Earth Hour 2009 !

Tomorrow I will be observing Earth Hour. How about you? Are you going to turn off all unnecessary power drawing electrical devices? Last year we sat in candle light and just enjoyed the quiet. Of course we had charged our laptops. But it was kind of neat to look down the street and see so many of the houses dark and also participating in Earth Hour 2008! So lets get ready! Tomorrow at 830pm turn off your lights etc.

A new look for my Blog!

It was time for a change. Of course these things always take me hours longer then I anticipate at the outset of my 'wee' endeavour! I have enjoyed working on the look of this blog though.
A blog really is a very personal thing when you get right down to it. You're trying to squish a lot about yourself into a person's first look at your blog. Weird really when you consider that most of us put more effort into our blogs then into our relationships with our neighbours. Something that I hope to change in the summer!! Getting to know my neighbours that is. One of our neighbours runs his snow blower down or front sidewalk when we get a big dump of snow and I want to tell him how much it is appreciated! May be I will simply drop a thank you card in his mailbox. It's a small thing to thank him for such a big thing!
Winter seems to be dragging on and we're only in January - mind you January is almost over! Why on earth I live in such a cold place 6 months out of the year is a mystery to me. Although I don't know that I have the 'skill set' that would be required to move somewhere warm that I would like. So this year I treated myself to a pair of long johns! Yup thermal underwear to keep me warm - especially since my car windows have long since refused to seal and now let in a draft that is hard enough to mess up your hair!! ... makes it a might bit chilly on the highway!
So cheers to the new look of my old blog and cheers to my endeavour to treat myself more kindly this year and others as well.

My only loyal reader...

Reminded me that she does check my blog but there hasn't been any action on here for quite some time. Okay so here's an update:
Winter is still here and seems to be taking on the whole flipping country with even more then it's usual vigor. But at least we Canadian's are all suffering together right?? Ughh

Christmas came and went with an added surprise of seeing a long lost friend whom we love much!!

We had a quiet time with immediate family and Joan all the while thinking of our Nova Scotia contingent.

New Year's eve was quiet, we stayed up and wished each other well and then went to bed. We're such party animals here eh? It was really neat though to watch the fireworks on TV from downtown Edmonton instead of somewhere in the US!! Thanks Global that was very cool!


This winter on the prairies has been extreme and while the news casters say it will be good to kill off the Pine Beetle (Yeah!!) I have to wonder how much wildlife we are losing too. It has been so cold and there is more snow then we have seen in a few years. Hopefully all my fur coated and feathered pals are managing.

As a family we have been excited with the many writing projects that Pam has coming out this year! Two books and another one quickly on it's heals to be followed by another!! Wahooo !! You're really rocking Pam. Too bad that you've got to live the starving artist for a bit though! It is going to add substance and grit to your next projects though!!

This year, me thinks for myself, will be a year of reconnecting with old friends and also of personal growth and discovery.

Feed the Birds ! Tuppence a bag!!

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My thoughts are always of you three

I left half of my heart there with you when I left. This half is gaping and filled with sorrow. I miss you all so very much. I think about you all the time. I wonder what weird and wonderful clients Pam has. I wonder how Steph is finding her courses and how the saga of “How the Dorm Churns” is taking shape. I wonder if Jenn has started making her Christmas decorations yet? I am missing my weekend Wii-ing. Mathematically speaking you would think that half a heart would be lighter but it’s not. It’s like I tried to leave you as much love and happiness as I could and I brought with me all my sadness at leaving you all there. I am alone and missing you all terribly.

I hope you can find strength in each other and support one another. When you’re feeling edgy and short with each other remember that you’re all going through many emotions and take a deep breath and be kind to one another. Be patient and proud of each other for each of you is strong in your own way. Work together and you will all triumph over this hardship more quickly and with less pain. In the end you will be an even stronger family.

I love each of you so much.

