The Squamidian Report – Aug. 25 / 07
Issue #274
Also in this issue:
From the shores of Lake Huron
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Just a little bit of follow-up on that water main we knocked the blow-off valve off of. Turned out there was someone near by with a camera. They snapped a picture of us and the machine I was running, in front of the geyser of water as it shot straight up into the air. The picture made it’s way into our little local weekly newspaper. Of course, newspapers are notorious for getting details wrong, and this picture was no exception. I can’t possibly be nearly as short as I appear in the shot! But that’s newspapers for you. I’ve scanned the picture in the paper and posted it to a web page.
http://www.thedougsite.net/Misc/Geyser.htm
*
This has been a pretty quiet week out here on the coast. Except for a run up to Whistler on the bike one evening all I’ve done is work, eat and sleep. Mostly work. And that’s been pretty tiring as we have some new laborers at work. Most of what I do requires me to be swinging the machine bucket over, around and in between the guys. The green ones haven’t yet learned to work around the machine. So extra attention is needed to keep an eye on each of them and be ready for anything. There is a knack to always being seen and always moving in an expected way. They haven’t learned it yet so my attention level has to be at 110% at all times. Leaves an old fart like me pretty beat by the end of the day.
*
I’ve had several requests for copies of the CD that I had with me in Nova Scotia. And Ewan wondered why the jacket didn’t include any credits. So perhaps I’ll explain.
Warren and I got together in Ryan’s living room one Sunday afternoon last winter. Ryan had set up some mics and recording equipment. Some of the stuff he owns, the rest he simply borrowed from Rocky, the entertainment company he works for. He had everything set up so it would feed into his computer where he has all sorts of fancy recording software. We each needed two mics, one for vocals and one for picking up our acoustic instruments. We then simple did our numbers ‘live’. The only over dubbing was where both mandolin and base are in a given song. I can’t play both at the same time so one needed to be added after the main take.
Ryan then saved each track file as it was played. The combined four or five tracks were the songs. He then edited each song, removing unwanted noised like instruments being bumped, or sneezes and other irritants. Once the unwanted rough edges were smoothed, the result was a recorded song. But basically, he had captured us doing a ‘live’ take. There is no special filtering or altering of any part of it. It is how we sound when we play.
The numbers we do are all old tunes written by someone else. We don’t have any rights or permissions to then, but there is no commercial intent and we just play them for the fun of it so it’s unlikely that the music cops will come banging at our doors.
Anyway, the credits are like this:
We don’t even know who wrote some of the songs, others we do. Ryan did the technical stuff. Warren did vocals and played 12-string as well as his harmonicas. He can really make those things talk. I did vocals and played mandolin as well as base. And because I hand wrote the song names into each jacket, I didn’t see much need to go into any other details.
Several hours and a lot of fun later we had the tracks down. Once Ryan’s time permitted, he finished up the editing and we have eight songs on a CD. If we can pin Ryan down again some time we will add to them.
doug
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Greetings everyone. I have been extremely busy the last few weeks with this that and the other thing. While everyone was down to the east coast I was on two weeks holidays partaking in the 24th annual Chantry Chinook Classic fishing derby. These two weeks are harder than working for 12 hours. You get up at four in the morning on the water by five fish till about noon come back in and weigh in your catch and kibitz with all the other fisherman until about two in the afternoon. You then get ready to go back out at around five pm and fish until dark. Glad to go back to work for some rest. The largest salmon caught (not by me) was 17.76 lbs, which netted the guy 8,000.00 dollars. I always seem to catch the big ones either before or after the derby. They also have a prize of an additional amount of 50,000 dollars if the last two digits of the weight match a number picked somewhere in Texas. Like what are the odds of winning that prize. This guy came close though his last two digits were .76 and the number picked was .74 I find that to be remarkable considering the number of combinations from .00 to .99. Anyways we got some fish and today I am having my annual fish fry. Doug has been before and I get probably 150 plus people there. There is always lots of food and a good time to be had by all.
