Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Have a dose of Vantage XRT with your Fish?

West Vancouver is in many ways just like White Rock, both have a railway line impeding traffic, especially the pedestrian variety to their respective municipal waterfronts.    White Rock mainline is run by BNSF; West Vancouver mainline is run by CNR, with a twist, British Columbians OWN the rail bed right-of-ways.

BC Rail crews keep themselves busy with weed keeping duties of the track ballast (below and either side of the tracks) with VANTAGE XRT in the art of Vegetation Management Plan.




Signs like this are in place, West of John Lawson children playground, and East of their playground (their part of the line has already been accomplished)( with dead leaves lying nearby as proof). Its amazing that the public crossover to the playground from the parking lot wasn't sprayed too, eh, or was it?



Call Poison Control Centre.... can you read the phone number, for EDMONTON, and could, would, should Edmonton be able to respond, to dispatch someone?


I like that last bit, "mouth-to-mouth", that would mean TWO people would be down. NO POISON Control Centre Number offered



Arsenal                   Imazapyr
Banvel VM            dicamba
Clearview                                Dow Fact Sheet
Diurex  800 WDG   kills:  Bananas, Pineapples, Macadamias, Sugar Cane, Avocado, Pecan, Mango   
Dupont Escort                 
Garlon XRT            triclopyr
Karmex DF             diuron
Krovar 1 DF           bromacil, diuron
Milestone               aminopyralid
Telar                       chlorsulfuron
Payload                
Vantage XRT         glyphosate    eg. Roundup    residue found in breast milk
2,4-D Amine 600     




BC Drug and Poison Information Centre   -    Springtime Hazards Fact Sheet eg. Vantage XRT
John Lawson Park looking to the East, West is the same

Putting children at risk, aside, and getting back to the West side of the playground in focus, there's a rail bridge over a Fish Habitat, McDonald Creek, that got nailed hard by VANTAGE XRT!


The Fish, We Eat, contaminated?  The Fish Habitat Program, aware of spraying?
Toxic to Fish




****************

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Victoria, BC aka James Bay, Beckley Farm, all staked out by HBC and CPR 1863

It took a while to figure out which way was up with this map from 1863 of Victoria, BC when compared to Google Earth.   It was the little bit of filling out the waterfront profile, for various shipping reasons, and the DND.

Beckley Farm   48°24'58.62"N 123°22'47.64"W

Go to Google Earth and check out the waterfront line for Beacon Hill Park and find the shoals just off shore.....
1863

Red Wedge shape, is part of the BC Legislature Precinct

Go to Google Earth and check out the waterfront line for Beacon Hill Park and you'll find the shoals just off shore.....which forms the boundary....    Sea Levels, higher in 1863?
2014
Who owned which property in 1860?

1863 Committee Book Minutes

**********************


History

The original inhabitants of James Bay were the Swenghwung people who were part of the Lekwungen people of the Coast Salish and whose descendants today are known as the Songhees First Nation. Even after the aboriginal inhabitants allegedly sold the land to the Hudson's Bay Company, remains of fortifications at Holland Point and of burial grounds at Laurel Point remained. The neighbourhood takes its name from the shallow inlet James Bay that forms part of Victoria's Inner Harbour, named for James Douglas, Settled early after the establishment of Fort Victoria in 1843, much of the present day neighbourhood was originally part of Ogden's Fields Farms, subsequently known as Dutnall's Farm and then Beckley Farm.

Residential development of James Bay began in 1859 when Governor Douglas decided to construct the colonial administration offices for the Colony of Vancouver Island across the harbour from Fort Victoria.  Known as the Birdcages because of their somewhat fanciful design, the Birdcages were replaced in 1898 by Francis Mawson Rattenbury's Parliament Buildings, which still serve as the meeting place of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia.

Between the construction of the Birdcages in 1859 and the completion of the Parliament Buildings in 1898, a considerable amount of residential development took place in James Bay. The family home of James and Amelia Douglas stood on the location of the present Royal British Columbia Museum, behind which is located the house of John Sebastian Helmcken, the colony's first doctor, speaker of the Assembly, and son-in-law of the governor. SNIP

Thursday, May 22, 2014

TFWs earning 78 cents an hour in BC, the Employer cost of housing can be recovered through payroll deductions....

“If we meet our employees’ needs, they’ll also meet our needs – it’s a two-way relationship that helps develop a sense of loyalty and stability among our teams,” he adds. “And at the end of the day, this is good for everyone: our employees, our customers and our business – including our bottom line.”  - go2hr
NTFW missed these four TFW Employers: Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands, Whistler, Kelowna


go2HR      International Solution


It All Makes Cents!

