Family Gathering

We were lucky again this year regarding the weather for our Family Gathering, the weather was nice albeit a little cool in the evenings but we thank God we were able to gather once again with our family, temps from 72.5F (22.5C) to 82F (27.9C). The pictures tell the story.



Tracy and Keith's truck and trailer.
















Tracy and Keith love this picture with trees as the backdrop and oh yeah the kids look good too!










Caitlin, Michelle and Christopher, we do not many pictures of them together.











Keith, Gordon and Myrna.











Woody cooking up a storm, everyone brought food for the huge brunch!











Lindsey and Brooklyn playing a game, appears to be a very serious game!














Lori, Myrna's and Gordon daughter enjoying the sun!













Evening spent around the group fire pit.














Sisterly love, Brooklyn and Lindsey, Tracy and Keith's daughters.










The posts you see in this pic, installed as seating when the park was developed are just a pain in the back, after this weekend Woody removed and was thanked by many regular campers of the park.











It was a beautiful summer evening for visiting around a campfire.











Guess you know this guy, I sure do not have many pictures of Woody, he is always taking the pictures.












Keith and daughter Brooklyn.











Lindsey loves to read and tried getting her book up in time to cover her face, she hates pictures, typical teenager eh!















Brenda (Myrna and Gordon's oldest daughter) and husband Gary.


















Jennifer our oldest granddaughter (Daughter Deb's oldest daughter).















Lori, Gordon and Mryna's second daughter.














Just hanging out.








Hanging out around our campfire. Yours truly, Michelle, Keith and Tracy



















Caitlin and Dad Chris.

Daughter Deb's camping set up.

















Oreo was catching a snooze until we interrupted her.











Keith and Woody splitting some wood with a small wood splitter we had borrowed from a friend, worked very well.
















Woody, Keith and Chris














Woody dressed up our little deer!





















Tracy and Keith's new dog, a Chocolate lab, isn't she cute!

Tracy and Sadie.

Chris and Michelle's set up.
















Cookie and Milo, a dog who our granddaughter brought with her, she was babysitting.


















Muffin and Milo, Milo is a beautiful, well behaved dog and loved our little dogs, even tolerated Muffin jumping at him.



Scott dropped in the meet the gang.













Mryna and Gordon, Mryna has been my friend since we were kids.












Jennifer and Tracy, time to say goodbye!


I realize as I post this we do not have any pictures of Deb, not sure why, Deb were you hiding?

The whole weekend passed by very quickly, too quickly as usual but we are blessed to have been granted this weekend together!

A new toy

Woody bought a new inflatable boat to replace the boat he sold to Scott, this boat is a smaller lighter boat that he can use by himself, the larger boat with wooden floor required two people to carry it to the water as well to get it on the truck. The electric motor we have will fit on this new boat which is great!

Getting started and it takes a bit of work to blow it up with the pump provided with the boat.












The boat is blown up in stages, has more than one chamber for safety.










The floor is blown up and the next will be the inner chamber the tan ring you see. The motor mount has to be installed also as well as the rope that is threaded through the black rings and it comes with inflatable seats, pretty cool.
I know he cannot wait to try it out at Salters Lake!

A wonderful day!

Cloudy with showers today, Woody worked on the knife sheath he was making for Dave and completed it just in time to give it to Dave before they headed home, it turned out very nice, Dave was so pleased, he insisted on paying Woody for the sheath and the work Woody had done on the knife, a knife that Dave had made years ago. Woody went to town and I spent time collecting fees from campers one camper brought over a huge portion of cake for us as they were leaving, I tried to say no but she would have no part of no, so I humbly accepted the gift set it on cupboard wondering what we were going to do with so much cake! Sure a good thing we have some freezer space in the parks kitchen fridges, because we sure could not eat it before it went bad, I phoned the kids and let them know we had cake to share but they were not home, decided we would save it our family gathering in a couple of weeks. I spent most of the morning choosing pictures to use on the blog and resizing for uploading to Blogger, I always have to resize as Woody and I both take pictures at the highest resolution possible and they are too large to use for email or on our Blog. Before Woody returned from town 2 nieces arrived for a surprise visit, I have not seen either for a very long time, in fact it has been so long I did not recognize Sandra when I opened the door, although the face was somewhat familiar I thought it was someone wanting information about the park which happens often. The young lady standing before me said “Oh we are so happy you are home!” and I stood there thinking I should know this person’s name she obviously knows who I am, she then said it’s Sandra, Carolyn (her sister) and I come for a visit and she hoped I didn’t mind that they came unannounced but they didn’t have our phone number. I was flabbergasted to see them and so very happy they had taken the time to track us down and come over for a visit! What a wonderful surprise, we visited awhile before Woody came home, and continued for the whole afternoon, time flew by so fast, Sandra and Carolyn came laden with goodies, homemade muffins, chips and dip which they left here for us, I tried sending some cake home with them, Carolyn said no thank you, I just threw some cake out and I couldn’t interest Sandra either! After they left as I wrapping up the cake for the freezer I thought was a terrible hostess I had been, we did share some beverages but I did not put out the muffins on a plate or open the chips, the goodies they brought were on the table where the girls had put when they arrived, I guess I was excited about visiting with them nothing else mattered, sorry girls I was so rude, next time I promise I will be a better hostess. Good thing Woody thought of beverages and taking some pictures as this visit was certainly an occasion to be remembered! Thanks sweetie for taking the pictures and thanks girls for your visit!




