Month: November 2025

I really got a good groove going on with the wood pile. Turning logs into useable rounds. It’s rather fun actually. I have steel toed boots, chainsaw pants, goggles, hearing protection, and for now leather gloves, which I hope to upgrade to chainsaw specific gloves so I don’t lose a hand, or any fingers if I get some kick back, or a moment of distraction from the dog, or other farm workers on sight.

The stuff I’m bucking into 14-16 inch portions now should be good to split next fall. I have lots of bigger stuff I can split, but now that I have my Stihl up & running smoothly. Along with multiple spare chains, I feel like doing this for a bit instead of swinging the axes around. Plus the 24″ bar, 68 CC Proyama is up & running now, and I might choose to tackle some of the larger stuff either tomorrow or first thing Monday morning. I will be very glad for my hearing protection, because the new Proyama 68 CC chainsaw puts out about 116 db of constant sound. That’s an awful lot. Not ever going to use that without headphones on, that’s for sure. Yikes!

I have uncovered a number of midsized logs that had been hidden by other limbs, and junk wood. So soon my to be split pile will be rather large, but I’m stacking it near where I’ll be splitting it, so that should eliminate a fair bit of labour next year. I haven’t even touched pile three yet. Now that I see how long it takes me to buck, stack, sort, and split wood there is almost 6 months of work for me in pile three alone.

I don’t foresee myself working on this stuff throughout the winter, as it gets too cold here in southern Ontario. But for November, and possibly early December I can certainly see myself out there puttering around for a couple hours each day. I’m not doing 9-5’s here folks. I’m very privileged that I can come & go as I please while working away on these wood piles. If I didn’t do it (even as slowly as I am moving) it would not be getting done otherwise, so I have that working in my favour. I get grace on my pace, because I’m footing the bill for gas, bar oil, 2 stroke engine oil, chains, sharpening, the saws themselves, my safety equipment, my time, effort, and my own food/snacks and beverages. This is about exercise first, and foremost. And also about staying occupied, giving the dog longer walks at the farm. Being a visible body at the farm to deter ne’er do-wells, as they had a break in months ago because the tenant fucks off all the time, to God knows where, and doesn’t tell anybody he’s going.

Anyway, it’s now Thursday November 21st, and we are so close to the end of yet another year. I’ll have to get into the habit of writing 2026 on stuff before you know it. Oh well. The alternative is death, so I’ll stick with the mild date confusion for now.

Last PA Day of the year tomorrow, so I had best get my self in gear to finish my last report for 2025. I’d love to not have to bury my nose in my computer screen while my children are home out of school for the day. I’d like to go and do something meaningful with them if I can. They won’t be children for much longer. My eldest is already double digits, running head long into being a pre-teens “youth”. My youngest isn’t exactly that far behind, hot on her heels. Soon enough they will be ignoring me, and out & about with friends at all hours of the day. It’ll just be the wife, dog, and myself here before I even know how to cope with that! Waaaah… Boo-urns!

And… No one cares. Ticket prices have dropped a good 40-50% for the 300 sections up near the rafters, and you know what, I’m still not sold on going. It’s a whole lot of work to get down town. Driving, train, and buses all have different schedules, departure locations, and the timing to catch any of those options means we can’t stay to watch overtime play, should the game get that far. If we miss the ten pm train, we essentially have to wait for the midnight bus, and then still have to walk a good portion home, and then get ready for bed. It’s a whole thing. I’d much prefer a weekend game where I don’t have to be up for the school run the very next morning, along with a cranky over tired kid.

If I drive to the train station well south of us, we have no choice but to wait for that line to run again. Which could put us at Union station potentially for hours plural waiting, and all the food court locations shut down by then. No food, no snacks, just two tired folks having to wait too long a time for public transportation. Driving down and parking ourselves isn’t any better. Parking costs more than the bus/train trips combined. Ridiculous. I’d rather wear our jerseys and watch the game at home. No bathroom lines. Cheaper food. Better food.

