A GOOD FRIDAY!!

My two week stay down in the city of Hamilton was just way too cool & now, after being home for almost a full week, I'm only just beginning to get back into the swing of things up here.

My sister-in-law, Sheila, sent me a few photos of her new appliances installed into her new kitchen & both, she & my brother, seem quite pleased with how it's all coming together & how it all worked out during my visit & that makes me very happy. They really are great people & do deserve the best!

But my brother also sent me a photo of my niece, Chrissy, taken the evening he & Sheila took us all out for an evening of food & drinks, at their local watering hole just around the corner from where they all live, down in Hamilton. Chrissy, borrowed my old straw hat for the photo below & she just looks so beautiful in it, I just had to include her picture here too...

My old straw hat!

This girl doesn't need an old straw hat to improve on her looks, what-so-ever! And she looks just like her Ma!
But then, I got to thinking, if this old straw hat can make her look so beautiful, just imagine what it`s doing for me! ;-)


While I was away for those couple of weeks, the old Jimmy that Leighann & I had been driving around for the winter, finally gave up the ghost. I knew when we bought it from A.B. that it was on it`s last legs, but we needed a winter vehicle & the price was right on this one.

Jimmy`s last stand?

I told A.B., back during the opening of deer season, that once the Jimmy finally does die, I may just as well turn it into a bush buggy for out at the acreage. Repairing this old Jimmy to street worthiness would be way to costly for our budget, it just has way to many electrical problems, but, keeping it out at the acreage as a "fun-time 4x4"could be an excellent way to recycle this old truck. I don't have any roads or trails out there, yet, so I would have to keep it parked close by the entrance to the property & camouflaged from view for the first little while until I do get some usable trails into the interior. And once I do have a few trails, the old truck could be used for everything from hauling logs to an emergency use vehicle for getting us out to the road way, should someone out there get hurt somehow. So that idea is playing around in my mind, somewhat...

While the Jimmy was coughing out it's last few miles, Leighann called down to my brothers & began asking me questions about what to do for an new vehicle, once that last mile was finished. I wasn't in any position to deliver her any, useful answer, at the time, so she took it upon herself to go out & get us another car.

We had talked a lot previously, about having an newer, small car. Something that would be great on fuel & still be capable of carrying a couple of passengers during any of the longer road trips we would need to make. We don't travel away from the Kawarthas, (at all) all that often, but we do have children & grandkids who do live quite a distance away, in the Toronto & the Kitchener areas, as well as other family members scattered around the southern parts of this province. A small car that wouldn't cost us everything we have, just to make a road trip once in a while & still have room for our overnight gear & the like, was exactly what we needed. So, she went out & purchased our new car, all on her own & did a great job too...

"2012 Nissan Versa"

Front view

The hatchback

My side of the car, for the time being!

Our new little car is a hatchback. The rear seats are a 60/40 split & they fold down to create lots of area for hauling extra stuff, whenever we have to, or the back can be used for camping out in even, if need be.

Last September, she & I camped out in the Jimmy this way, while visiting my baby sister for her 50th birthday celebration. Sisters house was full of other family members & their house trailer was being commandeered by an unusual sort of woman, so we slept out under the stars, in the back of our car, quite comfortably for a couple of nights before the strange trailer woman went home.

Our new car will offer us the same option, even more comfortably. The back door of our Jimmy didn't work at all, back then (it still doesn't-electrical problems), so we had to crawl in from the front of the truck to camp out, in the back of it. Now, should we ever do decide to use our car this way, again, at least all of our doors will open up!


A friend of mine contacted me soon after I returned home, about a guy in town here, who was giving away a bunch of those plastic water bottles people purchase large quantities of water in. The type used atop of water coolers. So I went & picked up these...

47 water bottles!

My friend found them on Kijiji & notified me by e-mail about the whereabouts of these items. And was I ever glad I decided to go & retrieve these items!

The guy giving them away, is a retired Millwright who recently moved to town, and he has a BIG interest in building electricity producing wind turbines. As soon as this subject entered into our conversation, I knew, right away, I had to get to know this guy a little better. So we've agreed to get together soon, sometime, and we'll discuss this topic a great deal more over some coffees. I love it how things work out, sometimes!

