DULL, OVERCAST & RAINY DAY BUT MANAGED TO MAKE A POST OUT OF IT ANYWAY

MENNONITE WORK HORSES PARTIALLY FRAMED BY A CEDAR RAIL FENCE

Cut a few more shrubs down this morning & had to revert to the chain saw for one stubbornly small Maple tree stump.  Using a chain saw is a last resort for me & besides it's so dull it would be an effort to cut through a soft half pound of butter .  Hate all that noise a chain saw makes.  My outside saw of choice is a Swede or Bow saw.  Does a good job & no noise.  Rains began around 10 so that was the end of my yard work for today.

 

REMOVED THE PEA STONE FROM THIS AREA & MAY SOD IT & AM GOING TO RE-LOCATE THOSE FLOPPY HOLLYHOCKS & TALL YELLOW FLOWERS

REMOVED AN OVERGROWN FLOWER BED FROM THIS DIRT AREA

Pheebs & I came across an old tumbledown house Thursday morning on our travels.  It's actually the second time we've stopped there.  Same house as my buzzard on the chimney photo a few days ago.  That day we just stopped on the road & took a few pics.  Thursday morning we got out & walked in the driveway.  Had a photo of this crumbling house & it’s old windmill in Friday night's post.  Could tell it was a big old fine farm house in it's day which I'm guessing was probably built early 1900's some time.  Big basement & large rooms for an old house.  Windows were different than one normally sees & saw some brick work around the basement windows.  House was too far gone to get inside besides it was so overgrown with vines & trees it would have been hard to find a door anyway.  The whole back portion of the house was collapsed.  Oh the stories this old house could surely tell.   

   

 

Yes it's true, I mixed up my roles with my rolls.  A reader noticed I had used the word 'roles' in describing what I used in my sod project Friday.  I suppose you could say those 'rolls' of sod did have a 'role' to play in instantly transforming a brown space in our back yard to a green space.  Sodding is one of those things I know a little bit about.  My very first big official paying job of ever was laying sod.  I lasted a whole day.  When the sewage treatment plant was built in my hometown of Tavistock Ontario a call went out for any local lads to help lay sod along the huge embankments.  I think maybe 3 or 4 of us village boys signed up.  It was summer time & it was hot & humid.  And it was hard dirty work down on one's hands & knees working with heavy rolls of sod.  I drank so much water that day I was sick.  Probably why I don't like the taste of water to this very day.  I think my friends were back on the job the next day but I wasn't.  It was my first experience with real work & I was not impressed!!  In later years I worked for a landscaping company in Kitchener & day after day we did a lot of sodding in new housing developments in Waterloo.  I somehow managed to last longer than one day at that time.....but it was an effort. 

VIEW OF OUR NEW LITTLE GRASSY SPOT FROM OUR CAMPFIRE AREA

 

HAD ONE ROLL OF SOD LEFT OVER SO PLACED IT IN AN AREA WHERE I MIGHT DO MORE SODDING…THE BLACK EARTH AROUND IT IS TO KEEP THE ENDS & SIDES FROM DRYING OUT

BOB FROM ATHENS had a question in our comment section which asked, “You often comment about hauling yard waste off to the dump, why not get a chipper / shredder and make mulch out of it” ?  Luckily the Park we live in has it's own yard waste dump & a lot of the stuff that ends up there is already chipped which means we always have a supply of wood chips if anyone wants them.  Living in a Pine forest like we do the Park owners have their own equipment for dealing with all the downed branches from storms etc & one of those equipment pieces is a large chipping machine.  Fallen branches are chipped & taken to the yard waste site.  Unfortunately we do not have the type of flower beds that would benefit from wood chips.  And free wood chips at that…………………

 
Surprised this morning to see we had another Blog Follower.  I do try to keep an eye on that Followers list just in case somebody does happen to make it through the Google maze & land themselves in the Blog Followers box.  A big Bayfield Bunch welcome to  Monica from COLOR MY WORLD WITH WARMTH.  For all you quilting folks out there I'm sure you will be most interested in this Blog.  Looking back over a few of Monica's posts I see a lot of really nice colorful quilts.  I can see why she named her blog ‘Color My World With Warmth’.  Thanks for dropping by Monica:))

 

