It's Turkey Time - Thanksgiving weekend

We have so much to be thankful for. Crop is in the bin and it has been a good harvest despite a slow start to the season.
Crops have been much better than had been expected. We have also had just a beautiful summer. Incredible weather really extending right into the fall. And of course Louise and I had our trip to Alaska which turned out to be all we had expected and more.
We are still in the midst of kitchen renovations. Had some problems with the ceiling and had to have the textured ceiling guys come in and strip the kitchen, the little nook area and the family room and then re stipple the whole thing. Little more work and expense than we had planned on but that is the way it goes.
The new cupboards are in and now we are awaiting in the installation of the countertop and backsplash. Going to be really nice when it is all finished.

Hill Billy Motorcycle

Saskatchewan - It's Not All Flat

Was on the road early today and in and out of the truck driving from 7am - 7:30pm. Left Regina bright and early and stopped at
advertisers in Avonlea, Moose Jaw, Assiniboia, Swift Current, Kindersley and Rosetown. Don't really like making that many stops but working with a shortened week due to a Doctor's appointment tomorrow. Along the way had to also make some stops to let Diego get out and have a drink and things like that. One of the prettier places we stopped at was Saskatchewan Landing and I took a few pictures there. Apparently there is some good fishing in that lake so sometime will have to take a fishing rod along and stay for an hour or so. Diego seemed fascinated by the floating dock. He liked walking on it and the wind was creating a real nice breeze so he just wanted to sit there. Actually I think he was happy just to get out of the truck.

Beautiful Day In Kelowna

Today we woke up to beautiful sunny skies in Kelowna. Was a really nice day. About 20 degrees or so. We joined Mom for lunch at Mission Woods and then after lunch went for a drive. We stopped first at Dad's gravesite and spend a little time there.
Then we followed one of the many wine routes and stopped at a couple of wineries for testing.
We returned back in time to meet Mike and Christie for supper at Mission Woods. They brought along their new puppy, a Doberman named Kierna. Not sure of the spelling on that one. All in all in was a nice relaxing day and took the opportunity to shoot some photographs including some very small grapes just starting to grow on the vine.

Dog Days of September

We are going through a record September. Several days in a row now we have had plus 30 to plus 33 degree temperatures.
Not really normal for this time of year and new records have been set. Was on the road this week travelling through the southern part of the province and the combines are in full swing. This is actually my favourite time of year. I love the golden fields and seeing the combines, tractors and trucks out working in the field. This hot weather will really spur on the harvest and some of the crops are looking pretty good. Somewhere low down on my bucket list, but still there
is driving a combine as it picks up the swaths. Have always wanted to that but being a city boy it's not to likely that it is going to happen. Took a few pictures down south of the combines at work.

Top Dog In The Field

**NOTE** - No puppies were harmed in the shooting of this photograph!

Untimely Death

Very sad to hear this morning of the death of Brad McCrimmon in a plane crash in Russia. Brad was an allstar defenceman with the Brandon WheatKings back in 1976 - 1979 when I did the Wheat Kings play by play for CKX Radio. Even back then you could tell that Brad was a special talent and not only on the ice. He was very mature, a natural leader and did a very articulate interview which is not always the case with junior hockey players. I think I remember him most for those interviews that we did over the years. Always willing to chat and as I said before so articulate. I think of Brad and former New Westminster Bruin Barry Beck as the two best junior players I ever interviewed, and of course being with the Wheat Kings there were many more opportunities to interview Brad. Those great Wheat Kings teams of the late 1970''s also included players like Bill Derlago, Brian Propp, Ray Allison, Lauire Boschman and more. Brad also was a head coach with the Saskatoon Blades before becoming an assistant coach in the NHL. This has been a tough few weeks for Saskatchewan born and bred former NHL players.
First Derek Boogaard died and then shortly there after another former Blade Wade Belak passed away.

Excellent article from the Toronto Sun
Toronto Sun WEDNESDAY
SEPTEMBER 7
2011


Dream dies with McCrimmon in Russia
Brad McCrimmon was simply chasing a dream.

