A chance to give back a little

This  past weekend geocachers all around the world joined forces with other community groups to do a spring cleaning. For us it is called CITO and stands for Cache In Trash Out. It is an ideal that we are supposed to follow where we go into the woods looking for geocaches and bring out any garbage that we find to help clean up the areas where we play and leave our surroundings better than we found them.

Icon given to geocachers who participate in a CITO

CITO events are held the weekend after Earth Day and are organized by any geocacher who is interested in hosting an event to clean their area. These events make a huge difference in the areas where they are held. Geocachers who participate in a CITO event earn an icon on their gocaching page to show that they have attended an event that year.




We were lucky to have three events close to us this year and we headed Saturday morning bright and early and attended a highway cleanup in St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia with about 30 other cachers. We collected about 60 large garbage bags full of trash from the side of the highway through a mostly residential area. A real highlight was when one homeowner came out yelling her thanks and telling us that we were making her neighborhood look much better.

One load of trash picked up in Tantallon

Cachers and their cleaned area

One of the most unusual finds

Saturday afternoon most of the same people headed to Tantallon, Nova Scotia and there we teamed up with the local ATV association to clean a section of trail that was recently purchased by teh provincial government and opened for use by all Nova Scotians. The ATV members ferried the geocachers along the trail and picked up the full garbage bags to transport to the trailhead area. It was a great learning experience for all attendees as we learned how the ATV association maintains and polices the trails and they learned what geocaching is all about.
I don't think any of us had an inkling of how much trash was hidden along the trail. At the end of 3 hours a total of 7 1/2 truckloads of garbage of all description was found and bagged and taken to the collection facility. There was now a total of about 5 km of clean trail for all to use and enjoy in a beautiful area.

Trash collected in Bridgewater

Sunday we headed out in the afternoon on a day that promised rain and delivered on the promise. About 15 hearty souls from across the province braved the elements to clean a local carpool parking lot near Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. Teh area was cleaned fairly quickly and about a dozen bags of garbage were cleared from the area leaving a much better impression of the highway.

Before the cleanup

After the cleanup

As we were traveling to and from our events we saw the same thing being repeated by school and community groups everywhere we looked. It was great to see so many out from all walks of life giving back to their communities. There were no complaints about the work or the temperature, everyone seemed to be enjoying the camaraderie and feeling of doing something good.

This is something that doesn't need to happen once a year. If people would stop littering, the problemn would go away. Unfortunately I fear that won't happen. I think it is a better chance that we try to educate people to do just a little bit each day, if you pick up one piece of trash on your walk, the world will be a better place for you having been there. If more people see this type of behavior they may start to do the same thing, then think how beautiful the world could become.

How it could look if we all did our part

We enjoyed our outing and love the feeling that we got from Giving Back A Little. Try it you'll like it.

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Good Morning Sunrise

I think that our favorite time of the day since we have retired is Sunrise. When I was working, it was a chore to get out of bed in the morning, the alarm demanding my attention and lunches to be packed for the day ahead. It was faced with a sense of not quite dread, but not with anticipation. There was no time to stop and appreciate the morning in the mad rush of preparation for the days labors. That all changed the day that I officially became retired.

Since we have retired, we have not had to rely on the alarm to get up in the morning, unless we are off on very early morning trip. Mornings are met with anticipation of the days promise. We have no plans and very few demands on our time. A day is allowed to unfold like a flower blooming and reaching its full potential. Some days are slow to awaken, their grey covering wrapped around them like a security blanket, protection from the weather to come. Other days arrive with a bright yellow glow to announce that they are here and all is right with the world.
The best mornings are the ones that start off with a burst of color painting the sky in bright vibrant hues as if to make up for a forecast of later day storms. It seems to be true what the old timers said, "Red Sky At Morning, Sailors Take Warning". The most vibrant sunrises are nearly always followed by a storm later in the day. Maybe this is nature's way of apologizing in advance for the day to come.
A perfect morning is one spent on the deck, having breakfast and enjoying a steaming cup of freshly brewed coffee as the sun rises out of the earth. Each day brings a sunrise from a slightly different perspective as the sunrises march back and forth across our view with the march of the seasons, lighting our lives from a slightly different angle and shining light into different corners of our lives.
A beautiful sunrise is a fleeting event, here one minute and gone the next. Most of the color being displayed just before the sun crests the horizon. A beautiful sunrise is more about promise and anticipation than about the actual rising of the sun. It is a great metaphor for the day ahead, carrying all the promise of what is to come. We look forward to the scene that will greet us each morning as prepare breakfast and take the time to marvel in the spectacle that is presented each day for a fleeting moment.


