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The Squamidian Report – May. 18 /19
Issue #886
Including: Nova Scotia Sus From Russ From Lorne The Ontarion Hi All, We finally received a very badly needed bit of rain. Just a small amount mind you, not even an inch spread out over several days, but we are so desperate for rain that any amount is welcome. Until this week there has been almost no spring rain at all and even in late winter when we should have been getting a fair amount, we got nothing. There are already over a hundred forest fires burning in BC and as usual, almost every one has been started by stupid, moronic, humans. Thats a disgrace. Under severe drought conditions people should know better but they don’t, or don’t care, or don’t think that care and consideration should apply to them. However, this cooler weather with a few showers will help, a bit, I hope. *
As
some of you know, I played a gig up at the gondola again this past
week, Wednesday afternoon to be exact. Several of my friends from the
city found out and decided to come up for the music, scenery and what
have you. This particular group of friends are all very much into
photography and a couple of them are professional photographers.
Needless to say, they brought along some pretty impressive cameras and
they knew how to use them. As well as shooting the local mountain
scenery, they took some shots of me as I did my thing. (Perhaps to be
used as some kind of evidence or some such nefarious thing should the
need arise). So, just in case you are curious and haven't seen said
pictures, I’m posting a few of them here.One
of the things that struck me when seeing these pictures is how
incredibly old I look. I knew I had become an old fart but this was
almost unsettling. Wow.
Now this one is a rarity, I was caught interacting with and smiling at someone.  This shot captured an interesting view of my Martin guitar. It sure is photogenic.  I must have been really into the song I was doing in this pic. Concentrating on the lyrics or off in my on little world or whatever.  This shot is in black & white and not only captures my age but a bit of character as well. Perhaps I was doing a 'thoughtfull' song. Kind of interesting. It was taken by one of the pro photographers. A big thanks to MW.  doug **** From Nova Scotia Sus We are having our usual cool, wet and dreary spring here in Nova Scotia. All our seasons are great except for spring. We get the odd nice day that helps a lot but not many. The big plus is no black flies yet, they don`t like this weather either. So we try to get our outdoor work done before the bugs arrive. I`m not painting a very good picture of life here but like I said its only spring. Once summer arrives and right through the fall we have great weather. I`m also watching our pond like a hawk to make sure no beaver is trying to make its home here. Two years ago a couple moved in and started to dam up under our bridge. Every day I pulled branches, twigs and other stuff out making a very large pile away from the pond. Finally to my delight, they got discouraged and moved on. So its that time of year again that they may show up. So far so good! Our latest project was fixing up the building on our property we call the Gallery. Some of you have been a guest in the gallery since it is a bunk house as well. Lately its been needing a sprucing up. So with new siding, a new roof, and some landscaping, its looking great and ready for any visitors that might show up. My Dad`s paintings hang on all the walls making it a very colourful atmosphere. I know Dad would approve. We've also been busy with seedlings and growing our vegetables for the last two months in our sunroom and now transported to the greenhouse. Some of the plants are waiting until the weather improves to go directly into the garden. Last year our late frost was June 6th and we lost all our tomato plants. We don`t want that to happen again. Since we live on a higher altitude we are usually not worried about a late frost. Our chickens are doing well too. We get 7 to 9 eggs a day so I did start selling some to people looking for farm fresh eggs. We have ordered day old laying hens and 18 meat birds coming in June. So we will be busy! I never thought I would be a farmer. It is so rewarding and satisfying to create your own food. No chemicals and nothing but good feed results in good healthy food. The chickens benefit from our garden greens and we benefit from their eggs and manure for the garden. We also make our own soil from composting. It`s a real learning experience that I have enjoyed very much. I also enjoyed reading about your trip to Ontario and back Doug and Sue. We often thought off driving across Canada but that doesn't seem possible now that we are so busy here. I will stick to flying as my transportation. And Russell good to hear you are getting better. Keep up the writing, always good to hear from you. And Lorne I love to hear whats going on in your life. I totally understand the frustration of sorting all the stuff we keep forever. When I took over my parents house I had to shred tons of stuff and figure out what to do with all the photo albums my Mom had. She was so organized, even had dates on each page. No one else in my family wanted them so I went through them and made one album choosing the photos I thought meant the most. It wasn`t easy but I couldn`t throw them all away. Well I think I`ve said enough, thanks for listening. Sus
