The Squamidian Report – May 16 / 15
Issue #677
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
One morning this past week I was listening in on a conversation that
was taking place between the two other passengers in the gondola as we
rode up to the top. These other passenger were natives. One was a local
and the other was visiting from some other area. The local was
narrating some of the local native history to the visitor. He pointed
out the waters just off from Watt's Point. This was apparently where
the natives of two hundred years ago met George Vancouver as he sailed
up what would become Howe Sound. Then, he pointed out a section
of forest on the far side of the Sound, below and slightly north of
Castle Rock. This is where the remains of an ancient cedar canoe is
supposed to be. I had heard stories about an ancient canoe that was in
the forest somewhere but didn't know if they were true or not.
Apparently they are. According to this person the canoe, or the remains
of the canoe, have been there for hundreds of years. The canoe had
already been there when a long gone native village sat just below the
site and along the west bank of the river. This part of the story
puzzles me a bit because the current location of the river is actually
quite new, and the land that the entire Squamish town site sits on
didn't exist two centuries ago. Just one century ago only about half of
what is now the waterfront area existed. The entire waterfront has been
and is being built up by sediments carried down the river. It grows by
about twelve feet per year. Therefore, a hundred years ago the
waterfront was twelve hundred feet north of where it is now, and so on.
The native village would have to have been a kilometer further inland
than what the story teller was indicating. However, I'm not trying to
punch holes in his story. In fact, I would imaging the location of the
canoe and even the old village are a secret, only known to certain
local natives, not shared with anyone else including the people who
would like to study these things. I have no doubt the village existed,
and that the canoe exists, and I have no doubt that anyone with
knowledge of them would tell stories that were sufficiently ambiguous
as to make the actual locations impossible to pin down. And thats cool
and understandable. If the true location were to become known, all the
morons, jerks and idiots would be out there trying to find and carry
away souvenirs. Perhaps there was some secret meaning in his words that
were meant to inform the other person while keeping me in the dark.
That would be cool too.
The other person, the visiting native, a woman about 50 or so, was here
to see the gondola and enjoy the view of the surrounding area, and then
hook up with some other native women and head off into the forest to
harvest cedar bark strips for ceremonial purposes. Based on their
conversation I assume they would be crafting various items from the
bark. Anyway, it was an interesting ride up.
Oh, 'The Wife's' car has been repaired and is back, with a nice new
front end. It looks just like new. There was one small hitch which I
discovered. The headlights either had not been aimed or had been aimed
wrong. They had replaced one of the headlight assemblies so who knows.
Anyway, had it not been for the fact that we realized we were out of
milk (an important item when Kyra is here), it could well have been
months before the car was driven in the dark and therefore months
before we noticed. It stays light quite late this time of year and will
continue to do so until fall. So, I headed down to the grocer store in
the car. I couldn't see much further than the nose of the car, the
lights were pointing down, leaving the road ahead in total darkness.
Thats not at all a good thing. So, I stopped in at the auto body place
the next day and they pulled the car in and fixed up the aiming issue.
All is now as it should be.
One more thing.... today is the 1st anniversary of the gondola. One
year ago today they held their grand opening. We've made good use of
that place during the past year, an obvious statement given the number
of times we've been up there.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello Everyone!
Well, we here in Ontario have been impatiently waiting for the onset of
spring. It’s been one heck of a long winter and it just seemed to take
forever for the cold weather to go away. Now, within the past two
weeks, the pollen started to drift through the air and the eyes started
to water and itch and the noses began to run. Last weekend, the
trees were beginning to show buds and suddenly as of
Wednesday “BANG!” the trees are in full bloom and the dust storm
of pollen is settling on every vehicle and road and driveway surface in
KW. I know that mother nature needs this process to bring about the
beauty of spring but the least she could do is hand out pollen masks to
those of us who suffer from this springtime phenomenon! The itch
and watery experience each spring is almost unbearable this year and
I’m sure the pharmacies and drug manufacturers are making a virtual
bundle of cash on allergy medicine sales. Oh well, it’ll all be over
soon and we’ll get on with what is promising to be a beautiful summer
for 2015. I’m looking forward to summer this year and hopefully it
won’t be one that’s too hot and sticky to enjoy. We’ve had a few
sprinkles of rain here in the KW area over the past couple of months
but nothing too wet to speak of. In fact, we haven’t had much rain at
all through April and May so far. They are forecasting rain this
weekend. Why does it happen that mother nature waits until special
occasions and long weekends to bring about the much needed downpours?
The May 2-4 weekend here in Ontario is always a special one and to have
it be rained out would be a shame. I remember most of the May 2-4
weekends being hot and dry when I was a youth but lately it seems to be
the opposite. We’ll just have to wait and see what this weekend brings
as far as weather is concerned.
Last weekend, Carole and I went out to Manheim to attend their annual
garage sale. We usually don’t buy much at these sales but like to walk
around and look at whatever people have to offer from their past. We
looked at everything from dinnerware to jars of nuts and bolts. There
were motor boats and ATV’s for sale as well as clothes and antiques of
all kinds. I even looked at a John Deere Tractor (lawn sized). It was a
16hp unit that was about twenty-five years old. It had no mower deck on
it but was otherwise in good shape. I asked for the price just as a man
started pushing it toward his trailer. He told me he paid only $200.00
for the tractor and was intending on finding a mower deck to fit it and
then he’d make some money on it in his yard sale! I guess a lot of
people that shop in these sales do exactly that, buy items for resale
and likely do well at their own sales. The last couple of driveway
sales we’ve had here were duds when it came to making any money but
they are fun to operate if the weather is nice. There’s another town
wide sale coming soon in New Dundee and that’s usually an interesting
one as well. I’m not sure what the date of that one is but if the
weather looks good on whatever date they have it, maybe we’ll attend
that one too!
This year, our lawn has been growing like crazy! I’ve cut it four times
already and I’ve only had to dig out about 100 dandelions. That’s not
many when you consider that the hydro right of way out back must have
two million of the darned things growing on it! I hope the fertilizer I
spread on our lawn will do it’s job and the weed preventer that’s mixed
with it manages to keep the number of weeds to a minimum this year. I’m
sure if I keep ahead of the weeds and mow the lawn faithfully we’ll
have a good-looking healthy lawn all summer. I’ll just have to make
sure I don’t let it get out of hand. So far the gardens are blooming
and we’ve got most of the yard work completed. I still have to install
the new pond pump and clean out the pond. It’s got black water in it
from the rough winter and all the leaves it accumulated last fall. It’s
a dirty job every spring but I’ve tried covering it over the winter
with no success. I’ve found it’s just the same mess each spring no
matter whether I cover it or not. Anyway, the new pump awaits being
installed and since the May 2-4 weekend is the usual time for this
task, I’ll just have to see how much rain happens this weekend and most
likely I’ll be installing the pump later in the week! That’s an
adventure I might just write about next week. That is, unless I find
something a tad more interesting to write about!
Guess 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>
The world only beats a path to your door when you’re in the bathroom!
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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.
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