Classes are finally over and I have just my last placement to do and then I’m finished! This has been a very busy, long year of classes and more classes but the end result is a finished BA, and a near-completion of a B.Ed! I still have a bit to go with my goals but I’m nearing completion of what has been a very busy, stressful time in my life. I can’t wait for things to slow down a bit but most importantly, I can’t wait to finally begin doing some of the things that I had to stop or put on hold because of this school thing.

Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been like if I wasn’t injured but right now? I can’t even really think about that any longer. I just have to deal with the cards that I have been dealt with and keep going.

Graduation is set for the beginning of June, 2009 and my goal between now and then is to get fit. Now that my educational goals have been met, I can finally start focusing on the other things that have been put off until now.  And no, I couldn’t do them both at the same time… why? Just because

I’ll be updating this site again in about a week, as I show you the fruits of our garden labour! Ahhh, yes, it’s harvesting time around these parts! Well, the first of many harvests I believe! Thanks to an abundance of rain this year, we should have some good crops!

Posted on August 10th, 2008 by admin
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Soon yet another chapter will close, as I finish up the last little bits of school. I still need to do my placement but I’m not too worried about that. I found out I can do it in two spurts this year (instead of one long one, which we had to do last year) which is a huge relief for me. It also gives me an opportunity to go to another school to do the second of this years placement which is a great idea I think.

I’m slowly getting there! I finally also received my BA a few weeks ago… I can finally get some letters there behind my name, haha… and just a few more weeks, I’ll be able to throw a B. Ed behind there too… and eventually, an M.ED as well, one day… some day… but no day soon, haha….

Time to start earning some bucks again!

Posted on July 27th, 2008 by admin
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With about 16000 square feet of yard, you can imagine that it’s a pretty big job to keep up. But our problems go further than just a lot of grass to cut. Most of our grass is a very poor quality because we live in an area that used to be an ancient ocean and there’s plenty of sand to go around. Not just regular ol’ sand though but perfect beach sand. It’s not really great for planting gardens…or growing vegetables…. or growing grass!

So, unless you truck in literally, tons of nutrient rich topsoils, you will NOT have a perfect yard. Our front yard is pretty good, as is the side yard we just fixed up (thanks to having a dad in the dirt business!) but I can’t possibly ask my dad to bring a few dumptruck loads of soil.

The far reaches of our backyard has really poor grass quality and a lot of weeds. About a hundred years ago a farm existed on this land and before that, it was forested land. The farm clearly didn’t “last” (likely due to the poor soil!) and now, we have a big ugly back-end to our yard. Canadians have this weird festish about land-clearing… probably ingrained in our psyche from when we immigrated here and you had to clear your land and produce a working farm within 3 years or you’d lose your land. Well, sometimes we take it a bit far and every freakin’ tree on your property is removed. If it wasn’t for that awesome greenspace we have in the back, our yard would be butt-ugly… treeless, baren land.

Well? I’m going to change that. My goal is to  — in the time we have left here at this house — to re-green at least 25% of the backyard with natural landscaping… that means, re-treeing, re-vegetating and re-everything natural that we can back there. It’s time to give back some of the land to nature because 16000 square feet is way more land than anyone needs, even if you had a big family full of kids!

Ultimately, this is what will happen… wildlife will come back to the area, the future owners will have less grass to cut and more importantly, if the road-allowance (our current green-belt) actually ever goes through, there’ll be some trees back there to enjoy and a view of an ugly road won’t be the only thing you see.

But - more importantly? I have neighbours who are really nosy and really “keeping up with the joneses” and along with the regreening of the back portion of the yard, we also got trees to plant inside our gated area which will grow and provide privacy from the nosy neighbours.

Last week I was carpooling with this guy from the area to my band and got talking about trees and things. Turns out he grows trees. He called a few days and said he has perhaps a solution to my nosy neighbour problem and offered to give me a bunch of larch/tamarack trees which will provide shade, privacy and were already about 15-20 feet tall. Talk about instant gratification! He offered those for free because people aren’t buying trees this year (probably due to the economy), and they weren’t doing too well as they had been recently relocated from another tree farm he had. Instead of destroying them, he offered them for free if I wouldn’t mind paying for labour. Turned out we got some other trees as well (which we paid for) but - it’s a great start to our re-greening plan.

