Farm Banner

Here's our first farm banner that we're having printed for the State Fair and future events.
Thanks to Erika for expanding on our original idea, Andrew & I were really struggling putting it together and she graciously rescued us. And thanks to our printer: Farmboy Graphics for getting it printed in less than a week and not charging us any extra.

Sterling Renaissance Festival

Every year we say we're going to the Ren.Fest. and we never do. So this year we were determined to make it. WE HAD A BLAST! (Since I'm writing this way after the fact, I was able to purchase 6 tickets for next season at a silent auction, so we're going at least once next year, hope we can find some friends to go with us, if not, I guess we're going 3 times).

The first show we went to was Commedia dell'arte. It was hilarious, and just got funnier when they pulled Andrew from the crowd to participate. He loved it and played up his part, which the actors just loved. The rest of the day people would pass us and point, or say "hey, you're the guy from this morning", or "I saw you earlier" etc etc. After seeing some of the other people they pulled from the crowd at other shows, I can see why everyone remembered him and the actors thought he was so great. Some people aren't such good sports.





We saw the wash women show, and the witch trials-complete with dunking. My two favourite events were the falconer and the jousting. I don't think I would want to do all the training to have raptors but I would love to spend a few days with a professional falconer and learn more about it. I find it absolutely fascinating.

This white bird is called a Gyrfalcon. It is an artic bird and was very hot that day, as you can see by him sitting with his mouth open. It is the largest of the falcons. We occasionally get a few wild ones in this area in the winter time. We've gone looking for it whenever we hear about one being in the area, but never seem to be able to find it.


Below is a Harris Hawk. I think she was very pretty and has striking coloring. She had a bit more of an attitude than the Gyrfalcon, but she is also a younger bird. One thing I didn't know is that Harris Hawks hunt in "packs" or family groups in the wild, kind of like wolves. They are the only raptor that does this.

She also had a Great Horned Owl. Which, on a complete side note, we think we have a pair living in our woods.

Lining up for the Queen to start the Jousting Tournament.

Knight preparing for the joust with assistance from his page boy.

Direct Hit

Sword Fighting

Andrew & his ginormous turkey leg.

* If you take children to the festival, stick with the family friendly events, or be prepared to explain some bawdy jokes.

Horse Camping

I went to Otter Creek again this year with Renee and her group of horse riding friends. The weather was pretty good the first two days but we had to leave early Sunday because it downpoured and was not predicted to let up.

As always we went to Trailside for lunch one day. It was particularly exhilarating for Dakota and I because we went through water!!! Twice!!! For those of you that know Dakota he doesn't "do" water. If it's a puddle we are going around, no matter how big or small, if it's a ditch we're jumping it, and if it's too big to jump, we're not going. Some people we had met on the trail told us that the way we usually go for Dakota, that has a bridge, was washed out. So for us to keep the tradition of going to Trailside, we would have to cross the creek/river in two places. We hesitated at the first crossing and then next thing I knew we were on the other side in three big bounds. Was told we looked like an eventing team. The second crossing we walked through nice and calmly like we'd done it a million times. It was a good day. We found out later that the trail really wasn't washed out so we went back to camp the other direction with bridges. Now we can go either way next year.

Renee and Rio, always way in front

Pinky & Jake, Brenda & Chester

Dakota & I

Tiffany & Kayla

Jake

Cindy & Johnny

Vermont - Part 2

Clark's Bears

I have such great memories of going there when I was little. The key places I remember going whenever we visited Vermont/New Hampshire were Clark's Bears, Santa's Village & The Old Man in the Mountain. Clark's was always my favourite or at least the one I have the most memories of. They still have a lot of the same things there, but they've upgrade some things as well. They have the bears ride Segways now and there's a Segway park where you can try one out, and they have an acrobat show in between the bear shows. The son and daughter are the ones that run the show now. But the bears still love ice cream!



Mr. Murray Clark is still alive and can be seen watching the bear shows and giving visitors directions, but he's no longer working with the bears.

White Mountain Central Railroad

Wolfman

Things sisters are good for

Vermont - Part 1

The end of July we spent the weekend with friends in Vermont, camping, motorcycle riding and site seeing.

Izzy making sure the bike was ready to go before we left.

First stop- Ben & Jerry's mm mm mmm.
My new found favourite flavour: New York Super Fudge Chunk

You can't go to Vermont without visiting a covered bridge or two.

The group: Karoline, Marnetta, Earl, Andrew (I don't know why he looks like he doesn't have any teeth), Me and Victoria

Lake of Bays Sunday

On our way back to the cottage we stopped at some rapids on the Oxtongue River.

Deb, Erika, me & Andrew

We were hoping to get some wake boarding in today but the water was even rougher than on Friday and it was cold, so we went for a boat ride instead. We went to Bigwin Island to look at the AMAZING golf course and club house.

Some of the "cottages" and "boathouses" are gorgeous and beyond extravagant. This is someones boathouse. The cottage is up on the hill behind it.

Cottage & Boathouse!!!

This is more like it.

Unfortunately it was time to go home. The traffic was horrible between the cottage and Toronto. We stopped at Weber's to get a veggie burger. It was pretty good considering how many people they were pushing through there. They do such good business that they built a walking bridge over the the highway so that people don't stop traffic trying to cross the road or pull into the restaurant.

Algonquin Provincial Park

Our first hike of the day was the Peck Lake trail.

Next we did the Whiskey Rapids trail.

Deb looking out over Whiskey Rapids.

Erika and her tree

The boys playing in Oxtongue River

Erika & I goofing around

Making Tinfoil Dinners, after all that hiking we were hungry.

We did go on a walk after supper and found a nice little cove to watch the storm in the distance.