Oh well, no matter. They came of a five or six game losing streak to win last night. So I don’t fancy this year going any better for them. Time to sell off whatever they can, and rebuild — again.

Started off by filling two more green wire bins with split firewood, and then changed the chain on the saw, and used one tank of fuel to chop up some smaller diameter logs into useable fire wood rounds. I didn’t do any of this yesterday because it was cold, windy and the snow had yet to recede. Today was perfect for bucking logs, and stacking wood in bins. The dogs not a fan of the chainsaw, more so than the axe splitting, but I made sure he got to run around before I got to work.

I did order myself (for Christmas) a new higher powered Proyama 68CC chainsaw with both a 20″, and a 24 inch bar. So now once I get that set up, I will be able to buck even the largest logs that have been left at the farm. Though it seems I will not get to any of that this week, because the third, and final report for the year has just come in, and I need to start on it immediately. Luckily I was already done with the small saw because I had run out of fuel, and had packed up to come home. So fantastic timing!

Now I can wash up, eat breakfast, and hunker down to work on the final report for 2025, barring any crazy last minute requests that could potentially pop up, however unlikely. Then at the end of January we will start on the 2026 RoseBowl Parade & Bowl Game.

Not going to lie, the chinesium saw I bought was 4X cheaper than the equivalent Stihl or Husqvarna with the same capacity. I am hoping that because I use them fairly lightly, and not at all regularly that it will last me a few years. I can find lots of parts on Amazon, so it should be mostly repairable if I have an issue. Fingers crossed!

Even if it isn’t rated at the full 68CC it should still offer me more power than the 30CC of the MS170 Stihl saw 8 currently have that is nearing twenty years of age. Like I said, I don’t use them all that much. Twice a year on all these old trees that drop limbs is about all I do. But now that I’m interested in splitting wood, I’d love to be able to process down the bigger logs that get dumped by arborists at the farm. Might cost me some gas money, time & effort, but it stops them from going to rot. Maple syruping uses an absolute fuck tonne of fire wood to boil 24 hours a day, for eight to eleven days straight. But I digress. The reverse osmosis machine has removed some of that boiling time, and freezing off the straight water helps too. Still needs a big flame to keep a 3 x 6 foot pan, of five inches deep sap. boiling continuously. It’s a process!

Since I am the one bucking these logs 8 can make them shorter, so they aren’t as heavy, and hard to manoeuvre around the yard. No need to put my back out for a hobby. If we somehow get rich, then a gas powered splitter will come my way in the coming years. Here’s to dreaming!

Putting together a birthday party for our eldest daughter and the constantly changing guest list, and roster of new, never before heard of children, has caused some issues, like “how do I get a hold of these people?”. Are these good kids? Are they the same age, older, younger, same school or what. Why have we not heard a single peep about several of these kids until, like, today? No matter, we are resourceful and I’m on various group chats for other kids birthday invitations, so I can likely find a couple of these people’s parents because I need to.

Still have half of the old guard kids still invited which is nice. But they are at that age now where the boys and the girls aren’t necessarily playing together anymore. So the boys she still knows, and doesn’t dislike, are on the list, and all the newer additions are pre-teen girls from one grade up (apparently). Turns out 8 do know at least two of them from Tot Spot when Emily went with me from ages 14 months to four years old. One other girl is a neighbour, and a classmate. I see them playing out front all the time. So this isn’t an outrage, or an affront to our better nature. It’s an adaptation to the boys drifting away to play sports & fight non-stop, and finding some girls with similar interests, a keen desire for school, make up tutorials, YouTube fail videos, and Labubus. Pre-teens… What can be said about them eh!?!

I would have preferred to cap this outing at about 6 additional kids, but it has now ballooned to nearly twenty. Three spots are reserved for family/extended family children. Can’t go glow in the dark mini putting and not have the wee little cousins around. That seems unfair. Would be different if it was just going to be a gang sleepover, movie night, make-up tutorial following, girls only endeavour. If that were the case I would find a very late movie to go to, or Uber to a bar and stay out late to avoid the squealing, shrieking, and general shrillness of a group of preteen girls. All that laughing, and cackling would set my teeth on edge. Yeesh.

