Innholdsfortegnelse for Fall 2019 i Harrowsmith

SHANNON COURTNEY is the former editor-in-chief and co-founder of Salty, Prince Edward Island’s comprehensive food and farm digest. Shannon completed her master of environmental studies at Queen’s University, focusing her thesis research on how local food systems both depend on and create social capital. The holistic-nutritionist-in-training has milked Jersey cows in Australia, almost overdosed on maple syrup in Prince Edward County, Ontario, and explored Vermont’s foodscape beyond Ben & Jerry’s. MARK AND BEN CULLEN Mark is an expert gardener, author, broadcaster and tree advocate and holds the Order of Canada. His son, Ben, is a fourth-generation urban gardener and a graduate of the University of Guelph and Dalhousie University in Halifax. Follow them at markcullen.com, @MarkCullen4 and facebook.com/markcullengardening and look for their new book, Escape to Reality. CLAIRE DAM specializes…

As John Paul Young sang back in 1977, love is in the air. There is a palpable anticipation for fall fairs, pumpkin carving, and fireside nights spent nursing wine with a good book. As the bounty of beets and sweet potatoes are harvested, garlic bulbs are pushed into the ground for next season, continuing the beautiful loop of our gardens. The love, for change and newness, comes fast on the heels of summer. Fall is the season when things can seem up in the air. And they actually are. The hummingbird feeder is taken down with a small sigh as honking geese flocks begin their miraculous migration south. “Back to school” doesn’t have to be a bricks-and-mortar concept: adults can pursue self-directed continuing education opportunities too, whether it’s deciding to…

As more and more folks return to the basic tasks our grandparents regularly enjoyed, such as food preservation or spinning wool, we find that the journey to self-sufficiency is an exciting, seemingly never-ending adventure! We might begin by learning how to knit a scarf using acrylic fibres bought at a big-box store, and before we know it, we are shearing wool from our own sheep. Our convictions about sustainability, supporting local industries and protecting the environment have also opened doors for exploring alternative ways of doing things, like sourcing and using natural dyes for fabric, for instance. The history of fabric dyes is as rich as indigo blue pigment from the indigo plant, and up until the mid-1800s relied solely on harvesting from plants or animals. After the introduction of…

One day, my parents went away for the day, leaving me with my dear old Grandma Sykes. Grandma was quite proper! She spent many an hour using the old treadle sewing machine upstairs in the farmhouse. She also made many beautiful quilts and knitted hundreds of socks and mittens for children all over the area. My pony, Polly, and I were a bit bored that day. She had just gone to the bathroom, so I suddenly decided to take her upstairs to visit Grandma. Polly weighed 666 pounds. Anyway, the house was very quiet, so up the stairs we went, Polly following me just like my pet dog, Greg. She had the tiniest hooves, so she had no problem at all navigating the long flight of stairs. Grandma didn’t hear…

Arthur and Dave Wilson were quite the inventive fellows! When they were younger, they would always build at least one ice igloo using a pattern they had from Eskimos. These were very cold houses to play in, to say the least! One summer, the boys asked Mr. Ben Johnson, who lived across from their farm on the Coldwater River, if they could build a teepee on his property. The boys were also very gifted in making unique little water wheels out of cedar and actually produced operational windmills. Later on in years, Arthur and Dave both became extremely interested in shortwave radio. Arthur took a course from the Radio College of Canada in Toronto. Please keep in mind that we had no electricity in our homes up to this point,…

Since its birth, Harrowsmith has told entertaining, empowering and informative stories of Canadians walking gently on the earth. Now with our new podcast, Harrowsmith Radio, we put those great stories right between your ears. In each episode, host Wayne MacPhail interviews some of the most interesting innovators, trailblazers and inspirational characters this country can offer. The podcast is a cozy, half-hour soak in a warm audio bath you can slip into any time, anywhere. Listening is free and easy. Just subscribe on Apple iTunes or wherever you get your fine podcasts.…

