GOATS, GOATS, GOATS

         There are very, very few goats around here. But last week surprise, surprise there were lots of goats around here. 

        A flock of goats is known for eating weeds and other undesirable plants. They add nutrients to the soil and with their feet cut little holes to aeriate the soil. 

       So last Sunday afternoon I took my daughter and son-in-law to the local nature center. We were surprised to see goats. Many goats. The shepherds told us there were 600 goats. They set up temporary fencing on an area and then set up more temporary fencing usually beside the first area. In this way they move the goats quickly before they start damaging the wanted plants.

     It was interesting to see this many goats. There were many kids that were only a week old. One kid had been sleeping and when he woke up his mother was gone. Did he holler. The shepherd picked him up and took him to his mother.

     For goats, there was very little noise. When they moved they seemed to move as one. 

LUNCH WITH DOUG

      I've told you 1903 times that I was a teacher. Well, not maybe that many times but enough times to make you sick of it. . But I like nothing better than a good long chat especially if the other person does the talking! I'm a listener. And it's better yet if the person I'm talking to is a former student.

     So yesterday I was out for lunch and one of my former long ago students came in and sat down with me for lunch. He was in town visiting his Mother. I think Doug was in Gr. 7 in 1969. That's 54 years ago. We couldn't remember if I had actually taught him or not. So the first topic we had to deal with is that we are both enjoying retirement! It's good for a laugh to have  a chat with a retired student.

     After that, we talked about things that retired people talk about. Since we know many of the same people we try to wonder where some of them are and what they are doing. 

    We also talk about our careers. Doug was one of those guys who found something that was very out of the ordinary to do. But his work was crucial to government and courts functioning smoothly. 

    I wrote in a previous post about Doug taking his curling team to the Canadian Highschool nationals for high school students. His Mom talks to me about that one every time I see her. They were very proud of him and justifiably so. 

    We really teach to have people take our places. It's always a pleasure to meet someone who has replaced us and now is almost finished replacing us. What is left is to do volunteer work for the community which helps the community and gives us personal satisfaction and an opportunity for personal growth. 

     So it was a pleasure to have lunch with Doug as he's from the other end of the country and I was lucky to run into him. 

PEEKS THROUGH THE FOREST.

     On July 9 I wrote about a good walk to check on some flowers. You have two options to get down to the bottom of the valley. You can take a winding trail that gets you to the valley bottom or a set of stairs that takes you to the valley bottom. 

    I chose to take the stairs. There are about 200 steps. Next time I take the steps , I'll count them. On the way down there are several places where there are openings in the trees and you can see across the valley. There are also glimpses of a bridge spanning the Red Deer River . This bridge is designed for walkers, runners, bicycles, horses and skiers. Oh yes, I have seen a loaded gravel truck cross this bridge.

    So here are some of the views I saw as I went down the stairs. Then there's a view of the bridge deck. 

I'VE BEEN SWEARING AGAIN

     Well, maybe I haven't been swearing but on a good rant.

      What am I ranting about? Well, everybody should know what I'm complaining about. 

      So those who guessed printer are right.

      This week the Micro Manager asked me to copy a 16 page booklet double sided from double sided. I accidentally did it a few years ago but I didn't know what I was doing. Look up Brother printer instructions for this and they're clear as mud. So what do you do? Experiment. So 16 pages of test paper on the floor and I finally found out how to do the job. Flip the page to be copied and give it a half turn. It works every tome. So I now have this written down.

    Some people can easily see what has to be done because they can picture it in their head. I can't get that picture in my head. 

    Next ? Scanning. I don't know where to send the scan so I spend all evening looking for the scan. I haven't solved this one but my daughter is coming tomorrow so I think I'll get that one solved.

    Doesn't it feel great when something gets solved? 

ONE PROJECT I KEPT

       In most ways I travel pretty light. I don't keep many things. I keep photos but not much else. I don't keep books or papers like programs, invitations or small newspaper clipping.

      What I'm about to tell you is something that has followed me and is still with me.

