Archive for » 2009 «

20
Dec
Webcams in the New Lowell/Clearview Township Area
Kathy

I haven’t found any webcams in the immediate New Lowell area. The lack of high-speed internet service is probably the reason. Here are a few webcams within about 30km of the village. If you want to check out the conditions down the 400 Hwy, the webcams are handy if you’re heading for the city.

Webcam Wasaga Beach - sunset dunes - North America, Canada, Wasaga BeachWasaga Beach

Webcams That Are Relatively Local

Achannel’s Collingwood Cam

Webcams at Blue Mountain
Snow Valley’s Webcams
Achannel’s Downtown Barrie Webcam
Achannel’s Barrie Tower Cam
Mansfield Ski Club Webcam

Hwy 400 Cams

Webcams from Barrie to 401

And…

White Rock Beach

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Category: Canadian, Eh!, Miscellany, Talking About the Weather  Tags: , , , , ,  Leave a Comment
12
Nov
Use those Odds and Ends of Bread
Kathy

Over at Slashfood, Marisa McClellan wonders whether she should take those few slices of bread left over from restaurant foods. Is it polite?  I say take it. You’ve paid for it, and it will be thrown away if you don’t. Odds and ends of bread can be used for a lot of things. I’ve started cubing the ends of bread my family won’t eat. Before I started doing this, I would find a lot of green fluffy bread ends hidden in the back of the cupboard.

Now I cube the bread and throw it in a bag in the freezer. The whole process takes about 2 minutes. Of course, if you’ve brought home some particularly yummy bread, by all means make toast as Marisa did, or make toasted garlic bread. Stale bread makes the best toast. But once cubed it’s ready for a number of uses. With the holidays coming, the obvious use is in stuffing. Or, make an old fashioned bread pudding. Toasted, the cubes become croutons for soup or salad.

Or turn the bread into crumbs. A blender, food processor or old meat grinder will do the trick. Soft crumbs make nice crusts over veggies mixed with grated cheese. Dried crumbs can be used to coat meats or make crumb cakes. And although you can buy gourmet bird feed, chickadees and juncos aren’t too sophisticated to eat breadcrumbs scattered on the snow.

If you are feeling creative you can make a bread dough sculpture with your odds and ends. Take the crusts off (put them in the bread cube bag in the freezer) and use about a tablespoon of white glue per slice. Knead the glue in until you have a slightly sticky modeling dough. You can colour the dough with a drop of food colouring or some powdered tempera paint. Or you can paint and varnish it once it’s dry. Of course the finished result is inedible.

So what do you do with your odds and ends of bread? Leave a comment below!

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Category: Miscellany  One Comment
10
Nov
Where Have all the Stars Gone ?
Kathy

Where Have All the Stars Gone? – What Can We Do About Light Pollution?

While we’re all going green and trying to prevent ground, air and water pollution there’s one type of pollution we don’t often think about: light pollution. This really hit home two summers ago when I was camping about an hour northwest of where I live. Tonight, go outside and look up. What do you see? If it’s cloudy you won’t see much. And if you’re near an urban center, you probably won’t see much either. That pale haze is called Urban Sky Glow, and it’s caused by misdirected light from buildings and street lights.

We are located about 30 minutes from a small city with a population of just over 100,000. The lights from this small city are enough to obscure many of the night stars from the sky. Drive an hour west or north and suddenly you’ll see the sky filled with stars. The Milky Way, which truly appears as a milky band where I live, is a ribbon of faint, but discernable stars. According to Night Skies Awareness two out of five Americans and one out of six Europeans have not seen 90% of the stars.

Probably the first question is; does it matter? Do we derive any direct benefit from seeing the night sky? I suppose you could go your whole life and never see one star and still be a happy, normal, healthy person. So is there a benefit? Yes there is, and it isn’t just a matter of being able to star gaze. Light pollution affects our health and health of leafed, feathered and furred things that we share our environment with.

Animals in migration, especially birds can be confused by the unnatural light patterns of buildings. In Toronto, FLAP is an organization dedicated to reducing the number of bird deaths caused by migrating flocks colliding with buildings. Birds are attracted to the bright lights and FLAP estimates more birds are killed in building collisions than in oil spills each year. Birds, plants, even sea turtles are affected by light pollution. According to Starry Night Lights www.starrynightlights.com) some species will stop reproducing if their habit becomes too brightly lit.

Even humans require darkness to produce melatonin, a hormone that may help prevent certain cancers. Melatonin production also affects our sleeping patterns and immune systems. So that stray light leaking behind your blinds from the streetlight might be jeopardizing your health.

