THIS MADE ME TEAR UP A LITTLE WHEN I READ IT.

    THIS IS FROM CARRIE'S FACEBOOK

I always thought I would keep this to myself, but I'm so proud of this kid I want to show him off a bit...
Friends, this is Amidu. I met his mom Florence, little sister Esther and him in 2004 when I did a stint on mercy ships. The ship was operating in Freetown, Sierra Leone, shortly after the end of a brutal civil war...
Before I left, I promised Florence that I would send school fees every year until they both graduated high school, about $300/year. Big deal right?
Well it's a big deal. He made it through highschool, so did his sister. I couldn't afford college fees, (they are comparable to ours) so this young man got his hustle on. I don't know how this little boy from the refugee-camp did it, but here he is.
Yesterday Amidu graduated with second class honours in applied mathematics and mechanics, and he holds a degree in IT. I don't know what that means, but it sounds fancy...
His mom is over the moon. And so am I.
Go Amidu!! I hope one day I get to write another post like this for his little sister Esther.

FLORENCE their mom ,ESTHER and AMIDU in 2004

WHERE HAS THIS MONTH GONE. IT'S THE 19TH ALREADY

My next adventure.

Sharon runs a woman's retreat every year at Camp Imadine.

This year she has a woman offering a hand painted picture to each camper that is post card size and 

needed a holder for each one.

I offered to whip up 150 stands in my shop out of Douglas Fir. 

What else can I do to fill my time. I'm retired. Haha.

 They look and work great.

I asked her if I should varnish them 

She said that this was fine . I didn't need to do that.

She didn't know that I was just joking.

They just need a little sanding.

I also need a couple od samples to show my whittling class.

Here's a right handed spatula.

This should work nicely.

Ruth wanted the tractor shed moved from in front of the garage to behind 

where it won't be as noticeable. I hate asking for help so Carrie and I designed a system.

We strapped two 2x4's to the inside frame, put the forks on the tractor and a stepladder on the forks.

Next I raised the forks in the centre of this 20x12 building and got it off the ground.

Carrie balanced it while I drove it around to the other location.

We laughed the whole time we were doing this.

I love working with her.

Next activity of the day was a wiener roast.

Ellie was busy doing up a marshmallow.

Guess what she was thinking.

I'm bored....

She walked away before she had even completed one marshmallow.

Ruth is so accommodating.

Here she finished the task and called Ellie when it was finished.

Then she climbed onto the trampoline to keep her company.

I'm talking about Ruth now.

That lasted about 2 minutes until Ellie said that was enough.

That kid makes me laugh.

Carrie made up some giant bubble sticks which entertained them for about 30 minutes.

Ellie laughed so hard and was very busy popping bubbles.

It's been 44 years.

Not sure how she has put up with me this long.

We took a bike ride around the lake on Monday morning .

It was also my birthday.

There's a little stand at the head of the lake in Oyama where we stopped for a burger and yam fries.

This is a great way to spend a morning.

This was a nice morning.

Ruth is happiest when we are outside in the fresh air.

I'm just wishing my burger would hurry up.

Looks like we are going to have a good crop of strawberries this year.

The berries started out as ground cover but will provide so much more.

I can't wait.

Thursday afternoon we had Andy come with his partner and remove 8 -20 for cedars

which separated the two houses.

They ut them down and had the mess all cleaned up within three hours.

I like the looks of them gone but sorry to see them go 

only because the quail would roost in them at night.

Here's a picture for workman's comp.

Carrie built me a bracket to bend the ends of a tin roof I was putting over the garage door.

It turned out great.

MAY IS MY FAVOURITE MONTH

It's my Birthday on the 13th as well as my anniversary.

This life sure is fun.

I went out to the mill for some scrap lumber last week.

There is lots of it laying around.

Glad I have these racks on the truck.

Between what I have laying around the yard that was left over from the build and what I just got from 

the Northern Log and Timber yard I have put together 3 picnic tables.

This one is for by our fire pit.

This one is going back to the mill.

I've done a deal with them where I will be helping build some house shells 

with them over the next few months and I want to have something to sit on 

while I eat my lunch.

And this red beauty went to the community garden that Ruth is overseeing 

this year. It's my favourite. 

I hope no one steals it.

Now this is a problem.

I'm starting to hate woodpeckers.

New house. 18 months of my life here .

One evening of this little pecker and he did all this damage.

I rented a bucket lift last Saturday and Carrie and I had to remove some boards before

we netted the gables on both sides of the new house.

I don't like heights and neither does Carrie but she just mans up and does what has to be done.

If she wasn't here I would do it but she's so much younger and nimble , she lets me off the hook.

We do make a good team though. She calls down what she needs and I make sure she gets it.

We both like working together.

That damn woodpecker did a lot of damage.

So after we were finished doing the repairs and netting the place she took Ellie and Jack for a ride.

We didn't thing that Ellie would go but she loved going up it the lift with her Mom and Brother.

Such fun seeing how they all stick together as friends and family.

I built a woodpecker house about 2 months ago for the little buggers
and they left our build to move into their new digs.

We have a few more woodpeckers living around our place so I built 3 more houses for the on the weekend. We'll see if they move into the new homes by the weekend. 

I just have to hang them up in a fresh bunch of trees behind the house.

Carrie got a new addition to the family.

We all love these birds.

This is the scrap yard in the back of the mill.

There is a homeless guy living back here in that derelict truck. 

He's a nice guy but he just can't live at the mill anymore.

John finally told him to move on.

He needs some help.His health is going down. 

I feel sad thinking about this.

I went to the mill on Thursday and waited for John to unload a logging truck.

Hanging out here is so different from being a business man in a suit but I sure enjoy being here.

When I see the guys here we seem to laugh about everything all day long.

It's nice. John and his sister are such great people.

So I walked down the hill and thru the bush following John in his bobcat 

down to the campsite in the back 40.

I hooked a chain up to the truck and John lifted the rear end up into the air.

I'm  amazed on how powerful a bobcat is.

He dragged it up the hill , over the flats and up to the road.

He consider ourselves house movers now.

It will be picked up in a few days by a salvage company.

One more eyesore off the property.

Ruth and I own a couple of condo's here in lake country.

The Realestate sign that is erected at the entrance to the property was trashed

so I decided to rebuild it.

I replaced the broken sliding tracks with nice wooden douglas fir tracks
  I milled from some rough cut wood left over from our build.

Then I painted it and put it back up at the entrance to the condo's.

These are beautiful Resort Like Living Condo's on Woods lake.

I am sure they will sell quickly.