So, I've been plugging away at the job site in Buckhorn & am trying to get it all cleaned up, as soon as possible. The trail officials have sent me an e-mail stating that the trail association has agreed to open up our section of trail, a couple of weeks ahead of schedule. Instead of June 1st, our section of trail will open up on May 14th for ATV use.

This is all good news. The thing is though, my bike is down with starter issues right now & I need to find the time & the $$ to get it back up & running. Finishing the Buckhorn job will provide most of the $$, but I've no idea on what to do, to provide extra time?

I did go out there today, but the homeowners are spending the holidays together, as a family, without the hammering & the banging & the buzzing of saws. I knew this when I drove out there so I had another idea in mind, something else that I could do, to get rid of another neglected job needing finishing. Our firewood pile!

The Sasquatch cleaning up around BJ's yard!

We split around 2 full bush cords of firewood in a couple of hours!

And the yard started looking a lot cleaner!

Down to the last few logs!

But there's tons of debris to be removed!

Another load of firewood comes home!

Before leaving work yesterday, I stopped by ole Suzy Shitlips place to see if he was still breathing. And he is. Al & Larry have been taking turns caring for the old fart. Al lives there, full time, for now, and then, because the Sasquatch lives in Campbelford, he shows up every few days to spell Al & allow him to get away from there for a while. So Al will take off up to our hunt camp in Bancroft for a couple days of solitude & the Sasquatch takes over until he returns. It works!

So anyways, Al was away & the Sasquatch was busy cleaning up the front yard where we had our double load of logs dropped last June or July. There's still so many logs left over & tons of debris from the cutting & splitting. Larry was so busy trying to get it all cleaned up, all by hisself, that I just had to offer to stop by & do my part, too. But I did have another agenda in mind as well.

My "Vermiculture Bin" at home...

Rubbermaid container.

Full of compost, newsprint paper, soils, vegetable scraps & worms!

...was in dire need of some worms, and this time of the season can provide a lot of worms, for nothing, other than a little bit of effort. So I told Larry I would be back & we'd get busy, together & finally get this job all cleaned up!

What lives under here?

Red Wigglers!!!

Larry plugged away at the splitting while I gathered up all of the already cut blocks of log still needing to be split & delivered them all over to the log splitting area. While rolling over each piece, I would check beneath the log, in the depression left in the ground & pick out each & every worm I would come across.

It didn't amount to too many, but I probably gathered around 25 to 30 worms, ranging in size from as thin as sewing needles & an inch or less long, to the much heavier, dew worm types. The majority however, were quite small. But this doesn't bother me at all. I have loads of information here about raising worms & theres just way too much information, still available out there, on the www, that in no time at all, I am certain, I will have a vast number of the larger size adult worms crawling throughout my new Vermiculture Bin. And then, off to the gardens they will go!

As for my closing, tonight, I have to share a picture of the type of water collection bin I have in mind, for our low-impact homestead out at the acreage. Shortly after returning home last week, I took a few minutes to check & see if the guy who sold me my canoe barrels just outside of Cambray was still in business. When I was last out that way, he had a caged system for storing fruit juices & the like & that's exactly what I had in mind, for an off-grid application. The guy was still there & he still had several of the caged containers we need for water storage...

Caged cisterns for water storage!

The prices vary on these containers, anywhere from $125.00 up to around $200.00+ depending upon what was stored in them & the size of the container. The more popular ones sell for $150.00 & I think they'll work out just fine, for what we'll be needing out there. I'll have to get busy though & go out there & earn an extra few $$ to make a purchase this big, but they are ideal!

So now, at past midnight+, I'm going into the kitchen for my final treat of this day...

Black Bear Sausage!

My teenage mother, daughter, was so glad to have Grandpa back home to watch the baby, that she has shared with me one of our favorite meals, Black Bear & Moose!

I'm saving the Moose roast for another, special occasion, but I am gonna make real short work of this Bear sausage, right, now,....