In other news we put the tree up yesterday afternoon. Had to wait for the delayed playdate to come to a close, and for us to eat lunch, and digest it before getting all amped up with Christmas music, lights, and fun! The kids are now very able, and willing to help decorate the tree. Not only that, but do it in a meaningful way where I don’t have to surreptitiously “fix” the tree afterwards so that it’s layout doesn’t bother me for the next six weeks.

Once again it snowed which really helps to drive home the point that we are drawing ever closer to winter, and that Christmas really is on its way. The plow trucks, and the Salters, and even the brine sprayers are out in full force this morning. The roads are clear which was all my wife cared about last night when the snow squalls blew into town. It’s too early for the snow to stick around for more than two or three days at a time, but if it keeps going like this, we are in for a back breaking season of snow shoveling, and ice removal. I best keep some extra strength Voltaren handy, otherwise I’ll wind up in traction.

There are few things I get sick of faster than shoveling wet, heavy snow. I hope to the heavens above, and all the God’s on this green earth that we don’t have any of the sixteen inch deep in one go nights this year. Go lighter! I’d much rather have four four inch snowfalls consecutively, than one 16″ dump that makes me want to die. Because that was awful. Had to help push & dig people out of the intersection near our house on multiple occasions. I was exhausted, and furious by the end of it. Horrendous experience. Zero stars. Do NOT recommend.

Luckily this party is still three weeks away, so there is time to order gift bag supplies, and get ourselves primed for the experience. Best part of doing the event elsewhere is not cleaning before hand, and only a mild bit of tidying up when we are done. We don’t host, and the kids are occupied 90% of the time by themselves, or the event space. Love it!

Had to wake up for this, and now the family in question is twenty minutes late, no word why. Oh well. Kids are a mess, and it’s pretty easy to get further, and further behind if one, or both have scattered like kittens in a pen. Can’t find shoes, no one wants to get dressed, where’s your toothbrush, and all manner of other fun options can come up when trying to get your kids out the door. Get dressed and ready to leave only to realize hair isn’t brushed yet. It cascades and collapses. Children are fun!

I’m sure they will be here sooner or later.

…and an hour later they turned up. All good. Apparently a gingerbread house build spiraled out of control as the roof collapsed under its own weight, and all track of time was lost in the ensuing melee. Fun with children!

So I don’t know if that means we go an hour over, or if the original time still stands, I don’t know. My wife planned & executed this playdate, so I’m clueless as to the where, when, and why’s. Not much I can do about it anyway, so go with the flow.

We were supposed to put up our Christmas tree yesterday, but I did my inlaw’s leaves by myself for nearly two hours. Filled a twenty foot trailer full of wet, heavy, snow laden leaves. Had to use a blue box because there was no chance I could lift a full garbage can up over my head into the trailer more than four, possibly fix times. I did the blue box fifty sixty times in two hours before the rain came. The rain was the problem. It was pouring down. I couldn’t get to the tree in the shed, and bring it inside without the tree getting soaked. It’s fifteen years old now, and 8 don’t fancy an electrical fire from an old wet faux tree.

However, it is not raining today, so once this play date is over I can fetch the tree, and we will decorate the living room for the holidays. We are waiting extra long this year to put up our tree. For the last few years it has gone up on the afternoon of November eleventh. It’s already the sixteenth with no tree in sight! What’s going on here!?!

Well now it’s snowing, so that might aid us in getting into the Christmas spirit. As long as it doesn’t turn into a downpour I can bring the tree in without issue.

