Best week EVER!

Good day all, as the title above notes, this has been one of my best weeks ever!(even though it started out with me raking doggie doo!)(but only on monday,)(hi Lyn!) Unfortunately for you, we're still on last weeks blog,(although we'll still try to make it intresting, o.k.?)(O.k.!) So this week I'll write about last week, then next week, I'll get to this week,(or I could try to slipp in a week an a half, then we'll all catch up quicker!)

The banner shot is of one of my lost, then found golf balls, remember last blog when I was telling you of my half golf game, half easter egg hunt thingy? Well I had placed three styro foam targets out in the alfalfa field behind my trailer, and started hitting balls out at them,(its been awhile you know,) Now the plan was to hit about 10 balls at the first target, then find them all, chip to within ten feet of target one, then hit all ten balls to target two. Lets just say after the long, long, cold, winter...well to be fair I can't be sure how many balls I started off with...so I can't for sure say exactly how many I lost...but it wasn't pretty! I hit at least 12 balls, it was down to about 8 by the time I was off to the second hole, then 6. I did find most of them later, one was down a gopher hole, and as you can see from the banner, they kind of disapear! I have since refined the game,(see bottem of blogg...or better yet, just read your way down there!) and now I hit only one ball at a time, its much easier to remember witch mole hill your ball is hidden behind if you only hit one at at time.

Not sure why this pictures in here, except I'm a man,(damit!)and I think it looks cool! Saddly my fridges looks way differnt now.(yeah, a differnt brand of beer was on super sale, oh and I got two jars of pickles, plus a loaf of bread in there. Fret not, theres still plenty of room for beer.)

Well I'm sure your all wondering, my Mom and her classic country station were right. We got the snow! Unfortunately, along with the snow came 90kmph winds!(not just gusts either, it was like 4 days of 70-90kmph winds, crazy!) Its no joke to say Sask. got our snow, they did. What little snow we got was all piled next to fences, in huge drifts. The second shot is of my Moms front steps, and front doggie yard. One of her little poms ran up the snow bank, and over the other side,(to freedom!)then didn't know what to do, just kind of stood there with a dumb look on its face.(trust me, I know the feeling!)

If you notice all the black coal dust in the snow,(remember last blogg, I knew I was bringing up that dust for a reason!)that stuff really travels on a strong breeze!(in a land so windy as this, anything can be a breeze after 4 days!)
After the wind died down, we did get a bit of really wet snow, and look! green grass! this was taken in my front yard, not off gooogle. (of course now there is lots more, but lets just conentrate on last week, shall we?)

Last weekend,(see more last week stuff, this is easy if we try!) my Mom and I went to the 7th annual Log home and Cabin show, in the same place as the motor cycle show and the golf show, it may seem like I go to a lot of shows...(I guess I don't have a good answer to that one.) Any ways, this was a good show for anyone into wood,(wood is good!) The following is a trip down some of my favorite stuff there.
Shot number one; This one is of my Mom, sitting on a cool bench, with a neat draggon fly carved into it. The detail was burned into the wood. Bench, probably not confortable for too long, but left no splinters!

On to the second intresting thing. Did you know they insulate logs now? Well they do! There where three differnt examples of logs either hollowed out and insulation stuffed in, or logs split in half and sandwitched,(uuuuummmmmmm...sandwitched....)around a core of insulation. So the best of both worlds is achived!

This picture is of a mostly built log home in the center of the exibit hall.

Not much more to say about this one, I like it! Its imposing, very grandious, almost gothic.(hhhmmm, its getting windy here agien, might rain tonight, good thing we're still in last week, nice and sunny then, and hot too, 6 days in a row of over 20* , the last time that happend was in 1916, so thats nice, hold onto that then...)

This was another nice one, very symetrical. The cool thing about this one was, the inside was unfinished, what you see "through" the windows, is a sticker on the windows! Sweet! I need one of those for my truck, of a clean truck inside, or maybe a hot chick, so when I break down, maybe some one will stop for me instead of pretending to be on the phone and thinking I'm just parked looking at the dead weeds in the ditch!

Now this one I took because I really liked the double jointed hinge thing.(I'm note sure why, I know I had my reasons at the time...but...maybe it was the metal, or the medievil look about them? All I do know is if I had them, I'd pinch my fingers in there daily! Or that uncerimonial wack to the fore head when the second hindge opens when your only expecting the first! I don't know why I'd like such dangerous things, maybe I'll think about it...the next time I'm running with sicciors!



