I’ll write this, then stir the pot of linseed oil

My wife left me alone in the house this afternoon, so I bailed on a writing task and snuck out to the workshop.

I couldn’t curb my enthusiasm - I wanted to finish my first purple martin house.

I attached 10 cedar slats to the roof. I used screws on two slats so they can be easily removed during spring clean out.


["The cedar slats were rescued from an old picket fence": photos GAH]

Then I ventilated the roof and back walls. The back walls can also be easily removed.




Next, I added cedar perch rails in front of each unit.


As a final touch, I added two-seaters to both penthouse units. I'll be able to charge high rents for years.


Enough said. Time to splash on the linseed oil.

***

If my column misses the deadline, you’ll know why.

.

Pt 3 Can we develop a deeper appreciation for Nature?

As I said earlier - of course we can. And we should... soon.

I mean, don’t try to tell me our local climate instability isn’t related to global warming.

But our strange weather might be caused by sunspots?? Ha.

(I thought I said not to tell me).

How can a person grow fonder of Nature? One could plant a garden or make more effort to eat local.

As well, we should try to cut out back on our use of processed foods.


["Real food"]

For example: When making Kraft Dinner, few people get any real sense of where real food comes from. (Answer: Not from the Kraft food company!)

I mean, what do you say when a child asks, “Is real cheese bright orange, Mommy? Does it always come in a foil pouch?”


["Not real food"]

But when we make our own noodles (using an egg from our own chicken) or cook noodles made from real wheat from Durham (just south of Owen Sound, Ontario) and add our own chopped up veggies to a simmering pot of tomato sauce (made with real plum tomatoes from that farm right beside Hawk Cliff, south of London and St. Thomas), then we’ll more often think about how important the earth is to all of us.

Just because many high school and UWO students think KD is real food, don’t let that fool you.

A plum tomato from Dexter Line is real food.

***

Don't tell me Durham wheat doesn't come from Durham, Ontario!

Want directions to Hawk Cliff? Let me know. Great for bird-watching.


.

From the Workshop: I’ll try to curb my enthusiasm

I really like the smell of my soft-needled pine tree on the front lawn (see below for ‘The Tree’ sing-a-long), almost as much as the smell of cedar in my workshop.

I admit, it may be the cedar talking right now, but I also really like the looks of my first-ever purple martin birdhouse. The work was progressing so well last night that I stayed in the shop until 11:30. I missed my Gunsmoke rerun and everything.


["It looks huge!": photos GAH]

Compared to the rest of my collection, the size is huge! Eight apartments - that's twice as many as in my second biggest model, i.e., The Muskoka-style four-plex.

I like it. The straight lines, the two rows of holes, the tiered apartments (did I mention the smell of cedar?) - everything appeals to me. (I may have found my niche).


["Today I put a roof over the penthouses"]

I have to add the roof slats (already cut and sanded) and ventilation holes (I can hardly wait), then I’ll paint it (I can hardly wait). And then attach the finished model to a tall post (already sanded and painted) and erect it in my yard.

I can hardly wait!!

***

How will I vent the roof? Wait and see!

Should I try a third storey next (w 11 apartments)??

.

My Tree: I've got sunshine on a cloudy day

I’m tempted to sing that I have the nicest soft-needled pine tree on the entire block. (I may have the only soft-needled pine tree on the entire block, but that’s beside the point).

In fact, I think I will sing. Recognize this one?

My Tree

I've got sunshine
On a cloudy day.
When it's cold outside,
I've got the month of May.

Well, I guess you'll say
What can make me feel this way?
My tree. (My tree, my tree)
Talkin' 'bout my tree. (My tree)


["This tree has the loveliest smell. Bees like it, too": photo GAH]

I've got so much honey
The bees envy me.
I've got a sweeter song
Than the birds in the trees.

Well, I guess you'll say
What can make me feel this way?
My tree. (My tree, my tree)
Talkin' 'bout my tree. (My tree)

Though the temptation is still there to sing, I need some coffee. See you at The Red Roaster.

***

Please click here to read the poem TREES by Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918).

.

Trees: Did you use ‘Adventure Awaits,’ an old school reader?

Though it was a bit cool and wet this morning I stopped for a moment on my way to The Red Roaster to enjoy the appearance of a soft-needled pine tree on my front lawn.

The tree seemed perfect to my eyes, nose and touch, and it reminded me of a poem from a classroom reader I used back in the 1970s and ‘80s as a teacher.

TREES

by: Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918)

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree. 
 


