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Issue #1171
Including:

The Ontarion

Gary

Russ

Nova Scotia Sus

Doug

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From Greg – The Ontarion

Hello everyone!

It’s been an interesting fall so far here in kw! We have two trees on out front lawn that shed an incredible amount of leaves each year! This year is no different! Adam and Carole gave me a new leaf blower two years ago and it sure comes in handy! I spent yesterday afternoon clearing off our lawn etc! I usually blow the leaves onto the edge of the street In front of our house and the city vehicles come by and scoops them up on the first week of November! Now, we all know that we don’t own the street out in front of our homes, its public domaine! However the jerk that lives alone in the house across the street thinks it’s his property! About 15 years ago I blew the leaves over to his side of our street which is facing the side of his house! When i had them all piled Neatly to wait for the city pickup, he came out to the curb, called me an asshole and demanded I bag the leaves! There was no telling him that he didn’t own the street and I grudgingly bagged the leaves! At he same time, we were having a garage/driveway sale! So, we had buyers in our driveway! There was a real estate sign on our boulevard as well that blew across the street with the wind! So, Carole crossed the street and stuck it in that boulevard. It only took the jerk about 2 minutes to come out and yell dirty obscenities at Carole and tell her to get that damn sign off his boulevard! He called her a few dirty names and we were all in shock! Another neighbour from two doors down from us scolded the jerk and asked how he’d like if someone spoke to his wife that way! The jerk just turned and went into his house! Since then we’ve just ignored him from afar!

Well, yesterday I decided to blow the leaves again. This time I was going to leave them there since the city is due to collect them with their vehicles this week! However before I had quite finished blowing them along (his) curb and my back was turned to his house, I heard someone yell “HEY ASSHOLE!” …… now I should have ignored his ignorance but instead, I turned to face him, knowing it was his voice! There he was, leaning on the corner of his house, glaring at me! Before he could speak again, I calmly smiled and said, “don’t worry, I’ll bag them when I’m done!” He grunted and turned away saying “I hope so” and went into his house! 5 minutes later Adam came out with a handful of bags and we scooped up the leaves! Now this guy is a hunter with guns, we’ve seen dead dear hanging in his garage! So, Adam said it’s better not to antagonize him because of his obvious temper and penchant for killing things! Adam’s right, I don’t need a physical fight with this jerk!

About two years after the first encounter with this guy, his wife disappeared! We noted that his garage floor was dug up as if it was a service pit for oil changes etc! Not long after his son moved out and hasn’t been seen there since! After the latest encounter, I was wondering if his wife disappeared under the now cemented garage floor! I guess one never really knows who is or might be living around them! When I think like this, I’m darned sure I won’t be upsetting this guy again!

That’s about all that’s been on my mind since yesterday! I hope my imagination is getting the best of me on this one! I’ll be sure to stay alert when outside from now on!

Take care everyone and be well!

Talk again next week!

Bye for now! Greg.

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From Gary

Prince Edward county update. Phoebe had a baby girl October 5th. Over 7lb. Marigold and mom are doing fine. Goldie is #3 for Phoebe and Pat. Max hasn’t claimed responsibility for anyone yet (lol). Weather here has been fantastic. More seasonal by the time you reach this point. Stay safe everyone.

Gary

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From Russ

Confused!

Snow to the north of us, snow to the west of us, snow to the east of us, and would you believe there is snow to the south-west of us!? And we are basking in summer type weather here in southern Ontario! It reached 20C today in Point Clark. Yesterday was nearly as warm, and as we drove home from Kincardine on Boiler Beach Road, and commenting on how low the water was in Lake Huron, we were amazed at how many Canada Geese were 'parked' on the rocky shoreline. It was impossible to count them as they were sitting about 4 abreast and they extended for one complete Concession!!

With the weather so unusually mild the geese are likely confused as to whether to go or to stay! There's lots for them to eat as the corn has been harvested and there's always enough spilled for the birds to eat in the fields until the snow gets too deep. For protein they can always catch and eat fish and stuff as the lake has not frozen over for several years due to global warming. But, come February, March, and well into April food will be hard to come by for the many geese who choose to winter here, and starvation is what is in store for many of our Canada Geese. Sounds cruel, but a year-round open season on them would be more humane than having them starve.

Canada Geese are migratory birds, and as such are protected by law, but they have possibly been "over-protected" as there simply are now too many for their own good! They have taken over many parks in the States and are more than a "Canadian nuisance", they are also very aggressive and not welcome!

