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The
Squamidian Report – June 3 / 23
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Of This And Past Issues Issue
#1097 Russ Nova Scotia Sus The Ontarion
Hey There, Happy Birthday to sister Carol (tomorrow). Well now, here we are into June already. You know what that means. In a few short weeks the days will start to get shorter again, and, in a few short weeks we will hit our 1100th issue of this letter. That milestone will be, well, a milestone. Because, not only will it be the 1100th but it will be our last issue before our summer break. So, lets get as much involvement happening as we can. Not just for that last issue but during the buildup to it over the next couple of weeks. Sus, Russ, and Greg have been incredible with their literary contributions. In fact, without them we would not have made it this far. Lets give them all the support we can muster down this last stretch toward the finish line. * My Harley has lots of friends. All my Harley’s had friends, and they didn’t care what make of bike their friends were. They were always very open minded that way, and that’s a good thing. Now, my Royal Enfield also has some bike friends as well. These particular bikes are also friends of my Harley so now my two bikes have some friends in common. One of the riders in our group is the woman who has ridden her Harley all over the country and has written a book about her travels, called ‘Ruby’s Dance’. You may have read about that book right here a couple of years ago. She now has a new book that’s just about to go to press but that has nothing to do with my Enfield making friends with her bike because it’s not her Harley that the Enfield has made friends with, it’s her Honda 500 Adventure bike. Mary became frustrated with the fact that on many of her road trips to the far north the roads would become impassable for her Harley, many camp grounds could not be reached on her Harley, and so on. So, she purchased the used Honda ADV in order to be able to go where she wants to go. My Enfield is an ADV so both bikes have that in common. They are intended for both on road and off road use. Mary has never ridden on dirt or trails or gravel except for sections of highway that were under construction and that was always a bit of a problem for her, as well as the fact that her Harley, especially when fully loaded for a road trip, was not well suited for rough gravel and mud. I’ve got almost endless miles of forest service roads, logging roads and rough trails around here so my Enfield has lots of places to play when not tooting down the paved roads. We decided to take Mary and her Honda up some of the back roads just above us here so she could experience and learn from riding loose surfaces, bumpy steep hills, pot holes and so on. Another member of our group, a woman on a Honda street bike, tagged along. Therefor, my Enfield was able to lead two other bikes up into the hills, and make bike friends in the process. It was a great ride, lots of loose gravel, lots of steep climbs, way too much dust and all the elements that Mary needed some exposure to. And for what it is worth, my Harley was quite ok with the Enfield getting to know some of her friends. Bikes are pretty easy going and generous that way. Here are the three bikes parked on our street while we were having some lunch.
Our bikes and us after returning from our back road ride.
A view of Mary’s Honda and my Enfield from our front balcony. Brenda’s bike is out of sight behind that tree.
* Back about 1969 a country singer, Claude King, did a song called ‘Wolverton Mnt’. It’s a silly little song but fun to do. I did an audio version of it a few weeks ago and now I’ve recorded a video version as well. Actually, I did it at the same time I video’d last weeks musical interlude. You could probably tell if you compared the two videos as I’m waring the same cloths, same lighting, same unkept hair and so on. Enjoy. Wolverton
Mnt doug ****
From Russ
What if? What if rabbits could talk? If our Cottontail Rabbits could talk I'd lie flat on my stomach so to be at eye-level with my pal Peter Rabbit, who I watch almost every day as he eats the green grass, dandelions that have gone to seed, and any other vegetation that tickles his fancy. Peter is very approachable, he trusts me so I'm going to interview him and invite you to 'listen-in'. Good morning Peter, how are you? I looked for you yesterday but couldn't find you. Good morning to you also, my human friend. You didn't see me yesterday because I was staying in my burrow, out of the wind. Then, you didn't get anything to eat - are you afraid of the wind? Not afraid of the wind, but wind interferes with my hearing, so I can't hear a predator approaching. That makes sense - can't help but notice, you do have very large ears. Personal remarks are never in good taste. Nothing personal, but yours are too large for the size of your bald head! Sorry Peter, but I will have to ask personal questions if my readers are going to learn more about you. End of interview! You never told me you were going to put this down in writing!! I'm out-of-here! (I finally talked him into staying and answering a few more questions, but had to give him the last of my fresh blueberries) You mentioned "predators" - who are potential predators? You wanna know all likely killers? Got an hour? I'll tell you!! You humans top the list! No! Honest? I wouldn't lie to you whitey! Next comes comes your so-called 'pets' - dogs and cats, then snakes, coyotes, foxes, and in some areas - mountain lions; and here in Point Clark even the squirrels are after us. And we live in constant fear of birds of prey! If your numbers are so threatened how come we still see so many? Now, you're getting personal again. With so