A tree whose hungry mouth is prest 

Against the earth's sweet flowing breast; 
  



A tree that looks at God all day, 

And lifts her leafy arms to pray; 
 


A tree that may in Summer wear 

A nest of robins in her hair; 
  


Upon whose bosom snow has lain; 

Who intimately lives with rain. 
  


Poems are made by fools like me, 

But only God can make a tree.

***

Do you remember Trees?

I’m grateful the poem, though it may be 100 years old or more, is still alive and well.

.

Pt 3 Why do I suffer Deforest City Blues at times?

Three reasons today.

First - unfriendly bylaws.

Second - an unreasonable Deputy Mayor who reserves praise only for ‘the professional’ born well after the 1920s.

(Dear Mr. Gosnell. Will backyard gardens - developed and maintained by rank amateurs - be banned one day inside city limits because they draw pests, like squirrels and raccoons and rabbits?)

Third - sometimes, people forget about the good stuff.

This from Tuesday’s issue of The London Free Press:

Coun. Bernie McDonald said he was raised with chickens on Cape Breton Island and they bring lice, fleas and rats.

But surely, there must be a good side to Mr. McDonald’s short, yet delightful, story.

Perhaps chickens also provided the chicken half of Sunday evening’s chicken and dumpling stew at Bernie’s house. Maybe fresh eggs at a very reasonable price graced his breakfast plate on a regular basis. Maybe skills related to animal husbandry were passed along to several young minds. And maybe, because families kept chickens and supplied their own eggs, there was more room on weekly supply trucks to the Island for comic books and shoes and spiffy polyester ties to wear to the local high school hop.


["What's that smell? It ain't the chickens!"]

Who knows. Maybe Bernie cleaned up pretty nicely and looked suave and debonair while wearing one of the aforementioned new ties - and even met Mrs. Right because of it.

Come on, let’s not forget the good times, eh.

But Bernie continued:

“You raise chickens and you start to smell like them,” he said. “I have enough problems with student housing, much less with chicken coops.”

Okay, maybe in Bernie McDonald’s case certain smells have outlasted any good thoughts, but not for me.

Chickens are a good thing, and after a reasonable amount of public education, city council shouldn’t stand in the way of progress.

This isn’t the 1920s after all.

.

Pt 2 Why do I suffer Deforest City Blues at times?

Three reasons today.

First - unfriendly bylaws. Want to learn about raising chickens to support a great idea, i.e., eat local? You can’t. There are bylaws that won’t even allow a pilot project inside city limits.

Second - an unreasonable Deputy Mayor, and trust me, I don’t throw the phrase ‘unreasonable Deputy mayor’ around very often. (However, I use the word ‘reasonable’ a lot.)


["Where's Gord? Out of tune?"]

This from Tuesday’s issue of The London Free Press:

Deputy Mayor Tom Gosnell said it’s better to leave raising eggs to the professionals, who in Ontario are raising some of the best food in the world.

Yes, the professionals. All you amateurs out there, take note. Forget how good fresh eggs or meat or vegetables or fruit or bread or jam or home preserves or any homemade product tastes - the pros do it better. Yeah, right.

“This is not the 1920s,” Gosnell said. “We are a very urban society.”

That’s right. No one can argue that. We don’t live in a time, like 90 years ago, when the majority of people were more self-reliant and could raise some of their own food or make some of their own clothes, if need be. Now we rely on others, from the womb to the tomb, to do perfectly healthy chores for us, all on the back of cheap oil, thereby leaving our society vulnerable to any changes in the price per barrel.

Mr. Gosnell continued:


["What? We can't grow red pepper for our omelette? There's a bylaw?"]

He said he’s “shocked” at the debate about backyard chickens in a city like London.

“We’re becoming a sophisticated research and development, high-tech community.”

And we can’t do both?

I.e., we can’t raise a few hens, collect fresh eggs and make a healthy, low-cost omelette (better than the professionals) while becoming a high-tech community?

We can’t multi-task or appreciate natural processes while making, what... a better cellphone?

If I was Carla on Cheers I’d say, “What a maroon.”

But I’m not, so I’ll just keep singin’ the blues.

***

More to follow.

Yeah, we’ve dropped the egg on this one.

.

Why do I suffer Deforest City Blues at times?

Three reasons today.

First - unfriendly bylaws.

In what may be the last story the Free Press will carry re the great chicken debate (“Can we have backyard coops? Can we not?”) until fall, when info re bylaws in other cities will be presented, I read the following line:

“Council was told by city solicitor Jim Barber zoning and animal control bylaws would prevent a pilot program.”


