SAY, DID I EVER TELL YA ABOUT THE TIME

I ALWAYS LIKE HOW SOME OF THE FARMS HAVE NICE LANDSCAPING AT THE END OF THEIR LANEWAYS BY THE ROAD

Another great weather day but I spent part of it again crabbing around on the floor ripping out carpet in Kelly’s bedroom & loading it into our utility trailer along with the sunroom carpet.  We purged one of our sheds too so a lot of stuff from there went into the trailer as well which I hope to haul off to Holmesville’s landfill site sometime in the next few days.

We’re in a bit of a renovation dither here right now & with rain predicted for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, & next week’s Wednesday as well all inside things we have temporarily moved outside to the deck have to now be moved under cover until all things are complete in the house & can once again be moved back inside to their respective places.  (OMG was that just my longest sentence of ever) Furnace installers will be here Wednesday & Thursday & the phone could ring at any time with the carpet installer guy on the other end saying he’s on his way.  Things could get very excitingly busy around here shortly & for the most part I like when that happens. 

A FEW MISCELLANEOUS PHOTOS FROM SUNDAY MORNING’S DRIVE & HERE’S AN OLD FORD COMING & GOING ON HIGHWAY 21 NORTH OF GODERICH

A LOT OF PEOPLE ON THE GOLF COURSES & HERE AN OLDER COUPLE PATIENTLY WAITS ON 3 FELLAS AHEAD OF THEM WHO I THINK WERE TAKING THEIR TIME

ROWS OF CORN HAVE ALREADY BROKE THE SURFACE WELL ON IT’S WAY TO AN AUTUMN HARVEST

A CLUSTER OF BARNS AT 3 DIFFERENT FOCAL LENGTHS

THIS BLUE TUBING AWAITS NEXT SPRING’S MAYPLE SYRUP TIME

SO NICE TO SEE ALL THE GREENERY FILLING IN AGAIN ALONG OUR COUNTRY ROADS & I’D SAY JUST IN THIS PAST WEEK MOST ALL TREES ARE FINALLY FULLY LEAFED OUT

SOMETIMES IN OUR TRAVELS PHEEBS LIKES TO DO A LITTLE BACK SEAT DRIVING

AND SOMETIMES SHE REALLY GIVES ME THE EYE IF SHE THINKS MY DRIVING IS NOT UP TO PAR

A bit of humidity in the air today so had to kick a couple fans into operation.  Other than that it was another work around the house day.  Kelly heads off for Spencerport New York in the morning & will be gone for about 10 days or so.  Pheebs & I have a heavy schedule lined up & will be keeping ourselves busy & out of trouble for sure.  I ate as much as I could tonight for supper & that should hold me till Kelly gets back.  This is actually a good opportunity for me now to dump some tonnage over the next week & a half so I’ll be working hard to keep my food intake to a minimum.  I’m not a bit foody person anyway.  Well except for peanut butter of course.  I’m way over the top on that:))

ALL EYES WERE ONCE AGAIN FOCUSED ON THE PHEEBS AS WE STOPPED TO VISIT HER ALPACA PALS SUNDAY

NOW I KNOW THIS ISN’T A RUBY THROATED HUMMINGBIRD

I was pleasantly surprised today when I had a look in on my Buddy Jim’s new blogsite Lifetime Sentences.  I knew he was going to feature other writers from time to time & knowing Jim as well as I do I thought he meant ‘good’ writers.  Imagine my surprise when I saw he had featured my ‘Me And Queen Elizabeth’ post.  Of course years ago while district editor for the Stratford Beacon Herald I thought Jim was looking for a good free lance photographer too but he hired me instead to randomly slip on out into the countryside & bring him back any interesting rural related scenes I could find.  One time he sent me to a little burg of a place somewhere north of Stratford as I recall  to cover a small local agriculture meeting or something.  I think the burgs name may have been Poole.  It was in the evening & he just needed a short write up & a few photos for the Beacon Herald’s weekly rural edition.  Well as you might expect I was pretty nervous around all those home grown country folks up that way and so much so that I went home that night without my camera!!  Yup, in my rush to get out of there after the meeting I had just up & took off out the door leaving my camera with the meetings photos undeveloped inside sitting on a table I guess.  The people there had to phone the Beacon Herald’s district editor next morning to tell him his ace reporter had left his camera behind.  Needless to say it was a sheepish return to that little Burg the following day to retrieve my camera at Yost’s General Store.  I have no idea what I wrote about that meeting but it may very well have ended up in Jim’s trash bucket…..Ya’think!! 

