JUST TO LET YOU KNOW...

   Just to let you know that in Red Deer Alberta we had snow today!!! Yes, it snowed for about two hours this morning. At one time there was about 2 cm on the ground. It's rained all day...just what we need. It's very dry here.

    There was much more snow in the Rocky Mountains. At higher elevations there was lots of snow.

ELLIS BIRD FARM

   I took my bird watching group to Ellis Bird farm Sat morning. This is an excellent birding site as many things have been implemented to attract birds  and they do it well.

    My birders spotted 27 species  in a little over 2 hours. The biggie was to see a great horned owl and her babes. They are just about ready to leave the  area. It's the first owl I've been able to show my birders. I take them at the wrong time to see owls...10:00 to 12:00 noon.

    So here's some of this beautiful facility.

     This facility uses an original farmstead as it's base. Here's the original home now used as a tea room.

     We can grow tulips.

One of the many ponds

    She has a large purple martin population

   Much of the original farmstead has been kept. Here is the original barnyard.

     Many places have hundreds of nest boxes. They've been used as fund raisers.

     

     I usually don't carry a camera. Many of our birders got some great photos. I've taken the liberty to steal some. The first and third shots are from Lynette. The middle one is from Jurgan

THE FISH STORY

     In my last post I had my photo with a large lake trout that I had caught. I've used this photo before to illustrate my northern experience. A lot went on before I caught the big fish.

      The 24 year old kid having a good time.

     I was hired by the Government of Canada to Teach in Canada's North land in 1963. The Canadian government took over the education system in the early 1950's. They ran things in a very regimented government fashion. In fact at that time a large percentage of the employees were vets.

     So I was required to take an oath to officially make me a civil servant. The next step shows more government organization. As teachers we were given only two weeks of vacation time and the other six weeks that schools were out we were given some kind of employment. The whole thing was kind of a joke.

     I looked forward to this experience. I got a position with stores. I learned a few things about how goods are kept track of from time of ordering to usage. I leaned about purchase orders and a few more standard procedures. It was all dull and boring. I had to put the forms together and file them.

    After a few weeks the stores manager got the bright idea to send me out to the settlements (Really small places) and check the freight that came off the barges. I don't know if the manager didn't like me and just wanted to get rid of me but it as another great experience. During my time out no barges arrived so I had no freight to check. Now I did have plenty of time to fish and that's how I got my big fish. The place I fished was Fort Franklin on Great Bear lake. Look it up. It's hard to believe where I was.I went to three different places and missed the barges. I flew thousands of miles and saw much beautiful countryside.

    After I got back to Inuvik I went south for my two weeks holiday.

    Now arrangements could be made so that you didn't have to work. If you took a summer school class you could get out for the regular two months. The next year I did take a summer school class. The year after that they ended the goofy thing of two weeks holiday and we had the regular two months off.

    Now I often wonder what happened to the oath I made to become a civil servant!!!

A JOB I WISH I HADN'T TURNED DOWN

     I've said  many times that I've lived in the best of times as far as the economy and opportunity for employment is concerned. I was always paid well and had a good choice when it came to finding employment. I applied for one position that I really wanted and didn't get. I wanted to go with CUSO but didn't get accepted.

    Now I was fortunate to be in a large school for most of my time and was given different assignments which made the career interesting.  I was asked to teach industrial Arts once. That would have been way out of my comfort zone. I was also asked to teach music once and that would have been sad. I'm not in the least musical. The guy who offered me that job had not done his homework.

   Now this was teaching! I was on Great Bear Lake and got a chance to do some fishing. This is a 34 pound lake trout. At the time teachers did not get a summer off . We got a two week holiday. However, the pay was very good.

    However, there is one position that I turned down and I have always regretted it. I was very active in the Alberta Teachers Association (ATA) . I was familiar with staff officers. 

    A new president took over. She did not like flying in small planes . She was not comfortable in northern situations. She knew that I had much northern experience and was familiar flying in small planes.  She asked me if I would do her appearances in the northern part of Alberta. I turned it down very quickly . It would have meant being away from home for quite a bit of time. It would have meant extra work as I would have to make sub plans and sometimes I would get home very late and have to teach the next day. I also felt that the northern people deserved to have the president visit them. 