["We're singin' the blues. But - where's Gord?"]

Though other Canadian cities allow backyard coops, our city cannot because we have certain bylaws.

And, of course, we follow all bylaws all the time. (Except maybe where developers are concerned; cf current Wortley Village luxury condo project).

So, if citizens of Deforest City desire to step back from heavily-industrialized and fertilized and fossil-fuel powered agribusiness and buy and eat locally, bylaws stand in the way of reasonable projects to help us with that desire.

I’m feeling the blues.

***

More to follow.

Oh yeah. We’ve dropped the egg on this one.

.

Pt 2 Can we develop a deeper appreciation for Nature?

As I said when I initially asked the question - of course we can.

And after watching and reading reports about ongoing environmental and economic damage in the Gulf of Mexico, we should.

And we should start immediately.

After you’ve started or expanded your garden and purchased a few packets of vegetable seeds (please click here to visit Pt 1 and some delightful context), try the following so your appreciation for Nature can deepen:

Eat local food. And if you have children, take them to a farm where some of their food is grown. Point at a cabbage, tell your kids what it is, and be proud you can still identify a living plant.


["Kids, are these turnips or red peppers?": photo by GAH]

(Hey, even if you don’t have kids, go to the farm. Learn how to spot a turnip from 50 paces).

Going to a farm and growing our own vegetables is a step forward, not backward, as some would have you believe.

Any step back from heavily-industrialized, fertilized and fossil-fueled agribusiness is forward thinking.

.

The door isn’t closed on chickens in London. Good thing too.

Keeping egg-laying hens inside city limits didn’t get the thumbs up last Monday night at City Hall but council at least voted '11 - 7 in favour of a motion looking at food security and reviewing bylaws of other cities that allow chickens.’ (Today’s issue of The Londoner)

With a reasonable amount of public education, I think the majority of Londoners could live with chickens in their backyard - or neighbourhood at least. But, for certain, public education is needed.

Chickens require safe, secure, clean, heated coops and urban-centered citizens need more information.

This is just my opinion, but I think there are some similarities between keeping chickens and riding a motorcycle.

As a motorcyclist I can honestly say that riding a bike is not as easy as falling off a log or making an omelette. Training is required, and the three-tiered licensing system makes sense.

You want chickens? I think you should take a course of reasonable length. And pass a reasonable test. And get a reasonably priced license. And give a thumbs up to an initial and (thereafter) annual inspection of the coop.

Fewer neighbours would squawk if reasonable measures were in place.

They might even learn that there is such a thing as a free lunch (well, almost) and get into the act themselves one day.

***

Public education is the key to the backyard henhouse.

.

Conscientious Observer - the perfect job for me

After unloading a trailer and pickup truck full of lumber this morning my arms hung down to the ground.

It took 3 minutes to get enough strength back just to wipe my runny nose.

Then came the hard part - cleaning out last week's post holes and planting more 10 ft. long cedar posts.

However, I persevered, and even made life more enjoyable by praising my co-worker when I could.

“That’s the best looking post hole I’ve ever seen, George,” I said with some regularity (and you know how important it is to be regular).


Sure, while George leveled posts and reviewed our measurements I had to deliver the next bag of cement and post with my weary, six-ft. long arms, which I hated, but I continued to dish out positive comments.

“That post looks perfectly straight,” I’d say. Good work.”

I swear, George grew more cheerful and worked harder - even than me, and I had the huge arms.

I’m hoping George invites me back just to be conscientious observer next time. If it pays a good hourly rate - I’m in.

***

What are the odds? Is the perfect job out there for me?

.

Gord - I borrowed $30

I just got home from work and found the following note on my desk:

Gord - I borrowed $30. Will pay you back this weekend. Thanks, Doll.

She added a happy face at the bottom.


["Dear Ann. Should I charge HST?"]

Wait ‘til she learns how much interest I’m charging this week.

Plus, when I add in the Harmonized Sales Tax and Hydro Conservation Tax she’ll learn that family loans don’t come as easy as they once did. Hey, money's tight.

I look forward to seeing the look on her face when I break the news.

***

Do you charge HST on family loans?

Should I consider a discount because she left me a note?

.

Thing$ Going North $$: Oil - a sticky subject

I think I forgot to add this to the ever-growing list of cost$ going North.

I consider this a future cost and could fall on us sooner than we think.

I.e., the number of defined benefit pension schemes that are in deficit has doubled over the past five years to stand at 92% of the total, making retirement prospects bleak unless changes are made.

