the pick up truck. The biggest headache of the build was the basic base frame, it took over an hour to get the 4 footings placed properly so that the base was level. Once that part was done and I made another quick trip into town to get a couple things we made a quick finish of the rest of the build. After a few sweaty hours we were done, the shed was back in place and everything was back in and organized. It took longer than we hoped but it turned out really well.

That was our big build but it wasn’t the end of our trailer site improvements. We added some new fire pit chairs, new wood holder and added some new solar lanterns and some garden decorations. We still have a bit more to do on our renovation of the site and that we will get done on Civic weekend. It will be then that we take and post our true before and after pictures of the remodel. We are so proud of what we have done, the site went from being the eyesore on the hill to a beautiful and welcoming site. We could not be happier up there, we kept saying it all week, how nice our neighbours are, how peaceful our area is and how it is like a whole different world where we are. I had to go down towards the store on Saturday to collect a package and it was chaos, kids everywhere, our old area was packed in with multiple group sites and trailers everywhere. As I returned to our area it was quiet, no chaos and sites all around where people just take such pride in their summer homes. We could not be happier.

Next week will be another busy one for us. Emelia is wrapping up her last week at co-op, she also has a packed schedule with sports and wrapping up all her homework to finish this course. I have really encouraged her to book next weekend off so she can have her first day off in a month. She has worked so hard and we could not be prouder. For John, Matthew, Shawn and I our week will be preparing Helen for the move to her new home. It has been a lot of work and it will be emotional I think for her. This is her first home alone, we are doing everything we can to make her new home her own and settle her in. This time next week we are hoping that everyone gets to sigh a bit of relief.