Monday, December 19, 2022

The Bow River

I apologize if this gets confusing but as things happen I want to share them. Right now I'm going to take a break from my current life and jump back to July.

Monday July 4, 2022  

I think after the excitement of last week and the celebration on the weekend we took Monday as a chance to catch our breath and catch up on some errands that needed to be done. Mostly we swam and played and visited with Grandpa and Nana who were leaving the next morning. McKenzie went off with the girls and she got her ears pierced. She was quite excited. Later in the evening once everyone gathered back at the house we headed to north Calgary to have a hamburger and milkshake from Peters Drive In. Who knows when we’ll get back there again.  

It was very cold but we bundled up as best we could and had a great time. I think Justin was probably the warmest in his Wooky suit.

Tuesday July 5, 2022  

Happy Birthday Lisa. Dad and Carol treated Lisa (and me) to a birthday breakfast and then they headed home.

Tuesday had warmed up a bit so we decided to go rafting down the Bow River.  It was so much fun. The two Lisa’s were in one raft with Cameron, Kira and Evan in another and then the rest of us piled in the last raft which was considrably bigger. For the most part, the two smaller rafts were off limits but our raft was continually losing people over board.


That night we had cake and some gifts for Lisa’s birthday.

Sunday, December 11, 2022

They're Starting To Leave

Sunday July 3, 2022  

Sunday was a sad day because three of the kids went home. Sarah only arrived Thursday afternoon but left today so her visit was less than seventy two hours. Ben and Brandon also flew out. It made a pretty early day for me because I drove Brandon to the airport, drove back to the house and then drove Sarah to the airport.
I think I got up at four in the morning for Brandon.

The fact that it was only Serene and her kids, Alex and his family and Mom and I remaining didn’t slow us down any. We spent most of today hanging around the house. Do you like how we boys are all bonding?

We also celebrated James birthday today.

 

 

 

The kids were out on the water a lot this trip.

 

Tuesday, December 06, 2022

Donna's Memorial

 Saturday July 2, 2022


This was the day of the celebrations. The program mom prepared looked like this.

Starts at 1:00

Conducting                    Alex Leavitt

Opening Prayer             Sarah Taylor

Eulogy                           Ben Leavitt


Musical Number           Amazing Grace

                                                Kira Palmer          Oboe

                                                Brandon Leavitt   Violin

Tribute                                     Zachary Hodder

Tribute                                     Iris Archibald

Musical Number                     I Often Go Walking

                                                   Great Grandchildren

                              Accompanied by Serene Leavitt

Closing Prayer                            Justin Palmer

Slide Show

Food Truck starts serving at 1:30

As you can see from the program, Ben delivered a eulogy. Mom wrote it and Ben tweaked it a bit to better fit him but what mom wrote is basically what Ben said. This is what Mom wrote.

My Grandma, Donna Grayce Kesler Shaw was born on April 18th, 1939, in Edson, Alberta. She was the 3rd of 4 children born to Alvin & Alice Kesler and the only child not born in Lethbridge.

Her parents were homesteading on some land in MacKay, not far from Edson at the time of her birth. Family folklore has it that she was a twin and the twin died at childbirth. By around the age of 2 years old, her family had moved back to Lethbridge to help on the Kesler homestead.

Grandma grew up with a lot of aunts, uncles, and cousins on both her Kesler and Logan side. She had the opportunity to live with her Grandma Logan while her dad built a home. She had fond memories of that time.

As a child Grandma loved to play school with her older sister Lenora and she was reading at the age of 4 years old. Auntie Lenora would tell you it was because she was a good teacher, Grandma would tell you it was because Auntie Lenora was a strict teacher, and she didn’t want to get the strap. Thanks to her sister, Grandma’s love for reading carried on throughout her life. Grandma was always reading a book, usually a trashy Harlequin Romance. She liked to read those as an adult because they were an easy read, she could read one in a day, and it was an escape. She also loved doing crossword puzzles.

