The furnace is working overtime and I’ve been burning a lot of diesel to keep the little garage warm too. I’ve got one of those construction heaters that is supposed to burn kerosene but works just fine on diesel fuel. Recently I have discovered that I can get rid of waste oil by blending it off into the diesel. I do have to concoct a bit of a witch’s brew in order to get it to burn. Too much waste oil puts the furnace out and sometimes the smoke is a little intense but when I get the gasoline/oil blend just right it works well and I’m holding my own on the waste oil supply. I just went through a big round of oil changes to get ready for winter so I’ve got a lot of oil sitting around. We also brought back about 20 gallons of oil from the boat. If I can figure out a higher analysis waste blend perhaps I can get rid of that over the winter as well.
We spent most of the week in Saskatoon. Ag in the Classroom launched Marilyn’s project with much fanfare at Prairieland and we were invited. They had about 200 kids from Grade 7 schools around the city participating in the project plus as many more bussed in for the keynote speaker at noon. The lunch speaker was Craig Kielburger, founder of Free the Children. He’s a little full of himself but he has every reason to be proud of what he has accomplished. He’s in his early 20’s now and heads up an organization that started with his dream – as a 12 year old – to make a difference. Clearly he has made a difference in the world and he has a great ability to communicate with kids so he was an excellent choice for the session. He’s also the founder of We Day which is a reward celebration for kids who have done some form of volunteer work in both the global and their local communities. There was a We Day event in Saskatoon on Friday so Sara scheduled her Ag in the Classroom launch a day ahead of that in order to build on the media around We Day. It worked well – the launch was exceptionally well done and we both had fun shepherding kids through the various learning activities. Spending time with kids is great, particularly when you know you can send them home at the end of the day.
We used the Saskatoon trip for some visiting and to stock up at Costco. I brought home some micro-tractor parts and of course I had to stop at Princess Auto. As soon as the mayor heard I was going to the city I had a shopping list for Princess Auto and Marilyn had a Dollar Store shopping list. The Dollar Store item was plastic tablecloths for the local hypnotist evening. They do a celebration here called “Christmas in November”. Its kind of a combination fall supper, village Christmas party, corporate Christmas party & dance evening. The DJ for the dance was lame but they usually are. Larry Christie is the only DJ I can think of who was ever any damn good. Most times they just play music that they like to listen to which usually is no bloody good for dancing. This time was no exception so we left before midnight. (which we probably would have done anyway I suppose)
The hypnotist was pretty much like any other hypnotist except that this one is a local lad. When Wendy from the Co-op walked into the hall they had a big reunion because apparently she used to babysit the guy. Marilyn spent a bunch of Friday and Saturday in the Community Centre helping prepare the evening meal. They have a deal at the Plus 50 club here where the men pay a higher annual fee because the women are expected to help with the cooking. It may not be sexually enlightened but it works for me.
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