Remembering My 911 Day

     Everyone that was alive at the time, probably remembers where they were 25 years ago, when they first heard those shocking reports of what was going on in what later became called “911”   Here is what I gleaned about the day from my diary:

Sept. 11/01 Tues. (A day to remember)

    At 7:00 when my clock radio went off this morning, the first thing we heard on the news was that an airplane had crashed into the World Trade Center in NYC.  This was personally interesting to me, since we had visited and been to the top of the World Trade Center almost exactly 6 months earlier.  (My second thought was, “That’s an interesting coincidence, just like in 1945 when a B-25 bomber accidentally crashed into the Empire State Building.” something that I had remembered in collecting trivia for my Trivia Calendar that I made)

        Then a short time later, we heard that a 2nd plane had rammed into the other tower, and It became immediately clear, that the first crash was not an accident.  We turned on the TV and then saw that the Pentagon had been hit by a plane.

        I had to force myself to tear away from the TV reports while all this was happening, but I had to go to work.  As I pedaled my bike to the office, I listened to my pocket radio.  I had my earplugs on listening to the CBC Radio as it reported on the disaster.

        I was on the highway at the area between the McBride frontage roads, when they reported that the first tower had collapsed.   I couldn’t help but utter, “Aww, no,” out loud.

        I was in shell shock for the rest of the day.  As I listened to the radio at work, one event after another unfolded; the 2nd tower collapsed, and another hijacked plane crashed in Pennsylvania.  The news was full of reports of other suspect aircraft flying around.  Planes from all over the world were being forced to make emergency landings in Canada.  I got very little work done that day.

        Everyone else at our forestry office was stunned too.  In the afternoon the District Manager had the whole staff gather in the foyer of the office, and in a big circle we held a moment silence for the disaster that was unwinding in the US.   There were construction workers in the building working on a new space in the Forestry Office, which added to the chaos of the day.

    Spent the night watching TV reports about the Twin Tower Attack.  

    The photo is from March, 2001

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Six Months Before The Trade Center Disappeared

     Tomorrow will be the 25th Anniversary of 911, and already the news media is starting to talk about it.  In March of 2001, half year before the Trade Center vanished, my wife and I were in New York visiting friends, and as part of our trip we went up to the top of the Trade Center.  I still find it very strange to realize that up there on the top, I was standing where now, there is just air, because the building I was standing on is gone.

    I did take lots of photos of being in the Trade Center, but of course, I now can’t find them.  However, here are a few screen grabs that I took from a video of our New York Trip.  The photo below shows the plaza at the foot of the Trade Center, where you can see part of the iconic exterior of the building.  

    At the very bottom is a shot of the view from a window at the top of the Trade Center.

You can take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

Mother Bear And Cub Visit Again

     Yesterday afternoon, I happened to glance out of the kitchen window and discovered that the mother black bear and her cub were back after a few day’s absence.   This time they were up by my shop and the mother bear was very curious about what was inside.  Before I was able to get my camera, she actually stood up vertically in front of the door, like she was going to open it and walk in.  

    I know why she was interested in what was inside my shop, because that is where I had stored all of the apples, I had recently picked from our two apple trees.

    Again, I felt bad about depriving her and her cub some of the apples, because I know they need to bulk up before they start their winter hibernation, although they do seem to look pretty healthy at present.  If only they wouldn’t trash my apple trees.

You can see my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Clouds Building Over The Cariboo Mountains

     Yesterday when I was out in the garden pulling weeds.  I always  enjoy watching the Robson Valley sky, because I love the clouds, the color, and the light.  Yesterday, I was also paying attention to the sky because I had hung the laundry to dry on the clothesline, and I was afraid that we might get showers.  As I watched the sky, I was taken by the dramatic beauty of the clouds that were building over the Cariboo Mountains.  

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

What's The Trouble, Kona?

     This morning I was sitting on the couch watching the news on TV, as I ate my breakfast.  Kona was sitting calmly beside me with her head resting on the back of the couch looking out of the bay window, waiting for me to finish, so she could lick out my bowl.  Suddenly, Kona erupted into a barrage of very loud, forceful barking, which scared me.  I tried to calm her down, then turned to look out of the window to see what was causing all of her agitation.

