Bugs Palace!

As the topic above states, another school year has come to an end. With our kiddos completing grades 3 and 6 they are all ready to move up for 4 and 7. Where did the time go? Couldn’t be prouder of the improvements both have made in their education as well as watching them grow in to amazing little humans. Love you kiddos. Looking forward to many summer adventures and LOTS of baseball!

Speaking of ball, the season is in full swing – pun intended. Both teams doing quite well! Abbys team has won 6 games in a row and Joes did great in the ORSA tournament. And just for added measure, my Yankees are in first place! We are about 1-3 to 1-2 way through the seasons already, but loving every minute of it.

House stuff has started to slowly ramp up again. Starting to get the pool put together and clean up the property. Lots of weeds slowly taking over the yard. Gonna be a challenge to keep them all at bay, but slowly but surely we’re getting it under control. Not much else to report. Still have finish building that dang fireplace. Maybe job for one of my Monday/Fridays this summer.

After 7 years, and 210,000+ kms the Jeep is officially ours! Final payment was made last week. The old girl still going strong and looking great! Could stand a full, thorough detail, but all in all it has really been a great vehicle. Hoping for many more trouble-free years of service.

The Sierra on the other hand is really starting to show its age. Despite the cosmetic upgrades and tweaks that i’ve done (Denali front clip, rollpan, backup camera), the mechanical stuff seems to be breaking one thing after another. Brakes all due to be done, ebrake cable broke, ABS/Speed sensore crapped the bed, Y pipe took a massive hit and needs replacing and now it looks like a wheel bearing is on it’s way out. Nothing major, but it’s adding up. I’d been looking at getting a new daily driver this fall as my kids are not-so-slowly out growing the 3 seater. All these repairs may speed that up by a couple of months. Hoping to keep the truck, just take it off the road and tackle the problems at a later time. Still dont know exactly what I want to do just yet.

Bug is still sleeping. Bike has been ridden, but very rarely at this point. Work duties have required far too much moving of equipment lately to allow for the bike to be taken to work. Hoping that ends this coming week.

Finally I want to wish my boy Joe the happiest of birthdays. I know its a couple weeks over due, but I love you anyways bud!

Rain has finally slowed down. It was seriously starting to look like we had better get to building and Arc. Sun has been finally popping out the last few days and we’ve even had a couple warm days. Finally time to get the property back in order. So much grass. The first cut of the season after all that rain was a bit crazy. I felt like I should have bought something to do hay instead of grass. 3-4 days of chipping away at it and I got it all back under control. The second cutting of the year went much easier. Going to have to be pretty dedicated and on top of the schedule to keep it looking good. Especially if the rain keeps coming so often.

Jeep is officially ready for summer! I broke down and bought a brand new soft top for it. I bought one last year too, but it was used and from an earlier model. Worked out fine, just a little tougher for Shannon to put it back by herself. This new one is in perfect condition and easier to operate solo. Other Jeep news – I believe we have 1 more payment to make and it is finally, officially ours! Starting to think that day would never come! Hopefully it continues to give Shannon many more years of nearly trouble free driving.

Unfortunately my “week of holidays” although I’ve been busy, I haven’t even touched the bug or bike or the truck. Hopefully that changes today as I’m nearly through the list of things I wanted to do around the house. Just hasn’t been enough hours in the day between the yard work and baseball. After tossing kids at school today and I think its garage time. Get the rear bumper off so I can finally install that roll pan hat I bought 3 months ago and other the other parts that have been sitting in the shed since we moved. At the very least I hope to get the bike and truck washed. Only other update I have is that I picked up a brand new carb from my mechanic this week. As long as it bolts on properly – it will be the first time since I’ve owned the car that the engine will run 100% correct. I’ve been plagued with carb issues since day 1. This should finally finish off the motor.

House updates are nearly complete for now. Only inside tasks are to build a mantle/fireplace surround and a couple other little tasks like adding shelves into a closet and building a seat/storage for shoes. Hoping now the weather is finally getting nicer I can spend some time in the garage and get those tasks knocked out.

Baseball is in full swing! (pun intended). Both kids have a few practices and 1 game each under their belts. Both had great hits in their first games! So great to see them out there and really playing the game and loving every minute of it. Both have a good team around them full of some pretty great kids!

Finally we have 1 month of school to go! Maybe a a couple days more than a month but we’re getting there. Looking at booking 3 day work weeks all summer (taking the Mondays and Fridays off again) . With the labs all being gone hopefully the summer chores for school will go much easier.

Well it looks like there will be at least one more year before we get started on the garage. Given the fact we only moved 8 months ago, it just financially doesnt make sense just yet. So many projects have come up with the house so far that we have depleted any funds we had set aside. Good news is we have everything set and ready to go and planned out for when we can get the funds together. Sigh.

Into the garage, we start with the Sierra. I’ve been toying with replacing it with a new daily for some time now, but the more I think about it the less I want to do it. The truck just does everything so well. I will never say never, but for the time being, she stays. And because of that she has been treated to some fresh 20″ wheels and a few other small mods that ive been storing for a while are going to finally get installed.

Jeep is very nearly paid off! Only a couple more months to go! The old girl is still going strong and looking good! I’m sure there is a few things here and there we could do to it but for now we’re just focusing on getting the payments done and going from there.

Triumph – is officially out of hibernation. Stickers are on and shes insured. I recently installed a RAM phone mount and a new 45T (+2) rear sprocket. Should make for a peppier down low ride. This weekend she will get a full scrub down and a real maiden voyage. Can’t wait! Weather is FINALLY warming up. Hopefully it lasts this time. Oh, and if the April showers could end soon, that would be greaaat.

And the old Beetle is still sleeping int the garage. Despeately needs a bath, oil change and some other small tasks that i’ve been putting off for a couple years now. Life keeps getting in the way. I’m determined to make a dent in the list of tasks this summer. Hoping to have it on the road middle of the summer for at least a few fun rids.

Since the new garage plans have been put on hold, I’ve gotta make due with what I’ve got. I plan on organizing the garage a bit better then it already is. Add some new tools and most importantly upgrade the power going to the garages panel + add some new plugins throughout the garage. Especially a couple in the ceiling to allow the garage door opener to work without an extension cable and to allow for overhead retractable extension chords to be hung.

That’s all for now.