A couple of weeks ago, I met with Laurena and Mom and Dad in Brook Village for a major facelift/overhaul of the Brook Village Grocery (Dad's store).  We began on Saturday at 2pm and ran to the following Saturday at 6:30pm, painting, renovating and organizing the front part of the store.  It was long days, but fun to see the day to day goings on at the store.  We also heard lots of stories from the customers about their own experiences as kids at the store and even more about the store's history and its various owners.  Dad plans to repost the store for sale soon. 

This past weekend was another busy one with the kids going for their first hike of the year.  Rebecca and Abby brought their magnifing glasses for a little investigation along the way.  Rebecca was really proud to find a pheasant feather during their trip.  Abby and Rebecca walked on their own on the trail as well!

Rebecca and Abby wearing their backpacks and picking rocks.

Rebecca celebrates that they found the waterfall!

Abby at creekside.

On the same weekend, I had some new training with the Belleisle Valley Fire Department.  We were being trained as ice rescue technicians, being able to go out in the water and ice to retrieve someone from the ice or open water.  With the warm weather through this week, the training was a little bit more difficult.  Most ice was stable for a while, but began to sink with any extra load.  So, we had to be quick with our rescues!  It was really too bad that my suit had a tiny but chilly leak in the backside! (Photos by Mike Sherwood)

Starting off on the rescue sled. 

Making my way past the open water and slushy ice.

Here we are practicing loading a patient on a floating stretcher, except the ice was sinking quick!  Coming back was always the fun part as those on the land were pulling our rope lines and we could float on the way to shore.

Sheena's also been hard at work over the last few months with her wood working for the Wonderland Day Care and some other projects.  Here's a few photos of her great work: