Bucket List correction

So... reviewed the list and decided two items were "work" and not "play" - right near the bottom. Raking leaves and trimming trees and hedges does not really excite me (though they do need to be done periodically). I am therefore replacing those two with the following: 

Via Rail trip across Canada 

Travel to another Province/Territory 

So there.

Fun and Games Bucket List

 Following is my bucket list... things I'd like to do sometime in the near future.  As I actually complete each item, I will post pictures of me proving I've done it.

Here's the list:

Item

buy and cook with an ostritch egg

try out a new recipe

make ice-cream with Sylvia

invite a friend to "high tea"

make a picnic lunch to eat outdoors

make a 7 course meal

make a fruit salad with hand picked fruit

have a "book" dinner

learn about a new (to you) herb/cook with it!

learn to make butter icing!

figure out that mustard paste!

try out a new restaurant

go for a walk somewhere new

go for a drive somewhere new

visit a park you've never been to before

visit the museum in Kamloops

watch a sunrise or sunset

build a new room for Hal

complete a room in the apartment complex

take Hal and friends out in the snow

visit the art gallery in Kamloops

visit the library in Kamloops

spend all day exploring the north shore shops

spend all day exploring downtown Kamloops

complete a plastic canvas project

make a piece of furniture for Hal

make a piece of furniture for the apartments

complete a painting

bake some homemade bread

make some cards and give them away

work on stamp collection

plant a "fairy garden" in a large vase

create a mini-golf "hole" for Hal

plan (and do!) a winter photo shoot

paint with watercolours

fall themed arts/crafts night

make and fly your own kite

plant flowers for indoor pots

visit an historical site

collect as many different coloured leaves as possible

go for a hay ride

go for a scenic drive

rake the yard

trim the hedge and trees

go berry/fruit picking

visit Sun Peaks and explore the shops

walk one of the local trails

go somewhere and go rock hunting

Time to get busy and start posting again!

 Well... I'm finally gettiing around to posting here again.  This blog "HouTep" will be for basic family and "me" stuff, as usual.  I will (hopefully) start posting again on my other blogs.

Maternal Grandparents

On my mom's side, as noted previously, her parents never married. Initially raised by her dad's side of the family, here is a photo of the house where se grew up. Mom considered her grandmother as her mother for the longest time. Ruth's dad was Konrad Ihle, born in Germany on Sep 5th 1897. The next photo is of Konrad and his wife Helene Staudt (mom's step-mom, whom she really liked) and was taken in the 1980's. Konrad and Helene had 5 daughters, mom's half-sisters: Lieselotte, Margarete, Martha, Margot and Isolde. Margarete is the only one I've managed to sort of keep in contact with... at least, I send her Christmas cards each year and sometime (though infrequently) she writes back. Helene died in 1981 and Konrad died on Aug 21st 1984. Konrad's family coincidentally also owned a bicycle shop, the same as the Houben's. Auguste Tepper, my grandmother, didn't meet mom after she was born, until mom's 15th birthday. Mom remembered the day very well. She got out of a school assembly to listen to Hitler to go to meet her mom at the train station. Auguste was very nervous to meet her daughter, too, and while waiting for the train to arrive at the station she apparently shredded her train ticket! The conductor (or whoever it is who collects the tickets on the train), very kindly issued her a replacement when he heard why she was travelling on the train and why she had shredded the ticket. Auguste had a bad limp, a congenetal defect in the hip in her left leg... I inherited the same defective gene, but have it in my right hip. (Hence the limp if you've seen me walking.)

On Auguste's side of the family, her father, Wilhelm Tepper, came from Denmark originally. While Auguste did marry, Ruth was her only child.

What fun!

My sister Sylvia and I both had the day off yesterday, so we decided to have a whole bunch of fun!  We drove up to 100 Mile House (just over 1 hour away from where Sylvia lives in Little Fort), and did a bit of shopping.... including what we needed for this:

This is the "before" -

This is the "During" - gosh it was smelly stuff! -

And this was the "After" - 

 Next time I'll make it just a little darker.....

😄

Friday, the 13th

Well!  Friday certainly tried very hard to live up to it's reputation.

Two days ago it was January, Friday the 13th.  Went to work as usual, but the day went decidedly strange once I'd gotten there... maybe the full moon the night before gave the day an extra 'whammy'.

I found out that the Little Fort store apparently has several power lines giving it power.  (Presumably because of all the fridges, coolers and freezers, plus all the other electrical gizmos like the tills and the coffee makers and such.) 