A WEST COAST SUMMER with art by Carol Evans #1 BC BESTSELLER! Readers of all ages will enjoy this charming collaboration of stunning artwork and rhyming stories, sure to become a children's classic. $19.95 LIGHT YEARS Memoir ofa Modern Lighthouse Keeper A BC BESTSELLER! A memoir about choosing adventure over security to become a twenty-first century lightkeeper on Canada's West Coast. $29.95 ALASKA HIGHWAY Two-STEP GLOB£ & MAIL TOP 100 BOOK! A captivating travelmystery novel about the road to adventure and self-discovery on the Alaska Highway. $19.95 (LOST MOOSE) www.harbourpublishing.com…

...but she’s tasty. Traditionally, and on small farms to this day, when egg-laying hens stop laying, they are butchered and used to make soups and stews. And they do make the best soups and stews: having been around the pasture once or twice, they are tough but flavourful. We’ve seen them for sale at farmers’ markets labelled “stewing hen” or “soup chicken.” Do not try to roast these birds, as they’ll become as chewy as a snow tire. But braised low and slow in plenty of tasty liquid, well, without tough old birds and aggressive roosters, we wouldn’t have stewed chicken and dumplings, chicken soup, chicken cacciatore or coq au vin. TIP For extra tenderness, some folks swear by aging a freshly butchered old bird for up to four days…

• Smooth, sweet pink-eyed Warba potatoes—the earliest out of the field—from the Fraser River Delta, near the coast. Available in May and June. • Delectable juicy cherries, peaches and pears from orchards gracing the slopes of the interior Okanagan, Similkameen and Kootenay valleys. Cherries available in June, peaches in August and pears in September. • Impossibly good tomatoes from Lillooet, kissed by sunshine in one of the hot spots of Canada. Available in August. • Sweet tender corn grown in the Chilliwack, where the mountains start to squeeze the Upper Fraser Valley. Available in August. • Unmatched carrots, beets and potatoes grown in the glacial mix of the stunning mountain-ringed Pemberton Valley. Available in September and October right out of the ground, and all winter when stored just above freezing.…

Before the days of weather models and real-time radar, people looked for other ways to try to predict and understand the weather. Unfortunately, most weather lore is incorrect and could be life threatening if believed. Here, we’ll set the record straight and show how science proves the following nine myths wrong. MYTH 1: Lightning never hits the same place twice. This is false. If lightning hits one spot, that location is as vulnerable as any other spot once the storm recharges. Tall television/communication towers and large skyscrapers are the most likely places where lightning strikes repeatedly. These objects often experience a direct strike as frequently as every 30 seconds during more intense thunderstorms. If you want to get great lightning-strike pictures, those towers or skyscrapers that reach or exceed the…

SEASONAL HIGHLIGHTS WINTER 2019–2020 Not unlike the previous winter, the entire province gets locked into colder-than-normal temperatures once again. A persistent northwesterly flow will bring several arctic air masses that will lead to high levels of lake-effect snow over the eastern shores of the Great Lakes. SUMMER 2020 Expect two heat waves late June and early July. Precipitation levels should be slightly above normal overall with the help of several early and late-season storms. Some storms could be severe/violent in late July and early August. SPRING 2020 It will start off colder than normal, but we should see a milder pattern move in mid-April, especially in the most western parts of the province. Frequent storms will bring precipitation levels to above-normal levels early in the season. This will be followed…

SEASONAL HIGH REGION LIGHTS 6 WINTER 2019–2020 Expect milder temperatures in the Yukon throughout the season. Everywhere else, much colder air will take hold with several arctic outbreaks crossing through the area. Precipitation will be above normal over the Yukon and below normal over areas farther east. SUMMER 2020 Temperatures return to seasonable levels while precipitation will likely become more persistent leading to a wetter-than-normal season. The one exception will be the most eastern areas, where precipitation levels will be closer to average. SPRING 2020 Colder-than-normal conditions will continue into spring over eastern areas while the Yukon continues the milder pattern. Precipitation will be close to normal. FALL 2020 Expect temperatures to run slightly above normal overall, even though there will be a couple of chilly spells in late September…

