The Squamidian Report – Dec. 18 / 04
Also in this issue:
North Nova News, Peter Style
Christmas On The Farm In The 1930’s
Fernglen Inn Progress Report
The Ontarion
Hi All,
First-of-all, what should have simply been a free exchange of ideas and opinions last week degraded into flared tempers and damaged feelings. We are all too mature to let that kind of silliness happen again, right? Right! So lets all get back to enjoying life and each other’s cyber-company.
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Avalanche season is here. All that rain in the lower elevations was snow in the high country. I can again see snow slides up in the back of Fries Creek Canyon and on the slopes of Alpha. There are already cornices forming along the high ridges. Little pieces (as seen through the telescope from across the valley) of them break off and roll down the slopes like giant snowballs. That leaves grooves in the snowfields that make them look like someone dragged a humongous comb through the snow.
As the rains moved on and the sky cleared the Pineapple Express left us with mild, mid teen temperatures and warm sunshine. Ryan and I headed out on our dirt bikes to enjoy the afternoon last Saturday. We headed up Ring Creek Rd again and took the same spur that Warren and I were on a few weeks ago. One section of trail was covered with a constant stream of running water draining from the slopes above. This was kind of fun. A bit slippery but fun. The splashing water turned to steam when it hit the engines. Bikes kept running just fine.
We also headed up the Garibaldi Park Rd to the lookout by the park parking lot. This climbed up into snow and the last click of road was packed ice. We passed a pickup truck that had slid into the ditch and several other vehicles that had given up. Climbing up hill in second gear was easy although the rear bike wheel would start to spin quite easily. The view from the lookout was great as usual. Then we had to head back down the steep ice road. Low gear at an idle with your left foot sliding along on the ice for added vertical support worked just fine and we made it back down to bare road with no more trouble than putting up with sore cheek muscles from grinning so much. Got home tired and happy. Took some pictures with Ryan’s key chain toy camera for anyone with lots of time on their hands to see.
http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b2/Pictures/garibald2.htm
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I got laid off from work last week, which was just fine with me. I’m kind of in the boss’s bad book right now because I refused to sacrifice the safety of the guys working in the trench underneath me. He wanted the machine to be swinging faster and moving more material. I have to swing in bedding sand just inches over the pipe laying crew’s heads and maneuver the excavator bucket in between men as I spread the sand. Often I will have to swing a very heavy section a pipe that would crush someone were it to hit them. All the while there will be up to 5 men working below in the trench. The boss seems to think it is more important to make up for time lost due to the weather. To hell with him. I either work carefully or I won’t work at all so I’m off till at least the first week of January. This could well be my opportunity to jump to a company that doesn’t insist on 10-hour shifts with no breaks. That policy alone is dangerous. The men leave the job at night totally exhausted.
Anyway, it will work out good as Sue has the next two weeks off. She needs the break. She is exhausted. It also worked out good as this past week we had the new windows and doors installed. Total of 16 windows and 3 French-door systems. Way too much for me to bother tackling. The windows are that extruded vinyl with low-E glass etc. The doors are steel with full-length windows in the middle. One pane from the new bathroom window will have to be replaced by the factory. They made a small but noticeable error. The rain pattern that keeps you from seeing through it runs up and down in the main pain but cross ways in the smaller pain that opens to let out the.. sorry, that should be ‘that opens for ventilation’.
This is the west coast so it took the installers all week to do the job. Could have been done in about 3 days. Of course the also had the huge job of removing the old stuff, renovating is always harder than new construction. And besides, it was a contract job so no problem. And they cleaned up nicely after each day. There is some minor paint touchup for me to do as well as filling some marks in the drywall left from where I removed the screws that held the old curtains and blinds. Needless to say, Sue wants new ones. Curtains, not hole.
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Just a quick update regarding Ryan and Emily. I’ve been trying to get one of them to write a short article to fill everyone in on how things are going but they have other things on their minds to keep them busy. Ryan is working for a production company in Whistler as a sound tech. He is getting all the hour he wants. The company is a branch of a Vancouver company so he will be able to expand in that direction as well. Emily is working at the big fancy Château Whistler resort hotel in the health spa as an attendant fulltime and as a massage therapist part time. So things are falling into place for them nicely. I’ll keep trying to get one of them to fill in the details.
