Greatwall Studios Graphic Design

The return to school was smooth and pleasant. I saw some friends and had a brief chat. Located the correct doors and the appropriate teacher for both children. Then I toddled off to the farm to walk the dog, and then I stuck around to split wood for a full 90 minutes. A spectacular return to our normal schedule if ever I’ve experienced one. If I can get some chores under my belt and get my blood labs done I’m golden for today! The start of a good week. Might even start my furniture build later this week. Or perhaps try to start my fair sculpture instead of using an old one from when I was more prolific with ceramics. Been a touch lazy this year & last. Right now it feels as though the world is my oyster.

The wood pile isn’t laid out how I left it so for now I am just going to split wood and leave it in one pile, and once that’s done I can go back to arrange the green wire bins and stack wood for a change of pace. I was very surprised that I was able to go the full 90 minutes today. I might pay for that later! But for now — all good.

It’s amazing what you can do with just some gloves, an axe, a hammer, and a hookaroon (to save your back). My goal here is to remain occupied so I’m not shopping for “stuff“. I also like that it exercises my grip strength, back, shoulders and core. I’m not a machine, I’m nearing fifty and have some limitations, but it’s a good strength conditioner, and I have high hopes it can aid my climbing after several weeks of doing both activities multiple times per week. That being climbing, and splitting wood by hand with my 8 lbs maul made by Fiskars. I have a 6 lbs from Husky that works really well too, I have it taped up just how I like it, but when it comes to the nitty gritty stuff I need the added weight from the Fiskars maul to get through the well & truly fibrous stuff.

I did capture some before school pics of my kids, but I’m reluctant to keep posting that stuff because people are getting weird with AI, and I don’t want that kind of smoke for my kids. But, that being said most of the folks that see my photography have had to seek me out on this blog which isn’t optimised for SEO and Google kinda skips over me. No problem there! I’m kinda niche anyway. Best to stay that way I think.

I hope all of you with littles heading off to their very first day of school have a wonderful morning. Welcome back to everybody else. Cheers!

It’s official, school starts tomorrow and that means just one thing. Today is the very last day of Summer Break 2026. Time to double check the backpacks and lunch bags to see if we did in fact clean them out on the last half day of school back in June. I have lots of things to do this week coming because it’ll be October with the Fair, Thanksgiving, break week, and Halloween before you can blink ten times in a row!

I’ve got wood to split, models to paint, furniture to build, a sculpture to start & complete for the fair, and tonnes of cleaning to do around the house to make up for the lackadaisical approach we use during the summer months. Time to sort toys and purge those throw away McDonald’s items that pile up over the summer. Broken items, torn clothes, and cardboard can be tossed. I need to sort the shoes, boots and coats, and also the snow pants again. I don’t even want to think about the glove situation. I foresee the donation bins being full to overflowing once we’re done with them. Actually, second thought. The school will do a coat drive and we can load them up with all of it instead. Plus then their classroom gets rewarded as well. Two birds one stone sort of a thing.

The kids have really started to enjoy their time at the cottage more. I’m happy for them that this place has become a core memory for them. I’m still far more of a home body because I hate traffic, and leaving all my hobbies behind, but I can deal with it. Not much of a hardship at this point in my life. Once the kids are in school I will have many hours to fill if work doesn’t pick up in the fall. Hence the wood splitting as hobby/activity and the fair entry work, not to mention house DIY projects, cleaning and my all time favourite activity PURGING!

Oh an afternoon dedicated to a household purge is truly a wonderful thing. So cathartic! No spot left untouched. Wrappers, boxes, broken items that are unfixable in their current state, outgrown clothes, you name it, I’m looking for it and coming after all of it. The last thing I want to do is suddenly leave my kids with piles of shit to have to sort through. Random closets packed with junk are my mortal enemy. I have reduced our communal junk spaces to barren empty voids, and I like it like that. Don’t you worry the other members of the family are constantly working to refill those voids. It’s a constant cycle of struggle. Ha. Love it.

