The Squamidian Report – Feb. 21 / 09
Issue #352
Including:
From The Shores Of Lake Huron
The Ontarion
Hi All,
This is kind of weird, but the west coast is now and has for the last month or so been experiencing a drought. Winter is normally the wet rainy season out here, the time of year when the lowlands are drenched with heavy rains and the mountains are covered in coat after coat of ever deepening snow. Its that accumulation of snow that would then melt slowly over the summer, ensuring a steady supply of cold clear water for the streams and rivers. Normally, there should and would be 5 or 6 meters of snow on the surrounding hills, and much more than that in the high Interior country. But we have not had any rain or snow to speak of since just after New Years. We had a lot come down over that two-week period but nothing since them. The snow on the hills around here is only about 1.5 meters deep. We still have snow on the ground here in town but anywhere that the ground is bare, it is dry. We have rodo plants in our yard that should have bright green leaves now. Instead, their leaves have turned brown. They need water.
So even though we are enjoying day after day of bright sunshine, we are waiting for rain. We are also waiting for it to warm up a bit. Several weeks of sunshine should have been more than enough to melt away all the low-elevation snow but it simply has not warmed up. Sure, we hit +10 or so most afternoons but the rest of the day is cold. There should be blossoms out by now, especially throughout the Lower Mainland and on Southern Vancouver Island but it’s been too cold (by west coast standards) to melt winter away and thaw things out. And worst of all, it has been too cold to get the motorcycle out. Now that’s a real bummer!
*
Some of you may remember that we have, or make that had, a pellet stove in our living room. We have never used it as a stove for several reasons. We had been using it as a TV stand. For starters, pellet stoves have moving parts that make noise. They use a small auger system to feed tiny wood pellets into the firebox from a hopper on top. They also use a fan to force the smoke out through a horizontal pipe that exhausts through the wall. So to run the stove for esthetic reasons means putting up with the noise of both the auger and the fan. But even worse, to run the stove for practical reasons is not practical at all. The very conditions that would require running the stove to heat the house are the same conditions where doing that would not work. We have electric heat and if we needed the stove to warm the house it would mean that the hydro was out, so the stove would not even work at that point. And worse, if the stove had been running when the hydro went out, the fan would stop and the smoke would back up. Not at all a good situation.
So after several years of thinking about the stove and various options, we decided to get rid of it. Doing so creates its own problems. The stove sits on a ceramic tile pad in a room that is carpeted, and there are a couple of holes through the exterior wall where the venting takes place. We would have to dispose of a heavy stove, repair the wall on the inside and the outside, and tear up the tile and whatever is under them to prepare the floor so the carpet could be patched in.
Because the carpeting had been done through Home Depot (Vancouver) we approached our local outlet to see if they had an installer who would do a small patch job. We still have a large chunk of carpet left from the original installation so matching would not be a problem. It was rather difficult to convince them that we were only dealing with a size of one square meter but we were able to get the installer to come out to take a look. Once he saw the stove and the pad under it he understood and then asked what we would be doing with the stove. We told him that we wanted to get rid of it because we never will use it. Turned out he wanted one like it and we agreed the he would do the carpet patching in trade for the stove. That saved us trying to sell it or even trying to carry it out. Sue and I simple wrestled it onto a mat and slid it out of the way.
Then I had to deal with the wall and the floor. Wall was first priority because there was now an open hole through it. I was able to find a plug for the four-inch sleeve that the smoke pipe had run through so I was able to seal up the outside. I needed about one cubic foot of fiberglass insulation so I drove around an area where some new houses are going in and sure enough, there was a garbage bin full of building debris including chunks of insulation. Patching the inside was frustrating as I am almost useless at drywalling. Covering the holes is the easy part, spreading that goopy mud stuff is hard. It simply won’t spread smoothly for me. But after several coats and sponge sanding it was completed and ready to prime and paint. Luckily, we still had some paint left over from when we painted our walls so again, matching was not a problem.
That left the floor. Big headache! The tile had to be smashed to be removed because they were glued down very well. Under the tile was some sort of masonry fiberboard that was screwed to the sub-floor. The screw heads were under the glue layer so the whole thing had to be broken out. That meant demolition dust and I don’t do well in dusty conditions. Took me several days and a box of anti-histamines to recover from that ordeal. However, once that was all cleaned up the floor was ready for the installer to do his thing.
The installer came over and it took him less than an hour to patch in the carpet. You can’t really tell there had ever been an island there before. Then he and his helper wrestled the stove onto an appliance dolly and we took it out the back onto the deck and then down the steps to the sidewalk. Around the house and up onto his truck and the stove was gone. Everyone is happy. He has his stove, we have a living room without a stove.
doug
****
Greetings everyone, Sorry for the long space between submissions to the newsletter but after the long drive up after the Friday night ranger games I just couldn’t muster up enough energy to sit down at the computer to write. Lot's has happened over the missing in action period. Our eggs at the hatchery have hatched and gone through the egg sac period of growth and are now into the smaller tanks are being fed food. They are up to about 1 1/2" to 1 3/4" in length and growing rapidly. This winter hasn't been to bad for snow but it came early and seemed to be hanging on forever. We had a major melt in December and from some of the locals (Here for eons) the Saugeen River had never reached that height in their previous memories. In fact I had never seen the river in that shape in the time from 1969 when I started to travel up here from Kitchener. At Paisley the river was only 3 to 4 feet below the bridge in the middle of town. Last week we had another thaw and rain but it only came up to about 8 feet below the bridge last Friday.
