The Squamidian Report – June 14 / 08
Issue #316
Including:
From the Shores of Lake Huron
The Ontarion
Hi All,
I’m pretty sure that I’ve mentioned our Monkey Tree a time or two in the past, and I think I’ll mention it again today. As you may or may not know, this thing is an evil monster that lurks in our back yard waiting to injure or maim anyone or anything that gets within it’s reach. Very much like a blackberry briar in that respect. No conscience at all, just cold and calculating. It is covered with sharp shark-toothed shaped serrated blades in place of leaves. Even the trunk is armed with these weapons. If you walk anywhere near the thing it will reach out and snag you, and you will feel like you have been subjected to some mid-evil torture device.
These trees are employed in countries like India where they are put to work forming an impenetrable wall around estates. You see, they are the only thing a monkey can’t climb on, over or through. Even birds avoid landing on them. They don’t want their little feet cut all to pieces.
Anyway, this insidious creature in our back yard has been growing steadily all along and is now quite tall. And to make it worse, it seems to be reaching sexual maturity. I’ve just noticed that it has produced its first seedpod. For now the pod is young and perky and is sitting upright on the end of a branch. As it matures and grows heavier it will hang down droopily and actually cause the branch to hang downward. I’ve seen older very large and scary Monkey Trees in Vancouver that had numerous pods. They had long dangerous looking branches that hung way down making them look very much like some lurking monster.
I’ve snapped a picture of the pod of anyone interested and brave enough to see. Just remember, I can’t be held responsible for any nightmares you may end up having after looking at this hideous thing.
http://www.thedougsite.net/F&F/Pictures/Misc/seedpod.htm
*
One of our projects at work is replacing the underground services on a street in the Brackendale section of Squamish. This area has some rather specific challenges. It is part of the Cheekey Fan, created by the material that fell away from Mt Garibaldi about ten thousand years ago and fanned out over part of the valley. The soil material is made up of a hardpan type of dirt mixed with generous volumes of boulders.
We are replacing the existing water main and to do so we much trench beside the existing one which must stay intact and in service until we are ready to do the switch. The old line is AC pipe, a type of pipe that was used years ago and is made of concrete and asbestos. I know this is not very interesting to most of you but anyone who has ever had to work with this stuff knows how brittle and easily damaged it is. We are digging beside and around the AC pipe in ground that is mostly very big rocks. All it would take is one rock to fall against the AC, or be pushed against it by an excavator bucket and we would have a 12-inch pipe blowout. We’d have half the neighborhood flooded before we could get it shut down. So far that hasn’t happened yet but if it does I’ll let you know unless it was my fault in which case I’d just keep it to myself.
Anyway, the work is slow and done very carefully. With easily broken pipe underground and all sorts of overhead wires to deal with, I must concentrate at about 110% all day and tend to come home rather tired each evening. Sure am looking forward to climbing on the Harley and hitting the open road at the end of the month.
*
So, here’s a bit of a heads up for you. There will probably be some interruptions in the weekly publication of the Squamidian Report during the first part of July. Sue and I will be heading out on a motorcycle trip for a couple of weeks starting near the end of June and there is no way we will be taking a computer along with us. Bikes just don’t have that much trunk space. We will be leaving, starting out on the afternoon of Friday June 27 as I have a service appointment for the bike scheduled at the Kamloops Harley dealer first thing that Saturday morning. We should be able to get back on the road by noon that day. I’ll be able to get that weeks issue out by sending it just before we leave on the Friday. If anyone has an article to be included in that issue, please get it to me no later than the early evening of Thursday June 26.
Unless I can find a public computer and a spare hour or so on the Saturday of July 5, that issue will have to be skipped. Putting out a Squamidian is simply more work than I can ask someone else to do. I certainly wouldn’t turn anyone down if they wanted the challenge and decided to volunteer for the job but it wouldn’t be fair to ask anyone. Like I said, it is a lot of work to assemble and publish this thing.
I should be able to send out the Saturday, July 12 issue once we get home, but it might be a day or so late. We’ll just have to live with that.
doug
****
Greetings All,
Well up here in Bruce County area we have a ton of rain and lightning storms. Last Thursday and Friday (June 5 &6) we had a huge amount of rain c/w major winds and again on Sunday evening plus through the week. There was lots of damage to trees and other things done by the winds. Last Saturday a friend of mine wanted to take down an old house on his property in Burgouyne where he plans to build a new one later this year. I volunteered along with about nine other people to help with the demo. I seemed to be the only one with enough knowledge on the proper technique of how to do this. I brought my quick cut saw with a large toothed demolition blade and we basically cut it up into pieces that would fit on a couple of flat bed one-ton trucks.
