When "Murphy" comes to call...AGAIN!

What is a father to do when his sons work alongside of him?
What else?
Be sure they also have their own tools!

My hubby drew these back decking plans himself

The day my hubby and I headed to the local municipal hall to apply for our back deck permit, it was then we found out our home had never been granted a final inspection.

After some uncertainty the information was confirmed and established our builder had the occupancy permit, but never completed the requirements to complete the final permit. A letter was sent to "the owners" of the property, us, announcing a fee fine for such a delay. It was then we alerted the builder and still now, after several months, we sit without this certification rendered complete.

Everything happens for a reason, and of that, I am sure. As our deck is now complete and the previous smaller temporary deck moved and installed elsewhere, it's been a waiting game all the way through.

Suddenly, without warning, and when our son and his wife were visiting from out of town, I took a look out the front door to find what all the commotion was about only to find our walkway to the front steps being dismantled and in complete disarray.

We don't have a final inspection yet.
This was one thing to be repaired. (ugh)

I gasped and became alarmed at their timing, not a word to announce this next step was to begin that day. There is an issue with the step allowance from the ground to the stairs above, though only on one side where the ground has settled beneath the rock. Up it all went, a large span of it at that, and all began to become...another "Murphy Moment".

Annoyed was a good word this day,
and totally unprepared for it all.

For all of the hassles we've endured since our move to this "never lived in before" almost two year old home, a small perk was offered to us. Yes, a perk!

We were offered free labour/materials walkway we were hoping to have installed along the back to our new deck staircase. The matching rock to the front stairway area had arrived on its skid, all awaited the timing of the re-installation of the front area before the men would move to the back to begin work on the new walk area.

Freebie materials awaiting installation

Everything looked promising, even when we couldn't help but laughing out loud for the continual "faux pas" times still happening around this new home.

Our family is used to rolling up our sleeves and performing difficult tasks. We work as a family. We also work hard, especially when a deadline awaits our tasks complete. To date, we've had many projects slated on the summer goal's sheet. Many are checked off. Some we needed to call in re-enforcement. So we hired out.

Nevertheless, during this particular timing, our personal tools were put away to spend time with family visiting from the west. Instead, other tools of the trade littered our property as there were strange men here taking my walkways apart, those who were hired by the builder and then, very shortly afterwards, our new back walkway was in progress. Swell!

And then as many, many MURPHYS were pulling our legs and offering us a rip roaring hysterical timing, it was discovered the men had snipped the telephone wiring. Not only was the telephone wiring many meters from where it should have been, the "Murphy moment" caught all by surprise. The line was now dead. Our home alarm was sounding its warning siren. The telephone company was called for an S.O.S. and the alarm company was also called to render the situation repair ahead.

As the men proceeded even with the telephone wiring fiasco in our midst, they won kudos for a terrific job very well done. Our new walkway looked superb! And the telephone wiring was buried along a more distant path, closer to where it was supposed to be in the first place.

Here's how far we've come! The first arrivals were in our driveway almost two months ago and the new deck footing areas were being dug out for the sono tubing. The small deck you see in the photo below was moved and another larger deck built in its place.

The deck scene above is no longer. Happily the new walkway runs up to our new deck now, and it seems to be coming together nicely.

The final walkway looked terrific to me, that is until the men came walking with a humble spirit (again) to the doorway. They hadn't realized the generator was propped up onto a cement slab, and now it was all exposed and looking fairly ugly to them. What to do? That part wasn't included in their freebie.

It all looked great from this end though, very great to me, so why sweat the small stuff?

Meet my rescue husband and his super idea of purchasing 24 rocks to repair the aesthetic look of the entire area. With older son in tow, older son was gifted with the wonderful task of carrying the rock and building even more muscle, and then the bags of cement. With great tutelage, the area was repaired and looking even more wonderful.

Now to fill the garden beds on either side and voila, another job checked off on the long, long list of summer to-dos!

My deck is now two-toned colored
and I just love it even more this way!

