The Squirrel, Fuzzy,Maggie and Me

  The other day Fuzzy,me and Maggie were down hanging a brand new straight gate,no cussing no yellin went real smooth. Now around our place this scary very scary cause you know something is going to happen when things go so smooth its just not natural.
    Forgot to mention that Maggie is our new pup got her this spring,and trying to train her has been something else, or maybe she is training us but there is sometimes a bit of a battle of wills. Anyhow back to the story about the squirrel. Got the gate hung, and heading back up to the house,when Miss Maggie spotted the squirrel. Well she sent that poor little squirrel up the hydro pole so fast you would have thought it was a rocket. Fuzzy hollers keep the squirrel up there as he heads to the shop to get the air pistol, now I'm not sure who he was giving the order to but Mag and I both stood on duty and kept that squirrel up the post. Now Fuzzy hasn't had this pistol long and he doesn't use it much at all,not that I am making excuses for him but what a gong show.Mag and me have the squirrel right where he wants him and he shoots and we watch and he misses, fires again,missed by that much,fires again squirrel has had enough and makes a flying leap for the nearby feed bin lands on the roof. Mag goes round the back of the bin barking for all she's worth,Fuzzy goes into the bin and is hollering can you see it did it go under the lid. All I can think is please God don't let him shoot that thing in the bin, did I mention the bin is metal and round. Now Mr. Squirrel has more moves than a chicken full of ex lax, and as I'm standing on look out the little bugger came flying out of the bin and darn near landed on my head which caused me to let out a bit of a scream,Fuzzy bolts out of the bin,Mag comes running and the squirrel is headed for the loading chute with the other two in hot pursuit, me I'm just trying to keep a straight face as I'm thinking should have a video camera for America's funniest home videos.Fuzzy is hollerin "get around the other side see if you can see him" so being the good wife I am I do as I was asked and can see the little varmint coming through on of the pipes on top of the chute,telling the man what I see and trying to get out of the line of fire as little worried about his accuracy, cause what does he do, he shots again and misses. The squirrel comes out the pipe a little worse for wear and up another pole, Fuzzy shoots and this time stuns the little guy, he slides down the pole right to a very excited Maggie, well now that pup thought she hit pay dirt,wow a new play toy. For good while that squirrel was tossed around, shook, mulled to the point I think it died in self defense.
   With the excitement over and one less squirrel to cause damage around here, headed to the house to make lunch thinking I have got something to share with my friends, I hear Fuzzy say "darn I'm out of pellets" now I really had to get to the house or at least out of earshot cause I was ready to split a gut laughing all over again.My loving man needs some target practice.

This is our Miss Maggie May, she is an Australian Sheperd

Remembrance Day - Why I cry

 Yesterday was remembrance day, a day to remember the sacrifice that was made by so many so that we could have the right to choose how we live. I choose to remember most everyday and be thankful, but even more on November 11th, and yes I cry, every year that I can remember,I do not plan to, but my heart and eyes have a different plan.
     In our small community we have a remembrance service, and I have the honour to help with this day, We have our service and lunch to follow, put on by our church, this year we moved the service to the community hall to accommodate more people,. We are fortunate to have a Canadian Forces Base close by with many service men and women and their families choosing to live in our small community and they come out to support our efforts,some by taking an active role in the planning of our day,some by taking time to attend,God Bless Them All. One of these very special people I have come care for very deeply ,her husband is a proud member of the military and she is a proud supporter.I don't know if she would be to happy about it but I have come to think of her as one of my own. this young couple have had a very trying time lately with the loss of their home due to fire and all the upheaval that brings with it. At the time and since I have felt disappointed in myself as I feel I have not been there enough for these special people,as was not wanting to butt in, and hoped they would know I was just a phone call away. But once again I have strayed from the topic. Yesterday morning this lovely young woman arrives and has had some tears, and more are starting to come, she is given some hugs from one of the other woman and gets busy with what she has to do. Later one of my friends turns to me and asks what was wrong with said young woman, I had to stop and get over that this friend did not get it, yes she cares about this young lady or she would not have asked, but the fact is she did not get it.
    The service was very meaningful as always and even more special for me as we had a piper(I love the pipes). We were wrapping up the lunch and I was finding harder and harder to keep my tears at bay( OK so I lost it during the service a little bit but got it under control so that I could help with the lunch). When things slowed down could not hold it in any longer, decided to slip out the back door before the tears started so no one would see. Darn it I got caught, and the gentleman asked what was wrong, I sniffled back my tears and said "this happens on remembrance day to me". His next question was why, did you loose a family member or someone close to you? I was somewhat at a loss, but realized he did not understand so I gave him a quick answer as I could not explain to him at the moment the real reason,but in retrospect I guess I should have. Here is the reason I cry on remembrance day- I cry for the great sacrifice that young men made for this country 90 some years ago during the great war,and for the men who made the sacrifice during world war II, Korean conflict, and the men and women who made the sacrifice in Afghanistan.I cry because they chose to go a long way from their homes and families to fight for our freedom and to keep our country safe so we can have the opportunities we have. I cry for the ones who came home but would never be the same people they were when they left, their innocence left on a battle field in some far off place, the ones who came home with a limb or something else left behind. I cry for the families for their sacrifice.
        Always after this cry I try and remember to say a prayer to God for the people who made it possible for me to have the choice.
        So when you make your choices remember some one fought so you could make that choice, and maybe we should give a little more thought to our choices for them.
                                 Lest We Forget