16 Year Tradition

Ever since Theresa, Doris and I moved to Oakville and lately Burlington we have taken a day and made tourtiere .It is a rather simple exercise but we all have our own recipes for this French Canadian Xmas treat. My recipe came mainly from my late Mother in law Margaret. I made them before but she helped and added her special spices.

With Doris and Theresa helping we made as many as 12 pies but this year we decided on six. I made the body of the pie from beef and pork ham bug. I cooked it in the traditional  way by boiling the ingredients in water and making sure the taste was just right. The only spice that I use besides the eight regular ones is ginger. I love to use ginger in many of my items because of the mellow aroma and warm taste.

I make the pastry and Doris rolls it out. I have never seen anyone that could roll pastry like Doris. Even at 99 her pastry is rolled perfectly even and she will be hard to replace while doing this traditional Xmas treat.

Another Feather in Her Hat

Granddaughter Darcy has had a superior year as a hockey coach. She coached her division championship and had a great winning percentage. Her command of the bench and her ability to bring players along had earned her coach of the year in her division.
To top off a great year she was invited to coach in the Ontario games. Her team won three, tied one and won silver as they lost to a better team in the final. Darcy coached well this year and was promoted to coach the top junior girls team this year for Guelph.  Nearly all of her family and friends attended her games held in Mississauga .One of the highlights of the tournament was her meeting Hurricane Hazel.

Last Fanjam

Our family celebrated another great fanjam at Lynda and Peter home. Twenty five of us getting together for fun and games. The girls planned some competitive games requiring skill and agility. Everyone participated and the older folks did very well considering we were three times as old or older. 
We had a special guest at this event as my sister in law Margie and her husband Kevin attended. It was special as we have not had an opportunity to party with them for several years. The weather being fair many went swimming in the pool and some had to be helped to get wet.
Our next event will be Doris's 99th year b'day. She is looking forward to this and so are we.

Fishcakes for the Fanjam

I wondered what would be good for breakfast on the Sunday Morning after the big day before. I had some salt cod so made some Cod Fish cakes. I make the cakes and Theresa and does the cooking on the flat cooker we use for just such chores. It is a traditional favourite food of mine and I try to make them every two or three weeks. I like them for breakfast . Theresa is beginning to like them now but it took some time.

Theresa at the PGA

Theresa and her friend from Ottawa had tickets for the last PGA tournament at Oakville. Her friend Diana won these as one gift when she won the Canadian Championship for Senior Curlers. They wanted me to go along but I would rather see it on the big screen. Actually I could never keep up to them. They were so excited and planned to see certain golfers and so on. They were gone early and arrived home late and tired. I stayed home and watched the game and cooked.

I was so happy to see these friends sharing time together that I tried to stay out of there way. Their friendship goes way back and it is great to see them together. Theresa was actually excited to see certain golfers as she watches the PGA on TV. They took many pictures and I am using some of them to show how beautiful it was at that famous golf course.

Darcy fron BC

Our great niece Darcy has made history in the Brown Family with her Canada wide, two month safari all alone. She drove from Victoria and travelled across Canada meeting friends and family and ended up in Cape Breton where the family had a fanjam.  She has surprised many people with the maturity she has shown by her independence and courage visiting places we are not familiar with but were on her list of must see places.

We looked every day for her pictures and commentary about the places she visited and the impact they had on our traveller. Darcy wrote so beautifully about her impressions and just how she was able to carry on her long and possibly lonely journey. Darcy left me a letter when she left our home and it was very moving with the powerful feelings she expressed. Darcy is our travelling hero and we look forward to seeing her next year in Cape Breton when we have the Buddy Brown reunion .

Global Warming and Extremes in Natural Event

Our weather forecasters have issued a report saying that the last 60 days have been the driest in recorded memory. Crops across Ontario  have been devastated in many areas. Theresa and I travelled up country today and there was clear evidence that areas have been denied their share of rain during the past weeks.

Corn crops that should be green and growing are dry and shrivelled.  A few good rains could help but if the plants get too weak there will be a terrific loss for our farmers. The weather man has predicted rain on many occasions but the clouds just pass us by.

I love Mother Nature and I feel she will get us out of this terrible mess. I feel that the catastrophic changes in our weather where we have extremes in rain and drought are going to be the normal and we have the prepare ourselves for the new weather patterns. We were warned by the experts in the field and we shook off their findings much to our determent. Lets have some faith in our scientists and get with a program of future survival by grasping the truth and becoming a positive force for the good of all people.

Help from Henry and Henry

One of the issues we have to deal with when aging is the need from others to perform tasks that you yourself would have done in the past. However this issue can be solved quite nicely when you have children and grandchildren who are only too happy to help out. This week I wanted to install a new fan in our bedroom. Because it involved standing on a ladder for half an hour I had to call for help.