Love,
Lynda AKA Ant

The Cross Country Trek Back

We made it unscathed and with most of our sanity intact. My little car did awesome as did the passengers! I think all of my car's little idiosyncrasies were probably making my poor co-pilot a little crazy toward the end but he never showed it!
My car has a few 'issues' I wouldn't call them flaws it just needs a little understanding in it's old age, like the rest of us really. The trunk can only be opened from the inside with the button, the panel on the passenger door falls partially off so that the passenger cannot get out until they lean forward and I lean across and lift it from the bottom and unhook it (of course this also means that you normally can't get in it on that side unless you first get in the drivers side and unhook the bottom of the door and then go around and get in - unless I actually remember to unhook it before I get out each time we stopped), the trunk has a leaky spot (so you put the dog dishes there and not a piece of luggage, the windows leak mass amounts of air which makes listening to the stereo a waste of time because you can't hear it. But I love my little car with all of it's 'issues'. They make me laugh because it has character - like me!

The dogs did great as usual. Really no issues with them, people are always amazed at how well they travel - which I don't really get because I just think to myself well if you train them 'how' to behave in the vehicle then it's really a non-issue. But I guess that's just me and my other dog training friends. We only had trouble trying to find a place to stay with them once and that was because there was two hockey tournaments on that weekend and everywhere was booked.

Dad and I ate absolute crap all the way along our journey, except for the apples that Pam had supplied and we ate at least one of those a day!! They were very yummy and I am sure our bodies appreciated something that was good for us!

I have to say to all YOU truckers out there - I get that you pee in a bottle so that you don't have to pull into a rest stop every time you need to pee but do you have to throw your 'PEE' bottles on the ground full at the edges of all the gas stations when you do stop? Could you not put them in a bag and throw them in the garbage can beside the diesel pump?? All I can say is GROSS !!! Some of the gas stations have an awfully big pee bottle graveyard and of course that's usually where the grass is that you are trying to toilet your dogs! Oh and by the way I pick up the dog poop and throw it in the garbage so why can't you throw your pee containers in the bin too!!!

The economy must be in a crisis because compared to July of 2007 when we drove out to Nova Scotia there were a lot less Tim Horton's cups along the road! Very few actually, which is a good thing. As with the trip East we saw very little wildlife except for the geese. Holy Hat! We saw literally thousands and thousands of Canada Geese and Snow Geese when we were coming through Saskatchewan. There were so many it was unreal. I've seen, what I thought, big flocks before but this was amazing! They literally went on for miles in the fields and in the sky. It was like nothing I've ever seen before. The sky was full of them both sides of the highway, over the highway and it was just like the sky was alive. Wing flapping masses and masses of them. Really an incredible thing to behold!

We are trying to settle in now and get into some kind of routine, which has been hard because I'm trying to get so many things sorted out and having to drive so far now to do that. But it's coming together bit by bit.

I miss the Maritime peoples friendliness and openness and the pace of life that I hope they never lose.

Changed BLOGS & Other Stuff

I was blogging my day to day life (with humour :-) ) in my K9 Ko. Blog but decided that I wanted to keep that one dog related only so I've renamed it Funny Foibles and will now blog dog stuff under the K9 Ko blog!

My last day at the Vet Clinic I wiped out walking one of the dogs. Yup did a full blown header; you know one of those classy ones where you try desperately to catch yourself and in doing so you drag the invertible 'splat' out. Then gravity takes over and says just get it over with! And whomp you come crashing into Tera FIRMA. Not so bad if you're a lightweight. I'm no lightweight any more - but I didn't break anything just hurt my pride and have been stiff for a few days... the first few the worst. I've worked with 1000's of dogs over the years and I was taken down by a very happy and hyper little Maltese! Imagine! Thank God I didn't land on the little guy! Can't you just see that conversation... oh I'm sorry Lynda landed on your 10lb white fluff ball and he's now just a little flat fluffy paper weight. Too bad because we were just getting him house trained for you and he was walking on a leash now too!!

Sent more boxes off at the Post Office today. Bought some brown paper at the Dollar Store so that I don't have to repackage stuff that I have the boxes and packaging for. I am hoping that I'm nearly done. Just clothes, computer related stuff and linens oh crap and some more scrapbooking stuff. Then I'm done.

