What does a Canadian Do in Texas?

Why, go on an African Safari, of Course!

The above picture is that of my eldest son and 2 of the grandkids

This one is that of the grandkids out of the Monkey Cage. (They appear to have escaped!)

 I have no idea what this is!

 Horney in more than one way

 Lots of cute deer

 Feeding the EMUs and Ostriches is risky. They look like they can be mean and also peck hard 

 A baby calf being  (spoiled) cuddled in the petting zoo

Mean looking!

 Can you guess what this is?

Here is a clue

They had lots and lots of Giraffes

All in all, it was a very good trip and a lot easier than going to Africa!

Back from Trip

Well we just completed a 10 day holiday to the Shuswap in B.C. The trip went well, but it was hot,hot,hot. We survived by spending a lot of time at the beach and visiting with two of our grandkids.

We drove to Red Deer and over-nighted with our youngest son and family, then drove to Calgary and flew to Kamloops, then rented a car and drove to St.Ives. Coming home we basically reversed  it. All went well!

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This is my loaner dog, a Black Mouthed Cur, a breed basically in Texas. He is a wonderful dog 

 We hauled and split and stacked wood. Well, Jonita hauled. Everybody got involved which is good because I strongly believe in child labour. The auto splitter was a marvel and made the work easy!

 Our Grand daughter and friend had a blast on the kayak.

 Things sometimes got a little inverted

 

They are growing like weeds!

Mini Holiday!

After the move and required modifications to the "new" residence, Elaine and I took a wee vacation to get away for a few days. Where? Banff, Alberta, of course. Skiing, shopping? No, rather a course put on by SOS Ministries, http://www.sosministries.com/,  This was an intensive, three day study of the Epistle of Jude which is a whopping three pages in my Bible, including footnotes. Why Jude? The course was to identify false teachings in the Christian Church today.

My youngest son has been to Uganda twice to visit this ministry,the second time with his family, and gave us tickets to this event. It was well worth while and gave me a headache interpreting all that is enclosed in Jude.

The need was explained as seen in Africa by SOS. False teachings are introduced regularly there by some very well known and also by some not so well known personalities. The message from Africa was basically that they see the teachings and correct them, but we in North America just see them and accept them, not even recognizing that the teachings are not from the Word of God, and as a consequence we as a whole, are at severe risk.

If some one had said that a person could spend 3 whole days on 3 pages of Scripture, I would have said " No way, not possible". How wrong I was!

I now have to wrestle with the enlightenment received, and what to do with it. If there is interest expressed, I will try to flesh this out in more detail.

I took my camera to Banff, took no pictures, but had a very rewarding experience, as did Elaine.

Things are now reasonably normal on the ex-Acreage, and I hope to be back blogging on a more regular basis.

I Flew the Coop!

Elaine and I disappeared for a week over to the Shuswap in B.C. for a week to visit our oldest son and family on his 41st birthday. We didn't do much other than sit around with our family and some old friends from 20+ years ago.

Tensioning the First

To keep 6 kids under the age of 11 entertained, we concocted 2 Zip lines for their amusement.
Picture this: A safety director (all of the U.S.) for a major company, a safety corrections/inspector for the alberta government, and me, a retired jack of all trades, building a Zip line!

Take off Point

The first one was about 75 feet made out of a climbing rope. Adequate, but too short. The solution was to get 200 feet of wire rope, a come-along for tensioning, scaffold (2 levels for landing, and a step ladder for access. The brake! Almost forgot the brake. After sending a 50 pound block of wood down as a test run and having it hit the end ( a tree) with enough force to do a couple of 360 degree loops, it was decided the zip line needed a brake!

Early Run With Emergency Brake

Two blocks of wood bolted together with a hole in the middle and a rope to pull on sufficed. It actually worked. I was impressed. After the angle of slide through the trees was adjusted, lower end up, and upper end down, it worked great.

Solo Run

Until the kids could show 3 consecutive runs without my son stopping them with a rope, they were free to solo. My son ran alongside at a full gallop holding on to the emergency rope in case it was needed.

The 9 year old and the rest really enjoyed the project.

The 5 year old and the rest really enjoyed the project.

 Note: No kids, trees, dogs, or adults were seriously hurt in this exercise!

Back in Canada

After a week in Houston, we made it home. You know it's hot in Houston when the turtles are panting! So were we when moving any faster than this guy. I'll give more details once I review 260 blog postings and 300 emails. I probably won't be commenting much, just trying to catch up.