This week has gone by so fast. I just have a few pictures to catch you up on what I have been up to the last few days.

This rabbit was in the front yard of one of the houses we were working on. He was so kind as to let me take several pictures of him.

Our most recent destruction of a chimney.

It looks a little like an unfinished jigsaw puzzle. Accept all the pieces are the same shape.

The finished puzzle.

This morning I went to a farmers market in Etobicoke to help Thames River Berries sell there produce. We got to leave at 4:30 am so that we can be there and be set up by 7. I got home at about 4:30pm.

We had 150 flats of Strawberries, they didn't sell all that well but we still sold 115 flats.

Thames River Berries makes their own honey, well their bees do..

New crop potatoes so nicely displayed.

The mountain of Asparagus.

The sea of berries.

I am going to go take a nap for a while before I go play some soccer this evening.

Birthdays, Burgers and Buggies

Saturday most of our family went to Mark & Rebekah's to celebrate Ada and Steph's Birthdays. They turned 58, well that is if you combine both their ages. They are both a little younger then that still. After lunch all of us guys took a trip to Costco while some of the ladies went to Fabricland.

Kyla and I with Tim and his two daughters Mika and Shaelyn in the back ground.

Kyla sure does pull the funny faces.


Mika and Shaelyn showing us who they can dance.

Shaelyn and Grandpa playing.

There just doesn't ever seem to be enough food. JK

My two old sister in laws, I mean aging, I mean......................

We have a lot of Amish in our neck of the woods. I don't think I have ever gotten a picture of one so I took this one while I was driving yesterday. Not the best time to do it but it worked.

Monday Mark & Rebekah took Dad, Mom and I out for supper at Swiss Chalet. It was an excellent meal. Getting our picture taken by the waiter was Rebekah's favorite part of the evening. First he was at the other end of the table and he was backing into the people in the back ground of this picture, because he could not get back far enough to get us all in the picture. Then he came to the other end and he was trying to find us on the screen on my camera but he had the camera pointed over at the people at the next table and he couldn't figure out why he couldn't see us. We were try to smile for the picture but not burst out laughing because he didn't have a clue what he was doing. Anyways this was the best picture, it is a little blurry but at least we are all in this one.

This is the most resent Chimney we have done. We just finished it this morning.

Bucking Bobcat

Has it really been ten days since I last blogged well I guess it has, right Rebekah? She called up tonight and while she was talking she mentioned that I needed to get something new on here. So how am I doing so far, I have something on here now. You must feel like you are totally filled in on what is going on in my life by now.

Ok maybe I should actually tell you something. Last Friday my Uncle John and Aunt Heather and their three kids came over for supper. We had a good time together. We had some of Mom's world famous burgers and sausages. (She didn't make the sausages, but they were still good.) I showed them my pic's from Mozambique while they were here as well.

Saturday there was a Bible Conference in Burgessville just a few minutes from where I live. I went to it and was challenged by many of the things that were said. I also got to see James and Nelly and their four kids Levi, Simon, Andrew and Natalia. They are the missionaries from Mexico that I go down to visit. They are back here in Canada for two months. It was so good to see them. Simon's new eye looks great, he is wearing glasses as well because the site in his other eye is not the best.

Sunday afternoon I got to see some pictures from a friends trip to Zambia back in January. We don't get together very often, but it was good to hear how his trip went and the changes it has made in his life.

I have been very encouraged this week. There is a group of young people that I have been spending sometime with for the last several months. I know it has been a desire for many of us to be able to come to the place where we can share openly with each other about spiritual things and what God is teaching us. We are all Christians, but it is so much easier to just talk about the week and work and the weather and never really mention the Lord. This past week we have been together a few times and God is really doing a work in us. Some people have been sharing about the different bad habits that God is giving them victory over and others are sharing what they have been enjoying from their time with the Lord. It has been very up lifting for all of us. I am excited to see how we are going to grow as we share together.

I used a Bobcat for I think my first time today. We had to brake up a concrete chute that someone had on their house for getting fire wood into their basement. They now use natural gas and no longer need it. Plus it is a Heritage House from I think 1890 and they want to restore it to it's original look. The concrete was about twenty years old, not quite as old as the house.

We had a jack hammer on the Bobcat to remove the chute.

There's the cowboy, trying to stay on that bucking Bobcat. It did jump around pretty good at times.

