OUR DEAR FRIEND HAS CANCER FCS

[fcs]

The sun is shining in the sky, there's not a cloud in sight...it's stopped raining and it's a beautiful today; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqmid9MlFSw

enjoy

[fcs]

Beautiful trip to my homeland...very emotional, very happy AND sad.....
I have always loved and been amazed by the Prairies and the Prairie people....and I respect them even more now......homesteading in the early 1800s and living in tents in -50 degF weather is $%^#ing insane.......Nike wouldn't have had a T-shirt with 'no fear' then....it would have read 'severe, gristly and unyielding ba$tards....beware'.....
I got to run some neat equipment......John Deere makes some serious $hit man.....

did you get to drive the combi???

[Doug Lockhart]

did you get to drive the combi???

Nope......rode jump seat in in though.....talk about a $350,000 video game.....a joystick with about 30 buttons on it, 4 video screens, iPod torqued up, and a 16 year old kid in his white socks running it and telling me how $$%^ing easy it was.....
I also rode in a 'sprayer with over 150' of boom out that has 5 sonic sensors in each side that articulates at 20 mph over the land so that it maintains about 8" above the 'weeds' no matter the dips and hills....wow....

Very Impressive....and humbling...

[timebuilder]

You know its a big tractor when it needs FIVE headlights!

[Doug Lockhart]

Good for you! Where is da homeland??

I went to Paxton, Nebraska last summer. We took a county road (that was a single lane cowpath) about 30 miles into the prairie/sandhills.... cattle guards every 5 miles....

And there in the middle of nowhere is a cemetery from the early 1800's.... someone with a big heart keeps the weeds down.... saw one family in there lost a child every winter for 3 years...

Sad, but like you say it makes you respect what used to be....

That it does Evan....we went out too to the 'town cemetery' and there too was a family that lost two children at 15 and 16 months old.....buried beside their Mother that then died a few months after that.....probably of grief...
Here's my Great Grandfather's headstone....that one that lived the first two winters in a tent! I also found out he was a pigheaded, stubborn, loudmouthed, opinionated Scotsman......I got it honestly.....!!!

Doreen is the 'ole girl' in the picture and is 84 or 85 I think....she's got pictures and stuff going back a hundred years. Her house was built in 1905 and she still lives in it......and yes it now has 'flush toilets'.

[timebuilder]

I also found out he was a pigheaded, stubborn, loudmouthed, opinionated Scotsman......I got it honestly.....!!!

According to my dad, that is my grandfather to a "t."

He came to Canada from Rutherglen, Scotland in the 1800's and opened a tailor shop in New Westminster.

[jpsmith1cm]

I found this a while back, lost it, found it again and, with Doug getting back in touch with his roots, decided to share it here.

A Native's Springtime

The geese have all flown northward
and the bluebird's been around.
From the smell of native's breath
the leeks are through the ground.

Old winter's back is broken
the creek has begun to rise
and one can't help thinking
of his fish pole and flies.

As we look about us
and see the sights of spring
We are glad we are alive
and can enjoy everything.

Yes, I enjoy springtime
everyone does, no doubt.
But, how empty it would be
if we didn't have any trout.

When your troubles get the best of you
and seem like ugly dreams
Just take out your boots and pole
and spend a day along the streams

You may catch a brookie in the riffles,
You may catch a brownie in a hole
but being next to nature
is tonic to your soul

After a day of fishing
even if you've caught but one or two
You'll find the trouble lifting
and the sun will be shining through.

If I were a medical doctor
the tonic I would advise
A day along the streams
under Potter County Skies
Max

This was first published in The East Fork Sportsman Newspaper Volume1 Number 3 in March of 1939.

It was also used at his eulogy in June of 1987.

[Doug Lockhart]

I found this a while back, lost it, found it again and, with Doug getting back in touch with his roots, decided to share it here.

A Native's Springtime

The geese have all flown northward
and the bluebird's been around.
From the smell of native's breath
the leeks are through the ground.

Old winter's back is broken
the creek has begun to rise
and one can't help thinking
of his fish pole and flies.

As we look about us
and see the sights of spring
We are glad we are alive
and can enjoy everything.

Yes, I enjoy springtime
everyone does, no doubt.
But, how empty it would be
if we didn't have any trout.

When your troubles get the best of you
and seem like ugly dreams
Just take out your boots and pole
and spend a day along the streams

You may catch a brookie in the riffles,
You may catch a brownie in a hole
but being next to nature
is tonic to your soul

After a day of fishing
even if you've caught but one or two
You'll find the trouble lifting
and the sun will be shining through.

If I were a medical doctor
the tonic I would advise
A day along the streams
under Potter County Skies
Max

This was first published in The East Fork Sportsman Newspaper Volume1 Number 3 in March of 1939.

It was also used at his eulogy in June of 1987.

You found my secret to why I ride up that mountain....4 days a week....I was always a tech freak but in my later life here now I find that connection with nature sooooo important. We have all these man made things/ideas/contracts...they are essentially all bull$hit.....the only laws that are ALWAYS/ALL WAYS true are the "laws of Nature"......and you comprehend them fully only when you're part of them....

[timebuilder]

Good morning, Bret and everyone.

[Doug Lockhart]

A Somber day for reflection and introspective looks at our place on this planet today......Enjoy your loved ones and have a full day with your families guys...

[AIR-WIZZ]

I'm dumbfounded by the fact that Bruce is dead!
I've been so busy since I started AIR-WIZZ, Inc. a few years ago that I have not been to this site in a long while. Bruce is the one who qualified my License a few years back. I've been beeting myself up about not keeping in closer touch with Bruce since I went solo. Looks like I really missed out on this one. I came to this site to reach out to him for advice. WOW, I'm really blown away now.
What else can I say...

[timebuilder]

I'm dumbfounded by the fact that Bruce is dead!
I've been so busy since I started AIR-WIZZ, Inc. a few years ago that I have not been to this site in a long while. Bruce is the one who qualified my License a few years back. I've been beeting myself up about not keeping in closer touch with Bruce since I went solo. Looks like I really missed out on this one. I came to this site to reach out to him for advice. WOW, I'm really blown away now.
What else can I say...

I was in touch with him about a month before he passed. I was looking into overseas work. He brought a lot to this site, no doubt.

Check in more often. We are striving to carry on here.

[timebuilder]

Good morning, Bret and everyone!!!

[Tiger93rsl]

Good morning

[fcs]

morning all

[timebuilder]

Good morning, Bret and everyone!

[Doug Lockhart]

Still hot and sunny here in Canucksville.....
Got some of the first 900s in for QCing.....sweeeeeeet....
Now all I need is the manifolds.......or I could always do like the other guys and get some Fisher Price ones and glue them on the bottom....whoops, did I say that out loud....?

Nice and cool up the mountain at 5am......bear's getting restless though......freaking people out.....stupid ba$tards that go into the bear's house and then get mad at 'him being there'......it's his house.....not ours.....he!!, lets just shoot all the wildlife in the world.....that's solve it eh!

[fcs]

morning all

[RayD8630]

Hey again guys and gals. Been a long time since I checked in. Life has gone 180 on me now lol. Girlfriend was working in a deli and saw the refrigeration guy there so she bugged him on her break. Turns out his company was hiring. So I called them and they told me they were. I forwarded off my credentials to their HR department and two days later got asked to go to an interview. I got hired on the spot. Quit the residential 2-tons-r-us biz. Now Im a member of Local 787 (HVAC/R Workers, Ontario), doing racks and cases. They work all over Ontario so somehow in two weeks I managed to pull a car out of my butt-a 1999 Corolla. So far they have been keeping me local doing installs for a large drug store chain here. My first couple of days I was helping put a glycol loop into a new supermarket. Money is great. Job is great. Good guys to work with and I feel like im being challenged on the daily. Refrigerations an entirely new beast to me despite the fact I studied it in trade school, but I love it. Even the girlfriend says I come home less grumpier than I usually do lol. They even gave me a new torch set and benders along with a lot of PPE. My first day was all training. Transportation of Dangerous goods, WHMIS, and scissor lift certification. They just grabbed a couple big contracts so this winter looks busy. Guess he who waits the longest does catch the biggest lol.

[fcs]

Hey again guys and gals. Been a long time since I checked in. Life has gone 180 on me now lol. Girlfriend was working in a deli and saw the refrigeration guy there so she bugged him on her break. Turns out his company was hiring. So I called them and they told me they were. I forwarded off my credentials to their HR department and two days later got asked to go to an interview. I got hired on the spot. Quit the residential 2-tons-r-us biz. Now Im a member of Local 787 (HVAC/R Workers, Ontario), doing racks and cases. They work all over Ontario so somehow in two weeks I managed to pull a car out of my butt-a 1999 Corolla. So far they have been keeping me local doing installs for a large drug store chain here. My first couple of days I was helping put a glycol loop into a new supermarket. Money is great. Job is great. Good guys to work with and I feel like im being challenged on the daily. Refrigerations an entirely new beast to me despite the fact I studied it in trade school, but I love it. Even the girlfriend says I come home less grumpier than I usually do lol. They even gave me a new torch set and benders along with a lot of PPE. My first day was all training. Transportation of Dangerous goods, WHMIS, and scissor lift certification. They just grabbed a couple big contracts so this winter looks busy. Guess he who waits the longest does catch the biggest lol.

Congrats Ray I'm very very happy for you.