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What's happening locally? (2)
June 20, 2009 - 4:39pm
What's happening here?
1. Our dialup ISP (Telus Globetrotter) is cutting in and out - frustrating.
2. The construction of the new wharf appears to be on schedule, and the company doing the work is also building a nice floating dock as well.
3. The company doing the new road connecting the Lower North Shore of Quebec to the Quebec provincial road network for the first time is apparently still negotiating their contract with the provincial government. Actually, only our small village will be connected to the provincial road network - should be a three year project - the other villages on the coast have a much longer wait ahead of them.
4. Blackflies are back! 
5. No sign of the new Coast Guard search and rescue boat that will be stationed here.
I'm getting heartburn just watching Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives on the Food Network - today it's mostly BBQ in Texas and the Carolinas - baby back ribs, pulled pork, brisket, links, Texas jambalaya, chicken fried steak, Bubba tacos, Uncle Lou's chicken (so spicy it makes your hair stand on edge) honey-dipped fried bologna sandwiches, the whole nine yards. It's insane how much of this food that host Guy Fieri samples - how can do this and not have a heart attack???
Fortunately he also eats a lot of their side dishes such as slaw and mac 'n cheese, and in between BBQ he samples a lot of fish dishes.
And there's a Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives marathon on the Food Network tomorrow! Dear God.
rainy, and fresh snow on a couple of the higher mountains, and there is still so much to melt yet, not sure if it even will again this year. Glaciers appear to be building up nicely over the last 2 years.
Downtown streets are ripped up and a paving crew coming in, guess they are trying to get it done before tourists start in July.
Just about to make spicey crispy chicken tacos, after spending 2 hours cleaning the fridge, and sterilizing my veggy purchases of today.
Granddaughter has friends over.
No mosquitoes here this year, has been sweet, but noseums are out now. fewer humming birds this year than ever before to, but the robins are everywhere playing hawks with the pine beetles and butterflys. never seen them so fat and big, almost the size of a small crow.
Sunshine came to an end today, but only a few sprinkles. We did our weekly housing stand and tonight the co-op is having a father's day pot-luck. I don't want to start up the stove, so I am making a Greek Salad.
Lots of birds at my feeder, still - guess there's nothing the bush for them to eat, although hopefully they're feast on the noseeums. Beautiful owl here last week, and a red-headed woodpecker on a phone pole nearby. Lots of small birds, but the ravens and crows scare them away when they appear. I wish I could keep the ravens and crows away.
Yum, I made one a few days ago and mixed it with organic rottini noodles, was excellent.
Oh shit i forgot it was fathers day!
What is a housing stand?
Trying to hay, but weather very uncooperative. Waiting to get some good use of our new tractor too.
Been a very cool wet summer. Hay is sparse and alfalfa very poor.
Market garden is waaaay behind usual. Had to replant a number of crops in it because the seed rotted waiting for heat.
One of the bridges in town has been ripped up all spring. Means a big detour to get gas, tires fixed, see my Mom and a lot of other things.
We feed our huge, and I mean huge, raven couple very well, and they keep the crows away, and do not bother the wood peckers, chickadees, robins or hummies.
We have a small mountain of fleece in our barn after having sheared our sheep today.
It rained and rained, it added up to 24mm sofar. The plants can use it since we had only 3mm the month before. Like Agrarian I want to get haying, but with the ground this wet it might be a while, unless we get some dry winds. Our gardens are mostly doing fine, might have to replant some beans, since many seem to suffer from a wilt of sorts.
The honey bees are a bit fickle this spring, they came through the winter in good shape, and even collected honey, but the queens seem to be restless. Had hoped to get a few new hives going, but the queens keep disappearing. Anyway still time for that.
Too many eggs. The chickens are working overtime producing eggs, just when my customers are going on holiday trips and do less baking. So have been pickling eggs. Any good egg-pickling recepies out there?
