The ongoing war with the beavers.

Since Iain was free a lot this summer, he made a real effort to keep the creek open near the farmhouse. Lloyd did eliminate one of them (quite probably the adult male), but younger ones were still patching up the flow every night, though they weren’t doing as good a job.

You can see here that the water is not moving very well. The young beavers use a lot of small sticks and don't add stones and solid mud the way an adult would.

The amount of flooding, especially on Dodie’s property, made this worthwhile, but cold and messy work it is!

Iain uses a pitchfork to clean out a lot of the stuff. All the fallen leaves don't help - they get right into the dam and jam it more.

The water flows better when he’s done. Of course, it doesn’t last – the beavers do it again at night – but it keeps the lake level more like it should be.

Flowing well - for now...

The years of damming have taken their toll, though; the creek at this spot is much higher than its natural state of long ago. I miss the summer days in years past, when we had a bit of a beach along the shore, and when “gull rock” as we called it (guess why) was a good six inches out of the water, and the birds would perch there. Nowadays it hardly breaches the surface at all, even when the lake is at its lowest. It’s my thought that this is why we have so much algae and the nice sandy bottom we once had is now rather yucky: the lake doesn’t breathe the way it used to do, as the water can’t run away as well.

Iain took a little walk downstream (well, it wasn’t easy, as he had to push through a lot of bushes), and he thinks the beavers may be making dams further down in response to his “dam-busting”. They won’t be easy to get to, so this may become a problem.

The view upstream; what a lovely spot this is!

Taking Credit

Just a quick rant about credit cards.  If I could give one piece of advice to any young person, regarding finances, it would be to always pay off your credit cards every month!

What brought this to mind?  My Mastercard bill for August.  The grand total on it is just under $40 (a very quiet month, for me), but the estimated time to repay this piddly amount, if I make only minimum payments of $10 per month, is 5 MONTHS!

Why do we allow this sort of usury in our society?  It's disgusting.

End of rant.

Eye Wear

My deep-end friend Wendy had a post the other day about her visit to her eye doctor, and since I work for optometrists I took a keen interest! For one thing, I noted that eye exams are much costlier in the city (our guys charge $85). The glasses sound slightly pricier as well, though it is hard to be sure when you don't know the exact type of lenses.

What interested me most was Dave's comment about intraocular lenses as a fix for presbyopia; so I talked to one of my bosses to get his take on them. He says this is mainly being done in the States right now, and the lens is much like a bifocal contact lens - concentric rings, with both powers present in the lens. Based on that, I think I'll be waiting for a better fix; I have tried the bifocal contacts and absolutely hate them. Bad vision all the time was my experience. I'll wait for a better lens. Meanwhile, there are lots of funky glasses to wear!

Political Prayer

I got an email today from a friend who would like me to go to the Ontario Legislature's site to voice my opinion, as a Christian, on Dalton McGuinty's plan to remove the saying of the Lord's Prayer before legislature. I probably should do it, but I don't think my opinion is the one she would expect me to have, because I don't think they should be doing prayers before the house, and my reason is biblically based. In Matthew chapter 6 verse 5, Jesus tells his followers to not pray in public for show, but to do so privately. He didn't have much time for hypocrites, and this situation looks like politicians trying to look good with their constituents, not real concern for their need for God's guidance.

Hiss Boo Maxim

I just finished reading that Maxim magazine has published a list of the women they consider to be the unsexiest alive (presumably among celebrities). I don't know who at the magazine thought this was a good idea, but they must have a particularly cruel streak in them. Although I don't think terribly highly of the women they chose (when I think of them at all), I feel really sorry for them, because it's just a very mean thing to say; whether it's true or not is debatable and inconsequential. Once it's said, it hurts, immediately - and it was meant to.
In the past I've always just ignored Maxim and other "girlie" magazines, because, let's face it, no man above the age of 17 with an IQ in the triple digits bothers with them, unless he is totally useless with an actual human woman, and then, of course, is more to be pitied than reviled. Perhaps they're hoping that this "list" will grab some attention for them, and increase their circulation.
Way to go, guys - you just cornered the mean-drunk misogynist readership market!

R.I.P Benazir Bhutto

It's hard to say why I feel bad about Benazir Bhutto's assassination, aside from the obvious fellow-human-being thing. It's not as though I understand her politics, or those of any of the cast of characters running (or trying to run) Pakistan, though it did seem plain to me that she was probably going to get killed sooner rather than later. Terrorists had already taken out 140 of her followers on the day of her arrival in country, and had been hoping to get her, too. It wasn't wise of her to be popping out of the roof of her car, yesterday. How could she not realize she was an easy target?
Perhaps she believed in herself as a woman of destiny, at the last, and thought nothing could stop her. For years, she was the daughter carrying her dead father's mantle, and then it became her own. That's part of what I liked about her, that sense of destiny. There are so few truly powerful women in the world, and here was an intelligent and articulate Muslim woman who refused to hide her face or her opinions. Despite all the accusations of corruption and forced resignations and exile, she always went back to Pakistan, as though she believed she was born to rule.
I saw a picture in today's paper of her, holding her two children in her arms. The next generation, I see one or both of them entering politics in 15-20 years: the next Bhutto. The boy's face was sad, as though he could see his future, written on the bloody pages of Pakistan's history.

Spears’s expenses report reveals the true cost of fame (Ottawa Citizen, 03 Nov 2007, Page A7)

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Spears’s expenses report reveals the true cost of fame

Ottawa Citizen
03 Nov 2007

LOS ANGELES Ever wondered how much it costs to live like a famous pop starlet in the late stages of a public breakdown? The answer, as revealed in court documents filed by Britney Spears yesterday, is $353,217 a month. The documents, which itemized... read more... Tech Tags: Ottawa Citizen newspaper World

I read this report the other day, and was dumbfounded to read that Britney gives only $500 a month to charity, while she spends $16000 on clothing. I was all set to jump on the "Britney's a Loser" bandwagon. However, it's just proof again that you can't believe everything you read; after I calmed down, I did a quick Google and easily found that the Britney Spears Foundation donates plenty of cash to a variety of worthy causes, including one of my favouites, Habitat for Humanity.

It's bad enough that the Citizen feels Britney's sad life is grist for the mill, but it's worse that they publish an article that leaves a worse impression of her than it should.