O.k., now were into the cool table section of the show, this is a piece of wood, that someone found, wiped the dirt off, varnished, stuck three(or four, I don't recall,)legs on, then tried to sell me for like 2 grand! I mean I do like the shape, and color, but I have varnish, and dirty wood so if I really had the room for such a thing, then I'd have to do it my self!

This next table is in the vain of "Punkys tree of woe"(editors note: see last Novembers Bloggs for details.) This is a upside down tree, cut flat, with a nice piece of glass, and a fat price tag to boot, don't these people realilize that people like me have more time then money, and will come to these shows to seal ideas. If I make this table, the most expencive part will be the ticket to get into the show to steal the idea to make this table,(well that and parking!)

I really like the look of this dresser, I like the differnt colors all blending together(just like those Benetton ads!...go ahead and gooogle it, its under united colors of Benetton,...trust me its real!... ah never mind.) I dont care for all the cutsie crap on the top, or the sticks for handles, but for the over all I like it!

The bed, what can I say about the bed...it reminds me of the bed in the corner of the old hunters cabin, you know the one, where the young couple gets lost in the woods, and they stop to asks for a phone, and its like, "No man, don't go in there." But they go in any ways, and he's like chopped up right aways, and stuffed in a old gas powered frige or somthing, and shes chained to the bed for like 3 years untill she dies baring his monsterous offspring...ahhh...maybe you didn't see that movie...nice bed...very homey...like the rustic feel...oh com'on you had to have seen that movie, its on every weekend in some form or another, about 3am.

O.k. last shot from the Log cabin show, then we can get on to the "Gopher golf" segment!(for those of you who havent already skipped ahead that is.) This one I like for the "opppps" factor alone.(I mean I like it for the art reason too, and cause its very Canadian etc. but for dramatic effect, we'll focus on the "opppps" factor for now.) Like lets say Micholageo here sneezes while he chiseling(?)(chainsawing?) this little beavers nose. "Opppps" Now what? "O.K. Boys, we're gonna need you to move this wall back 2 feet agien...Sorry, my bad." Or maybe they didn't trim the ones above, so like he could just cut the broken beaver off and carve a chipmonk, scampering up the side of the house, and if that got messed up, maybe an wise old owl on the top log or somthing? Agien all the black was burned on.



All righty then, time for Gopher golf! This is for all those who are missing the "fuzzy creatures on the ground below" bit. Its been quite some times since I got a good shot of a bunny or rodent of some kind.(and this one hardly qualifies as good, but gophers are a lot harder to shoot then some semi-tame course bunny, probaly cause they get shot at for real or somthing.)

I decided I needed some flags for my back yard "course", you know to make it feel more real. Hitting to a vague target over there some where, was just not cutting it. So in my DIY style, I made some flags. The bodies are straping and the flags are Tyvek home wrap,(I had a home rap once, my DJ got drive by'ed with a nail gun from a white cube van!)(sorry, it was funny in my head.) held on with that red tape stuff. I think after the flags are lost in the next area tornado, the red tape will still be fine. Great stuff, I should have made the whole flag out of it, but its hard to paint! Speaking of paint, I went with the ground marker orange, to bad it was almost empty, but the black stripes cover the gaps nicely.

Remember a while back, when Punky was pulling the old boat behind his pickup? Well after the boat was totaled, some how it ended up behind our place. Now enter the crazy wind phaze, and the boat is out in my course! Must have flew over 65 feet! So now instead of a water hazard, well you get the idea.

One of the cool features about the Tyvek flags is like on the moon, they stand stiff, even with no breeze.(when is there no breeze here?) So the stripy flag is tee box #1 and hole #3 all in one. I just play one ball at a time now, and the last time I was out, with my Mom,(she said she shot a 12, but with no score card, its hard to tell if thats a good round or not.) I found 2 extra balls on the first hole!(only problem is with no one else playing the course, the lost balls were mine to begin with, even my Mom would'nt lost a couple for me to find.)

I has named this sport gopher golf, and I really hope it helps my short game. If nothing else, I should be good from the rough!(the really, really rough, rough that is.)

If there must be a tip for today, let it be this. Let the industrial orange spray paint dry for at least a while longer before you try to jam the flags into the hard, hard ground. O.k., thats it for last week, cant wait for the next weeks blog to tell you about this week! Hope you have a great one, Later, DufferKev.

