Author: gfox (old content)

Apples Away

I picked a bunch of apples last weekend. They are ripe, and very tasty. But very small. As in, lots of them aren’t worth the effort to eat them. I figure I picked over 100 pounds of apples, and I couldn’t even reach the highest branch which is stuffed still. I hope to get to those this weekend though.

What do you do with so many apples? Well, in the past we have made apples sauce, and frozen some of them. Since we still have a few jars of sauce, we’re going to skip that this year. Instead I’m going to dehydrate some apple slices and see how that works out. We’ve also given a whole bunch away.

Confused Pass

On Saturday we had a nice thanksgiving up in Nanaimo this year. We had a wonderfully cooked prime rib with all the fixings. Mmmm.  

On our trip back after dinner on Sunday afternoon, things were going well, when all of a sudden traffic started slowing down and moving to the left lane. There had been no signs for construction, and my immediate thought was perhaps there was an accident ahead. Sox was driving, so she stayed in the right lane, but slowed down.

I was very confused why everyone wash upping to the left lane as soon as they saw a slow down. We passed quite a few people, then one guy in a black pickup decided he was going to get into our lane too. I thought he was going to pass some people, but no, he actually wanted to block us from passing. Then the dip in the mini van did the same thing (sort of). These two drove like that for over a kilometer, for no reason. They simply didn’t want us to pass them. 

The traffic slowdown turned out to just be a slowdown from a merge to a single lane. Sox and I fumed about these morons behaving like children. If they had wanted to get around traffic, they should have pulled out and passed.

The single lane eventually returned to two lanes, and most of the traffic stayed in the left lane again. Weird. Not these though. No, they gunned it passing a bunch of people in the right lane. Precisely the thing they were blocking us from doing. 

Infuriatingly bad driving.

Island Troupe

In the summer while the kids were off of daycare, Elliot declared that his dog stuffie named Island was having a birthday. Sue asked him if he wanted to have a party, and offered to make cupcakes. Since it was warm out, we had the cupcake party outside.

The cupcakes that I iced. Not a professional by any means.

Elliot and the guest of honor.

Some of the other guests, Jingles and Ribbit.

Amy and her troupe of guests.

At one point a neighbour was out working in her garden and smiled at us. I offered up a cupcake but she declined.

Batteries Squirrely

Last week I needed to buy some batteries for my flash, and for some other things in the house. From years ago I remembered that Radio Shack was the cheapest place. They got renamed a while ago to The Source.

With kids in tow I entered The Source location closest to our house. I found the batteries I needed and waited for my turn to pay. I waited way too long considering there were multiple staffers, multiple tills, and only one person in front of me paying for something.

As the guy was ringing my purchase in, he saw the double packs of 9V batteries I had and mentioned that the single packs were on sale 2 for 1. Would have saved me time if there was a sign saying that.

With the new packs in hand he rang them in then asked for my email address. Uhh, no. I don’t need to be spammed by them. He didn’t even let me know what they would do with it.

Then he asked me who my mobile provider was and what my monthly bill was. WTF? I had 3 packs of batteries to by and you are trying to upsell me to a cellphone? I cut him off and told him just the batteries. If I had been looking at other technology, had a few other items, then maybe I could cut him some slack. Instead I had batteries and two kids who were going a little squirrely in an electronics store. Think for a second next time would you?

Scratch that. There likely won’t be a next time.

Golf Badly

Today’s adventure was a trip to Mattick’s farm. The plan was to head out and play some mini golf, eat some lunch, get an ice cream cone, then come home again.

Oh, and we wanted to ride out there. This was Elliot’s first time on a Trail-A-Bike, and we chose a long ride. He did awesome though. The ride out was about an hour and any time we got moving I could hear him hooting and hollering, and yelling wheeeee. Lots of fun. I could also feel him helping out on the uphill sections. The Trail-A-Bike was more wobbly than I was expecting which was a little unnerving at first, but I got used to it.