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My mom sent in a great story for this issue about how Christmas was way back on the farm when she was a child. I know you will enjoy reading it, I sure did. Anyway, this is the last issue before Christmas. The next one falls right on Christmas Day. Here at Squamidian Central we don’t stop for holidays or any such thing so there will be an issue as usual. Might be a few minutes late getting out but it will get out. So have a great Christmas, say Hi to everyone and we’ll talk again next Saturday.
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If this story happened two hundred years ago it would be called “Captain White Beard and the legend of the Black Pearl”. Today it is a tale of a cruise boat captain who purchased a quahaug at the local grocery store and when eating one discovered the black pearl.
On November 4th 2004, I was shopping for a few groceries at the Pictou, Nova Scotia Sobey’s store. Thinking that 99 cents was a little steep for an oyster I had the fishmonger weigh a quahaug that was being sold for $3.99 a pound. One quahaug costs 75 cents so I purchased four to enjoy over the next few days. While chewing the second or third one I became aware of a foreign object in the fleshy delicacy. I carefully removed it from my mouth to discover a shiny black orb. I have found other gritty stones with light coatings of mother of pearl over the last 40 years of eating shell fish but nothing that anyone would ever consider having any value.
Upon taking the pearl to Windward Jewelry in Stellarton to see if it was worth anything we were informed that the pearl was worth $82.50. We decided to have the pearl mounted as a tie clip to have as a nice souvenir with a story behind it. After anxiously waiting for two weeks to pick up my tie clip Susie was informed by the jeweler that he had made a mistake in the appraising of the pearl and that is was worth $55.00 per milligram for a total worth of $275.00. Mounted in its setting I now have a tie clip worth over $300.00.
The first public viewing of Pictou’s Black Pearl was held at the Braeside Inn with a group of friends from the sailing community on December 11th, 2004.
A picture of the pearl can be seen at:
http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b/Pictures/northnov.htm
Editor’s Note: I asked Sus what the heck a quahaug is and here is here reply.
A quahaug is a shellfish sort of like an oyster. Peter eats them raw, right out of the shell. It is quite disgusting to look at if you are not into raw seafood. He grew up on them so they look right to him. He is so proud of his black pearl and as far as we can find out they are extremely rare to be this perfect. Usually it is just a piece of grit if anything. Sobey's wouldn't have let that one go if they had known. Sus
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As you all know I was raised
on a farm. Only one or two farmers in
the whole area had anything. It was a
very hand-to-mouth existence, but most of us didn’t think of ourselves as being
poor. My Dad always had lots of wood
ahead to keep us warm and we always had food, although not what children are
used to today.
My mother raised a couple of
geese and a gander, also a couple of ducks and a drake. So for Christmas we usually had either a
goose or a couple of ducks as the young ones were always butchered and sold
except for our Christmas dinners.
It always seemed
exciting. The school put on a Christmas
program every year and everyone took part.
I gave my first recitation when I was four. The program was always at the Institute Hall, which had a stage
and 2 dressing rooms. Everyone from the
whole area always came, as there wasn’t much entertainment in those days, in
fact few people even had a radio. The
men always got a Christmas tree from someone’s bush and the pupils made
decorations. Kept us busy during art
class. The school board bought enough
oranges for every child to have one and a few gumdrops and a couple of nuts
with the shells on.
Everyone at school had their
names put into a bowl and then drew out someone else’s name. Each one had to give a gift (maximum value
10 cents) to the child whose name we drew.
My mother knit wonderful socks and mitts; heavy double-knit in beautiful
patterns. So she often knit a present
for us to give, especially when it was for a child that never had anything warm
to wear. Those cozy mitts were really
appreciated. The program always ended
with the adults putting on a play. My
mother always took part in it. She was
a good actress. The church also put on
a program but it was mostly drills. We
usually got an orange there as well.
That was the only time we ever saw an orange.
I think Christmas Day was
the only day my dad took a holiday. He
and his brother Earl always went hunting and if they were lucky enough to get
some rabbits we knew we would have meat for a day or two. Gifts were in very short supply but
each of us always got one little gift and thought we were very lucky.
