The Seventh Annual Newboro Lake Ice-out Contest
March 6, 2016
In closing I’d like to offer a special thanks to Geordie Kitching for his advice and encouragement in the administration of this contest.
1 April, 2016 7th Annual Newboro Lake Ice-out Contest winner responds:
Hello Rod,
It is with great humility that I accept the bragging rights mantle for this year. During my tenure I will endeavor to keep my swaggering to a minimum, my sage advice to myself and the air clear of smug self–satisfaction. Please note however, the auspicious date on which I accept this great honor.
Now, with that out of the way: thanks Rod for organizing, updating and officiating the Ice Report and Ice-In / Ice-out contests. I really enjoy following the posts throughout the winter. I’m looking forward to exercising my “rights” this summer!
Best regards,
Jim Waterbury
31 March, 2016 5:50 p.m.
5:44 p.m. Jim Waterbury of Lewis Island selected March 31st as his entry in the contest, and subject to overwhelming evidence that an ice floe has continued on Newboro Lake past sundown today, I hereby declare him this year’s winner.
Congratulations, Jim.
2016 Ice-Out Contest entries will be accepted up until 11:59, Saturday, March 12.
Has it been eight years since the first Walnut Diary posts about putting in Tony’s dock?
The first attempt at guessing the ice-out date followed in the 2009 to 2010 season.
Okay, enough maudlin stuff. Let’s get to the action. What you want to know here is where you need to post your comment in order to register for your favourite date.
Click the COMMENT button at the bottom of this post and key in your details. Entries will come to me in the order they enter the email cue, so if there’s duplication, the earlier missive will prevail. If the date immediately following the duplicate entry is still available, I’ll assign it to #2, and so on, if space permits. I reserve the right to ask you by email to select another date if no obvious solution to an overlap presents itself.
Of course this means that you must familiarize yourself with your opponents’ entries at the bottom of this page before you cast your own into the fire, so in your comment I’d like to see a usable name of at least two words, a geographical reference, and of course your chosen date for ice-out. I will edit comments which look as though they have been keyed in bright sunlight.
Unless someone has a better idea, I see no reason to depart from the basic criterion for ice-out of no patch of floating ice of an area greater than 100 square feet on Newboro Lake, Ontario.
It’s good to be back. Let the contest begin.
Getting ready for the Ice-Out Contest DEADLINE
March 5, 2016
Any suggestions regarding rules, timing, awards, or anything else? I’ll try to put the announcement together within the next 24 hours, so any burning issues?
9 March, 2016, 1:21 p.m.
At the suggestion of Geordie Kitching I have given thought to a deadline for entries into this competition.
If I close off entries at the time change, it will throw a slight advantage to those who have actually endured the ice rather than to returning Snowbirds whose lucky choices have so far enabled them to avoid same.
So let’s do that: 2016 Ice-Out Contest entries will be accepted up until 11:59, Saturday, March 12.
Mr. Kitching further suggested that for subsequent years a deadline for entries in late January would demand more of the punters. Further input on this is welcome.
Rod Croskery
The Walnut Diary (Host)
After watching the Republican debate last night
March 4, 2016
Throughout this mud bath all I could think about was Season 2 of Alpha House, Gary Trudeau’s excellent sitcom about the misadventures of four Republican senators up for re-election.
There’s one scene late in Season 2 where a Las Vegas entertainer who has run for the Nevada senate seat starts out strongly in the final candidates’ debate. When he realizes he’s about to win, he says to the moderator words to the effect of: “Why am I still in this race? I know nothing about running a government. All I know is how to make people laugh. I make more than a Senator earns every night in my Las Vegas show. This was a joke, and you idiots took me seriously. I quit.”
Ukranian power grid hack account
March 4, 2016
This essay from Wired on a massive hack on the Ukranian power grid in December makes me want to stock up on diesel for my generator and lay in a supply of cash.
Skunks
February 19, 2016
This morning a Quora contributor asked “Is a skunk good for anything?” I felt compelled to respond:
A healthy skunk is a fine garden companion in that it has a great appetite for grubs, insects, small rodents, and little desire to destroy vegetables.
