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.

   

MORE GEOGRAPHY: THE MACKENZIE RIVER

      So I've been thinking about Canadian rivers lately. The huge Mackenzie river runs into the Arctic ocean.

     The Mackenzie river is 1025 miles (1650 km) long. It leaves Great Slave lake which is a huge body of water.

     There are several very large rivers which join the Mackenzie. The Peace river which runs across northern Alberta is 1925 km long. It empties into Athabaska lake. The Bear River takes this water to Great Slave Lake. Another large river (The Peace) runs across northern Alberta and does the same as the Athabaska. It empties into lake Athabaska and then the Bear River takes it to Great Slave lake. 

   There are many smaller rivers in the system such as the Liard River and the Hay River. 

    So there's an enormous amount of water in the Mackenzie River running to the Arctic ocean. The Mackenzie river varies along it's path Sometimes it's very wide. At Point Separation where the Mackenzie delta starts the river is 10 miles wide. At this point the current slows down. The Mackenzie delta is vast and some of the islands very large as is Richards island.     

   This is a navigable river as northern freight is carried on huge barges. Just think about how much fuel is needed . Huge storage barrels are filled each summer. Today a road has been built to the Arctic coast but it is no way large enough for trucks to haul all the fuel needed.   

    Being a navigable river means that it is charted and dredging is done each season to be sure that there is a channel for tugs and barges.   

    Since the Mackenzie runs from south to north it has a crazy spring break up. Ice melts in the south and water begins to push north. So the water explosively breaks the ice and the river is full of ice. Lots of the ice is pushed up on shore. People try to be there when this happens but you have to be lucky to time it right.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

JASPER FIRE

      Some of you may know that I live in Alberta, Canada.

      Some of you may know that we have a beautiful Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies. I live 296 km or 184 miles from the park. 

     And to connect the third dot, some of you may have heard of the huge wildfire in the Park. 

    The fire started sometime on the week end. All residents and visitors of the town of Jasper were evacuated. Jasper has a population of about 11000 and then there would be thousands of visitors. Winds and high temperatures turned the fires into raging infernos. In the mountain valleys the fires tend to race to the bottom. Wednesday the fire entered the townsite of Jasper. About a third of the town was destroyed. 

     Last night they had some rain and much lower temperatures so were able to control much of the fire. 

     It is extremely dry in western Canada so plants and trees burn easily and rapidly.

    Yesterday morning there was white ash over all my plants and the whole yard. 

    This situation has dominated our news this week. These are terrible fires.

    I live in an urban area beside a forested ravine about 700 meters across. I am worried that a fire could start in the woods some day and it could easily burn through my neighborhood. I've aske our fire department what they are doing about the situation. They have one quad with some water barrels. I do not feel safe at all. 

PICKING BERRIES

      The other day when I was looking for a noxious plant on the river bank, I discovered all kinds of Saskatoon berries (amelanchier alnifolia) that were just about ready to pick. This berry grows from parts of Alaska, throughout the Canadian prairies and into the northern states. It has many other names one of them being service berry. 

     It was a berry widely used by aboriginals in their pemmican. Settlers soon found the berry and liked it.

   My Dad loved picking Saskatoons and liked nothing better than to get some neighbors and spend the day picking Saskatoons. At that time there were very few improved roads. Saskatoon shrubs grew along the road allowance. The country was a mix of grass, shrubs and trees.

   Dad would find a place where there were berries and everybody got out of their old cars and started picking berries. Well, it didn't take Dad long to say that this place wasn't great so let's go down the road as he knew another place that he thought was better. 

    Much the same thing happened all day. 

   They had taken a lunch  and had a picnic. Sometimes pies were taken.

   So by the time Dad got home in the evening he had 5 gallons of berries and yes, a few spiders, leaves, twigs and cobwebs. They spent the rest of the evening sorting berries and washing them. One year Mom canned 96 quarts of Saskatoons. 

   However, the day was mainly Dad hurrying the group from one Saskatoon patch to another. 

   Now my Dad liked ice fishing. In fact, he was nuts about ice fishing. We were able to take the car and drive where ever we wanted on the ice which was about 2 feet thick. 

