Greatwall Studios Graphic Design

Love my kids but being two weeks into summer break they needed to find more kids their own age to play with, if only for my sanity! The puppy is proving to be a happy challenge, but he can only hold the kid’s attention for so long. Same with an empty park, and a family swim. We are seeing lots of only each other, and they are getting a little stir crazy. To say the least. Ugh.

No matter. Today they will have an indoor play place play date (that’s a mouthful), so that should cure them of their boredom… momentarily. It won’t last for long, but it is atleast something. Right now they are shooting hoops together and scaring up a flurry of inflated balls. Smiles all around. Happy to see it.

I’m tired. The new puppy sleeps in my room, and he is restless at night. Getting better night by night. It is still early days yet, so I do see small incremental improvements. I think it might take  several weeks to get him to be calmer on his walks, but the chest harness / Martingale puppy training collar combo seems to be effective most of the time. I’m not a fan of pinch collars, so we will avoid shocks, and neck damage at all costs.

I think it is Sunday today. The days have started to run together a bit. I have some paid work to get to later today in preparation for a meeting Monday evening. Lots of things coming up this week too. Family photos, sick friend visits, vet appointments, the symphony under the stars, and a birthday party. As quiet as the summer is we still can get a real flurry of activity on occasion. I wish we could space this stuff out better to have something to aim towards every few days, but when it rains it pours.  What can I say?

We have been and done a number of things. Farming, a cottage run to open it up for the season, visited a mine to prospect for shiny bits, and pretty cured gem stones, gone swimming, been on boat rides, tubing, and fetching icecream from the marina, participated in a fishing derby, and going on play dates with pals, plus we picked up a new to us puppy.

Wow! Lot of ground covered there. I still hold firm that the kids somehow managed to not once touch a reading book, nor a pencil to write a single word over the last 17 days since school ended in June. Miraculous. Going to have a rough go of September if they lose all of last years progress being summer time bums! Bathing suit, and no-home-work! Suns rays, and no-reading-ever! Outdoors, and education-is-for-the-weak! AC blasting, and lots-of-tech-please!

If they weren’t kept so busy pulling weeds, picking fruits, and gathering rocks in the fields at the farm I would be positively aghast, but they are helpful when required to be. So it is early days of the summer break yet. We have time to crack a book, and sharpen some pencils in grade school curriculum work books. Plus they will have to get their fair entries made before too much longer. That’s coming up on us real fast. The 2024 Markham Fall Fair. I’m sure it’ll be a hot topic around these parts over the next 8-10 weeks.

I myself would like to prep something new for the fair, so I need to be on my toes too. Will I make yet another ogre or monster for my sculpted ceramics class, or attempt a softer “Faircrow” mascot to win some nostalgia brownie points with the judges? Hmm. I tend to prefer monsters, but I can stretch out a little this year perhaps. Maybe? We’ll see how I feel some late August if I haven’t started anything yet.

**Today we take a moment to remember dear little Heidi, whom would have turned six years old today. A tragic accident took her, along with her mother late last July 2023. Nearly a full year has gone by, hard to believe it really happened, and wasn’t just a bad dream.**

So on this sunny Saturday morning I shall bid you adieu. Ciao Bella!

Took the new dog to the farm about 90 minutes later than we meant to, and got really hot in the process. Had to knock off for lunch, and a well earned swim once the humidex put the temperature up to the high thirties. It’s top much. Way too hot. The poor pup is still so new I couldn’t get him to drink from our old dogs water bowl stashed at the farm, and the wee fella was getting huffy. I couldn’t coax him into the pool once we got to grandmas, but he drank some fresh cool water there, and had a short lie in the grass under the shade of a large tree. He was content.

Then I brought him home so that I could cut the grass, atleast the front yard which every one of our neighbours can see. Got that squared away while he wailed and moaned from the back porch, which is in the shade, and he had plenty of cool water. Water which I myself did not have. Glad it’s done now though. It hadn’t needed to be cut for two weeks. Which is nice. But Beryl dropped several inches of rain on us and everything grew four inches almost over night! Crazy sauce.

Shame the dog wouldn’t swim, pool was positively balmy at 85°F. Which I think as a first dip, that makes a real nice impression, but eh? He’s young, and new. Plenty of time to develop a love of the water. Maybe salt water isn’t his forté No worries.

So this is Friday huh. Nice.

Drove out to Barrie last night to pick up our new puppy Graham. And he’s what we were hoping for. A lovely little 6 month old puppy whom is already house broken, can sit, stay, lie down, and will stop on a leash when you tell him to stop. Fantastic. He took a fair while to settle but that is to be expected. The time line goes like 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months and by then he should be relaxed and settled in entirely. Now he did fall sleep for a good chunk of time last night. He simply moved from his dog bed, to the floor, to onto my bed, to the opposite sides floor, to my bed, to the floor, in a cycle. But he didn’t whine or cry out. So that’s a solid night for a first night in our house as a part of our family.

We had a short walk last evening for pees and sniffs up around the block. He and I will need to work on being a little calmer on the leash, but if he stops & sits when I tell him to, we’ll be just fine. Plus he’s only six months old, and these are all new smells, sights and sounds. Can’t get too bothered by him being intrigued. Just a wee fella our Graham.

I need to register him with the town, and get him on heart work, flea & tick medication soonish though. Walking at our farm unprotected is a recipe for disaster.

Have a great Thursday.

As far as I am aware the worst portion of the Beryl pass through happened very late last night, and extremely early this morning. Which I appreciate. Meant no kids awake to be frightened of what was going on outside. Although truth be told it wasn’t an all encompassing electrical storm, it was heavy rains, and not much wind. So… best case scenario as far as I am concerned. The gardens got some much needed rain over several long hours, which should help with retention, and aid its absorption into the flowers, vines, trees, and fruit growing shrubs. Lovely.

Tonight we venture out to pick up Graham C.H our new family pet. He is a six month old German Shepherd. By all accounts a lovely fellow. Perky ears, mostly black in colour, and only 35lbs. Groovy! Paws crossed for a good road trip to go get him!

Got there a bit late so all of the really good stuff was taken. I controlled myself and left a good portion of Amethyst behind for someone else to moon over for a change. We have about 45Kg of Amethyst already if you count all the pieces between the cottage, and our house, and Grandma’s. No shortage of varying qualities of the purple stuff. Makes a good paper weight. I still haven’t gotten a wet tile saw with a diamond blade to clean all these things up. And maybe I never will! We don’t really do enough of it to warrant a $400.00 purchase of a decent saw, and a specific gem stone cutting blade(s), because you know you can’t have just one. Blade that is. Got to have spares on hand. It’s a whole thing.

Anyway, welcome to Tuesday July 9th of 2024. Tonight, and all day tomorrow we will be getting hit by whatever was left over from hurricane Beryl. I have heard some folks say 40mm of rain, others call for 3 to 4 inches, so it’s a pretty good spread of what to expect. Just in time for us to have to drive to Barrie to pick-up Graham. Lovely! Is it an omen? Or just an unfortunate coincidence.

I didn’t really know we were going to the mine today, as I had left our rock hound gear packed away in the garage. All of our cold chisels, rock hammers, mini sledges, and safety goggles, and I think some gloves too. We don’t wear knee pads or steel toed boots or anything like that, but bug spray is a must, same with a hat, and light weight long sleeves (bugs & stone chips/fragments will get you!) That’s how we roll.

Speaking of which, we watch a lot of gem hunting on YouTube done in parks across the states. That looks like fun. A bit messy, but it does look like fun. Some huge pieces get pulled out of the ground on those shows. Now, is it all staged to build excitement? Possibly, but after a few hours of digging & finding stuff, who cares?. It’s the experience, and not the outcome that we are looking for. Does a huge find make things a bit better? Sure does, but getting out in the field, shovels, and chisels in hand, sitting in the mud, and “doing” the thing, now that’s where it’s at!

The above would be a prime candidate for some clean-up work with a wet tile saw, and some polishing, in a effort to get it to look as good as possible. It lacks depth of colour, for sure, but some elbow grease and a few hours you could make it the best it could be. That’s a “just for the fun of it / gain experience” type of undertaking. Get a feel for cleaning this stuff up, so that once you do get a hold of something special, you have the skills and the know how to make it really incredible. Polish enough turds that once you have a better grade item in your possession you can really make it sparkle. Pay your dues on the garbage that no one cares if it gets scratched or marred, so you’re a pro with the quality finds. Noice!

Have a lovely Tuesday. Ciao Bella!

Spent some time yesterday restocking a rock wall, making more room for trailers and such to use the space. I didn’t have the time for concrete and reber, but I had a moment to move items out of the way. And once I got going I ended up doing it for about an hour. Nothing major, so no back ache today, thankfully. But I moved a couple hundred pounds of rocks of varying sizes & weights. The real big stuff i upended and “tolled” out of the way. Some of the really weathered flat stuff wasn’t going to move more than four or five feet. At least by myself single handedly anyway. It was a fun exercise nonetheless.

I’m back to building more renders today. I think I had another one on friday afternoon too. Not too shabby! Glad for the paid work. I finally unburied the lawn mower, and got the battery all charged up so I could cut the grass properly over the weekend. As good of a job as I did with the weed whacker, the mower does a far more uniform job of it. Now this place looks more lived in, and far less derelict. Ha.

I have yet to start my table refinishing project. I am still trying to decide on the legs. I need to have the widths, and thicknesses worked out prior to stripping and sanding the tops. Not much of a table if it hasn’t got any legs. Do I try to sandwich Walnut & Cherry together, or go all Walnut? Again, I need to measure to make sure I have enough pieces. I also need to build some wooden brackets that will affix to the table itself, under the skirting, to attach the legs into. Make pockets essentially. So I need to make those, to set the leg dimensions, then make the legs, then do the table top surface. Best check on my sanding disc supply, and make sure I have all the grits! I know for a fact I have a tonne of stain, and wipe on Danish Oil with tints in it. Should be nice enough when done. Maybe by the end of September I’ll be able to set it up in the basement.

