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Funny how easy it is for things to just slip away.

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Couldn’t tell you the last time I worked out, not off the top of my head anyway, I’d need to look it up. I was four or five days in and just poof – forgotten. Again. In my defense, weak though it will be, I was gearing up for the fair, finishing entries, bagging & tagging the kids stuff, delivering pumpkins to the fair grounds, and attending 23 hours of fair fun time over the course of three days. So I wasn’t sat idle doing nothing. My hips, ankles and back can attest to just how much walking, standing, and child lifting/carrying I was doing. I also wasn’t snacking the whole time either, much to my surprise.

We had hot sunny weather, and the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves. My eyes are starting to clear up from all the accumulated dust exposure. Now we turn towards Thanksgiving, Halloween, and doing yard clean up for leaves etc etc… if the wasps could just hurry up and die or go away I could clear off the apple trees, and co some late in the year pruning. But that’s another matter.

By best count it has been 18 days since our last rain. So everything is dusty and dry. Odd for September. But the weather has been odd for a while, and I see no change in sight. Going to hold off on the patio furniture and such for a bit more. I’d like to get a few more mild evenings under my belt sitting out on my deck at sundown. Though with how active the kids are that may prove to be a challenge. They can’t say we didn’t provide them with opportunities to try things. Sports, crafts, dance, theatrics you name it.

I think I have a new project coming in now, so I best sign off and get to work. Ciao Bella!

23 Cumulative Hours Logged at The Markham Fall Fair, and boy am I tired.

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Five hours, seven hours, and then the big whopper of eleven straight hours at the fair in one fell swoop. And my hips, ankles, and lower back are done for today, before I even got out of bed they were screaming at me to do a whole lot of nothing. Just in case I had forgotten that my body is now into the mid forties. It’ll send signals. It will let me know. This body is not shy about voicing its displeasure. So now I bow, and scrape and heed the warning signs, and I’ll spend a good few hours laid up in bed resting these hips, and keeping my feet elevated. Gotta save up energy for this evening when we have to go gather up all of our entries to bring them home!

We only get to go a few days every year so you have to make the best of it, and I think we accomplished just that this year. My oldest rode the Pharaohs Fury with her friend repeatedly, I lost count somewhere around their thirtieth go at it. It would not surprise me if they managed more than thirty five rides each on that particular carnival ride over the course of the afternoon, and into the evening. It was a huge hit. Those rides alone paid back the cost of both days worth of ride passes. Not that that ride was all they did either, we got them using the Scrambler, the Tornado, The Hang Glider, Alien Abduction, Cobra, spinning monkeys, the Bees, Monster Trucks, the Fish Tank, and atleast one more whose name I can not for the life of me remember. Bumper cars! Even I got on to the bumper cars this year. Very fun.

Three nights of fireworks too. All very nicely put together. A lovely change of scenery and wholesome family fun. I hope you managed to go and enjoy it too. Don’t forget: FREE PARKING!

Markham Fall Fair 2023.

A resounding success – Late Summer Weather in all its glory.

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Not going to lie, I should have gone harder on the sunscreen as these last two days have been sunny & bright outside, and my nose & cheeks are paying the price for it. The forecast is for two more even warmer days, so put on some shorts, and a hat and head on down to the Markham Fall Fair for the final two days of its run in 2023. The midway has been a big hit, as per usual. Old Mac Donald’s farm is getting a good rin this year too.

The heat and dryness has one draw back in the dust not staying settled. Eyes feel a tad gritty, and my shoes are dusty, but otherwise a stellar showing from this years fair.

The Open Category is Notoriously Difficult to Place in.

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Usually my painted ceramic sculptures get disqualified because they don’t 100% fit inside the category. This year that wasn’t even a choice to make in the guide book. So I split the difference and purposefully entered the open category for Technique not Previously Named. And I got a fourth place! I placed, which is very nice for a change. There were some very painstakingly gorgeous pieces in the category (No Needlework), so I’m just happy to get recognized and not DQ’d.

Ogre Rogue bust gets 4th place!
Got my name on the card too!
The whole category, lots of great & inspiring pieces here!

