ANOTHER TUQUE

      This is the photo I wanted when I posted the last photo. There's the tuque and the heavy fur trimmed mitts. 

     This is late September when we were on the Mackenzie river moving to the shores of the Beaufort sea. We had a fast open boat and water was splashing over the windshield. I don't look very happy as it was miserable and we were tenting over night.

    We went back the next day and the river was low so we couldn't find a deep enough channel to get through. It got dark so we slept on the boat. The next morning (Monday) with daylight we easily found a channel and got home around noon. The vice principal was with us so we didn't get into any trouble for being away. 

OKAY, THE REAL TUQUE

     Debby, from Life's Funny Like That asked (dared) me to find the real tuques and post a photo. 

    Well , that's not really a dare. The hardest part was to find a photo. Now along with the dare she's going to get a story. 

   The photo is when I was attempting to ice fish on Dolomite lake(Airport Lake)  about Nov. of 1965. Airport lake is just below the runway of the Inuvik airport. Now I don't remember catching any fish while ice fishing but I did catch lots of fish in the summer. We probably didn't put enough time in to catch fish in the winter. 

     The ice was about one ft thick by that time of year. You used a special bar to punch through the ice until you hit the water. The hole would be about 6 in. in diameter. There were quite a few species of fish in the lake and a good population. 

   These tuques had a habit of shrinking as they were washed. They were of thick heavy wool and very warm. The head is the first part of the body to cool off. Keep your head warm and your whole body stays warm. 

MY NEW TOUQUE

    John from John's Island dared me to display a photo of my Winner's Edge tuque which I said I wouldn't wear . So here it is. My point is that it's tacky as it has a commercial logo. 

    So here's the terrible photo. Terrible angular background. Too much orange color. But then I didn't take the photo. The photographer will remain nameless. 

     Besides, this is not a real tuque. Real tuques are round have layers of red and white to the top where there is a tassel. 

    So I've always worn a tuque in the winter . There are tuques in the house that I've forgotten about. 

    The seal skin background is a genuine seal skin that we bought from the Inuit hunter for $5.00. It was never tanned . 

SMALL THINGS KEEP YOU BUSY

      I've been busy lately. Busy with small things that drive you crazy because of lack of knowledge. 

     My ear bud issue has been on the back burner because other things took priority. I finally got to the ear buds and ran a trouble shoot program and they said I was good to go and they meant it. I now have my new ear buds functioning. 

    I got the SD card issue solved. You were right to say don't buy a store warranty. The SD card cost $14.00 and they wanted $5.00 for a two year warranty. I hope they go broke trying to sell that one. 

    Now I thought I'd find out how dumb I am when comes to computers. I picked up a book in the library called Windows 10 for Seniors. Guess what. Half of the printing is so small that I can't read it. I have my new magnifying glass out and some of it I still can't read because not only is it small but pastele colors are used. 

    However , I'm still learning things. Next time I go to the library, I'll look for a better book on windows 10. 

    Did I tell you that I got a new super duper magnifying glass. Yes, I got a nice magnifying glass form the Casino in a goody bag. There were several other items. I don't think I'll wear the touque  with Winners Edge on it!

COMPLICATIONS

      Finding out that my SD card was not working was easy. The second step in checking showed me the SD card was not working. To check if the card was faulty I put in an old card. The old card worked perfectly.

      So off to the store (Staples) to buy a  new SD card. Oh wait! I checked the package and the non functioning card had a ten year warranty. I bought the card three years ago. So I felt better already.

     When I got to the store , they explained that the 10 year warranty was the company's warranty and not the stores. The proper way to process this warranty was to check the company. Oh! Oh! But they said they could work something out for me. This is where it got complicated. the store would give me my money on a gift card. I could use the gift card to buy an new SD card or anything else in the store. So  I bought a new card. I still had $1.05 left over. The new card had a one year company warranty. 

     Then they wanted to know if I wanted to purchase a store warranty on the new SD card. The store warranty was $5.00 for 2 years. The new card cost 11.99. So do these boys know how to make money. 

    So is anybody still following me on this deal? It took me a while to get this through my head and if I did this again it would be a different choice. 

   

SNOW

      Three or four days ago we received 3 or 4 cm. of snow. It was gentle and fresh.

      There was lots of snow to shovel and it was pleasant to be outside. What was extra special were the flocks of geese flying south. 

      At this time of year we have many local geese flying out to the fields to feed. The ponds have many geese. But these geese meant business. They were fairly high up and flying directly south. These are northern geese. The ice has frozen solid where they have been hanging around. They will fly south until they find bodies of water that are ice free and empty of other geese that they might have to compete with. 

    Only very small ponds are frozen over here.  Anything bigger than my yard is clear of ice. 

    Now it was pleasant to see these geese fly over , but I know that there are millions more hanging around. The big migration happens when we get the first deep freeze. Temperatures about the minus 20 C will persuade most geese to move south where they will find food and open water. I remember one boxing day when the flights of geese were almost continuous.

    We do not have cold temperatures in the forecast so geese will be here for a while. Some geese stay here all winter using spots in the river that don't freeze over. 

   Sorry! No photos! I have replaced the card in my camera and ready to take photos.  

FIFTY YEARS

     Today I received a pin in the mail from the University of Saskatchewan acknowledging my graduation fifty years ago. It seems like yesterday that I was still taking courses.

     Most of my university courses were taken in summer school. Teachers would spend their summer taking a course and then teach to make a living. 

    I had to take one year on campus in order to graduate. I took my one year and did not participate in any University activities. For many students , they were heavily involved in university activities. 

    So today when I got my pin acknowledging 50 years I do not have the great memories other students had as they participated in many activities. 

    Now I finished another  degree in 1968 . No celebration for that degree. I did attend the convocation for my 1968 degree. I skipped the convocation for the 1974 degree. 

    So the pin does bring back some memories. 

    No photos as I thought I had fixed my camera. I discovered that the card was not working so I'll have to get another card. 

    

BAD LUCK

      Well, I ran into a little bad luck this week. I only had two issues of bad luck so I'm waiting for the third bad luck happening.

       I decide to change the ceru disks on my hearing aids. These disks are meant to trap the ear wax before it gets in the hearing aid. I've always had trouble with this procedure. You are given a device which is to take out the old disk and put in a new one. I tried and I couldn't get it and finally gave up. When I put the hearing aids back on the right one didn't work! The stress level went out the roof. Hearing aids are costly and I was much afraid that I had broken something. 

      The next morning I was looking in a drawer and found something that I was not familiar with. At first I couldn't even open it. When I did get it open I was surprised to find a different gismo to change the disks. I tried it and it worked like a charm. So the stress evaporated instantly. I forgot that I had been given this device as it would be better than the old one.

      Yesterday was a fine day so I decided to walk and take some photos. When I tried to take the first photo the camera didn't work. Lights came on and an image was in the view finder but the camera would not click and take the photo. This blew my stress level up as I thought the camera was finished. 

      When I got home I decided to check the batteries. What had happened was not like dead batteries. For dead batteries the camera turns off no warning. 

     Well, I changed the batteries and guess what? Problem solved. 

    Stress is over. So I didn't get photos for this post.

    So I'm anxious again. Isn't bad like supposed to come in threes?

I MADE A MISTAKE

     I pulled my camera out the other day to go hunting geese. Well, you saw the photos of the geese.

    But I heard a click when I was getting the camera ready. I had accidentally squeezed the button.

    When I was checking photos later , I looked at one photo and couldn't make out what happened. It took a while before it made sense. There were dark shadows. There was bright light and other things that were not recognizable.

    I will say the photo is interesting but that's all. 

GOLD RUSH

      Spoiler alert. This is a teacher story.

      In education there are many different philosophies  that come and go. Anybody remember the open class concept? Remember the pods? Pods were supposed to limit the number of different teachers kids were exposed to. 

     Well, our school was organized into pods and it worked quite well. The pod I was in had four gr seven classes. I had an assignment of three language arts classes and one math and some options.

    We got the idea that we would take all 120 kids out for an all day field trip. We decided to take them to Fort Normandeau which is a nearby heritage site on the Red Deer River. . This  was where the first white people came to the area. At that area you could ford the Red Deer River. You could walk across, ride your pony across or drive your horses and wagon across. 

     Today there has be development on the site so that there is a credible museum of western history, theater, replica of the old fort and stopping house. 

    We divided the kids into groups and assigned them activities to take part in. Of course , being teachers we made them record what they learned and thought. 

    One of our caretakers had the hobby of gold panning. Small amounts of gold have always been found on the Red Deer river. Glayde got gold pans from the club and showed kids how to pan for gold. Kids did find the odd fleck of gold or bit of gold dust. I can still see their faces today when Glayde showed them that they had a tiny piece of gold. Of course, we had not prepared the kids to take small bits of gold back home so there was some stress until we found some envelopes.  . 

    Of course , we had a big hot dog lunch and in the afternoon we took four bus loads of very tired and dirty kids back to the school. 

    This is just one part of the complex. This is a replica of the original fort and trading post. 

A GOOSE FIX TODAY

     Today was a beautiful warm fall day. It's the first time all summer that I've had a chance to get out to one of my favorite places. The geese were there to put on a show for me. About thirty geese were gathered in front of a bench. They stayed and chattered. I think they were commenting about me not giving them a handout. All summer people would sit at this spot and feed the geese.

     Since they clustered around the bench I took some photos. I always have to get a few photos of Canada geese. 

ON TURNING 85

      Recently I had my 85th birthday. So as usual for my birthday some reflection happens. I'm not sure if to laugh or cry! It's a time of some mixed emotions.

     I look back at some old photos and one would not get that the two photos are of the same person!

    Well, the good thing is that I'm still here. Not only am I still here but in reasonably good health. I don't have any medications that are crucial to keep me going except the seizure medication. When I went to emergency with my nose bleed, I was asked over and over if I was in blood thinners. I'm fortunate to have a blood pressure of 120 over something!

     I am also fortunate to be very physically active. I look after my own yard. But I do not do the handyman thing anymore. I'm not allowed to climb ladders anymore. Yesterday I walked 6 kilometers. 

    I still enjoy natural history activities. 

    I'm fortunate to have three wonderful younger brothers. I'm fortunate to have a Micro Manager who looks after things. I also have a son and daughter who I care about. It's very pleasant to look back at life with my family.

    So all in all, it's not bad being 85. Everybody should have the chance to be 85. 

I'VE HAD ENOUGH POLITICS

      This week the CBC has started "in depth" coverage of the American election. Now I had over kill a couple of months ago with the American election. No offense intended about the election.