Skunks have beautiful pelts. In the 1930’s “Alaskan Sable” was one of the most fashionable coats. Truth in manufacturing legislation put an end to that fad: nobody wanted to be known to wear a “skunk” coat.
At the height of the depression my grandfather dug out a skunk den and harvested the hides to buy warm winter clothes for his family. In Canada agricultural products were almost worthless during the dirty 1930’s, but fur prices remained high.
Skunks have many PR problems, though. Most notably, most tend to spray when rattled by dogs, loud noises, passing tractors, or inquisitive seniors peeking into their dens. During a local infestation of Japanese beetles many home owners discovered their lawns methodically torn up by these nocturnal foragers.
Rabies is the scourge which wipes out skunk populations as the virus is an aerosol, spreading by air to the eye membranes of all members of a hibernating colony, be they bats, racoons, or skunks.
Skunks have even less road sense than raccoons, so on moist summer nights when the frogs are migrating, passing cars take a fearsome toll.
Some years ago we had a large skunk on the property. He lived in a pile of rails along a fence row, peaceably interacted with the wolves and raccoons, and somehow avoided encounters with our dog. Trouble was I needed to mow around the little trees planted in the field next to his rail pile, and he was a little incontinent when a tractor went by. Just a little. So every three weeks the poor skunk would have a fume-filled morning.
Then one day a bus load of tree huggers dismounted in our yard for a tour of the woodlot. After several hours confined to the coach, they had scattered like cats when released. I used a bullhorn to round them up, instructing them to proceed west until they smelled the skunk, then to turn south and follow the path to the woodlot. One elderly but very alert gentleman in dress shirt, shorts and bare feet made a beeline for the pile of cedar rails and peered in, looking for its occupant. This was too much for the poor skunk. Fragrant, but unchastened, the gentleman rejoined the group.
That summer during a pitched battle with local raccoons over several rows of sweet corn in the garden, I captured the skunk a couple of times in live traps. Most of the time a tarp over the metal frame would keep him calm enough that I could release him, but for some reason one day I delayed the release and felt compelled to give him a drink of water against the sunny day. This didn’t go so well and we both stumbled back to our respective dens in embarrassment. After that he avoided the garden.
Lunch at the Canalside Coffee Shop
February 13, 2016
This morning Dave Brown posted this message on Chaffey’s Locks Rocks, a popular Facebook chat page:
OK folks, I know this is the coldest day we’ve had by far this year, but we need to get bundled up and head to downtown Chaffey’s Lock. Why? Because the Canalside Coffee shop, located in the Chaffey’s Hall, is open today from 9am to 2pm and I’m pretty sure Karen could use a little extra marketing to get people motivated to make the effort on a day like this. She has all the usual specialty coffees, and the menu today is hearty sausage and kale soup, fresh home made bread, fresh carrot muffins and cookies. She also has a variety of board games, and free WiFi! See you there?
So we cleaned off and warmed up the car (-18F ) and made our way to Chaffey’s for a winter lunch. Neither Bet nor I had seen the Hall since the renovations, so we enjoyed the room as our soup, coffee, fresh homemade rye bread and blueberry muffin were prepared.
Fellow lunchers seemed also to have responded to Dave’s summons, and we enjoyed a fine soup, superb coffee, and a most agreeable ambiance.
The sign on the door indicates the Canalside Coffee Shop is open every Saturday this winter from 9:00 to 2:00.
There aren’t very many lunch destinations in our area which appeal to our palate, and Canalside has lept up the list with a single bowl of soup.
“They’re all garbage.”
January 25, 2016
Twelve years ago the deal my wife and I made was that we could leave the brick Edwardian on a corner lot in town and move to the stone cottage at the farm – if – Bet could have her dream kitchen.
So we renovated, putting in a couple of years of cheerful labour, designing the lower floor of the project so that the kitchen occupied the west half and the sink was in the centre of the room on a large slab of American beech with excellent views in all possible directions.
