THIS WAS OUR PRIDE AND JOY

But that was in the 80's

Ruth and I bought this building on Portage Avenue when we were in our 20's.

Man !!!! That was a long time ago. 

Anyways , we loved the building. We lived on the second level for over a decade. 

We raised two wonderful daughters on that second floor.

We drove them to Balmoral Hall school every day. Life Sure is (Was ) Fun.

My friend Wayne spent last week in Winnipeg and sent me this picture.

The new owners bought from us in 2002 and still haven't taken down our piano sign.

I have a story on the flag.

The building was build in 1880. It's called the Parkview building.

It was originally built as the Home Bank. The only bank in Manitoba to go bankrupt.

The post office bought it in 1895 and they erected the flag.

Dr. Winestock was given the building by his dad in 1930 when he graduated medical school.
I seem to remember his telling me that it cost $3500 to purchase.

We bought it from him in the early 1980's.

There was a nice brass plaque on the corner of the building with his name on it.

His kids asked me if they could have it back in his memory. Of coarse.

So half the main floor was his office and half was a coin/gold shop.

We turned it all into show room with a work shop and office in the back.

The basement use to be the caretakers suite 

and we turned it into a recital hall complete with a grand piano.

The second floor originally had 5 one room apartments .

We gutted it and made one big apartment  loft .

When we bought the building the flagpole paint was peeled off 

and the flag had't been flown for years.

I said that when we were done renovating the showroom and open I wanted to have a flag.

I love the Canadian Flag.

So I hired a guy with a Boom Truck to come, Paint the flag pole and run a new rope thru the pulley.

He did that and I ran a new flag up the pole. It looked great. We were happy.

About two weeks later some SOB had gotten on the roof , lowered the flag and stolen it.

I was very , very , very upset to say the least.

This happened about three times over the next few months.

 I had the guy with the boom truck come back and nail the flag to the top of the mast.

We got rid of the rope.

He came back every 6-8 months with his boom truck and changed the flag. Perfect.

So one cold winter morning my carpenter friend from down the lane " Jock " called me

 at 7:30 in the morning to ask if I had taken my flagpole down for repairs 

or if the wind had taken it down.

I ran outside in my P.J.'s and looked up onto my building. It was gone.

Sure enough , some SOB had taken a saw , cut the pole down , and then stolen my flag.

He had cut it 3 feet from the base (which was a square base)

I called my friend Louie the welder to make a square sleeve to cover the base and weld

a 20 foot 3 inch round pole on top of it which would hinge to lower so I could replace the flag.

He built it and it worked great.

 I also had Louie make a locking pin so you would need to need a key to activate the hinge.

Two weeks later someone shimmied up the pole in the dead of night and stole my flag.

Look at the picture of the building.

He must have climbed up a 20 foot 3" pole about 2 feet from the front edge of a 35 foot building.

Had to be nuts.

 I was so mad . I lowered the pole , put on a new flag and greased 

6 feet to 10 feet up the pole and never lost another flag .

 I Win , I Think.

MORE CONSTRUCTION ON THE FARM

So last week I had David come over and dig the first 8 feet to our sewer connection by hand. 

There is a water line somewhere around here that feeds 490 home above us

 and no one seems to know exactly where it is.

I didn't want to run the risk of hitting it with a machine.

We successfully found where the sewer connection was
 and dug the connection spot onto our property with no interruptions.
Thank goodness.

Last night Iron Horse diggers dropped off their big machine.

It's huge. Lots of power.

Hard to tell by this picture but he moved tons of dirt today.

The hole os 10 feet deep on the north side but only 4 feet deep on the south side.

There was a bolder about 8 feet down in the north east corner.

I figured this was going to be a problem but this machine and operator amazed me.

He managed to dig it out and pick it out of the hole. WOW.

 So the son (Brandon) is busy digging the hole for the footings and work shop.

Mark (The dad) is busy digging the trench for our new line to city sewer.

The line from the house to the city connection is about 160 feet.

This guy is magical in this digger.

Carrie and I cleared most of the brush out so that he could get down on to the lower level of the yard.

It may not look like much of a slope but it is steep enough not to be able to walk up.

 Carrie and I sat on this stump enjoying the show.

There is no way we would ride down this hill in a machine.

Carrie was wondering how many machines he has rolled in his career.

Mark got down the hill, turned around and just kept digging.

The trench is between 3-8 feet deep and 160 feet long.

He started at 8:00 A.M. and left to pick up the piping at 3:00 P.M.

