Resurrecting the blog

I hereby vow that I will start to blog again. I miss it. So keep checking for new links and updates!

December 23. My daily morning routine.

Here is a video clip, specifically for my nieces and nephew. But I am sure everyone will like it.

1000+

I just wanted to thank everybody for reading my blog. Trail Blazer has reached 1000+ views!

Lake Cameron

The bunnies of VIU

The scenic drive home. EVERYDAY

VIU campus... lots of stairs

The only way to watch a hockey game! Jerky and home-made chocolate chip cookies.

THe view from the house

My last few weeks

Pretty much all that has been happening is going to school, my one class, 2 hours a day.  And now that hockey season has started, I am watching hockey quite a bit. Last Saturday Sara, Jonas and I went walking through swampy forest. FUN! Sara has just finished the last touches of our basement repainting. Two weeks ago we had our thanksgiving dinner and it was delicious. We have also had a lot if fog and today we got 6 new chickens so Sara and I had to build a new roosting pole. Also Wednesday I went to a free community floor hockey game, this will go on for quite a bit.

The First Week of School!

Don't worry pictures are taken just have not been uploaded yet

My first week and two days of University/English 12 are over. My week has been awesome! The English class I am in should not be called English 12 but English 3 as it is extremely easy. The first three days were sentence structure. What? and then we moved on to paragraphs, WOW! I know what you are thinking seriously Luke? Yes. I am serious.

My university campus however is awesome. Built into a hillside and with a lot of trees and many, many bunnies and baby bunnies. AWESOME! and distracting, where was I? Oh yeah and you can see the mainland from my University. I got my first assessment back yesterday and it was 75%. Not bad if you ask me putting me in the upper quartile of the class. and that was only my draft so it is not even worth 1% of my final grade. I expect at least 85% with my revised work.

Today Sara and I had to catch a Lamb for the slaughter. It went, as Sara says, Semi-smoothly. I used a lasso, I had fashioned out of rope, and put it around its neck. However, I soon noticed that it was choking the lamb so I had to loosen it and hold it right at the neck. It was then that I learnt just how high a lamb can jump. Nevertheless the lamb was soon in the trailer eating hay and oats. Then we had to put the water bucket in. Worried that if we opened the gate the lamb would run out I decided I would lift the bucket and lower said bucket over the gate and lower it with a piece of bailing twine. All fine and dandy. Until the bucket tipped towards me and some, I would like to stress not all, of the water poured onto me (yes it was enough that I had to shower as it was nasty animal water) But the twine worked perfectly and the lamb was soon content and happily eating one of its last meals.

Fishing and Stargazing

Friday night Sara and I drove over to Cameron lake to watch the sunset there. Cameron lake is an idyllic, quiet spot surrounded by mountains on all sides. Simply beautiful and other than a floating dock, to which Sara, her cousin heather and I swam to, completely untouched by man. The water is clear and calm and the sun reflects of its surface as if it were a mirror (See the pictures below). After we watched the sun go down we drove back to Sara's street and right passed the house until the end of the road. Here we climbed onto the roof of our car and stared into the eternal starlit sky. Here I must elaborate for my readers that live in Germany, that when you look into the sky, you don't even see a tenth of the stars, I could see the Milky Way with my bare eyes (again see pictures below).

Saturday Sara's uncle, grandfather, father and I went out fishing in the ocean, the first good catch of the day, was really heavy, broken the reel I was working so I had to wind the reel manually, turned out to be kelp and a large rock. After about 6 hours out on sea we did catch one Salmon worth keeping which I then cleaned out under instruction of Sara's mom. After it was cleaned we filleted it and pulled most of the bones out (this all happened Sunday) and finally threw on the barbecue. It tasted awesome.

