Issue #954
Including:

From Russ

The Ontarion

Hi All,

The little granddaughters were here last weekend. Thats always fun and it gets easier as they get older, mostly because they are now capable of entertaining themselves without constant supervision. They can muck around in the back yard for hours, spending a lot of time under the deck where there is quite a bit of ‘play’ area. They can pick blueberries right off the bushes, as well as raspberries and even a few blackberries as there are some aggressive blackberry stalks reaching over the back fence. For whatever reason, they love to dig up ‘The Wife’s’ flowerbeds, spreading the top soil all over the place but thats ok too. Kids need to play in the dirt and soil, its good for them. At one point I noticed 4-yr old Olivia with her hands in the bird bath water and I asked her what she was doing. Her answer… “I’m washing worms”. How cool is that?

Last Saturday morning we took them up the gondola so they could hike along their favorite trail. We don’t go up very often these days as you know but we certainly won’t remove that place from their lives. After the hike and a visit with some of our favorite employees there, we headed out to the town’s ocean front with the intension of letting they try flying the new kites that Sue purchased for them. Kyra has a kite from a couple of years ago but Olivia didn’t have one so now they both have nice new ones. The thing about the ocean front is you can pretty well bet on there being wind almost any time, the well known ‘Squamish Winds’. We often take the kids there to play along the beach area where the wind and waves have piled up logs and stumps, and the shore can extend way out during low tide. They were quite excited about flying the kites and the wind didn’t disappoint. In fact, the wind was blowing almost too hard but we gave it a try anyway. The bay was full of wind surfers and kite boards so no excusses. Both girls had no problem at all as that wind just about lifted them up with the kites. Olivia was amazed, she had no idea that she knew how to fly a kite and was quite proud of her new aviating skills. Both kids were satisfied to keep the kites fairly low rather that chance having the wind rip them away. I took a few seconds of video of them with their kites using my phone, the same video that I posted on Facebook after their adventure. The link is down below.

We decided to go back that evening. The wind had died down to a dead calm up at our place but even though we have salt water at the edge of town, and are at the top end of the Sound, we are also in the mountains and there would be a good chance that it would still be windy out at the waters edge. Well, it was windy all right. It was blowing like a gale, the kids could hardly walk against it. The kites would have been torn to shreds had we exposed them to the wind. So, we just walked around, watching the waves etc. They had a great time, the tide was in, the wind was pushing high waves up onto the shore where they would play during low tide. Olivia described it as “crae-crae”, that apparently being some sort of phrase kids use these days. When we got back to the truck, we all looked like we have been in a wind tunnel, my hair was blown straight back, much to the amusement of the girls. Always an adventure here, for them and us.

Kids flying Kites.

*

Just to keep up my extra effort to entertain the readers during our strange times, I’ve posted another one of my little one-take, no frills music videos. This time it’s the old Eagles song, Peaceful Easy Feeling. One of the funny thing about doing these little videos is that it takes longer to get set up than it does to actually record a given song. It takes longer to transfer the song onto my computer from my iPad than it does to do the recording, and longer to trim the ends of the video as well. I like to trim off the parts where I must reach over and touch the ‘record’ button, and then reach over to stop the recording after the song is over. But, once all that kind of thing is done, and I’ve used a software program to convert the .MOV file into a .MP4 file, its ready to be uploaded to my web site for viewing. So you see, even the simplest things are not really all that simple, and require a bit of time to put together. Wow, talk about dedication. Click the link and enjoy.

Peaceful Easy Feeling

doug

****

From Russ

The majestic Monarch!

As I watch the butterfly flutter by, I know Autumn is almost neigh. When the sun drops lower in the sky and the air becomes cooler they know it’s time for them to ‘pack-up’ and start their annual migration to the mountains of Central Mexico, some 4,500 Kg. distant, where they huddle together in fir trees to keep warm. The journey takes them 4 to 5 weeks – we can fly there in 8 hours!

More and more of these iconic beauties are seen fluttering about in all directions seemingly without any particular destination – but they know where they are going and why! Periodically they stop to eat milkweed, their only food. They lay a few eggs and glue them to the leaves; the glue they supply themselves! Then they continue on their trip south.

This same process is repeated when they journey back up north to Canada. This ‘round trip’ may take four-to-five generations before they arrive back on our friendly Canadian doorstep.

Let’s look at the ‘life cycle’ of a monarch:

The female lays each of her eggs individually on the leaf of a milkweed plant securing it with her own glue as I said earlier. She’s a busy girl as she lays up to 500 eggs over a 2-to-5-week period. In a few days caterpillars hatch – their job is to grow – so they spend all of their time eating only milkweed (no ‘fast food’ diets for them!). They eat their fill for about 2 weeks, then they spin protective cases around themselves to enter the pupa stage. About a week or two later, they finish their metamorphosis and emerge as fully formed, black and orange, adult butterflies.

Monarch butterflies have no means of defence. Right? Maybe wrong. Their bright colour may be a means of defence. Whaaat? Yes, although we find their colour beautiful, predators are warned to “back off ! I taste foul and I’m poisonous!”. Are they only bluffing? Not in your life! The poison comes from their diet, milkweed itself is toxic, but monarch’s have devolved, not only to tolerate it, but use it to their advantage by storing toxins in their bodies and making themselves poisonous to predators, such as birds.

OK. I have a question for you. How do monarchs make such a long journey without getting lost? Some of you answered; “nobody knows”. Don’t ask me – I only know what I read on Wickepedia.

