FundyBrian’s Explorations

We went down to Alma to see if there was any post hurricane storm damage and to get some gas for the generator. The gas station was without power, too but has the pumps set up on a generator so people can get gas.
Everything looked surprisingly normal until we went up the mill road and we noticed a couple of very big trees down. After parking for our walk we went back to the first house and walked around back where the tree was down and some people were milling about. It was a giant Poplar about 125 feet tall and the main trunk more than 2 feet across. But it had 3 trunks so the overall size was bigger. The tree didn’t break - it was uprooted. I think the tree was on the lot behind this one. The heaving up of the ground by the roots put a garden shed on quite a slant. It fell diagonally across their back yard, across another garden shed but not resting on it, and missing their house entirely by just a few feet, but landing squarely on the roof of the next house which was just the width of the driveway away.
View attachment 149237
Part of the tree broke through the roof and the weight of the tree on the house caused the wall to bulge. The tree broke over the peak of the roof and fell down the other side as well. I’m not sure if the roof peak was broken but it looked like it. In the process it broke 2 power lines.
View attachment 149242
This is a view from the street. From this distance the tree doesn’t look like much at all. The size and weight of the tree will require a crane to lift it off the house to remove the tree to prevent further damage to the house. To add insult to injury, people don’t consider Poplar to be any good for firewood so no one even wants the wood once it’s cut up.

View attachment 149243
Just a couple of houses further along the street there was another giant Poplar tree uprooted. This time landing just behind a small gift shop. Although some of the tree branches are draped over the building the actual weight of the tree is on the ground behind the shop. They were lucky. Less lucky are the crows that used to roost in this tree.

Except for the power being off the rest of the village looked quite normal, or as normal as it gets.

The wind was coming from the land so there were no great on-shore waves or damage that I have heard about. Also, most of the wind happened during low tide when the waves would be quite far from shore (1km).

We took a drive out to Waterside beach and saw several trees laying on power lines along the way. The beach looked completely normal.
W:astonished:W

This is a reminder to make sure my tiny house is not near any big trees!! :eek:
 
We went down to Alma to see if there was any post hurricane storm damage and to get some gas for the generator. The gas station was without power, too but has the pumps set up on a generator so people can get gas.
Everything looked surprisingly normal until we went up the mill road and we noticed a couple of very big trees down. After parking for our walk we went back to the first house and walked around back where the tree was down and some people were milling about. It was a giant Poplar about 125 feet tall and the main trunk more than 2 feet across. But it had 3 trunks so the overall size was bigger. The tree didn’t break - it was uprooted. I think the tree was on the lot behind this one. The heaving up of the ground by the roots put a garden shed on quite a slant. It fell diagonally across their back yard, across another garden shed but not resting on it, and missing their house entirely by just a few feet, but landing squarely on the roof of the next house which was just the width of the driveway away.
View attachment 149237
Part of the tree broke through the roof and the weight of the tree on the house caused the wall to bulge. The tree broke over the peak of the roof and fell down the other side as well. I’m not sure if the roof peak was broken but it looked like it. In the process it broke 2 power lines.
View attachment 149242
This is a view from the street. From this distance the tree doesn’t look like much at all. The size and weight of the tree will require a crane to lift it off the house to remove the tree to prevent further damage to the house. To add insult to injury, people don’t consider Poplar to be any good for firewood so no one even wants the wood once it’s cut up.

View attachment 149243
Just a couple of houses further along the street there was another giant Poplar tree uprooted. This time landing just behind a small gift shop. Although some of the tree branches are draped over the building the actual weight of the tree is on the ground behind the shop. They were lucky. Less lucky are the crows that used to roost in this tree.

Except for the power being off the rest of the village looked quite normal, or as normal as it gets.

The wind was coming from the land so there were no great on-shore waves or damage that I have heard about. Also, most of the wind happened during low tide when the waves would be quite far from shore (1km).

