Summer is Slipping Away

WHERE ARE WE? Rivers Provincial Park, Rivers Manitoba

This morning the weed harvester showed up at the new dock.  The committee I am involved in (Friends of Rivers Lake) hires him to do week trimming at our swimming areas.  He will be spending a couple days trimming up the weeds around the dock and also across the lake at the Provincial park.  He took our 16 loads of weeds and made the swimming area better for the kids.

After lunch I drove to Strathclair to do a little job at the seniors housing.  The canola around the country is in full bloom and looks very pretty.

My job today was to cut off the downspouts so the lawn mowing people could just mow through without having to lift them up or run over them.  There is not much for drainage around the building so a little shorter pipe shouldn't hurt.

Day 1 over.

One of our suppliers stopped by today and dropped off some hats for the girls.  Pretty flashy!!!

And we met out other supplier in Hamiota to pick up some ice cream.  It was packed in dry ice so was frozen solid.  Glad the guy had good gloves on.

I got Max's bike going today and he rode it around for a while today.  He wants the training wheels but he hates them cause his wheel spins.  He will be off and riding soon.

The girls always like when I send them up to load the wood truck..NOT!!  I had loaded it twice today so was played out, so thats why I sent them.

And then it was that day again.  6:15 am is not my favourite time of day but it has to be done.

Lots of ice cream again today.

And lots of empty boxes.  I hate the waste, but what do we do?

Its fair day in Hamiota and Sheri wants the Jeep in the parade, so off I went after I finished unpacking.  

She had a golf cart as well and we loaded everyone up and off we went.

We were following the Lions Club with their mini car.  It was fun to watch him twisting and turning and doing circles.  The kids loved him.

Sheri's employees had a blast as well.  There is always something fun about being in a parade.

The Lions Club puts on a pancake breakfast to get you started.  It is free and is the tradition of most local fairs.  It gets everyone together to start the day.

The Lions Club asked Sheri to rent their canteen for the day and she did.  It was quite successful.  The work is intense from about 11 to about 1:30 and then it is done.  She probably sold a couple hundred hamburgers in that time, and the temperature by the grill was probably over 40C!!!  I spent a bit of time flipping burgers as well.

Some people used the horse drive thru window!! lol

Lots of horse and cow events in the ring beside the canteen.  I always love the big horses.

We are already over half done the summer.  My how the time flies and we will soon be heading south again.  Cj's has been quite busy this summer and we have enjoyed seeing lots of old friends on the deck.

Every day I take Archie out in the country for a run.  He loves it and watches closely for gophers and such on the way.  

Sheri bought some steaks and got out the BBQ on the back deck and we sat an cooked them.  Nothing fancy, but we got the job done.

A quick trip to Brandon this morning and it seems like every street in Brandon is tore up.  Our daughter Kaitlyn is in the business of supplying traffic control so her company is extremely busy right here in Brandon.

The reason we went to Brandon was to buy an additional air conditioner for the shack.  The Shack gets quite hot on these days over 30C and with the high humidity we need all the help we can get.  

Its Saturday so we have Music in the Park again.  Julianna is joining us again by popular demand.  She is an awesome singer and everyone enjoys listening to her. 

We had a great turn out tonight and Cj's had it's busiest day since we started 9 years ago.  The parking lot was full as was the viewing area for the music.

The customers were lined up waiting for their food and the phone was ringing with orders as well as the online order printer was spewing out orders.  Jill was in in the zone and showed us her true colours.  This was a lot of pressure for a 15 year old and she handled it with ease.

The food tickets all lined up. 

Sunday is always a wind down day.  The weekend campers all pack up and leave and only the few that are here on holidays will stay on into the week.  Today we had a special request to open the stage on our deck for a local young lady who has never performed in front of an audience.  She had a bunch of relatives stop by to listen to her and she did really well.  She has an awesome voice and will do well with her singing.  She has agreed to try out on the Music in the Park stage one Saturday night!!!

