Out of the blue...

Turned into a terrific day here, warm temperatures, no rain, some sun... great for Labour Day Weekend. The Park is pretty full with a lot of campers out for the final weekend of the season maybe.

Did do a couple hours of work at the Kid's house this afternoon, applying some drywall tape and mud on the freshly installed sheets we put up yesterday...

Best part of the day was having life long friends John and Pat come to visit from Alliston. They showed up this afternoon around 3:00 driving in with their fancy little Mazda Miata. They wanted to get a bit of a drive in and stop by for a visit. Great to catch up with them in their lives, with all that is going on. It has been a bit of a harder year on the farm, with some of the crops still in question, but that is life as a Farmer.

While they were here this afternoon, we convinced them to stay and enjoy our Parks annual Labour Day Turkey Dinner. Ron and Jane, our Park Owners put this on every year in the Rec Hall, and today's dinner was second to none! We all enjoyed. Would have loved to win the $150.00 50/50 draw, but that didn't happen...next year!

John and Pat left for home around 8:30, and I finally remembered I owned an iPhone with a camera in it... ya, it was getting a little dark. Anyways, sure was great to see John and Pat again and get all caught up!

Till tomorrow...

 

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I have a new "Assistant"...

Today was another day on the renovation project at the kid's house. They have packed up and gone off camping for the long week down on Lake Erie. Weather was good today for that, as it was quite hot here with a lot of sun.

This was my que to get working on building the new wall needed for the new mud room at the house. Check out my new Assistant Contractor I had with me today...

Judy was out the door early with me, as I needed help putting up the new wall. I did the framing with the wall on the floor, and it was an easy process to lift it up into place...

You can see the full size of the wall above, as I anchor it to the wall and ceiling... It is going to divide out a nice mud room from the back room, with easy access to that side door of the house you can see on the right.

Once we had the framing completed, we started lifting the drywall sheets into place, and screwing them to the new frame.

My portable power drill came in handy as it seemed I put in hundreds of screws... it wasn't. After all, I am the guy who has to plug them all with drywall mud and sand them out.

As you can see, my new assistant is also good with an iPhone camera, carefully documenting the process. Got it all finished today by around 2:30 and headed for home. Might be able to start on framing the new utility closet that will go in the mud room tomorrow...

Till tomorrow...

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So, the mystery has finally been solved!

This is one story that may have not crossed your news radar screen today, but it hit mine, and was reported by Media all over North America.

I read the Story in the Toronto Star... This was the Headline: "What's making the rocks move silently across California's Death Valley?" I thought to myself - Hey, I have been there. A quick search of my Blog quickly led me back to March of 2011. Judy and I had just finished a visit to Dave and Angela over in Lake Havasu City, and we headed up to visit Death Valley for a week. It was on our hit list of places to visit...

This is a great place to visit, and you can easily spend a couple of weeks here! I loved every minute we spent here, even if it got up to 105 F. while we were there. We even made the 25 mile Jeep trail out to the Dry Lake Bed, where the famous "moving rocks" are located. The road was terrible, and meant only for a high clearance 4 wheel drive vehicle, so the Jeep fit right in there.

I took these pictures out on the dry lake bed.

Now for the life of me, I could not figure out what made those rocks move, and leave a trail behind them. It does not happen all the time, and people started wondering back in the 1940's what made them move. Now we know!

Four Scientist spent last winter working on this problem, and they just released a paper about this, in Plos One. They placed 15, 8 to 15 Kg. limestone rocks out on the dry lake bed, or playa, and attached GPS's to each one to track any movement. 12 out of 15 of them moved!

Jim Morris, Richard Norris, Ralph Lorenz, and Brian Armstrong were the four Scientist that presented the paper. Here is what they found. There was some rain on the dry lake bed over the winter. In the early morning, this thin layer of moisture actually freezes under the rocks. Everything is very slick. When a bit of wind come up, it actually blows these rocks across the lake bed, leaving a trail behind. What a mystery! Now, they did go on to say that no, they did not spend thousands and thousands of $$$$ working on this paper. They did it on their own time, just because they wanted to. They actually were there watching as one rock moved about 3 meters in under 6 minutes. That would be like winning the lottery to see that.

