Blake Newsletter published and working on the last sibling

 The Blake Newsletter was published yesterday and it was fairly brief. No new testers for yDNA Blake and really that is what is needed in order to really narrow in on the older yDNA Blake groups in the British Isles. That is up to time for sure and there are more pressing matters at the  moment for everyone. Still publishing the BMBs for Andover but I have only transcribed into the mid 1700s (although I have the fiche) so it will soon come to an end perhaps by the end of this year not sure - would need to check that out. 

Worked on the matches and completed the next sibling overview and working on the last sibling - perhaps 1/3 through. Should finish it today and then need to assign the matches to my databases and there are four places in which these matches get organized into the chromosome they match, painted in DNA Painter (very much my go to place to put matches as the visual is great), then also into a file for known matches to prepare that for the re-phasing of my grandparents and phasing of my great grandparents and the last is my list of matches by grandparents and the unknowns. The unknowns are actually quite a small group. So a huge task to now assign these 314 matches to date and it will take me a little while to do that. But the calming effect on my brain has been great actually. My mind has been very busy these past few months. 

Yesterday the exercise was a workout first thing, then yoga before breakfast, followed by rowing mid morning and then a run followed by a walk around lunch time and finally calisthenics about an hour before dinner - Cardio Load was 304 and steps 13,190. I only ran for 25 minutes and walked for ten minutes and that reduced it from the usual 16,000. A good day though and today will be workout already done, yoga next, then weightlifting, run and walk, biking or yoga not sure yet in the latter part of the afternoon. Exceeding the suggested cardio load but it is pretty hard to stay at 71-176 if you run. Just a run is half of that. 

Behind on my email and must catch up with that although anything that needs to be done is done. Generally people write to thank me for a will/wills they found on my blog or something like that and I do not think that a reply adds anything to that so generally do not. I do need to get the Siderfin Charting book up online on the sites that I put the Siderfin Book on and will think about that. Publishing Blake and Pencombe will be different; it is more of a family thing (close family) but time will tell. Probably I can blog the chapters that are more universal to the Pencombe/Blake families. I can embargo the material as well and have it available that way for family members. Lots of items to consider there. 

Up early and I may just have my breakfast sooner rather than later. I  have this tendency to get started working and then it is 8 or 9 before I get my breakfast - hunger generally drives that. 

My mind is still up in the air about the election - I do think that the needs of youth should drive the election more than the baby boomers. Both of the major parties appear to be into this idea of a national energy corridor so will have to continue examining what else they are saying. Both parties are going to increase the militarization of Canada and that is really important; has been for about fourty years! I think we continue with the purchase of all F-35s but we should be also thinking about the next defensive aircraft (I am sure the military already are!).  It actually was much easier when I just always voted Conservative but I also think we need to look at the issues and how people will handle them and so my commitment to party has been replaced by a careful examination of what they are saying. Then the consideration of whether or not they will follow through on their commitments. I think the greater importance needs to be placed on the energy corridor and not letting current legislation slow that down. If the First Nations are onboard with these pipelines as well then we should get it going as soon as the ground is ready especially the Eastern Pipeline. Certainly we are getting a clear picture of the aims of the Conservative Party in this regard. However, the ground is still frozen here in Ottawa!

Prayers continuing for the people trapped followed the earthquake in Myanmar and Thailand. The deaths in Myanmar are now over 3000 and still people are trapped. Prayers for the souls of those who died.

Well the cleaning got completed at least

Yesterday was a busy day but I did not complete the Blake Newsletter - my mind just didn't want to settle to it but will do it today. I did work on matches and I am complete now once again although I only found a couple for me that got missed by using the wrong sort. Just two siblings left and will work on them today. I am seeing that my own work is taking over from my dedication to my newsletters. I did wonder how long they would last and likely they will last for a while longer but the search and retrieval of information that bore interest to all of the members of the groups is weakening. Is it because I am heading for 80 or at this moment in time doing the phasing/re-phasing is top of my mind?  It is a heavy duty task collecting up these matches for five siblings and one that you could contemplate using AI but it needs that human touch looking at with the knowledge that is in my brain of the various families. It can not just be readily assigned and examined in a fruitful way. I do see the limitations in AI but I also see the assets and they are huge I do have to say that. Office work, regular, would be accomplished in a very routinized fashion that would strip out any human interaction that just complicates it sometimes.