    He had a bar to punch a hole through the ice. We were little so he'd set us up first. He would then punch a hole in the ice for himself. Well, wouldn't you know it. The fish weren't biting fast enough to suit him so everything was put back in the car and he drove to another place that he thought was better. This continued all day. He wasn't a sport fisherman but wanted fish for food as he loved fish and these were perch and one of his favorite. We'd get home with about 75 fish. 

    We'd get home cold, tired and hungry. 

   So he was the same with fish as with berries.

   After supper? Guess what? We had to fillet fish. So there were two little boys who did a lot of complaining about filleting the cold fish. 

COLLEAGUES

      This fine group meets a couple of times a year for lunch. 

      We came to the same school from 1968 to 1972. Three of us stayed in the same school for more than 20 years. Three of us went into administration. 

      We were young and did not have much experience. There was an older staff member Cliff, who joined the staff at the same time we did. Cliff took a liking to us and to some extent put us under his wing. We spent many good times together socially and professionally. 

      Our fearless leader retired. A few years after he retired, he organized a lunch. We all quickly agreed. He even had us to his house and cooked the meal. We enjoyed these times together. 

     Cliff passed away and we still meet for lunches. It's always pleasant to get back together. 

     I'm the oldest at 84.  A couple of the younger ones are in their late 70's.

      

A LITTLE MORE GEOGRAPHY

       I will try this topic again and try to stay on the topic this time. 

       As I said , I went to the Red Deer River bank to check on some flowers. I began thinking of the river system and how huge it is. What's the history of one drop of water running by me? Does it make it all the way to Hudson Bay or does it get stopped in some farmer's field. 

        The Red Deer River is part of a large river system. The Red Deer River comes out of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains   and from beginning to end is 724 km (450 mi). Many little streams join together. By the time it gets to Red Deer it's a fairly large river. It ends when it joins the south Saskatchewan River at the Saskatchewan border. The South Saskatchewan river started when the Bow River and Old Man river joined to make the south Saskatchewan river. 

       Here's the Red Deer River as it flows by Red Deer. 

         The South Saskatchewan river runs 550 km (346 mi) until it joins the North Saskatchewan River 25 Km east of Prince Albert. It then becomes the Saskatchewan river which flows into the north end of Lake Winnipeg. The Nelson River then takes the Lake Winnipeg water 644km (400mi) northeast where it empties into the Hudson Bay.  

       So how long does it take that little drop of water to make all those miles?

       In the days of the fur trade, paddlers went all the way to Hudson Bay with the current and than came all the way back against the current in one summer!

      It's hard to believe the size of this system which runs across three provinces: Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. 

    

A LITTE GEOGRAPHY

      I went down to the Red Deer River today to check on some plants that are invasive species. I found them two years ago and then couldn't find them the next year.

     Today I found them again. Of course, I didn't know what they were. As soon as I turned my camera on it said my batteries were done.

    I had planned to take photos of these plants and some photos of the Red Deer River. One always needs more photos of the Red Deer River. The photo on my header is the Red Deer River.

   So I took a bloom from the plant and a couple of stems. I was right beside the Nature center so decided to ask them first before contacting my friend Tony. One of the summer students was able to make an ID for me. It's a yellow clematis but probably needs to be narrowed down.

     

   So my readers can have fun with this plant. 

  I have a major bug infestation on my black currant. I asked for help in an ID. I got two replies. They were both the same. So my daughter in law and niece made the same ID. They are very sharp cookies. 

    My thinking certainly changed from the time I wrote the caption until I got to the post. Old brains seem to wander around.

STUCK IN THE BATHTUB.

      Did you ever get stuck in your bath tub? Well it happens. Sometimes people can not get enough leverage to get themselves out of the bath tub. 

    Right now I have two of the best next door neighbors you'll ever find. They are both paramedics and make it clear that if we or other neighbors have a problem we are to call them. 

