The
Squamidian Report – March 29/03
Also In this issue:
North Nova News
The Ontarion
A letter from Down Under
Jack & Jim’s Trip
Hi All,
This is really neat; we are now going international with our little newsletter. So here is a big Squamidian welcome to Karin Zeller in Melbourne. She is a sister in law of my sister Carol. Karin grew up on the old Jansen farm up the hill from the Brubacher homestead. If she wants any more of her life than that made public, she can fill us all in herself. I’m hoping she will submit articles on a regular basis.
Well now, on to my usual babbling. Pollen season is in full swing here on the wet coast. Yes, we have that kind of thing. I’d have to live on a desert island to avoid tree and grass pollen. So I’ve gone through about a box of Kleenex in the last week or so. However, its just pollen, none of that other curd mixed into the air so it is actually pretty easy to take. Even Clyde wouldn’t find it too bad.
Sue was doing a ‘local’ audit this past week. Local means in Vancouver (China town section). She is able to come home each night but she has a lot of commuting to do. The branch is one of the big ones with very high volumes and very ‘important’ customers. It also has an Oriental manager who is very frustrating to the auditors. He takes credit for everything that is correct about his branch. However, whenever anything turns up incorrect or in need of fixing, it is the fault of his staff and they have ‘embarrassed’ him. The result is a frustrated staff with very low moral. And she also says that Stanley Park is completely covered in flowers and blossoms now.
Oh hey, I’ve got a really neat new hobby. Most of you have heard about all the avalanches happening in the BC mountains. Well, I’ve been sitting out on my deck watching for and seeing snow slides. The high snowfields and steep slopes of several mountains and canyons are visible from the house. It’s kind of like sitting in Kitchener and looking at something over in Guelph. The distance across the valley and up into the high country would be 10 miles or so. I have very good binoculars and the air here is very clear when it’s not full of clouds and rain. Anyway, the distance makes seeing movement difficult but it is easy to see the results of a slide. The undisturbed snow is very smooth and white even at this distance. After it has slid, rough jumbled texture can be seen and it will extend down into the tree line where it wasn’t before.
I’m certainly not trying to make lite of avalanches. They are very dangerous and deadly. Those canyons and slope areas are not somewhere that anyone should be this time of the year. But they are very interesting to watch and study from a safe distance. I have been up in avalanche country in mid summer after the danger is long past. Where an avalanche had buried a logging road in the winter, the mix of snow and rock can still be there, several meters deep. The path the slide has taken down the mountainside is devastated. Mix gravity and snow that is 40 feet deep and nothing can stop it. Wild.
****
I just thought I would clarify; cleaning
out sheep stalls can be fun!! First of
all the farmer allowed us to come week after week to experience the lambing
season so it was the least we could do.
In each stall they were anywhere from a few minutes old to 3 or 4
weeks. Lambs that had to be nursed
became so friendly and would cuddle in your arms. They were our family. I
always thought barns were smelly but sheep are reasonably clean animals. We also went to a beef farm but found it to
be really offensive with cow dung everywhere and not many places to step. Yuk!!
We wouldn’t have lasted long there.
A funny thing happened to me last spring while at the sheep farm……at
least I can laugh about it now! We had
parked in front of the barn on a wet part of the property and while inside
someone had pulled up right behind so I couldn’t back out. We had the hatch up on my station wagon
changing out of our barn boots when they decided to move their car. Well they spun their front wheel drive tires
in the mud, sending it flinging all over me and right through to the front dash
of my car. I was looking down at the
time and everything turned brown before my eyes. I was quite a sight and the look on everyone’s face was
priceless. I’m beginning to think mud
and I have an attraction for each other.
I was sprayed another time while on a day trip to Halifax from another
spinning tire. Luckily I never go anywhere
without multitudes of clothing and was able to make a clean change. It was a
little embarrassing to go back into the restaurant to use their washroom
though.