We always had dinner at our
house one year and my grandfather’s the next.
The dinner was usually goose or duck and the regular mashed potatoes,
gravy and root vegetables with home canned pickles, homemade buns and steamed
pudding with caramel sauce. My dad
gathered hazelnuts in the fall and dried them.
At Christmas my mom made fudge and filled it up with nuts. It was the best candy I’ve ever eaten.
Of course we had a Christmas
tree at home and had to make decorations for it. We even strung popcorn for it.
We always thought it was beautiful.
The adults would end up playing cards and the kids board games like
snakes and ladders. We always went to
bed very happy to dream of the pictures Jack Frost would paint on the bedroom
windows while we slept.
Vivyan
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First off, thanks for the words of encouragement and congratulations on our soon-to-be-new home and business. It's easy for me and Jim to start doubting ourselves when we think about what we're getting into, so your cheerleading really makes a difference. Re-reading Doug's story on his move from Kitchener to the great Squamidia was wonderfully grounding for me. If you haven't read it yet, you're missing out on a very moving piece of prose. Check it out here:
http://www.shopping-eh.ca/think/slice_moving.php
By the way Doug and Sue: I'll save you some rooms in June...just be sure to bring your guitars!
So, even though we aren't closing on the property until February 3rd, our work and involvement has already begun. We drove up to Fernglen again today (Friday) to sit down with the contractor and go over some specifics for the renovations. Our good friend Ed, whom some of you will remember as Jim's best man, joined us for the trip. Ed is a professional handyman/woodworker so he was great to have along for his input on everything, but more importantly, it was wonderful to be able to finally show the place to somebody in person. I guess you could say he was our first guest at the b&b, although we didn't offer him breakfast. Or a bed, for that matter. It was bitterly cold up there today at minus 18 celsius. I guess we better get used to it. On the bright side, it was absolutely beautiful with a thick layer of fresh snow clinging to every tree under a bright blue sky. I smile just thinking of it.
Not only did we enjoy a lovely drive, we had a very productive meeting with Blair, the contractor. We discussed our changes and preferences and he's going to work through the numbers and see how things look. We can deviate from the itemized list of restorations (instead of returning the house to exactly how it was before), but if a change we request results in a higher overall cost, we'll have to pay for it. We're hoping that we make enough lower-cost choices to balance out our higher-cost ones. We've decided to go with a cork panel floor instead of ceramic tile. It's similar to a laminate floating floor but with real cork instead of laminate. If anyone's interested in seeing the product, here's a link: http://www.quickstyle.com/eng/produits/cork.html
We also selected our cabinets from the Mills Pride catalogue. No custom cabinets for us as the old ones were not much more that painted plywood. We're going with a laminate countertop instead of ceramic tile as it's much easier to work on. We're not replacing the tongue and groove paneling in all the rooms upstairs and we're not replacing the cheap fibreglass shower stalls in the bathrooms. Instead, we'll get circular shower rods above the clawfoot tubs. We hope to apply some of the money we save to adding a range hood above the stove and expanding the porch off the kitchen. Most importantly, we'd like to have duct work installed while the walls are being rebuilt. We can't afford a furnace right now but at least the infrastructure will be there when we're ready. That's about all we covered today. Jim and I have a bit of homework in that we have more decisions to make, and fairly quickly. Blair suggested we consider board and batten siding for the house instead of the cedar shake shingles that are on the house now. If we go with the cedar, he won't be able to meet the January 31st deadline. Board and batten is still fitting for the country look we want to keep, but I worry that the maintenance it'll need every year will make it just not a smart choice. I'm pretty sure I'm sticking with the cedar. It's feeling a wee bit more real every time we go up there, but I still expect to wake up any minute. If someone had told me six months ago I'd be buying a burned up bed and breakfast, I wouldn't have believed them. But stranger things have happened to normal-er people than me.
Take care everyone and I'll keep you posted. Have a great week getting ready for Christmas!
Quote of the day:
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor....Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain
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THE ONTARION REPORT
DECEMBER 18, 2004
Hello again everyone and WOW
what a great response we had to the Ontarion last week! Thanks to all who
contributed to the exciting and educational conversation. I know that I learned
something from it and I hope others did as well.
