We Took The Grand Kids To The Armstrong Fair

And we  had a nice time. We have been here before with Jack but this was the first time to be bringing Ellie. She is such a great little girl. 

When ever Ruth would point to an animal and say " look at this Ellie " she would  turn and take a look at what ever animal Ruth was talking about. She is such a little sponge.

Both kids seemed do focus on this mom sow when Ruth pointed her out to them.

Jack wanted to go on some rides but we had to restrict him to only one. We didn't bring enough money with us for everything that was available. I don't think he really cared. This ride had him into the white knuckle mode. He is such a great kid. I loved seeing him hang on like this.

Every time he went past me I would call his name. Finally he stopped staring at the flying fish in front of him and gave me a slight smile for me to capture.

When we left the fair grounds little Ellie was starting to fuss but luckily Ruth has some food for her to fill up on. She certainly lets us know what she wants and when she wants it.

So on the ride home Jack kept asking us why we were so old and when we were going to die. Ruth answered that it wouldn't be for a long time but I think it bothered me a little. It may have been because I think a lot about our mortality after getting that shard of glass jammed into my temple last April. I sure appreciate my life and that I am able to have my time here with Ruth.This life sure is fun. I don't want to leave yet.

I Built A Box For My Pool Cover

This is likely the best investment Ruth and I have done this year. We bought an electric cover for out pool. We could have bought a new car for the same amount but this is better. By keeping the pool covered at night and when we are not using it we have managed to keep the temperature around 90 degrees just by using our solar panels that I installed on the roof a few years back. We have even had a few friends over for pool parties. Its been a great investment and our friends love the warm water.

So I am building this box that will cover the new system when it is rolled up. I started building it on the deck in front of the kitchen but soon realized that when complete it would be too large and heavy to move down to the pool area. Ruth and I moved it down to the pool deck yesterday before I got too far into the project. I spent the day finishing the 2 x 4 framing and got it covered with the plywood. It is going to be perfect.

 Next I covered the front and sides of the box with pine so that it would match the planters we have in the pool area. I like keeping everything consistent .

Once the back of the box is painted I will set it into place. The back is just inches from the wall and being a good Scotsman I didn't want to waste money on covering it with pine. Ruth is a better painter than me. I don't have her patience so she has always been in charge of painting around our house.

So our engineer friend came for a swim with his grand daughter last week and when he saw my 28 foot box he told Ruth that I was going to need at least 10 friends over to help set it in place. Now I'm no engineer but I know a little about getting things done with little effort. The women in my life are smart and full of great ideas on how to Git Her Done.  I just told them what we had to move and they had the job done between appetizers and dinner this evening. I'll take 2 women power any day. This was Shelly's night. It's her birthday today. No Dinner till she did some work.

Ruth and Shelly moved the cover into place by themselves.

The box turned out great. Now all we need is for our Son in law "Brad" to wire the electric cover into our system and then I have to figure out what type of top to put onto this box. It should be finished  by next week.

So Ruth's older sister came for a visit this weekend from Edmonton. It was her birthday today and Ruth thought it would be nice if she celebrated that special day here with her inlaws.

There are a lot of candles here . I was thinking that I might need to get the fire extinguisher out in case she couldn't take care of the flames but it turns out that we were safe. No shortage of wind here.

I grabbed the camera just as Ruth was going to drive her to catch her ride back to Edmonton.

So this made me laugh. Ruth and I started to watch that movie" OVERBOARD " tonight with Goldie Hawn after she got back from dropping off her sister. The dog on her Yacht looked so much like our Daisy I had to roll the show back and take a picture of this famous pup.

Then I noticed that Daisy was sprawled out on a pillow beside Ruth and looked like that movie star. I had to take her picture as well for a comparison.

With just a little bit of a trim I think I could get this mutt into the movies. She is very beautiful.

This Was Ruth's Perfect Day

We started out on Beaver Lake with 4 other friends for a paddle. This is one of the nicest lakes I have ever been on. It was calm and no boat waves. It is an electric boat lake only. We saw quite a few fishermen while out there paddling. We left town around 8:30 and were getting ready to paddle by 9:30. The lake was about 1400 meters above sea level. That is about 1100 meters higher than our house. The road up here was terrible.

So I have decided that I don't like being in the middle of a lake in a kayak . We had gone quite a few miles down the lake and when we decided to head back to the lodge I Just turned around and got my boat up on step. Naturally I was the first one back so I took pictures of everyone as they pulled in. Randy wasn't far behind me. He said he felt out of place paddling with the girls and so he poured on the steam. I think he just didn't want me to be lonely while waiting for the gang.

Sharon just started to kayak this year and she loves it. When I look over to see where she is on the lake I only see this big grin. It makes me happy to see someone this happy.

 
Carol worked really hard to keep her Kayak up with the rest of us. She is in a white water kayak and it is built for fast water kayaking. I was impressed with her speed. She will likely get an ocean kayak next year as well as keeping this one.

So Ruth and Deborah pulled in about 10 minutes after the rest of us had landed. I think they had gotten into some sort of discussion. The wind had come up and we all had to work a little harder coming back.

I love how happy Ruth is on the water. Right now this is the most favourite hobby she is doing.

She used my kayak this morning and I used hers. Hers is a little wider and a little more stable. I want to sell mine because I am building another one for myself that is even wider than hers. I shouldn't have built mine because it is a model designed for a 175 pound advanced kayaker and I'm not advanced. Ha.

This was my favourite time of the morning kayak. We all brought something for lunch. There is nothing finer than a shore lunch even though we didn't have any fish to fry.

Finally we got a picture with me in it . As usual , I am in the shadow and can't be seen.

I Got This Out Of My System ....Thank Goodness

I have been thinking that I would like to buy a boat but after a two hour rental I have had a change of mind. This lake is one big puddle with no islands . For me its not worth the investment.

 Not a lot to see but we did have a great time for the two hours we were out. It's nothing like boating on "lake Of The Woods"where we come from. I really believe that its not about how much you make but how much you can save and I think I saved about $50000. this morning. So we got the boat at 10:30 and Carrie and her kids met us. It was great to take them with us. Ruth sat in the bow with the kids and Carrie and I sat in the bolster seats.

 This was a very nice Larson boat we had rented. Watching Ellie laugh while Ruth held her was fun. The faster we drove  ,  the more we bumped and the more wind that she got in her face  ,  the happier she got. I think she is going to be a wild girl when she grows up.

 I showed Jack how to steer the boat and he got on to it right away.

So we drifted a little bit off shore. Too far out to be able to look at the mansions crammed beside each other side by side and Ruth wanted to be able to see them better. Its not hard to figure our what she wanted done. I think Ellie was agreeing with her at this point.

Luckily I wasn't driving. That Jack is such a troublemaker. He finally headed in towards shore. I was also happy when he decided to do that because I wanted to look at those beautiful homes as well.

It Was 9 Years Ago Today

This scene is burnt into my brain. Whenever I think of fire I visualize sitting on my deck watching the flames come over the mountain. I took this picture  2:00 A.M. on the Wednesday morning one day before our house burnt to the ground in a wildfire . When I saw the flames getting this close to my home I called our piano movers and left a message on their machine with instructions to be at our place first thing in the morning to help me empty the house. They were here at 7:00 A.M. and we removed most of our possessions. My neighbours thought I was over reacting but it turned out to be the right thing to do. There were still some things I regretfully left behind.

So Thursday evening around 6:oo P.M. We heard a noise that wasn't familiar. We ran out onto the deck and saw this machine picking up water right in front of the house and dropping it down the cliff which is about 100 feet behind the house . We knew we had to leave right away.

On Sunday we were allowed to come back to see if our house was still standing. I  can still feel the shock I felt that day as Ruth and I walked up our driveway.  It was like being in a bit of a daze . We weren't allowed to come up alone. The city had a minister come up the driveway with us. We were told later that it was in case we had some sort of a break down. They did this with everyone who lost their homes.

All that was left standing was the brick entrance hall wall and the fireplace. It was quite a scene.

So Ruth and I lived in a trailer for 22 months while we built our new home. It was a huge undertaking. Its one thing to plan for your new home but it is another thing to wake up one morning with no place to live and you have to start to build your new dwelling. I don't think I have ever had to work so hard at anything before or since. It was very hands on for both of us. Not something I would want to do again.
So we started the construction on the new house. Ruth had made friends with Isabelle Chen and she agreed to design a home for us. I think she was the most sought after architect living in the Okanagan at that time.
We managed to start the foundation for our home just before a cement strike started.

Unfortunately the cement strike caused all kinds of problems for us when we wanted to build and we  couldn't get the forms for our foundation. Thankfully we found out about the Logics company . We built the foundation out of their foam blocks. I would do this again only I would build the entire house out of them.

We had a great crew.

I don't think that I have ever had to work this hard in my life. This is about the time my hair turned gray. Or as I like to think.......Silver.

Once the cement got poured we felt more confident we would be living in something besides a trailer someday. It was fun for a while but 22 months with 3 dogs was pushing it.

Carrie was an officer in the Canadian Coast Guard and was stationed in the Arctic. It was lucky for us that she worked one month on and one month off. On her months off she would come and help us build the house. Here we were cutting the seal for waterproofing the foundation. That was an ugly job.

It was one of out life adventures and it turned out all right. 9 years later to the day we are still happy and kicking. I wouldn't want to have to go thru it again because it did take its toll on us. Fires are a very devestating  thing to experience.  

Feeding Time

This makes me laugh. I got home from my 2 week fishing trip yesterday and went to feed the dogs this morning. Now I have always snuck a little of our scraps into their food but this morning Ruth gave me a tupper ware container of special mix to give to the dogs as well as their regular food.  It was a mixture of rice , hamburger  and chicken stock that she has been making up. I was about to mix it into their food when she stopped me. Seems she has been heating it up first to make it nicer for them. And I thought that I spoiled them. Ha. The dogs voted tonight and they want me to spend more time away because they eat better when Ruth is in charge of the dinners.

These dogs have never been happier.

 Daisy our little mutt never eats her whole meal like this in one sitting. 

Back To Bruce And Heather's

So Ron drove me back to the city on Friday where I rented this terrific little Volvo for a couple of days. This is a great car. Fast , comfortable and economical. It was a good choice.

I drove back to Clearwater Bay for another night with Bruce and Heather. It was worth the ride. We hung out in the living room while dinner was being prepared. 

It's very laid back here.

The ambience on the deck while dining on a great meal is one of the reasons I love coming to the lake.

The view of Clearwater Bay is wonderful from their deck.

So Bruce is doing a boat top on a cruiser down on his dock. I was helping a little last week and we are going to finish it this morning. I counted 76 stairs down to the boat . It isn't bad going down but it sucks coming back up.

It felt like old times while I hung out with Bruce watching him create a new top for this boat. It was fun. We must have talked and solved just about every worldly problem that exists.  I only wish that he could develop stronger opinions on the topics we talk about . Ha.

So Julie and Mark are staying in Wayne and Sue's guest cottage until the beginning of September when they will head back to Florida for the winter. They inviter us over for lunch on the dock around 1:00. I wish I had a couple of more days to hang out with this gang. They are all very nice people.

So just as I was heading back to Winnipeg I managed to get Julie to pose with me for a last shot. We laughed an awful lot this last couple of days whenever we got together.