He's a pretty cool guy.

Tomorrow's going to be another busy day. 

I can't wait.

ANOTHER BUSY WEEK / OCTOBER 19. WHERE DOES THE TIME GO

We had an insulation company out this week.

I was going to do this job myself with a rental system from Home Depot 

but it would take me a few days to get it done.

It took them two hours plus they arrange for the government rebate .

Well worth the investment.

We have two attics. 

Once the fat biker dude squeezed thru this hole he was done in no time.

We'll be warmer this winter.

Meanwhile , Ruth reads books to Ellie just before bed.

Our lighting is not as bright as we would like.

Carrie pulls the late shift every Friday night.

She's become a pro on the Zamboni.

The kids are getting ready for the big day.

This is one spooky yard.

 So we're hooking up to sewer in the next week or two.

I got the $1100. permit from the city this week.

We're building a garage with a 1000. sq. foot house on top of it 

and the city won't let me hook it up to my septic field.

I need to build a new field for the next house and a field now costs $32,000.

Yes , you read that correct. I'm hooking to city sewer instead.

So I have a digger coming next week to dig a trench from the house the city connection.

Downside is that our connection is 7 feet onto city property and the private water server for 

490 homes above me says his main water line runs beside our property and he's not sure where.

He also said that he hopes my digger has 5 million $ insurance

 because if he hits the main line he's going to need it.

Needless to say , that guy is a jerk.

Also , it's not true. He's responsible to have a map showing where his water line is.

So just to make life easy I got a friend and we hand dug across city property to the connection.

Problem solved. The connection is about four feet under the dirt.

When we finished there were no water lines anywhere to be seen.

This problem kept me awake for 3 nights from worry.

I slept like a baby last night.

We'll start the machinery dig next Tuesday across the yard.

Ellie loves Ruth's home made chicken noodle soup.

She ate 3 bowls full.

What a face.

I wonder what she'll look like when she's 30.

I CAN ONCE AGAIN DOWNLOAD PICTURES.

I've been having trouble loading pictured from my phone to my computer for almost two weeks

 but today our I.T. guru came over and fixed my problems.

So the kids came from the island for Thanksgiving and it was a lot of fun.

Carrie had built a zip line for the kids but it ran straight into a thorn bush.

They only used it once. Haha

We hung out on the farm for most of the weekend but did go for one hike down the Rail Trail.

I was wondering what kind of animal this was .

I didn't like those horns.

The sign explained everything.

So here is Ruth in her Happy Place.

She loves to feed people.

Here's me in my happy place.

I love to eat her cooking.

Sharon took the family Thanksgiving picture this year.

After dinner Ruth and Sharon cleaned up the mess.

The rest of us digested the Turkey.

This bunch of kids entertained themselves with a game on my iPad.

Isaac is developing into a very good artist.

He entertained himself for hours this weekend sketching in his notepad.

Daisy got tired of waiting for some attention and up and left.

With everyone taken care of the girls left the main part of the house.

Ruth got comfortable on the bed.

The girls sat on the couch in our bedroom and they all had a nice visit.

On Sunday we had an open fire and a wiener roast.

Ellie kept us very entertained .

Here she found some paper and made a sign saying 

Big Sale. Then stuck it on this tree.

She was selling pine cones , bark and stones.

Here she is giving me her sales pitch.

She said I could have a pine cone and it would be for free.

So generous.

 Then she said she was going to sell her stuff to people on the rail trail.

Here she is heading down to the trail.

She stood here for about 10 minutes before a woman on a bike came along.

Ellie stopped her and gave her sales pitch.

The woman looked worried for this little girl out in the woods by herself. 

We yelled down to her saying that she was with us and we were watching.

The woman laughed , waved and got on her bike .

Then Ellie yelled up to us saying she was going to walk down the trail and look for customers. 

That's when we made her come back to the fire.

What a kid. 

All that selling made her hungry.

We took some family pictures.

Here is two of my four favourite girls.

We did manage to get one nice outdoor picture of the whole bunch of us.

I like to supervise.

This kid makes me laugh.

She likes to watch the news with me at 5:00.

This kid makes me laugh too.

We were watching a movie in the living room and she complained that she couldn't see anything
 in the kitchen while she made lunches for the kids trip home to the island in the morning.
Problem solved. She's a get it done kind of gal.

We finished the movie andI think she forgot that she still had this headlamp on.

I use the tractor to take the garbage up the hill every Tuesday.

Ellie came along for the ride and kept me company.