News Update

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather has been nice, with frequent showers, and a couple of thunderstorms. We've been making steady progress on the building of the island. Wendy has not been feeling well most of the week, but she's kept at the painting while I've been building the legs out of the oak flooring. I've also been working on improvements in the shop. Now that I have a good shop vac, I want to use it as the centre of a dust collection system. We finally moved the china cabinet (built by her dad) from our bedroom to its honoured location in the dining room.

It has finally arrived!

Wendy is unpacking stuff unseen since 2000, and she's moved some of those items into the china cabinet. The Trump Trade War (so easy to win—sigh!) continues to take its toll, and the DOW is on a losing streak not seen since 2011. We don't make much progress when things are going badly for our biggest trading partner, so I'm feeling the pain as well. In sports, the NHL playoffs have finally reached the ultimate series with the Blues taking on the favoured Bruins. I will certainly be cheering for the Blues! The Jays continue to exhibit the blues and took a terrible beating today!

Haaken reports that he finished a project for his drawing class. He is nearing completion for one of the projects he is doing for his animation class. Today, he learned how to do live-streams. Eric joined Erica on a trip up north for work. They encounter four bears on the trip; sadly, one appeared to have been hit by a vehicle.

Didn't appear to be hitch-hiking!

Eric's parents used to live in Beauval so Eric enjoyed looking over old haunts. They stayed overnight in La Ronge, and will head back home this weekend. Liam has been fighting a cold, on top of his regular illness, but he soldiers on.

Erin has been working on summer plans for Kristian. She has him set up for camp at Clearview, and also for a golf camp in Regina. I'm looking forward to taking in the latter with him. She located some pallets for me—I should be able to build a house!

Much pallets for many years! 

Travis had a minor disaster with the support files for his BucketDecals website, so he's put in quite a few hours working on repairing that. Joanna keeps busy, and has also been suffering with her seasonal allergies. We've enjoyed a couple of prolonged visits, all the same, so that's been good. Gemma has completed her semester, and is on to her summer work activities. 

And that's about enough for this week. 

Happy May Long!

Another week has passed, and we're enjoying May Long on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown! The weather has been nice. We've made good progress on the kitchen renovations. It's looking good so far. 

So far, so good! 

Wendy has begun work on the island that will be placed just under that trio of lights. She is also in the process of assessing the kitchen supplies currently in the spare bedroom, and returning some of it to the new cupboards.

Time to move the pantry

It's been quite a process, but we're in the end game now. The old shop vac died this week, but Wendy found a used one on-line that fills the role admirably. On Tuesday, my trap sprang into action, and we caught a skunk. I had designed it in compact size with the idea that a skunk would be unable to spray. Whether the design worked, I cannot say, but at least the skunk did not spray. We hauled him out of town and released him where we hope he'll stay!

A full trap into the truck

Away he goes to his new home!

The trap is back in place. My main purpose is to catch a groundhog which comes by once every few weeks, and does a lot of digging around the back of my garage. I have been working my way through my cohort of doctors since we returned home. This is now pretty much completed except for one follow-up with my oncologist. Blood work has come back with all good results except for my PSA, which remains high, and which keeps me going back to my oncologist. This week, I was to my optometrist; sadly, he had a concerning diagnosis: I am suffering with a corneal pannus in my right eye. This is a condition where blood vessels grow in and obscure vision. He is referring me to another eye specialist, so we'll see what comes of that. At this point, I'm experiencing blurry vision in that eye, and there's no expectation of improvement. Trump was back in action this week with new tariffs for the American people to pay. The farm community is suffering a lot over this. Later in the week, he also launched action against Huawei, which causes great suffering to American chip manufacturers. All told, the markets suffered this week, and I barely managed to eke out a gain, far short of quota. NHL semi-finals continue, with the Bruins already advancing to the final. I can only hope that the Blues will prevail and give me someone to cheer for! Fact is, I'll cheer for whoever plays the Bruins. Blue Jays continue to play entertaining, if unsuccessful, baseball.

Last weekend Eric and Erica attended Lobsterfest—a local fundraiser dinner. It was Eric’s lucky night. He won a $25 gift card, a 45-piece ratchet set, a battery booster and an electric scooter. Guess which of these Eric played with first—the scooter!

Eric scored the big win!

They took in the Raiders game on Sunday night. That didn’t appear to be helpful so they stayed home to watch on Monday and they pulled through to win the WHL championship and advance to the Memorial Cup. Liam is back at work in Moose Jaw. He’s enjoying doing the tours. If you have a chance, check out the tours of Moose Jaw! Haaken continues with school. They found out this week that there will be a presentation evening on July 19th, not the 22nd as previously thought. So they are adjusting their summer plans accordingly.

Erin had a jam-backed week at work with several special events. Shawn and the kids came over to spend Friday evening with Kristian while Erin was at another executive-level function. Today, she is suffering with a wrenched neck, and is on Advil and using an icepack.

Trav and Joanna had a bit more of a laid-back week including a day-trip down to Grand Marais. We didn't see them over here much, but we're looking forward to brunching with them tomorrow after church.

And that's about enough for this week. 

Happy Mothers' Day!

