Day Two of the Big Move

Yesterday Tom helped Stuart and Heajin move furniture and boxes into the new house. I spent the day cleaning the kitchen. Well today we left Stu and Heajin to work at unpacking boxes and getting their home organized. Tom and I spent our day working in the yard.

The previous owners were just as good at yard maintenance as they were with house cleaning. The flower gardens must have been very pretty at one time but I don't think they have been taken care of for a long time.

We started in the front yard. Tom cut the grass while I got started on the flower bed which was just as mass of weeds and Perennials gone wild. He took over with the shovel and helped me complete the work on this one. Here are the before pictures. Some artificial white flowers and a rose bush out of control.

 

And the after. There is still more that we plan on doing to this but at least it looks much better than it did.

Then it was to the backyard. Another disaster of a flower garden.

And the after. Again lots more work to do but looks better.

Stu and Heajin took us out for dinner at a chicken wing place near by. It was really good. We were hungry, tired and dirty. They are on their own now for awhile. We will go and give them a hand with further renos as they arise but for now we are done. Now for a day of rest.

Until tomorrow - safe travels.

 

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Oh man my back hurts!!

Stuart and Heajin have bought their first home in Canada. Today was the big day. We headed up to their current residence this morning early and spent quality time packing all their worldly possessions up from their basement apartment out to the truck Stu had rented for the big event.

Here we are all locked and loaded ready to go.

The rental truck which is packed to the gunnels as well as 4 cats!!!

Big Mo packed with exercise equipment, bikes, etc.

Stu's car packed with 2 dogs plus the canoe and whatever else will fit.

Off we go for the other end of the fun day.

We arrive before Stu as he has stopped to pick up cold beer for the workers..us!! I take the keys and head for the house with the sold sign out front. Omg the keys don't work. I try and try and thank god no one is home. I am at the wrong house. Their house is next door. Oops!!! Sorry neighbors..me bad!!

Ok got the right house and the key works. So far so good. We stop for lunch and then the other 3 work at unloading the truck while I get started at cleaning the kitchen. Believe me I have never seen a fridge or cupboards as filthy as these. I would be ashamed to leave that kind of mess behind. But it is sparkling now!!

After they got the truck unloaded Tom and Stu returned the rental and picked up pizza for dinner. We got them as settled as we could for today and then got ready to head home.

We will go back tomorrow to cut the grass, clean up the yard and give them some more help. That is if we can get out of bed!!

Until next time - safe travels.

 

 

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Thanks Guys

We did end up spending the night with the Hollinger's. This morning Judy made breakfast and we watched Deb and Gerrard get their 5th packed up and ready to head out.

After they pulled out we had another visit with John Sharpe. He reports that Sheila is feeling somewhat better but still not great.

The sun came out and it turned into a nice day. After lunch we headed off for home. We took the back roads with the top down to get our daily quota of vitamin D!!

As we got closer to home the clouds started to roll in again. By the time we got to Orangeville we were thinking we may have to put the top up on the car.

But we braved it out and kept on rolling. It never rained but was a bit chilly by the time we got home.

A really nice weekend spent with good friends. Thanks again John and Judy for your hospitality. See you again soon. Until next time - safe travels.

 

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Cowapolooza

Friday night I had dinner out with a couple of my neighbor ladies. Marlene and Cathy are ladies that have also lived on our court for more than twenty years. We all left our men at home to fend for themselves for the evening. We went to RKitchen at Bathurst and 16th Ave. It was really good food and we have a great visit catching up on all the local gossip.

Woodstock Cowapolooza summer fair. What a blast and it is all free. We had planned to take the trailer down to Woodstock for a few days. But we changed our minds. Tom is still recovering from his cold and we decided that the cost to drag the trailer down was too much after our trip out west. So we headed down on Saturday morning just to spend the day. John and Judy said bring along a tooth brush just in case we wanted to spend the night.

We arrived at the Hollinger's rv park around noon. Deb and Gerrard are spending a few days in the park as well. We hadn't seen them since they came to visit when we were in Florida. Great to see them again. We all packed up and headed into town to partake in the activities.

The big event was the 10th annual Strong Man/Strong Woman Competition. This young lady won the women's contests. Here she is lifting 132 pounds over her head like it was nothing.

 

The next event was to flip this huge 300 pound tractor tire uphill.

The last event was carrying 121 pounds in each hand down the lane 50 feet, run back and drag a 300 pound sleigh for 50 feet across the finish line. WOW!!

The men's events were the same only with much heavier weights. The log lift got up to 293 pounds. This fellow won that event. After he won he did one last lift at 303 pounds...omg!!!

The tractor tire the men flipped weighed 700 pounds!!!

The last event had the men carry 251 pounds in each hand 50 feet, run back and pull a 525 pound sleigh 50 feet across the finish line.

Hurt my back just watching!!

Judy was checking out the cows and demonstrating how to properly chew your cud.

