Month: July 2024

Drove out to Barrie last night to pick up our new puppy Graham. And he’s what we were hoping for. A lovely little 6 month old puppy whom is already house broken, can sit, stay, lie down, and will stop on a leash when you tell him to stop. Fantastic. He took a fair while to settle but that is to be expected. The time line goes like 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months and by then he should be relaxed and settled in entirely. Now he did fall sleep for a good chunk of time last night. He simply moved from his dog bed, to the floor, to onto my bed, to the opposite sides floor, to my bed, to the floor, in a cycle. But he didn’t whine or cry out. So that’s a solid night for a first night in our house as a part of our family.

We had a short walk last evening for pees and sniffs up around the block. He and I will need to work on being a little calmer on the leash, but if he stops & sits when I tell him to, we’ll be just fine. Plus he’s only six months old, and these are all new smells, sights and sounds. Can’t get too bothered by him being intrigued. Just a wee fella our Graham.

I need to register him with the town, and get him on heart work, flea & tick medication soonish though. Walking at our farm unprotected is a recipe for disaster.

Have a great Thursday.

As far as I am aware the worst portion of the Beryl pass through happened very late last night, and extremely early this morning. Which I appreciate. Meant no kids awake to be frightened of what was going on outside. Although truth be told it wasn’t an all encompassing electrical storm, it was heavy rains, and not much wind. So… best case scenario as far as I am concerned. The gardens got some much needed rain over several long hours, which should help with retention, and aid its absorption into the flowers, vines, trees, and fruit growing shrubs. Lovely.

Tonight we venture out to pick up Graham C.H our new family pet. He is a six month old German Shepherd. By all accounts a lovely fellow. Perky ears, mostly black in colour, and only 35lbs. Groovy! Paws crossed for a good road trip to go get him!

Got there a bit late so all of the really good stuff was taken. I controlled myself and left a good portion of Amethyst behind for someone else to moon over for a change. We have about 45Kg of Amethyst already if you count all the pieces between the cottage, and our house, and Grandma’s. No shortage of varying qualities of the purple stuff. Makes a good paper weight. I still haven’t gotten a wet tile saw with a diamond blade to clean all these things up. And maybe I never will! We don’t really do enough of it to warrant a $400.00 purchase of a decent saw, and a specific gem stone cutting blade(s), because you know you can’t have just one. Blade that is. Got to have spares on hand. It’s a whole thing.

Anyway, welcome to Tuesday July 9th of 2024. Tonight, and all day tomorrow we will be getting hit by whatever was left over from hurricane Beryl. I have heard some folks say 40mm of rain, others call for 3 to 4 inches, so it’s a pretty good spread of what to expect. Just in time for us to have to drive to Barrie to pick-up Graham. Lovely! Is it an omen? Or just an unfortunate coincidence.

I didn’t really know we were going to the mine today, as I had left our rock hound gear packed away in the garage. All of our cold chisels, rock hammers, mini sledges, and safety goggles, and I think some gloves too. We don’t wear knee pads or steel toed boots or anything like that, but bug spray is a must, same with a hat, and light weight long sleeves (bugs & stone chips/fragments will get you!) That’s how we roll.

Speaking of which, we watch a lot of gem hunting on YouTube done in parks across the states. That looks like fun. A bit messy, but it does look like fun. Some huge pieces get pulled out of the ground on those shows. Now, is it all staged to build excitement? Possibly, but after a few hours of digging & finding stuff, who cares?. It’s the experience, and not the outcome that we are looking for. Does a huge find make things a bit better? Sure does, but getting out in the field, shovels, and chisels in hand, sitting in the mud, and “doing” the thing, now that’s where it’s at!

The above would be a prime candidate for some clean-up work with a wet tile saw, and some polishing, in a effort to get it to look as good as possible. It lacks depth of colour, for sure, but some elbow grease and a few hours you could make it the best it could be. That’s a “just for the fun of it / gain experience” type of undertaking. Get a feel for cleaning this stuff up, so that once you do get a hold of something special, you have the skills and the know how to make it really incredible. Polish enough turds that once you have a better grade item in your possession you can really make it sparkle. Pay your dues on the garbage that no one cares if it gets scratched or marred, so you’re a pro with the quality finds. Noice!

