Been a long time!

So it has been quite a while since I wrote on my blog!

Friends are everything!

New Car

So Peg and I got a new car! 1st one ever...a Kia Rio 5 EX Sport. 5 Spd...kinda looks like a Volkswagon Golf. It gets 50 MPG on the highway.

Willys Gone Wild!

So what do you get when you have a real desire to have your own Willys Wrecking Yard...you get to own three of your all time favorite Willys Jeep Trucks. Yup that's right I bought 2 more old Willys for $600.00, what a steal of a deal. I now have a 51, 54, and a 56. None of them run yet. I am restoring the 54 first..it is coming along very well. So far so good with Peggy. She is happy for me having fun with my hobby. I even bought a few diecast Willys Jeep trucks and wagons off ebay!

So it's Christmas!

Well it is here...Christmas Eve and the excitement begins. Everyone but Kyle is home for the holidays. Well kinda. I am so looking forward to being together, and to see and hear the excitement in Sterlings face and voice. He is gonna love it as well as London. Piper will too, but she is still a little young.

Merry Christmas to all!!

Homecoming

Wow...Kate is coming home tommorrow from Peru. She is sick and is coming home on a medical release from her mission. This is good that she will get some better medical attention than what is available in Peru. We will pick her up Wednesday night in Calgary. December 15th update...Kate has been in the hospital 13 days as of today, and no diagnosis yet! Wow we are anxcious to see what is going on. She is doing better, but we need to determine the cause of her illness.

Why can't people learn to drive?

On the average driving day coming to work from Cardston to Lethbridge and return there are at least 3 or 4 driving incidents that frustrate me to no end. Why are people allowed to even drive when they drive the way they do. There is one lady that tailgates me quite often in her Volkswagon Jetta, she is an older lady and heaven forbid if she gets behind ya, she just sits right on your bumper. One day I think I made her crap her pants tho, cause I slammed on my brakes. Had she hit me I would have said a coyote ran out in front of me and I had to brake. But instead she slammed on her brakes and had this scared look on her face like she was gonna hit something. I watched all this in my rear view mirror as she was so close. That seemed to work for the rest of the trip to Cardston...but a week later there she was again.

Then there are the guys that have to pass to get ahead of you just to arrive at the Cardston highway corner at the same time you arrive, or the guy that passes you just to turn off 1000 feet ahead...so like why can't they wait 4 seconds to turn?

Then there are the idiot drivers that pass you on double solid lines when there are oncoming cars and you have to slam on your brakes so they can get back in front of you, or the guy who passes and the oncoming car has to move onto the shoulder so he does not get hit.

Oh and how about the guy who passes you and then slows down so that you have to pass them again to maintain the speed limit.

There are so many bad drivers on the road, and the only time you see the cops are when it is their break time sitting at coffee and donut shops.

Projectionist and Werewolves

So as a result of volunteering so much at the theatre in Cardston, I got asked to be a projectionist at the theatre and work there showing movies. So I took the job and have been doing the job for a number of months now...since July I think. So anyway I get to see lots of movies, some I like and others I don't.

So what is the big craze over New Moon anyway? I don't get why all the moms and teenage girls are all so crazy over this movie??? Vampires and werewolves...Hmmm! Should I be howling at the screen too?

Mittenaries and Misc.

So now that our two missionaries are out there...one in Boise Idaho and one in Arequipa Peru, we are empty nesters! Wow it is so quiet at home! Peggy and I often just have to sit and stare at each other! Well Peg did get the TV back from the repair shop, so that helps Ha! Ha!

We both got our hini shots and are good to go. No real concerns with the flu here! Although we know someone that has passed away from it.

Moose hunting for Corey and Mandy was great...they got a bull and a cow moose in Grandeprairie the first week of November. They also have gotten 3 deer this season.

I am looking forward to going Elk (Wapiti) hunting in the late season in February near Waterton.