Light pollution also represents wasted energy. Misdirected light isn’t helping anyone see well. It costs money and requires precious resources to produce energy for lighting. Dark Skies Awareness claims that misdirected lighting is costing billions of dollars and causes 38 million tons of carbon dioxide to be released into atmosphere every year.

And does increased lighting in our towns and cities deter crime. There are no studies to support the idea.

So what do we do?

* Go without. It takes about 20 minutes for your eyes to adjust to darkness after having been in the light. You may be surprised how well you can see without light.

* Turn off unnecessary lighting. That may mean running fancy garden lights only when you are there to enjoy them.

* Use motion sensors or timers on outdoor lighting.

* Choose lighting that directs the light to where it’s needed. Hoods and shades should direct light onto the ground or work surface. Light that escapes upwards or sideways is wasted energy.

* Use only the intensity of light you really require.

Earth Hour 2009 is on March 28 at 8:30 PM. For one hour, lights will be turned off around the world. ( http://www.earthhour.org/) You can also participate in the GLOBE at Night project and measure the brightness of stars in your backyard. Check out the GLOBE at Night Homepage. http://www.globe.gov/GaN/. Join in and save energy and enjoy the stars.

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Category: Miscellany  Tags: , ,  Leave a Comment
27
Jul
Mongol Derby – Horse Race Adventure or Travesty?
Kathy

Over on About.com Horses I posted about the Mongol Derby. This horse race is set to run starting August 22, 2009. It will cover 1000km (600mi)  over an unmarked course and is being promoted as “the biggest, baddest equine affair on the planet. “  It’s also becoming one of the most controversial equine events, in the ilk of the Omak Suicide Race. While two weeks is the allowable time to finish the race, organizers are expecting front runners to finish in as little as 5 days or 120 miles per day. It is expected that riders will change horse about every 25 miles (which may be difficult to ensure considering there is no marked route—what if riders get lost, and they do, even on marked trails).  And while a fresh horse every 25 miles may seem adequate, how will the fitness (not just basic health, but athletic conditioning) of each mount be ensured, what veterinary care will be available on trail, should a horse become injured or suffer metabolic distress, what water will be available and how much does each rider know about pacing a horse without stressing it?

No doubt some would argue that this sort or race is within the tradition of the Mongols, but a thinking person gets tired of stupidity justified by tradition. The Mongols also hold annual horse races 28km long with children as young as 5 riding. Children fall off, often in exhaustion, while horses routinely die of over exertion. While this may be tradition, there is nothing about it that can be called horsemanship.

Even the organizers have claimed that riders may face injury or death (but make no mention of the horse’s safety). Endurance riding associations on all continents have been very careful to create competitions where every advantage of education, technology and common sense are employed in the care of their horses and a race of this type is not just a return to  more  traditional primitive time, but unfortunately a more primitive mentality. The Long Rider’s Guild, an association of distance riders who explore remote areas on horseback, has condemned the race and some representatives fear it is a disaster in the making. I would encourage anyone who loves horses to learn more about this publicity stunt/horse race and add their name in protest.

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Category: Just My Opinion, The Woman doth Speak of Nothing But Her Horse  Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,  Leave a Comment
29
Jun
Winchester Cathedral – Another Musical Memory
Kathy

I’ll just post a link to this YouTube.com video of Winchester Cathedral so it doesn’t compete with Classical Gas, previously posted. But this is another song I remember quite clearly as my mother and father worked with the radio on. The New Vaudeville Band released this song in 1966 (when I was 4) and it was on the charts for 19 weeks.

  • b193987199

    So How Old Am I?

    And yes, I am THAT old. I remember that all phones were black, had dials and most of us had party lines with up to eight lines. We knew to pick up the phone when there was one short and one long ring. Before you dialed, you had to listen if anyone was using the phone first. You could listen to someone else’s conversation but you had to be very quiet or you’d get caught. My family has had the same phone number for over fifty years now.

    We were only able to watch three channels on the television: local CKVR, CBC and CTV. I remember Charles Templeton and Pierre Burton on the radio station CFRB Toronto. We actually watched “Front Page Challenge , the Ed Sullivan Show, and Tommy Hunter” in black and white. My first typewriter was an ancient Smith-Corona circa 1930 something. I could still buy ribbon for it.

    Two of my public school teachers previously taught in a one room school house. Kids didn’t sniff glue, they ate it. I vividly remember kids chewing the wood in long splinters off of their pencils and making library paste and paper sandwiches to eat. Teachers dressed better than the kids, not like them. Speed limits on Ontario Highways was a blistering 60 mph and on the ‘400’ newly built between Barrie and Toronto, the posted speed was 70 mph. And I am bi-measurable as the metric system was not introduced until 1972 when I was 10 years old. I can think in imperial or metric. And speaking of 1972 I watched the last game of the Canada-Russia Summit Series live, with my classmates, during school hours.