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What’s up this week? Well, for the most part, Christmas shopping is on the agenda around here and I’m sure you’ll all agree that it’s a busy time of year. What is really amazing to me is the amount of traffic on the city streets these days. Of course since I’ve retired, I am not usually driving around town during morning or evening rush hour traffic. I swear there are twice as many vehicles on the road at those times nowadays than there were 2 years ago when I had to do it every day. I read that Waterloo Region is the most “car crazy” area in Canada. The article said that more families own multiple vehicles in Waterloo Region than in any part of Canada. Now that’s a statistic to be concerned about! That means that our region is subjected to more automobile produced pollution than any other area of its size in the country. Scary isn’t it? No wonder Doug finds that he can breathe easier living where they are now. When I was out today shopping, I made a note to actually smell the air as I traveled and walked around. I didn’t find one instance where I took a good sniff and could actually say the air smelled clear. Most of the odors I detected were of the auto exhaust type. To tell the truth, I could smell diesel fumes most times. It seems that they tend to linger much more than gasoline fumes. Either way, they are both offensive and poisonous to say the least. We are being subjected to an ad campaign in this area that asks that drivers turn their engines off if they are going to be idling more than 2 minutes. I guess if everyone takes heed of this request we’ll be breathing easier. If not (which is more likely) we’ll be paying for a government campaign that’s a waste of time and money. Let’s hope it works to our advantage.
The second most prolific odor of the day was cigarette smoke. I’ve always disliked the smell of that smoke. My folks both smoked for many years and when we were kids we had to breathe it in the car, our home and even at the kitchen table. Smoking was just something that many parents did back then! When I think back on it, adults didn’t smoke at the table to be inconsiderate and exercise their rights, they just didn’t realize how irritating and unhealthy their habit was. Almost everyone had a member of their family that smoked and none of us gave any thought to going out in public or to school smelling like stale smoke. Thank goodness their bad habit didn’t rub off on me. I never did start smoking and kept as far away from it as I could. It’s amazing how even now I can be driving along the expressway or the 401 and all of a sudden catch a whiff of cigarette smoke from the vehicle ahead of me. Even at 100 km/h some smoker can infringe on my right to breathe smoke free air. It’s bad enough that we all have to breathe exhaust fumes but to add smoke from someone’s exhalation to the mix, is downright disgusting. Ontario has just passed anti smoking legislation to ban smoking in all public places. This has many of the smokers ticked right off. I say “Too Bad”! I believe the right to breathe clean air takes precedent over someone’s right to smoke themselves to death. If you want to take your own life in a slow agonizing way, so be it but don’t take me with you! There is not much these days that is more irritating than walking out of a building into the fresh air, only to suck in a huge breath of second hand smoke from someone standing 2 metres from the door puffing on a butt! I know having the smokers out of the building is better than having them contained in the structure but c’mon, let’s have the smokers show some common sense and stand a reasonable distance away from the doorways. Someone mentioned that the next step will be for the law makers to ban smoking out doors as well………Hmmmmmmmm…I’d go for that, wouldn’t you? Probably not if you’re a smoker! The tobacco companies are saying that soon the only place one will be allowed to exercise their right to smoke will be in one’s own home. And tell me what’s wrong with that??? Nothing I say, unless the smokers happen to have children that have to live in their home as well. Then it becomes a job for the Family and Children’s Services people to step in and protect the kid’s health. What a crazy society we live in these days! I guess there will always be something to complain about and problems to solve for the good of mankind (Oops, did I say MANkind?) Guess in these days of political correctness I should have said HUMANkind but, what the heck, if “MANkind” is a good enough word for God use in his scriptures, it’s good enough for me! Boy, it’s been a rough week and looks like it may just be shaping up to be a rough weekend. Think I’ll step outside for breath of fresh ………………..!
Thanks for tuning in everyone and I look forward to talking to you all again next week in The Ontarion.
Sincerely….GREG.
PS: Something to Think About>
Smoke, Choke, Croak!
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The family site:
http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b/
The Squamidian Site:
http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b2/
Have a good one..
the
doug