Life Changes

Pictured here is Peggy with our 3rd grandchild Piper Isabella born July 10, 2009. 7lbs 5 oz

It is interesting the way things happen in life. We all experience so many different things. Our family is no different...Kyle and Katelyn are both leaving on Missions this fall. Kyle will leave Sept 30 for Boise Idaho and Katelyn will follow 3 weeks later and will be going to Peru (Spanish speaking). That will make Peg and I empty nesters for a couple years at least. Corey and Mandy are working hard and hunting hard. Andrea and Mark are the newest parents, and Megan and Jeff have there work cut out for them with London as she is just a going concern! Peg and I are very involved with the theatre in Cardston, and love it.

Summer Fun

Well it is almost over and it has barely started...summer that is, but we are keeping busy this summer, and it has not been to difficult when our son Kyle has been involved in the Carriage House Theatre summer productions once again this summer. He is playing Don Lockwood (the lead) in Singin in the Rain, and Ham in the Ark, and is also in Leader of the Pack. So Peggy and I spend a lot of time at the theatre volunteering and helping out where we can. I am even doing the lights for Singin in the Rain.

As I have seen the talent from all the cast this summer, I have been totally impressed with one 16 year old girl in the Ark. Sydnee Ralph has an amazingly gifted voice for her age. She and Kyle sang "Come What May" 4 years ago as a duet at Raymond days, and I always wanted to hear them sing again...I never imagined they would end up singing and acting in the Ark this summer together. So here they are, and they will also be opening for Trace Bundy (www.tracebundy.com) together on Sept 12 at the Carriage House Theatre in Cardston Alberta...so come see for yourself, the talent that I am seeing!! I think I am going to miss all the Kyle shows for the next two years while Kyle is in Boise Idaho!

Piper

My 3rd granchild was born July 10, 2009 at 3:00 p.m. Piper Isabella Burbank, parents, Mark and Andrea Burbank. She was 19 5/8 inches and 7 lbs, 5 oz, with lots of dark hair!

1954 Willys Jeep

Well it has been a while since I last wrote on my blog. I have now purchased a 1954 Willys Jeep truck 4 x 4. It has a 226 Super Hurricane inline flathead 6 cyl engine, 3 speed T90A transmission, and a PTO driven winch. I am currently re-building it completely from the ground up. It is my 2 - 3 year project. Anyone wanna help sand?...Come on we are all SANDERS!!!

November 2009 update...So I have been working on my Willys , at present it sits in the garage beside Kyles 1966 Jeepster Commando which is stored for two years while he is in Boise Idaho on his mission. So my Willys is now all dismantled and I continue to sand, and sand, and sand, and weld, and grind, and so forth. It is coming along slowly, but surely, and I find a lot of satisfaction in working on my truck. It is good therapy and fun at the same time. I am so enjoying my Willys Jeep time!

Stuck in the Snow! and some Pizza!

So like when do you ever get stuck in the snow driving a Jeep? Well it just happened to me. Kyle just got home tonight from Lethbridge and we had a real hankerin for a meat lovers pizza. Peggy made the call and we waited the allotted time of 20 minutes and then I figured that I had better get a move on and go pick up our pizza. I grabbed the Jeep keys from Kyle and headed out.

Now you have to understand we have had a ton of snow and the town still has not plowed our street.

So away I went...I backed up on the street thinking I would just back into the driveway and pull ahead and away down the street. Well that did not work, I got stuck and could not move forward or back. So after I got Kyle to come out to push and got the snow shoveled away from the wheels I tried to free the Jeep up from the snow, and well the back tires spin great...I spun em down to the pavement and started to do a smokin brake stand!

Well to make a long story short and cause I am sick of typing...2 neighbor guys came over and helped push me out! Oh by the way my 1989 Jeep Comanche truck is 2 wheel drive in case you were wondering why I just didn't slap it in 4 wheel drive to get unstuck.

Oh ya the pizza was good too!

Random stuff and pics of Jeeps

So like this blogging stuff is just crazy to me...it is so technologically trying for me, but I am figuring it out a bit at a time...so here is a picture or two or three or whatever I can figure out today...














So this was my 1957 Willys Jeep with a Chev 327 small block, 3 speed tranny, and 488 Diffs. Man could this jeep ever go. I used to race Camaros at JP High School and take them easily. I bought this for $800 and it had a 226 flathead 6 cyl which got changed pretty quick. Thanks to Dad who built me an adapter plate for the Jeep trans to a chev motor and for all the hours of putting it all together and making it run. I wish I had this truck today!










