True Buddha Pai Yuin: True Buddha School

Back in November, a friend asked me to help her find a Buddhist monk to say a prayer for her grandmother who had recently passed away in China. I took her to the True Buddha Pai Yuin temple that is located on Centre Street in Calgary.  There are traditional Buddhist monks and nuns and a Buddha master that live on the premises of the temple. The temple is open to the general public and all are welcome to attend their services.  The Buddha ceremonies at the temple have English translation of the written text and even have English translators who you can listen  to on a wireless headset.  I attended a couple of their services that can last for two to three hours that consists of chanting and bowing and meditation.  One of the nuns provided me a detailed explanation of all the different Buddhas, , and deities. I discovered that the statues are used to help you to visualize and internalize your spiritual feelings of inner peace. True Buddha School (TBS) was found by Living Buddha Lian-sheng, Sheng-yen Lu. The drive  fro TBS is to bring Buddhist ideology into contemporary society, help sentient beings achieve spiritual realization, see their Buddha nature, and end the cycle of death and rebirth using distinct practices from Taoism, Sutrayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. TBS currently has more than five million disciples and four hundred establishments ( temples, chapters, and cultivation groups) spreading the Buddhadharma.

Vermiculture

In my greenhouse, I have a worm composter that I made out of a plastic tub. To make the worm composter, one needs to drill holes in the bottom of the tub and in the lid cover. The holes in the bottom of the tub allow the excess liquid created by the decomposing vegetation to drain out. The excess liquid is known as worm tea.  One needs to place a tray under the tub to catch the liquid and keep the compost worms from crawling out the holes. Since my composter is in the greenhouse, I am not too worried about worm tea leaking out because the excess liquid will drain into the greenhouse soil floor. One can begin your vermiculture mixture with shredded newsprint that is moistened with water. The paper should be damp. The moist paper is simply plant cellulose that is high in carbon content. The compost worms will devour the newsprint into a light fluffy compost. When you add vegetative compost such as vegetable and fruit peelings, the compost will have a high content of potassium and phosphorus.  If there is too high a concentration of green material, the compost may begin to smell of rotting vegetation but with the right mixture of shredded paper , the carbon in the paper will counteract the odour of the vegetation so that there is absolutely no odour.  I have found that by adding a few handfuls of peat moss to the vermiculture mixture, will absorb the worm tea and counteract the smell created by the excess liquid.  I have been experimenting a worm composter tumbler to rotate the compost material.  In a square tub, one has to periodically turn the compost with a garden tool to aerate the material and spread the compost material so the compost worms will digest the composting material. Red wiggler compost worms can be purchased at any fishing store that sells red wiggler worms.  A pound of red wigglers sells for about $25 a pound. I started out with just a couple of dozen red wigglers and let them multiply.  Worm soil sells for about $15 a litre. I use a couple of tablespoons for my potted geraniums . The high phosphorus and potassium content of the compost stimulates flowers to produce blooms.  Nitrogen promotes vegetative green leafy growth.

Greenhouse

I managed to find some nice metal shelving for my greenhouse on which to place my various plants in specific micro-climates. I have placed my cattleya orchids that like high light on the top shelves and the cooler growing cymbidiums next to the window. In the spring , I will start the bedding plants on the middle shelf.  I will be pruning my fig trees down to about 4 feet so they can grow new foliage next year.  I have place water barrels in the greenhouse for humidity, temperature control and water for the plants. I have eight tropical fish tanks in the greenhouse and use the fish water to water the orchids.  I have a couple of worm composters to recycle the leaves and other vegetable matter.  I am also going to experiment in growing plants with different soil mixtures.

Pruning Fruit Trees

October was a nice month of Indian Summer. With November came the first snow fall and currently it is cold. Before the first snows of November came, I pruned my fruit trees. The cherry and apple trees that were 25 feet tall were trimmed down to a height of 10 feet. In the spring, the trees will grow back with new vitality in the new shoots and the apples on the Macintosh tree will be even larger. If one does not prune the fruit trees, the increased foliage means most of the plants nutrients goes into maintaining the old vegetative growth. As the branches grow longer and higher there is a tendency for the branches to snap or cause the main trunk to crack with the excessive weight.  The root system has more energy to produce newer and more vigorous growth because the old growth has been eliminated.

