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Monday, January 24, 2011

Should you get a Pet

To many people, dogs ,cats ,or other animals are very important to them. There are some folks who are not animal lovers and that is their thing, but the animal lovers are a special breed of people. They open their hearts and homes to these animals. And that pet becomes part of their family. But there are also some who say they love their animals and they abuse them. Maybe sometimes they don’t realize it but when a person leaves a dog or cat outdoors in big snowstorms, it is a form of abuse. These pets can freeze just as fast as you and I . If you have pets, make sure they are not outside in the cold or bad weather for long periods . I have seen some pet owners walking their pets with little boots on their paws and sweaters on their backs. It looks cute but it also keeps them warm and dry.

Some people see a puppy or a kitten in an animal shelter and they fall in love with them and decide to take them home. But there is more than loving a pet and taking it home. There is the caring of that pet, feeding it, washing it, nursing it back to health if it is sick, getting their needles that they need. So if you have in your mind to adopt a pet, be prepared for the long road ahead, you just cannot bring a puppy or kitten into your home and then get tired of them after ten or twelve years and get rid of them. Remember that pet, has been in your home with your family for all these years, he or she has grown to love you and everyone in your home. That pet feels secure, what happens if you bring it back to the shelter? Chances are because he or she is older, they may not be adopted out again and may have to be put to sleep. Pets are great for people living alone, it is company for the person and for the pet. Now there are senior homes who’s residents have visits from dogs or cats on a schedule. These seniors look forward to this special dog or cat’s visits and the pets get to know the seniors sometimes it is love at first sight.

Some people don’t care for dogs or cats but they prefer birds, now birds are sometimes great pets too, some can be trained to talk, or whistle or sing . I had a parakeet name Joey and I tried to teach him to talk and it really took a long time to get him started but once he did, he never wanted to shut up and he was adorable. One day I had set his cage at the wrong place ,he caught a draft and died, I sure missed him. I also had a dog, she was all black except one white paw, my son named her Chrissy, we had her for 15 years and let me tell you that when she got too old and too sick it sure hurt to see her go, I honestly cried . She was a very intelligent dog, I taught her how to pick certain toys from her toy box and she learned very fast ,she did all kinds of tricks too. But she never liked children and that was too bad. There are some dogs that take to children ,others don’t. My son had a Labrador retriever and when my granddaughter was born we thought the dog would resent the baby , but no way , that dog laid beside the baby’s bed and playpen, and grew with my granddaughter and then my grandson came along and the dog loved them dearly.

There are so many dogs waiting to be adopted in animal shelters, and so many cats or kittens, if you are ready to take on the responsibly of caring for a pet, then by all means take a trip to the shelter, you will see a special one that you will fall in love with immediately. Love it with all your heart and it will love you right back.

You can view a lot of animal related products in my animal folder at

http://www.zazzle.com/allicor
*

Friday, January 21, 2011

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Moncton's Petitcodiac River

The Petitcodiac River is a river in south eastern New Brunswick, also once known as Chocolate River because of its muddy banks . It runs through Westmorland ,Albert and King’s counties running around 48 or 49 miles.

The MicMaws were the ones who used the river as roads at first and are the ones who gave the river its name of Pet kuat kwec ak or Epetkutkutgyek, meaning bending round in a bow, and later came the Acadians who sailed the river and were later deported ,both the French and English had various spellings for the river but none so different than the way it was called on a 1784 Loyalist claim which was Petit Coat Jack.

The Petitcodiac River with its strong tides that when going out could carry sailing ships to the open seas before their sails were raised thus making Moncton New Brunswick into a settlement base. So ships came in with the tide and went out with the tides . It is so hard to imagine today’s Petitcodiac River as being so busy. But it was.

And with the Petitcodiac River came the Tidal Bore .Tidal bore is the inward rush of waters up the Petitcodiac River of New Brunswick from the Bay of Fundy which had one of the highest tides or of the world. Waters enters the estuary of the Petitcodiac river through the form or a Tidal Wave or a Bore from 4 to 6 ft high. The difference between extreme high and extreme low in Moncton was 30 ft. This dept was before they built the causeway in 1968.