It has felt more like spring the
last few days even though it snowed like crazy yesterday. But this time it was a warm snow, if that is
possible. We spent a couple of hours
sliding two 14-foot sailboats from the Pictou Yacht Club across the ice at the
marina to our truck. They needed some
repair work for the upcoming season and it was the only way to get them out
since the road to the club isn’t accessible in winter. And we did all this in that blinding
snowstorm! Funny thing is, I remember
putting those same boats in the club last fall in the same type of weather. Everyone, especially the fishermen, worry
that the ice will delay the lobster season, usually starting around the first
week of May. Lobster is like the most
important thing around here and mouths are watering for it for weeks ahead. I
have never acquired a taste for it so will never really be considered a true
Maritimer. I have a new respect for fishermen after sailing every summer for
the past 10 years or so. Early May is
no time to be out on the water. It’s
freezing cold and rough. Peter and Zane
have gone out a couple of times in June with a local fisherman. They had to get up at 3:00 am. to be at the
wharf for 4:00 am. When I got home from
work that day the two of them had sprawled out on the couch and floor, dead to
the world. I had to patiently wait for
them to wake up to find out about their day’s adventure on the high seas.
Until next time
Sus
****
THE ONTARION REPORT
MARCH 28, 2003
AAAAAAHH it’s great to be alive and living in Ontario these days!
Hello everyone, see I didn’t forget this weeks Ontarion. As you can probably guess, I’ve reached the end of the bathroom renovation that’s been occupying my mind for the past 2 weeks. Nothing left to do but reinstall the sink cabinet and of course the new toilet. One can tell that it’s springtime in Ontario. All you have to do is look around and you’ll see everything from people raking their lawns to kids walking to school in tee shirts! It’s hard to believe that only 2 short weeks ago we were covered in 2 feet of snow. Even the air smells cleaner! Well, almost anyway! We had our first official “Bad Air” day in Kitchener for the year 2003. I guess it’s too much to hope for, that the spring air be clean for more than a week! I have my suspicions that the Iraqi’s are exporting huge quantities of their “Burning Oil Fields” odors over to Canada just to let us know that they are wasting what could be keeping our gasoline prices down. Bad air seems to be in good supply over here these past few years. When I was still working for a living at the Waterloo Fire Dept, we spent more days not running the trucks because of the smog in the area than we did running them. Of course when we had an alarm to respond to, we ran those big polluters to their max! It’s just that the mayor thought it wouldn’t look good to the citizens if we were to be seen running city vehicles when we were advising others to walk or carpool to work to lessen the smog. I don’t ever remember bad air days as a kid. Growing up in the North Ward of Kitchener was an odiferous experience anyway. It was and I believe still is known as the “Polish” section of the city. Lots of polish people lived in our neighbourhood and liked to cook with the windows open. MMMMMmmmmmmmm! The smell of Polish sausage and cabbage roles wafted through the neighbourhood on many a sunny spring day. We had many other odour producers in the North Ward too. There was the smell of the spices that eminated from the famous Burn’s Meats plant on Guelph St. a place that my father worked in for 20 years. Then there was the smell of the pickling and gluing process that was spewed out into the air by Panel Veneer on St Leger St. This was a company that took the biggest logs I had ever seen and turned them into wall paneling.
We used to go down to their log storage yard on Saturdays and play on the log piles as if we were lumberjacks. It was great fun. Yes, there was any number of adventuresome places to play in the North Ward. There was a company on the North side of Lancaster St that made YoYo’s and they would throw piles and piles of imperfect YoYo’s out in the bins behind the plant. We’d go there when we felt like breaking the law and “trespassing” to see if we could find any “good ones”! As it turned out most times, even the “good ones” would wobble so badly that we’d wind up just pitching them in the garbage anyway. I guess when I think of it now, if they worked properly, they wouldn’t have been labeled “imperfect” and tossed in the bins in the first place, would they? Hahaha! Oh well, I guess that’s how we learned about things back then. Geeze, just talking about all this makes me want to be a kid again. Sure was nice when the only thing we had to worry about in life was finding a new place to play on a Saturday afternoon. One of the really neat things to do on a Saturday was to accompany my dad to Burn’s Meats to check on the security of the place. My dad was a former city cop who had taken a job with Burn’s Meats as head of their security department. He was foreman of the miscellaneous departments in the plant. He looked after the watchmen, the laundry dept and my favorite………..the cafeteria! I’d go with him while he checked with the watchmen in the meat packing building. It was a place that smelled like summer sausage and pepperoni sticks as well as the tons of sauerkraut that they shipped from there in barrels. Lots of great smells to enjoy. Of course it wasn’t all pretty, we had to pass by the cattle barns to make the complete round of the plant. I’d always hold my nose as we ran past that part. At the end of it all, the trip was worth it though. We would finish our couple of hours by climbing the long staircase to the Cafeteria. The ladies that did the cooking in the company kitchen were also master donut makers! They would always leave a tray of honey dipped, cream filled and chocolate donuts in the kitchen for us to enjoy after our rounds. No wonder I had weight problems as a kid!!!! Oh well, who knew about cholesterol back in the 50’s? Wow, when I think of what we ate back then, it’s amazing that any of us made it to the ripe old age of 25! But, that’s another whole Ontarion Report right there! I guess I should sign off and save the 50’s food thing for next week! I’ve enjoyed this trip down memory lane very much. I hope I’ve stirred a few good memories for everyone that is kind enough to take the time to read The Ontarion. I dedicate this week’s Ontarion to the memory of my dad. Thanks Frank! GREG.
