I Did It Again

 I screwed up two ways this time.

First of all, by not publishing yesterday I neglected to mention Sue and David's 34th anniversary.  Sorry kids.

However, I spent a rather unexciting weekend as parking attendant, soil skid mover, lawn maintainer and a bit of gardener.  Not worth posting.  That's my excuse.

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Today was the busiest of all and I spent most of the time helping helpless people park.  There are some really stupid drivers in the world 😓, but they buy plants so they can't be all bad 😅.

And then came the second screwup.  I got the fork lift stuck again.

Just so you know, I didn't tip the skid.  Mother Nature did that last year.  But, with Ewen's help we got the fork lift out, moved the skid that tipped, and I was able to get the full skid at the back and bring it up front for sale.  Life is never dull!

I'm on my first rye and coke, so things are more humorous now.  They'll be even better after the next one!

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Blue Jays won their second game in a row!!!  I think they're toast as far as any World Series action, but sometimes fun to watch.

Stay well.

Wayne and Shuster?

 Today was golf day for the Dofasco League.  Unfortunately, Matt and Gary were not well enough to join us, so I invited John Buckley to fill in again.

Some of you know John.  Some of you know Al Knapp.  Some of you know both.  And now they know each other.  And you can guess the rest of the story.  Calvin and I couldn't stop laughing at their repartee.   Reminded me of Wayne and Shuster (I know that a lot of my readers won't know who they were).

It was a beautiful day for golf, although we didn't do the game justice.  Probably having too much fun with our good friends.

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As requested, Monica sent me a picture of her parking performance today.

Hope you approve of my parking job!!!!

Monica, I approve.  And I hear that you and your friend could hardly fit into the car after you loaded it with plants!  I definitely approve of that!  Thanks, and enjoy your ferns!

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Stay well.

Stuck

 Cut the grass as planned yesterday, but I got the mower stuck in a wet area (looked dry before I made a mess of it).  Sean came out to give me a push out.  After I finished my cutting I took four bags of soil (broken or ripped bags that can't be sold) and built up the low spot.  Added some grass seed and solved the problem (or moved it to a different location).

A few days ago I got the lift truck stuck in some loose gravel while moving soil skids to enlarge the parking area.  That time I had to ask Ewen to haul me out with the tractor.

I imagine when I walk in the door my grandsons ask themselves "What has Grandpa done this time?"  But Sean hasn't fired me yet so we carry on.

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Today was a mixed bag of duties.  Parking attendant until I got the four lines of cars organized, thanks to some cooperative customers.  Then replenished and reorganized the soil skids along the driveway.  Dumped some more broken bags of soil in low spots in the back field.  Cut a bit of grass that I had missed yesterday.  Routine.

Stay well.

I'm In Demand

 I spent my time at the greenhouse this weekend as a parking attendant - felt good to achieve my full potential.  Mother's Day weekend increased the traffic by quite a bit - exceeding our parking capacity at times yesterday.

When I arrived this morning, things were a bit messy.  The cars on the right should have been in line with the white car at the front.  And the ones on the left should have been lined up with the dark van.

Once we got that straightened out I was able to add one more row down the centre and accommodate the crowd for the day.

But I took a 15 minute lunch break to enjoy the pizza that the boss provided for staff.  And when I got back, they were parking down the driveway..........

.............while the parking lot was half empty.

Straightened that out with some waving and smiling.  The best part is that the customers who are here want to be here and enjoy the plants that they buy.  Makes for lots of good friendly waves when they leave.

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David sent the following picture to me today.  It's a coyote den that he and Charlie found in the back field.  The mother coyote was growling in the den while they were there.

Mother Nature doing her thing.

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Tomorrow it's back to golf.  Tuesday cut the lawns.  Wednesday some gardening.  Thursday golf.  Friday gardening.  Weekend cut grass and parking.  And so it goes.

Stay well.

A Bad Plant

 If any of you see a plant like this in your gardens, with its dainty white flowers, get rid of it FAST!

It's garlic mustard and it is toxic for other plants.  Particularly the Trillium.  When David purchased the farm there were lots of beautiful red Trilliums along the edge of the escarpment.  No more.  Just lots of garlic mustard.

Now, the only red Trillium on the property is this one.

Today I weeded and mulched the petals.

Then I got going on the lawns.  In May, they need cutting every four days.  While I was in that process, I came across a pair of Canada Grease who looked like they were planning a family.

There is no way I'm going to wait for 30 days to cut the grass again, so I chased them off.

When I was a young boy, Jack Miner was a hero.  He created a bird sanctuary that was credited with saving the geese, who at that time were diminishing in numbers.  These days I think he did too good a job!

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The Leafs have started to dismantle and reorganize after the sad end to their season.  Based on how the Blue Jays are playing, they'll be doing those things long before their season is officially over!

Stay brave.  Stay well.

Wounded

Joyce is the young lady celebrating a birthday today.   Have a great day!

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Enjoyed a sunny golf day (the opposite of an absent someone's forecast).  Calvin and I were joined by John Buckley.  Despite being mortally wounded......that's blood on my pant leg......I only let John beat me by one stroke.  Of course we're not going to publish our scores - too embarrassing!

Apparently, when I banged my leg getting the golf clubs out of the car it started bleeding (my leg, not the car Al) and kept bleeding for a while thanks to the blood thinners I'm on, but I didn't notice it.

We were joined by several other beings while on the course. 

Seems to me that a brood of 15 goslings is overdoing it a bit!

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That's today's news.  Stay well.

Optimist Robots

 At our Optimist meeting tonight we were entertained by the Orchard Park High School Robotics Team.

This year they have won two divisional championships, an Ontario championship and, as you can see on the banner, the Galileo World divisional championship.

Nice to see that Arcelor Mittal Dofasco is one of their sponsors (as is our club).

As a guy whose major accomplishment in high school was making a pair of wooden bookends, I have some difficulty relating to these young geniuses.  Very impressive!

Also impressive is the fact that we inducted four new members to our club tonight - and we're close to our 70th anniversary (I've only been involved for 64 of them).  When many clubs are failing, ours is thriving.  We'll be able to continue our good work thanks to these new, energetic members.

Stay well.