The Travels of the Agnew Family

Last fall Ed promised Rob that he (Ed) would help to make some electrical changes to Rob and Ellen's cottage. In May we visited the cottage to make a list of the parts needed for the first phase of the work. Now it's almost the end of June (the 28th) and the stars have finally aligned so are able to go to the cottage for a few days for the boys can work.

The two priority items on Rob's list were add a fan / light combo to the master bedroom and add a ceiling light to the guest room. In comparison to the ceiling light installing the wiring for the fan and installing it was a piece of cake. The ceiling light in the guest room as a little more fun ... first there was the discovery of a hidden storage area over the bathroom that contained items from the early 50's including Ivory flakes, wood soled sandals, a heater, Epsom salts, and lots of medicine bottles, next was the discovery that the "antique" light friends had given Rob and Ellen didn't fit with the standard electrical boxes of today. The guys tried to buy a retrofit kit but alas couldn't find one. Instead a piece of metal and appropriate hardware was purchased and an adapter was made to fit the light to the box. Finally after a day and a half the first two items on the list were done.


Did I mention the high ceilings and small rooms. The ladder was standing on an old door that was laying on the bed.


Stapling the new electrical wires to the ceiling beam.


Me and my buddy.

While the boys were working, Zaph had a pretty good time. He went on several walks meeting a couple of Goldens along the way. He also got to take his favorite stick to the beach for a swim. 4 swims in three days isn't bad.








Couldn't resist included the "phod" photos.


Evidence --- Rob dried the dishes.

After 2 days of hard work, the guys were given a day off. First we went to an antique show where we found treasures. Not sure what the last vendor thought when we were pooling our money together so Rob could buy his spy glass. A stop at the bank machine got us all even again. After lunch the guys drove off to geocache in the TR6 while Ellen, Zaph and I headed to the beach for the 4th swim of the visit.

On the way home from the cottage we stopped at Anne and Victor's. The four us went out for dinner to a little restaurant called the Bread and Water Bistro in Chesley ... a little town not too far from Anne and Victors. We were celebrating Anne and Victor's 49th anniversary .... they must have gotten married when they were children. Food was good so was the service.

The COPA Cabana -- the name given to this years Canadian Owners and Pilots Association annual meeting was held from June 22 to June 24. Ed spent a couple of days prior to the event helping to clean up and organize Victor's hanger as it was to house a number of vendor stands. Somehow the during the week leading up to the event, Ed became the official photographer. His actual job was to help park airplanes. Along with Anne and a woman from COPA I manned the registration desk. When those duties were done, I headed outside to help in the car park area.

Anyone who knows Ed will guess that he took a lot of photos --- don't know if anyone would guess that he took over 2,000 photos over the three days. I was very happy when he decided to review the photos, clean up around 500 of them and create a slide show. My only job was to choose a few for this blog and that was hard work because there were so many good photos. Hope you enjoy the ones I choose.




Hard at work at the registration desk.


Victor's hanger never looked so good.


An antique car club displayed some of their vehicles.




Over two hundred planes flew in to enjoy the event.


As this airport is small and the only staff is a airport manager, volunteers did all of the jobs including guiding planes in and parking them.








Even a DC-3 came to the show. For $85 you could get a ride on the plane.


The Harvards from the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum.


Victor was in charge of plane parking ... here he is in action.


A local pipe band came and piped a few songs.




A "flying demonstration" was held. The Harvards were the first to fly.


Until the warplanes arrived, no one was sure they were coming. The gave a nice demonstration then expectantly landed.


Pete McLeod, from London Ontario, is a Red Bull Racer and aerobatic pilot. He gave us a wonderful show.


I especially liked it when he flew upside down over the runway.


After the flying demonstration was done the crowd flocked onto the tarmac to see the warplanes.


Ed managed to get a quick circuit in the flying school plane to take a few photos of the airport.


Victor's beautiful Navion was parked in the big hanger.


So were a couple of vintage cars and a float plane. They were to be the backdrop for the banquet.


Around 250 people attended the banquet.


At the end of dinner an announcement was made, asking people to help clean up the hanger as the warplanes were waiting to come in for the night. Each warplane is insured for more than a million dollars so everyone agreed they should be brought in for the night.


Sunday morning the warplanes were getting ready to head for Ottawa.




Everyone, including Zaph were watching the planes leave Sunday morning.

The "committee" did a fantastic job pulling this event together. Even though we were working, Ed and I had a great time and think all of the visitors did as well.

Our friends, Anne and Victor, own a airplane hanger at the Saugeen Municipal Airport located just outside of Walkerton. For the past 2 years Anne and Victor have been on a committee organizing the COPA (Canadian Owners and Pilots Association) annual meeting. The committee decided to use this event to showcase the airport to the community. Being good friends and given that Ed likes planes it was easy for Anne and Victor to convince us to volunteer at the event and help prior to the event.

While I was busy filling bags with pamphlets and donated items for the COPA participants, Ed was up in the air taking photos. One of the instructors at the flying school volunteered to take Ed flying to get photographs of three businesses on the "spouses tour" and the local hotel.


This winery is located just south of Walkerton.


The tour at the Neustad brewery took the group underground to caverns. This is something Ed and I should do.


Just outside of Hanover is an Alpaca farm. If you look real close at the photo you can see the alpacas in the center - left side of the photo.


A new hotel was opened in Walkerton in May of this year. The area really needed a nice hotel.


Getting ready to land at the airport.

The basement renovation is done!!!! It took a long time to paint all of the doors for the wall unit but it was worth it. The paint booth Ed constructed in the garage could only hold a few doors at a time resulting in four lots of doors to be painted at 2 days for each lot --- eight days. Then it took another day to paint the louvered door going into the furnace room.


My beautiful cupboards .... and the best part is there are some empty shelves in the cupboards.

I've been very tardy in updating this blog. My intentions were good but I just never seem to find the time to actually do it. June was a very busy month and there are a number of photos so I'm updating in bits with this entry being "bit 1".

First a photo from April that I meant to post but didn't.

My aunt Tony, my mother and my aunt's dog Miles. My aunt is 91 and my mother is 88 ... they look pretty good for a couple of "old" ladies.

Ed, Zaph and I live in Bruce county, which we consider a scenic area of Ontario and it includes well know places like Tobermory, the Bruce Peninsula, Sauble Beach, Bruce Nuclear Plant and Walkerton. The tourist board has created an "Adventure Passport" to help people "Explore the Bruce". Ed picked up some passports and we explored 9 of the 12 places --- we still plan on getting to the last 3 one of these days.


One of the stops was at a local park in Walkerton. You had to walk up the hill to get to the spot where you could punch your passport. Turning your passport in after 7 punches gets you a free T-shirt --- yup Ed and I both proud owners of Explore the Bruce T-shirts.

Stops along the way included a walking / mountain bike trail, a greenhouse, a lighthouse in Kincardine, a cheese factory outlet store, a park in Sauble Beach and the dairy queen (that one didn't earn us a punch but we did get bizzards).


Zaph decided to have his photo taken when we stopped at the Bruce Power visitor center. Bruce power generates both nuclear and wind energy.


Zaph liked the stops which required some walking to find the passport punch. This path is in Port Elgin.


A pretty weed I saw along the path.

Gwen and Bob drove up for the weekend. We had a great visit and enjoyed the trip to the Amish Auction. This annual event is to raise money for their school. There are several auctions --- farm implements, household goods, horses and my favorite, quilts. Gwen is a quilter so we have a great time discussing the quilts and Gwen usually goes home with a couple of ideas for new quilts.



The air ambulance made an unexpected appearance to the auction. A lot of people were crowded around the entrance to the horse auction when a horse got out of control and kicked. A boy was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Both ground and air ambulance responded, don't know the end result but we hope the boy was OK.

Time is flying by this year. Can't believe it's June already, though with the weather the last couple of days you might think it's April. Some much needed rain and some cool (unneeded) temperatures.

Ed found time to smoke a couple of things including this salmon.

My mom really enjoyed the salmon and the ribs Ed did a few days later.

My mom's recuperation over the past couple of weeks went well and I drove her home on June 1. We both decided that she was doing well enough to stay home.


Zaph says naps play a key roll in the process of recuperation.


He was a very good supervisor.

Ed is still working on the finishing touches of the basement ... i.e. cupboard doors. I've been enlisted to paint some trim, etc. and have started filling the cupboards, which is a larger task than it sounds. When you move an item to the new cupboard that frees up a spot, which allows you to move something new to that spot and the cycle continues. It is a lot of fun in a perverse sort of way.