Equity,Equity,Equity, but no Equality for others.

A few weeks ago the letters M -O- U became a part of the new vocabulary around the water coolers and coffee shops. Lately it's Equity. Websters defines it as " justice according to natural law or right; specifically : freedom from bias or favoritism b : something that is equitable."
Equality on the other hand is defined as the quality or state of being equal.

The home care workers in NL have known for quite sometime that equality is not synonymous with equity. Home Support Workers are lower down on the health care hierarchy.They are also the most vulnerable. The majority in NL are women, and a higher than average proportion are older than 40 years of age. The majority of Home Support workers in this province are under paid, have no health benefits, no sick days and no union to represent them in getting a better life. On the other hand Home Support Workers work with the mentally challenged and elderly in our province in most cases in the comfort of their own homes bringing to them a higher quality of life. Their work provides quite a savings for the health care system of this province but yet it goes unnoticed by the present administration and the previous ones. With all our so called new Equity in this province it might be high time to give a bit of equality to those of us who work in the home care sector. Mr. Williams please allow NAPE to represent us and bargain with us fairly. Unlike big oil you'll find that Home Care Workers just want what we deserve.

A guy dropped by my place late last night with a small box of old Newfoundland postal stamps he recently found when tearing down an old home. He knew i was a collector and wanted to know if his recently found treasure was worth money. The majority of the stamps had been on postal covers and some still had the paper around them after being cut out. Several were mint and might of been worth a few dollars and i encouraged him to check them out. Like most in the province he thought all of the old Newfoundland stamps had long disappeared and was surprised that i had accumulated thousands of them over the years. (plenty of duplicates because only about 300 were issued) so today just in case someone might be interested i'll post a bit of Newfoundland Postal History.

Prior to 1809 mail on the island was handled by a few private individuals who would carry it for a fee. Most mail went by ships since overland routes around the island was scarce. Delivery when it occurred depended largely on the integrity of the ships masters or individuals who carried it. Newfoundland's first postmaster was a local watch maker and Jeweller from St. Johns appointedin 1809 by Governor John Holloway. When Simon passed away his son William became postmaster and around that time the first postage stamps were issue but not used by the public here until 1857.

The Dominion of Newfoundland had a few firsts for stamps, one being the first to issue a stamp featuring a dog. Starting in 1919 the Dominion issued its first airmail stamps and they became much sought after by collectors. A 1927 DePinedo airmail can fetch up to $100,000.oo by collectors. A full collection of Newfoundland stamps is hard to come by and i doubt if one exists. When viewing the stamps a person can see Newfoundland history, politics, natural resources and the geography of a nation that no longer exists. The last Newfoundland postage stamp was released on the 450th anniversary of the discovery of Newfoundland,June 24/1947. The stamps remained valid and can still be used but very few do so today. On special occasions i have sent them to friends on special covers i make up myself.

Our province has announced a new energy plan today. The document has been on the drawing boards for at least a decade but now it's finalized. The wording is great prior to an election less than a month away. "achieve self-reliance and prosperity, as well as develop sustainable green energy solutions for the 21st century." Masters of our own house speech again but this time it takes things up a notch. The new document calls for a ten percent equity in all oil/gas projects down our road to being masters of our own house. That's twice as much then our 4.9 percent we recently got from the Hebron deal. The ordinary Joe like myself can only look at it all in awe and agree with the wording we see. Those who do not agree have their own reasons, some may be political but i'm sure they're all not. One sentence in the news release said it all for me. "History reveals the price we have paid for lack of proper planning."
lets hope we get it right this time around. At least we have a plan to start with!

Each season here can connect us closer to the earth's cycles while bringing a bit of joy to our lives. Something simple like a quick excursion to the sand shoals to watch the shorebirds wade and feed for a few hours can be relaxing. To breathe in the last perfumes of summer's flowers or sample a few wild berries straight from the earth is taken for granted here.



The transition from spring to summer to fall to winter here is very noticeable in rural NL.
I sometimes wonder how people do that in large cities such as New York or other large centers?

Saturday i had a few hours off from work and even though it was not what one would consider a great day weather wise, my granddaughter and i went for a little excursion. She got to try Periwinkles for the first time but didn't quite like the taste when i cooked them for her later.





















We sat near the shoals and observed Piping Plovers, a bird on the brink of extension feed. We watched ducks,Sandpipers,Blue Herons and other species that frequent the area. Our little excursion only lasted about two hours and we never saw another person during that time. She started Kindergarten this year and hopefully we'll get a few more days out and around before the birds migrate.

