Blog July 1, 2009
Just thought I’d check in to our blog after some more travels, and say Hi to all who are checking it.
Keely’s singing the Friday night before we left for B.C. was very nice. She did well and the audience enjoyed a new “act”. It’s always great when a person with talent can get a chance to use it!
We drove to Creston, B.C. to attend the graduation of Christy and Rod’s youngest daughter, Ceira Musil, leaving June 14th . Shari figured it was time she had some holidays TOO, so we packed up her and the dog (now that we only have one dog) and off we went. We visited over night with some friends at Strathmore and then spent the week at Gray Creek with Christy and Rod and family. Their other children came home as well. Bryce is in Victoria and Chelsea in Calgary. Daniel is working at the golf course at Crawford Bay, so he is still living at home. We enjoyed Granny’s “Bed and Breakfast”. Rod’s Dad passed away in February this year, so that ended their daily trek to Creston to take Virginia to see Joe!
Unfortunately, Ceira had broken her ankle while playing soccer at school on May 4th. She had to have a pin put in on one side and a steel plate on the other. She was still on crutches in her grad dress, but she had picked a lovely short grad dress, so that was no problem. She used wrist crutches and I swear she glided down that aisle on the arm of her escort as smoothly as anyone who was walking fully on both legs!
The graduation was lovely. There were only 12 grads so it was a small-town affair. You couldn’t tell by the hor’doerves served at the tea though – they were pretty hoity-toity! In addition, the main speaker to the grads was Peter Duryea. He is originally from L.A. (not La Ronge, Sk, but Los Angeles, CA) and the son of actor, Dan Duryea. His own claim to fame was being on the pilot episode of Star Trek. He is now older than we are and “a local”, running the Tipi Camp up the lake for many years. He gave an excellent speech, addressing each of the grads on a personal level. It was just great!
Then, as the 40th anniversary of Harry Haberstock’s tour of duty as Pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church which we attended while in Creston 20 years ago, was not until June 28th, we traveled down to Sandpoint Idaho to visit Peggy and Steve again. This time last year, John framed their new house and put on 4 x 8 metal siding. This year, they were able to purchase the windows and John and Steve put in the windows, a huge beautiful garden door and two other doors. Unfortunately, that job necessitated taking all the siding OFF as they went, installing the windows, and then putting the siding back on. However, the job was completed in the 4½ days we were there.
Shari had to obtain her passport in order to travel in the U.S.A. and Abby dog got her “passport” too – a paper saying she had her shots… She sure was a good dog – traveled well.
It was neat to see old friends at Pastor Harry’s anniversary celebration. Christy and Rod attended with us, but it was rather boring for them and Shari. She didn’t remember anyone. In addition to church friends, the community was there, and we were able to say Hi to people we had known through John’s business in Creston. The fellow who owned Creston Builders commented that John was the only guy who left Creston without owing him money!!! Of course, after over 20 years away, there were more faces we did not recognize than those we did! Our good friend and former neighbour at Kuskanook, Bryan Daybell, the retired principal of the high school in Creston, was the M.C. and he did an excellent job, as usual.
We only made one stop on the way home, to have coffee with Cathy Dietrich at Fort McLeod – John was determined to drive straight through and so we did – arriving home at 3:30 a.m. as daylight was breaking.
Rodney sent 8 tomato plants home with us, as he had a bunch volunteering in his strawberry patch. They survived the trip home and have transplanted well - we will see what kind of growing season we have and what kind of tomatoes we end up with…
In the morning, it was quite a shock to see our yard totally overgrown. They had rain just about every day we were gone. Thankfully, Darren managed to find one day when it didn’t rain and he mowed our lawn. My brand new gazing ball was sitting on the sun deck and it looked kind of strange – on checking closer, I found that the rain had washed all the finish off the outside, and all that remained was a clear glass ball. I don’t know whether they don’t “make them like they used to” or whether there really is acid rain and it took the finish off!!! Kind of scary…
Our Gizmo cat was VERY happy to have us home. Now he comes running at the first sign of the possibility of attention!
Shari and I enjoyed a sunny Canada Day at the Park with Darren and kids. Jeanie had to work. Then in the evening, it was finally dry enough to mow our lawn. I had also spent some time in the morning pulling more weeds. Now our yard looks much better!
Unfortunately there was a tornado touch down in North Battleford area. A couple of farm buildings were destroyed, but no one was hurt or killed, thank heaven.
John will be starting on the footings for our addition this week. I will not be able to handle being here for the demolition work (our back porch has to come off completely, so will be going to my mother's or ANYWHERE ELSE next week!!! I really hate to see my sun deck come down, but that's the plan.
