Author: greatwallstudios

Though it is rainy, and a little gloomy today the light purple flowers still look as vibrant as ever. Smell is a tad dampened down under the rain drops, but on the breeze you can still smell it fairly easily. My only gripe is that they don’t last until later on in June. Once they bloom they begin to fade rather quickly. I’d love for ours to stick around until my wife’s birthday at least, but we don’t have irrigation here, and I don’t think my rain barrel holds enough water to keep both trees flowering for an additional two weeks time. Plus have enough left over to also water my four new fruit trees once the summer sun, and the heat moves in for weeks at a time. I’ve seen the forecast, after this weekend of rain it will be both hot, dry, and sunny for ten days straight, and who knows how long after that? Could go most of June, and July, and August without more than a couple inches of rain. That super el niño I keep reading about says we’re in for a nasty time this summer, and possibly into Nov, Dec, and January too. T-shirts and long pants in mid December around here is a big no-no. That just ain’t right! By all accounts it should be boots, coats, and snow pants weather by then.

Have a restful, and pleasant Saturday everybody.

Had to cut the walk a little short to head out to another field to cut into pieces a newly downed tree that was blocking a laneway for the farm equipment. The trio of small trees were very dead, so light weight, and easily breakable. But with Bob’s electric Stihl saw we made short work of it, and those three connected fields are accessible once again. I guess the winds have been a little higher than I had thought around here as of late. I have been trying to cut much of the dead out of our trees so that I don’t wake up each morning to freshly fallen twigs & branches. I’ve only had moderate success with it, since I don’t dare climb far enough up into our trees to make a major impact. I don’t have the right ropes or rigging for that sort of venture. So if I can’t use my ladder, and pole pruner it’s too far up for me to take care of. I don’t fancy falling out of a tree and killing myself accidentally just because I think dead branches look hideous. Call me crazy!

So we’ve made it to Friday of the short week after a holiday weekend, and all is well here. Lawn is mowed. Weed eater did its job before I sent it off for repair/service. Trees are pruned up nicely. I could tackle the back hedge. I need a step ladder though, because the tops just too far out of reach when standing on the ground. I went looking at the ladders when the van was in for an oil change. I don’t have the heart to spend another $200.00 on a new ladder that I need once in a blue moon. I guess we could use it for Christmas lights, and harvesting apples & cherries too, in a pinch. Nah!

If the Echo repair isn’t successful I might look into the Stihl power head option, and get the trimmer head, and a chainsaw/hedge trimmer head so that I can prune stuff without need of a ladder. The more I read about ladder deaths, the less I want to get up on one as I crawl closer to 50 years of age. Working from the ground is where it’s at!

I might head out to whack some balls at the range today, that feels like a fun outing. I haven’t worked up the courage to actually golf yet this year. I’d prefer a little less wind. I’m pretty terrible and I’ll take all the help I can get!

It’s not been running all that well this season, which we’re only 3 weeks into lawn cutting, so that’s not very helpful. So I took it upon myself to replace the air filter, the primer bulb, the spark plug, and to take off the exhaust cowl and check the spark inhibitor mesh to see if the muffler and/or mesh was plugged with carbon and was causing the weed eater to big down, and not achieve full throttle. After some poking, brushing, and minor cleaning there was no difference in operation, so I’m stumped. I had to call up the Markham Mower service desk and take it down there to get it serviced professionally. I’m not at all mechanically inclined. Plus I had them price out a replacement trigger, since mine shattered last summer, or perhaps the summer before that. Either way, if it’s a reasonably priced fix I’ll tack it on. I’ve had the unit since 2006, so it’s had a good twenty years of mixed use. I did, once upon a time, do professional landscaping and I’d run it 8-10 hours a day. Now I use it once a week, or once every other week for less than an hour. I keep it inside the shed, and out of the elements. That’s about as good as I can do for it these days.

With any luck in two weeks time I’ll have it back, and for a price that won’t require me to sell an organ on the black market. Fingers crossed for an easy fix, and not only that but an additional long life left on the equipment once repaired! One can hope!

