The Squamidian Report – June 14 / 14
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The Ontarion
Hi All,
Every spring 'The Wife' and I do a BBQ for my CMC riding chapter
members. Its not really a 'kick off the season' kind of thing because
the season started months ago, its more of just the first social event
of the season for the chapter. Anyway, including ourselves there were
about 18 people here. Some came on their bikes, others car-pooled. You
see, all my chapter members live in North and West Vancouver so just
like most people from the city area, they tend to think of Squamish as
way up toward Whistler, or, out in the boonies or whatever which simply
means some prefer to come in a car because the ride home might be dark
and chilly. There was still a nice lineup of bikes parked along the
street. That tends to catch the eyes of some of the neighbours.
However, we are a very well behaved group, no loud noise, no drinking,
no rowdy behavior at all. In fact, one of the most important bylaws of
the CMC riding club is that there can be no alcohol, as in ZERO, at at
CMC function if there is going to be any driving afterword. So, there
is never any problems at all, just a nice, enjoyable time.
'The Wife' went way beyond the call of duty, as she always does, and
prepared all sorts of stuff for everyone to eat. We BBQ'd burgers to go
along with her salads and other assorted munchies and everyone was well
fed and happy. We even broke out the guitars for a bit of a jam. One of
our members, a criminal trial lawyer, plays in a band and we know some
of the same music so we found some common ground and had some fun.
When the evening was over, everyone went home and we ran three loads of
dishes through the dish washer. The house was back to normal. Put the
lawn chairs away and the yard was back to normal.
Then on Wednesday a couple of us rode to Lillooet for lunch again.
Thats always fun. We had some delays over the Duffy as a section is
getting a badly needed re-pavement job but thats a good thing. That
section had gotten so rough that it would just about bounce you right
off your bike. And unfortunately, we are now into motorhome / camper /
RV season. I've learned to despise many of the people who drive those
things. We got stuck behind one that refused to let anyone get past as
they wallowed along. When the chance to slip by finally came, he sped
up from less than 50kph in a zone marked for 60, to over 100kph on that
very narrow, twisty Duffy Lake road. We leaned very hard into the
approaching sharp curve and made it through. I don't know whether the
motorhome ran straight off the road or screeched his tires getting
slowed back down but we never saw it or him again. Shortly after, the
other vehicles that had been trapped behind him came back into sight so
I figure he was forced to pull over and change his underwear because
assuming he made it around that curve, he has to have crapped his
drawers. After the stunt he pulled, if he'd run right off the road the
vehicles behind him would have probably simply left him there to rot as
they had seen exactly what he had tried to do, which was to run a
couple of bikes off the road rather than let them or anyone get by. He
had made no attempt at all to speed up to the marked speed limit when
there was no opportunity for others to pass him.
Unfortunately, we get drivers like that all the time on these roads.
They crawl through the tight curves but will risk endangering everyone
rather than let other motorists get by. Anyway, it takes a lot to get
me angry but this guy got me mad enough to consider becoming violent.
Perhaps its a good thing we never ran across him again. We even stopped
in Pemberton for some water and a break and never saw him go by.
Hopefully he's still pulled over somewhere, trying to get his underwear
cleaned up.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
With the beautiful weather we’ve been having over the past 6 to 8 weeks
the lawns and gardens have been growing by leaps and bounds. Our
gardens have been in for the past 14 years and each year they are more
and more work to keep in shape! Last year we noticed as if it happened
over night that some of the “Tree” style garden plants were actually
becoming much too large to be back yard garden plants. We have a couple
of crab apple trees on the one side and against the back fence in the
garden we have another crab apple tree of a different variety and I
know we didn’t expect it to grow as large as it has when we planted it.
It seamed so sudden that it had grown as tall as the house roof and was
reaching across the grass and touching the roof over the patio as well.
Carole asked if I could trim a few of the branches off the trees to cut
them back to a sensible height and width so they didn’t look so
overgrown. I figured I’d need a better saw to do that job than I had in
my arsenal so I headed off to Princess Auto to see what they had to
offer. Keep in mind that this was last fall. It just so happened that
they had an extendable electric chain saw on sale that would reach up
to 10 feet in length. I bought one of those and figured it might at
least do the job on the smaller branches. Well, I likely told you guys
this last year but that little 8” chain saw went through the largest of
the branches like they were butter and I worked the heck out of it
until all the trees were trimmed and the cut branches cut to length and
bundled to take to the landfill for mulching.
This year I looked at the gardens and what did I find but a few more
shrubs that were overgrown as well as a few that had died off over this
past heavy winter. Carole and I figured which ones would have to be cut
to the ground. So I got out the trusty little chain saw and cut them
off at the base. I managed to place a lasso around the bush part and
tighten it until the branches were controlled and then I took the saw
to the base of the bush. The little saw once again did a marvelous job
of hacking them off like butter! Of course after I had them all cut up
and bundled once again I had to deal with the roots that were still
sticking about 6” out of the garden soil. I figured I’d just stick the
snout of the saw into the dirt and cut the stubs off as deep down as
possible rather than trying to dig the roots out. We were not planning
on planting anything in their places anyway so off I went cutting dirt
and all. Of course I wasn’t aware that the soil would dull the
chain within minutes of buzzing the stubs off so it didn’t take long
until the little saw would cut no more! LOL! I finished the job with a
different saw my Makita Sawsall with a nice long blade! Of course I
still have two good-sized trees to cut down that no longer look good
with their dead lower branches and half dead uppers so they still have
to come down. The one is a 12’ tall Pea Shrub that used to look all
green and was shaped like an umbrella when trimmed right. This baby has
just died off and now looks like something out of a horror movie set.
It’s got very large twisted branches and it’ll take the little but
nimble extendable chain saw to weasel it’s way through to be able to
cut the branches until I can fell the main trunk. So I had to head back
to Princess Auto and see if they had any replacement chains for this
unit. Thankfully, they still sell the same brand of saw along with
other trimmers etc made by the same company. They only had two
replacement chains hanging on the display and the employee I spoke to
said he didn’t know when they’d be getting any more in stock. They had
the chains on for $7.99 (normally $14.00 each) so I grabbed both of
them just in case I hit something that would dull my little beauty
before I could finish the job! At least now I’ll have a spare for
backup! SO, as soon as I can find the time, I’ll don my blue coveralls
and take another crack at felling the last of the dead wood and the
gardens will be back in shape once more! It’s surprising how much work
it takes to remove what looks to be a half hour job! After all, it’s
only a small tree in a little garden! How much work could it be? LOL!
I have to thank Princess Auto for having the right tool at a very
reasonable price that made my job so much easier. Like I’ve always been
told over the years, “Use the right tool for the job!” and it’ll make
the work go faster and so much easier! By golly, my dad was right!
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>
It’s hard to believe that a Beaver can fell a tree with his teeth in
not much more time than a human can with the right tool for the job!
****
Have a good one..
the doug
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