Saturday, March 31, 2012

1921 ".... the returned soldier...." Growing Strawberries and Raspberries in certian BC Coast sections

SMALL  FRUIT  SURVEY
A Report on the Cost of Growing
Strawberries and Red Raspberries
in Certain - Coast Sections of
British Columbia during
the season of 1921

Agricultural Department Circular N6.'39

18 pages in length

New source of document    2023-12-18:

Source: http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/bcdocs_holmes/qp_mar_2012/513993/513993_adc39b_small_fruit_survey.pdf


There's a story out there where I heard Sunshine Coast lots are being made ready for farming instead of the land sitting idle.   Go Organic they say.

But then I thought about Vancouver and their Coach houses in the lanes and the "large" tracts of land between between the Coach House and the Primary House.... couldn't it be converted to raising Strawberries and Red Raspberries with the simplest of ingredients, and energy.

What better method than going back in history, when just after the First World War had ended and our British Columbian forested lands still existed, the land was being given away FREE, no strings attached, to returning soldiers.

   I detract...... but that's what was written in this pamphlet.

For the soldiers and their families they had to cut the trees down, remove the stumps using pry bars and dynamite, plow the land to be made ready for planting what they would need to survive on for the rest of year..... when nothing would grow.

"The growing of raspberries and strawberries appeared to be a type of farming which could be carried on successfully on a few acres of land, which demanded the labour of only one man with the help of his immediate family, which required little initial outlay for equipment, and which in general promised a good return in a short time."

Think about this.   There were no stores called Costco or Rona or Whole Food back then.  The population wasn't what it is today.  There wasn't anything called BC Hydro to provide lighting or run the toaster, nor was there a steady supply of Natural Gas to heat our homes.

Why this sudden thoughts on growing something, anything in the front or back yard..... not just flowers, but vegetables.....


Oh look the yellow forsythia and crocus are blooming which means it's the time to prune roses and fertilize the lawn but for this household, its time to go out and prepare the garden, and purchase PEAS!!!!!!!!! from the nursery.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

If you go into North British Columbia woods today you could be in for a big surprise

Open Information    search criteria     events northern british columbia   fifth hit down and Compiled by:

Laurie and Larry Pearce
Pearces 2 Consulting Corporation
for the Ministry of Health Services
March 2005

89 pages   Links not provided by the Authors Laurie and Larry Pearce!
  A Century of Hazardous Events in British Columbia:

3.1.Overview

There have been 138 documented hazardous events in the three Health Service Areas of the Northern Health Authority.

Not surprisingly, given the vast area of the Northern Health Authority, most of these events did not cross-Health Services Areas (12) and included hazards such as diseases and drought.

The most notable hazards were: landslides (20), floods caused by rain storms (17), snow-melt floods (11), earthquakes (7), forest fires (6), windstorms (6), and plane crashes (5).

The hazardous events resulting in the most deaths include the 1918 Spanish flu, the 1936 heat wave, the polio outbreak in the 1950s, and the 343 passengers and crew who died when the Princess Sophia went down in 1918.
More recently plane crashes such as the 1963 crash on the Queen Charlotte Islands resulted in 101 passengers dying and the 1952 crash on Sandspit which killed 36. In the early 1900s, avalanches caused a number of deaths, and the Granduc 1965 avalanche killed 26. Avalanches, plane crashes, and rainstorms have killed a number of persons in the last decade.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

BC Mary's blog lives on, and in good hands.

At my post of 1820 to 2006 "Historical News Search" via Open Information.  1984, the first death of a Snowmobiler.   Kootcoot left a comment, and when I clicked on his name, I found that it linked to his profile where he has these Blogs listed:

My blogs



That's right, BC Mary's   "The Legislature Raids" is being looked after by Kootcoot.

Under the heading of "Contributors" is this:


 Contributors

Thank you Kootcoot!

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

1820 to 2006 "Historical News Search" via Open Information. 1984, the first death of a Snowmobiler.

This morning's Vancouver Sun report of an avalanche killing a snowmobiler at Whistler triggered putting a query to Open Information.  "other supplies" has opened up many doors to what the BC Government has stashed away in no particular order, or in a neat chronological order, latest to oldest.

Using      snowmobiler      creates 341 weekly incident reports........ What I was looking for was something more of a historical nature, so I used "other supplies" and roadrunner.    RoadRunner is a provincial government Transportation magazine, and I thought it might have some substance.

