Is Anybody Tired of my Snow pictures?

          In early March I did a post on last day of winter snow for skiing. I actually thought we would be finished with snow at that time. I expected that our snow would soon melt and disappear.Since then I have posted several times about snow storms, late snow, more snow and energetic spring storm.

         So today we are having another spring storm. We've received about 10 cm of snow. I took the pictures at 1:00 PM and it's been snowing off and on since then. Some of the snow has melted as it fell or we would really be slowed down.

         Usually by this time in April I have finished raking my lawn and am starting to work on perennial beds. I have usually ride about 100 km by now. The roads were dry enough a few days ago but I wasn't going to drag my bike over the snow bank to get it out of the shed.

        Our forecast is dismal until April 19?

Unusual Chukar Sightings at Red Deer Alberta

        Since the the spring of 2009 there have been sporadic sightings of chukars in the city of Red Deer.

        Chukars are a non native species to North America. They are native to central Asia and live in arid areas. The chukar is the national bird of Pakistan. Chukars were introduced to North America as a game bird species. They have done quite well in the central southern United States in the arid regions. They have been introduced to Canada on several occasions but did not survive as we have snow cover which covers their food source.

        Chukars are a very handsome bird. They have a red beak and very prominent yellow stripes along the breast. The rest of the bird is grey brown.

         In the spring of 2009 a chukar was found on the steps of our local news paper, the Red Deer Advocate. They got a nice picture but misidentified the bird.

        For the summer of 2009 chukars were seen along a park strip on the east side of the Bower subdivision. The winter of 2009-2010 found the chukars frequenting a yard the had ground feeders for birds. Two birds visited this feeder all winter.

          In the spring of 2010 a nest was found and young were seen on the park strip which had long natural grass. These birds were spotted many times in the summer of 2010. I saw them twice when I cycled through the area.

        In September of 2010 Chukars were observed on a strip of parkland on 30th avenue north of Save-on-foods.

       I didn't hear anything about chukars until today when someone phoned to say that they had chukar in their back yard. This yard is in the northwest quadrant of the city. The last sighting of the chukars had been in the southeast quadrant of the city.

      So speculation has it that these birds escaped from and exotic bird sale held near the Bower subdivision. My speculation is that these birds are able to survive by taking advantage of bird feeders throughout the winter. This winter was severe with long cold spells and heavy snow cover yet obviously these birds survived. So when you surmise that their natural food would have been well covered, one would have to suspect that they took advantage of feeders,

      I would like to hear from anyone who has information about chukar survival in this area or any other area.

A Correction is Needed

        Now I admit that I am not the most precise and accurate kind of person around. I am not thorough and don't check my facts. My wife uses the "thorough" word all the time in reference to my cleaning performance.

         So one of my more careful thoughtful readers caught me in an error and politely told me where I was wrong.

         I did a piece on Unexpected Connections. In the conclusion I inserted a few lines from one of Roger Miller's songs. I didn't check the line. The line I put in, is not in the song. I made it up! Not on purpose! I just thought that "You can't ride a bicycle in a buffalo herd." was one of the lines. I've been singing this wrong for years!

       So thanks to my skating buddy Bob, for politely pointing out my error. Next time folks , don't let me get away with an error.

The Devastation of Exclusion

          Today I met an acquaintance who I haven't seen very often in the last while. We exchanged greetings and the next topic which came up was "his hobby which has gotten out of control."

          His hobby is genealogy and he has become involved with the provincial group and spends much time on it. As many of you know  you can become totally absorbed in the research of your family history. I admit that I have more than an average interest in family history.

        We had a very pleasant chat and both had difficulty in leaving to go on with other obligations.

        He gave me a website to research to see if I could find more information on my family. I had looked at this website three years ago and had forgotten why I hadn't pursued it . I looked at the website today and put in some of my family names and all of them came back "No records found."  How devastating! It's like we don't even exist! Now I know I'm being overly dramatic. We are a large German family who came from Russia to Manitoba and then Saskatchewan. My great grandfather came with all of his adult children. We did a family tree in the mid 1980's and were able to discover 970 descendants. I was really surprised to see that we were not on this website.

       So being excluded lead me to some other examples of exclusion. I was a junior high school teacher for 37 years. My heart always went out to the little kid who was chosen last or totally left out of a group. Many times a kid came to me close to tears because their birthday was missed in the announcements on the intercom. That was always an easy fix. I would say we'll tell the office right now and a smile would return to the tormented little face.

       My Dad was born in Saskatchewan in 1912. In the early 1960's he wanted to travel to Europe so applied for a pass port. The reply he received was devastating. "Mr. Kline , we have absolutely no record of you!" My Dad thought that his Dad had forgotten to register his birth. My Dad at this time had filed income tax for almost thirty years. My Dad then had to scramble and find records from old school registers to prove his age. In due time he received his pass port. My Dad found the whole issue humorous but nevertheless he had been left out. In later research I found that his Dad was not at fault for forgetting to register him. The birth registrations in Saskatchewan from 1910 to 1912 had many omissions. Deaths and marriages were complete but some how the birth registrations were a complete mess.