As for the original temporary decking that was moved and reinstalled on the other side of the house, my husband and son were able to paint the deck. After the fact, the gray tones weren't the greenish tones I had chosen. If there is one thing I'm having trouble getting used to living in this home, it would have to be the fact there is not any contrast coloring anywhere on the outside of the house. Everything is "natural" coloring, so bland and blah in the dead of winter, a little more lively in summer with the leaves on the trees, but something has been missing.

My hubby suggested we head to the paint store in search of another paint color to enhance what was already painted there. I'm happy to report, we have COLOR outside, even if it's just a bit of it. But just you wait! Next year when we paint the new larger deck after all the wood has cured, it will resonate with COLOR too, just like this deck does now.

As for Murphy? Well, he keeps popping his head in every once in a while just to keep shaking things up over here and fill the air with loads of laughter. Well maybe not at the time he visits, but later. We do laugh. Just not always at that very moment. Take two days from now for instance...the window company will be visiting to replace two windows with broken seals. One of those windows is the largest window with a huge transom archway above, and it must be replaced.

Uh boy...here we go again. Breathe baby breathe! LOL :-)

Play Ball! * Blue Jays vs. NY Yankees

Play Ball!

Toronto Blue Jays play New York Yankees...
and we're there...row 19 dugout area.

Friends arrived in town from Indiana and an invitation was offered to join them at a Blue Jays baseball game. Not having experienced a live game ourselves, it came as a surprise when my husband's boss offered him 4 SWEET tickets PLUS parking to escort our friends (and the boss' former boss himself ...LOL) to the ball game.

Hats and souvenirs for sale outdoors before even entering the stadium. Blue was the choice color of the day!

Straight up from the parkade, all those stairs became an obstacle for my hubby at first, but he persevered, remembered to use his "conserving energy tips" and then he remembered to recover once we were near our entry gate before moving onward.

We're here!

Our friends have a goal to hit all of the MLB game team stadiums over the next few years and had just arrived from a recent game in Detroit, MI, an activity they purposely included along the way during their driving venture here. Tickets in hand, away we went to this local MLB game.

Can you say "ideal seats"?

Yes, they were ideal, though the crowds were thick, the humidity high and the weather iffy for the game not to be allowed full circulation with the Roger's Stadium roofing opened up for more real air rather than canned air instead.

Halladay and Hill were the players our older daughter told us to cheer on. Having already attended a ballgame here herself, she KNEW we had great seats and thought to assist us in the "ball for dummies" - must know - information for both teams. :-) We were told to cheer for the Blue Jays you know...and why not, they were local.

The Blue Jays didn't have such a swell game though there were a few choice moments during a few periods when the crowds were no longer able to remain at the edge of their seats knowing full well all of those bases were loaded, therefore standing became a preference with plenty of rip roaring cheering. "Go Jays Go"

Crowds were thicker by each inning and many folks had baseball gloves in hand. Good thing many did as there were plenty of fall balls heading out to the stands. One person required medical help, but such is a ball game similar to a hockey game. Watch that ball, or that puck at all times!

Score card in hand, she was now ready to enter the stadium

She resolved to collect only game score cards she filled in herself and a souvenir cup of the game. With pencil in hand, she detailed every hit, run and scored every inning perfectly. Dedication to the sport enabled her to have a great personal souvenir and I became impressed with her loyalty to note everything on the card. Her true favorite team is the Chicago Cubs but it was great to see her cheering for our Blue Jays while here instead.

She worked hard to note every detail on her score card, her souvenir from this MLB game.

Our friends had a ritualistic flair for not eating any food before the end of the third inning, so we waited and then we savored the flavors of our hotdogs/sausage in a bun and drinks. Deep within a recreational atmosphere such as this one, this type of food just screams "BASEBALL", doesn't it?
Last inning, I wondered if he began to pray before heading up to the plate when they lagged behind against the New York Yankee team's great playing, especially after not one, but two home runs.

And the crowds cheered, and then the parking lots became crammed full of hopeful motorists wanting to travel home. After forty five minutes three parking floors underground, we began to move but just imagine the air down there from every vehicle running all that time and the humidity in the air was sickeningly warm to boot.

