Last summer I enjoyed a large beaver pond. I usually road my bike by this pond and visited with many others who had the same idea I had. There were always many things going on at the pond. There were quite a few duck species and Canada geese. The Red-wing blackbirds thought this was a good place for them. There were sparrows, swallows, woodpeckers, warblers and chickadees. The Great blue heron was a special treat.
The beavers had worked hard on their dam and cut down many trees to store for winter food.
The first time I went back this spring to check on the pond, I was most disappointed. the pond was no more and the stream ran in it's original banks.
Well, the beavers didn't move very far. they found another place about 500m further down with luscious young poplar trees which were right beside the bank.
They have also been working to control the water in the stream. They have built at least three small dams that I can see. They are going to get into trouble with one of their dams as it's under a footbridge.
A week ago we had a wind storm and some rain with it. The wind blew all day but the highest winds were from 4:00PM to 6:00 PM. We had gusts up to 100kph which for this location is a very strong wind.
Needless to say there was damage. There was little damage to structures but trees suffered a lot of damage. Some trees blew down in the residential areas. The dumb trees chose power lines to fall on. As a result, there were some power outages.
Out in the bush the story was different. Quite a few trees went down. Trees with some defects in the trunk broke off above the ground. Some trees were completely uprooted. It's amazing how large the root balls can be. The spruce seemed to suffer more damage but many poplars blew down as well.
This is the worst wind storm I've seen since I moved here in 1969. There was a windstorm in 1978 that took the tops off many spruce trees.
The city has worked hard to clean things up. First, they made sure that the roads were cleared. Then they cleaned off paved paths and then shale and gravel paths. Later on they will come back and haul away the debris.
Spring bird count takes place sometime during the bird breeding season. Of course, the idea is to count everything we see and hear. I've participated in this event for many years.
I find spring bird count rather frustrating. Half the breeding birds are on a nest so you won't see them. Many of the breeding birds forage in the new leaves so it's difficult to see them in the leaf canopy. Warblers sing their little hearts out but you can rarely see them amongst the leaves. I was within 3 meters of a yellow warbler yesterday but I didn't see it. If it's windy or hot you see fewer birds . If you go in the afternoon many birds are on their afternoon nap.
So with all this whining I'm working up to tell you that I had a lousy bird count yesterday. Yes , it was very windy. It was also very bright. So I ended up with 15 species but my numbers were small.
I count in ravine area which has many different habitats.There's old growth forest...spruce and poplar. There's riparian area along the stream banks. There are areas of brush. There's even a little grass in some areas.
So I took some photos of the area but I didn't get any bird photos.
From time to time I've been known to stop and contemplate where I've been and where I'm going. When I think of life, time is the major factor. You can look back on your story or you can think about what the future may hold.
When I was in my late teens and early twenties I was very self entered. I came first. I found it difficult to consider others and the stage of life they were in. As young guys we would look at the elderly and sometimes snicker. I wish those people could come back now and have a look at us.
In short young males think they are invincible and I had a lot of the invincible stuff.
But lately what's been making me think about things is most people passing away are younger than I am! I've just been starting to notice this happening. In today's obituaries, nine of the eleven were younger than I am. So I read into this that I am quite elderly. It also tells me that I have been very fortunate in life to survive and enjoy a good quality of life.
In between these two times I have had other watershed events that caused me to pause and think. My Mother died when she was 59. I can't deny that I thought she was fairly old. Now I look back and realize how young she was. For the longest time I wondered if I would ever be older than Mom...that is 59.
When I left home I had a two year old brother. Today that brother is 62. Wow! I left home 60 years ago at the tender age of 17.
Now I try and maintain some younger friends. One of them waved as he went around the corner tonight. It's important to have friends at all ages but that's a challenge. My birdwatching group has some people in their 50's. I have two very good neighbors who were former students.
I must admit that most of my friends are elderly. I have friends whose spouses have dementia. Both of them need support.
I also have to think ahead in a very realistic way. I have to prepare for some options. What are the living arrangement options? How can I get rid of all my treasures? What's still on my bucket list?
So 77 is great. I am still able to enjoy physical activity whether work or play. I can still contribute to the community and find satisfaction.
As always we take life one day at a time.
There was a linden tree in my neighbor's yard for the past 45 years. Linden trees are rare here because they are not hardy enough for our climate . The tree was planted when a long ago homeowner was given to tree and was to put it in to see how it would do. The original neighbor left a long time ago but the linden tree did well. It was the best of the few linden trees in town. Usually they don't reach maturity because they freeze before they ripen off in the fall.
Now the tree was taken down last week because the 5 main stems were starting to split and there was a danger of the tree falling and hitting the house.
Now we have wood carvers and lathers who cruise the neighborhoods watching for trees that are being taken down. If it's an interesting type of wood they ask for the wood.
My friend David was first on the scene and he took a couple of big chunks. David told his friend Andrew and Andrew showed up on the scene and promptly informed the neighbor that this was basswood and the very best wood for carving as you can carve it against the grain. Andrew further told the neighbor that if you bought this wood it would be about $300.00 for a 4 foot length.
So the neighbor kicked himself and some quick deals were made which didn't include money. The neighbor also could not believe that his tree was a basswood as he had been told by the city that it was a linden tree. The neighbor checked on the web and sure enough the linden tree is a basswood.
Now I'm sure most of you know about these trees.
Now the neighbor wanted to keep the stump and make it into a planter. He did a very good job of it. The bottom was just too big to take off with the small chain saw.
This one looks a bit like a person with mouth and eyes and legs(pants)
So an attractive planter was made out of the stump.
I've told you before that I do my own income tax. It's a pain and a lot of work. For the last 10 years or so I've been incredibly accurate as the micro Manager checks me. Before that I often made careless mistakes.
Today I received my income tax assessment. That's the piece of paper that tells you if you did things correctly or if they found mistakes. So a mistake could cost you more money or get some back.
Well today's assessment had good news. The balance was nil. Now usually when I see nil I file the assessment and that's the end of things.
Today one little note caught my eye. It said that I had a minute capital loss( less than $10.00) I had filed a small capital gain but no capital loss. So this gave me reason to look more closely at the assessment. I could not find out how they calculated a capital loss.
Then I noticed that they calculated my total income about $10.00 less than I had calculated. I checked net income . It was minutely less than what I calculated. Later on I found a line with a figure that was completely wrong. If I'd used their figures I would not have owed them one dime.
So after all this , they said I didn't owe them anything. I really don't know how the income tax department does addition and subtraction.
I'm not going to ask them about this situation. With friends like these who needs enemies. The next tax checker could use some voodoo math and want more money out of me.
Have you ever found the tax dept. to be inept with their math?
