Monday, June 29, 2009

June 22 to 28

Monday
Start of a hot and humid week. Continued to work on the 1850 US Census for Kip and Kipp. Biked 13 km. Walked 8.5 km.

Tuesday
Very hot today. Did my volunteer work at the Friends of the Library and Archives Canada. The had an outdoor book sale under the shade trees. Watched more JAG. Watched a movie in the evening, Valkyrie, with Tom Cruise. Walked 13 km.

Wednesday
Very hot today. Did some weeding and gardening early. Took the chain saw to a tree stump. Hard and hot work. This will take a few days. Watched more JAG. Watched a movie, Brideshead Revisited. Went shopping and bought a new fan to help circulate the air from the AC. A very modern fan with a remote. It moves a lot of air. Walked 9.5 km.

Thursday
Very hot today. Did some weeding and gardening early. Had to put up a few more bunny barriers this week in the garden. There is an adult and a young bunny eating off of our garden. We have to put wire cages over some rows to allow the plants to grow big enough so that we can all share in the produce. Continued to work on the 1850 US Census for Kip and Kipp. Walked about 4 km.

Friday
Another hot day. Watched the third movie that we had rented, Flawless. We had our youngest daughter and fiancee and their two dogs over for dinner. We managed to get some fresh local strawberries this morning. When we got to the stand about 11 am we discovered a long line up waiting to get strawberries which were not yet there. It was worth the wait but a bit expensive. Walked about 10 km.

Saturday
Another hot day with a little rain. Did a bit more gardening to get rid of weeds.Worked on the tree stump with the chain saw again. This will probably take about two more sessions. We went for a 16 km bike ride in the morning. The previous days it was too hot to do this. Watched more JAG season 4. Walked about 8.5 km.

Sunday
It rained in the evening, after I had spread my lawn fertilizer. Watched the more recent Untouchables movie on TV. Continued to work on the 1850 US Census for Kip and Kipp. I did a lot of scanning today. I am trying to finish the scanning of all of our photo negatives. The colour are done except for a few strays here and there, which I will do as I find them. I am working on a book of BW negatives and should be done with that by the end of July. In the fall I will start on my colour slides. We just bought a small scanner which will do a good job on the slides. Biked about 20 km. Walked about 5 km.

Monday, June 22, 2009

June 15 to 21

Monday
Waited around for the AC guy to come and check over our air conditioner. Check was OK. Did some gardening. Read over and edited my talk for Tuesday evening. Watched some more JAG. Walked about 10 km.

Tuesday
Went over my talk for this evening a couple of times. The talk was titled "Finding My American Ancestors." I selected about six different families who had some unusual family history and talked about them. I finished up with some comments on various archives and libraries we
visited. My wife ran the slides for me. She also helped prepare the talk.
Walked about 9 km.

Wednesday
Sort of a relaxing day. We went shopping at the Bulk Barn and Canadian Tire. I did some more gardening including making additional wire cages to keep the bunnies from eating all of the plants. Watched a couple of issues of JAG. Walked about 8 km.

Thursday
Cloudy and damp today. Again did some gardening before the rain took over. Watched more JAG. Walked about 9 km.

Friday
Went and sat in the urgent care clinic for 2 1/2 hours. One of my ears has been blocked for about two weeks. So I finally found time to use Murine and went to get it flushed out professionally. I sure can hear better now.
Finally got around to working on the Kip Family in America file again. I am working on matching the Kip/Kipp families in the 1850 US Census with my file. Not an easy task. Walked about 8 km.

Saturday
Had the dogs over a good part of the day. Daughters took us out for dinner tonight for father's day. Nice touch. Walked about 6 km.

Sunday
Finally got around to cleaning the house. Very humid today. The AC came on. Watched more JAG season 4. Walked about 8.6 km.

Monday, June 15, 2009

June 8 to 14

Monday June 8
Did some tidying up around the yard to get ready to go away for a few days. Had car repaired.Walked 10.4 km.

