The Squamidian Report – Sept. 13 / 08
Issue #329
Including:
From The Shores of Lake Huron
The Ontarion
Hi All,
I had a bit of a break from the endless tediousness of my normal job. We have been installing more sani mains in Valleycliff. Between existing stuff underground like water lines, gas lines etc as well as a spider web of overhead wire, and the seemingly endless traffic that goes in and out of there, it tends to grow a bit tiresome after a while. However, for a few short merciful days, I was sent down to Britannia to do some cleanup, excavator style.
The village of Britannia is slowly rebuilding itself. They have been renovating and restoring many of the old historic buildings and basically making the place more tourist friendly and interesting. The guys doing the work had taken down a bunch of rather large trees in various locations and needed the stumps dug out and the limbs and trunks loaded up and hauled away. They had also removed a small sidewall from an old building so that I could remove the ancient boiler and heating unit inside. These as well as an assortment of other metal objects and debris needed to be disposed of as well as the trees.
The tree stumps were rather run-of-the-mill. You just dig around them deep enough to cut the main roots and them rock or twist the stump until it comes loose. Only one of them was too big for the excavator to actually lift out of the hole. I had to roll it out and then finish breaking off the roots and any dirt still stuck to it. Then I could lift it onto a truck. Took away 4 large end-dump loads all told.
Tackling the iron boiler was a bit more interesting, and a real shame. This thing was a hand made, riveted together work of pioneer craftsmanship about 5-ft in diameter and 10-ft long. It sat up on a hand made iron cradle. However, the top of the boiler was only about 4-inches below the ceiling of the room it was in and there was a concrete knee wall around the outside of the wall that stuck up about a foot. I couldn’t just reach in through the wall with my bucket and tip the thing over because to do so would force it up onto one side of the stand making the whole thing taller and hit the ceiling. And I couldn’t just slide the whole thing out over the knee wall. The tank had been sitting parallel to the removed wall. So first thing was to reach in and gently turn the stand 90 degrees by pushing on a back leg, then pulling on a front leg. The plan was that once turned, the tank might just pull straight out from its cradle and then drop to the ground clear of the wall.
Once aimed outward, we ran a chain around the end of the tank so I could force it to rotate on the cradle. There were 2 spigots on the bottom side that had to be repositioned to where they would not catch on the cradle. The tank rotated ok which was good because that meant that it wasn’t attached to the stand. We then used the chain for pulling outward and the tank slid out. It caught a bit on some of the rivets but other than that, it slid clear of the stand and wall, landing out on the ground with a heavy thud. Turned out my excavator could barely lift it. Once out, it was just a matter of slinging it onto a truck. When it came to the stand, I just reached back in through the wall and picked it up and lift it out. Loading it onto the truck was a bit of a shame. I had to smash it down so that it would pass under the tailgate when the driver dumped the load. The old iron and steel didn’t want to smash down very well but enough of the old rivets let go to let me fold it up into a smaller bundle.
I really don’t like to smash old stuff that is in pretty good shape in the name of progress. That boiler and stand should have been set up over at the mining museum across the street from where I was working, but most people, including the museum people just saw it as junk, not as 100-year old equipment still standing from an era long gone.
*
And first thing this morning, we stood out on our front balcony and watched a very large black bear as he strolled unconcernedly right up our street. That was cool!
doug
****
Greetings everyone.
Well its been a busy couple of weeks for me up here. The Kitchener Rangers exhibition season has started and the real deal begin Friday Sept. 19 with their home opener against Plymouth Whalers. We definitely do not have the powerhouse we had last year but I think we will have a decent team from what I saw so far. We lack a little leadership but I think that will come over the next month or so. You have to remember this is junior hockey so every year you have players coming and going as the move upwards and onwards in their life of hockey or whatever they decide to do.
