kickingfrog

Did she say anything about being a little mangy?

Do you see a beer in their paws???

Ya know another one comes out of the bush to siphon your gas while you watch the show right?

Uni for me. If I've tied the knot properly failure is not an issue.

Man, if a certain camera man were to win it he would be persona non grata in short order.

http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2662537 Experts say lake plan will aid fish Posted By IAN MCINROY, BARRIE EXAMINER Posted 7:00 am July 10, 2010 Fish in Lake Simcoe could soon be catching a break. Long-term provincial efforts to reduce phosphorus levels in the lake will go a long way to restoring fish populations, experts say. But an environmental watchdog says the phosphorus reduction strategy announced earlier this week doesn't go far enough. The 35-year-long strategy of the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) will take place in phases, and is intended to identify -- and reduce -- major sources of phosphorus entering Lake Simcoe and its watershed. The announcement of the strategy comes on the heels of the first anniversary in June of the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan, which the ministry calls a "road map to help restore and protect the health of the lake and its watershed." Too much phosphorus leads to excessive plant growth and when those plants die and decay, oxygen levels are sucked out of the water. About 30 years ago, more than 100 tonnes of phosphorus made its way into the lake each year. After forts, that has dropped to 72 tonnes per year and the long-term reduction strategy would see that drop again to 44 tonnes. There are a number of 'stressors' that impact the fish communities of Lake Simcoe -- invasive species, climate change, exploitation and development -- that combine to affect the entire fish community in the Lake Simcoe ecosystem, according to Ministry of Natural Resources' (MNR) Lake Simcoe aquatic resources management biologist Jason Borwick. "When it comes to the coldwater fish community, however, excess phosphorus and reduced oxygen levels remain the major roadblock preventing (the fish population) from becoming naturally self-sustaining," he said. Those populations -- lake trout and whitefish -- were severely impacted by excess phosphorus and led to population crashes in the 1960s and 1970s, Borwick said, and the MNR conducts large scale stocking programs to maintain the lake trout and whitefish populations. But the fish are making a bit of a comeback on their own, he said. "More recently, coinciding with Lake Simcoe water quality improvements, naturally reproduced lake trout have been documented every year since 2001, something we haven't seen in over 20 years," Borwick said. "Despite the fact that lake trout are once again reproducing naturally, the lake trout population is still dominated by stocked fish." Liz Unikel, a senior adviser with the MOE's Lake Simcoe Project, said to have a self-reproducing lake trout population, the water where the coldwater fish community lives must contain at least seven milligrams/litre of dissolved oxygen. "Research shows us that if we reduce phosphorus entering the lake by 40% to 44 tonnes per year, we would achieve that target," she said, adding the reductions over the last 20 years have made a difference. "This has increased dissolved oxygen levels to around five milligrams/ litre and we are starting to see some naturally reproducing lake trout," Unikel said. "But we have further to go to reach the desired outcome: a renewed coldwater fish community." Claire Malcolmson, Lake Simcoe Campaign co-ordinator for Environmental Defence, said reducing phosphorus is important, but just how the strategy would do that is still unclear. "This strategy was intended to identify specific reduction goals and timelines and all these things need to be done. But it fails to lay out a plan for reaching a goal," she said. "The goal is to get down to 44 tonnes per year, but they don't say how they're going to do that. And they don't have the technology to reduce the pollution from (future) development." Increasing growth pressures around the lake will make protecting it even more difficult over the coming decades, Malcolmson said, adding the province should apply pressure to watershed municipalities to ensure they have the health of the lake in mind when they make their planning and development decisions. "We need to know where the brakes are in growth," she said. "We're concerned there will be a bunch of growth approved and the community -- and the environment -- won't see any benefit (from the strategy)." Triggers -- such as the environmental health of streams, or whether biodiversity in an area is better or worse -- would determine whether a community was doing its part to protect the lake, she added. "There is an opportunity for the province to apply conditions to things like the expansion of sewage plants or growth (before approving them)," Malcolmson said. For more information, visit www.ontario.ca/environment. [email protected]

Nice! This is the first year for us planting a vegetable garden. I'll try to get out and take some photos as well.

Lebron??? I thought this was about Lebarons moving.

Beautiful Bernie.

