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Ask me how I know. I’d be willing to wager if every middle school, and high school teacher turned up for class dressed as a sick Seven for the next week they could pretty much suck all of the cool out of the “6-7” rallying cries that echo through the halls & classrooms each and every day. Make it lame, and something is adults do, and the kids will lose interest as fast as you can say demure, lit, fam, slay, bodied, pwned, noob, and as many other rizz type things as you can muster. You aura points farming mother fucker you! Giv’er!

Wish I’d have thought enough about it to take a photo. But I’m so not a morning person, I wasn’t thinking much beyond packing the kids lunches into their bags, and returning the borrowed cables back to the principal. I’m kicking myself now, but I did see it on an Instagram reel, so it’s not like we came up with it. Just thought it was funny, and easy to accomplish with stuff we had on hand.

It’s Wednesday today which means Grade Six Class Trip downtown for ten hours today. My eldest is not due to return until 8:30 pm tonight. If I recall they are going up the top of the CN Tower, visiting Ripley’s Aquarium, and having dinner at an Italian place for spaghetti. I don’t know in what order, or when they move from one site to another. My wife read, and signed that particular permission slip. I’ve heard all about it for the last month straight, but that’s pretty standard with anything mildly exciting goes on involving my children.

Like the Halloween costumes. Oh boy. First they were acolytes from 99 Nights in the Forest, so I had to buy plastic weapons, namely an axe, and a crossbow. No crossbows available, so a bow & arrow was a suitable replacement. Then my youngest wanted to be Kraken Kid because they can’t have weapons (fake ones) at school, but she can be a squid headed child in light blue pants, and a white T-shirt. But then they wanted to be T-Rexes with inflatable costumes, and it took a few days to come to a consensus on colours. So once they choose Orange of all things, it was a non stop litany of “won’t it be cool when…” Statements about the T-Rex outfits for a week straight.

I’m back from splitting more wood, and I’m tired, and achy. New Estwing 4 lbs mini sledge hammer is working a real treat. No vibration dampening on it, so tough on the wrist, but offers a substantial impact, which is what I need it for. Cool beans. Two thumbs up. I might even spring for the Estwing nine inch wedge that they make to go along with it. I’m running low on viable wood to split easily in Pile One, so either I move on to Pile Three soon, or I slow the pace down to a crawl and tackle the excruciatingly hard to split stuff with the wedge and mallet. I don’t know if I’m there yet. If Pile Three proves futile with wood that is too new, and too wet, I just might have to consider it. This sort of thing makes me wish I had a portable saw mill too. I’d love to process some wood to make furniture with in the future. Oh to dream!

Spent an hour or so last night at the inlaws covering the pool for the winter. Always proves to be a challenge because we never remember to mark the tarp properly to a point on the stones so that we can lay it in once, and have it exactly where it needs to be. There are few things more maddening that realizing all the liners have to come back out so that you can shift the cover 2-3 inches one way or another because you were ever so slightly off, but don’t know until the last section of the liner goes in. And it either fits or you realize you are off one side or the other. So hard on the back, knees, and shoulders. We never seem to start early enough and wind up finishing in the pitch black of night, with bugs in your ears, eyes, and mouth. It’s a treat. Gotta be done though, if you want to access the pool during late Spring, summer, and early fall.

Have a lovely Wednesday in late October of 2025.

What a nail biter of a game, a single run lead into the last two innings, but they pulled it off with a 50th come from behind win for this season. The Springer Dinger 3 run homer catapulted them into the lead, when they were down 3-1. It was a game where the bats felt a bit cold. It felt like all was lost. The desperation on the bats as they forgot their whole seasons ethos, and were swinging for the fences was maddening. But they calmed down, went back to grinding it out in small ball. Then Springer launches a three run homer and the bull pen managed to keep the Mariners at Bay. It was a tense late night of Canadian October baseball in the Skydome! Love it.

