Anyway....

So.  We woke up this morning and it was  -27C with a wind chill of  -38C.  Now you may think that sounds really cold, BUT that's in Celsius.  In Fahrenheit that would be......hold on.  I have to refer to my TexLoc Quick Reference - Celsius to Fahrenheit conversion chart.  Yes, I'm one of "those" Americans who refuses to learn the metric system even though the rest of the world uses it! Ok. First, the "actual" temperature was -16.6 degrees Fahrenheit.  And with the wind chill it would be -36.4F...................................OMG.  What have I done?! LOL!!!!  Actually, I guess once it's friggin cold, it's just cold because for some reason the only extremities showing any great protest to this whole endeavor would be my fingers.  So far I am actually able to handle this.  My car even starts and I haven't had the block warmer installed!  I KNOW!  Let's just give a little plug for KIA!

The boys left yesterday morning.  My heart was sad.  Sam and I went out to the farm on Saturday and we all hung out until Monday morning.  Then we headed back to Saskatoon, and the Dwayne and the Alton headed somewhere warmer....so, Nancy, June, Nicki, Dale, look out!  They are headed your way!

I'll be headed back out to the farm in the next day or two.  Garth is flying out on Saturday.  It just goes to show "where ever you go, there you are".  My spirit sojourn is about to begin.  Three months on the prairie.  Max, Cletis Ann, and me.

Pictures of Max in his "boots" and sweater to follow.  Talk about funny!  I wish you could see him try and walk in these things!  Sam tells me I shouldn't be laughing at him, and she praises and pets him for being so handsome (whatever).  Look how we balance each other.  Have I truly found the Yin to my Yang?

Love and blessings.

Unsolicited Book Review

The Shack . Published in 2007. Written by Canadian author William P. Young.  I didn't know he was Canadian until just now.  I had read about The Shack when it first came out and even put it on my Amazon Wish List, but never selected it for purchase, though I really wanted to on several occasions.  Well, I was sitting at Sam's one day and there it was on the desk!  Not only that, but she didn't remember how it got there or who it belonged to.  To me it was a sure "sign" to read it.

The writing is superb and the story is thought provoking.  God is a heavy black woman who loves to cook.  That's all I'll say.  A spiritual tone runs through out but does not dominate.  I want to read it again.

Sweet November

HAPPY VETERANS DAY to all of you in the States, and HAPPY REMEMBRANCE DAY to all in Canada.  Remembrance Day is taken very seriously here.  I was no sooner out of bed this morning before Dwayne had a red poppy pinned to my Green Bay Packer sweatshirt!  The eleventh hour of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month.  Everything closes here. And I'm not just talking the banks and post offices.

This handsome man in uniform is my dad at 18 years old.  He survived 33 bombing missions over Germany in WWII.  He was a gunner who sat in a little bubble attached to the aircraft.  I can't even imagine.  I feel for any and all veterans who survive war and have to come back to "society" and fit back in...

My dad was the greatest man I have ever known.  He dropped out of school in the 6th grade to help with the family farm. His parents were immigrants from Croatia.  He fought in WWII.  He took a job in a foundry where he would stay for 39 years.  He hated every minute of it, but he never missed a day.  Except when he had a disc fused in his back. Upon retirement he was given a luncheon and a watch.   He never made much money, but he and my mother managed to raise 4 kids very successfully.  He loved kids and kids loved him.  His granchildren were no doubt his greatest joy.   He never ever seemed down and out.  When he discovered 2 of his 4 children were gay he found a way to get around all the trash that people and religions brainwash  people with on this subject, and he loved us even harder.  OH, it wasn't easy at first!  But he worked at it until he actually told us, "you are our children and we love you no matter what."  He was comfortable among the rich and poor. He could talk to anyone, and everyone loved talking to him. He did crossword puzzles in ink.  And perhaps the greatest virtue...he was able to put up with my mother for all those years (back when people actually stayed together).  My mother was the baby of her family and a little high strung .  It wasn't always easy.   I'm just being honest.

This is a picture of the old chicken coop (that will hopefully be fixed up and used for chickens again next summer) that the boys used as the "bird cleaning station".  I was so hoping to get a picture of the silhouette with a hatchet in the air! LOL!!!!!!  Come on!  You have to find some humor in a job like that!  Speaking of!  IT'S OVER.  The bird cleaning season has officially closed.  Not only that but Dwayne and Alton have the north section of the garden cultivated (roughly 4 acres), the new 5 acre potato patch cultivated, and the spot for the new and improved greenhouse is cultivated.  The new greenhouse will be 14 x 90 (Steve C.!)  Approximately 200 bales of hay have been brought in which will be used as mulch this spring.  And last, they only have a few more days left on the deck they have been building.  I will make sure we post a picture of the finished product.  The time remaining for them here in Canada is passing quickly.  They will soon be packing up the Honda and heading south.  Garth seems to be preparing at a quick pace himself.  Packing, sewing, laundry...I know that the time is rapidly approaching when it is going to get very quiet here.

Double Click on Me

How about this little guy?  Alton was the first to hear him down at the dug out, and having been totally programmed now to stay away from the moose, don't go near a moose, "fear" the moose he ran diligantly into the house and told Dwayne to get the camera and get a picture.  I'd only ever seen a moose on "Northern Exposure" when it walked through town in the beginning of the show.

Here's our little Cletis Ann!  I had to put something in showing how busy she stays all day, everyday.  Come winter she will stay in until sometime in spring.  To burn off energy she likes to chase Max all over the house and put him in kitty headlocks.  Honest.  I look forward to her keeping me entertained all winter!

OH NO!  LOOK WHAT HAPPENED!  Actually we've had a couple of snowfalls already.  Maybe an inch both times.

Anyway, the only thing that I have left to mention at this time, is that I have met someone here in Canada.  Surely you didn't think it was only this country I was so "smitten" with?!  After 10 years of living the happy life of a lone wolf, and looking for nothing different, I went and crossed that Canadian border!  Her name is Sam.  What's really ironic is that she's Dwayne's "other" best friend and over all these years the two of us had never met.   I think we honestly tried to ignore it a couple of times, or perhaps "run away from it" would be more accurate, but then decided that we owed it to ourselves to explore what was happening.  And so we are.  When I asked Dwayne if he was ok with all this he simply responded, "just don't come running to me when you have a fight!" Gotta love that boy! And that's all I have to say about that.

Honor yourselves!

Peace

To Our Canine Soul Mates

It seems to have been a very hard year for our 4-legged friends.  Dwayne and Alton lost Newt back in June, and then I heard from one of my best friends that her dog, Lucy, passed while she slept next to her.  And then a day or two later I heard that Nicki and Dale in Houston have lost their Elliott pretty unexpectedly.  The stars in the heavens are brighter at night now...

 I think losing a pet is a type of ceremonial passage.  We welcome and embrace these little lives into our own knowing our time with them is so limited.  Yet we love them, and spoil them, and boo-boo on them and  hope for as much time as we can be blessed to have before they leave us.  And when it does happen, whether it be in a couple of years or after a whole lifetime, we can be proud to know that we stayed there with them and saw them through this experience called life, and that they had a good life because of us.   And for that brief period in time we had someone who totally loved us, unconditionally and without reserve, and who actually thought we were absolutely perfect just the way we are!  That doesn't happen too often.  I'm really sorry for your loss.