The hat is compliments of my second last trip to Mexico. I know the glasses do not go well with the hat, but gotta wear the safety glasses.

Wilcox Update

I meant to mention this in my last post. Peter Wilxox has been down in Maputo for the last three weeks, it's a three day drive south of where they are in Lichinga Mozambique. He was just supposed to fly down and leave a couple of days later. He had gone down to by a new car (They call everything a car there unless it is like a semi truck.) The car they were originally going to buy got sold to someone else or something so he had to find another one. Then it had to have some repairs done. After almost one month he finally returned home with their new car. Praise the Lord.

This is their old car a 1969 Land Rover. It was named Moses and he was ready for Land Rover Heaven.

The new car, sorry i don't know the year or model. I think it is a Toyota.

It has their last name engraved in the center of the steering wheel. It was imported from Japan like that. God had this one picked out for them.

I hadn't been able to get a family photo of the Wilcox before I left, so they took this one for me.

L2R Annelisa, Elias, Peter, Mikiala, Karmelie, Debbie, Miriam and Antoninette.

Well what has happened since I last posted. I am not sure I can remember that long ago but I will try. Rebekah has been very nice to let me use her old cell phone, but recently I have been thinking I should get another one. I wanted to get one that was unlocked so that I can use it with other carriers when I am overseas. Just after I bought one on ebay the ringer quit working on the one I was using. Needless to say I missed a lot of calls. I bought a Motorola Razr 3V. It is used but seems to be working well for me. I also bought an external hard drive. When I bought my laptop it had an 80G hard drive I thought that would be tons and I would never use all that space well I was wrong. I have thousands of pictures and lots of music and some video edited files I have done. Once I was down to my last 4G I figured I should look into getting an external hard drive. I looked at a lot of different ones but finally decided on a 250 GB Iomega eGo Portable Hard Drive.

There is a lot of space in a that little thing.

No the key didn't come with it.

Now I think I have tons of storage space for my files, but as computer evolve files seem to keep getting bigger. Who knows how long this will do me for.

This past Saturday there was a group of 11 of us from this area that went on a bus tour over to Freedom Village in Lakemont, NY. For thirty years Freedom Village has been helping troubled teens. We were going down to their graduation ceremony and to get a tour around their 800 acre property. Pretty well all of these teens get their lives messed up before they finish high school if they even got that far, so they test them and see where they are at and then have them finish their school. There were about 15 of them graduating from High school. They had the graduation at a local school. Then we went to Freedom Village for lunch and a tour around.

During the graduation ceremony.

One of the graduating students.

This is one of the choirs that they have and they sang one song during the ceremony.

Yes we were in the land of the star spangled banner.

This is a view from the back of their property.

Last night I went to Mark and Rebekah's and finished cutting the last few pieces of stone for top of the retaining wall. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera so I don't have any pictures. It doesn't look to much different though then what the other pictures showed.

We just finished our record size chimney. We have worked on bigger chimneys but normally we just rebuild the top up from the roof line. We rebuilt this one right back up from the foundation and it was around 1,100 bricks. It took us three and a half days start to finish.

This field was right next to where we were working on the chimney. There is just something about wheat fields that looks really good to me.

Update on Simon

Sorry I have not kept you updated on Simon. I had sent out an email or two about Simon and he had to have one of his eyes removed because of cancer. They found an excellent doctor in Guadalajara who was able to do the surgery and remove the eye about a month ago and Simon has healed well. He just got his new eye and returned home today. Here are a few pictures I just received. Thanks so much for your prayers.

So, can you tell which one is the new one??

I am not really sure what they are doing here, but I think they might be putting a life light on the eye. (Someone correct me if I am wrong.)

If you couldn't tell the right eye is the new one.

Wow almost another week has gone by since I posted last sorry Rebekah. Maybe I could actually post if I wasn't working on peoples sidewalks all the time. (If anyone is wondering I am just being sarcastic.)

It has been a good week, short though with Monday being a holiday. Mom's birthday was on Wednesday so we all got together at Tim and Steph's place for supper. Steph made an awesome roast beef dinner. Hey Steph you busy next Thursday night, just wondering if you fell like making another roast beef dinner? We had a good time there and got to see some of the improvements they have made to their house. They have fixed it up to sell and the first day it was on the market someone came through it and put in an offer and now the house is sold. They have sold their house because they are going to Mexico as missionaries in September Lord willing.

