Have a great weekend!
Today in history: November 14th 1770
James Bruce believes he is at the source of the Nile River:
Category: Technology
Wooded pallets for moving beer are made from oak.
Photo KDG
Sources says that pallets can cost about 85 dollars a piece and that one supplier of brew in kegs may have a thousand of them. That’s near 6 figures in capital. the one for moving beer kegs are made of Oak. Oak is cut in the province of Quebec here in Canada.
Toxic to some:
The leaves and acorns of the oak tree are poisonous to cattle, horses, sheep, and goats in large amounts due to the toxin tannic acid, and cause kidney damage and gastroenteritis. Additionally, once livestock have a taste for the leaves and acorns, they may seek them out.[clarification needed] Symptoms of poisoning include lack of appetite, depression, constipation, diarrhea (which may contain blood), blood in urine, and colic. The exception to livestock and oak toxicity is the domestic pig, which may be fed entirely on acorns in the right conditions, and has traditionally been pastured in oak woodlands (such as the Spanish dehesa and the English system of pannage) for hundreds of years.
Acorns are also edible to humans in processed form, after leaching of the tannins. source Wikipedia
Oak is used because of it’s strength and the prestige of its name, often in furniture and trim in expensive buildings. Pallets can be a valuable source of recyclable material.
Make a Relationship with Local Business People You Deal With on a Regular Basis Over the years, I’ve chatted up more than my share of produce department managers. Yes, part of this friendliness was totally self-serving. I was looking for empty cardboard boxes for a household move, and then in later years, to move the kids to college. The same approach can work for pallets. If you are looking for a specific type of pallet, and you are a valued customer, good things can happen. You should understand, however, that some reusable pallets have to go back to suppliers. These may be rental pallets that are the property of those companies, or other reusable pallets that must be returned. Many shop operators, however, have pallets they will happily give away if it is not too much of a hassle to segregate them for you./p> source:http://recycling.about.com/od/Scrap_Theft/a/Five-Great-Places-To-Find-Free-Or-Low-Cost-Pallets.htm
Today in history: November 13th 1986
Kevin Bridges Scottish comedian and actor born.
Local ranchers are saying that their cattle have come home from summer grazing here in Merritt BC Canada. A local rancher says he is looking forward to the cycle again that will see him put his spring calf’s born in March and April out on some good grass grazing in some meadows he has on Iron Mountain. Iron Mountain is within sight of the city and has some residences on the south east side. He says his calf’s always do well on the grass lands there. Keeping calf’s and selling them as yearlings can be profitable but timing , weight and the length of time to keep them is a risk that needs some expertise. The Local ranchers voiced concerns about the return of wolfs in this area. as ” some where seen by some naturalists on the Thompson River side of Styoma mountain” in recent years. Bruno Mailloux, of Douglas lake agrees that loss of calf’s however it happens can be a hardship on ranchers.
Wolfs in British Columbia were hunted to near extinction under a bounty system by Government, in recent years their value to the overall ecology has been reinforced by science and in particular the health of Elk heards coexisting with wolfs in Yellowstone park in the US.
Merritt has recently seen a change to feed lots for dairy cattle. The dairy cows having a two year stay in feed lots before being returned to the lower mainland to produce milk. Grass grown here for feed lots puts grazing land in high pastures at a more interesting level of use.
Today in history: November 6th 1869
In new Brunswick the first American, intercollegiate Football game New England Rutgers College defeats Princeton University.
Opinion:
The news that a nurse hosting the Ebola Virus has been declared free of the disease is well received and hopeful. Logic says that a person once quarantined now free is also carrying antibodies against the virus, making serum from her blood is now a possible treatment for carriers, this use of her blood could be as expediential as the cotangent could have been. With thousands of forces going to West Africa to treat the source of the outbreak it gives us calm to know this resource exists.