It was a dream that died minutes after takeoff Wednesday when his Russian club’s charter flight crashed into a riverbank, killing all but one member of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl team he had only recently taken over as coach.

“He went to Russia to earn his stripes and show he was serious about becoming a head coach in the NHL,” said his former Calgary Flames teammate Joe Nieuwendyk, voice cracking.

“And then this happens … It’s just devastating news.”

Some called him ‘Beast.’ Others called him ‘Sarge.’

Most who played with McCrimmon or were coached by him, called him friend — as reliable and loyal as the farm dogs he grew up around.

But what the old-school purveyor of fine hockey stories from Plenty, Sask., wanted to be called most was coach.

“I talked to him early on in the summer when we were going through our coaching search, and he was very interested in a head coaching job dating back years earlier when he left Atlanta,” said Nieuwendyk, the Dallas Stars GM who hoisted the Stanley Cup alongside McCrimmon with the Flames in 1989.

“We had discussed it, and he knew from talking to me and others that there’s a strong belief you have to be a bench boss first before you get a shot at a head coaching job in the NHL. He told me he was going to Russia. I talked to him just before he left, and he was excited about the coaching staff he had and the players he was bringing in.”

Pausing to collect himself, Nieuwendyk added quietly.

“I can’t believe we’re dealing with another tragedy.”

Indeed, it’s been a tough summer for the NHL, having lost Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien and Wade Belak before their time. While it puts Sidney Crosby’s concussion in perspective, it adds a sombre tone to training camps opening next week.

McCrimmon was 52, leaving behind a wife and two kids.

Having played over 1,200 games for six teams before coaching four other teams as an assistant, there aren’t many NHL regulars who haven’t been touched by the bruising defenceman the last three decades — good and bad.

“He played hard and was not fun to play against, but when he was with us in Calgary, he and Gary Suter were such a force (on the blueline together) — they were a big reason we won,” Nieuwendyk said.

“Sarge was such an appropriate nickname because he spoke to us like an army sargeant, but it was always in fun. If we were in the hot tub, he’d say ‘don’t stay in there too long you kids.’ With Sarge, everything was black and white, right or wrong. But he was always upbeat and always made you feel good.”

McCrimmon’s lack of social graces made Beast the perfect handle, said Mark Howe, who paired up with McCrimmon in the 1985-86 NHL season, when McCrimmon was a remarkable plus-83. All told, he was plus-444, making him the perfect assistant in Calgary from 2000-03, when he mentored Robyn Regehr and Denis Gauthier among others.

“As a player he was the best partner I ever had,” said Howe, a recent Hall of Fame inductee.

“We lived, ate and drank together for three years and just had a certain chemistry on the ice, and that carried over off the ice. If you wanted someone to tell you lies and talk behind your back, you had the wrong guy. If you needed someone in a dire situation, he was always there. I consider him one of my best friends, and that had nothing to do with hockey.”

Jamie Macoun said not only could you count on Beast as a defenceman but also as a banker.

“You could go on the road way back when, and any time you’d need a few bucks, he’d always have a thousand bucks on him — he was a farm boy, and he’d say, ‘Never trust the bank and carry your money with ya.’ It’s the boy scout in him — always be prepared.”

“He was a salt-of-the-Earth, solid farm boy,” added a quiet Lanny McDonald.

“He’d swear like a trooper, but he’d be smiling while he did it. If he didn’t agree with something, he wasn’t going to let it pass — he was going to speak his mind whether you liked it or not. What you saw with Brad is what you got. Nothing held back.”

He died while chasing a dream, which unfortunately doesn’t make any of this easy to swallow.

eric.francis@sunmedia.ca

twitter.com/EricFrancis

Pond Plants Are Thriving

In our backyard we have a corner that gets really, really hot with the direct sunshine pouring down. The pond plants, this year especially, really seem to like the hot weather as they have been growing and spreading out all season. Seems like a shame to have to pull them up in a couple of weeks but winter will be coming. Soon will have to move the fish indoors as well to their winter habitat in the garage.

