Big Changes and New Opportunities!

Tomorrow, our daughter, her husband and their family (our grandchildren) are moving to British Columbia!  They'll be living in Abbotsford, just far enough east of Vancouver to have reasonable house prices.

Yours truly (a particularly photogenic 30 year-old picture) with the 3 kids
 at the Calgary Zoo Prehistoric Park, 1986,

I think it probably started for our daughter when we took the kids on five camping trips across the country, starting in 1986 when our daughter was 2.  Three big trips through the mountains of B.C. out to the ocean, and as far north as the Yukon and Alaska meant they all fell in love with the west.

 The family outside the Tea House at Lake Agnes, high above Lake Louise 

in Banff National Park. 

The trips west certainly cemented William's love of the mountains, and he spent much of his flying career in B.C.  Our daughter and her husband fell in love with the mountains anew last fall when we went to Alberta and B.C. for Will's memorial services.  She has stayed in touch with a couple of Will's friends who live in or near Abbotsford since then.

Three of us on the many switch-backed very steep trail above Lake Agnes, 
headed for the lookout on top of the Beehive - 1990, when our daughter was 6.

And so the talk of moving west started last fall, new job opportunities were checked out, and a trip west to investigate where to live was organized.  Then suddenly it happened; they bought a house there and sold their house here, and now off they go!  The past five days have been some of the most intensive in our retired life, helping them pack, and then having our daughter and the grands here for 3 days while her husband drove the car west.  She will fly tomorrow.  As you can imagine, there are some mixed emotions, but we are thrilled for them and hope they love their new life in the mountains and near the ocean.

The last trip, in 1994, when the kids were noticeably older, 

at the Arctic Circle on the Dempster Highway in the Yukon.

And what are the new opportunities for us?  Well of course a very big incentive to spend some time travelling in B.C., and perhaps all up and down the west from Arizona to Alaska.  There are national, state and provincial parks galore all the way through Canada and the U.S.A., with some of the best scenery in the world!  There are many in Canada we want to revisit; and parts of the U.S. we've never seen.  So it's a big change in our lives; cross your fingers for us that it will all work out well.  I may have to change the name of my blog 'cause we'll be spending more time away from the valley.  "Furry Gnome's Adventures" has been suggested!

Dug out my little-used laptop for tonight's post; an older and slower laptop is doing much better than the newer and faster desktop tonight!

Big Changes and New Opportunities!

Tomorrow, our daughter, her husband and their family (our grandchildren) are moving to British Columbia!  They'll be living in Abbotsford, just far enough east of Vancouver to have reasonable house prices.

Yours truly (a particularly photogenic 30 year-old picture) with the 3 kids
 at the Calgary Zoo Prehistoric Park, 1986,

I think it probably started for our daughter when we took the kids on five camping trips across the country, starting in 1986 when our daughter was 2.  Three big trips through the mountains of B.C. out to the ocean, and as far north as the Yukon and Alaska meant they all fell in love with the west.

 The family outside the Tea House at Lake Agnes, high above Lake Louise 

in Banff National Park. 

The trips west certainly cemented William's love of the mountains, and he spent much of his flying career in B.C.  Our daughter and her husband fell in love with the mountains and  anew last fall when we went to Alberta and B.C. for Will's memorial services.  She has stayed in touch with a couple of Will's friends who live in or near Abbotsford since then.

Three of us on the many switch-backed very steep trail above Lake Agnes, 
headed for the lookout on top of the Beehive - 1990, when our daughter was 6.

And so the talk of moving west started last fall, new job opportunities were checked out, and a trip west to investigate where to live was organized.  Then suddenly it happened; they bought a house there and sold their house here, and now off they go!  The past five days have been some of the most intensive in our retired life, helping them pack, and then having our daughter and the grands here for 3 days while her husband drove the car west.  She will fly tomorrow.  As you can imagine, there are some mixed emotions, but we are thrilled for them and hope they love their new life in the mountains and near the ocean.

The last trip, in 1994, when the kids were noticeably older, 

at the Arctic Circle on the Dempster Highway in the Yukon.

