River Valley Running Track Meeting & Fundraiser

Just a reminder about an important meeting coming up for anyone interested in finding out more about the planned running-walking track at River Valley Middle School. On Tuesday, May 1st the River Valley Track Association is holding a public information meeting about the project. The 400 metre track is to be built around the existing soccer field. The Tuesday meeting will go from 7:00 to 8:00 pm at the River Valley Middle School Theatre.

And then on Saturday May 5th, there's a community fundraiser for the new track. It's a Steak & Stein Fun Night being sponsored by the Knights of Columbus and it takes place at Buccaneer's Pub on Main St. West. Tickets are $15.00 each and that gets you a steak supper and a drink. There are door prizes, auctions and music for dancing. It should be a great time for a good cause. There are still some tickets available and you can pick them up from any member of the Knights of Columbus or by calling Keith at 738-8185.

Beware the Spot Check

It's amazing how easy it is to break the law and not realize it. My son just returned from British Columbia where he spent the winter. Actually he was in BC for most of last year with the exception of a few months last fall. So he's back and he's driving home from a visit in Fredericton in a car that still has BC license plates on it. Two of his buddies are in the car with him and they get pulled over at an RCMP spot-check in Oromocto.

It turns out when they check the records, my sons car is no longer legally registered. He hasn't registered the car in New Brunswick yet but he and I both thought the BC registration is still valid. Apparently British Columbia has public auto insurance and it's tied to the vehicle registration. When he got home his BC insurance was about to expire so he insured the car here. So he has proper insurance but because it wasn't BC insurance his registration is no longer valid.

After being told this by the RCMP officer my son called me and I spoke to the officer. He explained the situation and said because the car wasn't legally registered he'd have to take it off the road. And that's what happened. The car was towed and the plates were taken off and thrown on the back seat of the police car. My son said there were a pile of license plates that had been taken from unregistered vehicles stopped during the spot check.

I just want to say that the RCMP officer was polite and helpful and just doing his job. He explained to both of us exactly what had to be done to register the car and get it back on the road. This is where the story takes an interesting turn.

The next day my son takes my car and drives up to Oromocto to do what he has to do to register his car. And wouldn't you know it he gets stopped by the same cop at the same spot check. A few minutes later I get a phone call from the same said officer who says to me 'You aren't going to believe this but your registration is expired too". Not just that. My insurance card was also out of date. By this time I'm sure the cop was thinking... "What is wrong with this family?"

Here's what happened. The registration had expired about five days before this. We got the card in the mail weeks ago but completely forgot about it. In the same way the new insurance card arrived but again I didn't put it in the car. The officer could have nailed me big time but he didn't. He said he didn't want to do it again so he gave me the chance to register the car by phone right away. I didn't know I could do this. I called Service New Brunswick on a toll free line, gave them my license plate number and insurance information and paid by credit card. I called up that kind RCMP officer with a confirmation number so he knew the registration went through and I was off the hook for a pretty hefty fine. I owe a big thank you to that unnamed and understanding cop.

So the moral of the story is ... don't file away or ignore all those letters you get from the Motor Vehicle Branch or your insurance company. Oh yea... and don't forget about your vehicle inspection sticker either. It was set to expire too but fortunately I had the inspection done just a day before the spot check.

Drunken Boaters and Rules on the Water

(Also posted on Doing Stuff Outdoors)

Fishing season opened this past weekend. I noticed a few early season anglers out trying their luck. Most of them were in small aluminum boats equipped with a little outboard motor, usually just under ten horsepower. These are the kind of basic boats you find on most lakes, used for fishing or traveling back and forth to the cottage. They're not high powered cruisers or ski boats, just your basic work-horse model that has been used and enjoyed by outdoors people for years.

I came across an interesting story on line from Iowa. The Iowa House has approved a drunken boating proposal that excludes boaters who use small motors. Under the bill, impaired boaters with low-powered motors less than 10 horsepower would not be subject to criminal charges. Critics of this bill say the law is ridiculous and drunk driving should be treated the same way whether in a boat or a car.

In Canada if you're caught driving anything under the influence you can be charged. That includes all boats. We also have a relatively new requirement where everyone who drives a powered boat of any size is now required to have a special boaters license. It's called an Operator Competency Card. It doesn't matter your age or how long you've been around boats, if it has a motor you need a license to drive it. This includes everything from the biggest yacht to a little aluminum boat with a 4 horsepower on the stern.

