The Squamidian Report – June 20 / 15
 
Issue #682

Including:
The Ontarion

Hi All,

Just a quick follow-up, the staples that were holding my surgery incision together were removed this past Monday. Thats a good thing. The sooner those things come out the better, but they sure beat stitches. I was sitting with my motorcycle friends the morning before and several of them offered to remove the staples ahead of time for me. They were of course joking around until I reminded them about just where on my person said staples were located. At that point they were more than willing to withdraw their offer.

That same Monday the air here in Squamish was choked with smoke. And I do mean choked, you could not see very far, you could not breath. The fire, a completely out of control forest fire, is apparently about 70 clicks or so away, up the Elaho Valley. Thats a valley that runs out from the Upper Squamish and is way out there in the back country. Its low on the importance scale as it does not threaten any thing of human value so its not being fought very aggressively. I guess local wild life doesn't count. By the time we had to head in to the city to the surgeons office, the smoke had spread all the way down to Horseshoe Bay and over past Gibson's. The early morning winds had carried it out the valleys. By mid day the winds had reversed, which is normal, and was bring that smoke back but wasn't bringing in any new smoke of course so the air slowly cleared out. We stopped at the Gondola on our way back so we could grab a quick but late bite of lunch. That ride up was 'The Wife's' 200th time. Cool. Up at the lodge and out the trails was nicely above any lingering smoke so our usual walk was pleasant although because it was now early afternoon we had to put up with tourists. Bummer. Incidentally, on Monday the fire was about 12 hectares in size and deemed 'low priority'. By mid week it has spread to over 650 hectares and the authorities decided it warranted some attention. Now, seems to me it would have been a lot easier and a lot less expensive to fight that fire when it was still relatively small than to wait until it grew to gigantic proportions. But, what do I know? I'm not the king of the world, at least not yet.

We did that same walk, our usual one, the next morning at our usual time, ahead of the tourist. While out on the trail 'The Wife' heard a quiet, gentle cooing sound and low and behold, a mother grouse with 4 little chicks was standing right at our feet. They are so well camouflaged that unless they move or make noise, they are almost invisible. The hen was trying to get the chicks to follow her across the path but they were scurrying in all directions. One would come but then get distracted and head off in another direction, then another would come and so on. Eventually all 4 had joined her and they wandered off into the underbrush. That was cool.

Oh, I had inquired in a previous Squid as to whether or not anyone had stumbled across an astronomy app that was as good or better than the one I had found. I guess I'm always hopeful that there are even better ones available. No response but like I said, Sky View is a very good app for what it is designed for. I have however found an equally good 'companion' app that is the same yet very different and while overlapping in many areas, both do things the other doesn't. Its called Sky Chart and is basically an electronic version of the old book style sky charts we used to use. However, it can do searches, it can send notices as to what is going on 'now', it can stay up to date regarding comets and meteors etc, and it can become interactive when held up to the sky and so on. So, between the two I've got a lot of nice astronomy potential rapped up in one little portable electronic devise. And the basic app is free. Gotta love it.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT

Hello everyone!
One of my favorite things to do is sit on the front porch with Carole enjoying a tea and watching stuff! Yesterday we were doing just that and along came a mailman. He walked up to the door of the house on the corner across the street from us and stood on the front porch for about a minute. He then turned and walked across the corner lawn to the sidewalk, followed it around the corner to the second house from the corner and walked up to that front porch. Once he’d completed that task, he walked down the drive, up the drive to the corner house once again and stood on that porch once more for about a minute. He then turned and walked across the lawn to the sidewalk once more. Upon arrival at the sidewalk, he stood for a minute pondering “whatever” and then turned and followed the sidewalk back around the corner a second time. We were both wondering what the heck he was doing as he then walked down the ramp of the driveway and stood about 5’ from the curb in the middle of the curb lane. After he stood there for at least 5 minutes and being narrowly missed by a dozen cars, a taxi pulled up in front of him and he got into the back seat and it drove away! Isn’t it interesting being retired? LOL!