You know you talk to a parts counter, you check using Google, and you flip through a book but the colour suggested is just a tad too bright, and a little thin, and the touch up version is real thick and gloppy, so the attempts to hide the rust spots isn’t as successful as one might have hoped, but in the end it still looks better than when I started, and I have sparkle paint left at my disposal for other projects that require a bit of whimsy, so all good. The colour match for twelve year old paint isn’t perfect, but it’s the best I can do without painting the entire car, and that’s not in the cards for the GMC Terrain that’s nearing 170,000 Km, and limping along once more. If it can get to the end of the school year, and possible through summer, then that’s pretty great.

A shame that, it was this lovely brief moment through all the trees into a side window that felt sort of at peace given the current state of the world. Unfortunately it didn’t really capture the depth, nor the grandeur in camera. Oh well. I experienced it, and just wanted to share. Something’s you just need to be present for I suppose.

It’s now Thursday of the short week. Heading into another weekend. I have a dog urine sample to collect for the vet’s office because they believe our pooch has contracted Lyme Disease, and they need to determine if he has fought it off, or if he is still living with it. Thing is the blood work only tests for antibodies, and can’t tell us if it’s a current or past infection. Hence more tests required. And the urine sample collection. Hope it’s not a messy affair. Fingers & paws crossed.

School ends in about a month. Not much time to do all the things! These next two weeks are going to fly by because everything is coming to a head with final classes, recitals, tournaments, proms, graduations, rehearsals, fairs, talent shows, spring dances, and whatnot. Heads will spin! Whoosh!

Parking lot is empty, but it’ll fill up before you know it. Just sat here, waiting, with no dog this morning. He had to do his business in the yard like a normal dog, instead of peeing at the school, or waiting to poop of the farm. I will eventually take him to the farm after the vehicle is looked after. I can’t walk him around inside the store, so it’s best he stay home. We are approaching the time of year when I can’t just let him tag along because I can’t leave the mutt in a boiling hot car. As much as I enjoy him being around me on my day to day errands, I don’t wish to kill him.

I need to grab a few items from the grocery store before I head home anyway, so further reason to not keep him cooped up in the car. I’m sure he’s not fond of being stuck home alone, but better there than here right this second.

Hard to believe it is all ready Wednesday! Wow. Fast moving short week. My clients all have events so I don’t expect to hear from any of them until they close down, pack up, and get ready for the next big thing that they have on the calendar. I’m cool with that for the moment. Helps me out so that I can run errands on slow/down days. Bonus!

It’s been up over 30°C for the last three days, 26°C the day before those, and it was 3°C on Thursday with drizzle and attempted flurries. Now we have humidity and summer temperatures. When do we get those six weeks of warm, breezy, sixteen degrees days of comfortable sweater weather where we can build up a tolerance for the sunshine, and the returning heat. This jump right back into the full heat of summer is too much. As I get older I need a longer lead time to adjust bodily to both hot & cold. Swinging up and down, back and forth just makes me feel ill. I was honest to goodness woozy when doing my wife’s tires on Sunday after about an hour in the hot sun. It took maybe fifteen minutes to feel the same way on Monday when I did the van.

I have only felt that bad in the heat once, and it was last summer, standing in line for Alpen Fury at Canada’s Wonderland with my eldest daughter, when it got up to 43°C plus whatever the humidex added to the final tally. I had bought us cold drinks, one each, when I should have bought three or four each. People passed out in the three hour long line around us. Colour drained out of their faces, and then they just collapsed onto the concrete floor. It wouldn’t have taken much for us to follow suit, but we made the most of our time near the misting fans, and once we completed our first ever ride we opted to get slushies and go straight home. The car AC was turned to MAXIMUM OUTPUT, and we both had a lie down when we got home.

I’m not good with extreme heat. Warm is good. Cool is ok. I hate cold & hot. Canada has a lot of all four!

I gotta run the dog to the vet shortly, so pray for my wallet. Pills, and blood tests, I’m sure they’ll take me for at least five hundred bucks, just you watch.

I might have a third surprise Cherry tree growing in my yard, so that’s cool. My four newly transplanted trees all look well so far. Glad to see that. The Lilacs are now purple, so they should start to get scented before too much longer. June is near!

