If you want to donate...

I mentioned in the previous blog posting that Austin is doing a hike-a-thon next Tuesday for cubs. I believe the money is going towards the women's shelter, though I'm not positive.

A few people have asked how they can contribute to the cause. On the pledge formit indicates that people can either donate by the km or a preset amount. Either way, if you are going to be seeing us in the next week or two, you could just give him cash or a cheque. If you are not local, you could just tell me how much you want to pledge and send me a cheque in my name (since it might take a while to arrive). I would then just give the cub leaders the equivalent money in the meantime.

Thank you for supporting our little cubber.

Austin the Amazing Cubber

Tonight was investiture at cubs and Austin was made a Seconder in his pack. He got special epaulets that designate him as a seconder. He was also presented with the cub badges he has earned lately. He earned 2 badges and one star at Cubs so far this year, but at home, he has earned 7 more badges and one more star. We have several others nearly done too! After the investiture, I got out the sewing machine and put everything on Austin's cub sash. It is looking official. I'm proud of Austin's hard work in cubs.

P.S. Austin is taking part in a hike-a-thon at cubs next week. If you would like to sponsor him, he would appreciate it. His pack is hiking 5 km, but he will hike as far as he can, and scooter the rest. We figure his legs are about 1/3 the length of the other boys so if he can go 1.7-2 km he will have done as much as everyone else.

Why we love Granny

10. birthday cards with money

9. pinata

8. pajamas @Christmas

7. Christmas lights so bright you need sunglasses

6. "Got your bags packed?"

5. Miraculously still 20 when her son just turned 41.

4. The skating rink

3. almost "free" haircuts--ask how much a hug and kiss to a grandma costs a teenage boy?

2. Awesome dinners, obviously

1. Because she's our granny and we love her!

Happy Birthday Granny!

Fundraising for the Magrath Pool

Any of the readers of this blog who have visited the Magrath pool know that it is in sad shape. And, any of you who have visited the Raymond pool, in the next town over, know that their new pool is beautiful and fun and amazing. This summer, a lot of people I know have been talking about the need for Magrath to upgrade the pool. The other talk is that without upgrades to the filtration system, the pool may not be allowed to open next year.

So, a few friends and I decided to hold a meeting and invite anyone we happened to be talking to and form an organization that would fundraise for pool upgrades, and encourage the town to support a massive renovation. The above picture is of my kids and the Hoy kids bottledriving. We decided to do monthly fundraisers and the bottle drive is our first one. If any of you reading this are from Magrath, please note that you can take your bottles, cans, milk jugs, etc. to the bottle depot on an ongoing basis and specify that you would like the money to go to the Pals of the Pool. We don't have quite enough manpower to get the whole town, but we've had 3 or 4 truckloads of bottles so far and we'll be back at it this Saturday, again.

In October, we want to do a haunted house at the swimming pool. I think that will be really fun, and will hopefully help us to continue to raise money.

Tonight I made a presentation to town council. I went into the meeting having read the local newspaper reports which made it sound like town council had been looking at the pool renos of other towns and that the pool was important to them, yadda, yadda, yadda. I thought we'd be on the same page. And, on the first two sections of the presentation why we need a pool, and what elements we would like to contain, they almost mocked me like I was miles behind them.

But, on the 3rd section of what we'd like them to do, things fell apart. Yeah, they want a pool (all councillors agree), and for it to have great features (again everyone, some even want it to be covered--Trevor Thomson), but they can't allocate money now (Sam Johnston), and they don't know about the future (Sam Johnston), and there is no plan in place, and they will not commit publicly to doing anything (Dennis Quinton). And, that committing town money to the pool is forced fundraising from the citizens and that if the town wants the pool, the citizens should fundraise it (Sam Johnston). Each councillor said something different and the answers were not necessarily consistent. I had to call Sam Johnston on the argument that funding the pool is forced fundraising, reminding him that it is the duty of municipal governments to provide services to the citizens and that most, if not all, communities include recreation facilities in that mandate.

