Volunteering Can Bring Surprises

       I am active in my community. I volunteer and serve on various boards and committees.

        I am a board member of a group which is providing some funding for another group's  project. The second group likes to do projects which are different and hopes that by demonstration they can influence the city to carry out projects which are much more environmentally sensitive. The group's name says it all.. Rethink Red Deer!

        The other day I volunteered to go on a walk to look at a piece of property for which they have a rehabilitation plan. The area is an old farm yard. The city has expanded and taken this land into it's boundary. They have also bought the property to hold for development. The farmer rents this land from the city. There was a cattle operation on the property so it's like many abandoned farmsteads...incredibly weedy. A stream meanders through the property. All native riparian species have disappeared long ago.

A very pleasant stream worth some restoration

The stream winds through the weed patch

No native plants are left

There's lots of overgrown grass

     The farm stead has been turned into community gardens. The gardeners are extremely fortunate as it's perfect gardening soil. 

    As we wandered though the property we saw what we guessed was the farmer repairing some machinery. Well, let's walk over and meet the farmer and introduce ourselves. At first, I didn't think he heard us so I repeated myself. I got a sound which certainly wasn't a word. We tried to ask for some background information about the area. We did get some one word answers but nothing else was volunteered. By this time we knew we were not welcome. He then wanted to know what we were doing. We told him about the project. Again there was a sort of grunt of some kind. By this time I thought we should maybe get out of there so I said, "Nice talking to you!" and we left.

    It was certainly one of the frostiest conversations I have had for a long time. It was a surprise for our group to run into such a reception. Nothing had warned us that there might be a negative reception.
   
    So volunteers have to watch out where they step or they could get a surprise. We are dealing with the city so have permission to enter the property and make plans. I suppose the farmer may not be happy as he may have had enough of dealing with city officials
   

My Street Got Paved

    This week my street got paved and it was an interesting operation to watch.

     Most paving jobs around here consist of grinding off some old pavement and laying a new coat on top. For this job they took off all the old pavement. Then they began working with the gravel base and spent lots of time to rearrange the base. I'd never seen that before. Finally, they came with the paving crew and did the paving.

    Now they went to a lot of effort to redo this street. However, it was originally done in 1965 so costing the old road over 49 years was a good deal. I hope this one lasts 49 years.

    Paving crews are very hard workers. This one was no different. they worked very hard. I asked one of the flagmen how long they'd worked that day and she told me 13 hours. They're a tough bunch.

Back and forth a 100 times.

The monster

There always has to be one worker taking it easy. This was the foreman and I think he was texting.

Just to make the females happy there were quite a few females on this crew and they did the hard work like everybody else.

My camera was to slow to catch this guy

One of the guys riding on the back of the paver and adjusting things 

Paving crews have more rakes than gardeners.

Reluctant Handyman Strikes Again

      I have told a few stories about my limited handyman abilities. I accidentally got myself into a job the other day.

     I have been finding my that my cycling is more challenging so I watch for things on the bike  to make it easier. Last year I was riding on low tires which took much more effort. So the other day I was looking for dragging brakes, bent wheels or anything else that would slow me down. 

    I looked at the swing which moves the chain from the big sprocket to smaller sprockets. I noticed that the swing  may have been rubbing on the chain. I looked at it and thought it would be easy to make an adjustment. Just shorten or lengthen the cable like the brakes. Wrong!

  I shortened the cable and tried it. The chain went off the front sprocket. That's not right. I lengthened the cable. I couldn't get into the lowest gear. Okay I'll get smart. I'll put the chain just off the slide on the big sprocket. That didn't work. How about line the chain up with the slide on the small sprocket. It's still badly screwed up. 

Two adjustment screws and joints

The slide that swings and moves the chain from one gear to another.

    I began to slowly realize that this job was more complicated than I thought. I had neglected to notice the four movable joints in the slide. I had neglected to notice the two adjustment screws on the top of the slide. I hadn't noticed the adjustment screw on the gear shift. 

   Now what have I done? I've made myself a big mess. Aha! The Internet! On to the computer and look up Shamano swing adjustment. There it was! A step by step method to adjust the swing slide. 

   Chalk one up for the Internet. It got me out of a jamb.

   Do you use the Internet for information to repair things?

Peak Time

     A few weeks ago, July 6, I posted some vegetable garden shots. Things were doing well and the foliage was well developed. 

     Well , a few  weeks later, Aug. 6, and the foliage has gone wild. So this is foliage at it's peak. We've had lots of moisture and sun. 

    

    I've been eating onions for about 6 weeks. My peas are finished and my beans are being harvested every 3 or 4 days. I've had beets a few times and could eat carrots if all the other stuff wasn't at the peak of production. I now have ripe tomatoes and my corn is almost ripe. I'm one of these terrible people who just can't wait and check my corn every day. I'm hoping to be able to eat new potatoes any day.

   Produce directly from the garden is the greatest.

Fort Normandeau

      A few posts ago I described a walk through the Maskepetoon natural area.

    Across the freeway and a mile up the river is Fort Normandeau. This spot on the river was known as the Crossing as it as a good place to cross the river. I've seen kids wade across in September when there is low water. This crossing was known and used by the aboriginals long before the white man came.

      In 1884 Robert Mclellan built a stopping house at the crossing. He had some horses ,cattle and grew some crops. In 1885 when the Reil Rebellion occurred the stopping house was taken over by the army and reinforced to make a fort.

     Now this area is a very pleasant stopping area for locals and tourists. The Fort was reconstructed in the 1960's as the old one fell into total ruin about ten years before. There is a small museum giving the history of the area. The area is abundant with natural habitat. When I went out last week the Saskatoons were ripe.

    The Fort has some chickens and a garden inside the walls. Inside the building there are many artifacts from the 1880's. My first picture inside the Fort and wouldn't you know it, the camera batteries died. So on another trip I will show the inside of the house.

The river widens and gets shallow so it's easy to cross

Work up a thirst and get some exercise to get your drink

The Fort garden

Entrance to the house

The Fort chickens

Overall view of the Fort

Why I Moved My Smoke Detector

      Last week my friend, Dee, fell and broke ribs , a vertebrae and had some spinal damage. It was a shock to say the least.

     Dee has lived in her house since 1965. She was about 26 when she moved into her house. Over the years you get comfortable with your house. You know your house. There are things the house tells you and you get to know ever part of it and how to use it. You tend to do the things you always did as a young person.  You forget that you get older.

    Dee was having a birthday party for a grand daughter and they were putting balloons up on the lights. The sturdy old oak pedestal table was used to climb up to the lights, just like it had always been used. This time it over balanced and Dee was pitched over the open stairway and fell to the bottom. She's lucky to be alive.

    It made me stop and think about risky situations and places in my house. I'm historically a risk taker. It was time to take a sober look at things.

    The first thing that came to my mind was a smoke detector at the top of my stairs. The smoke detector had been placed so that it was above the second step down. So as you changed a smoke detector battery, not only were you on a step ladder at the top of the stairs, you had to lean out over the stair well. That's the point at which I said ,"This risk has to be eliminated." 

The two screw holes show how far I moved the smoke detector so that it wasn't over the stairs.

Look way up and see the tiny little smoke detector

    So I learned something out of Dee's tragedy.

    I hope others will look around and change risky situations or behaviors.

I'm Still Alive!

    Well, some people may not be happy that I'm still here! I will carry on anyway.

     My modem crapped out and it took a few days to get a new one.

      I missed reading the blogs, commenting and hearing what you had to say.

    Tomorrow I will start on my regular routine of reading commenting and reading and posting great comments.

     As for previous posts, I will do my best.

    It's nice to be back.