I hope to get out on Monday morning to saw up some logs, and split wood for a bit. Get back into the swing of things. Whilst I love, need, want paid work, I also need to exercise to stay healthy, and keep myself from ballooning back up to 213 lbs or beyond. Which reminds me I need to extend my climbing membership because I haven’t gone in two or more weeks now. Going to lose my grip strength, and forearm endurance. Not to mention my agility, and flexibility will deteriorate with lack of use.

I can tell we are nearing winter because the moisture is disappearing from the outside air, and my hands are incredibly dry, yet I have no texture for grip at my finger tips.

Once a year typically we get to go out together to go see a show, usually a comedian up at Casino Rama. We try to get there early enough to avoid the dinner rush, and to find close to the entrance parking that will allow us to leave the venue promptly once it’s all over. Normally we go between May and October, before the time change, but we lucked out this year, no snow, no heavy rains, not bitterly cold out. It was a very pleasant time. Good seats that weren’t multiple hundreds of dollars a piece. Clear audio, big screens, central lone figure of the stage, well lit. It was great.

We ate dinner at the buffet, and I sampled more food than I probably should have, but I ate a tiny lunch yesterday in order to be able to eat so, so much while there. The food is pretty great for a buffet, and it has so many options you’d be hard done by to eat one of everything they have. Fountain drinks are a tad small, but I guess most folks are there to “drink”, not slurp a soda while they stuff themselves silly prior to a show.

The Casino is bright, clean, and has a bunch of restaurants in it. We don’t bother with reservations so we don’t eat at the other spots on the grounds. The buffet itself suits us to a T. We usually have a bit of free time to wander around the atrium, or look through the gift shop, and watch other people gambling. I like that the washrooms are large, bright, and clean. And that there are several of them all around the casino floor.

The seats in the theater are fairly comfortable. It’s a wide open space, so the stage is never obscured. We’ve sat in the mezzanine before, and in the mid their seats a bit closer to the floor. All of them have been perfectly fine. Prices have always been great for seats at Rama.

It’s a bit of a drive to get to Orillia from our house, but gave us a chance to talk without our children eaves dropping and asking questions about who, or what we are trying to discuss. Which is nice. Very pleasant. Do recommend! Five stars.

We got home after midnight, which is late for us. So I’m tired, and we have a trailer to fill with leaves today from my inlaws front yard. Oh boy! Back, and thighs are going to hurt come Monday that’s for sure. Catch you on the flip side.

As soon as I ordered the three pack of chains for the saw 8 knew deep down in the cockles of my heart that I would manifest some proper paid work for myself, and low & behold, I did, it did, it happened. Report two of three has come in, and I am going to rip right into it, after I complete two small other tasks for a different client.

So no need to fetch gas, mix new fuel, find my appropriately sized saw files, goggles, gloves, boots, and hearing protection today. Maybe for Tuesday of next week. Which, all things considered isn’t too bad. Gives me something to look forward to next week, even with the last PA Day of the year looming on the Friday. I haven’t split wood in like two weeks now. But if I saw things correctly I will have lots to do if I want to!

Then in December I will have one last report for the year to do, unless we get surprised with extra work (which would be awesome) and then I could close out the year on a high note!

Tonight is date night, and we’ve got plans for dinner and a show, and a fair amount of driving to do. Good thing I got the tires done on the van! The summer tires are stowed away safely for next spring. And hark! What’s that you say? No I didn’t totally bone my spine whilst working yesterday. Awesome! I actually remembered not to bend too much at the lower back and to bend at the knees instead, at least some of the time. Building better habits.

Took me a while, about 90 minutes all told to get the old summer tires off, new winter ones on, torque them down correctly, scrape, wash, and bag the summer tires ready for winter storage. So much easier when the seasonal tires are on their own rims. No fussing about with breaking beads, and getting tires over the rims etc… what a nightmare that is. I guess if you have one of those car shop bead breaking machines then it’s just more of an everyday type job. Not so if you are doing it with pry bars, 2 x 4’s, and a sledge hammer. Not fun. Don’t recommend it at all.