Anyways, if you have not been to Death Valley, GO!!!!!! It is an amazing place, and you don't need a Jeep to see most of it.

It was great to read the comments on last night blog. Trent and Terresa left a comment, about how we met. I sort of forgot this one. Judy and I were walking around the College of the Desert Market in Desert Hot Springs, and Trent picked us out, and said, "Hey, RVlifeonwheels...the Hollingers" Trent and I had both bought the same hat at the Market... good times. Janet S remembers picking me off while stepping down out of an RV at the Tampa RV Show. Guess I must stand out in the crowd... maybe it is my big nose!

Till tomorrow...

 

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Meeting a Blogger right next door!

It is sure funny how the Blogging Community works... over the 5 years that Judy and I have been living in the RV and doing the nightly Blog, we have met many different Bloggers. Some we meet at Resorts where we stay, or areas that we visit. Once we were at an RV Show in Tampa, and a Blog Reader started calling my name when she saw me walk off an RV I was inspecting!

Well today, we got to meet fellow RV'ers and Bloggers right next door. George and Suzie are well known in the Blogging World, as George writes daily on "Our Awesome Travels". They actually stay very close to where Judy and I spend our summers, only about a 15 minute drive. We just have never got around to meeting up with each other the past couple years, but that changed today. After receiving an email from them, Judy and I made our way up to where they are staying for a visit.

They move around southern Ontario much more that we do, so we were kind of lucky to catch them just up the road from us. Hey, they live in a house with wheels on it!

They are a great couple, and we spent a couple hours talking about all those common RV topics. Could have easily spent much more time with them, but did not want to get between George and his Weber BBQ. As most readers may know, George is famous for posting pictures of his culinary skills on his Blog each night. No, I did not ask what he was cooking up tonight!

Was great to finally meet up with them. They will soon be getting ready to take off out West this winter...

This morning was spent at the Kid's house again, working on the back room. Lots of sanding and mudding going on as I repair the walls, but did get the first coat of primer on the walls. There is progress, and a light at the end of the tunnel...

Sorry George, no pics of my dinner tonight!

Till tomorrow...

 

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How big can The Big Smoke grow?

One thing that Ontario can claim... it has the biggest City of any Province in Canada...

The Downtown core has really grown in the past 10 to 15 years, with now over 300,000 residents living in newly built Condos. Well, hang on...it is going to get worse.

Toronto City Council approved at a Council Meeting today, lead by Mayor Rob Ford of course, a further 18 new buildings to be constructed in the Downtown core area. This accounts for 775 new stories of fresh Condos for people to live in, or an amazing 7,000 new condos. Now, it may take much of the next 10 years to complete this work, but it is coming. Oh, don't forget to add in an additional 70,000 new homes that were also approved for construction! Seems like Ontario will have Canada's largest City for quite a while! The value of this new construction can only be measured in the Billions! Just think of all the new Toronto Maple Leaf fans that will be able to cheer for the Team! Good luck trying to get a seat to a game! (Hhhhmmmmmm...... maybe Toronto could have 2 NHL Teams.... just saying....)

There are now over 5,000,000 people living in the Greater Toronto Area, (GTA) which kind of blows you away when you think about it. The Province of Manitoba has a total population of 1,200,000 people!

I do not disagree with all this new construction... I think it is all good for people wanting to live a life in a terrific City in a great Country! I do have one concern though... and that is transportation. It is darn near impossible to drive around this City now... it always feels like rush hour, at any time of day!

We cannot have every road in the GTA looking like the one above... can we? Many political agruments in this area are about Public Transportation, and how much we need. All I can say is, they better get it right, because it is darn near broken now. It will be very interesting to see what it is like trying to drive in Toronto 10 years from today!

Till tomorrow...

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Workers day off... must be close to Labour Day!