    There I saw a mother bear and a cub walking through the lawn.  They could hear Kona’s loud barking fit coming from the house which prompted them to began scrambling for cover in the woods.  It took a really long time for Kona to finally calm herself down. 

     I usually do four laps, walking and jogging around the pond after my breakfast, but today I decided that since the mother bear had a cub, that I had better just skip the exercise today.

    This was the first bear sighting we have seen in the yard this year.  I guess fall, and their need to bulk up has led to the exploration.  

    I have already picked the apples off of my two trees, to prevent bears from tearing up and trashing the trees eating the apples.  In a way I am sorry to deny them food that they need, but they do really destroy apple trees.  I am actually surprised that my apple trees are still alive after being so severely mangled in the past by hungry bears.

    I wasn’t able to get a photo of the bear and cub this morning, but found this old one to use.  The cub I saw this morning was smaller that the yearling in the photo.

Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

1973: Teaching In A One-Room School, Always Stuck In Camp

 (Just a follow-up from yesterday’s blog--I caught three more mice last night.)

    Because of the isolation of the Silvscan Mill camp and the schedule of the those few transportation links to the outside world, we were never able to leave the camp on our weekends.  The“Sched" (a regular scheduled float plane) flight to Fort St. James only operated on weekdays, when we had to be in school.  

        The Silvacan mill did have an old DC-3 which they used to make twice weekly trips from Williams Lake to the camp ferrying work crews and supplies back and forth, but that again, only happened during weekdays, so it ended up always being stuck in camp.  It ended up that we were only able to leave the camp three times a year, just during the school breaks--Christmas, Spring Break, and summer vacation.

           The fact that the mill worked on a 10/4 schedule (working 10 days straight, then getting 4 days off) which allowed the mill workers, most of who lived in bunkhouses, a chance to work long hours while they were in camp, then have extra-long weekends when they were flown out to Williams Lake.  

          This 10/4 schedule didn't work very well for our school, because the families who had children in school, often left for the four day weekends in Williams Lake, causing the kids to miss Thursday afternoons, Fridays, and Mondays at school.  Another fluctuation in attendance was caused when the Jack kids disappeared unexpectedly from school,  because their First Nation’s family sometimes went on long hunting trips or get-togethers at the Takla Landing Reserve. 

            Nevertheless, I kept up the school schedule whether I had 12 kids, or two, in class, but after three months, the Christmas break was upon us, and Joan and I finally got to leave camp, first flying on the camp's DC-3 to Williams Lake, where we were able to make connections to fly back to Indiana with stories and slides of our life in the remote British Columbia “bush."

        Photo above shows the Camp’s DC-3.  Below is a photo of the Jack family in their boat, off to the Takla Landing Reserve.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Mice, Looking For A Warm Winter Home

     Well, it’s that time of year again.  All those field mice that were happy cavorting around in the weeds of summer, are starting to think about the upcoming winter and are looking for a nice warm place to live.   Unfortunately, that place is our house.

    We had been starting to see some signs of mice in the house, and I was able to find one of our old mouse traps, which I baited with peanut butter, but no mouse was tempted.  So yesterday, when we went into McBride for shopping, I went to the hardware store to buy a couple more mouse traps. 

     I couldn’t any in where I thought the mouse traps would be, so I ask the clerk where they were.

    “Oh,” he said, “Since everyone was looking for mouse traps, we moved them up to this special display at the front of the aisle.”   (I guess, our house is not the only one being impacted by mice.)  

    I bought two traps and when I got back home with them I baited them, the two I bought, and the other one I had, with a bit of a cheese slice, and spread the traps around in three different places.

    This morning when I got up and checked, I was amazed at my success.  I had caught three mice.  I will continue to put the traps out, until I no longer catch any mice.

    I hate killing the pests and used to live trap them, and release them outside so the coyotes and other predators could eat them, but presently, there are just too many in the house, and I have to be hardcore about quickly getting ride of them, before their population really explodes.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca