Has the warm weather and rain affected any woods operations/hauling yet? The rain knocking on my roof right now got me thinking about it.

Yes, our logging show is going to night shift starting Sunday night.

Unfortunately, its the ugly time of the year to be hauling on the off highway roads. I’m happy though, that last weekend was a fairly safe one.
Drive safely everyone and watch your footing in slippery yards. Take care, have a good one.

Chains, chains, and more chains. Man I hated slinging tire chains.

I wonder if the powers that be should have constructed an indoor ice oval. Climate change has really done a number to our outdoor one. Might not be enough interest or demand for one I suppose….

Even with cleats on my boots–I don’t bounce as well as I used to! That’s all I have to say.

I run up and down University Way and the speed vehicles travel is scary. One set of failed brakes and we are going to have a horrific accident at the bottom of the hill someday

I think the photo contest was a great idea to showcase some of the local photography both amateur and otherwise. But that being said I really think it was not planned very well, sorta like maybe a spur of the moment idea over the morning cup of coffee 250news meeting? It started out with asking for peoples’ photos of things that made PG special to you or reminded you of PG, it quickly morphed into anyone and everyone sending in photos of things that could have been taken anywhere at anytime. To me this was not the intent of the contest at the outset, but instead of asking people to keep to the theme the description was changed which made people submit stuff that had no connection to PG for the average voter so people started to vote for what they thought was simply a nice picture that was taken well, again, probably not the real intent of the contest.
I think a separate page should have been set up just for the contest which would have enabled EVERYONES’ pictures to get put up each day and have equal opportunity. I think it was on day 4 where it was stated that because of the amount of submissions not all would get up on the day intended, but that they would still be put up at a later time to get a chance to be voted on. Not sure how that would work since there is a limited amount of days to showcase the photos. I think when it was realized this still wouldn’t work it was again changed to state “only selected submissions” would be showcased. At this point the contest became a non contest because to get your submission showcased you had to hope your picture passed the first review.
A simple thumbnail page that opened up into a larger picture with a checkbox to vote would have allowed everyones pictures everyday to be listed. There should have been a few guidelines laid out, which there was none (another reason I think this idea was a last minute one without much forethough), which stated pictures that had no definable connection to PG will not be accepted.
So Elaine, I really like the idea, but if you decide to do this again in the future, which I hope you do, maybe either have separate categories for those who just have to show off their wildlife pictures and a few guidelines, and if you don’t want to curtail people with guidelines then you should have it set up so that EVERYONE has equal opportunity each day and not left up to 1 or 2 people to choose which photos are suitable and which aren’t, because those peoples’ taste is not likely going to be the same as the majority of people. There has been a lot of great looking pictures of high quality but fell well short of what the original theme was I think. There was also some real stinkers that I have no idea how they ever made the cut, which just goes to prove that the reviewers taste is not going to work for everyone.

From the solarfoundation.org. …… Employees of installation companies accounted for 22,900 or 65% of the new jobs added in 2015. The U.S. solar installation sector employs 77% more people than the domestic coal mining industry. Since 2014, solar installation has created more jobs than oil and gas pipeline construction and crude petroleum and natural gas extraction combined.5
If Christy wanted to creat jobs , she would but she doesn’t .

B.C. Ferries employs just a little over 3000 people . Where are all the billions they get going ?

Followed the Ghomeshi trial this week, good thing when “innocent til proven guilty” isnt a concept anymore your still at least allowed a defence lawyer.

I see that Christy and Coleman are crying that the influx of people from Alberta is causing a strain on the welfare and homeless shelters in BC. I seem to remember Christy was calling everyone back home to BC. I think Christy should realize that the reason people left BC was because there was no work in BC for them. SO Christy they are not from Alberta they are just coming back home.

Found it strange that our little dog won’t go down in to the basement anymore, where he’s spent a great deal of time. And since I have a late 60’s house, live in Heritage, decided to go get a radon test kit.
Northern Capital Wood Products on Mcaloney is handing them out free, so went and got one. I’ll test and make sure that concern is addressed.
Dogs can sense things.

