The
Squamidian Report – July 21 / 12
Issue #530
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
I think it was Wednesday morning, we headed out for our usual walk but had to turn back when we were about half way through. Normally we head down hill and then take the lower Glacier Cr. entrance an then follow along to the dog park where Willow can sniff and poop to her heart’s content. However, we couldn’t quite get to the dog park because there was a bear wrestling with someone’s garbage container. It had dragged the container out the driveway and partway down to the street. Bits of garbage were rolling out onto the street and we didn’t really want the bear to think we were after it’s garbage, and we didn’t want Willow getting too interested in the bear or the other way around. So, we turned around and backtracked home. There were three bears destroyed around here last week because they had become ‘problem’ bears, and now it looks like there will be another.
On a somewhat similar topic, in that bears like blueberries, I wish you could see my blueberry patch. I’ve never seen these plants so loaded. I’ve had to tie them up to keep them from breaking or bending right down to the ground. There are so many berries that it doesn’t even look real. But here’s the problem, this is July 21 and the berries are still green, the early ones should have ripened a month ago. By now there should be so many berries ready to pick each day that I’d have trouble keeping up. Last year our season was late, but not this late, and my berries never truly ripened, they never had enough time or sunshine to get sweet. So, we shall see, and keep our fingers crossed.
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The weather out here continues to do very strange things. Every time the forecast calls for sunny and hot, we end up with chilly and wet. When the forecast calls for cool and wet, we end up with sunny and hot. We were on a weekend ride last weekend and the forecast was for hot and sunny the whole time. The Saturday part was hot and sunny, very hot in fact. The Pemberton area was a scorcher, and then the Lillooet area was even hotter than that. The Fraser Canyon towns like Lillooet can often be the hottest places in Canada due to the almost vertical canyon walls and mountainsides that radiate the sun’s heat like a blast furnace. These areas are normally parched and dry and as we rode through we certainly wondered how any one or any thing could survive let alone live there. However, we got through ok and had a great ride to our motel in Cache Creek. By the way, there really isn’t anything at all in Cache Creek, its just a place where two highways intersect and so some service industries have sprung up there.
Anyway, the Sunday forecast was for even hotter temperatures but the day dawned cold and wet. We rode through showers and light rain but that’s all part of riding. The endless rains certainly explain why the normally parched, dry brown hills are tinged with green. There had been very heavy rains in the mountains during the night and the Duffy had been closed due to flooding and rock slides. The Duffy is the route we needed to take in order to get home. We ended up waiting at the Lillooet gas station for a short while until the road was passable, but had to wait again at a slide site for a loader to remove more debris. As it was, we were dodging rocks as they slid down the slop and onto the road. Where the flooding had been the road was slippery and muddy. A slide had clogged the raging mountain river, forcing it over it’s banks and onto the road, but the river had then broken through the blockage and returned to its normal location. Quite an adventure.
Made it home ok but the bike sure needed a good wash. We forgot to take pictures on the ride out, but did remember on the ride back. ‘The Wife’ was able to get several fairly nice shots over her shoulder as we rode along. They can be seen at:
http://www.thedougsite.net/12-Rides/CMC-CC1/CMC-CC1.html
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
I’m sure you all remember what last weeks Ontarion was about and that I promised to keep you all posted as to any progress I may have to report on the situation. Well, I managed to contact my City Council member, Bil Ioannidis, and we had a good hour-long conversation about the Hydro One spraying situation. He was not aware of the situation and was quite appalled with the thought of anyone using such a deadly chemical in a public situation in this day and age! He promised me he would look into it and keep me posted as to any further information regarding my concerns. About an hour after we talked he sent me an e-mail stating that he had made the rest of the council members including the Mayor of Kitchener aware of the problem. He said in his e-mail that they will be making an effort to attend the meeting with Hydro One that was set up by Waterloo Council member Scott Witmer. Mr Ioannidis said that the entire council and the Mayor are going to attend that meeting to find out what the facts are and see if there is any way they can resolve the problem to my satisfaction. At this point, all I can do is leave it in Councilman Ioannidis’ hands and hope to hear from him soon.
I spoke with a neighbour of mine who was also quite surprised to hear about the possible spraying of such a deadly chemical in our back yards! He brought up a good point during our talk. He mentioned that the City Works Dept in Kitchener is responsible for the maintenance of the Hydro Rights of Way (Thank you Lorne) as far as the grass cutting and tree maintenance goes. They do this like I said through an agreement with Hydro One so they are allowed to have their City Pathways pass along and through the Rights Of Way. Since the grass has only been cut once this year so far and that was way back in the early spring, my neighbour was wondering why the maintenance of the grass etc in the Rights Of Way has stopped! If the City has stopped doing this work, is it possible that they have reneged on their deal to do this maintenance, thus causing Hydro One to come up with this plan to defoliate the Rights of Way chemically? Hmmm…? If so, we may just have a dilemma involving the City in a different way than just investigating this problem on behalf of it’s citizens (me)! They may well be the instigators of this problem and have to eat a little crow once the facts become public! I’ll be discussing this aspect with Councilor Ioannidis during our next conversation for sure! I don’t have anything further to report to you this week on the subject but I assure you I will pass on whatever news I have in the coming weeks!
If I haven’t heard anything more by early next week from Councilor Ioannidis, I will be contacting him rather than waiting much longer for his progress report!
That’s all 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>
In a democracy it’s your vote that counts. In feudalism it’s your Count that votes!
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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.