Happy New Year!!!

Season's Greetings from our table to yours!

And what a busy season it has been...for some of us, at any rate. In between 'decluttering' the house and getting organized for Christmas, there hasn't been a day to just relax and reload.

We finished off November with Marilyn helping out with the dinner theatre, just taking tickets and cleaning up after the performance. With just getting home two weeks before the big show, she knew she wouldn't be able to offer any support during the preparation. Al got back into the swing of all things hockey...and football...he started going to the Terrier games and was pleased they were starting to pick things up a little. He is no longer on the executive...reasons cited were missing too many meetings and...ahem...being to outspoken about the running of the team...and we will leave it at that. He is actually quite happy about that because now he can just go and enjoy watching the games...and he can speak as freely as he likes.

We had our Association of Canadian Custom Harvesters annual convention the first week of December in Saskatoon, SK...bitterly cold, but we didn't venture out of the hotel for the four days we were there. It's always a great time to see all our fellow harvesters in one place, listen to the latest and greatest from the dealers, drink a few beverages and just put the cap on another year of harvesting. Marilyn is back on as Sec. Treas. for another year...not a big job as most of the heavy lifting is done by Lynn, the Executive Assistant. We don't have a huge membership...contrary to what some of the US harvesters have been told...with 42 active members and only 16 working south of the border, we really are a small group.

We had some great entertainment both nights...Double Vision, twin magicians that strolled about and picked audience members at "random" to take part in their show. Marilyn doesn't believe it was very "random" since she was sitting at the very back of the conference room and was "picked" to participate...oh, little did they know what they were getting into...AND they were silly enough to give her a mic to make sure the audience heard her. It was entertaining to say the least. We also had a sound effect comedian the second night who had everyone howling in laughter...just the thing to cap off a great convention.

We left the convention Friday morning after saying our goodbyes until the spring and Marilyn took the scenic route back to Yorkton...after all, who loves driving more that we do? Al had a toy show to attend in Weyburn so we met up with Jeff, his brother, on the highway to Weyburn and after Al loaded his bags and various toys into the other truck, Marilyn headed back to Yorkton. The toy show went as well as they figured it would and after picking up Senior(the 'old' Dodge) at Jeff's farm where he had left it, Al got back to Yorkton in time to take part in the Staple's Christmas party that Marilyn was at.

This year they had projectors and big screen stations with Guitar Hero, Scene It and of course...the Wii Fit. There was quite a lot of action and some pretty wild stuff going on as everyone took turns boxing, hula hooping, ski jumping, among other sports...and no booze to use as an excuse for the craziness. The "old folks" outlasted all the school kids that work at the store and it was 2am before we finally got home.

After another work week Marilyn was off to Regina to help out with Theatre Saskatchewan's annual dinner theatre. She is a member at large on the executive committee for the provincial community theatre group who cook and serve the meal for their annual fundraiser. Once again it was -40°...Farenheit or Celcius, it's all the same...damn cold...and let's add a bit of wind to drop it even lower. You just can't beat winter in Saskatchewan...those 100+ degree days from the summer don't look too bad at this time of year.

More work for Marilyn with the crazy's out shopping at this time of year...no signs of recession here...maybe until the credit card statements arrive in January. The weather certainly doesn't keep people at home, they just bundle up more and leave the vehicles running in the parking lot, which is a lot less painful now that the fuel prices have dropped to .75/litre or about $2.40/USgal...a far cry from this summer.

Al got busy and actually put together the Christmas newsletter...well, he wrote it up and Marilyn added the pictures and had it printed up at Staples. We always do one up for anyone who doesn't have the chance to follow the blog for whatever reason and Al has had to look after that for the past few years. Once we had them all done, Al took a road trip to Kenmare, ND to mail the US ones so they would be delivered before Christmas...oh, and to pick up some toys that he had bought.

We hosted an early family Christmas for Al's family on Dec. 21. The three brothers and their step-dad take turns every year and it had finally rolled around to ours. Marilyn slaved all day over the hot stoves while Al made sure she kept updated with the scores from all the NFL games, but he did take over after the gifts were opened and the fireworks came out. It is interesting how different they sound when it is -35° and the snow is on the ground...lighting them was another challenge. The barbeque lighter wouldn't work in the cold and when Jeff tried to use a small propane torch it sprung a leak around the collar and made it's own fireworks. Still, a wonderful family get together for the holidays.

With "Junior" (the new Dodge) being Marilyn's main ride into work...at least when Al doesn't drive her in...being able to use command start is a must in this cold weather. Marilyn decided to find out about getting it installed and halfway through the phone call was told by Al that she had just ruined her Christmas present...he had booked the truck in to get it installed on Dec. 23...and Marilyn has not stopped hearing about how she just had to tear open the paper on the gift to see what she was getting. It works great, except it likes to randomly lock the doors when it is running...needs a bit of tweaking, or at the very least a hidden key for the door so Al doesn't have to drive into town to open the doors.

Christmas day was spent quietly at home until we went to our next door neighbors, Murray and Darlene's for turkey supper and a long visit. Darlene has been trying to talk Marilyn into joining the United Church choir...yes, you read right...and with their daughter Kristen playing the piano, she had Marilyn "audition" with an old fashioned sing-along....not bad enough apparently to sway Darlene from her mission. We'll see what January brings...

Marilyn worked on Boxing Day...Dec. 26, consider a shopping day in Canada...and a few other countries. People will line up outside stores waiting for the opening to take advantage of all the great bargains that are available only on this day. Marilyn had to go to work at 7am to help set up for the day and although she now works in the furniture department, she was drafted back into the computer department for the day. People started lining up at 7:30am for the 9am opening...the staff could hardly get through the waiting customers to get to the doors, fortunately it had warmed up to -20° so the wait was bearable...it was a crazy day and 3:30pm did not come soon enough.

Clutter's Last Stand took over again as Marilyn decided to do a major overhaul and chuck a ton of stuff and give another couple of tons to Salvation Army...they are really getting to know Al well what with all the stuff he has been taking in to them. Marilyn was a bit upset when she went to get some boxes to put the donations in and...Al had thrown them ALL away in his cleaning frenzy in the garage. Fortunately, Staples came through and after fishing a few good size boxes out of the cardboard baler, she was back in business.


And now, here we are about to ring in another new year, waiting for the ball to drop before calling it a year. The "weakly" update didn't happen as planned, but maybe next year...


Here's hoping that 2009 brings you all you wish for...

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...