Red Deer City Budget:Kerry Wood Nature Center

       Red Deer city council is working overtime in preparing the city's next budget. They have done the infrastructure budget and now are working on the operating budget. It's a tough project for the council as there are many aspects to consider. It's very easy for one small action to affect something else which is totally unrelated. Hanging over their heads at all times is a group I call "the No Taxers." These people are brutal and freely criticize all and any decision showing a complete lack of knowledge and understanding. Unfortunately council has to keep these issues in the back of their mind and this influences budget decisions. These unjust critics want to make council feel as if they are wasteful and inefficient and they are quite successful in their endeavor.

      More than twenty years ago the Waskasoo Park system was established as a provincial project. The center of this is the Kerry Wood Nature Center. Once establishment of the park was complete it was turned over for the city to operate. The city in it's wisdom established a management board. The management board would submit a detailed budget to the city for council approval. Some things would be cut back and at other times the city could find money for special projects.

     The Nature Center over the years has developed many excellent interpretive programs . These programs have been much appreciated by the community. A nature nursery is one program that is a model to many other jurisdictions. The Nature Center has an active support group which raises extra funds. They have a casino every two years to raise funds. The nature center has no difficulty finding volunteers. You could say that this facility has strong community support.

     Now comes my complaint about this year's budget. A salary increase for the small nature center staff was rejected and the standard type keep up with inflation allotment was made. This has gone on for a number of years so this small staff has fallen behind to the point that it has become a very unfair situation. In one case someone at the same job description makes $11.00 per hour more with the city. These people basically work for the same employer.

     So I would strongly suggest to council that they take a second look at their decision and find it in their budget to compensate the Nature center staff so that they are on a more equal level with other city staff working at the same level. This would be a very small amount of dollars because there are less than ten employees. I'm sure that this small amount would easily be found in the city budget.

I Had a Stepmother

       When I was thirty-five years old, my Dad remarried and so I had a Stepmother.

       Dad remarried less than two years after my mother's death. It was a good move for him as he was totally lost and did not do well after my Mom's death. It was good to see Dad happy and alive again. My Step mom was six years younger than Dad and she was energetic and very happy to be married again after the loss of her husband two years previously.

    I obviously had been out of the nest for close to twenty years, had married and had two children. I was fully occupied with my own family and a busy career 

    A fine wedding was held and all my family were in attendance but one step brother did not attend as he was estranged from his family.

   I looked at the situation and was foolish enough to think that Dad and my Stepmom were "old" and I wouldn't have them that long and did not go out of my way to form a new relationship with them. We exchanged cards and letters. I lived 1600km away from them. They dropped in when they were travelling to the west coast. I saw them at my home town when we all attended weddings etc. I never did make the 1600 km trip to visit them.

     Time went on. Dad and my step mom had a great relationship. My step mom adored my Dad and took it upon herself to look after him to the best of her ability. Dad enjoyed our step mom's company and truly appreciated her efforts to treat him well. Our Step mom's grandchildren knew no other grandpa but my Dad and they loved him.

     Time went on longer than I expected it would. After spending fifteen winters in Arizona health became a factor and they stayed in Canada for their winters. By this time Dad was 86 and they had been married 23 years. Here's where it really got interesting. As Dad aged it looked as if he would someday need nursing home care. Dad sometimes said one thing but did not entirely have it in his head. Our Stepmom knew this . So she very skillfully asked all his children what she thought should be done. It was a no brainer. Dad was close to needing nursing home care as it was becoming too difficult for our Stepmom to look after him on her own. So by asking us for input she accomplished two things. She had support to move Dad to a nursing home when he would probably not want to go. She also had our commitment so that we had preapproved what she was going to have to do. No one would have any come back on her. Dad resisted going to a nursing home but all she had to say was, "The boys think you should be in a nursing home." He didn't argue much after that as he realized he did need nursing care.

    So in the end my Step mom showed to be a very astute and adept operator when it came to family dynamics. She sorted things out for all of us.

