A Review of Kinross Pond

  Things have been changing and happening around Kirkland Lake this year and things are really looking up.
  As a daily ritual, I usually take my regular walk from our house at Comfort St, and King St and end up at Kinross pond, entering the walkway at Poplar Ave so I get to see any changes on the Pond walkway.

 This is the announcement sign to let you know who has been involved in this  project.
                                                                                                                                                                       Someone has a really green thumb and also a good eye for landscaping.                                                                                  

                      

                                                                                     This is the new pavilion where the music is found on Friday afternoons in the good weather.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

                                                                        There is also a nice park and playground for the kids and a place for the dogs and cats to enjoy the outdoors.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

There is also a nice water spout/fountain coming up  out of the pond, I imagine that it does help to aerate the water for whatever life is in the water.

First display is a map of the town and area showing the hiking trails, etc.






 First of all, I see the town has installed some exercise machines for our  citizens to use to build up their muscles in various parts of our bodies. I believe that these machines were put in last year as well as a water spout (fountain) near the centre of the pond so this is a beautiful attraction to the pond.
 This year I noticed that the town has poured a series of bases around the walkway and I couldn't figure out what they would be for until about three weeks ago when the workers installed many reader boards (I am not sure of the proper name for these but I am going to call them history lessons).
 I took a walk around the pond one evening this week and snapped pictures of all of them. I am including   pictures of most of them for you to see and a little explanation for you so you can understand what they        are all about. Hope you enjoy them. 
                                                                                                                
                   
 The first picture shows six actors/ actresses from the Kirkland Lake area who have made it big in television.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

                     

    This picture is Rosa Brown, who immigrated from Europe and was quite an entrepreneur. She does have a very colourful history.

   Here is a story about Wally Flood. He was a miner from the Kirkland

Lake area who enlisted in the war and was responsible for making
 tunnels underground and was the figure in the movie with Charles
 Bronson called "The Great Escape"





This plaque is about the Canadian Army Tunnelling Company including
about 20 men who were trained and employed in hard rock mining at home. These men did a lot of tunnelling in Europe, Africa, British Isles and other areas.

 This picture is the story of Charlie Chow, who ran a Chines restaurant
and hotel on the main street of Kirkland Lake. He was very smart in finances when he dealt with his mining customers who on occasion didn't have money to pay their bills so he took stocks in trade for payment. One time there was a problem when the mine couldn't get their payroll so Charlie brought out some paper bags full of money, enough to cover the payroll of the mine.

 This is the story of Kirkland Lake as a gold mining community
This story includes many details of gold mining in and around the town as well as the background behind the Mile Of Gold (Main Street).

 
 Mario Bernardi was born in Kirkland Lake and got his education in music in Toronto and performed as a concert pianist and then a well known classical conductor.



                                                                       

                                                              This plaque tells all about Champions from Kirkland Lake and gone elsewhere to make their fortune.
                                          

 

 Jack Kent Cooke came to Kirkland Lake and joined up with Roy
 Thompson and got involved running his radio station in Stratford.
 Mr Cooke and Roy Thompson joined forces in buying more radio
 stations and operating them as well as buying some baseball clubs

Lord Thompson of Fleet was known for selling radios and operating radio stations in Northern Ontario.

William Wright joined with his brother in law Ed Hargreaves in the Wright Hargreaves mine as well as financing the merger of the Globe and
 Mail newspaper.




 
.Harry Oakes was a man who was rather well off and used to be the owner of a few mines around Kirkland Lake area. He also used to be the owner of the house that is now the local museum.

This plaque commemorates the bad forest fire that almost claimed a large part of the Kirkland Lake town and surrounding area in 2012. I personally remember that time and the stress that it caused, not only by the news and radio announcements but the weird skies and smoke coverage in out area plus the smoke smell. One day, the wind changed direction and carried smoke from another fire located in the Timmins area as well as creating an orange sky. Boy was that strange.

This plate lists three of the local women who were involved in politics in our area. I am not familiar with any of them but they must have done a good job or they wouldn't have been elected to the position that they filled.