This law came about a few years ago because of problems with personal watercraft, also known as jet-skis. People got on these high powered things and drove like maniacs. After they started cutting canoes in half and killing people the government stepped in. Requiring all boaters to know the rules of safe boating and pass a test is not a bad thing. But it seems they've used a blanket law to really target a specific problem. Personal watercraft and high powered boats that travel at high speed on small lakes could be a problem. If the operator is reckless or ignorant of the rules, these craft are dangerous. But the 60 year old angler who knows the lake and has trolled around in his little aluminum boat for the last 40 years is not going to be a threat to himself or anyone else.

Boats without motors don't need an operator competency card. I don't need to pass a test proving that I know the rules of safe boating to paddle my sea kayak. And yet I need to know a lot of this stuff when I'm paddling in ocean water like the Bay of Fundy where knowlege of tides and current is critical. Where's the common sense in all this?

Back to the drunken Iowa boaters where again common sense should prevail. That fisherman in his under ten horsepower aluminum boat enjoying a beer while he's casting is not going to be a danger to himself or others. If he's pissed up and chasing windsurfers he should be busted. I've known people who have been drinking all night and then decide to go for a paddle in the kayak. Bad idea and dangerous. A friend of mine almost drowned doing that. So I guess it's back to common sense and one important rule that I think should be mandatory for all boaters in all size of craft, powered or not. Wear a life jacket at all times. It's not good enough to have one for each person on board if they're not actually wearing them. Accidents can happen, even in tiny aluminum boats and a life jacket can save your life.

Earth Day for Outdoors People

(Also Posted on Doing Stuff Outdoors.)

Earth Day has come and gone. In this part of the world it was a beautiful spring day, probably one of the nicest days we’ve seen so far. Winter has had a tendency to hang in longer than normal this year.

People celebrated Earth Day here in much the same way as in other places around the world. Children planted trees. Both kids and adults participated in beach cleanups and park cleanups. There were musical concerts and hotdogs and burgers. In Rockwood Park in the middle of the city of Saint John people could go for a hike and even try out rock climbing. It was a festive day and I’m sure everyone participating enjoyed it.

The message to help the environment and take care of the earth is the same as it has always been since the very first Earth Day in 1970. Picking up garbage on beaches and trails is a good thing to do. Encouraging people to recycle, use energy efficient light bulbs and turn the thermostat down are all good ideas. It’s what we all should be doing every day. And given all the media attention about global warming and the sorry state of the environment, none of this is new or surprising, especially for those of us who love the outdoors.

For outdoor people every day we spend outside hiking or skiing, riding our mountain bike or just going for a walk is a celebration of Earth Day. We know how special it is following a trail through a forest and discovering a waterfall we didn’t know was there. We know how breathtakingly beautiful it can be climbing a mountain on skis and standing on the summit breathing in the view before jumping into knee deep powder for that floating descent to the valley below. We know how awe inspiring it is to see a whale breach or stare at a summer night’s sky so full of stars it almost hurts our eyes. We all have our own special outdoor moments. Adventures and experiences that we always remember, that help make us who we are. If we are true outdoor people we always treat the forest and water and air with respect and love. We don’t need to celebrate Earth Day once a year because we do it every time we go into the outdoors.

Celebrating 60 Years

The Royal Canadian Legion Branches 68 and 69 on the west side are celebrating their 60th Anniversaries all this week. Branch 68 is the only all female legion branch in Atlantic Canada. All the members are women who served in the military during the 2nd World War. They were in different services. Some worked building airplanes. Others were military nurses here in New Brunswick and overseas. When they returned after the war a few of the women got together and decided they wanted a legion branch of their own, separate from the men. And they did it, actually receiving their charter a few days ahead of Branch 69.

I had a chance to spend a little time with some of the members this week. I attended the official opening of the anniversary festivities and it’s good to see these women know how to enjoy themselves. They’ve shared a bond for many years and have so much in common together. They told me how it’s nice to be able to sit and talk with friends who lived through those times. There are fewer and fewer people around who did.

That’s the issue facing these women today. One of their youngest members just turned 81 and there are only 31 of them left. Membership is open to all women who have served in the Canadian military but few are interested these days. I was told how the members would love to have some of the women serving in Afghanistan join their ranks but all agree that’s unlikely. So this group who have shared so much over the last six decades will try to hold the branch together for as long as they can.

