The Squamidian Report – April 4 / 15
Issue #671
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
This last couple of weeks sure have not been much fun. The day after I
got home from Ontario, Kyra came back up to our place. She brought
along with her a runny nose that soon spawned infection in both her
eyes. Little kids wipe their noses and then rub their eyes, spreading
the greenish goo all over the place. After that it was down-hill. Sue
took her to emerg where she was checked over and put on some kind of
antibiotic eye drops of all the dump things. Trying to get eye drops
into the eyes of a 3-yr old is almost impossible. She then went home
for a few days and was taken to her own doctor who changed her
medication to some stuff she would drink. Much better approach but
still a big struggle. Then, she was back up here, but, the damage was
done. I had come home stressed and exhausted and it had not taken long
for me to pick up whatever bug she had, and being her age with all the
other little kids her age, they continually pick up and spread all
sorts of ugly things. Sue also caught it and ended up with blocked
sinuses and constant coughing. I ended up loosing my voice for several
days, couldn't speak at all, couldn't even whisper. That came on quite
fast, in fact it took me by surprise. I had decided to do a motorcycle
ride in to Horseshoe bay to hook up with some of my riding friends over
a coffee. I had been dragging pretty badly and thought that perhaps a
nice ride along the Sound would be a good 'pick-me-upper'. When I got
to the Bay, I parked the bike and walked up to a couple of the guys and
said “Hi”, but nothing came out. Could barley squeak. Conversation was
by necessity rather one-sided.
Something that isn't helping is the fact that we are both bothered by
pollen and this year has turned out to be a very bad one for pollen.
Our pollen season normally starts in late February but this time it had
started in late January and the trees and plants that pollenate early
have been going at it in record amounts. The symptoms of reacting to
pollen can be very similar to having the common cold. They wear you
down, making you easily susceptible to catching whatever is going
around, and you wheeze, sneeze, cough and blow (your nose). So its hard
to tell where one thing stops and the other starts. Either way, we've
gone through countless boxes of Kleenex and have kept the makers of
Advil etc in business. Not fun at all. But, we are all on the mend and
starting to feel better.
On a different subject, the peckers are back. Well, they actually don't
leave, they stay around all winter but don't make a nuisance of
themselves most of the time, just in the spring. But when its spring
and time to attract a mate, they make a lot of noise and can do a lot
of damage. These peckers are the flicker members of the woodpecker
family. Very large birds that like to make very loud hammering sounds
by high-speed pecking on hard objects. They sound like jackhammers
going off all over the place. Many of them have discovered the sound
enhancing qualities of metal and like to do their rapping on metal
chimneys, roof flashings and street light poles. They make the loudest
noise that way and do very little damage, not that they care about the
damage aspect. Its the ones who are more 'traditionalists' and like the
sound of natural wood. Their normal noise making item of choice would
be a standing dead tree. That would create a nice drum sound. But,
standing dead trees are not all that common in town so the next best
thing is wooden houses. And there the flickers can do a lot of damage,
hammering holes in siding, soffits, roofs and so on.
One morning while out on our walk we could hear one close by and then
spotted it hammering away at the siding of a house down the street. It
had pecked a big hole right through the siding. What was interesting
was the fact that this house had several fake owls stationed around the
roof and sides to scare away the peckers. It was not working. In fact,
this flicker was pecking less than a foot away from one of the fake
owls. Go figure. The ones doing the hammering are the males of course,
trying to attract the females, and we seem to be inundated with them.
You'd think there was some sort of miniature jackhammer convention
happening.
Thats all I can think of for this week, except for the fact that down
in the valley and up past our elevation it is definitely spring, has
been for a couple of months. But, up at the top of the gondola, as I
write this, it is snowing which is kind of funny because at the base
they were mowing the lawns. Hmm, must be Easter.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
Well here we are in April and it’s still much colder than most of us
would like it. Thursday we actually had double digits in our daytime
temperature. The temp reached a high of +14c but then it dropped that
night to -3c. Things are slowly improving but this winter really seamed
to drag on and on. It will indeed be nice when we can count on actually
enjoying a steady procession of warm spring days. We still have over a
foot of snow in our back yard and I’m waiting for that to melt away so
I can rake all the crap and leaves from last fall out of the garden and
onto the lawn so they can easily be picked up and bagged. Some people
leave all the dead leaves right in their gardens to act as mulch and
bedding for the new growth but I think it is better to start fresh.
After the long winter we’ve just had I think I will actually enjoy
getting at the gardening and yard work so I can see the transformation
from winter dreariness to spring beauty! Although by the time next fall
rolls around I’m sure I’ll revert back to wanting a rest from yard work
and garden maintenance. That’s why we have a change of seasons in the
first place so we don’t become overwhelmed by any one of the 4 seasons
of the year. Can you just imagine how boring it would be to have to put
up with warm sunny weather all year long? Oh the drudgery!
LOL! I do think I’d like to give that a try just once. Most years I
have the pleasure of mowing our lawn at least two or three times a week
and I suppose that’s not all that bad since I do have the time in my
retired years to do it. Friends of ours who are a tad younger and still
lead busy working lives, decided last year to do away with the chore of
mowing their lawn and had a company install artificial turf on their
property. The front and side lawns were replaced with the “Astroturf”
and their back yard was consumed by patio, stone walls, a hot tub and a
large storage shed. The artificial turf worked out just fine and unless
you take a close look, you can’t tell it’s not real grass. I however
still prefer to have the real thing on the surface of my lot and feel
better knowing it won’t blow away like a cheap toupee when the wind is
strong! Of course theirs is anchored with special spikes but the
thought is still there when I think of their lot in a windstorm.
Although I’m tempted when I see how they have no yard work to do now
that they’ve installed this turf but every time I look at their yard,
it still makes me think of the green grass mats some grocery store
produce departments used to use to line their display counters. Not to
mention the plastic stuff that some people used to glue to their front
porches when they got tired of painting them every spring. Not a very
pleasant thought!
There is always something unexpected that has to be looked after each
spring when yard work rolls around and this year is no different. Last
fall I looked out the kitchen window one morning and realized that the
pond was dead calm. I scooted out to see why the pump was not pumping
and found that the motor had quit. I checked the fuses etc and nothing
I did would get the motor running again. I dismantled the pump and
motor from the filter system and took it down to the local electric
motor repair shop to have them check it out. After a couple of weeks I
finally called them one morning and was told that there was nothing
they could do to repair the motor. It was totally burned up inside and
to rewind it would cost twice the amount of buying a new motor. Since
the pump and motor are one unit, I’m in for replacing the complete unit
this spring. I’m starting to search on the net for a good used pool
pump and motor to replace the old one. If I purchase a new one, it’ll
cost me around $400 to do so. SO, I’m searching and hopefully not in
vain! I believe this last one was an internet find and only cost me
around $150.00 and it lasted me about 7 years. If I can find another
like it I’ll be selling this house before the pump poops out again!
Ponds and well-manicured yards are lovely to enjoy but they take a lot
of work to maintain. It’s getting so we’re a tad tired of the routine
but once we’ve got everything up and running and looking good each year
we still enjoy the results. However, I’m sure there’ll come a time when
we’ll have had enough and want to not only down size but lessen the
work load as well. Who knows, that time may be just around the corner!
We’ll see what this summer brings and take it one season at a time from
here on in!
That’s about 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>
“If I agreed with you, we’d both be wrong!”
Sir Winston Churchill.
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Have a good one..
the doug
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