I’ve been progressing steadily in the family tree and have frequently shot off on tangents into the unknown. I’ve been into all facets of the family but most recently into the Federspiels, It’s just that I’ve come across a few family trees on Ancestry that have a wealth of info, and some of it pertains to the Sklapsky history. Specifically they had some photos of Lillie Mae Sklapsky Federspiel, most I’ve never seen. Thanks to Michael R. Federspiel for his contribution to our cause.
Morning Walk
Now that Maureen has started back to work I have again begun to drive part way with her and walk back. On very few occasions I have taken my ‘real’ camera with me. I always have my phone. That in itself is another story.
This was taken on one of the more recent walks home.
Swee’Pea
Ivy and I went to the park the other day. She was being coy…..
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Long Time Coming, Some Family photos
I’m trying out a new photo gallery for the blog in order to simplify the process of uploading photos. Here’s the first kick at the can with some shots of Ivy and Madden from our trip to Kelowna in May.
A Little Something
You know, in the interest of providing some continuity of posts (as infrequent as that may be lately) I’ll hang some blog space on the good looks of my grandson.
This photo was taken at Christmas. We were staying in a timeshare near Kelowna with my sister and her family and we also had the distinct pleasure of hanging out with Madden for a couple of those days. One of the afternoons we strolled around the complex and I delighted in the wonderment he showed with his surroundings. He never ceases to provide me with either humour or entertainment with his antics. It’s really quite amazing what these little creatures can do to us.
Future Artist?
Maybe we’ve got something here.
Did I Say “Change”?
Well it’s been a busy time, and one not without some good and bad. Maybe disappointing is better – not bad.
I went to Kelowna a week or so ago with a purpose in mind. Yes, I know my purpose was to see my daughter and family but a secondary purpose was to see my Great-Aunt Aurla and other relatives. She, Aurla, is Charles Reeves youngest daughter. For those of you who just dropped in Charles is my paternal grandmother’s father. If you log-in to the family tree (soon to be online) you will be able to see the lineage.
Unfortunately, for reasons I don’t completely understand, we were unable to connect. In fact I wasn’t able to see any of the family who were present in Kelowna that week. I was, and am, disappointed of course. But c’est la vie, hopefully there will be other such opportunities.
On a positive note though I did hear from Aurla on her return home. She has graciously allowed me to repost the Charles Walter Reeves memoir. This is under the proviso that the memoir be accessible only to family, not the general public as it was before. This is more than fair, and one I had considered prior to it’s removal from the sklapsky.ca site.
So, where is this ‘family’ portion of the site you may ask? Well, it should be up shortly, maybe as soon as tonight (Sept.18), and I’ll post a notification to that effect once it goes live. Hopefully there won’t be too many glitches along the way. In addition to the memoir there will be access to a family tree with some, shall we say, more personal information regarding those on the tree. I look forward to any feedback.
Once I get the ‘family’ side of the site available you will only be able to get in by using a log-in name and password. I can assign such (likely) or perhaps allow those interested to choose their own. Let’s see how it shakes out……..
Busy Summer So Far
Many apologies for the gap between my posts, it’s been an action packed summer and there’s been either little time available, or a diminishing energy in the available time, to sit down and write. I also often feel like all I do is apologize here so I will attempt to change that. So there, I’m not sorry.
So far this summer vacation we’ve either been camping, visiting Kelowna, or out and about gallivanting to other locales. This past week we’ve had some quiet time at home and so far we are relishing it. Our original plan was to go to the GoodGuys car show in Spokane Wash. this weekend but we ran out of steam and said “Hey, let’s do something different and just stay home”. So we did.
There have also been very few calls about Dad this week, or requirements for attention, and that helps. It seemed I was making frequent trips in to see him and either take him to the Doctor or the hospital. Thankfully he is at his home now and let’s hope it stays that way for a while. He is having more and more challenges walking due to a numbness in his right leg. That could be due to a pinched nerve in his back or it’s possible he’s suffered another minor stroke. Whatever the cause it is handicapping him even more and making him prone to stumble and fall, of which he’s done enough lately, thank you very much.
As I mentioned we’ve made a number of trips to Kelowna to see the kids and while I thoroughly enjoy it I also miss the quiet and solitude of home. I think I must be becoming a curmudgeon or something, my old age (joke) is starting to show in my love of just sitting in my rocking chair and smoking my pipe. To be truthful I have neither a rocker nor a pipe but the analogy stands, I like my space and being away limits my options to write, putter in the yard, or read. And I’m not complaining either. I know I have a great life!
Don’t get me wrong, I love being with the fam and after even a week away from them I’m looking at pictures of them and wishing I were there. Ah….., the inconsistencies of life.
We have also been camping, a few times, sometimes alone and once with some friends from Japan. Our friend Yuzo brought his 13 year old daughter Lisa to Canada from Japan. It was her first time here and he brought her to broaden the English skills she’s acquiring in school. Yuzo was once one of our homestay students for a brief time, taking the ESL course (English as a Second Language) at Selkirk College. We tried to fill their visit with some memorable occasions, tours of Mission Hill winery, camping, and of course dinner at the Colander. Lisa loves Justin Bieber and at the Colander we were fortunate to be served by a Justin lookalike.
For camping we were very fortunate to get one of the best sites at Syringa, totally by luck and Maureen’s hard work (I also think Karma). Lisa thought the water in the lake was a bit chilly but it was sure refreshing on the hot days.
Maureen and I certainly had a great week as well and loved spending time with both Yuzo and Lisa. It’s been about 11 years or so since I saw Lisa last, the last time was during my visit to their home in 2001. Lisa was just a toddler then, and as evidenced by the photos below she created a new way to signal “peace”. We used that method numerous times during their trip. Yuzo has come ‘home’ to Castlegar to visit a few times.
So when all is said and done “a good time was had by all”. I look forward to our next visit, perhaps it will be there. Only time will tell.
My Little Munchkin
My daughter told me the other day she had the opportunity to get a good deal on some family photos. “Do you mind?”, she asked. No, I don’t mind. It’s more important to have them, not who takes them.
I love the little munchkin. Any photos are good photos.
Cute or what?
New “Old” Photos Added
Some progress has been made on the genealogy front with the addition of new ‘old’ photos to the Photo Gallery. For those of you that are not aware of this feature you can click on the words “Photo Gallery” in the menu at the top of any of the website pages, in this case the Blog page. That will take you to the website location where all the photos are stored. There are Madden photos as well as Genealogy photos. As with the blog and website in general it is a dynamic site, that is the photos may change a bit over time, if I do some cataloging or adjustments to the pictures.
As I’ve mentioned before I got many photos from family that I’ve scanned and begun organizing. In some cases I’m not really sure who the family is in the picture, with that I’d like some help and feedback. Also some of the photos seen in this post may not (or may) be seen in the Photo Gallery yet.
In this case I know who this is in the photo below. I always have a warm feeling looking at old pics. Where the picture was taken I’m not sure.
Another photo I like is:
These folks I know. Unfortunately Aunt Muriel (Gale) is absent.
This one above is of course my Grandfather Frank, my Dad’s dad. I’m not sure who the young girl is.
I’ll put a few more in a collage below. Just click on the photos to enlarge.
This was only a fraction of the photos I’ve scanned. I will continue to add and update. I should also add I’ve been spending quite a bit of time on updating the family tree which includes Sklapsky, Reeves, Olsen and a number of others. I’m not sure how wide I’ll go at this time. This research is done and recorded online on a site called Ancestry.ca. I’m not sure at this time how visible the site is to those who aren’t members of Ancestry.ca. I’ll look into making it more widely visible.
As always any comments are appreciated.