As you likely know, Kirkland Lake is well famous for the hockey players that came from our area. Many of them, not only played well but came up through the ranks to make themselves famous and was responsible for helping to organize a hockey association.







When you are in the area on a visit or if you live around here, then I invite you to come on over and see what the Town Of Kirkland Lake has been doing.

We lost a dear friend in January

Things have been rather quiet for awhile around here but in January of this year we lost a dear and great friend. Mr Bill Sedgwick of Kirkland Lake has passed away due to illnesses that he has been dealing with for awhile now.
 Even though Bill has been confined to his house for a few years, it hasn't dampened his spirit. He has always been cheerful and a joy to be around when we either go to visit him or do his usual weekly shopping trip for him and ourselves.
 I have known Bill since about 1989 when I first started to work for Supreme TV in Kirkland Lake,Ontario. My family and I had moved from Southern Ontario to a small village called Matachewan, just 40 miles west of Kirkland Lake, out in the bush remote from most civilization. This village is a mining community built up to accomodate men and their families as they worked for a mine in the area. Because of my occupation, I had to work for a tv and appliance sales and service business wherever I could find one that needed a tv technician. When we moved north in 1988, I did work for a business in Englehart but the owner did not do very well so I ended up leaving him in February 1989 and working from home until June of 1989 when I started working for Supreme TV and driving 75 miles round trip back and forth to work. This lasted for six years until 1995 when I had a severe accident on off time and I have not worked for anyone since then.
 Back to the subject of this posting. When I worked for Supremes, I ran their service shop about one block south of their main store. People would bring their sets to me so I could work on them there and, hopefully, send them back home in good working order. I did have a young man working with me part time in between his college course he was taking.
 I had a lot of hours of working in this shop by myself and a lot of time I found it quite boring so I would put on my coat and march down to the main store and to the back so I could sit and chat with Bill for a period of time until I either had to go back to work or figured I should look like I was working.
 Time went on working for Supreme's until 1995 when they suffered from a large fire in the main store and another store attached to the side of the main store. In August of that year I had the accident which took me out of circulation, as far as being employed by anyone so I have been on disability pension since then until I turned 65 and now am on senior's old age pension.
 Bill stayed with Supreme's after the fire until a few years later when he stopped working because of health problems and just stayed at home not working. In later years, Bill had two hip replacements in  Toronto and this did help him to get around but he never did fully get back to normal mobility and well as suffering from Diabetes and heart troubles until this January when he passed away from health related problems. Bill is going to be sorely missed by his many friends and family.
  Life does go on and we have to learn to carry on with or without our loved ones. God Bless you Bill, will look forward to seeing you in the future.
Wilf Blakey

A very pleasant visitor

Today is September 12,2012. We had a surprise email yesterday from a fellow blogger, Ivan, from Sundre, Alberta, Canada.
Ivan has been traveling across Canada from Alberta to Newfoundland with his cat, Hailey.  I have been following Ivan's blog "Roadtrip 2012" as he has gone from Alberta to the East coast and now is heading back home again. We had contact with Ivan earlier when he was passing around Thunder Bay and on through Ontario. We had invited the two of them to stop in on their way east if it was okay with them but that was not to be. I read all of his adventures, including a trip on the ocean with Hailey and some of his friends. I got to see the scenery of the Maritime provinces as he moved around them, also a trip on the ferry over to Newfoundland. I had heard about the ferry ride from some of our friends, who have a bus ministry across Canada and have been to Newfoundland and the Maritimes twice in the last year or two. 
   When I first found out about Ivan, I realized that he does have a cat and by chance his cat looks quite similar to our Morris even to a similarity in color. When we got Morris last December, I emailed Ivan and told him about Morris and we started up a little conversation between Morris and Hailey. We have had many chuckles as we passed comments back and forth about the two cats as though they were long lost cousins. In fact, this week when Ivan emailed us to say that he was headed our way, he said that Hailey was planning on coming our way to "hiss" at Morris and we expected Morris to "hiss" at Hailey as well. The conversation has carried on in this manner as we have enjoyed our nonsense and fun.
    Monday of this week, we noticed that Morris had developed a rather large bare spot on his throat from him either licking himself or scratching himself with his paws to the point that he has a rather bare area below his chin. We decided to remove his harness and flea collar just to be sure that they wouldn't cause more grief. We also took him to the vet for treatment of this situation. When we brought him home, he had a sore rump from an antibiotic injection and also a halo to stop him from licking his bare spot or scratching it and causing more trouble. When Ivan emailed us yesterday, we told him about Morris' problem. When he emailed back he stated that according to Hailey "Morris looks silly with the collar".
 Time passes very fast  these days as we notice that the day starts rather early and before we realize the time has flown by without even seeing it. It was time for the duo to move on and Elizabeth and I had to get ready for a supper engagement at the local restaurant to celebrate two birthdays ( mine and Joe -our oldest daughter's boyfriend).

