A Few Quick Notes 624

-We are in the midst of an almost perfect fall in Regina.  After a few near-frost days the temperatures have really warmed up and the skies have been free of intrusive clouds.

-Of course, while the weather has been great the leaves have been turning (and falling) at a remarkable rate.  In just about a week the tree in our front yard went from green to yellow to empty.

Of course, other trees aren't changing quite as quickly and it is a great time to walk around on many of Regina's well-maintained trails.

Seriously, it's hard to imagine a much more beautiful time of year in Regina.

-And of course, I wouldn't want to miss the opportunity to take a related time-lapse video



[Embedded video]

-For some reason I've been quite pie-inclined for the past few weeks.  I'm really having to restrain myself from cranking two or three pies (as I did last weekend).

I think I'm going to crack.

Three years

It's been almost three years since Jeannette and I moved to Regina (one month shy of three years if you want to be precise).  Of course, we moved to Regina because I accepted a job that was based here.  Fortunately, since we moved here Jeannette, who was originally working from home for her Ottawa-based employer, has also found a great job in her preferred field.

Now, almost three years later, I've accepted another job.  The new job, which I start on Thursday, is also in Regina.  This time, though rather than being in a library, it is a policy analysis position.

Because when I accepted my first job in Regina I expected to be with that employer for the foreseeable future I have had to come to terms with that reality not really coming to pass.  Instead, I'm leaving the position less than three years after arriving (and it feels as though I just arrived).  Though the change is happening in just a few days it still feels a little unreal.

Maybe more significant change than simply changing employers is that the nature of my work is about to change rather dramatically.  Perhaps not surprisingly, I expect that in this policy analysis role I'll have to do a fair bit more analytical writing than I do than in my current position.  Of course, this feature of the job is something that attracted me to the position in the first place.

A pretty successful summer

With the addition of our fourth raised bed (and the subsequent addition of our stone paths) our vegetable garden has really started to produce rather substantial quantities of vegetables, particularly potatoes and celery. Oh, and kale and spinach.

Starting in July our harvests started becoming pretty regular.

And gradually began into include a few potatoes.

And eventually grew to include carrots and tomatoes.

Finally, a few days ago we pulled up most of the remaining potatoes.

We also managed to collect a few squash and peppers.  Sadly, neither of these to types were particularly productive this year.

The good news is that after another year we've learned a little more about what works and what doesn't work.

Carrots, the non-stubby varieties, actually work quite well.  Next year we'll try to grow quite a few more than we did this year.

Tomatoes, even only four plants, can be incredibly productive.  Fortunately, Jeannette has started making her own sauce so this overabundance will not go to waste.  Now that we have a better approach to dealing with the crop we probably won't have to worry about having too many tomatoes.  Also, smaller cherry-like tomatoes seem to do much better than larger tomatoes (and are preferred by Jeannette).

Potatoes are easy and productive and one needn't wait until the end of the season to begin harvesting.  By gradually taking a few potatoes at a time, as needed, we didn't have to worry about storing many pounds of potatoes and either having no potatoes or all of the potatoes.  If anything, I think we may be inclined to go pretty heavy on the potatoes again next year.

Squash just hasn't been worth the space.  We dedicated 1/4 of our space to squash growth and ended up with one fully ripe spaghetti squash and a few smaller unripe spaghetti squashes.  Next year we're not going to waste our time with squash.

Spinach, kale, and celery are great season long producers.  In all cases I think we had pretty good numbers of plants to allow for outputs that we could consume without having to worry about spoilage.

My attempt to grow romaine lettuce was a failure.  As I'm not really all that much of a lettuce eater I think I'll give this a skip next year and focus on foods I really like.

Peppers are definitely a little hit and miss.  Most of our plants produced at least a single edible pepper, but many only produced a single edible pepper.  Our small chili pepper plant, on the other hand, has been producing chili peppers for months.  Next year we should just stick to this one type of pepper plant (as we've now had two consecutive years of success with this type of plant).

And while we're not quite done with this year's harvest I think it's pretty clear that we're already looking ahead to next year.  With a little luck, we may even to break even on our vegetable plot investment by next year (though that may require some real luck).