CAN YOU GUESS WHAT THIS WATER REFLECTION IS

A CLUE

A MORE BETTER BETTER CLUE

WELL BY GOLLY THERE IT IS RIGHT SIDE UP THROUGH THE TREES & NOT REFLECTED

Say did I ever tell ya about the time I was called upon by one of my former places of employment (T.B. Woods in Stratford) to take an outside photo of all the office staff standing in front of the factory.  No?? Well I guess I didn’t tell ya about it because it’s still too embarrassing for me to think about but I can tell you this much…….I showed up that day with no film in my camera & no film in my camera bag.  And to add insult to injury I knew each & every member of that office staff & they all knew me.  In my nervousness I had forgot to pre-load my camera:((  Say did I ever tell ya about the other time I…………..

GROANER’S CORNER:((  Two hunters -Sam and Stan – got a pilot to fly them into the Canadian wilderness, where they managed to bag two big bull moose.  As they were loading the plane to return, the pilot said the plane could take only the hunters, their gear, and one moose.  The hunters objected strongly, saying, “Last year we shot two, and the pilot let us take them both. And he had exactly the same airplane as yours.”  Reluctantly the pilot, not wanting to be outdone by another bush pilot, gave in and everything was loaded.  However, even under full power, the little plane couldn’t handle the load and went down, crashing in the wooded wilderness.  Somehow, surrounded by the moose, clothing, and sleeping bags, Sam and Stan survived the crash.  After climbing out of the wreckage, Sam asked Stan, “Any idea where we are?”  Stan replied, “Ya, I think we’re pretty close to where we crashed last year.”

PHEEBS & I FOLLOWED BUGGY TRACKS UNTIL WE HEARD ANGELS SINGING

ALL THE HOMES, BARNS & PROPERTIES IN TONIGHT’S POST ARE FROM AMISH/MENNONITE COUNTRY

Turned out to be a beautiful sunny Sunday morning so figured Pheebs & I would head ourselves up into Amish/Mennonite Country.  With a bit of luck maybe we could find us where the folks had gathered for their Sunday morning service & by chance even hear them singing again like we once did a couple years ago.

First stop of the day though was Goderich’s Canadian Tire store to pick up a matching seat cover for Libby’s passenger seat.  After the nice looking but poorly made crappy ones I bought a year ago & ended up throwing out I wanted to be sure we had better quality ones this time so only bought 1 for the driver’s seat a month ago.  Liked it so much we got the second one this morning.  When traveling with a muffin sharing dog good seat covers are a definite necessity if you don’t want your seats looking like soiled rejects from a crumb factory.

THESE AMISH FOLKS HAVE THE NICEST LOOKING FARMS OF ANYWHERE….WELL KEPT, NEAT & TIDY & YOU KNOW ALL THOSE WATER WINDMILLS ARE IN THE BEST EVERYDAY WORKING CONDITION THEY CAN BE

I HAVE A FEELING THEY MIGHT BE SMOKING UP SOME GOOD OLD MENONITTE SUMMER SAUSAGE IN THERE

From Goderich we made our way North before angling off to the East over in the direction of Dungannon Ontario where we stopped to see Pheeb’s Alpaca Pals for the first time this year.  Of course the gang was happy to see her & I’ll post those photos along with some old & newer farm machinery, golfers, a couple piles of cows, a few horses, an old Ford car on the highway, more farm houses, a ‘guess what it is’ water reflection, more birds, some sheep, roadside farm lane flower arrangements, tulips, a cluster of telephoto barns, & of course my co-pilot Pheebs uncustomarily riding shotgun in the back seat:))

From Dungannon it wasn’t much farther before we were in horse & buggy country & it didn’t take long to find us a trail of fresh Sunday morning buggy tracks on the gravel road all heading in one direction.  Followed them until together they turned into a single farm laneway.  With windows down I pulled over & stopped.   As expected when I turned the Jeep’s engine off I heard the nicest melodic & angelic singing coming from an old large red barn at the end of the long lane.  Sat there for awhile just listening & enjoying what I was hearing.  It didn’t sound like church music from when I was a Kid & got dragged off kicking & screaming to Sunday School Sunday mornings.  This was a different sound & appeared to be deeper & male oriented.  Harmony & tone were in perfect unison lifting the many voices skyward.  I couldn’t make out any words which of course is preferable to me anyway because it is the sound of the human voice used as an instrument of perfection which always garners my attention & appreciation more so than words.  Those chanting like voices I heard rising & falling this morning were on par with any professional singing group I have ever heard anywhere & sitting there I was wishing I had had some kind of a quality recording device with me.  A truly awe inspiring event in the country side & how better to spend a Sunday morning than wrapped in the arms of Mother Nature’s splendid reality.

THE BUGGY WHEEL TRACKS LED US TO THIS FARM LANEWAY

FROM THOSE BARN WINDOWS CAME THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SOUNDS

IT WAS SO NICE TO SIMPLY SIT HERE A FEW MINUTES JUST LISTENING

I HAVE NOTICED OVER THE YEARS IN MY TRAVELS THROUGH AMISH COUNTRY THE FOLKS LIKE TO PAINT THEIR HOUSES WHITE & THEIR BARNS & DRIVING SHEDS RED & YOU WILL NOTICE THAT IN TODAY’S PHOTOS ON VARIOUS FARMS

NOTE THE OLD BLACK HANDLE WATER PUMP

FOUR FELLOWS CAME OUT OF THE HOUSE & HEADED FOR THE DRIVING SHED & FROM THERE WALKED OVER & ENTERED THE BARN

WHEN THIS MOTHER & 3 CHILDREN CAME OUT OF THE BARN I FELT IT WAS TIME FOR ME TO MOVE ON & NOT MAKE THEM UNCOMFORTABLE AT SEEING A CAR STOPPED AT THE END OF THEIR LANEWAY….KEEP IN MIND I AM USING A LONG TELEPHOTO LENS SO I AM NOT ANYWHERE AS NEAR TO THESE FOLKS AS IT WOULD APPEAR

SOON THIS FRONT YARD GARDEN PLOT WILL BE BURSTING FORTH WITH COLORFUL FLOWERS & HEALTHY GREEN LEAF VEGITABLES

MOVING DOWN THE ROAD A BIT I COULD STILL HEAR THE SOUNDS OF SINGING COMING FROM THE BIG RED BARN

HORSES FROM THOSE BUGGIES COULD BE SEEN GRAZING BEHIND THAT RED BARN ON THE LEFT

I took 182 photos this morning of which after editing 139 are useable for my blog.  Of course way too many to fit into one blog post of course so over the next few days I’ll toss a smattering of today’s photos in each post.

THESE AMISH/MENONNITE FARMS ALWAYS SEEM TO HAVE THE HEALTHIEST & ROBUST LOOKING HORSES

GROANER’S CORNER:(( 10 Best Caddy Replies::

# 10 — Golfer: “Think I’m going to drown myself in the lake.”

Caddy: “Think you can keep your head down that long?”

# 9 — Golfer: “I’d move heaven and earth to break 100 on this course.”

Caddy: “Try heaven, you’ve already moved most of the earth.”

# 8 — Golfer: “Do you think my game is improving?”

Caddy: “Yes sir, you miss the ball much closer now.”

# 7 — Golfer: “Do you think I can get there with a 5 iron?”

Caddy: “Eventually.”

# 6 — Golfer: “You’ve got to be the worst caddy in the world.”

Caddy: “I don’t think so sir. That would be too much of a coincidence.”

# 5 — Golfer: “Please stop checking your watch all the time. It’s too much of A distraction.”

Caddy: “It’s not a watch – it’s a compass.”

# 4 — Golfer: “How do you like my game?”

Caddy: “Very good sir, but personally, I prefer golf.”

# 3 — Golfer: “Do you think it’s a sin to play on Sunday?”

Caddy: “The way you play, sir, it’s a sin on any day.”

# 2 — Golfer: “This is the worst course I’ve ever played on.”

Caddy: “This isn’t the golf course. We left that an hour ago.”

# 1 — Best Caddy Comment Golfer: “That can’t be my ball, it’s too old.”

Caddy: “It’s been a long time since we teed off, sir.”