Search Criteria in Open Information:     "other supplies" roadrunner    Four hits, second one down is this:

HISTORICAL NEWS SEARCH
Page 1. Flooding and Landslide Events Northern British Columbia 1820-2006 ...
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wsd/public_safety/flood/pdfs_word/floods_landslides_north.pdf

 Flooding and Landslide Events Northern British Columbia 1820-2006
_____________________________________________________________
D. Septer
There's just one hit when a search is done for "other supplies", this:

July 15-18, 1974
Event type: Spring runoff flooding.
Precipitation: Dease Lake (34.5 mm/1 day), July 16, 1974.
Source: The Vancouver Sun, July 19, 23 and 24, 1974; Coates 1992 (pp. 252-56).
In the middle of July, torrential rain and late melting snow caused floods and washouts in northwest and northern British Columbia. There had been exceptionally heavy snowfalls the previous winter. The following summer was cool, and mountain snowmelt slow. Warm weather arrived in early July, to be followed by exceptionally heavy rainfall starting on July 15.
The Alaska Highway experienced some of the worst flooding in its history. Within a matter of hours, dozens of miles of the highway had been rendered impassable. The storm continued, interrupting telecommunications and stranding hundreds of travellers. Of the people stranded in the washed-out sections, 50 were at Summit Lake, 50 at Toad River Lodge, others at isolated sites, and the largest group, 175 trapped at Muncho Lake. The Provincial Emergency Planning Group, assisted by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, flew food and other supplies (as well as a social worker and a public health nurse to the group at Muncho Lake) to the stranded travellers.
The word Roadrunner doesn't exist in the document at all

Christy Clark's Open Information database is Flawed..... who was hired to create the information?

If you're still reading here, there's one more step in the "looking", the researching, the data mining, and its this.  If you copy a part of the title of the manuscript.....Flooding and Landslide Events Northern British Columbia into Google..... you get 71,500 hits.... but its the first one that makes you  say YES!


Hydrometeorological thresholds for landslide initiation and forest ...

www.bgcengineering.com/files/.../KH_Hydro_Meteo_Thresholds_0....
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
by MJKHO Lange - 2006 - Cited by 15 - Related articles
recorded in Northern British Columbia, including approximately. 50 deaths on July 6, 1881 ... discharge, estimated flood volume, and event intensity were used ...

A picture is truly worth a thousand words:


And this report only focuses on what you see in the photo above, it doesn't cover the rest on the trek east to Alberta's oil sands!

************************
The following are just the one liners but the "Historical News Search" includes the full stories as well, and also the newspapers that wrote them
*********************************

Appendix 3 - Reported fatalities caused by slope failures and snow avalanches in northern British Columbia.

Ca. 1852 A glacial outburst flood “destroyed several Indian villages and killed countless people,” including a settlement at the confluence of the Alsek and Tatshenshini rivers.
July 6, 1891 Debris avalanches near Port Edward killed 41 people at the Inverness cannery and nine at the North Pacific cannery.
Winter 1915-1916 A snow avalanche on the southeastern shoulder of Mount Cronin killed a man carrying mail for the Cronin mine.
December 28, 1917 A snowslide killed two mining employees on their way up to Rocher de Boule mountain.
October 1, 1922 A debris avalanche at Eicho Harbor near Ocean Falls killed five people and buried some houses.
May 4, 1931 The locomotive and three fish cars derailed when an eastbound train No. 6 hit a rockslide east of Amsbury. One trespasser riding on a fish car was killed.
Ca. February 20, 1932 Snowslides buried three men at the Jumbo mine near Wrangell, Alaska, killing at least one of them.
March 25, 1939 Ice jams caused the Murray River to suddenly overflow its banks west of Dawson Creek, taking a total of nine lives.
October 19, 1940 A passenger train plunged off the flood-weakened bridge across Lorne Creek. The engineer, fireman, and two passengers were drowned. According to another source, five lives were lost.
February 11, 1943 A series of three snow avalanches at MacLean Point west of Terrace killed three men and injured 12 others in the camp of the Tomlinson Construction Company.
January 15, 1947 A CNR foreman was killed when his speeder struck a rock on the track near Pacific.
October 27, 1953 A rockslide near Dorreen killed one miner at a placer mine at Lorne Creek.
May 15, 1954 A fireman was killed west of Prince George after a CNR passenger train dropped into a deep washed-out culvert caused by the breaching of a beaver dam.
October 18, 1954 A debris slide killed two construction workers at Mile 28 on the rail line between Terrace-Kitimat.
October 6, 1955 A PGE speeder hit a rock and jumped the tracks at Stone Creek south of Prince George, killing two members of a bridge and buildings crew and injuring two others.
November 21, 1957 A debris avalanche on Mount Oldfield near Prince Rupert killed seven people and destroyed three houses.
March 21, 1959 An eastbound freight train hit a slide west of Smithers and derailed, killing the engineer.
April 7, 1959 A snow avalanche at the Torbrit Silver Mine near Alice Arm killed one miner.
December 4, 1959 A rock and snowslide killed one employee and injured another on the Stewart/Cassiar Road project north of Stewart.
September 7, 1960 A mud and debris slide down a steep ravine 18 mi. (28.8 km) west of McBride killed three highway construction workers. Another man was injured while a fifth man escaped.
November 18, 1962 A snow avalanche on Hudson Bay’s Glacier Gulch near Smithers killed one mine employee.
July 21, 1963 A section of roadway north of Fort Nelson and just inside the Yukon Territory, gave way and buried a truck with two men, killing one and injuring the other one.
January 13, 1965 A snow avalanche on Mt. Caro Marion near Ocean Falls wiped out two duplex homes, killing seven and injuring five other people.
February 18, 1965 A snow avalanche on the Leduc Glacier near Stewart killed 26 and injured 20 workmen in the Granduc Mining Co. camp.
February 10, 1966 Heavy snowload on the roof of a welding shop in Kitimat collapsed, killing one man.
November 24, 1968 A massive slide of “overburden” of a mining operation west of Natal on Highway 3 killed two motorists and their small dog.
March 14, 1973 A snow avalanche on Nine Mile Mountain near Hazelton killed one snowmobile operator.
January 22, 1974 A snow avalanche wiped out a service station and motel/restaurant complex on Highway 16 west of Terrace. Seven people were killed.