Labor Day

The Union leaders in our province seem to be optimistic about the future of employees in NL. A recent news release to VOCM shows that Carol Furlong is expecting more and pointing to those in the Home Care sector who she claims are still well underpaid. I suspect the majority of those Home Support workers are going to work today. They receive only six paid holidays each year and working them gives extra money on a paycheck. Hopefully by next Labor Day things will be a bit better for all Home Support Workers.

Four teenagers on a single ATV

VOCM News is reporting another ATV accident. This time around four teenagers on an ATV and three taken to hospital. As usual no helmets on! I have never saw four teens on an ATV but i have saw four children on them not quite in their teenage years. Over the years i have pulled my ATV to the side of the trail to give them the right of the way. At times i felt like taking a snapshot and posting it but i might be deemed as a villain if i did. I have a feeling that this Labor Day weekend we'll see quite a few ATV users pulled over and charged. Hopefully we'll see a few parents charged as well.

Afternoon on the Newfoundland Trailway

Spent a few hours with my granddaughter on the Newfoundland Trailway this afternoon. We have made quite a few little rides this pass summer and seldom meet anyone else out doing the same thing. However today i saw a tour group who probably came by way of Argentia and they usually drive on without stopping. I had 16 years on that trailway but back then we called it a railway and rode over it by train or rail speeder. I'll post a link here of a past blog so i won't have to get all teary eyed today describing those years. So back to the trailway........... it passes through my community and the scenery here with the miles of sandy beaches is fantastic. I sometimes wonder why very few take advantage of it here and no local has started a tour company for tourists who might like to see something different. I'm sure in the summer time a tour of just a few hours per day could fetch a few dollars to some young entrepreneur.........So back to this afternoon. Our little trip lasted less than two hours and my granddaughter got to enjoy a great August afternoon before she starts her first year of school in a week or so. We shot a few hundred shots (thank God for Digital) and i will pick out a few to have developed for her albums and the rest will be stored on DVD's. So for anyone who might like to view the Newfoundland Trailway in our area click on a few thumbnails below to see a few of our shots today.

Google Earth - Google Sky.

Stargazing was a great pastime for me as a kid.Trips to the library and an old map of a few stars and constellations kept me entertained many evenings. I couldn't afford a good telescope at the time and what i had was not more than a tube with two pieces of glass in it.It was so shaky i had to build my own tripod out of two by two's. Later in life i purchased one for my son hoping he would be interested but the novelty wore off and i think the telescope was later sold at a yard sale.Yesterday my son sent me a link for the new Google sky. It's amazing how far things have come. A person can now click on the location of where they live and see the sky above them. Progress is great, but i wonder now how many kids will not take the time to go outside and look up but click a mouse instead?

Nightline Returns August 26, 2007

Listeners will hear a familiar voice on the airwaves this evening... Host Linda Swain is back with VOCM's Nightline. The show was off the air for a short time to make way for summer programming, but it returns tonight at its regular time of 8 o'clock. Swain says shes looking forward to taking your calls.

I dare say we can look forward to hearing from our politicians tonight also. I doubt if their calls will be time limited yet because the Premier has not called upon the Lieutenant Governor to dissolve the house. I wonder how many times the letters M O U will be repeated tonight? I know some people do keep count of things like that and just maybe they'll be good enough to let us know tomorrow with a transcript.

St. Paul Island with Cape Breton Island in the background.

Situated 44 miles southwest of Cape Ray is St. Paul island. The highest point on the island is 485 feet above sea level. Sometimes when weather conditions are just right i can go to the top of the mountains here in Cape Ray and see it. Sometimes when conditions are perfect i can also view Nova Scotia. The above photo was taken yesterday afternoon on one of those rare days when i captured a photo of both.

Aerial shot of St. Paul Island.
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Premier Williams makes another announcement.

Early this morning, the Premier of Newfoundland & Labrador, the honorable Danny Williams announced that on October 10/2007 he would pay out of his own pocket the professional services of this man to any Liberal Bloggers who needed it.

Ah,finally!

Finally i can do something to stop Global warming! Finally i can be out there on the front lines with the likes of Al Gore (who sort of reminds me of a Bull Moose) and Sheryl Crow. (who don't want me to wipe my bum properly) This fall i have a moose licence and with one shot i can do my part to stop Global Warming! Never has it been so easy to contribute to this great cause. What's going on,you ask? Will my friends i have just been told that moose are contributing to Global Warming.Yes,an adult moose can produce 2,100 kilos of methane a year. That's equivalent to the CO2 output resulting from a 13,000 kilometer car journey. If you find this hard to believe,check out my source.
So if you see me out in the woods this fall sitting on a stump with a rifle,drinking beer and belching.Just think of me the same way you think of Al Gore and Sheryl Crow. Im a crusader for Global Warming!
Now if we can only prove those God darn Seals contribute to Global Warming.