Raised beds and our long-term plan

Our first vegetable garden attempt more or less just consisted of us deciding on a location for our garden and then ripping up most of the grass, adding some peat, planting some seeds, and calling it a day.  Not surprisingly, aside from the potatoes, it was a pretty big disappointment.  Not only were there a few specific drainage problems, the overall soil quality was pretty poor (which we soon learned is common throughout the Regina region).

Part way through the first summer it became pretty clear that some sort of raised bed option would be required if we wanted soil and drainage that might lead to half-reasonable crop production.

We decided to go with a Lee Valley raised bed kit option that made for the pretty quick construction of our raised beds.  We were able to crank out three beds in an afternoon last year.  Of course, filling these guys with top soil probably took more time and effort than their construction.

After a relatively successful growing season last year we decided to expand our set up to include a fourth raised bed.  Again, the bed construction was quite quick.

Because we had only one raised bed to fill, instead of three, we decided to fill it with bagged topsoil and peat we purchased at local garden centres instead of having a load of topsoil delivered.  Several garden centre runs later this objective was completed.

Soon after we completed the fourth raised bed we realized that because much of the area between our raised beds was the same area that had been the site of our original garden site the grass we'd torn up had come back as weeds.  This looked really bad and probably wasn't helping our raised beds stay weed free.  

We decided that we would install a brick barrier and some weed barrier before dropping a few tonnes of rocks around the beds.

Turns out that rocks are heavy and hard to shovel.  We didn't manage to redistribute the rocks in a single session as I originally, overly optimistically, thought we would.  To make matters worse, immediately after our first rock moving session the garage, with all of our recently re-housed tools, became inaccessible because the garage door broke in the down position.

After some hand moving and also our garage door repair, I was finally to take a few more cracks at rock moving and finally finish up.

No we just have to work at getting grass to grow in the various bald patches and weeds to not grow everywhere else.  Maybe in a few years from now we might actually have a backyard that isn't most embarrassing (and because we don't have a garage or fence obscuring the view the entire alley can see our shame).

Looks aside, the great news is that all four raised beds seem to be doing quite well.  If all goes as planned by the end of the summer we will have the following crops: potatoes, green onions, celery, peas, edamame, peppers, cherry tomatoes, butter nut squash, pumpkins, green beans, carrots, spinach, kale, romaine lettuce, radishes, and kohlrabi (as well as an assortment of herbs and berries).  

A Few Quick Notes 623

-As noted previously, today has been a fair bit cooler than forecast.  To the best of my knowledge, these cooler temperatures can all be attributed to the sun-blocking powers of massive quantities of throat and lung-irritating smoke.  It seems reasonable to assume that as long as the smoke sticks around the temperatures will stay down, which is nice because it's not really open window weather at the moment.

-We've finally started harvesting food from our garden.  So far we've managed to grab a few early kale leaves, some celery stalks, and quite a number of green onions.  I suspect that for the next few weeks, at least until the peas come in, we'll more or less be suck with these three vegetables.

-On the fruit front we've also managed to grab a few raspberries and a few handfuls of haskap.  While the haskap are likely just about done for the year, our real raspberry harvest is still probably a few weeks away.  Hopefully by next year, when all of our plants are a little more established, we should really have good production from both types of plants.  Sadly, our strawberries, now relocated to the front of the house, don't look as though they'll ever do all that much.

-Since some library school friends in town for a conference paid us a visit a few weeks ago Jeannette and I have been a little obsessed with tofu shish kebabs.  Prepared with the broiler or the barbecue, these things are really great.

Hazy shade of Summer

After a very dry Spring and early Summer, Saskatchewan (and its bordering provinces) has entered a very severe forest fire season.  While the fires are more or less limited to the Northern portion of the province, just about the entire province is suffering in one way or another.

Things took a turn for the worse in Regina late this morning when the smoke from the Northern fires finally began to drift into town.  By my brief lunch-hour walk about my building there was enough smoke that it was irritating my throat and had gone a fair way towards obscuring the sun (that it wasn't over 30 was the only consolation prize).  It wasn't long after the smoke began to move through town that you could even begin to smell it inside.

Of course, as the day/evening has progressed the situation hasn't improved.  Actually, it's bad enough that we are being discouraged from outdoor activities (including things like pet walking).

