The Squamidian Report – May 19 / 07

 

Issue #260

 

Also in this issue:

The Ontarion

 

Hi All,

 

I had a rather interesting assignment at work. Way back in the bush up in the hills above the Britannia development was an old wooden water reservoir. This was a very interesting structure, being built like a giant two-story wooden barrel. The side slats were tongue and grooved to fit together and the 20 ft diameter was held in place with steel straps, just like a barrel. There was a roof structure and a catwalk from the nearby cliff side for access. This reservoir fed those old wooden water pipes I’ve talked about in the past. There used to be a rough trail into the location.

 

Once those old wooden pipes were no longer needed, the reservoir was drained. Draining it marked the end. With the water gone, there was no pressure to hold the sides solidly in place and the wood could dry out and shrink. Within a year it became structurally unsound. It had to come down before it fell on someone.

 

So I was given the sad task of demolishing it. That meant I had to get to it with an excavator. Some brush clearing was all that was needed to get about half way in. From there on I had to re-build the trail along the steep side slope. One section has washed out leaving a steep deep raven that ran right on down the mountainside out of sight into the dark below. I needed to gather boulders to build up a wall in the ravine that would hold back the dirt I would use as fill to create a way of crossing. Once across I could then work my way to the reservoir. The brush around the structure needed to be cleared so I could see what I was doing. When I could finally actually see around the reservoir I could also see that it perched on a ledge. A few pokes with the excavator bucket proved that it would come down easily so the next thing was to figure out just how I wanted it to come down. I didn’t want any of the debris to go over the ledge as it all had to be removed from the site.

 

The catwalk was just a bit too high to reach with the bucket so I simply pushed out the support poles and down it came. After shoving it’s remains into a pile I reached up and pushed the roof section off, bringing it down on the side away from the drop down through the trees. Once it was smashed up and on the pile I poked at the sides of the reservoir. As I did, the steel bands that ran around the perimeter all slide down to the bottom. Good and bad! Good that they were out of the way and would be easy to keep from getting tangled in the debris, bad because now there was very little holding the think in place, it could come down on it’s own out of control before I was ready. Another side sweep of the boom and bucket shoved the whole thing away from the drop-off and onto my pile. Now I just needed to munch the pile up into lengths that I could carry out and load onto trucks.

 

The closest the trucks could get to the reservoir site was a couple of hundred feet on the other side of the ravine so I had to carry all the debris out a bucket full at a time.  I think I filled about half a dozen truckloads and each load took about ten or so big buckets full. That meant sixty or so trips across my makeshift bridging of the ravine. After each truck I had to build up my roadway as the machine tended to push the material I was traveling on down. Once the wood debris was cleaned up the concrete foundation had to come out. I munched that up into two loads. Then as my last trip out I graded out my track marks and removed my bridging. Had to make it look like we had never been there except for the fact that there is now a big empty space on a ledge on the side of a mountain. Whole thing took about three workdays. It was kind of fun, glad it’s done.

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As you know, it is quite common to see black bears wandering around in Squamish. This week we had a bit of a surprise. Instead of the usual cuddly looking blacks, we had a 300 lb grizzly. Probably a year old male looking for it’s own territory, or just looking for an easy lunch. Took the wildlife people three days to catch him. Whenever they would get close he would just take off out into the estuary. He avoided the standard live trap things. They finally got him with a tranquilizer gun. He will be moved into the outback somewhere, he will return if he managed to get a taste of people garbage.

 

doug

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THE ONTARION REPORT

 

Hello everyone!

 

Happy 24th of May weekend (Victoria Day, for our foreign members). Although I’m sure Karen and the rest of the Zeller family remember celebrating the occasion when they lived here.

 

I stepped outside a few minutes ago to let Bailey out for a tinkle and the smell of gun powder was wafting through the air. I guess the fireworks lovers will be setting them off each night up to and including Monday. I remember the May 2 4 weekend as one of the busiest when I was still at WFD. People just don’t seem to get it, that playing with fireworks is a dangerous thing to do. It’s even dangerous when one knows what they’re doing with these explosive devices. We used to have a lot of injuries to tend to from people holding various fireworks in their hands after lighting them. How utterly stupid can these people be? I say if you’re dumb enough to try holding one, you deserve what you get when it goes off!