In other words, if you have a pension in Canada, there’s a really, really good chance there are not enough funds in it to cover future pensions, i.e., maybe your pension.

How bad is the deficit? Just a few bucks short? Think again.

Pension funding deficits have risen from $160 billion in 2003 to an estimated $350 billion in 2008 and continue to grow.

So, start saving more money.

You're going to need it - unless you're going to work until you... leave your desk for the last time.

No canapes for you!

.

We all knew the HST would cost us more but...

Now, Premier McGuinty is filling in a few more details.

The HST is ‘an aid to help Ontario businesses compete in the global marketplace.’ (Editorial, May 5, London Free Press)

(Isn’t that why he’s sending kids off to school at an earlier age too? Must businesses and the economy get every break around here?)

The HST is a deliberate shift of the overall tax burden from businesses to families, says the editorial.

Good idea? Should corporate tax levels drop further? Further? Then further, especially if Joe Q. Public is expected to cover the losses to tax coffers?

I don’t think it’s fair. But it is a federal Conservative idea and ideal.

This tax shifting is ‘an approach promoted, embraced and subsidized’ by our federal masters.

I think it’s time for a change in philosophy and governing party.

Vote for me.

.

Birdhouse Spotting: Gainsborough Rd., west of Hyde Park

My wife and I picked up a few tomatoes yesterday for our (soon to be) magnificent garden, and on our way to a second garden center I spotted some of the fanciest birdhouses I've seen in a long time.


Even the mailbox is worth a picture.


Paint, fancy trim, chimneys - pretty big job. The builder must be retired!

Wow. Would I ever want to work this hard on one birdhouse? (1... 2... no, never!)


1165. I hope that's just the address on Gainsborough, and not the price.


["They're tricky, but maybe I'll steal 1 or 2 ideas. Shhh.": photos GAH]

My next project, i.e., purple martin houses, won't come close to being as fancy.

I'm slowly working toward 'humble.'

.

Nature's beauty - just outside the front door

Grandson Ollie spotted the butterfly after exiting his mother’s car this morning.


["Ollie is right again": photos GAH]

When I saw it, its wings were closed and I said it was a black butterfly.


“No,” said Ollie. “It’s orange and has spots.”

When the butterfly opened its wings I saw Ollie was right.


Flowers and new leaves were catching their first rays of the day as well.


I enjoyed a start to a great day just outside my front door.

.

Pt 1 Can we develop a deeper appreciation for Nature?

Of course we can.

And after watching and reading reports about ongoing environmental and economic damage in the Gulf of Mexico (oh, it’s more than a double whammy) I say we should work on a better relationship with Mother Earth almost above all else.


Many would agree that if we practice a certain skill over and over we’ll get better at it.

(So, why is my slap shot, after 50 years of hockey, still such a dud? Maybe just a little more practice is needed, that’s all!)

To draw closer to nature, while at the same time taking a step back from a fossil-fueled life that seems to stomp on Mother Earth’s toes at regular intervals, perhaps we could do more natural activities until they become healthy habits.

For example:

Many already know there is much to gain by growing some of our own vegetables. Many do so even though they live in apartments or condos.

I learned yesterday, while my grandson Ollie played at Thames Park beside a community garden, that a person (the fellow I talked to was a condo dweller) can rent a 20’ x 20’ garden plot annually by making one phone call.


["Let's try 'fresh' for change"]

Even growing vegetables indoors or on a front or back porch or lawn is a valuable exercise.

A fellow I play hockey with (who happens to have a better slap shot than me, but I’m not bitter) grows potatoes inside plastic pails.

“It’s so easy,” he says. “When they’re ready you just dump the pails over and pick out the spuds.”

My dad grew potatoes by the row and I swear I’ve never tasted better, but the pail idea sounds like something for my back deck this year.


["I've got my tomatoes, now I'll try potatoes"]

So, can growing some of our own vegetables become a healthy, or healthier habit this year by starting, expanding or including another person in the activity?

I say, give it a try.

***

I’m off to look for large pails or containers. I think I know someone who tosses out several white plastic pails every week.

And I can buy seed potatoes at Springbank Gardens for 69 cents per pound. I’ll document my success (or like my slap shot) my lack of it!

.

Will the Gulf of Mexico recover in our lifetime?

I’ll go out on a limb and say, partly. If we live a long time and oil stocks go into decline and the price per barrel becomes much more expensive than it already is.

Let’s take a quick look at the current situation.

Hundreds of thousands of liters (800,000 - 1,000,000) of crude oil still spew into the Gulf each day from a blown-out well one mile below the surface. No solution yet.

