The Squamidian Report – June 8 /19
Issue #889
Including:
From Russ
From Lorne
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Several areas of our back lawn needed to be top dressed and re-seeded
due to the soil sinking. In this part of the world thats not exactly a
straight forward procedure. You see, top soil is almost none-existent.
You can’t get ‘real’ top soil. The reason some areas of the lawn are
sinking is that when these properties were being built on, and they
were grading the yards, they simply buried the logs and stumps that
were here, using them as fill. That was fine for about 3 decades but
now those things are breaking down and that is leading to low spots
forming. It reaches a point where we worry about someone twisting an
ankle or falling. And because these hillsides never really had any good
top soil on them to begin with, there is none available to put back.
The native soil is not soil at all but just a layer of duff made up of
roots and leaves etc.
The local aggregate companies make ‘top soil’ as a commercial product.
They mix sand and organic compost. Thats it. They call it top soil and
sell it by the truck load, or the bag load or however you may want to
pick it up. They also package it in 1 cubic yd bags that can be
delivered, and hoisted off the delivery truck using the trucks built-in
crane. Its embarrassingly expensive but going that route solves some
problems. You see, to get soil into our back yard we’d have to
wheelbarrow it up the steep driveway, then up a set of steps, and then
from there around the side of the house. We’ve done that in the past,
when we were younger, and its a lot of hard work. By having a 1 yd bag
delivered, it could be hoisted off the truck and right up onto our
front yard which is above the obstacles of the driveway and front
steps. And thats what I had them do. And it worked out very well as
long as I didn’t think about the cost. I could and did shovel
wheelbarrow load after wheelbarrow load into the wheelbarrow and wheel
it around back to the areas that had sunk. Didn’t take long to use up
the whole cubic yard of fake top soil. Once spread, packed, and
re-raked I sprinkled grass seed and started watering a couple of time a
day. (We are desperate for rain out here). Natural rain is way better
than water from a hose but any water is better than none.
That was just over a week ago and the top dressed areas are showing a
bit of green. It will take a while for the grass to get thick and
strong enough to hold the sand / organics mixture together. A very
healthy root system will have to form because this man made soil
doesn’t stick together or lock together like ‘real’ soil would. But,
its what we can get so its all we can do. If it works out well, I’ll
have to get another expensive bag and do some other areas but I’ll hold
off until I know that its firming up enough for use as a lawn where
kids can play and be kids.
doug
****
From Russ
"The Golden Age"
Some people ask what keeps me busy. Since turning 90, this is what keeps me busy:
May 22nd, Kincardine Hospital; chest X-Ray and ECG.
May 23rd, Kincardine Hospital; bloodwork for Oncologist.
May 24th, Chesley General; Ultra Sound.
June 3rd, Kincardine Hospital; Liquid Nitro for skin cancers.
June 4th, Walkerton Hospital; CTC Scan, poor circulation.
June 5th, Owen Sound Hospital, oncologist follow-up.
And coming up:
June 11th; follow-up with family doctor about a/m tests.
By the way, on our trip home from Owen Sound, got message to pick up
Prescription for more pills. My doc thinks I still have pneumonia (from
some 3 weeks back), and wants me to take “Levofloxacin” 250Mg, 3 pills
all in one gulp, once daily until I puke up my guts!!
Never had this drug before, so read “Possible side affects”------
-may cause headaches, diarrhea or constipation (already enjoy all 3)
-may cause dizziness (got that too)
-may cause sleep disturbances or insomnia (after
taking my first dose, and laying awake for 3 hours,
had to take a sleeping pill)
-may cause nausea or vomiting (See? I told you so)
Under General Information:
Rarely, this product causes damage to tendons, nerves or central
nervous system disorders. Contact your doctor if you experience joint
or muscle pain, tingling numbness, weakness or confusion. Reactions can
occur hours to WEEKS after taking this medication.
Question: Why in hell would anybody risk taking this stuff?
And finally (thank god you say), coming up on
June 12th, Chiropractor for lazer re; foot/calf pain.
June 14th, diabetic foot care ( can no longer care for tootsies)
Submitted by this ‘high maintenance old man”- - - Uncle Russ.