Well, somewhere in the North Thompson Valley, not entirely sure what happened, but one of the lines lost power.  Possibly a tree down over the line or something similar (haven't heard yet for sure what caused it)....

In the store, the back half of the store - the lights went out.  We checked the breakers - nope, they were fine.  Along one wall was a F'Real machine (makes milk shakes), a pop machine, two coffee brewing stations, a microwave, and a cappachino machine.  The only thing working was the cappachino, which sits smack in the middle of the lot.  Go figure!

Up by the tills, the lottery machine and the computer were down, but the tills were fine.  Along the 3rd wall were two freezers and one cooler.  They were fine.  In the middle of the room was the coffee stand which had one item plugged in - the Keurig machine.... it was off.  The gas pumps, luckily, were still on.

The water for the building (including the washrooms) runs on pumps from a well.  The ladies washroom had no power, but the men's did.  (The wiring in this place must be really interesting!)

Then, about 20-30 minutes after the initial loss of power, the rest of the power went off... at this point, likely because the Hydro crews had found the issue and cut off the power so that they could safely fix the issue.  It was reported to us that they expected it to be off for 2 hours.  Outside we went to the pumps to put ribbon around blocking them off so customers driving up would see something was going on.  Also put a note on the door and locked the door.

Then we started to move some of the more sensitive stuff to the big walk in freezer... and had just finished doing this, when, and hour earlier than expected, the power came back on... so back went the stuff,  and back outside to remove the ribbon from the pumps and the note from the door. 

Wheeeeeee!  What fun!

Sure made for an interesting day!

😀

January 11

Well, so far so good.  Today I worked on my current plastic canvas project.  I also just finished uploading the first 10 patterns.  Check out my new blog - keepingbarbieinstitches.blogspot.com - you'll find a link for it on the left hand side bar of this blog.
Enjoy!

Resolutions 2017

Well, here's to a new resolution for this year - or two resolutions, actually.

1. To work on my plastic canvas projects at least once a week, and to (eventually) scan and post all the patterns here in a new blog (I still have to think up an appropriate name for the blog).

2. To post a new message in any of my blogs at least once a month, preferably once a week (or more if I can manage it).

We'll see how well I do.

  -  Oh  -  and Happy New Year to everyone!

Christmas Letter 2016

November 30, 2016

Greetings to all,

This past year has gone by much too fast! I can hardly believe it’s almost December. I hope everyone out there is happy and healthy.

I’m enjoying my car immensely, and have put about 23,000 kilometres on it already. Well... 60 km, five times a week adds up pretty quickly... and two trips down to Vancouver and back, which added about 1650. It is soooo nice to have a reliable car.

I also took out a loan at the bank and paid off my credit card debts, and now just need to pay off the loan – but as it is at a much lower interest rate, it won’t take too long to do that. (Oh... and I’ve discovered I like hot flashes!)

Sylvia is doing well – very well in fact. She has a new boyfriend. His name is Brian Baker and he is a truck driver. Very nice man, smart, and a good sense of humour. They will be getting married on January 7, 2017.  Cheeto, Sylvia’s cat, is quite taken with Brian.  He loves sitting on his lap.

Antoon is very busy in the community. He is on the executive of the Food Bank and the Chamber of Commerce, and he is active as a tutor for the local Literacy and Learning program. During the summer he works at the local Ice Cream Parlour, and occasionally works at Sam’s Pizza and Rib House, delivering pizza’s.

Wim still has his paper routes and is busy with several groups – the Senior’s, Crime Stoppers, and the Chamber of Commerce where he is on the executives, and several other groups as well.

Merina lives in Slocan with her daughter Liz and Liz’s husband, Sam. Liz is very into music and has recorded some. Check out her website - http://akefamusic.com – if you want to hear some of her work.

Robert and his wife, Loretta, still live in Vancouver.  Loretta’s parents are still with us and also live in Vancouver, so they will likely stay there as long as they are still around.

If any of you are on FaceBook - https://www.facebook.com/teragram.nebuoh is my page and you can find links to most of the rest of us under my ‘friends’ list in FaceBook. If you are on it, but aren’t on the list, send me a ‘friend’ request!

Lots of love to all, from all of us here in Canada.

Christmas letter 2015

Here is a link to this year's Christmas Letter.  Couldn't figure out how to upload a PDF to this blog.

 <iframe src="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EH9EEDwe5OFQm4hJDGTP1l-4yBE0OJaDjXgKoZi91G8/pub?embedded=true"></iframe> 

Merry Christmas, everyone!!!

