AN OLD GERMAN SOLDIER TOLD ME ABOUT HIS THOUGHTS ON THE MORNING OF JUNE 6TH, 1944

 ALL ANIMAL PHOTOS IN TODAY'S POST WERE TAKEN IN MEMMONITE/AMISH COUNTRY

A bright and sunny start to the day but cool again at 50F with a 45F wind chill factor going on.  My turn to drive this morning so I picked Richard up a 9:30 and we headed East to Clinton and snagged a couple coffees and carrot muffins at Tim Hortons.  It was quite a while since we had last been up through Amish/Mennonite farm country so that is the direction we headed.  Beautiful morning for a scenic country road drive through a picturesque hilly landscape with blue skies and white puffy clouds overhead.

 HMMM, I THINK RICHARD LIVES IN THIS BUSH AT THE END OF THIS LONG BUSH LANE SOMEWHERE

WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MORNING FOR A DRIVE THROUGH AMISH/MENNONITE COUNTRY

 A GROUP OF COWS WALLOWING IN A SWAMPY WATER AREA

Home again and with my energy levels up and legs feeling okay I figured I'd better take advantage of that winning combination.  Using up all the rocks in my rock pile for flowerbed borders last week I was in a bit of a quandary when I ran out of rocks leaving a couple flower beds incomplete.  Figured Pheebs and I on our morning Jeep ride travels were going to have to hunt us down a discarded rural rock pile somewhere to replenish my rock pile stash and finish the flowerbed borders.  Then, while out in the backyard a couple days ago I rediscovered a whole bunch of rocks I had kinda forgotten about over the years because of the periwinkle and English Ivy that had overgrown them in the past ten to fifteen years when I had used them at the time for flowerbed borders.  I had piled the rock borders three high at the time so I went around gathering up the top layers of rocks and parts of a low-to-the-ground concrete and rock wall a neighbor with an interesting past had made decades ago.  A little bit about this old German soldier's past and his concrete rocks in the next paragraph.

 THESE ARE SECTIONS OF GUS''S CONCRETE STONE CREATIONS

 WHERE I HAVE MORE ROCKS IN THE BACKYARD THAT I HAD FORGOTTEN ABOUT

 THAT PIECE OF CONCRETE IS FROM GUS AND INGRID'S OLD PROPERTY

IT'S NO WONDER I HAD FORGOTTEN ABOUT MY OVERGROWN ROCKS

The very first time we drove into this Park on a Labor Day weekend back in early September of 2002 we saw this 'For Sale' unit we are in now in at the entrance to the Park on an information board.  We found the address at 32 Maple Drive and the second I laid eyes on it, I knew this is what we had been looking for.  Nobody lived in the house so we pulled right into the driveway, parked, and got out for a look around.  Minutes later, a friendly older couple approached from the house behind this one.  They both had German accents and their names were Ingrid and Gus.    Little did we know how much our lives would become part of their lives and vice versa over the next decade and a half.  Of course, we had lots of questions about the Park and the house we were looking at, and Ingrid and Gus were happy to answer all of our questions.  We ended up buying the house. (and that's another whole story) Now, fast forward to Gus.  Quite a character who could be jolly and laughing one minute and have a temper tantrum the next.  Gus, moody at times, didn't talk about the Second World War much but one day out of the blue he told me where he was on the early morning of June 6th, 1944.  The location was Normandy on the north coast of France and as it turns out it was D-Day.  Gus said he remembered the fear and sheer panic that went through him and others when early that morning they gazed out over the English Channel and saw the armada of ships stretching as far as the eye could see to the distant horizon.  Gus didn't say any more about what happened that day or the days following but I have a feeling he might have been taken prisoner and eventually sent to a German prisoner-of-war camp somewhere here in Canada.  I say that because after the war Gus and Ingrid emigrated to Canada and opened a bakeshop in a small town somewhere before moving to Toronto, and eventually Bayfield.

 RICHARD AND I DROVE AROUND LAKE WAWANOSH IN THE HEART OF AMISH/MENNONITE COUNTRY EARLIER TODAY

 CANADA GEESE IN WAWANOSH'S SPARKLING WATERS

Okay, so what's the connection between Gus and the concrete rocks I was moving today.  Gus at some point long before we moved here made some wooden frames, filled them with concrete, and before it hardened, placed rocks in the soft concrete.  Removing the wooden frames he used the concrete rock creations to border their flower beds, driveway, and sidewalk.  About a year after we moved here, their house caught fire one morning while they were in Goderich shopping.  The fire gutted the house and it was a total loss and had to be torn down.  Ingrid and Gus in the meantime bought another place in the Park and moved there.  Gus had no interest in trying to salvage his concrete rock borders or about 50 patio stones so I went over and lugged the patio stones home and broke up parts of the concrete rock creation with a sledgehammer so I could lift and carry the sections home for our backyard flower beds.  And, it was some of those heavy sections that I moved around to the front yard today.  As a result of that, I'm back to using my cane again because of lower back pain.  Some days a feller just can't win for losing and especially so in these big Spring clean-up and project days of mine every Spring.  The pain point isn't in the spine area so I figure it's just a stretched muscle that's not used to being stretched.  I should be good to go in the morning.              

TULIPS IN AN AMISH FARMYARD

Al's Music Box:)) Four Walls  is a country song written in 1951 by Marvin J. Moore (lyrics) and George H. Campbell, Jr. (music). Moore also wrote the lyrics for the hit song "Green Door".  jim Reeves had noticed the song in the office of RCA VictorChet Atkins record producer and asked to record it. Atkins felt that the song was more suitable for a female singer, but Reeves persisted and eventually, a recording was made on February 7, 1957. Many of the singer's previous records had been made in a forceful style, but Reeves employed a more mellow delivery, standing closer to the microphone for "Four Walls".  Accompanied by Bob Moore on bass, Chet Atkins on guitar, Farris Coursey on drums, Floyd Cramer on piano, with vocal backing by The Jordanaires.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( An old Indian lined up all of his 10 little Indian sons and stood in front of them.  He then asked, "Who push port-a-potty over cliff?"  Nobody answered him.  He then asked again, "Who push port-a-potty over cliff?"  Again nobody answered.  The old Indian said, "I tell story of Georgie and Georgie father. Georgie chop down cherry tree. Georgie tell truth, Big Georgie no punish." So the Indian asked again,  "Who push port-a-potty over cliff?"  To which the littlest Indian replied, "I push port-a-potty over cliff."  The old Indian then shakes and spanks him, for his punishment. When he is done, the little Indian asks, "Georgie tell truth, Georgie no get punish. I tell truth, I get punished. Why you punish, father?"  The old Indian replied, "Big Georgie not in cherry tree when it got chopped down!!!"

-------------------------------------------

- Don't text me while I'm in the middle of texting you. Now i have to change my whole text.

TEACHER: What is the chemical formula for water?
SARAH: "HIJKLMNO"!
TEACHER: What are you talking about?
SARAH: Yesterday you said it's H to O!

Q: What do you call a dead atheist?
A: Someone all dressed up with nowhere to go!

---------------------------------------
Little Pete came home from the playground with a bloody nose, black eye, and torn clothing. It was obvious he’d been in a bad fight and lost. While his father was patching him up, he asked his son what happened.  “Well, Dad,” said Pete, “ I challenged Larry to a duel. And, you know, I gave him his choice of weapons.”  “Uh-huh,” said the father, “that seems fair.”  “I know, but I never thought he’d choose his sister!”

---------------------------------

=============================