Realism - more than Patriotism

[michaelmaltby]

I love my Osprey fish eagles - as earlier photos attest.

Here's what they look like operating in salt water in the Pacific northwest:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA3LtXnNIto

 

[michaelmaltby]

March 10 - Daylight Savings Time - Minus 1 overnight. Plus 9 by noon.

As breakup starts you can see the Nike "swish" of the Meander. Burning wet bush. Snow blocks tumbled off the roof. March sky.

 

[michaelmaltby]

March 17, wear your green -

Minus 20 overnight. Minus 3 with wind at noon.

This time last year....... not typical.

MM

 

[michaelmaltby]

Maple Syrup Season Part I -- more pics to follow month end

March days .... slightly below zero at night .... nicely above zero by day ... keeps the sap flowin', they say.

Last year - it was all over by now - short and unproductive.

This is the dairy farm, maple syrup operation that I will be buying from again this year - 15 plus years now.

The First Nations dug out logs and poured in sap -- immersing hot rocks to boil down to syrup. 10:1 yield.

In Norse Lands and the Baltic Republics, they make Birch syrup from sap. 20:1 yield, IIRC.

MM

Sweet Canadian

 

[michaelmaltby]

Family Values .. the stuff we're made of

Mom, Roberta Sherif Dinsmore, was 14 when WW1 broke out in August, 1914. She and her older brother Arthur, 16, and her younger brother Charles, 12, were where they always were at that season -- at Rostrevor on Lake Roseau in Muskoka country, north of Toronto. Their granddad, Arthur, had built the place when he and his wife immigrated to Canada in 1870 and her father, Robert, ran it now and built cottages and houses (in Toronto) The resort was a Canadian version of what he had know as a child growing up in Rostrevor, Northern Ireland.

The German Chef at the hotel that had been hired for the season took the first steamboat out to Gravenhurst - and the train south to Toronto -- he learned the news from the Toronto newspapers that arrived by Royal Mail steamboat the same day, every day.

Oldest brother Richard Lear was somewhere in the wilds of North Ontario when the war broke out. He was in his 19th year - just graduated from high school. He caught the first train to Toronto and enlisted in the Queen's York Rangers. He was in Belgium by early 1915.

Thus the summer "season" of 1914 ended rather abruptly for the Dinsmore family. They returned to Toronto, Robert tidied up his affairs and prepared to join the militia artillery battery in which he served. [Sgt Major Robert Dinsmore the shorter of the 2 mustached sergeants.]

Arthur enlisted in the artillery as soon as he turned 17 and went overseas with his dad.

By the Grace of God my mother's menfolk all returned in 1918. Changed.

Private Richard Dinsmore came back a celebrated officer in a Regiment that historically was renowned for its raiding .... Richard went for German prisoners night after night.

Gunner Arthur Dinsmore came back Pilot Officer Arthur Dinsmore - from the mud of Paschendale to his dream of the skies above.

Mom's father came home the Sgt Major that he left as - with compromised health - he had been buried by shell fire several times. He became a civil servant, building inspector.

Youngest brother, Charlie, was active in high school sports, and went on to play for the Stanley Cup winning Montreal Maroons, in 1926. Dinny Dinsmore.

These then are the men, the characters, that brought inspiration, reality, courage and determination into my life, through my mother's recollection. Some, like Arthur-the pilot, I got to know very well. Others, like Richard, I never got to have an adult conversation with. And Mom's Dad, my Granddad, Robert, died in September 1939, just after Poland was invaded - before I was born.

Richard and Arthur would both return to war after 1939. Richard, as a senior officer commanding troop transport trips to England on the Queen Mary. Arthur, as a First officer in Ferry Command, flying all over the world.

I still have clear memories of my talks with both Richard and Arthur - especially Arthur - and from time-to time I would like to share some of their descriptions -- not as official history -- but as anecdotal stuff. The kind of stories that get told to the family, by the family fire.

Proud Canadian

 

[Matt308]

 

[michaelmaltby]

March 24 - No Maple Syrup ....

... just 4 inches of fresh snow. Plus 9 at noon. And a herd of prime Holsteins on the Harder's dairy farm-maple syrup operation

 

[michaelmaltby]

Easter Eggs

Dyed with onion skins and hard boiled.

 

[Matt308]

What a great idea! And very pretty to boot.

 

[michaelmaltby]

Tiina wraps each egg in a square of cotton cloth filled with onion skin and then hard boils - brushing with butter after for "finish" (like using Future).

MM

 

[Matt308]

Nothing could improve upon that, but perhaps brushing with bacon grease.

 

[michaelmaltby]

Mission Accomplished

Saps running. Sugar Maple bush. Dodge pickup with Cummins motor and tanker trailer. Wood fired evaporator. Stacks of 'garbage' firewood (remember, boil off 10 litres of sap for 1 litre of syrup). Score (for friends and my family) 5 jugs @ $70.00 per 4 litre jug.

Sweet dreams.

MM

 

[Matt308]

I like syrup, but what the heck do you put that on on a consistent basis? At $70/litre the syrup MUST be the showcase of the meal. And I can only think offhand of pancakes, waffles, oatmeal, uhhhhhh...

And don't say you use a $70/litre item as an ingredient for a sauce, marinade, etc. I'm not gettin it.

 

[michaelmaltby]

No more expensive than booze ... at least in Canada. $70 = 4 litres. The picture shows 5 x 4 liter jugs @ $70.00/per jug.

I don't make pancakes very often, except in spring. But I use syrup as marinade for ribs and pork tenderloin -- mixed with soya sauce, hot mustard or wasabi paste. I am just finishing last year's 4 liter jug now. I keep 1 liter in the fridge and decant the rest into 1 liter bottles and throw it in the freezer.

On BBQ it doesn't burn/carbonize like refined sugars go. It is also a tonic. If you were going on a fast ... putting a spoon or two of syrup and some lemon juice in water would keep you body's system's functioning - cleansing.

A snack served at Toronto Football games this season is bacon on a stick, dipped in maple syrup.

MM

 

[michaelmaltby]

Easter Sunday Afternoon

Ice on Willy's little pond. Young bear claw marks in the trees just off the trail ... (from last summer). (Oh look, a tree that branches into two ... just right for me ... one trunk for each front paw ... .

MM

 

[michaelmaltby]

April 5 Overnight minus 16. Noon plus 1.

High up and out over the river. North side snow. Willy's meadow trail.

 

[michaelmaltby]

Maltby's Weather Station - a week later.

Minus 3 over night. Plus one at noon. Basement flooded (mildly).

 

[michaelmaltby]

One week later

The river is the highest I have seen in 31 years. The lower platform (seen in pic 1 of the previous post) is 6 inches under water so the river is up at least 7 feet. More pictures when I recover them from my Canon which went for a brief swim, yesterday. . Anyone have any knowledge of recovering damp electronics using rice ...?

Same vantage point, MoL, December and this past weekend.

MM

 

[Matt308]

Put the camera in a ziplock bag with rice/dessicant. Toss in trash.

 

[Readie]

You are a lucky man Michael