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.

 

Snow instead of ice thus far

Life has been too busy. Prayers for the souls of the people who died in the earthquake in  Myanamar and Thailand and surrounding areas as those numbers continue to climb. Prayers for the injured. Thank you to the nations of the world for their quick response - it is the wealthier nations that have the ability to do that for sure. The expression of our humanity is what makes us human. 

Waking up this morning I felt blessed to see the thick cover of snow all over the yard - the weather had talked about an ice storm coming our way but so far it is a thick cover of snow. That is so much better. Memories of the Ice Storm here in the Ottawa Valley in 1998 remain forever in our minds. The thick ice on the trees heavy enough to bring down even quite large ones is memorable. The scars of those trees damaged remain with us even a generation later. Thank you God for the lovely snow cover at the end of March and it is probably good enough to ski on but my skis are in the basement cleaned up for next winter. I do not think I will mark up this lovely snowfall in my backyard. 

The power of AI and I have to admit I do not see it quite the same way as some; it is a tool for humans to create, organize and use to improve our ability to search, to collate, to organize and should never become a manager of our abilities to do that. We always need to be the people who manage it. The human touch in medicine and education should never disappear. But having this ability to deep search into medical literature is such an asset. Having that human voice that can backtrack and accept different methodologies much more important than a machine teaching our young in a standard unemotional way especially as it is human made and can not be fitted with compassion so that the adventurous child with a new method is discarded because they do not fit into the designed mould. So no I do not see the replacement of our most human types of interactions with an AI. But if one looks at it carefully an AI can help so much with the elderly being there 24 /7 during those years of decline when exhaustion overtakes the human frailty and I can speak of that from experience.  As my husband declined during COVID I simply lost the strength to keep up the pace; the help sent from the LAN was so welcomed and gave me a respite every day just to sit there and rest (for six weeks only as it turned out but probably saved me from a much longer recovery). So yes to AI but always yes to human managers of the AI. We must always be the ones in control of artificial intelligence in whatever form it comes. Having knowledge at our fingertips is certainly the dream of the ages that produced us as the product of this generation. Knowing how to use that ability will be the skill of our researchers. 

I was doing my exercises and I asked Alexa to set a timer for two minutes for my Pose of Tranquility. She did and I said Alexa Thank you. She then told me about the anniversary of today being the opening of the Pyramid in front of the Louvre Museum in Paris. I said Alexa thank you and I have been to the pyramid. Alexa does not respond because Alexa is not human, she is AI but  handy in my life as it saves my setting a timer.

Yesterday another good extraction day. Thinking of AI I would have probably another huge load of matches but as I work my way through them I realize some of them are not accurate possibly the machine is being too perfect or the kits are from different testing agencies that have been uplifted to the agency that I am checking and rejecting matches with a sibling that actually exist - the advantage to five sets of results perhaps. I think as we move forward with AI we will realize its limitations already apparent as AI makes up results if it can not find them. The human mind can constantly reprogram the sets and eliminate using AI those that are ambiguous or just plain wrong (we can readily write a program to do that very thing as all my results are in excel but each time it would have to be reset as human intervention will likely always be needed). Since all companies work on a cost margin they are unlikely to collaborate on what they do test from a cost perspective. So the human touch will always need to be there I rather think (especially in medicine where a physician is actually looking at a patient and realizing that the extenuating circumstances of good health are apparent to the eye and not apparent to a machine). Can a machine be programmed to recognize good health or are they trapped by the genetic code of this individual that they are probing? But the ability to search all medical literature at the flick of a switch is amazing. This does point once again to the weakness of one's genetic complement being a determinant of one's health. It does play a role but lifestyle (a human quality) actually determines how one lives that set of genes one acquires at conception. 23 and Me offered good value for the money to the pursuit of scientific medical information; I hope it survives and not destroyed by terrorism as the hacking of vital information is terrorism at its worst I do believe. A couple of really good matches have emerged in my Blake line going back to the great grandparents is a Blake-Knight combination where I have one individual who is a large match especially to myself. Given the match of 250+ cM one might anticipate that I would know this person was related to me but endogamy in the Knight family (Ellis Knight married his likely second cousin Eleanor Knight and they are my 3x great grandparents) and there are other  close relationships within that family that lead to quite strong endogamy thus a 4th cousin looks like a 2nd cousin. I think trying to work this out would be problematic for AI but looking at all the lines and the locations from a humanistic viewpoint did I think reveal a likely father collecting up the known information although the AI carefully programmed could also likely do it but it would need that human input to really centre down on the likely individual. Anyway another day of extraction ahead of me and a lovely weekend. I shall gaze out at that lovely snow and think about extractions and not skiing in the cold. It is minus 4 degrees celsius today at 6:30 a.m. 