My cardio yesterday was way over target; cleaning is hard work! The recommendation was to take it a bit easy today but I rather think I will do my yoga soon as I have not yet had my breakfast and then a bit of work and then rowing. I am up to 600 rowing motions back and forth so 1200 in total which amazes me but I just decided to see what I could do in 15 minutes although this takes me closer to 16 minutes but it is a nice round number and that works for me. It is just a simple rowing machine good for an old person. One quickly loses one's muscularity in just a couple of days you see a decline. Then later I will run my 30 minutes and walk for 10 to 15. In the afternoon I will do calisthenics. That pretty much completes my day but will likely put me over in cardio once again. Sometimes I am in suggested range. I think it goes by age and I have always been an active person especially I enjoyed my 1.2 km walk home from the bus - although I bought a more expensive bus pass that would drop me practically at my door I only did that so that I could take any bus at Hurdman on my way home and always walked to and from the highway. Coming over the bridge in the various seasons was delightful actually. I still enjoy the views that one gets just looking into the sky - it is marvelous. 

However, I must get some work done and especially it is breakfast time! Prayers for those still trapped in Myanmar and for the souls of those who died. The numbers have increased steadily over the days.

The Lenten Message today

Prayers for the people of Myanmar and Thailand still trapped and hopefully more will be found alive.

 I always enjoy my daily Lenten Messages from PWRDF now Alongside Hope and todays was exceptional written by Jonathan Rowe who is an Anglican priest in Newfoundland and Labrador. One line particularly stood out for me:

"We should seek to build systems that reflect divine generosity, creating opportunities for everyone to flourish, not just for a few to profit."

Perhaps it is because I am female that I see the world from a mother's point of view and particularly I look at Canada from that mother's point of view. As I have often mentioned my father and his family were all born in England coming to Canada in 1913 where my grandfather, a blacksmith was employed by the Grand Trunk Railway at Stratford and then London and this became the Canadian National Railway. He worked for them until he retired in 1940. My mother's family is my Canadian line with just three individuals - herself, her father and her other - all born in Canada.  Each in their own time married an emigrant from England (one must remember in that time frame that coming to Canada from England was like moving from one county to another). My first ancestors to Canada (although my 3x great grandfather George Lywood served with the 23rd Regiment of Foot in Halifax in 1806-7 he returned to Europe with his unit to fight in the Napoleonic Wars including Waterloo!) came in 1818 (in the late summer or early fall I suspect just from the records) to London Township, Middlesex County, Upper Canada and they were the Routledge family from Bewcastle, Cumberland. Their daughter, Mary Ann, was fourteen years of age at that time. She married Robert Gray in 1834 and he was a new arrival (located at Etton, East Riding of Yorkshire in 1831/2) setting up a farm in London Township. Their third child, Grace Gray, was my first born ancestor in Canada (1839) and she married William Robert Pincombe (his family including his father John, mother Elizabeth (Rew), and four siblings arrived in early March 1850 purchasing a farm in Westminster Township, Middlesex County, Upper Canada. William Robert was 13 years of age when he arrived at the Port of New York 7 Jan 1850 traveling to stay with his uncle Robert Pincombe who had emigrated to the United States in 1835. Why they chose Canada over the United States I have no idea; no one ever said but they did. The only child to live to adulthood in the family of William Robert Pincombe and Grace (Gray) Pincombe was John Routledge Pincombe (my grandfather) born in 1872. So for me, I am sort of a recent arrival (1st generation Canadian on my father's side and fourth generation on my mother's side). My Anglican Church roots are deep mostly fostered by my grandfather who lived with us when I was a child. The ancient history of the Celtic Church of England was deeply ingrained in him going back thousands of years as it existed prior to our Lord Jesus Christ but according to legend in that first century became Christian. At the Council of Arles three Christian Celtic British bishops participated in this council established by the Roman Church (Eborius of York, Restitutus of London and Adelphius of Lincoln/Colchester in 314 CE. But definitely the Christian Celtic Church increased steadily throughout England during the Roman occupation. 