Get some rest lads, as a hard uphill battle begins on Friday night here at home. I can only imagine the atmosphere inside the Dome these last two nights. If I had a spare couple of grand lying around I’d get us tickets to go see history get made.

Let’s go Blue Jays! #WantItAll #WeTheNorth #BringItOnHome

Didn’t realize there were multiple Markham locations, so I obviously drove to the wrong one first, and then panicked when the shelves were bare. It dawned on me at the guest services desk that there could be other stores in town. Quick search pulled up one across town from where I was. After a second twenty plus minutes drive in commuter traffic, I found it. Making the left across Major Mac was no joke. Ugly. And infuriating. Made it here, and found what I needed on the seasonal wall shelf. Let us pray it actually lights up. What are the odds I find two that go bust!?! I’ll test it in a wall socket before I put it in the display out front of the house. Things we do for our kids.

**Editor’s Note: It works, the new snake lights up, and has all of its parts in the box. Yay! I have now placed it back out front with the other Halloween decorations to surprise my youngest when she gets home from school today.bi had to drive to two other stores all across Markham to do it, but we got it done! And had time to do a farm walk before the rain set in. Nice. A solid win in the dad column.

My wife’s vehicle has one tire that keeps going flat, so in the spirit of the season I’ve decided to put her winter tires on, about two weeks early, so that I can get a clearer look at the tire, and see if I can patch it.

After removal I see it has a screw lodged inside the tire between the treads. I pulled it free and then the air started to blast out in my face. Lovely. I used the rasp to clean up the hole, and hopefully size it to take the ultra sticky fibrous plug. Rasp moves in and out with ease after a few several reams of the hole.

Whoo boy getting the plug in the needle is a struggle all on its own. That was a process. I don’t hold out much hope that this plug will sink into the hole all nice like, and be an easy fix. I must prepare my wrists for maximum efforts.

Yeah that was a bitch. I got worried the plug would get stuck only barely into the hole I widened with the rasp. I thought about whacking it with a hammer, but if I break the tool then 8 really can’t fix this tire — at all. So I basically had to sit over the top of the tire and pour my entire body weight into the needle to get the patch to pass through the hole 2/3 rds of the way and then pull only the tool out, leaving the patch behind. Luckily enough it worked out.

I used my Knipex flush cutters to remove the excess patch material, filled the tire up, and then sprayed it with soapy water to watch for bubbles. Looks all good so far. We will know if it took, if come spring time when I go to put it back on the vehicle and the tire is still at 40 lbs. If it’s completely flat I know I failed miserably and we should buy at least two new summer season tires.

Weather was 20°C, a tad windy and the rains have held off. A successful Sunday morning. Only needed one trip to Canadian Tire for parts, and now I’ve washed the tires and can put them away after I finish lunch.

I would wager that a fair percentage of the last fifty posts here had something to do with splitting wood, as it was a pretty major update to my regular daily life in most recent days. That, and discussions of my splitting mauls, work boots, and mini sledge hammer that pairs with my Fiskars wedge. I nearly bought an Estwing nine inch long wedge to go along with the new hammer, but I held off for now. I’m not supposed to sink more money into this endeavor, as it was to keep me busy, get some exercise, and to take my mind OFF of on-line shopping out of boredom. Oh well! Win some, lose some. Ha.

But on the bright side, here we are at day 550 of the writing streak, and I am still going strong. Due to whatever item took off in Germany this July I am having THE best year ever on this blog, both by way of total views, and unique visitors. The likes on posts are way, way down. I’m not really producing any creative short story content so I’m well below the 1,000 plus likes I got when I was posting micro short stories multiple times per week. I have no idea how I will ever be able to top this year’s numbers. I don’t even try to these days, I just write what I want and hope it finds an audience that can relate, or is amused by my mundane musings. Again, I have zero inkling of what caught fire in July, as the only label showing views was Archives. So yeah. I don’t know what you found, or were seeking out, or were drawn to, or repulsed by (but felt you had to check it out for yourselves) I don’t know. It’s a mystery. One that nobody felt compelled enough to comment on, so that I could weigh in myself. So it couldn’t have been that disdainful, since people love to moan about awful things. If it was truly bad I think somebody would have posted to that effect.

