Sheep, Part 2

This spring, we got a couple of new lambs, courtesy of our neighbour with a penchant for animal husbandry. We named them Butch & Sundance, after trying out multiple twin name combinations, like Peanut Butter & Jam, Archie & Jughead, etc. Last year's twins are named Pebbles and Bam-Bam (their mom was Wilma of course -- she has passed on to her eternal reward) and Primo's brothers are Dopey and Big Red. And then there's Blue Ivy, whose mom we named Beyonce (ironically, she has the least-musical voice of any of the sheep).

Unlike Primo, our new twins came out March 9th and seemed healthier within hours than Primo seemed days, or even weeks, after being born. Butch and Sundance were walking around within minutes, jumping within days, and after a week or so were doing acrobatic jumps by using their mom as a jumping-off point -- springing up onto her back and then kicking themselves into the air from there (she mostly just stood there and put up with it, as moms do). They have probably tripled in size by this point, and we have already convinced them to accept crackers and other snacks from our hands -- Sundance even figured out how to get his entire head out through the gaps in the wire fence, so his mom wouldn't keep grabbing all the good snacks. Clearly he is a genius. Once the lockdown is over, we will be open for socially-distanced outdoor visits if anyone wants to come and say hello!

A Poem

Here are some ponderings on our Covid existence by Alexander McCall Smith, Scottish author, for 2021 World Poetry Day. He is best known for his series “The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency”. The link is his lovely recitation:

https://birlinn.co.uk/video/spring-comes-even-this-year-written-and-read-by-alexander-mccall-

-Lyn Miller & Judy Amsbury

Spring comes, even this year …
It’s been a year, or close enough,
And although we’ve tried,
As most have done, to remember
What our friends look like,
There is an inevitable fuzziness
Around the edges, both in our minds
And how it really is, as if
This one has forgotten to shave,
While this other has clearly missed
The weekly visit to the gym, or left
Un-ironed the clothes that once
Were pressed with attention to detail;
Sharp edges are a thing of the past now,
Contrasts are blunter, colours
A little faded, like life in general –

And yet spring seems to have come,
Largely unannounced, as if
Aware of the possibility of cancellation,
Like so much else, and yet there it is,
In aconites and the other
Small flowers that always surprise;
And the wind shifts back
To the south-west, forgets
The north and its stern tones,
Its chilly warnings; spring comes,
And melts the crenellations
Of frozen earth, allows something
Else to happen underfoot:
Shoots of possibility, sprigs of simile.

Hopeful, at last, we send out word:
“Are you still there? Do you
Still take milk in your tea,
Do the crossword, wear the scarf
We never thought suited you?
Do you still say the same things
You always said, smile in the way
We liked you to smile; disapprove
Of the same things you always
Disapproved of, much to our amusement?
Do you still do all of that –
As your friends so hope you do?”

For spring has come, you see,
And it might be possible now
For us to find one another again,
And see if things are roughly
What they always were;
Whether spring comes in the way
It used to come, whether birdsong
Is in the same key, and whether
Light mornings bring the sun
At the old familiar angle; there is so much
We still need to confirm
About the world and who we are,
Now that spring comes,
And the human heart resumes its task.

Canoe Construction -Bruce Kitchen

Peterborough is getting a new home for the Canadian Canoe Museum.
But we have our own expert …

As the winter of 2008/09 began, I thought, “Maybe now I can get to that dream project.” In March of 2009, inside my new shop, I began to follow the instructions of Canoe Craft, Ted Moores's book. There followed a lot of sawing of the often knot riddled cedar deck leftover planks (saved from three years earlier) to get 3/4"X1/4" strips. Lyn helped run the strips through the router to put on bead and cove edges.

The book seemed to have just the right amount of encouragement to keep a results-oriented guy like me going. It detailed first the building of a strong back bench about 30 cm longer than the intended canoe. A sheet or two of 5/8” chip board was then cut by bandsaw into the “Ranger” plan pattern, purchased from Ted, for the 16 mold segments. These were attached on their edges (and inverted) at 30 cm intervals along the strong back. This enabled applying the strips to build the hull upward from the gunwales toward the keel of the upturned craft. In effect I was to build it in an upside- down position. With some more personal functional guidance from Ted and others, I began installing and gluing together the strips using the “no-staple technique” and the hull began to take shape.

The strips started with the gunwale position and with the cove edges up. Carpenter’s glue in the cove was pressed between that strip and the bead side of the next strip then held in place by clamps. After the glue was set, clamps were released and moved up so another strip could be placed. As I got going, I found I could place three strips per side at one time, press them down together and clamp them overnight as I moved along up the sides. A special technique was needed to fill in the bottom on one side, cut it straight to the centerline then form the other side up and fit and glue in the last few strips. Though the strips were all bent to fit, the only steaming required is in initially forming the stems that the strips ends are glued to, fore and aft.

