Mother’s Day and our granddaughter’s first birthday all fell on the same date this year.

We made the eight-hour round trip drive in a day to spend a few hours with my wonderful daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter.

We moved out to the country almost four years ago. Our lot is approximately 7 acres and I would say almost two acres of the lot requires lawn care. Lots of lawn care. The entrance area and the sides of the 900 foot long drive. The berm area for the septic tank. The front and back lawns of the house. The area around the main drive leading up to the garage.

Trimming and cutting can take a full day with a self-propelled 21-inch mower. Anywhere up to 8 hours.

This year we decided that we really did need to get a garden tractor for the property. We made our purchase last night from Canadian Small Engines located close to us in the beautiful rural area of Elginburg. With a 46-inch deck, the tractor will significantly reduce the amount of time spent mowing the property. We will also get a few accessories for the machine so that we can use it for other activities such as hauling gravel for road repair and spreading earth for landscaping.

Yup. I am starting to become a country boy. My very own tractor.

Lorraine and I spent two mornings hiking the streets of Montreal. Here are a few photos from our walks around the downtown area.

As part of our time in Montreal, we visited the Biodome. There are five ecosystems including a tropical rainforest, a Laurentian maple forest, Gulf of St. Lawrence, Labrador coast and the sub-Antarctic islands.

I was able to capture a few interesting images of the wildlife however I did find myself missing my Nikon D3s. The Fuji X Pro 1 is a terrific camera but the autofocus is not up to the task of capturing wildlife on the move. I missed quite a few shots.

That said, I also had a few that worked out like the above photo of a Lynx . Here are few other shots from the Biodome.

As part of our walking tour of Montreal, we visited the Notre-Dame Basilica. A magnificent structure. One of the tour guides mentioned that the building carries a $375 million insurance policy. You can learn more about this amazing place here.

We took the two boys out to Montreal this past week-end — a quick two-day visit to see some of the sites. On Sunday morning, Lorraine and I walked up to Ville de Mont-Royal. A few impressive homes line the streets in that area.

In just a few more weeks we will have a new addition to the Cleaver family: a golden retriever.

The puppy, female and as yet unnamed, was born as part of a litter of six girls and two boys on April 24th. The breeders, Pat and Tom of Acaciagold Kennels, are hard at work preparing our new puppy for her arrival to our home.

This will be our third pet. The first was a cocker spaniel named Frodo. He was given to us as a wedding gift way back in 1979. Alas, we were not able to keep Frodo and he made his way to Lorraine’s parents. The second was a siamese cat named Simon. I still miss Simon. He was an amazing pet.

I’m certain that we will have many exciting moments — and a few challenges — as we adjust to a new life in our household.

Or why I have no luck with solderless cables.

I used to wire my pedalboards with George L cables. From time to time, the cables would short out. Often when I was in the middle of a set. With the larger rig, I have a Road Rage true bypass effects loop which allows me to take any or all of the pedals out of the signal flow. As long as the cables going in and out of the loop are fine then the set can continue. And I can fix the broken line once I get back home.

With my new small pedalboard, I do not have a true bypass effects loop. If a line goes south then the whole board is down.

I decided to use a solderless Lava Cable kit to interconnect the small pedalboard —  six pedals in total. The Lava Cables sound better to my ear than the George L cables. The George L cables can be a bit too bright. In the past month, I have experienced several shorts in the cables. Twice during a set.

Enough is enough. I ordered a solder DIY kit from Lava Cable and I will pull out the iron to hardwire the interconnects.

Life is too short for broken lines.