But the job is done, so I’m satisfied. It actually stopped raining, and got up to around 6°C so it wasn’t frigid outside getting the tires off. I wore work gloves because even if the air temperature is ok, that doesn’t mean metal items will be too. Working with fat numb fingers is no fun either.

I tried to remember to bend my knees rather than my back, but we’ll see later on if I’ve done a number on my back once again, or if I worked any smarter. A tiny wheely chair would be beneficial too. So would a flat & level driveway, but we get what we get, and we don’t get upset! Ha. The fact that 8 do have a 3 ton jack, matching jack stands (x2), wheel chocks (x2), a breaker bar, torque wrench, and an impact gun with 1150 ft pounds of torque for busting lug nuts is very, very handy. Like I said before if I had generational wealth then a separate heated/cooled shop with a lift in it for vehicle service would be high up on my list, along with a knee mill, metal lathe, and a full sized handsaw, and potentially a saw mill & log splitter at the farm too. I’d be processing wood for furniture builds like a mother fucker if I had all that gear, and the money behind me to use it without having to stop for a paid day job.

I got the Stihl MS170 chainsaw up and running once more yesterday, which is excellent news (so far), as it is nearly twenty years old, or there about. I too dream of upgrading the chainsaw to a bigger engine, and a longer bar. I think a twenty four inches would be ideal. But that’s a whole lot of saw for a little bit of work that I do with trees at the moment. Would help me process the longer thicker items at the farm though.

This year hasn’t been great financially, so I won’t be buying anything major until I get back to earning nearly equal amounts each quarter. Started the year out strong, and then had a dismal second quarter, a bit of a brighter third, and back to a slow fourth. If they were all like the first then I’d have the chainsaw, and the wood splitter too. Or maybe the handsaw!?! I don’t know. Gotta earn money to spend it. I don’t think I’d earn anything worthwhile with the log splitter so I couldn’t supplement the purchase price with paid work utilizing it. So not this year.

It’s not all bad, I did get new metal rack for the garage as a birthday present to myself. I used my visa card points to upgrade my mitre saw, and because I thought the first quarter success would carry over throughout the year (like an idiot) I upgraded my air compressor too. It was needed, my little one was having a real awful time. So I’m not hard done by, I just have my eyes on all sorts of toys!

Big news, well, mild news to anybody who can appreciate a real solid clothing purge. The school is running a coat drive for needy kids, and I was able to unload twelve to fourteen winter coats, jackets, vests, and rain coats. The basement closet, and upstairs Hall closet were the last hold outs for unused, outgrown outer wear. If they will take sweaters too, we can send in about sixty pounds worth of sweaters too. Now we need to revisit the shoes, old boots, snow pants, gloves and such. I’m sure with all these items going out a new bag of items will show up here sometime soon to take its place.

I have three 16″ chainsaw chains coming from Amazon today because I don’t fancy sharpening chains in the cold. This way I can try to process some smaller logs at the farm in the morning, after I drop off the summer tires at the storage unit. Dog gets to chase squirrels for a longer time. I get more exercise, and possible I provide myself with better sized wood to split. I might need to stop off for fuel tomorrow to keep the saw running for an hour or two. No biggy.

Of a sort, for me anyway. I drained all of the garbage premixed fuel from a big box store out of my Stihl ms170 chainsaw, ran some premium gas with Stihl branded oil through it, and after twenty or so pulls got the little mutt running. I let it idle for a couple of minutes, and then sawed some real small limb trimmings, and then let it idle for a few more minutes. So far — it is running, the chain spins, the bar oil oils itself, and the choke & shut off both work a treat. My chain is full as all get out, so I need to spend some time sharpening it, or buy a third and brand new chain, and I can get to sawing up some of those over sized logs at the farm to get me back to chopping in no time. I’m told the wood splits easier in the cold versus the mid fall twenties we had all September and October.

