tribute to the treasure hunting grounds....

ok, so across the back lane from our house (it still feels weird to say that we have a back lane...Abbotsford really doesn't have any of that, and even now, we don't really use ours), there was this house that has been vacant since we moved here. The owner, Mr. Klassen, lived in a seniors home nearby and would still come by on his pedal bike to putter around, we think he was at least over the age of 80 and we were quite impressed that he would ride his bike over. Then Mr. Klassen passed away, less than a year after his wife. The children, particularly Brandt, then began the HUGE process of cleaning up all the STUFF in this house.

Michael being his natural friendly self went over to chat with Brandt and got the chance to look around at the place. It became his treasure hunting ground. He would go over when Brandt was around to see all the amazing stuff in the garage (I have to admit it was at least a little amazing, there was so many collections of things, really old things). Michael dragged me along to see it one day, there was a peg board about 4 feet by 4 feet filled with bottle cap openers, just as an example of a collection. There were old irons (the kind you stick in the fire to get them hot), a couple of phonographs and I can't really remember what all else, but lots of old STUFF. Anyway, Michael would come back home from these treasure hunts with wide bright eyes, and then he'd tell me something like, "this guy had huge stacks of old Eaton's catalogues, amazing!" Brandt would also leave piles of STUFF in the back lane for the garabage people to pick up. I'm not sure who picked up more....the garabage truck or....Michael. He began bringing home stuff from the place on a regular basis, I of course got frustrated and drew the line: no more! if you find something you think you really want, something else has to go back. Much to my dismay I discovered that Michael had been squirrelling things into our detached garage (we call it the loft) without my knowledge and without bringing something else back (I found out when I had to go in there for something recently). Oh well, I have decided that I should really give him space and get over the STUFF collecting because I won't really be able to stop it anyway. I think God knew we would need that detached garage when we bought this house!

this is the best I could do for a before photo

So, the tribute part of this post is to say that the old house has been torn down...we got to watch. Acutally, we were in bed (it was 7am) when Michael bolted up and exlaimed: "I think that beeping is a bulldozer!" He proceeded to the kitchen patio doors with the camera to catch the action...in his gitch! This means I no longer have to wonder if Michael is sneaking stuff into the loft. Here's a clip or two: