UPRIGHT PIANOS

      Several months ago I met my neighbor on the street and we had our usual visit. She told me that she had been trying to sell her piano. Now, she had one of the newer pianos which was not as high as the older ones.  She gave up trying to sell the piano as no one was interested. She couldn't even get an offer on a ridiculously low price. Then she decided to give it away as she just wanted it out of her house. She had one person express interest but the person never came back. What's her only option? Pay to have it taken to the dump.

     Now I thought this was a rather sad situation that a perfectly good instrument would be thrown in the garbage.

     I was thinking that I sold my piano 20 years ago and how lucky I was to sell it.

     Now yesterday I was listening to a documentary on pianos. Yes the older pianos cannot be traded anymore. They were interviewing a piano technician. Many people come to him for help to sell their piano. They want to leave the piano with him. He has to refuse their pianos as he knows he won't find a buyer and he's left with the expense of disposal. He explained that many pianos are about 100 years old and they are at the end of their life. The wood in them has lost it's strength and warped. The cost of repair would be enormous and then you still have an old piano.

    Now I thought of the last 150 years when people had pianos and enjoyed music in their homes. I thought of all the children who took piano lessons and learned to play. I also thought about all those kids who took lessons and didn't learn anything. The reason I bought my piano was so that my kids could take piano lessons. One of them learned to play well and played after lessons were over. The other one did not touch the piano after the last lesson. So one learned to play piano and one learned nothing.

     In my family home we had a piano and my parents had the idea to give us piano lessons. I wasn't given piano lessons as we could seldom get to town in the winter. The other two were given lessons and learned very little.

     So it's the end of a long music tradition.

     Kids today take band and learn band instruments.

      How about you? Did you take piano lessons? Did you learn anything.

Many of the old pianos were very ornate as this one that I found on the internet.

Aurora Borealis

      Wednesday and Thursday nights the forecast was for a good show of aurora brawls. There were  solar winds and it indicated a great show in my area - Central Alberta.

      Well it wasn't to be. there was heavy clouds both nights. Living in a city, there's too much light pollution to get a good view of northern lights but we do see them once in awhile.

     Northern lights have been part of my life since I was very young. Since I was brought up on an isolated farm, we didn't have much to do except play with things and each other. We had very few toys, so many evenings we played outside. Yes, that's when I first remember northern lights. We played by the hour outside in the dark farmyard. We did not have electricity so no yard lights. Skies were clear and northern lights were bright.

      For my first year of teaching I was hired for a one room country school. I boarded half a mile from the school and often went back after supper to prepare for the next day. Many evenings were clear and you guessed it...there were brilliant northern lights. Th road I walked on was not snow plowed and vehicles did not drive on it. I walked over brilliant white snow banks. When it was moonlight it was almost as bright as day.

     I realize that many parts of the world do not see northern lights. I enjoy the colors and the constant movement and changes in shape.

     Yellowknife NWT is a great place for Northern lights. Tourist come to Yellowknife to see northern lights. The five days I was in Yellowknife I did not see northern lights. I then spent 3 years in Inuvik NWT . There were northern lights but they weren't as spectacular as in northern Saskatchewan.

     So this week was a bit of a disappointment for aurora borealis. Maybe next time!

     So you see why I like aurora borealis. I took this from a file of photos on a net site.

GARDENING IS OVER!

     When I talk about gardening it's vegetables. We do talk about a flower garden but that's only a small part of the complete yard.

     Yes my gardening is finished except for the big fall job of cleanup. I still have carrots and parsnips to take out yet. I like to leave them as long as possible...end of October. Carrots don't keep that long. At least I haven't found a way to keep them over 6 weeks. I process the parsnips for the freezer by cutting them in French fry size. I like to fry my parsnips and they have a rich nutty flavor. I took the last 6 cobs of corn in to store in my refrigerator.

     So once all vegetables have been harvested it's time to look after the soil.

     My vegetable garden is quite small. I started it in 1970 when I as a much younger man. Now you know where I'm going with this. I dug the garden by hand both fall and spring. It was a piece of cake. The soil was the best loam they could find.

     Now from 1970 to 2016 , two things have been happening. I've been getting old!!! The soil has changed with some help. In 1997 I had to replace my sewer line. Of course, the dumb thing had to run right under my garden! And when the trench was filled in lots of clay got mixed in with my awesome loam garden soil. This has turned the nice loam into a heavy clay. It still grows a great garden but it is a challenge to dig the soil.

    Weather conditions this summer made things worse. We had more than average rainfall. Rain packs down the soil. with all the rain I couldn't keep the soil loose between the rows. The soil comes out in large chunks and it sticks together. So I'm not satisfied to have soil with lumps larger than two bricks.

    So I will be getting some physical conditioning. From digging the whole plot in an afternoon when  I was young., I will be digging the plot over 5 or 6 days depending on the weather

    In spite of the challenges , I would not miss growing a vegetable garden.

MY BARBECUE SEASON IS OVER!

     What's that you say? Barbecue season is never over.

     I know you can barbecue all year including where I live. I barbecued a Christmas turkey with my daughter one year. It was great.

      Well barbecue season is over and I'll tell you why. I have the cleanest barbecue in North America! The micro manager is meticulous about cleaning the barbecue. You clean your barbecue?  Yes we do.  Every last surface is cleaned of grease and grime. The briquettes are taken out and wiped off! The whole barbecue is dusted. The racks are soaked in the house so all buildup is removed.

     Now if you're going to do this much cleaning it has to be warm. Today was a warm day and it might be the last so the barbecue was cleaned today.

    So what did we barbecue yesterday?  Well steak! (Not one of my favorites.) But we did have one of my all time favorites which I will never get tired of. I like sliced potatoes, carrots and onions with margarine wrapped in tinfoil. Throw in a little salt and pepper and you have some tasty eats. If it browns a little on the bottom so much the better. You can also put in tomato slices if you like.

    Now another one of my favorites is to have sliced onions, grated carrot and hamburger. Don't forget the salt and pepper. Wrap it in tinfoil and away we go. I first had this at a large cub camp. The kids came through a line and took as much of each item as they wanted. They wrapped it in tinfoil. Their initials were put on their  package. An adult did the barbecuing. This was a big hit with the cubs and me!

    So my barbecue has been put to bed for another winter!

     How about your barbecue? Does it get scrubbed? Do you barbecue all year? How's winter barbecuing with you?

NO MORE OCCULT BLOOD TEST FOR ME !

     About 1/3 of you are saying , "What's he talking about?" A 1/3 are saying, "Oh yes ! That's an awful test." And 1/3 of you are saying, "I just don't care!"

     Well, you know that I'm going to tell you about this test since I don't have to do it any more.

      Occult blood is blood in your stools that can only be seen by using a microscope. What's so awfully important about blood in your stools? It could be a sign of cancer in the colon. The sooner cancer is diagnosed , the better chances you have to survive the cancer.

     Now I've done the occult blood test for about 40 years. I hate it and I'm going to tell you why in a minute. I have had annual check ups since my mid forties. For every annual check up I've been given the occult blood test.

    Okay, here we go.  Samples of the stool (feces) must be taken for the lab to have a look at. Okay with that? You can quit any time as there are more details. So you must some how or other catch the stool before it hits the water as that is a no no. You can let your imagination run wild on this one. Usually a sheet of plastic is put across the toilet bowl. You have a kit. Yes, a nice little kit. You have a nice little stick that you use to take a small sample of the stool and smear it on a little square in the kit. You take three samples . Oh yes you have to carefully date them and give the precise time. You must do this procedure three days in a row so you have nine little smears in the kit. Now you can rush down to the lab with your precious little samples.

    I hope you understand why I hated this test.

     The other day when I had my annual check up, just before I was leaving, my Doc said, "We don't have to do occult blood tests anymore." I didn't ask why? I guess he thought I would worry about it and so he informed me that I didn't have to do the test. I think there was a smirk on his face.

     Now I'll bet 1/3 of you have had to endure this test! I don't know if they've completely stopped using the test or if it's just my Doc who's not using it.

    ....and somebody wants to know why I don't have freakin photos on this post?
     
     

NOVA NATURE TRAIL

      Just east of my town is one of the world's largest chemical manufacturing plants ...Nova Chemicals. It produces ethylene and polyethylene which are products used to make any number of  specific productsused in manufacturing. The first section of the plant was built in the 1970's and it's been added to 4 times since the original plant was built. The actual plant covers about 900 acres and then there is a huge rail yard where rail cars are loaded with the product. They still have much more land for future expansion.Oh yes,the product comes in the form of little balls. Ethylene and polyethylene are produced from ethane and natural gas.

      It's a large employer and taxpayer in this area which contributes to the area's prosperity.

      Now that I've got all that out of the way I can say what a wanted to say.

     Saturday morning I took my birding group to the Nova Nature Trail. This is a 280 acre area on the north side of the plant. Jones Creek runs through the middle of the property so there are some excellent wetlands helped out by some major beaver dams. The property is made up of riparian plants, brush, grassland and small trees. At one time it was used as pasture land. This area was opened 2 years ago. This area will be excellent bird and animal habitat. The brush, grass and trees make excellent habitat for nesting. There are many excellent boardwalks over the wetlands which provide great viewing.

     On Sat. we saw 19 bird species and a couple that we couldn't identify. 

     Now on Sat. decided to take photos instead of use my field glasses for close observation of birds. It was a very bright fall day and was diappointing for photographs. get some shots of the plant and the trail area to show a bit of what it looks like. The plant is more than a mile away in these photos.

SOMETIMES YOU DISCOVER SOMETHING OUT OF CONFUSION

      A few  posts ago I tried to write about national Daughter's week. I had noticed a reference to national Daughter's week on line somewhere and the idea sounded interesting. I researched and met with confusion. I could find only one reference to national Daughter's week. I found a couple of sites on national Daughter's day and most sites were on National son and daughter's day.  There were many different dates for the celebration.

     I featured my daughter on the previous post as I thought the main idea was National Daughter's day. I planned to feature my son later on National son's week.

     Now I thought researching National son's week would be a piece of cake. Was I surprised when I found no site on National son's week.

     In my last post I stressed my firm belief to treat all children equally. So there is no National Son's day but I do have a son.

     Growing up , my son was energetic and humorous and had many friends. He was artistic and spent many hours at his desk drawing. He is very bright and did well in school and always liked school.

   His life has taken many twists and turns but it's always been interesting. He came home the last day of Gr. 12 and told us that he joined the army! It was surprising news to us. What he had done is enter a summer training program with the reserve armed forces which paid the handsome sum of $1600.00. He loved the activities that summer and stayed in the reserves. He continued and completed officer training. He stuck with the reserves for about 7 years and made many good friends. After that he has remained in high tech sales and service. Three times the company he worked for has been bought out.

     So after the confusion about National sons and daughter's day I've decided to do what I always do. I recognize the importance of my son and daughter for many reasons. They both have many different talents. They are extremely hard workers. If something needs to be done they pitch in without hesitation. That's a quality I really like about them.

    So I think the most important thing is to recognize our children on a daily basis rather than just one occasion per year!