Easter Egg Hunt

Today Christine, Kyle and Aaron came over for an Easter egg hunt for Aaron and to let him ride on his lawn mower before having Easter supper.















When they came into the house I gave Aaron his first clue to find his Easter eggs.

He had to follow the clues in the house first.

From there he had to go outside and find more "treasure" around the house first and then onto the barn.

He stopped before going into the main barn to make friends with Tai, who wasn't sure at first if he wanted to get to know this strange person he hadn't seen in a while.

It wasn't long before he decided he wanted the attention and made friends with Aaron.

From there Aaron found more Easter surprises in the main barn before heading upstairs into the workshop and the hay loft.

The clues then had him going outside to check the various vehicles for more Easter treats.

Followed by returning back to the house for more places on both sides of the house up and down the stairs.

Once the last treat was found, Aaron wanted to see if he had grown tall enough to be able to reach the brake on the lawn mower so he could drive it on his own. Unfortunately, he still needs to grow a little taller.















 It was soon time to come in for supper and we had an enjoyable meal before they had to leave to go back home.

Lawn Mower Race

Yesterday, we had Ron's two sisters and his brother with their spouses over for a barbecue. We had an enjoyable time and caught up on what the families have been doing during the Covid-19 lockdown.

His sisters and their husbands had to return home and left, just as it was getting dark. His brother and family were staying over until Monday.















Today was an overcast, with a few scattered showers and they wanted to go boating regardless, so Ron took them out on Chemong Lake which is just a short distance away.

I knew what it was going to be like on the lake and decided to stay home and let them see just how rough the lake can get even in the pontoon boat. Needless to say, when they returned, they were all soaking wet and I had the kettle on to give them something hot to drink.















After supper the sun came out and Ron challenged his nephew to a lawn mover race of five laps, which started and ended by the house, went around the front lawn across the driveway up the side lawn and back across the driveway to the front of the house.

Ron was in the lead for most of the race, but at the end he lost in the final lap.

Playing with the Toys

It is nice not, to be dealing with the heat and humidity for a few days as we had a cool morning of 43F (6C) in morning, with the temperature making it up to 63F (17C) by the afternoon.















It was nice to have the family come up to the farm for the day.















Aaron was happy to have the speed on this mower opened up one level so he could go a little bit faster.















Christine was not to be outdone and she brought the barn monster out to go through the fields and the various paths throughout the sugar bush and into the forest.















She waited for Kyle to finish up what he needed to do in the workshop, before he brought out his dirt bike.















Once they were all out together Kyle challenged Aaron to a race once around the top field with the starting point between the two trailers.















As the sun got lower in the sky I went in the house to get supper ready as they would soon be in to eat, after putting their toys away.

The Pit Crew

Last year, Ron noticed that our grandson Aaron was outgrowing his motorized Jeep and probably wouldn't be using it this year.

Since we had a small and very old Husqvarna lawn mower on which the deck was no longer working, Ron decided to work on it over the winter to give Aaron a "new ride" for the summer.

He took the rusted, old deck off first and then cleaned up the undercarriage, making sure there were no rough edges that could cause problems.

Next he bolted a steel plate across the speed control so that it could only go forward on the slowest setting.















From there he worked on the motor to make sure it was in working order and would start and stay running.















Next he fixed the two flat tires and then it was time to take it for at test drive to make sure there were no unforeseen problems.















And of course he found that when you got off the seat the kill switch wasn't working and the engine didn't stop running.

That took a couple of weeks until the part came in so he could fix that and finally get the lawn mower out of the shop and into the west barn stone room with all the other lawn mowers which were waiting for spring.

Finally, today is the day when Ron and Kyle handed the key to Aaron and took him down to the barn so will be able to drive his new "toy".

They showed him where the brake was and then allowed him to start it and he was able to drive it slowly out of the barn for the first time.















With his father and grandfather on each side of him, they left the barn drive and headed up to the main driveway for his first time of going up and down the driveway.















After the first turn up and down the driveway Kyle went with him and left grandpa to relax in the shade watching them.















On the way back just before turning around to go again, it ran out of gas so it was time for a pit stop to fill the gas tank. Aaron was standing by, watching them closely to make sure they were doing it right.

Once it was fueled up they tried to start it again but it just wasn't working.

While grandpa went down to the stone room to get the battery charger out Aaron and Kyle pushed the mower down to the doorway.

Aaron was right there watching how they hooked up the cables onto the battery and asking them questions.

It didn't take very long for the battery to charge enough so it started and Aaron was on his way once more going down the driveway.















This time it was grandpa's turn to go with Aaron and he asked grandpa if he could drive on the front lawn for a change.















Ron explained to him that when he went down the hill he had to go straight down and not go on an angle, as the hill was steep and he didn't want him to roll the mower over and get himself hurt.















After Aaron safely negotiated the hill and turned a couple of laps around the front lawn they headed up onto the back part of the track and went to the back bend before turning around and coming back.















Then one final trip around the front lawn and it was back to the barn.















But just before they mad it back to the barn it quit and Kyle pushed it into the west barn stone room.

Grandpa will have sorted the problem with it quitting by the next time Aaron comes up to play with his new toy.

New Toys at Work

Ron finished fixing my newest toys, put them all back together and took them out today for a "test drive".















He started at the back of the house and cleared a path for me to get to the bird feeders making it easier for me to fill them without the risk of falling.















From there he cleared the way to the bird feeders at the front of the house and to the porch door.















He finished by clearing the snow on the way to the back of the barn to the far door leading to the hay mow, which makes my life a lot easier.

More New Toys

I have always wanted to have a little trailer to put my gardening stuff in and pull behind my lawn mower to make it easier to work in my gardens which are located throughout the 4 acres (1.6ha) of lawn surrounding the house.















Especially when carrying buckets of water to the flower beds along the west fence at the entrance to the property and on the south fence where my arbour with my climbers are located and the hose is not long enough to reach so they can be watered.















Another thing I wanted was to have a small snow blower attached to the lawn mower so I could use it in the winter to clear out the small areas that the snow blower on Ron's tractor cannot clear and it would make it a lot easier than shovelling it out by hand.















Earlier this week when I went into Lakefield I saw a small lawn mower with a trailer and snow blower and I let Ron know that I have found one that was for sale.















Since I was at KAGS today he was going out to look at and it would make a very nice Christmas gift.















When I returned home from the Gallery Ron told me that he didn't get the lawn mower and accessories that I had looked at, instead I could go and look at what he found for me, which was in the shop.















Needless to say I was delighted with what I found there, which was a much newer and larger lawn mower and accessories. Ron will fix the flat tires on the trailer and get everything ready for me to use the snow blower for the winter.