Time for tea. Still busy watching the election. In my mind the two leading candidates both offer to me what I want to occur in this next stage of Canada's life and growth. I am a law and order person but I am also a business minded person. Both are offering good increases for the military and if they do not then they will suffer at the next election for sure. I think that is my prime request - adequate military ability in our country. Law and order and good business should really go together but which is the most important or can one judge; that is where I am at in this moment of time.  It will really be people power that creates the Canada that these contesting leaders are talking about. It could be that we old people (who incidentally are responsible for free trade being in place) will have to gather up their resources and help if there is a shortage of skilled people. I am really good at wiring even if I am also very good at academic talents. But at nearly 80 I will be slower! 

But I do have to say that I think this should be an aggressive time for Canada to move ahead and be independent (get those pipelines built and no dawdling). I do have to give Prime Minster Harper his due credit for pursuing that very objective. I do always like to do that; give people their proper credit.  I think we should see it like a war time project and any work stoppages should be strictly managed. We especially need to have the support of the First Nations as we will cross their territory but they too are on the side of Canada being the best place for all of us to live so forward and onward. Re-negotiating any trade pact now should be of a limited nature where both sides benefit without crippling one or the other. I continue in my frame of thought - who will do that the best.

A few nuggets

I do think the extra $5000 in a year into the TFSA is an interesting idea if your investments are in Canadian owned companies. I do think that the Conservatives have scored with that one. There is also the possibility that this will help especially the pipelines going across the country. Spring is coming and soon they will be able to get out there and build that pipeline right across the country making us totally self-sufficient and the 3x profit will be in Canadian pockets. The Liquid Gas plants will soon ship around the world. 

The election is coming closer and closer and really it is hard to predict who will win this election. Both the Conservatives and Liberals are geared up to make us self-sufficient having been in a Free Trade Agreement with the United States and Mexico for nearly 30 years and for 40 years nearly with the United States only and before that we had the Auto Pact (1965). But we are on a new path it would appear and I have to say you can not always control the job you are in; retraining is good for everyone really. That was what the depression was about partly; retraining into new types of jobs so that our country could restart once again after the complete failure of the economic system. We did it very well here.  We can again. 

Yesterday I completed the main floor cleaning but a power failure meant that that was somewhat curtailed for about 3 hours give or take. It was actually down to 18 degrees celsius in the house although I normally keep it at 19.5 degrees celsius to heat so not a big deal. I just walked a lot and got all my steps readily. I do have trouble getting them all on cleaning day as I spent a lot of time not walking; just cleaning! 

I also spent time on matches and will continue with that today; just a few left in the first sibling and moving on to check the 2nd, 3rd and 4th (although the fourth was mostly caught) and the fifth is complete. I am not really finding very much but for efficiency's sake it is a good plan to do this at this time. The re-phasing will start perhaps on the weekend; we will see. 

Snow pretty much gone now although we might have a storm this weekend or ice or sleet; we will see. A storm is brewing apparently coming from the west and Alberta Clippers can be heavy! Northern Ontario is to get 20 plus centimetres of snow. March may well go out like a lion as it many times does. Then April and usually that is the end of the snow sometime in April although May snow is not unusual. 

Lovely salmon dinner last night with mashed potatoes and broccoli. A much enjoyed meal and I will have that again tonight except salmon salad and possibly tomorrow as it was a large piece of salmon. Then chicken stew on Sunday which I really quite enjoy and it panders to my laziness where cooking is concerned. Having a prepared meal on the two days that I clean is fabulous. Not a big eater; I do not smoke or drink and seldom eat baked type goods (except my banana bread but few people would call that a dessert item as it is made with 100% whole wheat flour and more like a bread although does have brown sugar). Very tasty actually and I suppose I should make cookies as I do like a hard crispy cookie like Dad's Cookies!