We took a drive out to Waterside beach and saw several trees laying on power lines along the way. The beach looked completely normal.
Is wood a typical building material in Canada Brian? Is there brick underneath the wood exterior?
 
Is wood a typical building material in Canada Brian? Is there brick underneath the wood exterior?
In this area (rural), 2x6” wood frame construction is the norm, including wood sheathing for the exterior walls for residential buildings. On cement foundations that go at least 4 feet below grade to be below the frost in winter. Of course a basement would be deeper still, and most houses have basements. But even if you were making a deck attached to your house it needs to have a foundation at least 4 feet below grade or it will heave up in the winter.
Most current buildings use vinyl siding instead of wood siding.

You want at least 6 inches of insulation in the exterior walls for winter, 8” would be better.

The house in the picture used to be the local orange hall and is about 140 years old. It has the older narrow wood siding.

In the city, commercial buildings or bigger homes would use brick exterior or stone facing. Although the brick or stone facing on a lot of smaller buildings is “simulated” stone, made of some sort of fibreglass composite. And of course larger commercial buildings use steel beam inner construction.

In some areas that are close to a brick making plant you would see more brick houses. A brick house needs a heavier foundation with wider footings and a ledge made in the foundation wall to support the weight of the brick. All of which means more expense.

The only thing made of brick on rural houses is the chimney, and even that is being replaced by insulated stainless steel on newer houses.

For stone construction you need to be near a source of the right kind of stone that lends itself to square cutting and flat planes. Most stone here is leftover cobble from the ice age, meaning round, and mostly too small, which makes using stone for buildings quite a chore.
 
In this area (rural), 2x6” wood frame construction is the norm, including wood sheathing for the exterior walls for residential buildings. On cement foundations that go at least 4 feet below grade to be below the frost in winter. Of course a basement would be deeper still, and most houses have basements. But even if you were making a deck attached to your house it needs to have a foundation at least 4 feet below grade or it will heave up in the winter.
Most current buildings use vinyl siding instead of wood siding.

You want at least 6 inches of insulation in the exterior walls for winter, 8” would be better.

The house in the picture used to be the local orange hall and is about 140 years old. It has the older narrow wood siding.

In the city, commercial buildings or bigger homes would use brick exterior or stone facing. Although the brick or stone facing on a lot of smaller buildings is “simulated” stone, made of some sort of fibreglass composite. And of course larger commercial buildings use steel beam inner construction.

In some areas that are close to a brick making plant you would see more brick houses. A brick house needs a heavier foundation with wider footings and a ledge made in the foundation wall to support the weight of the brick. All of which means more expense.

The only thing made of brick on rural houses is the chimney, and even that is being replaced by insulated stainless steel on newer houses.

For stone construction you need to be near a source of the right kind of stone that lends itself to square cutting and flat planes. Most stone here is leftover cobble from the ice age, meaning round, and mostly too small, which makes using stone for buildings quite a chore.
Interesting info Brian thank you. I live in a wooden framed, wood clad house and in the UK that's very unusual. People look at me strangely when I tell them here :rolleyes:
Funnily enough the local authority purchased them from Canada as kits after the war when building materials were in short supply. They were only supposed to last a few years, but hey they're still standing !
 
Interesting info Brian thank you. I live in a wooden framed, wood clad house and in the UK that's very unusual. People look at me strangely when I tell them here :rolleyes:
Funnily enough the local authority purchased them from Canada as kits after the war when building materials were in short supply. They were only supposed to last a few years, but hey they're still standing !
Wood is fine as long as you keep the water out to prevent rot.
 
Interesting info Brian thank you. I live in a wooden framed, wood clad house and in the UK that's very unusual. People look at me strangely when I tell them here :rolleyes:
Funnily enough the local authority purchased them from Canada as kits after the war when building materials were in short supply. They were only supposed to last a few years, but hey they're still standing !
There are lots of wartime houses still going strong here, too.

Today on my way into town, (the city of Moncton), a one and a quarter hour drive. I was a passenger and did an informal survey looking for houses other than wood. Only the government built post office in Alma and Hopewell cape were brick. And Hillsborough had a stone block post office. Hillsborough is 3/4 of the way to Moncton. All the houses up to here were wooden. Hillsborough had one brick house on the Moncton side and there were 3 more brick houses between there and Moncton. All the rest were wooden construction. So that would be about 2% brick houses along that route. All of them closer to the city.
 
Power finally restored around 1pm yesterday. An hour short of 4 complete days.
However, just across the bay in Nova Scotia, they still have 77,000 homes without power since Saturday.

We didn’t get the main brunt of the storm here. Parks Canada reported that in forested areas along the Nova Scotia shore up to 2/3 of the trees were down. That indicates the power of this storm. And we are not even in the geographical area where these southern hurricanes usually strike. It must be quite terrible farther south. So we will have to adapt to this new trend of more severe storms.
One can only hope that with so many trees along power lines cleaned up we will be in better shape for the winter storm coming soon.

The infrastructure is aging. Routine maintenance of tree trimming along the power lines seems to be reduced, relying instead on storms to do the work.

There are several questions arising in people’s minds. Climate change is a fact and the storms we have been getting seem to be getting more severe. On top of that, climate change has brought us new insect pests from the south that previously could not survive our cold winters, and those insects are weakening trees in our area. The trees look OK at a glance but does this contribute to more power outages? Or is it simply that the more severe storms have slightly exceeded the endurance of some trees. Or the trees are getting older combined with less tree trimming along power lines.

Longer power outages seem to be the pattern in recent years and more and more people are buying power generators to help protect their homes and food supplies from damage caused by extended power outages.

Another thing we notice is the lack of information available except by cell phone. Once the power is out most lines of communication are gone.

During a power outage it is interesting to see what people are doing. I found I was doing a lot more outdoor work. Of course fallen trees make new work for cutting them up into firewood.

Slightly aside, I have been noticing recently that the types of products people use to build decks around their homes rely on the weight of the structure to hold it down. There is nothing In the support structure to prevent it from being lifted up in a strong wind. Imagine all that stuff flying in the wind and the damage that could cause.

We have to start thinking more like people in southern areas where powerful storms are more common.
 
OK, by a show of hands, how many people expected to see me post a picture of a sewing project?
Hmmm. That’s more than I thought.

This is a gig bag for 6 flutes. 5 of the 6 are flutes I have made my very own self.
3161B8B6-349C-461D-8A74-DC9AC540F298.jpeg

This is the outside, when folded. 26” tall. The black flute is the longest at 25”. The pattern is to hypnotize would-be attackers.

Open it up, or out, and it has 6 pockets for flutes.
C4862D21-BCFB-4379-B955-1FE10A91C987.jpeg

The flutes are pulled up out of their pockets a bit to, um, show them off :D a bit. The lining is 2 layers of black fleece and there’s a fold-over flap at the top to prevent the flutes from sliding out, or getting away, as the case may be. In the picture the flap is open.

Oh, yes, and the carry handles come from a Minolta compact camera strap.
 
OK, by a show of hands, how many people expected to see me post a picture of a sewing project?
Hmmm. That’s more than I thought.

This is a gig bag for 6 flutes. 5 of the 6 are flutes I have made my very own self.
View attachment 149366
This is the outside, when folded. 26” tall. The black flute is the longest at 25”. The pattern is to hypnotize would-be attackers.

Open it up, or out, and it has 6 pockets for flutes.
View attachment 149365
The flutes are pulled up out of their pockets a bit to, um, show them off :D a bit. The lining is 2 layers of black fleece and there’s a fold-over flap at the top to prevent the flutes from sliding out, or getting away, as the case may be. In the picture the flap is open.

Oh, yes, and the carry handles come from a Minolta compact camera strap.
You are a multi-talented man!
 
Sunrise over the Ottawa River where it meets the Saint Lawrence River. At my brother’s back yard.
A3948320-B655-4D82-B85A-BF67D649B137.jpeg

My first effort was made with PureShot where I had better control of white balance.