     Now CBC is our national station and presents much different programming than commercial stations. I listen to it all the time.

    So teams of broadcasters have been set up all over the main areas of the US to "give us the background" on what they think are key areas and  policies.

    With that, many of the usual programs are cancelled. 

    What I find particularly offensive is the handling of the truth by the political parties. Parties have always skillfully used slant to make their policies appealing. Now they just plain out lie about things. 

    I saw a picture of an interesting cap that said Make lying wrong again. Wouldn't that be great.

   However in a short time all the shenanigans of the last year will be over and the fight will begin as to who won. So apparently counting of votes doesn't show who wins. Some people think that people can't count and for sure machines can't count. 

   Machine counting is very easy and accurate. You take the ballots and records  to head quarters. There are a few checks and balances and then the ballots are put in the machine and the count is spit out. 

   So I will have to enjoy some more election time. 

READING

           I don't think I would have much disagreement if I say that reading is a skill that all must have.  I taught at the middle school level and many think that the time to learn to read is long past. At that age each student has a different reading level. They have certain skills that are strong and missing or weak in other skills. 

        I learned how to administer one reading test. Mostly I tested the strategies kids. The strategies group activities  taught reading and the teacher wanted to know what areas needed work. 

       I think that all teachers and subject areas should make an effort to teach reading skills. 

      The odd kid in my school was a very avid reader and when the teacher wasn't looking they would read. I thought that for language arts if you let a kid read they would learn what was on the course of studies. Now the math teachers didn't like kids reading in their math class and it's true that kids wouldn't learn much math by reading. However , if I ask most adults today to divide fractions they are not able to do it. If I asked most adults to factor trinomials , they would look at me as if they had never heard about them. If I asked about grammar they would have very little idea. 

      So I'm getting to my point. I had one or two of those kids who wanted to read all the time. I let them. 

     Now one of these parents with a kid who always read came in for an interview. They were very concerned about this kid reading all the time. Other teachers had complained. I gave them my opinion that the kid would learn just as much from reading as following the class. It so happens that the Dad as our local MLA  (Member of the legislature) The Dad bought into this idea. But one look at Mom's face told me that she did not agree. A compromise was reached and I would make sure the kid followed the lesson. 

    For people who are avid readers life long learning happens for their  whole life. 

THE VISIT

      For my last three years of teaching I had 37 students plus or minus two or three in my classes. I had only 34 desks as the room was too full with 37 desks. 

     Quite often, for the last period of the week I would have a 42 minute reading period and sometimes we did cross word puzzles. We did one puzzle as a class and the second puzzle they could find a partner and do the puzzle with someone. The crossword puzzles as a class were fun. I would say one across and someone would shout out an answer. This continued and then some little guy would get behind in filling in the answers and I would repeat the answers which added to the mayhem. 

   When all students were present I had to improvise for space. So kids could always sit on the back counter. They liked sitting at my desk. And sometimes kids would sit on the floor. I didn't use the desk during class time. I had a stool and lectern at the front of the room. 

    One day the principal came in the room. This was quite common. This time there were six or seven people who followed the principal. The Education minister was in town and requested a school tour.   The minister and his assistants were brought to our school. The Principal obliged and took them on a little school tour. Nothing was preplanned. They just went all over the place including my classroom. 

    So the kids were quiet and reading. One little guy was on the floor. Who did the minister decide to interact with but the little guy on the floor. The minister knelt down beside the kid and began to talk to the kid about his book. 

    The whole group breezed around the classroom for five or ten minutes and left. 

    The superintendent was the last to leave and quietly said to me, "He  didn't notice how crowded your classroom was."

KILLING FROST

     Two nights ago we had a frost which I thought was about minus 2 C. However, as the day went on there did not appear to be any plant damage. In fact. two little volunteer tomatoes were healthy.

    At this time of year there can be warmth from the ground so freezing does not occur close to the ground. 

    So a killing frost is one that severely damages annuals and perennials. Many annuals and perennials have ceased activity but with a killing frost damage is done to plant vessels and activity in the plant stops. 

   Now there are some perennials that are very hardy. Today , I did my last yard clean up. The plants were finished. The peonies were not active. The grass would be active if we had moisture. Irises and lilies have been dormant for a while.

    However, tonight we get a low of minus 5 C. That should cook everything. About 50% of leaves are on the trees so a heavy frost and the leaves drop very quickly.

    So gardening for 2024 is over. We just have some clean up left. 

    

BIG NUMBERS

     So the big number here is about age. I mentioned my brother's age and it's very senior although he might disagree with me.

    Coming to this age, there should be some very important decisions made. I can't make those decisions. 

    We've looked at five senior residences. There's a wide variety of accommodations and prices. We know the one we would chose and have given them our name. These are two bedroom with small living room and a few kitchen facilities but not enough to live there and do your own cooking. You eat at the facility. So for around $4000.00 a month you have your accommodation and food. There also could be some care.

     So what's my problem. I like my house and yard! I get pleasure out of growing a garden and watching other plants develop.

     Well, I have a second problem which is bigger than the first. We have a lot of "stuff". Some one is finding it very hard to part with the stuff. Over the years we've got rid of big stuff and lots of little stuff too but there's still an amazing amount here. So the longer we wait, the more likely the decision will be forced upon us. 