 As we moved from the house to Ivan's truck camper, we had a chance to view the interior of his camper and compare it to one that we had many years ago but smaller. I asked Ivan if he would show us his miniature remote controlled helicopter that flies and takes pictures with a digital camera. It is a very nice machine and definitely not just a toy.














Of course no visit is complete without showing off our own new camper, which we purchased in June of this year.I had been chatting with Ivan about our new motorhome so I just had to show if off and show off we did.

I received another email from Ivan saying that he was heading towards Timmins and was staying at a Provincial Park in that area.
  Ivan has travelled into the United States for part of the winter to escape the cold winter weather. He has been as far south as Arizona, New Mexico and other states in that area. This is a man who has travelled around and has the time and opportunity to do so. Ivan worked for Parks Canada and is now retired from the work force.
  Thank you Ivan and Hailey for visiting us today and will gladly enjoy any visit that might happen again in the future. Safe travels and have a joyous future.
Wilf, Elizabeth, and Morris Blakey

Time for something new

Habits get developed, sometimes without even realizing it. Since 1987, we have been trading vehicles every ten years and this year is no exception but not the way we had expected.
We purchased our first motorhome in 2002. We bought a 1971 Ford class C motorhome made by Triple E in Winkler, Manitoba. It was quite an experience for us to own a motorhome, a motorized self contained camper with all of the necessary equipment to live in for a period of time

 We did considerable work on this unit as we replaced the engine with a new engine,rebuilt the transmission, rebuilt the radiator, rebuilt the passenger side wall on the coach as well as many other things and updates that I did on it.

  My  wife and I travelled to Southern Ontario for holidays in 2006 and also 2011. We stayed at a private campground around Lake Eugenia (near Flesherton). The campground is owned by a couple we have known quite well since about the 1970's. The gentleman ran a service station and serviced our vehicles while we lived in that area until we moved to this location in 1988.
  We have had a standing invitation to stay at their place anytime we were in the area so we have done that three times now. When we stayed there in 2006, they announced that they were planning on upgrading to a newer motorhome and would sell their present one. We have known this motorhome since 2004 when we stayed at their place for the first time. This unit is a 1976 Itasca class A , 26 ft motorhome. Itasca is a sister brand to Winnebago and is a really nice higher class motorhome than the Triple E class C that we have had for the last ten years.

As the pictures indicate, the interior is much nicer than our first unit and is much better constructed that the Triple E which has a wood  frame construction where the Itasca has a metal tubular frame with foam insulation sprayed in the metal frame. This should be a stronger frame as well as a warmer framed camper.
As I mentioned earlier, it was in 2006 that we were first told about this motorhome being up  for sale. We told the owners that we were interested in it and were going home to Kirkland Lake and would sell ours first to get some money to pay for theirs. We went home but didn't sell ours or didn't raise the money to pay for theirs so nothing happened in the mean time. When we went down for a holiday in 2011, their motorhome was still there and it was still for sale but at a lower price. We decided that the present price was a price that we should be able to handle and we went home this time with much more encouragement that we would be able to pay for it this time. We did buy it this time but took the winter to pay it off with delivery in the spring or early summer. We were a little sneaky with this deal as we didn't say a word about this purchase to any of our family or most of our friends in this area. We arranged for the previous owner to drive his motorhome up to Kirkland Lake to our home in mid June. It sure felt weird to see a large, very nice looking motorhome sitting in our yard parked next to a smaller, older not so nice unit. However we do have it now, we are still doing some unexpected repairs as well as some updates that we want to do before we actually put it on the road to go somewhere for a camping trip.
 A couple (friends of ours) blessed us with a color backup camera system as well as a GPS system for the motorhome. I have the camera installed and working well, the gps is a portable unit that just plugs into the cigarette lighter so it really doesn't need installation.
 So much for our new purchase, now you know why we are smiles when we talk about our new camper. It is a real pride and joy, besides being a source of enjoyment, it has more room for Morris to run around in while we are taking a trip.
Looking forward to our first camping trip. In the meantime other things do need our attention. See you later.
Wilf, Elizabeth, and Morris Blakey

Christmas Eve and Santa is coming

Well it is Dec 24,2011 and another year is close to being complete. Tonight Santa Clause is doing his worldy jaunt around the globe. He is stopping at every home with children to drop off his gifts to make millions of girls and boys happy for another year.
 I hope that all of you childred have been good this past year or you just might not get that toy or whatever it is that you asked Santa for. I know that I have been trying to behave myself so that Mrs Blakey could tell Santa  that I have been a good boy and it  is okay to drop off the toys that I asked for this Christmas.
  All of you kids had better get off to bed early so Santa can come into your places with  his surprises. It will be exciting to get up in the morning to check out the tree and your stockings as well.
                    Well we will say good night to you all and wish you all a very
                       Merry , Merry  Christmas

Wilf, Elizabeth Blakey and family

A new member to our family

We now have a new member of our family. The ones we created many years ago have flown the nest  quite awhile ago and have even started their own family.
 I kid Elizabeth that her maternal instinct has kicked in and made her desire to start another family. She has been telling me that she has desired to get a pet kitten for company. Does this mean that I am not good company anymore?
 My wife saw an add in one of the stores for kittens to be given away, already to leave their family and ready for battle. She phoned the people and the long and short of it all is that on Monday morining we obtained a seven week old male kitten. It has been many years since we had a pet and I, personally have been out of touch looking after any living thing much smaller than myself so this is a challlenge to both of us.
 The first day was no problem as looking after him was easy because he hid most of the day and we weren't sure where he was. Eventually he showed up in the evening when we coaxed him out of hiding with some food. Food seems to be a universal tempter of most beings.  By the end of the evening he was running around like he had lived here for ever.

  Next morning he started to loosen up even more and started to accept the fact that he is going to live here forever and it was time to enjoy his surroundings.
We have had him almost one whole week and he is starting to grow on us. We are starting to feel like he is a part of our family for the most of our lives and not just 6 days.
 It is a challenge for us to get used to him as he learns to get used to us. The cats that I have been in company with  in the past have been quite used to sitting on my lap but Morris is not one of these as yet.

I told Elizabeth that one reason I was willing to have a pet is that he can come with us as a companion for us on trips with our camper. As well I have stated that I want him to be our guardian animal for our unit to stop unwanted intruders from entering our domain.

I built a scratching post for Morris and he has found this much to his amusement to be able to view the horizon from where he likes to sit.







Over the last few days that we have had Morris, we have had a few visitors in our home. He is getting a chance to meet his siblings (our daughters and grandson) but he is finding it a little trying to get used to strangers. The only people he has known in his young life have been his brother, sister, mother and his original owners. Well, his world is expanding now and will do so more in the future.

 So much for our expanded family. Family is a large part of life and a very enjoyable part of life at that. However we are looking forward to many more days, weeks, months and years of enjoyment with our now offspring,
      Morris,  welcome to the Blakey family of Kirkland Lake,Ontario
Wilf and Elizabeth Blakey

And now for the year 2010

A long time waiting for another post since last time, I am glad that I didn't hold my breath in between times.
Many things have happened since then, some are good to mention but, as usual, some are not good so we will attend to the first things first.
 I believe the last post was about March 2010. What took place around that time has made a drastic change in my life, I will say that it is not a good change either. In August of the previous year, I found out that I have hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). This is a type of diabeties where the blood sugar level drops too low for comfort and sometimes safety. I had a tough time that fall and part of the winter getting accustomed to this disease. I had no energy and sometimes very little strength either. Let us say that I did a lot of research on the Internet and stayed connected to the doctors for the most of the next year learning how to live with diabeties.

Finally, in the spring, I decided to get involved in working on our motorhome, our baby. I likely mentioned that it is a 1971 Triple E with a  Ford Econoline drive train. When we used it last year we would step into the coach via the entry steps and it would feel like we were standing on a mushroom or something similar. With the help of my neighbour across the street (a welder by trade), we discovered that the floor of the entry well was rusted badly and needed replacing.



 I started working on this by removing the bad stuff and replacing it with new steel plus I totally disassembled the passenger sidewall of the coach and completely rebuilt this wall. I found many of the
wooden structural pieces were rotted and had to be
changed. One piece came out of its' position and fell
on the ground in a pile of shavings.


 The picture to the right shows the original floor material that I removed.



As seen on the right, the overhead bunk sidewall was rotted as well and had to be changed.This was a real challlenge as I had to remake the framework that fitted just inside the roof covering aluminum. The orignal wall above the cab was just a piece of 3/4 inch plywood and no insulation so when I replaced it I made a wall of 3/4 framing material on its' edge and made a cavity to insert styrofoam insulation.






Here is some of the installation of the foam insullation. I glued the panels to the inside panelling and left a gap around the outside of each piece so I could fill it in with spray foam.After the foam hardened, I trimmed it level so it would make each cavity solid. This should make the motorhome warmer and quieter then ever.
 There is a wire crossing the cavity beside and above the space housing the furnace. This wire had to be replaced as I found a hole burned through one conductor of this AC electrical wire.





 I also made and installed new aluminuum siding.This siding was made from aluminum flatstock sheeting by the roll. I bought a 50 ft roll and used all of it but about 2 ft.










After this I painted the side wall to match the paint
scheme on the cab.








 This little job started about early May and I shut it down around the end of August so it was an involving job for sure. There were still some small tasks to finish off but these are items for another time and another year. Since I spent so much time on our motorhome this year, we were not able to use it for camping this year. We will see what happens next season.

I will continue on next year's activities and see what I can write about next time.
Wilf Blakey

Evan's visit

On March 14th, the Pentecostal Church in Kirkland Lake had company in the way of a couple and their son. These people put on a program for the congregation that was very enlightening and enjoyable. The people were Sharon and Wilson Kindred and their son Evan. Evan is not really their son but we like to call him that as his name is Evan Hardwood Kindling and is actually a puppet. Wilson has become very adept at ventriloquism and has worked out a few skits for himself and Evan. Today's skit is about Evan and his report card from the school that he attends, "The school for dummies". It seems that he has not been handing his report card to Wilson so he can check up on Evan's progress in school. Evan has been hiding the card so Wilson will not see what Evan has or has not been doing in school. He eventually does surrender the evidence to Mr Chandler (Pastor Rob's father in law) who has been a school teacher and principal for many years and has a good knowledge of teaching and dealing with kids. There is a good conversation going on amongst Wilson, Evan and Mr Chandler as the details of Evan's progress is revealed.
As the story goes on we were rolling in the aisles with laughter with the comments that were flying from Evan to Wilson and between Mr Chandler and Evan.
Wilson also provided some good old Southern Gospel songs and a little teaching on the gospel. All was very well appreciated by all and no doubt Mr and Mrs Kindred and Evan will be invited for a return visit sometime in the future.

