A Life in the Sticks

I know, I know its been like forever since I last blogged but for the most part I have a good excuse, it goes something like this........

After staying with the in-laws for quite sometime since moving to Canada we had got pretty well settled over here obviously there comes a time when a child should leave their parents home especially the second time round! So Tara had been looking and found a house that she thought would be perfect for us to rent and me being me I let her go ahead and look at it and sign up for it without even looking at it, trusting her judgement. I did get to see it briefly in the dark one night before we moved in.
Its a nice little farmhouse out in the county and its address is listed as Harrow, it is outside of the blink and you miss it town though. Once we moved in we realised that things you come to take for granted like TV, Internet, phone and Timmie's are not as common place as one would think.

No cable out here so you can have satellite but not wanting to pay or get locked into contracts with TV we gave that a miss and I installed an outdoor antenna which gets us most the channels we watched anyway. No Internet was a different ball game altogether, It seems its dial-up you can get or again get locked into a long contract with some random ISP. We decided to leave it and make sure we explored all the options open to us, this lasted a few months and although we both used the net on our phones it is not really the easiest way to browse and communicate. So with the price reduced a little with one of the random providers we got xplorernet installed. So far not so good on speed tests I have carried out I have it to be slower than dial up even though for the first month you are forced to pay for their fastest package! What does this mean? well it means that the desired package we want could possibly be even slower if they don't push through the same amount of bandwidth once the first month is over!!! Tara has contacted them and they gave some lame excuse about fixing towers in the area and extended the 1 month get out clause until September. Hopefully the speed does get better because there is no way I am going to pay over the odds for Internet to be given a really slow service for 3 years! So we wait and see whats going to happen and they better not try charging full price for this poor service either!

You see good excuse!

Little House in the Country

Sorry to everyone who has not been entertained in recent times with an update of any kind on the blog but things having been getting pretty hectic round here.

Now that we are moving into a house in the country and I am working silly hours for 'Turners Audio' climbing mad roofs trying to install antennas without the aid of any kind of safety equipment and with out the use of my hands as they are filled with tools and parts!!! crazy but that's for another blog.

This one is just to add a couple of photo's of the house out near Harrow which we will be renting for now. Its a tidy wee number with around an acre and half of land and a swimming pool.


So once we are in you'll be glad to know we operate an open door policy... As long as someone is home there is a welcome at the mat! Please feel free to take us up on that on a casual if you are local or with notice if you are making a special trip to the area.

We hope to be BBQing and making use of the outdoor facilities all summer long!

The Power of Buckleys

Here is a wee video update, this is of Hope taking some medicine. This stuff is like drinking Vicks vapo rub. You know what they say it tastes so bad it must be good.

Busy Week

Well the old man has been left off at the airport in Detroit today after a week visit. He thought it would be good to see Canada in the winter, you can ask him if he still thinks it was good idea.

After arriving last Thursday evening we set off to Niagara Falls on Friday when the girls got home from school. We felt it was only fair that he and Marguerite should still experience a 4 hour drive in the car. So we could to the Howard Johnson or Hard Jansen if you are from Norn Iron or in fact if your down with the youth they have re branded thing and are now HOJO. Anyway it was a pleasant surprise to find this hotel was actually right off Clifton street so everything we need to see was on the doorstep.
Friday night comprised of a little dander down and around Clifton st. picked up some info on things to do the next day. We all then turned in for the night.


Saturday came and we all went to Denny's for brekkie, not much Kop and I wouldn't really recommend it but it filled a hole. So it was off to the Falls to take in the awesome sight and it really is nice in winter. So we walked around and up to the table rock plaza, cue Hope to have another incident, a smell that would make the eyes water. Tara had to throw her clothes out. So me and Tara headed back to the hotel to get the car and fresh clothes.



We picked everyone up then headed back to see Ripley's believe it or not, (some weird stuff going on in there) then we got ready to hit the Skylon for dinner.