So kids, if anyone ever asks you can let them know that forest fires can be trouble for a much wider portion of the population than just those individuals put in harm's way by the fire.

Nasty hail storm in Regina

After weeks with no precipitation of consequence, we finally experienced a long-brewing summer storm in Regina.  After a few minutes of rain the hail began - and then really came down.


 

[Embedded video]

We weren't quite a golf balls, but these marble size hail stones were still capable of doing damage.  By the end of brief hail shower our garden had really been hit hard.  Hopefully we'll be able to recover - though I'm sure many of the plants will be set back by at least a few weeks.

Then, almost as quickly as it all began, it stopped, reverted to rain, and then became sunny.  The whole interlude was maybe only 15 minutes.

Very weird.

Still just 2

So after the initial annual flurry of dead birds in our backyard this Spring (2) we've managed not to run up the count.  This is great news.

While I can't recall precise numbers from the previous two years - I'm sure that we've never been as low as 2.

Maybe, if we're lucky, we'll manage to have 0 next year?

Wouldn't that be nice.

A Few Quick Notes 622

-While it is unlikely that we will make it up to the low-twenties, as we did yesterday, we have every indication that today will be at least another passable Spring day - if a little overcast.

-To take advantage of yesterday's great weather Jeannette and I spent much of the morning walking around our neighbourhood and the downtown area.  First we made our way to the city-funded arts centre (which just happens to be a few blocks away from us) to visit a showing of local artists works.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to find anything we wanted to buy.

We then made our way up to one of our local coffee shops for some road coffees for our walk to the farmer's market.

Mainly as a justification to head out for a walk, rather than with intent to actually buy anything, we made our way over to the Regina Farmer's market.  Unfortunately, as is normally the case, it was something of a disappointment (and nothing like the Saskatoon Farmer's Market that we visited last Saturday) and we weren't even remotely tempted to buy anything.  As usual, there wasn't even any flour.  What's up with a farmer's market in Saskatchewan not selling flour?

Because the farmer's market is on the same street as the optician from whom I recently purchased glasses I then went to have my glasses adjusted.  For some reason my glasses have been slipping down my nose (a problem I have had with every pair of glasses I have ever owned).  While I think the adjustment helped I'm not sure if the problem has been altogether solved and I fear that I may have to start using my weird little rubber ear piece attachments.  Bummer (particularly, because it this problem that motivated me to buy new frames).

-After a little bit of early yard work (mostly some raking and sweeping) Jeannette talked me into having our first barbecue of the season.  Not surprisingly, it was quite pleasant.

That time of the year again

For the third spring thaw in a row, a small section of our backyard seems to be the final resting place for a number of small birds.  Just yesterday, my first inspection of the year, I was able to find two birds.

If the trend continues like years past, I'll continue to find these guys every few days for the next few weeks and then the trend will mysteriously stop.

Though I haven't done all of that much work to find out what might be happening, I have spoken with my co-workers (all longer term residents of Regina than Jeannette and I) and none of them have ever experienced anything quite like this in their own backyards.

A Few Quick Notes 621

-After very cool temperatures just a few days ago, we've moved into a sunny warm patch.  Yesterday, and hopefully again today, we'll see temperatures above zero and plenty of melting.  Assuming this trend continues as forecast we should see plenty of melting over the next few days.

-Jeannette and I had an incredibly productive and pleasant day yesterday.  We began by walking over to the first Farmer's Market of the season.  Unfortunately, we were going to buy some lentils and barley and that vendor was absent.  From there we made our way to the pet food store and then the downtown shopping district.

After grabbing lunch and taking care of a little downtown shopping we realized that we were just feet and minutes away from a free Regina Symphony Orchestra chamber ensemble concert at the public library.  Amazingly, though we arrived only a few minutes before they were to begin we had a great selection of seats to choose from (within just a few minutes after our arrival almost all of the available seats were taken).

After the concert we spoke with a member of Jeannette's book club and her friend who was visiting from Winnipeg.  Not only were we able to pick up a little inside information about hot Winnipeg restaurants, we learned a little more about the free concert series at the library.

