The
Squamidian Report – July 14 / 12
Issue #529
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
It’s been hot by west coast standards. Well, the last few days have been, I would imagine anyone coming here from back east or where ever would probably find it warm at most. But it sure has been nice to see the sun, although even that has been tempered somewhat. The skies have cleared but there is a very prominent haze in the air. As you probably know, the haze is from the smoke being generated by huge forest fires that have been burning out of control in Siberia. The same wind patterns that kept pumping storm after storm off the Pacific and onto the west coast have also managed to bring the Siberian smoke. Its been a very funny year so far.
Willow (The Wife’s dog) has a hobby. She takes her hobby very seriously and devotes many hours to it’s pursuit. It gives her great pleasure and leaves her both tired and happy. You see, Willow is hard wired to try to catch small rodents and critters. There seems to be an infestation of qualifying creatures living under the dense vegetation on the other side of our side yard fence. These creatures are the small grey bush rats that live in the coastal mountains of BC, and have adapted very well to urban life. They look like a large grey mouse with big ears and seem quite capable of scaling rock faces and climbing trees. Willow spends endless hours patrolling the fence line, poking her nose under anything it will fit under, and sniffing under the shrubs and up the trees in the yard. The only place she doesn’t bother checking is up the monkey trees because even a bush rat knows better than to climb that thing.
When she is not actively on patrol, she will lay somewhere that gives her a good view of the fence line. Should there be a tiny noise or some visible movement she springs back into action, all in hopes of catching and assumable ingesting her target. Her simple presence in our yard seems to be enough to keep them out. When she first moved in with us we had those episodes on ‘BBQ mouse’ and we suspected their presence under the deck and shed. But once she had been here a while all sign of the rats had disappeared. However, they are in the neighbours garbage and BBQ and probably many other yards around here as the ‘wilderness’ is right across the street. We certainly approve of her endeavor to catch the rats as it keeps them chased away, but we don’t really want her to actually catch any or devour any because then we’d have to deal with the unwanted things that would accompany the rats. So, as we encourage her in the pursuit of her hobby, we also hope she never quite realizes her goal and that the rats are kept at bay by being chases as opposed to being devoured. And yes, this is a slow news week.
By the way, we are headed out for a weekend ride this morning (Saturday). There are a dozen riders coming over from Vancouver Island. We will hook up with them as they come off the ferry at Horseshoe Bay and lead them up to our place where we will have lunch. Then its on up through Whistler to Pemberton, over the Duffy to Lillooet and on to Cache Creek where our motel is. Then, on Sunday we will all ride back. This ride takes us through some of the most scenic country in the country. Now the frustrating part. We finally got some sunshine and up until this morning, the whole southern part of BC was forecast to keep the illusive sunshine for a good long while. Then, all of a sudden, rain and thunderstorms where put into the forecast and now the whole area is under a thunderstorm watch and rain is again expected. We are going to get wet, perhaps very wet. West of the Rockies simply can not catch a break this year.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
Well, didn’t I wake up to some good news this morning? After taking the dog out for his morning romp in the back yard and feeding him to start his day I decided to sit at the computer with a cup of tea and read the paper on line. The first few articles were about inconsequential happenings around town and were casual reading. Then, I happened on to a write up about Hydro One wanting to defoliate their Hydro Line “Right Of Ways” in Beechwood area of Waterloo and the Fischer-Hallman / Forest Heights area of Kitchener which just happens to be right in my back yard! The article, which you can read at
goes on to say that Hydro One wants to use the chemical “Tordon 101” to rid it’s ‘line corridors’ of broad leaf weeds and other vegetation so these plants don’t interfere with the transmission of power to KW residents. I’d like to know just where along the right of ways are there plants and trees tall enough to conflict with the power lines that are at least 100 feet above the ground! I did a little research and of course will be doing a lot more investigating of this situation and “Tordon 101” but fully intend to raise my objections to it’s use by Hydro One on the “Right of Way” in both Kitchener and Waterloo. This chemical defoliant is made up of the same chemical component that was contained in the defoliant spray used by the US Government forces in Viet Nam that was called “Agent Orange”! This spray is known to be responsible for causing over a hundred different illnesses including CANCER and many other organ destroying diseases! It is listed as one of the “Dirty Dozen” most deadly chemical agents in the world by the Stockholm Convention and was banned from production for a period from 1985 to 1988 until the federal government in it’s infinite wisdom gave Dow Chemical new license to change the formula a tad and reproduce the deadly product once again! I’d like to know how the Hell Hydro One is allowed to use such a deadly spray in a public area! I’ll be contacting my local council member as well as my Provincial MP to ask a few direct questions about this situation! There is an organization called “The Agent Orange Association of Canada” who is on top of situations involving the use of deadly chemicals such as “Tordon 101” among others and I’ll be contacting them for their advice on objecting to Hydro One’s use of this spray in my back yard! If any of you in the Squamidian group live along the hydro right of way, please bring yourselves up to speed on this situation and contact your councilors and Members of Parliament about this dire situation! So far, there has been no mention of Kitchener City Council even commenting on this problem but I intend to be in touch with them shortly! I’ll do my research before involving them but rest assured, I will be contacting them for their views!
As long as we’ve been living with this right of way in our back yard the city of Kitchener who maintains the right of way so they can have their “city” trails running through Hydro One property have been sending grounds crews around every 4 to 6 weeks to mow the grass to a reasonable length so as to make it look more presentable. This has become fewer and farther between mowings over the years and now it’s about twice a summer! If there are bushes or trees interfering with hydro lines, I can’t see why the Hydro One people can’t simply send in a crew to cut the islands of trees etc that exist on the right of way to ground level and haul it away? They would be able to ignore the areas after having cut them down for at least 5 years before having to cut them again, if not longer! It’s a much simpler solution and of course much less dangerous to the public living around the corridor! I can’t for the life of me see how the government can allow Hydro One or anyone else to use such a dangerous and deadly chemical for any reason let alone defoliating a public area in the middle of a residential area of a city! How frickin’ brainless are the people we’ve put in charge of our government anyway? I’ll be working on this situation over the next few weeks to see if I can’t do something to stop it and I’ll most certainly keep all of you informed through The Ontarion Report!
I sincerely hope you will all support me in protecting our health and welfare by backing the denial of a permit to Hydro One to perform such a foolhardy exercise in our city!
If you have a few minutes, please enter “Tordon 101” in you Google search and do a little reading about this deadly chemical! You can also Google “The Agent Orange Association of Canada” and see what they have to say about “Agent Orange” or a derivative of it called “Agent White” that is another deadly chemical that was developed to skirt around the “Agent Orange” bad reputation! It’s just as bad if not worse than the original defoliant and is basically another name for “Tordon 101”!
If we let Hydro One get away with this disastrous circus act, it’s like saying “We don’t care what you do to us!”
I care and I intend not to let this slip by without a fight!
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>
The midget fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large!
PPS: I’d like also to know how Hydro One intends to prevent this chemical agent from contacting and affecting the privately owned vegetation and garden growth that skirts the sides of their “Right of Ways” as well, as preventing the chemical run off from polluting our ground water source! I think the Gov’t and Civil Gov’t need to give their heads a shake! How bloody foolish can they all be?
PPPS: Please read the following site, it’s short and informative! http://www.agentorangecanada.com/hcb.php
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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.