Sunset over Cameron Lake, Taken with my Nexus 7 FHD

Cameron Lake and Sunset, Taken with my D50

The Milky Way, and stars, as seen above Sara's house

Cameron Lake's crystal clear W
waters

My week and a bit

Monday morning at around 10 o'clock Sara and I left to go meet Emily, Sara's friend, from there we went to our University Campus to get textboo in my case; The Great Gatsby, Macbeth and Of Mice and Men (Macbeth and Of Mice and Men I have already read). After that we went to a mall to pick up back to school essentials. And that was pretty much Monday.

Tuesday Sara and I went to Cathedral Grove a forest reserve where the trees stand tall and Little Qualicum Falls a set of waterfalls in a gorge. It was fun, the trees were huge and the falls were really neat. It was a really fun day. I also got some good pictures.

Wednesday we went into town to ask about health insurance and such for me, as I am not sure if I am still covered in Germany. All week Sara and I had been feeding the sheep and geese. Rather uneventful, if you ask me. However on this day it was slightly more interesting as, as I was carrying the hay for the sheep to the roofed feeding trough I clipped the top of my head on one of the crossbars. After further inspection I noticed that the crossbar was not only a very solid chunk of metal but also a very flat piece of metal. This then feeding wound then began to seep and for hours was pounding. For the evening we had invited over two of Sara's friends to play Minecraft. And did so in style until 2 am.

Thursday was ROCK THE VIU, an orientation day in your classes with fun, games and food. It was fun and I got to meet some of my soon to be classmates, Sara and I got some free merch and I found out that my class doesn't start until the 9th, which I must still verify. In the afternoon Sara took a well deserved nap and I to my horror found out that Microsoft in a pathetic attempt to force loyal customers to buy more accessories only sold a transformer block on the cable which can only handle voltage from 200 - 240 who would do this in a day and age where moving and traveling happens so readily answer. MICROSOFT. if you hadn't guessed already it is a very touchy subject especially after I just bought Xbox Live and now may not be able to use it for another week or so. Thursday night Sara's friend Sabina came to visit before she left for her first semester at a School called Quest. It was cool being able to meet her before she leaves.

Friday Sara and I began work on the basement. Pretty much just applying putty on all the dents and holes in the walls. A rather uneventful day.

Saturday was an early morning as we wanted to be in I Victoria at 8, to move Sara's brother, so we had to leave at 6. It took the better part of the day. The great thing though is that I got the Canadian Xbox power cable yay! Then we spent that night hanging out with the family. Sunday was my first visit to mt. Arrowsmith corps, it was a lot of fun. Then after church we had a family dinner thing, lots of good food and company. It was during this that I drove the Argo, see blue vehicle below. At night we got our zombie estate going. So much fun.

Monday we drove to visit Sara's great grandma who is 98 years old. Then we said by to Sara's brother who is now living with in Kelowna. When we got home Sara and I began priming the walls, when we were done that sara went to bed because today is her first day at uni and I played a couple of games of Battlefield 3. 

Now I am about to continue painting the basement after having fed the sheep and skyping with; Matt, Lisa, Sarah, Patrick and my nieces and nephew. 

Cameron Lake. Crystal clear and surrounded by water.

The Big Tree... The really big tree.

Sara and the Big Tree

Look how blue the water is!

The Little Qualicum Falls River.

The River again...

The Little Qualicum Falls

THE ARGO!!!

Cowboys and actual hills

I have safely arrived in Calgary, the furthest west I have ever been. There actual hills here and you can see the rockies, only partly in the picture because of the clouds. But a cowboy I saw up close in the security terminal paisley shirt sunburnt and cowboy boots, I was disappointed about the lack of hat, but the father son duo behind me made up for it with flying colours.

Tomorrow's the big day!

Tomorrow morning at 7 am local time, 1pm in Germany and 10am on Vancouver Island, I will be boarding my flight to Calgary and then onwards to Victoria. It feels like I have been waiting for this forever, however it has only really been just shy of two months! I am very excited about this adventure and ready, at least I think so, for it. So here I go on an adventure. I so psyched that I can share it with you no matter where you are!

