The Squamidian Report – Sept. 6 / 03

 

Also in this issue:

 

The Ontarion

 

Hi All,

 

Well, we had our Brackendale Fall Fair last Saturday. It sure was small. Sort of like a garage sale with a food tent only the food tent and the first aid tent were the same tent. There were two rows of booths with local artists selling their stuff. This area is full of ‘local artists’. If you pick up small sticks and tie them into knots, you are an artist. If you string beads onto a bootlace, you are an artist.

 

In an attempt to follow the fall fair theme, there was an old tractor parked with a small wagon behind. There were a couple of bales of straw on the wagon. However, the old tractor was one of those John Deere’s from way back. They had that horizontal twin cylinder engine with the big flywheel and made than neat chook chook sound. I remember hearing one of those running in the fields on neighbouring farms when we were kids at my grandparents.

 

There were a half dozen musical ‘acts’ during the afternoon. We did our music thing and it went OK. At least we were no worse than anyone else, better than some. One guy sat on stage for 20 minutes playing a tinny sounding instrument with his eyes closed while making strange humming noises. Not sure what that was all about.

 

Then in the evening there was this hootenanny thing at the art gallery that we got talked into attending. There were three ‘professional’ acts plus us. All three were blatantly pushing their latest CD. None of them did music that I could stand listening to for long. This one girl should have been playing is some smoky basement club on the lower east side of Vancouver with a bongo drum accompaniment. She hammered her guitar, thinking she was getting these real creative sounds out of it while she screeched out the song she wrote about the pores on her face and the ‘space’ she was in. That was about as good as it got so we left when no one was looking.

 

Well, I hope we have picked all the Blackberries that Sue wants to freeze for this winter. Those things are brutal. Picture thorny stalks that are as big as your forearm at the base, arching up 10 or 12 ft into the air. Maybe up to 20 ft in length. Even the undersides of the leaves have prickles. They intertwine, creating impenetrable brambles. People tend to pick at the outside of the patches, which grow all over the place out here. There is no way to get at the berries growing inside and on top of the patch. I found a way. I lean my ladder against the tangle of stalks. They are so tangled together that it holds well enough for me to walk up and get at the good berries. If it ever slipped, I’d be trapped, impaled and doomed. There would be no way out. Nothing dull about berry picking around here.

 

We had our usual hot sunny weather on the holiday weekend. So Sue and I went out on the motorcycle for a run. Went down to Porteau Cove. That hilly, windy Sea to Sky highway is a biker’s dream come true. No wonder you see so many bikes on it on nice days. You just gotta keep a real close eye on the traffic around you and the steep curves along the road.

 

I also went for a bike run (just me this time) to where my boss lives way up Ring Creek logging road. This is a setting very similar to Warren’s only its 8 km back into the bush instead of about 1 km. A street bike like my old Yamaha isn’t built for that kind of riding; it is loose gravel and dust. Twisty and steep. My arms were aching by the time I got there. Coming back down was worse; you have to be very careful when braking. Made it OK but the bike is covered in dust now.

 

For any of you with high-speed Internet access, here is a web site with hundreds of pictures of the Vancouver area and our area. Each picture at this link opens a page of pictures. Each picture can be clicked on for a better view. For The Howe Sound / Squamish area, click on the label for the picture way down at the bottom right, Sea to Sky.

 

http://www.seethenorthshore.com/index.htm

 

Greg asked me a valid question. Do you (meaning me) get used to the scenery? The answer is both no and yes. The scenery here is so over powering that you do reach a point of sensory overload. That is actually a good thing because you have to put it out of your mind and ignore it if you want to drive or work safely. When the day is over and we sit on the deck or go for a walk we can let ourselves ‘see’ the surrounding majesty. So yes, I am now used to the scenery until I can let myself see it. Then at that point, no, you could never get used to all the ever-changing sights.

 

This has been a sizzling hot week again. There is cooling weather in the long range forecast. Sure hope they are right. We need to cool off a bit here. It has been in the high 20s to mid 30s for over 3 months now without a cloud in the sky. As I type this, I can see a high overcast moving in off the ocean. Relief is in sight.

 

I think Sue and I are heading up to Whistler this evening for dinner and to catch a movie. She will be out of town on the 8th; heading for and audit in Dawson Creek, so we sort of have to celebrate the big three zero a couple of days early. At least there is no danger of anyone trying to throw us a surprise party.

 

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THE ONTARION REPORT

 

September 04, 2003

 

Well, here we are in September once again. It’s incredible how fast that summer went by. I know it’s not the end of summer technically but once the kids go back to school it feels like it’s over. We really did have a good summer. The weather was a nice mixture of sunshine and rain. More sunshine than rain for sure but at times it seemed like the other way around.

