You are presumed to be honest and responsible without evidence to the contrary beyond a reasonable doubt… on the balance of probablilties you are justified by 51 % likelyhood.
The Local Naturalist Society is having the first of its fall/ winter monthly meetings on the 15th.
The meeting features a members photo night as well as an annual business meeting and election of directors.
Evening meetings of the Nicola Naturalist Society are held at 7PM on the third Thursday of the month in the Lecture Theater of NVIT (Nicola Valley Institute of Technology) on Belshaw Road, Merritt. Admission is free to members. We have awesome raffles. Nicola Naturalists
On this day: September 7th 2008
The United States Government takes control of defaulting (conservator ship) mortgage company’s Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac.
The 138 KV power line is in to the new wood waste generator, coming down Voght Street from the new upgraded substation behind the court house it goes across Central Park’s western boundary with the gated community known as Sherwood park ( after the developer Ron Sherwood a long time city councilor that developed it and is now retired to Victoria.). It crosses the highway up the hill from Norgaards Ready Mix,after coming across the Nicola Valley Golf and Country Clubs fairway. Down the hill and past the Osprey nest on the highway 8 entrance to town, where it continues across the then Nicola River to twin steel poles leading across the old John Collet Ranch/ Jon Peachy Buffalo Ranch. Onward to cross the Midday Valley Road to the 40 Mega Watt plant,still under construction.
The highlight of the line were the ropes left strung, for some weeks from the pole that supports the Osprey nest to a pole across the Nicola River. It was taunting to see the Osprey return then build a new nest on the cleared off platform while attached by ropes to the power line. The Hydro crews eventually came and placed a new pole 10 feet away from the nest and towering 15 feet above it.
The activity did not seem to put any stress on the birds who still continue their normal fishing and mating activity.( it will be interesting to watch when the line is energized although the birds will make nests on the top of regular power poles with seeming immunity to any kind of harm.) There are about a half dozen of the birds in area) ,only a single pair occupy the nest.
Nest gone File Photo KDG
The operation was supervised by a biologist working with the Lower Nicola Indian Band.
Ospreys returned from where they go in the winter File Photo KDG
On this day: June 15th 1934
The Smokey Mountain national park is established.
Pole installation and work on Voght street Merritt. File photo KDG Photo KDG
Hydro people reading for a line burial on Voght File photo KDG
A Hydro worker turns on power again on Voght street. File photo KDG
A transformer is replaced on Quilchena Saturday morning BC Hydro
Leaf has direct connection to 500 volt quick charger in Merritt. Photo KDG
Auger on Voght Photo KDG
Enhancing the image of the city photo KDG
Hydro showing their online consumption tracking. File photo KDG
Voght street Office of a local mine benifiting from new Hydro infrastructure. File Photo KDG
hydro replaceing aging and not so aging poles File photo KDG
New nest on live hydro pole no good for authorities!
Hydro worker on atruck
The old substation off Voght is demonstrably going away with equipment on site removing the obsolete decades old transformers and structures. The new one was opened last fall and can be remotely operated from the Fraser Valley with a dish aimed at the towers on Iron Mountain.
The project occurred in the same time frame as the third 500 KV line to the Lower Mainland from the Revel stoke dam area.
The Merritt substation project includes an upgrade of a 61 KV line to the highland Valley and its biggest consumer the giant Teck, Highland Valley copper mine. The upgrade is to a 138 KV line coming from the Merritt Green Energy Project a 40 KV wood over steam electric generator that will burn green wood waste from three local mills. Sources say that the contractor is hoping to turn the keys over to the operator next year possibly March. The Merritt Green Energy Project is licensed by BC Hydro and uses public transmission lines.
The project created a lot of jobs including many members of the local First nations bands. It also generated ongoing relationships with band governments.
The lines for the green energy project are a this moment in progress to the Green Energy project including a crossing by the Osprey nest on Highway 8 coming into Merritt from the west. The ospreys returned to a cleaned off nesting platform this spring but rebuilt it in the shadow of ropes and new poles going up around them.
On this Day: May 24th 1626
Peter Minuit buys Manhattan for tools Wampum and other wares.
If you have the luxury of a back yard here’s a carbon sink you may want to try.
Professor Downing found that constructed ponds and lakes on farmland in the United States bury carbon at a much higher rate than expected; as much as 20-50 times the rate at which trees trap carbon. In addition, ponds were found to take up carbon at a higher rate than larger lakes.
“Aquatic ecosystems play a disproportionately large role in the global carbon budget,” Downing said. “Despite being overlooked in the past, it’s small bodies of water that are important because they take up carbon at a high rate and there are more of them than previously thought. The combined effect is that farm ponds could be burying as much carbon as the world’s oceans, each year.” source Science Daily…Iowa State University
Editors note: consult with your insurance agent before hand.
On this Day: April 29th 1997
The chemical weapons ban of 1993 comes into force.