The spill threatens the environment because booms are relatively ineffective against high winds and waves. So, the environmental disaster looms large now, and will grow.


[Guardian UK]

The Gulf’s US fishing industry (“the heartbeat of the region’s economic life,” says Pres. Obama) and tourism dollars and other industries are gravely threatened.

Still, there will be a slow turn around, because, as we’ve seen elsewhere, some fixing up can be done.

Money will be poured into the region after well owner BP America is successfully wrestled to the ground by the US government. Odds are it will go a few rounds but Obama can be persuasive.

Admittedly, spilled oil is a big problem, even bigger when we add in the massive amounts of chemical fertilizer residue (a by-product of the fossil fuel industry) that are washed into the Gulf each year from vast stretches of mid-America farmland.

I read the following recently from The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan (please visit Read This, side margin):

“The ultimate fate of the nitrates (e.g., applied to vast cornfields in Iowa) is to flow down the Mississippi into the Gulf of mexico, where their deadly fertility poisons the marine ecosystem. The nitrogen tide stimulates the growth of algae, and the algae smother the fish, creating a hypoxic or dead zone as big as the state of New Jersey and still growing.”

Ironic, isn’t it? Crude is bubbling up from the seabed (bad enough in itself) and uniting with ammonia nitrates, a first cousin so to speak, and creating an even more lethal stew.

But if conditions are right (e.g., higher oil prices, for one) and our fossil-fuel powered lifestyles grow smaller, the Gulf will one day partly recover.

I might be 105 years old at the time but I’ll still pop a balloon.

.

Rosy, you’d better come right over. You too, Rock

Yesterday, Rosy got to stay home to finish yard work, because things were looking up and I was in a cheery mood without his help.

Today is another story.

As soon as I read the headline ‘Number of pension plans in deficit reaches 92%’ (May 1, London Free Press ) I thought, I’d better call Rosy and see if he’s got a minute.

92% is a very high and significant number.

Really, if I’d scored 92% on my final exams at the University of Western Ontario in 1969, I’d be a brain surgeon right now, be scheduled to perform something tricky in 30 minutes and be eating canapes in Paris by mid-afternoon.

But, when 92% is connected to pension deficits - watch out.

No canapes for you!!

I read:

The number of defined benefit pension schemes that are in deficit has doubled over the past five years to stand at 92% of the total, making retirement prospects bleak unless changes are made.

In other words, if you have a pension in Canada, there’s a really, really good chance there are not enough funds in it to cover future pensions, i.e., maybe your pension.

How bad is the deficit? Just a few bucks short? Think again.


["Empty mud nests: Has your money flown the coop?": photo GAH]

Pension funding deficits have risen from $160 billion in 2003 to an estimated $350 billion in 2008 and continue to grow.

Yipes. Where’s the phone? (Rosy’s on speed dial).

"(Our) ability to maintain a financially comfortable and healthy lifestyle is bleak unless the retirement system undergoes a drastic makeover," Rock Lefebvre, Vice-President of Research and Standards at CGA-Canada said.


"Pension plans should not operate in a manner that unduly borrows from future generations to pay the present one."

My thoughts exactly, Rock.

I wonder if Rock could be my friend too. When things get tough, nothing like having a Rock and a Rosy on speed dial.

Live small. Reduce spending. Pay off debt. Save your money.

.

Mud swallows and a favourite pit stop on Crossley-Hunter Line

Three years ago I stopped for a few minutes on a non-descript bridge SW of London and Belmont, and noticed something curious about the birds that darted over and under my head.

The swallows would dive under the bridge and come out the other side, but a few added seconds would pass before they reappeared.


["New works in progress under the bridge": photos GAH]

“Why are they stopping under there?” I asked myself.


["Clay for nests is a free resource for resourceful birds"]

Yes, curiosity killed the cat, but I didn’t think an axe murderer lived under the bridge, so I climbed down a short bank to explore.


["These nests - photo from 2008 - are now gone; new ones are underway"]

I discovered that the birds were mud swallows and were building nests for their young.

Each nest was a work of art, made skillfully from clay and stuffed with feathers or other fluffy odds and ends. (Anyone missing an old sweater?)


["This blackbird came to visit during my Pt. Bruce coffee break"]

Yesterday, after spotting a dozen or so swallows in the air near the bridge, I stopped again to see new works in progress.

Have you seen any unusual nests recently?

.