96D344CE-993E-4120-9EB5-A0B19673717D.jpeg

Then I switched to making long exposures and quickly found all my long exposure apps were lacking in white balance control. This one dad Spectre. So the AWB reduced the colour a lot. I have not edited the colour in either pic.

I noticed this year the water level was higher which limited where I could stand to make my compositions.
 
OK, by a show of hands, how many people expected to see me post a picture of a sewing project?
Hmmm. That’s more than I thought.

This is a gig bag for 6 flutes. 5 of the 6 are flutes I have made my very own self.
View attachment 149366
This is the outside, when folded. 26” tall. The black flute is the longest at 25”. The pattern is to hypnotize would-be attackers.

Open it up, or out, and it has 6 pockets for flutes.
View attachment 149365
The flutes are pulled up out of their pockets a bit to, um, show them off :D a bit. The lining is 2 layers of black fleece and there’s a fold-over flap at the top to prevent the flutes from sliding out, or getting away, as the case may be. In the picture the flap is open.

Oh, yes, and the carry handles come from a Minolta compact camera strap.
Brilliant!!!
 
This evening we were having a bbq with some of my brother’s friends, and sitting by the water in his back yard. The sun was setting. The noisy power boats had gone home.
39C096F2-B7D4-4815-8DBC-68F50B5D3698.jpeg

Here’s a view from the small dock at his back yard. His friend’s small sailboat. Ille Perrot in the background. Ottawa River.
Moment wide angle lens so I could get in more of the sailboat. PureShot.
 
This evening we were having a bbq with some of my brother’s friends, and sitting by the water in his back yard. The sun was setting. The noisy power boats had gone home.
View attachment 149739
Here’s a view from the small dock at his back yard. His friend’s small sailboat. Ille Perrot in the background. Ottawa River.
Moment wide angle lens so I could get in more of the sailboat. PureShot.
I want a back yard like that. :hearteyes:
 
I’ll be posting more pics from our trip to St Annes but this is to let you know we got back home last night. It was a long day driving the 1100km through frequent rain showers and the last 2.5 hours in the dark with rain and fog.
This pic is from our last day in St Annes, walking along the boardwalk with my brother.
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It appears I didn’t make any photos on our travel day.
 
What exciting souvenirs did I bring home from the big city? (Montreal).
CA093223-FDFD-4CA7-9B39-DF7F12B2D03D.jpeg

If you know me at all you know Rocks are my favourite souvenir to bring home but I didn’t find anything interesting in the largely man-altered landscape. The wooded areas often had lots of rounded cobbles on the walking trails so you really had to watch your step. But the round rocks themselves were of no special interest.

Instead I came home with flute wood. Namely Eastern Red Cedar/ Aromatic Cedar/Juniperus virginiana whichever name you prefer. It seems odd that the most well known Cedar is actually a Juniper. But Juniper is in the cedar family so that’s where the confusion arises.

I can’t seem to get Eastern Red Cedar anywhere in New Brunswick even though the range map in the tree guide indicates it grows here somewhere - or used to. So while I was near Montreal I thought
there must be a specialty woods supplier somewhere that had some. I had to leave the Island of Montreal to get to the place. Even then, they didn’t have much of a selection of this particular wood.

I found a piece 1-7/8” thick x 6” wide x 7’3” long that had some good sections of flute-worthy material. It would fit in my car - from dash to trunk lid, but I had to cut it into two pieces for more practical transport. I spent a couple of days studying and measuring different areas of the wood before deciding how I was going to cut it.
 
What exciting souvenirs did I bring home from the big city? (Montreal).
View attachment 149879
If you know me at all you know Rocks are my favourite souvenir to bring home but I didn’t find anything interesting in the largely man-altered landscape. The wooded areas often had lots of rounded cobbles on the walking trails so you really had to watch your step. But the round rocks themselves were of no special interest.