Have a lovely Tuesday. Ciao Bella!

Spent some time yesterday restocking a rock wall, making more room for trailers and such to use the space. I didn’t have the time for concrete and reber, but I had a moment to move items out of the way. And once I got going I ended up doing it for about an hour. Nothing major, so no back ache today, thankfully. But I moved a couple hundred pounds of rocks of varying sizes & weights. The real big stuff i upended and “tolled” out of the way. Some of the really weathered flat stuff wasn’t going to move more than four or five feet. At least by myself single handedly anyway. It was a fun exercise nonetheless.

I’m back to building more renders today. I think I had another one on friday afternoon too. Not too shabby! Glad for the paid work. I finally unburied the lawn mower, and got the battery all charged up so I could cut the grass properly over the weekend. As good of a job as I did with the weed whacker, the mower does a far more uniform job of it. Now this place looks more lived in, and far less derelict. Ha.

I have yet to start my table refinishing project. I am still trying to decide on the legs. I need to have the widths, and thicknesses worked out prior to stripping and sanding the tops. Not much of a table if it hasn’t got any legs. Do I try to sandwich Walnut & Cherry together, or go all Walnut? Again, I need to measure to make sure I have enough pieces. I also need to build some wooden brackets that will affix to the table itself, under the skirting, to attach the legs into. Make pockets essentially. So I need to make those, to set the leg dimensions, then make the legs, then do the table top surface. Best check on my sanding disc supply, and make sure I have all the grits! I know for a fact I have a tonne of stain, and wipe on Danish Oil with tints in it. Should be nice enough when done. Maybe by the end of September I’ll be able to set it up in the basement.

Did a number on my thumb, but on the upside, I didn’t go to deep, and it’s not a long slice. More of an angry split than anything else. Some of those rocks were sharp! Yikes. Slimy from the mud, and whatnot too. If I had neoprene gloves that wouldn’t immediately split upon contact with an edge, I’d have worn those. But alas, I do not, so I did not. The split doesn’t seem to interfere with my day job, so that’s a major plus.  Cannot get in the way of my paid labour!

All signs still point to us getting the new rescue puppy on Wednesday evening. Hope he takes to us.

Then I would know how to potentially stop it, or avoid it at all costs. That being the three days long intestinal cramping that started to go off every hour, then half hour, quarter hour, then just full tilt non stop for sixteen or so hours. Now i did eventually fall asleep last night, and it has hit pause, or maybe stopped. I don’t know which. But, i am exhausted as i only really fell asleep a couple hours ago, and it is now 10:00am. So that’s fun.

I don’t know what is on the schedule for today, so I cannot just hang around here, in bed, waiting. So, now what? Get up, I suppose. Brush my teeth. Take my self up to breakfast. See if I’m hungry at all. Hope that whatever I do consume doesn’t kick off my intestinal distress. Sounds like a plan.

Happy Lazy Sunday to all of you out there!

I’m not an outdoorsman, as I detest bugs, heat, and the open water. Never been much of a fan of fishing either. It always struck me as too quiet, isolated, and dull. I guess if you usually have a big catch with an effort to reel it in, it could have been considered fun. But I’ve never caught anything over 4lbs, and the mosquitoes have always been brutal. Not much of a draw as far as I’m concerned.

My kids, however, love it for about 15-20 minutes at a time. So we give’em what we got so as not to spoil that for them. Hence, entry into the derby. Woke up early on a saturday, had the plans changed on us by the flake (as per usual), so that I had to drive the kids, kicking & screaming over to the never before visited marina, later than I’d like because the flake requested to not have to take them before 8:45am, and then backed out “for reasons”, leaving it to me. Got in to registration just under the wire. Now have less than two hours to get all three kids to catch a fish, change shirts, head back over to the marine to have catches weighed before 11:00am cut-off. Whee!

Once again, not my idea, but it is now my problem. Thanks for that. I’m just lucky I suppose. I set an alarm for this morning, only it was set for week days and not a Saturday. Had to get up to pee and saw the time. Overslept by five minutes! Yikes! Kids were slow moving so it wasn’t a big deal, luckily.

