Lunch In Goderich With My Cousins.

Today we visited my cousins up in Goderich. Bruce and Adele came all the way from Vancouver Island to visit Doreen and Ron who live 20 miles or so north of there. You can CLICK HERE to read about the venue.

Click the pic to enlarge it

From left to right - my cousin Doreen's husband Ron, Doreen, Me, Wendy, Adele and her husband Bruce, my other cousin. (Doreen's brother) Doreen and Bruce's mother was my dad's sister Kathleen.

An interior shot of the Station.

Ron and Wendy as we leave the restaurant. Closed for another function after we left.

The restaurant right on the shore of Lake Huron was lovely but the company was the main attraction. Time went by too quickly. We haven't really had a chance to talk for so many years. We all vowed to get together again, hopefully in BC. Ha ha!
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A Three Day Diversion to Belleville

On Monday we made the 4 hour trip to Wendy's brother Brad's place near Belleville.There is no really graceful way to get past Toronto and since I refuse to pay tolls to use the 407 bypass for religious reasons, we plod through the heavy traffic for about 75 miles from Kitchener to Bowmanville, then the traffic eases up again.

Anyway, worth the drive to see Brad and Denise. Denise and Wendy above.

Two other guests, Tim and Marsha were there to greet us when we arrived. Great people. Originally from Toronto they now live at Balsam Lake in the Kawartha Lakes which is north of Lindsay and about 25 miles due east of Orillia. Tim is the guy in the picture above. Brad and he go way back to Brad's insurance agency days two or three decades ago.

We took some Costco steaks which are always a hit. Brad cooked them to perfection.

Ooops I cut off Marsha in this pic.

OK I merged another shot into the pic. Now it tells the story. Ha ha. Tim and Marsha,

Off to the marina in Belleville and we boarded Brad's "new" boat "Live Circuit".

As you can see, the Cruisers 3370 is a perfect size for enjoying these waters. Captain Brad at the helm.

Wendy and Marsha.

Wendy and Denise in the galley.

We saw this depleted island last year. The Cormorants have totally destroyed it. Only two dead trees still standing.

Brad's new pool is in full sunshine so the water temperature was in the 80's and very comfortable indeed.

Marsha waves from the pool.

Never a shortage of wonderful food dishes to keep everyone eating to the max.

We ended the day with a nice fire made from driftwood. With unusually high water in Lake Ontario this year there was a lot of floating debris washes up on the shore.

I took the above "artsy" picture from Brad's boat. Marsha says the scene reminds her of PEI. Hmmm. Maybe that's why they called this area Prince Edward County? Ha ha.

Marsha watching the flames.

 Marsha, Denise, Brad, Wendy. Click any pic to enlarge it.
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They're Chewing On Greg's Birdfeeder

We were horrified to see what the squirrels have done to the beautiful feeder that Greg made and gave to us a couple years ago. The thankless little beggars have no respect!

They really enjoy the sunflower seeds that Wendy puts out for them but there appears to be one or more bad actors amongst them.

They are very determined to get beyond the glass and inside the feeder. Wood and even silicone caulking? Not too digestible, even for a squirrel.
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Married July 15, 1972 to ????

It was a hot July 15th back in 1972...

CLICK HERE to hear the tunes of the day.

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More Rain, A Yucca's Delight

The exceptional amount of rain that we have received lately has been a boon for the yucca plants in our back yard. They are thriving in the rain-forest-like tropical weather of late.

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Our Little Chickadee

This young, little bird was outside our window in the dogwood tree.

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Sarah Visits From South Africa.

My niece Dr. Sarah Steele is home for a week or so. It was nice to see her and her parents, Doug and Daphne as they stopped by for dinner on Saturday afternoon..

Our daughter Erin.

A fire took the chill off as Saturday's temperature dropped to the 60's F in the evening.

We had Costco steaks Wendy grilled to perfection on the new gas barbeque.

Mmmm! Mushrooms on the side-burner.

A nice time was had by all as we "made do" and they stayed over, Doug and Daphne on an inflatable air mattress in the living room. I didn't get to bed until midnight. That's very late for me!
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Bye Bye BBQ.

To expect more than about 5 years out of a Chinese made barbeque grill is expecting a lot. Maybe because we were away at the condo a lot in the past years, the bbq didn't get as much use. Anyway, the old 2011 4-burner didn't look like it would make it a seventh season. Don't get suckered to buy a BBQ with expensive exterior features like cast aluminum lids, better wheels and shelves etc. Don't waste your money on exterior features.

It's what's inside that counts. The burners, shields and grates were all rusted out and falling apart. Nothing worth saving here... but the exterior still looked very good. Again: DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON EXTERIOR FEATURES!!!

I will never buy another grill unless it has good cast iron grates. Watch out for flimsy wire grates and these stamped and porcelainized stampings. They will not hold the heat to grill properly and will corrode away quickly. GO CAST IRON HERE!

All the metal was so thin that it was perforated by corrosion in a very short time. The burners probably had rust holes in them for several seasons and I know the grilling surface was sagging/collapsing all last summer..

We put the old gas grill out at the curb after saving the orifices. See more about that as follows. The old one was gone to a metal scrapper in less than an hour! CLICK HERE to see how our last BBQ died back in 2011.

Off to Rona where they advertised a $200 sale discount and picked up a new 3-burner with side cooker for $249.

It went together pretty easily but expect an hour or two of labour and you'll need two people to lift the main parts. Don't strain your back. Though the boxed weight was over 125 lbs., the metal in new unit is as thin as ever.

The smaller 1.1 mm hole in the propane orifice (left) and the much larger (about 1.6 mm) natural gas orifice from the old barbeque on the right. Fortunately the old barbeque was factory-made natural gas and had the exact same burner sizes as the new one. I simply removed the old orifices with a 3/8" socket wrench and moved them to the new unit. If you don't have the right orifices, you will have to carefully enlarge the holes in the old ones. Don't overdo it or it will run too hot. Also if the holes are too small, the flame could go out on the lowest setting.

Although the new unit is set up for propane, it's really quite easy to change it back to natural gas. You simply remove the propane regulator and hook it directly to the gas line. But first you must remove the smaller propane orifices from the gas jets. Temporarily remove the burners so you can access the jets.

Propane orifices (above) are no longer needed. Propane runs at a higher pressure and has more BTU's per cubic meter than that of natural gas. For that reason the holes (orifices) at each valve must be changed to a larger bore or you will not have much heat at the burners.

There we go. The gas line hooks up where the propane regulator was. Hopefully another 5 years or so before we need to do this again.

The new grill is capable of burning gas or charcoal. All it is is a tray that fits under the grilling surface. I thought I might try smoking some meat on this unit. We'll see.
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