Sally Ann is coming on Thursday to pick up some of the furniture that we can't take with us. More packing required yet but hopefully by Tuesday we're ready for the movers. Well actually I'm hoping Dad and I will be on the road that day too!

More packing....

We're on the move again! Sort, turf and pack - REPEAT over and over. We have a load of stuff that we're hoping the Salvation Army will come and pick up; old furniture and even some new furniture and lots of dishes and stuff!
Funny how when you're moving by Canada Post how brutal you can be when it comes to the turfing part of the process. I mean it's not like they care how many boxes you send but it does cost you; although I'm not complaining because it is cheaper then renting a U-Haul or shipping it by bus. Speaking of shipping by bus I was really disgusted with the people at this end. They didn't seem to know what they were doing so they had me send 3 boxes on 1 weigh bill and the one I wanted insured on the other. Insurance is like $2 - Big whoop right? But by using two weigh bills it cost me twice or three times what it would have to insure the whole lot of boxes. Now here's the part that really cheesed me off: There was 3 people standing up front (one of them the manager) and not once did they open the door for me while I was coming and going with each large box. Needless to say I switched to Canada Post!
Moving by postal service has a very weird feel to it. It's like you've sunk as low as you can on the financial scale and you've now had to resort to CP. Of course if you look at it from a different angle one could say that you are actually quite financially shrewd because you are using them as your movers! Either way it is just weird.
Pam and I are busily packing up the stuff from the living room & kitchen that they aren't going to be needing right soon and putting the full boxes in our now empty family room.

The dogs of course look at all these boxes around in various stages of being packed and look at you as if to say "Oh man are we moving again?" My poor dogs and I have moved so many times it's crazy. This will be our 7th move in 3-4 years. They're very good about it. Naturally though if they knew now that we are going to be driving all the way to Alberta they would not be too happy. It's a long drive and a lot of time in the car each day.

Another chapter developing in our crazy lives!

You cannot saw through rawhide!

Do not try this at home folks! Today I was being 'thrifty' and bought some enzyme coated rawhide chews for Olivia but they are too long so I thought cool I'll double my money and saw them in half with the table saw. If you're getting that sick feeling like you do when watching a St. John's Ambulance Video then you're on the right track. I now have a circular cut on my cheek where the half of the bone flew into my face. OUCH!! Undaunted, and stubborn, I attempted to use the chop saw. Yeah same thing they fly all over the damn place and they were not even cut just rough and pokey and all over the damn garage. So if they don't make the chewies the right size for your teeny tiny little doggie then don't buy them assuming that you can do something about it.

If you like slapstick comedy...

Laurel and Hardy were funny weren't they?!! They were truly gifted although the mean streak got old didn't it?
Pam & I are pretty funny too, especially when we are working on renovations or moving large and heavy furniture. We really should sell tickets. No matter where we live people always seem to comment about how we do so many things. We paint, drywall, lay floors, put up ceilings, lay cement blocks, haul gravel by the tonne with a weeny wheel barrel, etc. but never without laugh your socks off antics!
Today we were putting the large shutters back up (had them down to paint) and then taking down the shutters from the second floor. To do that we needed to extend the ladder almost as far as it would go. Now you need to understand that Pam and I have a hard enough time trying to maneuver this ladder when it is as short as it goes let alone when it is stretched out as far as it can go. We are also awful judges of where to put the 'wing thingers' in the sides of the ladder so that you don't bend the gutters. Yup we had a job getting the ladder up. No windows were broken during this escapade (Thank you Lord!!). Between our attempts at putting the ladder up against the house, the bugs that insist on making your life more difficult because it's really hard to hold/climb a ladder while you're doing the 'AHHHHH' there's a bug on me dance we did actually get the job done. Yup and I'm sure we entertained the neighbourhood while we were at it. Laughing is good for you though so we're supplying an essential service at the same time.
After completing the outside stuff and both still being in one piece we decided that we would move the office from one room to another to make room for Jenn's arrival.
Pam has a lovely desk, really she does but it's freaking huge and weighs a ton! It's also very wide and too long to leave the room it's currently in without being tipped up on it's side. We decided that while we both had a few knuckles unscathed we would have to tip it up on end. Done! Put an edge on a blanket and slide it down the hallway while balancing it precariously so that it doesn't scratch the hardwood... the blanket we had slid under it was too small so we had to kind of keep it up on a tiny little edge.... now we get it to Pam's room... there's already a fair amount of bedroom furniture in there to which we now are adding a whole office... You're thinking yeah so? Well Pam and I are not tiny people. We are fairly well padded shall I say. So you've got a small amount of room with which you have to get the desk in while being able to get behind it and also putting the hutch back on - did I mention the hutch weighs almost as much as the damn desk? Oh the fun... it's not so hard to lift it, say waist height, but try lifting it almost chest high... yeah it's heavy and we're bent like pretzels, a bum bumped a wonky bookcase which was full and falling toward a nearly full glass of pepsi, with much grunting nothing fell!!!... too funny thank goodness the fly on the wall didn't have a cell phone camera! Anyway now it's done and other then a little early onset rigor mortise we are grand!
We're thinking that when I have to haul myself back up that ladder to rehang the upstairs shutters we'll sell tickets, $19.95 for unlimited laughs?
On a serious note though we have accomplished a lot since arriving 13 months ago...

