Alphabet Series

Prickly Pear Cactus

May 2, 2017 By Annette1 12 Comments

Welcome to week “P” of blogging through the alphabet, I’m so delighted that you have stopped by to visit with Amanda and I through this whole endeavor. How are you doing with it eh?

Anyways, recently my son attended the Project fair for our local homeschool co-op. His project was all about his cactus.

Part of the gig was for children to answer questions about their presentation, and one of the questions asked was “does Canada have any native cacti species.” The lad hadn’t researched that idea so had no clue, people offered guesses, most saying no it didn’t, but I did google and showed the lad the response.

Did you know we have FOUR cacti species? In British Columbia, Manitoba and in Ontario? I KNOW!!! A total shocker!!!

In Ontario we have the Eastern Prickly Pair Cactus…and low and behold guess what!

On Sunday we had a preaching engagement up in Kingsville which is REALLY close to Point Pelee.. the home of the Eastern Prickly Pear so we actually got to see some! I know! AH!!!! My boy child was SO delighted!!!

It could be found everywhere it seemed, but the lad did some research on it when we got home and found out that its on the Ontario Endangered Species list. Habitat loss and human interference play a big role in it’s demise, with invasive species NOT helping matters at all.

So if you see it growing in Ontario LEAVE IT ALONE!!! Don’t trample it, don’t dig it up, just enjoy it in it’s native environment and pull out those nasty invasive plants that want to crowd it out!

Let it enjoy the sandy dunes, and open sun, and let it flower. Let it fruit and spread it seeds (even if the fruit is edible). Just let it do it’s thing and help it along instead of hindering it.

Let other boys, like my son, be delighted in discovering cacti in Ontario!!!!

So what’d’ya say… do you have a “P” post? Come on in and join us won’t you? We’re delighted to have you stop in. 🙂

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Blogging the Alphabet: OHIP

April 25, 2017 By Annette1 14 Comments

Welcome to week “O” of blogging the alphabet, join me and Amanda as we wind our way through the alphabet, I do hope you will join us. 🙂

When I was thinking about what I could blog about in regards to Canada and the letter O… I got to thinking about OHIP. OHIP stands for the Ontario Health Insurance Plan. It’s how we, who live in Ontario, manage our health care.

Ontario’s health care system is one of the best in the world. Ontarians
who qualify can access a variety of health care services in their
community. NOTE: the system is not perfect, but it’s pretty good…. and for the most part it works for us.

Imagine… being able to go to the doctor and not having to pay for it! Well seriously, we DO pay for it, it comes out our taxes and salaries…. but since we don’t really see it… we can go to the doctor when we need to. Mind, sometimes I think we should get a bill so we know what it costs to go see the doctor as it would help stop abuse of the system.

A weakness in our system is that to get a referral to a specialist you NEED a family doctor unless it’s life threatening. When the lad was young he had troubles with his ears and we kept being told “ah, it’ll be fine, take this med”. We scrambled like mad to find a family doctor and my mom-in-law talked to a doctor she knew who helped us to get a family doctor and voila! Our son was put under care…WOOT WOOT!!!

OHIP does not cover everything.
Dental care, eye exams for adults under 65 is not covered and medication isn’t covered. Insurance coverage remains important for covering some of the costs for dental, optical, and medication.

But it does allow us the freedom of being able to schedule a doctor’s appointment, of not going broke when a hospital stay is required, of knowing that if surgery is needed I don’t have to weigh out the costs to see if it’s affordable or not.

Do we always get surgery as soon as we want it? No. We don’t. Sometimes we have to exercise patience (like getting my son’s ear fixed up). Sometimes we can’t have a private suite at the hospital (part of life to have to share rooms eh?). Those who can afford it can jump over the border and get surgery done there more quickly…but that’s a choice of affordability eh?

Somethings are covered that are politically based whereas some medical stuff that USED to be covered is taken away. Well what can I say… it’s part of living in a politically correct society. You need to take the good with the bad.

OHIP is for people living in Ontario. You do need to apply. You need to actually live here and you need a card to get service. Each province or territory in Canada has it’s own program for health care, and not all of them cover the same thing.