   I visited my Step mom in the last year of her life. She asked me one day, "What did you think when your Dad and I got married?" She really shocked me and caught me off guard. So I thought I better be absolutely honest because she probably knows my true answer. I told her that I thought their marriage wasn't going to be that long and that I was busy and far away and that I didn't really try to form a close relationship. I was absolutely blown over by her response. She said , "Well ,you know we had exactly the same idea." We both had a good laugh. So in the end I came to realize that I had a super Step mom who looked after my Dad with loving kindness and was smart enough to keep some distance from her adult stepchildren. and yet let them know that she was there for them.

     Now the marriage lasted for 31 years. Both expressed surprise when they celebrated a twenty-fifth anniversary and  we had a little family gathering . My Step mom's greatest disappointment was that she died before Dad and could not look after him in his final years. Dad lived another three years on his own in a nursing home where his sons and grandchildren visited him and saw that he was well looked after in the nursing home.

     So in the end I realized that I had an awesome Step mom for thirty-one years.

Watership Down by Richard Adams: a Very Good Read

     I just finished reading Watership Down. What a great story! I had always been familiar with the story and my daughter had read it. I was browsing through the library the other day and picked it up.

     Watership Down began as stories Adams told to his children as they were on car trips. When the kids were older they suggested that their Dad write down the stories. He finally did and then worked them into a major story.

      The characters in Watership Down are rabbits that have been given human personalities. However they are rabbits and Adams has been extremely diligent in researching and following rabbit behaviour. For example, he uses the keen senses of rabbits to navigate through some of the crises the group gets into. He also is very precise when it comes to plants in the habitat the rabbits are set in and how the rabbits use the plants. So there is much attention paid in the story to the setting and setting is used to move the story along as the rabbits travel to find a new place suitable to set up a new warren. All kinds of dangers lurk in the natural setting. Setting also plays an important part when they set out to obtain more females from another warren.

     The story begins when one rabbit in an established warren senses that there is some danger looming in the near future for the warren. He persuades some of the rabbits to leave and set up a new warren in a safe place. They successfully set up a new warren when it dawns on them that they have no females in the group and that without females their new warren will not succeed. They discover that a nearby warren which is tightly controlled by a head rabbit has extra females and they decide to get females from the neighboring warren. A first direct attempt to request females is refused. They then make a plan to go back to the warren and engineer an escape for females. This is a dangerous plan and there is much conflict during the event. After much hardship they get the females back to their warren.

     The warren they raided finds them and attempts to get their does back. After a terrible struggle the bad guys are defeated and Watership Down is established as free and happy warren.

    I read some fantasy and so I found this story very believable and easy to buy into the themes developed. So pick up Watership Down and enjoy a good story.

Severe Winter Storm in Central Alberta.

        So when I brag, as I did in my last post, I end up suffering a few days later when a severe winter storm comes into Central Alberta.. Jan. 6 was a beautiful winter day. I bragged about my nice weather. A gradual change took place on Jan.7. Clouds came in and in the evening we began to get light snow.

       Jan. 8 and 9 we  have had a severe winter blizzard. We've had high winds from about 30 kmh to gusts of 60 or 70kmh. This really blew the snow around and caused whiteout conditions in the country. Visibility in the city was down to between one half to one Km. We received about 20 - 25 cm of new snow. The snow is very dry and powdery at this time of year. Highways were closed and a large number of fender benders occurred.

      I didn't have to go anywhere so I could stay safely at home. Shovelling snow from the sidewalks and driveway gave me plenty of exercise. With the wind some of the snow had drifted and then it becomes somewhat hard so that it becomes much more difficult to shovel.

       So the next time I have a nice day, I'm going to keep my mouth shut and not brag about it.

Beautiful Winter Day in Central Alberta

        Today was a beautiful day in Central Alberta as the temperature was about 0 C (I know this one 32 F). There was a good stiff north west wind in the morning and most of the day was clear. An awesome winter day!

        What do you do on an awesome winter day? Well you guessed it...cross country ski. So I went out on my own private ski trail around the close behind my house. We had 5 cm of snow yesterday so conditions were about as good as they get. Since I've been out 5 or six times in the last 10 days I'm starting to feel in better condition.

       The usual magpies were out enjoying the day. A merlin showed up and the magpies got very excited. The merlin took a couple of runs at the magpies and got them screaming mad. The merlin left as I guess he thought the magpies were in too good of shape for him to handle. A few minutes later a pileated woodpecker showed up and checked out the Schubert cherry trees that are planted in the front of every body's yard. To finish the bird theme a lone raven flew over. So as well as a good ski it was fairly interesting bird wise.