 

It’s that time once again to look at the lawns and decide what chemical to use on those darn Grubbs! I noticed that Bailey’s paws were a bright orange colour after I let him out last Saturday for a pee at 7am. He had run through the dew of the back yard and when he came back in the house he was a changed pooch. It looked like he had a set of orange booties on! I went outside after wiping his feet off and checked the lawn. Sure enough, the grass was a true rust colour at the roots. I grabbed a handful of grass and lightly pulled up on it. With no effort at all, the clump came out in my hand. Aha!!!! Grubbs! First thing the next morning I set out to find my trusty Grubb Killer! I decided to phone a few hardware places before driving all over the Region to find what I needed. Home Depot said “not available anymore”! Home Hardware said “not available anymore”! TSC Store said, “we had some but we are all out”! I decided to take a jaunt to Canadian Tire Store. They had no granular type Grubb Killer but they had it in concentrated liquid form so I bought a bottle. I figured what the heck, if I mix enough of this in my sprayer, it should work just fine. Well, I got home and was about to mix up a batch when Carole spotted the bottle on the table. She said she knew that White Rose Garden Centre in Waterloo had the granular type for sure. So she called them and they said they had just gotten a big load of it in that very day. I jumped back into the Jeep and headed back to CTC to get my refund. Then, off to White Rose. I walked in the door and sure enough, right before me eyes was a huge bin with at least 100 bags of the stuff! The only thing that deterred me from grabbing 10 of these lovely lawn savers was the price! WOW, $34.99/ bag. I asked the teller why so much and she told me that this is the last year that this chemical miracle will be available for sale in Ontario. The Gov’t has banned the use of such concoctions as of January 1st, 2004.

 

DAMN, whatever will I do to rid our lovely lawn of these root-munching machines of nature after 2004? I grabbed my purchase and headed home. When I got home, I told Carole of the situation and she was quite dismayed at the thoughtlessness of our Government. I said don’t worry honey, I’ll just go back and pick up a couple dozen of the bags that White Rose has in stock. We’ll at least be able to ward off the Grubbs for the next decade or so!  I wonder if Clyde is aware of the ban on this wonder chemical? I’ll have to let him know that if he is looking for some in the future, I’ll have an abundance of it in my shed. Maybe he and I can make a deal to exchange some of my Grubb Killer for a few litres of his Killex? AAAAAAAAh the wonders of free enterprise! Don’t you just love living in a Democratic society where entrepreneurial adventure is not only allowed but also encouraged? I spent Sunday afternoon spreading the Grubb X with my fertilizer broadcaster in anticipation of the forecast showers that we were expecting that evening. Well, the showers never materialized and I had to resort to setting up the sprinkler to soak the chemical into the soil deep enough to feed the Grubbs. I’m sure they are munching on the poisonous compound at this very moment. We should see the results in the form of GREEN grass within a week or so. It really doesn’t take long to green up again once the critters are reduced to shriveled up pulp! (Note to self = “send a thank you message to CIL”)  Once again, modern science has saved the day! I bet if they tried, CIL could come up with a chemical that, when sprayed on the forests of BC would make them fire resistant if not fire PROOF! I should include that idea in a note along with my “thank you” message. Maybe they never thought of such a thing. What a boon that would be eh? Hell, they might even be able to include a phosphorescent potion that would allow the forest to glow so we wouldn’t need campfires or torches to find our way around in the woods at night. Just think of the possibilities! Hunting could become a 24-hour a day sport. Search parties could do their thing 24 hours a day. Just think of all the lives that would be saved. Not to mention the increase in commerce for the logging industry! They wouldn’t have to shut down the logging machinery at sunset, they could just keep on munching! By George I think I’ve stumbled onto something here!

 

 Might be a tad difficult convincing the “Tree Huggers” to go along with this, but what the heck, we could just use the paper from the extra trees that are cut down to make extra money to buy them off! No problem!

See, there are ways around everything when you put your mind to it.

 

You know, maybe I should have spent the last 30 years in the “Environmental” game instead of fighting fires. Gosh, it just goes to show you that one should make every effort to point ones self in the right direction career wise when they’re young. Oh well, I suppose I did all right in the career I chose. After all if I hadn’t been in that game, I probably wouldn’t be retired this early and have all this time to think up these great schemes to improve our lot in life. I hope I’ve given you all something to think about this week. Please, don’t be shy; let me know what you think. If you can improve on my ideas, I’d be only too glad to consider your input. Thanks for tuning in this week my friends. Talk to you again next week.

 

GREG.

 

PS: Something to Think About>

 

Anger is a wind, which blows out the lamp of reason.

 

 

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Rosemary sent out a couple of pictures of her pond. They can be seen on my web site. There is a link to her page at the bottom of the column of links along the left side, right below Greg’s link.

 

http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b/

 

Have a good one..

the doug