Today I did not go into work on the renovation project... I had a Dr.'s appointment at the London Health Science Centre. This is a monster Hospital, so had to make sure I was early to even find where this Dr.'s Office was... I did find it, and only had to wait an hour for him!

It was such a nice day, I rode over to London on my Honda. I got 1/2 way over to Thamesford, and ran into a 10 minute delay on the road...

This guy is pulling one blade off of a new windmill to be installed in the area... he was having problems getting around the corner, so we had to wait for him... he made it.

There are now over 2,000 of these beasts spinning in Ontario making electricity... We will soon catch up and pass Palm Springs maybe as the Windmill Capital of the World!

Made it back home to go walking this afternoon with Judy! 5 miles!

Till tomorrow...

 

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Scotiabank Buskerfest in Toronto...

This morning Judy and I headed downtown Toronto, (ya, there was a bit of traffic...) to take in the annual Scotiabank Buskerfest that is held on Yonge Street.

 

They use this event as a fundraiser for Epilepsy Toronto. I tell you, the place was packed!

There was lots of great shows to watch, for the cost of a donation to Epilepsy! Great way to spend the afternoon.

This is held right in the Downtown core of Toronto, surrounding the Yonge and Dundas Square, right where the Eaton's Centre is located. It turned out to be a perfect afternoon, but it was hot!

These two guys above did a great robot type routine...

Yes, this guy above actually climbed through 2 tennis rackets! It was such a tight fit, he dislocated his shoulder to do it!

There was all kinds of different acts...

Heck, even Spock was there! People lined up to talk to him!

This guy above brought his pet snake...yuk!

We really enjoyed the afternoon, and I took a few videos of some of the acts if you want to check them out, none of them are very long at all.

 

 

 

 

Sure was a great way to put in the afternoon, and we ended it all with a nice dinner at East Side Mario's in Woodstock when we got home at 6:00.

Till tomorrow...

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No rest today...

Punched my time clock at 9:00 this morning to get to work on the job...

(well, many years ago I used to punch in to start work anyways....)

I got all the subfloor lifted this morning, and then moved onto removal of the closet. Here is a big secret! Use one of these...

This is a Dewalt Sawsall, and as I told Kristina today, it should have been called "El Destructo!" You can reek a lot of havoc with one of these bad boys in your hands! They wll cut through just about anything! Chris owns this one... I never did buy one of these, but I sure could have used one of these over the years living in the house. You can see the holes in the drywall I cut using the saw above, allowing me access to the interior studs in the wall. I managed to get the whole closet removed in about an hour and a half!

So, all the removal is now finished on this job, and it is time to get under construction, and repairing a lot of drywall. That is a job for next week!

Till tomorrow...

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Destruction phase...

With all the furniture out of the way, I was able to start into the destruction phase of the Kid's backroom.

I ripped out that green flooring, that was laid over the brown linoleum flooring... also that closet you see in the background, will be coming out! You would think it would be easy ripping out flooring but it never seems to be. One million nails holding the subfloor down seem to get in the way, if you get my drift...

I took all the trim out today which will eventually be replaced with new trim. All that dark green paint will be gone as well...

I had to rip this subfloor up piece by piece, using a crowbar, and then pull all the nails out... Only got about 1/2 the job done today...there is always tomorrow!

I will only be working 1/2 days on this job, as Charlie and Gwenny need their beauty sleep in the afternoon, so no banging allowed! This allowed Judy and I to go for a nice walk in Roth Park, down by Lake Pittock this afternoon... it was nice and warm, but the trail here is shaded.

Yup, still had a bit of energy to go for a 45 minute walk...nice to get outside. Wait, Judy made a great pot of Chilli at home in the slow cooker.... gotta go!

Till tomorrow...

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OK, let's hit the pool...

Started off foggy this morning, but sure turned out great this afternoon! Nice to get some great weather in before September takes over!

Another morning spent on moving furniture and stuff out of the back room at the Kid's house to get ready for the deconstruction part of the project... might get a start at that tomorrow... we will see.