Thanks goes to the pedestrian who took it upon herself to begin directing traffic and at last, it all began to flow properly and we began our trek home in the late hour of the night. Or was it morning when we arrived home? Yes, my body told me the next morning - - that it really was.

Summer - time to thank a farmer!

Whoever thought I would be sitting here today happily tooting the joys of living in the country obviously envisioned it all before I ever could. Actually I'm very content living in the country, and used to those crickets night after night instead of tripped household alarms and the airplane landing path overhead. Even the mice in the farmer's fields can send me loopy when they leave their dens and run over to our property instead, but such is life among farmers near and far.

Every summer when I note the farmer's yielded crops growing beautifully in their fields, I am reminded to pray for this generational vocation as the duty of farming is becoming rare in some parts of the country, entire families ousted from their fields and land stolen from large bureaucratic developments.

Shown here in these photos are a winter wheat crop just up the road from where we live. Across the street from this field is another crop of sweet corn, almost ready to be picked and sold at the local farmer's market stands.

It was one of those days when I pulled over to the side of the gravel roadway and yanked my camera from my bag. I began snapping landscape photos and then when I reached nearer to the crop's edge, I became smitten with the beauty of the wheat before me. I noted the color, still green and not yet ready for harvest.


And then, just a few weeks later after my initial photos were snapped, the day came for the farmer to haul out his combine and begin the process of cutting his crop. It seemed to take him forever to me, several days in fact to cut the wheat from the chaff, fill up the grain bins and scatter the remains.

On another day he hauled out another piece of equipment to gather and roll up the chaff for use in the barn where his son and daughter in law's horses winter store would be stored until needed.


Today as I passed by the same fields, this is all that remained shown in my photo below, that is for now until such a time as he begins to plant a new crop, likely in a few weeks I am told. Wow. It's time we thank our local farmers, and be vocal about it while you're at it! We have met more generational farming families since our move here, and all spend more hours in the fields than in their homes all year long.

Seasonal contrasts can be almost breathtaking some days, depending on the weather and the way the sun directs our paths to the beauty of the farmer's fields.

In the photos below you'll be witness to a late spring winter wheat growth period, followed by the remains of the harvest when the grain bins are gone and the bales of dried up stalks are bound and prepared for winter's storage in the barn.

Late Spring above - Summer below

So, what was on your table today? Grains, veggies, meat?
Be sure to thank a farmer!

Our family boating day...

Stunningly beautiful waterways!

Clearly, the idea of renting a boating vessel for a day of exploration along local waterways was the most sensational idea ever for a sunny and very warm summer's day!

Check out the video below and try to capture the overdue family bonding and total relaxation which ensued, something so very welcomed for all of us that particular day.

We were quite disappointed beforehand as my hubby was nearing his final days of his appointed vacation times, and although quite warm, many summer monsoon showers seemed to visit daily during this period. We were also working hard around the property and rearranging in the home from our move.

We had anticipated a boating day and prepared to escape for one two different days, canceling each due to weather issues. At last, though not quite as prepared as the first few times with food and beverages, we threw together our coolers after waking four groggy children at the crack of dawn, announcing this was "the day".

Perhaps in the end it benefited us more to just wing it and fly by the seat of our pants, but truly the weather seriously tends to play a major role in boating excursions of any kind.

The only problem we encountered wasn't anything to do with the boating in itself. Nope, all except for my hubby who remained under cover for most of the day became bright shiny red lobsters by nightfall. The skin located on the forefront of my legs and my arms are still experiencing peeling issues that even a five star spa couldn't exfoliate half as quickly or organically natural as one can achieve by obtaining unexpected lovely sunburns in one day.

Wow, never before have I had to endure a sunburn quite like this one. Actually come to think of it, in my entire lifetime I can only recall having ever tanned with the sun's rays and not burned ever before. Sunscreen in tow, nothing could have prepared us for the sun's whopping magnified reflection off of the water with such wondrous weather overhead.

Whoa.... can you say SPF 50 (at least!) next time?

**Just a note - this has been a long time coming as I built the video on my Picasa software and had trouble exporting it to this blog post. Try clicking on the photo below, but I have a feeling it will take you to the Picasa site for viewing. Thanks for your patience. Any tips welcomed here...

