The Squamidian Report – Sept. 27 / 14
Issue #644
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
First off, we have finally had some meaningful rain. This has been an
incredible summer as far as warm and sunshine go. Too much warm and
sunshine actually. And now this past few days a series of fall storms
have rolled in off the Pacific and quenched some of the dryness. Its
amazing how you can see the change in the vegetation, the grass is
suddenly green again, the trees look refreshed, the moss is no longer
crunchy. Now as long as we can get back to a few weeks of sunny skies
again it will be great, as long as there are a few rainy days mixed in
to keep things from drying out again, but without it simply turning
into wet west coast weather from here on in to winter. Only time will
tell.
This must have been a bit confusing or at least out-of-the-ordinary for
Westjet, on Wednesday there were two ladies with the same name, sitting
side by side, on the same flight, headed to the same destination. One
was from the east coast, the other from the west coast. They both got
on the plane at the Waterloo airport and had the same flight connection
in Calgary on the way to Vancouver. Obviously, most of you know that
one was 'The Wife' and the other, 'The Cousin'. 'The Dog' and I picked
them up at YVR just before 11pm and drove them up to 'here', getting
home half an hour after midnight. 'The Dog' was sure happy to see 'The
Wife'. Anyway, 'The Cousin' is out here for a few days to visit with
her brother and her sister, and us as well. We took her up the Gondola,
no surprise there. It was a bit overcast but very enjoyable. While
walking the Panorama Ridge trail we saw the big fat black bear that has
been hanging out in the area. He was perhaps 50 ft or so up a side
trail munching on vegetation. He paid no attention to us and we
respected his space.
Aside from that, its been pretty quiet around here, not much at all to
write about. Its been busy too but again, not much to write about and
seeing as how some of my Squids over the past while have been on the
long-winded side, I'm giving myself a break and cutting my section of
this one off fairly short. So there.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
WOW! Are we ever having lovely weather lately! I’d call this an “Indian
Summer” but it’s a tad early to be experiencing that phenomenon. Indian
summers usually hit us around mid to late October but I’m certainly not
complaining in the least! I’ve managed to finally clear up the brown
and dry spots on our front lawn with a good session of watering and a
healthy helping of a good quality grass seed over the entire lawn. I
had called The Weed Man to drop by for a look just to see what he
figured was “bugging” my lawn. He tested for different kinds of bugs
and found no evidence of any pests. He said he figured it was due to
the fact that our large Birch tree’s roots were close to the surface
and may be robbing the grass roots of enough soil to keep them healthy.
He said he was sure that he could cure the problem by aerating the lawn
and over-seeding it and then watering it steadily for a week or so. He
handed me a bag with his quote and a couple of pamphlets on healthy
lawns and told me to call him if I wanted him to fix my minor problem.
I never did read the quoted amount but took his remedy and performed
the operation myself. I never have been a fan of aerating my lawn as it
tends to leave a mess of dirt plugs and offensive looking holes for
weeks after it’s done. I figured the seed would take well enough with a
good watering every day and night for a week or more. Carole called the
city and got a permit to allow us to water for a week without
interference and away I went following The Weed Man’s advice. What do
you know, he was right, it worked like a charm! The brown spots have
all but disappeared and the grass is lush and thick once again! I’ll
just have to remember what I did to remedy the problem if it should
crop up again next year. It’s almost time to do the final fertilization
of the year and that always brings on a healthy good start to a lush
lawn first thing in the spring. I can hardly wait for the final mowing
of my lawn this fall and then it’ll be time to ready the Toro Blower
for the snow blowing challenges ahead this winter! I don’t want to rush
that season at all but let’s face it, it’s on the way!
I looked out the kitchen window two weekends ago and noticed that the
pond pump was not pumping its usual nice spout of water. So I donned my
classy bright blue coveralls and headed out to see what the problem
was. I noticed that the pump motor wasn’t hot so it hadn’t been running
at all that morning. Once I figured that there was power to the motor
but no motion I dismantled the pump motor from the sand filter and took
it into the garage where I pulled the faceplate off the pump. I was
able to turn the pump impeller and motor shaft by hand so neither the
motor or the pump was seized. The problem had to be internal and
electrical regarding the motor. So, off I went to see the fellows at
Shiels Electric Motor Service on Breithaupt St just off Lancaster. I’ve
dealt with these master motor mechanics since 1968 when I first started
in my apprenticeship in refrigeration at Zehr’s Markets. The original
owner Ken Shiels and two of his original employees that became friends
of mine over the years are now gone to the great motor works in the sky
but there is still one person there that has been there since the 70’s.
He’s a good contact whenever I have a problem such as the one I have
now with my pond pump. I dropped off the motor and pump and am now
waiting to hear from Brian at Shiels as to the damage both mechanically
and financially to fix the problem. I told him to let me know before
fixing it what the problem was. If it’s going to cost me over a hundred
dollars, I’ll just scrap the old motor and find a new “used” pool pump
and motor in the spring. Such motor repairs can be quite costly if they
need to be rewound internally. It’s not worth that sort of major
rebuild when Kijiji tends to have an assortment of used pool pumps for
sale in the spring. I’ll just keep my eye open for a good used one when
the time comes to open the pond next year. That’s exactly where I
purchased the one that Shiels is looking at for me right now. I’ve got
patience enough that I can wait for the call from Brian and make my
decision when I hear from him. Until such time, the pond is now closed
for the winter and at least I got to close it down on a nice sunny day
this year!
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>
My first job was working in an orange juice factory. I got “canned” from that job cuz I couldn’t “concentrate”!
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Have a good one..
the doug
The Fine Print!
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