Life on the Farm

Took life very easy today around the farm, spending time talking with everyone left over from the party!

Bobby and I found his old 1971 Suzuki 250 out back, and were laughing, as his Brother Peter called him today and asked if he could restore it! A little bit of work here....

Big Peter, Marion's Husband, spends a lot of time in his shop/garage, and I found these pictures that have been up on the walls for years!

These were quite the bike in their day... the Norton Commando!

For many years now Jack and Ed have decorated the walls....

Bit Peter told me to wave the white bucket near the fence at this cow, which I did, and lo and behold, the cow jumped 4 feet in the air and charged right at me! We all had a good laugh over this one....Found these great pictures inside my Uncle Art's wallet! They are a picture of his Mom and Dad, or MY GRANDPARENTS!

Took me a while to catch this picture today, you have to be quiet and quick! I got it with my remote control fire switch!

It was a beautiful evening tonight, and a bunch of us sat out on the new deck and enjoyed some good conversation and of course, a fire in a can!

On his last day of being 89, Uncle Art had a great day, and enjoyed every ones company and even splurged and had a beer or two!

Till tomorrow....

Uncle Art turns 90!

Picked up Mom at 8:30 this morning in Orillia and we headed for Mallory Town to visit Uncle Art, (Mom's only living Brother) for his 90th. A great day for driving and we made it by 3:00 p.m. Got backed into our parking spot that Peter reserved for us and joined the Party! Had to be close to 75 people or so that showed up, as it was a great day for a party!

Took pics of course... the first one is my cousin Carol with Mom visiting in the RV.

Peter and Marion's home on about 35 acres I believe...


No problem to get backed in, just had to dodge a few cars.... I kept looking for Judy with the walkie talkie to guide me, but I left her in Gravenhurst!


Party was in full swing when we got there....

Cousin Bob from Calgary, (just retired 1 month ago) knows where Peter keeps the beer!

Uncle Art's farm animal cake!

Cousin Sue and David.... doesn't David look real happy! (he was, just a bad picture...)

David , Gweny, and Bobbi...

Here is Bob and Liz trying to convince Mom she should move out west to Calgary, but then she would have to cheer for the Flames! Not going to happen!

Uncle Art was overwhelmed by the amount of people for his party! He kept telling everyone to GO HOME!

Here the party in in full swing....

They were dancing in the streets....

The Beck Clan, and two of them were missing... just don't ask who?????

A bunch of his Grand Kids, and one Great Gran Daughter....

Gail the next farm over neighbour, lost her Brother to cancer on Thursday of this week, so the Becks auctioned off this brick that was from the original apartment building on Rouchon Street in Montreal, after the building burned! Over $400 was raised and will be given to Gail so she can travel to Kingston I believe, for cancer treatments for herself! Yes, the Becks have heart! One of the kids won the brick, and the Bobbi gave him $50.00 for it, which was promptly given to the fund for Gail! Everybody won!

This is what happens when you give your camera to someone, and say "hey, take our picture..." You take what you get!

It is now 11:00 p.m. and Mom is sound asleep in the motorhome, and they party is still going on outside by the fire. Too many flying bugs that bite you for me tonight, so I came in to do up this blog and will now retire!

Till tomorrow.....

Tripping to Seagrave!

Up and at it real early this morning, as I climbed on the trusty Honda 750 and headed south to Seagrave to have a visit with Judy's Brother, Howard, and to pick up my new satellite meter for locating Shaw Direct Birds.

It was a great day for a drive and I made it there just before 10:00, about 1 1/2 hour drive. Howard has a 1948 Desoto which runs real good, and made a trip out to Winnipeg and back last fall!

Howard recently bought a 1915 Model T Ford. What a machine. He had it all tucked into the garage, and as you can see has a crank starter on the front of it. He only turned the motor over a couple of times before using the electric start to get it going.

Here is Howard making adjustments to the engine as it runs.... it is a very basic operating engine, and he can adjust the carb and the engine timing right from the driver's position.

It still has the plate from California on it. Howard had it trucked partway back to Ontario, and then headed to Oklahoma City with a rental truck to bring it home the rest of the way.