Anyway, how is your Saturday morning going? Mine is fun, fun, fun. Big smiles all around.

Cutting, splicing, and building out some old school renders today, with predetermined products on each shelf. Going to be busy, so I’ll keep this short, and sweet.

Today is Friday. We were originally given the impression that we would be going to adopt Graham on Wednesday or Friday of this coming week, but it was pushed up to Monday evening. So that puts a wrench into some plans, but no matter. I’ll need to drive out to Barrie to grab the wee fella. I need to bring him a new collar, and a leash too. So I’ll need to stop off at the pet store on the way. I’d like to know what food he currently eats so that I don’t change every single thing in his life at all once. Seems kinda mean to do that to him.

I best get back to work. Ciao Bella.

**EDITOR’S NOTE: Adoption agency texted to ask if we could push pick-up day back to Wednesday, which we are in favour of. That works far better for us, and hopefully for the wee man Graham too. Besides building various display renders today I have been doing some heavy lifting out in the 36°C heat, and humidity. Most unpleasant, but!, he says most hesitantly, with each chore completed we all get one step closer to being able to enjoy the summer. Farming responsibilities have pushed all the fun stuff well into the hot “time to enjoy the fruits of our labour” times, instead of getting done in May or early June in time to just (enjoy) the things. C’est la vie! Such is life.

It’s a real hot one here today though boy, I tell you what. Sweat, sun screen, and bug spray are all grimed up on my skin. Add in some dust, sand, and common debris, and you have yourself a real gross body soup mix. A salted powdered donut of oils and chemicals. Mm-mm. Now that’s summer living.

In other news my current projects are to carry over to Monday, so the afternoon is clear of tasks of the paid sort. No harm done there. My assumption is, right or wrong, that corporations have instituted their Summer Hours schedule where Fridays can knock off anywhere between 2:00 – 3:00pm, unless it is something dire.

And you know what?, I’m fine with it. Go enjoy the weather before the weekend storms roll in. Glorious outdoors all work week as the average person is sat at their desk, and miserable, wet, and storming once the weekend comes around once you have the freedom and inclination to head outdoors. Ain’t that a bitch? Come on!

Have a terrific weekend wherever you may be. Stay safe out there.

My arms are fried, and my trigger finger is acting up after a couple hours of sweeping motions, side to side, to knock down the waist high grasses, and weeds. Thankfully I had some ear phone on hand as the older Echo machine is loud AF. I’ll lose my hearing how I want to, at a concert, not from household lawn machinery, thank you very much!

The passing of uncle Fred in Feb has left a few items uncared for. Thus here I am, getting around to it now. Both May & June were too busy to help, so now that it is officially summer break, I can pitch in. Hence the sore arms from waving around the line trimmer across several portions of grass.

Found a sink hole near the shop on my travels too. Opening is roughly 6″ in diameter,  but the hole itself is likely 10-12″ in diameter,  and at least 24″ deep. The sand and fill is washing away somewhere, but I can’t locate where. No lower lying plots look disturbed or bulged. So maybe we fill it with rocks and gravel, and a lot less sand. Mark it off, and keep an eye on it. Oh, don’t park your truck or tractors there either. As it could develop over time into a real nasty hazard.

Now that I am covered in grimy wet weed chaff, mud, and sand, I feel as though I’d like to step into the creek, or a pool to get a bit cleaner. The only thing stopping me here are the nasty blood sucking bugs near the waters edge. They got my legs while working in the ditches, and I’m done with that, for now. I’ll go inside to the AC, and will just rinse off in the laundry room sink. Not as glamorous, but still effective.

Now I wish I had of brought my burnable stuff down here. If only to get it out of my way in the garage. I have a table to refinish, and new walnut legs to build to make it all the more stable. Then I’ll chuck it in the basement, so that we have more playable surface area for Lego, and board games alike. The tiny white folding table can remain in use too, if it has to. Might be a September project, once everyone is back to regular schedules.

We are scheduled to meet a potential new member of the family. A 6 month old German shepherd named Graham. I think we do a meet and greet on Wednesday or Friday, and if he’s ok with us, we’ll bring the lil man home for good. Which means I need to register him with the town. Get him in to the vet’s office for heartworm pills, and get him an appropriate collar/name tag/ ID. Oh, and go buy food and such for a dog. We got rid of the old stuff’s our former dog has been dead & buried for more than three years now.

