November 27, 2008

View of the day-Another beautiful sunset from our front yard...the days haven't started getting frigid yet...just wait, it's coming...

Another week of work, work, work...odd how we don't say that during the harvest season...or do we? Marilyn is living at Staples and that will continue with the Christmas rush coming up. Al has taken it upon himself to heed some of the advice from Clutter's Last Stand, that book that Marilyn has been reading.

Al got the General out of retirement to haul a load of garbage out to the dump...all of which came out of our garage. With the size of the new truck, we had to figure out a way to get it in the garage and still be able to get the doors open and get out of the driver's seat...Al had it all figured out...Marilyn hopes there will be no regrets.

When Marilyn got home from work that night and drove into the garage...WOW...it was empty...almost. It hadn't looked that good since we moved in five years ago and Marilyn is glad she didn't have to witness the carnage.

And speaking of carnage...Marilyn has been trying to get Al to move into the electronic age and use the PDA she bought him for Christmas last year for all his contacts, toy lists, serial numbers, etc. He refuses, saying he likes his little duct taped note book that has all the info he needs at a page turning...at least until laundry time. Yep, you guessed it, he ran it through the wash and dry cycle and it didn't fair so well. At least when Marilyn washed the last one, she got to it before it hit the dryer and was able to peel the pages apart and get some of the info off the soggy mess. Al's catastrophe ended up in the lint screen of the dryer.

If he doesn't call you, you'll know why...

November 22, 2008

View of the day-Al has been telling everyone he talks to, "I want to buy a new truck, but Marilyn won't let me"...so...Merry Christmas Al!

It seems strange not to blog it up daily, but there really isn't a lot going on now that we are back at home and back in the groove. At the very least we will try to get something up every week, or if it has been a particularly rotten day, a good rant might be in order...or perhaps just a skewed observation or two.

We were up early and eager to get on the road to Nipawin, 200 miles to the north of us, to take possession of our new Dodge pickup. We have had our present one for 10 years, bought it new and if you have been following the blog the last couple of seasons, you know it is getting kind of tired. We have been looking for quite a while and really did try to buy local, but there was no budging from the dealer here and we will leave it at that for now.

We were going to take "Frank", our 1986 Grand Marquis, for it's last trip before hitting the government salvage yard, but decided the pickup was a little more road worthy, even though it promised to be a nice day.

We got up to Nipawin, got the deed done, stopped for lunch, then headed back to Yorkton...Marilyn driving the old truck and Al the new one. Marilyn had her XM shows to listen to on the way back and the new truck only has Sirius, so she was more than happy to be "slumming it".

Al was able to check out a few of the options, but being "technologially challenged" and refusing to be taught any new tricks, didn't even attempt to try anything but the radio. Marilyn got her turn at driving the new truck when we switched off at the halfway mark and then...the floodgates of "all things tech" broke loose.

First thing was to get the hands free uConnect working with her bluetooth phone and call Al to see how it sounded...then listen to the tutorials for all the hands free options...oh, joy, oh joy! Program the presets on the radio and figure out the extra controls on the steering wheel...but most of all...for Al...set the time on the radio.

We got back to Yorkton and Al fueled up "Hips"...the old 98er...then came back out to the yard to see if the new truck would fit in the garage...yeah...about that...

Well it almost got in the door where Hips used to fit, but because the door is a one piece unit it wouldn't go up far enough. Backup plan...leave Frank out and try to get it in the other side of the garage. That door went up all the way once it was unlocked from the motor and we did have to fold the mirrors in to get through the door, but it did finally get a parking spot out of the cold...Frank won't be so lucky.

Marilyn decided to move one of the shelving units so Al could get the door open to get out of the cab...did you know cold plastic is brittle and breaks easy? The top two shelves came over with a big crash...no one hurt, not much broken and now there is more incentive to clean the garage. Marilyn has been reading "Clutter's Last Stand" by Don Aslett...an excellent book on decluttering your life and getting rid of unnecessary junk that has been collected over the years.

Looks like there is a good start if we use a shovel on the garage floor...

November 19, 2008

View of the day-Marilyn has to dig to find the window brush to clean off the truck after work...it's that time of year.

Another day at work for Marilyn and another day of driving around the countryside for Al.

Marilyn decided to pull out the pedometer for work to keep track of how far she walked during the day. Even though it didn't start working until an hour into the shift, she still logged 6 miles! That is why she calls it her "paid exercise program". Al went to the Terrier game...and they lost...but those weren't his exact words.