And what are the new opportunities for us?  Well of course a very big incentive to spend some time travelling in B.C., and perhaps all up and down the west from Arizona to Alaska.  There are national, state and provincial parks galore all the way through Canada and the U.S.A., with some of the best scenery in the world!  There are many in Canada we want to revisit; and parts of the U.S. we've never seen.  So it's a big change in our lives; cross your fingers for us that it will all work out well.  I may have to change the name of my blog 'cause we'll be spending more time away from the valley.  "Furry Gnome's Adventures" has been suggested.

Dug out my little-used laptop for tonight's post; an older and slower laptop is doing much better than the newer and faster desktop tonight!

Big Changes and New Opportunities!

Tomorrow, our daughter, her husband and their family (our grandchildren) are moving to British Columbia!  They'll be living in Abbotsford, just far enough east of Vancouver to have reasonable house prices.

Yours truly with the 3 kids at the Calgary Zoo Prehistoric Park, 1986,

I think it probably started for our daughter when we took the kids on five camping trips across the country, starting in 1986 when our daughter was 2.  Three big trips through the mountains of B.C. and as far as the Yukon and Alaska meant they all fell in love with the west.

 The family outside the Tea House at Lake Agnes, high above Lake Louise 

in Banff National Park. 

The trips west certainly cemented William's love of the mountains, and he spent most of his flying career in B.C.  Our daughter and her husband fell in love with the mountains and  anew last fall when we went to Alberta and B.C. for Will's memorial services.  She has stayed in touch with a couple of Will's friends who live in or near Abbotsford since then.

Three of us on the many switch-backed very steep trail above Lake Agnes, headed for the lookout on top of the Beehive - 1990, when our daughter was 6.

And so the talk of moving west started last fall, new job opportunities were checked out, and a trip west to investigate where to live was organized.  Then suddenly it happened; they bought a house there and sold their house here, and now off they go!  The past five days have been some of the most intensive in our retired life, helping them pack, and then having our daughter and the grands here for 3 days While her husband drove the car west.  She will fly tomorrow.  As you can imagine, there are some mixed emotions, but we are thrilled for them and hope they love their new life in the mountains and near the ocean.

The last trip, in 1994, when the kids were noticeably older, 

at the Arctic Circle on the Dempster Highway in the Yukon.

And what are the new opportunities for us?  Well of course a very big incentive to spend some time travelling in B.C., and perhaps all up and down the west from Arizona to Alaska.  There are national, state and provincial parks galore all the way through Canada and the U.S.A., with some of the best scenery in the world!  There are many in Canada we want to revisit; and parts of the U.S. we've never seen.  So it's a big change in our lives; cross your fingers for us that it will all work out well.  I may have to change the name of my blog 'cause we'll be spending more time away from the valley.  "Furry Gnome's Adventures" has been suggested.

Dug out my little used laptop for tonight's post; an older and slower laptop is doing much better than the newer and faster desktop tonight!

Computers!&$X#%€?¥£!

Computer is not co-operating, so I'm writing this on my ipad.  Damn nuisance, I had things I was going to say.  Hopefully see you tomorrow.

Barn Quilt Trail

After spotting this quilt block on a barn up the road two weeks ago, I strated investigating.  Turns out there is a brand new "For the Love of Grey Barn Quilt Trail", started just this past June, centred so far around the hamlet of Rocklyn, a few miles to the north.  The other day I went out to find what I could using their map.

Here's the original one I found two weeks ago.

Another colourful one with an interesting pattern.  These all appear to be painted on two 4x8 sheets of plywood and mounted on the barn.

I liked this one that looked like a Scotch Thistle pattern.

There was one I never did get a clear view of, because the barn is behind both the house and some trees, but it's a bright star pattern.

And this was a nice mainly green pattern, rather unusual design I thought.

The "For the Love of Grey Barn Quilt Trail" has its own Facebook page, which tells you a bit about the history of this new initiative, and provides a map for anyone to drive around and spot them.  They are not all in place yet, but it will be an interesting addition to our countryside when they all are.  More participants are welcome.

Grey County Cattle

Quite a lot of beef cattle around these parts, to go with all the hay that's produced.  Spotted several herds along my route Tuesday.