PS: Something To Think About = “Knowledge without wisdom is a load of books on a Jackass”!
****
From Down Under!!
The Melbourne Report
G'day Doug,
Thanks for the invitation. Yes, I would enjoy receiving your Squamidian Report on a regular basis. So far I have really enjoyed reading your stories of every day life in Squamish. Keep em coming...
I've been living here in Melbourne for 10 years now, and I can relate to what it is like to leave the old life behind (in Kitchener) and start all over from scratch in a new and faraway place. It was hard sometimes, but it was quite an adventure, and still is.
On the other hand, life in our little suburb of Altona Meadows is probably not as exotic as you might think.
But I'm still in awe of the beauty of our area, and think how lucky we are to live so close to beautiful beaches, as well as a short train ride away from a really amazing city, which is Melbourne.
I enjoy sharing my experiences of living in Australia with anyone who is interested. I also have a digital camera and lots of photos in my files. So if you are particularly interested in anything (information or pictures), let me know.
I will keep it short for today, but will write more later.
Have a great day !
****
Here is a link to some pictures that Karin sent showing her life in Australia.
http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b/Zeller/Zeller.htm
This is a link to the photo section of the Melbourne newspaper The Age.
http://www.theage.com.au/photogallery/2003/03/12/1047431075920.html
****
And
Last But Not Least, Jack and Jim’s Tour of the West Coast.
Wahoo! What a week we had. It seems incredible that just one week ago we were settling in here at Doug and Sue’s after drive in from the airport. I’ll just give you the highlights from each day because we did too much and saw too many beautiful vistas. To describe every one in detail would require an entire issue and not simply a guest column in this illustrious and growing publication.
So without further ado, here are some snippets from my journal during the past week….
Sat. March 22
An uneventful flight landed us at the Vancouver airport. Picked up our rental car—got a free upgrade to a sport mini-van—and headed through the city. Stopped briefly in Stanley Park before continuing on to Squamish. Had a short stop at Shannon Falls. Very pretty. Arrived at the Doug and Sue B&B, the finest accommodation this side of Ontario. Warren and Janice came over for dinner and Jim and I were treated to excellent after-dinner music from the Brubacher men. Crashed early from both the time difference and a hectic week leading up to our holiday.
Sun. March 23
Woke up to overcast sky so Doug drove us up to the Brandywine Falls near Whistler. Taller than Niagara and very pretty. Then we went for a drive through the Squamish valley. The sun came out as we got back home so we headed back out to climb the Chief. I’ll say it again: very possibly the coolest place I’ve ever been. The view from the top is indescribable. My legs and lungs fought me every step of the way up, but at least my recover time was faster. I was springing up and down stairs the very next day.
Mon. March 24
Woke up to beautiful mountain views all around. Said goodbye to Doug and Sue and headed back south to catch the ferry at Horseshoe Bay. The ferry ride to Gibson on the Sunshine Coast was fun as boat rides always are for me. We followed the road, with lovely views along the way, to Earl’s Cove where we caught another ferry over to Saltery Bay and continued up the coast to Powel River. While waiting for the ferry we did the short climb up Valentine Mountain and had stunning views of the straight on one side and Powel Lake on the other. Arbutus trees were everywhere. These are very pretty trees that don’t lose their leaves, they lose their bark. And the exposed fresh wood is smooth and copper-coloured. Actually, the colour ranges from pale peach to deep red. My new favorite type of tree.
Caught the ferry over to Comox and found accommodation in Courtney.
Tues. March 25
Beautiful sunny day. We headed out early and hit the slopes at Mount Washington for a half day of the fantastic down-hill skiing. As a novice skier, it took me half an hour to make a complete circuit of up the chairlift and down the long slope. Jim did two runs for every one of mine but it was awesome! I only fell once and it was at the end of my last run. We had a blast. And boy was it winter there! The snow on the drive up was so deep and fresh. But half an hour after leaving the ski lodge, it was spring again.