Spring...it has SPRUNG!!?

Well hello agien...is any one still there? Seams like just last week I was writing one of these, but turns out it was Jan. 23, WoW! where does the time go?(keep reading and you'll find out where some of my time went!)

Speaking of time, its spring time!(although my Mom, and the radio,(her station, not mine!)keep saying its still going to snow this weekend...I,(and my station,)hope only for a good rain. We sure could use a good long rain, the snows barly melted and already the fire ban is on. This spring feels better then my last 20 or so have. The differnts being, in Vancouver, the winter rain changes to a nice warm spring rain, and after a few beers, and the front nine at your favorite course...you don't even know(care)its raining! This year, the snow,(and angry guards,)have kept me off the courses all together, but now spring is here!(HA Ha) The wintery inches of snow melting away to reviel...dead, brown, dried up stuff every where!(we need rain, rain=green, green=golf, golf=sane kev!)

The shot on the left is Febuary,(I think...)and the one on the right is today, not enough snow in the left for there to be any green in the right! But I sure am enjoying the big blue sunny Alberta skies!

Is every body ready for the masters? It'll be nice for people to be talking about Tigers other wood for a change!(he he he...I've been saving that one for awhile now.) Its sad that in all this, no one has given any thought to the little one, life in turmiol, athority figures at each others throats, total house hold chaos, millions lost in future endorsments...but you know I gotta belive Frank will be ok, you know once hes out there, amonst his adoreing fans, fuzzy little Frank will be his old self once agien!(I know thats what I'll be watching for this weekend.) I even heard that Frank would leave Tigers bag if he didn't stop his carousing, but Im not into gossip...so you didn't hear it here first!

Now, for your review, a montage of beard. These next few shots are for those of you who either havent seen me for awhile, or have for some phycological reason been blocking out my image,(nice try...but I got through!)
While you puruse this gallary of the beard in all its glory, I'll tell you about the shelf full of crap that I moved across the mountins, just to have to build a shelf for here...to collect local dust!(some of the local dust has coal in it, why I bring that up now is a mystery even to me.) On this shelf of crap,(see top banner,) I have a brassish figurine of a Ben Hogan sort of guy, a p-47 thunderbolt, with retractable undercarrage, and detchable bombs! A Todd Bertuzzi bobble head, complete with simulated beard,(or is that coal dust?) My electronic "wax melter", next to that is my capt. Spallding bobble head, from the Rob Zombie classic "house of a thousand corpses" Then a nice big(old)bottle of Fiddlers Elbow,(may not even be drinkable any more, but I'm sure some cold winters night,(this weekend?)I'll resort to it. Next is Finn, cunucks mascot, I know I'm not there any more, but I'll still cheer for the nucks come play offs!(with no Alberta choice of course!) Next on the tour, is my scales of dissapointment,(reads about 7 right now), the Increable Hulk, and another as yet untapped source of desperation beer, Hobgoblin, a sneaky beer, kind of creaps up on you. Now we come to Buddy Christ, I had him for like 3 years before I even knew it was from a movie, I just thought,"He he, thats sacralisious!" Then another "wax melter"(just incase the first one breaks I guess.) Next is a stuffed golfer bear,(fuzzy putter, its just fun to say!)and Fozzie Bear dressed as an all star goalie,(thank you very much mcdonalds, they allways know what the world needs!) have you had enough yet? started skimming ahead to see when this dribble ends? don't blame you one bit. Any ways, next is my Jason bobble head, from the classic Freddy vs. Jason. Not making the banner,(as my shelf is wider then my lens,) is a figurine of lt. comander Data, a small, indoor, styrofoam, radio controlled helicopter, an aluminum beer bottle of Kick from Molsons, the only beer I've heard of with caffine! what a fine idea for those early tee times! Saddly, like most of my favorites, this was a limited time offer.(only because you people didn't buy it, Im only one man, they couldn't keep making it just for me you know.) (Really I drank as much as I could.) (I think I did more then my bit on this one...so, its your fault, there I've said it...probably your fault they canceled the McRibs too! ok, ok, I've said my piece, back to the boring tour.) Last item(of note)on the shelf of crap, is a large golf ball full of scotch whiskey. There are small planes and beer glasses but really thats it! whew!

So have you had enough time to soak in the beard? Do you have that image of me ingrained in your long term memory? Good, now forget it, because this is what I look like now!(like right now, same shirt and every thing.)