We are drawing ever closer to winter. You can feel it in how cold the mornings, and evenings are. I’m sad to see Spring, Summer & Fall go for the year. Though work was quiet for long stretches this year, I got to spend a whole lot of time with my kids, and see them do their thing(s) that they are passionate about. Well, mostly. Of all the days available we still had multiple events on the same day,  several cities apart. So I did not see everything, but I did see a decent chunk!

Not only that but this year I took the kids to Florida by myself (we met up with my inlaws, so not totally by myself I admit) and I took my kids out west to British Columbia to see my brother’s, their kids, and my parents for a four night long visit by myself. My father is in various stages of being unwell. He has vascular dementia, which is slowly taking his short term memory, among other ailments. So we thought it best to head over and see them while his memory isn’t too badly impacted — yet. We had great weather for both trips, and I enjoyed myself a great deal. I believe the kids did too. Five of the six young cousins were there to hang out, and get reacquainted, so my kids had a peer group their own age to play with at times throughout the trip west.

Soon the weather will turn ugly, and I’ll become an indoor hermit, whom stays out of the cold for as much as possible. November is a grey, dreary lonely month around these parts. Fog, freezing rain, flurries, heavy dark clouds, and a severe lack of sunlight are all things we have to look forward to once Halloween is done. If I catch one good day I will erect the Christmas lights, even if it is prior to Rememberable Day. I just won’t turn them on until after the 11th. Our Christmas tree typically goes up late in the day on November 11th out of respect for the soldiers, vets, and those that sacrificed for us.

May you have either a productive Sunday, or a restful one. Whichever you prefer. Ciao Bella!

I’m not going to wait for the head to fall off and whack me in the face/head, so I have replaced it with an Estwing 4 lbs mini sledge, due to arrive at some point later today. I believe it was milled out of one piece so the head shouldn’t ever threaten to fall off. Safety first!

The current one has been in my possession for a fairly long time. I think 8 bought it either when I opened my business in 2006, or when we bought this house in 2009, because we did our own demolition for the renovations. Which was a tonne of fun. The cleaning up afterwards wasn’t a whole lot of fun, as the dust just kept showing up no matter how many times I vacuumed the house, walls, and all the hard surfaces.

Have a Saturday. Ha!

Spent a bit more time on the dog walk while it drizzled, and saw they have tilled some fields making it easier to pick up stones, rocks and such from the ground now it’s all loosened up. I have picked up a handful of rocks every morning and left little Cairns strewn around the front field edges since I started splitting wood in September. My rock piles are starting to be visible from several meters away. I found a number of eight plus pounders today. I’d like to borrow a Kabota side by side, and drive the whole field picking up bigger machine wrecking rocks, but the older farm hands always need them because they can’t walk more than a few steps without looking Shakey AF. Happens when the farm hands are both near eighty years old I suppose.

Speaking of wrecked equipment take a gander at what I found mixed into the earth from about 60 feet out into the field.

That can go right back onto the machine that threw it off in the first place. Just needs a new bolt or pin, or peg to keep it in place. Either way it has been located, retrieved and put somewhere it can be easily found and reused. No longer my problem.

So here we are — Friday. A tad grey, a bit wet, and more than a little cool outside. After the steady stream of things to do last weekend I hope we can have a quieter couple of days now that some big things were finished. I for one look forward to not driving multiple hours up north just for a few nights stay. Maybe after climbing, and our family photo session on Saturday I can sit back and relax. We could try to Halloween Haunt at Wonderland one more time before it gets way too cold for extreme high speed coasters. Riding them when it is snowing very lightly is an off putting proposition. Makes the eyes water uncomfortably. Still fun though, just chills you right down to the bones where even a hot shower, or a hot bath doesn’t make you feel warm again right away.