2014 China Tour Next September

Next September, I will be organizing a group of 32 people who wish to partake in a 21 day tour of seven provinces of mainland China. The tour will encompass all four quadrants of China. This will be the third tour that I have organized and my fourth visit to China since 2008. I have added a customized twist to the 2014 tour by building into the tour Optional business tours and hiking tours that will cost extra. The optional business tours include: Visit to a cow farm (Xian);Sichuan International Cooking School (Chengdu); Lenovo computer factory (Shanghai);Heshan Textile Factory (Shanghai); Radio Frequency Identification Chip factory (Shanghai), Real Estate company and on site development (Xiamen). The hiking tours will include: Hiking different locations of the Great wall (Beijing); Hiking in the Yellow Mountain with an overnight stay in the mountains (Shanghai). Since I book directly with the tour operator in China the land package tours and much more luxurious and more reasonably priced that the tours booked from a Canadian travel agency. The tours are all inclusive tours that includes: return airfare, internal air flights, all meals, five star American hotels, all admission fees, local English speaking guides, Tour leader for entire tour, air conditioned coaches and drivers. Not included: passports, visas, vaccinations, travel insurance, medical insurance, tips . To see the detailed itinerary go to the following blogsite: http://alltheteainchinatour.blogspot.ca

Sienlok Park: The Golden Mountain

In Sienlok Park which is west of the Centre Street Bridge and beside the Bow River is the Golden Mountain Monument that tells the story of the Chinese building the railroad in Canada. The monument is made from a 10 ton granite block that was brought from Hoiping China where the majority of the Chinese laborers who built the railroad originated.

Tea Funny Tea Shop

A new tea shop just opened at 1809 Centre Street North. If you follow the Calgary Tower and head due north, cross the Centre Street Bridge before reaching 16th Ave. North you will see Tea Funny between the Bank of Nova Scotia and Tim Horton's.  The tea shop stays open until 2:00 am on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  The unique features of the tea shop is that you place your orders from an IPAD set into the tables. One can use the IPAD's to surf the internet. There is also free WI-FI.  The tea shop has a large selection of hot and cold teas, and assorted slushes.  There are snacks that are made on the premises such as a variety of chicken wings, desserts, dim sum and even fried rice dishes.  The shop is run by Ray and Queenie a husband and wife couple who came from Toronto. The décor of the shop is light and modern with an assortment of music that ranges from Chinese pop rock to Western pop.  There are booths and tables with the implanted IPAD's.  There is plenty of parking available.

Hungarian Partridges

I stepped outside my house to see a flock of Hungarian Partridges walking across the street into my neighbour's yard. At first I thought the birds were sharp-tailed grouse because of their summer coats looked like sharp tails. However, on a closer look, I could see the winter feathers that showed the distinctive red feathers on the wings and the bird's crest.  The Hungarians in my neighbourhood live in the valley by the Elk's golf course a kilometre away. Nose creek flows through the golf course and birds live in the brush on the sides of the valley.  The birds leave their sanctuary in the fall to pick gravel on the streets and to forage for different berries and seeds in the residential neighbourhood.

TOEFL VERSUS ELTS

TOEFL VERSUS ELTS

TOEFL is the standard English competency exam that tests the reading, writing, speaking and listening skills required by a foreign student to enter an American post-secondary institution or for foreign workers to fulfill a language requirement to be employable.  The TOEFL is an American based language test and as a result has an American bias in terms of content.  The TOEFL acronym stands for Teaching Overseas English as a Foreign Language.

ELTS is the British based English competency exam developed by Cambridge University  that tests the reading, writing , speaking and listening skills required by foreign students to enter post-secondary English institutions situated in Commonwealth countries.  Quite often TOEFL  is not an accepted language test by an institution so one must check the admission requirements to see what English competency exam is acceptable.

I needed to take an English competency exam to qualify to write the ICCR government immigration exam even though I possess an Honors Degree in English and I am a native born Canadian.  The registration form stated I needed a recognized language competency exam.  I took the TOEFL only to find out that I had to take the IELTS to qualify to write the Immigration exam. 

Comparison and Contrast between TOEFL and IELTS

TOEFL                                               IELTS

Similarities

Both test Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking

Types of listening questions : examples and illustrations, formal definition, cause/effect, classification/differentiation

Listen to a passage:  Conversation between two people or a  short lecture on a specific topic. Passage is played only once.

Types of Reading question: Vocabulary (synonyms), inference (inductive reasoning),  main idea and topic sentences,  Example Not included,  factual recall, compare/contrast, exposition

The reading questions consist of multiple choice questions,  true /false, Not given/ Choose correct response from a list of several choices, main idea/topic sentences

Writing questions

Comparison/contrast essay by analyzing a chart or graph

Personal response/ argumentative essay—agree/disagree,  for/against, cause/effect

Evaluation of writing based on content, organization, grammar and style

Speaking Questions

Develop a point of view—for or against, agree or disagree, cause/effect

Differences

The TOEFL content is American based with an American bias.  Reading topics include: American history. The IELTS content would include: British topics or topics from the Commonwealth.

The listening exercises have an American pronunciation in the TOEFL while the IELTS has the British Queen’s English clipped accent.  British accents may prove a little confusing for foreign students . The British pronounce the endings of their words while Americans tend to drop their endings. For example the word “running” would have the final “g” sound pronounced by the British speaker while the American would drop the “g” and would sound like  “runnin” .

