Have a great weekend!
Today in history: November 14th 1770
James Bruce believes he is at the source of the Nile River:
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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.
Osprey at the Nicola river.
Photo KDG
Thanks to all that remembered the occasions of the last two days.
Today in history: November 12th 1987
Born Canadian ice hockey player, Bryan Little
The National Film Board has a production available with free streaming through the 11th on the history of the 22d infantry regiment of Canada as it is 100 years old this year as well… Click the link below to see the 1 hour production.
https://www.nfb.ca/film/van_doos_100_years_royal_22e_regiment/embed/player
The Van Doos, 100 Years with the Royal 22e Régiment by Claude Guilmain, National Film Board of Canada
The Van Doos, 100 Years with the Royal 22e Régiment by Claude Guilmain, National Film Board of Canada
Today in history: November 11 1918 The armistice ending the First World War is signed.
A crane drives piles at the 200 million dollar cogen facility in Merritt BC
Photo KDG
A few years ago the provincial hydro authority wanted to add another generator to the Revelstoke Dam to fill the 4th bay of the five bay dam site, they could not get a contractor for the project so the billion dollar project went into a holding pattern. Since that time it has been resolved and that generator is on stream.
Today the hydro news letter is saying another increase in generating ability is being done on the 40 year old WAC Bennett dam on the Peace river in north eastern BC. The Gordon M. Shrum Generating Station is getting attention :
“There’s nothing else like it,” says Gammer. “There are lots of other dams and generating stations in the province, of course, but this is the biggest one we have.” Keeping GMS operational at all times is critical to maintaining provincial power reliability. That’s the thinking behind continual maintenance programs that aim to keep dam and generating station equipment in good working order. Staff work year-round to maintain the day-to-day reliability, but as with all facilities, the time comes when regular maintenance just isn’t enough. “GMS is more than 40 years old and large parts are starting to wear out and need replacement,” says Gammer. One way to think of it, he says, is to think of maintenance on your home. Good maintenance like repairing cracks, cleaning gutters and updating appliances is necessary all the time, but eventually, he says, you’re going to need to do major repairs, such as replacing your roof. “And we did that very thing at Peace Canyon.” There’s a lengthy and complex capital program underway at GMS and W.A.C. Bennett to complete these major repairs. Along with maintaining the critical reliability, these heritage facilities are benefiting from the improved technology and equipment available today. Just like you’ll get more out of a laptop manufactured today compared to a computer manufactured in the 1980’s, new equipment such as transformers and turbines perform more efficiently today compared to those installed when GMS first went into service.
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Replacing transformers at GMS. Transformers increase the voltage at the station to 500,000 volts to efficiently carry electricity over long distances, and 12 of the 30 transformers at GMS have been replaced over the last five years.
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Replacing five turbine runners at GMS. Through the power of falling water, the turbines rotate at 150 rpm, spinning the connected equipment in the generator to produce electricity. This multi-year project will wrap up in 2017.
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Upgrading the control system for the generating station. The unit controls on all 10 generating units needs to be replaced. Work is already underway on the second unit in this multi-year project.
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Rip-rap upgrade on the outside of the dam face. Large rock (rip-rap) protects the upstream face of the WAC Bennett Dam from wave erosion. The current plan is to start rip-rap replacement in the summer of 2016, after obtaining all permits and regulatory approvals.
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Spillway Chute Upgrade. Upgrades and repairs are required to improve the condition of sections of the spillway, which is 680 metres long and 30 metres wide. source http://www.bchydro.com/news/conservation/2014/gm-shrum-generating-station.html?WT.mc_id=c-14-11_upgrades
Four and a half million people in BC get some power from the station and as a lot of hydro infrastructure, it needs attention, and hydro is going strong on projects about the province. Pick up trucks and crews are out and about all over here and from replacing cedar poles with pine treated poles with arsenic and copper to new 500 KV lines electricity is big stuff here. BC hydro power and authority has a legislated monopoly on every drop of water in the province for power generation and has had difficulty in recent years in licencing out some of that ability ( the run of the rivers sub licencing) and keeping the cost of that cogeneration down. A co generation project here in Merritt will see a green energy project ( burning green wood waste ) use the public electric grid to sent that recapture into the grid. But at what price we wonder. Missing here are wind turbines ( wrong kind of wind, to gusty) and solar energy capture. We are on the EV charging station grid and hope it is more then just public relations. The most successful public relations program Hydro ever had in our view was the `it works like a dam `conservation project and to the prudent it should still be in the mind of all rate payers in the province. The production of hydro power while attractive in its lack of smokestacks does not add to the nitrogen cycle as properly managed petro chemicals do. Fertilizer for crops and stirred up nutrients for food chain are important as well. Toxic substance should be removed and carbon sinks of large crop lands enhanced as well as conservation. Thrift in waste is an economic opportunity as shown in places like California in recent years.
Today in history: November 5th 2003:
Green River Killer, Gary Ridgeway pleads guilty to 48 murders.
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.
Cannes Film Festival:
The local Nicola Valley film society is having their presentation of an international film on Monday November 17th at the NVIT campus lecture theater.
5 dollar admission on a 2 dollar season membership.(available at the door) No food or drinks in the Lecture theatre. Start time is 7 PM this year.
http://www.Thelunchboxmovie.com
Today in History: November 7th 2002
Iran bans the advertising of American products.
Free range Turkeys out and about on Garcia street, poultry workers are considered at risk for the flu and qualify for free flu clinics.
Photo KDG
The public health people are offering flu shots to those at risk on November 5th, 10 AM -5PM at the Merritt civic center..This is the last opportunity for this clinic as a previous day on October 29th precedes this, at the 1950 Mamette Avenue location. There is a catch up clinic at the Public health Center 3451 Voght street, December 3rd 9AM to 4PM , an appointment is necessary for this clinic. Call 250-378-3400.
Watch out for the advanced poll for the November 15th general election that is on that day to avoid confusion. It is next door at City Hall, 2185 Voght Street from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Today in history: November 4th 2008
The United States elects its first African-American president:
Trick or treatment
C KDG
Today in history: October 31 2011
The population of the world reach’s 7 billion.
A Lacrosse rink is poured on Voght street
Photo KDG
Canada’s national summer sport is getting a boost here in Merritt as rink and clubhouse takes shape on Voght street.
Today in history: October 30th 1973
The Bosporus bridge is constructed connecting the continents of Europe and Asia for the second time.
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)
Kevin Griffiths
percypaschal