****
From Lorne
Fortunately not much new happening. Lots of family socials coming up
that in my advanced years I find my way home before most others.
And to arrive home or anywhere for that matter, I use the car I leased
3 years ago on a three year lease. Now the time has come to renew, buy
the car or trade for brand new. Either way, the cost is about the same.
The car has low millage and has only been driven by a little old man
that drives to church most Sunday mornings and the local mall from time
to time. I have made the decision and I'm not telling, leaving
you in suspense. Tune in next week. The truth may or may not be
revealed.
Lorne
****
THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
Looks like we finally have achieved some sort of spring weather here in
KW. We’ve got four days in a row that are supposed to be filled with
sunshine and warmth. Today was the start of these days and I decided to
take the time this afternoon to wash the Jeep and then the MGB. They
both needed it but the Jeep was much dirtier than the MG. The MG hasn’t
been out of the garage for about a month since I last took it out to
wash it. It’s been sitting in the garage and collecting dust since that
time and it was in need of another wash job so today it got it! Just to
treat myself for all my hard work I took the MG around a few blocks in
the neighbourhood. I figured I deserved a bit of a drive after getting
both vehicles gleaming again. I always get a lot of stares from people
when I drive by in the MG I guess since there aren’t many of them on
the roads these days. Kind of makes a person proud when people give you
the thumbs up as they see you pass by. Once I got home again I cleaned
up all the wash equipment and put it away. I also put the Jeep and the
MG back in the garage and decided to climb up onto the roof of the
house to blow all the rubble from our trees out of the eve troughs. I
use my “Echo” leaf blower for this task and it works very well. The
only problem is that I then have to climb down and blow all the same
crap off the walkways below. Oh well, its all part of keeping things
looking good around the house. I have been working hard at keeping the
lawn looking good this year and it’s time for another mowing tomorrow.
I make the mistake of fertilizing the lawn well each year and this
makes it grow like a field of weeds! I have to mow it every three days
at least and depending on the amount of rain we get sometimes it gets
mowed every second day. If I let it go too long then it’s difficult to
cut it when the grass is filled with moisture. When this happens, the
mower gets clogged and it leaves tons of grass clumps all over the
lawn. I don’t like to have that happen since it doesn’t look appealing.
Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to keep up the regular cutting and then
it’ll continue to look great!
*
I’m
sure you will remember my telling you about our resident Robins that
nest out on our patio wall shelf every year. Well, after they tried to
nest out front this year and some critter stole their 4 eggs from that
nest. Carole moved the nest to the usual place on the shelf out back
and the Robins started their spring family once again in that spot. We
thought we were going to have babies out back again this year after
their success in laying another batch of eggs. We kept checking the
eggs every couple of days to see if they’d hatched and after another
week or two we noticed that the mother Robin had laid a total of 7 eggs
this time, 6 in the nest and one on the shelf beside her nest. I guess
she accidentally pooped out one egg before reaching the nest! LOL! Oh
well, according to the Internet, they usually stop laying at the most,
4 eggs in one nest. Apparently they stop when they run out of room in
the nest. We figured this nest was large enough to handle the 6 eggs of
the second batch. Last Saturday, Carole checked out back through the
patio sliding doors in the morning and noticed the nest was toppled
onto the patio and the small decorative watering can that it’s usually
in was also toppled onto the top of the metal cupboard that is below
the shelf. I guess some dirty critter had found this second location
and decided to partake of the lovely blue eggs for a breakfast. The
eggs were gone along with all of the shells as well. There wasn’t a
speck of egg or eggshell to be found. We figured it was either a
neighbourhood cat or a squirrel that raided the nest during the night.
We do have a couple of squirrels that come around and raid the bird
feeder out back so maybe one of them found the Robin’s nest too! What a
disappointment for both the Robins and for us as we were thinking we
had succeeded in giving them a safe place to restart their family this
spring! Oh well, like they say, “That’s mother nature for you!”
Just too bad that it had to happen twice this year. We’re hoping that
the Robins will return next spring and try again! They are creatures of
habit and will most likely be back!
Fingers crossed for next year!
That’s about all for this week folks!
Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again nest week! LOL! In the Ontarion Report!
Bye for now… Greg
PS: Something To Think About>
The quitter never wins and the winner never quits!
****
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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