Help came from my son Henry and my grandson Henry. We managed a great visit as we had our computers tuned up as well and  a barbecue. Steak was on the menu and after the work and dinner was settling I took them over to see our new clubhouse. A perfect day with some of the family.

Man Against Nature

My lawn is a beautiful green and my garden is about as good as it gets. However I am been invaded by rabbits and moles. The rabbits eat my Lettice and I do not mind as I have a secret stash in a container. The moles are sneaky and dig tunnels under the grass and they come mostly during the night but we see them in the day as well. I have declared war on these little Fellowes and went to Canada Tire and bought some heavy duty weapons to get the upper hand.

Mouse traps, glue pads and yes poison in containers that protect other animals from having a toxic lunch. I no sooner set the traps in their runaways when there was a snap and I was one up. All evening I engaged the enemy and was lucky again but from then on they changed their routes and I tried to keep up.

Late at night I set some more traps and during the night I upped my total to three. I think that I am loosing the battle because I still see new trails and a few poking their heads out of the grass. I should give up but it is a matter of principal. How can I let a one ounce furry ball of hungry intent defeat an intelligent 180 pound man?

Pool Table Adventure

The Village of Brantwell has just completed a new Club House. I volunteered to set up the pool room. We were gifted three tables. These tables were slate covered and one was 5 by ten feet. It weighed a ton. I gathered a group of men interested in pool and we undertook the task of taking the tables apart. We then hauled them out of basements and loaded them in my van.

Taking them out of the van and hauling them to the clubhouse was a difficult and physically demanding for people averaging 80 years old. We managed to get them into the basement of our clubhouse. Now we had to put them together and level them perfectly. New cloth was purchased and another task was to stretch it properly over the slate.

None of our group ever did this before but trial and error brought us results on the smaller two tables. The larger snooker table was a mean beast and we actually put it together and apart three times. After completing this task there was only three of us still standing . Neil had to leave so Joe and I played five games. We tried all the tables and felt happy with our work and we really felt proud with the look of these beauties as they grace our new pool room.

Pool Table Adventure

The Village of Brantwell has just completed a new Club House. I volunteered to set up the pool room. We were gifted three tables. These tables were slate covered and one was 5 by ten feet. It weighed a ton. I gathered a group of men interested in pool and we undertook the task of taking the tables apart. We then hauled them out of basements and loaded them in my van.

Taking them out of the van and hauling them to the clubhouse was a difficult and physically demanding for people averaging 80 years old. We managed to get them into the basement of our clubhouse. Now we had to put them together and level them perfectly. New cloth was purchased and another task was to stretch it properly over the slate.

None of our group ever did this before but trial and error brought us results on the smaller two tables. The larger snooker table was a mean beast and we actually put it together and apart three times. After completing this task there was only three of us still standing . Neil had to leave so Joe and I played five games. We tried all the tables and felt happy with our work and we really felt proud with the look of these beauties as they grace our new pool room.

Bringing Home the Pool Table

Here at our clubhouse we are setting up a pool hall and games room. I am in charge of the games room. We have been given three tables for our use. One is brand new and we have to set it up. One is already set up and the third is another story.

This friend of the club donated his snooker table as long as we had it out in two days, It is one of those old beautiful slate 5 by 10 tables. It weighed a ton. Three slabs of slate each weighing 400pounds and everything put together with huge bolts. Five of us with my van went to the house and were greeted by a nice lady who directed us to the lower floor around two turns on a narrow stairway.

We looked at each other and agreed to get it home. Everything went well until we tried to move the slate top. Old bolts set in epoxy glue faced us and after many tries we managed to get it free. The climb up the stairs was tragic as the weight and close quarters were challenging and as I was the fifth person all I could do was supervise. We managed and after 6 hours we managed to put all the pieces in the van. Tires were flatter and every inch of the van was full.

We drove carefully home and unloaded the table. A $8000  table was ours. He also gave us all the equipment and numerous cues and chalk etc. As we sat for a while drinking cold water we all agreed that we brought the table home and we will never let it go with our help. Talking to the crew today I was informed that volunteering with me is  a dangerous undertaking as we all are stiff and sore but happy.

Views from Our Balcony

Our bungalow has a walkout lower level and above it is a nice size balcony. It is large enough for a barbecue , two small tables and four Muskoka chairs. In the winter and the leaves are gone there is a wide open space to view the creek and protected area.

In the spring the view changes and we receive a protection area for our privacy and most important to become home to much wildlife. Birds ,squirrels, rabbits and racoons abound. In the creek we have a family of mallards and other animals. At night fireflies light up the grassy area and we are always entertained by nature.

We love our home and immediate area and feel fortunate to have found our retirement oasis.