Tuesday June 9
Left about mid afternoon by car for Toronto. Arrived at motel about 9 pm. Walked 4 km.

Wednesday June 10
Attended the Launch of the Canadian Census records and index for 1851 to 1916 at the Ontario Heritage Centre on Adelaide Street. It was a good event with a chance to meet some friends. Ancestry.ca always put on a good lunch. In the afternoon we toured the Royal Ontario Museum. They have really changed this place for the better. Walked 11.4 km.

Thursday June 11
We spent the day researching at the Archives of Ontario. The new facility at York University is really nice and the equipment is really up-to-date. We enjoyed the day and made a few discoveries. Had supper at Perkins near our motel. Walked 5 km.

Friday June 12
We spent most of the day again researching at the Archives of Ontario. I looked at the Township Papers for the first two concessions of my home townships of Blenheim, Oxford County and Burford, Brant County. We left Toronto about 4 pm and because of traffic problems did not arrive in Brantford, Ontario until 7 pm. Three hours on the road which should have taken about an hour. Walked about 9 km.

Saturday June 13
Today was the day of the Public School reunion in Princeton, Ontario. We started off the day by visiting the Congregational Cemetery in Burford, Ontario and taking the GPS readings on several family related tombstones. After that we did the same thing at the Harley, Ontario Cemetery.
We then headed for Princeton where we visited family plots. Then we were off downtown for a quick driving tour. We parked at the school and took a short walk to visit a friend and then it was time for the big event. It started off slow but by mid afternoon there were crowds of people registering. Estimates are that about 500 or so came. I saw quite a few people that I knew, some I recognized some not without their name tag.
The beef BBQ was great and the beef was quite tender. I had watched it cooking earlier in the day. Walked about 11.6 km.

Sunday June 14
We had the Sunday Brunch at the Motel and then did a 15 minute walk to get the body exercised before we left Brantford. The trip went well with no blockages on the 403 or 401. Near Gananoque we saw a vehicle fire in the other lane of the 401. Sort of exciting with lots of fire trucks etc. Arrived home about 3:30 pm. Went for a walk this evening. Considering that we drove for about 6 and 1/2 hours today we walked about 10 km.

Monday, June 8, 2009

May 30 to June 7

Saturday May 30
We visited Cumberland Village Museum at Cumberland, Ontario east of Ottawa, because there was a special steam and country show taking place. Haven't been there for years. The country show was a bit weak but the village was interesting enough. We watched them cutting logs with an old saw mill set up. We also watch teams of horses pulling a dead weight on a sled. They were up to 6500 pounds when we left and they were about to increase the weight to 8000 pounds.

Sunday and Monday May 31 & June 1
went quickly. I was tired so didn't get much done. I almost finished planting the garden. Of course all last week it was wet and cold from the rain. Monday I got the tires replaced on the van.

Tuesday June 2
I did my days work sorting books for the Friends of the Library and Archives Canada. After getting home I cut the lawn and then did some weeding in the flower beds. I can now plant the rest of my annuals.I am almost done hand weeding the lawn as well. Walked 10 Km.

Wednesday June 3 walked about 6.9 km.

Thursday June 4
This week we finshed off season two of All Creatures Great and Small, James Harriott.Walked about 8.5 km.

Friday June 5
I went to a 35th Anniversary get-to-gether at my former place of work, the Library (CISTI) at NRC here in Ottawa. It was nice to see some of the people I used to work with. We contiued to watch season three of JAG.Walked about 12.7 km.

Saturday June 6
I went for a walk in the Gatineau hills with my daugther and one of her friends and their dogs. It was a good walk. We walked about 6km. Got rid of some surplus household items at the Ottawa give-away day. Walked a total of 11.5 Km during the day.

Sunday June 7
I reseeded a patch of the front lawn that had been winter killed.Walked about 10.5 km.