In praise of little suckers... and physics

Um, yeah (giggle)... now that I have your attention. I'd like to talk about the work involved in draining a pool. Quoting a funny, albeit fictional, physicist... Bazinga. Bet you didn't see that one coming. Get you mind out of the gutter.

It is the end of the season and it is time to put the pool away.  I like getting the pool out and putting it up for the season but putting it away is nice too.

Typically running the heater anytime past the end of August is like throwing money out the window. We kept the heater on until September 9th this year and did well to use it most days through the summer.


Finn and Grandpa Bob in the pool
on the last day of heat.
Pool temp 28C.

 I think we turned off the heater right after they got out of the pool and not even two days later the temperature had dropped to:



Yowzers! How's that for heat loss?!

 Now, in years past we have drained the pool, with jet pump and hose, through our fence into one of the many empty adjacent lots. But now all the lots are filled. I am sure that although our new neighbours are trying to water all of their new sod that they would not appreciate 40,000L of chemical-ed water being drained into their yard.

Scott pulled out our trusty jet pump and tried to use that to drain the pool. He bought 100ft of hose to drain the water to the front street. But after several hours of pumping the level in the pool had not moved by more than a 1/2".  I think we actually may have lost more to evaporation than by the pump.

Before AND After picture using the jet pump.

Scott couldn't get the pump apart to see if there was an abnormally large bug or small pool toy stuck in the impeller. Consultation with our pump expert, Dave, netted only the advice to take it apart. Pry it apart with a screwdriver, he advised. Although that was sound advice and, was tried, we thought we'd stop before Scott ended up bleeding. (Isn't that how all these stories end?) So we moved quickly to Plan B.

Plan B: New submersible pump!
Don't judge me on the cleanliness of my pool.

This little sucker worked like a dream. We had water flowing down the driveway in seconds and didn't have to freeze our arms to the elbow fussing with the hose under the very cold water.

We turned off the pump at bedtime, after having only run for a few hours, not wanting it to run through the night but we had enough suction going that it continued to drain because the water level of the pool was higher than the drain hose. Hydraulic head rocks! So we woke the next morning to an essentially empty pool.

That left all the hard work and heavy lifting for today. It went smoothly. After 4 or 5 years of putting this same $500 Costco pool I say we are getting pretty good at it. We'll see if this puppy can last one more summer. However, both Scott and I came inside afterwards and had a nap. My arms currently feel like they are made of lead.

What pool?! Can't prove we have a pool.

We had a great summer and we are looking forward to seeing what fall brings!

Happiness smells like lemon cookies

Does this smile make my head look square?

If I were a post card, right now, I would say "You wish you were here!"
Today is one of those beautiful late summer days where the grass is still green but the leaves are starting to turn yellow. The air is cool but not cold. Sitting in the sun without a sweater is a palpable pleasure.

I have been busy in the kitchen this afternoon and the house smells wonderful! This is my most favourite way to spend a Sunday afternoon.  I have made a big pot of chili and some fresh french bread for dinner. I made pumpkin bread for breakfasts this week. And I have made a new recipe discovery: Lemon Crinkle Cookies.



Pumpkin bread and Lemon Crinkle Cookies!

One of my favourite knitting blogs directed my attention to these cookies. I knew I would like them. If I had to describe what happiness tastes like I would say it tastes exactly like these cookies! They are a light sugar cookie with a sharp lemony tang. The powdered sugar adds a sweet but not over-powering finish.

Otherwise we are all business as usual. Almost all of our activities started last week and has put us in a nice back-to-school routine. The only thing outside of routine right now is Scott. He has pneumonia. He has meds now but clearly he has a long road to recovery ahead.

The kids have been fascinated with the ipod/computer game Minecraft these days. In fact, we've had to limit their ipod/computer time so that they can say that they have done something other than play Minecraft. The people in these games have little square heads with pixelated smiley faces. The people run away from green-faced zombies or creepers who are, I presume, trying to eat them. I went to work this morning and I came home to find Minecraft being played a whole different way. This way I don't mind at all! Although, I should probably go and look at the mess in the basement before I committ to that sentiment.

We're not playing Minecraft on the computer! 



I'll get you zombie!

Don't mind me.
Just your friendly neighbourhood zombie/cat.
 

Happy Sunday to you. May yours be spicy and warm too.

Back to school, or They're Tears of Pride, DAMMIT

This is a photo essay for today.

Back to school day.



The traditional on the front step first-day of school picture.



Grade 1 here I come! I am in full time school now.
Me: sniffle



I am in Grade 3!

 

Grade 5! New school! Junior High!



Me: Never mind, I just have something in my eye.