Instead I came home with flute wood. Namely Eastern Red Cedar/ Aromatic Cedar/Juniperus virginiana whichever name you prefer. It seems odd that the most well known Cedar is actually a Juniper. But Juniper is in the cedar family so that’s where the confusion arises.

I can’t seem to get Eastern Red Cedar anywhere in New Brunswick even though the range map in the tree guide indicates it grows here somewhere - or used to. So while I was near Montreal I thought
there must be a specialty woods supplier somewhere that had some. I had to leave the Island of Montreal to get to the place. Even then, they didn’t have much of a selection of this particular wood.

I found a piece 1-7/8” thick x 6” wide x 7’3” long that had some good sections of flute-worthy material. It would fit in my car - from dash to trunk lid, but I had to cut it into two pieces for more practical transport. I spent a couple of days studying and measuring different areas of the wood before deciding how I was going to cut it.
Looking forward to seeing the progress on the flutes. :notworthy:
 
OK, by a show of hands, how many people expected to see me post a picture of a sewing project?
Hmmm. That’s more than I thought.

This is a gig bag for 6 flutes. 5 of the 6 are flutes I have made my very own self.
View attachment 149366
This is the outside, when folded. 26” tall. The black flute is the longest at 25”. The pattern is to hypnotize would-be attackers.

Open it up, or out, and it has 6 pockets for flutes.
View attachment 149365
The flutes are pulled up out of their pockets a bit to, um, show them off :D a bit. The lining is 2 layers of black fleece and there’s a fold-over flap at the top to prevent the flutes from sliding out, or getting away, as the case may be. In the picture the flap is open.

Oh, yes, and the carry handles come from a Minolta compact camera strap.
Pretty good!
 
The power of Winter frost in Canada.
8A061FD5-81BC-42C7-9F95-BE3C9ABC7AA9.jpeg

Now that I’m on iOS 13 I find iWatermark doesn’t work anymore so I was about to post a full size picture but the up pops a new message in iOS13 telling me the picture is 23MB and asking if I want to use large medium or small instead. I chose medium.

The picture shows a broken support post that used to hold up my deck and the start of my carport roof. I dug it out with considerable effort and replaced it with a metal screw post.

Some things to consider about this cement support post. It is 6” diameter and 4 feet long plus about 5 more inches for the footing, part of which s broken off in this picture. It was buried in the ground so only about 4” was sticking out. That means buried a little deeper than 4 feet in the hard packed ground. The frost broke it into 4 pieces. Imagine the static force it takes to pull cement apart.

Whenever you build anything in Canada it is necessary to have a frost free foundation or whatever you have built will be heaved up by the frost. The ground all around the house, the roads, everything, is heaved up by about 2.5 inches every winter, and settles back down in spring. Imagine you gave a deck built next to your house and it is just sitting in the ground. This is called a floating structure. So your house doesn’t move because it has a deep foundation, but your deck will lift about 2.5”. Imagine you built a roof over your deck and attached one part of it to the house while the other part is supported on the deck (which is floating). As long as you design it do that where it attaches to the house you have allowed for that seasonal 2.5” up and down then everything is fine. But if you built it assuming the deck would stay where it is then the frost will put considerable force on the connection where the roof meets the house. What you should do instead is to make the entire deck roof frost free by putting deep foundation posts under the roof at the end away from the house. Now the deck will float but the roof will get frost free

So this is supposed to be one of my frost free supports and as you can see the frost broke it in 4 pieces. The ground freezes solid. The ground freezes to the support post. The ground lifts. If the ground doesn’t let go of the post the post is wrenched apart. It survived several winters OK but then a couple of extra cold spells drove the frost deeper than usual.

When I visited England and mostly Scotland several years ago my brother and I marvelled at how long the old structures had survived the winters. Even the old stone fences just sitting in the ground had not tumbled down. Then we realized how different winter is in England compared to Canada. A little dusting of snow now and then, but no deep frost like we have in Canada.
 
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