On Sept. 9, Alex, Shelley and I drove to Winnipeg Beach where my cousin Denyse lives with her . . .

husband Larry Stewner. Alex needed to have his truck serviced and we stayed three days at Denyse’s. We went to visit Darryl who is Denyse’s son and his wife Chay Anne and their two children Isaac and Saveja La Monica. We went shopping and went to this restaurant that served super sized meals and of course, couldn’t possibly eat what they gave us. Their small fry was the size of a dinner platter. I would say about three to four pounds of potatoes on the plate.

I had forgotten to mention last week about my cousin Ramona getting Bobby Hull’s autograph in Canad Inn. He was there signing autographs to raise money for the sick Children’s Hospital. Just made it in time because he was just packing up to leave and she was the last one to get an autographed picture.

Thursday, we headed to Snow Lake which is a seven and a half hour drive from Winnipeg straight north. Alex took us out on the pontoon boat for a drive one day and the second day we went out and decided to go fishing and caught some beautiful, tasty pickerell. What a nice treat that was.

Alex and Suzanne both had to go back to work so Shelley and I spent our days doing something different. The first day we made a bunch of apple pies and a nice supper for them to return home to. Another day we decided to make necklaces out of stones that we had found on the beaches and some that Alex had found before. Alex gave us the Dremel and it had a diamond bit and we were able to drill holes in the stones to make our jewellery. That kept us busy for a whole day. Then another day, Alex wanted me to paint a picture of birch trees so I attempted that and actually did a very good job. I went on to paint a sunset and three other paintings while I was there. I had done one with a purple background and Shelley wanted to keep that one.

When I was there two years ago with my sister Norma, a beaver had cut down a whole bunch of trees on Alex’s property (he lives on Lake Weskoka) and one of the trees came down on top of his pontoon boat but didn’t do any damage. It took us all day to clear the brush and cut up the trees and get rid of them. Then we wrapped the trees with wire so the beaver couldn’t chew anymore.

So Alex and Suzanne took the chewed up parts of the trees and made Norma and I each a set of book ends and a doorstop. Very clever actually and they shellacked them and signed their names on the bottom. They were quite large to take in our suitcases but we made room by getting rid of a few things.

Shelley wanted to visit with her dad so on the way back from Snow Lake we dropped her off in Ericksdale. She stayed with Edgar and Pat from Wednesday until Sunday.

I came home on Sept. 26 and my cousin Freda Dupuis picked me up at the airport. I stayed overnight at her place. I had a doctor’s appointment the next day in Gatineau and then went to my cousin Steve Mayhew’s for lunch. Sharon Crawford joined us and we left together around 2:30 to head home.

We arrived in Shawville just about 3:30 p.m. and there was an accident on the road that had just happened between a school bus and a half ton truck. The school bus had been rear ended. Fortunately nobody was hurt.

It was fantastic to be home. I looked at my garden and all I could see was ripe tomatoes and cucumbers coming out and zucchini and I knew I had a lot of work ahead of me. My neighbour, Jennifer Donnelly tried very hard to stay on top of the garden and gave a lot of stuff away but the garden kept producing. On Sunday, my cousin Steve came and Jennifer came over and helped me pull all the vegetables except for the carrots, beets and turnips. I’ll deal with those veggies another day. I took off at least a 12 quart basket of cherry tomatoes and another eight quart basket of regular tomatoes. We got at least a half a bushel of cucumbers and about 12 or 14 more zucchini.

Now I have to get the wood in for the winter so this is going to be a really busy two weeks for me. Just want to get things ready for winter and sit back and wait for the snow to come cause it’s coming soon. Calgary got hit with a couple of feet of snow this morning, Lucky them. Hopefully it doesn’t snow until November.

In two weeks it’s going to be Thanksgiving already. I know that my cousin Bob and his girlfriend Rachel are coming from Oshawa and maybe Shelley and Carl and the boys. That will be another busy weekend for me preparing food and having a great visit with my family. Hope you all have the same opportunity with your families.