Now in fairness, I know the town council is up against the wall. They specifically mentioned the Water Treatment plant as a big capital project that has to be done by 2012 or we won't have potable water. My thing though is that if they can't, then don't pretend! But they talk like there is going to be a major pool renovation, but that it will happen by some miracle without any advance planning on their part.

So, what does this boil down to? I think they were hoping I was going to come in and volunteer to fundraise the entire amount for a new pool--or our group fundraises heavily, then get the Lion's Club also donate heavily, then get all the labor donated, then apply all that to try to get matching grants from the provincial government. Then build a makeshift pool with whatever we are able to put together, and not do it anytime soon.

I am willing to work really hard, and try to get others on board with fundraising, but since these pools cost $1.5-$3.5 million--just for an outdoor pool--I think the town is right, we do need a miracle!

Number 1

Just thought you all should know...................................................................................................................................................... MY VOLLEY BALL TEAM WON OUR FIRST TOURNMENT
I will post pictures later

Garden Update

I last published a post about my garden at the beginning of July. These pictures were taken around the beginning of September. I hope you won't think I am bragging too much. It's just that I'm so delighted that after a poor year last year, the whole garden thing has been working this year. So here's the sum up. Thanks to lots of help from my family, especially mom, we got 4 large ziplocs of peas. I also got 8 large ziplocs of frozen raspberries, and now I'm harvesting corn, (50 bags in the freezer so far) potatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and carrots. Still to come, tomatoes and pumpkins.
I didn't keep up with the weeding nearly as well this year. I suspect I'll be paying for it next year.
It has been the strangest year for weather. It was a cool wet summer until about the middle of August. Since then, we haven't had hardly a drop of rain and it has been significantly above seasonal. Today, it got up to 34 C, which I wouldn't be surprised if that is a record! We haven't had frost yet, and I wonder how long we can go. The longer the better. But, the days are getting shorter, and even on the hot days, the nights are getting chillier.
If it weren't for the garden, I would be wishing for just one big frost. The reason is because the wasps are unbelievably bad lately! Lots of people have been stung (luckily so far no one in our family) but they are out by the thousands in the yard. I'm actually afraid to put my food and garden waste in the compost because of them, and we have been through 4 bottles of wasp killer. I don't remember them ever being this bad.



potato patch

A green pepper from my garden

Some corn from my garden. So far I have about 50 bags in the freezer and have provided corn on the cob for a couple of Sunday dinners.

Corn still growing

Corn field. This corn is about 9' high.

Tomatoes--lots of green ones, not many ripe, yet.

One of many pumpkins. the pumpkin plants seem to have taken over the garden. There should be no shortage of jack-o-lanterns and pumpkin pies this fall.

Jalapeno peppers. It's hard to tell from the picture, but they are just thick under the leaves.

Green bell peppers. Lots of them and really nice.

Back yard box garden, now filled in. I keep picking the sweet peas like Mom told me, and they keep flowering.

First Day of Preschool

Preston has been excited for weeks, even months about being able to go to preschool at the school with the big kids. I can't tell you how many days he has woken up and asked if it was preschool today. When the kids first went back to school, he packed himself a lunch too because he wanted to go, too.

Finally, the day came last Thursday when we was to go to preschool for the first time without mom. All of a sudden he was scared spitless. He whined and cried whenever I mentioned it. "I don't want to go to preschool." " I don't want to go anywhere!" He dressed himself and when I tried to change him into pants that weren't 3 inches too short, and clothes that matched, he freaked out so badly I had to give up. Same thing with combing his hair. Finally, amid his cries, I got him out the door, put his helmet on him and put him on his bike. He obediently rode over to the school, all the time whining and crying about not wanting to go.

Once he was there about 2 minutes he was fine and never looked back! While he was there, I went through his drawers and got rid of all the pants that are too short. Now, if he freaks out again and won't let me make sure he is matching, etc...at least his pants will fit!