With such great weather we had the kids out for dinner tonight, with the Weber working overtime... George would have been proud of us tonight!

Before dinner though....

OK, so everybody look at Mommy above...

We gave Gwenny the choice of swimming in the big Park pool, or splashing around in the kiddy pool... tonight she chose the small one, and they had a ball for about an hour and a half! They pretty well splashed out all of the water I poured in... saved me from having to do it! Of course you have to swim with pool noodles!

Back to work tomorrow morning on the project!

Till tomorrow...

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Soon to be under construction...

Yes, as summer starts to wind down, construction season begins!

Today started some early clean up, preparing for the destruction soon coming. The target...the back computer room at the kids house. They want a closet taken out, and a new mud room put in. This is going to take a while, so don't be alarmed if a few Blogs get missed here and there along the way.

Sure was a great day here today!

Till tomorrow...

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Wow... now that is big news!

What do you all think that this is a picture of ????

Hhhhmmmmmm..... looks to me like Gwenny and Charlie are going to have to move over! Looks like Company is coming!

I took Gwenny and Charlie over to the Park today, while Judy accompanied Kristina on a trip over to the Ultra Sound Department. Judging by the picture I received on my iPhone, we better start getting ready to receive another Grandchild! Yes, if you are counting, that would be #5! How can we be so blessed!

I am not sure if they can add another seat to this contraption at the park for the new baby... maybe! Apparently Gwenny is already telling Kristina that she would like to have a new baby sister... I would say the odds of that are 50 / 50... The new baby is scheduled for arrival very early next March. (yes, I have known about this for a while now... but sworn to silence)

Hope you had as great a day as we did today!

Till tomorrow...

 

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Now that was a weekend!

Whew... finally found my Blog again, after a few days of neglect! We spent this weekend in the Woodstock area, with lots of visitors, and took in a great annual festival, Woodstock's own Cowapalooza!

This is a celebration of the COW! Woodstock is known as the Dairy Capitol of the World, with lots of milking operations around here. What a great excuse for a Festival!

Judy had no problem finding a cow... and giving her "cow" impersonation.

Dow cows really wear hats Judy???

Deb and Gerard came over with their trailer, and a couple Grans in tow for the weekend... we all had a blast. On Saturday Tom and Cheryl came to visit as well, so we had lots of people to milk cows around!

Saturday morning, we took in the annual Soap Box Derby that runs down the hill on Finkle Street. This is always fun to watch as the kids run these homemade machines up to around 43 Klms. OK, so see for yourself...I took a couple real short videos to show you how these kids run... lots of fun.

After the soapboxes, we went to the park and took in the Strongman and Strongwomen Competition. This is always fun to watch, and it is amazing how much weight these athletes can throw around. A good crowd took in these events...

Check out this video I took below, of this guy who actually presses 303 lbs. above his head. I got a sore back just holding up my iPhone to take the pictures...

Below is another competition, the tire flip. This is the spare tire from a 2014 Honda Civic. It weights 750 lbs. believe it or not, and somehow fits in the trunk. This is why you call CAA.

For $2.00 you can buy a yellow duck and enter the duck race to win $1,000.00! This is the end of the rece you see below. No, Judy and I did not win, our ducks were probably last...

 

Below, the video shows how to get all those ducks down to the creek.

The weather was a bit cool over the weekend, but we managed OK. We had time for a couple Happy Hours of course... Gwenny and Charlie came to visit and brought Mom and Dad with them...

And for the main events, we took in two concerts. On Friday Night, we watched the Group, "Night Fever..." which of course is a tribute band to the Bee Gees! What a great event that was, the music was terrific.

On Saturday night, we saw "The McCartney Years" which of of course is a tribute band to Paul McCartney. Again, this was a great show, and probably the highlight of the weekend. I love listening to live music, especially when you know all the songs!

The nice thing about Cowapolooza is that it is all FREE! Love those magic words. The Town, and a bunch of Coporate Sponsors put on the whole show, and it is enjoyed by many!

Back to normal tomorrow...

Till tomorrow...

 

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