The WHO has stated that transfusion of whole blood or purified serum from Ebola survivors is the therapy with the greatest potential to be implemented immediately, although there is little information as to its efficacy.[209] September 2014, WHO issued an interim guideline for this therapy.[210] The blood serum from those who have survived an infection is currently being studied to see if it is an effective treatment.[211] During a meeting arranged by WHO, this research was deemed to be a top priority.[211] Seven of eight people with Ebola survived after receiving a transfusion of blood donated by individuals who had previously survived the infection in an 1999 outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.[97][212] This treatment, however, was started late in the disease meaning they may have already been recovering on their own and the rest of their care was better than usual.[97] Thus this potential treatment remains controversial.[18]Intravenous antibodies appear to be protective in nonhuman primates who have been exposed to large doses of Ebola.[213] The WHO has approved the use of convalescent serum and whole blood products to treat people with Ebola source Wikipedia
Stay safe and take all reasonable precautions in this interconnected world we have.
Today in history: Oct 28th 1538
The first university in the new world is established in the Hispaniola (Dominican Republic)
One of 8 volumes of the environmental assessment. for the Lower Mainland 500 KV line. Hard copy at Public library.
Photo KDG
BC hydro has published notice that it will be doing fall winter burning of wood debris material along its new 500 KV line to the Lower Mainland, they say the work is “weather dependant” and contractors will be instructed to not burn unless the venting index is “good”.
The 247 kilometer line is still under construction and is meant to bring more electric power to the lower mainland and Vancouver Island. Merritt British Columbia is also having a cogeneration green wood waste incinerator worth hundreds of millions of dollars being built to join to the power grid.
Today in history: October 24th 1980
The government of Poland makes the Solidarity Trade Union legal.
Contractors for new
5oo KV line hiring
File photo start of
project KDG
Two sources on the third 500 KV lower mainland line under construction for two years have said that there is a problem with the bolts that assemble the transmission towers. The most recent report says that 150 towers are having their bolts all replaced by higher grade bolts. This extends the project for one local contractor for some time. The project is now being constructed from both ends with one of the contractors going to the lower mainland end.
A problem with a collapsed tower at the beginning of the project was caused by a failed lifting cable with the crane installing it. The tower construction is now at the Murray lake area, in the Coquihalla ; a source says that they are installing snow legs and estimates they are the strongest worked on in memory.
Today in History: October 15th 1878
Royal Astronomical Society, Okanagan observatory. The Astronomical society has a free observatory open Friday’s on the way to Big White ski resort outside Kelowna. they report that they started with a long term lease for a dollar and have put 300 thousand more to convert the old gravel pit into a viewing platform. At a recent presentaion in Merritt, they showed an interested crowd the heavens from the local Public Library parking lot. The equipment they have on site is more powerful and they offer it free on Fridays. http://www.okanaganobservatory.ca/
The Okanagan Observatory hosts free public observing nights every Friday. The Okanagan Observatory is exactly 4 kms up Big White Rd from Hwy 33. That makes it only 35 kms from Rutland Rd. We will be pointing out the Milky Way and constellations with special astronomical laser pointers as we tour the night sky. Club members will have their telescopes on hand and be using the observatory 25 inch telescope to show off celestial wonders such as the Moon, planets, comets, dying stars, stellar nurseries, globular clusters, open clusters and galaxies.
Today in history: October 10th 1967 The outer space treaty come into effect after being signed by over 60 countries.
Every fall there is a sports car rally in the Nicola Valley,The Pacific Forest Rally is the 4th stop on the national tour and is on October 3rd and 4th this year.Tenty eight competitors are featured in the rally guide and will compete for place and time beginning in a ceremonial start at 5:30 PM on Friday October 3rd, on Granite avenue downtown Merritt.
The rally has an offical charity, The Abilitas Foundation.
Best vantage points:
Lily lake, night special,815-830 PM, Friday October 3rd.
Today in History:October 3rd 1955
The Mickey Mouse club has its debut.
Kevin Griffiths
percypaschal
The Proprietor Review 