Unfortunately the revolving restaurant was not working but we got good window seats in the static dinning room. The only downside being that the lights on the falls seem to be put on later and we did not get to see that from the Skylon. So with belly's well filled we headed back down to Clifton st. to have some fun.



We went on the big wheel and got a good view of the lights being on we also got hand sculptures made out of wax, while we waited for them I headed of to find a couple of caches!
So after a long day we all headed back to the hotel



then I went out and got some night photos taken before cuddling up with Tara with Pizza, Ice cream and a movie. (City of Ember, made in Belfast a few big names, crap movie!)



Sunday morning came and it was time to head behind the falls for some photo opportunities. The viewing from behind the falls was totally frozen but we got some nice views from the viewing deck beside the falls.



So all the tourist attractions we could handle had been seen and it was time to head back to the Belle but first a stop off in London to Visit Grant & Marla and the kids. Now I was unsure if I should go in as last time I came to London I seen Erin , Marlas sister and a couple of my kids got hurt but I was assured no harm would come to them here, so everyone went in for a bit craic and to catch up after all it had been like 10 years. Oh what is that I hear? yes that's the right its the sound of pain and an injured child, as luck would have it we got the full set and Bekah got a chin shredder, she had a nice pattern on her chin for a few days. So it was time to go, run out the door and never come back, just kidding we don't hold things like that against anyone as I know what happens when people come to our house.



So we all came home tired from the weekend, ate some pizza then headed off to bed.

My Dad even had a chance to walk on water albeit Frozen

Another couple of busy days getting in what we could then the week was over and it was time to head back to Detroit to leave Big Gordy and Marguerite off. They do say that time flies when you are having fun and this week certainly did.
I need a couple of days sleep now!

Just an update

OK so the last half of last week it got pretty cold around here. -18°C and with wind chill we had been getting as low as -30°C. Now by any ones standard that was pretty cold. So when I was out on Friday night I called Tara and she was telling me Gaby was investigating the effects of the cold. She asked a couple of days previous what happens when you touch your tongue to metal when it is freezing, Tara told her your tongue will stick to it. This answer however did not seem to be enough for Gaby and she wished to investigate more. So when they were coming in on Friday Gaby licked the door handle thus welding her tongue to the metal. Obviously then she knew the answer but not the cure, So as Tara's hands were full and she did not tell her to wait until she got warm water Gaby pulled her tongue off. Of course now you have lots of crying and a bloody tongue. Now was she settled she was very annoyed as they had just come from Timmies with hot chocolate and a donuts which she could not drink or eat. She is now fine and eating donuts again. She still insist that this was an accident and that she slipped and fell into the door handle with her tongue. Yup just as I thought! who doesn't use their tongue to break their fall when they slip?

Sorry no photo's as Tara is not as snap happy as me.

Blizzard Caching

As the title says I decided to go do a bit of geocaching in the blizzard. It was pretty nasty trying to drive the car on the roads and visibility was not great either. I managed to pick up 4 caches and got 3 Did not finds (DNF) I reckon the reason for the DNF's was the snow, not the best weather to be searching for Tupperware in the woods. You probably will not be able to make out me talking on the video but there was about 4-5" of snow on the ground and plenty more blowing into my face. As it happens I did not find the cache I was looking for in the video. That coupled with the condition I had today it was not ideal to be out. Lets just say a fart was totally out of the question.

Not Chocolate!

This is an earlier than expected update but one I thought note Worthy indeed.
After being out with Tara and Hope this morning we came home and put Hope for a nap. Now I reckon the terrible 2's have come since Christmas. So she didn't really settle but stood and sang and fooled around. After a bit I decided to get her out of bed as it was a waste of time. I was confronted with one very happy child in the state below with no clothes on but a shirt. Like I said this is not a photo of Chocolate. The one upside for me and Tara is that it is not us who will never live this down!

I bet you are glad it is not scratch and sniff!



She even said "Cheese"