 

All our big kids getting on the bus.
Me:  Good bye, have a great day! suppressed sob

I... may... have sat alone in the van for a minute after they got on the bus. My heart just grew so big all of a sudden that it caused my eyes to leak for a minute there.

Happy 8th Birthday Georgia!

It is Georgia's 8th birthday today.

 

 

In her honour I will tell you 8 wonderful things about Georgia:

 

1. Georgia is a very kind and generous sister and friend. She is the little "mother hen" of any play group.

2. Georgia is very funny and has a very infectious laugh. She is the kid that is hardest to yell at because she can make you laugh when you are trying to be serious.

 

3.Georgia has her own unique sense of style.  She enjoys bright colours.

She wore this bathing suit  & cap
for an entire summer!

 

4. Georgia likes stuffed animals. We hope she grows out of this before the house is overrun.

This is Georgia at bedtime.
Enough already!
Grandma Abel, I am looking at YOU!

 

5.Although she is very easygoing she has a titanium backbone and CANNOT be convinced of something different once she has made up her mind.

She said she wanted her hair all kinky.

Apparently she changed her mind.

6. Georgia is a smart cookie! Her current favourites are science; especially sharks and dinosaurs.



Look what we made at Science Camp!



 

7.Georgia is a budding gymnast. She works hard at her sport and bends like she has no bones!

 

 

8. Georgia makes Scott and I very proud to have her as our daughter.

I swear this was just yesterday!

 

We love you baby. Happy Birthday!

Nothing, nada, zip

The title is exactly what we plan on doing for as much of the weekend as we can! Sounds awesome, right? Of course our definition of "nothing, nada, zip" includes mowing the lawn, baking bread, making cookies, knitting various gifts, school shopping, prepping for school next week, tidying, reading comics,  seeing if we can find 2 tap shoes in the same size anywhere in the house, planning meals and maybe, if we have some time, getting a few extra hours in at work when it is quiet.  Sounds down right lazy to me.

We had our big family party last weekend (it was great). I have no pictures to post yet. My nephew Quentin, who was assigned to take pictures, hasn't sent me the shots yet. So those pictures and details will come at some date in the future.

The girls did a week of gymnastics camp in Brandon. For the first 3 days they were very, very, very, very (x100 more) tired. They rode into Brandon with Scott each morning and had to get up early too. We were very proud of both girls for being part of such a challenging camp. They had three to five hours of gymnastics each day. My ab (singular) hurts just thinking about it! But Olivia gets bonus points this week for being brave enough to try something new. By the end of the week she was dropping into back bends and nearly doing the splits while Georgia was perfecting her front handspring walkouts.

yeah, this is me just thinking about how much

work those two did this week.

(picture courtesy of www.wonderfulinfo.com)





Finn, ever the cool kid, just hung out at the baby sitter's with friends.

Happy long weekend. Hope your weekend is quiet and restful too.

It starts with a P.

Do you know what these are?

Olivia and Georgia have attended the Wise Kid-Netic Energy camp this past week and they do.  They built them, in fact. I am one proud momma engineer.

I love listening to kids as they learn new things and especially as they try to explain them to others. You can really see how their minds work. Our conversation went something like this:

Olivia & Georgia: Look! Look at what we made Mom! (Both pushing to put their own wooden item in front of me)
Me: Hey, these are awesome! Do they work?
Georgia: Yes! (pushing the plunger to make hers go up.) They are called cherry pickers.

Me: Are they now? How do they work?
Olivia: They lift stuff up.
Me: Yes, that is what they do but how do they work? What makes them go up and down?
Olivia: (pointing to this) This makes them go up and down.

Me: What is that called?
Georgia: A medicine giver. (smug and mischievous smile)
Me: Well, yes, that part is made out of something we have used to give medicine but what is that component called. I'll give you a hint, it starts with a P.
Olivia: No it doesn't. (shaking her head)
Me: Yes, I'm pretty sure it does. It's a piston. A hydraulic piston.
Olivia: That starts with an H not a P. (smug and mischievous smile)
Me: (Conceding the point to her smart/smart-mouthed child) Yes, I suppose you are correct. What's in the piston?
Georgia: Water with food colouring.
Me: Why water?
Georgia: Because water moves when you push it and it doesn't get squished by the medicine giver.

 

Me: I couldn't have said it better myself. (Beaming)

The girls LOVED this camp and it was money well spent as far as I am concerned. The only down side was that Finn was too young to have been able to have gone as well. Oh well, he'll get to go soon enough.

Tell me more Mrs. Science, indeed.

Flew the coop



Our time as observers in the bird life cycle, like the school year, is drawing to a close. The kids have given the 3 chicks the unlikely names of Beezy, Brainy and Beatrice. (Editor's note: We assigned genders by the names that we picked and not based on any specific bird identification information,  plumage or otherwise. Knowing us the only one that is a male will be Beatrice. Whatever.)