Overall.. I love having OHIP. I love knowing that my family can get the care it needs regardless if I am working or not. Regardless of if I have insurance coverage or not. We are covered and that is a good thing in my book. I do know that sometimes, if you aren’t working, you can get help with medication bills, or need to take the generic version, and seniors get assistance.

When I hear of people having to make hard choices about surgery or having to do “go fund me” campaigns because a needed surgery is going to cost them in excess of $30,000 … .it bothers me. People going broke over medical stuff…or having to choose not to have that needed surgery. It’s hard on families. I can’t fathom having to make those really really tough decisions.

Yes, it affects our bottom dollar.
But in the end…. it affects our health.
It’s an imperfect system, but, for the most part.. it works. 🙂 And that’s a good thing.

I hope you’ll come and join us eh?

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Mmmm.. is for … Maple Syrup

April 11, 2017 By Annette1 10 Comments

Maple syrup, oh I love maple syrup. 🙂 Don’t you… slathered over pancakes, drizzled into scrambled eggs, and baked into muffins.. mmm mmm good.. good good good. Won’t you join Aman da and I in blogging through the alphabet the letter M?

Did you know that Canada produces 71-80% of the world’s maple syrup? Most of that coming from Quebec. Isn’t that an wonderful part of Canada? We export to over 50 countries around the world, with the USA being one of the biggest importers.

My son use to watch Daniel Cook, so seeing this video brought back smiles:

Daniel Cook is actually learning the old way to tap trees (also the method used by home producers). Commercial producers have moved to the using lines and gravity to move the syrup from the trees to the cookhouse.

I learned when I went on a maple syrup tour a couple years ago that the lines come with their own problems. Apparently a large number of wild critters..in particular squirrels.. have learned the lines contain sweet water and therefore will chew on them to lick up the sap as it comes down the line. So the lines need to be checked regularly to make sure they aren’t damaged.

So why is maple syrup important?

1. It tastes great. If you’ve only had the fake syrup you really don’t know what you are missing.

2. You can cook with it. To substitute maple syrup for granulated sweeteners such as white sugar,
use 2/3 cup of maple syrup for every 1 cup of granulated sugar, reduce
the quantity of liquid ingredients in the recipe (water, milk, juice) by
1/4 cup and lower the baking temperature by 25° F. Maple syrup also
serves as a one-to-one substitution for other liquid sweeteners, such as
honey, molasses and corn syrup. (source).

3. Harvesting the sap (about 7% of the tree produces) doesn’t hurt the tree and there are regulations in place to protect the trees.

4. Maple sugar candies…enough said. 🙂

5. Maple Syrup is good for you, “A 60 ml portion of maple syrup contains 100 percent of your recommended
daily allowance of manganese, as well at 37 percent of riboflavin, 18
percent of zinc, 7 percent of magnesium, and 5 percent of calcium and
potassium. Plus, the antioxidant levels are comparable to a banana or a
serving of broccoli.” (source)

6. Top three world-wide producers are: (source)

Province of Quebec, Canada: 7, 989,000 gallons harvested.
State of Vermont, USA: 890,000 gallons harvested.
Province of Ontario, Canada: 400,000 gallons harvested.

7. Maple syrup was first discovered by North America’s indigenous peoples. The Ojibwa talked of the “maple moon”. (source)
8. Maple syrup is graded according to colour, flavour and density.
9. “Canada’s maple syrup producing regions are located in the provinces of
Quebec (primary producer), Ontario, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island
and Nova Scotia. There are more than 8,600 maple syrup businesses in
Canada.” (source)
10. Did you know that the Homeschool Review Crew reviewed Tap My Trees? Tap my Trees is a company that helps you successfully make your own syrup.

I hope you will come join us:

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Loonies and Toonies!

April 4, 2017 By Annette1 20 Comments

Hey there readers!

Welcome to blogging through the Alphabet with Amanda and myself. This week we are working through the letter L. I hope you will hop right on in. 🙂 Join us yes?