I did my wife’s car yesterday and it was so damn hot I nearly fell over from sun exposure. Long pants was not the solid choice for the year. And it’s even hotter today. I had planned to do the tires first thing but a Facebook market place I put feelers out for pinged me, and we drove to Aurora to complete the transaction for my daughter’s new/used golf clubs. It’s a whole set, plus bag, and umbrella for $100.00 . It’s a steal! She’s happy, I’m happy, and now I can take her out of school to go play one day over the next month or two. Not sure when, but it’ll happen at some point.

So now the winter tires are off, washed, and marked to be placed back on the vehicle properly next winter. All I have left to do is drive them back to the storage locker and tidy up the car interior after moving all of these damn tires around.

I could have done with it being only 16/17°C today, that would have been perfect. But nope, I’m a giant sweaty mess right now. I pulled out the power washer and did all the tires, and washed both cars just because I had it all set up anyway. Several items off the to do list.

Tomorrow the dogs gotta go to the vet, and the next morning is a scheduled oil change. I can really get into spring cleaning if the weather is going to hold up from here on out. Maybe plant my sweet corn later today if I remember it.

I hot, hungry, tired, and very sweaty. I need a break. Happy Victoria Day, May 2-4 long weekend edition.

Harder than you think because if you do too much then you’re exhausted rolling into Tuesday, and since it’s a short week, each day will be ratcheted up to eleven. Or you do nothing at all, and it feels like you’ve wasted the potential of three consecutive days off. The trick is to find just enough to do to satisfy both resting, and feeling accomplished from completing a task or event. I can never get it right, and do too much or not enough and I hate it. So that’s fun.

On the plus side the kids and I did get some climbing in yesterday, a long farm walk where I picked up a week’s worth of field stones, and we planted Dahlias all over the front garden beds. I did a fair bit of reading as well, which was very pleasant. I need to start swapping over the vehicle tires, so I should get on that today. If it’s not too windy I wouldn’t mind a trip to the driving range. I have been searching FB Marketplace for some inexpensive used clubs for my daughter, since my wife lent hers out, and no longer knows where they are. To share at the range is no problem, but some courses won’t let us share clubs out on the field of play. I have a couple pings out, but with it being a holiday weekend, I’m not confident I will receive any responses until tuesday morning at the earliest. Oh well. I’d rather wait and see if I can get some ladies clubs on the second hand market than drop over $300.00 for new cheap clubs for my daughter.

I should look around to see if my FIL has my wife’s clubs stashed in their garage, or if he took them up north for the last tournament he attended last year. Problem is I don’t really recall what my wife’s golf bag looks like, or what brand her clubs are. She had them stored in the shed for years, but all I could tell you was the bag was black, and rough to the touch. I only recently started to enjoy golf, so my wife’s clubs weren’t something I covered, or swooned over. Hence why I don’t know what they look like. The one funky club cover she had is in the house by the front door because my kids thought it was cool, and took it off the driver it was protecting. Now I don’t even have that one identifying thing to search for.

I wouldn’t mind if my youngest took a liking to golf too. I like the range, and I like mini putt, so I’m not opposed to doing those to practice for my time out on an actual course. I’m terrible at golf so us four all being awful together could be fun, as we criss cross each green on a day at the course. Ha! Can you imagine? I think it would be awesome.

Glad I cut the grass on early Friday because it’s getting a lot warmer very quickly. Hard to believe it was 3°C in Thursday, and reached 26°C by five pm on Friday. That’s a pretty wild temperature swing if you ask me. Splitting the difference would have made two reasonable days instead of one being miserable, and the other goo hot too quickly. No time to acclimate to temperature swings that wide. People get sick when it’s like that. My head was sore from the changes in barometric pressure. I’m far more sensitive to it now as I get older than ever before. Not a fan.

Do you choose a Lazy Sunday, a Sunday Funday, or try to be as productive as possible because of the Monday break?

I currently am reading the newest James S A Corey release called “The faith of beasts” which is the second book in a new series not connected to the Expanse universe in any way, shape or form. It’s been good, I like it.

