73rd Anniversary Tree Planting

For this 25th of April, we went to plant trees along the Don Valley.

We got to plant 2 before they were all done. It was an amazingly warm 27 degrees!

How nice of all those people to remember the 25th of April. :-)

Judy Bradt: 2009 American Small Business Coalition Member of the Year

"In retrospect, it seems as if Judy Bradt has been positioning herself for this for the last few years," says Chief Visionary and Co-Founder, Guy Timberlake. "Judy has methodically increased her level of visibility and participation each year which is directly attributed to her level of exposure in The ASBC Community."

Judy and her company, Summit Insight, joined the membership in 2006 and Judy is involved with The ASBC at multiple levels. She is a member of the Ambassador Corps and participates in the newly formed Women Presidents, Owners and Chief Executives Group (Women's POCx). In addition, Judy assumed hostess duties for The ASBC's weekly Business Over Breakfast event at the Tower Club in March and didn't miss a beat."

"Judy has always been an active Member of The ASBC community. In the last year she made mastering her relationship with The ASBC and other Members a personal mission," explains Margaret Timberlake, President and Co-Founder of The ASBC."By incorporating 'The ASBC' into her conversation she has greatly contributed to the level of buzz about The ASBC causing others to come find out what The ASBC has to offer. We often hear or see when new Members are signing up, 'I was referred by Judy Bradt' no matter if it is someone she met online or at one of her seminars. Her energy and spirit and untiring willingness to assist both The ASBC and fellow Members are a few of the reasons she was selected as Member of the Year."

The passing of a puppy...

As you have heard, Kira died a couple of weeks ago. It was time. This is the memorial I did for her. it's on the wall for us to remember her by.

the grands go to egypt

a couple pix from woolley grandparents latest cruise including the pyramids which were amazing to them!
maybe I'll see them some day
who's been there from the bradt's?

the shearing with moppets and grade one's

Friday was a stellar weather day for the annual sheep and llama shearing.
We invited Fiona's class and the other grade one's up for the day - they arrived by bus PLUS any Moppet mommies who wanted to join. There must have been 60 people walking about.
Here you can see the kids taking a trek around the pond. plus shearing and hanging in the barn. One of our neighbours did a hay ride for the kids with 2 huge belgians - Dad would have loved the horses!
we were apparently more fun than the pumpkin patch trip and even Fiona's teacher commented that it was the best school outing he had ever been on.
May be a good sideline business once a year!
enjoy pix

animals on the farm

FIRST - to JJ
great looking and sounding ride! and BRG in colour too - bonus. Can't wait to see her.
What's her name?

then
some pix of the new donkey (female currently Coco) and bottle baby (Cornelius) with the gal who owns it all
Plus - see genetics at work with our bottle baby from2 years ago - ABBY with her daughter named Sparkle.
yup - they're a pair for sure.
nice day again today
cleaning house and lawn for grandad and gran's visit tomorrow.

Zoom-Zoom

JJ Gets A Car

Now that JJ has retired from automotive journalism after 18 years, it seemed to make sense for him to have his own car. He went looking for a particular thing --

He found an unusual 1997 Miata M edition, that had really only been driven on sunny weekends by a lady who put less than 3,000 miles a year on it (by comparison, JJ has put about 450 miles on it since Wednesday, when he drove it home from New Jersey).

Less than 3000 of these cars were made: all-wheel disc brakes, limited-slip differential, radio speakers in the SEATS so you can hear music when the top is down, and like all Miatas is a fun, light, sharp-handling sports car. Okay, and it's more fun than a bag of ferrets to zoom around on a day like today with the top down. Green with tan convertible top is just a bonus, he insists...but somehow I think he likes that better than if it had been any other colour.

There's a "butterfly" suspension stiffener in its future -- a performance thing, not a safety feature. The previous owner's sheepskin seat covers are a point of mild contention: I think they are comfy, if not authentic standard, and this car DOES NOT HAVE heated seats. The original leather underneath is in good shape, precisely because she always used the sheepskin covers.

It's fun to be driven around in, though after the laser eye surgery, we're waiting a couple weeks before doing more top down driving with me in the car.

