Good thing he had his Ball Cap

Hahaha...what a duffus. I guess its cool to wear your ball cap backwards, and even though he has shades, the old armstrong method still works the best. Het speaking of Caps, we just got a free John Deere cap for purchasing our lawn tractor. Its a beauty....we filled out the info and we should see it in a couple months. I am a duffus too, because I am forever searching for the glasses that are perched on top of my head!

Enjoying Life

T&M Came for a visit - sittin on the dock

River at Dusk

Sue and I and Bass

I am still pinching myself to make sure its really me and I am really awake and this is not a dream. Well it is a dream that we get to enjoy waking and sleeping. There are so many cool and differant things here. Lots of new animals and birds and insects.

T&M came for a visit and I was at home working in the office. I left the sliding door open When they came back, Sue started screeming. There is a hummingbird in the house! Help! I ran out and got a tea towel. I gently put the tea towel over the hummingbird and released her. Next day....help! This time it was the biggest freekin beetle I've ever seen. They call him a Sawyer and he is a wood beetle. I grabbed some kleenex and I put it on him and then transported him out the door.

The chipmunks and the grackles are making a mess of the bird seed. The sparrows come along and clean it up when the other two pests are gone. Oh and we have lots of windows. The birds are constantly flying into the windows. None have died, but they sure get shaken up.We have some woodpeckers that we are still trying to identify. They dont have the tell tale red on the head or neck or chest. They may be just immature or perhaps another type. The Bitterns, The Herons and the Cormorants, all call this place home, as do the black ducks and gulls and a whole host of other birds. Oh there is a kingfisher that lives across the river and he likes to fish over where the beavers live. There is a family of beavers just down a ways, and they have a commuting routine that brings them across the front of our dock at dusk and dawn. There are also river rats, I guess we call them muskrats. They are also fun to watch. I saw an owl and two loons last night when I went for an ATV run with my buddy.

Well its 8:24am and I need to get to work. I spent my commute time making coffee, downloading pictures and writing this blog post.....and now its time to "grind". I need to find 20K in sales before month end........and then I woke from my dream.....

Cheers, Blessings and Glad Tidings to you and yours

dw

Our Place and Freindly Neighbours

"Golden Hour at the Neighbours" Copyright John Buffett 2008

Hey, I told you all about my neighbour across the river. Well he is a photographer and he shared this picture with me. Isnt it awesome! John is quite talented with a camera. He has a website with a multitude of great images. Check it out....... http://jpgmag.com/people/uptheriver

Hey John...if you read this Thanks!!!! and keep up the great image capturing...Hey maybe we can go to the Old Growth together...it would be magic!

My Add in Kijiji

I took my guitar with me down to the dock to play and sing joy. As I began, a fellow across the river stepped out for his regiment of Tai Chi. He obviously heard the music as He was responding and moving to the music. I in turn could feel his movements, and responded likewise, as we "danced" in the evening light. We explored highs and lows, too and fro's. It was a moving moment. When we finished, he went down to his dock, got in his canoe, and paddled over to introduce himself and to thank me. I in turn thanked him, for I have been seeking a TaiChi instructor. We discussed this, and I will likely join him with his TaiChi master from China that has just moved into town.

I realized as a played on my dock, that I miss the interaction with others. I need to find musicians, and artists, and peace lovers. I need to rejoin my place in the arts and praise community. To that end, I am now on a mission and I posted this on Kijiji today.

"I am new in town and I seek to Praise with like minded musicians. Denominations mean nothing to me. Religion means nothing to me. Praising God and honouring Spirit mean everything to me. If you are passionate about worship, please contact me.......I'm sitting here praising on my own and its meant to be shared...peace"

I also made up one of those number cutout sheets with my number and I put them up around town. Oh and I volunteered to play for an AIDS fundraiser in North Bay as well as answering an ad for some guy who likes bluegrass.

Authenticiy is in the Eye of the Collector???????

EMDevine

EMDeliscious

Call of the Wild - The Loon

This is one of my favourite sounds. I have been blessed to hear and see this magnificent bird on many occasions. The Loon represents for me, unspoiled land. You dont see loons marching down Yonge Street....heck you dont even see them on Rue Main in Sturgeon Falls.....but if you are lucky and up early enough, you can hear them over at Chemin Levert where I live. The first night we slept in our new home, we were awakened by this glorious call. I have since found that there is a small secluded lake about a half mile into the bush from here. That is where they live. If you have done any canoeing in Algonquin, then I am sure you were blessed by the Loons call as well. The loon......magical. mystical, and awe inspiring.....May you live forever!!!

Fishing off my Dock and Other Mundane things

I have a nice little routine happening. I head down to my dock to fish every morning. I like to sit out there with my morning coffee. I usually hang out at the dock until 8:15ish and then I head to work. The fishing has been excellent overall. You never really know what you are going to catch. Here are the types of fish that I have caught. Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass, Pickeral and Perch, Pike, Redhorse and White Sucker, Rock Bass and Sunfish. oh and Brown Bullhead Catfish, and on a quiet night you can here them meow....just joking....they are quiet because they dont want the dogfish to hear them.