A week ago last wed I had finally got the topsoil down for the front and back yards of the ranch(ha ha). It took 11 loads (triaxle dump truck) of regular topsoil and 2 and 1/2 loads of screened to complete the area I wanted for grass and planting beds. I also got the seed spread (mixed with a little wheat) and we have had ideal conditions for grass to grow. The wheat came up fairly fast 4 to 7 days which gives the ground some stability and I noticed yesterday small sprout of regular grass are starting to appear. First thing you know I will have a lawn to mow. I guess I don't have enough to do so I create more work for myself. Thank goodness I bought a riding lawn mower last fall . TSC store had them on for 350.00 off the regular price a deal I couldn’t refuse.
These hurricanes sure are playing havoc with gas prices. Oil is down to a reasonable price but Thursday night till Friday an gas prices jumped a whopping 13 cents a liter or from the old school almost 59 cents per gallon. Talk about gouging all because the oil refineries in the Texas area were concerned about hurricane Ike which hadn't hit land yet but the effect sure hit the wallet fast.
So like all the rest of us passive Canadians instead of fighting back we just dig deeper in the pockets. It sure makes traveling by motorcycle more appealing.
Well its almost time to shut her down for the night as it's just before midnight, so everyone have a great week and maybe we should all consider boycotting a doffing gas company for 2 or3 weeks at a time, but again how do you get the whole country on the same page. SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT!
****
Hello everyone!
As you know, we were at Carole’s cousin’s cottage on
Lake Erie last week. The one thing that really stood out in my mind was the
cleanliness and clarity of the water of Lake Erie. When we were kids in the
50’s and spent our summer vacations on the beach of Long Point the water was
beautiful. The lake was crystal clear and the water smelled like … well….. like
fresh lake water. There was no bad odour coming from the water or the air along
the lake shore. Then, during the late 60’s and 70’s the big industries
surrounding the lake on both the Canadian and American sides saw fit to save
themselves millions upon millions of dollars by simply dumping their waste
water and chemicals directly into the lake rather than pre treating the fluids
to make sure they were “non polluting”. After so many years of this careless
activity they had turned Lake Erie into a cesspool of slimy brown sludge. The
sands on the bottom of the lake had become a gooey, slippery sludge that gave
off an odour akin to that of the bottom of a stagnant sewage treatment pond.
There was no telling exactly what this slime was made up of or whether you’d
still have a foot on the end of your leg if you stepped in it or took a swim in
the lake. The governments of both countries finally got together back in the
early 80’s and ordered a ban on dumping in the great lakes by surrounding
cities and their industries and an immediate aggressive anti pollution program
by all the provinces and states that were adjacent to The Great Lakes. This
program has been very successful for Lake Erie but not so for Lake Ontario. I
sincerely hope that Lake Ontario gets the same attention that Lake Erie has
over the past 28 years and becomes as sparkling clean as Erie in the years to
come! Of course these two lakes are of two very different character. One is
very deep and cold and the other is shallow and warm. Erie being the shallow
one was much easier to turn around in a short period of time while Lake Ontario
being of much greater volume and depth will take longer to affect a change. I
was very happy to see the condition of the water in Lake Erie when we were
swimming in it. The depth of the water off Long Point beach is very shallow
indeed. You can walk out a couple of hundred meters and still only be in water
up to your waist. We noticed that even that far off shore we could still look
down and see our feet through the water and the bottom of the lake was very
soft yet firmly packed sand. There was no slime or seaweed at all in the lake
and the water was crystal clear. What a turn around for this beautiful body of
water that’s so precious to all of us.
With the world in trouble through “Global Warming” I
hold up the Great Lakes project as an example of what can be accomplished in
the fight against pollution if we band together to change our bad habits. The
point I’m trying to make is that there is hope for correction of the “Global
Warming” situation and it’s time to get on the band wagon and do something
about it!
That’s it for this week folks!
Thanks for tuning in and I look forward to talking
to you all again next time in The Ontarion Report!
Bye for now… Greg.
PS: Something To Think About>
A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue.
****
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.