Our Canadian Military spent $2 million of our tax dollars on 11 sporting event fly-bys in 2015. The Grey Cup alone cost $336,280 to fly two CF-18s over the game. What a stupid waste of money.

Here’s a crazy thought. How about spending that cash on vets that come back in pieces… physically and/or mentally.

Ataloss what do you mean backup by storage? What storage do have, ha ha ha.

Again just why would anyone use a power supply that costs many times more than Hydro in BC. Then don’t forget those panels start loosing inefficiency from the time first plugged in. Twenty twenty five years those panels are toast.

Those fossil fuel subsidies are not subsidies but normal writedowns any business gets. The US government is going to eliminate subsidies to wind and solar and are they ever crying the blues.

Now here is something interesting a status card carrying native who happens to be black, adopted by a native family in Bella Bella is barred from playing in a native basketball tournament because he is black. The rules state, “All players must be of North American indigenous ancestry/bloodlines i.e. 1/8th First Nations ancestry.”

Racism or what. Oh wait only whites are racist.

One more, RCMP are being issued and trained in the use of “Patrol Carbines”. Now if I went down to my local gun store and bought one of those “Patrol Carbines” it would be called an “assault rifle”, notice the feel good name change.

The issue of the “Patrol Carbine” is in response to the shooting in Moncton because the cops where outgunned, fine, but the average hunting rifle as used in the shooting is still more powerful than the “Patrol Carbine”. Also the RCMP is being sued for poor training and lack of proper equipment, that put those cops at increased risk as they should be.

Posted on Friday, February 12, 2016 @ 10:37 AM by Ataloss

The fossils got 46 billion of our dollars last year in subsidies . If we had a level playing field coal would be dead
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Not at all. The “subsidies” that fossil fuels get aren’t actual cash payments from government. Rather they’re tax cuts, royalty reductions and the like, in other words, the government sometimes let them keep a bit more of their own money.

Solar and wind cannot operate at break-even costs, let alone construction costs. Ontario electricity rates have doubled in spite of all the govt. subsidy. Same in Germany where every winter, some 600,000 of the poorest have to choose between heat and food. Also England where people were taking out loans they knew they’d be unable to repay, just to pay for electricity.

Posted on Friday, February 12, 2016 @ 11:48 AM by Ataloss with a score of -2

Wrong again . Back up is being handled by storage
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Not. That’s the idea, the plan but such battery capacity doesn’t exist. Last summer English officials were planning to re-start old coal generators and were awarding contracts to diesel farm generators to take up the slack.

Why worry about it, who cares what others think,you are not responsible for what your Fore Fathers did, all I know is ,we invented the Steam Engine, I think this says it all !

So, the Musquiam band is buying prime land in the Jrercho area of Vancouver. I’m having a little trouble figuring where they are getting the money from to purchase this. Only thing I can think of is the taxpayers of Canada.

Ataloss said “Did you also know that boats unless moored are also off grid” now what kind of a statement is that. Now on ships which I have worked on, have their own internal electrical grid, no solar panels.

Now if you are talking small boats a panel is handy to keep batteries charged, not the electrical load of a house.

So those little solar powered lights you mention for the poor, wow what an advancement, hey why not a proper efficient grid sourced from a coal plant oh wait environmental NGO’s are against bringing poor countries into the civilized world. Because of grid dynamics solar and wind are not stand alone power supply for a grid and being much more expensive than coal, coal being the fuel of choice for most of the world. Good plan would have more nuclear.

Australia is selling its coal as fast as it can dig it up.

Texas has 10,135 megawatts of installed wind-generation capacity. That’s nearly three times as much as any other state. But during three sweltering days last week, when the state set new records for electricity demand, the state’s vast herd of turbines proved incapable of producing any serious amount of power.

Consider the afternoon of August 2, when electricity demand hit 67,929 megawatts. Although electricity demand and prices were peaking, output from the state’s wind turbines was just 1,500 megawatts, or about 15 percent of their total nameplate capacity. Put another way, wind energy was able to provide only about 2.2 percent of the total power demand even though the installed capacity of Texas’s wind turbines theoretically equals nearly 15 percent of peak demand. This was no anomaly. On four days in August 2010, when electricity demand set records, wind energy was able to contribute just 1, 2, 1, and 1 percent, respectively, of total demand.