So these words today rather rang a bell in my mind as to how I would love to see Canada continue to prosper; all of us. Like most people in Canada, I did see the United States of America and Canada "walking together" so to speak and perhaps in the future that will happen again but at the moment the interest by the President is in a closed shop around the United States of America looking inward rather than outward. As a result we must move ahead and the debate during this present election time is whether we go with the Baby Boomers who have driven this economy in Canada from childhood to the present or do we go with youth which will rebuild our country devastated by free trade which eliminated our  much smaller industries as we gradually merged with the economy of the United States over my lifetime. Fighting tariffs is a losing battle in my thought (we just avoid them); we need to move beyond this close relationship maintaining what works (and what does not cost us a lot of money; the auto industry has cost us a lot of money through the years and will continue to do so into the future no matter what happens) and letting go of what does not. Creating our "National Energy Corridor" is an excellent idea and I like it. Building more homes is a luxury; staying with parents means babysitters and not having to put all of one's money into a house which can be done later (children love grandparents). All we do is enlarge our cities; increase the debt burden as new schools have to be built with the existing being closed. But the energy corridor is so very very important. It means employment that corridor, it means a bringing together of the provinces/territories in a way that was gradually being eroded by our shipping everything south rather than east and west. The profits will belong to the people of Canada and we will pay off our national debt rather than saddling our youth with even more debt to build them homes. It is a time to grab hold of the future and bring it into the present with a national energy corridor. As usual the Liberals and the NDP only think of increasing that national debt on our youth by building housing which can wait as the energy corridor should be our first concern at this time as it has the greatest return to support our economy (it will include far more than the transfer of oil east and west but also railways; mineral extraction etc.). 

Cleaning day two as yesterday saw the basement and the main floor completed. The top floor will be today's task along with working on the matches. I am reviewing my matches now with just two other siblings to review and then on to the task of re-phasing my grandparents and working on my great-grandparents. It is a mind calming process for me at this time like my sudoku except I am getting work done! I am also thinking about painting once again but will not over task myself as I approach 80. 

The Blake Newsletter is due today and I will also be working on that. Again it will be short because the book is my primary work now on Blake. But I will review the yDNA results once again but they are now starting to emerge as cut in stone so to speak. They have proven that there are a number of founding Blake lines in the British Isles first off and secondly that number increased steadily from the first notations of Blake in the records. With the greatest increase being in the 1200s to the 1400s. As surnames were acquired my own line at some point probably around the beginning of the 1300s took on the surname Blake which makes sense given the Hunter-Gatherer yDNA results of my brothers. 

Tea is drank and time for breakfast; first yoga whilst the oats soak in the milk. I do love my breakfast and it is by far my favourite meal of the day. It has a long history as I used to arise early when my father and grandfather were off to work at 6:30 and before they left they would leave this little one of four and five years of age a big bowl of steaming oatmeal. I just ate it like that as a child - no sugar, no fruit and definitely no chocolate. I can remember the warm cereal in my stomach at that young age. Their words as they left to go to work of "be careful it is hot" stay with me even now. 

The second week of campaigning in the Canadian Election

Although I am concerned about the environment, I feel that not utilizing the assets of Alberta is a mistake. I was pleased that we bought the Trans Mountain Pipeline and I do not want it sold back to anyone outside of this country - it must remain the property of Canada. The First Nations expressed an interest in it and I am very supportive of that and they are deeply devoted to their country. I also want to see the Eastern Pipeline happen and I see the Bloc is coming out against pipelines in Quebec. Since most of northern Quebec belongs to the First Nations I think we need to hear from them in that regard as they are interested in oil and gas elsewhere and their support for the Eastern Pipeline to bring our oil from Alberta to the Ontario/Quebec/Maritimes would be most helpful. We can refine it ourselves and the money made (at the moment we sell it at a discount to the United States and they sell it back to us refined for three times the price) would go a long way to paying down the debt. Canadian debt is shared by all the provinces and territories so paying it off is to the advantage of every province/territory. 