The other thing I noticed about them although they won’t admit it, each and every one of these women is a feminist through and through. Not in the traditional way we’re used to today. These women are strong, independent and know how to take care of themselves. After all they did it through one of the most difficult periods of the last century. They know what women can achieve. They’re proud of their own accomplishments.

We look at them now and see 31 elderly women. Some need assistance getting around. But when you talk to them you can hear the strength even in what may be a feeble voice. These ladies (and I think that’s a term they don’t mind) really led the way for women today. In a sense they were the early players in the women’s movement. They opened the doors for women and even though many of the men didn’t want them serving during the war, they did it anyway and they made a difference. Women worked making ammunition and aircraft, freeing up the men to fly the planes and fight for freedom. These women are responsible for winning the war every bit as much as the men are. I think every young girl, and boy for that matter, should spend some time getting to know these incredible women while they still can. They can teach us all a lot.

So I salute them and thank them for what they’ve done and for what they continue to accomplish. Happy 60th Anniversary Branch 68 (and Branch 69 too) May you enjoy many more years together.

Wedding Bells

My wife and I were asked to participate in a Marriage Preparation Course this past weekend. No it wasn't for us. We've been happily hitched for almost 30 years now. No we were asked to lead one of the sessions and share some of our marital experience with the young couples. Our topic was communication. This is the second year we've done this and it's as much an education for us as it is for the soon-to-be-weds.

Last year the group was more typical of what you'd expect to find in a marriage prep course. They were mainly younger couples while this year the group seemed to be a little older. A number of them already had children. Many had been living together for some time. We talked about how they had met and discovered that two couples first got together on the internet and one couple had that unique Canadian experience of meeting in Tim Horton's. They were open and honest and their stories were wonderful.

I don't know how much they got out of the session but I know we learned a lot. We talked about communication in marriage and how important it is. We gave them some exercises and shared some stories and they all listened intently and participated fully. In the end, as it was last year, the whole thing was a positive experience. Meeting people like this who obviously love each other and care enough about what they're about to begin to come to a course like this, gives one much optimism about the future.

New Favourite Place

I’ve heard someone call it ‘her new favourite place to shop’. It’s been a favourite of many from the west side and the river valley for years. It’s Olson’s Meats and Produce on Lancaster Ave. I was in there today, a Saturday and I couldn’t believe the people. They were lining up in the parking lot to find a space to park and they were shoulder to shoulder inside the tiny store. I’ve only been in the place a handful of times but every time I’m there it’s crowded like that. There’s probably a good reason for it.

One can find things in there you can’t get anywhere else. I looked at a package of something today and didn’t have a clue what it was. I think some kind of battered or salted fish, but I’m not sure. Whatever it was it looked good. The cheese selection is great, the meat is fresh and the prices are pretty good. Anytime we’ve been there we’ve found some real deals. This time it was precooked, packaged turkey that you’d pay triple for elsewhere.

I’m not a shopper but I like going in there just to look around. It reminds me of an old-fashioned neighbourhood store, the way shopping used to be before the era of malls. You can actually smell the food in there. And you can get just about anything you want. Easy to see why it can become someone’s new favourite place to shop. Now if it just wasn’t so crowed all the time.

New Brunswick Video On-line

(This is the River Valley Rambler column published in the River Valley News on April 19th, 2007)

Video is everywhere on the internet these days. I even have it on my blog. If you go to rivervalleyrambler.blogspot.com you can view a 6-minute video of the New Years Eve Family Celebration held at the community centre on December 31st. I put the video together for the River Valley Chamber of Commerce, one of the sponsors of the event. You’ll see and hear friends and neighbours skating and enjoying the bonfires and fireworks display. It’s worth checking out just to see the impressive fireworks. The entire show is featured on the video.

It’s nice to be able to view some local video content on the web. If you haven’t checked it out you’d be amazed at how much of it there is. I put the words ‘New Brunswick’ into the Google Video site and it produced over 2,000 results. Some of those hits have nothing to do with our province but many do. You’d be surprised at the kind of video content posted there and on YouTube.