Salaries (Minimum Wage)

**********************
About Us: Meet the Board 2014
 "Copyright © 2016 go2 Tourism HR Society. All Rights Reserved. Republished under license."
*******

Wickaninnish Inn

Poet's Cove Resort & Spa (Adestra Hotel Group???)

Fairmont Chateau Whistler

Manteo Resort Kelowna: With much of Manteo’s workforce comprising foreign workers



Immigrants and Foreign Workers Articles

 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Kelowna's Bill Bennett Bridge built with TFW....

&

Globe and Mail on BC Labour Shortages

********

 Housing Employer must
provide housing

Note: Costs
cannot be
recouped
directly or
indirectly from
the TFW's
salary
(except in BC).

AND

 Housing
Employers must provide TFWs with free suitable housing (except in British Columbia where a portion of these costs can be recovered through payroll deductions) either on-farm (e.g. bunkhouse) or off-site (e.g. commercial establishment). A copy of the signed contract between the employer and the facility is required for off-site housing (except in cases where the employer is the owner of the dwelling).

 *************

BC Hansard February 18, 2013    Kevin Krueger MLA
The number of new jobs in the tourism and hospitality sector is projected to increase by over 100,000 by 2020 and account for 10 percent of all job openings expected in the province by that year. The government is building a workforce that is prepared to harness this economic opportunity through the B.C. jobs plan, collaborating with the industry-led organization known as go2HR — go2 human resources. This organization is mandated to lead the implementation of the B.C. tourism human resource development task force action plan.

The B.C. jobs plan is helping to create tourism jobs in communities right across the province with  businesses of all sizes. Seventy-five percent of all tourism and hospitality operators in B.C. are small businesses. Presently I co-chair the Small Business Roundtable with the minister.


$ .78 cent TFW / SAWP (Seasonal Agriculture Worker Program)  solution from earlier Posts

http://blogborgcollective.blogspot.ca/2013/06/christy-clarks-cradle-of-free.html

http://blogborgcollective.blogspot.ca/2014/05/mario-canseco-bc-pollster-wrong-twice.html


TFW / SAWP housing Report 2011
Mexican migrant agricultural workers and accomodations on farms in the Okanagan Valley, BC

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Steam, Smoke and Mirrors @ 0:24/10:39 "Behind the Scenes - The Lone Ranger"

A curved Look...... Middle of a desert with a stack of curved rails

https://www.youtube.com/embed/mdXTXWpIYgQ



It's always the FINE print that you have to look at:

A curved Look?




The Answer:



Tuesday, May 20, 2014

225 recipes for British Columbian fruit, during the First World War, 1916 and 1918


1916
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Little will work wonders when used in conjunction with many of the recipes contained in this booklet, lending that touch of individuality that often turns an ordinary dish into a delightful dainty.  Remarkably strong and not baking out.  Why not give it a trial?
1918
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Preserve your fruits without sugar

The high price of sugar, due to the war, has possibly led some economical housewives (without the vote) to consider curtailing the quantities of fruit they will put up this year.

As to the general question of economy, it may be pointed out that while so many essential articles of food have risen in price on account of the war, fruit has been, and will be as cheap as ever.  There will be a decided saving, therefore, in using it to replace as far as possible, other more expensive foods.  It should be further considered that war conditions have greatly increased the cost of English jams, so that it will be economy to replace these as far as possible with home-made jams and preserves.

With regard to the high price of sugar, why use sugar at all?  The prevalent idea that fruit cannot be kept without the addition of sugar in the process of canning is quite a mistake.   If made into a thick syrup, sugar acts as an antiseptic, keeping perfectly sound fruit from decay even in without heat, bu, in the quantities ordinarily used in canning, it takes absolutely no part in the preservation of the fruit from deterioration.  Authorities all agree that fruit put up without sugar retains its delicate and distinctive flavor very much better, and is altogether superior to that put up in the ordinary way.  Of course, sugar will eventually have to be used in preparing the fruit for the table, but much less is required to sweeten to taste after cooking.  This is so for a well-understood, scientific reason.  Our ordinary white granulated is a pure cane sugar, and is the sweetest of all sugars.   When cane sugar is heated in the presence of an acid, it gradually changes into other forms of sugar having much less sweetening power.  One of these, glucose, has only about 30 per cent the sweetening power of pure cane sugar.


And for Laila Yuile who likes sugar........rhubarb:

Rhubarb Fool

Page 14 of 83  Note: teacupful= 4 fluid ounces

Cut a dozen sticks of rhubarb into small pieces; put them in a jar with 3 oz. moist sugar and a teacupful of water, and place in the oven till the juice is drawn out.  Beat to a pulp and press through a sieve.  Stir in a teacupful of milk, or more if necessary.  Set it aside till cold, then put in custard glasses.