      From 1967 to 69 I taught in the small , isolated community of Wakeham Bay Quebec. The school had only ben open for five years when I got there. So for the older kids , they'd only been in school for five years. So in my class of 14 I had students from age 12 to 19. These kids were working at a gr 4 to 6 level. It was all English which was wrong. 

     However, I did what the powers that be told me. One of the projects I did was to have the kids write a friendly letter. Not a letter to be handed in and graded, but a letter sent to a real person. At that time my youngest brother was 13. I had these kids write to my brother David. I can't remember if David wrote to all of them or if kids from his class wrote them. 

     So when David was about 50 , he brought all the students letters out and asked me if I wanted them. What a shock! I'd forgotten about this project. 

    So I have these letters from Feb. 8, 1968. What do I do with them? 

     So I scanned Nuluki's letter for and example.

MORE SUMMER WALK

      In my last post I wrote about the trails in our city and how lucky we are to have them. Along with paved trails we have lots of shale or gravel trails. Along with this goes thousands of acres of native parkland. There's old growth forest. Spruce forest. Poplar forest and mixed forest. There is even a bit of grassland. 

     So last week I went through some solid spruce forest. the rest of it is a big mixture. Most of this area is old gravel pits. About 100 acres. It's surprising how much of the old quarry has a variety of various trees and shrubs. 

     There were many, many butterflies. I took many photos...all of them poor, but you're going to see some butter fly photos anyway. 

SUMMER WALK

        This week I decided to take a walk and find some of my favorite flowers. It was hotter than I thought so the walk was slower than I thought. Part of the trail consists of about 150 steps where you go up or down the escarpment. The steps have never been a problem before but this week I had to take a few breaks. 

      This small city has many trails. There are about 100 km of upgraded paved trails for easy walking and cycling. There are trails improved with shale or grave. And then thee are unimproved trails.

     So I enjoyed my walk. I found the wild flowers I was looking for but there were many butterflies around. 

THE RELLIES

       I knew that many of my family read my blog. My blog comes up on Face book and many are Face Book friends so read the blog. So thanks to all my relatives who read my blog. 

      Many people in town read me. In fact, I'm always surprised when someone says  "I read your blog." Why am I surprised. They read and leave no trace because they do not have a blog. They are also not aware that they can leave comment. Many other people read from time to time and do not leave comments.

     So if you want to leave a comment , go to the bottom of the blog post and click on anonymous. Write your comment. I rarely publish anonymous comments so leave some kind of clue as to who you are. For example leave your town and name. You can mix these up so that the bad guys won't come around. You can make up some name that I will recognize. 

    So I hope I've made it easier for non bloggers to make a comment from time to time. 

    This doesn't work for all blogs as some blogs are on a different platform. Some bloggers have not set up the anonymous option. 

MORE UNCLE ANGUS

       Two former colleagues gave me their stories on Angus. 

        Bob, the art teacher, had a huge mounted bull elk head in his room for a looong time. I was surprised to find that it came from Angus. Bob moved to another school and when he retired returned the elk head to Angus. Angus would have been at an auction sale and the head may have been very cheap or else Angus just wanted to have something very different. 

     Rob, a French teacher had a clipping about something Angus bought. Angus found some metal with reverse writing. At first Angus wondered what it was . Then he wondered why someone would write backwards and then he wondered how someone could even write backwards. It was explained to Angus that this was a printing plate used in presses. The Art teacher had a little press and they printed a page. It was of a wedding invitation from 1910. Then Angus wanted to find the family whose ancestors were involved with the wedding invitation. 

    Things like that made Angus curious.

    For the odd day in the summer I would go to the school to do some work in my classroom. I would take my two kids when they were preschoolers. Angus always had a package of life savers in his pocket and gave them a life saver. They always wanted to go to school and find Angus. 

    Now I left out some information on the last post. the guy standing beside a pile was me on the last day of school. I don't have a photo of Angus. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANADA

 Happy 155th birthday Canada!