The TOEFL is now computer based so one has to have keyboarding skills. One does have the option of writing out the essay by hand .  However, the reading, listening and speaking are done on the computer. For the speaking exam, one has to record your response from a question proposed online.   The IELTS speaking exam is performed live in front of an interviewer who poses the question and may even interrupt your response to pose a secondary question that is recorded on a digital recorder.  The face to face speaking portion allows one to use facial expressions and a more personal interaction with your examiner while the recorded TOEFL response is more impersonal and one tends to speak in a monotone voice.   The TOEFL speaking requires one to respond to a written passage, a listening passage and a question posed so it requires a synthesis to reading, and listening to your spoken response.

The IELTS exam is all handwritten.  There are two written booklets---one booklet is a short answer/ multiple choice booklet and the other is an essay booklet with two essay assignments---

one essay requires a comparison/contrast response while the second essay is an argumentative essay that requires the development of a point of view.  

The scoring or evaluation for TOEFL is scored out of 120 and broken down into the four categories of reading (30) , writing (30), listening (30) and speaking (30).

Reading skills: High = 22-30  Intermediate 15-21 Low 0-14

Listening skills: High = 22-30   Intermediate 14-21  Low 0-13

Speaking skills: Good = 26-30  Fair 18-25 Limited 10-17  Weak 0-9

Writing skills: Good = 24-30  Fair 17-23  Limited 1-16 

The scoring or evaluation for IELTS is scored on bands.

Band 9 = expert user  Band 8 = very good user  Band 7 = good user  Band 6 = Competent user Band 5= modest user Band 4 = limited user  Band 3= extremely limited user Band 2 = Intermittent user Band 1= non-user.  It is possible to score .5 between bands such as 8.5, 7.5, 6.5 5.5, 4.5.

The format for both the TOEFL  and the IELTS can be confusing and cause the person writing the exam to panic.  I found the IELTS exam to be much more difficult to write than the TOEFL.  On the TOEFL , I had an overall score of 105 out of 120 and scored in highest category in every level. In the IELTS exam , I had an overall band score of 7.5 with a high band score of 9.0 in speaking and a Good user 7.00 band in writing and a 6.5 in Reading and a 7.0 Band in listening.  I found the multiple choice questions in the Reading section of the IELTS exam to be the most confusing. 

For a person who is not a native born English speaking person the TOEFL and IELTS exam is difficult to pass with a high TOEFL score or a High IELTS band score.  Simply taking the exam over and over again does not guarantee improvement. For foreigners needing to improve their score they need to buy a good TOEFL or IELTS study guide and do the practice exercises and practice tests and read the exam writing strategies. Moreover, use the audio CD’s that simulate the speaking, reading and listening exercises.   Taking the exam is expensive and it costs $300 to take the exam each time.

These two study guide books can be purchased from Chapters Indigo. These two study guides explain the exam format, study strategies, practice exercises and practice tests. Using these study guides will help you to successfully prepare to write the exam. If you still have trouble, I suggest you hire a qualified tutor to help you with the study guide.

 

Calgary's Flood Mitigation Program

The Calgary Leadership Forum is a non-profit think tank that examines public problems in order to seek the truth by providing factual evidence in the true spirit of transparency to help provide practical solutions.  The Calgary Leadership Forum is the brainchild of Brian Lee a professional event speaker and former Calgary alderman from the 1980's.  The Leadership Forum assembled a panel of experts on hydrological flood plain data on the two catch basin watersheds that created the massive floods in Canmore, Calgary and High River.  During the question and answer period, the panel of experts had to field the hard questions of what caused the floods, how could the floods have been prevented, how people are coping with the flood, future solutions proposed by the municipal and provincial government in the flood mitigation program. It is interesting to note that the politicians from the municipal and provincial government from the flooded areas came to find out answers to possible solutions from the general public and the experts. It is apparent that the government officials are more concerned with public relations rather than finding viable solutions because they have no expertise in flood management . Moreover, the government is not tapping into the valuable resources from the community and are not forthcoming with viable solutions. In this one afternoon at the Croatian Club more information and understanding of the flooding of Calgary and the surrounding region was divulged in one afternoon to the general public than the trite sound bytes delivered by the municipal and provincial government who have assumed the majority of the responsibility to repair the flood damage and help mitigate future floods.  The community at large has to keep the politicians accountable for providing viable solutions instead of allowing them to sweep everything under the carpet and bureaucratic delaying tactics.

Leadership Forum 1:  Brian Lee introduces the flood mitigation problem followed by a commentary by the MLA from Calgary Bowness.

 

 

 

 

Corn, Tomatoes and Wheat

My good friend has spent the last two years creating experimental automatic watering systems to grow corn, tomatoes and wheat.  The concept of  the automatic watering system is based on the fact of the plants root system uses the capillary action of the plant  roots to draw water as the  water is required by the plant during photosynthesis. The plants receive a steady consistent stream of water that keeps the soil damp but not water logged . The roots are never allowed to dry out.  Because the plants receive a consistent amount of moisture that out produces traditional gardens.  Growing corn in Calgary is not possible because of the short growing season and the altitude. Using the automatic watering system, my friend is able to grow corn.  The tomato plants produce five or six pounds of tomatoes per plant.  From sowing 18 grains of wheat, with the automatic watering system, 182 heads of wheat are produced with each wheat spike producing 48 florets ( grains of wheat).

