Just back from a quick trip to Edmonton.

So, the main reason for my trip to Edmonton was that I had a job to do for my buddy Bill at Larga. His parking lot in one area was sinking or settling and as a result, every time it rained a huge puddle occured and it was quite inconvenient for parking and getting in and out of vehicles. Bill asked me if I could do an overlay over the whole area to level it off and make sure the water was draining in the right direction. I told him, OF COURSE I can fix it although I have never done a job like this before. It started with an estimate of how much asphalt I would need to overlay the whole section and my guess of 7 tonnes of product turned out to be quite accurate - much to my surprise!

I was very lucky that Jesse and Nikki were around and they were a huge help in shoveling up the asphalt and moving it around and spreading and tamping and on and on. It was very good for me as I have come to realize that I must be very careful not to take on more that I can chew (so to speak) and this was about as big of a job as I want to do. It didn't help that Edmonton set a record for the date (May 21st I think) where the temp hit +31.8C.

So the photos above show the progress we made to do the job. I actually had to rent a large roller compactor and was quite proud that not only the lot got leveled properly but the fences were all still standing after I was done.

I got home yesterday afternoon and am washing my laundry tonite as I'm off to Minnesota tomorrow to spend some time with my hunnie.... WhooooHooooo Life is Good!

It's been a while since I've updated this site!!!

I was sitting out on my deck this afternoon sipping on a glass of wine, reading the Globe, and just relaxing after a nice game of golf at Clear Lake and it was soooooo nice! The birds were chirping so I took a few pics of them at the feeder and, well, Life is Good!

I'm feeling a bit apprehensive because I decided a couple of weeks ago to list my house with the local realtor ... just a bit of a fishing session to see if I got any bites. Well, it looks like I got a nibble as my realtor called to tell me that she will have a written offer tonight for me to look at. Now, this probably is good - even considering that I do not have an option as to where I will live - at the present moment. But as Jewels and I often say, what's the worst that could happen.

I have been busy lately with a bit of work ( did a couple of small jobs in Winnipeg) and I've been touring MB doing some visiting as well. A couple of weeks ago, I journeyed down to Manitou and visited with one of my elementary teachers (from grade 5 or 6).. Miss Magnusson, known now as Haraldine Mangusson Webb, who had the horror of teaching myself and my croonies a "few" years ago. It was so very nice to touch base with her, and Bob, and have a visit and discuss the old days.

From there, I went into Winnipeg and had a lovely couple of nites with Russel and Dorothy. Russ and I had ...uhhhh.. several beers one nite and then off to the golf course the next day. The courses are all open now and most have wintered well. Then, off to Victoria Beach for a couple ove nites with Dennis and Landa... damn.. I have to get better at taking my camera out of the bag and doing some pics. Anyways, had a great visit with those guys as usual. Then last weekend I went out to Mom's and spent a nite with her to celebrate Mother's Day. Dennis and Landa showed up there as well so now we are officially sick of each other and never want to visit each other again.. well, that's probably how they feel anyways.

Finally, I was in Winnipeg the other day to do a little job with Canad Inns and touched base with Darlene and Ron Peterson. What a nice visit I had with them. Haven't seen those guys for a visit for about 25-30 years and it was just like yesterday. Ron and I played a round of golf at ??? River Oaks?? course in St Norbert. We had a lovely barbeque after that so all in all, it was a great visit.

OOOPs.. forgot to mention that prior to all the above visiting, I managed to get over to cousin Doris and Asgar Sigurdsons for coffee as well. I'm so happy to be able to visit people that I have not seen for ages. Everyone is getting a bit older... but like me.. wiser as well.

I'm off to Edmonton tomorrow. I have a job at Larga to fix up some of the parking area and will get to visit with Bill and Pat as well as Jesse and Nikki. Then, on the 24th I'm off ot Osoyoos BC to meet up with some of the vagabonds from Yellowknife who are down for the week for a golf trip. Should be nice to get a visit with them and possibly a chance to take a few dollars off them as well.

Life is Good, isn't it?!!!

Busy, Busy, Busy (Busy spending money that is!!!)

So.... I my little pothole repair business is rolling along. I decided that I needed a better method of tamping down the asphalt in my repairs so I found a nice little compactor online and within a week and an expenditure of $1230 (included freight from Mississauga) I was the proud owner of a dynamic EVCC90 vibrating plate compactor.

Wellll, the only little problem was that this unit tipped the scales at 170 lbs.. a bit of a ball buster trying to load and off load from the back of the truck. No problem you say! Just buy a trailer (cause you need more space for hauling asphalt and all those nice little tools) and you can slide the compactor in and out of the trailer. So, within a mere day, I was the proud owner of a rosy red (matches the truck) Agassiz Voyageur 4 x 6 trailer... along with an expenditure of $1995 - peanuts to a big operation like mine!