On the other hand neither of my Nuts N’ Bolts, nor my Rice Crispy Squares got anywhere near the podium for food stuffs. My Roses, Hostas, and Dahlias did pretty well this year. My wife entered all of those from our front garden. My BIL’s veggies did really well too. No surprise there, he enters 75-80% of all of the vegetable categories, so he is bound to win, or place in a good number of those. Even the kids got on the board with their crafts and photography entries. Nothing to get upset about. Fewer first place finishes, but still on the podium, or worthy of a 4th, 5th, and 6th place ribbon. No small feat given how large some of the more popular categories can be.

Spent more than five hours there in total yesterday. My hips and feet ached all last night, and my back was terribly uncomfortable for the last hour and a bit of the evening. We managed a ferris wheel ride, monster truck show, dirt bike air show, and the opening night fireworks display. My only gripe was that the Smazhed Burger folks didn’t come back this year. I searched the grounds for them last night, but to no avail. Had left over pizza when I got home instead. Now that’s not the fault of the fair, so don’t take my complaint that way. More disappointing that i couldn’t get a second bite at the burger i really, really enjoyed last year. Oh well. I did partake of a chocolate sauce filled churro, which was tasty. But not the Smashed Burger I was well and truly craving. Also at some point I will get some cinnamon dusted Tiny Tom’s donuts. Always a culinary favourite of mine. Tastes like the fair to me!

It’s here, it’s here, it’s here, it’s here, it’s here!

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The Markham Fair has finally arrived, after much fanfare, effort, and volunteer help, the 2023 Fall Fair is here! Everything is set up, the weather forecast looks to be fantastic, and I for one can not wait to go and look around at all of the new entries, exhibits, demonstrations, rides and new foods! It’ll be an exhausting four days, but well worth the effort. Free parking, nightly fireworks displays, friends, family and a great time for everyone. Wear comfortable shoes, bring a hat, wear sun screen, take a mask for crowds indoors, and go have some fun!

Cheers!

Stopping to make lunch.

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Keeping busy today getting paid work done. Found the time to transplant a sapling too. Kids have loads of after school programming today. Going to he a very busy fall with all the things these kids are doing. Dance, Girl Guides, Gymnastics, and now Taekwondo until Christmas. Yellow belts now have to spare, so $400 for body pads and head gear etc… whee!

Going to eat soup lunch, and get back to work! Busy, busy, busy around here!

Wading through it right now.

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Fair time is not the time of year to be asking me for favours, that’s for sure. Between completing entries, crafting, carving, hunting in the garden, picking and pre drying flowers & seeds, colouring, paper mache’ing things, painting, cutting out patterns, and working on my own entries there isn’t much time left over for anything these last few days leading up to the big event. We still have to cart it all to the fair grounds, and hand the pieces over for judging. Tomorrow will be a day of rest, and then Thursday the in person fun begins. Thus far we have enough to fill two or three fairly good sized boxes, plus carved & decorated pumpkins. I have my delicate painted sculpture to go, some Nuts N’ Bolts, and Rice Crispies squares. I definitely need to revisit the Nuts N’ Bolts recipe as I’m not sold on the direction I went with so much cinnamon in it. We’ll see how it goes.

I need to turn over some projects today for review, so once I’m done breakfast I’ll get right on that. I need to get over to the fair grounds to deliver stuff today aswell.

I spent some time on Sunday sharpening my hand planes, so those are good and sharp – again. I would like to leave a rustic finish on the bed frame and not have to spend days sanding it all to a buttery finish. But, again I say, slightly more forward progress being made. Adios.

The Resin Build: Partial hiatus interrupted.

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I did not intend to work on this item much while the sun was out, the temperatures warm, and my kids were home this summer. And for the most part, I did not. However I did pick away at one piece or another during the few short periods we were home and not busy with other people or things (such as the fridge or water softener).

