The Squamidian Report – Jan. 12 / 08
Issue #294
Also in this issue:
A Note From Russ
From the Shores of Lake Huron
The Ontarion
Hi All,
The bank branch where Sue has been managing has a mostly Oriental and East Asian staff. In fact, counting Sue there are only 2 Caucasian people working there. So when it came time for various branches to hold their Christmas dinners, her branch bowed out in favour of a New Years dinner that would be held early in the New Year. It wasn’t a decision based on political correctness. It simply made sense when different cultures were going to get together on a social basis.
So the staff and their spouses met last Sunday at a la-de-da downtown Vancouver restaurant called ‘The Boat House’. It’s right on English Bay at the bottom of Denman St where it meets Pacific Blvd. There is green grass, palm trees and the sandy beach as a backdrop. If the location and scenery, and the exuberant prices on the menu were any indication, it should have been a memorable and pleasurable experience. Unfortunately, it only lived up to the memorable part.
For starters, the service was dismal. Even though reservations had been made weeks earlier, it took almost an hour for a server to start taking orders. Then, it took that long again before any food started to turn up at the tables. The food was terrible. Some plates were hot, but many had cooled off and were cold. Some meals were under cooked, some were way over cooked. Of the 30 or so people there, almost a third had to send theirs back to be re-done. At the end, the server tried to talk us into having desert but everyone just wanted out of the place.
They had successfully created 30 customers who will never return, and who will be more than willing to spread the word. Not the smartest business plan when you think about it.
*
The Squamish river valley is one of the premier eagle wintering grounds in North America and Brackendale again held their annual eagle count. They do the count as much for tourist and bragging reasons as they do for scientific reasons. This year the count was down by about a thousand birds. The reason seems to be that the chum salmon runs totally collapsed this winter. The chum salmon usually run all winter in abundance. Normally the banks of the rivers reek with the smell of dead fish. Normally the eagles and other scavengers are very well fed. But this year the fish simply didn’t show up. No one knows why. Many eagles have long since left for other winter feeding areas. There are still a couple of thousand here, some just wintering, and the rest being the resident birds.
Because the fish are not available to the eagles, they are hungry. There have been several reports of house pets disappearing. Small dogs and cats are easy pickings for birds with big strong beaks and claws and a 7 ft wingspan. It looks like a scene right out of a Hitchcock move when you see and eagle sitting on a tree branch eyeing a little poodle being walked by on a leash. For the first time in their life, some of these small pets are probably glad to be on a leash and tethered securely to their person.
doug
****
opossum: a small mammal that lives most of the time in trees,
common in the S. United States and found in S. Ontario;
opossum - When caught or frightened, it becomes unconscious and appears to be dead.
The Gage Canadian Dictionary.
OK, that’s the official description of the opossum, hereinafter called simply 'possum'
'Lives mostly in trees', yup, that’s where he gets his preferred food, eggs of songbirds.
Notice a distinct absence of songbirds these past summers?
'When frightened appears to be dead' Oh yeah? Tell that to the dog who accidentally encounters one of these timid little mammals. And they don’t back away from humans either, baring their sharp teeth and threatening attack!
I guess, since moving north where they have no natural enemies, they’ve learned to be more aggressive. And since our winters are getting milder they’ve found a whole new world where they can multiply in peace.
'When caught, it becomes unconscious’ Not the one I caught!
Let me tell you how I came to catch a possum:
We were living in a new development on the banks of the Grand River in West Galt, and my wife, Bobbie, whom most of you know is legally blind, loves flowers because she can still see colours, decided we should have a flower garden at the rear of our condo. We planted flowering shrubs, roses, daisies, Lilly-of-The-Valley, etc., and they did OK. But when we tried more exotic species, something chewed them off over night! I kept the garden under constant surveillance, which was easy to do because our bathroom window looked out over the garden, and I was constantly on the John anyway.
It wasn’t long before I found out who had come to dinner uninvited----groundhogs! I tried animal repellants, but as soon as it rained or I used a sprinkler they ineffective. Somebody suggested ground hot pepper boiled in water, allowed to cool, and then sprinkled on the flowers---too hot---burned plants! I went to work to put up physical security barriers as a defense against these annoying rodents. Out with the chicken wire and wooden stakes, I made whoops around each plant, it worked! But sadly, so ugly it took away from the beauty of the flowers. Discarded that idea.
Live traps! Off to the City Works Dept. to borrow a trap. I told the trap dispenser what I wanted to trap. Yes, he could let me have one for 30 days with a large deposit, which I’d get back if I returned the trap in good condition. "What should I use for bait?" I asked, he didn’t know, but called to a person in the back, who replied as if asked that same question 100 times a day, "Peanut butter sandwiches!" Of course, I thought, everybody likes peanut butter sandwiches.
