Home on the Hill

My nephew, Conrad, is building a mobile shop out of a school bus. He's a contractor and wants to use the bus as a site office and shop. So he was looking for some place to unload the bench seats from the Bus. Score! My buddy Ric and his wife Vic had a neat cabin near Princeton that we spent some great times in, and one of it's features was a fire pit that had bus seats all around it. They've since sold the place and I miss it. So I will recreate the fire pit. I have a great big chunk of Pipe for the pit and now a bunch of bus seats to go around it. Haven't figured out exactly where to put it but inspiration will strike. I am also going to put a bench up on the highest part of our place so I can sit and admire the view. And I will put some along a path we have that circles the North side of the property. What a thrill. I love free stuff. We're in a bit of a blizzard now so I don't know if I will be going to town this evening. Spent the day working wi...

My friend Carol BrownE inspired me with her recipe for potato soup. This is a version passed on to me by my Sister Ingrid. A great way to use up spuds that have been left around a bit too long. Here's a preparatory video of the work part of the recipe. Here's a list of ingredients. I say "a" list as everything is pretty much optional- except the spuds. And the butter. 2.5 lbs of Spuds ( or like, a potful ) 3 stalks celery ( I guess, tastes fine without it ) 1 quart chicken stock ( or whatever covers the spuds.. You can just use water ) 1 quart milk 1 tsp pepper 0.5 tsp tarragon 0.25 cup crushed garlic ( or a little less depending on whose coming for dinner ) 0.75 cup flour ( or whatever, it's to make a white sauce, so it depends ) 0.25 cup fresh parsley ( I have never tried this but it sounds great ) 1 lb of bacon, diced, & fried crispy 1 large spanish onion ( the bigger the better ) How to do it: Peel & quarter spuds ( see above video ) put ...

I fear we take simple liberties like free speech for granted. I've been following several stories about a Blogger in Egypt who was jailed because he made some disparaging remarks about the Egyptian president Mubarak . What a country. No wonder the middle east is in such a state. There are also Bloggers in Iran and China who have been jailed for saying things the state doesn't like in their blogs. Give me a break. Iran , "let's make a nuclear bomb" and annihilate Israel. And we are going to pay them not to make a nuclear bomb. We play pussy foot with China , open our borders, woo them as trade partners, ignore the fact there are thousands of Chinese spies in our Country, yet we forget Canadians died fighting them and their despotic North Korean shills ( A country so poor it can't feed its own people, but it has an atomic bomb) in a war that has not been declared over. A friend of mine said it best: " She won the lottery at birth and was born Canadian...

Is paved with good intentions. Actually a mixture of snow and dirt. I brought the new Cat skid Loader up to help with clearing a path to Grandmas. It's about half a klick from the main house and uphill. The new skidsteer is so fast compared to the old one I made myself carsick in no time. And managed to get myself so dug in I had to get the old Case skidsteer to dig me out. Anyway after a couple of hours I managed to get the job done. I'm on my way up to Grandmas now to see if I can get the water running. Being able to use the toilets is something the Female sledders will appreciate at this Saturdays Poker ride. But first a lovely cup of tea..

Xena's almost eleven months old now. She is getting to be quite a companion. She loves going to town. And watching T.V. and hanging out with me when I am programming. Last night I went to a meeting and the topic was: Love and Tolerance. When we got out one of the guys pointed to my truck and said: " now there's a good example of love and tolerance." Perched on the hood of my truck was a small cat staring in at Xena.. Here's a Baby Picture: And one taken Last Night. When we were at the Coast my Son in Law Kevin, the dog whisperer, started teaching her about catching treats off of her nose. the training continues: Now I am off to Tom's to pick up the new Cat skidsteer and give it a try on the road to Grandmas.

When we got home I had a giant toothache that started at the Coast. It's been so long since I had a toothache I forgot what they were like. Managed to find a local dentist who gave me some anti-biotics and told me to come back in a couple of weeks. The 'biotics have started to work. I can see out of my left eye. It's been snowing again. My friend Audrey has been keeping track and so far we have had 9 feet 8 inches. And something tells me that it isn't over yet. This afternoon we have a work party going to the Hall to shovel off the roof. Hopefully I can get a snowblower up there to help with the chore. I have been setting up a Linux machine. Using Fedora Core 6 . Installed but I am getting a real lesson from Jo-Ann who is helping me set up dual monitors in Linux using an NVIDIA graphics card. Linux is weird. It ships with a lot of software but some of the programs you think it would come with it doesn't. Some of the distributions don't want to inclu...

So It hasn't been a great week. I did manage to get to a couple of meetings that were a big help. Talked with some people. Did some journaling. Decided to unplug and just grow potatoes. Pretty sure this too will pass. I have always had an interest in weird signs and packages. Started when I noticed the Gore barbershop. Then the Tin Lung restaurant (no smoking allowed) , or the Meow Meow butcher shop. The last one wasn't in business very long. I sure it had something to do with parking. We went shopping a couple of days ago to the T & T, a huge oriental shopping mall in Coquitlam. Picked up an item I just didn't think we could live without. Here is a couple of snaps. I guess when life gets to be a pain in the ass a cup of tea and some Biscuits could be just the ticket.