Last Saturday the Grey Bruce Motorcycling touring Club had the 24th annual toy ride. I had not been in it for about 5 years but got out this year for it. There were about 75 bikes and it was a non-stop ride of about 2 1/2 hours. Everyone brings toys to donate for the needy kids for Christmas time. This year’s ride went from Sauble beach over to east of Wiarton then the scenic route around to Owen Sound to the Sydenham Sportmas club where donuts, hamburgers and cold pop or water were served. Riding the new Vulcan was much more comfortable than the old Suzuki I used to have. By the way there was a bike there I had never heard of before. It was called a Ridley and was fully automatic. A bit strange looking but interesting.
Anyway I must sign off for now and everyone have a great weekend and week ahead.
****
Hello
everyone!
I’d write
about the stories on the news tonight but by the time I finish I’d be so damned
depressed I’d need a dump truck load of Prozak. So I’m just going to wing it
and see where it takes me. Today I came across a write up about a Hamilton
couple that visited Churchill Manitoba last October to visit the Polar bear
habitat. The freelance writer and his wife couldn’t say enough about the trip
to the great white north. Churchill has made a big business out of watching the
bears. There are several companies that escort groups of tourists in large all
terrain vehicles out to the wilds of the shores of Hudson Bay where the Polar
bears play. They range from the shore of the bay to downtown Churchill. The
vehicles look like school busses on 6’ tall knobby tires. The height of the
vehicles is designed to enable visitors to safely take pictures of the bears
without the bears being able to reach the open windows. After reading the story
of their trip, I’m enthused about checking into doing the same vacation
sometime. The best time of year to do this is October/November before the heavy
winter sets into that area. The bears are in the area awaiting the freezing
over of the water so they can venture out on the ice to hunt for seals. Their
main diet is the seals that live in the water all year round. During the warmer
months the bears exist on rabbits and any other prey they can manage to dig up.
They actually spend a lot of time rummaging through the local dump in
Churchill. When a bear becomes a nuisance by venturing into town, the local
fish and game authority traps the bear and places it in a compound they call
the Bear Jail. The bears are kept there until the authorities can transport
them to the local airport and load them on a helicopter for delivery to a
remote region where they won’t bother anyone. This “Jail” is part of the
attraction in Churchill and many of the tourists spend hours at the compound
watching and photographing the inmates. This sounds like a very interesting and
unusual vacation destination. However, it’s not the least expensive trip one
can take. The average price for the 5 day junket is approximately $3,500.00 per
person. This pays for everything from your hotel accommodations in Winnipeg to
your flight, food and motel in Churchill. All of the tours and activities while
in Churchill are included. The only additional cost to you is your flight from
wherever you live to Winnipeg and from Winnipeg back home.
Sounds
like the whole trip could wind up costing you about $4500.00 or more per
person. Of course, you have to admit, where else can you experience such an
unusual vacation? The concentration of Polar Bears in Churchill is the largest
anywhere in the world so it would be a pretty amazing trip. This trip is a very
popular one and if you’re thinking of making it this year, you had better be
calling your travel agent before September. Apparently there are thousands of
requests for spots on the tour but there are only two small motels in Churchill.
Space is limited and the time span is only for two months. I think for this
year, I’ll have to be satisfied with the video from National Geographic.
This is
just one of the thousands of worthwhile vacation packages available right here
in Canada. Why would anyone want to fly to a foreign country in some remote
part of the world when we have such beauty and adventure right here at home?
Beats me!
Gotta go
for now!
Thanks
for tuning in and I look forward to talking to you all again next time in The
Ontarion Report.
Bye for now!
Greg.
PS:
Something To Think About>
A cat has
32 muscles in each ear.
****
The Family and the Squamidian sites:
http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b/ and http://www.thedougsite.ca
Have a good one..
the
doug
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