Burlington

Well here I am, sitting in my mother-in-law's basement. After almost a year in Nova Scotia, we've moved back to Ontario. We decided that Nova Scotia might make a good place to retire too, but we are not yet in a position to do that.

Lesley has signed up with Royal LePage Burloak and should get her real estate agent licence re-instated soon. In the mean time we've been working on her web site. Take a look at homeinburlington.ca.

The kids started school yesterday and have already made some new friends. I'm busy contemplating life, the universe and everything.

A day out

We went over the hill to Bay of Fundy side for a day out. Did some fossil hunting on Blue beach, visited the Grand Pré National Historic Site ( and saw this bald eagle ) . Drove over to Centerville and visited the Charles Macdonald’s Concrete House Museum. After that an interesting drive to Halls Harbour. Note how low the tide is.

It was a beautiful day, our power boat is being fixed ( fuel pump problem ) and the neighbour was making me jealous watching him Kayak. So we went out and bought one from Canadian Tire.

Here are Justin and Kaitlynn trying it out! Kaitlynn has declared that it is her favourite sport!

Justin Sailing

Justin is taking Sailing at the Chester Yacht Club. Here he is sailing his little boat.

Surfer Dude Alex

Surfer Dude Alex trying his hand at the sport. He took a lesson at Happy Dude's Surf shop and then headed to Lawrencetown beach. Too bad it was so foggy.

Justin racing Bluenoser's

Justin is taking sailing at the Chester Yacht Club. He had the opportunity Tuesday to take part in a race. He’s the first from the right on boat 255.

More of the Boys Trip

Fort Anne in Annapolis Royal, Port-Royal National Historic Site and Seals on Brier Island

Catching Rays

Day at Carters Beach. Alex got a wicked sun burn.

Holy Mackerel

Catching tinkers off the dock. The Mackerel come in schools and the rods have 3 or 4 hooks on the line. It's common to catch more than one at a time. Kaitlynn is cheering us on ;)

Aaron the Inn Chef

Early in the boys trip out here to Nova Scotia.
Aaron poses with dinner. He looks a bit like Chef Michael Smith, I think.

New Boat

Our new to us boat. We have the dock and it looked naked. After looking at several boats in differet sizes, we finally decided that a smaller one would be best for our first boat. This is it. 16 feet long, seats 6 and has a 80 horse engine.

Oak Island

Saturday we visited the world famous treasure hunting site, Oak Island. The Island is normally closed to visitors but for one weekend a year, you are able to visit. This we did. Oak Island is a very interesting place, obviously settled a long time ago and today it still castes an aura of mystery. It’s easy to imagine ships from some unknown place arriving at the cove and unloading mysterious cargo.

Although after the tour I’m still not convinced that anything is hidden on the Island, it is obvious a lot of money, time and lives have been spent trying to solve this mystery.









The Beach - "I saw three ships come sailing in..."








Where one of the tunnels that floods the money pit is reputably located.









Grumpy kids posing in front of the "Money Pit"

Where the Bore Hole 10X "shaft" is located. Treasure hunters lined this hole with

steel to allow divers to descend into it.

Thinking about it though, I would say Oak Island is more closely linked with Earl Henry Sinclair, than any Pirate. Given the theory of the Castle in the Woods, located in New Ross, to which I went for a look-see... Yes, more mystery for another posting....

More on the Oak Island story:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw2E3xwO_M4&feature=PlayList&p=E75C0A35912DAD48&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=87

Hirtles Beach Nova Scotia

Lesley's Mum Gerri was here for a week for a visit. We took her to Hirtles Beach where we saw this crazy guy jumping from the cliffs. As I was watching, I thought to myself, Alex would do that. Great :S

The Move

Well. We're finally in. Sort of. This is the view we get to see out of our living room window. That's the neighbour's brother-in-law emptying his lobster pots. We have an order in for 4.

On the 14th, we went to the house for a final walk-thru, only to discover that that basement was flooded. It gave whole new meaning to the term "floating laminate". By 7pm that night, we came back and all the flooring from the lower level of the house was gone. The plumbing problem that had caused the flood was repaired, and there were giant blowers going to dry the place out.

Luckily, we had the place we were in until the 30th (today), so we weren't homeless, or forced to live with giant fans going at a million decibels.

We started moving stuff over to the house using the van and truck, and then last Thursday we rented a 14 foot truck. We had the storage locker almost empty by 2pm when the kids finished school. The problem is, we are short a whole level of house. The 2 car garage is totally packed full of stuff destined for the basement, as well as all the shop tools that we moved.

Okay, so there-in lies the biggest question of the day. WHY DID WE MOVE SO MUCH CRAP? You know those plastic containers that tools come in? Like routers and drills and stuff? We moved about 6 of them. THEY'RE EMPTY. The tools are no longer with them, either long missing, or packed in other boxes. So, our friends who helped us pack up got tonnes of stuff that we would rather have moved, but we didn't have room. Why didn't we have room? Because, we moved empty tool containers 3000 km.

Ridiculous really. We have lived without most of this stuff for 6 months. Some of it, I missed terribly. Other stuff... not so much, better yet... not at all.

The part of the house we are actually able to live in is fantastic. The layout is a bit different, but seems to be working quite well for us. I'm sitting typing this at the kitchen table, and the view is phenomenal.

Now.. about a boat...

Carter's Beach!

We explored a bit more of the province today. We have a travel guide and it mentioned “Carter’s Beach”, near Port Mouton, Nova Scotia. As part of our trip, we went out for a look. WOW, what a beach! Clear shallow waters, sparkling white sand and fantastic out of the way location! Should be great for swimming. The place made me think of the Caribbean islands. We found a bunch of sand dollars too! We’ll definitely be back for a day trip once it warms up. I think this beach is my favourite in the province, so far!