Yesterday I think was our worst weather of the winter up this way as we had about 6" of snow but by noon the wind had really picked up and blowing the light fluffy snow around. Most of the roads were closed early in the day, as were the schools. I had plowed out my laneway around 3: 30 pm and two of my neighbours. There were time when I had to stop the skid steer because I couldn't see where I was.
This morning I left for Kitchener my laneway had about 10 to 12 " over every square foot. Tomorrow’s early morning job fire up the skid steer and plow away the white crap AGAIN !
By the way Doug I have been taking my mandolin along Fridays to play along with the guys Friday afternoons at Freeport for the music program. It's coming along slow but sure. Hey Doug, if I can send you these writings early Sat. morn (8 to 8:30 our time) until the end of the hockey season (around mid to late March) I can probably get a submission out every week. I MUST BE GETTING OLD OR SOMETHING!
Well I am going to sign off for now. Everyone have a safe and happy week.
****
Hello
everyone!
Well,
we’re more than half way through February and it’s feeling more like an early
spring around KW each day. Although we received about two cm of snow last
night, it’s nothing compared to what we were supposed to get hit with. That
storm luckily passed south of here and left us alone. We’ve had a couple of
weeks of warmer weather now and it’s nice to have this break in the middle of winter.
I’m sure it’ll only be a few weeks from now that we’ll see the big change and
head into spring. I sure hope so anyway. We really haven’t had a bad winter but
we have had our share of snow. At least it gave Clyde a chance to try out his
new snow blower. We never did hear if Peter and Sus managed to get their new
blower! I hope they managed to get one before most of the winter is over! Oh
well, I guess all that shoveling will keep the two of them in shape for sailing
the seven seas! From what I have heard from my other friends in Nova Scotia,
they’ve had a pretty good dump of snow all winter long there too. I guess
they’re as used to it as we are here in Ontario.
Speaking
of difficult seasons, Karl and Karen I’m sure have been through a very
frightening “bush fire season” in Australia. I hope they weren’t affected by
that incredible disaster! I’m sure emotionally they and all other Australians
most certainly were affected but were not directly in the path of those
incredible fires. Our hearts go out to all who lost their homes and loved ones
in the fires this past couple of weeks. Let’s hope that the government of
Australia develops a more workable system by which to warn their citizens of
impending fires after this year’s serious losses. I know it’s almost impossible
to battle fires of this magnitude and the only way of handling such a disaster
is evacuation of the residents. Good luck to them in coming years after such a
terrible season this year. They say that many of the fires were set by
arsonists. What a shame that someone would do such an act of ruthless intent. I
heard that they had arrested one of the persons responsible for setting a fire
but that’s only one! I hope they lock him up and toss the key away!
Well, its
tax time once more and I’m sure you’ve all jumped at the chance to file early
this year. I know that my accountant has already finished filing for us this
year and I’m going to take her to McDonald’s to celebrate! LOL! Just kidding!
We always like to get the tax thing out of the way early. Lucky for me Carole
is good at doing our tax return and that saves me from having to learn anything
new! Thanks Honey!
I’ve been
watching the news from BC and am shocked to see that it is the gang and murder
capital of Canada. I guess I should be glad it’s not here in Kitchener. What a
mess they have out there trying to control the gangs. Apparently they have some
270 different gangs in the Vancouver area. I sure hope they get a handle on
them soon. It seems that there is an Asian connection to most of the criminal
activity out there. I guess that comes from being on the Pacific Rim. With
access to open ocean it’s much easier for these gangs to import large
quantities of drugs from across the Pacific and land them anywhere along the BC
coast without being seen. I wouldn’t want to risk driving through Vancouver
every day and I’m sure Doug and Sue think about it too when Sue is working in
Vancouver on audits . Not my cup of tea to live in an environment like that.
They can keep that criminal stuff out there!
I know we
have our share of crime right here in Ontario and who knows, maybe just as much
of it as they do on the west coast. It seems that there is more gang activity
out there than here. Although, Toronto is having its share of blatant shootings
this year as well! I guess any big city will experience this sort of trouble.
I’m sure glad I’m not a cop in either of these places!
Well,
that’s it for this week.
Thanks
for tuning in and I look forward to talking to you all again next week in The
Ontarion Report!
Bye for now.. Greg.
PS:
Something To Think About>
Once you
get over the hill, you begin to pick up speed!
****
Have a good one..
the
doug
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