Taking up an offer from Denis Gagne, I assembled a small crew, which Denis led, to do the fibreglass and epoxy "lay-up" of the hull. The first real look at it when it was as wet and smooth as a lollipop, certainly convinced me that this was a very worthy project. Many compliments have come my way since.

It took some time and effort to build and install the gunwales, decks, seats, handles and portaging yoke, but a lot of satisfaction came my way too. I built it to the standard “Ranger” plan, but it ended up being unique, due to the varied character of the former "deck" cedar (some pinkish strips also came from my dad's salvaged veranda sofa) as well as the style of scuppers cut, and the gunwales made of oak (from a family woodlot), decks of cherry, and seats of ash. The heirloom source pieces make the canoe a family treasure. Only the seats were purchased ready-made with cane seat pads. A friend later joked that I had built a "deckboat" shaped like a canoe.

The forgotten third or so of the work, sanding and varnishing did mercifully come to an end and we went to Warsaw, Ontario for her maiden voyage. That first casting-off from shore and gliding away so smoothly and serenely proved to me that the effort had already been worth it.

Equity Member Interview… meet Alan MacLeod

You know, it was probably inevitable that Alan would become a clinician. His grandfather and father before him were country doctors. His father, though a school inspector, often functioned as a school psychologist and talked to Alan about that. One of his sons has a doctorate in psychology. “There must be something in the air”, he says about his family.

The pandemic has brought to mind things his grandfather would tell him about his practice. In those days, penicillin was not freely available and he had to rely on his senses in diagnosing -- touch, sight, taste – he said he could smell diphtheria in the house of a patient.

Alan was born in 1946 in Kitchener/Waterloo and lived with his parents and grandparents in St. Jacobs for the first 4 years of his life, along with his 4 aunts, and a great aunt. So he got lots and lots of attention in his early life. He did most of his elementary and high school education in Renfrew. He played a lot of sports growing up and wasn’t very studious. A favourite activity of the guys in high school was to cross the border into Quebec and visit the pubs in the little towns where, “if you were tall enough to look over the bar, they would serve you”.

He has a brother born 12 years after him, but he never really got to know him as Alan left for university at age 17. He went to Trent studying science and math (like most guys my age, he says), but changed to more human studies – psychology and social anthropology. He got married at 20 while still in university, but they divorced when he was 30. He went to grad school at Queen’s and got his PhD in Clinical Psychology at age 24.

His goal was private practice, but he knew he would need a wide experience for that, so he worked with children and adults for about 15 years at hospital and community clinics. He met Barbara while working on a community mental health team. People from various backgrounds were trained to be on the team and she was a nurse. They were friends for a few years before they got together as a couple. They have been married 43 years.

Barbara’s maternal family is from PEI and they spent 5 years working there in a community clinic. He worked in Penetanguishene and Timmins as well for a few years. Alan concentrated first on learning disabilities and later did a postdoc at McMaster focussing on crisis intervention. Those 2 areas stuck with him.

Alan started his private practice in Orillia and he was the first psychologist to build a practice there. It lasted about 30 years and he concentrated on learning disabilities, doing assessments for ADD, and on PTSD for soldiers or people who had been in bad accidents or victims of crime.

Alan has 3 children; a boy and a girl from his first marriage and a boy with Barbara. His daughter is a teacher and told him recently that she can retire in 4 years – that really shook him up! His youngest son and his wife just had their first child this last February, a boy, and it’s Alan & Barbara’s first grandchild too.

Alan and Barbara now live in Saugeen Shores. They chose the area because his family on both sides have roots there and he has been going there all his life – they had a cottage in Kincardine. Alan was drawn to the lake (Huron) and had his house built here across from the water.

He likes physical activity – snowshoeing, some cross-country skiing and bicycling. They did quite a bit of bicycle-touring when they were younger on Manitoulin Island and in the Maritimes; they toured NB, NS and PEI for a month. They started out carrying tents, but then discovered the wonder of B&B’s and never looked back. In fact, they ran a B&B in their own home for about 6 years and loved it! They loved meeting people, who were relaxed on their vacations and wanted to talk. They only stopped because they wanted to quit while they still liked it and to give themselves more free time.

What does Alan do for fun? He does quite a bit of writing; short stories and travel pieces. He belongs to 3 writing groups, but that has been more difficult during the pandemic. He played piano for 6 years as a child and starting lessons again 50 years later, though he hasn’t touched the piano since the start of the pandemic. He will start again he says. He used to play the bagpipes (Oh no!) How did the family react to that? “I didn’t practice inside, that’s for sure.” Once he got to a certain age, he decided he didn’t want to die of a stroke playing the bagpipes. "It’s really challenging on the lungs”, he says. Also really challenging to keep family, friends and neighbours I’d say.