This was my 1964 Jeep Wagoneer 4x4 I bought in 1979 for $200 north of Edmonton. I sold it to Dad for a couple years then bought it back in 1982. It was a standard with a 6 cylinder engine, virtually no rust on it. It was a real gem. Peggy and I moved from Edmonton back to Nova Scotia just after Christmas 1983 and drove the Wagoneer 3000 miles through blizzards and bad roads with Andrea who was a baby. Were we crazy or what? I sold it to a couple brothers that ran an Esso station in Springhill N.S. Then it rusted out so bad from all the salt that they ended up scrapping it.













This 1974 Jeep Pioneer Truck I bought in Granum off a farmer for $600. The motor was no good so I bought a American Motors 258 from a friend for $100 and put it in it. It was an automatic transmission, and was 4 wheel drive. I sold it to Dad who took it up to Grande Prairie for a while, then I bought it back from him. I ended up selling it to a guy in Calgary that had big plans of making it into a monster truck for mud bogging...I wonder if he ever did?














I bought this 1973 Jeep J4000 AMC 304, 3 spd for $600 in Claresholm off a couple yahoos that were wannabe auto wreckers. They had 4 jeeps at the wrecker yard and I bought them all over a period of a few years. This one came with a 1980 Cherokee which had a good motor AMC 360 which I swapped out and put in the truck. Corey claimed this one and drove it while in grade 12. Then we sold it to a guy from Calgary who was gonna use it for construction work. Oh by the way the other two jeep I bought off these guys were a 1987 Cherokee, and a 1990 Cherokee. I put a trans and transfercase in the 90 and sold it. I put a 1991 4.0 ltr engine in the 87 and drove it for 5 years then sold it to a native guy in Fort Macleod who still drives it















Well I have had a few jeeps over the years, but this one is the best yet pricewise anyway...Although it is still sitting in Babb Montana since buying it in October 2006, I only paid $40 Canadian for it. This is a 1964 - 66? it has the original Hurricane 6 cyl 3 speed standard 4x4 warn hubs.
















And this is me and my moose that I shot this year...November 1, 2008 Grande Prairie Alberta.

Christmas

Well I have not written for some time. I guess I have just been to busy with the Christmas hustle and bustle. Christmas is so over the top with all the gifts and everyone in a big rush to get everything done. We have forgotten the real meaning, and have become so commercialized because of it. I know I even have got caught up in it at times, and after wish I hadn't. Any way enough said. I did have a good Christmas having all of the family home and seeing the grandkids even tho they did not stay long enough. We all had some quality time together. I have become softer in my grandpa-hood of my life. I really want to have my kids and my grandchildren around me!

Home Again!

So Vancouver was okay...nothing really great. Things were really expensive there, and I have decided that I hate flying and will never fly anywhere again! The work conference was kinda lame, but I persevered and came home with a scarf from the conference. Ha! Ha!

To Be or Not To Be that is the Question!

So there have been many plays and musicals done over the years...but none like Fiddler on the Roof! I was in Fiddler way back in 1976 in Edmonton and had a blast. Well tonight I did something that I would never have thought I would ever do. I auditioned for a part in Fiddler on the Roof at the Carriage House Theatre in Cardston. I was not really nervous, but I was a little unsure of myself as I have not done anything like this for many many years. I did okay and I am pretty sure I am in. It helps when Peggy is the stage manager and I knew the two people I auditioned for. Kyle also auditioned tonight. The director even asked if Andrea wanted to try out...so now she is thinking about it!

Vancouver Here I Come

So it is Wednesday November 12, 2008 and I am just getting ready to go to Vancouver for a work related employment conference. All expenses paid! I am not excited about flying...just cause I hate flying..I guess I have watched to many movies where planes crash etc. So I am gone once again for 4 days and will be back on Saturday. I have been off work since Oct 31st for a little vacation time hunting moose, so I am ready to get back to work next Monday.

It's all about Willys

Well here I am learning some new techy stuff...blogging. Hum this is all greek to me and I am not even greek! You are probably wondering what the heck this Willys thing is...well I have this infatuation with Willys Jeeps, and so hence the willys and stuff blog page. Pictures of Willys to follow.