Only problem I can see now is that we have an entire summer’s worth of clothes to wash for the return to school and all of it is going to fall to me. I’m not going to be able to get through all of it today, so it will also be on my schedule this week. I have the floors, walls and kitchen to tackle first. Then clothes clothes clothes until I’m out of detergent or time. Given the trend in weather the kids may not require actual shorts for too much longer, but capris are helpful for cool mornings, and hotter mid day sun, followed by cool evenings. Layers and zippers are our friends now.

It was a good summer. We travelled outside of the province to see some of my side of the family. All four of us went this time, so it was less stressful for me. I did a fair amount of driving, and we saw many of our usual sights. Wonderland, cottage, inlaws pool, farm, beaches, indoor play places, cousins houses and such. We came back to the mines again, and did some shopping in Bancroft too. Saw friends and even attended a party or two. It was great. Tiring but great. Hell we even went to an all new (to us) waterpark called Calypso in Ottawa. That was a good deal of fun for all of us.

So many not lost but rather paused until next summer. All the best to you out there!

The August fireworks were postponed due to the potential storm (that never came) so the rescheduled date was last night. A far better evening for them since now that we are in September the nights are cool, making the wearing of long sleeves and pants to avoid the bugs not absolute torture. No more sweating profusely just to avoid a bunch of bites. I far prefer these early fall temperatures to the sweltering oppressive heat done we endure all summer long.

The show itself was a bit odd. It lasted seventeen minutes which is a little over long, and it suffered from a pacing issue. Started too strong, fizzled, sputtered, had long pauses, and the finale was shorter than usual. Still looked good, and those cracking booms Echo up and down the lake which is fun to experience out on the open water.

The weather was lovely yesterday, even if the lake is down to 70° F. A bit chilly if you ask me. My puppy was enjoying himself immensely. Here he is smiling like a dope curled up between my legs.

It is now Sunday. Just today and tomorrow until school starts. Let us hope for a safe return to school for everybody!

Up until recently I wouldn’t bother to block people on social media, I would just ingest their vitriol and misunderstandings, and lack of reading comprehension and get riled up myself over it. Now I’m far more liberal with the muting and blocking of said time/energy/goodwill vampires. Ain’t nobody got time for that! Guard your peace. You don’t owe anybody your time if they choose to be dense or obtuse purposefully. I’m much happier because of it. Fighting on the internet is not a worthwhile endeavour, nor a good use of my time. Not that you want to jump in and stir the pot just to jump out and block everybody. That’s not cool either. Anyway…

Hey it’s Saturday of the last long weekend of the summer. School starts in a couple days and we’ve been notified of our children’s classroom placements. Sent out on Friday morning. Though we had an inkling of how things would turn out, just because I tend towards being a pragmatic negative Nelly, I was prepared for things to go sideways in regards to our youngest. Low and behold, the things we advocated for didn’t happen (yet). There are five weeks left where they will move kids, teachers, classrooms and such before all lists get set in stone, so there is potentially still time to move her if need be. I’m not upset by anything at the moment. I had expectations that things wouldn’t go our way so it’s not like my high hopes were dashed, if you catch my drift. I’m a pessimistic optimist. I’m a delight! Ha.

It’s positively cool this morning. I think I might take my shorts off in favour of a track suit or sweats this morning. It could warm up considerably, but as of right this second it’s pretty chilly. The sun sets earlier, the nights are cooler, and our mornings are cold. September is here and the rains have all ready kicked in. I think we’ve had nearly four inches all ready this month alone. That’s incredible. Toronto saw a mild tornado like wall of wind, racket ball sized hail stones, and upwards of 4-6 inches of rain in a day leading to flooding across the GTA. Conditions are wild out in these streets.

The unpopular Rogers Station music venue got hit real hard by that downtown wind storm. So they have two weeks to sort it out before they have to start cancelling or postponing shows. Two full sections of stands got beaten to a pulp. I guess they’ll have to tear them down and build back new rather than try to salvage what got left behind. Probably much safer that way. It looked sketchy at best to begin with. But I’m no structural engineer, so what do I know?

Enjoy your last long weekend of the summer before back to school begins.

Luckily the parts that are missing or broken don’t seem to be terribly critical to our success. All four walls are up, the doors are hung, and the roof is on. All that was left were a few screws to go in, shelves to be properly affixed to the wall, and the window panes need to go in. Oh and the ceiling vents need to have new mesh cut out and sandwiched in their frames to go up in both peaks. This particular version only has one set of double doors so it was fairly simple to put together. The giant wind storm missed us so all of our work didn’t collapse under the strain of its own weight before we managed to complete it. The roof went on yesterday evening with very little trouble. Strike it from the list. Best part is now the patio furniture can remain on site, and winter in the shed instead of having to haul it all down to the farm and toss it into one of the few drive sheds with a lockable door. Should make fall clean up a little simpler.

It is now Friday of a long weekend. School begins on Tuesday. We shall return to our regularly scheduled lives in short order. Which reminds me, I need to go to the Taekwondo gym and pay my eldest daughter’s membership fees for the next six month block. I’ll do that early next week. Right now I’m focused on the weekend and all the clean up we’ll have to do. My lawn is littered with leaves and sticks etc from the storm. We didn’t get anything like what downtown saw, but it was enough to make a mess here.

On the plus side with all the rain we’ve had recently I won’t need to water the lawn, my fruit trees, or my pumpkins any time soon. I am happy to announce that all four of my brand new fruit trees are alive and well. I kept the Nectarines, Peaches, Combo Plums and Pear trees alive for the hottest and driest portion of the summer. With any luck some of the larger trees might bare fruit next year, or possible on the third year in the same spot. I look forward to seeing them mature and establish themselves in our yard.

What’s even better is that the wind storm didn’t take any major limbs out of our sick Maple. I would really be upset if the brand closest to the house had come down on the house just like I want to avoid. That would have made me very upset with myself for not braving the heights, and forcing myself to beat the odds to remove it safely last week while my whole family was at the cottage. I got scared of the heights, wasps, wind, and flexing of the ladder and stopped. It showed growth and maturity, but it has also left a big potential threat overhanging the house. I need to find a safe way to sort it out before calamity strikes. A torn roof, shattered window, ruined gutter combo would really piss me off. I need a chainsaw on a stick with 18 ft of range!

And boy are my legs tired! Gave myself a friction burn on one knee in the laser room. Tired out my arms and shoulders throwing balls at an asteroid field on some screens. Sweat like a pig jumping into coloured floor tiles, and had a good deal of fun doing all of it. The kids had just as much fun as I did in there. I highly recommend it if you are physically able to move around unencumbered. I also deeply enjoyed the pop a shot like game in one random room of the complex. I haven’t fired off that many hoops in a row since I worked at Moosehead and we had our own pop a shot machine in the bull pen. Once you get into a groove you can really unload in there!

Not only was it fun it was fewer than thirty minutes from us. There’s all sorts of food options around there too. Loads of parking as well.

The only cons would be price (it’s not cheap) and lack of seating once inside. My legs nearly gave out because I am not terribly physical on any given day and we all went hard. Also bring your own water bottles. They do have two fountains that we found, but you gotta walk to them on jello legs, and that draws on your alloted time from the games. Once you start, the clock is counting down — always. Not many CONS at all. But it gets hot, sweaty and thirsty if you are trying hard and enjoying yourself.

I do not know if we did every room type, and we certainly didn’t do every single game. We stuck to cooperative rather than PvP. Most rooms had between five and eight games to choose from. I think they even have a league to play in with teams of three to five if it’s something you really enjoy. I still prefer climbing, but I see the appeal of interactive games.

You can tell a lot about somebody by the way they run their household, through one of the three main categories. There is a fourth, which given the current state of the world economy, and the sign posts we’re passing shows me we are headed deeper into that particular territory, well, those of us without six zeroes and several commas before the decimal place just might find ourselves. Forget Last in First out, or First in First out, you can bypass Just in Time and careen directly towards Don’t got it, Can’t have it. Oh what an ugly web the uncovered weave and catch is all up inside it. What a fun Wednesday mantra.

We are down to four full week days and the two weekend days left before school starts. I’ve personally seen three days of rain and it’s only September second! My grass is going to shoot up to my hips if 8 don’t cut it soon! Unfortunately I have plans for midday today, so if the weather holds I can do that tomorrow.

My body aches after erecting a backyard shed for five hours yesterday evening. It was so damn hot & humid.bbugs are the worst. Ugh! It’s nearly done. The kit was missing some parts, and we had to use an older set of plans from a different shed to get started, but it’s free standing and just needs roof panels now. Almost done. Strike it from the list!

Heading off to walk the dog. Have a terrific Wednesday. May the start of school be a smooth transition for us all next week.

**Editors Note: my original thought was not expressed clearly so I’ve rewritten it. The sentiment still stands but I think the logic has improved.

Also, why did my last post start with fig warning, when I wrote fog in the first place. I feel like these writing tips/hints and helping hands change my typed words to fit something I say more often, instead of the thing I actually wrote down. Just a quess. Anyway, with that out of the way the storage unit for behind the couch has been measured out. If I follow the store bought one to a t, it’ll be 11.5 inches deep, 34 inches high, and 44 inches long. But I have a full 68ninchrs of space to play in if I’d like to truly eliminate the wasted space, and take the dogs crate down. We use it to store his toys inside, but we don’t crate him, nor does he sleep inside it. It’s just a massive obstacle in our front hall. I’d like more spaces to put bins of hats, mitts, sunglasses and board games, plus have a surface to put a drink on while watching television. Multipurpose. Also not heirloom quality because it’s going to get dirty and heat up being by the front door. Wet boots, rain and a dirty dog will scuff it up right bloody quick.

Not that I can start the build today or even tomorrow, but I finally have it measured out, so I can start thinking about the order of operations I need to follow to get it completed. Planning, jointing, and cutting of box joints. Routering out shoulders for the shelves, and cutting tenons for those shelves. Sanding, staining and finally letting the finish off gas before bringing it inside and tearing down the dog crate.

No worries I’m sure I’ll remember to document the process. Ha! The project has begun at last.

Fog warnings. A Tuesday. The very first day of September. Officially one week out from the start of the new school year in our area. A day with far less driving, and fewer kilometers travelled than the last few days. My wife’s first really-real work day with all of the students and staff present. Also just another day on this current writing streak. A day much like any other.

I am tired. My hips ache. While I slept better at home in my own bed I feel fatigued, and would love nothing more than to just sleep the day away but we all know that doesn’t work. Plus I have parenting responsibilities, and a dog that needs walking, feeding, and general looking after. So out of bed I must get.

I was awake before seven, so if I can keep that up then the start of school next week won’t be a hardship for me, at least not the getting out of bed portion. The rest of the day is anybody’s game! While we were away my wife made some pretty drastic edits to the house and both kid’s rooms, and the living room, so that’s going to take some time to adjust to. The kids seem happy about the work station with full sized chair. But we’re less keen on their room reorganizations and closet clear outs. I was told there were three garbage bags of clothes that left here for donations. Which is good because I returned from Ottawa with three bags of clothes. Ha!  But I brought home more winter gear because I know our current supply has grown too small for my aging children. They’ve gotten so big so fast! Giant tall kids with ever expanding feet!

It’s hard to keep up with their footsteps needs. They are growing up in spits & spurts and leaving all manner of things behind. I’m both sad and happy about it. Just two more years until we have a fully fledged high schooler in the house. I’m not ready for driving lessons and part time job schedules. Life goes on.

The rains have come and we are cutting our secondary trip short, right at the knees so we are heading directly home instead of taking a detour to the cottage for a twenty four hour play date stay with additional cousins. I’m ok with it. I’m ready to settle into our drive and spend the night asleep in my own bed. The hotel room was perfectly fine, but now I want my own bed, sheets and pillows.

The extended family have also pulled out of the cottage visit so we are going to do so as well. I’m absolutely certain that we will be back there several times within the months of September, October and likely November too. So dropping out one single day is not some great offense! The kids want to see the dog, and bother their mother. Ha.

In other news that means I’ll be back at work by late afternoon, rather than starting up on Wednesday morning. It’s a good thing for everybody!

We had a lovely time visiting with family, and going off to have adventures. Now we look towards the start of school in a week’s time. My home these ten weeks have flown by. My-my. Never did ride my bike, roller blade or throw a ball around this summer. Maybe I can rectify that this week? We will see if the weather holds up or not. Time will tell.