I took the trap home, set it in the garden, then went in and spread some peanut butter on a slice of bread. Open face? Of course, then had one myself. Everybody likes peanut butter sandwiches! I carefully baited the trap and watched from my "throne" until dark----nothing. Next morning I ran out, filled with excitement and anticipation to see what I’d caught---Nothing in the trap, not even a sandwich! And the trap is still "set". Hmmm.
Oh, I forgot to tell you. I was now feeding a whole family of groundhogs from my garden! I watched as Mommy would cautiously approach the garden followed by three babies. You could almost hear her giving instructions and warnings. "Shasta Daisies", eat the blossoms only" "Azaleas, very bitter, eat sparingly". "Black-eyed Susans, they’re too tall for you". And as she approached the door of the trap, "Don’t even think about it!" So the babies gave it a wide berth, not daring to look back.
Trapping is an interesting profession, never boring. One day I caught a rabbit. He didn’t eat the peanut butter, just went in to look around, I guess. I always release my catch on the spot. Next day or two, another rabbit, nobody told him about it.
I checked the trap every morning, and put in fresh bait. I even tried raw carrots, they just wilted, nobody wanted a salad. Maybe I should become a furrier, because I now have a raccoon in my one-room apartment! I opened the door to let him out, but he just sat there looking at me with those big black eyes, arms folded as if to say, "That was good, now how about some more?" Because he wouldn’t leave the trap, with the help of a neighbour, we loaded him into my car and took him for a 20-mile one-way trip into a wooded area. He reluctantly left the trap, and, looking back at us, seemed to say, "What, no lunch?"
The, you guessed it. A possum! It was much bigger than I expected, and when I offered him his freedom, he didn’t run away.......I think he was waiting for another open faced peanut butter sandwich.
In all, I caught two rabbits, one possum, a raccoon and the neighbour’s dumb cat, but not one groundhog. I suspect each time the bait was taken without springing the trap, it was a groundhog who somehow learned to get the bait without setting off the trap.
So, defeated, I took the trap back, thanked the man for my refund, and for his baiting advice------he was right, everyone loves a peanut butter sandwich.
Trapper Russ.
****
Greetings everyone!
Well it's been a strange week of weather here in southern Ontario. We had record warm temperatures, severe thunderstorms, and damaging winds since last weekend. All but the snow piles from plowing are gone. As a matter of fact Friday morning I thought I was hearing things when a robin chirped when I surprised it when I came around the end of my shed with birdseed for the feeders. I watched where it landed in a near by tree and confirmed that it was exactly that, A ROBIN. I hope the little guy has his long johns along because the temperature out there is now below zero. In 58 years I have never seen a robin in January maybe as early as mid March so anything is possible.
The drive back up Friday from Kitchener was interesting as in various areas the snow squalls were coming down pretty heavy and the rapid drop in temperature created some icy spots but I arrived back safe and sound. The salmon fry have been moved up to the next tank size and are being fed now with special food. The last batch of eggs are all hatched and will be about 3 more weeks until they graduate into the larger tanks. Most of the fish in the larger tanks are between 1 1/4 " and 1 1/2" s long and will grow rapidly now in the larger tanks.
Well I must sign off for now so everyone have a great and safe week.
****
Hello
everyone!
Last
week, you may remember that I spoke about our weather reporters predicting a
week of spring like warm temperatures for southern Ontario. They had predicted
temps would reach as high as +13c by Tuesday. Well, they were correct in their predictions.
By Tuesday we were experiencing warm and sunny weather that actually reached
+15c and in parts of southern Ontario even higher. Here in KW we were surprised
to see that most of our heavy snow that had accumulated quite quickly over the
past month was gone. We went to bed late that night with the expectation of
“Some rain” beginning after midnight, according to the local weather reporters,
“Possibly heavy at times and continuing into the morning.” Well, about 3am I
was awakened by the sound of wind howling and an extremely heavy rain pounding
against the wall of our bedroom just a few inches outside our headboard. Adam
and Carole decided to stay up and watch a movie after I hit the hay and were
shocked when they heard the rain and looked outside. Adam came in to tell me to
get up and take a look at the river flowing past our house. I got up and made
my way to the front bedroom to take a look out the window down to the street. I
was indeed shocked as well when I realized that we were witnessing something
I’d never seen before. The curbs on our street were under about an inch of
water or more. That means that the water was about 8” deep at least flowing by
the house. We live on a corner and the street that passes beside our house is
sloped from two directions to meet in a slight gully at our intersecting
street. The water when I looked out the side of our house was flowing from the
top of the side street, which is at least 500 yards north of our intersection.