Kitchen Renovations

Kitchen renovations began in earnest today. Tim took out the old cabinets and they are now sitting in the garage until we decide what to do with them. Now the work of scraping the ceiling, patching and repairing holes must take place before the new cabinets and the lighting fixtures are installed.

Mean time Diego just chills and catches some sunshine through the window. Dogs really know how to relax and take things easy.
Makes me wonder if they ever worry about anything or is worry just something that is exclusive to us humans.

John Deere New Product Launch

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2011 John Deere New Product Launch

John Deere Largest Product Launch Ever

Indianapolis, Indiana August 25, 2011

By Larry Hiatt

Over 6500 dealers and media representatives gathered in Indianapolis, Indiana today as John Deere rolled out the largest new product launch in the 174 year history of the company.
The evening, preceded by a day of field testing, featured the theme
‘Accelerated Growth” and laid out John Deere Company’s plan for feeding the world into the next decade.
John Lagermann, John Deere Vice President Sales and Marketing – United States/Canada/Australia and New Zealand addressed the audience and called the new product launch the culmination of a wide portfolio of products combined with new integrated technology. Lagermann said the new products and technology will make John Deere the industry leader heading into the next decade and will allow producers world wide increased productivity to meet the high demands of the world for food. Lagermann said in any other year the launch of the new combine series would be a major event in itself and underlined the dynamic nature of this years new product launch.
Barry Nelson, Manager of Media Relations for John Deere said the public viewing of the new line up of equipment for 2012 culminated in the most significant launch in the history of the company. Nelson said the launch of these new products greatly extends John Deere’s broad portfolio of equipment products for use in all types of farming , livestock and specialty crop operations, as well as for commercial and property maintenance businesses.
‘Across the board, we’ve increased the power and added many features to our new equipment that will make customers even more productive, wherever these new machines are used.’ Nelson says. ‘This is the strongest lineup of new ag products ever from John Deere.
In addition to new John Deere combines, headers and tractors, the company also introduced its new 7R Series Tractors for the row crop market, its largest, most advanced self propelled 4940 Sprayer with a 1,200 gal. solution tank, 120 foot booms, and advaced loading and application technologies, and revolutionary Triple Mounted Mower – Conditioner that cuts a swath more than 28 feet wide.
Nelson says “these are the most innovative, technologically, integrated and productive farm machines that we have ever designed. Plus, he says all John Deere products are built for years of reliable, dependable service and backed by our extensive dealer network for professional in service and maintenance.
Earlier in the day John Deere bused a full load of media representatives to a field demonstration where all the new equipment was on display.
Included in the impressive lineup were the new John Deere S series Combines featuring exceptional power and capacity. Among the many features in the spacious new cab was a fridge, which also featured a full capacity for favorite beverages to help cool down those hot harvest days.
I was given the opportunity to drive one of the brand new 9R and 9RT four wheel drive tractors. These massive machines feature a 360 to 560 engine horse power and I was amazed at how easily they handled. Each of the media reps were assigned a drive buddy in case of problems encountered however the big tractors handled well for all of the novice operators.
Also introduced were the 8335R Tractor Series. Chad Hogan, division marketing manager from Waterloo Tractor Works pointed out that these are the first row crop tractors tested in Nebraska that breaks the 300 rated PYO horsepower barrier. The 8335R delivers a record 306.6 PTO hp in the rated engine speed PTO test. John Deere rounded out the tractor introductions with the 7R series Tractors, the 6R series Row Crop Tractors, and the new 5M and 5E Limited Series Utility Tractors.
Fascinating to many of the media representatives was John Deere’s introduction of new Machine Sync Technology designed to optimize harvesting in the field. The new technology provides timely, critical information on equipment location, operational status and automates equipment during harvest.
The Machine Communication Radio is the first radio on the market that can create an in-field, high speed wireless network to facilitate machine to machine communication. John Deere demonstrated a combine working with a tractor and grain cart with wireless technology allowing the tractor operator to go hands free,.
The product launch rounded out with the introduction of new updated AMS products for the 2013 season, and a new triple mounted mower conditioner.
The new product launch concluded with the introduction of new XUVs including an entry into the sport utility market with many of the XUVs featuring room for an operator and three passengers