I stayed one step ahead of the storm

While on the back of my trusty motorcycle I can see more of the sky than when inside a car, so, I don’t mind taking a risk on occasion and heading out on a rainy day.

Yesterday was one of those days.


[“I stopped on a 401 overpass and looked back toward London. Yipes”]

I stayed one step ahead of a major storm for over an hour as I headed toward Pt. Bruce, then did a successful zig and a zag (on wet roads) to stay under clear skies on my way back home.


[“I looked NE, toward home, while stopped on Crossley-Hunter Line”]

The air smelled clean and fresh wherever I stopped.


[“A sea of dandelions under grey skies. Better move on”: photos GH]

Did you risk getting wet yesterday?

Glad you did?

.

Due to deficits, I wish I had a friend named Rosy

I’d call Rosy whenever I felt blue.

“Rosy, can you come over?” I’d say.

“Been watching the news?” he’d ask.

“Yeah. I try to resist. But I just can’t. Get over here, Rosy.”

However, today Rosy could stay home and get yard work done because I just read the following headline out of Ottawa:

Deficit may be smaller than projected (London Free Press)

I also read something rosy.

I.e., “The Finance Department routinely cautions that timing factors can at times give a false impression of the state of the government’s finances, and the monthly data is subject to revision, but the trend over the past few months has been generally rosier for the government.”

See that? ‘Rosier.’

And why?

“The federal government may be headed for a smaller deficit than it feared in the past year, thanks to a quicker and stronger than expected recovery in economic activity.”


Yes, we have a massive deficit this year ($40.5 billion), but apparently there is a bright side.

“Ottawa reported Friday that its deficit increased by a modest $902 million in February, compared to a $800-million surplus a year ago.”

I mean, if we don’t feel like winners right now, what’s wrong with us?

Feeling rosy about the deficit has never been so easy, eh?

.

What say you? Global warming may be phenomenal?

I borrow the word ‘phenomenal’ from the following quote:

Grain farmers in the London area have had a great spring, with corn plantings several weeks ahead of schedule, says (Peter Johnson) a crop specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food.

“The planting progress is nothing short of phenomenal.” (May 1, London Free Press)

‘Phenomenal’ doesn’t spring to mind as I put excerpts from the newspaper article under the umbrella of global warming, which is where the warmer temperatures in our region likely fit.

For example:

About 80% to 85% of the corn in the London area has been planted, compared to 5% to 10% by now in an average year.

Is it phenomenal, even a good thing, that we’re so far out of whack with an average growing season?


(As well), “This year is the diametric opposite of last year. For most of the London region, it’s hard to complain right now,” Johnson said.

I suppose he’s right. It will be easier to complain in the future, when the negative results of global warming are a bit more obvious to more people.

The winter wheat is also benefiting from the good weather and is at least two weeks ahead of normal maturity. “Bean acres will fly into the ground in the first week of May, if the weather holds, and that’s way ahead of normal.”

Because beans and corn chiefly end up in the gut of a cow, and BBQs are a summertime passion in Deforest City, there will be much clapping of hands on backyard patios this year.

“Phenomenal beef,” some will say.

How long will we continue to stuff our faces while the world slowly warms?

.

Great! Oil slick in Gulf of Mexico is a triple whammy

Great.

Almost one million liters of oil per day are leaking from a blown-out well into the Gulf of Mexico.

At first glance, the massive slick is a double whammy.

From an environmental or economic point of view, it’s a disaster.

North Atlantic blue fin tuna, prized for sushi and sashimi and a species already in danger of becoming extinct (through no fault of its own) are already in the gulf to spawn and more are on their way.


How will they fare?

In my expert opinion as a conscientious observer, not any better than other plant and marine life as more oil oozes over protective booms due to high winds and is pushed into ponds and lakes in Louisiana, USA.

Untold levels of plant and marine life will die.

As well, the all-important economy and resultant, excessive lifestyles will be harmed as well, near and far.

Already, all new offshore oil projects have been halted in the US. Regarding the current disaster, though crews are trying to shut off an underwater valve, no success has been achieved.

However, I believe we face a triple whammy as mentioned in the title.

This current, massive economic and environmental disaster occurring in the Gulf of Mexico is not an isolated in incident.

While crude is bubbling from the sea bed and destroying the natural benefit and potential of the Gulf of Mexico, another product of oil (chemical fertilizer) is being dumped in large quantities into the Gulf as well with damaging consequences.

This from The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan:

“The flood of synthetic nitrogen (applied to cornfields of mid-America) has fertilized not just the farm fields but the forests and the oceans too, to the benefit of some species (corn and algae being two of the biggest beneficiaries), and to the detriment of countless others.