Blacklight golfing and bowling.

On Monday we all, Micah, Mom, Dad, Daniel and Bhreagh (second shout-out)  Grandma and Grandpa and I all went to an indodor blacklight mini golfing place which was quite cool. However before I get a head of myself, on the way to the mini golf place Daniel driving just in front of us decided to hit a dead skunk which when re-hit sprayed it stench all into our car (disgusting). There were two teams, the spring-chickens and the dino-golfers. I can only speak for my own team but we had great fun. After this was finished we went to the bowling alley palasad. Which on Mondays had 1$ games, we played two, the second of which was much better. Then we rushed over to Swiss Chalet, where Micah and Daniel decided would be an excellent spot for a spitball battle. I apologize for the lack of photos this time around. Right now I am in Michigan , USA with my mother's family. Today I went with my cousin, Carson, and Micah to a driving range where once we got there realized we only had right handed clubs and Micah and I both bat left so we looked like floundering fish. Pictures will be coming soon of this part of my trip. Next week we will be at the Kroc center in grand rapids, hopefully many pictures from that.

1 Week in Canada

Sorry this is so late!

So I am now one week into my holiday here. Some days have been busy and great while others the "hangout" days have been less great. Micah arrived on Thursday in London Ontario at 11pm, after a great day in Toronto including dinner at Moxie's (the steakhouse and grill equivalent to hooters) with my parents session mates (their friends that trained with them at the training college) it was a fun night. Friday we started off with a slow morning but by noon uncle Ron and aunt Judi had arrived and the boys went out to play catch. The day ended with grandma and grandpa; mom and dad; Micah and I going to a London Majors' baseball game. It was a great game and the four boys in front of us added to the entertainment along with the guy just behind yelling things at the opposing team such as "you're as slow as when you played" (directed at the 1st base coach), "You're limping, now you're limping" (at the opposing batter who pulled his muscle sprinting) and finally "how did that feel ump?" (Directed at the first base umpire who got hit by a ball). Saturday not much happened, we went to a thrift store, I didn't find anything, in the evening Micah and I went to watch The Wolverine. Today we went to Woodstock Ontario corps and visited Bill and Sue O'Neil ate burgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob and pie. Fun day.

Finally Canada

After a 23 hour day, I finally arrived in London Ontario at my Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was a long day but it was fun. Security in the States makes everyone feel like a criminal, however the boarder patrolman did not ask one serious question. His were directed at what sports I like the teams I support, perhaps because I am Canadian, but if this were the case why do I have to stand in the international passports line? Why can't Canadians simply go into the U.S citizen line where there are an entirety of 12 people, in the time I worked my way to the end of the international line. It took me from 2:30 to 16:30 to get from my airplane to my next flight's gate. But at long last I arrived safely in London, Ontario. I am now visiting with my father's parents, next week I will be with my mother's family in Michigan. In twenty days I will finally be with Sara again, it has felt much longer than four weeks. Looking forward to all that we have planned.

My Last Post in Germany

Hey guys,
This is gonna be my last post in Germany! Tomorrow morning at 6.15 I will be leaving for Frankfurt International Airport (Not Frankfurt Hahn Airport, little shout out to Dad, Dan and Bhreagh) with parents, Micah follows on the 8th due to University exams.
My flight leaves at noon but due to the 3 hour a head of time Check-in I have to be at the Airport for 9, but I am going with my parents, who's flight leaves an hour earlier, hence Luke arrives four hours ahead of his flight's departure (YAY). I have a 5 hour overlay tomorrow in Chicago hopefully I will have time to post some more.
I will miss Germany and all who have left me with food for thought, whether it be to aspire to be like them or to learn from their shortcomings. It's been great Germany and it's not you it's me. Sometimes great things come to an end. Yet more often then not better things are to follow.

Because there were no pictures in my last post.