Every week a few of us stand on a busy street corner and hold a sign up for an hour that say "Homes for All". Today was a good day as we had eight people out. The silent protest was started by CALM (Community Activists for Little Mountain) to protest the demolition of the Little Mountain Housing Complex and has spread across the province. Today was also a bad day as we received this news from CALM:
"Yesterday the northern 20% of the complex was fenced off. This section is bordered by 33rd on the north, Ontario Street on the west, Oriole Way (a path within the complex) on the south and a lane on the east. The area includes most of the art that has been placed on the boarded up windows during the past six months. The workers who put up the fence said they expect that the two gaps that will provide vehicle access will be gated by Monday and the area will be locked up. Last week BC Housing sent a letter to the 12 families who still live in the complex, notifying them that BC Housing was applying to the City of Vancouver for a building permit so that hazardous materials could be removed from the structures and a demolition permit so that BC Housing can remove the buildings from the site. CALM's responses 1. We have sent the attached letter to the neighbours of Little Mountain. 2. Tomorrow at our Stand for Housing at Main and 33rd, our signage will be: NO SALE NO PLAN NO DEMOLITION NO OLYMPIC PARKING LOT You are welcome to join us from 1 to 2 pm. 3. We are considering a major action as the demolition proceeds. We hope that you will help us hold a massive demonstration of support for keeping public lands in public hands in order to alleviate the BC crisis in affordable housing. We will keep you informed. A final note: the provincial government has persistently maintained that selling Little Mountain to a developer will bring in a windfall of cash to be spent on affordable housing. If there is actually still a deal with a developer-- and we have our doubts since the developer has placed several of his projects on hold in the past few months-- watch for that windfall to go up in smoke when the government hands down a hard times budget this fall. "
Thanks pogo, if I was down there I would come out in support.
bubbles, dill pickled eggs are wonderful.
Mmmm. Pickled eggs.
Back on the farm I'd put up a gallon jar of pickled eggs when I had too many. Sometimes I'd eat six eggs for breakfast.
I wouldn't mind having a few hens here in the city, but I bet the modernistic maroons who run the municipality are completely against the idea.
When we lived in Nanaimo, we had chickens, exotic ones, and called it an aviary! ;)
We have no chickens currently, even though we have a coop and a hen house. Too many other people have free range chickens and good eggs, so there is no need for us to start keeping them again, as it costs large in hydro and feed to winter just a hand full. But we are looking for banties for next year as our ant problem is getting significant.
Rotten day here, had to change a flat tire on my truck at 630 am, then the hydro to the village went out. I'm using my battery-power in my laptop to send this, only good for 2.5 - 3 hours max. Hope the power comes back on soon!
Unfortunately Arzeenas bid to allow chickens in the city fell on deaf ears.
http://www.bclocalnews.com/richmond_southdelta/richmondreview/news/43180752.html
Portland allows chickens and it is highlighting the inperfect science of sex identification as roosters are not allowed.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200812/urban-chickens
We finally had rain today. Apart from a few scattered showers, this is the first significant precipitation we've had since winter.
Pogo, look into outdoor aviary regulations and get yourself 2-4 exotic chickens, the Polish hippie ones we had did not even squawk/cluck really, and were quieter than other people's noisy outdoor aviaries. That is 2-4 eggs a day, or a dozen to 2 dozen a week, which is more than enough for a family of 4.
Polish Chickens
The weather has finally warmed up here in Trawna and our postage stamp raised bed has given the first arugula, chicory, oak leaf lettuce, dill, parsley, thai basil and nasturtium leaves of the season. Everything's still two weeks behind and our last local/ organic CSA share was pretty thin indeed.
If we had to rely on our heritage seed experiments this year we'd be eating no greens; strawberry spinach and North Pole lettuce simply didn't come up tho both are supposedly cold tolerant. Cutworms snipped off the chard seedlings. And our home sown heirloom tomatoes, pole beans and peppers are slower than molasses in January, though the ones that survived are starting to get ahead of whatever is eating the snot out of them. Have been spraying neem soap on aphids galore and getting acquainted with the disgusting propagation methods of the red lily beetle. Just when you think you've seen every "pest" along come three new ones! On the plus side, I've seen at least four kinds of bees in the backyard; last year's wet summer seems to have given them a boost.
We're also constructing a small reservoir fountain out of recyled and garage sale items... be nice to hear the sound of running water on the patio. It'll drown out the sound of bugs chewing.
The power which had been off since 630 am Sunday finally came on at 315 am today. I wish Quebec Hydro would join the 21st Century! These power outages are simply unacceptable in this day and age. With nothing else to do because of the power outage, I cut the grass, watered all the gardens, and cleaned out the garage. I have 17 cabbage plants doing well, about 100 radish seeds have sprouted about a half inch above the soil, a strawberry plant is doing well, and other seeds are barely visibly sprouting - it looks like it will be a slow growing season for most of my veggies. The sunflowers which normally are about six inches high by now are barely an inch tall - but there's a lot of them.