Paranormal my Ass!!!!

I recently wrote about the weather being a bit peculiar even for here. The local paper wrote a story on a freak wind storm that went through Cape Ray recently. Today after a google search i see a guy by the name of Rob McConnell mentions it in his X Zone Radio Show. It was quite the storm and lasted only 10 minutes but i doubt if it would be considered a paranormal phenomena by anyone. The peculiar weather continues and this morning i made an ATV ride to the beach here. One thing i did notice throughout 2007 was the amount of erosion taking place in the area. Higher water levels from the sea and the effects of wind and rain are changing the face of our local dunes in the area.














I grew up here and spent quite a bit of time on those beaches and now i'm actually wondering if the dunes will disappear in my lifetime? It'll have nothing to do with the paranormal but another phenomena called Global warming.

Ross speaks....not really!

From the VOCM News site:

Province Will Talk Wages With Nurses
August 18, 2007

Health Minister Ross Wiseman says they can't increase nursing wages until the current collective agreement is up for renewal. Nurses Union President Debbie Forward has said nurses in this province are the lowest paid in the country and that's a challenge when it comes to recruiting. Minister Wiseman indicates government will be willing to talk money when negotiations start.

What about the Home Care workers in NL Mr. Wiseman? We have no collective agreement with anyone. How about it Mr. Premier? You control the purse strings along with the puppet strings. How about wage increases for those of us who have no one to represent us?

Looks like even a Wheel-chair bound Cuban can scare the U.S.A. So it's no wonder an aged dictator still makes them tremble after all those years.

Mary McCarthy, was born in St. John's, Newfoundland in 1900 and met a businessman Pedro Gomez Cueto at the opera in Boston. At the age of 24 she became a widow but has lived in the same house for 61 years. Her jewelry and fortune she inherited when she was widowed in 1951 have been frozen in a Boston bank since the United States placed Cuba under sanctions after Fidel Castro's leftist revolution in 1959.

Since January this year the U.S. government has let her withdraw a $96 a month allowance from her U.S. Bank after Canadian diplomats interceded on her behalf.

McCarthy is asking U.S. President George W. Bush to free her money so that she can live her remaining days with dignity. She would also like to have her family's "trinkets" released.

"They said they couldn't give it to me because I live in Cuba. That's the only money that I have left. It is in Boston, but I live in Cuba, that's the great terrible, terrible thing," she said during a recent visit to her home.

Responding to U.S. officials who suggested McCarthy leave Cuba and return to Canada, Keyes said she was no longer able to withstand a harsh Canadian winter.

McCarthy has been confined to a wheelchair since she fell and broke her hip in 2002.

A devout Catholic, she prays after tea every day. Her godson Elio Garcia wheels her to a darkened lobby where, under the gaze of a marble statue of Salome, she prays with a rosary to Cuba's spiritual patron, the Virgin of Charity.

60 days until Election Day!
Newfoundland and Labrador will go to the polls on Tuesday, October 9, 2007.
On that day i can be an equal with all the other bloggers i see here. I'm allowed to cast a vote and they in turn are allowed one. That is if i decide to take the time to go out and vote. It might sound a bit foolish on my part but this is the first time since i have been eligible to vote that i actually don't feel like taking the time to do so. The way i see it, the present government like the one before it has not benefited my family and were no better off now than a decade ago. Letters & e-mails to my MHA and other government officials seem to have been a waste of time on my part. Seems like the only satisfaction im getting recently is from the auditor general and the RCMP investigations into the misuse of our tax dollars. My wife and i have been working in the Home Support System of this province for the pass 18 years and each year have hoped for a few benefits from our hard work in forms of a pay raise, few sick days or other benefits that other government employees take for granted. Each year we tend to be disappointed but hopefully soon we'll receive a slight bit of satisfaction when some who have reaped so called benefits get their just reward. So on October 9/2007 rather than take the time to write a x on a ballot for a candidate who i suspect is less likely to steal from me. I'll drive on by the polling station and i won't have a thing to be disappointed about. Sounds fair enough!

A Cape Ray Evening

Yesterdays mystery of the missing headstones have been solved. I made another trip to the area this evening and after moving back some tall grass i found them once more. The storm of the previous night had flattened everything all in one direction. The local paper had emailed me earlier in the day asking if i knew a Tornado had touched down. I have never witnessed that weather phenomenon before so i really didn't know. Some of my neighbors did have a lot of property damages. I do know that i must try and seek a bit of help in preserving those old stone markers or one day they will be gone forever. Hopefully with plant workers in the area seeking hours of employment elsewhere, some hours from a grant may be used in fixing that site up.

