Ducks Came Back

Whether or not they are the same pair from last year, who knows.  But I do know mating pairs of ducks are generally monogamous and stay with the same partner for life.  But if they return to the same spot year in and year out, that I don't know.

And in running news I ripped off a 16:12 5km a week or two ago.  I was quite please actually.  I thought I would run something very close to that = It would have been incredible to see 15:59 on the clock, but alas.  I didn't run with a watch or look at any splits along the way - would it have made a difference????  Who knows, but I was happy all the same. The race was in Goderich and I know it is accurate!  If anything it is long!  Ya right....  The race goes right past the house so Shelly was outside playing the trumpet and the kids had a bit of a cheering section on the go....

It was actually a very very cold windy and snowy morning - It didn't snow during the race, but before it started.  Maybe with more favourable weather I would have hit sub sixteen?
My younger brother ripped off a 10km a few weeks ago and he hit a very respectable time of 42:30.  He also had the cheering squad going and all that.  Maybe he'll be a potential member of our Cabot Trail relay team in another year if we decide to do it again?  Who knows.  Keep going!

Long Weekend Camping

The long weekend just past and we hit the road for the first ever camping experience as a foursome.  It was okay... 

With Joel being out in BC, he would definitely not be needing the Palomino Pony for the weekend.  So after a quick email I had secured its use to take up to Macgregor Provincial Park in Port Elgin.  It was only 100km away, and if something about the weekend went wrong, it would not take too long to get back into comforts of running water, plumbing, heat, awesome beds, t.v., internet, well prepared food, no stinking, laundry, and so on and so forth.  However I can write that it wasn't so bad, but dam cold at night.

All in all though we were kitted well.  Our food and food preparation was very good.  In terms of leisure we had bikes and made use of the endless miles of trails to ride.  There is a well stocked store with tasty treats, clean flush toilets, showers, and so on.  Our trailer was decent....  The only major complaint was not being warm enough at night.  It was cold.....  I don't think it would have been sorted with simply extra blankets or extra clothes.  Those would have only delayed the onset of being cold - electric blankets and something industrial would have been the ticket to a more enjoyable night sleep.... 

It was Shelly's birthday on the weekend away.  We went camping with a group of 4 other people with kids, and the one lady had a birthday cake and cupcakes...  So it was incredibly nice of them to pull off that.

So we biked around a lot - I went for a few runs of course.  Molly did okay biking on the roads, but she had a bit tougher time on the trails with the rocks and roots.  We had lots of campfires, and there was also lots of playground equipment and a beach.  No swimming for us, although we did see people submerged in the water.

New Month

Into May, yet all is mostly the same around here.  Starting with a great picture of Shelly and I fresh from a day ago.  She was all gussied up and going out to a high school reunion and fundraiser of sorts.  She would meet up with her current core group of friends, also see lots of old friends, and of course plenty of teachers would be there too.  By all accounts it was a great night; so great she didn't even come home!  I say fantastic - I always welcome a night and event out with the friends.  Of all things, she bid and won a neat gift of sorts.  It is an hour of radio hosting on a station called AM 920 = Yes, AM radio still exists.  It is a local station of sorts that still airs programs that would have been popular in the 60s and 70s.  I believe there is still a noon hour In Memoriam slotting, I believe they still have a buy/sell broadcast where people call in to peddle their items, and of course they broadcast a Crime Stoppers announcement.  Evidently the managers of the station aren't aware of the internet and such 21 century forms of media....  I am sure Shelly will do great when she chooses her time slot.

Jeff and I went out turkey hunting this weekend.  I came back with a juvenile male.  Not a huge monster, but a worth while bird none the less.  We set up nice and early on Saturday morning.  We had 30 or 40 minutes of looking at the stars and moon before it got light.  Jupiter was at its finest in the southern sky.  It was very orangey/red, I wasn't sure what it was actually, but found out later in the day that it was the fifth planet.  It was a cloudless sky and just fantastic to be out enjoying it, and the day, so early.

We started to hear far-off gobbles after 6:00 am, by 6:30 they gobbles were closer, quite close actually, but the birds refused to investigate any closer.  They would not come out to the field and our assortment of decoys.  They would only respond to our calling.  That last for 20 minutes, and then slowly the gobbles got further and further away, but still within the vicinity.  At 7:30 I decided to abandon my field position, and take the hunt within the bush, where the birds were.

I told Jeff my plan, and said sit tight I will be back in 20 minutes.  Armed only with Ye Olde Raspy Hen caller and the Mossberg 930, I set off for the unknown.  I proceeded about 150 metres into a clearing of sorts in a cluster of hardwood trees.  This would be a fine position to advance my hunt.  I sat down and called.  An immediate response, and they were close.

