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