This big bull was the most massive creature among all the herds.  Not often you see a real live bull out with the cattle anymore.  Rather flimsy fence in the background I thought.

And these were the cattle nearby, all resting by the fencerow.  Look like Herefords to me.

But the rest were all Charolais, and these ones were all moving steadily playing follow the leader.

Except one who stopped and looked up at me.

This herd was playing follow the leader too, all headed one direction.

But this herd thought it was time for a rest.  These was the biggest group; these are only a few of them.

And there was one lonely sheep farm.

Linking to:

August Skies

On my drive the other day I caught a lot of beautiful Grey County skies.  The white clouds were blowing across the blue, the temperature was pleasant, just one of those great late summer days.

A view across part of the Wodehouse wetland just around the corner.

A recently combined field of wheat.

Another combined field, but the straw hasn't been baled yet.  Probably mixed grain or barley. 

One of three herds of Charolais cattle.

And another.

And another of those quilt barns - more pictures of those in a day or two.

Linking to:

Thursday Fences

Not getting out exploring enough, too much work going on around here.  So I finally took a break and went for one of those country drives, and picked up photos of a variety of things.  First, some fences.  I quickly realized that farms with animals (like horses or alpacas) in paddocks have the most fences!

One of my favourite well maintained fencelines, just down the road.  Some years there are cattle in this field.

Around the corner on Grey Road 12, and they are redoing the road.  All the guard rail fences are in, with the cables already attached, but they haven't been tightened yet.

I gave up on the gravel reconstruction and moved over a concession to go up the townline, past this metal fabricating shop.  Nice fence out front here too - one of those closely spaced ones to withstand the winter's snow and ice.

And on that road I quickly came to one of the horse farms around here.  This one has quite a few paddocks, and a number of people I know keep their horse there.

As you look across two or three paddocks, inevitably you see several fences.  But the horses certainly weren't interested in me.

Finally, one of them did look up.

Lots of fences here even where there are no horses in the picture.  The style of fences here are built to be easily visible to the horses.

After a loop north and back east, I returned down the 7th Line past the Alpaca paddocks.  With 6 big triangular paddocks , there are lots of fences here too.  I think you're looking across at least 6 fences.  The long points of all of the paddocks end at the barn, which makes it easy to let the animals out to their own field.

A couple of them were lying in the shade of the shelter in the closest paddock here.

Linking to:

Riding Toy Museum

Last week we enjoyed a fascinating visit to Meaford's Riding Toy Museum.  It was full of all kinds of toys a child could ride on - scooters, cars, wagons, sleighs, bicycles, tricycles and more!  Sadly, the gentleman who collected and restored all these passed away recently.  I had only met him once, out on the ski trails in the winter.  But a close friend of mine was also a close friend of his, and he was determined that we should come and see this while we still could.  The owner's wife gave us the tour.

This is a private personal collection built up over the past 15 years, and every toy was restored to riding condition.  There are several that visiting kids are allowed to ride too.

One of the prized toy cars, totally restored.

This dates from the days when the trunk was a trunk!  Notice the two postcards on the table.

This is one of those photos, showing the car as it was when it was found and brought home.  This gentleman had a complete shop for restoring these old toys, including a sand blasting set-up.  He did some truly remarkable work!

The batmobile is a favourite with visiting children.

The owner actually made these two toy locomotives himself.

An old wooden bicycle, one of a long line of bikes, against a wall of old sleighs.

Another mostly wooden bike, this one quite valuable because of the wooden wheel rims and the curved handlebars.

More types of scooters than I ever thought existed were mounted on one wall.  There were two walls of old wagons too, but somehow I missed photographing them.

Quite a few interesting old tricycles too.

And a whole wall of toy trucks, all designed to be ridden around the living room by a toddler.

Ontario has personalized license plates available; as we were leaving I noticed this.  This must be one of the most remarkable private collections that I've ever seen.  And an incredible investment in time to do the restoration!

Another great day for working outside here, and I'm making good progress (after four years of struggle) on our garden water feature.  Have to gather some photos of that soon.  Sun and clouds, but never got uncomfortably hot, so I got a lot done.