Abby and I go geocaching

I've been looking forward to trying to find a cache for months now. I was going to go in May but first it snowed, then it rained and then things just got busy... Today I decided that we were going to go no matter what. And then I realized why I hadn't gone before now as it got later and later in the day. When my little girl decided she was not going to nap this afternoon I seized the opportunity.

I wanted to try what looked like a nice easy cache for our first one and went to the picnic area at Net Lake. Believe it or not I have never stopped there before. I was surprised by how busy it was and I quickly wished I'd brought a little picnic for us to enjoy. We always went on picnics with my family and I have lots of great memories of enjoying the outdoors and family and great food. As Abby gets bigger I'm sure we'll head back here for a picnic or two.

I got out our little yellow Garmin Gecko 101 and Abby was immediately interested. Yellow is her favourite colour and there were buttons to push! As we followed the arrow to the cache I

discovered that the pipeline passes through the area and there is a well used ATV trail on it. We followed the trail until the GPS showed us that the cache was off the trail. Now this was something I was not prepared for. Carrying an eight month old baby and wandering through the bush was not an easy task. I was worried about the branches hitting her face so I was moving slowly. Unfortunately, our little Gecko needs movement in order to work properly and in the bush it just didn't go very well. Judging from the comments on Geocaching.com I spent a bit too

much time in the bush and overshot it. I know I was close. I could see where others had also searched for this cache. I probably almost stepped on it.

We did have a lot of fun. Abby discovered leaves

and needles and tree trunks and ferns. We also saw a family of almost grown grouse. I'm sure they thought we were chasing them as we went round and round looking for the cache. We had to give up because it was supper time and almost bedtime for a little girl who hadn't wanted to nap. Maybe when Abby is a bit bigger we'll try this one again when she can help me search for the cache and I don't have to worry about her so much. I can see this being a lot of fun with our little girl in a couple of years!

Grocery News

We are very excited that our grocery store has reopened. It is now under the name Our Daily Bread. As with most new beginnings it takes a while to get everything running smoothly, however things are coming together nicely.

If you went grocery shopping in town the first few weeks after the store opened you may have been surprised by what you didn't find. The stock was quickly bought up by our enthusiastic town visitors. It was great to see how quickly inventory could be turned around in our little community.

All of the basics are there: bread, milk, eggs, meat, ice cream and ice (in the middle of summer when it's 30C these are staples), and dry goods can all be found on the shelves. You won't find three different brand names of each product for comparison shopping but you will find what you need as you shop the aisles.

There is a good selection of fruits and vegetables which are grown right here in Ontario making them nice and fresh when they arrive. The meat is also grown and processed locally either in Warren by Creative Meats or by our butcher, Norm Lacroix.

Nine months without a grocery store in town certainly made us appreciate the convenience of being able to run to the store to pick up what we need. We hope that Our Daily Bread has a successful season and will be around for many years to come.