Golfing in Bowden

All the small towns surrounding Calgary have their own golf courses. The small community golf courses are reasonably priced.  For two people to golf  nine holes and rent a motorized golf cart only cost $64.  In non-primetime golf time the green fees are even lower. The golf courses in the small town are not crowded like the city courses where you are being pushed to complete the course because of the greater number of golfers on the course.  As you can see from my tee shot, I do not dress like a golfer. My golf swing is terrible because I have a poor backswing and I do not follow through; however, I do make good contact and the ball does about 150 yards straight down the fairway.  My friend who tees up second demonstrates a similar poor form but we are both having fun. This is the first time I have gone golfing in over two years. 

Calgary's Chinatown

Calgary's Chinatown lies in the downtown Calgary core between 1st avenue and 4th avenue southeast. Chinatown straddles Centre Street and is located in North East Calgary on the east side of  Center Street and on the west side is located in the North West Calgary.  It is ironic that the James Short Parkade is named after a mayor of Calgary who actively tried to demolish Chinatown because he believed it brought down the property value.  In the 1960's, Calgary's city council tried to relocate a major roadway through Chinatown that would have ultimately removed all of Chinatown. Canadian born Chinese fought city hall's expropriation attempt and today Calgary is the only Chinatown protected by a bylaw in Canada that guarantees its existence as a cultural and historical site.

Fox Hollow Golf Course

Fox Hollow is a nine hole golf course that is inside the Calgary city limits located on 32 Avenue North East. In the background you can see the traffic from 32 Ave. N. E. and on the left the golf course borders on Deer Foot Trail a major roadway running North and South. There is a golf dome driving range that charges only $15 for unlimited number of bucket of balls that you wish to hit. Outside the clubhouse is a practice putting green. There is also a putting green inside the dome. The golf course is a short 9 hole course. The first tee is about a 425 yard par four. The fairways are fairly wide with thick brush along the fairways. You walk under a steel culvert tunnel to get to the first tee . You golf due north for the first five holes and eventually you swing back due south to end up back at the first tee box.  Fox Hollow is a public golf course with reasonable green fees. For someone wanting a quick round of golf , Fox Hollow is a good beginner's golf course.  Believe it or not Stephen Ames a Canadian on the PGA golf tour can be seen practicing his tee shots in the golf dome in the winter. Most people would not recognize him as a well known golf professional.

Zen Garden

Click on the link to view a power point presentation on a brief history of Zen Gardens and  how to make a Zen Garden.   THE ZEN GARDEN

Arbour Lake

Calgary was selected by an international survey to be the 5th best city in the world in which one should choose to live.  Sidney , Australia was voted number two and Vancouver was number three and I believe a city in Switzerland was number four.  A Northwest neighbourhood in Calgary called Arbour Lake was voted by the City of Calgary as the 5th best neighbourhood in all of Calgary. The neighbourhood's were evaluated according to residential neighbourhoods, shopping areas, school facilities, recreational facilities, green spaces, community facilities and lack of crime. I visited my friends at their house in Arbour Lake that they purchased just a year ago and went to check out the plants I gave them for their front flower . I then asked my friend to take me to the local community lake called Arbour Lake. All the residents of Arbour Lake pay a $200 fee for the upkeep of Arbour Lake as an all year round recreational facility. In the summer the lake is used for swimming, fishing and boating. There is a sandy beach for sun tanning and docks for fishing . The lake is stocked with rainbow trout. In the winter, the lake is frozen and becomes a skating rink and in some areas there is ice fishing. On this Monday , Labour Day, the last holiday before the start of the school year . the lake was crowded with families enjoying the last summer holiday.

McDougall Centre

There is an Alberta Government Building called the McDougall  Centre in Calgary located on 7th Street and 5th Avenue South West.  The Members of the Legislative Assembly for the Calgary Conservative Caucus hold Provincial Government meetings.  The main Legislative Assembly is located in Edmonton which is our Provincial Capital. Surrounding the McDougall building is a lovely circular garden in the front and a series of water fountains with flowing water over cement steps that enter a reflecting pool. During the week, the local office workers can be seen taking their lunch break in the courtyard.  Sometimes protesters will demonstrate against provincial government policy on the front steps.  On weekends, the courtyard is usually vacant but wedding couples come to take their wedding pictures against the water fountains as a backdrop.  On the day , I shot this video it was around 5:00 pm on a Saturday.  This courtyard is a bit of peaceful nature hidden away in the downtown city centre.  If one was to walk north for five or six blocks you would encounter the Bow River and its cycling paths along the riverbank.

Business Orientation Tour Of China

In 2010 and 2012 , I organized two eighteen day all inclusive six province tours of Northern and Southern China.  Here is a group picture of our last group in front of the Heavenly Temple in The Forbidden City.