This love of reading was a lifeline for her, when as a young girl she became very ill with scarlet fever and was in the hospital for several months. She could have no visitors, and her parents would drop off books and treats for her and wave to her through the hospital windows (sounds a lot like Covid!). Sadly, her scarlet fever affected her heart the rest of her life.

As a youth, Grandma was involved with different youth groups; church, CGIT – Canadian Girls in Training, and in high school she was the president of the Junior Red Cross Club.

While in high school, Grandma started working summers for the Parks & Recreation Department of the City of Lethbridge. The first two summers she worked as a playground director. A year after her high school graduation and for the following two summers, she served as the playground supervisor over 20 playground directors and 11 playgrounds. As the supervisor she taught 3-day courses where she trained the playground directors. In her role as the playground supervisor, she organized crafts, scavenger hunts, swimming, skits, dances, wiener roasts, sports events and competitions between playgrounds, pet parades, floats, and she wrote a weekly article for the newspaper regarding the playgrounds. She finished each article with “Play is our Business.” In one article she talked about an upcoming tour of the Pepsi plant. I bet she LOVED that tour!!

In the upcoming slideshow you’ll see Grandma sitting in a big puddle of water. On more than one occasion at family gatherings Grandma ended up either sitting in a puddle of water, having water dumped on her head, or having great grandkids, great nieces and nephews squirt her with water. I think Grandma must have been a magnet for water because in an article in the Lethbridge Herald it read, “Adams Playground Director Donna Kesler, getting the surprise of her life from fellow directors as her team took top honors in the annual inter-playground swim meet held at the Fritz Sick pool. They picked her up and threw her in the pool, clothes and all.” Grandma has always been a good sport.

Grandma’s position as a playground supervisor was quite an undertaking. For example, every year they would hold an Indian Pow Wow and there would be between 900 – 1000 children attending. Grandma’s last summer she worked in this capacity was July 1960. On August 30th, she is quoted in the paper as saying, “Miss Kesler believes playground work is a ‘golden opportunity’ for anyone who plans on working with children as a career. At the playgrounds one learns quickly if this is the type of work he wants.”

Her experience served her well as she went to university for a career in teaching. Grandma taught elementary school in Lethbridge and Foremost before she was married. Once she was married, she moved to Edmonton where she taught one year at an elementary school and one year at a junior high school.

Once my mom Lisa was born in 1963, Grandma did not go back to teaching. When she did go back to work, she worked at the University of Alberta in the library until Auntie Lori was born in 1967. She eventually went back to work but started a new job at NAIT – Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in their library. She worked there for a couple of years before getting a job at the Law Courts Library in Edmonton where she worked for 38 years.

At the law courts library Grandma was known for her ability to quickly find statutes and case law for attorneys and judges. She was also a driving force in organizing special occasions and ensuring everyone felt welcomed and valued.

Grandma loved animals and they loved her. She especially loved reminiscing about her childhood scotty dog named Scotty. As adults, her brother, Uncle Walter, made her a wooden scotty dog that he painted. It was one of Grandma’s treasures.

Grandma LOVED to travel and learn about other countries, cultures and customs. She traveled all over the world and had wonderful experiences and stories that she shared with us. There is a quote that sums up how Grandma felt about traveling “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”

Grandma LOVED making things and being creative. She was a true crafter. She was a partner in Ideas4Crafts running craft shows for 25 years. After Grandma and her partners closed the business, she continued to make crafts and attended craft shows up until Covid.

Grandma was also known for organizing bus trips to Montana for shopping. She loved planning these trips and always had fun games and activities to do with those traveling.

Grandma LOVED the Oilers as much as she loved crafts. She especially enjoyed the years that she was a season ticket holder and could go to the games. Grandma had a lot of fun teasing and going back and forth with Jim and Justin – especially Justin because he’s a Flames fan. Oh, how she would have loved to rub in this year’s Battle of Alberta! If you passed her house on game night you might have heard her yelling at the referees.