Ten Things I'm Thankful for...

I think it's high time for another "Ten things I'm Thankful for" post today, and that is just what I"ll do. The photos reserved for this type of posts are stacking up in my photo folder, so without delay folks, here goes another bunch of tributes for "thankful things". Keep in mind these are just some of those simple things I'm grateful for and without any doubt, there are zillions more I could place here as well. Ten items works for me though, easy reminders of simple pleasures often overlooked in the busyness of life.

1- I'm thankful for those rare moments when able to explore our new geographical area without a deadline to run someone here or there, rather just take my time with my hubby when able to revel over a chance finding of a new (very fun!) coffee shop. Everything about this little place resounded with "quaint", "organic" and "welcome". We'll be back!

2 - I'm thankful for new life at the barn that sent our girls into a huge tizzy last weekend when a foal arrived early in the morning. The energy bouncing off the walls in our home after the telephone calls with the birth announcement became utterly contagious. The girls were on standby, awaiting a return call where permission to visit almost became too much for their curious hearts. This sweet filly was not yet cleaned by her mama at that time, and when the girls were finally able to saunter up for a peak, they were able to guide the mama horse to the sand ring with her babe, placenta still hanging and in tow. (gross, but such is life for these animals). Oh what fun to have a daily 'drive by' to see the foal's sprint dancing near her mama! SO Thankful for our girls to have these opportunities while living here!

3 - I'm thankful for life at the water's edge. You know me - love those fleeting moments when the wind tussles in my hair, the spray of water splats on my face and my toes can sink into the sand. This area of detour becomes sheer bliss to me anytime of day or night!

4 - I'm thankful for having an in-house chef and sous-chef who work simultaneously together to "create experiences" rather than just "meals". Yes, there is a difference! :-) We all smirked though when this meal experience began with our daughter having to peel the asparagus to smooth perfection beforehand...teehee...

Her reaction at first was ; "Do you know how long this will take me to do daddy?" And then she just shrugged her shoulders, grabbed the vegetable peeler and began her work with three other adults sitting comfortably nearby on the bar stools taking the scene here all in.


5 - I'm thankful for Green GRASS! Yes, if you have followed our forest clearing experiences, grass is growing and looking rich and green. Selfishly we have hoped for the summer rains to continue, however warm or however many thunder and lightning storms have accompanied those rains. With the exception of only four very warm and humid days this week, our sprinkling sessions were limited due to lovely and warm sprinkles of rain.

6 - I'm thankful for summertime where playing cards, game times and puzzle making continues. And even despite funny cards sporting blue hearts instead of red ones to throw anyone off, our wild "Crazy eights", "Hearts", Cribbage", "Mille Bornes", and assorted other card games continues.
7 - I'm thankful for surprises in the mail, even if they weren't for me. Now to have a refrigerator that allows for magnets to hold sweet and thoughtful items from the grandchildren. As a substitute, I was able to secure 4 bulletin boards from Ikea we'll be hanging side by side to display all of the children's (ours and Grand) work, notes, photos, etc.

8 - I'm thankful for spying this eagle's nest high above the land but gracing all with plain views. Watching bald headed eagles in flight often reminds me of B.C. where their mouse hunting efforts were encouraged and absolutely continue to be here.

9 - I'm thankful for easier meals in summertime when it becomes too hot to cook when temperature highs are in the high thirties and humidity hits 80%. Naturally easier meals at home, or on the outdoor patio decking of a local establishment are appreciated by the teens who love to include pizza for one in their diets no matter what time of day it might be. Breakfast? Sure! Hot or cold? Sure! Leftovers? Absolutely!

10 - I'm thankful for finding a new Veterinarian who was able to take our two canine pets onboard as new patients, assisting in a terrible "hotspot" issue with this dog so that she required immediate attention. With a lampshade like this, we wondered about the other dog biting it off, but the only worse part of sporting it for over a week was entering and exiting the dog house when outdoors. She got stuck often and the house shook as if an earthquake was underfoot...often! Very funny!

Those are just a few of my "Thankful things" for this week. You can read more posts by clicking HERE to view them all.