Month: October 2016

Yesterday, I finished a second application of drywall compound on all the seams. I had purchased a wider drywall trowel to do this second coat. It seems to have worked quite well.

All that’s left to do now is some light sanding and maybe putting a coat of primer on the whole thing.

Having done all this, it makes a big difference in the lighting. So much brighter.

Next Spring, when the weather is warmer, I will pressure wash the garage floor, repair the chipped cement and apply an epoxy coating over the whole thing.

I was down at Minetts Point earlier today having a coffee and enjoying the view. This caught my eye and I had to check it out.

A new initiative, it looks like, to try to keep discarded fishing line out of the waterways.

We have all seen examples of wildlife tangled up in line. Not a nice sight.

Because Minetts Point is popular with ice fisherman in winter, thus seems like a good idea.

One of the things I am trying to do in the garage, besides getting it warm and looking half decent, is to organize things in a sensible and practical way. Much of the stuff is seasonal, for example our two bicycles. In winter, they are unused. So, today, I am looking at installing two ceiling bicycle storage systems.

I went to my nearby Canadian Tire store to purchase a couple, but they were out of stock.

MY Jane was taking Ted out for a drive and offered to check out the store in Innisfil which supposedly has two in stock.

In the meantime, I am ready to apply a second mudding to the drywall.

I am short a 2′ X 3′ section of drywall just over the garage door opener but I think Lowes sells 2 X 2 pieces so I can make this work.

This morning I continued with my garage drywalling project and then took a break at Minnetts Point.

Just after I parked, the Barrie Police boat went cruising by at a slow rate of speed.

Today I had a few small sections of drywall to install and I then began taping and mudding the seams as well as mudding over the drywall screws.

This morning, I picked up some drywall to begin the final stage of my garage enhancement project. Thanks to my cousin, George, and his truck, I avoided the delivery charge from Lowes.

These are lightweight 9 foot panels and I managed to get a couple installed so far.

Thanks, George.

It is raining steadily as I sit writing my daily blog.

She’s a smart cat.

Petey, the friendly neighbourhood squirrel, continues foraging in our back yard and looking for his daily peanut handout.

Yes, with temperatures forecast to drop to 0 Celsius tonight, and leaves from our maples beginning to fall, Autumn is underway.

Remember when you could go to the local hardware store and get a key cut for less than $5.00? And you could get an extra set of car keys cut too?

Yesterday we took a car ride to Port Dover just to do a little sightseeing.

I received a call from my friend, Burdie, asking if I could pick up a couple of outboard motors from a guy near here and take them back to Barrie where he will pick them up.

So after breakfast we’ll do that.

Later, Steven and Chris will drop by and then we’ll return home.

Awesome hosts, great visit!

MY Jane and I arrived at Myles’ and Maureen’s house yesterday around noon. It was raining steadily and continued to rain all day.

There was no shortage of conversation from then until we retired for the night around 11 PM.

Jane and Mouse teamed up in the kitchen to put the finishing touches on Mayreen’s spaghetti dinner which was absolutely scrumptious.

After dinner more conversation and watching a little NHL hockey.

Tomorrow, Steven and Chris will be dropping in here for a brief visit en route to Niagara Falls.

We are en route to Welland to visit our friends, Myles and Maureen. Our “Waze” GPS app is fantastic. Not only does it plot the quickest route to the destination, but it will also re-route you around traffic jams.

Looking forward to a great weekend.

Today I met up with my good friend, Burdie, with whom I grew up in Temiscaming. He was in Barrie for an appointment so we got together at a nearby Tim Hortons. It’s always good meeting up with him.

And Chris and Steven are going to be in that area too, so we might have a chance to meet up with them too.

Today I will be working in my garage/workshop, continuing with my winterization project. I have already insulated it and now I am applying vapour barrier in readiness for drywall.

That’s one wall done.

The most time consuming part of this whole process is removing everything that was hanging from the wall studs and taking out the ardox nails – you know, the spiral ones that are very hard to pull out.

I hope to be finished with the vapour barrier sometime today. Then hopefully, I can move quickly on the drywall installation. I don’t want to end up hanging stuff up on the walls before that happens. That would not be working smart.

Last week I finished the workbench doors which has improved the overall appearance and will help keep woodworking dust off a lot of stuff.

Yesterday was a dull damp one for the better part of the day. I spent time in my garage/workshop putting up vapour barrier in preparation for drywall installation sometime soon.