 On January 22, a “dry” avalanche came down 28 mi. (45 km) west of Terrace. It wiped out a service station and motel-restaurant complex North Route along Highway 16. The service station had been built in 1964. It was located in the run-out zone of large avalanches that would probably occur once in about 15 years (Stethem and Schaerer 1979). According to a National Research Council report, tree growth patterns and broken wood in the area demonstrated that avalanches had reached the highway through two narrow gaps before the cafĂ© was built. The North Route buildings stood directly in the path that dry, rapidly moving avalanches would be expected to take. “Unfortunately, the hazard was not recognised when the service center was built,” the report states. “And later, when avalanches did come close, the warning went unheeded.” (Terrace Standard, January 21, 2004). Several vehicles were also buried. Seven people were killed. *2)
The snow mass was estimated at 400 ft. (120 m) long, 100 ft. (30 m) wide, and 30 ft. (9 m) deep. The avalanche traveled 500-600 ft. (150-180 m) down and 1,000-1,500 ft. (300-450 m) across. D.D. Godfrey, Highways Department regional engineer for Burnaby, estimated the speed at which it traveled to be over 100 mph (160 km/h). The estimated speed of the avalanche when it hit the buildings was 108 km/h (Stethem and Schaerer 1979).
The avalanche snow ranged from 1-8 m in depth and was strewn with housing debris and trees up to 0.5 m in diameter. The average depth was 1 m, but the snow in the area surrounding the buildings was up to 8 m deep. The avalanche ran out on the ice of the Skeena River, with the tip of the deposit 250 m past the service centre. On several trees between the railroad and the river, snow was plastered on the north side of the tree trunks up to 30 ft. (9 m) above the tracks. Snowfalls at the accident site are usually greater than those at the Terrace airport. At the North Route site, the snowfall was probably greater by one third (Stethem and Schaerer 1979).
Earlier that morning, a Canada Post mail truck driver and only survivor, heard “a bunch of noise rattling outside.” He was told not to worry as “it’s way up in the hills.” Just after 8 a.m., the slide hit. “I heard it – just like a cannon shot,” he said. It pushed him through the wall of the coffee shop and 50 ft. (15 m) beyond.
During the rescue operations, a smaller slide occurred about a mile (1.6 km) from the disaster site. At 2:45 p.m., almost seven hours later the first body was found under 3.6 m of snow. Zobel was the second victim found, and he would be the only survivor. It was nearly 20 hours after the slide hit that the last bodies were found. The only other survivor was a husky. The dog was under a building and crawled out a couple of days later.
 The coroner’s inquiry found that logging carried out by the service station owner was a contributing factor to the slide. He had logged off an area above his property on Highway 16. Warmer temperatures loosened the heavy snowpack on the mountain above the highway triggering a fast moving powder snowslide. (The Vancouver Sun, March 21, 1974).