     So  a few weeks ago the 88 year old lady across the street came running for the paramedics. The paramedics thought she was saying "Tom's dead. "  So my neighbors ran to Tom's house to find that he had fallen into the bath tub. He doesn't know how it happened but he fell in a position where he couldn't grab onto anything to lift him out of the tub. He was not bathing but bumped something and fell. The paramedics had him out of the tub and on his way to emergency.

     So the paramedics laughed and said they get all kinds of calls to get people out of bathtubs. Of course yours truly had to say, "I bet you see all kinds of sights!" To which they replied, "That's what towels are for." They went on further to say that a towel is used to put around the arms and shoulders to get a person out of a tub. 

    So this was the start of many stories about getting people out of bathtubs and any other cramped space. They have many stories.

   I thought getting somebody out of  tub was simple until the Micro Manager needed help . When someone is in a tub you cannot get in a good position to lift or move the person. The person is also wet and slippery. The Micro Manager took a second try and got herself out of the tub. It was a worry when you are helpless to help someone. 

COULD IT BE?

        Could this guy be Spencer?

        For more than a year I have noticed disturbances in the soil in the flower bed underneath my living room window. Only recently I made the discovery that these disturbances were caused by a rabbit. Even more recently I have caught the culprit spending his/her time in the flowers and shrubs in front of my house. I have been walking by him/her many times and him/her has not flushed  and I didn't know that there was a beast there.  In fact, this is a very cheeky bunny. He/She gets up and moves about two meters and stops to see if I'm  going to leave the area. 

     So this bunny has chosen a prime area to spend the day safely dozing and grooming. And once in a while he/she gets up and enters my back yard. There he/she has helped himself/herself to my garden produce. To date my lettuce, peas, beans and beets have been sampled. 

      It was a blue sky day this morning. 

    So I've set up baracades to try to prevent the bunny from having a healthy lunch.

    How many of you remember the story of M McGregor and Peter Rabbit? I feel like Mr MacGregor.

LILIES

      These beauties just bloomed a few days ago. 

Lies

      It would seem to me that there are penalties for telling lies. I think we used to get our mouths washed with soap or was that for swearing. 

     For some time it seems that, in particular,  politicians tell many lies. This was brought more to my attention with the debate of the two American presidential  candidates. 

     I looked up lies and penalties. There are many penalties for telling lies from community service to prison terms. Why are many people , in particular politicians dealing in lies? Well it works. The lie is intended to deceive. It seems as if lies are very successful in deceiving people. So the bigger the lie the more chance of success in persuading someone to vote for a candidate. But I still wonder why liars aren't charged with a criminal offense? 

   So why aren't liars charged ? If liars were charged and convicted wouldn't others  think twice about telling lies? 

   My neighbor is one of those who thinks if he talks fast, says nothing, tells half truths, tells conspiracies and goes round and round he will prove his point. When he does quit jabbering you are so mixed up , you don't know what to challenge him on. 

    So some day, I would like to see a liar charged with a criminal offense for telling lies. I have an idea of the first guy I would like to see charged. 

HAPPY CANADA DAY

       I look forward to tomorrow when we celebrate our nation's birthday. The country was formed in 1867 and grew very much after that.

      When the country was first formed there were only Four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. In 1870 Manitoba joined the country. In 1871 British Columbia joined. In 1873 Prince Edward Island became a province. Saskatchewan and Alberta became provinces in 1905. Newfoundland joined in 1949. The maps changed greatly over the years. Quebec was made up of the southern portion along the St. Lawrence river. The remainder was included many years later. 

     There are still three territories. The North West Territories were formed in 1876. At that time it consisted of all of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The Yukon was formed in 1898 and Nunuvuut was formed in 1999. 

    So there you have a dull and boring list but you see what we're celebrating. 

    So Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians. 

MISSING IN ACTION

        I've been missing for a week. 

        Life has been active in other areas so my mind has been away from the blog. 

        First of all, two elderly people got a little mixed up in the date. We went to a lab appointment a day early. The lab was great and took us because  we were there. This mix up confused me for the rest of the week. I was always thinking a day ahead. Well, that worked itself out after a few days. 