Today I want to talk to you about Loonies and Toonies… our lovely way to spend money! 🙂

This past weekend I went to the states for a wedding. It was fun. I had a chance to visit with an old college friend and see her children all grown up. It was interesting trying to work with American dollars…all green and all bills (except the small change).

Did you know that in Canada we have bills .. coloured according to denomination…and then my favourite.. the Loonie and the Toonie! 🙂

Why are they my favourite you ask?

Well…. Today I find it marvellous to have a bill for $10 and I’m thinking to me-self ACK I don’t want to break my $20…and low and behold in my change I find a lovely $10 in coins…it’s like a birthday present you know? When you think you’ve only got small change and find all those dollars hiding in there! 🙂 It’s a marvellous thing. 🙂

Why Loonie?
Well…it’s got that fine looking bird on it’s head. The well you know…the toonie is called such because well.. bearie would be STUPID (even if it has a bear on the head) and well…Toonie rhymes! 🙂 And we are a common sense type of people eh?

Why do we use coins for the $1 and $2?
Well.. it saves the country money as coins don’t wear out as quickly as dollar bills do.
We’ve even lost our penny as it costs MORE to make the penny than what it’s worth.

Tell me then…what do you like about the money of YOUR country? (other than the making and spending of it mind). 🙂

Join us won’t you? Link up below 🙂

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K is for Karst

March 28, 2017 By Annette1 14 Comments

Welcome to another week of blogging through the alphabet. Amanda and I are delighted to have you join us (for this week or every week) with the Letter K.

You can read others in the series:

A: Sidney Altma n, Canad ian Scientist.
B: Beavers!
C: Chant National/O Canada.
D: Dog Sledding.
E: Edgewa lk.
F. Tailed Frogs.
G: Greats of Canada.
H: Henry Hudson.
I: Igloos and Inukshuks Work

Karst is “a distinctive topography in which the landscape is largely shaped by the dissolving action of water on carbonate bedrock (usually limestone, dolomite, or marble).” (source)

source: http://www.cancaver.ca/docs/karst.htm

Karst is a geological process that takes a long time to form, it is the result of “the carbon dioxide cascade”. The result of this process is the formation of sinkholes, vertical shafts, streams that disappear, and complex underground drainage and caves.

As rain falls through the atmosphere it picks up carbon dioxide, and when it lands on the ground it picks up more carbon dioxide… this causes it to form a weak acidic solution called carbonic acid.

This weak solution filters into cracks and crevices, naturally exploiting them…. overtime this leads to the formation of subsurface caves.

This happens in areas where there is a lot of limestone, dolomite and/or marble.

Karst is found in large quantities in Quebec at Ile d’Anticosti, the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island, large patches beneath glacial-lake clays like Lake Agassiz (Winnipeg area) and in the Northwest Territories. Small patches can be found in Hamilton, Montreal and Ottawa. The mountains in British Columbia can also host Karst.
See this site for more information.

A protected cave system in British Columbia. It became protected because of vandalism issues. Cavers asked the government to help protect the cave system, thus leading to the guided tour system today.

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J starts with Jump Canada and carries on..

March 21, 2017 By Annette1 16 Comments

Welcome to week J of Blogging through the Alphabet. I am so pleased you have joined Amanda and I in this venture. 🙂

I wasn’t sure what to do with the Letter J.

I thought about Jump Canada which has to do with equestrian jumping. I LOVE watching horses jump. In fact it is one of my yearly joys to go the Royal Winter Fair and take in one of their horse shows. Of course when I go looking for a website to show you … all I get is the Jump Canada hall of fame nominees or references to their jumping program for young riders, but no actual website. Suffice it to say I have see a lot of horse jumping and the term “Jump Canada” used in relation to them. My older sister was (and still is) horse crazy and showed her 3/4 Arab mare and trained her a bit to jump.

Then I thought about the JumpStart program run by Canadian Tire to encourage children to get more physically active. You know cause horses jump and so do children right? 🙂 They do skip rope competitions/days in schools, help families put their children into sport activities, and more. Their vision is this: Canada, where all kids have a chance to fulfill their dreams.