Before the construction of a causway in 1968, the river had one of the world's largest tidal bores , which ranged from three feet to six feet in height.

In 1968, a controversial rock-and-earth fill causeway was built between Moncton and Riverview to prevent agricultural flooding and to carry a crossing between the two communities. The causeway caused many problems for the river and its surrounding ecosystem. An estimated thirteen million cubic yards of silt was deposited in the 4.7 km of river downstream from the causeway in the first three years following construction. The causeway restricted the movement of fish and reduced the region's salmon catches by 82 percent. Water quality has also dropped thanks to industrial expansion around the area. In 2003, Earthwild International designated the Petitcodiac River as the most endangered river in Canada because of these problems. On April 14, 2010, the causeway's gates were opened permanently as part of a $68 million three-phase project designed to restore the river, to be completed by 2015.

Now that the causeway gates are open, there is already a change in the river.

The Petitcodiac River is changing faster than predicted only two months after the controversial causeway gates were opened, according to a local engineering firm.

After more than 40 years, the causeway gates were opened on April 14 to both cheers and jeers.

Jacques Paynter, an engineer from AMEC Earth and Environmental, the firm overseeing the river restoration, said the river banks are already widening at a noticeable pace and the Petitcodiac's famous tidal bore is also growing.

"We were actually anticipating a fairly modest increase in height. It seems to be already exceeding what we might have expected," Paynter said of the tidal bore.

The tidal bore is a regularly occurring wave that travels up the Petitcodiac River as the tide changes. The tidal bore has been a tourist attraction in the area for decades.

The causeway was built in 1968 and the bridge over top of it connected Moncton and Riverview. Its construction also created a permanent block of the river, which created a headpond known as Lake Petitcodiac.

Paynter said scientific tests are being carried out as the changes take place and that involves closing the causeway gates off and on.

Paynter said the flow of fish in the river is also encouraging. Roughly 40,000 Gaspereau were counted in just one day near Sails. Since this report the gates are open and let’s hope they stay open, maybe remove the causeway totally and build another bridge.

I have created a few products in case you would like souvenirs of the Petitcodiac River and Tidal Bore of the past, maybe years from now our grandchildren will be able to compare the differences in the once Mighty Petitcodiac River. I sure hope so.

You can find my products that I am posting in my shop at

http://www.zazzle.com/allicor
*

The mugs can be changed to steins,they are in my mug folder and the bumper sticker is in my miscellaneous folder, the postcard in my greeting card folder and the shirt in my tee shirt folder. Thanks to Gerry Allain for permission to use his image. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day

Chow for now
Allicor

Friday, January 14, 2011

Why we should take Pictures

Hello everyone, as you know there are so many blogs out there, some are so interesting, that many will follow them in order to keep up with their stories and news. So it is very hard to find something that will be of interest to all of you in my blogs.

Today I would like to blog about a couple of things. First of all , in some of my other blogs at other places (I have many blogs ) one is Acadian roots and I believe in that blog I talked about photos and memories ,today I would like to blog some more on this topic.

A picture of a photograph has so many stories to tell if you can read them. For example ,if you look through your parents or grandparent’s photo album and find a photo of one of your ancestors. By looking at the photo you see how they were dressed back then, you see how they wore their hair, what kind of shoes or boots they had on, look in the photo, what do you see in the background? An old chair that would be an antique today? Or an old building? Or even a dog or a cat or some small children. Compare that photo to one of today’s photo, see the changes. If you are writing a diary or a family tree, comment on that photo, make copies of the photo ,add one in your family tree book. I am going to add an invitation to a family reunion that I made yesterday, you will see the old photo which happens to be my great grandparents,this was taken in a lumber camp in Maine, and my Mom had told me that her grandfather worked in a lumber camp so I have a photo to go along with the story. But this is not the only reason that I am talking about photos, there is another important reason. Some people hate having their photos taken, for what reason? Well maybe some folks think they are not good looking? Too fat? Too thin? Don’t take good pictures? That is all balony, because by not having any photos of yourself you are depriving your children and grandchildren on having photos and memories of you. And you can be cross eyes, pigeon toed, tall, short,fat, no teeth, or buck teeth, but you have to remember your children and grandchildren love you for what your are, no matter what.