Twenty years ago, the magic bullet in energy-efficiency tools was the infrared camera. It let you see areas of energy loss from the outside of a building, as well as the exact spot where this needed to be remedied. Trouble was, even the cheapest models cost a couple of thousand dollars back then. These days, you can get decent infrared cameras for much less money and there are enough of them around that you can probably borrow one. They let you see where heat is escaping from your old house.…

We don’t understand it, so we’re afraid of it, so we light it up. That way, it isn’t there anymore. Humans are diurnal creatures. We dominate the landscape. What we want, we get. We live for the day and, for the most part, sleep through the night, or party late into the evening. We’ve studied the benefits of light on biology (photobiology) and choose to light the night even though most people are asleep. But we are not alone in the night. In terms of numbers, humans are a distinct minority. Unknown to most people, our outdoor lighting means trouble for most other species. Outdoor lighting is an anomaly in nature. Why can’t we accept this nocturnal environment for what it is—dark? Over 60 percent of all biology depends on…

Fall is in the air, literally. As a meteorologist, I’m well aware of the transitions underway in our atmosphere as the sun angle decreases and winter’s touch draws near. The sizzle of summer can be so fleeting in our country, which creates a near fever pitch to have all of our dreams come true within that finite, intense heat of July and August. But as the leaves and temperatures fall and the nights turn crisp, there’s a palpable change in our lives too. We are back to our daily routines, meaning that for some of us there’s even less time to enjoy our outdoor and indoor passions. So, whether you’re forced inside to avoid a rain or snow storm (those usually get me outside, but it’s the weather geek in…

RE-BOOT Editor’s note: Harrowsmith food editor Signe Langford generated a lot of colour commentary with a post she shared on Facebook from Pink Tractor. The post, which included an image of rubber boots, read as follows: “On the farm, rubber boots go with anything, especially pajamas.” Langford added, “So very true! We love Billy boots! And everyone seems to call them something different...Wellies, Billies... what else...?” We received a flood of responses from followers eager to contribute to the long list of nicknames. Here are a few of our favourites: gum rubbers, puddle boots, Red Bands, Newfoundland Adidas, stovepipes and belly boots. 50 SHADES OF GREY I’m located on Salt Spring Island, B.C., and am looking for grey water recycling systems for my new build but have found nothing on…

Brandi Morin is the founder and Edmonton-based designer behind Mixed Blood Apparel. Her company integrates Indigenous culture and endangered Indigenous languages into contemporary fashion designs. Morin’s kohkum (“grandmother” in Cree), Ruth Petrin, of the Michel First Nation, was sent to a residential school after the death of her father in 1945. Petrin lost most of her Cree language until she was dying of stomach cancer. Morin says her kohkum suddenly began speaking fluently in Cree. Mixed Blood designs are a tribute to Morin’s beloved grandmother and her own Métis bloodlines. Her line of T-shirts, hoodies, yoga leggings and accent cushions includes words and phrases in Cree. Kohkum’s Story Leggings incorporate her grandmother’s actual handwriting, found in short stories and memories scattered about her house when she died. Harrowsmith sat down…

This incident happened many, many years before Medicare or OHIP was even thought of. My great aunt had bruised and cut her leg as she was helping to milk the cows on her farm in Medonte Township. The lady had many home remedies, and I suppose she tried them all. Her husband had died some years before, and she and her son were on the farm. As near as I can recall, my aunt’s leg suffered a bad infection and quickly turned to gangrene. She suffered untold agonies, trying to get around to do her daily chores. The son didn’t do the milking and they had several milk cows. There was a very young doctor in Coldwater who was finally called in, and he, in turn, called a doctor in…