**** From Russ Long before we had paper towels, facial tissues, or dishwashers, we had the dish rag. It had multi uses but was chiefly seen in action around the kitchen table at mealtime when all us hungry siblings were ‘filling our faces’. Mom was an expert in wiping up spills from the oilcloth covering the wooden (not Arborite) table-top. The baby of the family (who will be 85 on May 26th), was in the high-chair trying to feed himself with his fingers – missing the target and smearing his breakfast in his hair, ears, and tray. Some of his meal missed all of the above and landed on the floor where the ever-present family dog, licked the linoleum clean in appreciation. On school days, mom had to be especially fast in order to wipe all four of our faces with the dish rag before we left the table/kitchen. The eldest sibling usually dodged this activity, wiping his face on his sleeve instead. With her ‘brood’ off to school, poor mom could take a breather as she cleared the table, washed & dried the dishes, wiped the baby down (with the dish rag), wiped the highchair from top to bottom, picked up stuff from the floor the dog missed (with – you guessed it). After the dishes were washed in the sink, using her multi-use dish rag, she would give the oilcloth another good wipe so clean you could eat off it, rinse/wring out the rag, hang it by the kitchen stove to dry, ready for the next meal. No matter what colour the dish rag started out with, it always ended up looking grey. Being a curious kid, I wondered what the old dish rag would smell like. So one day, while it was hung to dry, I chanced a whiff. It had an indescribable odour! Around this time I had a boil on my stomach, and mom was treating it with a “bread poultice”. That was it! Your old Uncle Russ.
My story today screams for an addendum: In defence of my mother and all pioneer mothers; all absorbent and/or wiping cloths (including handkerchiefs, diapers, menstrual padding, and, yes – dish rags) were boiled in lye-soap which successfully disinfected same, and were re-used, over, and over again). They wasted nothing and we both honour and respect them for all their hard work and frugality. Love you, Mom. Also by your old Uncle Russ.
**** From Lorne More mundane accounts of every day life. The floors are finished in the kitchen and computer room. They look good and I have Gary and Tim to thank for being the installers. They worked together as though they weren't brothers. And Al was handy with the disposal of the garbage. Ewan too, I want to thank for braving the Toronto traffic to come to help. James is always on hand in his most capable way, helping where he is needed, even tilling the garden. Oh, did I mention that while all this was happening, Jamie was installing a new water softener. Who did I miss? So sue me. That was the weekend, that was! Most surprising of all is the fact that I don't mind paying for all this because all I have to do is remind myself that it all comes out of future inheritances. In other news, the car is in for some body work. I was loaned a 7 passenger van. At my age, I don't even know 7 people anymore. Anyone looking for a place to hold a convention? Lorne
**** THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone! It’s been a bit of a wild week weather wise as well as one filled with several challenges around the house. First of all I started by breaking out the brickwork beneath the kitchen window. The reason for that was that the original one was constructed of the same brick as the house was built with. This was nothing but a trap for moisture that in the winter froze and of course with the pressure created by the freezing of the internal moisture, the bricks over the years crumbled and exploded into many pieces! I covered that sill with aluminum a few years ago and mounted a flower box on that covering. It made due for a couple of years but eventually the bricks crumbled so much that the flower box and aluminum fell off the wall about a week ago. There was nothing left to do but replace the brickwork beneath the window. SO, I removed the bricks with my air chisel that I connected to the compressor in the garage. This allowed me to chisel the remainder of the bricks out of the space. Once I had the bricks removed from the sill, I went on a quest to find a new sill. I located a place that made sills out of cut stone from somewhere in the States. The resulting one-piece sill came at a much bigger price than a half dozen bricks would have cost but it’s much stronger and will last a lot