The Joy of air travel

Got to the Indianapolis airport in lots of time for my 1pm flight only to be told that my 1pm flight was now a 4pm flight.
Apparently lots of flights have been cancelled, not out of Indianapolis, but on the east coast because of the predicted hurricane.
And as the lady explained that causes a ripple effect in all the other airports with scheduled flights either being cancelled or postponed. Oh well at least I have the internet in the Indy airport and can catch up on my John Deere homework. Have to start some writing now and putting together a special section.
The whole John Deere equipment launch was really first class. Amazing how they can work so many thousands of people, dealers and media, through the system with very few hic ups. Or at least noticeable ones. Apparently some of the John Deere staffed arrived in Indianapolis two months ago to get ready for this and one JD media rep said she had been working full time on this
equipment launch for a year.
They unveiled a lot of new equipment. In addition to the new John Deere combines, headers and tractors they also introduced a very impressive sprayer with 120 foot booms. Thats a pretty large span.
I enjoyed driving the new 9R series tractor. Huge machine and yet it handled so easily.
Indianapolis is a real sports city. All kinds of events happen here. The Colts are huge. Everywhere you go you run it to sports bars, night clubs etc all carrying a Colt theme. Then this is all the college sports. The Perdue Boilermakers are a big thing in college football and then of course there is pro basketball, triple A baseball and then auto racing. The Indy 500, Brickland 400 and Nascar all bring thousands to the city.
Very easy city to navigate as well. Roughly about the same size as Ottawa and traffic patterns are very similar. Well five more hours to go until flight time so time to do some work etc.

Equipment Launch In Indianapolis

The John Deere largest new equipment launch in their history came to an end today at noon. It was very well done as JD introduced several new lines of tractors plus a combine launch and utility vehicles as well.
Afternoon I took a walk around the downtown areas of Indianapolis. Another pretty hot day today plus the sun really pounds down on the concrete downtown.
Went to the NCAA museum today. Very interesting as it shows all the highlights of the many Division One, Two and Three that make up the NCAA and its college teams. Also had the opportunity to walk along the canal in the downtown area. Not too long a canal but pretty. Then in the evening I took a walk over to the Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Indianapolis Colts of the NFL.
it is a massive structure with a retractable roof. Very impressive. Would love to watch a game in there. Tomorrow night the
Colts are hosting the NFL Champion Green Bay Packers. Would be awesome to go to that but my flight is booked with Air Canada for tomorrow afternoon or at least I hope it is. I tried tonight to do the pre flight booking and download my boarding passes but the computer would not allow me do that and does not recognize Indianapolis as being an airport that Air Canada flies out of.
However my ticket says Indianapolis to Toronto so I will have to get to the airport early and get that straightened out.
Will be good to get back to Saskatoon. Very hot and muggy here which I find quite draining. We get the same type of temperatures in Saskatchewan but the humidity seems so much higher here. it's nice to get away but its even nicer to get back home.