Dreams are funny things....

Yesterday, June 1, was mom's birthday, so I guess it was fitting that I dreamt about mom last night.
The dream started of silly enough (as most dreams do) with me trying to get to the chiropractor's office which had moved to a totally strange place and turned out to be closed when I got there.  Then mom showed up and got in the car with me (with her the driver) and said she wanted to go somewhere special.
We arrived at a location that had some tall, office like buildings and nice landscaping.  One building had what looked like a large bay window showing bookshelves with all sorts of interesting books.  Mom said this was the place, opened up the window (dreams - what can you expect!) and we both managed to squeeze into the small space.  The window closed and the whole thing went down like an elevator.
When it stopped, it opened out to a huge 2-story high room lined with ceiling high bookshelves filled with books of all sizes and descriptions, and lots of people of all ages wandering about.  Mom went off in one direction (probably looking for craft books), and I in another.
I wandered through several rooms, ending up with two that I distinctly remember.
The second to last room was barely lit at all, had a bunch of (mostly) kids in it, and they were about to watch a movie.  In this room the shelves were full, but mostly with all sorts, sizes and colours of bottles.  I sat down to see what the movie would be.  Turned out to be one of the Harry Potter movies.  Having seen all of them... I got up and left through a curtain, behind which was another door to the last room.
Here were the expected books again, but also some commotion, as there was a small dog chasing a cat, and several kids and adults running after both the dog and cat.  I patted the dog, which distracted it long enough for the cat to get away, then looked around to see if  I could find a book to read.
Instead of a book, I noticed a strange object jutting out from one of the walls.  The object was covered in a cloth that sort of looked like a Persian rug, but was very thin like silk.  The object looked remarkably like the snout of something.....  I went over to it to examine it and stroked the cloth (it was very pretty, but now that I'm awake, of course, I can't remember the exact design) and the 'snout' moved!
It turned out it was the nose of a dragon that was behind the wall, and he could only just get his nose into the room.  I awoke around that point, in the middle of giving the dragon a very good nose-rub (and he was purring).
Of course, when I was properly awake, Cleo (my puss) was beside my pillow, purring, so I guess that's where that part of the dream came from.
All in all, a very nice dream - thanks mom, for leading me to a friendly dragon!

Going for Walks

Every so often, I'll go along with Antoon and Wim when they walk the dogs.   Here are a few pictures from a few of those walks....

Nearing the end of a walk, Charlotte takes a break in the shade while the rest of us (me, mostly) catches up.

Wim, picking up a stick to throw for the dogs, who are both watching intently.

Charlotte - posing nicely for the camera.

Snow Storm - Jan 4-5-6, 2015!

Wow - what a lot of snow!  Kamloops is just centimetres away from breaking the record for most snowfall in a single event... and the snow is still falling!

It started Sunday, and was quite heavy at times.  Going to work wasn't too bad, but it had only gotten started at that point.  By 7pm Sunday night, when my shift was over and I had to drive home again, it was a different story!

Driving home was a little nerve-wracking.  The plows had hardly done anything yet, so the snow was thick on the road.  The posted speed limit is 100 kmh, but my top speed was 60.  Didn't dare go any faster.  Luckily, the plows hadn't blocked off Lilley Road to badly, there was one lane's worth relatively open for me to get down my road and then into the driveway.  When I got home I called Sylvia to let her know I was home safe (she worked the same schedule as myself on Sunday), only to find that even though she lived just a few blocks from work, she had to drive back to the store, park there, and WALK home.  The snow plows had plowed the highway (#24) and blocked her street off with a waist high mound of the stuff!

Today I worked at the Star/Journal, and on my way to work I took the following pictures:

 
My car is the one half under the trees.  You can see it has some more snow on it that fell during the night.  Wim's car is the one buried.  The path just to the left of Wim's car is the path he just shoveled for me to get out to the road by (in order to get to the Star/Journal office).

There's Wim, digging away. (He is such a nice brother!)

That's my left hand - held out at about waist height - even with the top of the berm of snow that the snow plow left all around the block where the office is... it was tricky getting in!

Armour Mountain... it looks a little hazy because it was still snowing as I was taking these pictures.

The big tree in the middle is hiding most of our house... you can just see it poking out on the right of the tree.
Tomorrow, Wim and Antoon have both promised to help make sure I can get out of the driveway in time to get to work.  My shift starts at 8:30am, so, given the road conditions, I need to allow for twice the usual time to get to work.  So instead of leaving just after 8am (it normally takes 20 minutes), I want to leave about 7:30am.  (It's supposed to stop snowing some time tomorrow.)  Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work I'll go.........