I can't quite tell the difference between the size of the bird and how loud they gobble.  I find that it is all equally loud no matter the size of the bird.  I heard a number of loud gobbles from 2 different birds, and they were on a straight collision to my position.  Would they be big?  Would they have a beard dragging on the ground and a spur 2 inches long?  It would only be a matter of minutes until those questions were answered.  Too my surprise, three birds appeared about 20 yards away.  They were inching ever so closer.

It was quite a thrill they came to investigate.  I was only in that spot for less then 10 minutes.  They were now much more curious to investigate the location of the mating music, rather then ambling out into a field.  No matter.  As my excitement peaked, it almost immediate went down as these 3 were not the Moby Dicks of the ocean, or in this case the bush.  The triplets were jakes with 3.5 inch beards, maybe 4 inches if tugged.  I could see no spurs.  But jakes with beards they were, so they were officially in season and could be tagged if shot.

I stopped calling and just watched.  Watched them do that Egyptian type walk and poke with their heads and neck back and forth, back and forth.  I watched one triumphantly puff itself up and out to appease the female which wasn't even there.  I watched them walk a bit closer and get into a very good shooting spot.  One without trees in the way.....  At one point they three were so tightly grouped together, I thought 1 shot would quite easily hit all 3 with the scatter of a number 4 turkey shot - but immediately didn't think that was too ethical given I only had 1 tag.  I didn't know the legalities of such, but it didn't sound like a plan I wanted to execute. 

I did a lot of thinking as it were.  The last thing I thought about was how often I go out hunting and come back without seeing anything.  With nary a sighting of game.  I thought about all the tags I have bought that went into the recycling bin because of many factors....  But essentially not filled or used.  I thought about how I have a sure thing now, and the next time out I may not...  I had my gun up, the only thing I needed to do was decide on the bird, rest my head down and take aim, un-safety, and pull the trigger.  Having them only 15 yards away, it wasn't too difficult.  So I did. 

I am also on this big Rubik's Cube bit at the moment.   If you are familiar with it....  I can get the first 2 rows solved no problem.  It doesn't take me too long - I have the moves memorized, for the most part, and plow through the white face and then align red, green, blue, and orange appropriately.  Then I am doing okay getting my yellow cross on top, and ultimately I get the yellow face filled.  This is where I am having my problems....  I have the codes to finish off, but I can only get the middle rows successfully filled, leaving my corners off.  Luckily, and only by luck or happenstance, I have completed it twice, but have messed up over 20 times....  I think I am doing it all consistently, but evidently not.  However, I will continue to watch the tutorials, figure it out, and get it all memorized. 

Posting

A few events over the weekend....

Our local labour council organized a Day of Mourning celebration.  The official day to recognize workers who have been killed or injured on the job is April 28th, we seem to do it on a Sunday close to that day.  There were a few guest speakers, some worker representatives from the community, management reps from the mine in Goderich, a bag piper, and just regular people who care to remember....  There is always a speech that is current and up-to-date.  Nary a day goes by in Canada without a worker being killed at work, and it is such a current issue as well.

After that, Molly and I, as well as the neighbour, headed over to the arena in Goderich where the most famous Winnipegarian musician was performing; Fred Penner...  He had all the classics happening like Wheels on the Bus, This Land is Your Land, Skineraminky Dinky Dink, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and all those classics from yesteryear...  The girls where there usual cheery self = best of friends and better enemies.  They love, then hate each other...  So we went together, but they couldn't decide where to sit and who to sit beside.  There was crying and screaming....  Afterwards we went for ice cream and everything seemed fine.  We all got back home and the girls went upstairs to play.  And then the neighbour left and went home.

2hrs after, just putting Molly to bed, there was (washable) marker all over, all bloody over Molly's floor.  The hardwood was scribbled on and marked as two complete donkeys would do.  A few expletives from me, some Spray 9 and paper towels, and it was cleaned up...  However what really got me was that neither kid said anything.  It won't be the last time the two of them get into mischief.  Donkeys - the two of them.

Nicer Weather

With real nice weather, lawn furniture migrated outside, the snowblower moved out to the farm, and generally redundant or useless household items got sorted to be disposed of.  The weekend marked a great opportunity to do those things, and just be outside and enjoy how pleasant it is out.

I got ripping out on the bike with my buddy Drew Anderson.  We started at his place, and went a whopping 6 km into Port Albert to the fish ladder.  The conservation authority was collecting the eggs and sperm from the fish swimming upstream to be fertilized artificially, then released back into nature at the appropriate time.  There was quite the gathering of people watching.  40 or 50 anyway.  It is kind of weird that so many want to watch this "milking" of sorts = but it is all for an educational and resourceful cause.  I didn't get any pictures, although many people were snapping away.  We then hopped back on the bikes, zoomed over to Clinton for a milkshake, then into Goderich.  It was a great day indeed.

