Signs

Signs! Signs! Everywhere a Sign.

Blockin' out the scenery, blowin' my mind.

Do this, Don't do that...

Hey! Can't you read the sign?

(5 Man Electrical Band)

Over the last two weeks I have been traveling through small town and rural Southern Ontario from Wareham :

Three major / side trips / return routes

West to Stratford via a diagonal through Arthur, back through the edge of Kitchener - Waterloo. 

To Stirling via 10/410, through Toronto and along the 401, then returning by going north to 7, through Peterborough, past Lindsay, side roads over to Bradford, then over past Alliston and along 89, then 10 at Shelburne.

To Morrisburg, largely a repeat of the to home section above down to the 401 near Trenton (along 45 when I missed a turn) then along the 401. This included a side trip up to a small village just south of Smith's Falls. The home leg was north from outside Belleville, (again a bad turn) through Campbellford, (eventually) up to 7 again, with a repeat of the legs from Havelock. 

So a lot of road miles. This last (and longest) trip completed Sunday - the day before the election itself.

What I observed, basically the last two weeks of the 2025 Canadian Election, at least for a big chunk of Southern Ontario :

There were very few party election signs placed on private home properties. The vast majority of signs were placed on public road allowances (1) Most typically this was easy to judge, as election signs were usually placed just where the gravel of the shoulder turned to grass. On a very rough count, only about 1/8 Conservative signs were clearly on private home properties, for Liberal is was about 1/5.

Conservative party signs were clearly the largest number, more than the rough total of all other parties combined.

Conservative party signs were most often the largest, often double the size of other parties.

Conservative signs were often placed in multiple groupings, although single signs for Conservative were seen (and usually as larger size).

If there was a sign for an alternative to Conservative, there almost always would be a Conservative sign as well. Often at a larger size.

Through these largely rural areas, perhaps predictably, signs for NDP and Green were uncommon. In some places there would actually be more signs for the Peoples Party (2) than these other two significant parties combined.

I did see a number of (offensive) Anti-Liberal signs and flags. These always mimicking Conservative signs (colours, fonts, slogans). Both 'Fuck Trudeau' and 'Fuck Carney' versions. (Worth noting I saw not a single anti-Conservative type).

 

And what was my take away from these observations?

- In this election, people are NOT illustrating there party affiliations. There may be a number of reasons for this, but I expect concern over bad reactions from neighbours with opposing views is the reason. (This certainly why our household chose not to place a sign) 

- The Conservatives clearly had the largest budgets for signage (indicated by size and numbers).

- The Conservatives clearly were the most aggressive in terms of placement. This seen by the tactic of multiple signs at one location, the placing of a sign next to others.

All this leads me to believe the use of political signage is clearly NOT any indication of actual public voter support. Signs placed on what is clearly * public * land are no indication of what the actual voters think.

1) In rural areas, the road set back amount varies (here in lower Bruce, the distance is '30 feet measured from the centre of the road). Typically however you can trace the line by the distance farm fencing has been placed. In communities with side walks, I judged anything beyond the household side of the walk to be private. If there were also real estate signs, I judged those to be on private, and used that spacing.

Axe the Tax? - some numbers

Axe the Tax!

(WtF?)

The hysteria will be setting in, with an Ontario snap election in a month and a certain spring National election. Poilievre has been shouting ‘Axe the Tax’, meaning the Federal Carbon Tax, for months (if not years at this point). You can be sure his Conservative Party will be rejoicing at the absence of Justin Trudeau (because everything that has impacted Canadian’s personal cost of living is entirely that one person’s fault). There is already statements being made from Poilievre that Canadians just can not afford any measures that would combat Climate Change.

But what is it REALLY costing you?

Caveat : I am now a senior, living on fixed income (OAS). I am rural (no transit). As of 2023, my artisan blacksmith business had effectively collapsed.

I gathered data here from two sources :
Statistics Canada
CBC - ‘ Is the carbon tax an easy scapegoat for high food prices?’ Aaron Wherry, October 7, 2023. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/carbon-tax-food-prices-wherry-analysis-1.6989547

That article, although admittedly from a year back, does have hard numbers from reliable sources - and a simple ‘plug in your own numbers’ estimation you can run against your own household expenses.

My own 2024 household expenses

Food    $4717     (two adults)

The CBC article gives the increase due to carbon tax at 0.05 %    $235.85

Gasoline    $2500    (two vehicles)                        $300 (E)

Gasoline is an extremely rough estimate, as I have numbers for my purchases (6 months with a Jeep 3.6 L x 6, 6 months with an Outback 2.5 L x 4). The other vehicle is a Fit 2 L x 4, for which I guess-timated as 2/3 my own amount) The number from Stats-Can is based on cost per litre of $0.18. I only had the total I spent, so used an average cost at $1.50 per litre to come up with a total of 1667 litres.

Other Expenses $7917                            $11.88

This includes the fixed amounts of Hydro / Property Taxes / Home Insurance, plus spending on repairs. Our home is electric heat, which ALL comes out of Bruce Nuclear. How much property tax and insurance could be effected by Carbon Tax is questionable. For this number I used the figure quoted in the CBC article, sourced from RBC economists, that the amount of inflation caused directly in Canada by the Carbon Tax specifically is at 0.15 % (i.e., almost nothing).

Communications $2024                            $3.03

This includes Telephone and Internet. Again applying the general inflation contribution explained above.
        
Total Carbon Tax Payments                        $551

Total Carbon Tax Rebated                        $638

Balance                                        + $87

Obviously I did in fact spend some other money outside of household expenses.
I rarely eat at restaurants. Almost no clothing purchases (and those commonly at value village). Gifts are most typically books. Given that any of those purchases would only have 0.15 cents on the dollar applied to them, they are not worth including.
I did purchase a used vehicle this year, but as this was a 2017, so manufactured well before the Carbon Tax was started, that number is not included.

Axe the Tax?

Mr. Poiliere, the now proven impact of Climate Change ensures we can either pay a small amount now, or a massive amount later. Your song only resonates to those people bemoaning increases on the gas cost for running their massive pickup trucks or the air fares on their frequent holiday flights.
 

Or those too stupid to understand the real culprit is, as it almost always is, pure Corporate greed.                

Greed

 

Watching the weather of late (are you stupid Climate Change Deniers looking up from your Trump phones?). It is later November, and at Wareham the day time temperatures are well above freezing and we have had only one day with just a dusting of quickly melted snow. 

I got to thinking about the natural world outside my window. The leaves are long dropped, but that is a function of changing light levels, not temperatures. How is this impacting the maples here, with no energy gathered, but not frozen preservation? The many spruce trees I've planted over the years seem to be doing fine, and may actually still be growing (although slowly, it is hard to tell). The grass and clover in the yard is also still quite green and growing slowly. 

What about the animals? I keep seeing large flocks of geese, obviously confused and still looking for spilled corn from the long completed Fall harvest. The squirrels are still rampaging around. Almost all the long fallen walnuts are gone or gathered and buried. Are the two resident red squirrels just pulling from the stores they will need come early spring?

And what about the other birds? I realized that I had not been helping, as the large bird feeder is well past a re-fill. This normally helps our resident blue Jays (typically 3), two pairs of red cardinals, and a changing flight of chickadees.  

 

So I dug out the pail of mixed bird seed and filled the feeder, which hangs off the upper deck just beyond our sliding glass door. 

Fifteen minutes later, this happened.

That squirrel had spotted the available food supply first. He had ate his fill. Then fixed himself on the top of the feeder, clicking and shrieking his warning cry. For a full 20 minutes. I never saw him actually eat any more. Just blocking anything else from getting a meal as he loudly issued his 'Bugger off - this is MINE!' chattering

 

Greed

Those that have the most make sure no one else can get anything.

Just because a squirrel does this, with it's tiny brain, does not mean we humans should be so stupid. 

Finishing the Build...

 ... in early preparation for the October 13th bloomery iron smelt at Wareham

The standard furnace build here by DARC uses a mix of rough thirds of powdered clay (EPK), course sand, and dried, hand shredded, horse manure (last year's droppings). This last adds short pieces of softened grass that act to bind and leave spaces for steam to escape to limit cracking.

 

When done, the exterior is wound with rope to help prevent external sagging (seen at the bottom of the image. The furnace body was 20 cm tall at that point.

The interior is filled with a dry mix of half sand, half wood ash (from the wood stove). This acts to both stabilize the structure, but also pull moisture from the wet clay. This image taken roughly 20 hours after the lower portion had been finished. The darker ring in the packing next to the walls shows absorbed moisture.

 

In high 20's C clear Ontario weather, the soft clay had already dried to 'leather hard, when work resumed the next day'. Because I had some concern about the relative moisture between this layer and the next one to be added, I had incorporated a 'Beardsley Break'. A depression is made on the top edge with your thumb, creating a U shaped channel. In this way if the expected crack develops between the two additions of clay, the channel will both lock the new upper section in place, but also serve to limit / prevent any working gas seepage at that band.

Finished clay build. Furnace is actually straight!

The bulge at about 40 cm is because the section of previous furnace had thicker walls than the fresh clay build below. The internal diameters match. This is the first time I have attempted to directly re-use a section of an earlier fired furnace.

Total shaft height at 62 - 65 cm.

 

I am expecting some cracking problems with the mating of fresh (shrinking) and old (stable) clay sections. Once the furnace has air dried and then gently heated, it will be bound with fencing wire to brace any cracks Iike the loop seen on the re-used section. (The rope is removed when leather hard)

I intend to mount four pieces of angle iron into the inner corners of the block plinth to ensure stability. All in aid of being able to re-use this furnace several times, hopefully.