Our neighbour grows hops for a craft brewing operation. Each year, the plants spring to life and quickly take over the 4-metre (13 foot) high support structures they have in place. We couldn’t help but notice how attractive these plants really are. In fact, it inspired us to grow hops on our property last year, as fast-growing ornamentals. GETTING STARTED Hops are hardy perennials up to Zone 4 (Ottawa/Montreal). They are grown from rhizomes, which can be divided every three years. Plant rhizomes directly in the ground in early spring. Hops require nutrient-rich soil that is well drained. We add a bushel of finished compost into the garden soil at planting time. We also add sharp sand under each rhizome to improve drainage. ROOM TO GROW Hops prefer a location…

Rose Rogan’s list of available produce is diverse and ever changing, just like her motley crew of animals. The nightly roll call is not for the faint hearted! Here’s the current tally. • Four dairy goats (and spring kids) • Three dogs (who protect the birds from eagles, mink and raccoons and function as Rose’s doorbells and best friends; “if my dogs could fly, they’d be perfect,” she says) • Four cats • Six geese (a-laying and also a-braying) • Forty-six ducks • Multiple chickens of many heritage varieties • Twenty-two turkeys • An apple orchard of 84 trees (12 varieties) and growing • Blueberries (eight varieties) • Raspberries, strawberries, loganberries and tayberries • Garlic, squash, tomatoes, rhubarb and so on…

Folks, if you’re reading this and have not yet tasted pasture-raised heritage poultry, we encourage you to do yourself—and the planet—a favour and visit a farmers’ market, farm gate or excellent butcher shop to bring home the real deal. We’re fairly certain, from that first taste forward, you’ll choose farmed over factory, again and again. Why? Well, we humans are not so different from all the other animals, including poultry: we’re both made more interesting and, yes, a little tougher (more on that later) through a rich, natural life well lived, and the more active we are, the leaner and healthier we are too. Heritage birds are good-looking, with pretty plumage. They’re not all disproportionate breast meat; they’re actually built to do a little ungraceful flying, as opposed to just…

Our sommelier, Rebecca Meir, has some suggested wine pairings that will make poultry soar. “Thanks to poultry’s rather subtle flavour, it can work with a wide variety of whites and even reds, but only if you consider the body and tannins of the wine, the cooking method of the bird, and the other ingredients on the plate. Chef Signe’s chicken pot pie can pair nicely with a classic Pinot Noir from Burgundy, as Pinot Noir is the lightest of red wines and won’t overpower the poultry with dramatic tannins. Moreover, the earthy notes of root vegetables work beautifully with the earthy and light cherry notes you’ll often find in Pinot Noir. And because of those earthy notes, a Pinot Noir will also pair beautifully with the mushroom risotto. There are…

I sat in my office lunchroom in Cambridge, Ontario, surrounded by five colleagues, all partaking in our daily lunch routine. Subway was present. McDonald’s was there. A homemade sandwich. A salad. And on my plate, a thick slice of my gelatinous homemade headcheese on spelt sourdough bread. Believe it or not, my attempt at traditional headcheese wasn’t actually that tasty, but I pretended it was as I vigorously defended my packed lunch and tried to wax eloquent about the concept of nose-to-tail eating to my somewhat incredulous lunchmates. Nose-to-tail eating is a growing movement toward eating as many parts of an animal as possible so it doesn’t go to waste. It seeks to respect the animal’s sacrifice by honouring all the cuts of meat, not just the choicest. But truth…

SEASONAL HIGHLIGHTS WINTER 2019–2020 Expect a stormy and colder-than-normal winter this year. We should see a series of Alberta Clippers crossing the country and then reforming into nor’easters along the coast. This should bring abundant amounts of snow inland and mixed precipitation in coastal areas. The season should start relatively mild but then turn sharply colder between Christmas and New Year’s. SUMMER 2020 Temperatures should remain seasonable to slightly above normal. The season should start off rather wet, but then some dry spells can be expected between mid-July through early September. There should be one or two weak tropical systems moving through the area early to mid-September. SPRING 2020 It will be a late spring, as temperatures will struggle to get into double digits well into late April. It should…

SEASONAL HIGHLIGHTS WINTER 2019–2020 The eastern Prairies should see a persistent cold arctic flow through most of the season while areas farther to the west should be closer to seasonable. Frequent storms through Alberta and western Saskatoon should make it a wetter season than normal. SUMMER 2020 Expect average to slightly above-average temperatures this summer with above-average precipitation. Late July through mid-August we should see some severe wind storms that could bring about some light to moderate damage, especially over Saskatoon and Manitoba. SPRING 2020 March and April will continue with below-normal temperatures well into late April, followed by a pattern shift that will bring a milder southwesterly flow that will boost temperatures above normal from mid-May to early June. Precipitation will be below normal. FALL 2020 September and October…

SEASONAL HIGH REGION LIGHTS 7 WINTER 2019–2020 Weak El Niño conditions will keep the polar jet running straight through this area, so expect much colder than normal conditions with a barrage of polar vortex air masses. Due to the colder flow, we should see a drier pattern, with the lack of an active storm track. SUMMER 2020 Temperatures will be at normal levels overall, yet precipitation will trend to lower-than-average levels. The amount of sunny days will outnumber the cloudy ones. SPRING 2020 A cold and wet start to spring will slowly transition to more seasonable temperatures and precipitation levels. Expect a couple of late-season cold spells that could bring a return to snowy conditions. FALL 2020 Precipitation levels will range between normal and slightly below normal. Temperatures should be…

“This is Eureka!” A woman held up a skein of wool the colour of a summer sunset. I was at my first meeting of the Tzouhalem Spinners and Weavers Guild, not knowing anything about spinning or weaving, but I felt at home in this group of women who were introducing me to their art. We ranged from age 35 to 82 and encompassed many backgrounds, from fibre artists and a mompreneur to one sheep farmer and three “mixed” farmers, as well as mothers, grandmothers, a lawyer, a fashion designer, a nurse and a teacher. We were a diverse group with the commonality of wool. From sinking our fingers into a thick fleece to drafting out sticky fibres to spin, wool just makes us feel good. Whether we knit, weave or…

Mine was a normal enough childhood, as far as we were concerned—“we” being me, my younger, then-bratty sister, Kiley (spelling unofficially changed to Kylie during the Kylie Minogue “Locomotion” years), and my even younger tagalong brother, Dax. I’ve only met one other Dax, and there was a Dax character on Deep Space Nine or one of those Star Trek spinoffs. I say we thought we were normal because in the country, there’s not a lot of opportunity for comparison. We thought everybody lived on roads like ours—where you were related to everyone on them. And in Mount Pleasant, this was true. Our great-grandmother lived right beside us. Nan Chapin (my mom’s mom) lived farther up the road. Aunts and uncles at the top of the road swapped houses a few…

The American game show Family Feud debuted in 1976 and was one of very few programs that we could reliably dial in with an antenna and rotor control box out in the country. My siblings and I sat cross-legged in front of the console TV, yelling over the competing family members. We sat too close, of course—the common refrain from my dad was “You’re going to hurt your eyes!” We’d hush him so we didn’t miss any bit of the show. The answers to the host’s questions were actually based on those obtained from a 100-person survey panel. Contestants battled it out, trying to guess the most popular answers to the question. Since the answers were derived from a survey, “Survey says!” was the natural response. When piecing together content…

1 Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia, the founders of Airbnb, originally dubbed their idea AirBed&Breakfast—a combo of air bed, which they relied on for their own house guests, and bed and breakfast. The name shifted to the snappier Airbnb, where few air mattresses can be found (thankfully). 2 The polished-aluminum, sausage-shaped Airstream is unmistakable. The company was the brainwave of Wally Byam, who built the first prototypes out of Masonite in his California backyard in the late 1920s. He published a magazine selling a “how-to” kit for ambitious customers eager to build their own trailer. In 1936, Byam introduced the iconic design, the Airstream Clipper, named after the first transatlantic seaplane, and sold it for US$1,200. 3 Cotton candy is a nostalgic fall-fair favourite. Sugar is heated to a liquefying…

“Pony Tales,” “The Amputation of Aunt Annie’s Leg” and the other short stories that follow were submitted by Beulah Lennox on behalf of her late mother, Bessie Wilson. Bessie passed away on November 3, 2000, just five days short of her 90th birthday. She left a beautiful legacy in the end by filling eight exercise books full of her candid childhood memories of growing up on a farm in rural Ontario. “She wrote those stories despite being nearly blind, and some of the words ran right off the page. Luckily, I was able to catch them,” wrote Beulah in an email to Harrowsmith. Please note that “Pony Tales” was originally titled “Things Children Will Do.” Bessie wrote about the beloved pony that her uncle, Neil, bought her for companionship. There…

Back in my day, there was often an urgent farm happening where some items in the medicine cabinet would not work and the doctor lived a good distance away. Mother’s uncle had a cousin who was attacked by a wildcat. The cat had torn part of Jack’s scalp back in the middle of the night. Jack was rudely awakened by the animals in the barn one clear moonlit night in the fall. The loud fuss finally got him out of bed and he hurried into his overalls, coat and boots. He started out for the barn and was almost there when something came out of nowhere and knocked him down. His wife, Annie, wasn’t far behind, but the damage was already done—with not one sign of what Jack had encountered.…

They’re leaner, and raised better, with more room to romp, and when processed for the table, they’re not injected with liquid margarine or salty water. This is poultry in its most natural expression: treat it with care in the cooking, and the rewards will be great. Kill the poor thing all over again in the kitchen, and you’ll be left wondering why you just spent twice the money on a dry, skinny, tough old bird. Heritage birds require extra TLC. Here’s what to do to make the most of that investment. • Add fat. Heritage and pastured birds are naturally leaner, so to keep things juicy when roasting, add a few rashers of bacon, rub the skin with butter or oil, or even press a layer of sausage meat between…

From British Columbia to the Maritimes, farmers are pasture-raising gorgeous breeds of poultry—some are good old heirloom varieties, and some are newer crosses. Here are a few of the names to ask for. • Chicken: Canadian Bresse, Chantecler, Plymouth Rock, Jersey Giant, Rhode Island Red, Silke, Orpington, Red Bro broilers • Turkey: Beltsville Small White, Blue Slate, Ridley Bronze, Bronze, Chocolate, Regal Red, Naragansett, Bourbon Red, Spanish Black, Royal Palm, Pencilled Red Palm, Jersey Buff • Duck and goose: Rouen, Chocolate, Muscovy, Toulouse, Dewlap, Sebastopol, Aylesbury, Blue Swedish…

Greta Podleski, along with her sister, Janet, is the co-author of four blockbuster bestselling cookbooks: Looneyspoons; Crazy Plates; Eat, Shrink & Be Merry; and The Looneyspoons Collection. Her first solo cookbook, Yum & Yummer, was Canada’s top-selling cookbook of 2018 and a Taste Canada Awards Gold winner. Podleski’s incredible self-publishing success story and outrageously delicious, healthy recipes have been featured on national TV and radio shows and in newspapers and magazines in both Canada and the United States. Described by her cookbook fans as “the mad scientist of healthy cooking,” Podleski began developing her kitchen “whizdom” at age seven, when she received an Easy-Bake Oven for her birthday. “If I can cook using the heat of a lightbulb, I can do anything!” proclaimed Podleski during her childhood aha moment. (Her…

