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Both of my kids did the butter sculpting competition this year along with me, so that was a tonne of fun. My older child received another beauty of a rosette for her first place finish, to accompany her even bigger rosette from her Christmas painting in the Home Craft building. She was very excited, and us along with her. This was her second year competing. My youngest entered for the first time this year and made a lovy cob of corn. She worked very hard and I am proud that she came out and gave it a lot of effort.

I was able to place second, which I was disappointed with, though I did have fun on my second year of competing. I lost to the grand champion of the two day event, a very spectacular bunny rabbit, so that made me feel less bad. Losing to the best of the best is never fun, but it’s the kindest way to tell myself I lost. Ha! I have pinned my blue 2nd place ribbon to last year’s rosette display in my office. Seems I was good for second place in multiple events, as my ceramic bust sculpt that I painted won the same prize.

I was in no mood for photos of my own work so once they announced, and we all clapped & cheered like adults, I walked away and didn’t look back. I do believe my kids took photos of my entry, but I don’t have those photos on hand. Oh well! Better luck next year.

All told we were there for four hours last night. Caught the fireworks and saw some of the Monster Truck Rally. What we didn’t see we definitely heard! Ha. We did pretty well as a family. A fair few ribbons for our troubles.

Now it’s Friday and it is still raining a bit. We did the ride night in the drizzle. Luckily it wasn’t raining too hard, but we did end up with wet butts. Good time. Memorable night.

My ankles ache from walking around the fair all ready so lord help me with the next three days! It’s been quite some time since I’ve had insomnia like this. Usually I need a midnight pee and that’s that. I wonder if I’m excited for the butter sculpting contest? Time will tell.

Whilst not a downpour there is considerable moisture and precipitation in the air which would make my handling an axe potentially dangerous. So with the current humidex, rainfall, and fog in the air I have decided to take a rest day from splitting wood. Not how I’d like to start the month or end the week when I was on a roll. September was exceedingly dry so we need the rain. My grass is parched. It’s worse looking now than during the height of summer when temps regularly reach 40°C in full sun. We got several heavy cloud bursts during those months but September ended up drier than a bone. Weird. So with the weather in mind, and my general clumsiness, I didn’t think that trying to maintain my grasp on an 8 lbs maul was all together likely. That could lead to injury or a flying axe through a window of the van, or worse yet, striking a lazing dog twenty feet away. None of which sounds good to me.

The fair starts today so obviously it’s going to rain. Forecast shows good weather for Fri, Sat & Sun so at least there is that to look forward to. Going to be a wet evening sitting in the rain to ride anything that isn’t covered from the elements. No snow this year which is good. Likely an early frost if this year acts like any other that preceded it.

Tonight is a modified meet the teacher night, so I can go visit with one of the two children’s home room teachers. There isn’t time to wait until 6:00 pm for all the other ones to become available. I’m sure we will catch them another time in first semester. My wife has her first rugby game today somewhere nearby, so she’ll be home at a reasonable hour to go to the fair in one car as a family. That won’t always be the case this weekend, but it is good to start out the festivities as a united group before splintering apart for parties, and other events.

Tomorrow night is the butter carving competition which I have myself and both kid’s signed up for. Should be a lot of fun. If the temperature is reasonable and not blisteringly hot then more sculpts will last longer outside of the fridges. While I’d love to say I intend to defend my title as grand champion, and first place finisher, I’m just looking to have fun and be creative outside of the house for a bit. All told it’s about 2 hours long and I get to sit down while I work. Well worth the effort I put forward.

I’d be lying if I didn’t at least hope to win again, but the competition is stiff and other people need to win too otherwise folks will stop joining in on all the fun. Would I be pleased as punch to walk around with this year’s ribbons? You bet your sweet ass I would! I’m just not foolish enough to think I have it locked down. I’m trying to enjoy the event not get worked into a lather about it.

So now it’s Thursday, rainy and I’m not splitting wood nor being very active. I could fire up the planer and get moving on the front entrance storage unit, or I could veg out and wait for work emails or the desire to clean up around the house to kick in. We shall have to wait and see.