My daughter in law whom I love with all my heart , is one or was one who did not like her photo taken, now she is changing and I am so very happy and she never had any photos of herself as a baby or her parents, because photos were not their thing. Since then her parents and sister passed away and lo and behold a few days ago some photos of her and her family surfaced and she is walking on air, she is overwhelmed with emotions and now she can share them with her children who can pass them down to their children years from now. Cameras are selling cheap now days, you can download the photos on a DVD or CD and finish them so there is no excuse, take your camera and take pictures, make sure you write what is on the photos ,save them, share them. If you like old photos go to my Facebook group called Old Photos of New Brunswick Canada group and you will see awesome photos of places in New Brunswick and even some people too.

Now the second thing I want to talk about is coming events. Soon it will be time for Family Reunions, Baby Showers are plentiful, as are weddings, and parties, it is not too early to start planning the parties reunions, showers, so get your pens and paper ready and start planning, who to invite, what to do, where to hold the party, a theme for the party or shower and order your invitations early. I have created many invitations some are funny ,some are nice, These are my latest creationg . You can find all of these in my greeting card folder at

http://www.zazzle.com/allicor
* Enjoy.

Until next time ,have a great day

Friday, January 7, 2011

Faith and Hope

Today I would like to blog about virtues, and one of the virtues is Faith, and one is Hope. There are many others but these are the ones I would like to talk about in my blog. You heard the saying, you gotta have Faith and you have to have Hope.

What is Faith? Faith is trust in something. What about Hope? Hope is expect and desire things. We hope that things will work out for us. We have faith that things will happen. Well why am I talking about these virtues? I will tell you why!

My Mom had a stroke (a major stroke) last month. Things were not looking too good for her back then. She lost her use of her left hand and cannot walk (Yet)

She is on a feeding tube, and we did not think she would ever eat again. What a sad thing to have happened to my dear Mom. The physiotherapists tried working with her but they thought they could do nothing for her because she could not sit up straight. Well Mom has her right mind and she kept saying, they won’t let me try!

They don’t know what I can do! They think I can’t do it! But ,she said “ Let me try!” Mom was very hopeful and figured she could do something. So finally the therapists came in, maybe thinking nothing was going to change. So they sat Mom on the side of the bed to see if she could sit up, Yes she did, she said she knew she could, they made her reach out different ways to see if she would lose her balance but she proved that she could do what they asked. She had Faith .

Then yesterday the speech therapist brought her down to do a swallow test, to see where the food would be going, Mom could not do the cookie test because her dentures didn’t fit but she did the swallow liquid test. Before the therapist came to give us the results Mom said “ I hope that she will say I can swallow!”. Right after that the therapist came in and said , “ your throat is ok, you can swallow, it is going down the right way ,so we are going to start you on puree and liquids. Mom loves the soup and jello at the hospital so now she will be able to have some. Seeing Mom has progressed so well, then Faith and Hope are good virtues to have. I do hope Mom keeps improving and to add I would like to say my Mom is 92 years old.

So to all of you out there, thinking there is no Hope, please have Faith ,because you

Never ever know what lies ahead. Do not give up, keep on trying and hoping and also praying is not a bad idea. I have created a few articles in my store that would be appropriate for my blog today. You can find the shirt in my tee shirt folder, the mug in my mug folder, the button or badge in my button folder and the keychain in my miscellaneous folder at

http://www.zazzle.com/allicor
*

Have a great day

Allicor

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Monday, January 3, 2011

Who was John Gyles

 

John Gyles was a little English ten year old boy captured by the Indians when they raided New England Settlements and took prisoners. He spent nine years as a prisoner of the Indians and later with a French Family. The following was taken from a book which he later wrote about his capture and deals with his life with the Indians. He goes on to write the following story about himself and his life.