The New Brunswick Offroad Club has all kinds of video clips of four-wheeling adventures on the back roads of the province. Fires are popular. The first NB site to pop up shows a fire in Sackville from last summer and there’s even some great footage of the recent tire fire in Moncton. If you’re a train buff, there are numerous videos of trains shot at crossings all over the province. You can even catch segments of the ‘Fishing Musicians’ television show hosted and produced by Glen Ferguson of Bathurst. There’s a lot of professionally done stuff on YouTube and Google Video. You can watch all of the marketing and tourism videos produced by Enterprise Saint John and the city including the latest that compares Saint John to Calgary and tries to entice expats back to the province. I watched a nine-minute feature about a hot air balloon flight in Sussex that was especially well done. Two balloons were flying side by side and there was excellent footage of swooping low over the trees and dunking the basket on the surface of a lake. (I've added the video to the blog following this post... check it out)

There are a lot of family videos on there too. Plenty of birthdays for babies and kids jumping BMX bikes and skateboards. There’s music and dancing and just about everything you can imagine. It would take more than a day to go through all the material on there from or about New Brunswick. I’m amazed, but from the little sampling I did it’s all good stuff. Even the family videos were largely well done and certainly interesting. There’s something about watching real people living out their lives for a few minutes on video that is very appealing, almost addictive. I guess that’s why sites like YouTube are so popular.

So check out some of this local material for yourself. If you’re interested be sure to watch the Grand Bay-Westfield New Years Eve video on Google Video or on my blog. I’ll keep it on there for a while. I also want to feature more local video content on the site on a regular basis, some that I have produced and also material from you. So if you have video about the River Valley area that you’d like to share with others contact me at midwoodmedia@gmail.com. And keep watching.

RE/MAX Tandum Flight in Sussex New Bruswick by getsmith

Remembering Our Soldiers

I haven't posted anything new to the blog for a few days. Part of the problem is the topic I'm struggling to write about. It's the only thing around here people are talking about and thinking about. What do you say when six soldiers die in Afghanistan? Five of them are from Base Gagetown here in the River Valley area. Three of them are New Brunswickers.

I don't know any of them personally. The closest connection I have is to the young man from Saint John, Private David Greenslade. He was just 20 years old, the same age as my youngest son. He graduated from high school the same year as my son. They might even know each other. I heard the interview his parents gave. I don't understand how they found the strength to do it. His mother said all they can do now is to tell people who didn't know David what kind of person he was. How he was positive and full of energy. How he cared about his friends and how proud he was to be serving in the Canadian military. David was their only child.

This whole tragedy is almost too sad for words. Not just for the Greenslade family but for the families and friends of all the men who died. Their only choice in this and ours too is really to just carry on. That's what the colleagues and friends of these men are doing back in Afghanistan. The mission goes on. So does life. All we can do is try to get to know them a little for who they were and then remember them.

RamblerVision

I see snow flakes coming down and rain and slush and all that wintery stuff we thought and hoped we were finished with. So it seems like a good time to take you back to a bitterly cold night from this past winter. Despite the chill there was a warm glow in the hearts of everyone who participated. It was New Years Eve and hundreds of people from the community flocked to the arena for a night of skating, bonfires and fireworks. This was the 2nd year the River Valley Chamber of Commerce sponsored the annual family celebration with the help of a large group of volunteers. The night was a huge success. The fireworks were fabulous.

I put this video together for the Chamber of Commerce. It features a lot of people you probably know. Maybe you're in it. It ends with the entire fireworks display from that night. I had never shot fireworks on video before and I'm pleased with the way it turned out.

This is the first of what I hope will be a regular Video feature at RiverValleyRambler. I'd like to see this site become a source for all kinds of video content from the local area. I have more video segments in the works and if you have video you feel will be of interest to people in this area be sure to contact me. Hit the play button. Watch the video. Tell your friends to watch it. I hope you enjoy it.

Pause for Reflection

There was some disturbing news from British Columbia yesterday. Two skiers were killed in an avalanche on a mountain about 230 kilometres north of Smithers. They were taking part in a helicopter ski trip. For most people it's the kind of news that makes you stop and think and feel sorry for the victims and their families. But when I heard it... my heart stopped for a second. My son Rory is in British Columbia. He's actually working for a heli skiing operation. His job is to do some cooking, dish washing and cleaning around the lodge but when there's an empty seat on the chopper, staff are allowed to go along. Rory's been out on a few trips already this season. He's called up to tell me how magical it is to be at the top of mountain where no one else has been and float down through a foot and a half of fresh, untracked powder snow. I'm jealous.