Every time I think I’m just about done with the wood wouldn’t you know it I find more buried in the back of the lot. So while I thought today was the last day, it could be next week depending on the weather. If it’s drizzle tomorrow I can work in that, but if it’s a downpour then things will have to wait for clearer skies.

If I add my 90 minutes from today that puts my monthly total at 18 hours even. Not bad. I think that was very manageable. While neither the scales nor the way my pants/shirts fit show any  changes, I’ve got to believe that I am working towards something positive physically. I certainly sweat like a pig once I get rolling. Lifting, bending, grabbing & throwing, plus all the swinging and hard chops, not to mention whacking with the mallet. At some point I hope my pants begin to fit less snuggly. I’m less concerned about the number on the scale, and more concerned with the flab, fat, and rolls I’ve developed as I age.

The fair starts after school tomorrow, so that should be a whole lot of fun. First I need to stop in and meet my daughters teacher at 3:15 pm, and then we can sort ourselves out with fair food and going to look at all of our entries. Should be a pretty gnarly weekend even if 8 do say so myself.

I even mowed the lawn, mulched the leaves and did some weed eating. Now I can answer work emails and think about having lunch. Happy hump day!

I set aside an hour of time today (after delivering all of our Fair entries) and I built a storage/travel box for all of my wood splitting gear so as to no longer have individual missiles strewn across the back of the van each morning when I head to and from the farm. I now have both mauls, my mallet, two wedges and the hookaroon safely encased in a skip planed Walnut open top box. It has room for my gloves, metal files, a third axe that isn’t a maul, and whatever else I might like, maybe ear plugs and safety goggles? Seems like a solid bet to me.

It isn’t fancy, and I didn’t spend too much time on it. A few rounded edges, and some broken corners should stop me from cutting myself on it. Now it’s all located in one spot and I can hook it to a belt loop in the back of the van. No more loose tools as bludgeoning impacts during an emergency stop. Makes us all a little safer.

Now I can take everything in and out of the garage in one go, or leave the box tied in indefinitely. I’m not sure yet. I like having the option to remove it when grocery shopping because with the extra chair always up I’m growing shy on available space. I have all of the extra stuff out of my wife’s old car in the van too. That should either go in her new car, or get filed away in the garage. I don’t need random things I don’t use strewn across the back of the van. I just spent a few hours two Sundays ago cleaning it up, so I want to keep it tidy. I found juice boxes and wrappers back by the kids seats and need to throw that out as well. Sloppy children.

No matter. The AxeBox is done, and I can strike it off my list of things to build. If I had scheduled my time better I could have put a whole day into it and made it something really nice, but I’ll settle for utilitarian and more importantly, done. Not held up in production hell because I can’t decide on a design feature or joinery aesthetic. Done is better than perfect!

Also I desperately underestimated the lengths of rope needed for the side handles. I should have gone in with double the amount I had set aside. Live and learn. I can always go back to make changes later. We have the technology. I can freely admit when I’ve cocked something up. I’m a grown man, I’ll survive the embarrassment.

Once the weather crisps up a little more and I’m no longer having as much fun with wood splitting I will return to the front entrance storage unit. Stay tuned for that.

Which means I need to cart several bags and boxes worth of entries to the fair grounds today before school ends. We’ve got veggies and paintings, cupcakes and cookies, loaves and squares, sewn pillows, bags and a hot glued outhouse made of Popsicle sticks, painted rocks, stitched bracelets, holly wreaths, decorated Christmas ornaments, garlands, photography and flowers of all shats and sizes, and one sculpted/painted busy in ceramics. All going to different locations at the venue. That means lines, waiting, and multiple trips so as to not break anything, or miss any one particular entry item. It’s a lot. It’s stressful. I’m glad the fair only comes once per year.

I completed one additional hour of wood splitting. If it rains the whole rest of the week I am ok with that. I’d hope it would stop by dinner time Thursday, but I’m no meteorologist.

With any luck the weather will bounce back and be mild but not too hot for Thursday through Sunday of the 182 Markham Fair. Free parking. Nightly fireworks. Animals, shows and competitions available to see all weekend long.

I have some paid work to do and then I need to get all these entries to the fair grounds for distribution. By Friday the majority of my posts will be about the fair, so strap in! Carney rides await!