Ready for the pics????? :)  Please enjoy! They won’t likely get much bigger this year but - next year we will have some healthier, happier trees!

Posted on June 15th, 2008 by admin
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We aren’t totally finished with the pathway yet but we’re on our way! We still need to get a few more blocks to finish off the end where the path leads into the gated yard and a lot of the bricks need to be leveled and then finally, add the little rock thingys, er… stone dust that make the bricks not wobble when you walk on it… It’s not a professional job but - considering they’re cheap Crappy Tire bricks, it’s as good as it’s going to get for now!

Posted on June 15th, 2008 by admin
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This is some photos that we’ve taken driving around town… you can tell we’re country folk when we go to the ‘big city’ (which is a town) and take pictures of everything. But, some are kinda neat… it’s still about 25 minutes from where we live but thought you may enjoy a little view of around town! There’s still quite a few of the wall paintings and someday when I have more time and it’s not a bazillion degrees outside, I’ll get some better shots for ya, how’s that? :)  Until then, enjoy!

Posted on June 8th, 2008 by admin
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This is the “before” and “after”. The before is the fence boards on the far left… I had to tear ‘em apart and then remove the nails and well, I ended up with a pile of old, cracked wood. I didn’t want to burn the wood or toss it so I thought maybe we could recycle what we could instead of wasting it. I am beginning to really practise the belief of recycling… not just for the good of our lands but because it’s our duty to…. so do your part!

So, here’s the handy man competitors…

It’s Martin a.k.a., “Rocky Balboa” is in the left corner wearing the black shorts!

And his competitor, Angela, A.K.A. “Million Dollar Baby” is in the right corner wearing the… black shorts!

Chop chop till it drops!

And Angela wins, with the prize of a… block of wood!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(We’re low-budget, okay?)

Bang bang some nails….

Okay, don’t knock it’s ugliness, okay? It’s a gonna be painted white and it’s going to hold some rocks and soil and some really tasty veggies and that’s all that matters, right????

Yea, so - in reality, Martin finished his as I arrived home from a very, long day sitting outside getting burnt by the sun as I played in a band… and well, he did the design work, I just helped and really… we’re both winners… he did try very hard to persuade me that he was in the winner since he designed but I rained on his parade and said there’s no winners… just two sexy garden boxes that’s going to hold some tasty vegetables. Should I let him think he won? I mean, he did give two thumbs up at the end….

Posted on May 25th, 2008 by admin
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Progress on the homefront as we got some news to update!

1. Our grass is growing on the yard area we worked on about 10 days ago or so! Rock on! I think it was a bit too cool for the grass to grow as we went through a bit of a cool spell so the last two or three days has really allowed the seeds to germinate! Grow seeds, grow!
2. We finished off the fence… well, not totally but as good as it’s going to be for now. We still need to put the lattice up but first, one must buy lattice. And one must also buy a few more pieces of 2×4x8’s and oh yea, some more screws and maybe a gallon or four of paint! Yea, cha-ching, cha-ching, it’s a bit costly especially when your lazy-arsed neighbour grills on their great-big honkin’ Hank Hill BBQ and refuses to help you out. I think we should paint it bright pink — both sides! Yea, ’cause I’m THAT nice!
3. Martin’s finger healed pretty good after his wasp-sting but today we discovered a whole bunch of wasps in our shed. Uh huh. Ya wanna know how they got in? Through the roof rafters. Yes, the same roof-rafters I said needed to be enclosed in to prevent such bugs with big butts from getting into the shed. Guess what our next project is? Indeed! Building some rafters and perhaps siliconing some corners… and well - yea! I want to avoid saying I told you so, so I won’t.  But… Nahhh, I’m bigger than that.
4. I told you so!
5. Our own little handy-man challenge! It’ll be taking place tomorrow, Sunday May 25, 2008. The best planter made will determine the winner! I need some planter boxes made for my vegetable garden because it’s just too sandy here to plant things so I will just stick ‘em into big ol’ planter boxes. So Martin will be makin’ his and I will be makin’ mine and let the best planter determine who truly is the handiest-man around the house is… oh yea, and you know who will be the winner, eh?? The photos will reveal the real winner!  Stay tuned!  Oh but - I forgot to tell you! There’s a catch! The catch is, we can only use old wood recycled from an old fence that I tackled today by recycling it. We aren’t going to a store to purchase new materials — just using what we have around the place already! There’s a lot reasons why I decided to do that but I will explain it in another post. It comes from a few things including the watching of a show which talks about repurposing materials so that our gardens are more ‘green’. Plus, it ain’t cool burning or tossing a bunch of wood that we can find a new use for.