Above all the things mentioned, Grandma lived for her family. She worked tirelessly as a single mom not only to provide a home for her girls, but so they could experience travel, and time with family. And although she was divorced, she made the effort to take her children to see their grandparents and great grandparents from their dad’s side. Grandma never drove so this meant long Greyhound bus rides.

Always quick to lend a helping hand to family, friends and even strangers, Grandma was known for her kind heart and generous spirit. Her greatest joy were her grandchildren, and especially her great grandchildren who affectionally call her GG.

As a believer in education, Grandma was particularly proud that all 9 of her grandchildren completed their post-secondary studies.

Ben, you can sum it up and end it here with whatever you feel impressed to end with.

The celebration went flawlessly.

Other than the excellent eulogy, perhaps the highlight of the celebration was Brandon and Kira’s duet on the oboe and violin. They were excellent.

We then all went back to the house and hung out with Grandpa and Nana for the afternoon.


It was a good day.

Monday, December 05, 2022

Happy Canada Day

Friday July 1, 2022

Today it was time to bid farewell to Waterton and head back to Calgary. Sarah had flown in Thursday and was waiting for us along with Fara, Karla and Tina.  

Boyd and Carol also showed up since most of the family was there and all of Lori’s family was there as well. We all gathered together for Donna’s celebration of life which is going to happen the next day on Saturday.

This day was spent on last minute shopping for the celebration and playing in the lake and the pool.  

In the afternoon Cameron and Piper were baptized. There were a ton of people there and it was pretty special.




In the evening we headed out to a little pond by Strathmore and watched fireworks. They were very amazing fireworks. The best part was when they lit up fireworks on the lake itself.









 





Sunday, December 04, 2022

Kesler Lake

Thursday June 30, 2022


Thursday was a bit of a lazy day but we eventually all donned our T shirts and took some pictures. After we took pictures at the Prince of Wales I took our car down by Lake Linet to tell some stories from the old days. We noticed a crowed of people looking up on a hill and we saw a young brown bear playing around in the grass.

Princess Lisa (as compared to Mom who is Queen Lisa) has been wanting to see a bear this entire trip so we called them and she was there in no time. By the time she arrived though the bear had wandered over the top of the hill but she went running up the trail after it.

I followed after her just in case I needed to save her from the bear. By the time we got to the top of the hill the bear had wandered back and laid down on the trail to give us a show. Meanwhile a bunch of the grandkids had followed us up the  hill and it was cool for them to see it so close as well.  

We had also been seeing deer and sheep all over the park during the entire week.

In the afternoon we decided to take the grandkids out to the buffalo paddock to see some more animals.

A few years ago Lisa learned that there was a lake not far from the buffalo paddock called Kesler Lake. The story about Kesler Lake as it has been handed down through the Kesler family is that Lisa’s grandfather and his brother homesteaded Kesler Lake before world war 1 but then her grandpa had to head out to fight in the war. His brother promised to take good care of the lake while he was serving his country so off he went.

You can imagine how upset he would have been when he arrived home after the war to find that his brother had lost the property.

We knew there was no road going to the lake but since we were this close we decided to see how close we could get to it. We put Kesler Lake in google maps and followed it until the road ended.

There was a small house at the end of the road and a nice lady told us the best way to get to the Lake but that we would be hiking over another guys property but she thought the owner of that land would be unloading cattle onto the summer range and he would probably give us permission to hike to the lake.  

We drove south about a mile and caught the guy just as he was closing his gate. He was a very nice man and told us the version of the story about Kesler Lake that had been handed down through his family. In their family they had always been told that their father had won Kesler Lake either in a hose race or a card game. No wonder Arthur Kesler was so upset. I would be ticked.

Well we were there but we had two cars full of people who had not planned to hike. I suggested that one car go back with the little kids but we all decided to head out.  

Since we were all wearing shorts and some of us were in sandals it didn’t take long before the little kids all headed back and Lisa and I were left with Princess Lisa, Sydney and Hayley.    

We hiked through some very beautiful country but by the time we found the lake we were pretty cut up. I am so glad we persevered though. I imagine Queen Lisa would have given in and turned around but Princess Lisa was all upbeat and encouraging and kept us moving forward.