After getting it all warmed up, he moved it out to the driveway, and then we took it for a short jaunt around the neighborhood. It has a two speed transmission, and has 3 pedal on the floor, and not one of them is the gas.... you have to know what you are doing to drive this baby....

It has a 4 cylinder motor, and pumps out all of 2o horse power! What a beast.... he thinks it will go about 35 mph with the pedal to the medal!

Had a lot of fun on the visit, and it was good to see him. Made it back in time for the thunder storm this afternoon... it was a big one!

Spent part of the afternoon getting the new meter working and learning all about it... yes, it is a bit complicated, but it keeps the brain working!

Till tomorrow....

Bike Night is back!

Another nice warm sunny day in Ontario today - just perfect! Busy day today doing household things like laundry, some painting, and changing the oil on the motorcycle... up to over 27,000 klms on the beast now....

Had a nice dinner tonight, and then Judy and I took off on the bikes to visit Angela for a minute up in Bracebridge to witness some documents for us. After that, we headed to Gravenhurst to visit the Gravenhurst Charity Bike Night. In this picture the ice cream shop called Sagamo Scoops does a huge business on Wednesday night.... big bucks.. big line up!

As you can tell, the bike night is held down at the Muskoka Wharf in Gravenhurst... has now for about 3 years I think.... I went to the first bike night held in Gravenhurst about 11 years ago now, and it has just grown over time....

Here is Judy holding up the roof of the gazebo.... I think the pillar has a crack.....

The next pic is my favorite of the day.... bikes and boats go together well!

They raise money for local charities, and as you can see, a fair group usually show up. Over 100 bikes out tonight alone! They even had some live entertainment tonight!

Till tomorrow.....

Yes, we are back!

Well, we are finally back online again! We had to move sites over the May 24th long weekend, and I could not get our satellite internet up and running due to trees in the way. We are back now on our regular site, and all is well.

I don't know about where you are, but here the weather has been nothing short of incredible... hot and sunny, just the way we like it.

On Sunday of the long weekend, John and Pat Morrison showed up on the big Goldwing, and we all went out for breakfast and and bike ride through Muskoka over to Rosseau. A great ride on a great day! Judy whipped up a great dinner for us all at the RV and then they motored home.

John and Pat are in the process of trying to arrange a rental down in California for next winter at Desert Hot Springs!

As mentioned before in the blog, we have been working on renovations. They are now all complete and we are happy! The bedroom had the rug removed and a new type of laminate floor was put in. It turned out very good, and hopefully Judy can breath a little easier without the rug on the floor. Here is Patra checking out the new floor...

We took out the broadloom in the living room area and originally wanted to put the laminate floor in here as well. This did not work as the operation of the large living room slide did not allow for this type of floor to be installed. We thought we could do it, but it turned out we could not, so we moved ahead on plan B.

When they built the RV at the factory, they covered a large part of the hard floor in the kitchen with the broadloom. We were able to put in new carpet and allow for more of the hard flooring to show... worked out great.

We put in a new "burber" type of rug and it fit right in with our decor...

On Monday we headed over to Dave and Angela's for a nice BBQ dinner. It was a great evening for sitting out on the deck. Dave did a great job as the master chef!

Today was another great day, and I headed down to Bella Vista RV, just south of Orillia on Hwy. 11. I ordered our towing package that will enable us to haul the Liberty behind our RV. This also includes a break system for the Jeep. It takes about 8 hours for them to do the install, and cost will be over $4,000.00 for the towing system.... no one said living in an RV was cheap! Pictures will follow later of the install.

Good to be bloggin again...\

Till tomorrow...

Renovations in the wind...

Beautiful day here in Ontario today, warm and lots of sun!

This morning I started ripping out the rug from our bed room area in the RV. We have decided to replace it with a new type of soft flooring that looks a lot like laminate flooring... will have pictures up on the blog tomorrow.

We have to move the RV tomorrow to the site right beside where we are now. On Tuesday of next week we get to move back onto this site again...

Travelled down to Orillia on Monday morning and visited with my older brother Richard and his wife Susan. He is feeling OK now, but he has to have his Gaul bladder removed on Thursday... here is hoping all goes well Richard!