    So I'm not looking for advice. I know what to do but I have put some roadblocks in the way. 

    Meanwhile, life is good. 

IRISH TWINS

       Many times at this time of year I have commented that I'm an Irish twin. That means that my mother had 2 children within one year. So my brother was born 11 months and 2 weeks after I was born. Also my sister was born a year and three months after my brother. So my mom had three children and the oldest was two years and three months old. 

      So today is my brother' 84th birthday and I am still 84 but turning 85 in a couple of weeks. 

     It's my opinion, that Irish twins are more active and twin like than actual twins. We were very active and full of mischief. Since there were three of us , I think my brother and I had to learn to take care of ourselves and each other when we were very young. 

                                          I'm looking after Merce

First day of school for gr one and two.

                                   The three of two years and 3 months apart. 

     When my brother was young he was commonly called Merce. There are still a couple of people today who call him Merce . Where did that name come from? His brother (me) couldn't say Myrven. The closest I got was Merce and Merce stuck. 

     Our house was very small. The bedroom we had wasn't much bigger than the bed. We didn't have separate beds until we were 13 or 14. 

     Anyway this is a way to say happy brother to my Irish twin.

MORE GOLDEN FALL

      I looked out this morning and there were some bright fall colors. We've had high winds but the leaves didn't let go. 

OCTOBER SONGS

      Well it's beautiful day and it's the first of October. I read Denise's blog An English Girl Rambles from 2016.... and she had poems and photos about how great fall is. She also had a good poem or two about October.

      So she got me thinking. Are there any songs about October. I thought very hard but I could not come up  with and October song. 

     So what to do? Well google. To my surprise there are many, many songs about October. 

     I found  site with songs  about October. Most of them were modern tunes performed by some well known modern singers. 

    1. October song - Amy Winehouse

    2. October U-2

    3 October - Alessia Cara

    4 We fell in love in October Girlin Rea

    5 October Sun - Matt Berry

     So there , I didn't know much but I know a few things now. 

    Now there are also some important people with October birthdays but that will have to come later. 

 

FALL COLORS

       There have been a number of excellent photos on leaves recently. It's very appropriate because of the fall season.

        These photos reminded me of some school activities about 75 years ago.

        I had an excellent teacher for grades 3,4 and 5. She was far ahead of her time when it came to excellent learning projects. One of them was on leaves. 

       The whole class of 17 from gr one to nine would spend an hour or two wondering around off the schoolyard collecting leaves for a project. So in this little field trip we observed many different plants. She didn't know the names but we observed plants. 

      I think my technique for this has weakened but I hope you can see the outline of a leaf. 

      When we got back to the classroom we chose leaves to make a tracing with our pencils. Of course, we had to arrange the leaves in an interesting manner. Then she displayed our works. We did not have a bulletin board and I don't think scotch tape had been invented yet. Thumb tacks were used to attach our work to the wall. 

      So my teacher evaluation hat says that she could teach many things with just one item. Every moment to her was a teachable moment. 

MY STREET THIS WEEK

      

 

THE COMING OF FALL

     The coming of fall is a mixed experience for me. There are some good things and some bad things all in due time. We had very warm weather and then in two days it turned cold and we had light frosts. 

     I have anxiety when fall is on the way. Fall means freezing. Freezing of plants. We talk about a killing frost. That means that most plant activity is over. I worry about that first frost. I always have plants that I want another week or 10 days out of. 

    Once that killing frost is over , the anxiety is gone. I can now enjoy fall with all it's color and wonderful smells. 

    The sun is paler as it moves deeper south. 

    I like fall activities. I like cleaning up my yard with all the plants that need to be taken care of. Regular summer gardening activities are over.

    Fall is a beautiful season with awesome color. 

    I liked fall on the farm. I liked harvesting , running combines and  hauling grain. Harvesting took a long time as there had to be dry conditions. I liked running the tractor doing the fall field work. I also got to stay out of school for about 6 weeks.

     I phoned my 83 year old brother about 10 days ago and he was out running a combine for one of his sons. I phoned him first and there was no answer. He knew I was calling but he couldn't see in the dark to  press the right buttons. 

e SUPERVISION OF CHILDREN

     My favorite CBC morning show had a segment about supervising your children electronically. I knew that development in this field was on going so it shouldn't have surprised me at how highly developed supervising children by internet has come. 

     So your kid has a phone and daddy has the supervisory program and away we go. You know where the kid is at all times and if he/she is not where they're supposed to be then all hell breaks loose. 

     So with this program you know where the kid is in the school. You know if he/she is in the right classroom. You know if he/she is at  Freddie's house and not George's house. You know if the child is walking home and exactly where he/she is. 

    So the question is , is this much supervision necessary? Is this much supervision good for the child? Does this take away the good old discussion with parents about responsibility? Does this give kids a chance to learn to be independent? When do you stop following little Johnny? 

     There must be some way around this rigid supervision and trust me kids will find it. So you've given the kid an opportunity to practice being devious. 

     My kids grew up in the seventies and were free range kids. They look back at the fun they had and the responsibilities they learned. 

      I grew up in the 40's on a farm  with very little supervision. We were active all day and had many learning experiences. 

     I'll admit that I was a devious little fellow. That characteristic in me is whirling around to see how I could beat the system. 