Alan and Barbara became interested in cohousing and wanted to try it out. In 2018 they went to Harbourside in BC and rented a place for 2 months. They fully participated in the community. In the end, the community invited them to stay, and it was very tempting because life on Vancouver Island is pretty sweet – no snow to speak of, a hospitable climate and the they liked the people in the community too. But it was too far from family.

They wish they could spend more time seeing their grandson. That’s why they are moving to Peterborough – it’s easier to get to Toronto. They are in the process of selling their home and are moving (hopefully straight into) a place called Lilac Bungalows in Lakefield while awaiting the KCC move.

Introducing… Elaine Bird

Elaine was born 66 years ago and grew up in Whitby. In high school she worked in the Whitby library after school shelving books and working in the children’s department. It was a great job. She decided to travel after high school and worked full time there to save money to go to Europe. Her high school boyfriend wanted to go too and said, “Why don’t we go together and get married before we go?” Her response was, “Well, ok”.

She had 2 brothers and a sister. Her mother had been sick as long as Elaine knew her – she had a million health issues – smoked like a chimney and ate badly -- but she lived longer than all of Elaine’s aunts and uncles to age 88. When she had chest pain, she would say, “Take me to Emerg, but stop at McDonald’s on the way!”

When they got back from Europe, Elaine and her husband decided they wanted to be back-to-the-landers. They moved in with another couple to an old Guelph farmhouse with a huge garden and goats. She went to Guelph University doing a BA in Fine Arts. Living in community did not go so well for them – they weren’t really ready for it. “One of them rinsed their spaghetti in hot water, and I rinsed it in cold (or maybe it was the other way around). It was all really silly.”

At the end of her degree she was able to do a semester in England and her husband, who was studying journalism, went too. They stayed on afterwards, worked in a pub and then travelled again from Amsterdam to Athens. When they came back, they went to Kingston, and she got a job as a layout artist on a small paper. Then a friend of hers needed someone to do the same for the Harrowsmith Sourcebook, so she got the job.

They moved to Toronto where Elaine was a layout artist for Canadian Weekend, Today magazine and then Saturday Night magazine. It was before computers, so her job was to order the type, draw the page and put it together with illustrations.

When she was 27, she started having a family: 3 boys, Matthew, Thomas and Peter. It was a “house of men” she says. She started out working and freelancing, but by the time Peter came along, working outside the home was not desirable. ”I could hardly get to the corner store, so forget working.” Her oldest boy now has 3 girls and calls it a “house of women”.

When the kids were small, her mother-in-law had a house she wanted to sell in Bobcaygeon. Elaine and her husband wanted a Huck Finn environment for their family and bought it. They sold their Toronto semi and moved. Her husband had to commute 3 days a week and was often travelling for work on top of that, so he wasn’t always there. They were living there 2 years, when she decided she wanted to study massage therapy, and the best place to do that was Toronto. Since her husband worked there too, they all moved to Toronto again and rented out the Bobcaygeon house. It was a crazy time Elaine says because it was way too much work to do the course and mother 3 children, but she succeeded.

When she finished her course, they moved back to Bobcaygeon. Luckily, she got an office in the medical centre and started working right away. Elaine has her own business and has been doing it for 26 years. She has a good clientele and doesn’t have to worry about finding new clients. She is getting ready to retire, but can’t find anyone who will work as hard as her to take over.

All the commutes and trips away from home that her husband had to take took a toll on the marriage. They divorced after 25 years in 2000. She got married again in 2013 – she likes being married -- but it didn’t work out and she has been on her own again for 4 years.

What are Elaine’s passions? She is into First Nations issues and is part of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee of Bobcaygeon. She loves art and music. She loves to eat – all kinds of food and really loves sweet things, which she tries to offset by eating healthy. She likes to cook and to have people over for dinner and go to other people’s houses -- there is something almost essential in breaking bread together. She likes to garden. Elaine is passionate about biking (she has 4 bikes), cross country skiing and canoeing/kayaking. She started the meditation group at KCC. The latest thing she is into is vidhugging. It’s a video platform that allows you to request, collect and combine videos of people talking about another person to create a personalized, meaningful montage as a gift for them.

Elaine has lots of friends in Bobcaygeon and is doing porch visits during Covid. When she thinks about moving, she knows it will be hard to leave her network of friends, but she really likes Peterborough -- there’s more going on culturally; it’s livelier in the wintertime -- and thinks cohousing will be better for a single person. Why? She’s very social, gets her energy from being with other people, and does not like eating alone. She loves all the ideals of cohousing. But will it work? What if you rinse your spaghetti in cold water???