Building of a new deck

We had lots of people visiting to lend a hand during the renewal of the deck behind our house during the past weeks. Our old deck was constructed in 1996 by a colleague of Mary from the Casino Niagara, so after 30 years the wooden construction was showing its age. Mary wanted a composite deck this time, which is more durable. Shayd and Hilary came over from BC with Shayd coordinating the ordering of the required materials and then the construction activities. Joe, Marcy, Spencer and Wil came from Sarnia for a weekend and with Mark & Carly made a hard working crew.

Mark and I took down the old deck a weekend earlier leaving the frame which we felt was still in good enough shape. Shayd however decided to replace several of the old beams and then we extended the deck frame with new posts and placed black water protection materials on top of each beam.

Shayd gave young Wil some carpentry lessons by making the steps from the deck to the kitchen sliding doors. A team of eight then laid the top deck elements which is tedious work because small connection elements need to be placed in the grooves of two deck elements. 

Shayd showed his carpentry skills in making the stairs into the backyard resulting in a very professional looking end product. Ralph came over for two days of help with the stairs in between their bike trip in Holland and his next bike trip in Quebec. Afterwards came work on the closing in of the deck with siding. Tom came over to work on the railings (Tom and Karen became friends after Mary assisted them buying a house in Fonthill about 10 years ago when she was still doing her realtor work).

A first dinner on the new deck. As a last step the new pergola is being put together. Our work was interrupted today by severe thunder and rain, but we are almost there. Brooks was a little star with all out visitors including Joe & Marcy, Fiona and Macy...

A flash back photo of young Mary, Sue and Joe with their parental grandfather during one of his visits from Holland to the hobby farm where Mary & siblings grew up (Mary is holding their pony). 

Final photo of this post was sent to me by my old Fokker colleagues who had again a get-together in Zeeland where Teun, our manager from those days in the eighties, currently lives.

Brooks in Fonthill

Brooks first ride in a plane on the way to Toronto. Hilary bought some noise reducers for him which was a good idea. He seemed to be happy enough in the aircraft....

Hilary also bought some cool sunglasses for Brooks. His first visit to Fonthill.....

Mark helped out this weekend with the taking down of the old deck. Nasty job to do, but together it was very doable. Few pics of the phases of the process....

A bin full of the old wood and the new materials already waiting in the driveway. In the meantime Sue and Ralph continue their cycling tour in Holland past windmills, through the dunes and through forest areas. After the overnights in Delft, they stayed in Haarlem where Mary, Hilary and I lived two years (1993-1994) and where Mark was born in July 1994 (on the canal street called "Kampersingel"...

In this canal street we had for a while a small boat with an outboard engine. One sad evening they stole our engine out of the boat and that was the end of it. Hilary did love our boat rides as a one year old...

Also in Holland my niece Monique is getting ready to do the annual "Vierdaagse" which is walking four days of 40 kilometers each day. She has been doing this for the past 20 years (since she joined the Dutch military as a medic and did two stints with the UN peacekeeping forces in Kosovo).

Summer 2026 updates

Brooksy is almost three months old and all the time more alert. Hereby a recent pic showing him as a real cool little dude with his reverse baseball cap. Coming weekend Brooks will make his first plane ride for a few weeks stay with us in Fonthill.

At the Welland Tennis Club we hosted last week a tournament for Boys Under 16 who are ranked with the Ontario Tennis Association. I helped out during four days to keep the clay courts in good shape. The tennis of these young guys was impressive, so much faster from when I was their age 50 years ago...

Elsewhere in the world my dear old friend Ineke stays fit by doing kiting (at age 72!). One of her three daughters lives and works in the small Caribbean island State of Bonaire, and Ineke makes regular visits. About 10 years ago her daughter convinced her to try this boarding sport and she seems to be a real agile sports woman still. Good for her! 

In other news from Holland the oldest grand daughter of my sister Ger got married last weekend. Maud made her parents and grandparents glow on that day...

From left to right: Bert (82), Ger (80), Sascha (52) and Joost (53). My sister also send me updated photos taken from her other daughter Monique (55) and family, as well as Berry (50) and his family.

The bride and her husband had a wonderful day. Just for fun a photo of last year during the wedding weekend of Mark & Carly when sister-in-law Sue and I were making dancing moves...

At this moment Sue & Ralph are in Holland taking part in an organized 10 day biking trip. Today they are staying overnight in the city of Delft, where I lived and studied at the University of Technology (1974-1981). The cycling started in the province of Zeeland in the small harbor city of Vlissingen. They will go all the way up north to the port of Den Helder every day doing a distance of 35-65 kilometers. To give you an idea the routes they received for the first two days...

The route follows mostly the coastal regions along the Noordzee (part of the Atlantic Ocean) where there are dedicated cycling paths past small towns and some of the old bunkers build by the German occupying forces during the 1940-1945 period...

In one of the towns they noticed this building with an interesting name..... Wonder what the story of that name is. I think it is related to dunes....