The Squamidian Report – Dec. 05 / 09
Issue # 393
Including:
From The Shores Of Lake Huron
The Ontarion
Hi All,
It is inevitable that winter is setting in. Especially this time of year. Not much anyone can do to avoid it but there are things we can do to be prepared for it. I think most people out here on the coast are looking forward to it after the incredible amount of rain we endured through late October, and all of November. It didn’t just not stop raining, it just didn’t stop pouring. I’m drifting off topic again so back to getting ready for winter…
We’ve put the snow tires on both the car and truck as usual. That’s not something I gave much thought to before we came here but it is something I now believe in quite strongly. The modern winter tire is optimized for slippery conditions so it has soft rubber treads that have thousands of edges designed to grip ice. It does not have heavy deep treads like a tractor tire, or like snow tires had years ago. Those tires didn’t do very well on road surfaces, they only did well in deep snow or mud but we very seldom drive in deep snow or mud. The tires we now use here have both a mountain symbol and a snowflake symbol on them to show that they are mountain and snow rated. That means they are designed for the extreme conditions we may run into, everything from snow to ice and back again on steep hilly roads. The emphasis is on steering and stopping rather than on simply being able to ‘go’.
BC is thinking about making ‘snows’ mandatory and that would be a good thing. While parts of the Lower Mainland may not see snow at all, when they do it comes deep and wet and sticky. All season tires are a disaster and even a dusting turns the highways and streets into wrecking yards. We get a continual stream of tourists and drivers from the Lower Mainland heading up to Whistler on all season tires and those drivers always seem to be in a big hurry. And time after time, when the roads are slippery, they end up in the ditch, on their roofs, and head on into oncoming traffic. Makes it hard to get around sometimes.
If the province you live in starts to think about making winter tires mandatory, don’t fight it, embrace it. Get out there and get a set of the best ones you can find before the rush starts regardless of what you drive. And get a full set of four, so that you are running winter tires on all your wheels. I could save you a lot of grief.
Another thing I’ve done to prepare for winter is get the snowblower ready. I’ve had a problem with mine that was not the fault of my blower but a result of my concrete driveway. The concrete has a very rough abrasive surface designed to give some traction for driving and walking up it. After all, it is quite steep. Problem is, that abrasive surface has worn the metal runners on the blower right down to nothing. They would catch and drag and grind make steering the blower quite difficult and handling the blower physically difficult. So instead of replacing the runners with the same type of metal runners I came up with the idea of making my own out of some sort of synthetic material. What I wanted to find was a piece of plastic snowplow. That stuff is almost indestructible and by necessity it slides through snow very well. It is a polly type plastic. You also see it used as glides in certain applications.
I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for but I did stumble across something that might work. I was in CTC and happened to see polly cutting boards. Perfect, they are inexpensive and come in all sorts of sizes. I purchased one and took it home and cut two pieces from the board and shaped them into runner plates. Cutting was interesting. The polly would close in right behind my power saw and I’d have to re-cut everything. I rounded the edges and even made adjustment slots like the old runners had. They are now mounted and ready to go. It will be interesting to see how well they slide and how well they hold up against the abrasion of the driveway. Now I just need to wait for it to snow.
By the way, after sitting in the back shed since last winter, the blower fired up on the first pull. Can’t beat that. I keep fuel conditioner in the tank and when I put it away I turn the gas off and let the engine run until the carb is dry. Except for that I don’t do anything special at all. And it fires up first time every time except for once when I forgot to turn the gas back on.
doug
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Hi everybody,
I have been a little lax in sending news from the shores of Lake Huron. But it's time to re start the process.
I had a major project over the summer building a house for a friend of mine in Burgouyne. about 3 mile outside of Port Elgin and I was tied up big time. That is my last major project as I have decided to only take on smaller projects.
The salmon egg collecting was really difficult this year where the adult salmon were was a mystery as we ended up with approximately 90,000 eggs verses the 200,000 we normally get, They seem to be doing well though and already have started to hatch. Also being we didn’t get as many eggs we acquired about 9000 rainbow trout fingerlings from our Kincardine Hatchery. The little buggers like to jump out of the tanks so I designed some screened frames to lay over the tank, they are working great so far.
We also got our fist snow last night and this morning about 2 to 3 " and its still falling ( Bah Humbug). Well I’ll sign off for now and every body have a great week
****
Hello everyone!
