Earth Hour 2013 - What a difference a year makes

What a difference a year makes

2012 a warm and fast spring.
2013 a normal year of snow.

 This year on Earth Hour we planned an outside fire, with hot dogs and pop.

The trail to the shed had to be kept open this winter. Our blanket around the fire was almost a meter deep.

No lights on in the background. Even the neighbours are participating!

Last year for Earth Hour the back yard was empty of snow.

This picture is taken the week after Earth Hour, but the yard looked the same.

Last year all the power was off in the house, but we decide to have our fire in the wood stove.

It is a good idea. The kids never really think about energy use. Glad to have the kids participate!





Earth Hour org

Earth Hour 2014

Saturday March 29th!

 Hope you will join all of us!

Earth Hour Timmins Ontario Canada.

The Lost Art of Snow as Insulation

Warm yourself - Warm your basement!

Beer Fridge is a BONUS!!!

When I lived in Whitehorse, YT everyone did it. Free winter insulation! Just like firewood, insulating with snow warms twice. First, when you work at piling the snow, second by keeping more heat in the basement.

Here in Timmins, ON I talked to a gal who told me her Dad always piled snow on the side of the house. When did we lose that art?

Some say it puts more pressure on your drainage tiles, but actually it reduces the pressure. Since the wall stays warmer the snow is melted along the edge of the house. The snow along the wall under snow will melt after the snow further away from the house has melted ensuring no water along the wall will be part of the quick spring melt.





Laplander's Natural Lore Blog read more

Mother Earth News read more

New World Encyclopedic - Igloo read more

The insulation properties of snow read more

Basement window once covered in snow will melt into a little fridge. At -40C outside, the temperature in the little igloo will be about -4.  The window will never feel the -40. The side of the house at the sill will never feel the -40.

Since the snow is piled the highest on the north side of the house the snow will stay longer then the other sides. The water will melt very slow and the drainage tiles will not become over full, I hope!

all the pictures at my house are here




NO beer was consumed during the writing of this blog. NO beer was consumed during the taking of the pictures or researching this natural event. In fact I do not like beer.


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Growth on Cedar - HELP

What is this? 

What is going on here?

It is huge on this cedar.

I will have the section removed and will bring it to my lab.

And by lab, I mean my office. And when I say office, I mean in the office for a day until it must be removed. I need to measure, but the tree is about 70cm in diameter so the growth is very big.

In this area I did see 2 or 3 more with much smaller similar growths.  How does this happen? what is this?

This is where the tree is  view map

Help me out.

Timmins Water Levels Online

Real-time water levels 

Canada Wide

Google Maps

Real-time Hydrometric Data

With this tool you can watch the levels of the water near your house or near your parents house.

I think the Mattagami river will spill it's banks at 5.9

Hawk Owl likes harvest operations

Hawk Owl has followed operations over the years.

I have heard many stories of these little birds following machines in the bush. One operator has told me that some bird - that looked like the bird I pointed out - would dive under logs that were being lifted by a machine.

I kept my eye on a hawk owl one year during the 3 months of winter operations. This little bird was there watching until the last load of logs was dropped on a trailer.

Watching the bird that year was my introduction.

This year a little hawk owl was hanging around again. It is easy hunting for squirrels when many of the trees are out of the way.

I took a picture with my little camera, I pointed out the tiny bird with an arrow. I also got a picture with my digital binoculars, the camera part is not very good.

eNature

Environment Canada

Ontario Field Ornithologists

Black Ash Blue Sky Frosty Morning

Black Ash Blue Sky Frosty Morning

February 05, 2010. The sky was so blue, more blue then a ripe blue berry on a sunny forest floor - that is pretty blue!

Everywhere the trees are covered in a coat of frost as the temperature dipped below -20C last night. As the sun comes up the dark conifer melt quickly, while the branches of the hardwood retain the frost.

Two big black ash in the swamp contrast with the sky.

You can take a picture, but you just can not capture the whole frosty setting.

These 2 black ash are very close the the largest black ash on the Timmins Honour Role of Trees.

These 2 are located about 24 km south of the 144 - 101 intersection. Here is a map of the location if you want to go look at them yourself.

Frozen Muddy Mark

Buy your own tree

Birch Bonsai start of Winter

We now have snow in Timmins. I think it will stay this time.

My little tree has been outside waiting for the cold. The buds look healthy and the stem is green.

The plan is to leave it outside until it is below -20C then bring it into the house and store in a cool dark place for a little while before bringing it into the heat to start the growth cycle over again.

Day 01 entry

Month 05 entry

You can buy your own tree to make your own bonsai at Millson Forestry Service. If you do not see the species you want let them know and maybe they can start what you want.

Observation - Cold Day in May

Woke up to a light dusting of snow on the ground. May long weekend, never fails.

