Travels of the Agnew Family for 2008.01.01 to 2010.01.31

Our friends, Steve, Kath and Jess own 35 acres (I think) just north of Paris ......... Ontario where they live with their two horses, one mini horse, a litter box trained bunny and a couple of feral "garage" cats. They don't have a barn so the wild cats live in the garage. Zaph absolutely loved it there --- well except for the black and white kitty with the white stripe down his back. Yup, Zaph got sprayed. He was near the house at the time so the house and cars also benefited from the lovely aroma. Luckily Zaph did not get a direct hit so he smelled much better after an emergency bath.


A two headed mini horse --- Flash and Zaph meet. No trauma there --- they kind of checked each other out then continued exploring. Flash had been in the paddock with the other horses but escaped when he noticed us sitting on the deck. I think he'd rather hang out with people than horses.

Flash came to say hi and to see if there were any snacks to be had.


Eye to Eye ---- I'm sure Zaph was thinking .... What kinda of dog are you? and Flash was thinking .... you're much too small to be a horse and you look kind of weird to be a person.


We asked Jess to show us how she trains Flash. Here she's lunging him.


Hmmm... I think Flash's form is a little better than Jess's.


Nice jump. Now let's raise the bar ......


You've got to be crazy ..... that bar is higher than my back.


Persuaded to try the higher jump.


Show off....... Jess cleared the top bar easily.

Now it's Zaph's turn to try the course. The first jump was a piece of cake .......

What's all this stuff ..... I'm not jumping it.


Ok, if you insist I'll jump it.


Another attempt ............ and refusal. I think Ed was laughing so hard he couldn't hold the camera steady --- really the light was getting low and changing the depth of field causing the blurry photos.


Moving the horses to their permanent paddock.


The house from the back.


Where there's water there's Zaph. Earlier Zaph had rolled in horse manure then became a bog dog by going into the pond. He tried to clean up by having a dip in the creek but that wasn't good enough for mom. Bath #2 was had when we got home.

My sister and brother-in-law arrived at our house yesterday. They decided that the mothers 85 and 90 something deserved a visit but they wanted to go on a motorcycle visit so they drove their motorbike here from Texas. My butt's sore just thinking about it. It was a short visit as they left today after doing some minor repairs .... Darryl had built a trunk for the bike and the aluminum supports needed to be replaced with steel supports.


The bike sneaked past my car to spend the night in the garage. Ed says we'll park the trailer in the side yard next year so my car can park in the garage. We'll see......

Looking pretty good for a nine year old. Being doting pet owners we usual try to do something "fun" for Zaph on his birthday and this year we had the opportunity to go to a friends cottage. Off leash (we were on an island so no cars to worry about), lots of swimming and jumping off the dock, boat rides and steak for dinner ---- life can't get much better. Thanks Chris and Tina for helping us to give Zaph a great birthday.


There's always a job to do ..... Chris has put in new kitchen cupboards at the cottage and in the process moved the fridge to the end wall. Which is great except when opened the door was between the fridge and the counters. Ed took a look at the fridge and said "no problem, we can make the door open the other way".


Chris scraping some rust off the freezer door. The boys were successful and it's much easier to access the refrigerator. Sorry Tina ---- she was hoping to replace the 30 plus year old refrigerator.


It wasn't easy to throw the ball get a picture of Zaph jumping into the lake but I managed this one. Most of the photos caught the splash as he hit the water.


Swimming back to shore with the ball.


Tina came down to the dock and made photographing a jumping dog easier. We figure Zaph jumped off the dock more than 50 times.


The cottage is on 6 Mile Lake just north of Port Severn. The lake has a lot of long fingers making some beautiful coves.


View from the dock at Chris and Tina's cottage

Someone was not happy with me and found a spot to lay down chin on pig to let me know it.

Our friends Bob and Gwen came for the weekend and as it was Kincardine's annual Scottish Festival we headed out to watch the heavy games on Saturday. It was a beautiful day and on Sunday we all realized that hats and sunscreen would have been a good idea.


The competitors being piped into the games.


The pipers leaving

Throwing a 56 pound weight


The hammer throw ... to help keep the thrower in place the boots have pieces added to the front that are pushed into the ground.


A 20 pound sheath was thrown in the air and had to pass over the bar --- I think the bar was at 23 feet .


First you had to pick up the "caber", then you had to run with it before ....


you tossed it hoping it would land and flip over staying in the same line you were running. These cabers were over 24 feet in length and about a 100 pounds.


Kincardine's lighthouse


This is an interesting intersection ---- the road on the left is one-way, so no turning left, the road ahead is missing so "do not enter", the road to your left has a dead end sign (we couldn't get it in the photo). We want to know "which way do you go?"