Beezy was the strongest of the bunch and  I think he hopped away into one of the neighbouring yards a few days ago. Our fence is really only meant to contain flightless creatures or at least ones that are too short to be able to open the gate latch on their own. I think Beezy figured out that he has wings way before his siblings.

Yesterday morning there were only two little ones hopping around the yard.  This is what they looked like;  that is Brainy on the left and Beatrice on the right.

We started to put up the pool yesterday and were very careful to not have any baby bird sized lumps UNDER the pool.  The birds were mainly staying in the neighbourhood of the play structure so they were well out of the way. (So nice of us to build that giant play structure for birds, eh?)

This was taken this morning. George looked out the window and saw that one of the chicks was on the tire swing but I couldn't get my camera out in time. So I got this instead.

There really are 2 birds in this picture. Honest.

Brainy is taking the high view. And getting ready to fly away.

Beatrice still walking about.
She can fly too, I think, but not quite as well.

Shortly after these pictures were taken I saw Brainy fly away, sort of, into the neighbours yard.  He flew from the play structure to the fence (1 ft), hopped onto their shed (1 ft), slid down the incline to the ledge, jumped off the ledge and tried to fly to their deck (10 ft) missing the railing and plummeting to the ground. He's working on it. Let the bird learn.

It won't be long until Beatrice does the same. It has been interesting to watch the chicks grow so fast. Nature makes that necessary. My last thought on the birds was that I was glad that there were no cats in the yard because it seriously would have been like an all-you-can-eat buffet. And then I would have had to get all Cuckoo Momma Bird on that cat's ass.

And speaking of growing so fast... here is a picture of our crazy children in the pool this morning as the water is filling.  Note the pool is being filled with the hose from the outside of the house  I would estimate the water at about 10C, 15C tops. I do NOT foresee myself swimming today. Call me a princess, if you wish, but I do not think that I will be brave enough to get in until the heater can add at least 10C!

It is supposed to be +38C tomorrow, with the humidex. That will help.  Sure as hell can't hurt!

Gone to the birds...

The drama continues under the deck and in the backyard.

The nest had been moved (fallen?) off the beam and now is in the grass under the deck. So now there are baby robins wandering about in the grass like stealthy little ninja assassins.* We found two of them fairly easily as they were still near the nest. We couldn't find #3.

But the grass is pretty tall so it was tricky to find the little birds. Birds blend, yo. Can you see the bird in this picture below?**

These are Finn's legs.
As you can see Scott has been fertilizing.
And it has been raining a lot!

 We scoured the yard and finally found him hiding near the sandbox. (Aside: we also found a hammer***, 3 skipping ropes, many pieces of disintegrating sidewalk chalk, 5 soccer balls in various stages of inflation and about 15 of Finn's socks- all balled up and soaking wet. Not a pair in the bunch!)

This guy was speedy.

Scott was trying to mow the lawn and had the other 4 of us moving the birds out of harms way with shovels from the sandbox.  Very careful not to touch them.  Birds harbour disease, pestilence and possibly the plague. Don't laugh at me. I'm serious.  People still die of the Black Plague each year,  see here. Admittedly not a lot of people... but it could still totally happen. And I am pretty sure they can link it directly back to touching rodents- flying or otherwise.

Baby Bird Emergency Retrieval Team
(B.B.E.R.T.)

Scott had Olivia walking in front of the mower just in case. The last thing we needed was a sickening crunch and a puff of feathers coming out of the side of the mower.

I liked this little guy best. He had good hair.

These guys are pretty mobile now and we expect Cuckoo Momma Bird to start moving them around a little more. They likely won't stay in the yard for much longer. This will likely be a lot less stressful for her and for the cats who have been watching from the back windows. Howard, very thoughtfully, offered to take care of a few of the babies while we scouted for the last one. We said thank you but no.

Cuckoo Momma Bird and another one (Daddy Bird?) are still giving us the stink-eye when we are near and screaming at us from the fence. At least we know that we were trying to keep them safe too.

Don't worry Momma Bird, we don't want your babies
 or your plague.

That is, when we weren't trying to mow them.


*If ninja assassins eat worms. You don't know. They might.
**Um, so yeah... there is no bird in that picture. It was a trick question. Gotta stay on your toes if you are going to read this blog. But now imagine that picture times a thousand and there you have our yard and the difficulty of the bird search. Now it's a lesson to you all.
*** Okay, we didn't really find a hammer either. The bird search just reminded me of Finn's boom-a-rang hammer because we were near the play structure.