On the other hand, most of my flowers have really long stems, and there's lots more of them than before, so I'll likely have gorgeous flower gardens soon. And my Hosta shrubs have mysteriously multiplied over the years - I originally planted four, and now I have nine of them. Same with the Marigolds - originally there were eight, now there's about fifteen of them. They're gorgeous plants. 
Green Grouch, thanks for sharing on your garden situation, it helps to hear that others are stuggling as well.
i finally found the hiding places of the earwigs. in the drooping hollyhock leaves! they sit and eat and get shelter all day, then come out at night to feast on the brassicas. also they were in ground nests.
i'm feeling very exhausted right now, and go out every night as well with a flashlight and the soap. i gave up last year and let them have their way, but then what happens is they multiply exponentially and i don't get beans either. voracious pests.
next they'll be after my echinacea which will Not do.
anyway, today's another roaster and i need to get back out before it gets too hot.
It froze here last night!!!!!!!!!!
I am not sure where you are al-Qa'bong but chickens are "illegal" in Toronto. But they are legal in Niagra Falls, Brampton, Guelph, Vicotrial and Surrey, with certain restrictions.
My gardening is going well, the plants are very green and seem happy but I don't have a fruit or vegetable to speak of yet. Only the pepper plant looks like it is growing little buds that might turn into peppers. Being a newbie gardener I don't know if I am doing something wrong or something right but I guess I will see!
edited to add: I stand corrected. Just went out to look after the plants and little green tomatoes have started! Guess I am doing something right!
We finally have a dentist this week, after waiting since about January. I lost a huge filling in April, and had it replaced this morning, and have to return Thursday for a check-up, the first I've had in well over a year. I'm still in pain from the dental work this morning, so I've decided to take most of the day off from household work. I had hoped to cut the grass which is quite long, and weed the gardens, but I'm in too much discomfort to do so. Maybe after supper. I hope the blackflies aren't so bad - I know I'll have to wear mosquito netting, regardless.
This is the coldest summer I can remember. Only 15C / 58F today (Sunday), windy, and no sun. Our forecast can be seen at:
http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/forecast/city_e.html?qc-125&unit=i .
Cold weather, windy, very little sun, lots of blackflies (which I'm allergic to, and for which I must use mosquito netting when in the garden) and occasional rain for the next week. I'm about ready to give up on the veggie garden - all I can see after almost one month are radishes, cabbage, and weeds.
I'm really disappointed, because I spent three days doing nothing but pulling up weeds prior to planting my veggie seeds.
Yeah, as a new gardener I thought I was doing something wrong - my fruit and veggie plants are doing great but not bearing anything edible. I was talking with a friend of mine who is an experienced gardener today. He said the same thing about his garden, so it makes me feel better that it isn't just me but I have no idea what fruit (or veggies) will come to bear for my garden idea this year.
If we don't have hot, sunny weather in July and August, my garden is kaput. I'm not sure I will have the desire to try again next year. although I shouldn't whine so much - my garden last summer was quite good - about 100 nice carrots, 50 heads of lettuce, 30 small tomatoes, lots of turnips and beets. My herbs didn't grow last year, so I'm hoping for a nice harvest this year - but they definitely need more sun and heat. They include cilantro, basil, mint.
Well being a new gardener I don't know what I need but I know I need something. Here's hoping for hot weather!
Warm weather and a bright sun are a gardener's best friend, at least that has been my experience. I'd also add good soil, and access to sufficient water to keep everything from drying out. I don't know how to deal with weeds other than pulling them out - I absolutely refuse to use chemical weed killers.
Yeah, me too. Except that If they aren't bugging my plants I like to leave them be, if they stay small to each their own but when they start to outgrow my plants I say alright, your ego is getting a little big, time to come out! My potted plants have no issues with weeds but the other ones have a few but non of them are giving me anything yet.
Yeah this year is SLOW. I can understand why you'd think you were doing something wrong.
I generally know what I'm doing and I've been wondering if I might be doing something wrong.
OMG, it is raining so hard, my struggling veggies and until now thriving tomatoes are getting pounded down.