Birthday Toys

Mary said that on my birthday I wanted to sit in my big chair and fly the helicopter they gave me.  So I made a video of me doing that.  The helicopter takes off from the ottoman circles the room and then lands again on the ottoman.  I am getting a lot better at not crashing into things. 

For my birthday supper we had some of the pot roast Janice made on Saturday when Elaine and I were out.  Janice also made  mashed potatoes and gravy, and apple crisp for dessert, and  Elaine made a salad   And  Lyn was here with us for supper to help celebrate my birthday.  It was a good day.

Smoky Day

Downtown Regina this morning with smoke in the air. 

The weather report has been showing smoke from fires all day.  

We are having heavy smoke today from forest fires  in BC.  The smoke from BC is covering the prairies all across Alberta and Saskatchewan and into Manitoba.  This morning the Saskatchewan Health Ministry warned people with asthma and other respiratory and heart conditions to consider staying indoors with the windows closed.   I went out to work this morning but didn't stay outside very long.  I put the fan in the car on internal recirculate and didn't have any problem while driving.   And we kept our windows closed at home.   On the weekend Environment Canada says that rain showers in Saskatchewan could  "cleanse the air" from this smoke.  

There is a website BCwildfire.ca with reports on the fire situation.  Today they are reporting that another 330 firefighters are coming from across the country to help the BC fire crews with the increased fire activity.  And for everyone's sake we hope and pray for rain for BC to help get the fires under control.     

Family Weekend

We were at Good Spirit Lake for the weekend with Elaine's family.  Elaine's parents and all the brothers and sisters were there with most of the family.   Of the grandchildren only Maryanne and Mike did not make it.   We stayed in the large cabin with 4 couples, and others were in trailers and tents. 

This is the view from the back of the cabin toward the lake.  Normally it is a long way from the cabin out to the water, but with all the rain and flooding this year the lake was very high and up near the cabin.  

 We did lot of visiting inside the cabin because the weather was cool, windy and wet.  Here is Elaine's father showing the little great-grandson how he does push-ups.   Elaine's mother is in the back looking at an album made in honour of her 80th birthday.

 Here are the parents and brothers and sisters on the back deck of the cabin. 

    Several people had left but this is a picture of most of the ones still there Sunday afternoon. 

 
It was a very enjoyable weekend even though the sun did not come out until Sunday afternoon when we were getting ready to leave.  Mainly it was a good time getting together with family.

Good Neighbours

This evening Elaine and I were at a 25th anniversary celebration for the couple who live next door to us to the north.  It was at the community centre in our area with many of their family, including some from as far away as Alaska and Florida, and many of the neighbours as well.   Their son made BBQ pulled pork and chicken in his custom made barbecue unit  which is over 8 feet long on a trailer behind his truck.  It is bright red with 4 chrome smoke stacks on the top.  We wish we had a picture of it.

We were glad to go to the anniversary since this couple have been very good neighbours.   In winter he clears snow with his quad ATV with a blade across our two adjacent driveways.   And the last few years he has rototilled our garden when he does his.   They travel a lot both winter and summer and Elaine always looks after their place while they are away.    It is great to have good neighbours.

The older woman who was our neighbour to the south just moved away this week and the house is up for sale.  Her husband passed away a year ago and I had a blog post then that we lost a good neighbour.   They were our neighbours for over 30 years moving in  about one year after we did.   She would have liked to stay in the house a couple more years but her family wanted her to get a condo.    Before she left she told Elaine that she is praying that with the house sale we will get good neighbours.    That is our prayer as well.  

New Patio

We have our new patio finished now at the back of our house.   I had made the original patio almost 30 years ago from used 24" x 30" sidewalk blocks.  It was sinking near the house and many blocks were broken.  The guys we hired to make our new patio did a great job.  They first removed the old patio and dug out the area with a small bobcat.  Originally they thought their small bobcat would go through our back gate.  But they made a hole in the neighbour's fence  to get into our yard.      (Fortunately the neighbours were not upset when they got home!)  They filled the area with crusher dust and leveled and packed it.  Then they put down a layer of sand to set the stones in.  They were very careful with their work, always measuring and checking with their levels and straight edges.  We are very pleased with the finished patio.   The stones are Barkman Holland  in sierra grey with charcoal borders.

After a little more clean up we just need to put the patio furniture back out and start using it while we still have some summer weather!