Once we returned home we hopped in the car and made our way out for an afternoon drive.  In our continuing attempt to at least visit many of the towns surrounding Regina we made our way through Pense and Belle Plaine.  Unfortunately, the melting snow and muddy streets likely meant that we weren't seeing these towns at their best.

-Hopefully we will head out for a walk along the creek later this afternoon.

-Because I'm a sucker for this kind of thing I'm watching the Manitoba NDP leadership convention as being streamed by CBC.  Yesterday I followed the Newfoundland NDP convention via Twitter.  I think I'd probably watch/follow almost any delegated convention occurring in Canada - they really make for exciting viewing (whether or not you like the party involved).

-Not having a dishwasher is a real bummer.  It seems that we constantly have a sink full of dirty dishes to do - no matter how many sinks full of dishes I've already done.  Definitely a bummer.

Round 2

So for just over a week Jeannette and I have both been battling our second cold of the Winter.  Fortunately for both of us, this version seems to be a little gentler than the first one - just an intermittent cough and phlegminess.

It's really quite annoying that we've now spent the first 5 of 8 weeks of the year at least a little under the weather.  Hopefully this won't continue as we move into Spring and Summer.

I'm a wiener

Though I left (somewhat unintentionally) enough room for Neil to swoop in with a post and take the win, I am again the blog-off champion.  What an honour.

A Few Quick Notes 620

-Though a little warmer today, for the past few days we have been waking up to rather frigid temperatures (in the -35 to -40 with wind chill range).  Fortunately, these temperatures have decreased rather dramatically as the days have progressed and, typically, by evening we're up to a comfortable -20ish.

-I'm 1/4 in this year's Roll Up the Rim to Win competition.  I suspect my only entries will be those I purchased while either traveling to and from Edmonton or while I was in Edmonton.  I'll be surprised if I even get a chance to move up to 1/5.

-With ever lengthening days it has been a treat to walk to and from work in full light this past week.  Of course, paired with the cold temperatures we've been having, the full sun and bright skies have been a little dissonant.

-Over the past few days Jeannette and I have been somewhat obsessively watching Orphan Black, a show staring Regina native Tatiana Maslany (who also happens to have been in the Newfoundland-filmed movie Grown Up Movie Star alongside one of Kirsten's school friends).  Of course, because there aren't all that many episodes currently in existence this will necessarily be a short-lived obsession.

-I'm thinking about trying to drag Jeannette out for a walk along the creek/river today.  Aside from the somewhat cool temperatures, it's a perfect day.

Cameron - 14
Neil - 0

Collect all 10

Finally, after more than a 30 year hunt, I managed to visit all 10 Canadian provincial capitals.  Maybe surprisingly, Edmonton was my white whale - remaining just out of reach for years and years.

Because I was in Edmonton for work purposes in the Winter I didn't really see much of the city, though I did make it over to the legislature and I was able to take a few trips on the city's public transit system.

I was quite pleased that my hotel room for the final night of my stay even had a view of the legislative building.

Cameron - 13
Neil - 0

The calm after the storm

Just before dinner last night, and just after the snow had stopped falling, I went out to do a quick first round of shovelling.  I focused on the sidewalk in front of our house and the sidewalk in front of our two adjacent neighbours (and their respective front walks).  Amazingly, though this is the largest snow I've yet seen in Regina, I was able to take care of this all in about 20-30 minutes.  Despite the wind chill of about -35, when I came in my shirt and jacket were soaked with sweat.

Early this afternoon Jeannette and I went out to tackle the rest of the shovelling.  After quickly tidying the sidewalks of snow that blew in over night we tacked the driveway and then the side and back of the house.  Thanks to teamwork we were able to take care of all of our outstanding shovelling quite quickly.

Unfortunately, though some ploughing has occurred - even on our street - many of the streets are almost impassible.  I learned this the hard way while making a post-shovelling trip to the grocery store for cinnamon roll supplies (a treat promised to Jeannette as thanks for her shovelling assistance/we earned it).  Hopefully in the relatively near future they'll be able to hit a few more streets - it's definitely needed.

Cameron - 12
Neil - 0

Definitely a storm

I rather prematurely doubted the severity of today's forecast storm.

