The Squamidian Report – June 14 / 14
 
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The Ontarion

Hi All,

Every spring 'The Wife' and I do a BBQ for my CMC riding chapter members. Its not really a 'kick off the season' kind of thing because the season started months ago, its more of just the first social event of the season for the chapter. Anyway, including ourselves there were about 18 people here. Some came on their bikes, others car-pooled. You see, all my chapter members live in North and West Vancouver so just like most people from the city area, they tend to think of Squamish as way up toward Whistler, or, out in the boonies or whatever which simply means some prefer to come in a car because the ride home might be dark and chilly. There was still a nice lineup of bikes parked along the street. That tends to catch the eyes of some of the neighbours. However, we are a very well behaved group, no loud noise, no drinking, no rowdy behavior at all. In fact, one of the most important bylaws of the CMC riding club is that there can be no alcohol, as in ZERO, at at CMC function if there is going to be any driving afterword. So, there is never any problems at all, just a nice, enjoyable time.

'The Wife' went way beyond the call of duty, as she always does, and prepared all sorts of stuff for everyone to eat. We BBQ'd burgers to go along with her salads and other assorted munchies and everyone was well fed and happy. We even broke out the guitars for a bit of a jam. One of our members, a criminal trial lawyer, plays in a band and we know some of the same music so we found some common ground and had some fun.

When the evening was over, everyone went home and we ran three loads of dishes through the dish washer. The house was back to normal. Put the lawn chairs away and the yard was back to normal.

Then on Wednesday a couple of us rode to Lillooet for lunch again. Thats always fun. We had some delays over the Duffy as a section is getting a badly needed re-pavement job but thats a good thing. That section had gotten so rough that it would just about bounce you right off your bike. And unfortunately, we are now into motorhome / camper / RV season. I've learned to despise many of the people who drive those things. We got stuck behind one that refused to let anyone get past as they wallowed along. When the chance to slip by finally came, he sped up from less than 50kph in a zone marked for 60, to over 100kph on that very narrow, twisty Duffy Lake road. We leaned very hard into the approaching sharp curve and made it through. I don't know whether the motorhome ran straight off the road or screeched his tires getting slowed back down but we never saw it or him again. Shortly after, the other vehicles that had been trapped behind him came back into sight so I figure he was forced to pull over and change his underwear because assuming he made it around that curve, he has to have crapped his drawers. After the stunt he pulled, if he'd run right off the road the vehicles behind him would have probably simply left him there to rot as they had seen exactly what he had tried to do, which was to run a couple of bikes off the road rather than let them or anyone get by. He had made no attempt at all to speed up to the marked speed limit when there was no opportunity for others to pass him.

Unfortunately, we get drivers like that all the time on these roads. They crawl through the tight curves but will risk endangering everyone rather than let other motorists get by. Anyway, it takes a lot to get me angry but this guy got me mad enough to consider becoming violent. Perhaps its a good thing we never ran across him again. We even stopped in Pemberton for some water and a break and never saw him go by. Hopefully he's still pulled over somewhere, trying to get his underwear cleaned up.

doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT

Hello everyone!

With the beautiful weather we’ve been having over the past 6 to 8 weeks the lawns and gardens have been growing by leaps and bounds. Our gardens have been in for the past 14 years and each year they are more and more work to keep in shape! Last year we noticed as if it happened over night that some of the “Tree” style garden plants were actually becoming much too large to be back yard garden plants. We have a couple of crab apple trees on the one side and against the back fence in the garden we have another crab apple tree of a different variety and I know we didn’t expect it to grow as large as it has when we planted it. It seamed so sudden that it had grown as tall as the house roof and was reaching across the grass and touching the roof over the patio as well. Carole asked if I could trim a few of the branches off the trees to cut them back to a sensible height and width so they didn’t look so overgrown. I figured I’d need a better saw to do that job than I had in my arsenal so I headed off to Princess Auto to see what they had to offer. Keep in mind that this was last fall. It just so happened that they had an extendable electric chain saw on sale that would reach up to 10 feet in length. I bought one of those and figured it might at least do the job on the smaller branches. Well, I likely told you guys this last year but that little 8” chain saw went through the largest of the branches like they were butter and I worked the heck out of it until all the trees were trimmed and the cut branches cut to length and bundled to take to the landfill for mulching.

This year I looked at the gardens and what did I find but a few more shrubs that were overgrown as well as a few that had died off over this past heavy winter. Carole and I figured which ones would have to be cut to the ground. So I got out the trusty little chain saw and cut them off at the base. I managed to place a lasso around the bush part and tighten it until the branches were controlled and then I took the saw to the base of the bush. The little saw once again did a marvelous job of hacking them off like butter! Of course after I had them all cut up and bundled once again I had to deal with the roots that were still sticking about 6” out of the garden soil. I figured I’d just stick the snout of the saw into the dirt and cut the stubs off as deep down as possible rather than trying to dig the roots out. We were not planning on planting anything in their places anyway so off I went cutting dirt and all. Of course I wasn’t aware that the soil  would dull the chain within minutes of buzzing the stubs off so it didn’t take long until the little saw would cut no more! LOL! I finished the job with a different saw my Makita Sawsall with a nice long blade! Of course I still have two good-sized trees to cut down that no longer look good with their dead lower branches and half dead uppers so they still have to come down. The one is a 12’ tall Pea Shrub that used to look all green and was shaped like an umbrella when trimmed right. This baby has just died off and now looks like something out of a horror movie set. It’s got very large twisted branches and it’ll take the little but nimble extendable chain saw to weasel it’s way through to be able to cut the branches until I can fell the main trunk. So I had to head back to Princess Auto and see if they had any replacement chains for this unit. Thankfully, they still sell the same brand of saw along with other trimmers etc made by the same company. They only had two replacement chains hanging on the display and the employee I spoke to said he didn’t know when they’d be getting any more in stock. They had the chains on for $7.99 (normally $14.00 each) so I grabbed both of them just in case I hit something that would dull my little beauty before I could finish the job! At least now I’ll have a spare for backup! SO, as soon as I can find the time, I’ll don my blue coveralls and take another crack at felling the last of the dead wood and the gardens will be back in shape once more! It’s surprising how much work it takes to remove what looks to be a half hour job! After all, it’s only a small tree in a little garden! How much work could it be? LOL!

I have to thank Princess Auto for having the right tool at a very reasonable price that made my job so much easier. Like I’ve always been told over the years, “Use the right tool for the job!” and it’ll make the work go faster and so much easier! By golly, my dad was right!

That’s it for this week folks!
Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next week in The Ontarion Report!

Bye for now … Greg

PS: Something To Think About>
It’s hard to believe that a Beaver can fell a tree with his teeth in not much more time than a human can with the right tool for the job!
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Have a good one..
the doug
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