In September of 2014,  I am going to organize a 21 day Business Orientation Tour of China that is a "unique blend of business and cultural experiences".   The tentative itinerary can be found in the following blogsite:  http://alltheteainchinatour.blogspot.ca
If anyone wants to go please contact me for more details.
I just finished reading a documentary novel by Gavin Menzies titled:  1421 when China Discovered America.  It is a fascinating documentary that provides proof that the Chinese under Cheng He and his giant treasure ships sailed the world in several voyages between 1407 and 1421 and traded and established colonies in Africa, India, Australia, South America , the Carribbean, and North America centuries before the Portuguese explorers of Bartholomew Diaz, Vasco da Gama, Ferdinand Magellan or the Italian Christopher Columbus or the Spanish Conquistadors. Moreover, the  Europeans were using nautical maps that were created by the Chinese that were copied  by Italian cartographers and purchased by Henry the Navigator of Portugal who gave these nautical maps to the
explorers he sponsored.  Beside the heavenly temple is a giant astrolabe that depicts the world as being round and has positions of the stars and countries clearly mapped out . This astrolab was positioned in the heavenly temple to assist the astronomers in plotting China's position relative to all the known countries in the world and established China as the Middle Kingdom. The world is depicted as being round and not flat. With this documented book , Western historians will have to re-evaluate the history and development of exploration prior to 1492.

Picking Cherries

In my front yard, I have a Macintosh apple tree,  a plum tree and a cherry tree. The apple tree has only a few apples this year because the tree is taking a rest from last year's abundant harvest. There are two small green plums on the plum tree. I have not had much success in getting the plum tree to bear fruit.  In the five years since I planted the plum tree, this is the first time that two plums formed even though the tree has produced flowers for five consecutive years.  The cherry tree that is over 25 years old is still producing cherries and I have invited friends to pick the cherries. The tree is getting old and I have had to saw off a number of dying branches. The Cherry tree has been grafted onto a Nanjing cherry tree so the roots of the tree is really a Nanjing cherry tree. In my back yard behind my greenhouse I have another Macintosh tree and a Nanjing cherry tree.  The cherries from the Nanjing cherry tree produces small sweet pea sized cherries.  The cherry tree produces marble sized cherries and have a bit of a tart taste.  In the backyard , I also have a raspberry bush and a gojii berry bush. In front of my garage are three blueberry bushes. And finally, in the greenhouse, I have a potted peach tree  and six fruit bearing Fig trees that originally came from Italy. 

Companion Planting

Companion planting means growing plants that coexist in the same area that benefit each other.  Along the south side of my garage wall, I have planted climbing beans in between the cherry roma tomatoes. The beans have climbed to over seven feet tall and the vines will soon begin to flower. The bean pods will hang down between the tomatoes. By pruning the secondary leaf, the roma tomato grows upwards and produces more tomatoes. One tomato plant will produce five clusters with each cluster having five tomatoes. One tomato plant will produce 35 tomatoes.  In front of the tomatoes, I have planted some marigolds. Marigolds keep leaf eating insects from eating the tomato and bean leaves. I have placed  potted geraniums next to the tomatoes to add a nice contrast in color. I have also planted borage which is a herb with a multitude of little blue flowers. The blue flowers attract the pollinating bumble bees. The leaves of the borage herb taste like cucumber and makes an excellent salad. Borage produces many seeds and readily self seeds.

Coral Bells

On the west side of my house is a flower bed that is shaded from the sun so one has to grow plants that grow in the shade. When I was sixteen and still living at home in Lethbridge, my mother planted a flower called Coral Bells that was given to her by a woman named Mrs. Deaks. My mother said Mrs. Deaks had been given this plant a long time ago and since she was thinning out her flower bed she gave my mother some Coral Bells. My mother planted these flowers in full sunlight in her front flower bed and for years the flowers flourished. In 1990, my mother dug up some Coral Bells and told me to plant them in my flower bed at my house in Calgary. I have two patches of Coral Bells that continue to grow on the shaded west side of the house. Yesterday, I looked down on these lovely little red flowers in bloom and realized that these flowers are the descendants of Mrs. Deaks flowers from over 60 years ago. Mrs. Deaks has passed away long ago but her flowers still live on as part of her legacy. Sometimes one forgets that plants like people are part of a cycle of life with their unique history. I have Cattleya orchids that I purchased at the Foothills orchid society that were once owned by an orchid collector who has since passed away. These orchids are 75 years old and still growing and flowering in my greenhouse.

Growing Wheat and Corn

I met this retired individual about five years ago at a Chinese association banquet. I wanted to interview him regarding how he immigrated to Canada but he was reluctant to talk about his early childhood which is the case with many of the Chinese who immigrated to Canada in the 1950's. One has to respect a person's privacy so I did not pursue the matter but in our conversation I ascertained he was an avid gardener. I told him I had my own greenhouse and from that point in time we have become good friends because of our mutual interest in growing plants. My friend being retired likes to experiment in creating automatic watering devices that distribute water to growing plants on a consistent basis. On July  25, I visited his home to view his latest experiment in growing wheat and corn with his latest underground gravity watering system. The watering system is based on the concept that as the roots of the plant require more water the roots create the suction that draws the water from the underground tube. The result is that the plants have a uniform source of water.  In traditional watering with sprinklers or irrigation, plants are initially soaked with too much water and the soil dries out between watering intervals. Moreover, it is almost impossible to distribute water equally to all the plants with some plants receiving more water than others that results in uneven growth with some plants being larger, others smaller and some dying due to insufficient water.  With the automatic watering device developed over a four year period, he has finally succeeded in growing wheat and corn  twice the size a traditional farmer could grow in the same time frame. The wheat he has grown is almost five feet tall that was planted at the end of April and the corn that was planted in May is four feet tall. Growing corn in the Calgary area is almost impossible due to the short growing season but with a consistent watering system and full sunlight he has proven that corn can be grown in the Calgary area.

Red Lake Lodge Provincial Campsite

Just thirty minutes from Bowden on the Little Red Deer River is a provincial campground known as the Red Lake Lodge.  Throughout Alberta, there are provincial campgrounds that can be reserved online.  My cousins booked the Red Lake Lodge campsite for July 13,14, 15 and parked their Sandpiper RV on the campsite. The RV is like a home on wheels with all the amenities of a modern house.  We set up camp and then sat around the campfire. My friends from the River Ridge trailer across the road came over to visit and we made plans to go to Pine Lake that is 40 minutes away to do some water sledding and fishing. So the next day five families went to Pine Lake for a community picnic while we took turns riding in the boat, water sledding and fishing. On this Saturday, it was free fishing without a licence because the Provincial government is trying Albertans to become interested in fishing as a recreational activity,

 

 

 

Pine Lake

Pine Lake is a lake about a two hour drive north of Calgary. The lake is accessible to the general public and  places around the lake where there is only private access. In the public access there is an area to launch your boat.  In the private access locations there are mobile trailer sites and a private docks. There are private owners who have built lakeside homes with their own docks.  The lake is popular for water skiing, water rafting, canoeing, boating and fishing.

Management Strategies That Work

Michael Miller (2002) in The Good The Bad & The Ugly develops 50 strategies to use in business based Classic Western movies. I recently reread this book and realized that I have used all of these strategies in dealing with volunteers, corporations, politicians, educators and students. Here is a brief outline of the main 50 business strategies.

Business Strategies To Adopt

1. Vision and planning

• See the future not the present circumstances
• Think big
• Create a strategy/plan
• Quantifiable goal
• Use the right tools
• Choose your target
• Contingency plan
• Adapt to changing conditions
• Test your plan
• Follow through on plan

2. The competition

• Know the competition
• How will competition react
• Beware of nothing to lose competitor
• Do not underestimate competition
• Have an edge
• Create an image
• Show mercy to competitors
• Be a better cheater
• Alliances
• Do not let them see you sweat

3.Taking Action

• Gather data
• Define the rules
• Act fast, be decisive
• Drive a hard bargain
• Guerrilla tactics
• Cheat better than competitors
• Play it by ear
• Cut losses
• Divert competition
• Follow through on promises/threats

4. Team Management and Leadership

• Assert authority
• Teach the team/do not do their job
• Do not be a tyrant/lead
• Do not play favourites
• Dissolve internal conflicts
• Train hard/ push your staff
• Do not contradict your staff decisions
• Entertain all opinions but you decide
• Hire professionals
• Take responsibility for making mistakes

5. Ethics and Personal style

• Evaluate with open eyes
• Mentor/find mentor
• Do not be drawn into conflicts
• Be cautious
• Do not believe everything you hear
• Be selective with whom you work
• Be selective with whom you deal with
• Make up your own mind
• Do what needs to be done
• Nothing is black or white

Teaching Memoires

I have created another blogsite title Mr. Lees's Teaching Memoires. I will periodically recall and reflect on my 36 years in the teaching profession.
http://mrleesteachablemomentsblogsite.blogspot.ca/

Bragg Creek River Change

It has been 18 days since the flooding of Bragg Creek. The small hamlet of Bragg Creek was completely flooded and the course of the river has changed. The creek that ran beneath the bridge used to be rather small with the main channel running along the south side under the bridge where there were some nice deep fishing holes. With the flood the deep holes have been changed into gravel beds that empty into a new deep channel on the opposite north side of the river when one looks north eastward from the bridge.  If you look to the west where the river approaches the bridge, you will see that the river in overflowing its banks carved out a large swath of the existing highway around the bend in the river.  About a quarter of a mile of highway was washed away, including the old shell gas station, and the attached community store and residence of the owner. Currently, the creek sitll looks like a raging river. At its peak the water in the creek was flowing only a couple of feet beneath the bridge which is normally  forty feet above the normal water level. This was one of several creeks that were overflowing that emptied into the Bow and Elbow rivers.