A Really Green Day

Today was a long day but an interesting one. This is the largest new equipment launch in the 174 year history of John Deere and the launch is taking place in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The morning started out with us being bused out of Indianapolis to a very large farm and of course the host farmer had plenty of John Deere equipment in his every day operation. In addition to that there were several hundred pieces of brand new equipment being unveiled. Those included three lines of tractors, a new combine introduction, s new Gator launch including a sport model
and what was very interesting a new tracking system that allows a combine and a tractor and grain cart to operate simitaineously
in the field with the tractor cart operator able to go hands free and still keep pace with the unloading combine. I won't even begin to try to explain all the ins and outs of how that is done. Gets just a little bit technical for me.
I was able to take one of the brand new large four wheel drive tractors for a drive around that field and that was a first for me.
Have never operated equipment quite that large before and it was amazing how easily it handled despite its massive size.
We were paired up with a John Deere rep so there wouldn't be any run away tractors heading into Indianapolis. My drive buddy was a young lady (pictured by the tractor) from Germany employed with John Deere but brought over to help with this massive
equipment launch.
In the evening John Deere staged a light and sound show at the Indianapolis Convention Centre featuring all the new equipment.
It was very good and the Convention Centre was completed packed with hundreds and hundreds of John Deere dealers and a very large media contingent from all over North America. I got some really good pictures but for some reason my camera is refusing to download them for me. Remember earlier in this post what i said about technology and technical things,
After the show they served a supper with more food than you good imagine.
In the evening I walked down to the Indiana War Memorial and also the state capital buildings. Very impressive.
It got up to about 94 degrees today and now there is another large storm rumbling through. I have my curtains open and there are some spectacular bolts of lightning happeining.
Indianapolis is an interesting city. They tell me it is very much a sports town with NFL football being the biggest game in town but it is also the home and head of the NCAA. And anyone who has followed American college sports will know just how huge the NCAA is. There is a NCAA museum here that I am hoping to get a chance to see tomorrow. And then there are malls, malls and more malls. I am staying at the Omni right downtown and it is connected to the largest mall.
An interesting day and it all wraps up tomorrow.

Indianapolis, Indiana

I arrived in Indianapolis about 3:30 yesterday afternoon and today is the launch of what John Deere is billing as the largest new equipment launch ever. Flew in through a pretty good storm. There was a 5.9 scale earthquake in Virginia yesterday that shook windows as far away as Chicago. The pilot announced that we were going to have to divert to Cincinatti and wait out the storm on the ground but then suddenly we were into the storm and a half hour or so later we landed in Indianapolis.
Last night was a formal night and an opportunity to meet the dignataries and today we are being bused outside of Indianapolis for a morning of field demonstrations. We get back at about 5pm, have an hour or so to freshen up and then there is a showing at the Convention Centre.
My hotel is right downtown. The Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Indianapolis Colts, is right across the street and it is a massive structure complete with a roll back roof. The Colts are playing the defending NFL champion Green Bay Packers friday night in an
exhibition game but unfortunately I fly back Friday afternoon.
Indianapolis is an interesting city. Lots of old brick buildings, tons of museums. I haven't found out what are the things to see and do yet, although I am sure the Indianapolis Speedway, home of the Indy 500, would be one tourism site.
Well must get ready. Almost time to catch the buses for our field trip. Be a chance to see a little more of the city as we head to the rural areas today.

Odds and Ends From Around The Ship

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Brrrr - Alaska Glaciers

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Skagway and The White Pass Railroad

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Whale Watching In Alaska

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Allaska

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35th Wedding Anniversary

While we were on our Alaskan cruise, we celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary, July 24th, 1976. Valerie had sent an email reminiscing about the cute little flower girls we had way back then. So we looked them up in the album and posted those pictures along with a couple of others.

Odds and Ends From Around The Ship

As we have mentioned in several previous posts, the meals on board the Diamond Princess are just fabulous. On a single cruise approximately 115 tons of food are delivered to the ship.
The amount of food prepared daily is impressive.
Fish 1400 pounds daily
Meat - poultry 1000 lbs, beef 1500 lbs, Pork 1200 lbs, veal 300 lbs and lamb 200 lbs
In addition 1600 lbs of salad are served daily, 400 lbs of shrimp, 10 gallons of mayonnaise, 1500 sandwiches, 400 lbs of pasta,
2300 lbs of potatoes, 2300 lbs of vegetables and 550 gallons of soup. As far as staffing goes 515 kitchen staff work under a variety of managers and all co-ordinated by an executive chef. Buon Appetito
The creations are excellent. Pictured here as well is one of Louise's favourites. It is a flower arrangement made out of all kinds of fruits and vegetables. And then there are the ice carvings as well which are impressive.
Princess Cruise Lines and the Diamond Princess are just first class. You really want for nothing on board and they have all kinds of staff including a doctor and small infirmary on board.
If we are able to do another cruise I would most certainly book Princess Cruise Lines as everything about them was first class.