It’s Thursday now, and a pretty major US holiday, so I’ll bid you fare thee well.

I dug deep into our secondary pantry and found (8) eight full unopened boxes of Ritz bits crackers from 2021 & 2022. From the pandemic lock-in days. We never did get so bad as to need to eat them anyway. That was when you could buy four boxes for $8.00 CND. Can’t do that now. The oil and cheese had gone off, because of course they had. But, on the plus side I can now see all the way to the back of our lower cabinets in that section of the kitchen. I reorganized a few things while I was at it. Sad to see so much food go to waste, but it’s inedible, and thus not donation worthy. I think even the squirrels and raccoons would give it a miss.

So that’s the fridge, pantry, and secondary pantry sorted. I took yesterday’s garbage take away to finally throw away some busted/broken water bottles, themed cups, and various opened and messy kinetic sand bags. Plus very old halloween goody bags, and some Wendy’s toys. It wasn’t a lot, but I made the most of it while the family was out & occupied elsewhere. That is Covert Purge Ops 101. And no, I don’t feel bad. Nothing I tossed has been looked at, asked for, utilized, or thought of since it entered the house and got “stored” way up high where nobody ever looks for things – ever. So on that note, we’re golden.

We have a meet & greet with a potential new rescue pet today. The wee man is located in Barrie so rather than do all that driving for a site visit, the foster people will get a virtual tour via WhatsApp. So I’m told. Hopefully it all works out for what is best.

Happy Wednesday everybody.

Not that I don’t like having a clean(ish) house most of the time, but I find we don’t rotate through our canned goods particularly well. I buy some almost every time I grocery shop, but some cans are getting pushed to the back and forgotten about. Why just now I had to dispose of 3 cans of chicken noodle soup, 3 mushroom soups, 1 pea soup, 1 tomato soup, 1 celery soup, 1 potatoes and sausage soup, 1 can of cranberry sauce from 2016 (I might add!) And a few other items like rancid chips & popcorn where the oils had gone off. Spoiled cinnamon goldfish crackers that were both too crunchy & too soft in one unsettling combination of unpleasantness. Far easier to do these types of things with my spouse and children out of the house. Same with disposing of ruined coats, and ruined sneakers. The less than can see and thus pine sentimentally over these lost items, the better. Why keep ruined shoes? We aren’t cobblers. We can’t mend mesh wore running shoes where the soles are also worn through! Looks like the great purge of 2024 will have to happen in September once all parties are busy between the hours of 8:30am and 3:00pm.

But I digress, as I was talking about the pantry. Not that I like to see good food go to waste, but if we can’t eat it, no point in keeping it. I can move fresh items from under the counter to up into the pantry at eye level. Way better there! I have random cereal bags, and crackers to move too. Best get nibbling before that goes off and become bird food, or totally inedible for anyone, or any “thing”. Ugh. Sour oil smells so, so bad. Rancid is a great term for it. Clings to the nostrils. Lingers on everything. Blargh!

The blue bin & sink are taking a beating today. Lots of cleaned up cans in the recycling today. Cardboard boxes, tissue papers, and everything else I can reasonably get out of here, absolutely has to go! Go on now, get! So much wet food to clean up too. Yuck. Cold, slimy, smelly old wet food stuffs. Reminds me of working in all of the kitchens underneath the universities residences. Climbing into massive kettles to scrape out the left over bits from boiled bones, and over cooked soups. Scraping the grill tops, and washing the grease traps. Those are smells you don’t soon forget. Do not miss those days at all. But! It did give me the mindless paid work where I could talk/think my way through any papers I had to write, before I ever had the chance to sit down and type anything. Got harder as the essays got longer, but for first and second year classes it was a doable exercise in mental gymnastics. Pays to be an over thinker some times.

Anywho. It is Tuesday July second of twenty twenty four. Our holiday was yesterday, and I’m sure the US will occupy the 3rd/4th/5th to their advantage by closing down to celebrate. Losing fingers and hands heavily on one particular day per year at a time.

Take care out there. Ciao Bella.