However, new season, new me, sort of deal here. Kids are in school, and September has been quiet on the work front. Until now. Now I have two of the six confirmed paid projects lined up and ready to roll. But inbetween these quiet days I started to pick away at the resin kit again, and now all that is left to prep are the arms and shoulder flaps. So I’m considerably further along than in June when I stopped working on it. I will still have lots of putty work for holes, bubbles and seam lines, but otherwise I am nearly ready to primer the whole lot, then do the actual paint job, and final assembly with the metal parts. It will require extensive panel lining, and the decals are many! Will be a while yet before this thing is done. But forward progress is being made!

The frame.
Buckets of red, yellow, white, and gun metal parts.
The main weapon is roughly 10″ long! Yikes.

So that is where this resin model kit sits. I need to wire up the chest. Pin the chest together too. Lots to figure out still.

Not to mention I got started on my youngest daughters pine bed for the cottage too. Of course once I got stuck in I now have proper paid assignments to finish, but that’s freelancing for you! Gotta fill your time, and then do your hobby around the real work that actually pays the bills.

Bed frame project is moving along too. Milled up the rough cut pine lumber. Cut my finger joints. Cut up, glued, and hand planed my individual legs. I need to test fit the frame together, and then I can start on the cross beams/slats that will hold up the box spring and/or mattress and then stain it all up, drill holes to pin the legs in place, and get it to the cottage. Potentially I may card scrape, light sand some outer sections, and round over some straight edges to make it less of a toe chopping weapon of a bed. But that will be done later. Like mid October later. I’ve got lots to do right now, with the fair, Thanksgiving, Halloween Haunt, Halloween itself, the damn fridge being stupid. Lots to get through before I can put any sort of significant brain power into my hobbies. Happy Domestic Duties Monday! Ciao Bella!

Halloween Haunt was a hoot!

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For the first time ever we participated in the Fall evening festivities at Canada’s Wonderland. We turned up just after 7:00pm and stayed until 11:30pm. The added lights, smoke and music was very entertaining. We were glad that the truly scary stuff was contained indoors or in cordoned off sections of the park so that we could go have fun and not develop nightmares because of it. There were a few scattered undead villagers, gargoyles, and clowns wandering around, but easy enough to avoid. I will say this, it’s a popular event so I don’t think we had any waits fewer than 15-20 minutes to get onto a ride. Walking for an additional five hours last night has made my hips ache, but it was well worth it. Last nights weather was a balmy 20°C, so it was a perfect evening to wander the park. After doing all of our usual rides we finally settled on waiting to ride the Yukon Striker, and it was incredible. Riding in the dark was pretty epic! I’m so glad I managed to coax my oldest into going on with me, as she was grinning ear to ear along with me when we got off the ride. Can’t wait to ride it again in October!

Like I said – madness.

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This last stretch before the fair is absolute mayhem. Glue guns, paint, glitter, popsicle sticks, Mason jars, dried flowers, seeds, you name it we have it out ready for crafting today and tomorrow, and more than likely an additional evening come Monday.

The mess is accumulating while we tackle various crafts.

Not to mention a mountain of tags that need to be affixed to each item, and a ticket retained so said item can be retrieved once the fair concludes. Oh my. It’s a gods be damned mess is what it is. Unfortunately that doesn’t leave much time for anything else to get done right this second. We’ve still managed to get two birthday parties in this weekend for our youngest daughters friends.

Come Monday I’ll really need to dig deeper into my first of six larger paid projects. I got a good jump on that Thursday afternoon, and again yesterday evening. I won’t be finished come Monday at 9:00am, but I will have less than half the report left to go. Yay me!

We even put up our very first Halloween decoration today. At the insistence of my oldest ghoul, er, daughter. If they had their way we’d start the Halloween decorations in August as a lead up to October 31st! I love the spooky season, but not three months worth. We will need to carve pumpkins in a few weeks anyway. My gourd vines are all withering, so I’ll need to cut those down soon. Then the squirrels will begin to gnaw on all of my home grown gourds. Bastards. They already dig up and eat all of our Tulips, Glads, acorns, walnuts, and even the early growth of the dahlias. Not to mention my Cherries, Strawberries, Grapes, Raspberries, and my apples too. Bastards. But I digress. Have a great Saturday.