Even with no beard, still the same bleary eyed, 10am rockstar(wannabe)vacant look on my face, so next shot I tried opening my eyes wider, and now we have the"Oh I just stepped in my own bear trap!"look. At least with the beard there was some distraction going on, now just balding dumpy guy...
So you may ask what could have brought down such a mighty beard? a job. You remember last blog I said it was time to get back to work? Well it took a lot longer to get a job then I had thought, then when I had the job there was no energy left for the blog. Seams my resume needed work,(like me!) so my Mom punched it up a little,(when She was through with it I even needed a staple!)and some how made my lack of direction seam like a renaissonce man, instead of a multy facetted tool. And I scored a job! Now that you wrapped your brain around that one, and are used to that idea...I have no job any more. The only thing the boss and I agreed on was that I should not work there any more!(one of us had to go, and he had seinority...stupid pollitics!) So now I have no job, and no beard! Feel like a snake with a broken leg! I keep stroking the empty air in front of my face. Oh well, at least I stayed employed long enough for two checks, that should tie me over till a Good job comes my way

Now that I have some free time and some money, I'll start working on my house agien. Some things I need, some things I'll do with out. Like curtins, time to dig out the Bacheler tip of the week, if like me your newly renovated home has no place for the old, mouse peed on curtins, so carfully thrown into a heap 4 months earlier, and a window in your computer game room facing the sun, then, my friend, what you need is a slightly stained, spiderman beach towel!(and when the sun shines trough it, it looks just like one of those fancy back lite art thingy's! be the envy of your compound, be the first on your country block to have one of these handy devices! It keeps out sun, scares away common criminals,(and house flies!)and is guaranteed to keep you feeling safe...at least till dark, then sadly, your on your own.

Well have plenty more to tell, but it'll have to wait till next week,(like my new game, part golf, part easter egg hunt!) yes, I plan to blog in a week instead of 3 months, so I hope you all have a good one, and may golf be with you...amen!(sacralisious agien!) Latter DufferKev.

Escape Winter, at the Edmonton MotorCycle Show!

Well Hello all,(gee I'm glad I don't pay by the" L") hope this blog finds you all warm and happy! Today is the last day of my stint as a house sitter/animal caretaker.(I'm being paroled latter today! No it means this is the last day of my Mom's vacation, her and Lyn are flying home soon!)(Sad I know) Now that this is almost over, its time to get a real job, I've done a few side paint jobs,(last one with my brother,)but its time for a real get up earl every morning type of job!

But thats for another time, right now up here its the heart of winter, so what better time for a motorcycle show?(like a far off light, in the endless darkness, the promise of spring brings new hope to the empty soul...Golf is coming! oh yeah, ridin bikes too.) I havent even worked on my trailer much since my last blog, I sure have filled the lived in parts, where did I get so much crap? But I degress, last friday, my brother Carlin and I went into town for the big show. It was good cheap entertainment, hours spent drooling over things I don't need, for more then I'm worth. Most of the new bikes were set up with a bracket through the hub, so people could safely sit on expencive bikes without the oppps worries, nice!(last thing you want is to drop a bike when they're all set up in such pretty domino rows, hehehe...)

And speaking of dropping your bike, there was more on show then just bikes. Heres a happy looking little guy on the frount of a very stylish carbon fiber knee brace! Yes you too can be the cutting edge of hobble fashion with this little number!

There are far too many bike shots to have included them all this blog, so maybe I'll have a bike of the week thing untill I've used most of my faverites, but this blog will be all bikes!

There was some surprizes for me at the show, I've not kept up on bike stuff at all.(No money=No dreams!)
Some time ago,(I guess?) the Indian m/c company was bought,(or the rights to the name at least,) and they had some nice bikes there. The Chief, the one on our right, nice bike, feels fat and stable, thats important for an older, fatter guy like me, comfort is king when it comes to bikes for me know.

The other Indian I really liked was the Bomber, they had others, but these two were the style I liked. The Bomber was a limited edition,(of course! the one I really like will be hard to get.) Only 125 made and each one has a pin up looking hand painted girl,(your choice blonde, burnett, or redhead,)to replicate the ww2 bomber nose art. Very cool, and very out of my price range!(who am I kidding, the price of a event hotdog was out of my price range, luckly there was an A&W on the way home, mmmmm, cheap momma burgers!)