We detoured over to Horne Lake to check out the caves. We couldn’t go in because we didn’t have helmets or flashlights and they don’t rent them this early. Still, it was a very cool, Indiana Jones-type of drive to get there. Continued on south down the island and found a place to stay on the beach at Qualicum Beach.
Wed. March 26
Rose early and headed west across the island toward Ucluelet and Tofino. Stopped at Cathedral Grove to ooh and ahh at the enormous trees. Very humbling. On through Port Alberni and then a spectacular drive. Up, down, around bends and twists. Lakes and mountains for eye candy. Finally made it over to the west coast. Stopped at the interpretive centre in the Pacific Rim National Park and walked along the beach. Beautiful to see the mighty pacific ocean crashing against the rocks. On to Tofino where we suited up for a whale watching tour on an open-air, inflatable zodiak boat. The boat ride was a blast! It was like being on a rollercoaster in the choppy water, like being in a hammock on the swells. We saw a ton of sprays from the whale’s blowholes. And we saw quite a few whales breach the surface. No tails but it was cool all the same. We saw a mother and calf breach together. Awesome creatures.
Then we went to check in at the Wickaninnish Inn. This is my anniversary present (and according to Jim, my birthday present, Christmas present, Easter present….). You have to check out the website to see how amazing this place is. It lived up to the website and then some. www.wickinn.com. We got the Gourmet Trail package. Note to Gale: I have to tell you about the food, absolutely divine, six courses. Our room had a double jacuzzi tub with windows looking out over the ocean, gas fireplace, kingsize bed, stone tile bathroom, balcony with a view, binoculars, rain slickers, bathrobes, lovely art and furnishings, and I could go on. Like I said, check out the website.
Thurs. March 27
Watched some surfers out on Chesterman Beach while we enjoyed our breakfast. Walked on the beach. After checking out (they packed us a big, gourmet lunch to take along) we headed over to Ucluelet. Did a lovely walk along the Wild Pacific Trail and had more gorgeous views. Arranged for a kayaking tour around the inlet. That was awesome! We saw so many eagles, and two sea lions. The sea lions are huge and somewhat dangerous if you get too close. We paddled out to the mouth of the inlet where we enjoyed riding the 2.5 metre swells. All that stood between us and Japan was a big ocean. Exhilarating.
Fri. March 28
Spent the morning walking the trails in Pacific Rim National Park. We only covered 6 km on 3 different trails so it wasn’t too strenuous but there were a lot of stairs. The trails are all on boardwalks which is less impactful on the environment and also makes for nice viewing of the surroundings. I really felt surrounded by living greenery. The trees are huge. We saw many that are bigger around than my living room. And they are so tall. I felt hobbit-sized compared to the ones back home. It is so lush and green in these temperate rain forests. Life is thriving there, not just surviving. Moss literally drips off of trees and limbs, the rocks are even green with moss, ferns are 4 feet high on the forest floor, little ferns and other plants grow on living trees. We humans seem very insignificant amid such grandeur.
Mid afternoon saw us heading back across the island to Nanaimo. Pretty harbourfront there. Crashed for the night exhausted but happy.
Sat. March 29
Caught the ferry from Nanaimo back over to Horseshoe Bay and drove through some fancy-shmancy neighbourhoods on a quest for a gas station. Eventually made our way back on the hiway toward Squamish. Stopped on the way to get some hiking in. We found an access point to the Howe Sound Crest Trail between Lion’s Bay and Porteau Cove park. The trail went one way: up. After about an hour and a half of “up” we took a side trail over (and more up) to Deek’s Bluff and were rewarded for our labours with spectacular views of Howe Sound, the islands, the mountains. We looked up at some mountains whose peaks were lost in the clouds, and over at some mountains and down at some little clouds that were playing on the lower slopes. We also passed on our way up many pretty creeks, a lovely waterfall, and teasing peeks at the scenery beyond the trees. All in all, the hike was a pretty grueling 3.25 hours—our favourite kind of hiking. We then dragged our weary butts the rest of the way to Squamish where Doug and Sue replenished us with hot coffee and the promise of a delicious dinner to come.
Tomorrow morning we fly home to the real world but bring with us many happy memories. And many pictures which Jim will post on a website for any of you to see if you’re interested. We’ll email the link when we know it.
Many thanks to Doug and Sue for being such excellent hosts! We’ll be back again before too long.
****
Have a good one,
the doug