This Week started with a wonderful, yet short, two day family vacation in Moncton, New Brunswick where we spent our time visiting the Magnetic Hill Zoo, Hopewell Rocks Park & Champlain Place Mall. We also had a chance to enjoy dinner at two restaurants we don’t have in Nova Scotia … Barnyard BBQ, I love barbecue!!! & my son’s favorite St-Hubert.
The Hopewell Rocks Park is family-oriented & best of all, they welcome pets!!! They provided water and drinking bowls in various locations throughout the park so our whole family, including Rollie, could enjoy the network of walking trails connecting to various lookout decks, each with a different view of the rocks. From the parking lot, it took us only 20 minutes to walk down to the main beach area where we explored the rocks & trails. It took us more than 20 minutes to walk back … Hot day!!! Benches (I used only twice on the way back), washrooms facilities (comes in handy but not the best smelling) and ice cream (tasted really good on a hot day … even Rollie got in on the action) were located along the trail. Plus a playground for kids, my kids love the swings. There is no better day then a day spent with my family … I love them all very much!!!
Wednesday my kids, like many others, headed back to school and summer was officially over. My youngest daughter , 13 years old, Victoria returned to Junior High in Grade 8, Natalie, 15, moved up to High School to attend Grade 10 and my boy, Travis, 17, started his senior year … Grade 12. I hope they enjoy a great school year … I know they’ll do well.
I provided pricing to GH Factory Sales in British Columbia, L.L. Bean in Maine and United Hardware in Minnesota. Our Reverse D-Handle Snow Shovel Plano-gram to Harrison’s Home Hardware in Nova Scotia, details about our life-time warranty to Markdale Home Hardware in Ontario, shipping details on present orders to Lehman’s in Ohio and our distributor, Liberty Mountain based in Utah & Pensylvania. We received a request about getting samples of our telescopic ratcheting anvil & bypass loppers and ratcheting hand pruners with curved blade from Gaston Monge-Grassi with Silex Tools in New Zealand. I’m waiting for shipping quotes from UPS & DHL. Gaston visited our web site and informed me that he enjoyed reading Trail Blazer’s story … working with Gaston will be a great next chapter.
Thursday evening, on Undercover Boss, Dawna & I watched the executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Terry Davis with Home Hardware return to his roots … picking products in the warehouse, filling buckets with drywall compound and spending time on the retail floor at Payzant’s Home Hardware in Lower Sackville Nova Scotia.
The show must have motivated me … The next day, I ended the short week by spending my Friday afternoon giving the team on the production floor a hand. I worked on the riveting station and proudly produced 230 Sawvivor Saws which will be made available in various Mountain Equipment Co-op stores across Canada. I also spent a little bit of time in the packaging department, where I quickly packaged 240 Green Thumb Xtend-A-Saws, which will be made available in the participating True Value Hardware stores across the United States. I enjoyed my afternoon very much and I look forward to finding time to help again, maybe next time I can produce some of Trail Blazer’s original product … The 24” Take-Down Buck Saw.
Trail Blazer’s original product, the 24” Take-Down Buck Saw was first developed by my dad, Curtis Levangie, in 1987 and is still a very popular spring product today … used by wood lot owners across Canada. Our smaller 18” model is also very popular in spring for many campers in over 40 countries and one of our top selling products at Christmas time.
All the Best, Shawn Levangie