That’s it for now. It’s past midnight and I have an engagement tomorrow at 1:00 I have to get ready for! Toodles!

Posted on May 24th, 2008 by admin
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I’d like to introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Paul C!

Despite the outdoor wedding cancellation and marrying inside the hall, the day is was still perfect in almost every way!

Beautiful rings for a promising future…. 

 Rain stopped just long enough for some couples photos….

Hey baby! Wouldja be my wifey????

But,  more seriously….

The money shot!

Hey! Can you believe she married me?????

These photos are mostly ones I took but Martin took some great ones too… actually, the ones of Paul carrying his bride he took :) 

When we get the final album done, I’ll find a few more!

Posted on May 18th, 2008 by admin
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Remember that girl who recently was found locked up in Austria in her father’s basement? He kept her in a dungeon for like, 25 years and she had a bunch of his kids because well - he’s a freak.

This is a photo I saw a few weeks ago, photographed by the AP I believe.

It’s a photo of the house where she was kept in a dungeon.

In case your German ist nicht sehr gut… er, is not very good…  zimmer frei means, “Free room” or — a room for rent.

Nice.

Posted on May 18th, 2008 by admin
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Ya know, we’re suckers for punishment. My dad brought up a bunch of soil last year and we ended up spreading it over this area which had really poor grass coverage and was just an unused portion of our yard which you can see from the road and was butt-ugly.

Well, we bought some stones for a walkway the other day (and we need another 50 so we haven’t started to work on that yet)… but while in North Bay yesterday I found some of these globe bushes  which Martin was really wanting. The cost here was $60 each but where I went yesterday they were only $21 each. MUCH cheaper. So I got three plus a little spreading Juniper bush…. got home, and we planted them right away. Well, we were going to give it some time to decide what we were going to do design-wise there but I got home from work today and found Martin laying out some border around the trees. It took us two hours but we finally got something that we’re some-what happy with. It’s not perfect but with the material we had to work with (those gray border things), it wasn’t bad. Those things are SO annoying and never again will I get them. However, they are the same colour as our paving stones so it’s going to look cohesive when we finally get the pathway down. 

The pathway are these stones (pictured below!) which we will do this pattern… a row of four, a row of three, a row of four, a row of three…. and it’s going to be starting from the fence (the upper left corner of the pic also below) down to our driveway which is about 20-22 feet long. Tonight we also started the grass seeds so hopefully in a week or two we’re going to have cute little grass growing which will complete the design we’re going for. Martin then bought some nice red cedar chips (which we’ve also used in the front yard previously) and look pretty sharp against the wood fencing, our beige and dark brown house and really brings the bush’s colour out too.

 Those little globe bushes will eventually spread out to 1 metre diameter or so and will probably double in size this summer. The juniper will spread out quite a bit and double in its size too this year… eventually ending up at about 2 metres diameter which will fill out that area nicely. However, we are contemplating finding a taller tree to go in the corner and moving that little bush to somewhere else… It’ll just look more visually appealing. It’ll probably be another cedar but more of a cone-shaped. Yea, it’s going to look very fallic, I know…. but not ALL of us are pervs, okay?? So get your mind out of the gutter!

Posted on May 13th, 2008 by admin
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