Efficient helicopter cropdusting

When I first saw the helicopter it was twisting about just a short distance from the highway. I feared I was about to see a crash. But the helicopter completed the twisting manoeuvre, flattened out and disappeared in a white cloud. It was a crop duster.

I've learned that the small fields in the area, filled with obstacles and surrounded by busy highways and suburban home are best served by helicopter crop dusters. For dusting big, open fields, the airplane excels but not here.

Helicopters are more expensive to operate and maintain than airplanes. Helicopters carry smaller payloads and fly at slower airspeeds than the fixed wind competition. But an experienced helicopter pilot can completely dust a small field very efficiently. One of the efficiencies is the the pilot's skill at smartly flipping his aircraft around at the end of field and making the next pass almost immediately.

The pilot I saw seemed to be  very efficient.

Round bales superior to rectangular

 

Hay bales were rectangular and much, much smaller when I was a boy. I've often wondered what the advantages the big, cylindrical bales offer over the older, smaller rectangular bales. It turns out that a lot of city folk ask this question.

• More hay is stored in a cylindrical bale. Cylindrical bales can weigh up to 1500 lbs. The older, smaller, rectangular bales topped out at about fifty or sixty lbs.
• Because of the great difference in weight, it can much longer to transport, stack and store the smaller rectangular bales.
• Large bales are not as prone to mold and rot. This makes them a healthier food choice for a farmer's animals.
• Hay is dried alfalfa and assorted grasses that is fed to cattle and horse during the winter. A big operation, with a large herd of cattle, can feed far more animals with one bale when it is a large, cylindrical one and not one of the older rectangular bales.

And there you have it. The technology making the large, cylindrical bales possible is a big improvement over the older system. Storing bales used to be a job for three or four people. Today, it is a one-person job.

Wild turkeys moving into town

 

Decades ago over-hunting eliminated (extirpated - made locally extinct) the wild turkey in Ontario. Reintroduced to southern Ontario in 1984, wild turkeys are now found everywhere, even in the city. This one was sighted strolling about the court on which I live in London, Ontario.

Coneflowers are native to North America

 

 

Coneflowers originated in North America. Then the English discovered these wild-growing New World flowers and took them back to England where the coneflower fared very nicely in English gardens. After a little over a century on the island, Lewis and Clark sent specimens back to the United States to the attention of President Jefferson.

But it was the Germans during the flower power era of the 1960s who finally gave the coneflower the attention it deserves. The German plant breeders cross bred various coneflower species to create an improved range of colours, forms and growing habits. By the 1980s American plant breeders had picked up the work. Today there are possibly 100 hybrids and cultivated varieties of coneflower available.

Bootleg fire in Oregon cause of red sun in London

 

The Bootleg fire in Oregon in the American northwest is the largest fire burning in the U.S. at present and it is immense. It has burned nearly 400,000 acres. The smoke from the Oregon fire is drifting right across the continent resulting in hazy red sunsets in London, Ontario, Canada, 2500 miles away.

The New York Times reported that New York City residents are now awakening to a hazy red sun thanks to the smoke from the west coast forest fire. Some experts estimate that the Bootleg fire, which at this point is still growing, may not be under control until sometime in November!

Yard Sail: not my spelling

Is this homemade poster advertising a yard sale really a child's work? Why do I wonder? The spelling of yard sale as "yard sail". It seems a little too cute. It is posted in a good location. A location where it should get lots of attention. It is stuck to the children's playground monkey bars installation.

 

Cities have global connections

 

The company delivering gas to homes and businesses in London, Ontario, is Enbridge. A Canadian company, as far as I know, headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. The biggest name in natural gas heating and electric cooling equipment in London is Reliance Home Comfort. Many of its customers believe that it too is a Canadian operation. It was but it isn't today.

Originally, Reliance was owned by Union Gas. Today Union Gas is no more having been taken over by Enbridge. And Reliance, its connection to Union Gas severed years ago, is now controlled by the family of Hong Kong-based Chinese-Canadian businessman Victor Li.

Have these changes been good for London? Have they been good for Ontario? On the surface, it would seem a larger share of the money generated by this residential and commercial gas business may have once circulated throughout the city and province, for the most part. Now, with the Hong Kong and Bermuda connections, a lot of the profits may be leaving the country.

I am not a financial wizard. I cannot say if the present set-up is better or worse for Londoners, for Canadians. But one thing seems certain, it is better for the governments of Hong Kong and Bermuda.