Going to Boston Pizza tomorrow for lunch with a good friend... David Reid. David sold our house for us last year, and is currently in the process of starting up a new Real Estate Company.

Till tomorrow....

Just anohter busy weekend....

Lots on the go this weekend.... on Saturday Judy and I decided to take a ride in the new Jeep over to Lakefield to a motorcycle show.... usually you would ride your motorcycle to this, however it was cold and overcast, and I wanted to put a few miles on the Jeep to ensure it was working good. We have a limited 30 day warranty on the vehicle, so you want to find any problems before the 30 days are up!

The motorcycle show was at a Harley Davidson Dealers showroom. Our riding club, The Southern Cruisers were there.

There was lots of entertainment, and some vendors selling related stuff...

For the past six months I was used to seeing the flags in reverse order on the pole!

There was a guy that actually jumped this ramp, starting on the right and landing on the truck ramp!
Harley Davidson signs of the times....

They had a bunch of bikes on sale in the showroom.

There was entertainment on going... This was takes very early in the day... they were expecting a big crowd, and in the evening the "Stampeders" were going to play!

We drove back to Orillia and visited Gary and Shelly, (Judy's Brother). We had to do the Jeep comparison thing, as they just bought a brand new Jeep Compas - very cool...

Today we went into Church this morning and met everyone for the first time this year. In the afternoon we visited Angela and Dave in Bracebridge... Lots of yard work going on there....

Judy took a couple pictures of the Canada Geese at our KOA, and the new borns.... there is lots of them, but would not let Judy get very close with the camera.

A bit out of focus, but you can see all the babies...

This next picture is my favorite of the day. We borrowed it off our Daughter's blog, and it is a picture of Kristina rolling blading with Cali.... who is a very high energy dog only about a year old. Kristina is the "Pack Leader" in this house.

Weather looks good for the week!

Till tomorrow....

It's raining again....

Since we have returned from the deep south west and returned to Gravenhurst, the weather has not been all that great.... :-(( Today started out OK and I spent the morning at the RV and worked on the new Jeep for the morning. Lots of cleaning I wanted to do, and found time to give the Jeep a wax job.... gotta keep it looking good!

Went into Gravenhurst to do a bit of Canadian Tire Shopping, and then headed out to Taboo for an economic update compliments of RBC Dominion Securities. They invited me out to get caught up on the World economic events that have recently happened.... Greece mainly.... not a pretty story....

Did watch Montreal beat Pittsburg last night.... that was nice...

That's about it for today, other than I told you I would post a picture of my new command central.... problem is, it is real easy to fall a sleep in..... not good for blogging....

Supposed to rain again tomorrow I think....

Till tomorrow...

It's a JEEP thing.... You wouldn't understand.....

A busy day today. Judy arranged to take the day off work so she could come down to Burlington to keep me company as we picked up the new Jeep. Turned out to be a nice day here up north, but overcast and cooler in the big city.

We had some problems getting away this morning with our existing car, but quickly overcame them and were on our way down to the big city. Again, "Thanks CAA"

The folks at J. P. Motors in Burlington were simply excellent to deal with and took care of everything quickly and efficiently. They had us on our way in 1/2 an hour in the new wheels, and they had them all spiffed up and ready to go... ya, the new jeep kind of matches the colour of our motorcycle trailer...

We left the dealership, and headed just a couple blocks away to go to IKEA. Judy had wanted to look for a new chair for the motorhome, and we found a nice black POANG Chair and new foot stool.... see tomorrow's blog for pics...



We had lunch at IKEA.... wow , can you ever eat cheap there! Also, take note... there is no recession at IKEA.... everybody and his brother was there today spending money.... I think the new Jeep will look good being pulled by the motorhome... our world is very black and grey...

The new Jeep ran great on the way home full of our new purchases that we would have had problems trying to fit into the old Grand Am...

Here is a side profile... tomorrow might get a chance to put a coat of wax on the new beast if the weather co-operates...

We sure enjoyed the ride home in the new beast. I have had t20 Jeeps in the past, and liked them both. It is nice to have another one... kind of a guy type thing... aurg....aurgggg......

Till tomorrow....