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather has been nice, but we've been mainly consumed with the kitchen renovations, so, we haven't even made it to the golf course—misplaced priorities, you say?! The counter tops arrived on Thursday; we got those put together and installed on Friday. Today, we dropped in the sink.

Counter Sink! 

Wendy even has some of her kitchen stuff moved from the bedrooms into the cupboards! I'm enjoying getting back into the shop where I completed the live varmint trap.

Not even catching attention!

I've begun work on the decorative oak trim for second electrical bulkhead. Wendy has decided on the design of the island, so I've also begun planning what needs to be done there. (With enough time spent thinking, imagining, designing and planning, you can delay having to do the work for quite some time!) Today, we enjoyed our annual Mothers Day weekend event as the local barber-shoppers put on their musical show—that's always quite a treat. Unfortunately, Trump has resumed his tariff war, so the markets were decidedly terrible this week, and I lost value. He still refuses to acknowledge that tariffs are taxes your own citizens must pay so they can buy foreign goods, sigh! The second round of Stanley Cup playoffs have been completed, and I've improved my record to 50% for this round! In the semis, I'm picking the Canes and the Blues. The Blue Jays are back to playing about how I expected—the pitching is doing fine, but most games we're failing to score. At the World Cup of curling in Beijing, Canada has qualified for all three gold medal games. Kevin Koe will play China; Jennifer Jones will play Switzerland; and the Walker/Muyres team will play Norway. Go Canada Go! And since tomorrow in China is already well underway, I'm proud to acknowledge that Kevin Koe has won the Men's World Cup for Canada! Jennifer Jones has won the Women's World Cup for Canada! While Norway prevailed in the Mixed Doubles.

The Baileys had a busy week. Liam had his iron infusion. We were praying that he wouldn’t get sick like last time and he felt fine after! Great! He headed back to Moose Jaw on Tuesday and started practises for the Chinese workers tour. He has a lot of memorizing to do. On Monday, Erica was working on a project on Saskatoon, Eric had a meeting there, and Liam has his infusion so they had a mini holiday at the hotel! Eric has been preparing a sermon for Mother’s Day. Also they managed to score some tickets for the Raiders game on Sunday! The Raiders are playing in the WHL final this year—Go Raiders!

Erin and Kristian began the week hosting Kristian's friend Omarion for his birthday celebration. Otherwise, the week has been pretty routine.

Trav has been doing his annual Mothers Day flower deliveries this weekend. That started on Thursday! He's amazed at how many folks order delivery, but have neither house numbers nor working doorbells! We seem to be planning a Mothers Day movie outing with them for Sunday. Rumours are it will include a trip to Merla Maes for the first soft ice cream treats of the season!

And that's enough for this week. 

News Update

Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather cleared in front of us as we drove east from Regina. We spent Sunday night with Dean, in Winnipeg, and then completed the trip on Monday. We were able to review the Mexico plans with Dean one more time, and are beginning to look forward to that trip which is set to begin in mid-June. In the meantime, we have returned to our renovations here, and that continues to progress, albeit slowly. The weather has turned nice, and the golf courses have opened, so we were able to get over to the practice area this afternoon for some fun activity.

First Golfing in TBay this season

My friendly neighbourhood groundhog paid us another visit while we were away, and tried to dig his way under the garage. I have employed a fair number of concrete slabs to slow him down! In any case, I have determined to build a box trap for him, so I spent a bit of time on that this week. I've also managed a bit of millwork in the kitchen—with the cupboards taking up most of the wall-space, there isn't much millwork to do. The markets were troubled this week as the FED chair got in front of the mic and said things investors didn't want to hear. But favourable jobs' data turned things upward again, and I was able to make quota. The second round of NHL playoffs continues, and already one of my picks has been swept away. (Sorry, Islanders, I know you asked me not to pick you!) The young Blue Jays are playing a bit better than I expected, so that's fun to watch. My guy, Kevin Koe, lost the Champions Cup final to Bottcher. Looks like it will be quite a battle in Alberta between those teams for the next few seasons.

Erica reports that it's been a busy week at work! Yes, April 30th has come and gone, but when all your clients are non-profit, the tax deadline means nothing! And when you have a bunch of government entities, the business has just started! Eric was scheduled to speak next week, but found out late this week that the conference has been cancelled. That's too bad, but due to various advertising, he is making connections and might end up with other speaking engagements. (If anyone needs a last minute replacement, he has a fresh talk all ready to go!) Liam is heading home this weekend for a visit, and to get a iron transfusion on Monday. We hope this helps his energy and doesn't make him sick like last time. They had a good visit with Haaken last weekend. On Monday they were able to take him to school and pick him up after to get in a few more minutes before they left Victoria Monday evening. They also enjoyed a second Christmas this week as the snow fell! Fortunately it has quickly melted.

Kristian is back to school this week. Erin has work as usual. This weekend, they're hosting Omarion and helping him celebrate his birthday with a movie and a sleepover. After the storm blew through last weekend, Spring has returned to the prairies, and they are glad of that.

Travis and Joanna enjoyed the week in Florida, caring for and relishing time with Joanna's folks. Her dad is not doing well, so these are bitter-sweet times. They flew back to Toronto this evening, and we're expecting them back home tomorrow. Andrew has been taking care of things here at home, while Gemma was taking care of the grandparents' dog, in Toronto.

And that's about it for this week.