Pieces around them??? I have more money in between the cushions of my couch.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/832748--pickering-nuclear-plant-ordered-to-quit-killing-fish Carola Vyhnak Urban Affairs Reporter The Pickering nuclear power plant is killing fish by the millions. Close to one million fish and 62 million fish eggs and larvae die each year when they’re sucked into the water intake channel in Lake Ontario, which the plant uses to cool steam condensers. The fish, which include alewife, northern pike, Chinook salmon and rainbow smelt, are killed when they’re trapped on intake screens or suffer cold water shock after leaving warmer water that’s discharged into the lake. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has told Ontario Power Generation, which operates the plant, to reduce fish mortality by 80 per cent. And in renewing Pickering A station’s operating licence last month, the nuclear regulator asked for annual public reports on fish mortality and the effectiveness of steps OPG is taking to reduce rates. “Quite clearly we were talking about a lot of fish,” says a spokesperson for the commission, adding that while the kill has been going on “forever,” environmental issues were only recently added to licensing considerations. But while the requirement for regular reports is a “huge start,” says an environmental watchdog, OPG hasn’t done enough to stop what he calls the “biggest killer of fish on the lake.” A 610-metre barrier net it has strung in front of the channel is insufficient because it’s removed in winter and “does nothing about thermal pollution and nothing about larvae and eggs,” says Mark Mattson, president of Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, a grassroots charity working to protect the health of the lake. “This is important to the lake’s ecosystem — the birds and people who eat the fish, and the commercial fishery,” he said in an interview. “What a terrible precedent it is that one of the biggest public corporations can just ignore the rules for fish and fish habitat in Canada.” Mattson calls the plant’s cooling system the worst of available technologies. “It sucks in clean water along with fish, eggs and larvae, then spits it back at close to hot-tub temperatures.” The combined thermal plume from Pickering stations A and B ranges from 150 to 800 hectares at the water surface year round, and 50 to 300 hectares at the bottom during cold weather, he said. But OPG denies plant operations are having an adverse effect on aquatic life or habitat and maintains there’s no evidence that thermal emissions are killing fish. The agency installed the net and is monitoring mortality rates and lake temperatures because “we’re always looking for ways to reduce the impact on the environment,” said spokesperson Ted Gruetzner. After four months, it’s too soon to say how effective the net is, but already fewer large fish are being seen. Small swimmers can still get through. Installed last October, the net was removed for the winter because of the risks to divers doing maintenance work, Gruetzner explained, adding that fish are less likely to enter the channel in cold weather. Noting that OPG spends more than $1 million a year on habitat projects in the province, he said the operator will consider stocking the lake with fish to replace those killed. The nuclear safety commission told OPG in October 2008 to fix the problem, reducing mortality for adult fish by 80 per cent and for eggs and larvae by 60 per cent. Citing the company’s failure to protect the lake’s inhabitants, the commission called the fish kill “an unreasonable risk to the environment.” The Darlington nuclear plant uses a different intake system that doesn’t draw fish in.

Sapose the shooter found out how much his haircuts costs now?

I download the podcasts, better than music, sometimes, on long drives.

Tilt away then. The Tour de France is in Holland right now as well. Say "hi".

Relax guys, the kid doesn't post here, the article is from a paper that is 2 time zones away from most of us and in another country. The world is still safe.

Not sure if this has been posted here before or not? http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2652110 http://images.mec.ca/media/Images/pdf/100331_MEC_Barrie_Store_PR_v1_m56577569830953438.pdf