And since my son and I love to watch our bird feeders out back, thinking about active children made me think about birds so…

I thought about the Blue Jay that frequents our bird feeder out back, how he’s a big, slightly bossy fellow but gets pushed out by grackles frequently (one bird against a mob tends not to work). He’s a handsome fellow but we rarely see his mate though we know he has one (at least last summer he did). We’ll see young blue jays briefly before they are gone. They are a lovely looking bird.

Talking about the Blue Jay of course will lead me to talking about the Toronto Blue Jays our local baseball team. 🙂 I used to love watching the Blue Jays on TV until I was hounded (quite literally) out of watching them. People mocked me once too often for watching them so I stopped. It simply wasn’t worth it to me. I can’t even remember why it was such a big deal to other folks at the time. (maybe the Jays were in a slump or something). I got my baseball fix by sitting and watching the small teams play when I went out walking the dog I had at the time. That was fun. And oddly enough wasn’t frowned upon. 🙂

I have a desire to go to a Jays game at the SkyDome sometime .. it’s now called the Rogers Centre or something along that line. It would be fun if we could get reasonable tickets…be good to show the lad a major league baseball team. I also think it would be neat to be sitting in the stadium when they open the roof. 🙂

So there you have my letter J of the week for blogging through Canada. 🙂
Join us won’t you? For one week or more it’s good to have you eh?

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Igloos and Inukshuks Work

March 14, 2017 By Annette1 20 Comments

Did you know that some folks think that a good number of Canadians live in Igloos? I know!!! It’s just so weird to me the first time I heard that. It wasn’t said in jest…the person was VERY serious. Trust this… I don’t live in an igloo and in fact I’ve never even been in one… at least a proper one. 🙂 I’ve been in snow forts and tepees and half domes but never an igloo. I would love to be in one though, I think it would be VERY cool to see if they truly get so warm inside that a young child could bundle about naked.

Made me wonder about the science behind the idea.

1. Igloos are made tight, in a spiral, out of compressed snow. Starting at the bottom, sinking the blocks in and building up on a spiral. The blocks decrease in size as they build up toward the dome.

2. In fact, the compressed snow is so air tight that if you don’t make vent holes and leave an opening at the top you can suffocate.

3. The design of a traditional igloo has terraced sides, this leaves a cold dump at the bottom for the cold air to sit while the warmer air rises to keep the people warm. The more people you add the warmer it gets. Since warm furs are placed on the terraced areas, it gives younger children a warm and safe place to play.

4. With the door being at a right angle to the igloo walls it keeps the cold wind from blowing in, a fire in the middle and a vent hole at top, keeps the air circulating.

Igloos WORK.

Another thing that works is the Inukshuk.

Did you know they are built to act as landmarks? They are meant to say “someone was here” or “you are on the right path.” An inukshuk in the form of a human being is called an inunnguaq.

Each inukshuk (inuksuit would be plural) is unique, and they each have their own job. They can be a random stacking of stones, or they can be built to look like a person. Most of the time, traditionally, they were just a random piling of stones, sometimes with a directional pointer.

Normally they appear singly, but occasionally you can find them in groups. The purpose of a inukshuk can be as
directional aids in navigating or to mark a memorial, or even to indicate migration routes for animals or places where fish can
be found.

When they are grouped it can be in a series to make a path, or in a group to mark a significant place.

They have been a valuable asset to the Inuk travellers throughout their history.

Others in the series:
A: Sidney Altma n, Canad ian Scientist.
B: Beavers!
C: Chant National/O Canada.
D: Dog Sledding.
E: Edgewa lk.
F. Tailed Frogs.
G: Greats of Canada.
H: Henry Hudson.
I: Igloos and Inukshuks Work

Come join us won’t you?

An InLinkz Link-up

Alphabet Series

Prickly Pear Cactus

Blogging the Alphabet: OHIP

Mmmm.. is for … Maple Syrup

Loonies and Toonies!

K is for Karst

J starts with Jump Canada and carries on..

Igloos and Inukshuks Work

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Alphabet Series

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