Then we had the rubber ducky race. First prize was $1000. The ducks were all dumped into the river and pushed down stream with fire hoses. The first three through the shoot won. My duck must have turtled out again this year!!

This duck was rather confused by the number of babies it suddenly adopted.

We headed back to the rv park for snacks and a visit with another old travel friend, John Sharpe. The last we saw of them again was down in Frostproof last winter. They stay in the same rv park as John and Judy for the summers. His wife Sheila didn't join us. Unfortunately she is not feeling well. We hope she is back on her feet real soon. We look forward to seeing them in Florida again this winter. Here are Gerrard, Deb and John Sharpe.

The Hollinger's. Love the Charlie Sheen hat Judy!!

Then back to the park to watch a band called The McCartney Years. They put on a pretty good performance. As you can see we were enjoying the music. Especially Deb!!

Rain had come and gone throughout the day. This evening it decided to get us a bit damp. We decided not to wait for the next band and headed to Charles Dickens for dinner. Excellent food, great service and good prices. I commend it to anyone who finds themselves in the Woodstock area.

Back to the rv park after dinner for a camp fire and visit. Even with the rain it was the perfect end to a great day.

Until next time - safe travels.

 

 

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Build a Quonset?

Yesterday was a beautiful hot and sunny day. We spent most of the day working outside catching up with the yard work that has been neglected for the past two weeks. Stuart stopped by for a visit and showed us his new company car. A nice steak BBQ for dinner and an early night. We are still recovering from our travels and the lack of sleep the night before our return flight.

This morning we were up early and on the road to Orillia. Our friend Tom Jarvis is building a steel Quonset on his property. We had volunteered to give him a hand. He needs to bolt together 27 arches. Each arch is comprised of 7 pieces of steel. There are 12 bolts in each joint. Four of us managed to build 10 arches in the 4 hours we worked at it. It was extremely hot and no shade where we were working. I forgot to get pictures but took these from the internet.

We didn't put any of the arches up, just put them together. This will give you an idea.

After building 10 we were exhausted and stopped for lunch and lots of cold water. After he gets them all built than the next step will be to lift them up, one at a time, and bolt them together. Interesting. I have seen hundreds of these buildings but have never seen one put together before. Learn something new everyday.

We left there and stopped to visit our friends Ron and Pat MacKenzie. Pat insisted that we stay for dinner.

After a lovely dinner and a nice visit we headed for home. We got about 13 km north of Barrie when we ran into a traffic jam. Traffic was backed up for miles as far as you could see. We hopped off as soon as we could and took the back roads home.

Nice weekend. Now time to get back to the exercise programs and get life back to normal. Tom is still recovering from his cold. Tomorrow he will be able to add lots of sore muscles also.

Until next time - safe travels.

 

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Home Again

After a long night at the airport our flight got into the air on time and the flight home was smooth. No delays, no diversions, no storms!!

Our friends. Dave and Helen were arriving from their vacation in Scotland about an hour after our arrival. We had offered to wait for them and give them a ride home. We only had to wait about an hour.

Helen doesn't travel light!!! We had fun getting all the luggage into our car but we managed. One fellow that was watching suggested we may need new shocks after this trip...lol. We dropped them off at their daughters house and headed for home.

Tom's old canoe buddies, Mike and Aviva called to see if we wanted to join them for dinner tonight. Sounded good to me. I am not too interested in cooking this evening. I grabbed a 2 hour cat nap and then we headed up to Newmarket. We met that at the The Goulash House.

After dinner it was a direct bee line to bed. We have been up for about 41 hours. Exhausted doesn't really cover it. Tom picked up a nasty cold out there also and is feeling pretty crappy. We need some down time to get back to normal.

Our next adventure is Cowapalooza in Woodstock next week. Should be fun.

Until next time - safe travels.

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Back to Alberta

We hit the road this morning fairly early and headed west. We drove a different route on the way back which took us through Prince Albert rather than Saskatoon. The rolling rolls and valleys were really pretty. Many people think of flat boring scenery when they think of Saskatchewan. But those people have to get off the Trans Canada and travel north of the boring part. They would be surprised at how beautiful the scenery really is.

We stopped in Vegreville, AB to take a look at the World's largest Easter Egg

 

 

This is located in the Elk's Park

Then a stop in Mundare, AB to take a look at the World's largest Kobassa

This buffalo as relocated from Calgary. It is hand painted by native artists.

Tom had to take a picture of me in what he thought looked like a huge colon!!

We arrived in Edmonton without incident. Had dinner at the White Spot in Leduc. Great food and reasonable prices. I highly recommend it if you find yourself in the area. We dropped off the rental at the airport and got ready for a long night. Our flight leaves at 6:00 am tomorrow. Makes no sense to get a hotel room for just a few hours so we are going to spend the night at the airport.

We got checked in and found the observation deck where we can relax, read or cat nap.

Until next time - safe travels.

 

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