A few days ago we were sitting on the porch enjoying a tea early in the morning and the sky suddenly blackened and the wind blew up in what seemed to be one of those “downbursts” we hear about. It started to rain viciously so we grabbed our teacups and headed inside. About ten minutes later as we sat in the family room watching TV there was a very bright flash of lightening and a huge crash of thunder that actually shook the house! I looked outside and the storm seemed to be letting up a little and after a few minutes the rain stopped and the sun came out as the clouds moved eastward. The rest of the day was beautiful and sunny and I even went out to mow the lawn after things dried up. That was Sunday! On Tuesday I was out front and happened to glance up at the huge white birch tree we have in the middle of the front lawn. It’s about 35 years old and is a beautiful tree indeed. They say that the white birch only lives around 30 or so years and then dies off. I’ve been trimming this tree and treating it with liquid fertilizer since we moved into this house back in 1998 and it’s been holding up very well. It’s twin trunks are strong and beautiful and have grown to about 35’ in height. As I stood on the driveway admiring the magnificence of the tree, I noticed that there was one branch about 5” or more in diameter that was hanging straight down from the main trunk closest to the driveway. When I took a good look at it I could see that it was almost broken off. At the point where it was bent over, I could see that it looked splintered as if it had been twisted almost off. In taking a more careful look at the tree I found three other branches that were broken clear off from the trunk and they were suspended by the branches below. I climbed up onto the roof over our front porch and from that vantage point I could see that the damage to the tree was apparently from a lightening strike! I then remembered the loud bang and flash from the early morning storm the day before. It seems that the work of a homeowner never ends! I have a 10’ stepladder that allows me to reach the bottom branches of this big tree but even with my “extendable” electric chain saw I’d never be able to reach the stricken branch to enable me to cut it off. I’d have to have an extension ladder at least 25’ in length and then use the 10’ extendable chain saw from the top of that to reach the branch. The broken branch was almost at the top of the trees main trunk.

I called Adam and told him about the problem with the tree. He suggested I wait until he could bring over a large ladder and he’d be happy to help me remove the broken branches. That made sense since he’s also got a pickup truck we could use to haul the rubble away after clearing it! On Wednesday he brought over his 25’ ladder and volunteered to climb up and cut the branch off. Even with his 6’4” height he just barely managed to reach the base of the broken branch to buzz it off with the chain saw. It dropped straight to the ground but as it touched down on the lawn it toppled over toward the driveway narrowly missing his truck by about a foot! Neither of us had thought about moving the truck out of range of the falling branch so we were lucky indeed that the truck was not damaged! Whew! That was a close call indeed! After reaching and pulling the other three fairly large branches out of the tree and trimming off a few other unsightly smaller half dead branches the tree was back in shape and looked very healthy once again! We dragged the trimmed branches around the corner onto the “Hydro Right Of Way” behind the house so I could cut them into shorter more manageable lengths. After spending the last couple of days cutting all the branches into short lengths Adam came over with his truck Thursday morning and we hauled the bundles of birch off to the dump on Erb St in Waterloo. It was interesting to see the damage from the lightning. Where it splintered the branch, we could see a scorch mark as well as an amount of ash where the heat of the strike had burned the wood. Good think we weren’t sitting on the porch when the lightning struck or we might have been part of the BBQ along with the tree! For years I’ve always had a pickup truck and it’s times like these that remind me of the convenience of owning such a vehicle. Maybe I’ll keep my eyes open for a good used truck once again. You never know when you’ll need one! On the other hand, it’s just as handy having a son that owns a pickup and a lot cheaper too! LOL! Guess I’ll just keep Adam’s phone number handy instead!

Guess that’s about 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>
The only difference between a taxman and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin!   Mark Twain (1835-1910)
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Have a good one..
the doug
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