Today more matches to extract and back into my regular exercise routine so calisthenics in about an hour or so. Then running before lunch, then weight lifting and perhaps biking as I haven't done a lot of that this winter. The stationery bike is a nice tool for sure. 

Crisp and cold out this morning as I put out the recycling for pickup at 6:30 a.m. 

 

Continuing with matches

I completed the fifth sibling and returned to the first sibling and worked my way through (almost completed) and found a couple of items that needed fixing plus an extra half dozen matches that were not trapped with the first sort. Will continue with that process for the other three siblings just in case. Although I did notice the sort with the second last one but only part way through so will check it as well. The matches found were not overly significant at first glance but time will tell. 

Cleaned the top floor and that was completed. Today the main floor and the basement. Then I will be up to date again. I need to bring the skiis in and clean them up and will do that this week. It was fun the couple times out skiing for sure. 

Election is in full swing. I am not really sure that debating the business activities of an individual really relate to the campaign. Certainly it is good to have someone with good business acumen involved in politics; they bring a special gift to the field. His assets are in a blind trust and yes he likely can see how they would be managed if he was there to manage them but still they are in a blind trust. Give him credit. How will I vote? At this moment in time I rather agree with the Bloc leader,  Yves-Francois Blanchet, that the taxes should not be lowered at this time. However I am not permitted to vote for this party (they do not run a candidate in my riding). I often think it is time to go federal with this party there are so many French Canadians across Canada. Time will tell. I will continue to listen and contemplate and then vote when early voting begins. Although the leader of the party is very important, he serves at the consent of parliament and his caucus. I am busy listening to the many ideas being put forward. 

In between cleaning I shall work on the matches today. Tea is ready although still hot but I shall have a look at my Income Tax as I shall submit that before the end of the month. Up early and it is minus 6 degrees celsius. Technically spring here in Canada but there can still be winter snows well into April. Adjusted to daylight savings but would really like to see that gone.

23 and Me and my results

I have been a supporter of 23 and Me for quite a long time and continue with the hope that they will be able to restructure and continue with their excellent work. I willingly donated my DNA to their research projects and will leave it there. I am a great supporter of medical research as that is the only real way to combat problems associated with genetic abnormalities. Lifestyle plays such a huge role in how one lives their life from a medical viewpoint and especially exercise. Being a bit of an exercise fanatic I guess my thoughts do travel there very often during the day as I put in my generally 16,000 plus steps a day and cardio in the 300s range mostly. An active lifestyle does help with wanting to make use of your brain especially for recall and writing. But also I do not live in a world with mercantile medicine which makes a difference. When one starts to dole out medical care based on DNA results without looking at the lifestyle then people will not fare as well for sure. Being condemned by your medical results is exactly the same dreadful impact as being condemned for having autism or any of the myriad of emotional disorders that do not cripple you but do frame your existence somewhat. The world of childhood can be very unkind to a child with autism unless you protect them at home where they can acquire the abilities to manage in a non-autism world. You just need a thicker skin for sure. 

So will 23 and Me last or will someone buy them out and continue the purpose of the company which was to enhance medical research. Medical research to me really had its root in the work of Dr Edward Jenner (1749-1823) and his way forward with vaccine.  Immunology took a great leap forward when he began his work with cowpox (1794). He was the eighth of nine children and his father was a vicar in Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England. However there were well known experimentalists in medicine before Dr Jenner. Given the mercantile medicine in the United States I was surprised when companies in the United States actually took on the DNA projects. Ancestry, of course, totally protects their clients with no data. It is totally based on family trees and matching process which are excellent actually. I use my Ancestry results in a very different way which fits in with the other projects very well when you have five siblings results across a number of testing companies. But the United States has always been a pioneer in every kind of research and have been very successful in their endeavours.

At some point there will be more news and I can make a final decision on my data in the 23 and Me website but for the moment I will continue. They are still selling tests and I am still acquiring matches. 