Drive safely, everyone!

Christmas Day (2014)

Well, Christmas Day was lots of fun.  Sylvia and Gary came over to have Christmas Dinner with us.  Here is a picture of the table loaded with good food:

in the centre - brown rice with raisins and apples, then clockwise around from the bright orange dish on the left... yams, caramelled carrots, roasted cauliflower, gravy, roast duck (yum!), a tropical fruit medley, waffles, and roasted squash.

Before dinner, Wim and I walked the dogs, Kidu and Charlotte:

Kidu is the one closest to the camera.

Then, while Antoon finished baking waffles...

the rest of us played some Ramsey's Rage and Aggravation, and snacked on a cheese and meat tray (and almost spoiled our supper... but oh it was yummy!).

Puss (Cleo) had a good day too, sitting on Wim's lap briefly (Sylvia got a photo of that with her cellphone), and even letting Gary pet her!

We ended the evening with taking a group photo.  Here it is, Wim, Antoon and I, standing, with Sylvia and Gary sitting.

2015 - New Year's Resolution

Well, I think I'm going to set myself a resolution.  I did a similar one three years ago and did pretty well at it.
The resolution:
To make one greeting card every day (or seven per week).

Three years ago when I tried this, I actually managed to almost average that for the year (I fell just a bit short, mostly towards the end of the year).

I will post pictures of some of the cards on my other blog - the one for cards.

I even bought a calendar (one of the block ones that has a page for every day) that is all Mary Engelbert (I hope I spelt that right... the calendar is upstairs and I'm downstairs at the moment).  I will use each one on a card!

AND - if any of you readers are into making cards - and if you make a similar resolution, then I'll trade 1 card a week (or 4 per month) with you, if you like!  I'd send the card(s) without writing in them, so that you can use them yourself to send to other people. - - - What do you think?

Post if you are interested in doing this. (Oh, and if you don't think I have your address, please email it to me.)

Christmas Letter 2014

December 10, 2014

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone!


I hope everyone has had a wonderful year. 

For us, the past year has been quite busy.  In no particular order… our niece Liz got married to her boyfriend Sam.  At the time, they were living in Winlaw, BC.  They have just recently moved from there to Slocan, BC.  Merina (Liz’s mom) decided she liked the area so much, that she moved there, too, and is currently living with them. 


In March, I was laid off from the Star/Journal and by early April had landed a job as clerk at Jim’s Food Market in Little Fort.  Little Fort is a 20 minute drive north of Barriere.  The only real store there (that is open year round), other than the odd restaurant, is Jim’s – it is a grocery store, Subway restaurant, and Husky gas station all rolled into one.  I now have earned my propane ticket (which means I am allowed to pump propane for customers), and have also been trained as bakery cook, besides doing the front till work.  It is lots of fun and the other workers there are great to work with.

I like the bakery work, except for that the shift is always from 6:30am to 2:30pm (and I am NOT an early riser by nature!!).  I also like working the till, as there I get to meet the people more, and there are a wide variety of things to do (restocking the shelves, cleaning, pumping propane, etc.), not to mention that it means having some afternoon or closing shifts (which means I can sleep in in the mornings!). 

Sylvia decided that she needed a change, and consequently changed not only her job, but also her location, moving from Merritt, BC to Clearwater, BC and then to Little Fort.  Her new job… at Jim’s Food Market with me!! Yay!  She is enjoying it here, and has gotten a cat named Cheetoh. 

 

Speaking of cats, my cat, Cleo, is getting old.  She turned 18 in September.  Considering, she is still quite spry, going up and down the stairs every day (several times, usually).  But she isn’t as good a mouser as she once was (understandably, considering her age).  We have a few mice in the house at the moment… it happens occasionally, around winter some years.  She hears them, and gets interested, nosing around in the kitchen for a bit (which is where they tend to make the most noise), but hasn’t managed to catch any of them yet.  I managed to catch a few myself… one had fallen into the kitchen sink and was too small to jump out (though it tried).  I took a jar and put it into the sink, it ran into the jar, I covered the opening with a paper towel and took it outside, far from the house, and let it go.  The other one I managed to catch it with a small box and also let it go outside, well away from the house.  That second one was a bigger one, and required some chasing across the counter before catching it in the box.  Mice are cute, but I don’t really want them loose in the house!