Did a number on my thumb, but on the upside, I didn’t go to deep, and it’s not a long slice. More of an angry split than anything else. Some of those rocks were sharp! Yikes. Slimy from the mud, and whatnot too. If I had neoprene gloves that wouldn’t immediately split upon contact with an edge, I’d have worn those. But alas, I do not, so I did not. The split doesn’t seem to interfere with my day job, so that’s a major plus.  Cannot get in the way of my paid labour!

All signs still point to us getting the new rescue puppy on Wednesday evening. Hope he takes to us.

Then I would know how to potentially stop it, or avoid it at all costs. That being the three days long intestinal cramping that started to go off every hour, then half hour, quarter hour, then just full tilt non stop for sixteen or so hours. Now i did eventually fall asleep last night, and it has hit pause, or maybe stopped. I don’t know which. But, i am exhausted as i only really fell asleep a couple hours ago, and it is now 10:00am. So that’s fun.

I don’t know what is on the schedule for today, so I cannot just hang around here, in bed, waiting. So, now what? Get up, I suppose. Brush my teeth. Take my self up to breakfast. See if I’m hungry at all. Hope that whatever I do consume doesn’t kick off my intestinal distress. Sounds like a plan.

Happy Lazy Sunday to all of you out there!

I’m not an outdoorsman, as I detest bugs, heat, and the open water. Never been much of a fan of fishing either. It always struck me as too quiet, isolated, and dull. I guess if you usually have a big catch with an effort to reel it in, it could have been considered fun. But I’ve never caught anything over 4lbs, and the mosquitoes have always been brutal. Not much of a draw as far as I’m concerned.

My kids, however, love it for about 15-20 minutes at a time. So we give’em what we got so as not to spoil that for them. Hence, entry into the derby. Woke up early on a saturday, had the plans changed on us by the flake (as per usual), so that I had to drive the kids, kicking & screaming over to the never before visited marina, later than I’d like because the flake requested to not have to take them before 8:45am, and then backed out “for reasons”, leaving it to me. Got in to registration just under the wire. Now have less than two hours to get all three kids to catch a fish, change shirts, head back over to the marine to have catches weighed before 11:00am cut-off. Whee!

Once again, not my idea, but it is now my problem. Thanks for that. I’m just lucky I suppose. I set an alarm for this morning, only it was set for week days and not a Saturday. Had to get up to pee and saw the time. Overslept by five minutes! Yikes! Kids were slow moving so it wasn’t a big deal, luckily.

Anyway, how is your Saturday morning going? Mine is fun, fun, fun. Big smiles all around.

Cutting, splicing, and building out some old school renders today, with predetermined products on each shelf. Going to be busy, so I’ll keep this short, and sweet.

Today is Friday. We were originally given the impression that we would be going to adopt Graham on Wednesday or Friday of this coming week, but it was pushed up to Monday evening. So that puts a wrench into some plans, but no matter. I’ll need to drive out to Barrie to grab the wee fella. I need to bring him a new collar, and a leash too. So I’ll need to stop off at the pet store on the way. I’d like to know what food he currently eats so that I don’t change every single thing in his life at all once. Seems kinda mean to do that to him.

I best get back to work. Ciao Bella.

**EDITOR’S NOTE: Adoption agency texted to ask if we could push pick-up day back to Wednesday, which we are in favour of. That works far better for us, and hopefully for the wee man Graham too. Besides building various display renders today I have been doing some heavy lifting out in the 36°C heat, and humidity. Most unpleasant, but!, he says most hesitantly, with each chore completed we all get one step closer to being able to enjoy the summer. Farming responsibilities have pushed all the fun stuff well into the hot “time to enjoy the fruits of our labour” times, instead of getting done in May or early June in time to just (enjoy) the things. C’est la vie! Such is life.

It’s a real hot one here today though boy, I tell you what. Sweat, sun screen, and bug spray are all grimed up on my skin. Add in some dust, sand, and common debris, and you have yourself a real gross body soup mix. A salted powdered donut of oils and chemicals. Mm-mm. Now that’s summer living.

In other news my current projects are to carry over to Monday, so the afternoon is clear of tasks of the paid sort. No harm done there. My assumption is, right or wrong, that corporations have instituted their Summer Hours schedule where Fridays can knock off anywhere between 2:00 – 3:00pm, unless it is something dire.

And you know what?, I’m fine with it. Go enjoy the weather before the weekend storms roll in. Glorious outdoors all work week as the average person is sat at their desk, and miserable, wet, and storming once the weekend comes around once you have the freedom and inclination to head outdoors. Ain’t that a bitch? Come on!

Have a terrific weekend wherever you may be. Stay safe out there.