“The ultimate fate of the nitrates (e.g., applied to vast cornfields in Iowa) is to flow down the Mississippi into the Gulf of mexico, where their deadly fertility poisons the marine ecosystem.

“The nitrogen tide stimulates the growth of algae, and the algae smother the fish, creating a hypoxic or dead zone as big as the state of New Jersey and still growing. By fertilizing the world, we alter the planet’s composition of species and shrink its biodiversity.”

Ironic isn’t it?

For those keeping score, this is the first time that environmental degradation bubbling up from the Gulf’s seabed has come face to face with environmental degradation from the middle of the North American continent.

Great. A triple whammy.

Surely, we should be pleased.

.

Zoom w a View: Up close, I like the details. And Happy Hour

A million times I’ve been told, “Don’t sweat the small stuff.”

In some areas of life, I admit, that’s true.


["A small angle on side porch roof - helps shed the rain"]

Why worry about the $5 I put through the wash while an auditor is checking out my financial records with a magnifying glass?

Why worry about the size of the magnifying glass when the prison terms are... wha? That long?


["A small table for two, with a bit of shade": photos GAH]

However, when it comes to birdhouse building, it’s the small stuff that catches the eye, and birds have small eyes.

That’s why my motto in the shop is ‘don’t throw anything out.’


["Will the small side porch attract a visitor? Will the bottle cap?"]

(The longer version is ‘don’t throw anything out unless I’ve tacked it to a few birdhouses and have come to the conclusion that it doesn’t have a future as a piece of trim, then I can throw it in the garbage box under my workbench or add it to a fire. Is it Happy Hour yet?’)

Some small stuff is perfect.


["Will a chickadee like the small sticks from Pt. Bruce's beach?"]

It’s about finding a balance. Like life.

Is it Happy Hour yet?

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Thing$ Going North $$: Oil - a sticky subject

First, I’m going to say something that will go right over your head.

“April (2010) became the first month since October (2009) when the front-month contract traded continuously above $80.” (May 1, London Free Press)

Let me say it another way. Oil (ppb $86.15 US) hasn’t been in the $70 range for awhile. Oil prices are going north.

Second, because of a growing oil slick south of us, prices may go norther, if I can say such a thing. And I believe I can.


["Keep schmilin' anyways"]

“US crude oil imports may slow as oil-tanker traffic is delayed in the US Gulf of Mexico, investment bank Goldman Sacks said in a note to clients.”

So, Mr. Goldman is out of jail, passing notes, and because Canada is a close and personal friend and neighbour of the US, our wallet will likely notice these changes in oil prices.

Start saving for the tough times ahead.

Please click here to read about more Thing$ Going North $$

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April, 2010 was the warmest April ever. Global warming?

So, residents of London (aka Deforest City), my home for the last 42 years, now have something in common with our largest neighbouring city - almost.

(That is, besides having fewer electric trolley cars per capita because diesel-fuel consuming and diesel-fume spewing buses came along and squeezed them out. Not that I’m bitter. Hack! I’m bigger - cough, cough - than that. Surely.

Sorry, I digress.)

According to recent news reports, London had no snow in the month of March. And according to those who have recorded such things, we previously received an average of 10 days of snow annually since the mid- to late-1800s.

And according to yesterday’s news, Toronto just recorded the warmest April (some residents, far from The Beaches district, said ‘hottest’) since the late 1800s.

Will this be the warmest summer on record in our area, and be due to global warming?

For climate change information I usually visit the Goddard Institute for Space Studies website and peek at some of their summaries, charts and graphs.

What can we learn from the line graph ‘Global Temperature,’ compiled from temperature readings taken at meteorological stations around the world? Thermometers are fairly reliable and yearly averaging of results is fairly up-to-date, i.e., up to 2009.


I see the annual mean (the middle temperature reading from hundreds of stations) has gone up and down, up and down, since 1880, and up, up, down, down, up, down, up, down and up from 2000 - 2009.

So, will 2010 be the warmest year ever? It’s hard to say. I predict it will be close to the warmest because in the last 20 years, 14 years have been the warmest on record.

If 2010 is among the warmest in recorded history, will it be the result of global warming?

I would say yes.

Since 1965 the 5 year running mean (approx. an average of 5 years of averages) has had a very strong upward trend, consistent with heavy, global industrial and agricultural development and the trend in many countries and people to add more cars to the highway, more miles on the cars, more miles of tarmac on the highways, more rooms in the house, more furniture in each room, and so on. (The big lifestyle has a big carbon footprint, does it not?)