Over a winter I built red oak cabinets to cover every available wall. The appliances were the final touch. A fine stainless steel “commercial” range looked wonderful until the oven door fell off during delivery. It took two calls to Australia to locate a service man in Merrickville capable of working on the thing.
But it’s been great ever since.
The dealer wanted $2400. for a range hood to match the stove. I baulked and bought a matching high-capacity domestic model for $200. from a Kijiji ad. The hard part of the job was cutting a 7″ hole through 25″ of stone for the exhaust, but the ventilation system was well worth the effort.
The pride of the kitchen was the three-doored, stainless steel KitchenAid refrigerator. Getting the 36″, 360 pound monster through the low front door (since replaced) was a comedy of errors for the rather dim delivery guys, but once they had it set up we loved the thing, even when it started to rattle and the service tech from Brockville turned out to be a young woman who had me drag it out from the wall, tearing up the new varnish before she failed to find anything wrong with it.
Last night it died.
Today’s tech from Elgin surprised me by twisting a couple of bolts under the fridge and lo and behold, casters descended to roll it away from the wall. A few minutes later he told us the fridge is toast. The compressor is seized, and that part’s not really repairable as the fix involves a very tricky coolant transfer and nobody wants to do it outside a factory setting because of the high probability of failure.
“It’s only eight years old! How long do they last?”
“Seven to twelve years. The energy saving rating means they use little 1/8 hp motors in them now. Ten years ago these fridges cost $3 thousand, and prices haven’t gone up with inflation, so now they’re building them cheaper. The motor and the compressor are a single unit so you can’t just switch the motor if it quits.
“And all brands are the same, all garbage, but at least with our brand you can get someone to come and work on it. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a little cheap one or a great big fancy model, your fridge will last you seven to twelve years, and then it’s a throw-away.”
The replacement’s due on Friday. Anybody want a three-door, stainless steel bookshelf?
UPDATE: 4 February, 2016
The replacement, a Frigidaire Gallery, started up without a hitch and has delighted us with its shiny newness.
In talking with Willy Colford of Duncan’s Appliances, I learned interesting facts about the appliance business and the mechanics of moving heavy objects.
First I’ll deal with the banking. The Royal Bank charges him between 3 and 4% per credit card transaction, regardless of the size of the bill. That really ads up on a large item. The debit card charge, on the other hand, is 30 cents. Of course most debit cards have a daily maximum of $2K, but a cheque to cover the balance costs only 70cents. Cash for payment isn’t so great either, as his bank charges 1.7% to handle the stuff. In Willy’s opinion the enormous annual Royal Bank profits are extracted from small business owners through fees on credit card transactions.
The most interesting part of the deal, however, involved the delivery. Willy arrived with fellow Elgin businessman Steve Gordanier with the fridge in the back of an elderly GM pickup. He commented that his regular assistant had to be away and so Steve agreed to help out.
The truck had a well-used lift gate attached, so I suggested he back up the slope and set the gate on the small concrete step attached to the house. Willy used 4WD to place the edge of the gate exactly where I suggested on the first try. Having done this maneuver many times over the course of an eight-year renovation, I realized I was dealing with an experienced individual.
Willy measured the door openings (36 1/2″) and decided not to remove the doors on the fridge, just the handles. “For a 32″ door we have to take off the front doors of the fridge, which isn’t too hard, but the real work is in putting them back on.” Off came the styrofoam sheeting which covered the entire refrigerator. Onto the dolly it went, and then onto the tailgate for the short descent to the concrete. Willy commented that his truck is old, but the bodies on the new models are too high for appliance work, so he has kept it. “The back of a new Ford F150 is way up here (gesturing). You can’t deliver appliances with something that high.” I agreed. That had always struck me as the biggest disadvantage of modern pickups.
When the first crew brought a fridge ten years ago, the door of the house was only 6′ 1″ tall because of a small light of windows above the opening. Soon after that debacle I replaced the whole thing with a magnificent oak-and-glass structure just under eight feet in height, then added a matching cedar storm door with interchangeable glass and screen panels. The 36X36X75″ shiny block rolled right in on the dolly, so the real work of the installation involved stripping plastic wrap from what seemed to be every surface of the fridge, packing up the scrap, and wheeling the thing into its space. A couple of seconds with a ratchet and the fridge was down off its casters and sitting level on the irregular floor. Willy’s skill was evident in the ease with which this transpired.
