The Travels of the Agnew Family

Today is warmer, at least by late October standards, but rainy. A good day to hide indoors by the fire (even if its gas) and read a book. And yes I actually did that. On the other hand Ed and Victor braved the weather and did an errand for Ed and tractor shopping for Victor.

We don't get a lot of children on Halloween so I expected even less this year, but instead we got a record 23. The street we live on is very short so most kids skip it.

Third nice day in a row, think that's record for the month of October this year. Ok, mother nature did sneak some rain in the morning but it did clear up nicely.

The new shed is almost full, hopefully there's still room for the barbecue, smoker and serving trolley. Ed isn't ready to put those items away yet.

In fact today we smoked pork tenderloins. I served Zucchini, Carrot and Feta Cheese Patties as a side dish. About ten years ago I found this recipe in a magazine while I waiting for my turn at the hair salon. It sounded really good, so I scribbled it down on a scrap of paper I found in my purse and later transcribed into my recipe document on my computer. And there it sat for ten long years. Now that I've made it I have to ask myself why I waited ten years to make it. I'm really happy that I decided to grate some of the zucchini that I put in the freezer so I'll be able to enjoy this recipe several times over the winter.

the shed is done .... ring the bells, shout from the roof tops .... the shed id done!!!!

As you can tell I'm very happy that shed is finally completed. Ed installed the soffits today with a little of my help. I spent most of my time cutting dead plants, raking leaves, emptying water barrels and putting garden stuff into the old shed. Every now and then I was called upon to hold a tape measure or one end of the soffit. So not only is the shed done, the garden has been put to bed for the winter.

Ed has been waiting about a month for the roof vent for the shed to arrive and it finally did on Friday afternoon. Today the forecast was dry and sunny, a perfect day for installing the roof vent. With a little help from friends it went up quickly and easily. Next and last job on the shed is installing the soffits.



The roof vent installation went so well that the guys also had time to spray the vehicles with non-drip oil. One more job done before winter comes.

Last summer I purchased several balls of cotton, crochet hooks and a pattern book. In a year I had only managed to crochet a few trial rows. As Margaret is a great crocheter I took my cotton, hooks and pattern book when we went to visit.


After some help and a lot of encouragement I made three dishcloths and am working on a fourth one. After a few more of these I might get brave enough to crochet a scarf and a hat.

I woke up this morning and looked out the window and couldn't believe my eyes ---- there was snow on the ground. Not a lot of snow, just a light covering over the grass. It was raining so I knew the snow wouldn't last long.

As it was miserable weather, Ed and I thought we'd drive down to Burlington to see my mom and do some errands. My car was still wearing summer tires but as it was raining not snowing we didn't think anything of it. After driving south about 30 km, we noticed that the temperature was dropping and it wasn't raining anymore, it was snowing. The car slid when Ed tested the breaks, so we decided to abandon our trip south and return home to change the tires on my car.

I guess winter is coming. I'm already wondering how long I will last before I try to talk Ed into going south for the winter.

It was overcast and rainy this morning but weathernetwork.com said it was going to clear up by two pm and it did. Nice weatherman. At two pm we met Fran at the corner and drove to another ATV trail. Margaret asked for mud and Fran found it. Colin kept bragging that he had never been stuck .... well he can't do that anymore.


He got really stuck. Funny thing though, he was stuck in the exact place Fran had been stuck earlier this year.


After attaching his winch to a tree he was able to haul his ATV out of the muck. I hosed it off when we got back to Colin's house and I can tell you there was muck and grass everywhere.


We stopped for a snack just before another bog. Margaret and I were ready to run around as the bog looked deep to us, Fran wanted to continue to the beaver dam and said she would try getting through the bog --- try being the operative word. She got stuck, got winched out, started heading back to where we were waiting, got stuck again, got winched out again, got stuck again but was able to work her way out.


Fran was wearing a bit of muck when she got to dry land.

On the way out, I got winched out once though it was much less spectacularly as the other two. Ed and Margaret can still brag that they haven't needed to use their winches to haul themselves out of the muck.


Colin and Ed's muddy machines.

Our friends Colin and Margaret live about 4 1/2 hours north and a bit east of us. As they own ATVs and live near a lot of ATV trails we decided to take our ATVs and go for a visit. We drove up yesterday in the rain. Luck was with us and it was sunny and clear when we woke up this morning --- a perfect day for ATVing.


Our ATVs waiting to be unloaded.


The magnificent view from Colin and Margaret's deck.


Zaph. He really wanted to go with us.

Colin and Margaret's friend Fran came with us and led the way. Fran is 76 years young, grew up in the area and has been ATVing and snowmobiling for years. I think she knows every inch of the woods.


Rest break. It's amazing how hungry you get riding around in the fresh air. Might have something to do with the adrenalin pumping through your body as you pick your way up or down rocky hills, drive (or should I say plane) through puddles and small bogs and dodge trees.


The river we stopped by for our break.


The route we followed took us to the sugar bush. There was lots of tubing to drive under and a fallen tree to drive around. I'm amazed at the abuse the ATVs can take. The building in the photo is the old sugar house. I believe it is around 80 years old. As the building is on crown land it took four years for the leasers to get permission to build a new building, which is now under construction. The larger and heavy pieces of equipment are being moved during the construction process with the building being built around them.