That being said, I wouldn’t be surprised if the upward trend slows somewhat in the next five years due to a variety of factors, including the rising price of oil, cooling caused by atmospheric ash from Iceland and a trend toward smaller lifestyles.

No, I’m not joking about the smaller lifestyles. A couple I know wants to sell their big house in the burbs and downsize.

It’s a tiny blip, but I look for good results nonetheless.

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Please click here to read more about climate change concerns.

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Working and dreaming my way toward a purple martin house

I think working alone in my shop with rescued lumber, a trusty hammer and bag of nails helps keep me grounded.

I mean, I can’t be ranting about the state of our economy and environment and our dismal attitude toward various levels of government every second of the day.


["In my shop, I've never been grumpy. Just dusty.": photos GAH]

Okay, maybe I could, but I’d get all grumpy.

Building a birdhouse frees my mind and allows me to think about how beautiful, beneficial and practical birds are. I think about flying in the air (that’s where my motorcycle fits in, I bet) and feeling the breeze blow through what’s left of my hair.


["Two more need trim - then I can move on"]

Selling a birdhouse puts a small amount of gas in the tank too (there is such a thing as a free lunch!), and makes the pile of lumber on my back deck a wee bit smaller.


["Already sold - I feel like my small motorcycling habit is free"]

While hammering the last nail into the last of a batch of birdhouses (e.g., recently - six duplexes with a side porch for small parties), my mind travels forward to my next project - a four-story purple martin house.


["Spot one, build one, sell one, then look for more. Not bad"]

Yes, I’d like to build something like the one I spotted during a motorcycle ride three weeks ago, and during the building process I’ll feel as if my feet are on the ground while my mind is in the air.

Sweet. Where’s my hammer?

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Pt 2: We scream loudly - again - re government accountability

Yes, government accountability and transparency are important issues.

And if Canadians cannot get accountability and transparency from every federal, provincial and municipal politician (hey, even the darn janitors; I mean, who really needs two-ply anymore?) then we’ll scream.

Well, at least we’ll make a racket.

However, while we’re distracted by howls for accountability and jeers for transparency from our government and hope for savings of mere millions of dollars, our national debt ($620 billion by 2014) and individual debt grows by the billions and hangs by the slimmest of threads over our heads and those of our children and grandchildren.


["One of these could be hanging over your little round head"]

Two recent newspaper articles inspired my earlier and current recent posts.

The first, by Greg Weston -

No peeking! Expenses off limits (London Free Press, Apr. 26)

The second, by Kerry Thompson -

MPs, Senators need to call in auditor general (London Free Press, Apr. 29)

Thompson writes:

This is more than $500 million we’re talking about here. If taxpayers’ money is being spent properly, (the auditor general) shouldn’t find anything untoward and Canadians would have a better sense of how their dollars are being used by the people they send to the Hill — or, in the case of senators, people they didn’t send to the Hill.

I agree. A big glass of accountability all ‘round.

However, of the $500 million ‘we’re talking about here,’ a goodly portion is the actual salaries of MPs and Senators, so even if the auditor general could achieve a 25 per cent reduction in Parliament spending, the savings - on Canada’s behalf - would at most be $75 million per year.

If the savings were judiciously applied to the national debt, our balance would be zero in only 8,267 years.

(My bet is, if we pay down debt as we have in the past - i.e., during 20 per cent of our annual budgets for the last 54 years - we won’t pay down debt for more than 3 or 4 years in the next 20. Next stop - one trillion dollars of debt.)

Therefore, in my humble opinion, the recent screaming at the government is less about accountability than it is distractibility.

Certainly, accountability is important, and savings could be made, but 
many taxpayers and organizations, e.g., Canadian Taxpayers Federation, seem to use 'government accountability' as a distraction from a bigger problem, i.e., our debt.

If not a distraction, then a shield against ever paying more taxes in their lifetime.

Many say, “Let government clean up their mess before they come after me."

Others say, “Bug off. I’m shopping. And yes, those three bags of chocolate covered Oreos are a necessity.”

As per an earlier analogy, while we howl about fat on the T-bone, there are three hefty cows (they could be bison!) hanging over our heads by the slimmest of threads.

National debt is not only projected to hit $620 billion by 2014 (an all new Canadian record) but at the same time personal debt will be near $160 for every $100 of income per capita, also the highest level in Canadian history.

So, while screaming for government accountability, we should look up.

Look way up, at the danger caused by our shared lack of personal accountability.

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