Monarch butterflies depend on the sun to stay on course, but they also have a magnetic compass to help them navigate on cloudy days. A special gene for highly efficient muscles gives them an advantage for long-distance flight.

SURVIVAL

Our Eastern monarchs have declined by an estimated 80% Why? The short answer is “We are killing their only food source – milkweed!” This is also the only place they will lay their eggs. Increased use of ‘herbicides’ in fields and along roads is also to blame.

CLIMATE CHANGE

In layman’s terms; it screws up their screwing and egg-laying habits.

Too hot or too cold and monarchs will die!

CONSERVATION

As an iconic and loved species, monarchs have received a lot of attention from ‘conservationists’. Projects exist across North America. Public Awareness Campaigns encourage people to plant milkweed in their yards and cities. But, look up the type of milkweed that’s right for your region. There are also a number of citizen scientist opportunities, where you and I can help scientists collect data, which is critical for developing conservation policies to protect the “Majestic Monarch Butterfly”.

Uncle Russ.

****

ONTARION REPORT

Hello everyone!

After all my blabbering about cancelling the sealing of our concrete driveway last week because of the threat of rain, it didn’t rain after all! Doesn’t that figure! Oh well, we are now waiting for the sealing people to call and reschedule a date and of course it will all depend on the weather at the time they pick to come do the job this time! I guess we’ll just have to hope for better weather during whatever week they pick. Oh well!

*

There’s one positive/negative that occurred this week and that is I positively got my Echo leaf blower back after three months in the shop. However, the negative part is, the fellow that was supposed to repair the blower was unable to fix it after all this time! He said he tried but just could not get the ignition to spark to ignite the fuel! SO, I went out to his shop and picked up the blower and Adam and I are going to scour the internet for the part we need that’s no longer manufactured but might be available from some used equipment business somewhere and replace it ourselves! There are always challenges in life and this is just one more of those I guess! If any of you know of an “Echo” lawn equipment dealer close by, please let me know! I know that there are some home hardware dealers that sell “Echo” but most of them don’t have repair shops! I’ll just have to keep on shopping around I guess! I’ll find the part we need somewhere and eventually get the blower working again.

*

We happen to have another positive happening that occurred this week and that is the lovely batch of canning Carole did this week! She bought four twenty five pound boxes of Roma Tomatoes and turned them into delicious salsa for our winter consumption! We are looking forward to consuming a few jars over the colder months of this coming winter! With all the canning Carole has done over the past few years we have a tremendous stock of pickled Zucchini relish, pickled beets, home made beet relish, canned tomatoes, Tomato sauce, pickled eggs, hot pickled carrots and Lord knows what else on shelving in the basement. If this Covid keeps up, we may need to exist on Carole’s canning efforts for an entire year but that’s ok with me! She just finished putting up 19 quart sealer jars of Salsa so by the time we work our way through all of those we’ll be veritable Mexicans right here in Kitchener! LOL! Earlier in the week while canning the salsa, she commented that she had almost run out of shelf space to store the latest batch of quart jars! I arose early a couple of days ago and went into the basement to change the furnace filter or at least take a look to see if it needed changing! On the one wall opposing the side of the furnace, there is a 4’ wide shelf filled with Carole’s canning efforts. It’ the one that Carole had mentioned was full indeed. When I looked at that wall, I realized if I moved some of the plastic tubs filled with empty canning jars that separated the filled 4’ canning shelf from our one upright freezer, I might be able to fill that space with more shelving. So I took a few measurements and sure enough I was able to design a new set of shelves to fit in that space. SO, off I went to Home Depot to pick up six new 8’x2”x2” studs. When I got home Adam was out to see what I had been up to in the garage. So when I explained the shelves I’d designed to surprise Carole he offered to help me with the project. I happily accepted his offer and away we went with our wood working tools and the project was under way! It only took about two hours and a little butchering of an old plywood table top and the shelves took place in that space by the freezer! When we had finished, we called Carole down to the basement and surprised her with the finished product! We had created 7 new shelves from floor to ceiling that were 20” wide and 16” deep. This gave Carole a whole lot more shelf space for here canned goods! In fact she spent the afternoon reorganizing most of the canned goods on the four foot shelves as well as another 5’ wide shelving unit on the adjoining wall in that same room. With her creative abilities she found room for many of the multiple items she keeps in two of the three pantries we have in the house! We have two on the main floor in our laundry room and another large one in the basement! This cleared out a lot of space in those pantries and Carole still has more room on the new shelves we built for her canning! Like George Peppard used to say in his old TV series The A Team, “I Love It When a Plan Comes Together!” and my shelving plan most certainly came together this time. Carole was exceedingly happy with her new shelving and all the space it afforded her for placing her latest canning efforts! Now we have (and get this one) a whole plethora of canned goods to see us through not only the winter months but also this damned “Pandemic”!

Thank you Carole! I doubt we’ll even come close to starving with all the delicious canned goods she has created for our consumption!

Well, that’s about it for this week folks! I hope you’re not all drooling at the thought of all the Canned goods mentioned in this week’s Ontarion!

Thank you all 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 you’re a motorcycle rider on the roads these days, be extra careful! We have had I believe 27 deaths due to motorcycle collisions this year so obviously other vehicle drivers are not being as vigilant as they should be when watching for bike riders! This puts the onus on the motorcyclists themselves to be aware of their surroundings when out for a pleasure ride so “Stay awake out there you two wheelers!”

****