      I had a problem with the sound on my computer. I use a speaker and sometimes ear phones. So I switch back and forth. I found that I couldn't switch back and forth unless I started the program over like messenger. My daughter kindly offered to help with the sound issue. I wanted to work with the issue and see what was wrong before I worked with my daughter. She kept pushing me to set a time. I wasn't ready to set a time. So this was another issue on my mind.

      Then 3 or 4 years ago an author contacted me about someone I taught with. The author  was writing a biography and trying to make a collection of the teacher's art and display it. The writer had lost all contact with the teacher . So last week I received a message from the writer. He had finished the first section of his story. I had totally forgotten about the writer and almost erased his message. 

    Instead I got to read part of his upcoming book and it was absolutely fascinating. It kept my attention for a few days. This time we exchanged lots of personal information. 

   It got me thinking about much more information. I have contacted other teachers who taught with the subject of the book. I even contacted a former student. 

   So my mind got carried away with other things.

   I find with the blog that I have to spend part of my time with my head on the blog. 

     However, we need a little excitement in our lives. 

SUMMER SOLSTICE

       Summer solstice is always an interesting time for me. In fact, it's exciting. You imagine the sun and earth moving together so that the sun crosses the equator. 

      Then we have the pleasure of the longest day of the year. Here the sun rose at 5:13 AM  and set at 10:00 PM for total daylight of 16 hours 47 minutes and a few seconds. 

     I wanted to get some sunset photos but we had a strange sunset. I was up at midnight and looking north over the city one could plainly see sunlight. 

    This photo was from a few years ago showing  a house about 9:45 PM. 

  This shows my street about 10:15 PM. 

   So now it's down hill  until December. 

   I know my timer on the camera needs to be reset. 

WEATHER

       Just to let you know that two nights ago June 17 it froze here!  Now for many of you this will sound unbelievable. When I woke up at 7:00 AM  there was frost on the house rooves. 

      Frost at this time of year is very rare. Cold temperatures do happen. 

     Plants that  are close to the ground do not freeze as the ground is fairly warm and so it doesn't freeze at ground level. My tomatoes are at the side of the house and air temperature has to be in the minus 2 range before they'll freeze as heat comes from the cement and keeps the plats warm. .

     This spring has been very cool. I think we've had two days with highs above 20 C.  Usually it can be very warm at this time of year. Lows are somewhere around 15 to 20 C.

     So I know it's hard for some of you to get this temperature through you head. It's hard for me too. 

MORE NAMES

     Comments many times make me think of other material that could be added to a post. So , with names , I realized the was much more. Most of it is not important but it's there nonetheless. Some of this has been covered in other posts.  My researcher,  statistician John, will tell me where it is. 

     So of course, I received the name Keith, at my birth. I have no idea why I was called Keith. But soon after that I was given the family nickname Grandfather. I was the oldest child and Dad called me grandfather but no one else called me Grandfather. 

    The next time I received a name was when I started high  school. We had a high school of 25-30 kids and a few days after I arrived I was called Pop. I had no idea what was going on and I found the situation stressful. Sometimes it was Pa. When I go back the guys still call me Pop. 

  My initials are K.C. so for three years I was called Casey. 

   Two colleagues gave me a name which only they used. One guy called me "Killa" Another colleague always called me Dad. It was a name that I liked as it showed his respect. 

    So you can see a bit of a thread through these names.

   This may explain the Grandfather name as I looked after my brother who is less than a year younger than I am.

    The only name that doesn't fit this is when my son called me Boy. He was about a year to two years old. I called him Dad's Big Boy and we think that's why he was using Boy. 

    I have four other names that only I use. How's this for names: incline, syncline,  recline and decline. I use these names for setting up names for some files. 

   So there you have it. I probably have forgotten a few names. I know you'll ask what the Micro Manager calls me. She has no special name for me 

SOME UPDATES.

       Many times your comments remind me of things I forgot or expressed poorly and you didn't get it. 

      I forgot to mention my all time biggest conference. I got to go to a teacher conference in Washington DC. That's pretty good for a little old guy from the prairies. Several of our teachers got to go to major conferences in the US. So this little old guy got on a plane in Calgary and went to Dallas. I changed planes and went to Washington. I took the subway from the airport to my hotel and got in the hotel about midnight. So this was an exciting day

    The conference was across the street in the hotel where Reagan was shot. 