At the farm mini golf was fun, but the kids sure powered through the holes. Elliot did very well with his shots, and even got a hole in one. If we had kept score, I think his would have been pretty close to mine. Amy had fun too, but her style was more hockey like than golf like 😉

Lunch was yummy,but funny enough, as we were sitting down to eat, we saw some friends of ours that were at our BBQ on Friday, and whom we also saw at the fair on Saturday. They joined us in eating lunch on the grass.

After eating it was on to the cones. Amy had vanilla, Elliot chocolate chip mint, Sox had triple chocolate, and I chose the maple walnut. After I paid, I went outside to sit with everyone. Amy came running up to me, tripped (likely due to her flip flops), and hit the ground hard. She skinned her toe pretty badly, but worse was her cone. She did her best to hold on to it, but the cone itself broke in half and the ice cream bounced off my shoe and hit the ground.

Sad girl ensued. Thankfully she wasn’t hurt too bad, and the kind staff inside made us another cone free of charge. I even got a couple band aids to patch up her toe.

Fully charged up it was time to head for home. Thankfully there weren’t a lot of hills, and we made good time coming home.

Fun Kids

As our vacation starts to draw to an end, I am starting to not look forward to going back to work. Such is the price for so much fun. yesterday we headed out to French Beach with a friend and her two children. The kids had a great time out there running around, splashing in the water, building sand castles, eating lunch, and generally just being kids.

This guys dog swam after him as the paddle boarded retrieved a crab pot.

Such a beautiful day at the beach. The long drive was worth it!

Lunch time.

On our way back into town, we stopped off for ice cream. Later in the day, our neighbor invited us to his place for pie and ice cream. We topped the night off with a movie night for the kids complete with popcorn.

Fair Friends

We headed out to the Saanich Fair today with another friend and her two children. All the kids had a blast and did well sticking close to the adults and not getting lost. There certainly were a lot of people there. On our way to the car I thought it would be cool to get a picture of the sea of cars, but after getting the kids into carseats and hading out mini donuts, I forgot. Amazing that so many people can cram into such a tiny area.

Amy and Elliot even went on a couple rides today. The Flintstone’s cars were a big hit.

The tractors were also a big hit. The kids spent a good long time climbing over many of them. Elliot even figured out how to turn the hazard lights on.

Fun with friends.

Amy spotted these people doing acrobatics on horses. Wild stuff. Sue saw three people on one horse doing tricks.

Lunch time consisted of fries and ice cream. Mmm, excellent fair food. Sue and I had some Indian food which was excellent, then snagged a bag of mini donuts for the drive home.

There were two guys walking around in body suits, one was orange, the other purple. You can see them on the elevator drop ride.

One more ride on the Flintstone’s cars. This time with no adults. How do kids grow up so fast?


Weekend Flower

We had a great trip to Powell River last weekend to visit Sox’s dad. I got in a mountain biking trip, we did a hike, we cooked hot dogs over a campfire, and we played out the dogs. Oh, and I had to work too, which was the bummer part of the trip.

Still, it was a relaxing time.

The first few pictures are from my mom’s plants.

This Hibiscus had such a beautiful flower.

Elliot loves playing fetch with Heart, and she does such a good job being patient and waiting for the throw.

On the Willingdon Beach trail there are a lot of logging relics that the kids played on. I got to take lots of pictures of them.

Chutney found a nice mud pit. It looks like she is wearing boots.

We popped onto the beach to eat a snack, and to watch logging trucks dump their loads into the ocean.

Sox’s dad and step mom are avid gardeners. Their flowers, plants, trees, and trails are amazing.

Here Chutney is all tired out. I think this is her favorite sleeping position.


River Return

Yesterday I went for an excellent ride. It wasn’t terribly long, nor was it technical, but it was fun. It was an adventure, something that has been lacking in my mountain biking as of late.

I was in Powell River, had a basic map of the trails, some vague directions, and got dropped off at a trail head. From there I did a 15 KM loop. I got a little turned around, I missed one trail I wanted to take, but it was a blast. I didn’t see another soul out there.

The trail themselves weren’t technical. Very buff and smooth for the most part, punctuated with some technical sections. Had I been with other people I would have tried some of the technical bits again, but I didn’t want to push my luck while riding solo.