Dad, Mom and Mika. I think Tim decorated the cake if I am not mistaken.

Wednesday evenings we have a Bible study at a friends place and we are going through Genesis. We were in chapter 8. I was trying to figure out where the light came from as there was only one window and it is hard to imagine how the light could get to all three floors. Well I am sure God didn't keep them in the dark even if I feel that I am sometimes.

Friday evening the Sinkes, good friends of our's came over for supper. They wanted to see my pictures and hear about my experiences in Mozambique.

Now it's Saturday and I just got back this evening at about 10:45 from spending the whole day at Mark and Rebekah's working on there side walk. Wow jobs like this are a lot of work, especially for people who have never done them before.

I am not sure if this was the first or the second time building this step. I got the heights messed up the first time so I had to take it all down and redo it.

The almost finished job. We are still waiting on a few cap pieces for the top of the wall. They were all sold out.

The final Step

It was kind of funny while I was working this afternoon, two of Mark's neighbours came over. The one neighbour just had concrete poured over almost all his front yard. He was wondering if i would come and cut it for him. Up put cuts in concrete so when it settles that it crackes where you cut it and not somewhere else. The other neighbour has been having problems with the floor in their shower in the basement. The grout keeps cracking between the tile. I went and had a look at it and gave them some suggests as to what could be done. Never a shortage of things to do anyways. There you have it, that's what my week entailed.

Busy Every Night

It was another full week. I was working on chimneys mostly again, but we also did some flagstone repair on someones porch.

Besides regular work during the day I was out every night except for Monday. Tuesday night Dad, Mom and I were at Mark and Rebekah's house for supper. They were having Mom over for dinner for kind of a mothers day gift or something although they gave her a gift as well. Dad and I got to take part in the wonderful meal tool.

Wednesday evening my boss invited both of his employees (Me being one of them) over for dinner. He and his fanily wanted to see my pictures from Mozambique and hear how I got along. We had an excellent evening together. His wife made a great steak dinner, always a big hit with me. She always tries to feed us to much. We had a lot of fun.

Thursday I helped my brother Rob get his Suburban over to his house. Rob bought it on ebay about a year or so ago. When he got married and moved out he had several vehicles still here. We have gotten rid of a few. I also had and old car and truck of mine as well that we got rid of. Some people would joke with us and say that I looked like we were a used car dealership. It doesn't look so much like that anymore. It had been a while since I had spent sometime with Rob, it was good. He made an awesome supper for me by heating up some prorogues and farmers sausage. He is a great cook I didn't know he had it in him.

Friday were invited over to some friends place for supper and they asked me to share about my time in Mozambique. It is hard to share everything that happened and that God taught me, but hopefully what I did share would be an encouragement. Again we had an another good evening and a great meal. If anyone else once to see my pictures you're more then welcome. You don't have to supply a steak dinner.

Being the long weekend I had a little time on my hands. I can always count on someone to make sure that I don't sit around idle at such a time. Mark and Rebekah had some landscaping work and a front door that they wanted to get installed. Ok just so you know I was not pressured into this I volunteered, don't get upset Rebekah. Saturday morning I went over to London and the three of us went out to Rona and bought new front door and all the necessary materials for installing it. Then we went and got some interlocking brick and retaining wall stones for their front yard. By the time we had bought everything it was past one so we figured we would be able to get to much done on the front yard with the time we had left so we installed the new front door. That was one of the easiest installations I have done. It just fit perfect, which is not always the case. We also installed a retractable screen door. I don't know if you have seen them before but they are really neat. They roll up at the one side and you just pull it across when you need it.

Here 's the new front door and the screen door is partly pulled across, but you can't hardly see it.

Sunday we went up to Toronto because my Dad had been asked to speak on the Tabernacle at a church there. Mom and I went along to help with the set up of the scale model that He and Mom made many moons ago.

Dad speaking at the Family Builders Community Church in Toronto.

This is the model Dad and Mom made.

I spent the whole day today at Mark and Rebekah's. Mark and I spent the whole morning digging out all the old dirt so that we could put in a new gravel base for the sidewalk and retaining wall. We are not the fastest people in the world at it but I think it is coming along ok. It will look good when it is done. Rebekah came out this afternoon and said "I am glad you gives have a plan because I am not seeing what it is supposed to be like when it's done." I guess the big hole and all the dirt and gravel was kind of throwing her off.