Hope you all had a favourable week, and a pleasant weekend ahead of you. Ciao Bella.

I was almost sad to see it completed, but then 8 realized how much was left over by Pile One, and how many new chunks have been dropped off over at Pile Three, and I realized I will be at this for quite some time yet, and next fall too! So no need to get nostalgic for it just yet. I will admit that it has been really awesome to see one mound shrink and the other grow until I had all I could muster up the strength to split chopped up and sorted into bins, or left waiting for another collapsible green wire bin. Very therapeutic to wail on stubborn wood with either a 6 lbs maul, an 8 lbs maul, or a 4 lbs sledge hammer & a wedge. I might need to invest in a better hammer because mine had the top cap crumble and fall apart with every new walloping I give with it. I am concerned the head might come off at some point injuring myself along the way. Not cool.

So here we are on Thursday, after the long weekend. This short week feels long anyway. And next week is short again because of the York Region elementary school PA Day. I’ll need to figure out what we are doing with the kids to keep them occupied for the day. Maybe I’ll just have them clean their rooms, closets, and toy bins. Bring some order back to this house! Fair time really throws a wrench into how we clean up around here.

If I remember correctly we are doing our Turkey Dinner this weekend instead because the farming, and cottage trip were both up in the air until the very last minute. We managed to get the big dock disassembled and put away in another bay, and some boats came out, and seafood, and the snowmobiles got moved for winter time access. I winterized the mower and put that away. But! I need to go take the battery out of it before too much longer or else that will likely go dead in the freezing cold uninsulated big shop.

My hands, wrists and back aren’t too worse for wear after nearly a month of wood splitting. Did 75 minutes today. Had a late start because I had to drive across town to get gas instead of starting right away like I usually do. The dog even lounged in the back of the van to watch me instead of slinking about stalking all the scurrying pests at the farm.

I need to remember to go to the post office at 1:00 pm today, so I should set an alarm for that so I don’t forget. It’s kind of important!

Well I hope you’ve all had some success this week with whatever you are working on. I am both happy, and kinda sad I finished one whole section already. But with more bins coming to the farm I should be able to keep chopping as long as the weather holds. Which, as you may know, is not a given. We could get a major snowstorm on November 1st! And then everything will be far more challenging in the ice & snow. I don’t see myself splitting beyond the middle of November anyway. We sometimes get a nice little warm spell that I do our leaves in, and enjoy the seasons last hurrahs before winter settles over us in a suffocating blanket of cold greyness. But I digress. I love every other season besides winter. I hate the cold. Hate it with a passion.

Ciao Bella!

I have six bins filled, with enough to fill one more, plus whatever becomes of the as of yet unsplit wood by Pile Two here.

With the holiday weekend, and my daughters cross country meet I had to take four days off from splitting here, so I  got back at it with a vengeance today and did 2.5 hours worth. I’m bushed. Also sorted the unsplit table junk from the good stuff, so it can get dumped in the wood lot to return to the dirt, where it belongs! Nasty stuff. Just doesn’t want to become firewood by any means. If I had a hydraulic log splitter that would be a different story, but oh well. Should have, would have, could have…

The kids had great weather for their race yesterday. Afterwards we went to the mall for Taco Bell, a book from Chapters/Indigo, and a walk around Spirit Halloween for some costume weapons the kids needed to complete their costumes. All good. I need to go eat breakfast, or lunch, or a bigger snack because I’m fried. Stick a fork in me I’m done.

And cried by the end of the movie about his life. “I like me” was very moving, touching, and informative. I was surprised, saddened, maddened, and heart broken by what was in it.va solid entry in the documentary category by Colin Hanks and Dan Levy. Not sure I could watch it again anytime soon though.