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The
Squamidian Report – April 20 / 24
Online
Versions
Of This And Past Issues Issue
#1143 Russ Wayne Nova Scotia Sus The Ontarion Doug
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From Russ
Clear as mud.
My CAT SCAN came back as negative! All thanks be to God. I still have two scopes to look for evidence of the big C. But I don't want to write about my health today, nor the gloomy wet weather. Writing should be fun!
Here goes: What am I? I love skipping in mud puddles. I resemble a small fish, but I'm not a fish, or tadpole, I have two rather large dorsal fins - the front one looks like a pretty fan when open. I can fold down flat my dorsal fins so they are out-of-sight entirely. But here is where my 'beauty' ends! Just about everyone thinks I'm ugly - including me, for example I have an exceptionally large, toothless mouth; a pair of bulging eyes, close together on the top of my head. I'm slippery as an eel, but I'm not an eel.
I spend most of my time under water but, like you and I, have to come up for air periodically. I can move along land using my side fins as legs, and during mating season I can hop, skip, and jump! And I jump strait up as high as I can because that's what our ladies look for in us males. When our baby's are hatched and swimming on their own, we protect them by drawing them into our large, oval-shaped mouths - otherwise, they are easy prey for many predators.
What do we do in dry spells when there's no mud, and therefore no food? Here's where we shine; we simply wiggle-down into the mud at the bottom of the ocean, lake, river, stream or pond where we go into hibernation where we can survive for up to 5 years in our dormant state. What do we eat? you ask. Here's the 'kicker'.....we slowly eat ourselves!
Dear reader: Who am I? should now be "clear as mud" No? Here's a hint: As kids we Brubacher's used to play with them when swimming in the then, dirty waters of the Grand River. Pop said they were harmless. Mom said, "Don't bring them home! Those ugly things are likely poisonous"!! But we are not!
Need another hint? We have been around for hundreds of million years without change.
Uncle Russ
PS Tune in next week and find out. ****
From Wayne
Please follow this link to the story Wayne sent in of his NB life and animal additions. By uploading his submission in it’s original document form, his formatting and pictures stay and show as interned.
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From Nova Scotia Sus
It's been rainy and cold with only an odd day of sunshine. At least the ground is not frozen and we can do some garden preparing. We built a new fence around the garden to deter animals from invading. It's not a high fence but it should help. The deer are very sneaky and come when you are not looking. We gave up growing corn that attracted raccoons and they were the only ones who benefited from it.
Our new portable saw mill is now set up and almost ready for making lumber. It was quite a puzzle putting it together with parts galore! Theses saws are extremely popular now since the hurricane. Everyone has log piles in their yard especially in the country areas. We are hoping this will replace us buying our firewood each year using the slab wood that trims the log to make lumber.
We purposely didn't watch the eclipse since we were baby sitting that day and didn't want Ember looking up at the sky. There was lots to see on television about the eclipse.
Sus ****
The Ontarion
Hello everyone! Well spring is finally here, I think!
LOL, we’ve enjoyed the warm weather so far but Mother Nature is still playing tricks on us here in the great white North! Oh well, she will eventually come around I’m sure! The summer can’t stay away much longer! I guess April has to run its course first as per usual! I guess I’m just thinking of the long hot summers of my youth! They seemed to come on early And last so long! I’m sure we’ll see that kind of summer again but maybe not until this world sees the El Ninio (spelling) settle down!
The summers of my youth were like I said, long and hot! I remember spending the whole summer with a sunburn on my uncovered skin parts, especially when our family spent two weeks at a rented cottage on some beech! We were either at Longpoint beech or Port Dover on Lake Erie or somewhere up on the Lake Huron shore! No matter where we rented a cottage, it always seemed to be incredibly hot for our chosen holidays! Carole and I have never rented a cottage in our summers, mainly because for several years we had a swimming pool in our back yard and that was our summer retreat! Other years we just did day trips to different places!
It looks like with my present health conditions we won’t be doing much in the way of traveling! However, once we get used to the home treatments it will become possible to travel agin! That’s something to look forward to again! Only time will tell!
That’s it for this week! Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next week! Bye for now and stay safe!
Greg ****
From Me
How’s it going…..eh?
Just a quick update on what we did this week….. Carol and Al wanted to see the Sunshine Coast and end up on Vancouver Island so thats what we did. We left here early Tuesday morning to catch the 7:30 Langdale ferry from Horseshoe Bay. That took us over to Gibsons (the home of Molly’s Reach from the Beachcombers TV shows). From there we travelled up the coast to Earl’s Cove where we caught the ferry to Saltry Bay. From there we continued on up to Powel River where we just managed to squeeze onto the ferry over to Comox on the Island. From there we headed on north up to Campbell River where we spent the night. Then on Wednesday morning we headed ‘down island’ to Nanaimo, taking the winding back roads as much as possible. We abandoned them at a coffee shop a few blocks from the Nanaimo ferry terminal and Sue and I caught the 1pm ferry back over to the Bay, then did the easy ¾ hour drive back to home. That was our little trip. The weather was very good with unlimited visibility and not a cloud in the sky. Now you know.
Oh yeah, then we picked them up at the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal on Friday when they came back over to the mainland side. * Last Sunday we took Carol and Al with us to Horseshoe Bay where we meet up with our riding group for breakfast. Ryan and family came up from Maple Ridge as well so we had a bigger than usual turnout. One of our regulars rides a CanAm Spider, one of those 3-wheeled sort of motorcycles you see tooting down the roads. Now the back story…. Last summer we had the girls with us one Sunday morning when we were at the Bay. Olivia spotted a CanAm Spider parked across the street from us as we and the biker group sat outside of a coffee shop. She asked if she could go over and look at it to which I said yes but do not touch it. So, over both girls went and gave it a good look-see. She came back all excited and started asking questions. At that point I pointed out the owner who was sitting right beside me. She immediately homed in on him and turned on every bit of charm she could muster. He offered to take her for a ride but we didn’t have helmets for the girls so sadly, no luck there.
Fast forward to this past Sunday….. Gulann (the owner of the Spider) was at the restaurant along with the rest of us, and his Spider was parked right out side. This time he informed me that he had a spare helmet with him. Well, here was both girls chance to have a ride and they both did. Kyra was happy with it, Olivia was ecstatic. Gulann, who has grand children of his own, was more than happy to accommodate them and even offered to give Olivia a ride all the way to Squamish but Ryan and family were headed back to Maple Ridge so that didn’t happen but the girls did get their Spider ride.
Doug ****
Have
a
Good One ****
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