Our oldest granddaughter accompanied us this evening to the seashore and we spent a half hour or so picking some wild berries there. Her great grandmother will probably drop by soon and show her that with a few more ingredients those wild berries can be transformed into a pie. It's great to live in rural NL at times. Hopefully she'll remember those moments when she grows older and the photographs we take now will turn into treasures.

After the Storm

I don't usually write about the weather but the last 12 -16 hours it has been a bit peculiar even for here. Nature gave us a great light show throughout the night and early morning with a few power outages thrown in to irritate. Heavy winds, rain and hail at times sounding like a passing freight train made everyone in the community take notice. This evening it started to clear so i decided to take a walk to the area called the gut to see if the barhoisway had opened to the sea again. Saw a few rabbits and a scurrying weasel that i don't usually see in the area and had to jump across a few babbling brooks i never encountered on that trail before. I decided to go in the woods and check out the old grave site of lighthouse keeper and his family buried in the early 1900's. After searching around and getting quite wet from the high grass i gave up the search.With the land grabs at that site im hoping that the fallen grass has covered the stones and they have not been removed by someone who would like to have a great view from a new summer cabin rather than let it be a final resting place. I'll go back in the next few days and check it out again.

NEWS REPORT..............
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is in Dunville assessing the aftermath of tropical disturbance Chantal. Harper arrived at St. John’s International Airport aboard a Challanger jet at 10 a.m., boarding a Cormorant helicopter to head to the flooded area.

Will!!! i be a SOB!!! Invited Steve to our Come Home Year Celebrations in Cape Ray and he didn't show! We had beer,dancing,lot of young half naked girls and we could of Screeched him in. Instead he comes flying in to look at a few big pot holes that some tropical storm caused. I hope Danny pushes him in the friggin ditch.

Rubus Chamaemorus
Bakeapples



Today i decided to introduce my granddaughter to the world of wild berries. Along the Cape Ray seashore Bakeapples are ripening and on a hot day you can actually smell the aroma in the air. They ripen here in July but on the Table Mountains near our community it might take a week or two extra because of the elevation. I can remember as a child going out with the family on a Sunday afternoon and filling buckets with the berries.
Bakeapples/Cloudberry are native to most of the northern circumpolar areas. They are also found in Scandinavia, Siberia/Russia, Canada and the USA (Alaska and New Hampshire). It has also been observed in Greenland and Spitzbergen. Hopefully in the next few days i'll be able to go out and pick a few gallons. Today however i will post a few photos i shot this morning of them here.

Down to the Wire.



Just over 16 months ago a group of us decided to plan a Come Home Year Celebration for our community,Cape Ray. Our population is just 343 with hundreds of former residents living elsewhere around the globe. The invitations went out, replies came back and tomorrow we'll see the results of 16 months of hard work by a small group. The only obstacle we had no control over was the weather. In more primitive times i suspect a group such as ours could sacrifice some poor animal to the Gods of weather and hope for a good outcome. Since it's 2007 we decided to ask a guy who might be able to influence the Weather Gods. The only one we knew who might just have connections was that Great Weather Icon Karl Wells so we sent him a card asking him to use his influence and snag us a few days of great weather. During the next week or so i'll try and post photos of our community celebrations in my Blog. I suspect it's our first and last big celebration because of our dwindling population but for now we'll just take it one day at a time.

NF Interactive

A Blog today to thank the NF Interactive crew for posting a story of my community Cape Ray about to have its first Come Home Year Celebration. The NF Interactive web site has been on the go since 1996 and have received several web awards during that time. The site has many features including an online store and years of archived photo galleries dating back to 1998. A few of the other features that i particularly like are the Daily photo gallery where a contributor can send a snapshot and hope to have it displayed. Another is the Puffin Post Online Pub where members can post daily and keep in touch with fellow Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. Here posters can start threads showing off their own little section of the province or engage in a friendly chat. So click on the links today and view NF Interactive website. Who knows?You may just want to stick around and be part of it. I'm glad i did!

Today marks the 91st anniversary of Beaumont Hamel.