I think it is fair to say that an early morning has become the favorite part of our day. It gives us the chance to relax and prepare for the day without the hustle and bustle that were for so long a part of our lives. Having a relaxing start to the day goes a long way toward making the whole day relaxing.






So sit back and relax and enjoy the show that is the world around us.

Smells like....whatever you choose.

It has been a while since I have taken the time to write on this blog. You would think that being retired would mean you have all the time in the world, it just doesn't seem to work out that way. I think part of the reason is that we take on more projects to do ourselves that we might have hired out when we were working. I also like to think that we are taking the time to learn new skills to help us in our retirement.   
  We love learning to do new things that help to save a few dollars or to make a healthier product for us to use. In the past we have talked about the cooking that we have tried, and that is a great way to have a good healthy meal at a lower cost and I like to think that cooking together has brought us closer at a time in our lives where too many people seem to find that they have nothing in common anymore.
  We like to make some of our own household products. One of the first that we tried was making our own deodorant. We looked at the cost and then after all the reading about the nasty chemicals that are absorbed by our bodies, this project seemed like a no brainer. And to top it off it was so easy. We were a bit skeptical about it at first, but we bit the bullet and gave it a try. With a little trial and error we have come up with a product that we both like and that works for us. We are able to get most of the ingredients at our local bulk store. The initial set-up costs a bit, but most of the ingredients have multiple uses.

  Homemade deodorant

2 Tbsp Coconut oil
5 Tbsp Arrowroot Powder
5 Tbsp Baking Soda
a few drops of essential oil( we like Lavender or a Lemon/Rosemary mix





Once all the ingredients are in the bowl, mix with your hands until you get a pretty solid ball. The heat from your hands will melt the coconut oil and allow everything to come together.







We saved some old stick deodorant tubes and just pack the mixture into them after winding the mechanism down to the bottom. 








When using this deodorant, you only dab it on your underarms, it takes very little to do the job. If you notice some redness it might be the chemicals from your old deodorant coming our of your pores or it could be a reaction to an essential oil. This recipe will make enough for both of us to last about a month. I wouldn't recommend increasing the recipe as there are no preservatives in it and if it last longer it could cause problems since you are using organic products that will break down over time.

The original recipe called for 1/4 cup each of baking powder and corn starch. We found that the extra baking powder made the recipe a bit abrasive and could cause chafing. We switched to arrowroot powder as it is less likely to cause a yeast infection, it is more naturally resistant to fungus and bacteria.

One of the things that most retirees agree on is that you have to live on a fixed budget, it is not easy to make up any shortfall if your budget doesn't balance. This is just one of the ways that we have found to cut costs and have a bit of fun doing it. We also make our own laundry soap, which sounds like a topic for another blog. We do most of own repairs and building projects. We recently laid our own hardwood floor in the kitchen at less than 1/3 the cost of having it done by someone else. These are all skills that we develop that save us a few dollars and also give us a great deal of satisfaction as we use utilize the items we have built. 
If you have anything that you do to save a few pennies or you want information about any of our other ideas, please feel free to leave a comment. 

Big Sky

The prairies are known as the Big Sky Country. In a boreal forest area the closest we can come to experiencing this is on the water. Whether you are in a boat on a lake, the ocean or whether you are lucky enough to do an ice hike, this is our Big Sky.
Our everyday lives are bounded by the trees around us. They feed us, shelter us, warm us and ultimately give a boundary to our lives. Our view of the world around us is limited by the trees that form our horizons.


  To head out onto the ice is to forge off on an adventure that is foreign to our experiences. We are used to being swaddled in trees, having a sense of surrounding security.  Going out into the great wide open is in a sense a challenge to nature. It is our way of saying here we are, see us, we can't hide. It is a way of saying that we will meet any challenge head on, not head into the trees to hide. It is a rare feeling of freedom and exhilaration to see for miles and be seen for miles, to feel as though you are the center of your own universe. To be able to say that you are the only living thing in sight, and that sight line is long.
  Heading out on the ice is a way to see nature as few before us have seen it, you may be in an area frequented by people in other seasons, but few  have ventured where your footsteps are taking you now. You get to see a familiar area from a completely different perspective. Islands in a lake become oases in a snowy desert. Thick brush is covered by snow and is passable to venture ashore to see these islands. We can see where other wildlife has left its mark in the past.
 
