Saturday October 17th 2020

Ten days to go, till the park closes for 2020.

To say it has been a tough year would be a serious understatement, and I don’t mean just at the park, no this is has been a difficult year from almost every aspect. We are right in the fall process of the park closure, Miss Laurie is putting the gardens to bed for the winter, wrapping the junipers, cutting the ornament grasses, digging new flower beds, pruning and trimming of shrubs and plants. I have the task of splitting and bagging next years firewood for winter storage in the shed, servicing equipment, along with winterizing almost 80 trailers as they are closed by the clients, there are some other improvement projects, before the park winterizing begins on the 28th of October. There will be tree trimming the first week of November, with a tree service spending a couple of days with the boom truck in the park, and removal of some more of the poplars.

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Our winter is going to be different this year, with Ottawa announcing the border will stay closed until the United States gets control of the virus, and that doesn’t look promising until well into next year, when either a vaccine becomes readily available or a severe change in direction by the government, which may be happen after the election in November. But with a death count of 220,000 in the States so far and the second wave getting in full swing, I thing the best we can hope for is that by next fall to be able to get back to traveling to the sunny south. Now we are faced with some changes that will be difficult, but it is obvious that heading south with the coach is not going to be an option, so we will be winterizing our coach for the first time. And where we end up for the winter is our next decision, whether to find a place to rent here, or fly south and rent something there, these are the times that having pets can also reduce our options and guide our decision.

Most of our Canadian full-time friends are being forced to hunker down, and prepare for a winter in Canada. Not quite how any of us had planned to spend a winter, but these are different times, and if history is correct the second wave of this virus will most likely kill more people than the first wave did. One hundred years ago when the Spanish flu hit the world that was the case, and it is becoming very obvious that we haven’t learned a lot since then, oh the doctors are better equipped to handle the virus once they get a handle on it, no it’s the general population that think they know all the answers, and just don’t do what they are asked to do. No no no that might infringe on someone’s rights, I can only assume that is the right to be stupid, or possible it’s the right to hurt and possibly kill some of their family and friends. And it appears it’s a world wide problem, with people from almost every country making no effort to social distance.

Yes I think a lot of people are looking forward moving beyond this whole 2020 year, we have been very fortunate, we got to do all that we had planned over the winter and other than a few restrictions and shortages near the end of March which reduced spending some time with Ray and Karen and not being able to visit with Butch and BJ. We had a fourteen day quarantine on arriving back into Canada, but we crossed the border with for enough supplies to complete our full lock down, we had some cold days but nothing we couldn’t handle.

Work this year was a lot more demanding than last year, the stress of trying to adhere to all the public health guidelines and so many people thinking we were infringing on their rights and enjoyment, while trying to keep everyone safe and the park from being shut down because of an outbreak has been very overwhelming. Add to that the feeling of isolation, not being able to have family or friends visit, and being so careful to control our social bubble, being unable to have any social events at the park, as well as being deemed the party poopers of the park, really left us wondering whether or not to return …

Right now we are looking at options, as we need a furnished, spot for the winter, where ever we go. So we need a just a short term rental where most people are looking for a year long commitment and we are looking for just five months. If we stay in Canada and close to the coach, we can do some renovations to the coach, purge some items, and catch up with family and friends, but then there is the whole snow and winter thing and we got rid of most of our winter wardrobe. So then there is Mexico, which would give winter warmth, but with no vehicle would leave us captured in just one small area, the emersion into the culture would be life changing, but the flight there and back, especially with a pet, and not having been in that area before, could make it five months of paradise or five months of hell. The concern is we only have a few weeks to put this all together, and unlike when in our coach we cannot just pack up and move down the road.

Please as always stay strong, be well, and wear your mask!

Sunday October 11th 2020

We are well into October and while there are lots of brilliant fall colours in the area, here on the shore of Lake Huron most of the trees in the park are still fully green and holding on to their leaves. Just like in the spring the westerly breeze off the lake give a strong cooling effect in the fall the opposite happens as the breeze off the lake give a moderating effect preventing much of the frost that happens a few miles in from the shore. So we get very few brilliant fall colours through out the park, but there have been lots of leaves falling from the poplar trees, they do turn yellow but really don’t provide any brilliance.

In fact they are what we refer to them as a garbage tree, part of the willow family many people have planted them because of the rapid growth rate, in other words they provide quick shade, as compared to a maple tree. But they are a dirty tree as well, with leaves, and small branches falling off with every little breeze. And as we are removing them from the park they literally snap apart when they are cut down, and every few years when they seed they they produce what is called poplar fluff similar to the cottonwood tree which is also part of the willow family. Most of the poplars in the park are eastern poplar and can grow 100 feet tall and send out roots double that in a circumference from its base. Poplar wood falls in to the hardwood category but is the softest of the hardwoods, mainly used for skids, plywood, and pulp and paper. A very low value tree, a quick scan of the tree tops and you can see the poplars standing above the rest of the canopy.

We have a tree removal scheduled for the first of November, to remove as many of the poplars as possible, it will be an ongoing project for years to come as we have to work between the trailers throughout the park.

The lake waters are still warm compared to the air as se start to feel the freshness of the fall temperatures, it’s a crisp 3ºC (37ºF) this morning, and a quick look at the forecast shows rain for five of the next ten days with four of the days showing highs of only 9ºC (48ºF) and that takes us till the 20th of October. I guess we should be thankful there is no snow in the forecast but I’m pretty sure it’s not far away … just saying.

Another true sign of fall is the harvesting of the field crops by the farmers, this year the fields by the park where planted with soybeans, and today was the harvest day, the equipment is much larger than ours growing up as a kid in Oxford Centre, on the family dairy farm. And soybeans was never a crop of choice, as our farm supported our dairy herd, the crops were carefully rotated between silage corn, oats, hay and pasture to provide the majority of the feed base for the herd of Holsteins that produced the milk to provide our livelihood. Soybeans were not a crop that had any value to milk production, it was a crop that was just coming into its own as a food supplement for humans, we had seen experimental crops at the agricultural college in Ridgetown where our uncle was a professor and had a doctorate in soil conservation. And that was some fifty years ago they were trying to find soybean varieties that would grow well with good production in our Ontario climate. Most of soybean and corn production is carried out by what we referred to as cash cropping. And just as the name refers they plant it, harvest it, and sell it to the highest bidder. Most cash croppers have huge operations planting thousands of acres, most don’t own the land on which they plant their crops, they either just rent the land or share crop it with the land owners. The rental is simple it’s just so many dollars an acre, while the share cropping is a little more complicated with the cost of the land being a percentage of the harvest so the farmer and the land owner are both committed to seeing a bountiful harvest and both suffer losses when the crops are poor because of weather or growing conditions.

Either way they harvested the crop today and it made for a dusty afternoon as our normal on shore westerly breeze was an off shore easterly breeze today blowing the dust through the whole park … ah the joys of country living. But it happens just once a year and with the size of the equipment it happens quickly, just a few hours and they are off to the next farm.

Remember be strong, stay safe, and be well!