We had it down, loaded and hauled to the dump by 2:30 in the afternoon after getting a 8 am start without any injuries to boot.
I have been out for short jaunts on the bike but going to Kitchener hasn't happened yet as I take my guitar down Fridays when I go to visit my wife and play along with three other guys from about 1 till 3 for the residents. I enjoy doing it and it makes the residents happy and gives them something to do and sing along with. Well that’s all that’s really happened in my existing life so I will sign off for now. Everyone have a safe and happy week.
****
Hello
everyone!
Just
thought I’d start off with a quick report on my “larger pump and filter”
project for the back yard pond. It’s working GREAT! It’s been in operation for
about 8 weeks now and I’ve only backwashed the sand filter twice. I think
however that I should do that every two to three weeks. The amount of brown
water that comes out the waste pipe when backwashed would surprise you I’m
sure. It takes the level of the pond down about 6” in order to clean the filter
totally. Then I have to refill the pond to its upper level. The water this year
is staying crystal clear and with only one puck of chlorine per week in the skimmer
basket. We are totally happy with the new filter system and the increased
volume of water that is spouting straight up in the middle of the pond is
indeed impressive. The larger gush of water is louder but we have gotten used
to it and it drowns out the sound of the larger pump and motor. The neighbours
haven’t complained so I guess things are “hunky dory”! In fact, the neighbour
beside us said he spends time early every morning sitting on the toilet with
his eyes closed and the window of the John open so he can meditate while
listening to the splashing of the water in our spouting pond. I guess there’s
something to be said for close neighbours after all! LOL!
With the
amount of rain we’ve been getting lately our grass has been growing like wild
fire! I’ve had to cut it at least three times a week to keep ahead of the
overgrowth. Mind you, we’ve had very good weather and the temperatures have
been quite warm but at least every third day we get some precipitation. If not
during the day, we get a good downpour at night. Our garden has really
flourished this year and is looking lovely to say the least. Carole is very
happy with the looks and layout of the gardens this year. This makes her happy
and if Carole’s happy, we’re all happy! I must say the back yard has never
looked better and the gardens have never looked more beautiful. It’s worth all
the effort put into weeding and trimming etc to see the final outcome! Adam and
I have been working for a few weeks on the roof over our patio. We finished
framing it two weeks ago and ordered the steel for the roof right away. They
told us it would take a week to get the steel in but somehow it took over two
weeks to get it delivered. The manufacturer is in Stratford Ontario and the
Home Hardware we bought it through is in Wellesley. These two towns are about
20 km apart and I am totally confused as to why or how it took so long to have
a truck travel that far. We finally got the steel here today and the shipment
was missing the gasket and 1/3 of the custom screws I ordered. I called the
Home Hardware first thing and they of course blamed the delay and the missing
items on the company in Stratford. They finally called mid afternoon and
promised to have the missing items here first thing Friday morning. I hope they
meant THIS Friday morning (Tomorrow)!??!! It’s been one heck of a project to
say the least but we built it with oversized lumber and made it very solid. I’m
sure it’ll be worth all the hassle in the end! I won’t be able to furnish Doug
with a picture of the finished project this weekend but maybe next week it’ll
be all finished and then I’ll take a few pics of it for the Ontarion. The new
roof is the crowning glory of the back yard and I’m sure we’ll get many years
of use under it!
Have you
ever noticed (I’m sure the guys have noticed this) that these “projects” we get
into around our homes tend to turn into much more major happenings than we or
our wives first think they will? It’s usually the wives that think up what
needs to be built, rebuilt or added to the homes we live in and it’s usually
the husbands that do the actual construction of such projects. Not that the
wives aren’t willing to lend a hand but guys know that that’s a helping hand
that is better diplomatically refused. It’s just better that the hubby is left
to engineer, design and build the new addition to the home. If it’s a pond, a
new driveway, a sun room or a patio roof or what have you, things just seem to
go better if the hubby is left to it! Of course, it’s a good thing that the
wife keep her expert eye on things during the course of the project just to be
safe. We wouldn’t want the finished project to be upside down or backwards
because the hubby misunderstood the intent of the initial thoughts of the wife.
In the final analysis with a little effort on both sides these projects usually
work out just fine but you must admit that there is ALWAYS more to it than
first thought by the perpetrator of the idea for the project.
Enough
said for this week!
Thanks
for tuning in and I look forward to talking to you all again next week in The
Ontarion Report!
Bye for now… Greg.
PS:
Something To Think About>
Men
seldom make mountains out of mole hills! The truth is that most mole hills are
usually MOUNTAINS in disguise!
****
Have a good one..
the doug
The Fine Print!
The articles in these issues are the sole property of the persons writing them and should be respected as such.