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The
Squamidian Report – Dec. 20 / 25
Online Versions Of This And Past Issues (Choose the year and then the date for the online issue you want) Issue
#1230
Carol ****
From Carol
Al likes to have a jigsaw puzzle going, especially in the cold weather. Beth gave him an advent puzzle this year. The idea was to start on December 1st and do a 28 piece of the puzzle each day until the 24th. This is the same idea as chocolate advent calendars where one candy is opened each day as a countdown to Christmas. The problem was he couldn’t start on the first because he wanted to finish a puzzle already on the go so I said I would also do a box a day until caught up but I enjoyed it so much that we kept going and finished before the 24th. This would be like children eating their chocolate early. You added each day’s section to the one before. Considering that the pieces were small and similar it would have been a difficult puzzle if each piece could go anywhere. I don’t really do presents anymore but I still make my Christmas truffles to give out to whoever shows up at the Homestead Christmas Eve. Actually Vivienne and I are working on the truffles. She plans to take over making them when I become too feeble. Gale is hoping to train someone in the next generation to some day take over the making of the family calendars she does each year. There comes a point where if we don’t find a younger family member to take over the traditions die. I would love to read about some of your favourite traditions next week in Doug’s Christmas newsletter.
Carol ****
From Nova Scotia Sus
Finally we are having a break from winter...and it won't last long but it sure feels nice. The chickens appreciate some time outside their coop too. This morning on my way to work there were all kinds of deer tracks on our lane. I guess they hide during the day and venture out at night. They can't get into our green bins but I'm sure they can smell it. We haven't seen any bears this past year...I hope they gave up on us as far as knocking over our bins. I'm looking forward to some time off cutting hair over Christmas. Its great to be able to just close up and have time to enjoy the season. I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. Sus ****
From Wayne
Hi Squids: Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year from Sylvia and me. Everyone is commenting on the severe winter we are having. Here, today, Thursday, in New Brunswick, it is bright, cloudless and will soar to +2 Deg. C but but tonight, at midnight it is predicted to be +12 Deg. C and the high Friday will be +13C but with wind gusts exceeding 100 kph and nearly an inch of rain. Luckily our solar energy system is fully functioning because power outages here are a certainty with such high winds. A White Christmas seems out of the question because there is little snow on the ground and the snow from the last three record breaking storms were dispatched with a broom. See my deck, below. It has been very cold, though, as evidenced by the frozen river. We saw a strange sight earlier this week, a set of headlights coming up the centre of the river. When it got to our frontage, the vehicle, which could then be identified as an ATV, parked on an island where it disgorged a group of skaters. Kenny went down to investigate and found that he knew the skaters, because their young child is a schoolmate of Gabi's. They had come about 5 km up the river in the dark, except for the ATV's headlights in mid December, confident that it was safe. Today, the river is awash with melted snow.
Wayne ****
From Gary
Hello fellow Squamidians. Our winter appears to be over for awhile. Likely a green Christmas. Predicted highs of +8 and lots of rain. Only a foot of snow on the ground. That will disappear in a hurry. I actually have something to write about this week. We own a small house in a 1950s subdivision. About 45 houses. A developer owns the property at the end of the subdivision. Slightly smaller area than our subdivision but his proposal calls for 85 units. To be built at the end of the main dead end road. The property is woodland with 16 mature butternut trees that are a protected species in southern Ontario . Turns out the developer can apply to remove the trees if he can show that it will make the development easier and avoid the $150.00 fine he got last time for cutting down protected trees. What a crock of sh*t. Luckily he didn’t bother to address 9 of the 10 issues that were raised by the local community and the council turned the application down with only 1 councilor in favor. There are 3 other much larger development projects currently going on in this town of almost 7000 residents. Absolutely no new houses are selling and few resale houses are selling. Hopefully this will hold off the inevitable for a few years. Take care and stay safe everyone.
Gary ****
From Doug
You have no doubt heard of the rains and flooding in coastal BC. The massive rainfalls used to be called ‘Pineapple Expresses’. Now they are called ‘atmospheric rivers’. Either way, they bring a lot of rain, endlessly lasting days and days. Heck, one day this week we had over 8 inches of rain fall on us. As well as flooding, they trigger land slides, rock slides and grumpy people. They cause road closures and disruptions of all sorts. The flooding you’ve heard the most about is out in the Fraser Valley around Abbotsford and the Sumas Prairies. Now here is the silly part, it is all ‘our’ fault because the Sumas Prairies was the Sumas Lake a century ago. It had been a very large and relatively shallow lake for thousands of years but when settlers came along they decided that the lake bottom would make great farm land. It does, the area is one of the most productive farm areas in the world. The lake was just ‘in the way’. So, against the advice of the local natives who are still laughing about it, they pumped the lake dry. Ground level there is about 20 ft lower than the local rivers including the big old Fraser which runs very close by. The area is kept drained by huge pumps that must run day and night, for ever. When we get these heavy none stop rains the pumps have trouble keeping up. If the rivers overflow, the pumps can’t keep up. There is a river just across the US border in Washington State that drains down from the Cascades and because the Americans don’t believe in flood midigation, it constantly overflows and more than often that overflow heads north and into where the lake used to be. Farms and buildings end up under water. Its that simple, and silly. There is a push on by some to buy out the farms and businesses and home owners who are situated on the ‘lake bottom’ and let the lake go back to normal. Doing that would actually cost less than the constant flood events cost but the political pressure is to side with the occupants of the lake bottom and stay with how it is. * I guess this is our Christmas addition of the Squamidian. This has and continues to be a very difficult time for me and so I haven’t given the Christmas thing any thought at all. My days are taken up completely with caregiving. I’m hopping to do my tradition of handing out home made fudge to all the kids that work at the gondola, and to some of the neighbors. At least thats my tentative plan. I do hope that all of you have a relaxed and good time, fulfilling however you celebrate this time of year. Something I had done in the past is mail out CD’s of my silly little musical recordings. That didn’t happen this year. For one thing, it’s almost impossible to get CD-R’s, and instead of doing any of that, my neighbor Jane has been kind enough to sing with me. I’ve included links to songs that we have recorded together in these letters. I’ve set up a web page with our songs on it, all in one convenient place. I’ll be adding more songs as we record them. So, just go to the page for access to the songs. Left click a song to listen to it, or right click to download the file onto your computer.
Doug ****
Have
a
Good One
****
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