MY Jane and I have optimism this season for our Toronto Maple Leafs and NHL hockey in general. Firstly, our team has a franchise player, Auston Mathews, who scored four goals in his debut NHL game. He is the only rookie player to ever do this and probably will be the last. He is amazing.

The second thing that makes us happy about Hockey Night In Canada is the return of Ron MacLean. Well known for appearing with Don Cherry on Coachs Corner, Ron is a very knowledgeable hockey guru and brings a lot of depth to HNIC.

You can even notice the difference in the interaction with the other former players who appear on that show.

We’re happy!

Yesterday, when putting out the garbage, I noticed something written in chalk on the sidewalk in front of our home. Upon taking a closer look, here’s what I found.

You  Are Awesome. Three simple words obviously written by an anonymous neighbourhood kid. But, you know, those three words had an immediate effect on me. They buoyed my spirit. Why? Because here was something positive to start my day while I was doing the mundane but necessary task of putting out the garbage.

When I told MY Jane about this, we speculated that maybe the child was encouraged by a teacher to do something positive like this; or maybe his/her parents suggested it. Or maybe the child thought of it alone. Whatever the catalyst for this action, both Jane and I were impressed.

So, without hesitation, Jane got some chalk and went right out there to acknowledge and respond to that simple, yet profound, message.

She wrote, “Thanks from #20.”

I think that says a lot about MY Jane. I hope the child who wrote that first message sees what Jane wrote.

So I want to say to all of my blog readers:

YOU ARE AWESOME!

Autumn is here as is evidenced by our beautiful maple tree at the front of our house.

Usually the colour is much more vibrant, but nonetheless, it still looks very majestic.

I had thought that MY Jane and I might get in one more trip up to Beausoleil Island and take a spin out with our dinghy, Shenanigans. But there’s no point when it’s this cool and it looks like it’s going to be a bit windy too.

So, this morning, I sent a message up to Shane Ronald, Manager at Brandy’s to take it out and store it for the winter. Another camping/boating season has ended.

Today, while MY Jane is out with her Mom, I’m taking some measurements for  cabinet doors on my workbench.

Hopefully I can get this done in the next few days so I can proceed with drywall installation.

Its my birthday today and MY Jane got me one of the coolest gifts ever – an introductory flying lesson at the Barrie Flying Club.

We went out there at about 11 this morning and, shortly thereafter, I took off with Eugene the flight instructor in a two seater Sirius.

There were dual controls and, no sooner were we leveled off at about  two thousand feet, when Eugene let me take the controls. I was flying !

I had told him that I would like to head up over Beausoleil Island and that’s exactly what we did. It was a bright sunny day with winds from the Southwest about 15 knots. With that tailwind, we were doing about 220 kmph ground speed.

As Eugene had mentioned, all I had to do was be gentle with the controls and I found that it took very little on the steering yoke to bank left or right or go up or down. That part was easy.

In fact, at one point, while Eugene was taking another booking on his cell phone and engrossed in checking his calendar, I was flying the plane. Very cool.

Here’s the link to some video of my flight.
https://youtu.be/ti6bkZEh3B0
Thanks MY Jane for a wonderful gift. Something else to be checked off my bucket list!

As I mentioned in yesterday’s Blog, MY Jane, for my birthday, gave me an Introductory Flying lesson which I will be doing tomorrow morning, the day of my actual birthday. I’ll be recording the event on a Go Pro camera supplied by the Barrie Flying Club. Hopefully, I’ll be posting about it on Thursdays blog.

Yesterday, after breakfast, and with everyone rested up, we went outside to play a little road hockey.

Everyone had a great time and, at the same time, it was a fun way to exercise. Ted was watching all the antics from the window.

The turkey was already in the oven and the table set for Thanksgiving Dinner. We sure have a lot to be thankful for here. A great country, a great City, and a great Family. The dinner was superb, as usual.

With everyone here for the holiday weekend, we celebrated my 68th birthday a few days early. Cards, gifts and most importantly, having everyone here, made feel very special. 

And MY Jane arranged a surprise gift – this Wednesday, which is my actual birthday, we will  be heading out to the Barrie Flying Club to take a 40 minute flight aboard a small plane and I will get to actually fly the thing. I’m very excited about this. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

And to top it all off, the Toronto Blue Jays win over the Texas Rangers to advance. What a fabulous weekend!