It’s fair week and the entries go in tomorrow, so now it’s crunch time and I have cupcakes, brownies and cookies to bake, tag, and then sort into boxes to be taken in for judging tomorrow. Well, judging is Wednesday but our stuff has to go in tomorrow. I’ll be back and forth all day. We’ve got arts, crafts, baking, home craft goods, and veggies for the agri building. If I go when it opens it won’t be all that busy luckily. Go after 3:00 pm and it’ll be a nightmare of lost souls wandering around stepping in front of cars, trucks and Vans. Not for the faint of heart.

I’ve cleaned the kitchen, got some baked goods in the oven. A load of laundry started. Going to vacuum the floors, though why I’d bother is beyond me since we still have items left to finish for the fair. It’ll look like it was never touched 30 sec after my kids get home.

Still got the kids off to school, the dog down for his walk, and an hour of wood splitting done this morning. I’m very productive this morning, how long it will last is anybody’s guess. I’m up to 15.5 hours total splitting time. I will walk away from Wood Pile One by next week at the latest. Whatever’s left is fit for the pit, or needs a hydraulic splitter to make any use of it. My ego is secure enough to leave well enough alone. I say clear away the junk and open it up to the local tree service folks for drop offs once more. Let’s keep the cycle running. Wood Pile Two can host my attention until the snow comes, the year ends, or I spontaneously get busy with paid work again.

Welcome back Monday! September is almost done, the 182 nd Markham Fair starts on Thursday and goes until 5:00 pm Sunday evening. It’s a grand old time with something for everyone!

Freshly washed sheets, and the dog got up already so I’m just here enjoying the soft whir of my floor fan as I fall in and out of sleep. The intensity of the sun is pretty strong for 9:00 am. Must be from the fact I removed some greenery from the front garden bed. We had four pumpkin vines with only two pumpkins on them in total. One of which has been bored into by a rodent killing it’s usefulness as a carving pumpkins as it will rot before Halloween since it’s been breached. And the other pumpkin is smaller and less developed. So at this point both the pumpkins and tomatoes are a lost cause. I had two tomato plants with zero blooms or tomatoes on them. My raspberries didn’t produce much fruit this year. My neighbours stole my grapes, animals took my apples and strawberries, and the birds took my Cherries. I sure hope I didn’t need to count on those food stuffs to get through winter or next spring given the current state of the world.

The freshly planted fruit trees have so far made it through spring and summer and are faring ok so far this fall. I do hope they last the winter and continue to grow over the years to come. If nothing else the house could use more cooling shade from nearby trees. Keep our AC use to a minimum if we have a healthy canopy from our maintained trees. Stop the living room from burning up all summer long from excess direct sunlight. Natural light is great, but feeling like living inside a greenhouse full of steam and moisture is not my ideal way to spend a summer. Let’s take the temps down a couple notches inside our living room at least.

Now the mornings and nights are single digits I find it so much easier to sleep. Feels good when the overall humidity and moisture level drops too. Sheets and towels feel a bit drier to the touch. I like that. Not so dry it makes us all itch, but to lose the ever present summer time dampness from the air is a real treat. AC is great but it does make certain things constantly feel unnaturally damp. Great for mould, not so good for our health.

The Markham Fair starts this week. Entries go in on Tuesday, get judged on Wednesday, and then we are go, go, go! Until Sunday night when we have to go pick up all of our entries and the fair is done for another year. Fantastic time of year. We love it deeply, but by Sunday night we are all happy that it’s done. I’ll likely get more steps in over those four days of this weekend than I would in a typical month of the winter. We’re looking at 20,000 – 30,000 steps per day as we circle the grounds by ourselves, with family, with friends, with events and shows, and looking for food options, and doing endless laps of the midway with my children, nieces and nephew.

By the end I’d kill for a rascal scooter or golf cart to haul my ass about. Not to mention having a place to put a drink or a bag instead of schlepping the kids stuff about all day. Although I can feel the hormonal balance of the house shifting as my eldest gets closer to her twelfth birthday, and the teen years are going to be a bumpy ride. So I’ll enjoy their presence while I can, because I’m sure that soon enough she’ll assert her independence and will want to do fair stuff away from us with her gaggle of friends instead. Getting old is wild!