Then we have the latest Matt Dinniman Dungeon Crawler Carl book, “A parade of horribles“. This is the eighth book in the series, and I read the first seven back, to back to back to back, etc etc… I only took a break because I read the seventh book too quickly and finished it two weeks before book eight dropped. Hence why I’m reading faith of beasts right now. I’m just itching to get back to the series that has consumed my previous two months of my life. I’m excited!

Next we return to Murderbot, with the latest installment by Martha Wells, in “Platform Decay“. I am also very excited to read this book, as the tv show on Apple TV was a blast, and I’ve have read every single book in the series so far. I don’t know if it ends here, but I’m looking forward to it nonetheless.

If you must know I have not returned to Brandon Sanderson‘s “Mistborn“, though I may give it a fourth try one I have exhausted all my other must read books in the pile ahead of it. It’s just not grabbing me, but perhaps it needs 200 or more pages to really get going, sink in its hooks, and do something worthwhile. I’m not there with it yet, but if I give it grace maybe it will surprise me. Or not, I don’t know.

I know that Adrian Tchaikovsky has a new “Children of.…” Book coming out soon, or maybe it’s out now. I’ll need to look into it. His arachnids in space story was oddly interesting. Not a fan of spiders, but space faring spiders, octopi, and ants is a pretty cool premise for a book series. I am invested in it. I’ve read the first three.

Have a good weekend all. Happy May 2-4 long weekend.

Now that I have sent off the five items needed, and rushed a sixth project out the door on the Friday of a long weekend, I can tell you about a minor purchase I made to help me out with the wood splitting. I bought a fourteen inch handled hookaroon/pikaroon depending on where you come from, the names ever so slightly different, but it means the same took. A hook nosed beak made of metal, on a handle of varying lengths, that you use to pick up, and move around fire wood logs, and wood rounds. The point is to hook them and move them around without needing to bend down, bend over to pick them up off the ground. It does in fact work. What it doesn’t do is decrease the weight of the wood you are moving. So if you work heavy, shits still heavy bruh! You just don’t have to lean over for it now.

I picked mine up off of Amazon. I do not recall the name. I didn’t notice a logo burned into the wood, or stamped into the metal hook end, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one there. It has escaped my notice. But, my only gripe might be the handle length I chose, I feel it’s about six inches short. But I have access to wood, and tools, and can easily fashion myself a new longer handle. I’m not there yet, but I can if I choose to do so. Awesome.

I spent about an hour with it today. I added the rope to it so that I can hang it nearby when splitting, and so far so good. It feels solid in my hands. It digs in pretty well, but not too far. I do need to master how to pull it out in one smooth motion, because it sticks pretty well as it stands. That’s a “me” error, not a product issue. With extended use will come a sure hand to utilizing it properly. I’m happy. We will have to wait and see if the metal holds up over time, or if it will randomly shatter/snap off at some point this season. I hope it lasts for multiple years at peak performance, but we don’t design stuff like that anymore. Can’t get paid if they don’t keep on buying it over and over again. Again — have to wait and see.

The gnats were really trying to get at my eyes today, so instead of glasses I’ll need to switch over to goggles to stop them from bothering me mid swing. I don’t like the idea of being inattentive with an eight pound mail heading down to my legs/feet if I miss the rounds I’m swinging for the fences at. Not a smart move. They were gunning for my eyeballs like nobody’s business. Yuck.

I wasn’t prepared to put in more than an hour today testing out the new tool, but next week (provided it doesn’t shoot up into the 30’s Celsius out of nowhere) I can take some more time to get to know the hookaroon/pikaroon. I know people use them, so it makes sense to get into the habit of wielding it. If it saves my back a bunch of aggravation from leaning over, and bending then I’m all for it. Work smarter not harder right? Sounds like a plan.

Ok folks, have a fantastic Friday. Ciao Bella! Stay safe out there. Feel free to download my books for free. Also available on Kindle Unlimited if you wanna spend two bucks. Up to you. I’m just happy when I know folks are enjoying my own brand of nonsense.