We were so excited when we first caught a glimpse of the lake. Even though we were confident we were headed in the righ direction you do begin to doubt yourself after some time.

When we did finally find the lake it was stunning. I would love to live on a lake like that. Have of the lake is actually in Waterton Park and Grandpa Kesler had permits to graze cattle inside the park.


This picture is where we believe the cabin stood that Grandpa and his brother had built.  

Thursday, November 17, 2022

Bertha Falls

Wednesday June 29, 2022


Today we decided to hike up to Bertha Falls. Every where that Ben went he was trying to figure out what all of the plants were. Googles new search function was pretty good at identifying most of them.




It was very strange to hike through all of the dead trees.





Bertha Falls were beautiful and it looks like this part of the mountain was spared by the fire.






Some of the kids wanted to play in the water so Mom and I stayed back with them and everyone else headed down the mountain.




When I was a kid living in Waterton I was hopelessly in love with Christine Hunter so I carved our names on this rock retaining wall. At the time the wall was new but now after fifty years of erosion the wall does not look so new anymore and there is no sign of Christine on the wall.


Once we were all down from the mountain we rented surreys and cruised around town. It was very tiring because the little kids are not much help on the peddles.



Once it got dark we decided to hike up Bears Hump. That is always a fun hike.

Wood Pellets – Lots of Wood Pellets

Last year Rob decided that since we’re in the smoking business we should sell wood pellets. I did my homework and settled on a company in the Ukraine. This was long before Russia decided to try and take over Ukraine. To make a long story short we ended up buying 39,000 pounds of wood pellets and shipped them to Miami.

By the time we got the pellets to the US they were about $7 a bag and the going price was about $20 for a twenty pound bag but about the same time our wood pellets arrived the price of wood pellets dropped dramatically and now you can buy a thirty pound bag on sale for $10. To make matters worse Rob and Zach were managing the wood pellet business on Amazon and they had our pellets listed at $30 a bag. Needless to say, I haven’t sold many wood pellets but all the while I’m paying $500 a month to store them.

I finally decided to drop Amazon and move the pellets closer to home. If nothing else I’m saving $300 a month storage fees but I can also use them in my testing and maybe start selling them on line. They are premium pellets so I can sell them at a higher price but within reason.

I rented two pallet jacks and luckily Ben was able to help me, but the biggest blessing of all is that the driver of the truck had an electric pallet jack and was very helpful. He backed his 18 wheeler into the narrow driveway and spent the next four hours helping us unload eighteen pallets of wood pellets and haul them to the other side of the facility.

Ben stayed longer than he probably should have but finally had to leave but by that time we had most of the pallets in the storage unit and then Kira called. Ben had helped finish the heavy lifting but we had three pallets that wouldn’t fit so we decided to stack individual bags on top of the other bags. Since there are 105 bags per pallet Kira and I moved 315 bags of wood pellets. I had loaded the last bag into the storage unit, walked out into the driveway and it started pouring rain.

Let me tell you what a miracle that was. The pellet on the right is a good healthy pellet ready to burn. The pellet on the left is one that has been wet. Can you imagine a pallet full of wet wood pellets? That would be 2,000 pounds of saw dust. Sure the pellets are in plastic bags but those bags are porous to prevent condensation from forming in the bag.

I am so glad that the Lord saw fit to hold back the rain until Kira and I got the pellets under cover.

So Kira and I were just finishing up the last of the bags when the manager of the storage units comes up to us and mentions that we are not allowed to store wood pellets in the storage units. I thought he must have been joking.

He had been watching us all morning and decided to tell us now? I was dumb founded and I asked him why? He says that they are flammable. I pointed out that half the storage units are filled with wooden furniture and I’d even seen one full of cans of paint. He then said that they attract pests. I responded that pests would be just as happy living in an old couch.

I finally realized that I’m arguing with the wrong guy and asked for a number of his manager. He said he couldn’t give me his number but assured me that he would call me. He finally did and we have it all straightened out now.