Hot Weather in Calgary

All this week the temperature is 30 degrees Celcius. The Stampede Parade will go on as scheduled this Friday.  The Bow River is still high but is thirty feet below the river bank. It is incredible to think the river could rise so high in such a short time. Just over a week ago the the banks of the Bow where this picture was taken overflowed into China town.  The Midway on the Stampede grounds is going up quickly. Grounds crews are working around the clock. Machinery is everywhere, booths are being towed into place and giant cranes are setting up the rides. You would nver know that this area had been flooded. When the Bow overflowed its banks it was not just in one isolated spot but the length of the entire of the Bow River from Bowness , the downtown core, the Calgary Zoo, the Stampede Grounds, Inglewood and Bonny brook. The Bow River winds and loops from west to east through Calgary and eventually flows south towards Bow Island in southern Alberta where the Bow river meets the Old man River to form the South Saskatchewan river that flows through Medicine Hat that had 36 hours notice that the flood waters were in its way. Even with this notice 10,000 people  in Medicine Hat had to be evacuated from the flood plain.

Calgary Stampede

The motto of the Calgary Stampede after the flood is Come Hell or High Water, the Stampede will open as usual this Friday. As soon as the river receded the Stampede started draining the grounds. The in field for the rodeo has been restored.  The main grounds on the midway has been cleaned. All the major buildings have been cleaned up. From Monday June 24 to July 2, the downtown core has been cleared of debris, the streets washed and buildings have been cleared of flood  damaged walls.  The majority of the downtown hotels are open for business at reasonable rates to attract tourists who have been frightened by the flood damage. To an outsider visiting Calgary the flood damage is not that obvious.  The residential areas in the downtown core such as Mission, Sunnyside, Roxboro and Riverside where houses are located on the banks of the river recieved extensive damage. Thousands of volunteers showed up in these neighbourhoods and literally helped the residents clear their houses of  damaged goods, ripping out dry wall to the studs and cleaning the mud from the houses. The garbage trucks and waste disposal worked from 7:00am to 9:00 pm. overnight.  The result is that these neighbourhoods have been cleared of the debris. In all this chaos, there was little looting of the houses.  There was only one death of an elderly woman due to the flooding. For the 75,000 residents displaced from their homes, life is returning to normal in just over a week.  I have included some pictures of China town and the Stampede grounds that were literally underwater but now look surpisingly normal.  The Saddledome was was flooded up to row 14 .   The Saddledome will be open in the following week.  The bronze statue of the cowboy herding a calf in front of the BMO Centre  is about quater mile from the Bow River was flooded gives one an idea of how fast the flood waters came up in three short hours.

Calgary Chinatown Flooded

From the top of the hill overlooking Chinatown everything looks deceptively peaceful but down below the Bow has overflowed its banks and flooded China town. You can see the Government Harry Hays Building, the Delta Bow Valley Hotel and a Chinese restaurant being flooded. The whole streets of the downtown core are flooded. It will be until the middle of next week when people will be allowed back into the downtown core. All electricity has been eliminated in the downtown core.

Calgary Flooding Disaster

On Thursday , June 18, there was a retirement party for me at the school. It had been raining all week. When the party was over at 5:00 pm, I was going to go downtown and the radio in my car said the downtown was being evacuated and close to 75,000 people would have to leave their homes. I went home and turned on the television and watched the news coverage of the Bow River overflowing its banks and flooding the downtown core.  My house is located on the top of Edmonton Trail that is a road that leads out of the downtown core. It is a 45 minute walk from my house into the downtown core.  The downtown core is built on the flood plain of the Bow River.  Historically, has overflowed its banks during the spring time. Loggers in the 1890' used to float the logs all the way from  Kananaskis country and down the Bow River to Prince's Island in Calgary where a sawmill was located.  Today , Prince's Island is a forested city park where music concerts and festivals are held in the summer. Prince's Island is connected to North Calgary by a pedestrian bridge and another bridge connects the island to the southern downtown core.  The building of dams upstream at Seebee and Bearspaw have prevented the Bow River from overflowing its banks and given the City a false sense of security that the businesses and residences are safe to build in the flood plain.  When there is a larger than normal rainfall that falls in a short period of time all the tributaries flowing into the Bow and Elbow River overflows onto the floodplain.   In the photograph, I have posted,  the green area in the middle of the river is Prince's Island that is currently underwater.  Normally, if you were on the island the river would be 15 to thirty feet below the island.