      In relation to Dad's story he said , "That's why I never got a letter from the government to join the forces for World War II." If he hadn't applied for a passport he would have found the problem when his old age pension was due.

      So a pleasant chat on genealogy got me off on a tangent about the devastation of being excluded. Some people have enough ego to roll with being excluded and others are completely destroyed.
      

Unexpected Connections

        I started reading a book by one of my favorite authors the otherr day. I had accidentally found "Buffalo" by Grant MacEwan when I was doing the annual inventory for the Red Deer River Naturalists.

       I've got about fifty pages into "Buffalo" and find it one of Grant MacEwan's fascinating tales. One section cover the personality of the buffalo. They can be fairly placid and they can be one of the most fearsome animals you could ever meet. Don't get between a cow and her calf. Give old bulls a wide birth as  they are totally unpredictable. MacEwan does his research well and has excellent anecdotes to illustrate his story.

      This morning I had a long wait in a waiting room. I got talking to the guy beside me. He goes into remote areas as a relief ambulance driver. One of his stories was about his stint  at Fort Chipewyan before Christmas. There is a large herd of free roaming wood buffalo in that area. These buffalo missed the near extermination of the prairie bison and have continued to roam free. The ambulance had to regularly drive through Wood Buffalo National Park. One day they were following a mini van. A half dozen large buffalo bulls were on the road. These bulls own the territory and they were in no hurry to move. The minivan driver tooted the horn. One old bull sauntered over to the mini van , lowered his head and some how caught the fender and the next thing that happened the mini van was turned on its side. The driver of the ambulance asked if he should turn on the siren!!! My friend said don't you dare. This old bull is mad enough already.

      So rather funny how I'm reading a book on buffalo and somebody tells me of an interesting encounter with a buffalo. So it was an unexpected connection.

     After that I got thinking about a line in one of Roger Miller's songs. "Oh you can't ride a bicycle in a buffalo herd. You can't ride a bicycle in a buffalo herd. But you can if you want to. So I had a third connection to buffalo.

    This morning when I woke up this was a post I had no idea of making.

My Love Hate Relationship with Haircuts

         Today I had to get a haircut so that started me thinking about why I like and dislike haircuts.

         When I was a little boy my Dad cut my hair. He had a hand clipper which he probably bought on an auction sale for twenty-five cents. At their best, hand clippers were not technically advanced devices. A user had to really be coordinated or they would pull and I mean pull. As a little fellow I remember shedding lots of tears when I got a haircut. When I was a little kid twenty-five cents for a haircut was a lot of money so haircuts were done at home. My Dad gave a reasonable haircut but he only had one style.

         As I got older we got the odd haircut at a barber shop so we learned that haircuts didn't have to be painful and they looked a little different than Dad's. When I got to high school I usually used my own money to get a haircut and avoid Dad even though he had bought an electric clipper.

         When I lived in the arctic haircuts were a challenge. One settlement had a barber but he was dreadful. The next settlement we lived in my wife cut my hair. We had electric clippers and she tried her very best to do a good job. Her style of cut was worse than Dad's. It was in an isolated area so few people saw me and it was better than nothing.

       When I moved south again there were more choices. I would find a barber to cut hair but my wife would criticise the job. So to please the judge I went from barber to barber. You'd get some good haircuts and some not so good.

      So then my wife persuaded me to let her cut my hair again. This was when hair was long. She did a great job and had the right cut. In her effort to do the perfect job she took a long time. I would whine about the length of time she took.

       So I might say that I have been traumatized when It comes to haircuts. I like the feel of a new haircut but I hate going for the session for my concern of criticism. If I could stand long hair I would avoid haircuts altogether.

      Haircuts ! What a quandary!

Wow! I've Got Some Bare Ground in my Yard

       Yes bare ground! I can hardly remember what it is! So here is a narrow strip of bare ground at the south end of my house. One meter away from the house is still covered with deep snow. Towards the fence the snow is about 60-70 cm.(24 in.) deep.

        April 4th is very late for us to still have snow. Usually all of our snow has disappeared by this date. Usually I have started with the first gardening tasks which around here is raking the grass to loosen the thatch. When raking is done it's time to dig the vegetable garden. Yes, I dig it by hand. I don't have a large area but it does take time.

       I'm hoping with this much bare ground the snow will thaw very quickly. Like everyone else I look forward to warmer temperatures and seeing perennials start. On one side of my house the bluebells have broken through  the ground and a lily of some sort has emerged.

     So I feel like I've really achieved something with a bare strip of ground. It was a very long winter!