We’re into the last month of the year so here’s
hoping it’s a fun one!
With Christmas fast approaching and maybe even the
snow as well, we can look forward to a busy month. This time last year we had snow
up to our knees already. I just heard today that our area here in KW isn’t
supposed to have much snow if any until after Christmas this year. Hmm…. Wouldn’t that be a pleasant surprise? I’ve
got the blower all ready to go but I still haven’t arranged the garage for the
winter. I’ve got about a dozen “Rubbermaid” tubs piled on the garage floor from
the Christmas decorations. It would be kind of cool if the snow would hold off
until after Christmas so I wouldn’t have to move the tubs up onto the mezzanine
to get the Mini and bikes in the garage and then move them all back down again
to repack the Christmas decorations. It’s a bit of a pain every year to have so
much to move up and down but as long as we still put decorations up for the
Xmas season, there’ll be tubs to move! LOL! Guess there’s no getting around it!
The decorations and the tree look spectacular I must say so I guess it’s worth
the effort. We’ll see what next year brings. Maybe we’ll decide to lessen the
amount we display and just put up a tabletop tree! I’ll keep my fingers
crossed! LOL!
*
I had a busy week! I had three doctor’s appointments
and a date with the CT Scan clinic at Grand River hospital to have my carotid
arteries checked once again. Last year I was told by a vascular surgeon in Guelph
that I should have this done every year to make sure my carotid arteries don’t
plug up and cause a stroke. If the CT Scan shows that they are close to 80%
blocked on either or both sides, he’s going to have to open me up and clean
them out. This is a dangerous operation at any time but I guess it’s better
than the alternative of suffering a stroke! This surgery can cause a stroke
while they’re in the middle of doing it but at least then, they’d be right
there to counter act it immediately. I’m just hoping that the arteries aren’t
any further blocked than they were last year so they won’t have to do any
cutting for at least another year. The surgeon told me last year that it took
60 years to block up as much as they have so far so maybe it’ll take another 20
to progress to the point that requires surgery. If so, at that age I might not
be so concerned about living another 20! Although, who wouldn’t want to live to
100 if your healthy! LOL! I’ve got an appointment with the Vascular Surgeon in
two weeks so I’ll know the results of the CT Scan that day. Just have to keep
my fingers crossed for a positive outcome!
My sister had an unfortunate tumble down her
sidewalk the other night. On Monday night she was heading out to go to the
store when while walking down her front sidewalk she caught her cane in the
strap on her shoe and took a head over heals tumble to the ground. She lay on
the front lawn of her apartment building out in rural New Dundee for about 25
minutes before someone in the upper floor apartment heard her hollering for
help. Two young guys that live upstairs heard her screams over their video game
on TV and looked out to see her lying on the ground. Lynda (my sister) has
arthritis and has trouble walking in the first place so she fell pretty hard
when she went down. I talked to the young neighbours of hers that helped her
and called the ambulance for her. I thanked them and the lady across the hall
from them who also helped. They said they couldn’t believe what they saw when
they went to Lynda’s aid. They told me that the lower part of her left leg was
twisted up behind her back. She had broken her femur (the large bone of the leg
from the knee to the hip) right off just about 3” above her left knee. She was
lucky these guys were home and finally heard her calls for help! She’s been in
hospital at Grand River since that night and only Wednesday evening where they
able to do the surgery on her to repair the broken bone. It’s a pretty serious
break even for a younger person let alone someone that’s 65 and not all that
healthy to begin with. The doctors said she’ll make a full recovery but it’ll
take some time to heal. I guess they had to put a steel plate and bolts into it
to hold it together. Carole talked to Lynda today on the phone and she’s already
been up on her feet. They tell her that she has to walk on it immediately and
continually to help with the healing process. It’s amazing what they can do
these days! Carole said Lynda was in good spirits today and that’s a good sign
for sure. She’s usually one of these people that whines when the least little
thing is wrong with her but she’s taking this major happening with great
strength and control. I guess she’s stronger than we give her credit for! I
hope she heals up quickly and well and is able to continue to live on her own.
She’s happy with her life and likes to be in her own home and controlling her
own life. Can’t blame her there, I’m sure she wouldn’t want to be in a senior’s
residence at her age. She’s independent and would like to stay that way. I’m
sure she’ll be ok by the New Year and will be back to normal.
That’s it 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>
What is Santa going to leave under the tree for you
this year?
****
Have a good one..
the doug
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