The rest of the day was sort of ho hum and Max and I just hung out on the deck and watched the squirrel in the squirrel feeder.  That was our week in a nut shell.  Good Nite!!

Another Week in the Lives

WHERE ARE WE? Rivers Provincial Park, Rivers Manitoba

Monday morning was the day to put the new Friends of Rivers Lake dock in the water.  Springland Manufacturing, a local company owned by long time Rivers residents, put it all together and delivered it and put it in the water for us.  The dock will make access to boats much easier for the disabled when we get it finished.  The Committee is pretty proud of the accomplishment!!!

I don't know why I decided to be the Incredible Hulk!!! LOL

My job today was to pickup the sponsorship sign from Brandon so it could be displayed at the site.  It just barely fit in the Jeep!!!

That pretty much filled up my whole day so I took a nice sunset picture of the finished product.

Today I had a little laugh.  We have a natural Manitoba grassland as part of our park and it is one of a rare few natural prairie grass areas left around.  Now I know we need to try to preserve these areas, but sometimes I wonder who decides what is more of a priority in the preservation process.  This boot brush showed up one day and I stopped to check out what it was for.  Apparently they think this thing will stop the spread of noxious weeds somehow.  A few things that don't make sense are:  1.  The weed seeds I brush off will be sitting there for the wind to pick up and blow all over the grassland. (But my shoes will be clean).  2. The trail is mowed every week with a mower that has been all over creation picking up noxious weed seeds and they are then spread all over the grassland.  3.  Not more than 50 feet from the sign is a large patch of Leafy Spurge which is one of the most hated noxious weeds around this area.  Control is by spraying or mowing.  The provincial park system has banned sprays, so only mowing will help.  Nope they are not doing that either.  So I just wonder what that little boot brush is going to accomplish, and I wonder how much money was squandered developing and implementing this ridiculous tax funded thing.  Rant over. lol

Our friends Jim and Marilyn are camping again this week.  Its nice to just slip over there and sit around their fire.  

Archie loves spending time with them too!!  He makes himself right at home.

This afternoon Michael and I stocked the wood boxes down in the seasonal area.  

Today we celebrated Dani's 16 Birthday.  We had presents and supper and a chit chat.  My goodness they grow up fast.  She is leaving on a trip to Mexico with her day in a couple days.  Have fun Dani.

We have some new little birds in the nest on our deck.  Two birds with one to hatch yet.  

On my trip to Strathclair on Wednesday, I spotted a moose out in a crop munching away.  They are such a majestic animal.

I stopped by Hamiota at Cj's on the Links for breakfast.  Riley was there to serve me.  They always have fun doing their jobs there.

In the afternoon, Winston and I did a couple of Manitoba Housing jobs.  We had to trim some trees around one of the houses in town.  I think we did a pretty good job.

And we finished hauling away all the trees from the manor this afternoon.  We always pick the hottest days to do that as well.

And Thursday came as Thursdays do...early.  I'm actually getting used to it.

We are starting to put a big hole in the second truck load of wood.  It won't be long and I will have to order more.  

My helper is always by my side.  He loves to go on Wood Wuns!!

I finally got all of the picnic tables that we used for the Hootenany put back where they belong.  This trailer makes the job easy.

Saturdays are our busy days and today was no different.  The girls had to work hard to keep the burgers, fries and ice cream going out the window.

Our Music in the Park guest was Shaya who entertained us along with her uncle Robin for the night.  The crowd loved her as usual.

After the music Sue and I took Archie for a run and saw our friend John Lepp out in his airplane spraying crops.  It must be a very tense job as there is no room for mistakes.

The aerial spectacle was followed by a pretty nice supper.

 Sunday was a good day after a busy weekend.  The ice cream freezer is empty so we had to put in an ice cream order today.  It will be delivered to Sheri on Monday.

A good day to put the feet up.  

And we have the kids tonight so Max makes sure his bedtime snack is Chocolate Ice Cream.  I sure wish we all could do that.   Good Nite!