ONE OF MY LEATHER MOTORCYCLE GLOVES WAS IN NEED OF REPAIR SO FOR THE SECOND TIME IN 19 YEARS I HAD TO RE-DUCT TAPE IT AGAIN…OH & HAD TO RE-TAPE THE LITTLE FINGER WITH ELECTRICIANS TAPE TOO…NEEDED TO FIX THE GLOVE CAUSE SURE CAN’T AFFORD NEW ONES
A few months back a reader questioned the use of all the commas I used in my posts.  I'm still not clear where commas should & should not go but the readers comment has stuck in my head & if they are still reading I am hoping they are seeing less commas:))

 

PHEEBS WANTED ME TO INCLUDE A FEW MORE PICS OF HER ANIMAL FARM PALS

GROANER'S CORNER:((    Dieter's Psalm......Strict is my diet. I must not want. It maketh me to lie down at night hungry. It leadeth me past the confectioners. It trieth my willpower. It leadeth me in the paths of alteration for my figure's sake. Yea, though I walk through the aisles of the pastry department, I will buy no sweetrolls for they are fattening. The cakes and the pies, they tempt me. Before me is a table set with green beans and lettuce. I filleth my stomach with liquids, My day's quota runneth over. Surely calorie and weight charts will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the fear of scales forever.

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Mary announced that she was going to start a diet to lose some pounds she had put on recently.  "Great," Sue exclaimed. "I'm ready to start a diet too. We can be dieting buddies and help each other out. And when I feel the urge to drive out and get a burger and fries, I'll call you first."  "Wonderful," Mary replied. "I'll go with you."

ON MY HANDS & KNEES IN THE BACK YARD & LOVING THIS COOLER WEATHER:))

The green jungle like menagerie of plants surrounding our house has been on my mind for awhile.  Things have really filled in over the years giving us the privacy we intended.  But the landscaping is getting old & kind of tired looking.  I've made a few changes here & there in the backyard over the years & now that cooler weather is here I've been energized once again to continue with a few more changes.  Pheebs & I took a load of yard waste to the dump on Thursday & from there headed straight away to Goderich & picked us up 14 rolls of sod for a grass seeding project that had not worked out.  Created a small area for grass a few months ago & seeded it but my effort was a waste of time.  Don't think I have ever had much luck with grass seed.  Kelly had picked up the seed at Canadian Tire so who knows how many years it sat in their warehouse.  I should have just sodded the area right from the beginning & been done with it.  Anyway it's done now & we have a nice bed of instant grass to sit our outside recliners on.  And Pheebs loves it too:))

PICKED UP 14 ROLLS OF SOD AT ART’S LANDSCAPING IN GODERICH THURSDAY AFTERNOON

 

DIDN’T WASTE ANY TIME GETTING THE SOD DOWN

 

GITTIN DOWN & GITTIN DIRTY

 

HARDLY HAD THE LAST ROLL IN PLACE & THESE 2 BUMS WERE ROLLING AROUND ON IT

  
BEFORE & AFTER…NO, NOT 2 DIFFERENT COLORS OF SOD, I JUST HAPPENED TO LAY THEM IN THAT WAY WITH OPPOSING NAPES

This morning was again taken up with another couple yard projects.  I find working around the yard relaxing & I am glad to have a workable yard to relax in.  I like small type projects that are just enough to make things creatively challenging & not big enough to make things dreadfully stressful. 

SATURDAY MORNING’S PROJECT WILL BE IN THIS AREA WHERE KELLY IS BARB-BE-QUEUING SOME CHICKEN
Some of the photos tonight are from a country road drive Pheebs & I did Thursday morning.  Kelly was off to Yoga so we were into the Jeep & gone on out onto the scenically picturesque rural roads.  Beautiful big fluffy clouds in the sky with a stiff cool breeze.  It was one of those mornings we were cruising along with the windows down & the heater on.  I just love this cooler weather.

 

‘MARSHMALLOW FIELDS FOREVER’…SAY, THAT KIND OF REMINDS ME OF A BEATLE SONG

 

AND ONCE AGAIN……………THE OLD & THE NEW

Pheebs best Pal here in the Park is Dexter.  We sometimes see the Dexter dog & his Dad Gerald walking the morning trail.  Gerald called Thursday night saying he was going to London Friday morning for a little eye procedure surgery & could we come over & take Dexter for a walk & pee break at noon & 5 p.m.  To Pheebs great delight that is exactly what we did.  Dexter & Pheebs just go bonkers when they see each other.  Dexter was happy to see us at noon so we all headed across the road to the park area.  Dexter knows us so we didn't feel we needed to leash him.  What we forgot about was his habit of running for & jumping into the Park's pond.  And that's just what he did despite our trying to call him back.  Ker-Splash!!  Gerald always keeps Dexter on a leash until he gets past the pond.  Oooops.  Oh well he'll be all dried off before his Dad gets home later.  Ssssshhhhh.