“My father , Thomas Gyles, came out from England to this new land and settled on the Kennebec River (Maine) at a place called Merrymeeting Bay where he lived for some years .Then my grandparents died and Father took his family and went home to England to settle his affairs. When they were settled ,we came back to New England, but since the Indians were attacking the settlements in Maine ,Father began a settlement on Long Island. But the air did not agree with him, so as the Indians had become more peaceful, we went north to Merrymeeting Bay. When we arrived there ,we found the place deserted and that settlements were being made in Pammaquid in the province of New York (part of Maine) so we settled there and later Father became the chief justice. It was August 2 1689, my Father with some labourers, my two elder brothers and I went early in the morning to gather in the harvest from one of his farms. I was ten ,James was fourteen and Thomas was sixteen. We worked hard till noon. After dinner our people went back to work, some to the hay fields ,some to the corn fields. My Father ,James and I tarried near the farmhouse where we had dined ,until about one o’clock at which time we heard the report of several guns from the fort.

Father said he hoped it was a signal of good news; but to our great surprise, at that moment about thirty or forty Indians appeared behind a rising ground near our barn and discharged a volley of shots at us.

The yelling of the Indians, the whistling of their shot and the voice of my Father, who cried out “ What now, What now!” so terrified us that my brother and I ran, he one way and I another trying to escape. Looking back over my shoulder I saw a huge Indian chasing me with a gun in his hand. I fell, and the Indian grabbed me by the left hand. He tied my arms ,then lifted me up and went towards the field where the men were working at the hay. I saw two men shot down and two more knocked on their heads with hatchets. Then some Indians came bringing two captives, a man and my brother James. There was no sign of my brother Thomas. I learned afterwards that in some wonderful manner he managed to escape by land to a point on the west side of the river where several fishing vessels lay. He got on board one of them and sailed the night so he was safe. But where was my Father: We marched about a quarter of a mile and then stopped. Here they brought Father to us. He looked very pale and bloody. He asked to be allowed to pray with his children. This was granted to him. He recommended us to the protection and blessing of God, gave us the best advice and then said goodbye to us, hoping that we should meet in a better world. He died shortly after. I later heard he had five or six shot holes through his jacket. The Indians led us along the east side of the river towards the fort. When we came within a mile and a half of the town and could see the fort, we saw fire and smoke on all sides. We moved closer into a thick swamp. Then I saw many captives and among them were my Mother and two sisters. Mother asked about Father. When I told her he had been killed she burst into tears. There was one more member of my family, my younger brother. He was playing near the fort when the Indians came and he ran inside. When Captain Weems surrendered the fort , it was on condition that all the occupants should be allowed to leave in a fishing sloop ,lying in the river, so my little brother escaped with them to safety. A few days later we reached Fort Penobscot where I saw my Mother, sisters and brother James again. We were there about eight days. Then my Indian master carried me up the Penobscot River to a village called Madawamkee, which is at the mouth of the eastern branch of the Penobscot. The next day we went up that eastern branch many miles; we carried our canoe over land to a large pond, then went from one pond to another, until in a few days we went down a river called Meductic which empties into the St John River. We didn’t go down to the mouth of this river instead we passed over a long carrying place to Medocktack Fort. This was an Indian Fort. The Indians sat in a circle and looked at me with fierce countenances. They champed cornstalks which they threw into my hat as I held it in my hand. I smiled at them ,though my heart ached. I looked at one after another but could not see that anyone pitied me. A captive among the Indians is treated very cruelly unless his master or some of his master’s relatives lay down a ransom such as a bag of corn or blanket which saves him from their cruelty. As I stood there , a squaw and a little girl came and the squaw laid down a bag of corn in the circle. The little girl took me by the hand making signs for me to go out of the circle with them. Not knowing their customs, I thought they were going to kill me, and refused to go.Then a grave Indian came and gave me a short pipe and said to me in English “ Smoke it!” Then he took me by the hand and led me out. I thought my end had come but he took me to a French hut about a mile from the Indian Fort. The Frenchman was not at home, but his wife who was a squaw talked for a long time with my Indian friend. I could not understand a word they said. We stayed about two hours and then went back to the Indian fort where they gave me something to eat. A few weeks later we left the fort and went to a place called Meduxnakeg where there was one wigwam. When we got there an old squaw saluted me with a yell, taking me by the hair and one hand, but I was so rude as to break away from her. The Indians laughed. We stayed there for some time, living on fish, wild grapes and roots. When winter came we went up the river till the ice came down running thick in the river. Then we laid up our canoes till spring, and travelled sometimes on ice and sometimes on land, till we came to an open river, where we made a raft and crossed over bag and baggage. They treated me ok but I found it hard carrying burdens and I was hungry most of the time, for we had little food. But they would often encourage me saying in English “By and by great deal moose”. There were eight or ten of us, and we had two guns on which we depended wholly for food. Sometimes we had no food for two or three days, but after one of those fasts we killed a moose which supplied us with food for a while. Sometimes we killed a bear. The meat was preserved by taking the flesh from the bones and drying it in smoke. In this way it keeps sound for months without salt. We kept going further north all the time, but when spring came we moved back to the head of the St John River. There we made canoes of moose hides, sewing three or four together and pitching the seams with Balsam mixed with Charcoal. Then we went down the river to a place called Madawescook. There an old man lived and kept sort of a trading house. We stayed there several days then went further down the river till we came to the greatest falls in these parts ,where we carried a little way over the land, and putting off our canoes went downstream still. As we passed the mouths of any large branches we saw Indians. At last we reached the place where we had left our birch canoes in the fall, and putting our baggage into them, went down to the fort. There we planted corn. After that we went fishing and to dig roots for food. Then back to the fort to weed the corn, then fishing again and back to hill our corn. After that we went a ways up the river to take Salmon and other fish which we dried for food. We dried the corn when it was in the milk. The Indians gathered it in large kettles and boiled it on the ears till it was pretty hard .Then they shelled it from the corn with clam shells and dried it on barks in the sun .When it is dry, a kernel is no bigger than a pea and it will keep for years. When it is boiled again it swells as large as when on the ear, and taste sweeter than other corn. When we gathered and dried our corn we put some into Indian barns, that is into holes in the ground lined and covered with bark and then with dirt. The rest we carried up the river on our new winter hunting. This ended my first year of captivity. There is more on John Gyles in the book Our New Brunswick Story but this is all for this time. I hope you enjoyed reading this blog and I hope you will check out my Native American products in my Native American folder at http://www.zazzle.com/allicor*