February 17, 1974 an avalanche on Mica Mountain west of Valemount killed one man and seriously injured two others.
October 30, 1978 A mudslide coming down in the BC Rail yard north of Prince George killed two employees. One man was buried alive and the second died of a heart attack while attempting to rescue the other.
November 2, 1978 Part of a CNR work train plunged into the Skeena River, killing an engine man and a conductor.
July 1980 A debris avalanche in the Beaver Valley near Terrace killed an equipment operator. The vibration of a caterpillar tractor set off the accident.
September 28, 1981 A mudslide killed a 25-year old man working on the new BC Rail line near the Tumbler Ridge coal site.
January 12, 1982 A snow avalanche at slidepath Rockface west of Terrace killed a 53-year old CNR section man and injured three other CNR employees.
February 13, 1984 An avalanche in the Red Fern Lake area south of Fort Nelson swept down a five-man snowmobiler party, killing an 18-year old Fort St. John man and a 20-year old man from Taylor.
February 22, 1985 An avalanche on Onion Mountain near Smithers killed a 29-year old man snowmobiling in the darkness.
March 29, 1986 An avalanche on the Cariboo Mountain trail south of Valemount killed four Alberta snowmobilers.
March 23, 1987 An avalanche near Blue River in the Cariboo Range killed seven heli-skiers. Another five skiers, who were trailing behind the group, escaped.
January 28, 1989 A snow avalanche near Telegraph Creek wiped out two houses, killing an 80-year old woman.

March 25, 1989 A piece of falling ice on Highway 16 at Carwash Rock west of Terrace killed the driver of a pick-up truck.
November, 1989 A logging truck driver was killed when his truck left Highway 37A after hitting a rock fall at the entrance to Little Canyon near Stewart.
June 11, 1990 A van carrying eight tree planters plunged off a partly washed out bridge over George Creek, killing four occupants.
November 27, 1991 An avalanche coming down Twin Falls near Smithers killed one ice-climber and injured four others.
January 3, 1992 A snow avalanche on Thornhill Mountain near Terrace buried and killed two local snowmobilers.
November 19, 1993 A small debris flow on the eastern shore of Alan Reach south of Kitimat buried and killed one logging employee.
May 22, 1994 A small snow avalanche killed one member of a ski-mountaineering group near Europa Lake south of Kitimat. The victim was swept over a 360-metre cliff.
September 28, 1994 A heavy equipment operator was killed when a section of road under construction at Kiseadin Creek near Greenville gave way.
May 17, 1996 An avalanche down the slope of Cerberus Mountain about 70 km from Bella Coola killed four skiers.
April 16, 1997 In West Quesnel, shifting soil snapped a gas line and caused an explosion that killed five people and injured 20 others.
January 7, 1999 An avalanche near Meziadin killed two Terrace-based Ministry of Transportation and Highways avalanche technicians.
December 28, 2002 Two Alberta snowmobilers got caught in an avalanche south of Valemount. One of the victims was killed.

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

If I find later details, they'll be posted here, and/or links to them.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

North Vancouver's Cleveland Dam isn't generating any electricity. What a waste of water!

The Cleveland Dam was never meant to generate electricity, the idea then, was that there were plenty of other dams in the province that would create electricity.   This dam was to be used solely as a source for drinking water, or for sprinkling the lawns all summer long, or Fire fighting when the need arose.

Does anyone know why the Greater Vancouver Regional District is dropping the level of the water on Capilano Lake?

With all these IPP's getting top dollar from BC Hydro for Run of the River Generating plants, why hasn't this dam's gateway been converted?  


Friday, March 2, 2012

Who invited Jaspal Atwal to the Legislature or more to the point which MLA would have stood up and introduced Mr. Atwal?

Of course we'll never know from the Legislative floor unless we work in reverse because of this:


The House met at 1:40 p.m.
[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]
Routine Business
Mr. Speaker: Hon. Members, considering the amount of guests that we have here today, if we allowed introduction of guests, we might be here for some time, and the Minister of Finance might not get to deliver his today. So on behalf of all the members, I want to welcome you here today. And all those special guests that are sitting on the floor: welcome.

Reverse means we can cross MLA Kash Heed off of the list because he was one of two BC Liberals who approached the Speaker.  We can cross the Speaker off the list because he acted....... but was too late?

The BC Liberals have already admitted that the seat was for one of their guests, substitutions are still guests, still have to be vetted, and he wasn't.  What would the criteria have been used to ban Mr. Atwal if he wasn't permitted to sit in the House, as a guest?  Would there have been an uproar, of discrimination, and duly reported by the Press?   Would Mr. Atwal have made a fuss of being ejected?   He didn't have to make a fuss though, did he, the fuss came to him afterwards.   No Comment.