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I spent a couple of hours this afternoon trimming then cutting the lawn. It seems to take me longer every time I do it. Maybe I’m just slowing down in my old age. LOL! The results are something to behold when completed. There’s something satisfying about turning and looking at the whole picture when you’re finished. We’ve always taken pride in the condition of our property and its nice when people walking by make positive comments to Carole and I about it. We have a 40” high fence that runs down the side of our lot and extends about 8’ around the corner of our lot at the front. We extended it to that point when we moved in 9 years ago to keep people from cutting across the corner of the lawn. With so many schools in the area there is a lot of foot traffic passing by our house. The fence keeps the walkers and bike riders on the sidewalk. When I rebuilt that section a couple of weeks after it was flattened by a skidding car in the winter we still had a bare patch at the corner between the fence and the sidewalk. The grass there was dead about a foot in each direction from the corner. Carole came up with a better idea than that which hadn’t worked every year since we’ve lived here. Each year we would dig up that corner and put fresh top soil and seed down. No matter how we nurtured it the new grass would be dead within a couple of weeks of planting. The problem is that even though it’s only a foot shorter to step there than stay on the sidewalk, people seemed to step and twist their foot in that spot as they turned the corner. Not to mention all the dogs that stopped there to take a pee every day. Carole suggested I dig it down and fill it with concrete. I did just that and while the concrete was still wet, I stuck 2” to 3” stones in the cement. It dried overnight and now looks great. The stones are not comfortable to step on so the walkers don’t do that and the dog pee doesn’t kill the stones. It turned out to be a win win idea. Now as long as the frost doesn’t lift it and the “Mini” snow plow that does that sidewalk in winter doesn’t hit it, it should be there for a long time.

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I managed to complete another annual project today as well. The pond out back was in need of some attention. I had discovered that somewhere in the waterfall we were losing water from the pond. I thought we’d have to pull the tons of heavy limestone rocks apart and rebuild the shape of the falls or replace the rubber liner under the rocks. Carole decided she’d just as soon not have all that muss and fuss. She asked me if I could change the water from flowing over the falls to squirting straight up in the middle of the pond in a “jet” of water. I gladly said “No problem  Hon, it would be much easier than tearing the falls apart”. So I purchased a slightly stronger pump and mounted it outside the pond hidden in the garden on a patio stone. I then built a plastic pipe rig to stand on the bottom of the pond with a single pipe rising up in the middle ending just below the surface of the water. It took me a couple of days to get to that point as I had to clean the pond out completely first. That meant pumping the water out and removing all the lava rock from the bottom. I had to take all that out to the boulevard that day and pressure wash it to remove all the guck. Once I had it clean and back in place I could finish the pump assembly. It looks cool and works great with the spout of water shooting out of the water and falling back into the pond in a soothing splash. It’s an even more pleasant sound than the water falls produced. I’m going to fine tune the set up to maybe make the water shoot even higher. Guess I’m never finished playing with stuff around the house. There’s always ways to improve things or make them even cooler. I shocked the water in the pond and put stabilizer in as well to keep the water in clean clear condition. I tested it after I finished and the water now meets all the specs for ph etc that is required for standard swimming pool water. I also have a floating chlorinator so we shouldn’t have any problems with algae this year. I’m hoping the water will stay nice and clear. It’s a lot more pleasant looking than brown water like we’ve had other years. IF this doesn’t work, I’ve threatened to drain the pond and fill it with rocks! Hahaha… I doubt Carole would let that happen. Just keep your fingers crossed for us that it never comes to that.

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We’re heading to a cottage for Saturday and Sunday in Long Point Beach. It should be a fun time. It’ll be nice to get away for a couple of days just to relax. We’re going to make the trip in the MGB which should add to the fun of the weekend. We managed to remember to pick up the license sticker today so we’re all set to go. A weekend in Long Point may just supply me with subject matter for next weeks Ontarion. Ya never know!

 

That’s it for this week. 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>

Lake Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes. Which is the deepest?

 

 

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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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