The latitude of Dublin is 55 and change. Our lake is actually at 45:55; Sudbury is at 46:45. That 10 degrees of latitude makes a big difference. The sunrise/sunset for Sudbury, north of us, on June 21 is 5:31 / 9:21.
Today's sunrise / sunset are 5:47 / 8:55 in Sudbury. In Daytona, just north of us in Florida, sunrise / sunset are 6:30 / 8:11. They max out at 6:25 / 8:26 on June 21 ... not much different and almost a full two hours shorter day than here. Just think if we didn't have daylight-savings-time ... the sunrise here at the cottage would be at 4:31 ! That would be GREAT !! After all, I don't see that sunset at 9:21 since I'm already in bed :).
Hey, in Iceland, the sunrise is 2:55 a.m. and sunset at 12:04 a.m. the next day, i.e. "night" is just over three hours long. Whitehorse, Yukon is further south as it's times are 4:27 / 11:37.
It's hard to find a community north of the Arctic Circle, but Barrow Alaska is one. Their last sunrise was May 10 and it will set on August 2nd. Wow ... that's a long day !! Unfortunately there's no place to ride a bike; the roads are short and don't go anywhere.
I posted the following picture on Facebook, but for you who don't access FB, our daffys are in full bloom. These were planted by my Dad. Soon we'll have lots of Lupins, donated by Philip's ex-wife Sarah and Forget-Me-Nots that were planted in memory of my Grandfather, with Alzheimer's. Both the Lupins and the FMN's have spread nicely; Daffy's need some bulb-splitting to spread. We'll also have Hosta, planted by my Mom that came from behind our fence at Glenburnie Rd in Mississauga. We're not sure who planted those, but they thrived there. Here they get somewhat drowned out by the raspberries and weeds ...
----------------
I actually got a few things accomplished. I got the lake-water-pump running and then it lost its prime due to my stupidity, lifting up the intake because I suspected that the foot valve was leaking. I then tried and tried and tried to get it primed again without any luck, finally took the foot valve off and bingo, the threads had been abraided so much that it was leaking a ton. I don't know how I managed to get it primed the first time !
I decided that I didn't like the 4-wheeler on the boat trailer, that any shift in its position would have it off the plywood. I rolled it back, pushed it outside and moved the Whaler trailer out to the other side of the driveway. The 4x6 was already out of the barn. I moved the 5x8 forward but before doing any more, I thought -- you know, the 4-wheeler has now been sitting in the sun for a while, perhaps I should try starting it again. It started right away, with quick-start of course, but the difference was that this time I was able to keep it running !
Without even getting the seat on, I backed it up, out the driveway and went to the near end of the road and turned around. It kept running but it was surging and sputtering. I kept on going, turning around close to Simms ... and then it stalled on me cross-wise on the road. Yikes ! I managed to get it going again, thank goodness, because the battery was down and I didn't have any quick-start with me, and went back home. I then ran a bunch of carburetor cleaner through it ... and it's now purring like it's just had a major tune-up. I did some work with it for the balance of the afternoon, starting and stopping etc. and every time it started up right away.
I'll give it another go today and hopefully it will start up and and trip to Parry Sound can be delayed. So far so good.
So ... I thought that I might have equivalent luck with th 3-wheeler, but no go. It's exhibiting the same symptoms. I'll give it another few tries. Perhaps I have to load it onto a trailer before it realizes that I'm really serious !
I brought down the 4xMuskoka chairs that we setup at the cove. I hauled up some garbage from the basement as well as the sleds that I hadn't bothered putting away at -38 at Christmas.
Sandy swept the deck and brought all the deck furniture out from under the deck, except for the table, which I helped her with. She finished off the afternoon with a brief sit on the deck. Sheltered from the wind, it was nice.
The blackflies are gathering but not biting yet. Soon.
It's always something, here at the cottage. The 4-wheeler, which shouldn't take any time, gobbled up many hours. The water pump, which should be a 15 minute chore, took a morning. Jason had a tree to cut up and his septic wasn't draining at first -- but now ok, although I'm sure that they're taking it easy on the toilet and having brief showers. Yes, it's always something. The cold / nature takes its toll.
Today I plan on going for a bike ride, the first of the cottage season. Hopefully the weather cooperates.
We have eaten well, as usual. Wings with Jason then the next night Sandy's fiddleheads/shrimp/spaghettini in a cream sauce, last night stir fry fondue beef, in the freezer since New Year's Eve.
I went to Mass in Britt yesterday and stopped at the Grundy Lake store on the way back. They had skim milk, albeit not in the 4-liter bags. She said that she could get them in. They also have diesel ! although it had a yellow handle and I suspect that I'd have to use the dang adapter again. Am I going to find that all over Ontario ? If so, I wonder if I can change the filler neck or whether that's too much of a pain. I'd have to check with BMW, I suppose.
At Sandy's insistence I took down the bird nest over the back door. She's wanted that down for a couple of years. The birds leave a lot of guano flying in and out and often end up abandoning their eggs with the people traffic. I felt bad. There were five little eggs in the nest. It's too bad that I couldn't move the nest to a safe place and have the bird follow me and continue to sit on the eggs.
Onward ...
No comments:
Post a Comment