     When my brother and I were growing up on the farm we quite often roved around the country in some Dad's car. Dad got tired of us coming home late. One day he said, " If your not home by ten PM, I'll put a knife in the door and you can't get in the house." We'd lost the key to the house door so a knife was used. 

      My brother carefully left his bedroom window open above the garage roof. Easy , peasy. He got in the house. I just went to the door and found that it was not locked. 

     So there is much more to think about with electronic supervision and raising children.

MY FAVORITE RANT

       I have ranted before about call centers and their poor service. It seems like the wait time for your call answer gets longer and longer.

      Today the micro manager was waiting for an hour and 20minutes.

      That did it. Something has to be done. We can't spend that much of our lives waiting for call centers to answer.

      So here's my suggestion. Call centers have to be hit in the pocket book so that it hurts.

     My suggestion is that regulations should be made governing call centers. Give them 5 minutes to answer a call. If it takes them longer than 5 to answer then they pay for every minute past 5. So charge them so much a minute for time past 5 minutes.  A dollar a minute ? It would have cost them $75.00 for being slow this afternoon. As you can see there are several different options for a scheme like this. 

     We  all complain about call centers but do nothing about it. So lets get loud and suggest some solutions. 

TIME AWAY

      I've been away for a few days. I admit that I have not read blogs or commented. 

       I had the mother of all nose bleeds on Thursday  morning. I was off to the bathroom about 1 AM and felt a drip fall from my nose. When I got to the bathroom and got the light on my hand had lots of blood on it. I tried to stop it and saw that the bleeding was continuing very rapidly. I called the Micro Manager for help. We quickly decided we had to call the ambulance.

    The paramedic tried pinching the nostril and using a gauze plug. Nothing helped. 

    They decided it was emergency for me. So out I went out  to the drive way in sock feet and boxers. The paramedic pinched my nose all the way to the hospital and while I was waiting for a bed. Then they put a clamp on my nose which stopped the bleeding but didn't cure things. 

     About 4 AM they inserted an inflatable plug. It wasn't nice but stopped the blood flow. 

    I was released  about 10AM. I didn't have glasses or hearing aids. I didn't have shoes. The micro manager sent up a shirt, pants and jacket. I couldn't get the shirt over my head. So I was on my way home with no shoes or shirt. 

    So it was a long sleepless confusing night.

    I went back Sat AM  and got the packing out and fortunately the bleeding had stopped. It was a treat that a  former student was in the ER and looked after me.

    So it was a miserable time with lack of sleep, worry, loss of blood and a darn hard hospital bed to lie on for 10 hours. 

   Aren't you lucky that I'm not showing icky photos? 

    

MANNERLY KIDS

      I've been pleasantly surprised lately be some very mannerly kids. It takes kids a while to get their mannerly skills polished up. Some of them never make it. For that matter many adults do not have the mannerly skills when dealing with others. 

     A woman introduced one of her sons to me and he said, "Pleased to meet you Red." I was very pleased to hear his reply and wondered where it came from. I will find out.

   Last night an eight or nine year old girl road by me on her bike . She greeted me and then said, "Have a nice evening." It felt special and again I wondered what the parent had done so that this child was so mannerly. 

   Tonight I went to a bench to get something out of my shoe. An Asian kid was there and greeted me. As I went to leave he said, "Have a nice evening sir."

    These replies from young people impress me and I hope it's a sign that parents are teaching good behavior and manners. Kids with these skills have much more confidence in themselves and we have fewer problems in society.

I DID IT!

      As most of you know I quite often eat at the local casino. The food is good and the price is right. I don't gamble. As time goes by we've met others who play the same game. Today , one of my former students, who is a senior had lunch with us. Calvin and I filled out the card for the seniors Wednesday draw of $500.00. We have won the senior draw three times so it pays for some meals.

     Three weeks ago the Micro Manager won the senior draw. We had also been filling in free rickets for a shopping trip. The shopping spree was worth $500.00 but what I didn't know it that there were 40 smaller prizes with the draw. So after they phoned the micro Manager I got a phone call telling me that I won a set of ear buds. 

    So now , what do I do with the ear buds. You can't just stick them in your ears and listen to music. Charging has to be done. The case is charged and the case charges the ear buds. So I found that out by trial and error. I had to pair the ear buds with blue tooth. There are voice prompts which I couldn't really hear. 

    I got the ear buds paired but they kept going off and on. I repaired them. Through that operation I found out that I was putting my fingers over the LEDs and was accidentally turning things off and on. 

    So once I had all these things sorted out, I was ready to listen to music on you tube. 

    It takes many mistakes for me to get it right. 

IT FINALLY HAPPENED

       When I was raising my kids we did not have a pet in the house or out of the house.

      So you guessed it. When the kids went out on their own they got dogs that lived with them in the house. 

     My son's first dog was a beagle and that was a challenge. His second dog was a beautiful calm lab. 

     My daughter's first dog was a spunky mini schnauzer. It kept you entertained all day. Her latest dog is of a mysterious pedigree but it's small.

     Small dogs seem to like chasing squirrels. The Schnauzer never missed chasing a squirrel. Her present dog also never misses an opportunity to chase squirrels. 