Last week the Spius Creek Fish Hatchery and Fisheries and oceans unloaded 170 thousand juvenile fish into the Nicola River at the golf course. They are the produce of about fifty pair of mature fish.
There is much interest in supplementing exploited stocks of fish by releasing juveniles that may be wild caught and reared in nurseries before transplanting, or produced solely within a hatchery.[4] Culture of finfish larvae has been utilised extensively in the United States in stock enhancement efforts to replenish natural populations.[5] The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have established a National Fish Hatchery System to support the conservation of native fish species.[6]
source Wikipedia.
Editor’s note The Fish on the bank was thrown there by a fishing black bear on the Nicola River. PP
Shakespeare for more than 400 years has been eternal in respect to mood and movement of feeling. The sonnet that has the Darling Buds of May reference still resonates even here an ocean away from England and Stratford on Avon.
The buds are breaking out all over to seemingly meet the Bards deadline here in the South Central, Interior City OF Merritt. More or less on time….
On this Day: April 27th 1810
Beethoven composes Fur Elise
A Tesla S, 85 charges up at Merritt, with an adapter to a DC 500 Volt 120 amp Quick charger, Aug /14 File Photo KDG
Al from Westbank was using the AC charger at the charging station on Voght here in Merritt on Sunday. A retired man and his wife he made the trip over to have breakfast at the Cold eater hotel. He was happy with the 400 thousand advanced orders that Tesla Corporation had taken on their new affordable model car. When asked why he bough this Model S 85 with the 500 K range he said he opened a Prius before and it seemed like a reasonable transition. I go to Arizona every year and like the Electronics for direction Al said. He leased the car to keep the initial price down including the 10 percent luxury consumption tax.
Growth, Coldwater hotel dome and flag Photo KDG
On this Day: April 26th 1956
The world first successful container-ship goes into service.
Horses can carry ticks in the spring File :Photo KDG
We found a tick on us after going through some tall grass near new construction on the North end of Merritt this week. The dry grass at this time of year is often a transfer point for ticks. Dogs can bring them into your home.
Multiple ticks were also reported on persons hiking in the Southern hills about the town here.
Ticks can carry Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.
Rocky Mountain spotted fever, like all rickettsial infections, is classified as a zoonosis. Zoonoses are diseases of animals that can be transmitted to humans. Some zoonotic diseases require a vector (e.g., a mosquito, tick, or mite) to be transmitted from the animal host to the human host. In the case of Rocky Mountain spotted fever, ticks are the natural hosts, serving as both reservoirs and vectors of R. rickettsii. Ticks transmit the organism to vertebrates primarily by their bites. Less commonly, infections may occur following exposure to crushed tick tissues, fluids, or tick feces. Source Wikipedia
When in doubt consult a medical professional.
On this day: April 13th 1997
Tiger Woods becomes the youngest ever Masters champion…
The downtown Petro-Canada at the junction of highway 5, 8 and 97c is offering regular gasoline at a dollar one a liter. Its been that way through the weekend and for about a week making for a bit of a stable period here.
The summer driving season is a couple of weeks away and even this weekend had glorious spring weather beckoning to be out on those roads. If everyone of us took some additional conservation measure for fuel consumption collectively we could more then probably stop any price increase in the cost of fuel from May to September.
We could then take an interest in weather grocery prices stay down in step with fertilizer and fuel for food production.
On this day: April 12th 1955
The Polio Vaccine is declared safe.
The Nicola Valley still enjoys the closeness of a small hospital with a full lab. File Photo KDG
Health is the preoccupation of the healthy, but most people know its value. Serious disease has decimated populations until recent times. things are better with bell weathers like the golden age of health after the discovery of more vaccines like the one for polio, thanks to the March of Dimes.
The World Health Organization recently came into focus again with a successful remedy for the Ebola virus in Africa.
Economy plays a role even now in populations without. However the axiom you can’t buy back your health when lost still resonates.
Editors Note: The hat in the featured picture looks like the one that belonged to an old retired nurse that pushed a cart about town for along time. It rests on the walk by the Royal Bank on the corner of Quilchena and Garcia, a poetic link to the relationship of money and health. The nurse is not noted about for a while yet we think she is ok. The wind gets a lot of hats in March Merritt.
On this day: April 7th 1967
Film critic Roger Ebert makes his first film review published in the Times.
Training program,qualify for when demand is high. File photo KDG
Opinion: The employment insurance needed in Alberta because of oil layoffs should not have qualifying periods based on areas of high unemployment,
rather a period to find suitable work should be universal and be able to be continued into a retraining period in case of failure.
Job beggars are counter productive.
Trying to stimulate the economy with government spending is like standing in a bucket and trying to lift yourself up with the handle.Eisenhower.
On this day: March 31st 1889
The Eiffel Tower is officially opened in Paris France.
Kevin Griffiths
percypaschal
The Proprietor Review 