In some ways I think this election is about the baby boomers and the present day youth (this clinging to tax reduction promises is being made by all but someone has to pay the taxes - a nickle here and there is meaningless really but it adds up when a huge section of this population is retired). Pierre Poilievre represents youth and Mark Carney represents the baby boomers (many of them retired now). Americans chose baby boomers to run their country but is it the right choice for us? Does youth do a better job in times like this when decisions are being made that will affect them far more than baby boomers? I belong to the so-called Silent Generation born between the war babies and the baby boomers. We got to observe that smaller group ahead of us (and progressing ahead in school I was with the war babies throughout most of my schooling) and that much larger group that swamped us as we went through school, work and now retirement. That may be the big ballot box question this year at the federal election level. Do the baby boomers continue to hold on to that power they have swayed from childhood or do we progress to a more measured response with regard to progress. Because progress is what we need; not dependence created during the baby boomer era. When we should have been aggressively seeking markets around the world baby boomers chose to link us ever more tightly to the United States (in 1988 a weaker link but strengthened in the late 1990s when Mexico joined NAFTA). I will give Prime Minister Harper credit in that regard; he organized many many trade missions around the world during his time in office bringing company leaders with him. That is what we need plus breaking down the barriers between the provinces/territories where trade is concerned. We need to retrieve our lost industries (out competed and bought out by American industry which then took it offshore which is the big problem that the United States is trying to resolve; we are just an easy target for their tariffs) which happened during NAFTA and rebuild them (baby boomers can help the youth do that as many of them are trained in specific trades). The old can help the young in many ways. Housing although at a premium keeps young families with their parents and that isn't actually a bad thing - babysitting!

I need to know that the Liberal Party is going to engage with the Pipelines and I do not really see enough on that. It is a very important part of this campaign as far as I am concerned. I was very disappointed when the EU came to check up on NORAD bases and the discussion on gas for sale did not get sufficient support from the then Prime Minister. I believe in caring for the environment but we are one of the smallest polluters in the world and we use great care in our industries. Zero emissions is probably not going to happen in the 20s or the 30s but perhaps by the 40s or 50s.  

The NDP is down in the polls because they really live in a rosy world of people thinking the government is their piggy bank but fortunately a lot of people are seeing that these days. The government isn't a piggy bank and it will not be. If you need money you may have to work in your old age; my grandfather retired at 65 and then turned around and supported my father in his business until the end of his life. He found it rewarding and interesting. My sympathy is short on this possibly because I spend eight hours on a computer most days writing books/working on family history and in this case it is the Blake and Pencombe books but there are more planned. They are free to people although these books will be more selective as they are meant to be family books whereas Siderfin was published and available all across the world so doing the same seemed to be a good plan. Working to me doesn't seem to be a big deal I have to admit. I actually miss it in some ways; not so much the people, I am not a people person, but more the feeling of being involved in a useful way that supports my country but my books do do that for me. Plus coming from a family of nine people that also went through a bankruptcy I can live pretty cheaply for sure but likely I am just a penny pincher except it is nickles now I guess!

We have skirted a heavy ice storm here it appears and into temperatures rising now and the new snow will disappear as the ground is softening. I haven't seen any sign of the spring flowers which is actually late given the secluded area where they normally grow. But that ground is really frozen so it maybe a little while yet before they bloom. 

Prayers continuing for those trapped by the earthquakes in Myanamar and Thailand; prayers for the souls of the dead over 1700 now. How sad. Mostly working men in the building I take it although the news is still scant. 

Cleaning today and it is the basement and I have to get ready for the water meter replacement so will clear that area right away in preparation for that. 

Time to make tea; I am late today.

Church Service today

 The Church Service today is in Lambeth Gardens. We visited Lambeth Palace mostly just a walk in and a short time inside and then on to the Military Museum. I will watch the service on Youtube in a couple of hours. Prayers for the souls of all those killed in the earthquakes in Myanmar and Thailand. Prayers for those still not found beneath the rubble. Wonderful that China and Russia are sending in crews to help clear away the rubble and hopefully find people still alive. God be with the peoples of Myanmar and Thailand as they struggle to find those lost. 

Yesterday I did the clothes washing and it is hanging to dry upstairs. I seldom use the dryer and was surprised when the last one wore out before the washing machine. Since 1966 we have only owned three dryers buying the first one when we moved here in 1975 because the winter here is not suitable for hanging out clothes - too cold. Then two more over the years with the last acquisition of washer and dryer being in 2020 during COVID. That was an interesting experience. 