It was quiet, peaceful, and serene out there. Like I said, I didn’t see anyone, but I also didn’t hear anyone. During one rest break I did hear an ambulance way off in the distance, but that was it.

I did a ride around Duck Lake, then got onto Suicide Creek trail. At the end I was supposed to return on a different branch of Suicide Creek, but somehow I missed a junction, did a small loop, and ended up returning on the trail I went out on. After that I hit a small trail on the backside of Mud Lake, then went up Oilcan (this trail would have been much more fun the other way). I ended up back on the gravel road that I set out on. From here it was a 15 KM jaunt along the road back to where I was staying.

I’d love to ride there again some time. The trail remind me of Hornby Island, but way longer, and a few more challenges here and there. The same buffness and fun levels through. Hornby may have the bluff lookouts, but Powell River had lots of water and rivers to fill your senses.

After exiting the trails I hit the road on my way back to the house. I rode about 15 KM on trail, then had another 15 KM on the road. The road portion went by much quicker. Minutes after I rolled into the driveway and laid my bike down, my wonderful wife brought me a cold beverage. What a way to end the ride.


Yoshi Bench

Yesterday I took my buddy out for what I though was going to be his last ride ever. Yoshi passed away over a year ago, but I never got around to taking some of his ashes with me on a ride. Perhaps I wasn’t ready to do it. I thought about it lots over the past year. Yesterday was the day though.

The day was spectacular. The sun was out, and it was warm, bordering on hot at 10:30. I took my hardtail for the ride since I didn’t really want to be wearing my armour on a hot ride. Heart came with me too.

There were three places I wanted to take Yoshi to and leave some of his ashes at. I changed my mind on one of them though. I took a route that Yoshi enjoyed and stopped many times along the way. Heart came with me on the ride for moral support. She didn’t really know what I was up to, and I was ok with that. She is turning into a good trail dog, but her differences really remind me of Yoshi.

Yosh used to be constantly running through the bush whenever we stopped. He would like to lead the pack on the trail too, though he never liked to get too far in front of me. I will never forget that there is one section of trail that he did not like. There was something there that scared him, and any time we got close he would act very strange, and sometimes go the opposite direction on the trail. I often wondered if he smelled a cougar or something.

Heart on the other hand sticks close to me, usually in front. When I stop for a break, she sticks with me and hangs out.

The first stop was at the bench at the bottom of the Switchbacks. Any time we rested there Yoshi would look at us with his big tongue hanging out. Inevitably he would head down the bank to the stream and get a drink. I sprinkled some of him at the top of the path and marked it with a rock.

After a nice break Heart and I continued on to Twister. There is a clearing just after the first hill where we would often take a break. Yoshi would run around eating grass, or come visit for some scratches.

After Twister, Heart and I made our way up to Snakes and Ladders. At the top of the trail there is a nice rest area with a clearing over looking the dump, and the valley.

Here I found a rock to leave part of Yoshi under. The last little bit of ashes I had I tossed into the wind. In my mind I could see Yoshi running free. I thought back to his uncanny ability to always get up in the car when we got close to a destination for a walk. I remembered how when he ran wildly his ears, jowls and tongue would flap about. I missed him terribly at that moment. I still do.

After a moment of silence and thought of Yoshi I got back on my bike and headed back to my truck. I made one resolution though, that won’t be his last ride with me. I’m going to get a small container and seal some of his ashes in it. Then he can come with me on every ride.

Heart had a good run that day. She was pooped by the time we got to Skull trail and lagged far behind me on the double track back. After a big drink and a cool down, she had a deep snooze for the rest of the day.


View Remembering Yoshi in a larger map

Created by My Tracks on Android.

Total Distance: 6.86 km (4.3 mi)
Total Time: 1:34:39
Moving Time: 50:43
Average Speed: 4.35 km/h (2.7 mi/h)
Average Moving Speed: 8.12 km/h (5.0 mi/h)
Max Speed: 29.02 km/h (18.0 mi/h)
Min Elevation: 112 m (367 ft)
Max Elevation: 287 m (942 ft)
Elevation Gain: 312 m (1025 ft)
Max Grade: 5 %
Min Grade: -11 %