    What else? I remember bags of potato chips were 15 cents. Pop was a quarter. Bazooka gum was 2 cents. The only time we ate lettuce was during the summer when it was fresh from the garden or at Christmas time. In fact, most of our vegetables were canned or frozen from the garden. I remember BPs, Red and Whites and milk delivered to my grandparent’s house in town. I remember when DDT was considered a boon to farmers (there’s a whole ‘nother story)  and real family farms. And I can remember listening to Winchester Cathedral on the radio.

    Yes, I’m that old.

    (Photo: stock.xchng patuska)

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Category: Canadian, Eh!  Tags:  Leave a Comment
30
May
Classical Gas, Tobacco Slats and Bale Boxes
Kathy

In 1968 my family was still growing tobacco. After the tobacco was harvested, stitched onto wooden slats and cured in the kilns, it was taken and stored upstairs in the barn. The colder months of the year meant it was time to take the crop to market. First the tobacco was hung in the steam room so it would become more pliable and less liable to crumble before it was removed from the slats. A short conveyor belt carried the steam softened tobacco out into the ‘strip room’ (not nearly as risqué as it sounds).

Workers, usually women, cut off the stitching and removed the slats. Then the person at the end of the conveyor carried the leaves to the heavy wooden bale boxes. The bale boxes were about 3 feet high, by about 14 inches wide and 3 1/2 feet long. As each layer of leaves was laid inside the box, a pressing device would pack it tightly down. The boxes were then upturned and the bales of tobacco were turned out. (Many of my earliest artworks were done on the brown baling paper with the thick black crayon used to label the bales.) The conveyor was the only piece of machinery in this process…everything else was done by hand. Over the clatter of the conveyor the radio played the hits of the day. I remember this song, among others…

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Category: Clearview, Miscellany  Tags: , , ,  Leave a Comment
29
May
Omak Suicide Race
Kathy

A few years ago I saw some television footage of a race that involved galloping horses headlong downhill and into the river. I remember being horrified as amongst the group of horses in the water there were some that clearly looked like they were drowning. Thanks to YouTube.com I happened across video of the Omak Suicide Race. How this ‘race’ has continued to exists is beyond me. The video shows ‘riders’ practicing. As I recall, the racers descend the hill en mass. I won’t embed the video here as I don’t care to see it when I open my blog page. But here is the link, should you be curious and care to ponder how such a travesty can continue.

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Category: Miscellany, The Woman doth Speak of Nothing But Her Horse  Tags: , ,  Leave a Comment
06
May
Horses on Highways – Horses and the Highway Traffic Act in Ontario
Kathy

Several local newspapers ran an article I wrote as a letter to the editor. Oddly enough, I sent this out a week before event rider Jessica Ruppel’s terrible hit-and-run accident that resulted in the death of her new prospect ‘Bella’. Since that time the local equestrian community has been outraged at the minimal charges being laid on the driver who appeared to intentionally run into the horse and rider, get out of  his truck to berate them, and then leave as Jessica and a friend agonized over Bella who was later found to have a smashed pelvis and had to be humanely destroyed.

I remember riding a few years ago along the quite dirt road we lived on. There was one man who we could count on to drive down the bumpy gravel road at top speed.  When we rode down the road, we always took care to stay well to the side, but as he passed us he yelled out the window “You shouldn’t be on the f****** road”.  Since then my daughter and several friends have had similar encounters all involving drivers who intentionally tried to scare their horse’s. Thankfully, the horses were less rattled by the encounters than the riders.

In Ontario horses and horse drawn vehicles are legally permitted on roadways. According to the Highway Traffic Act:

“167. Every person having the control or charge of a motor vehicle or motor assisted bicycle on a highway, when approaching a horse or other animal that is drawing a vehicle or being driven, led or ridden, shall operate, manage and control the motor vehicle or motor assisted bicycle so as to exercise every reasonable precaution to prevent the frightening of the horse or other animal and to ensure the safety and protection of any person driving, leading or riding upon the horse or other animal or being in any vehicle drawn by the horse or other animal. R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8, s. 167.”

Wherever you live,  find out what the traffic laws pertaining to horses are in your area and make sure that you’re horse is road safe before heading out.

For more information regarding the hit-and-run accident head over to:

EMG Forums: This link will take you to a letter to be sent to the Owen Sound Courthouse.

Facebook Group – Bringing Peace for Bella

Another article about horses on Ontario roadways

http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/scugog/article/124081: Expect the unexpected
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Category: Just My Opinion, The Woman doth Speak of Nothing But Her Horse  Tags: , , , , , , ,  Leave a Comment