By now most people would be aware of the dangerous destructive forest fire at Ft McMurray. Wildfires were in the area but on the weekend one fire suddenly went very wild. Windy hot conditions allowed the fire to go toward the city of Ft. McMurray. By Monday a mandatory evacuation of the city was ordered. The evacuation order was almost too late.
Ft McMurray has a population of about 90000. There is about 1 1/4 roads out of McMurray. There's one divided double lane highway and a much smaller two lane highway . Since almost all people ended up on the highway , a massive traffic jam took place. Adding to the misery, there was no gas left in McMurray so people started with less than a tank of gas. It's a long way to another town with gas so people were stalled on the road with no gas.
About 15000 people went to the north to empty work camps. 65000 went south toward Edmonton.
Now it's hard to imagine that many people on one road trying to get away. Once they were a few Km out of town they were out of fire danger but there was no place to stay.
Ft. Mcmurray is 587 km northeast of where I live.
You probably connect Ft McMurray to the massive tar sands oil development. The large mines and plants are in no danger as the mines have cleared all the forest. The city is located in a beautiful boreal forest area.
So an emergency situation has made it very worrisome for us even if we are far from danger. My neighbor works at McMurray. He came home safely but it was a difficult trip.
Now about 50 years ago there was no road to McMurray. It was a small isolated village. There was a railway to McMurray.
At this time the fire is still out of control.
Yesterday was the eboy's lunch. eboys are a small group of teachers who taught together at a school in the 70's. We were mostly in our 20's and left our rooky teaching years and become effective teachers. During that time we became good friends. We were in the same boat. We had little kids, were broke most of the time and loved to socialize together. We had a couple of older guys who were great mentors and also stayed friends with us.
We missed this lunch last year and the year before I could not attend. We all show a little aging since the last lunch. Our mentor was not able to attend due to his health condition. He's just not able to cope being out anymore.
So yesterday there was talk of colleagues we've lost recently. Then talk of colleagues and sharing news. And retired teachers always have to talk about former students.
Lunch was great but the visit was awesome. We had an awesome relationship when we were young and it's still the same although we don't see each other very much. Man, did we have energy in those days.
The photos are from 2013 so yes we've aged over the 3 years. Don't look for me. I was the photographer.
This morning when I was publishing comments I hit delete by mistake. I'm sorry that I deleted nine comments.
So if you don't see your comment you will know what happened to it.
Dorothy is a very feisty, energetic independent 89 year old who lives in her own house by herself. Three times a week she drives her little truck 30 miles return to visit her husband who is on personal care.
Dorothy is a fierce defender of parks and land set aside for natural areas. Her knowledge of native plants and animals is vast. There's very little she hasn't seen or done. She's been a great mentor for me.
The other night we were at a naturalist meeting and she said, "I've just got to tell you this story. Only a group like this would appreciate it."
Tuesday was garbage day and at 9:30 AM Dorothy set out the garbage. She left her kitchen and went out the passage door of the garage. Of course, she left both doors open. Her neighbors have been complaining about mice. As Dorothy entered her kitchen she saw something flash and thought "Oh boy, I've got a mouse." A second look showed her that the flash in her house was a least weasel. These are little guys about 4 in long.
The weasel scampered into her bedroom. Dorothy quickly closed the door to isolate him while she thought of something to do.
She had an appointment right away so decided to leave the weasel locked in the bedroom , so she thought, while away on her appointment.
When Dorothy came back she peaked in the bedroom to see if her visitor was still there. Well, yes he was , curled up in her blankets and looking out at her. So the door was closed again for Dorothy to think some more.
A few hours later , she thought she'd look again. This time the weasel scampered off the bed into the closet. Dorothy grabbed all the bedding and took it outside hoping the weasel was in the bedding and would stay outside. No way.
Well, maybe the weasel could be chased out. In her words. "The darn thing would come in and out of the closet." Dorothy sat on the bed to think. The cheeky little beggar jumped up on the bed and came over beside her and looked up at her. The weasel would actually sit on her lap. Every time Dorothy moved the weasel took off. This plan was going nowhere.
Dorothy decided to get a bag and her leg brace. The curious weasel inspected the bag and finally went in whereupon Dorothy quickly stamped on the bag opening trapping the weasel inside. The knee brace was to secure the top of the bag and off she went outside with her little friend. It was midnight and Dorothy started at nine.
Dorothy could hardly tell her story as she was so amused by what had happened with the little weasel.
Now weasels have a bit of a reputation. They are fierce with their prey and people are afraid of them. With humans they are very curious and do no harm. I'm afraid I could not do what dorothy did even if I know the weasel is friendly
Yes, this is the first party at Hiawatha House! Everybody is invited. See the big crowd behind me? They all have their hands raised and are clapping!
I wish!
But there is a milestone of sorts on Hiawatha house tonight.
This is my one thousandth post! How about that?
I started Hiawatha House in 2008. I think I wrote two posts.
In 2009 I wrote about 50 posts, but most of my time was taken in discovering how blogger worked. I wore out a copy of "Blogging for Dummies."
I don't remember 100 posts of 500 posts. I do remember looking at 880 and thinking,"This is getting close to 1000 posts.
When I started in 2008 I had no idea what was involved in writing a blog. I only knew that I wanted to write and keep up some writing skills.
I think it was about 30 or 40 posts before I got a comment. I was surprised by the notification as I didn't know that's how you got a comment. The comment really excited me. Jen at Cottage Country Reflections was the first blogger to make a comment. Connie at Far Side of Fifty was the next to visit and make a comment. These two will never know how much encouragement was given just because of the comments.
The 1000 posts have been a lot of fun. I've met many fantastic people through the blog. Relationships developed through blogging have been quite unbelievable.
I never ever thought that I would write 1000 posts!
So tonight is a happy time.
We've been cruising along through March and April with above average temperatures. It's been downright pleasant. It's a long time since we had overnight frost. It's been windy from time to time but overall very pleasant. It's been so pleasant that I've ridden 100 km (62 mi) on my bike. One day we had a high of 27C (83 F) .
So this was not normal April weather. We usually get snow and lots of overnight frost. We can also get very nasty blizzards.
Well, it had to end. It cooled off Friday. Yesterday morning when I went birding it was miserable 4 C(37 F). In the afternoon it started to rain and about 6:00 Pm snow started and turned to huge wet flakes. Most of the snow melted as it hit the ground. We did accumulate about 2.5 Cm (1 in).
So it was just a matter of time before we got some cold and nasty weather in April. ...and we could still get more.
Now it got to 0 C. As you can see the bleeding heart is developing quickly. If it cools off slowly these hardy plants can withstand lots of frost as most the moisture leaves the plant cells so the cell doesn't expand and break.