Now this monster is a new Honda, but I like to think its the new BatMoBike! I was checking it out looking for the missle guide detection system or somthing! Remeber I was talking about fatt heavy stable bikes? Well if you need the reverse gear option, then thats too stable for me!

Now I'm not a huge Harley fan, but this one I really like, and for the
same reasons as the BatMoBike above, its cooler really, its more like the Punishers bike then Batmans, thats cool! But sadlly probly not comfortable for the long rides, oh yeah, and out of my dream price range.(the dream price range is the cost I might afford, if I had a good job, had nothing else to buy, oh, like a kitchen floor for instants, and was actully looking to buy a bike, whitch I am NOT!(Please remind me of this fact latter, when I get down to my faverite, pretty little, almost cheap for its size, blue beauty!

This was a bike done for the Canadian forces in Afganistan, I like the way the camo looks with the blacked out, almost anti-chrome, engine, and the use of brass for the hand grips and yoke pegs, very nice!





Another one of the surprizes for me was the Can-Am Spyder, I didn't reallize Cam-Am was still around, and to have a 109 hp, 3 wheeled sports car lookin thing was a shock. Two days after this shot was taken, I was watching the movie, G.I.Joe, rise of Cobra, and in the Joes main hanger, some guy comes riding in on one of these things. Here is my brother with his best secret agent look, Go Joe!

Now heres the bike my Bro really wants, a big 650 street/trail monster! He plans to ride it,(if he gets it)8 months out of the year.(dont laugh, I can see him doing it, then agien I can see him sliding across 4 lanes of out of control veihicels, to get run over by a snow plow, but I've never been very good at seeing things, just ask all my ex's!) The bike even has a little flat storage on the back, for stapping your laptop on! Carlin told me the US marines had these bikes, but theres were coverted to use diesel, now theres somthing I could get behind! a diesel bike.



This was a bike I felt good on, too bad it was a Ducati! I like this view, cant see the price tag at all!(nuff said!)

Now here is the problem bike for me. This is the one I think about, Sort of street/sort of trail, 650, cheaper then the Kawasaki my brother liked,(I think, I mean I saw a lot of bikes, but I remember thinking it was cheap!) felt great under me, and was a Beamer! Yes the only BMW I might actually aford,(in my dream price range that is.) A real little sweety!

After a partal wander around, it was time for the stunt show. Wow, those dudes are crazy! They were almost scraping the ceiling doing back flips en stuff! Very cool! My crappy little camera is too slow for that type of thing, but my ex-pro photogerpher brother got some cool shots, I'll steal them for latter blogs! ( hehehe.)
This part is of the custom bike wierdness section, in it are wierd custom bike stuff. Like this little skull shifter knob for a quad, kind of cool, but might freeze your hand in the winter!


And speaking of quads, I liked this guys custom dethhed thingy, soo scary! No but it really was cool. Also amonst the quads, there were some with tracks, that was somthing almost unstopable! But you'll have to wait till next blog for those. This blog is more for the bike tattoos! Permenent outward expressions of inner being!

It was nice to see such expressions on dirt bikes and quads, instead of just the custom Harleys. Like this little cute guy here,

peeking off the side of tricked out dirt bike. Only the plastic parts were air brushed on this bike, so if he wipes them out, hopefully hes got a few more on stand by, pre painted,

Now we come to the last bike for this weeks blog, next week will be back to the working on the trailer, lookin for a job, stuff, so enjoy this while you can! This beauty fall under the too much cadagory! I was talking to the guy that built it,(and painted it,) and he sent 3 years on it! He was only able to work on it between paying jobs, and has NEVER rode it! To me thats too much, paint on canvas and ride a plain bike before you make a two wheeled museme piece. It was marvelous though!

Each side had its own depiction of chaos, and grim horror!

Each new angle, a new glimps into the mind of its creator!

Every curve, every flowing line was brought to life,(or death if you will)and tried together with this sinuious boader of thorns!

And to cap it all off nicely...the classic pale rider on his pale horse!...Well thats it for a nother week in the life of Kev. I cant promise next weeks will be as intresting,(or shiny, or bright, or so colour full!)(so don't bother reading it o.k., it'll just be reno stuff, but I'll trough in the bike of the week, so theres that...)Hope the wind and snow stops before I have to go to the airport to pick up my Mom&Lyn(Thelma&Louise?, Nah.)or they might just turn around and get back on the plane, and I'll never leave the ZOO!(hehehe! just kidding Lyn,)Latter all, have a great week, DufferKev.