Thankfully Rory is working at Panorama Mountain near Invermere, not in northern BC. But every time you venture into big mountain backcountry, either by your own power or with the help of a helicopter, you face a possible risk of avalanche. Even on my recent trip to the Chic Choc Mountains of Gaspe we encountered potential avalanche areas. It's a reality of being in the mountains. It won't stop people from traveling into these beautiful wild areas but hopefully when a tragedy like this happens, it'll give everyone who goes to the backcountry a pause for reflection.

Flushing Fee Deadline

I hope you paid your sewerage bill by today. This was your last chance to get a $15 discount on your annual sewer bill in Grand Bay-Westfield. Fifteen bucks doesn't sound like a lot when your bill is over $250 but a saving is a saving. I'm still not used to paying a fee for flushing. In other places I've lived my contribution to the cost of running the municipal sewage system was included in my taxes. Even though we've lived here for 21 years now, we only just started paying sewerage in the last two years. Up until then we were on septic. I clearly remember being told by the real estate agent when we first looked at the house that a sewer line was coming to my street anytime. After that a line was promised in every election campaign. Well it only took about 18 years to get it hooked up. I'm not complaining. I'm happy to be connected to the system. There were just too many septic tanks in too small an area for my liking. So I'm paid up and glad to know that when I flush there's a system in place to make sure everything goes where it's supposed to go. By the way, I drove by the town's sewage treatment facility today just to check it out and make sure things were operating properly. It looked good from what I could see. I just wanted to make sure my $255 was being well spent.

River Valley Rambler - This and That

Since I started writing the blog at rivervalleyrambler.blogspot.com/ I've changed my approach to writing. Instead of compiling a longer piece on one topic I've started thinking of content in terms of shorter chunks about various ideas. So I'll try that with this column.

First of all I hope by the time you read this we're not into a federal election campaign. It seems Stephen Harper is chomping at the bit to call an election. I don't know why. Isn't he already the Prime Minister? We don't need an election and I know most Canadians don't want one. We're being electioned to death, especially here in New Brunswick. We just had a provincial election. We've had our share of by-elections recently. The last federal election wasn't long ago and the municipal elections aren’t that far off anymore. Please stop. I appreciate my right to vote but I don't want to do it every few months. I also don't want the government to spend my tax money on an election I don't want.

_______________________________________________

I seem to have misplaced my driveway, or at least a good portion of it. The torrential rains that fell after the snow and freezing rain washed away a lot of gravel. It didn't really wash it away. It just moved it into the ditch. Now the drive looks like a mini grand canyon with deep river valleys meandering down its length like snakes. Instead of thousands of years of erosion, this only took a few hours of rain to accomplish. My driveway is on a fairly steep hill and washouts like this happen every 2 or 3 years. It's usually in the spring when the driveway is clear but ice and snow remains piled up on the side and that leaves the water only one place to go.

So I got out the wheel-barrel and shovel and went to retrieve what I could of my driveway from the ditch and snow bank at the bottom. Some of the deeper holes I filled one shovel full at a time. After I raked and smoothed things out it still looked like Niagara Falls had come down the driveway but at least it was patched up enough to allow us to drive up and down without fear of losing an axle.

This just didn't happen to me. The torrential rains took out a lot of driveways and ditches in town. It also flooded many basements. When you live on the side of a hill like many people in Grand Bay-Westfield do, running water is always going to be a concern.

___________________________________________

Finally and still with the theme of running water, I read a terrific article about the St. John River in the latest edition of Canadian Geographic Magazine. It's about a lazy summer paddle in a canoe through the islands upriver of Fredericton. UNB professor Mark Anthony Jarman writes the story. Brian Atkinson took the beautiful photographs featured in the piece. It details the experience of paddling that part of the river along with an historical context. That's what you'd expect and it's the kind of writing tourism departments like to see because it's good for business. But what I really like about the piece are the extra, not so positive elements that Jarman has added. He writes, for instance, about bones and skulls of missing-persons from upriver washing up and lodging in the roots of butternut trees every year. I didn't know that. He writes of the glory days of river steamers and then adds how they collided or caught fire and how their boilers had a tendency to explode. He mentions the shooting and looting and burning and scalping that went on in the river valley in the past. Jarman doesn't dwell on the negative but he doesn't gloss over it. By adding these elements he makes the article more interesting and compelling and honest. It's great writing and having it published in a national magazine has to be good for the province.

(Find this column, past columns and other unique content of interest to the area by going online to rivervalleyrambler.blogspot.com/)