The House met at 1:40pm and the Speaker immediately says "...the Minister of Finance might not get to deliver his today" if introductions are made.

Not including the Speaker, 49 MLAs, sometimes the same speakers, rose and spoke for less than two hours altogether.

The House adjourned at 3:19 p.m.

A minute under Two hours to conduct the business of the House, where normally the House sits long after 3:10pm, so what was the rush on this particular day?



Not enough time to introduce the guests!


Were there too many guests in the House?  Was the House in violation of the BC Fire Code?


Now if I had a little money set aside I'd hire myself a polling firm, or a Rack9,  to do a robocall to the MLA's and ask them who they were going to introduce on Budget 2012.  Just give us the names for the record, the Fire Marshall needs an accounting of how many people were in the House..... and where they sat.

Or a far worse scenario....legislative building's earthquake readiness   which I witnessed via the live telecast late last year, the ringing of many bells, the House was open, but closed, MLAs and staff were hiding beneath their desks, or giving interviews...about the Great Shake Out.



The question isn't who Invited Jaspal Atwal to the Legislature, the question is who was going to INTRODUCE Mr. Atwal, and then turn and ask the House to make him welcome?

Would the MLA have risen from the Government side of the house, front and centre, with the Minister of Finance to their right, the Minister of Mines and Energy to their left,......look up, nod to Tariq Ghuman, then looked to the next gentleman in the next seat, look to their MLA's speaking notes and read out his name and acknowledge ..... A.......


Those speaking notes!  Have they been shredded?

**************************** 

On the Public Tour of the Legislative building here's a note on Safety:

To protect the sprinkler system, tent poles or stakes cannot be driven into the ground or lawns.

What is under the that lawn, what is the load capacity:

100lbs/sq.ft.

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

What better time than to troop off to Victoria on Monday, to protest the Government's handling of the Teachers negotiations.  For Seniors, its free ferry service.....  oh, do we need to reserve a seat Inside the Legislature, and how do we go about that.... contact our local MLA.... you might get introduced, made welcome, if there's enough time.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Heavier Tanker traffic, which way is it going to and from Kitimat and Vancouver?

Tanker Traffic Density page 34
UPDATE photo at bottom


























On page 123 there's this:  "Figure 6. Aquifers vulnerable to contamination and with reported groundwater quality concerns."   Then ask yourself "Where is all this hydraulic fracturing for Christy Clark's Natural Gas exploration taking place so that she can have it shipped off to China?"  Ask yourself why BC Hydro Billion Dollar Smart Meter's are going in and then ask yourself why the majority of our electricity is going to be used to convert natural gas to LNG to be shipped off to China through the narrowest of Channels?

And while I have your attention this morning check out this document from down under, on page 28  under the heading of Hutton Sandstone.  I found it because I was looking with this search criteria in Google... Liquid Natural Gas AND Range of Values of Hydraulic conductivity and permeability, the Hutton Sandstone info is the seventh eighth hit down:

Australia Pacific LNG Project

www.aplng.com.au/.../Attachment_5_Talinga_aquifer_injection_trial...
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
Australia Pacific LNG Pty Limited ABN 68 001 646 331 ..... proponents for EIS purposes use values of hydraulic conductivity of between 0.01metres/day ... accepted values for confined units in the GAB generally range between the 1x10-4 to 1x10- ... result in a lowered local permeability in the aquifer, which would manifest ...


On page 28 the topic is Ground Water without a hint, or a concern, of the quality of the harm that is being done because of hydraulic fracturing to squeeze out the natural gas..... destined for China:


Hutton Sandstone
The estimated hydraulic impact zones for the injection trials into the Hutton Sandstone are shown on Figure 7. The best estimate for the hydraulic impact zone of a likely trial scenario
(60 days continuous injection) is a hydraulic influence of approximately 9km from the injection bore. Should injection continue at the maximum rate for 365 days, the worst case scenario for the hydraulic impact zone is estimated to be approximately 46km from the injection bore.


There is one word that is used in both  studies in British Columbia and Australia.... Aquifier!

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

One of my readers has pointed out that its not a diameter of 9km, but a RADIUS of 9km! 
Red is 9km and Green is 46km from atop of Vancouver's Little Mountain



That's the saturation, the impact zone, that the extraction of natural gas requires to squeeze it out of the ground at the bore point.  And no, petunias and cauliflower will never grow again in your backyards.

If you can't get your head around how Vancouver relates to where you live in, like in Northern BC, here's Fort St. John with just ONE injection bore site.  Can you just imagine just how much British Columbia's pristine land is being destroyed for untold future generations just so China can have Fracked Natural Gas to generate even more climate changes.