Stayin’ Put For A While

With the coronavirus still around us, now is not the time for travellin’, although I end this post with a travellin’ song I wrote during our quarantine. It is still a work in progress, with our dear son Andrew assisting with the musical arrangement. Watch for it at the top of the charts in the near future! Lol.

Adam shows Betty’s latest creation, made with love to keep him warm when Lisa isn’t around. lol

Speaking of work in progress, at the end of our last post I mentioned that we had begun upgrading our seasonal campsite at Town & Country RV Park in Winnipeg. This pictorial post chronicles that process.

Before the leaves arrived on the trees, we added 15 yards of gravel to our parking area, levelled with the assistance of our neighbour, Brian, and the park owner’s son, Kevin. With heavy rains last fall, large pools of water had covered much of our site. A new drainage system has now also been installed, so we hope to stay high and dry.
Park owner, Ken, then compacted the site with his tractor & roller.
I edged the parking area and patio with mini ties, secured with rebar.
Including a border for our sewer & water connections.
15 yards of good quality topsoil were then added to the site.
Andrew helped to create the patio area with large paving slabs.
As an experiment, we seeded the lawn with micro clover, in addition to grass seed. A large bag of grass seed was about $34., but this tiny bag of micro clover was $79.95! Sure hope it works!!!
The tiny micro clover leaves are starting to make an appearance. They are supposed to choke out other broad leaf weeds, and provide a green lawn during both droughts and wet weather. Because it is a low ground cover, it doesn’t need to be mowed often. And if we sprinkle it with vodka, it will come up half-cut. lol
Betty & Charlie watch the grass start to grow.
Who’s lookin’ at you, Charlie?
Betty is starting to make a vertical herb garden, from one of the left over pallets.
And our storage shed finally arrived. Not sure what caused the supply chain issues, but it seemed to take forever to get here!
It has just enough room for our bikes, ladders, and garden equipment.
Betty talked me into quilting also… Here I’ve taped off and started painting the design for a barn quilt.
The installed barn quilt, on the back of our shed, as seen through the trees.
A closeup view shows our name plaque, which came from a restaurant in Bragg Creek, Alberta 40 years ago. When you made a reservation, they would carve your name onto a board, which would be placed on your table. After dinner, you could either take it with you, or have it mounted with many others on a feature wall in the restaurant. They served great Alberta beef, so we went more than once, and did it both ways…
The planter below our other Alberta tree-sliced name board is made from left-over construction forms.
Four weeks on, the micro clover is still coming. It looks patchy in places, but hopefully will fill in soon.
Our add-a-room has finally gone back up on our new patio, expanding Betty’s sewing room, in anticipation of great things to come!

Well, as you can see, we haven’t been doing much travelling this month. Our plans are to stay put here until October, when we hope to head west to Vancouver Island for the winter. Campgrounds there stay open year-round. Yeah! In the meantime, here’s the first draft of that travellin’ song. Enjoy!

          A Travellin’ Song

Mountains and plains

Rivers and rain

What are we all going to see?

When the rat-race entwines

And we need to unwind

Where can we go to break free?

(Chorus)

Travel free with me

Travel free with me

Let us see all that we need to see

When the road takes us up

Let’s go to the top

And enjoy nature’s true reverie. 

Travel free!

—–

There are settings on earth

That fill us with mirth

With a joy that is really sublime

When we go there we find

Another place and a time

That lets us feel fully alive.

——

Travel free from the hate.

Get out of the gate

To see a world full of surprises

Enjoy travel time

And the people we find

Sharing love that brings joy to our lives.

——-

Wherever we go

Let’s remember to sow

The seeds of a love that unites

Bring peace to this earth

Join hands round its girth

And end all the stress and the fights.

——

When this life is over

Did we take time to discover

The miracles of people and places?

Did we find joy in travel

And wonder and marvel

At all that put smiles on our faces?

——

From oceans to ponds

From deserts to lawns

There is so much that we need to see

Join us on our journey

Wherever roads may lead

And learn to forever break free!

Travel free!

Graham Reddoch 2020

Cheers!