When deer become too numerous they must be controlled or face starvation. As I type this story, the "Deer Season" is open outside my door, and a hunter friend of mine says only "Bow-hunting" is legal at this time in Point Clark. He personally has a "blind" up in a tree, and sits there with his cross-bow waiting for a "no miss shot". Doug said he had a huge buck within shooting distance (about 200 yards) but let it live, as he was alone and couldn't handle the stringing-up part for bleeding the huge animal, and couldn't leave the deer lying on the ground in this warm temperature. His license restricts him to shoot only "breeding-age males" No does!

Getting back to the 'over-population of Canada Geese', there should be an "Open Season on Canada Geese for two to five years" for the good of the species. Hunters would be required to donate half of the geese bagged to prescribed charities.

Russ

PS: For those of you who cringe at the thought of killing anything, there is in practice on Provincial property's, a humane control method that seems to work, but is heavily labor intensive. One example is on the King City Campus of Seneca College where students learn how to "scramble" Canada Geese eggs while still in the nest. It goes like this: wearing protective gear, the nests are located, the eggs picked-up and shaken vigorously, then place carefully back in the nest. The geese continue to sit on the nest, but no chicks ever hatch! Why not just steal the eggs you ask? Because the geese will simply lay more eggs and you have wasted your time and energy!

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From Nova Scotia Sus

Another Halloween we prepared for little people to appear at our door and no one showed up. Even our fairly new neighbors from Kichener who we made them know we are worth visiting did not show up. It's pretty bad when you have to go out to encourage them ahead of time . Even the weather was cooperating at 15 degrees . We will get over it and move on with our life.

Our new road has finally got the lines painted on it so there should be no more construction. It sure is a joy to drive on a newly paved road and not have to be avoiding pot holes all the way. So far our fall weather has been great but we do need some rain to fill the pond and streams before winter sets in.

Our greenhouse is coming along nicely. Gary thought we were putting too much wood into a greenhouse. The backside is where most of boards are going in as that area is a potting shed. The front half will be mostly glass and clear panels in the roof. I don't do well on heights so I'm basically ground crew. I hand up what is needed. I will include pictures when it starts to look like something.

Sus

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From Doug

How’s it going…..eh?

Well, here we are, already into November. Where did October go? Actually, I’m glad it has gone to where ever it is that old used up month go to. We had been promised a nice, sunny, mild, and DRY October by the mysterious forecasters who hide out in the windowless Environment Canada weather offices, and yes, to no one’s surprise, they couldn't have been more wrong. Warm and dry turned out to be cold and wet, at times very wet. My poor motorcycles are sporting spider webs and other signs of sitting too long as they hide along the back wall of my garage. Perhaps I’ll become a weather forecaster when I grow up. I’d be able to never get anything right and not have to worry about always being wrong.

Remember how last week I had said I’d try to do a bare bones video version of that ‘Chains Of Gold’ song? Well, I had a brief window of opportunity and so I did do it. It actually takes way longer to get set up and get organized than it does to record the actual song video. Here’s what it takes; first off, ‘the wife’ needs to be poking around outside so that the house is quiet. Then, I must hook up my sound mixer to a gizmo that lets it send the mic and guitar signals into my iPad for the audio part of the video. Then, I mount the iPad on a stand and adjust the location so that it’s camera picks up what I want it to see. Then, with the iPad connected to the gizmo and the gizmo to the mixer, I turn on the mixer and go back to the iPad and tell it to connect to the mixer’s wifi signal so I can then do whatever adjustments need to be done. My mixer is digital and is controlled via an app on the iPad rather than via knobs and dials. Then, I can open the camera, set it to ‘video’, double check that the sound signal is coming through. I’ve already plugged in the guitar and mic, but must check that the balance it as close as I can guess and then, finally, I start the iPad recording. From there I get comfortable, and start my babbling that leads into my song. I play and sing my song, all the while hoping I don’t screw up too badly and once I get to the end, I babble a bit more, smile, and then reach over and stop the recording. After that, I must edit the recording after uploading it to my computer as a mov file. The front and back ends need to be trimmed or you’d see me getting ready. That would be silly. As well, if I screwed up during the ‘take’, I’d have to start over. That happens once in a while but I usually get it on the first try. If I do have to start over and then over again, it tends to go down hill from there and I give up until another day when I’m ready to try again. And, after I’m all done, I’m not done because I have to unplug everything and put everything away. Look at all the work I go to just for your own private entertainment. Wow, I sure am a nice thoughtful guy.

So, after all of that, here is my bare bones video version of ‘Chains Of Gold’.

The video version.

Chains Of Gold

Doug

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Have a Good One
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