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!