    A few days ago my daughter was sitting in the porch to keep cool. The dog was with them. My daughter saw a squirrel so tried to alert the dog to the presence of the squirrel. The dog beat it around the house and back completely missing the presence of the squirrel. . Okay my daughter tried again to show the squirrel and this time the dog caught on and chased the squirrel. Wonder of wonders the dog caught the squirrel. My daughter was surprised and horrified that the little squirrel had been caught. The dog had a very surprised look and let the squirrel go much to my daughter's relief. 

    So dog and owner were surprised that it finally happened that the dog caught a squirrel. 

    I wonder if the dog will keep chasing squirrels? 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD

      Yesterday was Dad's birthday and he would have been 112.

      Dad was born in a clay house 7 years after the family came to Saskatchewan to homestead. They had dirt floors. He liked the little clay house that was warm in winter and cool in summer. These were the same clay houses which were built in Russia and the Ukraine. 

     Of course, what better name to give a little baby born in August but August. So Dad was Emil August. The e in German was pronounced as long a. His mother in law who was English tormented him that it should pronounced with a long e. 

     Birth registrations in Saskatchewan from 1910 to 1912 were some how lost. When Dad applied for a passport in the 1960's the reply was, Mr Kline, we have never heard of you. That meant that he had to go through a procedure to prove has age. Dad was a little miffed as he had been paying income tax for close to 30 years. 

    He had never received a call to join the forces in the Second world war. So this explained why the army didn't find him.

SNOW

       I must admit that I like the comments I get when I talk about snow. This will be my first snow post for this  fall.

       I was shocked the other day when I heard a forecast for snow in the mountains.

      I live about 100 km from the Rocky Mountains. Most of the elevation in this huge range is from 8000 feet to 10000 feet. A few peaks are higher like beautiful Mount Robson. 

     Their are many glaciers that have been there for thousands of years. All summer at the higher elevations you will get fresh snow.

     So the forecast of snow was not out of the ordinary. Where I live we had a high of 24.

     But the snow does remind me that fall is on the way and then winter. 

     This is a peak in Montana which I think was 11000 feet. I climbed this one on a hot afternoon. Getting on the peak was a little tricky. I hope John will recognize this peak and give me he name. 

OLE

      We paid our respects and final good byes to Ole this week. 

      I taught with Ole for at least 25 years. Every day he came to work and worked hard. He taught math and wanted every student to succeed to the best of their ability. 

     Ole was a very large gentle man who could occasionally get riled up when there was justification. He was patient for most of his life. 

     Stories about Ole would fill a book and Ole could tell stories that would fill a book.

    Ole remained single and had one brother who was married with children. Ole worshipped all of them. He took the whole family to tour Europe for 2 weeks. He took all of them to Hawaii and Disneyland.

    When we went on school retreats Ole would request me for a room mate before any planning was done. He said, "Red doesn't drink!" What he actually meant was Red doesn't party. 

     Ole was very active in the community and sports. It's cool that he was the PA announcer for the base ball club. When he was younger he played base ball and was a very competitive bowler. 

      Cool that the funeral celebrant had been a student of Ole's. 

       One time it was rumored that there would be a fight between some kids in our school and the next door school. The principal asked Ole and I to keep an eye on the yard and if anything happened we were to look after it. Kids did show up so out we went. Ole with his hands behind his back and a very gentle confident smile. We stood there and after a few minutes everybody went their own way and the excitement was over. I didn't do a thing but Ole did. 

     I will remember him and I can still hear his voice. 

A SURPRISE SMELL!

        I woke up 3 or 4 times last night and a couple of times I noticed a different smell. It was  pleasant smell but I couldn't identify it.

      When I got up this morning and my head cleared up, I thought about the smell. Then it hit me! I was smelling fresh air with no smoke. So all summer we've had smoke from the fires. It's a long time since we didn't have smoke. 

     We still have many fires but no big ones. Fall is a fire season so it won't be long until there's more smoke.

    You don't realize what the smoke is doing to you. I'm outside most of the time. I don't think you beat the smoke by staying in the house with doors and windows closed.

    The people in Jasper were allowed back in the town 2 or 3 days ago. The ones who lost everything had a look at the damage and then there's nothing more they can do until insurance is settled. The other people have lots of cleaning to do. Deep freezes and fridges have t be thrown away as the power was off. The caretakers were working in the school for the summer. They had windows open and had to leave quickly so the windows were left open so the school is a mess. The kids may be bussed to Hinton for a while.

    So that's enough on fire for a while. 

OLD JACK

       I grew up in the 40's and 50's on the Saskatchewan prairie. At that time quite a bit of the land was not developed.

      Most farmers had a dog...a farm dog. This dog was supposed to do work for the farmer by herding cattle. Very few dogs herded cattle because they had not been trained. The farmers didn't know how to train the dogs. Most of them were border collies. 

     The other thing the dog did was to act as a guard dog. They were hit and miss at this job too. They barked like crazy when the neighbors came on the yard. They sniffed all four tires and then left their own stink to be taken home by the car to the neighbor dog.

         These dogs stayed outdoors all the time. Some farmers had a dog house for the dog but most of the time the dog looked after itself. Most of the time they slept on the step. These dogs did not come in the house. As kids we thought it was ridiculous that a dog would be in the house. 

       We had a great old border collie by the name of Jack. An uncle gave us this dog and he had trained it reasonably well. But Jack had some issues. Jack would chase every rabbit on the farm. He would go bounding through the brush yelping as if he had been only half shot. He would come when called from this activity.