The only little problem was that the unit still weighed 170 lbs and I still couldn't lift it in or out of the trailer. Lucky for me, the guy I bot the trailer off is VERY handy and he rigged up a wonderful hydraulic lift in the trailer that solves the 170 lb problem. It works well and the guy didn't really charge much considering the product and effort required to set it up... of course, I needed belts to tie down the compactor as well as some of the tools... and.. uhhh.. well the electrical wiring to the hitch on my truck had an issue and I had to go to CanTyre to get that fixed.. so the day cost me another $350

But I fixed a crack in a guy's driveway near Brandon today... billed the guy $38 for the job.. so I'm only ...hmmmm $1230 + $1995 + $350 + $50 (gas and meals for the past couple of days) totalling
$3625.. less my $38 income = a net shortfall of $3587 for the week.

And Julie is worried about me not having done my taxes yet! But it was +22C today, the sun was warm, the birds were singing, I have a nice job tomorrow at a local Brandon hotel ($900), and Life is still Good!

It's was a maple syrup weekend down in Duluth.

Well, I went down to Duluth this past weekend to celebrate Julie's father's birthday - Bob turned 82 on Sunday.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB... and in addition to a birthday celebration, it turned out to be maple syrup weekend as well.

Scot had been busy tapping the maples and we all gathered up the sap and melted it down to a fine tasting syrup. It's a long process in that if you gather 40 gallons of sap, after melting it down it will make 1 gallon of finished maple syrup product.

The photos I attached show Tom collecting sap, Julie taking up a position as "oversee-er" beside the fire in her official Minnesota Maple Costume (Plaid shirt and goofy hat), she was later joined by Kim and her mom, and finally several pics of Julie and Scott as they finalized the process with the meldown of the sap, adding the butter to flavor and prevent the product from boiling over, and finally the taste test (YUMMMMM).

It's too bad but for some reason, I never got any photos of the birthday boy. He was probably out back on his mission to blow all the leaves off the property, which he managed to do over a couple of days.

It was a glorious weekend, great food and drink, lots of card playing, good company, wonderful warm weather... ahhh needless to say, Life is Good.

Pics are boring but this is what I do.

My plan for the summer is to work at doing pothole repairs. It sounds kind of boring and trivial .... and I guess it is - BUT - Jimmy does have his reasons. Number one - I figured that there would be lots of opportunities to get work as there is no shortage of potholes in this country of ours; Number two - I have access to one of the best products available to do this kind of work (our EZ Street cold asphalt); Number three - I really wanted to work outside in the sunshine and fresh air and do something physical - I am 60 years old afterall and this type of work gives me the outdoors as well as an abundance of opportunity to do physical work and feed my feeble old body; Number four - I want the flexability to move around with no set schedule, just a few loads of asphalt in the back of the truck, a couple of changes of clothes, my shaving kit and variety of pills, and of course, the golf clubs. Yes, it seems like a good plan.

Since I have started this work, I have picked up a couple of jobs from which I did pretty well on the $$$income side of the ledger, I've been able to visit mom for a few days, I did a trip down to Duluth to visit my Minnesota gang, and now I'm back home and looking for more work. It just needs to warm up a bit for the golfing side of the "workplan" and .... well, you know what they say - Life is Good!

Wow.. a month has gone by - it's time to update!

It's hard to believe that almost a month has gone by since I left Vancouver Island. I was visiting this weekend with my Minnesota family and Tom gave me hell and told me it was time to get to work and update this blog. I finally got my cord for downloading photos so it will be easier to get motivated and do my updates.

I picked out a few photos of the ferry ride to the mainland (which I absolutely love - can't wait for this summer's cruise) and then the drive through the mountains. This trip was uneventful other than taking in the scenery. I stopped in Edmonton and spent the nite with my pals, Bill and Pat. Missed Jesse as he was on a class outing to Calgary. I arrived safe and sound back into Manitoba and am ready to get to work and see if my plan for a summer of pothole repairs is a good move. I'm looking forward to it and it has to be the answer because,well, Life is Good!

Visiting the gang on Vancouver Island

The crappy weather continues to follow me around - although my drive out west through the mountains went much smoother than last fall when I hit the worst possible weather. I left Edmonton around 4pm and since the weather was nice and clear, I drove through to Hope arriving around 2am. After a nice sleep, I woke up to a raging snow storm and the only time it hasn't been raining the past week, it's been snowing.

Today, the day before I return to Edmonton, it was relatively nice with just a few showers. We took a drive this morning down to Qualicum Beach and visited Graham at his plant. Very impressive operation where they build concrete forms for a variety of construction uses. We then went over to his house and had a visit with Leah and the kids. First time Shaya got to visit her cousins and although it was short, it was a nice visit.

I wanted to collect some driftwood this trip so Jill, Wayne, Shaya and I drove up to the ferry depot for the Powell River Ferry and took a stroll up the beach. We picked up a few very cool pieces and found some very interesting old logs with plants growing out of them.

Tomorrow, if it's nice I hope to get some nice photos off the ferry from Victoria to Horseshoe Bay. It's been so nice to visit with the kids and especially to spend some time with my sweet little grand daughter.

Life is good!