Author: greatwallstudios

It was positively windy at the farm this morning, so I’d had high hopes it would continue once I got home and started to cut the grass. It was blowing right up until I put gas in the mower and pulled the starting cord, then the temperature rose, and it became dead calm. Hot & humid for the full seventy five minutes I spent putting lines on the grass. Damn. Yet, here we are twenty two days since 8 took my weed eater in for service, and I still don’t have it back yet. Though they have called me twice with updates, and news on the trigger fix I was after, so that’s good news. I also know it should be about $215.00 plus tax, so the price isn’t a surprise anymore. I appreciate that at least.

Hopefully I can grab it early next week. I’d rather not go a whole month without my Echo SRM-230 if I don’t absolutely have to. I probably should have just bought a new one and gone about my business without the delay. But I’ve had the damn thing for twenty years or more now, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to be rid of it over two hundred bucks. It’s strong, not too heavy, and has worked without issue right up until this very year. I’d say that’s worth the effort to repair it.

Welp, work calls so I should get a move on. Best be about my business. I’ll save the hedge work for the weekend! Maybe it’ll cool off at some point soon? One could hope. On the plus side we’ve had a good amount of rain so my trees are still alive! Bonus.

Take care out there. Ciao Bella.

It’s going to be another warm & muggy one today. Add in the fresh sun showers and the humidity is up around the 80% range. Makes you feel slick within seconds of going out of doors. Not my favourite, but on the plus side the warm to hot weather doesn’t set the nerves in my jaw off, so I prefer it over winter time just because of that. Lots of dew still left in the grasses by 9:00 am. But it had rained shortly before I left the house this morning to take my kids to school so I’m sure some of that dew was actually just rain drops collecting on the ground. All I know is, my fruit trees have been watered at least twice this week with straight rain so that’s all good in my book.

It is now Thursday, and the school year is really winding down. The kids have been told by their teachers that there is no more homework, and I think my youngest has one more low weighted test left to go. I say that because their marks, and the report cards are due this Friday, so if it can’t even be marked before the deadline, it can’t possibly be worth anything, besides judging if they know that material or not. That’s fine.

This is the last year my youngest will get to participate in the primary fun outdoor day shenanigans. It stops at grade three, but with that ending comes the opening up of all the school clubs and teams, track & field, and school dances once she is in grade four in the fall. I think that’s a good trade off. She was already grandfathered into the Social Justice Club because my oldest has been a part of that forever, and her homeroom teacher also runs it. There are a couple younger siblings of established members in that club, so it’s not too crazy of an anomaly.

I do believe that the beans are going in, or we’re at least started prior to the rain fall this week. It’s welcomed because stuff goes dry pretty quickly once you get into double digit days without rain. We got around 2 inches on one Saturday just a weekend or two ago. Plus whatever fell on the Sunday as well. The river swelled up quite a bit. It’s back to its calm self again though, so we know last night didn’t dump too to much rain on us all at once. The corn field soil was dark and damp so we got enough for that to register. All good there.

I am now debating with myself on whether or not I should set up my hedge trimmer to tackle the backyard now, or wait for October. We do not use our back patio all that much, at least not until early July, so it isn’t a crazy important job. I’d just like to see the top half of the hedge cleaned up now that I have the 8ft step ladder in my possession.

I now have work emails so the hedge is a moot point. To the day job! Take care out there. Ciao Bella!

By all accounts we are to get a pretty sizeable electrical storm later on today. So likely we will get more rain, as well as lightening, followed along closely by window rattling thunder claps. The dog isn’t going to enjoy all that noise very much, and I don’t blame the silly sausage. I like to sit, or stand to listen to the rain falling after a good stretch of dry sunny days, but these thunder storms get bigger, louder, longer, and far more intense as I get older. Now they’re more of a threat than a visual spectacle. Mother nature is vast and uncaring!

It’s now Wednesday, which is Hump Day. I still need to mop these floors, but the bulk of the household chores are done. I also took the time to replace my wife’s hamper because the old one gave out in its entirety. Bottom fell out making it unusable. Plus side to cleaning up is that the new vacuum works really well. It’s nice and light weight, so it’s easy to carry up and down stairs. I probably should dispose of the two old ones, because even after a thorough cleaning, neither works as well as they should.