 
 


Gone are the sounds of cars and motorboats, only the crunching of the snow underfoot and the boom of the ice keep you company. 
Occasionally you hear a faint sigh of contentment and realize it is yours. The faint hiss of a fresh breeze slicing through the leafless trees is the soundtrack to your day on the lake. The only sign that you are not alone are the tracks left by animals who are also using the ice as a shortcut to better feeding.




  This sense of contentment can mask hidden dangers. There might be a predator lurking just inside the trees watching you. The snow that has painted the land with a uniform blanket of white might hide a thin patch in the ice waiting to trap the unwary traveller. This sense of possible danger adds to the sense of adventure, but should never be ignored. You are a long way from any help, you are like a pioneer surviving on your wits and experience.



As we move across the ice, the perspective is ever changing and every step brings a fresh viewpoint, it is never boring because it never repeats itself.It is this constantly changing scenery that makes us feel so lucky to head out onto the ice and view a piece of nature as few others get to experience it.

 It is our Big Sky day.

A Dental Win-Win

This week we had a truly wonderful trip to the dentist, it was a bit out of the ordinary and one of the best all time dental visits that we have ever had.
  One of the things that I worried about when I decided to try my hand at an early retirement was the loss of our medical coverage. Dental coverage has gotten so expensive that it was one of our great fears that we would not be able to maintain our dental health. Add to this the fact that we are now hitting the age when most problems are likely to occur it was quite a leap to head out without a safety net.
  Not long after I retired, one of my fears became reality, I had a root canal that failed. My last dentist had given up her practice and I was in the middle of a dental emergency with no dentist. What to do. I called a couple of offices to see about an emergency appointment and was told that I could not be seen without first having an examination, which starts at $75.00 and goes up if there are x-rays needed. All of this to to confirm that the tooth that I knew was damaged was in fact damaged. I left the office that day $125.00 lighter and had an appointment for 2 weeks in the future to look at the tooth. Two painful weeks later and another $400.00 I had my tooth fixed. Luckily the specialist that they booked me with was the one who did the original work and I got it done for half price under warranty. I also had the bad news that I needed multiple crowns and should be booked for a more extensive checkup. I thought how are we going to be able to do this. Fast forward to January of this year.
   At the first part of January we decided to take a leap of faith and call Dalhousie Medical School and try and get an appointment in the Dental Clinic. The wait time was no longer than a regular dental office and we were scheduled in for the middle of February.
   It was a bit unnerving to head into the city with no idea of what to expect, but our fears were soon put to rest. We were in line with a group of other people in for the first time. We registered for our appointment, paid our examination fee of $55.00 each, were given directions to the clinic and went to the next desk. Once we arrived at the clinic, we were given a folder of standard forms and medical questionnaires to fill out. Once these forms were filled out we were assigned to our student. There are about 45 Third-Year Dental Students enrolled at Dalhousie and each one had a patient to examine.
   We were given a very professional dental exam, asked all the pertinent questions and then it was off to X-ray. The student lined me up in the chair and proceeded to take all the necessary x-rays of my mouth, the professors popping in to observe and comment. Then it was back to exam room where the x-rays were viewed and the more in depth oral exam took place, much as in any conventional office. After the student finished the exam, a faculty professor came in and double checked the exam and made comments to the student. My student had not missed a thing.
  After the exam and x-rays, it was time to get the plan for future dental work. Remember all those crowns that I was going to need, turns out that was not really the case. It turns out that I could have them if I want them, but my fillings are fine and strong for now. I will probably need to get them done at some point as they will deteriorate over time, but that time is not now. And the good news is that the cost to have them done at the school will be about 40% of the cost of having them done at a conventional office.
  Our next step will be for the school to assign us to a Fourth -Year student and a Hygienist to take care of any work going forward.  Our cleaning that we have scheduled will by about $100.00 as compared to the estimate I was given of $260.00 at the conventional office. Once you multiply that by 2 for the number of people in the family, it really paid for our gas to drive in.
   I am really pleased that we had a very professional experience at the school and also that the costs are going to be much less than we hoped. We came away from our experience with nothing but good feelings and impressions and it is a great added bonus to know that we also helped someone to get the practical experience that will help them later in life.
  This was definitely a win-win situation if ever I have seen one.