A group of us in the community have organized a Come Home Year celebration for 2007. Our CHY Celebration is set to run from July 2O/ 2007 - July28/2007 and a great number of events are being scheduled for that time span. Cape Ray has a population of 343 and it's been difficult at times getting things into place. With just a few weeks to go everyone is wondering how it'll all turn out. We expect our community population to double, maybe triple during the event and with the out migration suspect it'll be our first and last event organized at home on such a scale. The community is already showing positive signs with flags and banners hanging from poles and fences along the roads. So for my Blog readers a message."If your in the area at this time please drop in and witness the wonders of a little NL community and all its beauty. Someday it might be gone forever."

Glacier Girl

Here's an interesting one! 65 years after taking off a P-38 Lightning aircraft might just completes its mission. The P38 was one of eight aircraft forced to land in Greenland after encountering weather while en route to Britain in July 1942. The 8 aircraft became buried under 80 meters of ice and snow but 15 years ago the remains of one, renamed Glacier Girl, were dug up. Bob Cardin, led an American expedition that dug the plane out and after a decade using 80% of its original parts got it airborne again. The plane had previously flown at air shows in the United States and is now in Happy Valley,Goose Bay,NL where its ill-fated mission started out in 1942.

Youtube video of GlacierGirl.

Schools out for the summer....and longer.

An isolated community on our South Coast will take one step closer to oblivion. The tiny community of Grand Bruit will see the end of their school when Nicole Billard and Andrew Billard leave to continue their education in other communities. The word resettlement will once again be heard and i no doubt suspect within five years it'll happen. I watched here in my community of Cape Ray when the school closed and kids where bused to nearby Port Aux Basques how it took a toll on our population. I can only imagine how those that live there at this time feel. Some might think me crazy for wondering but i doubt those two school kids will ever experience the family or friendship of another place such as the one they left. I wish them both well and hope to hear about them sometime in the future.

Sorry for not blogging much recently and thanks to those who sent an email or two wondering if i left the Planet. I recently had to get an excavator come in and dig up some land because of a drain line problem. What i thought was a small problem turned out to be a much bigger one. Flowers,Shrubs and trees that i had planted for years suddenly ended up in the bucket of an excavator. Bit of landscape i took pride in over the years simply vanished and now i have to start all over. Now we get to start all over and soon we'll be trying to replace it all. To bad all things in life couldn't be that simple! Im just a little speck on that Pale Blue Dot in the video i posted and tonight the little speck is taking sometime off to go out and party.Enjoy the weekend!

After a stressful day i like to go to bed and listen to VOCM Night Line. Something about those nice relaxing funeral home advertisements always put to me to sleep. Of course in between i have to listen to the callers each taking a turn to call in. It usually starts with a call saying "the sky is falling."It's usually followed up a few minutes later by another caller claiming the sky is not falling and not only is it not falling,the sky was never there to begin with! It's difficult for the average Joe like myself to sort out the Bull foisted upon the airwaves. Some of the callers have such a soothing voice they should actually look into doing those funeral home advertisements for those of us who need our rest. The top Bull story of last evening came from a guy called Paul who claimed to of seen 352 Moose on the Northern Peninsula near the St. Anthony Airport. The last caller to the show claimed Paul was over doing it on the Bull and once again the sky was not falling. Some nights an ordinary Joe like myself can only take the word of Billy the Moon Man when he tries to drift off into his nights rest. RIP.

One for Nova Scotia MP Bill Casey. I wish we had a few Hero's like him in NL representing our best interests but i guess that's to much to ask for. Newfoundland dogs use to be heroic but lapdogs never did amount to much.

Where have all the good men gone indeed?

June 6/1986

The photo above was taken June 6/1986 when we still had a railway running across our island. I was stationed in Howley at the time and each morning our work crew would leave at 6 am to travel to the Gaff Topsails area to repair the railbed. The days prior to June 6th had been terrible weather wise and each day we returned sore and cold.The trips by speeder to the Gaff usually took a hour and we got blasted by the winds on the open trolley. On the morning of June 6th we awoke to see the community covered in snow and one of the senior guys said we could expect much more on the way up to the Summit. The trip that usually took one hour turned into several before we got stuck in the snow at Kittys Brook far below the Gaff. Our Speeder had its ice wheels removed weeks before and it simply could not tow our Trolleys. Nine of us stayed at Kittys Brook while the speeder made the attempt to go ahead.We spent the remaing hours of that morning viewing the Moose and Caribou that wandered around near by or simply chatted.After that day the weather changed and each morning seemed to be better than the last. 21 years have gone by,but i seem to remember that day in June very clear.Strange how some days always remain fresh in our minds.

Photo: (front roll.) Ed Saunders,Jim Snow,Wayne Osmond,Fred Boone,Charlie Riles.
(back roll) Gary Gilliam,Jim Bragg,Larry AuCoin....photo taken by Elias Osmond.