Unlikely that I will go to the driving range today. Maybe later on this week I can try again. I did something to my back the last time I went so I’m in no rush to tweak it again. I still have shoulder pain because of that previous visit. My wife did not locate her clubs so odds are she will borrow mine for her teacher activity event at Lyndhurst on Thursday. I saw she ordered some new pink golf balls so I can take my sets out of the bag to make room for hers.

Have a chill Wednesday.

The last ten days have seen a lot going on, and after this evening it finally rolls back to just two things to do after school in the evenings, at least until we hit June 27th. A welcome breather that will allow us to swim in the evenings instead of trying to juggle both kids between multiple programs. I like it. Sort of a soft launch for the summer break.

The great thing about area is that it is more closely monitored to align with the printed schedule. Which meant I could work yesterday, and pop out for thirty minutes to watch both of my daughters events. She claimed a personal best running long jump of 2.79 m, and ran a particularly challenging 200 m heat in the full sun of the day. I was happy that I got to witness her do her thing along with her peer group. Way to go!

The dance recital was lovely, as always. I did miss it last year due to our inclusion in the Taekwondo Black Belt World Tournament. This year was only 39 minutes behind schedule by 3:45 pm on the afternoon, and was a lot of fun to go to. The Pan Am Centre could do with 2x or 3x the amount of available parking for its events though. A multistory tower to increase spaces would not go amiss there. I made sure we turned up twenty minutes earlier than needed just so that I could do figure rights throughout the parking lots in search of a space. Turns out I was smart to do so. Go team!

Seen here sporting two of the three bunches of flowers given to them for their tremendous efforts.

Ok well I’ve got to head out for some routine blood work over at the local lab collection facility. So I best not longer around here too long, fawning over my children’s achievements. With any luck I will finish off the Domestic Duties Monday chores today so that I am free to work unencumbered for the rest of the week. Take care out there. Ciao Bella!

Lots going on this past weekend, what with multiple birthdays, a Taekwondo Tournament, and a dance recital, as well as dinner parties, Jays Games, concerts, a talent show and more. I’m exhausted! Luckily the kids got their flowers, and in the case of the taekwondo tournament a Bronze Medal for sparring. Both kids tried hard, and that’s about all I can ask for. They can’t help nerves getting in the way, any more than I can, so no use getting in a huff about it.

We enjoyed a school band performance, a dance number, and a school choir medley from my eldest at the talent show on Thursday. She was onstage nearly as much as the trio of emcees. I know she enjoyed every second of those applause breaks. Addictive, I know.

We were lucky enough to go and do some climbing on Saturday. We opted for the bouldering portion of the gym this time over the auto belay. I don’t enjoy the idea of dropping to the mats, as I’m not looking to roll an ankle or break any bones unnecessarily. If I can help it, that is. But it was fun in a different way. More inversions, and dangling. Shorter routes, but just as intense, and far more testing of my grip strength. Not sure I’d switch over to mainly bouldering, but it’s a fun diversion every now and again. I can handle that. My youngest just likes falling off the dragon into the foam pit if we’re being honest.

Looking to celebrate my wife’s birthday later on once all these extracurriculars calm down, and come to an end. She still has a few meetings, and a banquet, and a golf thing to do first. Then she can collapse in a heap at a spa and get pampered how she pleases.

Lots of driving this weekend. My 407 ETR bill is going to be ugly with all those additional trips these last few weeks. Oh well.

We finally had some rain! It filled up my rain barrel right full to the brim, which is excellent. Unless we get some additional major downpours over the next couple of months this may be the last time the barrel is topped off until September. So far the barrel allowed me to water all four trees four times each and still have some rain water left in the barrel. Which should hopefully get them through the driest patches of the coming summer. I just don’t want the little trees to die. They look to be alive and well, and I’d love to keep them that way. I think that I provided enough fertilizer to each tree to help them become established. I don’t really want to have to nurse them along the whole summer, but I’m ok to help May & June. After that it’ll be mostly hands off the back of the bike, to see if they pedal away or fall over.

Back to Monday means even more laundry, dishes, floors to vacuum and mop once again. Domestic Duties Monday! Argh.