Soon after my post things really began to pick up.



[Embedded video]

Of course, just as things were picking up we had to head out for my optometry appointment (and a trip to the local Asian grocery store).

Not only was the blowing snow really quite good at reducing visibility, but the cold temperatures (almost -40 with the windchill) and high humidity (about 80%) were causing cars' windows to frost up in a most impressive fashion.  I've never experienced anything quite like it.

Normally, when it's this cold the major upside is low humidity (including a low risk of snow).  Somehow, we've managed to get everything today.



[Embedded video]


[Embedded video]

Fortunately, the snowing is supposed to stop in a few hours.  I guess once it does I will have to head out and take care of some shovelling.  Yum!

Cameron - 11
Neil - 0

New phone day

Yesterday, after almost three years of the same phones, Jeannette and I upgraded our cell phones.

Initially, I was thinking that for this upgrade iteration I would switch to an Android phone (not that I am altogether an Android fan).  Thanks to Jeannette's desire to maintain the same brand, a desire on my part that we have the same hardware, an appreciation of the advantages of now changing systems, and lower than expected prices we ended up with much newer version of the same type of phone we already have.

Now that we're about 15 hours into our new phones and most of the key settings have been selected I think it is safe to say that we are both happy with the function of our new machines.  Of course, I'm not necessarily as pleased with technological/legal/moral implications of this decision.  Maybe in two years time (or more - if the hardware lasts/continues to be functional) I'll finally move away from this technology provider?

But, damn, they've done a very good job of making that a difficult decision to make.

Cameron - 10
Neil - 0

Big bad snow storm?

So, for the first time this winter in Regina we've been warned that a snow storm may be on our way.  Of course, I thought it was supposed to start hours ago and presently it's just begun to snow lightly - so I'm not altogether what this says about the impact of the forecast storm.  Is it just a little late?

Of course, one of the things I find funny about this storm is that it is supposed to bring with it 10-15 cm of snow.  In other parts of the country this quantity of snow would hardly be worth noticing - particularly during a winter when the eastern portion of the continent has been hit repeatedly with more substantial blasts.

To be a little fairer to this region, even a relatively small amount of snow and wind can make driving, particularly highway driving, quite dangerous.  As there is almost nothing to stop snow from blowing once clear streets and highways can instantly, or so it seems, have snow patches that might impact the trajectory of one's vehicle.  Even days after a snowfall light and fluffy snow can be blown around in ways that are problematic for drivers.

What makes this storm particularly notable, though, is that it is supposed to be taking place while it is relatively cold (-21ish and with a windchill of -37ish).  Normally when it is this cold we don't get all that much snow - and we certainly don't have snowstorms in these conditions.

I guess we will just have to wait and see if the storm does materialize.

Cameron - 9
Neil - 0

A Few Quick Notes 619

-We're currently in the midst of a light snow shower.  Assuming all goes as planned, I'll probably head out in a few minutes to do a little light shovelling.  Of course, depending on the length of this snow shower I may or may not have to head out later tonight to do a little final tidying.

-Fortunately, we've not had all that much snow this winter.  And what snow we did have earlier in the winter was reduced dramatically by a warm stretch we had a few weeks ago.

-The Pet Roombaing has continued unabated.  And as I've previously reported, each session results in far more hair and dust than seems reasonable given the frequency with which the machine is run.  Gross.

-A few days ago Jeannette and I bought about a pound of strawberries.  We consumed them in a single sitting last night as the fruit component of a chocolate fondue session.  Once we ran out of fruit I switched to crackers (we wouldn't want to waste perfectly good chocolate, would we?).

-At the New Year's Eve party we attended one of the attending families brought a chocolate fountain with them.  While the theory is quite similar to chocolate fondue, to get the right consistency for the 'fountain' effect they had to add quite a bit of vegetable oil to the pounds of melted chocolate.  It was probably quite good that I saw the prep stage as I think I am quite unlikely to ever take part in any chocolate fountain activities in the future (not that I'd ever taken part in the past - but now I have a good reason).

-At some point I going to have to figure out what we're going to have for dinner.  B'ys, it just never ends.

-Hope you're enjoying your blog-off content spurt.

Cameron - 8
Neil - 0