Antoon has settled in pretty well here with us in Barriere.  He is very involved with the local Food Bank, and has been making lunches for the Elementary School students.  He has also done some tutoring at the high school.  His two dogs, Kidu and Charlotte are doing well, too.  Antoon has a part time job now, at Sam’s Pizza and Rib House, delivery pizzas and helping out in the kitchen when things are busy.

Wim is doing well and is still delivering newspapers.  He has his own two routes, and helps another lady deliver to another three routes (she doesn’t have a car, so he drives her for her routes).

I started a new group here in Barriere… the Barriere Writer’s Group.  Once a month anyone interested in writing can meet at the library to discuss what they are writing, or to get encouragement or help from each other.  A variety of people have been showing up, and sometimes the discussions are quite interesting.  The other group that I started a while ago, is the Genealogy Group.  That group also meets once a month, also at the library, and is quite fun.  I love researching names, especially when I’m able to find info for someone.

In August, Wim, Sylvia, Antoon and I went to Wells Gray Park to visit the site where Mom and Dad’s ashes were spread.  The Helmcken Falls are so beautiful!

 

Robert and Loretta still live in Vancouver.  Robert has a new job, and they are enjoying having him bring home a steady paycheque once again.  For Christmas, they decided to go to Hawaii for about a week.

So, all in all, the Houben clan here in BC are doing quite well, and wish all our friends and relatives all the best for the holidays!

Sincerely, and with lots of love and warm wishes, Margaret





Merry Christmas to all and a very happy and healthy New Year!
Fröhliche Weihnachten und Ein Glückliches Neues Jahr!
Prettige Kerstdagen en een gelukkig Nieuwe Jaar!

Christmas letter of 2013

December 1, 2013

Greetings to All,

… and may you all have a healthy, happy, and safe Christmas and New Year. Here in Barriere, we are all doing well and slowly getting used to Dad not being here with us.

The first part of the year, Wim and I were busy keeping up with the bills and with Sylvia’s help, getting the estate all sorted out and into our names. This has all been completed, so we are all set for the time being. The bills… well, that’s a work in progress. (Isn’t it always!)

In July, Antoon asked if he could stay with us for a while, so he has moved in, here in Barriere. Initially, he came with three dogs, Kidu, Charlotte, and Maggie – all lovely (big) dogs. Two of the dogs, Maggie and Charlotte, actually belong to his previous roommate, and eventually Maggie was sent back to that roommate who had in the meantime moved to California. Kidu and Charlotte are still with us. Antoon, and sometimes Wim, take them several times a day for rambling walks all around Barriere. During the summer they got to play in the river; they’ve chased deer a few times; and now they are getting used to snow. This is Charlotte:

Antoon has been a great help so far, doing some odd jobs around the house (with Wim’s help, of course), such as the fencing in of the back yard, so that the dogs have a nice, safe area to play in – and so that they don’t go around chasing our neighbour’s chickens! You should hear Charlotte when she gets excited (like when she sees a horse) – you’d think someone was killing her! She is slowing getting used to horses and other ‘strange’ things.

Cleo, my cat, was initially quite put-out about having dogs in the house. She is now 17 years old, and not very fast anymore. She is also quite scared of dogs. Luckily, we are able to keep the dogs out of most of the house, so she’s getting used to things again. This last month (November) she’s started coming back upstairs again on a regular basis, and, while her ears twitch a bit when she hears them bark, she no longer runs back downstairs at the sound. She’s also getting used to seeing Antoon and only runs from him if he moves particularly fast. Last week, for the first time, she actually sat on Wim’s lap! Yay!!!

We’ve got another great-niece on the way. My niece Donna, who lives in Australia, is pregnant and is expecting a girl! Yay!!! The baby is due in mid December. All the rest of our nieces and nephews and their children are doing well. I hope all our cousins and their extended families are doing well also!

Sylvia has moved to her own little basement suite – still in Merritt, though. If any of you want to write to her, her new mailing address is Box 1925, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8.

Robert and Loretta still live in Vancouver and are writing their own Christmas letter to everyone on their letter writing list.

Merina has been doing well in her studies which are still ongoing. She’s had a variety of marks: C, C+, B-, B and A (not necessarily in that order). She doesn’t have full time work, so she is struggling a bit with raising enough funds each semester for her tuition fees. Otherwise she is doing well. For those of you wishing to send her a Christmas card or letter… she has moved again. Her new address is 7116 Fleming St., Vancouver, BC, V5P 3H9, Canada.