JJ...is very happy to have his own wheels, after 49 years, for the first time. His desire for a car like this began in the summer of 1973...so it's been a while coming.

Zoom-Zoom!

The Eyes Have It

Got the first of two presby-lasik (does both near and far vision correction) eye surgeries done today -- really amazing what the brain does to interpolate new vision data from one eye and mix with uncorrected and produce something better than either alone. Still wearing sunglasses indoors today and tomorrow, and eye drops for a few days, but already distance is better; near vision will improve a bit more slowly...

Hope to have the other eye done before I come up to canada.
Two trips:

one by plane, arriving mid day Wednesday the 13th and driving to Kitchener, coming home Saturday the 16th. then possibly road tripping a week later, overnighting in Buffalo, and then doing a seminar in either Kitchener or Toronto before MBA reunion on May 23rd at Mac. JJ might or might not drive.

JJ NOW OWNS A 1997 Mazda Miata convertible in british racing green, as he is out of the car review business. He is very happy with it!

Love,
JB

hoppy happy birthday

To the little brother
can you believe it's the year where both you and Judy will have a 5 in your ages!
Happy birthday bro
love from the farm
hope it was as warm as yesterday
love
karen and the rest of us woolley ones

Happy 45th to David!

Really? I guess so. Just hard to believe...

Hope it's a good one.

Simon Art

This is a picture that the new modern artist, Simon Bradt, made at Gramma's.
Can you see that it's a picture of a Baseball Game at the Rogers Centre?
It looks VERY good to me......Hugs for all from Gramma

Gardening Gloves

Just a bit of trivia. The recent photo at the cemetery...the gardening gloves in the lower right corner, belonged to your Dad. Who would have ever thought.......Love to all Aunt Ann

Ravine Walking

We went for a Sunday walk to check out the area around our new house.

These kids hardly weigh a thing!

A waterfall along the ravine behind....

Our new house! As seen from the ravine behind our back yard.

Okay, Just Couldn't Help It...

Spring in Washington...




This is why I don't ask people in especially Ottawa how their weather is, between March and May: because they then ask me about mine, and after I tell them, I hear the sound of them hurling themselves through plate glass windows in despair.

no, reallly, it's spring God!

BRRRRR
what a site to wake up to out our kitchen window
and it's STILL doin it!
hope your day is warmer and sunnier
hugs from the farm

Things an ex-Altar Boy Taught Us

"Ashes to Ashes
Dust to Dust
If we didn't have Ashes
Our bellies would bust"

I'm surprised none of us came up with that one at the memorial service.

:-)

Photo is from our visit with Aunt Ann to plant the Daffodils Tuesday afternoon on our way back from Niagara Falls. Pics of that trip eventually...

april fool prankster

Fiona has turned out to be quite the little rascal. She and I surfed the web to find the best of pranks to play on daddy this morning. Dad went to the barn last night (to find twin boy lambs now named cornelius and barnaby) and stayed while we set up the house.
First we sewed the leg of his pants shut, then stitched a bunch of his underwear to each other - take out one pair and a whole string of em will come out of the drawer!
then we salted up a pot of coffee (since we couldn't swap sugar for salt as none of us take sugar in coffee)
We dyed the milk hot pink
stacked the microwave with little balls (ours is up high if you forget)
stuffed toilet paper in the tips of his shoes
put a sign on the bumper of the car that read "HONK @ april fool"

fiona could barely contain herself in not telling the jokes
Daddy found the stuffed shoes last night but loved that one.
The pink milk was next as he poured it on fiona's cereal
then the microwave tumbled out the balls as fiona crashed laughing on the floor.
His face with salty coffee was priceless - after all else, not expected.
HE got on the bus this morning instead of fiona
ok, well, just for a minute anyway.
We put plastic fruit and food in Fiona's lunch (and delivered a real lunch to school before she knew)
Daddy called to advise he almost fell over putting on his pants
he didn't hit the underwear drawer this am so that will have to show up later.
HE did wonder why everyone was honking all the way to work and found out why at the gas station
haha ha ha
what fun
fiona will love to hear what hijynx you all planned!
happy foolish day to all!
karen