Happy Birthday Alan

Slide show of my Brother Alan - we miss him always. Watch in full screen and turn your sound up. Why The Rolling Stones? Because Alan was a bodyguard at the Stones concert in Vancouver, B.C. in 1972. (He had some good stories about this too).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhi5mjfmJDw

Red Tiger 2011

Bobby's 2011 photo from Red Tiger Martial Arts.

Pantry Re-Done

What a nasty job this was! But we had the most disorganized pantry in the known Universe. First three photos are "before" and last five photos are "after" - now we just have to keep it clean.

Poulin Family Website

Published our new Website today: www.lottomars.com - created on our new iMac using Sandvox. It's a little simplistic right now, but there's links to our old Site. More stuff to be added soon.

Merry Christmas 2011

We wish you a very groovy Christmas and a far out New Year.

My Gold story: There’s gold in “them thar hills!”

In about 1980, my friend Don and I were exploring some old “Turn of the Century” gold mining sites in the Southern Interior of British Columbia. We came across where a small stream had eroded a way through the mines “tailings” area. The stream had exposed different coloured layers of sandy clay dirt. The coloured layers were in multiple layers 2 or 3 inches thick going dowm about 8 feet and the small area looked like a mini Grand Canyon – very cool looking. One of the layers was a bright blue colour – very unique. Don and I were playing with this “blue clay” throwing it at each other and molding shapes with it. It was incredibly sticky, like touching wet plaster. We went home and I mostly forgot all about this blue clay.

About 5 years later I was reading a fiction book about The Comstock Lode in Nevada by Louis L'Amour. In one part of the story, he tells a problem the miners are having with “sticky bright blue mud.” It’s getting stuck to all their equipment, hard to move in or even walk through. Then, just for the hell of it, one of the miners has the blue mud asseyed – it came out 60% gold & 40% silver. In the story, the miners made a fortune with this “sticky blue mud.”

Aha! I then remembered the sticky, bright blue clay that Don and I found years before. A few Months later, I went up in the hills again to the old mining site and grabbed a tupperware container of the blue clay – about a couple of pounds. I took this into Acme Analytical Laboratories on Hastings Street in Vancouver, B.C. and asked them to check for silver and gold. They looked at me like I was a little crazy because they usually get a bunch of rock core samples from mining companies that they have to grind-up to analyze – I told them they should charge me less, because my sample was already ground-up! They wouldn’t go for it and I paid about $100.00 for the testing (Don paid half latter).

The test came back; no silver – but .68 OUNCES PER TON FOR GOLD – which is good!

I next went to Dominion Maps on Granvile Street to find out about the site – to see if it was already claimed. It was interesting going through the maps – each one narrowing in closer and closer. . . until I saw that the whole area was covered in mining claims!

One day I may look into this further as I’ve been told that mining claims can expire. At a little over $1,700 per ounce for gold today. . . “one day” might be sooner that later. But what the heck will I do with gold bearing ore “sticky blue mud/clay” after I’ve found it? Is there a gold refinery around here someplace? We’ll see. . .

Dale Poulin

Orange Belt for Bobby Today

Bobby got his Orange Belt today. He's doing well at Karate and likes going every week. We are all very proud of our Little Man!

Angela Grade 9

Bobby Grade 3

Bobby passed Grade 3 with a good report card. He had fun all year long we are all very pleased with our Big Guy. WAY TO GO BOB!

Angela Grade 8

Angela finished Grade 8 with a very good report card. We're very proud of her, as Angela did a good job in school all year long. WELL DONE ANGELA!

Olympic Torch & Bobby

Someone brought a torch that was used in our 2010 Olympic relay to Bobby's School and Bobby got to hold it.

No More Daylight

After talking with my Nephew Chris, I signed-up on Facebook. Synced with my Yahoo contacts and had about 45 Friends to link with. Plus I invited about 75 more to join Facebook. My God! I'll never see daylight again!

Poulin Grandparents

My Cousin Denis sent me this photo of a newspaper clipping about my Father's Parents; my Grandmother and Grandfather. It's so nice to learn a little more family history. They had 19 children, not 15. I saw them only once when I was very young, about 4 years old - but I still remember them. This is the first I've seen them when they were young and I can see in their faces a little bit of all of us. (Click on image to enlarge)

To The Wilds of Fort Langley

Yesterday, we went out overnight to the "wilds" of Fort Langley, B.C. This was to test out our motorhome. Everything went well, except November here is definitily not the best time to go camping. The sound of rain on the roof put us to sleep. I put all our camp gear in the RV, except for our tents. There's room for about 10 times more stuff. I managed to dump the black & brown water sewage tanks without creating a 40 foot fountain (Remember Robin Williams in RV?) It's kind of cool to pull in, hook up and everything works. We had a nice lunch at The Java Planet - a 50's Diner, where Angela met Elvis.

The Wrecking Crew

There's a new walk-in shower going in soon, so the Boys had a lot of fun working on the "Wrecking Crew."

1993 Itasca Suncruiser 34 Foot Class A Motorhome

I picked up our family "Adventuremobile" last Monday. It was quite an trip (See the previous post). Angela and Bobby like it a lot and we'll be heading out on adventures soon.

Marysville Speed n' Custom

I travelled down to Portland, Oregon last Monday on Amtrak, which was a nice ride. I had not been on a train in 40 years. Stayed over-night in a Hotel near Sherwood, Oregon. On early Tuesday morning, I fired-up the 1993 Itasca Suncruiser 34 Foot Class A Motorhome I bought on Ebay, and headed back for the Border. Considering that I had never driven anything bigger than a pick-up truck before and that I managed to hit morning rush-hour in three different cities along the way, I was having quite an adventure. I was about 200 miles into my journey, when trouble started. The motorhome started getting noisy and running rough with little power. Luckily, I could pull into a rest area. Problem: No power at all in the batteries - all three of them! I phoned the nearest automotive shop in the area. (Internet is helpful in these situations!) The Guys from Marysville Speed n' Custom came almost right away. Ken helped to jump-start the RV and I drove to their location close-by. They were super! Within 90 minutes, I had two new batteries and a new alternator and was back on my way back to Canada. Their bill was reasonable. Their service was excellent. They are nice friendly people. I cannot thank them enough. See; www.marysvillespeed.com

KCTS 9 and Mashed Potatoes

I sent in my recipe for Poulin Family Mashed Potatoes: http://www.lottomars.com/mashed_potatoes.htm to KCTS channel 9 in Seattle, Washington USA and it was selected to be included in the "KCTS Cooks for the Holidays" Cookbook. This is the second one of my recipes that have been published in KCTS's cookbooks. I didn't get to cook anything "on air" - maybe next time!

Little Red Tigers

Bobby and Angela attended their first Karate lesson today and had a lot of fun. Soon they will be big red tigers.

Now we just have to fill it.

We finally got a nice big (21 sq.ft.) stand-up freezer. We've wanted one for quite a long time. No more digging to the bottom of our old small chest freezer to find something.