Happy dog ... didn't get to go but got the stick that was wedged under my ATV. Don't know how far I carried it.

..... no, I mean install shed doors????

Building doors from scratch is a time consuming job. Make the frames, glue and screw on one door skin, wait for the glue to dry, repeat for second side, wait for the glue to dry, repeat for second door, organize hardware placement, wrap the edges of the door with aluminum, put the hardware on the doors, build sill structure, install doors, finish sill structure and finally the doors are installed.


The doors are pretty heavy so both helpers showed up. Good thing too as Victor needed to do a bit of "warranty work" on the aluminum around one door.


The doors are all done. Still waiting for the roof vent.

For my American friends, it's Canadian Thanksgiving once again. We celebrate it a month and a half before your thanksgiving in hope we may have a nice weekend and this year we did. Saturday was perfect, sunny and comfortable. Sunday started off slow with some drizzle in the morning but the sun came out in the afternoon. Monday was a little cooler than Saturday but mostly sunny. Zaph and I enjoyed the beautiful weather going for walks, planting garlic, raking leaves and just enjoying the weather. Ed worked on the shed doors. Happy to say they are ready to be hung. I did convince Ed to escape the workshop for an hour on Saturday afternoon. We went for our first ride on the quads. At the edge of town we got on the rail-trail (old railway line made into a multi-purpose) and drove for 20 minutes then turned around and headed back home. Have to admit that it wasn't an exciting ride ---- pretty straight and flat but it was a ride.

The current tarp roll-up door on the shed doesn't provide a lot of security and probably won't keep winter out of the shed, so we need doors. As Ed couldn't get the wood siding he originally wanted he has spent a lot of time thinking about what material to use to construct the shed doors. The material has been purchased and the door construction has begun. The frames have been constructed and the skins have been glued and screwed. Waiting for glue to dry makes door building a slow process.

The other day I realized that we hadn't "smoked" anything since August so it was time for a rib feast. Rob, Ellen, Victor and Anne joined us.


We all enjoyed a good meal after some one grabbed Ed's plate and passed it around.

Monday was the fourth day in a row of bad weather, but it wasn't a wasted day --- Ed cleaned his office. Those of you that know Ed well know that this is a major undertaking. The fronts have changed and we're now in store for a few days of sunny warm weather. As it's October we can't really complain.

Today is siding day. I asked both Victor and Rob to help Ed today ---- I really wanted to get the siding done. As Victor is good with metal he got to put the metal cladding over the door frame, while Ed and Rob worked on the siding. Rob was finding the 12 foot lengths of siding to be a bit of a pain to be handling by himself so I was drafted as a helper. Think it was also a ruse to get me out of slave driver mode --- it worked. The siding is done ... well except for the two pieces we were short.




There really is a floor, desk and table in the Ed's office.

It was time for our annual trek to Benjamin's restaurant in St. Jacobs. For the past five years (I think), we meet my mom, brother, cousin Yvonne and her husband Bob for lunch and a visit. And once again, we had a great time.


The waitress saw mom opening a present and asked if we were celebrating her birthday. We said yes, it was last week so mom got a free desert with a candle in it.


The whole gang, Bob (my cousin's husband), Ed, David, my cousin Yvonne, me and my mom.

Uncooperative weather slowed Ed down this week though he did manage to frame the doorway and put on the siding starter and corner strips on the shed. Today he got a day off to attend the Cinderella Car Show in Port Elgin with Rob, Ellen, Victor and Anne. It sprinkled on us a few times but for the most part the rain held off. Happily a lot of cars came out even though the weather forecast was not very good. The motorbike road was a little bare.


I think there was less than a dozen motorbikes on display including these two.

As in previous years, there were lots of beautifully restored cars of many makes and models. For some reason there seemed to be more pickup trucks this year (might be me as I usually only see part of the car show as I sneak off Pumpkinfest)




Anne really like the colour of this truck. I told Ed that if we ever decide to get rid of the Miata (highly unlikely) we should get ourselves one of these old trucks.




Think this was my favourite car at the show --- a white and cherry red 1959 Corvette.


Nice firetruck from Southampton.

There were also a lot of unique things at the car show.


This fellow brought his matching boat along.


This fellow was prepared for all kinds of weather. Tracks on the back wheels, wheels and skis on the front.


Not sure what the motivation was behind this car --- maybe he had two cars to restore and only the front ends were in restorable condition or perhaps neither engine was reliable so this gave him a spare. Whatever the reason, this car got a lot of attention. Ed thinks only one of the engines was actually set up to run.


I missed seeing this car but was intrigued by the photo Ed took.


This truck's engine would be really easy to work on.

After a weekend off celebrating my mother's birthday and a day spent picking up the ATVs (it was raining in the morning so not a good day to roof) it was back to work on the shed. Ed decided that he wanted a metal roof on the shed, so Victor came down to help him.


As luck would have it the first side went up easily without any problems, the second side not so much. When they put the last piece up on the second side the guys realized that it wasn't lined up correctly. They unscrewed the roof, bolted the pieces together, shifted the roof, unbolted the pieces and screwed the roof down again. The finished roof looks great but will look better with the roof vent. The roof is covered with a tarp awaiting the arrival of the roof vent, which could take a couple of weeks.