Several years ago a nearly province wide wind storm, or Jericho blew through almost 800 km of southern Ontario, from Sarnia to Montreal and we see the lasting effects of it every single day. Trees with their tops missing, entire swaths of forests knocked down, collapsed buildings, and the shattered remnants of things that used to be. It was a pretty wild weekend when it happened. The power went out for at least twenty seven hours. Which is pretty good considering the extent of the damages across the wind swept areas. A not so subtle reminder of how we simply cannot hold back the true force of mother nature. Act accordingly!

I find that my socks are the one article of clothing that really picks up on the scent booster pellets, and Gain detergent scents. My sock drawer smells lovely. Nothing else that gets washed in the same mixture even comes close to smelling as good, or as strongly as the socks. How weird is that? Not my t-shirts, underwood, pants, sweaters, nothing takes to the scented stuff quite like my socks. I have no idea why that is. A close second, but it’s only brief would be the bed sheets. Not even the towels take on the Gain Original scent that strongly. Just socks. Lovely scented footwear. How strange is that? Life, it couldn’t be any weirder.

Big day here in Southern Ontario for all the kids doing Taekwondo. We’re headed to the Pan Am Centre for the big event. I do hope that we can find parking because we’re not needed until later in the day. With any luck they won’t be hours behind schedule as the day wears on. Fingers crossed.

That also means we will likely not do any climbing today, because that’s too tiring of a physical activity for a tournament weekend. We are also prone to minor injuries like scrapes, scratches, and friction burns to elbows, and both knees, and to our shins. None of which is ideal for a contact heavy sport. I feel like that makes perfect sense.

Yesterday’s PA Day almost ended on a low note, as I forgot to drop by the gym to grab my daughter’s lanyard for being a contestant. I went to watch a ball game and had had some drinks when I finally remembered. I was able to ask my wife to go in my stead, so all is all after all. I kept telling myself to write it down once I found out I needed to go get it, but became distracted and then promptly forgot about all of it. Rare for me not to have lists, reminders, calendar prompts up all over the house. My fault.

With just a hint of luck may my daughter have another great showing at the Black Belt World Tournament! I hope she does her best, and feels like she left it all out on the mats. Very proud for how hard she tries in martial arts, and all of her school work too. Proud parents for certain.

Luckily I keep some duck bacon in my pouch for just such an occasion. It’s a PA Day today, and I am unusually busy with new work today. It was a pretty quiet May by all measures. No problem to pull into a stronger June! I’m all for it.

Had the chance to walk up to pile one for the first time since early last week, and somebody has been busy moving all of my bins, and getting rid of the waste wood. I’m happy the junk wood is being gotten rid of, however I’m not to find of how they’ve moved the bins I was using. I had them set up in a semi circle surrounding my chopping block so that I could stack the split wood away fairly easily. Now both the chopping block, and the bins are spread way out too far apart which doesn’t make any sense to me. Nobody asked me, they just moved it all willy-nilly, Milli-Vanilli. Not cool. Those bins are heavy, even whilst empty. I don’t feel like putting my back out trying to haul them back to where I had them stationed for ease of use. That’s an aggravating development.

Plus there is still one full pile of junk that seems to have been forgotten about. Not to mention the mountain of peeled bark that’s still sat on the ground untouched. Speaking of untouched, I called in to get an update on my weed eater I sent out for service, and no news yet. I was told 1.5 to 2 weeks, and today is two weeks and I have not heard a peep. I was just going to drop in, but didn’t want to waste my time when I could just call. But now I’ve called, spoken to somebody whom took a message, but I don’t know any more than I did prior to picking up the phone.

We had a large guest at the farm the other day, it was the fertilizer people in their gigantic tricycle wheeled tractor. I bet those tires cost a whole bunch of money to replace! Ouch.

It’s now Thursday, and I’m hoping to be able to catch the early afternoon matinee of the Talent Show my eldest daughter is in. She is in the school band, choir and has choreographed a dance number with three friends for a Lion King tribute with costumes. I am looking forward to watching it because I was afraid I had to miss tonight’s show due to taking my youngest daughter out of town to her on site dress rehearsal at the same time – roughly. Now I get to do both! Makes me happy.

I need to go grab a ladder, and a pair of gloves from Canadian Tire, so I’ll chat later on if I think of anything else that needs to be said. Ciao Bella! Take care out there.