I am very happy about the saw not being seized up (so far), and running without any awful knocking, grinding, whining, or running away out of control. That pre mixed big box fuel is essentially lighter fluid masquerading as pre mixed gasoline. It nearly started a fire in my Echo weed eater, and the saw didn’t gar for it much either. I need to get some trigger parts to repair the Echo weed eater, but it still runs, and works around my yard. Good stuff these name brand tools from the early 2000’s.

Once I get the tires on the van swapped, I can head back to the farm for some splitting & sawing action in the mornings once again. It does not appear as though work will pick up before the winter break, and the holidays. More belt tightening is on the horizon!

Woah Nelly do I stink of gasoline right now. Hand soap stands no chance against this kind of stink. Problem with draining bad gas, and mixing new, and pouring new is that the fumes, and the splashes will get on you real good. Gloves be damned! Not my finest odour to sport about town, but I finally checked on the saw, and now I know for sure it’s not totally fuckered (so far). I foresee a few minutes worth of chain sharpening in my future that’s for certain.

The new van has four key lock lug nuts to deter theft of tire and/or rims, so this adds a little extra time to the task. Plus the underside rails only have four very small, round holes for the jack to go, so I have to wheel the jack around a bunch to make sure I nail that spot dead on, otherwise the door, and surrounding superficial trim will buckle. That’s not good. I have the twelve tonne bottle jack for this type of situation, but I’m not as comfortable with it, as I am the rolling three tonne floor jack. I made a little wooden jig to adapt the floor jack to those holes, so I’ll give that a whirl this go around!

Anyway, I won’t do it until tomorrow or Friday anyway, as I don’t want to be in the rain/snow for 90 minutes while I make my back sore bending over, and wrenching on lug nuts. Thursday and Friday should be sunny, above zero degrees Celsius, and be generally more dry than today. All solid check marks in the “do this task tomorrow” column. I also need to wash these tires and rims before I store them so having slightly warmer temperatures to keep my bucket of water from freezing is a plus!

If I had a whole lot of money, I’d want a separate shop where I could also add a hydraulic lift in to one of the car bays. Would make oil changes, tire changes that much simpler. But then we’d have to buy a whole new house with separate shop in order to do that, so… Unlikely. I’m not all that mechanically inclined, but I’d take all the help I could get if I had a bunch of extra zeros, commas, and such before the decimal place. Dream on! Aaàaaaaahhh! A little Aerosmith for yah bud.

It is Wednesday today. Which doesn’t mean all that much, except 8 know both kids have after school programming tonight. Also means we haven’t gone climbing in two weeks. And I have no split wood since before Halloween, because we had to get the Dahlias bulbs up out of the ground instead. If I don’t get my chainsaw up and running, I will run out of suitable wood to split by hand sooner rather than later. I see a gas powered splitter has gone on sale at Canadian Tire, but I’m not looking to start a new business, so I will not break down and buy it, no sir! Even if it would give me lots to do over the next couple months… No, no. Not going to happen. I’m not making enough this year to spend roughly $1,600.00 on a gas powered tool I can’t tow around myself. No hitch, and no ball on either vehicle. Oh well!

The youngest was making a real stink about not wanting to go to school today. Wouldn’t say why, just that she didn’t want to go. Not ill, not over tired, no tests, quizzes or projects come due. No conflicts between friends, foes, or adversaries to concern herself with. Just adamant that she did not want to go. Sorry babe, you gotta. Education is built on repetition, and being present. Building upon what came before. You start missing pieces and you will end up all the worse off for it.

It snowed way too early this year. Three days in and I’m sick of it. I love how it makes my Christmas lights look on the trees, and house, but otherwise, nah, no more I’m good. Until Christmas Eve that is. Gimme a white Christmas then it can fuck right off.

You know what my issue with Christmas is? We have six weeks of build up, cold weather, even snow and for what!?! Christmas is only four days into the official start of winter. Once it’s done you’re left with 3.5 months of miserable cold conditions, grey bleakness, and a horrid, horrendous, abusive cold. All the lights, fun and pageantry is long gone, and you still have months, plural, left to go of this awful season. Just awful.