Oops!! Today got away on me!

WHERE ARE WE? Rivers Provincial Park, Rivers Manitoba

Absolutely nothing to report today.  I never took a single picture so I will let you off with a short post.  Good Nite.

Some Chores and a Ball Game

WHERE ARE WE? Rivers Provincial Park, Rivers Manitoba

Headed into Brandon this morning to pick up a few things.  Had to stop at Princess Auto, Home Depot, Walmart, Superstore, Christies School Supplies and Accent Striping.   I went to all of the above and when I stopped at Accent Striping I noticed some pancake mix on the front bumper!!!  I remembered Kaitlyn had put it there last night while she carried other things into the shack.  The mix had travelled the 60 kms to Brandon, and then all over Brandon before I noticed it.  I bet lots of people were wondering why I had pancake mix on my front bumper!!!

Guess one of the things I bought in Brandon??  Yup more potatoes.  Only 6 bags today.

I did a quick change up in the kitchen with some bins that I originally bought for wood but they were too flimsy.  They have 4 little wheels so they really work well under our work tables in the shack.  The girls set to work putting the right things in each one, which will lessen the amount of steps they have to get supplies when they are busy.  I got good reviews from all the staff!!

Then  it was off to Hamiota to drop Dani off to work for Sheri, and I had a couple chores to do in exchange for lunch.. Mmmmm it was good.

I had to hurry back because we were going to Sila's ball game in Melita.  Max and Grace were coming too, to spend time with their cousins.

Melita boasts being in the Banana Belt!!!  It is warm there I know.

Melita is an hour and a half away so we met Nicole and the whole family there for supper.  We don't get to spend nearly enough time with this group but do enjoy the time we do get.  

Abby, Emma, Me, Sue, Nicole, Lincoln, Silas, Grace and Max.

Abby and Emma hamming it up!

Silas is quite the ball player.  He can hit the ball and catch the ball and seems to understand the concept of the game.  It was an interesting game and I have no idea who won!!  Good Job Silas!!

Since the game, Nicole has posted Emma and Silas's Ball team pictures.  Good job to both kids on a great season.

Emma on the left

We picked up some butter tarts for the ride home.

There was a bit of an inversion tonight so there was lots of smoke hanging in the air from all the wild fires to the west of us.  It makes for some interesting sunset picture.  That was our day today.  Good Nite!!

Another Day in the Lives

WHERE ARE WE? Rivers Provincial Park, Rivers Manitoba

Spent some time online just looking for a seat for Percy where we took out the bench seat.  We want something comfy and workable.  We need computer tables, drink holders and some storage.  Here is one I found.  What do you think.  They have showrooms in Texas and California so depending which route we go this fall, we could stop and pick one up.  

Next thing on my list was to find out what is wrong with our propane commercial deep fryer.  Sometimes it won't light the pilot light.  I found out if you give it a tap with a hammer the pilot light will light and everything works as it should.  After some research I found out that there is a plunger in there that sometimes sticks.  The sticking can be from a number of things, but age seems to be the most common.  Ours is getting quite old but otherwise works great!!  I think it is fixable, but I need to know that we won't need it for a couple days so I can take it apart and clean it without having to hurry.  A project for another day.

I had to make a trip to town to our local Coop to pick up our hamburger meat for the week.  We had make all our hamburgers on site and today I was picking up 80 pounds of ground meat.  We like to have it double ground to make it fluffier.

Had a little peek in our Eastern Phoebe nest today and low and behold there are two little birds in there.  There are also 2 eggs which haven't hatched yet.  I'm sure they will soon.  It will be fun to watch them grow.

Today I feel like Forrest Gump.  Good Nite!!

A Tour of Cj's Kitchen

WHERE ARE WE? Rivers Provincial Park, Rivers Manitoba

Archie and I went to town a couple times to get things for the shack.  He is getting a lot better at riding with me and doesn't bark as much at weird things along the way.  He does still bark at a motorcycle or a dog.  He will get it in time.

come on dad, lets go!!!