     You just had to say the word car and Jack was at the car door. Jack thought that any vehicle that moved on the yard meant a ride for him. He liked riding on the tractor all day. Why? When a rabbit bounded up in front of the tractor Jack leaped off the tractor in a dangerous way to chase the rabbit. One day Jack didn't quite make the leap off the tractor. The tractor ran over Jacks hind end. He was yelping for a different reason. He was very sore and in pain for a few days but he survived. Fortunately the soil was soft and he was not injured badly .

    Of all the farm dogs we had Jack was the best. 

    

OOPS

     When I finished high school, I got a job on the railroad for ten weeks before I started Teacher's College. The pay was a dollar an hour. So I received $40.00 a week and worked for 10 weeks so that was exactly $400.00. My whole year of Teacher's College cost $700.00. 

     I was on the section gang which was a crew of 2 -4 who looked after about 7 to  8 miles of track. We inspected the whole section every morning. We did all kinds of maintenance . I liked the work as it was outdoors and physical. 

   It was in the days before diesel locomotives were used. Steam engines pulled the trains. There were two passenger trains a day and 3 or 4 freights a day. 

   There was a routine when trains went by. We usually new what time the trains were due and would be off the tracks waiting. We had to look at all wheels as the train rolled by. 

    One day after lunch we were doing what was called trimming. The west passenger train went by shortly after lunch. All of a sudden I heard the boss yelling at me and waving for me to look the other way. The passenger train was coming. It was very close! Maybe 300 meters. I stepped off the tracks and it wasn't very many seconds that the train went by. By this time it was whistling to attract my attention. 

   That was a close one and has stayed with me all my life. It was just too close.

    Steam engines coming toward you were fairly quiet. Particularly  the large locomotives that pulled passenger trains. Passenger trains travelled at a high speed. 

   The three other crew members had to stop and collect their thoughts for a few minutes after this close one. The boss wasn't happy with me and he let me know it. I still think of how I disappointed the crew as far as safety was concerned. 

A CONFUSING DAY

       Around here, I get the groceries. The micro Manager does the shopping. In other words, the Micro Manager decides what to buy. Her shopping depends entirely on fliers and specials. She doesn't make a menu for the week and then buy groceries to fit the menu. She matches to the max. Unfortunately the Micro Manager is not physically able to run around stores and pick things up. 

      This morning I started out with a list for 5 stores. My plan was to only go to two stores. With these restrictions in finding groceries to fit the list it can get confusing. Grocery stores don't make it easy. There's a hot price but it's for one item only. I got caught an that one this morning. 

     So there I was trying to find out which store had cookies on sale and whether this store would match or not. They didn't match. Same with the crackers. Oh yes pick up my frozen stuff last. Just remember , I was 80 when I first bought groceries. 

     So needless to say I was a bit stressed by the time I finished the groceries.

     As I was at customer service they asked me if my wife was in the store . Well no,  but there was an Asian lady who fell and cut her leg.  As I was leaving customer service another employee rushed up to me and asked if my wife was in the store. I just got out the door and another employee rushed up. I wondered , what have I stolen now? She also wanted to know if I had a wife in the store.

     Just then another staff member rushed up to say that the problem had been solved. An elderly couple had got separated. The wife was waiting after paying for groceries. The husband was looking for his wife. Why were they chasing me? I had a red shirt and the guy they were looking for had a red shirt. 

   It may sound silly and funny but I thought how stressed these two elderly people had to be. I felt sorry for them.

    I had seen the man with the red shirt. He looked confused. I almost asked him if I could help him. If I had asked it would have saved a lot of upset. 

    So with the challenge to find my groceries and being incorrectly identified, it was a stressful day.

A LUCKY BREAK

       When I was grocery shopping Tues. I saw a couple of little kids that reminded me of my brother and I. My brother and I were Irish twins. We were born less than a year apart...eleven months and two weeks. 

      When we were about three and four we were sent to our paternal grandparents for a few days. I have no idea why were were sent to the grandparents or  how long we stayed.  Our paternal grandparents were quite old. At that time we were the only grandsons they had. We were like the little guy in the cartoon where a dotted line shows where he went. We were fast. We went all over the yard. We went through the barn and chicken house. We climbed over the woodpile. We ran through Grandma's garden. We were on the go all day. 

     There was one rule and that was we must not cross the road. Across the road was a gravel pit and it was like a big sandbox. We sneaked across the road a few times but were never caught. Sooner or later we were caught. Grandpa came out to the road to call us. He had a big tree branch. The big tree branch meant one thing and that was that we would get a "lickin" . We couldn't believe that our loving Grandpa would give us a "lickin". We took the smallest steps we could and as slow as we could to come up to Grandpa. 

    When we got up to him he took us to the steps at the house. We sat down and he used the tree branch to make whistles for us. We were amazed at the whistles and went over the yard again with the whistles.

    Grandpa was 70  when I was born so old for a grandpa. A three and four year old must have been a challenge for  them. We didn't know that Grandpa didn't speak English. He talked to us in German and we didn't know the difference.

    So keeping with the luck theme, we were lucky we didn't get punishment but got unique  a toy.  

       This photo of my grandparents is about 1947. 

LUCK

      There's an old Jewish proverb that I like. When you can , hang around the lucky. At times I've taken the liberty to change lucky to some other word. 