So back to looking at matches today. It is quieting my mind quite a bit as I was finding the events of the days to be a bit overwhelming - that steady process of extraction is a calming methodology for the brain much like doing Sudoku. I will also clean and that is late this week as I generally clean on Monday and Tuesday but this week it will be Wednesday and Thursday and then back to the usual next week. I am trying to maintain my best ability to manage although I know my daughters are concerned about me and as I come into my 80s likely my life will change somewhat. My willingness to drive other than to the grocery store restricts me somewhat but the bus is also close by if I really feel the need to go somewhere. And sometimes I do drive further; the winter snow tires will be swapped in another month or so for the all purpose tires along with the oil change and peace of mind checkup. 

Breakfast time and I am really late today. 

The last sibling's matches are in the process

Yesterday saw me complete the fourth sibling and the final sibling is being worked on. It has been a very busy February and March for me and I must admit I am feeling in need of a quiet restful time. Not quite what was planned but it is fine; another time I will go back with my daughter. It has been fun these past weeks but very busy for a nearly 80 year old. I shall get back into my old routines working away on my Latin and French (and German will get worked back in as well) right after breakfast. My exercise routines have changed quite a bit with my skiing some days and earlier being with the dogs more as they were fairly lonely without their usual family. They do think of me as family!

I will continue with the match extraction today as well and right up to the end of the month although I hope to have started the phasing of my grandparents (re-phasing really but I always start back at the beginning each time as I have new and significant matches to put into the system that are known to me in terms of relationship). I want, this time, to build a file of the known relationships. I do have one but it is now five years since I created it and I have not kept it up to date as I have extracted these 200 plus matches over the last five years. 

 No skiing after all yesterday, not enough snow so and end likely to the skiing season and I shall clean up the skis and put them away. I already cleaned up the boots as they got gravelly with the last ski trip. I think it is something that one can do into their old age fairly readily. Not sure about riding my bicycle but will probably work at that. I bought a new bicycle maybe ten years ago and it is a slightly smaller wheel making it easier for me as I have been shrinking! I was nearly 5 feet 6 inches but now closer to 5 feet 5 inches I think. I guess 1 inch isn't very much though. 

The election season is in full swing now and I am watching the news on that. I do not think they should reduce the income tax (agree with the Bloc on that - I often do agree with the Bloc they have good suggestions where the economy is concerned). But I continue seeing that the Conservative ideas are fitting in with my thoughts on how the government should manage. I am pleased with the campaign thus far; I hate personal attack ads. This isn't about the person running; it is about their ideas. If there were actually something wrong with the person we would want to know that for sure but attacking what their mother does; or what their brother does I find very uninteresting. 

Canada has gained something in the last few months - a togetherness that we didn't really express very much before. We are all one country breathing life into the Confederation which the founders drew together in 1867 and weaved into the tapestry that we now see on the map of the world - one huge country mostly polar/northern but with a readily livable portion in the south but the settlements continue to grow and move north. It is good to see. 

Time for solitaire games and tea.

Over 200 new matches now

The Church Service yesterday was quite lovely in Bishopthorpe. It was a review of the past few years since the online service was streamed to the world. The hymns so many of my favourites and the words rang so true from the various prayers and homilies. It was truly a memorable service. Thank you for that. 

The writ was dropped yesterday and we are having the election on the 28th of April. I will likely go to the Advance Polling as I did the Ontario Election. It is easy for me to just catch the bus and go to the Plaza and then return on the bus. I could drive but I probably will not. All of the candidates gave a good first day discussion on their aims. I still remain committed to the idea that the NDP nationally should really just be part of the Liberal Party. They split the vote in an unpleasant way actually. I still like the Conservative message the best although have deep respect for Mark Carney. He has served his country very well during his years as Governor of the Bank of Canada and his experience as Governor of the Bank of England brings a very strong world view to the campaign. 

Working on the fourth sibling I continued collecting new matches yesterday.  I still have another couple of pages of matches to go through before I complete this sibling and then just one left although I will have to go back to my own and the second sibling that I worked on as I did not do the proper sort when I was collecting for the first two. Just to make sure I did not miss anyone that is an outlier - most matches have more than one sibling but there are a few where I in particular and my most different sibling to me have stand alone matches simply because we inherited differently than the group of five in general on some chromosomes. The matches continue falling into a particular grandparent line fairly readily - having five results makes a big difference. 