     So at the time it was easy to not accept the position. Over the years I've continued the think that it would have been a very interesting position. Bonnie was president for her two year term and then my job would have been over. I have regrets about not taking the job but I know it was the right thing to do.

    So have you had to turn down a very interesting opportunity?

SPRING IS STILL ON THE WAY

   Here are a few photos to show that spring is still on the way. We've had two weeks of cool weather...highs of around 10 C (50 F) or less. We also had light frosts many nights. Plants develop very slowly under these conditions. The last two days we've had highs of 20 C (70 F). Things start to move quickly. Very few tree species have leafed out.

The Nanking cherry is almost finished blooming

 The peony has grown about a foot in two days

 The bleeding heart has some early blooms

 These two photos show the same tree almost 2 months apart.

HELP CENTERS !

    Many things that you buy today push the fact that they have a help center you can contact if you need any assistance with the product you just purchased. Tech products use this line to promote their products.

    A couple of weeks ago I noticed that my printer wouldn't work. I delayed doing anything about it for a couple of weeks. Then I checked to see if there was anything obvious that I could fix. Then I checked my product information. These two things did not help. I have a small Brother printer which I like.

    After looking for a phone number I ran across a live chat site offering help. I hate live chat when it's email and all conversion has to be typed.

    Well what could I do. It was the only option I had. I had discovered that my computer did not have my printer as an option to choose. So I thought that because I had a good idea what was wrong that it would be easy to fix by using Live Chat. 

   I got on Wed morning with Aya. He had me reprogram my wireless even after I told him that when I checked the connection was termed OK. The next two things I couldn't follow so He got on my computer and put my printer  on the list. He also left updated driver being downloaded. I asked if he was sure that this would work and ,"Oh yes . It'll print." Later in the day I checked the printer and you guessed it! It wouldn't print.

    So Thur I was right back on live chat with Christine. She seemed to know what she was doing but she had me do the same thing over again. Her excuse was that she wanted to check the connection. I did a test page and it printed. So I was really happy! I've got my printer back again I thought!

   Well later in the day I tried to print the document I wanted and you guessed it , it didn't print.

   Well since I thought I knew what was wrong I decided to look around.

   The first thing I bungled in to was choice of printer. My printer was not the choice. There was a drop down menu that I clicked on and voila there was my printer. I clicked on it and went back to the print page. I tried printing the document and hey it printed.

    So I'm not very pleased with the help center. Next time I will risk trying some options before I look for help. Does this sound familiar to anybody?

THIS IS A LONG WEEKEND FOR US

      This is  long weekend for us. It's   had a few changes along the way. 

    Originally this was a week end to celebrate Queen Victoria's birthday. For a while it was celebrated on the exact date of Queen Victoria's birthday.

    After Queen Victoria died it became the time to celebrate the reigning monarch's birthday. That was a bit of a stretch as monarch's kept changing.  It's still the day to celebrate the present monarch's birthday. However, nothing happens in any way as a celebration of the birthday.

    Now the name has changed unofficially a bit. Many people just call it the May long weekend. In some places it's called a may two four  referencing a case of beer. It's the first long weekend of the season so most people look at it as an opportunity to get out and have fun

   The actual day has been mandated as the Monday before May 25.

   Most people look forward to this weekend as the first camping holiday of the season. Now here's where the water gets muddy. This is still early in the season so in many cases the weather is very poor. I've camped in the snow a few times on this weekend until I gave up trying to camp. 

   It can be awesome weather. The first time the Micro Manager and I camped on this weekend was 1967 and it was awesome weather. However, we were the only people in the campground. We rented a canoe and paddled all day on the lake.

   The present weather is very dull. We're supposed to get some rain and towards the Rocky Mountains it's supposed to snow.

    What am I doing this long week end? Well, of course , I'm staying home! 

    For those Canadians who've gone out camping , have a fun week end.