longer than the original sill of brick. Of course I couldn’t lift the stone sill by myself so the young attendant at the stone yard placed it into the back of the Jeep for me. There it sat for a couple of days until Adam had time to remove it and place it in the garage for me until such time as we could install it under the kitchen window. Well, Thursday finally came and he was home early from work and we decided to install the new stone sill. I had visions of mixing mortar and me making like a bricklayer trying to mortar the stone in place. Adam did some research and found a method of securing the stone sill in place with a contractor’s caulking. This was indeed a much easier way of fastening the sill in place. So, he picked up the necessary caulking and brought home some concrete board, which we needed to act as a spacer beneath the sill. With the concrete board secured by the glue to the bricks at the bottom of the opening, we needed help to lift the 120 lb stone sill into place 5 feet off the ground. So we asked Carole to come out and help us lift the piece of stone. She’s been working out every evening for about two years now by lifting weights to strengthen her arms and WOW, did that pay off when we needed the help! She came out and with her and Adam doing most of the lifting (I helped a bit at one end of the stone) we lifted the heavy stone in one motion up into place. With a little planning it fit like a glove into the prepared hole! Once the sill was in place Adam caulked the seams around the new stone and it looks like a professional stonemason did the job! You would never know that three amateurs did the installation. With Adam’s knowhow and Carole’s “Super girl” biceps who needs a stonemason? LOL! The one thing that has bothered me since the heart surgery is the loss of my strength in my arms. I used to have good strength in my arms but since the surgery and loss of weight that came along with it, my arms are like buggy whips as my dad used to say when I was a kid! LOL! Oh well, now I know that if I ever need anybody beat up, I can always sick my super strong wife on them! Hahahahaha…..! *
I don’t know if you’ve ever suffered from the affects of allergies but
I seem to have developed watery eyes and a stuffy nose just this year
from all the pollen in the air this spring. What an uncomfortable
feeling! I of course had to cut the grass today and that stirred things
up terribly with respect to said allergies. It’s difficult to see
through the tears that continually stream down my cheeks after forming
in my eyes. The stuffy nose only set in as of mid evening and I may be
looking forward to spending the evening sitting up in a chair and
trying to get some sleep that way. It seams the moment I recline the
stuffiness gets worse! Oh well, hopefully this won’t last long before
things get back to normal.The way our grass grows around here, I’ll be suffering from the sniffles every three days after mowing the lawn each time. I have allergy pills to take but they don’t seem to do much good in the battle against this year’s pollen. A number of years ago my lawn mower gave up the ghost and I was in search of a replacement. My friend Frank Chatterson had an old self propelled mower that he had removed the drive mechanism from for a fellow that had dropped it off at Frank’s place for repair. The fellow never did come back to pick up the lawn mower and Frank just gave it to me one afternoon. I used it for about 6 or 7 years and when Adam moved in with us two years ago he brought his good self propelled mower along with him. So, he suggested I use his good mower after my heart surgery since it was much easier to operate. All I have to do is walk behind the mower now rather than push it and it allows me to do the grass cutting. I like to mow the lawn so I’m grateful for the good mower! The other day I decided to clean out the shed a little and one of the items that has clogged the shed for about two years now is the old mower from Frank. I figured I’d just put it on the boulevard for sale cheap and get rid of it. I pulled it out of the shed and gassed it up and cleaned the spark plug so it was ready to go. Well, wouldn’t you figure, the darned thing won’t start no matter what I do! I checked the plug for spark today and low and behold there is no spark! I don’t know what’s wrong with it but I figure if someone wants to put a little time and a couple of bucks into having it serviced they’ll once again have a good mower. It used to start first pull every time in all the years I made use of it. I think I’ll just put it out on the boulevard with a “Free To A Good Home” sign on it and let someone take it home! That’s about all for this week folks! Thank you for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next time in The Ontarion Report! Bye for now … Greg
PS: Something To Think About>A generation ago most men who finished a day’s work needed rest; now they need exercise! ****
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. |