The water on that street was from curb to curb and slightly overflowing each
side. Adam and I stepped outside onto the porch to take some pictures of this
amazing sight. I’ll attach a few of the shots I took in this report so Doug can
post them for you to see for yourselves. After taking a few shots, we decided
to take the Jeep for a spin and check out the local flooding. We were amazed at
the amount of water on many of the surrounding streets. Our street is about 8
blocks long and goes downhill from our house at the top end to a very low
section for the second half. We are indeed fortunate that we don’t live at the
lower end. As we drove down the hill at the halfway point of the street and
rounded the curve we were confronted by a virtual lake. We have a hydro right
of way that bisects our street at that point. This right of way acts as a
trough for the water to follow and empty onto the lower part of our street. We
decided to drive on through the lake on the street and check out the depth. I
had thoughts of driving into a manhole from which the lid had been lifted off
by the mighty flow of water that the drainage system was obviously under at the
moment. Luckily the lids were still in place. As we made our way through the
mini lake I noticed that I was pushing harder on the accelerator and wasn’t
going any faster. Adam then commented on the size of the wave we were creating
and pushing as we progressed through the water. The Jeep has a ground clearance
of 14” with a front air dam below the bumper that is 13” off the roadway. I
measured this to make sure I wasn’t telling stories without some corroboration.
I looked at the front of the Jeep as I drove and the wave was a white cap just
slightly below the bug deflector on the leading edge of the hood. I was shocked
to see that it was that high. I let off the gas a little and the wave dropped
slightly as the vehicle slowed. No wonder it wasn’t picking up speed very
readily when I stepped on the gas. We were pushing a couple of tons of water.
Looking to either side of the vehicle we could see the wake created by our
progress lapping just slightly short of the lower step at the front porches of
the houses along the street. At that point it came to mind that when we first
got insurance on our house almost 10 years ago, my insurance agent Ed Kennedy
mentioned the damage the houses at this lower end of Royal Orchard Dr had
suffered several years earlier. He said he was happy to see that we had
purchased the home at the highest point of that same street and would have no
worries about flooding. When we were in the middle of the lake, Adam opened his
door and checked the water level and noted that it was about 2” below the
rocker panel of the Jeep. That means the water was at least 12” deep at that
point. I think we were about in the middle of the lake when he checked it. WOW!
That’s a lot of water to be sitting on a relatively well-drained city street. I
know it’s nothing when compared to many floods that people have been through
but for our neighbourhood, it was quite a sight! The lake was actually deeper
than that when I think of it because we were pushing a huge wave in front of us
and I’m sure that was creating a depression around the body of the Jeep as we
drove along. I think if we had stopped at that point in the lake we might have
been letting a few inches of water into the Jeep by opening the door. WHEW, I’m
glad now that we were moving or I’d be shampooing my interior this weekend!
LOL!
We made
it safely back into our driveway and into the garage. It had stopped raining
for a few minutes so I decided to take a shovel and see if I could clear some
debris away from the grate on the drain at the curb beside our house. The water
had lowered to exactly the top edge of the curb and was no longer flowing across
the sidewalk at the corner of our lot. I carefully walked to the curbside and
began pushing on the debris at the drain. It was incredibly difficult to move
the garbage off the grate. I managed to dislodge some of it and was surprised
that the drain actually was able to take the water in. I thought that the
system might have been so full that the water would be bubbling up out of the
drain in reverse. The upper part of that street was now clear in the middle and
the water was no longer covering the entire street. The flow was now about 6’
out from each curb until about 2 houses from our corner. It was in a big lake
at our intersection. I thought it would take a long time to drain that lake but
we were surprised to see that when I opened only 6 square holes in the drain
the water gushed in like Niagara Falls. I held back some of the debris and
watched as the lake disappeared. It took about 5 minutes to get the lake down
to a flowing stream of only 4’ in width or so, on each side of the road. I was
appalled at the amount of garbage strewn on the roadways and plugging each
drain. It was evident that the majority of it was litter that had been dropped
at the asses of people too lazy or too ignorant to deposit it in a proper
receptacle. I figured that the roads would be a heck of a mess come daylight.
After our adventure we settled back inside and had a cup of tea before hitting
the hay once more at about 4:30am. Needless to say we slept in a little later
than usual that morning. The sun was shining and the weather was clear the next
day at least for a few hours. I had to go out and do some shopping and was
surprised to see that the city crews had been around and cleaned off most of
the drain grates that morning. The roads were still strewn a little with debris
but for the most part there weren’t many signs of the early morning flood. It
appeared that leaves left in piles at the roadsides from fall were the bigger
part of the mess on the roads. I guess they’ll have to remain that way till the
sweepers can get around to doing a proper job of cleaning the roadways in the
Spring.
***
That’s
about it for this week folks!
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>
Would you
be prepared if a flood happened in your neighbourhood?
PPS: At
the height of the rain and flooding of the streets around us, the toilets were
gurgling and the water in them was sucked to a very low level. I attribute this
to a ventury affect created by the amazing amount of water in the city drainage
system passing by the pipes from each house that drain household water. I know
that the sewage system and flood drainage systems are supposed to be two
separate systems but there must be some way that one affects the other. I guess
that’s something I’ll have to research and write about another time.
****
The Family Site:
http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b/
The Squamidian Site:
The Biking And Stuff Site:
Have a good one..
the
doug
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