• put down tile in a family room in the basement and painted the room as well (Steph's crash pad)
• we learned how to move, store and split wood and heat with a wood stove
• moved half of the office downstairs to make room for guests (much anticipated!)
  
• gave the front trees and bushes a major pruning
  
• leveled out the major bumps in the front yard and actually have grass growing amidst the clover this year!
• dug a trench (a very long and deep trench), made it into a french drain with a dry well at one end
• lined the trench with landscape cloth, filled with rock and then covered it with cloth and more rock
• leveled out the worst parts of the backyard with the dirt from the trench
• neighbours chopped down one dead tree
  
• built 5 planters
• scraped, caulked, painted main floor windows and garage doors
• placed sidewalk blocks strategically around the gravel with intermittent pots of flowers, birdbath etc.
• landscape ties - surround gravel and follow much of the fence line to Olivia proof the backyard
• removed and painted garage shutters - rehung
  
• removed the shutters and spray painted them with half a dozen coats each (6 main floor, 4 upper)
• scrubbed the siding to remove dirt, algae, moss etc.
  
• Built a very large wood shed for the firewood
• fixed the lawnmower - the wheel fell off, only after chewing a great hunk of my good grass out
  
• went on a chinch bug hunt and attack
• cleaned and stained the front and back 2 decks (spindle railings look pretty but are a huge pain the the butt to stain!!)
• rehung main floor shutters
• MORE to come !!

Mewahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!

Olivia 2008

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My Big Guy !!

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Today I bid you adieu....

Oh what a day! Egad you'd think it was a Monday or April 1st or something!

• First when I went to leave for the hardware store to get more stuff for the fire wood shed I had to pump up all 4 of my car tires first (they keep going flat)
• I picked up everything on my list
  
• Even though I measured twice I still had to cut three times
• I ran out of screws, I'm STILL working on a roof for the wood shed
• I went to check out a kennel that makes their own raw dog food, I thought it would take 30 mins to get there... it took 45 and of course I had left late because the damn roof wasn't cooperating
• Picked up more screws
• Came home and heard it's going to storm tomorrow so I had to mow the front lawn
• it bottomed out and ate a strip of my lawn (not the crappy weedy part but the nice part)
• I adjusted the wheels twice - quite perplexed
• the damn wheel fell off - yeah all the way off
• fixed it - and mowed the rest of the lawn with a wrench and pliers in my back pocket, just in case!
• picked up two piles of dog shit - that wasn't from my dogs (that's one more pile then last week) Even though I pick up dog poop every day from my dogs it really pisses me off when people let their dogs crap on my lawn and LEAVE it there!!

I've had a coke now so I'm better and I'm going to go and pour another so I'll be fine. Good thing this day is over in 2 hours, glad to see it go!!

Sun came out....