Not close to being the record. This morning it was -2C. The record -7.2C was set in 1956. I would prefer the 1962 record high of 33.3C.

Need fire wood to keep yourself warm? Here is the Millson May Special

Delta class teaching old Muddy Mark

Once again the Delta class from Timmins High and Vocational School came for a tour of the greenhouse complex.

I enjoy having the older kids that ask good questions and have that keen interest to understand the forest.

I was surprised that they knew the White pine is Ontario's arboreal emblem, our provincial tree. 

Wonder about the other Ontario Emblems and Symbols

It was a perfect day for the class to come. In true teenager style they wore running shoes and even one in shorts, while the dusting of snow fell from the sky onto the muddy, very muddy ground. You just got'a love rubber boots!

While walking from the back to the front the class taught me about (oh I know I am not going to get this right but here is my stab at it) potoku, a cree word. It is the area between the snow and the ground where the mice and little creatures forage for food.  We could see in the field where this happened this past winter. You could see the trail on the ground from hole to hole.

The greenhouse is green and very hot. It is wonderful to come into the greenhouse on such cold days. Ask the people working there how nice it is . . . cloudy days are not bad, but it can get pretty hot in there on sunny days.

I wonder what they were impressed by the most?

Same place - different temperature

My computer has been in the shop, I have it back now but it is going back to get fixed properly.

Timmins has been in a cold snap. I grabbed my snowshoes and went for a walk down to the lake where I had been in September. Roll'n lead the way for a little while. The snow was too deep for him to travel easily, so I ran past him so he

could get into my snowshoe tracks. Roll'n, like many dogs, wants to be in the lead.

It has been cold!! Not record breaking cold, but the wind sure

makes it feel record breaking.

January 14th the temperature was recorded at -35.9C, the record cold was set in 1994 at -41.0C
January 15th the temperature was recorded at -37.6C, the record cold was set in 1965 at -41.6C

Both days the school buses were cancelled due to the wind chill. The wind on both days made it feel below -45C

Not much activity in the bush at those temperatures. Harvest equipment that was parked over night would not start the next morning. The birds are on the move as they continue to look for food. The moose tracks that are common in the area are wind swept and days old.

Summer photo mapped
Winter photo mapped

Christmas Trees - Real vs. Fake

What is the best for the environment? What is better in the long run?

Well, there is plenty of information out there. It all seems to confirm the best way to go is REAL!

REAL is best.

What is making a move to even more environmentally friendly is the rent a tree movement. Some bigger centers are starting to offer rent a tree. It is a live potted tree that can be rented.

Even better is the large potted tree that would be planted after christmas.

At the office we have a real tree in a big pot. It is more of a bonsai Japanese black pine, but with decorations it looks like a great christmas tree.

The City of Timmins takes the real tree one step further. Trees are collected and mulched, which makes them useful again!

Plan ahead for next year. Find a source for a real potted tree and reserve it now.

I have a spruce tree on my front lawn, now 20 years old, that spent about 6 years in a pot before being planted. It gets the lights every year outside, but for one year it was a great tree for Santa to put presents under.

Christmas Trees Growers of Ontario
The Great Debate
Statistically Speaking a US website
Rent a christmas tree

What kind of trees are these?

Yesterday I went for a nice long walk with Roll'n. We are in Richard's Landing for the holidays. We got on the snow machine trail and walked for a couple of hours. Made a round trip out of it, the GPS tells me we walked more then 9 km.



A very different forest here then what I see around me in Timmins. Shagbark hickory and Sugar maple are not found in the Timmins area. Other trees I know what they are but there are some that I have to collect the buds to take home to confirm what I am looking at. The forest here is mostly hardwoods, I am rusty at hardwood identification.

One other common thing seen today on my walk was the long clear rubber tubing connecting the Sugar maple. It is these lines that in the spring will carry the sap to a central location to be boiled down to maple syrup.

I have made maple syrup in the past but have used buckets to collect the sap. Don't do the boiling down in the house, it gets sticky everywhere!

Hope everyone is having a great holiday.




Picture is looking south from 16-0726484-5129082 Map It

New Video on Youtube

This is my 5th video. 1 is just Ben, the others are all millsonforestry.com related.
I shot this video last week and just finished the creation this evening.
Take a look, leave a comment!

See the video now

or paste this if the link does not work

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTLaRnme1wE

Winter WonderLand

Snow has arrived in the Great White North.

The white pine, which is the arboreal emblem of Ontario, look good with a dusting of snow.

In the background is McKeown Lake. Today Roll'n and I walked about 5 kilometers in the snow. The snow is not deep enough for snowshoes yet, but sometimes the snow is up to my knees. Roll'n needs to jump sometimes making him look like a running deer.

I do have my snowshoes in the truck with me now, just in case I need them.

Black-capped chickadees and a single woodpecker traveling together worked their way past me while they searched for food in the trees.