The Squamidian Report – Apr. 16/ 11

 

Issue #464

 

Including:

Rosemary’s Daughter’s Wedding Pictures

The Ontarion

 

Hi All,

 

I’ve taken a huge leap of faith here, the snow blower is now put away and the tiny little tiller is out and ready to go. Putting the blower away really means just filling it with treated gas and sticking it into the back corner of the shed. I also run the engine with the gas turned off so that the carburetor gets sucked dry. There isn’t much else to do on those things if any on-going maintenance has been kept up. The right thing to do would be to drain the gas tank and let is sit dry until next winter so that it could be filled with fresh gas. I might still do that although the gas that is in it now just might be worth a fortune by next winter given how the stuff is rising so fast in price these days. Maybe I’ll just leave it there and consider it to be my secret little retirement investment.

 

You might remember our little Honda garden tiller. I think it’s meant for flower beds, flower pots, that kind of thing. It has a lifting handle on top and even I can pick it up and carry it around with one hand. It had not been run since sometime last summer when ‘The Wife’ decided to work up a small area so she could plant some rhubarb. So, after dusting it off a bit and carrying it around to the garage, I emptied the very old gas that was left in the tank. There wasn’t much but what was there had turned into some kind of smelly yellowish guck. (That’s why it’s a good thing to drain the tank on things that don’t get much use). Then I cleaned the spark plug and checked the oil. It had been so long since it was used last that I needed to find the instructions for starting it. But get this, that little Honda engine fired up on the first pull of the cord. Incredible.

 

The first thing we did once it was running was to use it to churn up the heavy cover of west coast moss that had over grown the small area ‘The Wife’ wants to use as a garden. Once that stuff was mostly removed we tilled deeper to break up roots and stuff. It will need several good tillings before its ready to be planted in but it’s a start. It will be interesting to see if we actually carry through and plant a garden. I give it about 50/50.

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As 1st officer or our Vancouver chapter of the CMC, I had scheduled a chapter ride for last Sunday. The way the rides work is the members who are going to attend the ride all meet at a pre-determined location for a M&G (meet and greet) and then we head out in formation on our motorcycles to our intended destination. However, we were in the grips of a soaking downpour and needless to say, the ride was off. Four of us did meet up for a chapter meeting and it gave us the opportunity to discuses the upcoming riding season and to work out some ideas and plans. The chapter is growing but we have some major logistical problems to deal with. The Vancouver chapter covers the whole area from Chilliwack up to Squamish and that means it would take over 2 hours to ride from one end of the territory to the other. That means the people furthest out have over an hour’s ride just to get to the meeting place if it is located right in the middle. Some riders aren’t used to riding that far at the best of times.  At some point, if the chapter grows large enough and strong enough, we would split the chapter in two, using the Fraser River as the dividing point. There would then be the Vancouver chapter and the Fraser Valley chapter. But that’s way down the road somewhere.

 

The tricky part for now is to not alienate club members who live in Abbotsford or White Rock of Squamish or some other far flung outpost. That requires rotating our M&G locations and a lot of communicating. What’s really weird is that someone like me is doing this organizing and scheduling in the first place. I’m about the most unfriendly, anti-social guy around and here I am involved in a club that has people in it. Anyone check the temperature in ‘Hell’ lately?

 

Oh well, we are trying for our chapter M&G&Ride again this coming Sunday morning. I’m hoping for some cooperation from the weather but so far this spring it has been exceptionally cold and wet in coastal BC. So, I won’t know if the ride is really ‘on’ until Sunday morning. Bike is fuelled up, fingers are crossed. Not much else I can do.

*

I’ve proved it before and now I’ve proved it again. Getting my hair cut caused the temperature to fall, big time. And of course its spring time, or at least should be, and ‘The Wife’ is giving me those looks that say in no uncertain terms, “get that shaggy, wild mop of hair cut, NOW”. So, knowing full well that by getting a hair cut I will be pushing our non-existent spring weather back even further, I dutifully dragged my sorry butt into the local barbershop and let them loose to cut, snip and trim to their heart’s content. Well, I must say that just sitting in the barber chair was enough to start the downward plunge in temperature. By the time my winter hair was removed you could almost see frost forming on the barbershop windows.

 

Next morning the snowline was right down into the trees above our place and the Fraser Valley was having a snowstorm and Whistler just got another big dump of snow. And, the whole coastal area set new low temp records for both the daytime high and nighttime low readings. I had to dig my trusty toque out of the closet just to keep my short haired head warm. Probably now have to wear it until mid July. Bummer. I should know better than to give in to wifely hair pressure when the weather is at stake.

 

doug

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Rosemary’s Daughter’s Wedding Pictures

 

Some of your family showed an interest in this destination wedding, so I'm forwarding some photos, and a little blurb for the Squamidian.

Rosemary

 

Thanks Rosy for the pictures, To simplify this Email, I’ve uploaded them to a web page that can be accessed by this link.

Doug

http://www.thedougsite.net/Pictures/Others/Adrienne%27s%20Wedding.html

 

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THE ONTARION REPORT

 

Hello everyone!

 

Spring has sprung finally! The buds of early spring flowers are peaking through and some are even in full bloom. It’s nice to see some colour in the gardens after such a long winter. I’m not a fan of all the brown lawns and dormant gardens at this time of year so it’s great to have things starting to bloom again. Of course springtime also brings with it a lot of hard work by homeowners to spruce up their outdoor gardens. The one thing that disappoints me is the fact that we can’t use our old standbys to ward off the bugs that plague our lawns and gardens anymore! I guess it’s time to hit the garden centers and find out what eco friendly alternatives we have to do the same job. I’m hoping that the agricultural community has found new mixtures of naturally produced insecticides and fertilizers to promote the health and growth of our lawns and gardens. It’ll be sad to see them laden with weeds and dead patches if no new helpful aids are found for this purpose. Carole did read that a new product made from chicken manure is being produced and it not only feeds gardens as a fertilizer but it wards of any type of rodent that may be looking to feast on domestic plants. Maybe if we use this new gunk, it’ll keep the rabbits from munching on the trunks and stems of dormant plants in our flower gardens next winter. The rabbits sure like to make themselves at home in our back yard all winter! I know that our plants will recover but it’s disconcerting when you first see all the damage they’ve done when the snow has just melted each spring. Anyway, we’re looking forward to a nice full bloom in Carole’s gardens this summer and hopefully the lawn will be lush and green as well. Only time will tell!

 

Let’s hope for a fertile growing season this year!

That’s it for this week folks! Short and sweet I’m afraid!

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>

Are woodchucks and groundhogs the same thing?

 

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Have a good one..

the doug

http://www.thedougsite.net

The Fine Print!

The articles in these issues are the sole property of the persons writing them and should be respected as such.