Yesterday, everyone arrived for our annual Thanksgiving weekend. Steven arrived first and, while MY Jane and I went to pick up Ted, Chris & Tonya landed. 

Here’s a video:

https://youtu.be/nqQhIWH8nfo

There was no shortage of effort in their game and, at one point, Chris went sprawling into the deck trying to hit the bird.

It started to get a bit cool, so we all went inside for a lot of conversation and laughter.

Good times!

I am getting ready to finally install drywall in my garage. I also wanted to extend my work bench and reconfigure the peg board arrangement. This was the opportune time to do it. You can see from the photo below that it’s kind of a mess.

So yesterday morning I began the job of straightening things out.

The first step was to construct the workbench extension. This was a pretty straightforward endeavour.

I intend to cut a hole in the bench top right over the garbage can so that I can simply brush debris from the workbench into it. At the same time, it will be convenient to put out household garbage. I will also fabricate doors for the whole front of the bench to minimize dust from sawing and sanding.

Next, I removed the cabinet and took all the tools etc. off the existing pegboard. It was a very tedious process. And with everything in complete disarray, it was difficult to be able to work in there.

After I got the pegboard re-located with strapping behind, I started re-hanging tools. By then it was late afternoon and I was tired, so this is as far as I got. I’ll be doing more this morning before the arrival of the family for Thanksgiving.

MY Jane has been busy in the past few days preparing for Thanksgiving. That Holiday theme is very evident in our place with the great decorating skill she has.

In addition, she has been menu planning and grocery shopping, stocking up for this weekend’s arrival of Chris & Tonya and Steven as well as Ted.

We even set up a badminton net in the backyard in case someone gets ambitious. Jane and I have already played and, of course, I hit the birdie a bit too hard and it ended up in the neighbour’s back yard.

In order to set up the net, I had to temporarily re-locate the platform feeder and an unexpected result was that we get a real closeup look at the birds from our bedroom window.

We always enjoy it when Blue Jays drop in for a few peanuts. Sometimes it’s days between visits, but, lately, they have been showing up every day. I usually throw a few treats out in the deck so we can get a good look at them.

Did you know that blue jays will pick up the peanuts one at a time to see which one weighs the most?

On another Blue Jay note,  the Toronto Blue Jays won their game in the 11th inning and advance toward the World Series. A lot of happy fans last night. Well done Jays!

MY Jane is going to be out most of the day doing all kind of shopping for her Mom and us. While she’s out, it’s a perfect time for me to check out the many options on our new Fibe TV service.

I want to try the PVR capability and set up some favourites. 

So far, we are pretty pleased that we switched from Rogers. 

For several months we have been giving peanuts to Petey the friendly neighbourhood squirrel. And, in the past weeks, I have been trying to coax Petey into taking a peanut right from my hand. I have not been successful.

Petey gingerly approached the back door and, in the blink of any eye, took the peanut from my outstretched hand.

Finally!

Today I spent some time browsing in Lowes, one of my favourite stores. I did pick up few project supplies while I was there.

Also, I saw a man loading a lot of drywall onto his trailer so I thought I would ask him if he did dyrwalling. When he said he did, asked if he could give me a quote on doing my garage. 

He told me to send him the details and he would do that. So earlier this evening I sent him a few pictures and the measurements as well as telling him I would do the vapour barrier and drywall taping and mudding.

We’ll see what he says.

Yesterday, MY Jane and I travelled to Killbear to scope out campsites for next year. We spent a few hours  walking and driving around looking at the different campground sections in there. The park is a lot bigger than we thought. Of course, when we got close to the water, Jane just had to stick her toes in to see what the temperature was.

She later told me it was nice, but the expression on her face tells a different story.

Many of the sites, the ones closer to the water were spectacular. The views were amazing. 

We found a picnic table on the beach and stopped for a bit to have snack and drink that Jane had brought along.

I took a few minutes to push this tree back into the upright position.

In speaking with various people who were camping there, we learned that some of the prime sites, the ones by the water, are reserved up to five months ahead. People apparently sit by their computers just waiting for the availability of their favourites. And sites can be reserved for up to 23 days at once. If you wanted to, there’s even a way to book back to back 23 day outings which the Parks people don’t tell you about.

After leaving the park about three hours later, we stopped by Parry Sound to have a bite eat. Originally, we had talked about taking a longer scenic route to return home, but we were a bit tired so we’ll do that another day.