My neighbour picked me up on his pontoon boat and took me for a little tour of the river. We went to a set of rapids where there is a magnificent swimming hole.

We stop at the reserve tonight for a Pickeral dinner...OMG!!!!! was it ever good. I highly recommend the pickeral dinner over at Jocko Point. I am told that the dinners over at Garden Village are even better...I guess we will see.

The old men at the shell station and 24 hour bus station laugh at me when I go for worms at 6am. Its the same group of retired guys. They meet for morning coffee and make fun with people like me...good bunch.

I went for an evening ATV run with a buddy. We found a remote lake and sat there in the peace and quiet and grandure. We were spyed by a loon who really wanted us gone. He put on a little dance and yelled and screamed at us in his own beautiful way. I said..listen Mike...he is singing us a serenade. Mike said...actually Don, hes telling us to go &*%$ ourselves! Sure was beautiful. We split and made it home for dusk.

Sue has left our house twice in two weeks....she doesnt really like to leave the "compound". Getting here to go anywhere can be a chore. Thas OK, she likes it here and she is comfortable. I typically cant go more than three days before I think of an excuse to go to town. I had planned to return to Mississauga this week in anticipation of technical and proceedural work problems. In fact, things went so well, I'm afraid to leave. I am getting in the groove.

We are going to try to concentrate on emptying our lockup at Osprey Miikaan this week. I had planned to be outta there by now but I guess I am spending too much time on the dock. We were out there today and picked up a good load...found some stuff we have bveen looking for.

Sue's aunt and cousin are coming over tomorrow. They have a cottage about an hour away and are excited to visit. We have company coming on laborday long weekend. Brenda......you need to come for a visit. Sue and I can meet you at the airport and show you our wonderful sandbox...heck bring a friend or travelling buddy.

GTG......

Getting Back to the Garden

I dont think web cams were meant to do video. anyway, while I have you, let me tell you about one of blessings of the garden......

There is a crabapple tree at the corner of our garden. Well, its not really crab apple, they are bigger, but they are certainly not full size apples. They are small...about twice the size of a cherry and deep red like cherries. This tree is overflowing with bounty. My wife and I have been picking apples and Sue has been making apple jelly and apple drink concentrate. The jelly is completey amazing! Sue found a recipe on the net that requires only suger....and patience and voila..trhe most amzing jelly you could imagine and its a nice red color. The concentrate, you simply add water and an ice cube and you have a beautiful, all natural..well except for the white suger I suppose....drink. One small basket of apples makes 8 jars of jelly. I ran into town and went to the bakery for nice fresh bread for the test.........mmmmmmm delicious. I guess we will keep the factiry going until we run out of apples......any body got a good crab apple recipe???????? cheers to the garden of plenty.

Well.....you get the idea......

This is just dumb....don...go to bed

Your Name

Hooking up a Web Cam

I got a new computer in my home office and decided I should hook up a web cam. I downloaded the drivers and setup and did a quick test. This is one of my favourite praise songs......we sing praises to your name. Test...test...one three nine.......test

hey whats that all about!!! The picture doesnt match with the sound. They are out of synch...jeeesh...back to the drawring board.

Living in the Garden

I am living in the garden.

My heart and Spirit unite in joy and gratitude

Thoughts of anger and frustration fade away.

Thoughts of love and peace take their place

I can see the pain and I empathize

I can see the loss and I sympathize

I can feel the Spirit and I realize

that it comes with a cost.

How can it be that freedom comes at a cost?

How could it be that peace comes at as cost?

How could it be that truth comes at a cost?

While it is all free, it comes at a cost.

Why?

Because.

That's how the great engineer designed it.

Embrace Spirit

Embrace Love

Embrace Freedom

Embrace Truth

Embrace Peace

Embrace Joy

Embrace and never let it go

and you too will live in the garden

shalom

and peace be your journey

Life is Good

Life is good here in the Near North. My house feels like home now. I am finally sepnding some time here. With the closing delay came a cascade of other delays, which ultimately meant that I was only seeing my wife and my home on weekends. All of the hurdles have been bridged and now I can spend some time here.

I got my home office all setup on the weekend. I have a hosted Voice over IP phone that my office phone is forwarded to. I have a great high speed connection by Eastlink that is doning a remarkable job at handling my bandwidth requirments. My remote desktop to my office is beautiful....as if I'm there. My clients cant tell the differance.

So with the technology in place, its time to test the proceedures. This week will be my first full week at remote office. Today was awesome. I managed to put in a 9 hour day. Everything worked better than I had hoped or imagined. I took orders, I shipped orders, and I even had some time to do some much needed cold calling. What a great day, I think this is going to work.

I began my day with the alrm going off at 7pm so I could fish before work. The alarm went off and I turned it off and rolled over and sleppt for another hour. I woke up, made a coffee, went to the dock and caught a Pike. I finished my coffee and then went to my office to begin work. I took a 1/2 lunch break, caught another fish and then returned to the grind....as it were.

I am jealous of myself.......is that even possible?

Peace