How can summer soon be over?

Two more weeks! That's all the time I have left until Labour Day weekend, I thought that it would be less stressful come the first week of September since I wouldn't have to go to school but I think it is going to be worse. I am trying to work as many hours as I can by picking up the shifts the manager offers me which leaves me with less time. I still haven't got too much on the list of things to buy before I leave, so I should get on that.

Today also marks the one month countdown to the International Plowing Match & Rural Expo, and one month until Fyd-L-Styx hits the stage for two 1 hour shows. I haven't practised the songs we are suppose to play and I sure hope I'm not the only one. The area around the village of Keene has also really changed over the summer, hydro poles were put up in the "Tent City" a couple of weeks ago with all kinds of lights. You can see the lights from my house and it looks really strange, almost like there's a race track. The hydro poles in the RV park went up this week and I hope it doesn't have lights as well.

Next week the family is going down to Sandbanks for a couple nights of camping, I am pretty excited because we decided that we weren't going to camp this year, but we called early this week and got a campsite. Even if it is a short trip, I think it will be prefect to re-charge and get ready for the next crazy month.

High on the Lift Locks and Sheetmetal

The last couple of nights have been big ones at the Festival of Lights, Barrage played on Wednesday and the Arrogant Worms came back to play after being rained out earlier in the summer. This was my third time seeing both groups live so I knew there was going to be two great shows.

Barrage was a totally new group since the last time I had seen them, the old ones had all moved on and were replaced by new people and some new music. They still played music from the first group, which I really liked, then in the second have they got into their new music which took us around the world with different styles of music. Some of the highlights for me was the playing of Jonny Cash's "Ghost Rider in the Sky", and "Devil's Dream" played the way Leahy taught us at camp.

On Thursday night I got to the park at 5 just to get a good seat and save some for the rest who were coming later. I got to see them do their sound check, and then I waited 3 hours for the concert to start. They came out to a very excited audience and sang "We are the Beaver". After that it was non-stop laughing until the end of the show. Once again they were sponsored by Ashburnham Sheetmetal, so the sheetmetal joke came randomly, they even changed some of their songs to fit in sheetmetal. "Plastic sucks, unless its credit", they were also sponsored by Ameri-Credit. They also took a few shot at the Lift Locks, apparently they had a wild night getting high on the Lift Locks. But they closed the show with the song I wanted them to sing "The Last Saskatchewan Pirate", that part made my night, and I hope I can be a pirate on the River Saskatchewan.

"A swinging sword, a skull and bones, and pleasant company
I never pay my income tax so screw the GST (SCREW IT!!!)
Prince Albert down to Saskatoon, the terror of the sea
If you wanna reach the CO-OP boy you gotta get by me

And its a heave ho, high, ho coming down the plains
Stealing wheat and barley and all the other grains
And it's a ho hey, high hey farmers bar your doors
When you see the Jolly Rodger on Regina's mighty shores"

The Arrogant Worms
The Last Saskatchewan Pirate

The letter has come!!

The letter from Katimavik has finally made it to the General Store in Keene, I opened it right when I got back into the car and had to do lots of digging to find out where I was off to. So three places I am going to go to are:

1. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (Sept 27 - Jan 9)
   
2. Shelburne, Ontario (Jan 10 - Apr 3)
3. Grand Sault, New Brunswick (Apr 4 - Jun 27)

I was so happy when I found out that I was going to be going to Saskatchewan, it was one of the places I was really hoping for. It seems to be a very unique place and if the fictional town of Dog River, Saskatchewan is anything like the rest of the place, I'm sure I'll feel right at home. I'm not too sure how I'll stand up to a Saskatchewan winter, it will probably be damn cold.

No one at home could figure out where Shelburne was, and what exactly they had, so we Wikipedia it. So its north of Toronto, close to Orangeville and has a population of 4200. Other then that there's not much more, two pizzarias, three churches, two Chinese food restaurants, and two grocery stores. They don't have a theater, however there's lots of movie rentals at the convenience stores!! But the best thing about Shelburne is that it is home of the Annual Canadian Championship Fiddling Contest, so that may also make me feel a little closer to home being surrounded by crazy fiddlers.

Grand-Sault (Grand Falls), NB has 5858 people, and 81.5% of them are bilingual. Its a little bit bigger then Shelburne, but big enough to have a Wal-Mart, and Canadian Tire. Their main way of life is potatoes, havesting and the processing of them, they have a McCain plant there. The town was established as a military post in 1791, known as Fort Carleton, then it was known as Colebrooke, then in 1890 the name was changed to the current one.

I only have 52 more days left until I'm on the plane to Saskatoon, (YXE for Dale) and it seems that I'll need less stuff then I thought I would. I don't know the plans for the big first day until 2 weeks before, then I get to find out the full details. But today I am going off to buy some luggage.