SEASONAL HIGHLIGHTS WINTER 2019–2020 Weak El Niño conditions should persist through the early part of winter, causing a slight delay with the start of wintry conditions. Although the early part of December should bring some mixed precipitation systems due to mild westerlies, we should see this pattern change mid-December with much colder air moving in. SUMMER 2020 There should be two significant heat waves between early July through to the first week of August. Expect some severe weather over central and southern Quebec during the first three weeks of July and the last two weeks of August. Some storms could have damaging straight-line winds or possible tornadoes. SPRING 2020 Spring conditions will likely be slow in coming (late April). Temperatures will only start to moderate into the last week of…

SEASONAL HIGHLIGHTS WINTER 2019–2020 Milder-than-normal temperatures should be experienced from north to south, with only the most eastern areas experiencing near-normal temperatures. Overall, precipitation will be normal or slightly below normal despite a few periods of heavy rain along the coast. The stormiest areas should be along the Alberta border. SUMMER 2020 Temperatures will be slightly above normal overall, even though there will be a few cooler air masses passing through in June and early September. Precipitation will be normal along the coast but higher than normal inland. SPRING 2020 From north to south, spring should see seasonable temperatures and above-average precipitation. It should be rather cloudy and gloomy much of the time, except at higher elevations. A pattern change in late May should bring a return of clearer skies…

Being a good steward of a back-40 forest isn’t the same as dealing with commercial forestry challenges, because you’re managing for different goals than those pursued in industry. While you might be aiming for firewood and lumber production, you’ll also want to keep the forest friendly for wildlife and sustainable for future generations. Hollow yet sound trees may not look great, but they’re valuable. Depending on where you live, you should leave three to 12 cavity trees standing per acre for wildlife habitat. Dozens of species of birds and mammals depend entirely on cavity trees for shelter, hibernation and rearing their young. Trees with openings in the upper trunk are especially valuable, since they afford the best predator protection. When I cut trees on my land, I always follow a…

The new mobile app Random Acts of Green is proving that small daily choices can add up to a big collective impact, showing people how they can make a difference for climate change. With the app, individuals can see how they are achieving positive change by logging over 40 green acts and adding up points. By tracking and measuring their green behaviours, people can see how their actions translate to reduced greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). For example, riding a bike to work instead of taking the car reduces your carbon footprint by 220 kg (485 pounds) of CO2e per 1,000 km (620 miles) driven. Ten servings less per month of beef or lamb saves 20.4 kg (45 pounds) of CO2e per month. Green acts for a reduced footprint • Use…

heart rot fungi mule skinner spatchcocking whisky jack wool rousies acorn nut We’re not talking squirrel snacks, here. Acorn nuts are usually brass, steel, stainless steel or chrome plated. The hexagonal bolt with a domed end on one side is also called a blind nut, cap nut, domed cap nut or crown hex nut. When used with a threaded fastener with an external male thread, the domed end encloses the external thread of the threaded fastener, protecting the thread itself or nearby objects from contact with the thread. In addition, the dome gives a more finished appearance. heart rot fungi Difficult to prevent, these fungi attack the heartwood, or centre, of the trunk or branches of hardwood trees. Fungi enter wounds in the bark (from insects, fire damage, improper pruning), weakening…

A Canadian is the only person who stands out on the veranda on a bright, warm, windless spring day, as the birds sing and the buds burst, and says darkly, “We’ll pay for this.” One payback moment came a few years ago when I was trying to get to three distant and remote speaking events on the same weekend just as an ice storm swept up from the south, paralyzing all of the TV weather forecasters from Windsor to Ottawa. At first I thought of cancelling engagements, but then I heard CBC announce the Storm of the Century. Right there I knew it wouldn’t amount to much. I would pay more attention to storm warnings if the Rotarians and the Soil and Crop people ever cancelled an event because of…