Rhubarb Butter

Wash and chop fine the desired amount of rhubarb.  To each pound allow in pint of sugar and just enough water to keep it from burning.  Let it simmer very gently for an hour or even longer.   The time depends entirely upon the age of the rhubarb.   An asbestos mat should be kept under the preserving kettle and the rhubarb stirred frequently.  This makes a delicious butter, which may be varied by adding half an orange pulp, when a delicious marmalade may be the result.
NB:
1916 No vote for Women

1917  Vote for Women

1918 Women's Sufferage

************

Commenter SailorBob has an excellent link to Fruit Ranching in British Columbia 1909 


1890 BC Fruit Growers Association has some interesting names, like in Street Names in BC eg. J M Spinks


Directors 


Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Ethnobotany of the Hesquiat proves ownership of Land, Resources and pucks for Beach Hockey

 North Vancouver Night School Cooking classes never included foraging but they should have:
Ethnobotany is the scientific study of the relationships that exist between peoples and plants.
If The First Nation people are still looking to prove "ownership rights" of their lands AND resources...... here's one source "we" might be interested in persuing:

Nancy J. Turner   OBC    No. 224 May 17, 1999



 Introduction

In this study we attempt to record as much information as possible on the traditional names and uses of plants by the Hesquiat people.  General Information on the role of plants in Hesquiat culture is also provided.  The second part of the text consists of a list of plant species having Hesquiat names or traditional uses.  Appendices provide further information on plants known or used by the Hesquiat people but not yet identified botanically, a dictionary of terms pertaining to plants and plant products that have been important to the Hesquiat people.

Because most of the information was gathered during joint interviews with several Hesquiat elders, including ....Snip

The botanical identification of most of the plants mentioned was verified, often on several different occasions, with live specimens.  If such verification was not made, this is noted in the text.  Plant collections made in conjunction with the study are housed in the Botany Division of the British Columbia Provincial Museum. .... Snip




 Page 16 of 103

Directly behind Hesquiat village is a small lake, Village Lake, which is drained by Village Creek, running immediately around the village.  Researchers have found, through pollen analysis of the sediments around Village Lake, that this area was a salt-water lagoon as recently as 700 - 900 years ago, and hence the village itself must have been near a low spit enclosing the lagoon (Richard Hebda, Archaeology Division, B.C.P.M., pers. comm.).   Gradually, with a slight build-up of sediment and organic debris at the mouth of the lagoon and a probable slight lowering of sea level, the ocean was blocked off and the lagoon became a fresh-water body.

Snip

Aside from the typical forest cover, many specialized habitats, each with its own topographic features, soil type and characteristic combination of plant species, can be found in the territory of the Hesquiats.  Edible and useful plants occur in abundance in practically every type of habitat, but some were particularly significant to the Hesquiat economy, notably the marine intertidal and subtidal habitats with their many species of seaweeds and seagrasses, the lakeshore and fresh-water habitats with their rushes and aquatic vegetation, and the acid bog areas with Sphagnum moss, Labrador tea, Lodgepole pine and Bog cranberries.  Each of these areas also supports certain forms of animal life on which the Hesquiat people relied for food.

***********

Page 20 of 103

Near Hesquiat Village, and in some cases, some distance from the village, the resources of the rivers, lakes and forest were "owned" by individuals in the village, who thus had control over the use of the these resources by others.  Such natural resources as berry patches, patches of edible "root" vegetables, as well as stands of western red cedar for inner bark and other sources of plant materials were considered private property.  The owner could, and often did, give permission to others to participate in the harvest.  Different local groups might have different kinds of resources in their territories and this factor undoubtedly influenced inter-group relationships.  People from other villages might not be granted such permission or, if they were, would probably have to pay for the privilege or reciprocate in some way.  Some resources, however, were not as strictly controlled as others, and hence, one might be able to harvest some types of berries without asking permission.  Apparently, also, some areas, such as the inland montane regions, were not strictly controlled, and one could travel and harvest most resources there without fear of trespassing.

The journals of Captain Cook and other early visitors to the West Coast of Vancouver Island indicate that even in those early times, there was considerable contact among the various West Coast villages and that the trading of foods and other resources was very common.   John Jewitt (1824, 1931), who, in 1803, survived a massacre of the other members of his crew by the west coast people, and who was held captive at Nootka Sound for several years, records that dried cakes of salal berries were a major trading item between village groups.  Jewitt also mentions the edible bulb "Quawnoose" (Hesquiat......), undoubtedly blue camaa, being  brought to the Sound be peoples some 300 miles to the south, probably Salish.  Hence trading must have not only been common, but far-reaching, even then, both for the Nootka Sound peoples, and their close neighbours, the Hesquiats.