    I got to hear some major speakers. I'd never been in a 3000 seat hall before. There were many smaller sessions.

    The area with displays was the size of a hockey rink. I chose many things to take back and give to colleagues. I had to make a presentation when I got back home.

    The name Red is an accident. When I first set up an email account it wouldn't take my name so I put in Red taken from Red Deer the city I live in. At the time I didn't realize once the name was in the system it spread through the internet world. Why didn't I use my middle initial or stick a number between my name like other people do?

     The Micro manager went with me and toured Washington while I was at the conference. I stayed an extra day for touring. 

     Western Canada, where I live is huge. You must travel or you have the meeting by yourself. Edmonton is 100 miles away as is Calgary. The national parks are about 150 miles away. 

ONE PART OF DAD

       My daughter and I sometimes talk about family and what  happened when she was growing up. She likes the thought that she was a free range kid. 

       These discussions got me thinking about what kind of Dad I was. 

       I was a teacher. I was surprised that I was away from home so much. 

      I was involved with the teacher's association at the local , district and provincial level . Of course, these were not all at the same time. They all involved meetings...many meetings. The district and provincial activities involved travel. I found this activity interesting and rewarding. 

    I was a member of a professional group and also on the executive for a few years. Again , lots of travel...Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper and Edmonton. 

    I attended the Annual Teachers Representative Assembly (ARTA) for many years. This allowed me to take my family with me until they reached the teenage years when they didn't want to go. This was a five day event. 

   Regular teaching duties took many evenings. Parent teacher interviews took a long time . I also worked a few bingos for the school and supervised dances. I liked supervising dances as the kids had a lot of fun. . 

   I didn't realize I did so many field trips. I taught some outdoor ed. so the kids were taken on field trips for hiking, snowshoeing, cross country skiing and winter camping. We usually went to the national parks like Banff or Jasper and stayed in hostels. These were at least over night .

   I also took kids on a day trip to the Calgary Herald to see how a newspaper was put together. This went along with my news paper unit. We also wanted kids to see professional theatre so each year we took the gr eights to Edmonton or Calgary to see a play.

    

                                  Did I also tell you that I was a department head?

    Then there were always those interesting workshops that just happened to be out of town. There were speakers you just had to hear. There was money to send me to these activities. More than usual as some teachers didn't bother going to professional development activities. 

    All these activities were time consuming and stressful. I didn't realize I spent so much time away from home participating in educational activities. I enjoyed it and sometimes think I was away form home too much. 

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MURAL?

           On May 31 I wrote a post about a special mural in Stringer Hall, Inuvik. 

           Steve Steve from Shadows and Light asked a question that opened a can of worms. Steve wanted to know what happened to the mural. Many things happened before the residence was destroyed. 

          Here's the brief history.

          Around 1950 the government decided that they would build a school system to educate northern kids. Their plan was to build one huge school and bring all the kids to one place. The kids would leave their local settlements and parents and live in a huge residence called Stringer Hall. It didn't take long before the people realized that this was a terrible system. The kids  lived away from family so there was no family life. The kids lost their relationship with their own community and family

            The people also realized that their kids needed and education. . 

                    Grade  three children whose classroom was an annex

                      Boys playing dog team 

                      Boys playing hopscotch in January

                            More hopscotch

            These little guys did not get home for Christmas or Easter . They stayed the whole schoolyear. 

 There were many sad stories from this system. Children were literally taken from their parents to the big school and hostels in Inuvik. Some parents did not know where their children were. 

      A campaign grew to have kids educated in their local community. Sometime in the early 70's the big school which held a thousand kids and student residences were not being used and closed. Stringer Hall which held 300 kids remained closed for a few years and when they couldn't find a use for it, it was torn down. 

     Today no matter how small a community is, there is a school. Kids are able to complete their high school with only two or three kids in the high school. You see grad photos with only two or three kids.

      I'm not sure what happened to the mural but I hope that somehow it was saved.