THESE GUYS ARE ALWAYS SO HAPPY TO SEE EACH OTHER
Took me for a short cruise on the bike this afternoon down through Zurich Ontario stopping for a turkey salad sandwich & a small butter tart at a popular eating place in town.  Jerry Raiders.  Bike was low on gas so had filled up before leaving Bayfield.  It's only my second fill up this year.  Guess that explains why I only have 27,498 miles on a 12 year old bike.

A SELFIE OF ME, MY TURKEY SALAD SANDWICH & A BUTTER TART THAT SOMEHOW FOLLOWED ME RIGHT OUTSIDE

Saw Kelly loading a few things into the Big EEE this morning.  Now that is always an encouraging site for sure.  It just kind of puts the official stamp of approval on the departure date & brings the reality home that yes we will actually be once again on the road soon for another seasonal Snow Bird winter.  Well if you can call 6 weeks soon that is:))

GROANER'S CORNER:(( My wife and I, both graduate students, recently celebrated the arrival of our first child. At my wife's insistence, we had paid our entire medical bill and were now worried about meeting other payments.   We were discussing our sad financial situation one evening when our son demanded a diaper change.  as my wife leaned over the baby's crib, I heard her mutter, "The only thing in the house that's paid for, and it leaks."

PHEEBS RUNS WITH THE ELK AGAIN

On the way to the sunroom after supper tonight to begin my post for today Kelly came across a movie on Netflix that sounded interesting.  ‘The Station Agent’  I can usually tell within minutes if a movie is going to be of interest to me & this one caught my attention.  We have always liked kinda offbeat quirky movies & years ago we used to go to a theater over in Waterloo Ontario that showed these kinda un-Hollywood movies.  So, I’m late getting to the computer tonight.  Haven’t had Pheebs out for her evening walk yet & with the days getting shorter we are having to go earlier.  Haven’t even got all the day’s photos out of the cameras yet & I want to watch CNN’s last instalment of ‘The 60’s’ at nine so it might be a short post tonight.  However I do have a few photos from a country drive this morning.  Been keeping an eye on a certain wind turbine being constructed southwest of Dungannon Ontario.  Been curious to maybe see how the crane/cranes hoist the big blade section to the top of the tower when it’s completed.  No construction crew at the site this morning so I was able to get a few photos which will maybe better explain how those big tall cranes get around from site to site.  I will have more about todays activities in Friday’s post.  Love how I get energized by this much cooler weather & energized today I was:))

 

THIS BLADE HUB WAS ASSEMBLED ON THE GROUND HERE & WILL SOON BE LIFTED INTO THE AIR BY THE CRANE

CRANE OPERATOR’S RED CAB CAN BE SEEN TO THE RIGHT OF THE RED CRANE BASE

 

THE CRANE BASE IS TRANSPORTED AROUND BY THIS SELF PROPELLED MULTI-WHEELED FLAT BEAD TRUCK AFFAIR…I THINK THE TRUCK CAB IS AT THE OTHER END

Pheebs did get to run with her Elk pals at the animal farm again this morning.  It is only about half a mile from where I took the crane photos.  When we pulled up alongside the field where the Elk & Alpaca’s were all together it was the Elk which immediately jumped up & came right over to see Pheebs.  The Alpaca’s kept their distance.  Maybe they are a little nervous about getting too close to the Elk.

 

 

 

 

GROANER’S CORNER:(( My daughter-in-law Alma and grandson Eddy were digging for fishing bait in my garden. Uncovering a many-legged creature, Eddy proudly dangled it before his mother.  "No, honey, he won't do for bait," his mother said. "He's not an Earthworm."  "He's not?" Eddy asked, his eyes wide. "Then what planet is he from?"

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The boss ordered one of his men to dig a hole eight feet deep. After the job was completed the boss returned and explained an error had been made and the hole wouldn't be needed. "Fill 'er up," he ordered.  The worker did as he'd been told. But he ran into a problem. He couldn't get all the dirt packed back into the hole without leaving a mound on top. He went to the office and explained his problem.  The boss snorted, "Honestly! The kind of help you get these days! There's obviously only one thing to do. You'll have to dig that hole deeper!"