How are we all feeling at this point in the last week of July? The month itself has gone roaring by at break neck speed so I just wanted to round everybody up and see where we are at? All good, yes? No? Does anybody have any concerns about what they should be doing? Does anybody need an guidance on our current deliverables with key stakeholders? Ok, ok… I can’t bear any more corporate jargon than that right this second. So I’m going to get back to work, and enjoy this mild but breezy day while it lasts.
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The sunflowers are doing well.
The farm sees swarms of hundreds of Blue Jays that come by to nibble upon the rows of sunflowers my BIL grows all around the property. Occasionally those birds drop seeds in random spots that don’t get snatched up by other birds or critters and we get these gigantic lone sunflowers all over the place. This one is on track to hit seven or eight feet tall by the time the bloom actually makes an appearance. It dwarfs the dahlias that are growing in rows behind it. There are six more across the lane in a different bed, and the fields all have single stands of them every so often.
The front laneway has a couple hundred planted and just starting to show up above ground now. When you add in all the colourful mixes of maise / corn and the apple trees that will become a very picturesque spot for snapping photos. That is provided the flowers do better than the weeds.
Hello Tuesday!
Feeling a little hemmed in by the corn.
Usually the thing you feel most at the farm is open expanse, and a pretty rural view of the surrounding area. Now that the corn is up over seven feet tall the farm feels closed in, and claustrophobic, if you can believe that! Still has a tonne of open sky, but across the ground the view is limited to a giant wall of green with golden yellow tassels. The soya bean fields are green and only eighteen inches or so tall so you can see a good long way with those growing. No problem there.
Oddly enough even with all this heat and smoke the mosquitoes are still terrible at the farm. However, I was not bothered by them at all when we spent four plus hours harvesting the garlic last weekend. They were nowhere to be found then. A blessing really, because it was a hard enough task without being eaten alive by ten thousand buzzing winged bastards.
I was up early to walk the dog, and running a few loads of laundry through the wash to start our week off right. Mine should be done by now, so I can go sort it after I grab some breakfast. I should also make sure to take a vitamin while I’m in the kitchen. I’d love to report some downsizing on the weight front, but I don’t feel like looking, in case it has gone up, or worse, gone down but not by enough to be a cause for positive reinforcement. Negligible decrease is just as bad as further gains or no movement at all. I do not know why I feel this way but I do. I was successful at not snacking last night, which is the bigger win I think. That will be a nightly battle that I do not expect to win 100% of the time. Honestly if I win 60% of the time or more that would be a bigger improvement than the added walking. Come September we go back to climbing twice a week, and if work is slow I will be able to go back to wood splitting by axe for 90 minutes each morning when it isn’t raining too heavily. That does wonders for the shoulders and grip strength training.
We went bouldering on Saturday afternoon, which was a lot of fun. Change of shoes and some chalk and off you go. It’s harder and more technical than the auto belay I prefer, but a switch up sometimes is a good thing. Plus it made our stop at the gym shorter because we got tired so much faster. I would like to spend a little time with free weights, but I don’t want yet another membership or subscription to hit my account each month.
Come September I would also like to spend a few hours working on some furniture projects in the woodshop. Collapse the massive dog crate, and open up the front hall a little more. We don’t crate the dog at all, and as the kids grow up space is at a premium in our teeny tiny house. We also need some organizers and other helpful doodads around here that I can make over a few days time.
I need to get moving on some Markham Fair entries too, if I want to have something brand new to take in to show off this year. Lots to do. Have a solid Monday. Take care out there. Ciao Bella!
Slowly adding more physicality to my day(s).
Since we last met up on this topic I have gone climbing twice, been swimming twice, put in 20,000 steps at Canada’s Wonderland, and walked the dog one extra time per day in the evenings at least three times. It’s not much, but the target is at least in front of me and I am aiming the correct direction. The next big step is to eliminate boredom snacking after dinner. I have various projects on the go that I should pick up once again to give me something to focus on in place of snacking and scrolling on my phone. I have one painting started and halted. I have fifteen Warhammer 40K models primed and sat waiting for paint. I have an armature bulked out in foil awaiting clay for sculpting, then baking, then painting. I have guitars, I have wood & a woodshop. I have books to read and stories to write, but I find myself on the couch snacking instead. I should stop doing that.
On the brightside I’ve been moving around more, so that’s a net positive, if only by a small margin. Progress! I’ll take it. Ha! I have managed to work drinking more water into my day to day life over the last eighteen months, so I do have fewer headaches. Now it’s mainly from tension, and a change in barometric pressure due to incoming storms. Not much I can do there. Short of building my own static pressure chamber to hide in to avoid the fluctuations that hurt my head, I’ll have to learn to deal with it. Fine, I guess. I will figure out a way to muddle through the storm related headaches.