************

Page 21 of 103

The dried stems of the short beach kelps were used as "pucks" and sticks in a type of "beach hockey" enjoyed by the Hesquiats, especially young boys.


Google Image Search Criteria: Ethnobotany of the Hesquiat Indians of Vancouver Island


 Page 10


 Page 63
Page 64
 Page72
Page77


Ethnobotany of Vancouver???? 

Ethnobotany of newcomers????? to British Columbia eg. Captain Cook

ZERO

********************

Scotty on Denman Comment:
....... It occurred to me one day, high up on a mountain, eating lunch beside a skinny, twisted red cedar, that the pattern of CMT distribution illustrated proprietorial working of the forest: why would anybody come all the way up here, maybe a kilometre of steep, broken ground to the water, to strike a plank off a shitty little pecker-pole cedar when there were (and still are) plenty of much better candidates down by the water's edge? The answer is because the trees down by the water were owned by somebody else; the poor guy who had to crawl all the way up there to get a difficult, twisted plank wasn't allowed to harvest lower down---it didn't belong to him and he didn't have permission from the owner(s). ......

*******************


Google Search Criteria:  Hesquiat ethnoarchaeology cedar trees

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Don't tell me to "LOOK, STOP" when your rail lines have cut a Public sidewalk in half

While out for a walk this morning, down near Seaspan's Vancouver Shipyards on Pemberton in North Vancouver (District), McKeen Avenue exactly, we came across this oddly composed PEDESTRIAN sidewalk sign proclaiming that we should all LOOK  STOP and when safe????, STEP OUT of the marked crosswalk and ONTO THE ROAD.

We've recently banished our collapsible wheelchair (@ $75/month BC Government rental charge) to the nursing home closet, sidetracked the walker (another $75/month), threw away the canes yesterday ($16 each/month), although they may have been of use here today.   Can you just imagine what it would be like, or worse at night without street lighting...., Ooooops! in the middle of a sidewalk, trip toeing over the tracks..... wouldn't it be loverly if District Hall finished doing the asphalt paving, eh, or even CNR, going so far as to replacing the missing sidewalk that they ripped out for their rail line?

Google Map location

STOP LOOK gone Sidewalk fixed  2018


Then we looked to the South, to the right, and saw a painted Yellow, and slightly rusty EB Hayes hinged Derailer complete with a bona fide CN Rail Titanium padlock.  Supposedly, just one of these little "Hinged" Derailer beauties would have saved Lac Megantic from being wiped out if the device had been in place when that dilbit laden train was left unattended at Nantes, Quebec.   All that a proactive locomotive Engineer had to do was to walk up to the front end of the Engine, or the first car behind, remove the padlock, flip the hinged Derailer into place, padlock it.  DONE!  When ready to roll, remove the padlock, flip the Derailer out of place, secure the padlock again for security of other rail cars and say Bon Voyage from Nantes!
 

The Nantes to Lac Megantic run ....... no Derailer otherwise this would have happened to the locomotive:


Video Source


In the photo of the yellow painted Derailer above it's mounted on the Inside Curve.  It's important to make that distinction, Inside or Outside of the curve.




 Manufacturer WC Hayes explains:
Source
Source

Sounds like a good idea to have Derailer on the spur lines around the Port of Vancouver, because of the hopper cars loaded with Sulphur, now with covers, heading for Kinder Morgan's Vancouver Wharves mixed in with Dilbit tankers on the Main Line, no more than a 100' away from chipped wood pellets. 
 **********************
..... a growing body of evidence suggests several factors may have contributed to the crash, including MM&A’s practice of leaving trains unattended on the main line instead of moving them onto the siding, a stretch of parallel track equipped with a large metal derailer that is designed to push the front of the train off the tracks and stop it from moving farther. Globe and Mail  - July 24, 2013
One Derailer, One Lock, Two railway ties 12" apart with six railway spikes, could have saved 47 lives, numerous injuries, and Lac Megantic's downtown core from being wiped out.

A North Van Sidewalk is secondary to a CN Rail spur line to the Port of Vancouver
Hayes, the manufacturer of the Derailer, states that it should never be installed in paved areas, like McKeen Avenue???, or on the bottom or Inside Rail of a Curve.   .... and Derailers should be placed far enough ahead of any area being protected  to ensure that the derailed equipment (locomotives, tankers and railcars are safely stopped.  Expensive to clean up afterwards, but lives are saved, so too the towns.

Source
As to that Yellow painted Derailer?????  it should be painted INTERNATIONAL ORANGE and while still WET .... sprinkled with Glass Beads to increase night time vision, that would help a pedestrian too if the District doesn't want to pave the road:


For more information:


A Double Steel Chock would work, less damage to railway company equipment like when CN Rail blamed Canadian Beavers for derailing one of their coal convoys in Burnaby.