Today we loaded up and traveled north into southern Bruce county.  We had a nature walk around Shelly's 1/6 ownership of 117 acres better known as "The Airport".  We were checking out how the fish ponds were doing and had a general inspection of the farm - but didn't get close to walking the entire perimetre.  We hit about a mile loop which is just long enough with Wally.  We didn't see too much - 1 measly fish, and heard a number of partridge.  The farm is in fine condition and we have some rough plans to fashion together a dock to fish of off..... 

Molly and Wally are absolutely zonked this Sunday night - In bed and out cold before 7:00pm.  Molly had some much fresh air this weekend, a sleep over, and just a huge amount of play with her cousins.  Same, but different for Wally.  He is just tired from running around more and being more active on his feet.  Lately the kids have been up early-ish in the morning, but we can usually hold'em tight in their rooms until seven before they get released for the day.

I am continually enjoying and appreciating this time off from work.  I can't say enough about how fantastic it is.  To me, it is worth it.  Looking forward, both Shelly and I signed up for another leave.  It is a two and a half over 3 years.  It will get us out of school in February of 2019 until September 2019.  The one good reason for this timing is, it is the half year before Wally starts junior kindergarten.  He'll already be 4, we can pull him out of the municipal day care he'll be attending, and we can do whatever and whenever before he goes to school. That is a long way away, however it is something to look forward too.

Covered Up

I am great at disassembling and tearing down, but when it comes time to putting things together, fixing, troubleshooting, and the like, I am absolutely terrible.  I have no worthy tools for any such job, nor do I have any skill.  I do have inclination though - and that is scary because I have no tools or skills.  However with a brave and steadfast mindset I tackled a project that proclaimed "no drilling", "easy to install", and "mounts to existing hardware".  Seemingly nothing should or could go wrong.

About 1 month ago I bought a new truck.  There isn't really a story here, I had great fortune with the 04 Tacoma.  It took me across Canada, all around Ontario, it moved 6000 plus tires and tonnes of scrap steel.  It was a great vehicle for the years I had it.  However the truck was in a bit of a transition of needing a few new parts and having a few minor creeks and squeaks, so I found this time to be a good opportunity to start new.  Long and short is I got a new 4 door Tacoma.  It is very well equipped with 4 doors, 2 extra from the old one, 6 speed manual, and white.  It has all those 2016 fancy dashboard and steering wheel button controlled gadgets, which I haven't really got into, and it is really nice in my opinion.  So I am more then satisfied.

I had a topper on my old truck, but in this one I thought I would start with a roll up cover to see how it fairs.  Today was the installation day with the promises mentioned in the first paragraph.  All in all it went well.  I had a bit of a struggle clipping some pieces together, but the bar was upside down.  Flip.  And viola.  The instructions were quite clear - The online video helped, but the physical instructions were more helpful to me.  I feel as if I am a way better visual learner, but in this case the job was completed because of the physical instructions. 

It is a great weather day - I even thought about washing the truck, so I turned on the tap in the basement to engage the outside faucet, and wouldn't you know, but there was a huge crack in my outside water line.  Should I get my hammer and go at the broken pipe?  I don't think so.  One repair a day is good enough for me.  Besides I don't think a hammer is going to fix this problem anyway.

Big Brothers & Big Sisters Bowling

For the past 4 years, colleagues and I at work support the Huron and Bruce County Big Brother and Big Sister Bowl-A-Thon.  One of the directors of the organization is a retired teacher/principal who worked with someone I work with - and our participation has evolved from that starting point. I don't believe anyone on our bowling team is involved with the organization, but that doesn't mean we can't get active in the bowling end of it.  This year we decided to bowl at the Goderich location.

Each year there is a costume theme.  Superheros, or Hawaiian have been played.  Sports Jersey costume was another, and so on.  Last year it was simple Halloween night.  Our team dressed up as the Village People....  So this year it was an International theme.  We decided to go as Canadian Lumberjacks.  Jeans, plaid shirt, toque and suspenders - almost an everyday get-up for me anyway.  Once again, for the second year in a row, our team won the dress up competition - Although disappointingly not many other teams completed the attire component.  Yes, there was a guy wearing a kilt, and a girl in a Japanese Kimono, but most teams aren't as enthusiastic as we are to dress up.

*Just a partial picture of our fearsome team - myself, Liesa, & Jen

As for the tallies on the night.  $6800 was raised.  There were probably 12 teams.  It was 5 pin bowling, and I think I hit 114 or 104 for my first game.  (But I was at 70 after 4 ends....  then the guttering started.)  We started a second game, but lost interest after a few frames, and chit-chatted with those around us rather then finishing off the punishment.

So that was that.  Today we woke up to 5 cm of snow on the ground.  Molly is going to a friend's birthday - at the bowling alley of all places, Shelly is in the year end co-ed Volleyball tournament, Wally is sleeping, I hit a decent run this morning, and that is about it.