The
Squamidian Report – Nov. 12 / 11
Issue #494
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
We have a beautiful blue spruce at the front corner of our driveway, and I have a chainsaw that hasn’t been used in years. The spruce tree is so nicely shaped, so full and thick, and so nicely coloured with its green inner needles and blue outer, newer growth needles that it could be a centerfold in a tree magazine if such thing existed. However the spruce tree has gotten way too big to be right out at the road. I had already cut all the lower branches off a couple of years ago as they were scratching the truck when I backed out and they were making it impossible to see when backing out. The rest of the tree was so thick that even after several days of heavy non-stop rain, the ground directly underneath would be dry. We had tried to have a flower bed under the tree but the only things that could grow there were desert type plants and rocks. The rocks did better than the plants. My biggest concern was that if we left the tree there until it ‘had to come down’, it would be too big for me to deal with and I’d have to call in professional help. So, the logical thing to do is take it down now, before it gets much bigger and before I’m too old and decrepit to do the job myself.
And now about the chainsaw. It’s just a small one, the kind you’d use in your back yard. It has only an 18-inch bar but it does a good job of cutting when needed. I had bought it way back on Hidden Valley when our old big catalpa tree had started to come down and was threatening to land on the house. At the time I had my own excavating equipment and we used the excavator to pull the tree over far enough that it was leaning away from the house and I then cut it down and cut it up. A big job for a little chainsaw but it served the purpose and saw the occasional use as a shrub and brush cleanup tool since then although I think I’ve only used it once or twice in the 10 years we have lived out here. So, I pulled it out from where it was stored to see if it would start. I had to free up the chain as the chain brake was stuck in the on position. I had to flush the bit of gas that was still in the tank and carb, and basically give it a good once-over as well as replace the spark plug. Then, with fresh gas in the tank, it took a whole two pulls of the pull-chord and away it went. It’s just one of those little Echo units that Home Depot sells but like most things made in Japan, it seems to be pretty reliable.
However, just because the chainsaw was now ready to do some sawing, I was not ready to actually take the tree down. I wanted to minimize the mess and the amount of cleanup that would have to be done once the tree was dropped. You see, once dropped, it would be either across our driveway or partly out onto the street, assuming it would fall somewhere close to where I hoped it would fall, and once committed, and I would have to get everything cut up and cleaned up. So, using our extendable pole saw, I removed the lowest 3 whirls of branches. There was so much biomass in those branches that they filled the back of my pickup, and I had them packed and tramped in as tight as possible. With one full load taken away, a good chunk of the cleanup was done while the tree was still standing. With the lower branches gone, the tree looked a bit like a tall green lollypop but too bad.
Now the third part of the equation, procrastination…. Any preparation I can do has been done. The tree is ready to be taken down. There is nothing stopping me from getting it done and getting it over with. However, there is no real reason to do it just yet. Its not in the way, its not dead and threatening to fall over, it just needs to be done at some point in the near future. And, if I put it off for a couple more weeks, I can salvage the top and use it as a Christmas tree. So, right there is a good reason to let the project slide for a while. I wouldn’t want to cut my Christmas tree too soon, would I? The chainsaw can wait, the tree can wait and I can wait. Life is good.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
Remembrance Day was yesterday and I hope if you all didn’t attend one of the local services you at least paused for two minutes of silence at 11am! It is so important to pause and remember our vets and our fallen soldiers from past wars and present conflicts that Canadian Armed Forces are involved in at this very moment! If you appreciate the rights and freedoms we enjoy in this country, thank a Veteran the next time you meet one and say a prayer for those who are presently serving over seas and at home here in Canada. God Bless our military members and their families!
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Being it’s now the end of the lawn and garden maintenance season I’ve been slowly putting our outdoor furniture and yard decorations away for the winter. I still have to put our patio table and four chairs, one wicker love seat and coffee table and two wicker porch chairs in the shed but that will only take about a half hour somewhere in the next couple of days. Then I can lock up the shed for the next five months or so! I was thinking about the 2” of dead grass that’s still stuck to the underside of my Snapper lawn mower that’s sitting in the shed. I thought the other day that I really should clean it out and maybe service my mower before locking the shed for the winter. I was torn between leaving it till spring and just getting it over with now so I don’t have to do it in the spring! Yesterday Carole told me that she got a note on Facebook from her cousin Iain who lives in Waterloo. He’s the owner operator of his own machine shop in the Bridgeport area of Kitchener. He is the single father of a lovely little girl by the name of Erin. Erin is 8 years old and is truly her “daddy’s girl”! She spends her free time working in his very well equipped garage at their home, helping her dad do everything from working on his truck and his classic Mustang to building her own go cart and I do mean building it herself!
With a mechanical father as her full time parent and companion she loves to do mechanical things with her dad and is surprisingly good at it for an 8 year old let alone an 8 year old girl! Iain has been raising money every winter with a curling event and raffle for Cancer Research ever since his parents died from the disease about 5 years ago. His note to Carole told her that Erin is starting her own business winterizing lawn mowers and servicing snow blowers. He said she is charging $15.00 to do a clean up, blade sharpening and oil change on your lawn mower and is donating $10.00 of the fee to Cancer Research! She will also replace your spark plug and air filter along with the clean up and oil change for an additional $15.00 to total $30.00 + the cost of the plug and air filter parts! Thus, she will donate $20.00 out of the $30.00 fee to Cancer Research. The remainder of the fee will go into her piggy bank for her future education savings! What an amazing little girl Erin is indeed! Oh, by the way, the fee of either $15.00 or $30.00 includes pick up and delivery of your mower or blower from and back to your house! Now how can you beat that for a deal?
When Carole told me about Erin’s new business I asked her to contact Iain and ask him to put us on Erin’s list for a lawn mower service of $30.00 and Adam also wanted to have his mower serviced by Erin! So, Wednesday evening at 6pm Iain and Erin arrived at our house in Iain’s pick up truck and loaded both Adam’s and my lawn mowers into the truck bed to be taken to Erin’s garage to be serviced! LOL! She was a bundle of excitement when she arrived in our garage to pick up her first two customer’s machines! Carole, Adam and I all talked to her about her new business. I asked her what she was going to do with the money from her work and the first thing she said was “I’m going to donate it to the Cancer Fund!” I asked her if she was keeping any of the money for herself and she said “Yes, but only a little of it for my Piggy Bank!
What a cute and generous little girl she is! She said that they had to get going home so she could get a start on servicing the mowers before she had to go to bed. Her dad put pictures on his Facebook account that same evening of Erin kneeling beside our overturned mowers. She has her own little dark blue coveralls, gloves, safety goggles, work gloves and ear protection on in the pictures and she’s holding a scraper with lots of messy grass on the floor around her! LOL! She’s a regular little “Small Engine” service person! Iain of course supervises everything she does and I do believe he does the blade sharpening. I’m sure he helps if she needs him to! Anyway, now all I have to do is pay the bill when she delivers my mower back home! She’s doing a wonderfully generous thing, for a little girl and it makes us feel good to be supporting her in her efforts to help find a cure for Cancer! GO GET ‘EM ERIN!
Thanks for doing your part to find a cure for Cancer, you’re a wonderful little girl indeed!
Congratulations to Iain for having such a kind, generous and lovely “Big Girl”! She’s amazing!
That’s it for this week folks!
Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next week in The Ontarion Report!
Bye for now… GREG
PS: Something To Think About>
Think about our Vets not only on Remembrance Day!
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Have a good one..
the doug
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