Because we had not bothered to connect the water supply on the other fridge, Willy offered to remove the ice maker from the new one to provide more refrigeration space. This turned out to be more complicated than I had expected, and it certainly opened up the the interior of the freezer. A good idea.
Willy left me an Allen wrench to re-tighten the screws on the fridge’s handles in a month.
To reflect upon the deal, Duncan’s price was competitive and delivery was on time. The advantage lay in the service involved: free delivery and removal of the old unit are pretty much expected in the country, but the quality of the installation stood out in stark contrast to the amateurish efforts of the guys on the McMullen truck ten years ago.
Changing requirements for the sale of used vehicles in Ontario
January 24, 2016
December, 2015 Ice-in Contest Rules
December 11, 2015
5 January, 2016 Tom Stutzman is the winner of the inaugural Newboro Harbour Ice-in Contest.
At 9:30 this morning I looked from the agreed vantage point and could see no open water. I thus feel justified in announcing Tom Stutzman the first winner* in the inaugural Newboro Harbour Ice-in Contest.
*Peter Frey reported on 11 January that the ice had survived two days of rain and wind, and we are now into a cold snap, so Tom’s bragging rights for the year are ensured.
Tom responds:
Whew! The “January Thaw” almost voided my entry that was based on the alignment of the planets, December’s heavy boat traffic, and seeing a blonde squirrel back in July. With great humility I accept the award, and am now ordering bumper stickers.
With any luck the ice will behave itself, remain where it is until late February, and then magically disappear without lingering. Thank you all for your contributions and good humour.
December 30, 2015
Entries are now closed for this contest.
Rod
——————————————————–
John, Keith and Tom have suggested an ice-in contest, so here goes:
I think you should start a 2015 ice-in pool. Given the weather, I think I am going to head across by boat on New Year’s Eve.
John Lee
Given the mild weather, how about an “ice-in” contest? Winner is the entrant who has guessed the date on which no open water can be seen when standing at the Newboro Public Dock.
Tom Stutzman
I’ll need to build in the caveat that the ice in Newboro Harbour (as defined by Tom’s comment above) must remain in place as a unit for at least five days for the winner’s selection to become official. Last year the ice came in and quickly went out again at least once.
Rod (Acting Judge, Host, and Auditor)
To get dibs on a date for the inaugural Newboro Harbour Ice-In Competition, post your selection (including a multi-word name and the name of your property, should you choose to include it) as a comment on this post only. Dates will be assigned on a first-posted, first served basis. Should two entrants select the same date, the later entrant will be assigned the next available calendar date.
Prize? Same as in spring: bragging rights until the winner of the next (ice-in) contest is announced.
Let the game begin!
If you’re an auto data fan, this is for you.
December 10, 2015
Canadian Vehicle Use Study Participant Report
A few months ago a letter from the Ministry of Transport of Canada requested that I participate in a study of the operation of my 2002 Toyota Tacoma. They’d send me along a computer to hook to the plug on the truck and it would record its data for three weeks and then I would send it back to them.
Somebody had just offered me a new measuring gadget, and also something I could plug into my truck! Of course I’d play with the new toy!
Mind you, I hardly ever drive the Tacoma. It’s fourth on the depth chart, behind the Lexus, the Scion, and a personal favourite, the Ranger UTV. The truck covers fishing trips and visits to local farms. If it’s on the highway, there’s usually a trailer attached.
I was far from sure that the Ministry of Transport would be interested in my drive from one shed to another with a trailer-load of lumber, or even the expedition down the back road to the saw mill with three logs on same trailer.
Anyway, the results package arrived today in a 12-page PDF. In a nutshell, the truck runs very well for its age, and quite efficiently, once it’s warm.
Have a look if you like.
the Walnut Diary 