The garden is doing nicely, with the grapes in the front yard growing every year. This coming spring I will need to make a bit of a trellis for them to climb. After last fall’s pruning, all the trees did pretty well, except for the apple trees. There was only one apple this year. Next year should be much better. The cherry and plum trees had lots of fruit busy forming, then we had a sharp frost which killed pretty much all of the cherries, but only a few of the plums. Hopefully this spring there won’t be a late frost. The pear tree was covered, and I had to pinch off most of the fruit as it would have killed the poor tree (it’s still quite small). I ended up with about 17 or 18 pears. Yum! My work on the Family Tree is going well. If you want to see what I’ve got, go to geneanet.org and search for the surname ‘Houben’ from the town of ‘Sevenum’… then look down the resulting list for entries by ‘nebuoh’ – that is my ‘name’ on that sight (it is Houben backwards). All but the most recent additions are there. I will eventually update it with the latest additions. For those of you on Mom’s side of the family, if you have a chance to look at it, please let me know if you have any names or corrections to the information for me. I would greatly appreciate it!


In September, for the World Wide Paint Out, which the local Art Council participated in, I did some painting for the first time in about 7 years… here’s one of the resulting paintings:

How are all of you – friends and relatives – doing? Are you all well? Happy? Any new additions to your families? Pets?

I wish all of you all the very best for the Holidays and God’s Blessings for 2014!

Merry Christmas to all and a very happy and healthy New Year!

Fröhliche Weihnachten und Ein Glückliches Neues Jahr!

Prettige Kerstdagen en een gelukkig Nieuwe Jaar!


Love,
 Margaret, Wim, and Antoon!

Also found - two letters!

Along with the tags and employment stuff, Sylvia also found two letters - both of which where received by mom and dad during their first months here in Canada.

The first is dated August 13, 1952 (they came over on the boat in June of 1952).  According to the envelope, it is from a J. H. Haan of Brunssummerweg N.30, Nieuneendagen bij (Heerlen).  The postage cancellation stamp on the back of the envelope is dated Sep. 23, 2pm, 1952, Vancouver, BC Canada.  It was addressed to Heer Houben, 1555 Robson Street, Vancouver BC Canada, but the 1555 Robson Street is crossed off in pencil, with c/o Fred Deely, Bicycle Dept. written next to the original address.

The letter itself is in Dutch and therefore rather tricky to read, but the gist is that the writer is hoping come out for a visit.  (If I'm wrong please correct me... my Dutch isn't the best.)

 

The other letter is dated November 20, 1952 and was mailed from Brazil (note postage stamp on back of envelope, and one of the cancellations also mentions Brazil.  It was addressed to Mr & Mrs Ant. Houben, 2085 W 8th Ave., Vancouver, BC Canada.

 

The letter is from a Padre Jaime, or Father Jaime... possibly the priest who married them?? Not entirely sure though, that is just a guess.  The letter, as was the previous one, is in Dutch.

Exciting items found in garage!

Well, it's been a while, but found something very worth while to upload here.  While getting the garage ready for the sale last weekend, Sylvia found the following items.

From when mom & dad emigrated to Canada - their luggage tags!

The top two are the same - one shows the front, the other the back, and the third one is different and has nothing on the reverse.

The next two items were for dad's first major employment in Canada - working for Alcan!

I had to fiddle with the exposure on this one, as it was very faded.  It says:
Aluminum Company of Canada, Limited
Kitimat Works
Place - Vancouver B.C.
Date - July 7th 1954
Transportation and room and board agreement
It is understood and agreed:
(1) That I, the undersigned, will purchase my own transportation fare from Vancouver to Kitimat
(2) Tha the sum of $49.00 will be refunded to me in full when I have completed six months satisfactory service (not to be less than 140 working days, as defined under the Company's regulations Governing the Status of Employees and the Computatin of their continuous service)
(3) That until such time as I elect to occupy married quarters at the job site the Company will supply me with room and board at the rate of $2.00 per day for dormitory or winterized hut accommodation, or at the rate of $2.50 per day if I occupy a single room, the charge for which is to be deducted from my wages.
(4) Tha the room and board provision set out in (3) above, will be subject to review by the Company and may at any time after August 1st, 1954, be amended, revised or cancelled in its entirety.
Signed... (dad's signature)
Witness...(another signature)
Personnel Manager or Agent
(To be prepared and signed in duplicate.  Original to be retained for Company file and duplicate to be given to employee.)

The other form is the employment agreement and is not as faded:

Christmas Greetings, Dec 13, 2012

 click on the 'pictures' to see larger version or to print