All things Wing Family!
After Graham’s devastating news, I felt the need to post something upbeat. Jason was trying to describe how our family was organized, so he ended up drawing Poppy a chart. Note the most important thing that Poppy remembered (“Ron drives a plane, Daddy!”)
Many years ago whenever Lisa wanted to do something boring, I would say to Andrea and Brianna, “I wish I were mini-putting”. They ended up getting me a custom made t-shirt with that phrase on it. You’ve seen it many, many times, I’m sure.
Unfortunately, the shirt just got too thin and started to rip around the letters. I had to throw it out 
Good-bye old friend!
On another sad note, last night Lisa and I watched the movie 2012 last night. If you haven’t seen it, DON”T!!! You’ll never get that two and a half hours back…
So, you’ve heard about our raccoon adventure. How about our groundhogs? Our neighbour has a big concrete patio at the back of his house. Last year we had a groundhog living under it and we named him Willie. This spring there were 3 babies, and still only one adult. We assume that Willie was actually Wanda (and apparently was a floozy). Occasionally we would see all 4 of them out at the same time. Over the last week or more, we’ve only seen one of the smaller ones out.
Anyway, yesterday it came out, and I followed it to the front yard. It hid beside our air conditioner, so I had Matthew grab a net and after a bit of work I caught it. Dad and I took it across the canal and set it free. We’ll see if there are any left…
Matthew is beginning to think that I can catch anything. His friend told him they had a mouse and Matthew said that his dad could catch it 
It’s official! I am graduating from Wilfrid Laurier University on June 10th with a Bachelor of Arts in Honours North American Prehistoric Archaeology with a minor in Anthropology. I’m quite excited!
Yesterday we had around 15 people over to help us with our yard. We shovelled dirt into our hole, we leveled the front yard, and we dug up weeds all over the place. The missionaries came over just after everyone had left and apologized for not making it over earlier, but they’d been at an appointment. We were talking with them outside when we saw a raccoon around our chimney. Let me fill you in on that a little more…
On Wednesday morning Lisa heard a noise coming from the fireplace. There were “chirps” and even some growling. It was apparent we had an animal with babies in our chimney, which we assumed were raccoons. Lisa called around to a few places, and it was going to be $300 or more to have someone come and remove them. When Dean first showed up, I asked him what he would suggest, and he said he’d had success with loud music.
So, back to the missionaries… I threw some rocks at the raccoon to scare it away so it wouldn’t go back down the chimney. Now the problem was how to get the babies out. We decided to “smoke ‘em out” (as someone said). We got a fire going and not too long after, a baby raccoon fell down. Elder Hanks had some gloves on (and one of my t-shirts over his dress shirt) and grabbed it right away and took it outside. Another 10 minutes or so later another one fell down. We still heard some chirping, but the last one wasn’t coming out. Elder Hanks was using some different sticks/rods/hooks to try to get it out, but it just wouldn’t come. He eventually knocked it down and we got rid of it as well. I then covered the chimney and so we’re good now.
By the time Elder Hanks put the third raccoon outside, the other two were already gone, so we assume the mother took them. This morning, the last one was gone as well. As far as we know they were all alive when we left them in the ravine.
As Elder Hanks was leaving, he said with a big smile, “Is it wrong that this is the highlight of my mission?!” (he’s from the midwest and loves the outdoors and hunting).
Here is a picture of Elder Hanks with Andrew and the second raccoon.
This may be the saddest picture I have ever seen…
After the initial request for comments I sent out and the limited response, I have gone ahead and done the drawing for the 2009 Christmas Gift Exchange. I do have to confess that I did get one request to rig the election, but my high moral values wouldn’t let this happen (or the person didn’t offer me enough to make it worth my while!). I did this about 3 weeks earlier this year than last.
I’m pretty sure that once again no one is buying for anyone that they have bought for since we started this. This will be the last year this will happen so next year some people will need to buy for someone they’ve already purchased for.
So, here are the arrangements:
We will continue with the $50 amount. There is no rule about spending exactly $50 to the penny, and no rule about whether it is $50 including tax or $50 plus tax. Just get something nice for the person that is close to $50.
I assume we will be hosting the traditional Christmas Eve party at our house again, but Lisa can send more details about that later.
Hello family.
I am currently in the great north of Canada! There was even a blizzard today. I’m currently in Kirkland Lake working on a forensic case with my professor Dr. Dean Knight. I thought I would give you a couple links that talk about it so you know what I’m doing. So far it’s been one of the best experiences of my academic career but I’m not allowed to talk about it much because I’m still here working and it’s an active murder investigation. I even had to sign a form saying I wouldn’t talk about it and everything!
http://www.northernnews.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1581854
http://www.northernnews.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1585164
Everyone mentioned in those articles is so ridiculously nice and friendly and they couldn’t be better people.
Oh! I’m not afraid of cops anymore. Working all day with 15 officers quickly removes that fear.
That is all for now. Hope you enjoyed the articles. I don’t know if any of you saw something about it on the news (I know it was on in Toronto because one of my friends saw it) but if you did see a segment then you saw my butt!
Here is a link to a slideshow of pics I took yesterday.
Thanks everyone, we had a great time.
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