On a positive note we are entertaining a guest today, Soni need to do another round of tidying up, vacuuming, and closing bedroom doors to hide the kids messes! Have a lovely lazy Sunday. All the best to you out there. Oh and thanks for downloading my free books! I get a kick out of knowing somebody else might have read them, and potentially enjoyed them too. Maybe. Possibly. I digress.
He-Man Masters of the Universe was… Campy fun?
I liked it, hell even my eleven year old daughter liked it, my wife even sat down to watch about an hour of it with us. It was bright, colourful and fun. Silly at times, but generally didn’t take itself too seriously. Skeleton was great, you would never know it was Jared Leto, the hate there was unwarranted I feel. He was an over proud, show off, cowardly scenery chewing, ham fisted loon, just what the cartoons required. It was fun. I had fun. I could easily watch two more provided they don’t turn grim and gritty with a new director or screen writer. Sad we missed it in theaters but glad to catch it on streaming. Streaming is now the new dvd release. Missed it on the first run, and now it’s a cult classic on an alternate format. Sounds about right. Also, bring back physical media! Made me want to dig out my most favourite He-Man figures from my office closet to display on my desk alongside my Ninja Turtles, Gundam and Spawn figures. Ha. I’m very happy I got to share some childhood silliness with my daughter(s), as the youngest flitted into and out of the room while making paper dragons.
So here we are on Saturday morning. My wife’s car has not started in more than a week now. I fear the starter has gone, because the battery was brand new only a handful of months ago. It’s rusted all to hell, and is falling apart. Might very well be time to tow it in and be rid of it. One more major expense. Or we go to one vehicle and drastically rearrange the afterschool schedule, and all appointments moving forward. Tough, unpleasant but doable. That’s called belt tightening!
Oh well. Hope your weekend is good.
Sadly I do not believe we will see any October Blue Jays baseball this year. I have little faith that they can win 44 of their next sixty odd games to move into a wild card spot.
Hark for Friday softly approaches from way over yonder…and I’m feelin’— good?
Yes here we are it is Friday morning and the sun is up and we are all still alive — for the moment. Let us take in a big breath and exhale through our noses and realize how close to the end of things we have all managed to find ourselves. May cooler heads prevail out there in the wider world, because I don’t wish to perish at the whims of an octogenarian who is pretty close to their own finish line as it is. Not cool.
So I for one look to the skies above, see the blue, and the white underbelly of some clouds and try to put that all out of my mind. I have work to do, kids to feed, and a life to lead as long as I have it. So I’ll look to my fruit trees, and my flowers, and children to help get me through my existential dread today.
With any luck today will be both productive and fun for all involved. I also hope that we have a blissful weekend full of family and friends, and that we are all met with pleasantries and hearty laughs. Be the change you wish to see! Take care out there. Ciao Bella!
How many interactions is deemed viral?
It is now not uncommon to have a comment reach 5 or 6 thousand hearts on Threads or Instagram, so is that considered to be viral, or does that require at least one million to be considered as such? You know what, I’m going to go look that up because I’d actually like to know. Ok so for an account such as mine (on Threads and IG) with fewer than 100 followers I’d need a post or comment to generate 10,000 – 50,000 interactions or views to be considered viral (for me) a 100 to 500X increase over my own micro viewership is what is generally accepted to fulfill the title of viral. So I’ve gotten close, but not yet hit the mark. Cool, cool, cool. Not bad for a nobody saying silly things on the internet. And, this is more to the point, now I know! And knowing is half the battle as they say.
And a happy Thursday to you all today. Given how active my phone notifications have been as of late I could not imagine actually going viral for something. It would be cool if my two free books of collected short stories went viral, but since at least 200 people have downloaded them so far, I’m actually pretty happy with their performance as is. No notes!
The weather is summer like without being unbearable, so we’ve had windows and doors open, and it’s been a fresh air breezy kind of a week. I’m so happy I made the kitchen window a bug screen, as it allows for far more cross breeze in the main living space of our home. It’s not often I can gloat about an old wood working project, so I’ll take the points when I can get them.
I’ve been told He-Man is on Amazon Prime so I might take some time this evening to sit down and watch it. I missed it in theaters. Stuff doesn’t stick around for months at a time anymore, two, maybe three weeks tops now in the big stadium style theaters anyway. The tiny local guys might get it in a few months, but I’m not certain if that’s still a thing anymore.
Today is the anniversary of my friend’s passing, along with her daughter. A sombre day. One we continue to remember. What could have been if things had gone differently for them. Cheers!
An arcade game our particular family has spent a good number of hours playing — together, co-operatively.
