August
14th, 2005:
Not
the best of days for camping -
it started out overcast, then some blue sky broke through and it was quite
pleasant. But by mid-afternoon, when I was busily mowing the lawn, it
started to rain. I didn’t feel much like mowing anyway.
Went
for a long walk today; first time in a long, long time and I sure feel it
in my tendons. I must have met two dozen cars on my walk -
some of them waved at me and I waved back, but really all I could see was
faint hand movement. Every vehicle has tinted glass now, and I haven’t a
clue who it is inside. So if you wave and I don’t wave back, I’m not
being snooty -
I just didn’t see you!
Yesterday
afternoon was “Let’s Go Cruisin’” Show and Shine at the Park. The
day started out sunny, but by noon was overcast and occasionally
drizzling, which kept a lot of potential entries away. Still, there were
twenty or more entries. Trophy winners were:
Best
Motorcycle: (The Cove)
Jim Steadman’s Bugcycle
Best
in Car Class: (Greenhills Golf & Country Club)
Al Roden’s ’64 Ford Galaxie;
Best
in Truck Class: (The Tackle Box)
Barry Warsylewicz’s ’47 Jeep;
People’s
Choice: (Greenwater Park Store)
Allen & Brendan Bloski’s ’71 GTO
There
was quite a good crowd about two, but the threat of rain sent them
scampering for the coffee shop. Congratulations to the exhibitors who
braved the elements to show us their prized possessions!
Marion
and Ralph Egger of Humboldt stopped around last Sunday; they wanted me to
include the following in my Report, but it had already gone out:
“A
big thank you to Connie and Gary of Beach Café for the superb job in
organizing such a great evening of awesome display of fireworks on the
beach. A special thanks to the Porcupine Plain and Kelvington businesses
and private donations for their generosity to make this one happen. What a
wonderful way to spend a pleasant evening to remember for a long time.
Thanks to all of you”.
Last
week started out quite nice, but it cooled down then turned rainy and cold
by Thursday. We had taken a little motor home tour with Jenny to Prince
Albert, Waskesieu and Candle Lake, but packed it in and came home
Thursday. It was a nice little tour, though, and we introduced Jenny to
the things we find enjoyable, such as museums, and bacon and pancakes for
breakfast.
We
went to Porcupine Plain for the Farmers’ Market Friday and had a visit
with Bernard Hayunga. You might have heard of Dr. Stuart Houston’s
project of banding young vultures; well Bernard, Don Forbes, Brian Shuya
and some others had found some nesting sites in vacant farm buildings and
guided Houston and his entourage to the sites.
Dr.
Houston gave Bernard a fact sheet about vultures, and it starts out:
-
They
are ugly and dirty.
-
They
drool on you and vomit on you -
and hiss loudly -
as defense mechanisms.
-
They
stink to high heaven -
because they eat long-dead mammals and birds.
-
They
are HUGE -
with a six-foot wingspan and weigh up to 2 kilograms.
-
When
they take off from within a house attic, they scare the daylights out
of you.
-
The
adult’s head is unfeathered (allowing it to stick its head within
rotting carcasses).
-
They
are the main bird species causing military aircraft collisions.
-
They
have a well-developed sense of smell, allowing them to find totally
hidden dead carcasses -
and to avoid entering any building with a human being in it.
-
They
cool off by passing urine and feces down their legs.
But
wait a minute! When you get to know them, they are fascinating, even
charismatic!
The
fact sheet goes on to list some of the vulture’s redeeming features and
describe the tagging program and winds up:
In
retrospect, the unthinking farmer who sent a sick cow to market could have
prevented the BSE debacle and saved Canadian farmers billions of dollars -
if only he had shot that cow on the “back forty” and allowed the
vultures to clean it up.
Anyone
sighting a vulture is encouraged to look for a wing tag -
nestling tags on right wing, adult tags on left wing. Please report the
date, exact location, and number of the tag to: C. Stuart Houston, 863
University Drive, Saskatoon, SK S7N 0J8; phone 306-244-0742 before 9 pm,
or send data to houstons@duke.usask.ca.