The phone number for the Dental Clinic at Dalhousie Medical School is 1-902-494-2101.

Adding a little heat to your love life.

  Sometimes we are looking to add a little heat or a little spice to our love lives. If that is what you are searching for, look in your kitchen. That is where the stove and the spice rack are located. If your idea of a romantic evening is a trip to the local restaurant, I wish you well. If you want to try a special meal that will bring you closer together, try cooking it together. It is a really nice bonding experience and might learn a new skill. A meal cooked together with love will taste so much better than any meal cooked by a faceless chef in an anonymous restaurant kitchen.
  For Valentines day we decided to head to the kitchen to prepare a really tasty gourmet supper that is not terribly difficult, but will taste amazing.

Pepper Lime Fettuccine

Lobster Alfredo

Grana Padano Asparagus

Molten Lava Cake

If this seems like a meal that you would love to see on your menu keep reading. The recipes are coming. We start with the dessert as it needs a bit of prep time to cool between stages.

Molten Lava Cake

Center

2 oz or 2 squares Dark chocolate

¼ cup heavy cream

Cake

4 oz or 4 squares Dark chocolate

8 Tbsp butter

2 whole eggs

2 egg yolks

1/3 cup sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

¼ cup flour

To make the centers, melt chocolate and cream in a double boiler or microwave on medium power. Whisk gently to blend. Refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm. Roll into 6 balls and refrigerate until needed.

To make the cake, heat oven to 400F. Coat six 4oz ramekins with butter or spray with no-stick spray. Melt chocolate and butter in double boiler of microwave on medium. With a blender, whisk eggs, egg yolks, sugar and vanilla on high speed for about 5 minutes or until thick and light. Fold melted chocolate and flour into egg mixture until just combined.  Spoon batter into ramekins and add a chocolate ball to the center of each one.

Place ramekins on a cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes or until cake is firm, this keeps any potential spills contained. Remove from the oven and let rest on the counter for 5 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the ramekins and invert onto a plate. Top with whipped cream or a spoon of ice cream and serve.

We used stainless steel prep bowls to cook the cakes and they turned out fine.

Next we have the sauce, which can be reheated to add to the pasta. It keeps really well and reheats well for leftovers and can also be frozen to have later.

 

Lobster Alfredo

1 medium onion finely chopped

2 cloves garlic minced

1/3 cup butter

1 can or 12 oz lobster meat well drained

¼ cup white wine

1cup heavy cream

1 cup grated Grana Padano or other hard parmesan style cheese.

Pinch of nutmeg

Salt and pepper to taste

Chop onion and mince garlic and sauté in butter over medium heat until tender. Add lobster and continue to sauté until the sauce takes on a nice orange color from the lobster. Add white wine and cook until liquid is evaporated. Pour in cream and heat until sauce starts to thicken slightly. Add cheese and stir over heat until cheese melts. Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste.  Pour over plated pasta.  This makes a fairly thin sauce which helps to keep it from being too rich. If you want a thicker sauce, cook it longer before adding the cheese or you could add some flour to the sauté stage to make a roux which will help thicken the sauce.

 The pasta will come next.

Pepper Lime Fettuccine

2 cups all purpose flour

½ tsp salt

2 large eggs

¼ cup water

1 tsp olive oil

Crushed pepper

Zest of 1 lime

Mix flour and salt and make a well in the mixture. Add eggs, oil and water and mix thoroughly.  Knead dough well until smooth and elastic.  Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest about ½ hour.

Divide dough into 4 parts and roll out thin on well floured surface, or run it through a pasta maker at increasingly thinner settings.  Once the dough is rolled out thinly, either cut in desired strips with a knife or pass through the fettuccine cutter on the pasta maker.  Boil the pasta in a large pot of seasoned water, cooking until the pasta floats to the top. Drain and cover with sauce.

For the asparagus, just snap off the woody ends of a pound of asparagus and place in a greased baking dish one layer deep.  Drizzle with olive oil and dot with a little butter. Season with salt and pepper then top with grated Grana Padano or other hard parmesan style cheese. Bake in the oven at 400F for 15-20 minutes. Remove and place on plate beside pasta.

This was a fantastic meal, one we truly enjoyed more than any restaurant meal we could have had that day. It was fun to cook together and made the whole afternoon of preparation part of the celebration of the special day. 

Try cooking together and yo may find the ingredients in the kitchen to add a little heat and spice to your love life.

And don't forget the pets when you make a meal for that special someone.