This is a post that was composed quite awhile ago and was not published at the time. I thought you might enjoy it even at this late date.
Wilf Blakey

A catch up report

I apologize for not posting anything lately, I have been occupied with personal things and it seems to be rather quiet around the Ponderosa lately.
Actually the Winter Carnival has been on the go in February in Kirkland Lake, we have been hearing sounds in the sky for two weekends (Feb 26/27 and Feb 27/28) We finally found out what the noises were, there was a helicopter offering rides to people letting them see what the area looked like around our town only it was an aerial view for a change. I have always desired to take one of these rides but maybe next year.
Cabaret was playing at the LaSalle Theatre from Feb 24 to 27th and I hear that it was a very enjoyable show that they put on. Good work people.
This current weekend, the Baptist church sponsored a fund raising dinner for Teen Challenge to raise money to pay for a year's stay at the Teen Challenge ranch ( I believe it is at the Sault Ste Marie ranch) for a young man in need of rehabilitation. We like to support the work of this association as they definitely do good work with the people who go through the program.
Our church, Living Faith Assembly Pentecostal Church, hosted a group of young people from Cochrane, the Cochrane Young People. There were a total of ten young people, five making up a musical group and five younger boys and girls who made up a drama group. All, in all, the group put on an excellent program of music and skits. After the service, the visitors and our own group enjoyed a carry in lunch in the basement as well as socializing with each other afterwards.
Besides these events, I have been busy with our youngest daughter moving from one house to another and also taking care of some needed medical affairs for myself. Nothing serious, just things that needed to be done.
I will try to post more items in the near future as I find subjects to write on and pictures to take.
I just remembered an item that may be worthy of mentioning. Last summer, myself and a few friends installed a new steel roof on our shop to replace the old dilapidated shingle one that was on there before. As you know, our weather is improving with the warmer temperatures working on our snow on the ground and also on my steel roof. The snow decided to slide down the roof and onto the ground in front of my shop creating a pile about 18 inches deep from the deck stairs to the far side of the garage door. This happened while my wife and I were having our Pentecostal snooze on Sunday afternoon. I went out for a walk that evening and saw the results of my avalanche of snow but decided to work on it Monday morning. Monday morning came and when I tried to blow the snow with my blower, the snow was almost like a block of ice since the temperature had dropped since Sunday evening and had frozen the slushy snow. I had to hire a backhoe to remove the snow from the front area and that was easily done by Mr Crema.
Well I will say goodbye for now and will try to report more in the near future.
Wilf Blakey

Olympic Torch Celebration

Well, we had some excitement in town today. The olympic torch arrived in town after it visited in Virginiatown and Larder Lake. It had come into these places after coming up north from the
Barrie/ Orillia area on its way from the East coast to the west coast.







The torch first came to Burnside Rd, on the east side of town and came up Government Rd and finished up at the Hockey Heritage North, near the Museum. There were a few motorhomes, some buses and a few pickup trucks operated by the sponsors of the Torch Run. These sponsors
were Coca-Cola and the RBC (Royal Bank of Canada).



































The weather today is rather frigid and dull so it
was not an enticing day for outdoor activity, here
in Kirkland Lake,Ontario. It is obvious the
participants were expecting cold weather as they
were very well dressed to stand the cold weather.
This is a good way to start out the New Year with
a little public participation in some activities.





























As you can see, there was a big crowd at the Hockey Heritage North site, it could be that half of the town was here to see what was going on today





There were local singers and groups entertaining on the temporary stage built for the occassion. Some of those on stage were Jamie Taylor, Cory Taylor,Stephan Barrette,Pascal Boucher,Lori-Carter Kasner, Bailer Kasner, Graham Ghent with the children's choir and the KLDCS choir with Paul Benenndyk. Also were some First Nations with their ceremonial service.
Coca-Cola and RBC were giving away samples of their product to the public.













Over all it was a very good way to start the year 2010 and it
is looking good for the upcoming year.



A Happy New Year to one and all from us here at Kirkland
Lake.


Wilf Blakey