Over the past few years, about $17 billion has been spent installing wind turbines in Texas. Another $8 billion has been allocated for transmission lines to carry the electricity generated by the turbines to distant cities. And now, Texas ratepayers are on the hook for much of that $25 billion, even though they can’t count on the wind to keep their air conditioners running when temperatures soar.

That $25 billion could have been used to build about 5,000 megawatts of highly reliable nuclear generation capacity, or as much as 25,000 megawatts of natural-gas-fired capacity, all of which could have been reliably put to work during the hottest days of summer.

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In Nevada there is a lot of sunlight and a lot of solar panels, but they generate electricity at a cost of 25 – 30c per kWhr. With subsidies and tax benefits, the cost “falls” to 15c. (In this context, the word “falls” means “is dropped on other people”.) But the retail rate for electricity is 12.5c. So having solar panels doesn’t help you much unless you can sell that excess electricity, which the state of Nevada was buying at 12.5c. That price sounds fine and dandy til we find out that they could have bought the same electricity at wholesale rate of around two cents.

So Nevada has decided that’s what the state will pay… 2c, not 12.5c. The latest decision is to apply normal free market rules. Nevada will now pay wholesale rates for electricity. No more shopping for boutique electrons.

Taking into account all the tax cuts, subsidies and total costs, who would have thought that paying 15 times the wholesale rate for electricity would be economically unsustainable?

watchdog:-“The true enemy of the Canadian FN is the monarchy of England and the Christian Religion. Make your demands to them, not me.”
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Canadian FNs faired an awful lot better than other FNs that WEREN’T governed in the name of the ‘monarchy of England’. Look at the experiences they endured south of the border, in a republic that broke practically every Treaty it made with them whenever it wanted to. Go further south again, and see how the Spanish treated the FNs in the parts of the Americas they once controlled. As for the ‘Christian Religion’, the English were undoubtedly the least interested in converting natives to Christianity of any of the European powers that extended their control over areas occupied by FNs. The French and Spanish and Portugese all went at that with a vengeance.

Posted on Friday, February 12, 2016 @ 7:19 PM by Grizzly2

He’s 14 but still runs up and down well, no hip dysplasia yet.He was having trouble with his hips a year ago. I think tums are working. He’s a 10 lb mix so we give him half a regular tum a day in his meals. Vet was surprised but figured the calcium is finding its way to the joints.
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14 is pretty old for a dog. I would think he’s just feeling his age and finding the stairs difficult for his weakening muscles.

From yesterday:
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Posted on Friday, February 12, 2016 @ 3:38 AM by Eagleone

Good grief dirt an do some research before posting as fact.

Keystone Excel pipeline to Texas was a Trans Canada proposed pipeline. Thus Obama blocked the trans Canada proposal. Kinder Morgan is the pipeline to Burnaby.

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Right, my bad. There are so many proposed pipelines being blocked (all of them) that I got the name mixed up. Keystone Excel is what I meant.

You were less that succinct yourself, however, in that you said that Obama blocked the Trans Canada pipeline when you should have said Trans Canada Pipeline’s Keystone Excel.

However you think Energy East came about, Trudeau is now blocking it. If a Republican happens to win the presidency, he will immediately approve Keystone Excel but it will make no difference because you can bet your last dollar Trudeau will kill it on this side of the border.

To use a word from dirtman, Hydro is forced to buy boutique power from IPP’s and that power is more often than not sold at a loss.

Before Friday Free For All ends, I would like to mention that apparently our new Federal Liberal Government under the lack of leadership of Justin has sold off 80% of Canada’s Gold Reserves in one month WITHOUT EXPLANATION!

Why did they sell it?

To whom did they sell it?

Why was nothing said about them selling our Gold Reserves?

Where is the cash from the sale?

Canada only had about 19 million in gold. Countries use other much more easily movable assets now, not gold.