We like to keep the blog clean...ish...

November 18, 2008

View of the day-Here's one combine that won't get parked for the winter...a custom made wooden combine from Bob Lemieux. He's married to Marilyn's cousin and is a twice retired custom harvester from Alberta.

We were up early even though Marilyn didn't work until 10:30am. Al took the General in to the muffler shop to finally get the exhaust fixed...there wasn't much left holding it together at the elbow. Al is quite pleased because now the smoke comes out where it should...at the top instead of into the cab.

Marilyn started learning the ropes in the furniture department at Staples...a change from computers(sorry Ivan) and file folders...but not quite as good as the copy centre...all things come to those who wait. After work, Marilyn decided to shop for some new work pants...can anyone explain why, as the sizes get larger, the leg length is shorter? And who decided that a 32 inch inseam is universal...maybe she has to team up with a short person and add the length they have to cut off to her pants.

Al was disappointed when he stopped in at H&R Block where he worked in the spring...it wasn't a tax issue. He couldn't tell them any stories of the summer because they had been following this blog.

Mission accomplished...

November 17, 2008

View of the day-The combine all nestled in the holding pen at the CaseIH dealership.

Marilyn had to get up in the dark...not even the crack of dawn to get ready for her first day back at Staples. Although this was supposed to be a stock rearranging day and Marilyn was in her street clothes, the customers wouldn't let her get much work done. But she made a lot of miles...a good thing, after sitting in the combine for the last five months.

Al got up at the same time...claims he's getting old and can't sleep in anymore. He had to move some furniture around for his nephew who has just found an apartment in town. He also had to take the combine in for its inspection and got to park it inside the coverall building at the Case dealer. Once it was parked, he went in to talk toys with one of the partsmen while he waited for Marilyn to finish work and pick him up. While Al was gabbing, Marilyn went out to get the view of the day...rather bizarre that it would take some time to find the right combine out of the six that were jammed in there. The 8010s were no problem, but coming in from the back of the machines the other three all looked the same until she spotted what was left of the rain gauge. The combine had gotten really dirty after the trip down the gravel road so it didn't resemble the shiny new rig that she was used to...hopefully it comes out cleaner.

After supper, Al went to deliver the furniture and Marilyn went to give a presentation on Stage Management to the university drama class that is given through the distance learning at the local community college.

Al, of course, got home in time to watch the Monday night football game...

November 16, 2008

View of the day-Al is pushing bush...well, branches anyway. After trimming up all the trees to make room for vehicles, the remnants get pushed into a pile at the neighbors to get turned into a bonfire.

We got to sleep in and we needed the extra rest so we could get right at the tree manicuring again. The day was overcast and breezy from the north, but with all the trees we have, we never noticed at all, in fact, the jackets came off as we worked up a sweat getting the branches moved around.

Al decided that the dozer blade would make moving the pile a lot easier but it was too bad we hadn't thought ahead and started the pile further out in the yard. It took some doing but we finally got everything where it belonged...except for the combine, which goes into the CaseIH dealership for the Uptime inspection tomorrow. The shop trailer is in its winter parking spot, strategically placed so we can use it as a projector screen for our holiday signs. Another day of fresh air, not warm enough to do windows...that will have to wait.

Marilyn's first day back at Staples tomorrow...

November 15, 2008

View of the day-Al trying to chop the bus out with the chain saw...he was successful...with no injuries.

Today we decided to do a bit of rearranging in the yard, which isn't really big to begin with so there was some strategic planning to do. We had to plug the big trucks in so they would start...one at a time due to power cord length and then the job of getting the theatre group's school bus out from under the tree.

During one of the big wind storms that occurred while we were gone, a large branch...well actually a third of a tree, broke and fell across the bus. Since the group didn't need it over the course of the summer, it sat until today. The branch hadn't broken anything on the bus, probably because the branches on the hood kept the largest part from snapping off from the main trunk. Al had borrowed his brother's chain saw and before too long had most of the branches removed.*

Once the other grain trucks were started and moved out of the way, the bus was moved to it's new parking spot near the neighbors for a quick exit should it snow a lot. The grain trucks got nestled in beside the camper and after a bit more trimming, we called that part of the job done.

Al had a visit from a friend who wanted to look at some of his farm toys...and purchase a few, of course. His 14 year old son came out with him and discovered the Wii, so Marilyn got to watch an expert at guitar hero and baseball give her a few pointers...practice, practice, practice.

All the fresh air should make for a good nights sleep...