We are going to bring the Ponderosa down to the shack and park it close to Percy.  This will allow us to go through the stuff in the Ponderosa and pick out the stuff we need to keep and to sort out the stuff we can get along without.  In order to get the MH in the right place, I had to trim a few branches off the pine tree.  Yes I made sure I placed the ladder on the right side of the branch.

careful on the ladder

the branches kinda get in the way

So around 6 pm I said to the girls in the shack that tonight should not be too busy so I was going to the baseball game.  

not the best seat in the house

I watched an inning when my phone buzzed and it was Taylor saying that they had got slammed.  So I hurried back to the shack and helped them with all the orders.  Here are some pictures of our kitchen in action.  I was even there!!!  My job was cooking fries.

Taylor, our assistant kitchen manager

mustard, relish and ketchup for this one

The prep table

We blanch our fries for three minutes before final cooking

heres your ice cream cone!!

before and after

Of course there are always dishes to do and that chore goes to the newest employee.  Jorja was it tonight!!!

We finally got caught up after a couple hours and there was nobody at the window anymore.

I should show you our ice cream freezers and how we identify where each ice cream is.  Here is our ice cream station.  We have a blue freezer and a white freezer.   It sort of helps finding a particular flavour.  We soon figure out if a flavour is a blue lid or a white lid.

We also have all the flavours written on the freezer to help out as well.

We also have ice cream stored in the back freezer that are duplicate flavours of the ones in the front freezer.  We keep a list of what is in the back freezer so we know if we have more of a flavour when a pail runs out.  We also write down any flavours that we run out of to make the ordering process easier for me.  I am normally the ice cream orderer.

We have a large storage freezer in the back that holds all of our inventory.  It has pickles, perogies, chicken fingers, onion rings, hamburger, cheese curds, wings and buns.  We probably have close to $10,000.00 inventory at right after our order comes on Thursday.  

And then there is our fry station.  This is where we cut and wash all the home cut fries.  These are a trademark of Cj's and people come from miles around to have them.  We go through lots of them every day.  The picture reminds me that I am supposed to paint any of the wood mounts that the fry cutter is mounted on!!!  Its on my list....honest!!!

Its always good to see that the little written notes are taken seriously.  Obviously whoever cut these fries saw the note!!! Good Job!!

So as the sun fades and the last order is put on the warming tray ready for customer pickup, I'm going to fade off into the sunset as well.  It's been a long day and there is another one tomorrow.  Lots of people to meet and lots of ice cream to scoop!!! Good Nite!!!

Loss of a Friend

WHERE ARE WE? Rivers Provincial Park, Rivers Manitoba

Today we had one thing on our minds.  The celebration of life for our friend Jill White who passed away very suddenly a few weeks ago.  The day was about remembering Jill, but more so to show her husband Cam and their family that they have a huge support network that will be there for them as they carry on without her.  

Cam and Jill and their family have been friends of ours for a number of years but our friendship has changed over the years because of our lifestyle change.  Because we travel in the winter and also because we bought Cj's which keeps us extremely busy in the summer, the amount of time we spent together has certainly diminished.  Our deep down inside friendship didn't diminish, but our day to day contact certainly was limited by those factors.  Although we love the RV lifestyle, it certainly changes your life and your interaction with even close friends.  So today was a little sad for us knowing that although we loved and appreciated both Cam and Jill as awesome friends, we know that our ability to spend time with Jill has now come to an end.  She will certainly be in our thoughts often and so many things will remind us of her and make us smile.  We have gone through all the shoulda, coulda, woulda scenarios in our minds, but that doesn't fix anything in this situation.  Bottom line is we will miss her smile and awesome laugh immensely and we hope we can be "a little more often" friend to Cam.  He has a huge hole in his heart right now.  Rest easy Jill!!!