Checked my matches on 23 and Me yesterday and I have another two good matches there so people are still buying the kits and I am hoping that they survive. I think that their project was an excellent one looking at medical research from a genetic viewpoint. They should move to Canada but we are a small market compared to the United States and probably most of my matches are American on that site although there are also Canadian and I have met several cousins on the site that descend from known common ancestors. I have written back and forth to them and will try to pick that up again but my concentration this last four years has been my book writing. I continue contemplating the Blake and Pencombe books to which I will return and occasionally I dip in to have a look at some particular item but I am, at the moment, concentrating on the phasing of my grandparents/great-grandparents. The redo of the phasing of my grandparents is something I did do regularly to introduce new large matches. For the most part the original work done has changed very little because I had enough matches at the beginning to pretty much slot people into one of the four grandparent lines. It is the great-grandparents that I really want to reach back to. Eventually I will produce the genetic code that belongs to each grandparent and perhaps each great grandparent - time will tell on that. Why do I do this? Curiosity actually and 23 and Me as a big part of that initially as I used their results primarily because they provided both full matches and half matches in their display. 

AI continues to quite fascinate me. I shall work with Alexa and see what else this AI can actually do (does it trouble me that it is an American company sitting on my kitchen counter? - no). Living next to a giant we live our lives respecting the border and the American people - we try to be the best neighbour possible simply because it is in both of our interests. But we do need to return to the days when we were more independent and trade between us should be limited to what they need and what we can provide. I am a free trader somewhat but if it isn't made here under the current circumstances I am not going to buy it for the most part (the Autopact in 1965 defined that and for the most part has driven our trade between us and probably will continue to do that). Being a northern country though we do not grow oranges etc, mostly Canada is covered by snow a good portion of the year and so we must buy some items if we want them fresh Although there are greenhouses in the very southern portions of this country that are producing a limited amount of vegetable that come this way. Getting back to Alexa occasionally I must awake some programming that exists and a conversation happens which is always short but the programming is there likely for specific purposes. Is Alexa ever wrong? That I think interests me actually. I have put in reminders to give to me through a day just simply because it works well to do so. I especially use Alexa for timing because I do a lot of exercise and I do count the seconds but sometimes it is nice just to quietly contemplate time moving without actually doing anything in a sort of Yoga fashion. I do not use AI to write or even to search very often but I may utilize the searching facility as I work my way through the books - I did with the Siderfin book. I like to phrase my searching and then concentrate on the results myself for the most part as I tend to be fairly tight with my search terms. 

Tea is completed. Solitaire games are next and we are promised an Ice Storm - we will see how that goes at the moment it says snow. I continue to listen to the party leaders discussing their election promises. Conrad Black wrote an interesting editorial and he read a book that Prime Minister Mark Carney wrote - I think I would like to read his thesis as I am curious about that. The book does not interest me as much as I am a free thinker where climate change is concerned. I think we need to continue with oil and gas but we need to be mindful of the effects on our country trying to minimize any deleterious possibilities. I think that solar panels are a great idea as well as wind farms - we have a lot of empty area where the winds are strong but we need to be mindful of the birds and not create hazards for them. But solar panels are an excellent plan and I do wonder about putting greenhouses around the solar panels so that they are useful all year round. One could have window wipers that come on when the weight of snow on the glass is detected and clear it off to keep the solar panels working all year round. We have huge areas of empty land. We should build our own solar panels though and not buy them from anywhere else. We do not suffer from tornadoes particularly and in the north ice storms are pretty rare so the damage level would be low. Does that affect the environment that concentration of heat? I think having the power plants under the ground and piping to send it to where it is needed cuts down on some of that. It is already warm under ground so the effect is less apparent. Electricity will always bring people and industry. We have proven in Canada that you can have industry even in the cold areas. 

I am feeling stronger now although I realize that my time of independence is probably coming to a close for my own protection and to complete these books that I am writing. Certainly that is in the minds of my daughters. Maintaining this house is a lot of work and having to deal with so many people a complication for me.