It’s not a difficult game, as some shots take some skill, and you need other players to help remove some of the protector fish that surround the really big prize winners in order to get a brief but clear shot at said prize fish. It can be high octane, adrenaline fueled fun, or you can just sort of take pot shots and take it easy. I like when we all fire at different things and then occasionally come together to take down a killer whale, or a great white, or take a single pot shot at the central treasure chest to win the largest prize available. The graphics aren’t crazy, there’s no story, no cut scenes, and yet we will gather around and play it for a really, really long time. Tonnes of fun. Great if you get competitive and want to compare scores. There are no boosts, no power ups, no siding your harpoon aim, it’s a very level playing field. Like I said, love it!
Last night we went to go see Toy Story 5 in Markham. It was very of the times in regards to technology stealing our kids sense of play, imagination, and ability to be present with one another in the physical world. While it didn’t feel as strong as other previous films, it was perfectly fine. I’d give it a seven or a seven point five out of ten. It probably could have been 10 minutes shorter, but it wasn’t bloated by any means. I was just starting to feel a little restless, and some of the youngest in our group didn’t last the entire run time sitting down. Three of the nine of us had to get up and move around, those being the 4, 7 & 9 year old. With bathroom breaks and a need to just move about.
My kids are currently on a dragon hand puppet kick, which is great. Colouring, drawing, and three dimensional structure building. Glue sticks, scissors and paper and markers. They’re off the tablets and VR so I’m thrilled about it. They’ve made three or four each, and look to keep on going. Crafting is a great way to spend the summer break. I am all for it. Maybe some of it can go into the Markham Fair this fall.
Have a wondrous Wednesday. Ciao Bella!
Nothing says summer break quite like a… dentist visit?
Not my first choice of place to visit in the open season for fun that is summer holidays, but when the kids gotta go, she’s gotta go. I booked this visit back in May because it was the earliest opening they had. Not my best work, but we’re going to work with what we’ve got. The youngest isn’t a fan of having strangers poking about in her mouth, and I don’t blame her. But, she needs to be seen, and have X-rays done, so we bite the bullet and we go. My only rule is no braces until they hit their teen years. I’m not doing baby teeth braces, that’s just not going to happen.
Also it’s Tuesday, which makes it refuse collection day. I woke up before the sun to wheel the 306L recycling bin to the curb, and also empty the green bin and send that curbside too. Even in the summer we have to stay on top of this sort of stuff. It never ends! Just like laundry, and house cleaning. It’s never really done, just waiting for a new mess to appear.
I for one hope that it rains for the whole day today. I don’t need the thunder or lightning, but a good twenty four hour soaking if the grass, trees, and garden beds would be very helpful. My rain barrel should be full to the brim again by now (I hope), ready to carry these new fruit trees into August and then come September they’ll begin to shed their leaves and I can stop babying them so much. With any luck next year or two they will flower and begin to hear fruit. My apple trees are good to go, same as my grapes. We had a heavy cherry growing season this year, and an underperforming raspberry bush. Can’t win them all! Some is better than none.
The Four Hour Garlic Harvest Extravaganza.
Just like it says on the tin we spent four hours on Sunday down on the east side of one of the near fields pulling up around 6,500 garlic bulbs. When the singular purpose built plough worked, it was the best thing ever, but when the heavily impacted earth took the plough to wandering and we had to dig the missed bulbs with spades and forks, it was a hot, sweaty mess of an operation. Luckily the plough worked roughly 85-90% of the time.
Unseat the garlic from the cement choke hold the ground has on it, then you gather the bulbs, break off the clinging dirt, lay them in piles facing the bulbs all one way, gather those piles in the bed of a side by side, then load them out onto wagons to dry off, but also not roll away or get picked over by racoons and such. Rinse and repeat row after row until completed.
My inlaws don’t primarily do garlic, this is a hobby crop, because they mainly do cattle corn and soya beans. We also have a pumpkin patch and orchards and various berries too. But the “farming” is for corn and beans mainly. Everything else works because they have the gear all ready for the two main income crops.
It isn’t glamourous by any means, but at least 8 know we have garlic available to season what we eat this year! Ha. Small comfort. All of our clothes, gloves, and shoes smell heavily of garlic at the moment. The van smells like a garlic bread factory. It’s rather pungent and invasive! Phew!
So back to Monday and I have my edits in hand to get to early today. My back and legs are sore from all the bending and leaning in the full sun yesterday. Luckily it topped out at 21°C, and the air quality was sitting at a 2. We had the best possible conditions for getting the whole patch done in one concerted effort. It took just about all of us, minus most of the children, but we got it done. Thank God! You absolutely could not count on the weather staying this reasonable for much longer.
On the plus side, I was outdoors and active for four full hours yesterday. Had a lovely swim afterwards, and then visited with friends in the evening to enjoy their new hot tub that worked wonders on my sore back, and the aching in my legs. Turned out better than I could have hoped for.
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