     I eat at the Casino two or three times a week. They have good food and it's a good price. Breakfast is seven bucks. They have a senior day when it's a two for one until 7:00 PM. 

    Now I don't gamble. Quite a few seniors take advantage of the food but don't gamble. 

    Each week they have a senior draw for $500.00 . There are other draws which are all free to enter once a day. Every two weeks they have a $500.00 shopping draw. 

    Well , last week the Micro manager won the senior draw! The next day they phoned me to tell me that I had won ear buds! I didn't know how I won the ear buds. There were 40 separate prizes besides the shopping spree. 

     So we've been lucky. So hang around my blog. 

MACKENZIE RIVER TRIP PT 2

           My last post took me half way up the Mackenzie river. I covered the water and risks. There are 11 settlements on the whole length of the river. I visited all of them. I started at Tuktoyaktuk then Reindeer station,  Inuvik, Arctic Red River, Fort Good Hope,  Norman Wells, Fort Norman , Fort Wrigley, Fort Simpson, Fort Providence, Liard and Hay River. All of them were established a long time ago as trading posts except Inuvik and Norman Wells. 

       After going through the San Sault rapids we arrived at Norman Wells. As we slept on the boat that night a huge storm hit us. The canvas top on the boat gave way and we were flooded. Were were able to stay in a Govt. house. We dried out but the major storm lasted three days. The river had risen and the current was strong. After sitting for three days were were ready to go. As we were loading the boat one of the locals said , "Are you leaving in this?" We said "Sure." Were we wrong. The river was high and dangerous. We quickly decided to quit and found a safe inlet and stayed there for the day. The next day we travelled and went through Fort Norman. We had a long quiet stretch and reached Fort Wrigley. Then it was on to Fort Simpson. No problems through this stretch. 

    Before we reached Fort Providence we noticed and airplane circling. When we went to check in with the RCMP, we found out that a boat had capsized and two people were missing. 

    Crossing the end of Great Slave lake was going to be a challenge as you had to cross at the end of the lake and if there was wind, and there usually was, it could be risky. We got up very early just before sun up. There were waves but not bad. We moved slowly for many hours until we got to the mouth of the Hay River and then we were almost at the end of our journey.

    We had to pack up the motors and boat and put them on a barge back to Inuvik where my friend had bought the equipment. 

    One thing the Micro Manager wouldn't go for is doing your business in the woods. So she bought a pot and had me make a seat. So what to do with the seat when the journey was over. She decided to just pitch it in the river and let it go. The crew on a nearby tugboat had a good laugh when they saw the toilet seat go sailing by. 

    I had told my mother that I would phone her when the trip ended so that was done. 

    Most of your comments had summarized the venture accurately. It was risky but a great adventure. One challenge was that we were going up the river so against the current. It would have been much easier to go down river with the current. 

     An interesting comment was that this would be very scenic. It's not. Most of what you see is river bank. In the odd place you had a view like the Camsel Range. 

                    Crossing the end of Great Slave Lake

Cleaning up at the end of the trip

The end of the journey

Camsell Range

TRIP ON MACKENZIE

      As you know I taught in Inuvik for three years from 1963 to 1966. I was very active outdoors. I boated and fished. In the winter I snowshoed and ice fished. 

      Every once in a while I'd hear someone say, "Wouldn't it be nice to go up the Mackenzie river." These were people without a boat or experience. You soon didn't hear much more of this idea. I thought it would be interesting but you had to have the right equipment and crew. I didn't have the right boat and I wasn't about to campaign for a crew. 

     So I met the Micro Manager and she was gung ho about going up the river. So I began thinking about a trip. We planned and organized until it looked like it was doable. 

    We had a good river boat that was flat bottomed and 6 ft wide and 16 feet long. I had two 35 horse outboards for power. We had a canvas to cover the boat and slept on the boat. So with a stove , lots of food and life jackets we set off in Aug of 1966. 

    Now there was an awful lot that the two of us didn't know. The Micro Manager didn't know anything about boating. There were parts of the river that were dangerous. But off we went. We had a chart that showed where to travel on the river channels. A young RCMP  had got this chart and wanted it back but he wouldn't tell how he got it. We notified all the RCMP posts that we were coming and to watch for us. We knew most of the RCMP. 

   The navigation was fairly simple. There were large white square signs that you had to line up. Stay in the line between the two signs. The signs were about 20 by 20. Sometimes it was about 10 miles between signs. The chart we had was full of information so  we followed it very carefully. Most of the current was quiet and the river very wide. There were a few challenging places and they were worrisome.

    The first challenging part was called the Ramparts. It was an area that cut through some very hard rock so the channel was narrow and the current strong. We were told to slow down and take it easy. This worked well but took time.

                                    Leaving Inuvik

East  branch of Mackenzie delta

                                    The Ramparts
                                             

    The next  very scary part was called the San Sault Rapids. We'd heard much about it and that there had been may deaths in the San Sault. However, many everyday people travelled through this area. It was worse than we thought and was pretty scary in some spots. It was about ten miles long and charted. If you stayed in the channel you would be alright. Again , slow down and take it  easy. It was a place where we wondered about the wisdom of doing this trip. In places there was a 4 to 5 ft. wave. When you went down some of them you wondered if you were coming back up. 

                A very poor photo of Point Separation

San Sault Rapids

San Sault Rapids

San Sault Rapids.