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/your-business/a-canadian-craft-encounters-rapids/article1627213/ A Canadian craft encounters rapids The recession is hurting both traditional and modern canoe makers. The hope is that a desire for fitness and environmental awareness will attract a new generation to an ancient manner of boating. Gordon Pitts Globe and Mail Update Published on Friday, Jul. 02, 2010 7:30PM EDT Last updated on Friday, Jul. 02, 2010 7:32PM EDT In his workshop near the Tobique River in northern New Brunswick, Bill Miller lovingly crafts canvas-covered cedar canoes in the tradition established by his grandfather in 1925. That, he maintains, qualifies Miller Canoes as the oldest canoe builder in the country. Not so fast, says Langford Canoes, based in Ontario’s Muskoka cottage country. After 70 years, Langford calls itself the oldest canoe manufacturer of any significance in Canada, making up to 1,000 boats a year. Both are right, in a sense. These two businesses represent two distinct streams of Canadian canoe making that are battling for the soul of the country’s oldest industry – and for the pocketbooks of hard-pressed North American consumers. Making love in a canoe is hard – as any true, hot-blooded Canadian knows – but making money from canoes is even harder. Langford’s response to the tough economics of canoe making is building a brand, outsourcing production and deploying varied materials, from wood to plastic – as well as achieving some degree of scale. “Unless you are building a couple of hundred boats a year, you don’t count,” insists Steve MacAllister, president of the company. Those are fighting words for Mr. Miller, 64, a small-scale artisan who might build a half dozen of his wooden masterpieces a year in Nictau, N.B. “I have no interest in building a plastic canoe,” he says. All canoe makers agree that the recession has eroded the incomes of middle-class consumers, leaving less money for luxuries such as $1,000 to $5,000 canoes. Baby Boomers are aging, and their children often prefer more nimble kayaks, or motorized watercraft, to the lumbering canoes of their parents. In addition, canoe making remains a highly seasonal business, which makes it hard to manage the ebb and flow of workers and inventories. Once lucrative U.S. markets are jeopardized by the high Canadian dollar, and the continuing economic woes south of the border. Even the industry’s mega-player, Old Town Canoes of Maine – which sells a lot of canoes in Canada among its output of 200,000 boats a year – slowed production in the recession. Striving to survive Canoe making has been in a state of constant evolution since native people assembled the first birchbark models in the years before European settlement. The first canoe factories of any scale used cedar plank and rib construction. After the Second World War, plane maker Grumman Corp. directed its surplus war materials, and labour, to pioneering the production of clunky but carefree aluminum canoes. As tastes changed, companies adjusted or died. Casualties of the past 50 years include iconic cedar builders such as Ontario’s Peterborough Canoe Co. and New Brunswick’s Chestnut Canoe Co., which still inspire rhapsodic tributes decades after they closed their doors. The death of Chestnut in 1978 sent the Canadian industry tripping off in two different directions – toward modern production methods and lightweight synthetic materials, such as fibreglass and Kevlar, and to a cottage industry of lone artistes, eking out a living making one wooden canoe at a time. Langford survives on savvy marketing and, in recent years, contracting work to canoe makers in the Shawinigan area of Quebec. Up to 20 per cent of its production in any year is still devoted to wooden canoes, but the chief craftsman is Alain Rhéaume of Grandes-Piles, Que., who also makes canoes for the American Trader label in the United States. Mr. Rhéaume, a former cabinet maker, has the workshop capacity to turn out 300 to 400 wood canoes a year, but his numbers are down considerably in this depressed economy. “The U.S. is slow these days,” he says. He has adjusted by taking contracts to put wooden gunwales and other fixtures on boats otherwise made of composite materials. And he has became a supplier to the MacAllister family who bought Langford Canoes 25 years ago, having made their money in plastics injection moulding in Toronto – a background that rankles the wood canoe purists. Entrepreneur Ken Langford launched the Langford operation in 1940, but it had been passed on to new owners and fallen on hard times by the 1980s. At that point, Keith MacAllister, Steve’s father, bought land around Muskoka’s Lake of Bays for development and discovered the property contained a canoe factory. The MacAllisters didn’t care much about canoeing, and thought about selling the business, but they discovered the Langford name had a cachet among hard-core paddlers. They concluded there was a bigger business that they could build around the brand. Now based in Dwight, Ont., Langford Canoes sports an attractive website with a strong appeal to boating nostalgia. The company shows up at the major boat shows. It has turned out limited edition cedar canoes for Hudson Bay Co., complete with the Bay’s trademark stripes of indigo, yellow, red and green, and has just finished a plaid canoe for Roots. Even the G8 summit in the Muskoka area proved to be a marketing opportunity. Langford was contracted by Ottawa to provide a gift, in the form of a 58-inch solid cherry paddle, to each of the heads of state. COLE BURSTON/FOR THE GLOBE AND MWilliam Miller paints his canoes with three to four coats of varnish. The old and the new Steve MacAllister says Langford’s canoes are based on its traditional designs, updated for modern safety and comfort. But after a period of running its own production in Quebec, the company shifted its work to independent contractors, such as Mr. Rhéaume, who understand the province’s labour laws and practises. Mr. MacAllister has little time for his small-scale detractors who say they have been around much longer than his own company. “There are probably 100 guys in Canada that have been building canoes in their garage for years, but they don’t really count as companies,” he insists. “Every year, we get some farmer come in and say ‘Well, we’ve been building canoes for 250 years.’ We say, ‘Great, and so have the Indians, but are you building thousands of them a year for 40 straight years?’ The answer, of course is, ‘No, we build one a year if we’re lucky.’ ” Roger MacGregor, a canoe historian who has written a book on the Chestnut Co., says it is a stretch to say Langford Canoes is the oldest canoe builder, given its changes in ownership and its current model of outsourcing canoe production. But he agrees there is little left of the old companies from canoe making’s golden age of wood. Chestnut died, he said, because its wooden models were swept aside in the move to newer materials. Even though it made its own fibreglass and aluminum boats, the brand loyalty wasn’t there. Indeed, the Chestnut name has gained stature in retrospect, like artists who achieve renown after their death. He finds it fascinating, though, to see the tradition carried on by clusters of entrepreneurial lone wolfs, in areas like Shawinigan, Northern Ontario, Muskoka, the Ottawa Valley and New Brunswick. Some of these torch carriers are former Chestnut employees and devotees, who make small numbers based on the old moulds and designs. To Mr. Miller, Chestnut, with its annual production of hundreds of canoes, was a big player that he claims copied his grandfather’s designs for one of its best-selling models. At its peak, in the early 1970s, Miller Canoes made as many as 50 boats a year with three tradesmen. Now, Mr. Miller is labouring alone in his workshop, with works in progress of 24- and 26-foot canoes priced at $200 a foot. He built his first canoe at 15 and “I’ve got 36 more years before I retire,” he jokes. “I will gladly build my last canoe on my 100th birthday.” Contrast this with Bill Swift Jr. who has been making canoes and kayaks for 21 years and has a factory in South River, west of Algonquin Park, but doesn’t claim to be an old-time craftsman. He turns out 1,200 canoes a year in synthetic materials, many based on a production process similar to that used in building the Space Shuttle and the new Boeing Dreamliner aircraft. Mr. Swift, like Langford Canoes, was able to market his products on the back of the recent Huntsville and Toronto summits. The canoes displayed around the notorious fake lake, and thus featured in countless news clips, were Swift Canoes borrowed for the event. But even Mr. Swift can’t get the old craft out of his blood. He is building a replica of Chestnut’s 16-foot Prospector model in carbon-Kevlar composite material and weighing only 14.5 kilograms. That, he says, is the future of the industry, which he believes is finally bouncing back after some choppy years. He sees young families and baby boomers alike being pulled away from power boats by trends to fitness and environmental awareness, and attracted by the new lightweight, easy-to-maintain models. “The canoe market is moving back to where it used to be,” he says, but based on modern materials. That will never, of course, satisfy the wood canoe zealots, but it means this most ancient of Canadian industries isn’t up the creek without a paddle yet. ______ STAYING AFLOAT It’s the love of craft that keeps Canada’s great canoe makers at work Barry Sharpe Sharpe Canoes Mann’s Mountain, N.B. Age: 39 History: Grandfather began the business in 1947, building the longer Restigouche canoes. Output: 15 to 30 wood canoes a year, with a team of three to four people. Price point: 26-foot canoe for $6,000. Quote: “I’ve been doing this since I was a kid.” Will Ruch Ruch Canoes Bancroft, Ont. Age 47 History: Considered the Stradivarius of wood builders, he started 24 years ago. Output: Cut back to a couple a year; keeps busy repairing boats. Price point: About $5,000. Quote: “My hands are on every stage of production. If you spend two or three months making something, it becomes a chunk of you, like for a painter.” John Kilbridge Temagami Canoes Temagami, Ont. Age: 56 History: Chicago boy came to summer camp in Temagami; in 1978, bought canoe business, which is now 82 years old, second oldest in Canada. Output: Six to eight canoes a year. Price point: Average 16-foot model for $4,250. Quote: The survival formula in canoe making is “being married to someone with a real job.” Doug Ingram Red River Canoes Lorette, Man. Age: 47 History: Fine arts grad couldn’t get a job teaching during cutbacks; turned to canoe making. Output: Two to five boats a year; 30 to 60 paddles; a few guitars. Price point: Solo 13- to 15-foot canoes at $3,000; bigger tandems at $4,500. Quote: “As someone said, canoeing is a fringe activity and wood canoes are the fringest of the fringe.” Larry Bowers West Country Canoes Eckville, Alta. Age: 49 History: Started fixing parents’ boats 20 years ago. First based in Powell River, B.C., moved to Alberta for his wife’s work. Output: About one wooden canoe a month. Price point: From $1,900 for 10-footer to $6,000 for bigger models. Quote: “No one gets rich making canoes.” Gordon Pitts

Ya, well I went to work today, then got to cut the grass... so bite me. :wallbash: Great day, great fish, great photos.

The Globe and Mail had a Canadian music article on their site. Stan Rogers

Glad to see Jim doing well. Maybe someone could give us a heads-up a week or so before the show airs. Hint, hint.

Did Tony even try to grow a stash??? That was week.

Is there a pharmacy inside the eaton centre?

Not only gasoline fumes and security, but my garage is the hottest part of the house in the summer (often hotter than outside) and the coldest in the winter. I would not store my stuff in the garage.

http://www.nugget.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2644077

I love the Gulp alive product, but absolutely hate the containers. I tried the X thing in the top of the foil and it din't seem to make any difference. I bought the Berkley case and have no issues to this point with it. BTW It really burns my berries that I have to buy a 2nd product from the same company... but I like the gulp alive that much. Don't think for a second that I'm not looking for someone else to do it right the first time though... Hello berkley!!! Are you listening????