This is what it looked like this morning when we started.

Ya, we look like a couple city workers holding up their shovels.

I am leveling some of the first retaining wall stones.

It doesn't look like much yet but this is as far as we got today.

This evening Mom invited the family all over for supper. Meals are always good family times, at least at our house they are.

It's About Time

Ya I know I haven't been doing so well at posting here. I don't think my life is exciting enough to post everyday, but I will see if I can do it a more often. This past week has been quite busy. At work we have repaired three chimneys this week. Here are some pictures of one we did yesterday. We don't normally rent a boom like this to work on chimneys, but the driveway is on a real slant so we did this time.

My boss John and I are up there somewhere.

Here I am being a professional bucket holder. I had to go through many hours of train for this, so please don't try this at home.

Ladies and gentlemen may I introduce my boss, Mr. John Austin Hurley. The best boss in the world. (No he is not biting the bar.)

Later on in the day I became a red neck.

Other then work my evenings have been busy as well. Monday evening all my siblings and nieces minus, Philip and Joia came over. We all wanted to catch up on what had been going on in each others lives. My oldest brother Tim and his wife Stephanie and their three daughters will be Lord willing moving to Mexico as missionaries in September and they had just taken a short trip down there to Mexico to do some house hunting. They had some pictures to share with us and some stories to tell. My brother Mark and his wife Rebekah had been in Florida for a short time as well they didn't have any pictures for us to see. (I am still waiting to see some.) Then I had also come back from Mozambique and I showed my pictures and told stories. We all had a good evening. I love getting to see my family again when I return home. Philip, Joia and Keenan I am still planning to get down there to see you sometime. Not sure when yet.

Tuesday evening several friends came over for supper that wanted to hear about my trip. A couple of the guys were the ones that I was originally going to be going with to Mozambique but it just didn't work out for them. They are planning to go to Mozambique at the end of June for three weeks. I would love to be able to go with them but I want to be able to go for a longer time but I can't at that time so I will have to wait. They wanted to know what to expect when they get there so I was able to fill them in a little. I am excite to see what God teaches them while they are there.

Thursday after work I replaced a window in the youth drop in center here in Norwich. Several months ago some of the kids were playing pool and they had a ball jump off the table and it broke the window. I was looking into replacing it before I left to go to Mozambique but I ran out of time. I ordered the piece of glass and picked it up with my bosses truck. It was a big piece 77" by 38" and it was a quarter inch thick. I just hoped I could transport it with out braking it. Thankfully all went well and I got it installed with the help of Jay who is staff at the youth center.

Friday I left work early because I went to Tornoto to a rehearsal with the Jubilance singers. They are a group of singers and instrumentalists who put on concerts in the Metro Toronto area and also go on tour for one month in the summer. This summer they are going to Hungary and Ukrainefor three weeks in August. They have asked me to come with them, so I went to one of the rehearsals to see what I could expect. I was a little intimidated, in that most of them read music well and I don't and they were just starting to work on several new pieces of music and they would just sing through them once and then move on to the next. I can't learn a new song by singing it only once. I am sure they will go over them more at up coming rehearsals, but still. It is about a two hour drive each way to go to the rehearsals and they really need basses so they have asked me to come. I really don't know if this is what I am supposed to do so I am seeking the Lord's direction here again.

Saturday evening I played some soccer with a few friends. I am not sure what it was this week but I just didn't have much energy. I had a good time anyways and I woke up a bit sore this morning, but as they say no pain no gain. That pretty well recaps my week.

I am not going to Hungary

Thanks so much for your prayers on my behalf for Hungary. I just sent an email to my friend in Hungary this morning and told Him that I will not be coming. I would have liked to go and it would have been a good thing to do, but I am seeking God's best. He must have something better for me. Maybe He knows I get very busy when I go away and He wants to allow me to have more time with Him. This is something He has once again shown me the importance of while being in Mozambique. He has been showing me just how much He desires to spend time with me and I am learning not to say "No" to Him.

I have finally got my pictures all together in some what of a video of presentation, after I don't know how many hours. If you would like me to come and show you pictures of my trip and hear a little more then I wrote in the emails, then let me know and I would be happy to share with you.