many trying to kill us, we've learned to be quick about the whole mating thing. We may look like we're fighting, but its only 'playing around'. Yes! I've often watched you guys and dolls chasing each other, rough-and-tumbling, jumping high in the air and landing on one-another. Its fun to watch you! This is the only part of being a rabbit I really enjoy - its called "mating". You humans have made jokes of us describing the act as, "Wham-Bang - thank you mam". This is the moment we're so very vulnerable - we throw caution to the wind! I hear yuh brother! They say we're 'prolific animals' - we have to be - its our only way of surviving. We keep the vultures and crows fat, eating our numbers that you humans kill on the roads with your cars and trucks! Sorry about that, Peter. You win some - you lose some. Our girls are adult and ready to breed at 3 months of age; may produce 3 to 5 Litters a year, with an average of 5 young per Litter. Top that whitey! You're such a 'smart-ass', Peter! We're here for a good time - not a long time, we could live up to 7 years if not shot by you guys (sport?), eaten by predators, squashed on a road, trapped, poisoned, etc. But, as it stands now, we're lucky to live about 2 years! Sorry about that, Peter. My oldest brother, Lorne (age about 13 used to raise rabbits when we lived in Centreville. He used to pick up an adult rabbit by its ears. Because "That's what they're for", he would say. But, he soon learned they didn't like to be handled that way, because they would let out a human-like "scream". I didn't know rabbits could make any sounds. Do they? Just for fun, tune in again next week and find-out, when we continue to interview Peter Cottontail. (That is - if he's still willing to chat)
Russ. ****
From Nova Scotia Sus
Nova Scotia is under a complete ban on all activities such as camp fires, atv's, camping, walking trails...pretty much all that could start a fire. With so many of our woods flattened and destroyed from Fiona and hot temperatures, anywhere could be a major forest fire so we all have to be careful. Luckily northern areas where we live are not battling a fire but all it takes is a stupid, careless person. Even the smoke from fires south of here have not come our way. It still makes you nervous when you realize how fast fire can travel. How would we manage an evacuation and where do you go? The next 4 days are predicting rain and hopefully lots to help our fire fighters win this battle. It's hard to watch on TV all those people who have had to leave their homes behind not knowing if they have anything to come back to. Cross our fingers....it all ends with the rain. Sus ****
The Ontarion
Hello everyone! I must say, first of all We here in Ontario were wondering just when the past winter would end and now we can’t figure out when this present heat wave will end! Are we ever satisfied here in Southern Ontario? I love the heat and seldom complain about it but this present stretch of hot weather is a rough one to put up with! I’m hoping this coming summer will be a nice sunny and warm one but not to the degree that it’s starting out to be like! I hope we don’t have to continue to put up with the 30 to 33c heat we’re having with this present stretch of heat! Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to think back on the miserable winter we’ve experienced for 2022/23 to be happy for the nice not weather we’re having so far this summer! I think that it might be weather that BC had to start off this summer too and it’s caused a load of forest fires out there this season! We have some forest fires burning too but not as many as they are having out in BC and Alberta so far this season! It just so happens that our own Waterloo Region has imposed a ban on any open burning for the foreseeable future! They don’t want any body to light back yard camp fires without a written permit from their local fire department! When I was still on the job in Waterloo, we were looked upon as the bad guys when we would be called to an open burning complaint by a neighbour and have to ask the offenders to extinguish their small back yard fire! In most cases, I would tell the offenders that they had to be cooking over their fire or put it out! So, they would then have a package of wieners handy so they could skirt the by-law to show that they were cooking something! At least then they were able to have their little camp fire out back of their homes! Of course we did have the odd group that were burning a pile of wooden skids 6’ high so that would get my dander up and I’d have my crew pull a hose line into their location and give there camp fire a good dousing of a couple of hundred gallons of water to make sure that they were not able to relight their massive fire as soon as we were out of sight! LOL! It served them right for overdoing the fire thing in the first place! Really all they had to do was apply for a permit from the fire department and they would have been just fine with their back yard camp fire! However, most people don’t think of following the proper rules, they just figure it’s their property so they can do what they want with it! Not so, you still have to follow the by-laws set forth by their local government! You can’t just make up your own rules and get away with these sorts of things! By-laws are set for the good of all our citizens and must be followed by everyone! It’s like Doug always points out about their forest fires happening in BC, there are a load of fools that just think they can toss a lit cigarette but out of their car window and figure it will cause no harm! That’s the lesson for this week folks and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next week in The Ontarion Report!
Bye for now ….Greg ****
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