The sun made an appearance yesterday. Thank goodness because I think that it has only rained three times on my birthday in 39 years. Not a bad record! Must be a great day to have a birthday.
The sun has disappeared again today and it is supposed to rain some more... ughh!
I think I will go get to the boring and mundane crap that needs to be done and then, if I'm smart, I'll go work on the books for MVPi and then perhaps, (hopefully) have some time left to do some scrapbooking.
Yesterday morning Pam and I were both standing out on the front porch shortly after 7 a.m. and the number of birds out there flying in and out of our tree was unreal. American Goldfinches, robins, 2 humming birds, a young blue jay, some kind of yellow warblers, fancy looking sparrows and a short time later Pam saw a Northern Flicker (wood pecker). It was bizarre like something out of a movie, because the action never stopped.
I was nice to talk to Mum and Dad yesterday, Nana, and Sheryl, we had a good laugh and that's what family is all about right?
I'd better run to the hardware store (in the rain) and pick up one or two things to finish off the wood shed. Yippee. I want to get that done and the shutters painted as well as the mulch in the flower beds - they look kind of silly with the landscape cloth down and nothing on it yet.

Oh The Rain!!!

I am truly hopeful that this blasted rain is going to stop soon, at least long enough to get outside and get some fresh air. The humidity could take a hike too as far as I am concerned. This weather does nothing for dog training. I was out with my big guy today because there was about 45 minutes where the rain stopped and the sun came out. And I thought PERFECT - let's go do some work buddy!! So I packed my pockets with all the essentials... treats for the new behaviours we're working on and baggies (no explanation needed there!). I was amazed how quickly the pavement had dried and didn't fathom that in that short time it could be that hot for my poor dog! It's been sunless for a week now... not raining the entire time but no SUNSHINE. Poor Paycee was pretty hot because all though the air was cool the pavement was throwing a surprising amount of heat and therefore panting to cool himself was not terribly efficient. I cut the walk short and headed back home, trouble is we went a new route and my middle name being 'wrong way Robertson' it took me longer that I'd have liked. Since he's too big to carry we walked the last leg pretty slow. Next time - I'll take water, and next time I'll put my hand on the asphalt before heading out on a long trek. Sorry buddy - won't happen again, I promise!

Building a wood shed!

Yup, I'm building a shed to keep our firewood dry. Wet wood does not produce a whole lot of heat. Clogs the chimney, smells like hell and is really hard to keep burning. Need I say more?
Today I managed to lay the base and put up all the 4x4's but one. I somehow had a brain fart and I'm short two 4x4's. Alas tomorrow I shall squish two more in my little Neon. Oh yes it can be done, it does however make shifting gears a little problematic!
So how does one erect the frame of a shed by ones self? Imagination!! Yup. Believe it or not a rubber garden hose held one end of each 2x4 that now holds all the 4x4's together while I nailed the other end. Yes it is level and yes it square. The neighbours were all in bed early tonight... tired from all the laughing. It started to pour rain at one point but I couldn't leave it because the 4x4's were vertical (with no supporting 2x4's) and I thought one little puff of wind and they'd be done and definitely nothing would remain square. So I threw on my outrider jacket and hat and had at it in the rain. Yup - it was warm anyway. Felt like I should be building a calf shelter or something. Tomorrow I'm hoping to have everything that I can do by myself done. I'll need an extra set of arms to put the roof on I think. All is good. Next project: staining the front deck and stairs and then the back upper and lower decks and stairs.... In between I'm finishing off a few planters. Busy is good.

Spybot - Search and Destroy

My computer has been getting slower and slower - we all experience this from time to time and do some maintenance but today I decided to run a scan from Spybot. I had used them a few years ago and then well I just started to rely on Norton for all of my security. Well guess what folks. Norton 360 is $80 or so and Spybot is free. Yup that's right free! You have to try it and more importantly you really should read their licensing agreement. It is so damn funny the way he explains why it's free etc.! Anyway I have had this software recommended to me by several computer geek types that work in and with computers. I ran a scan today. It caught 134 issues affecting my poor little computer's performance. I donated $10 to the developer because frankly I think he deserves to be paid for all the work he does. Just google "spybot" you'll be very glad that you did.

Better late then never ... Pics from August 2007

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