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Saturday, January 1, 2011

Remember When!

Well I am sitting here listening to the song Remember When and I love that song so very much that I have added it on one of my pages at
http://www.acadian-roots.com ,this is my genealogy website and I also have some of my products listed in my store too. Anyway getting back to Remember When. I remember when I was a little girl going to school and when Valentine's Day arrived, all of my classmates and I used to exchange valentines. I remember my Mom bought books of them for me and my siblings. Now which one should I give to my best friend and which one should I give to the little boy in the back that I sort of have a crush on? And then I got a valentine from the boy I sort of liked, oh boy did that ever make me feel good. Did he like me? i wonder! grin. Anyway to continue, my Mom was a great lady to save some of our things and one day she gave me around 15 valentines that I had got from other kids in school and yes the one from the little boy sitting in the back desk's valentine he sent to me was among them. What nice memories of those days. And the cost of Valentines back then was nothing compared to now. Things have gotten so expensive but yet even if they are expensive the giving of Valentine Cards is still being done. So February 14th is Valentine's Day, my maternal great grandparents married on that day. It must have been romantic for them back then .I have created a necklace with the words Will You Marry Me written on it, that would make a great gift to give if you propose on Valentine's Day, I am going to share a few valentines I made with you, you can find more at http://www.zazzle.com/allicor* and more to come.
Chow for now
Allicor

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