The Squamidian Report – April 23 / 05
Also in this issue:
A Note From Nova Scotia Howard
The Ontarion
Hi All,
First off, some Squamidian business. One of the fun things about the Squamidian are the remarks and ‘on going’ discussions that are sometimes generated by various readers though out the week. They can create quite a bit of Email traffic and chatter. For some of you who may not be all that interested in this extra traffic or may have a slow dial-up connection this may not be a welcome situation. As well as the normal bulk mailing list that I send the Squamidian out on there is a ‘quiet’ squid list. This is where I send single copies out to some who just want the newsletter but not the extra Email traffic. If anyone wishes to be moved to the ‘quiet’ list, just let me know.
And just another reminder that anyone wishing to write something for the Squamidian is welcome to do it whenever they wish. Because everyone lives such different lives, what may seem mundane to one person might be very interesting to someone else, so there is an endless supply of topics to write about.
*
Many of you will remember that we have a weekly bluegrass jam sessions thing happening here. Well, it is literally ‘here’ now. The sessions used to be at the Legion and were open to anyone walking in off the street. That kind of fizzled out which was just as well, the acoustics there were the pits. Then a smaller group started meeting at one of the guy’s homes and that worked for a while but interfered with his wife and kids. Lately the smaller, core group has been meeting here at our place on Friday evenings. It seems to be working out just fine although we are tending to broaden out our musical scope a bit. The bluegrass purists would like to do just bluegrass but the rest of us are more folk and country orientated so we are mixing it all together and have a pretty good time of it.
The group consists of usually 6 of use. I’ll use fictitious names to protect the innocent. There is Brian the five-string banjo player. He is very good on it as well as on guitar. He is the bluegrass purist. I should say he is very good when he is in the right mood. When he is in a laxy daisy mood he can drag everyone down. Brian lives way up Ring Creek just under Garibaldi Park. Then there is Richard. He plays stand-up base and is pretty good on it although his timing is a bit out occasionally. Richard is from down in Brackendale. Daniel lives way out the Upper Squamish Valley and strums a mediocre guitar. He sings loud. Chuck is the retired dentist with the missing fingertips. He does OK on mandolin and even plays a bit of guitar. Cousin Warren from up Swift Creek is good on his guitar, his harmonica and vocals. Then there is me.
Ironically, we didn’t meet this week. Go figure.
*
I spent a good part of this week digging out stumps on a tract of land that will be developed into houses at some point in the future. This had been a deciduous forest, similar to the type of thing I’ve described in the past. So there were hundreds of stumps ranging from small to very big. The big ones required a bit of digging around to cut enough root so the stump could be pulled. The smaller ones just pop out. I was using the Cat 325 so you know it can pull a mean root. However, there were several old growth stumps still hidden in there. These were from the trees cut a hundred years ago from this land. You would think they would be soft and rotted, easily removed. No, they were very hard and strong. There would be an inch or so of soft wood, then rock hard wood that would not give up. And they are huge. By the time they are out of the hole it would look like I was digging a house foundation.
I wasn’t involved in the cutting of the trees, just in the cleanup. The saleable logs were probably hauled away, the rest cut up for firewood. The stumps have been thrown into huge piles along with the brush and scrap. Hopefully to be chipped, not burned.
*
Sometimes we take pictures that don’t involve dirt bike adventures. Sue and Janice decided it was time to go for a walk and to drag Warren and I along with them. So we all headed down to Porteau Cove, which is a small Provincial Park south of Furry Creek along Howe Sound, about a third of the way down to Vancouver. You can stroll along the shoreline or hang out on the dock watching the scuba divers. You can sit on a log and watch the eagles soaring overhead. There is a lot of vegetation growing in the moderated shoreline ecosystem that you don’t find much further inland. Arbutus trees, holly, strange flowering things and so on. So anyway, I took some pictures for anyone who likes that kind of thing and posted them to this link.
http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b/Pictures/PorteauCove/porteau.htm
And lastly, we had loaned our nice weather to the winter weary people of Southern Ontario. I just want to thank them for returning it, warm sunny and intact.
d
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At some time in my life I came to the conclusion that some of the stuff we throw away becomes tomorrows valuable collectables. The question was what! If we kept everything we would become above ground landfills. Railway date spikes become a prospect. They had been in use since the eighteen hundreds and were discontinued in the 1960’s. There was one in every tie, a short thick metal spike with the year cast on the top. The purpose? To see how long the wooden tie lasted. It seemed the perfect collectable, railway lore with a date.
We had a branch of the CPR running through our part of Nova Scotia. It had been shut down some years earlier and so I spent part of my time pulling spikes and ending up with about 3,000 mostly 1930’s decade, everyone a potential collectable $$$$$$.
Promotion was called for and it came in the form of a tastefully fashioned piece of wood with a brass plaque attached and across the top a complete 1930 decade, 1930 to 1939 CNR railway date nails, likely the only trophy of its kind in the world. Now I needed someone of importance to send it to and the news media to cover it.
I decided on Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States, and informed the media. Unfortunately the only media who thought it newsworthy was a small local newspaper, but I sent it off anyway. I enclosed a note saying I had read somewhere that he was a railway buff (I didn’t and he wasn’t) and that I was sending this gift in the spirit of friendship etc. In due time I received a very ordinary white personal envelope with 3 words across the upper left corner THE WHITE HOUSE, an ordinary stamp, my name and address in handwriting and a message of thank you inside. U.S. Presidents had class back then.
Today it sits in the Ronald Reagan Library in Salinas, California along with 75,000 other gifts to the President. Some kooky, some not. Anybody want to buy some scrap metal???
****
Hello everyone!
Well, so far, we’ve been able to avoid those annual
April showers. Our weather here in Waterloo Region has been outstanding for the
past 3 weeks. This weekend promises to bring a brief respite from this awful
heat wave and dampen our area with some needed rain. With the pond in full
operation the goldfish are smiling from gill to gill and the water so far is
crystal clear. It’s once again a pleasure to see and hear the water fall in
motion.
As I mentioned last week, I tackled the flagpole
issue on Monday. I managed to get it taken down without any help. Once I had it
on the ground, I started to design a cable system to raise and lower the flag.
By the time Thursday rolled around, I had redesigned the system no less than
three times. I think I’ve finally found the design best suited to the pole.
I’ve run the cable up through the pole and out a hole to a pulley at the top.
Since we fly two flags, the Canadian flag and the Union Jack, I needed
something that would hold the flapping flags close to the pole. I didn’t want
the cable stretched out from the pole in an arc when the wind was stronger.
I’ve come up with the idea of having the cable attached to two rings slightly
larger than the diameter of the pole. The rings act as an anchor that holds the
cable close to the pole as well as a means of adding weight to the cable to
allow the lowering of the flags for service. With one ring placed at the bottom
of the lower flag and the other located at the base of the top flag, the flags
should fly taught and free flowing. It was a challenge finding metal rings
large enough to do the job. I finally went to a place called the “Metal
Supermarket” and had the fellow there cut 1” thick slices off the end of a 4”
diameter pipe with a wall thickness of 3/8”. Now all I have to do is file or
grind the edges to a nice smooth rounded shape so they don’t catch on the pole
as I raise or lower them. I’m sure they’ll do the job just fine! As usual, this
project turned out to be more work than first expected. However, I know it’ll
work well in the end. I’ve also moved the flagpole out from behind the pond to
a location between the side of the pond next to the back fence.
This will allow easy access when we want or need to
lower the flag. A friend of mine owns a company in Waterloo that manufactures
communication towers. I visited him to ask if he would kindly sell me a 6’
length of pipe to plant in the ground that would act as holder for the pole. He
surprised me with a gift of exactly what I needed to do the job. He wouldn’t
take a dime but he knows he can ask a favour of me anytime he needs my help.
It’s nice to have friends that treat each other like friends. I spent this afternoon with a manual
posthole digger. It only took me 15 minutes to get to the desired depth of 4
feet. Once I had the pipe planted I added two bags of Quik Crete to the hole to
make sure the flagpole would be secure in it’s new home. With bad weather
approaching, the remainder of the project will have to wait until next week for
completion.
*
Wasn’t it heart rendering to hear our Prime Minister
apologize to the Canadian people for the Liberal shortcomings? For a moment
there, I almost thought he was admitting some sort of responsibility for the
scandalous mishandling of our tax dollars when he was finance minister. However,
he managed to weasel out of it by saying had he been a tad more vigilant during
his time in office he just might have noticed the hundreds of millions being
doled out to Liberal pals in business without good reason. Isn’t that the same
thing as being part of the problem? I think we’re in for an election in the
near future and I think Mr Martin can go back managing the family business.
Methinks his ship has sailed, so to speak! We’ll soon see how this pans out. I
don’t like the idea of tarring all party members with the same stick but this
scandal is just Too BIG to forgive this time around. They need to be taught a
lesson and in this case, I firmly believe that “House Arrest” would be
inappropriate.
Speaking of house arrest.
W5 should be very interesting this Saturday night.
The title of this weeks show is “Curfews For
Criminals”.
I’m going to be sure to watch it and I hope others
with differing opinions to mine on the topic will take the time to tune in. We
all might learn something!
*
Guess that’s it for this week. Thanks for tuning in
and I look forward to talking to you again next week in The Ontarion Report.
Bye for now…….GREG.
PS: Something to
Think About>
Good health is
wealth.
****
The Family and the Squamidian sites:
http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b/ and http://www.thedougsite.ca
Have a good one..
the
doug
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