Horticulture Blogsite

I am retiring from teaching . As a teacher, I have taught for 30 years. Life is a series of chapters and it is time to turn the page and begin the last chapters outside the classroom. I will dabble in horticultural projects and will eventually become a certified Canadian immigration agent. When I become an immigration agent, I will start an immigration blogsite.  After teaching horticulture, I realize there is a need to share knowledge with the general public with respect to creating an environmentally friendly lifestyle. In our urban world, it is possible to create small gardens and create small eco-friendly environments by understanding the micro-environments that surrounds all of humanity. I have created a blogsite on horticulture to share my green knowledge that I learned from my grandfather and father who grew their own produce in their gardens to feed our families.
The horticulture blogsite:    http://www.mrleeshortilcultureblogsite.blogspot.ca

In the school greenhouse where I teach there is tulip bulb that is at least 10 years old. It was purchased by a former horticulture teacher named Bill Turner. Bill purchased the bulb for $75 which was a good sum of money to spend on one bulb.  Bill grew the bulb into a mature plant and was able to bloom the plant occasionally.  Mr. Turner started the horticulture program as a locally developed course 25 years ago and began the first program by building cold frames to grow plants on the school grounds. When the school was renovated, Bill designed the indoor greenhouse that exists in the school today.  After retiring for only  five years Bill Turner contracted ALS and within year he passed away. I found Bill's tulip plant growing in the greenhouse . A former Horticulture teacher told me about Bill's plant and that the tulip liked a particular location in the greenhouse.  I was careful to keep the tulip in its favorite location and not to disturb its micro-climate.  On the first anniversary of Bill's passing, I walked into the greenhouse to find the tulip in full bloom with it's multi-floral orange red bloom. From that point on, I have called it's Bill's flower.   Last week, I noticed a small spike forming at the base of the tulip . Within a week the spike has grown ten inches and is now in full bloom.  I have had the privilege of watching this flower bloom twice.  The flower seems to be thanking me by blooming once more before I leave. I hope the legacy of this flower remains for others to enjoy in the future.

Horticulture : School courtyard Before and After

In September of 2012,  the enclosed school courtyard had been neglected for five years. I took the horticulture class into the courtyard in the fall and showed them how to prune the trees and shrubs, remove the weeds, and recondition the soil.  In April and May of 2012, the horticulture class were shown how to spade the soil and remove the emerging weeds.  A sustainable garden was planted in the flower beds that included: potatoes, lettuce, spinach, carrots, onions, swiss chard, tomatoes, red peppers, sunflowers, string beans, peas and radishes. Moreover, bedding plants grown in the school greenhouse such as snapdragons, balsam, marigolds,  and nicotiana were transplanted into the garden beds.

Horticulture Centerpieces

Making centerpieces from cut flowers can be expensive when purchased from a flower shop. A flower shop must mark up all materials at least three times to make a profit. For example a  70 cm stem red rose  from the first bloom is purchased from the  wholesaler for $1.30 with mark-up the flower seller will sell this rose for $5.20.   Stores like Home Depot, Wal-Mart,  Safeway, etc. buy large volumes of three grade roses ( the third or forth bloom) at below wholesale cost and will sell a dozen roses for $17.99.  These roses are not rehydrated properly because there are no qualified florists looking after the flowers. As a result the flowers purchased at these stores because they are of lower quality and are not conditioned properly usually last a few days and they die.  Flowers purchased form a Florist last two to three weeks longer but these flowers cost more because they are of higher quality and they have been stored properly.   A small centerpiece with cut flowers can easily cost  $25 to $35.  You can purchase glass or plastic containers,  floral foam from a Dollarama for a dollar or two,  purchase flowers from Wal-Mart or Safeway for $20 and some greenery and make ten centerpieces that would cost you $350 if purchased from a Florist.   So if you have a dinner party or small banquet to host , go to Dollarama and Safeway's and purchase the items needed for a centerpieces that might cost you $50.

Teacher's Convention--Gerry Dee

Last Thursday and Friday was the Calgary Teacher's Convention. On Friday morning Gerry Dee spoke  to a full house in the Macleod Hall at the Telus Convention Centre. Gerry Dee's one hour talk was based on his recent book TEACHING: IT'S HARDER THAN IT LOOKS. Gerry Dee is an award winning Canadian comic and star of the hit CBC series Mr. D. Every year he plays more than 150 sold out shows across Canada and internationally. Gerry Dee had the audience in stitches as he recalled his experiences as a physical education and social studies teacher in a private school in Ontario. At the end of his presentation, he entertained questions from the audience so I ventured to the microphone and asked him a question. We engaged in a short repartee. Later, I bought his book which entitled me to have a photo opportunity with Gerry Dee.

Forcing Bulbs

Forcing Tulip Bulbs

In the fall most garden nurseries  clear out their fall tulip bulbs when winter arrives. One is supposed to plant the bulbs in the fall where the bulbs hibernate in the frozen ground and in the  early spring when the ground warms up, the bulbs awaken from their hibernation and begin to sprout and by late spring the tulips are in bloom. When the tulips finish blooming , their green leaves remain throughout the summer and when winter comes the tulip bulbs go into hibernation.  If one buys bulbs in the fall instead of planting the bulbs, one can store them in a cool dark place so they do not dry out and then about January bring the bulbs out and leave them in your unheated garage for three weeks and the bulbs will start to sprout. Plant the bulbs in flower pots in potting soil and place them on your window sill in full sunlight and in two to three weeks you will have flowering tulips inside your house in the month of February.  When the tulips are finished you can save the bulbs and plant them in your flower bed for next year.