     I also accomplished some stuff in the house. We took down the Christmas tree and decorations and stored them away. Home Farm Girl says never again! That's the last time she's doing Christmas decorations! But I've heard these oaths from her before and they are not serious. I also made a rhubarb stew for supper

     Today the sun sets at 4:39 PM . It's earliest setting here was 4:24  PM around Dec. 7 so you see the days are starting to lengthen ever so slightly as we've gained 15 minutes of daylight by my calculations. We haven't started to gain anything back in the morning as this morning the sun rose at 8:43 AM. I think tomorrow or the next day we finally gain a minute in the morning.

    So it was a day that makes for pleasant times during the winter.

A Great Topic Machine

       The other day I noticed a comment on my niece's face book page that really got my curiosity going. She said right off the wall, " It appears that there will always be a lot of things in life that I'll never understand." I made the comment back, "Am I missing something here? I'm curious." My niece really surprised me with a list of things that genuinely puzzled her. These ranged the whole gamut from scientific to philosophical.

      Her list included things such as why do people wear jeans to a symphony concert?, how sound is recorded, life changes such as tadpole to fog and caterpillar to butterfly, why people suffer from others bad choices, plants surviving arctic conditions, man made highs and lows in the economy  and brutal things people do. This is a list that really makes one sit up and think. Each idea can lead off in hundreds of directions.

     I'm sure that for some of these questions Jocelyn will sooner or later find answers. Others will have to be open ended answers. What intrigued me was that she was thinking these thoughts and was smart enough to wonder out loud about them and then write them down. 

    So here I thought is a real topic generating machine. What great luck!

    I'm sure that many bloggers find it difficult to come up with topics for their blog. I found it easy in Dec. when I did a Christmas theme. I'm going to sit down and see if I can come up with other themes. Sometimes topics come easily. I usually like to find a topic and roll it around in my head for a few days. When I start writing most of it comes very easy. I do the usual deleting a sentence here and there and adding other things. Sometimes things have to be moved. I learned this year that at certain times I should make something into two posts instead of one.

     What really makes it easy is to have a bank of topics. So to start out 2011 I will have some topics to work with.

The New Year Milestone

        Some how or other I just couldn't bounce into the new year without some acknowledgement of the milestone. MK did the first post of 2011 with her usual thought provoking comments. I thoroughly enjoyed the piece but some readers were a little perplexed because it didn't sound like me. Sharp readers!!!

      For 2010 I struggled with some blogging challenges. I am somewhat limited when it comes to how blogger actually functions. As a result some of the things I set up or did not set up have puzzled me. Some of the things I am not aware of. I'm searching and learning. I'm still puzzled as to why when I follow someone blogger does not say that I have a blog. It only shows sites I follow. As a result some people don't realize that I have a blog so do not follow me. So If anybody has some hot tips I would be most appreciative.

     It's been interesting to watch what sells and what doesn't sell. Some of the things which bring readers have been surprising. Each of these events teaches me something.

     I've also discovered that I have to work harder to gain more traffic. I have been doing eight to ten posts a month. In December I worked harder and did 15 or 16 posts. I will have to make a list of things I should do on a regular basis. I have done some things with pictures and then forget for awhile. I also know that I should research and use links. Too often I get something in my head and run with it and then afterward say, "Oh, a picture would have been nice with this." To do pictures I find that I have to start with a picture and then plan the post as I did with the soapstone carvings.

     When I look back over the year I am amazed at how much was written and were the blog took me. I seem to wander widely when it comes to topics. If any one has ideas of what they would like to see changed on the blog let me know. I would look at it as constructive comment. I know that I have to do something with my title page to make it more attractive. One day I will be brave enough to dig in there and throw the thing away and start with something new and hopefully more pleasing to look at.

     Needless to say I have enjoyed the blogging for this year. I certainly look forward to another year. As always the readers make the blog so much more interesting. Thanks for dropping by Hiawatha House in 2010. Thanks for the comments which really keep me going and give me new ideas. 

      All the best to you in 2011!