Carolyn.














and sister Sandra.








Thanks again girls for looking us up, come again soon eh!

Blogger blah!

Woody and Dave went fishing for the afternoon today, I thought what a great time to work on our blog, a whole afternoon with little interruption. Campers all settled in the park, a beautiful day, sunny not too warm, the dogs will remind me when they need to go for a walk! Well I spent a frustrating afternoon as well as part of the evening trying to upload pictures. Blogger updated the editor with new features, I read the information and got very excited about the new features, uploading and moving pictures where I want them has always been a pain, takes forever to get them spaced properly, so I updated, whew that turned out to be a mistake, just didn’t want to work well at all. I ended spending all the time trying to upload pictures, kept freezing up and then when I did get some pictures uploaded I was not able to add any captions along side the pictures and this is suppose to be new and improved, I sure didn’t find it easier, faster or improved in anyway. I finally went back to the old editor, I only managed to get 2 posts completed, to state that I am not impressed with Blogger’s update is an understatement, oh well another day tomorrow!
Oh yeah Woody and Dave did not catch any fish!

Will be a busy weekend

Busy day as campers arrive for the weekend, I had a chiropractic appointment in Spruce Grove in the AM, did some shopping while there while Woody stayed around to direct campers, answer questions and make sure everyone is taken care of, we have a couple of groups along with other campers. One group is the Onoway Fire and Rescue crew gathering for a year end celebration, a family reunion and 4 other campers. Woody made sure that all understand quiet time and to keep their dogs leashed, it is different if one group books the whole park, there is no quiet time as no one bothers us once we close the door but when we have a mix of groups and other campers, the rule has to followed for the pleasure of all campers. The bear or bears are still hanging out in the bush so we make sure all campers are informed in case they do read the caution signs; sure don’t want any bear incidents! During the afternoon Scott and Woody spent some time at the Gun Range enjoying some well deserved relaxation doing something they love, it was a perfect afternoon for shooting, no wind and not too hot. When Woody and Scott returned on the campers informed us that he had been walking the trails and encountered fresh bear sign on the trail to Wildlife Watch Building as well as another trail close to the park. If the bear becomes too brave he or they will have to be removed from the area. We have reported the bear activity to the Barrhead Fish and Wildlife department and are awaiting a call back but if the bears come into the campground Woody can legally shoot them, this park is private property, last year the bears hung out on the trails further southeast, not close to the campground and posed no problem, the park is 216 acres so they have room to wander without bothering anyone.
After dinner Dave and Pat came over to share our campfire, was a little cool with clouds floating around but we had another good visit with the fire keeping us warm! Woody made his last trip around the campground just after 11:00 pm, all was quiet, most campers were visiting around their fire pits so we called it a night, hopeful we would not get any noise complaints!

Happy Canada Day!

 A beautiful sunny day, not too warm around 22C (71F) would have been warmer had there not been a cool breeze but a great day just the same! The day started with getting our carpets steamed cleaned by friends Ron and Myrna who have been retired for a few years but kept their unit for their own use and of course to help out friends and family, they were in the cleaning business for 30+ years and had the contract to clean the Onoway Schools for 30 years so are definitely professionals! We had the carpets cleaned in AZ but were not happy with the job at all. I can tell you now for sure that the AZ job was not done well. Our carpets after Ron and Myrna were done are just like new! They even got rid of stains on the bedroom carpet that I know were 4 years old.

We asked Ron why he didn’t sell the unit when they retired and he said the van was so old and rusted he would have to buy a newer van and switch all the equipment and didn’t think it was worth the trouble, well the van might be rusty but the equipment inside runs like a top, they have a generator which runs a flow through hot water heater, vacuum system, etc. the water is heated to the proper temperature for the particular job he is doing, in our case was 200 degrees F, all the stains are pre treated and he uses biodegradable safe cleaning products, after pre treatment, they steam clean then vacuum the moisture from the carpets. After cleaning our carpets he steam cleaned the outhouse using a special antibacterial and odour remover solution. Woody cleans them every week with the pressure washer but cold water does not clean as well as the steam. After both jobs were complete we enjoyed coffee and a visit at the picnic table, Ron and Myrna are super people, very interesting and fun people to spend time with, they have travelled to Egypt, across Canada to Newfoundland, they volunteer for the community and are always ready to lend a helping hand wherever they are needed!

After Ron and Myrna left, Woody finished cutting the grass at the Gun Range and around the horse shoe pits here at the park. I spent the time reading, meeting and greeting campers and entertaining the dogs, or I should say trying to keep them from barking at everyone in the park, we spent the whole day outside waiting until the rugs were dry. I had made sure we had water, snacks, etc. but forgot we would not be able to access the fridge (chairs in the way) but we made out okay. Dave and Pat came over to visit (friends that are camping for the weekend) and spent the evening with us around the campfire. Hope you enjoyed a great  Canada Day.