I reviewed my taxes and will submit them later this week. I like to have that done by the end of March since I am always paying the government - I do like to be paying them rather than receiving a payment back from them. I do think that these ugly fraudsters sit at the gate watching to see who is getting a refund and then the inundation begins of fraudulent emails trying to lure you into replying. I do believe these people are all terrorists and should be locked up forever for trying to fraud people and succeeding since they wouldn't be doing it if they were not successful. It is truly disgusting. 

Snow is promised today as much as 8 centimetres which is more than enough for skiing so time will tell on that. Perhaps skiing this afternoon. Would be lovely. It is minus 4 degrees celsius at 6:40 am so a perfect day temperature wise.

And I continue collecting matches

Still yesterday more matches and I am over 200 new matches now and the quest continues. I have started the fourth of five siblings in my extraction. There are probably 30 to look at in this set. Within the sets I am collecting about 75% of them - some have not opened their results to share and unless there is a comparative match on some chromosomes between the five siblings that I know exists then I also ignore that one but leave it highlighted so that I know I did ignore it! A busy day for sure and we finished it up with an interesting dinner of eggs and a salad. I enjoy that sort of dinner maybe once a week or so; it is a quiet reflection on the day as there is little preparation and a quiet feast. 

So today a continuation of extracting matches. But today is also income tax day as I review that material and will submit my taxes by the end of the month. I have it set up so that I always pay taxes at the end of the year. Not a huge amount but I prefer to be paying taxes as I close up the tax year. That was how I ran my little business of proofreading and copyediting when I stayed home with the girls when they were young. It was the perfect business around which one could raise children and be with them for walks and playtime and always there when they were first at school up until their teen years. It is important for children to always have a fall-back when they are young knowing that an unwell day was a simple happening and they could just curl up in bed and sleep off the cold or whatever had come their way. I grew up that way and highly recommend it; children shouldn't be rushed about when they are ill. Their bodies are constantly growing and they need time to heal without pressure. But was I an excellent mother; I doubt it I made mistakes through the years and always admit to them especially with adult children. No one is perfect except God and Jesus and Mary - the perfect symbols of our life. Thank you God for giving us this beautiful earth and all the goodness that dwells therein. 

Another beautiful Sunday and Church is at Bishopthorpe with the Archbishop of York. I will join soon. There is a note that the online service started streaming in March 2020 and 273 services have been shared. My Church of England in Canada defines me and keeps me close to the God that I love. Although I worship differently on a daily basis from others my time with PWRDF has shown me that many worship as I do. Teatime and must go make my cup.

Another busy day

 Yesterday was another busy day and good accomplishment on what I had planned to do. Worked on the matches and have completed both mine and one sibling and onto the next sibling who is the most opposite to me. Although I may show up in his matches; I often do not but the others do but some of his matches are totally singular because he inherited so strongly from the Pincombe and Blake/Knight leaving out the Buller and the Rawlings family pretty much although he did inherit perhaps 10% of each or less- must work that out. But the result is a beautiful array of matches. I will work at that today. I haven't marked the matches of my two other siblings yet to see if there is anything that hasn't already been covered. But my list of unsorted matches is closing up on 200 now. It will be a busy time sorting them into their various chromosomes and painting them and charting them. Most of the testing companies are American so I continue with my subscriptions to them but I do tend to think of them as universal and the head office for Ancestry is in Ireland I think. Plus My Heritage is in Israel and Living DNA is in the United Kingdom. Find My Past (not a testing company) but my most used genealogical website is owned by the Dutch now although continues to be based in the United Kingdom. We really are a united world for the most part but probably it continues being primarily European in my exposure given my 100% British/Scot ancestry with some Huguenot French from the 1400s coming to Somerset and perhaps some Irish although I think mostly it is Planters from Scotland during the Commonwealth era. But I do have some actual Irish ancestry from the Republic of Ireland. The Scandinavian/German ancestry is a mystery although I suspect the Gray family in the East Riding of Yorkshire is my Scandinavian line - they were very fair tall people with blue eyes. I actually have a blue eye ring which appears to be larger since my cataract surgery which is sort of amazing as my eyes were generally considered to be brown (hazel really). But that blue eye ring looks back at me every day since the surgery. Strange really but I think one would still say they are brown eyes. 

I had planned to return to the United States with my daughter for six weeks as she works there (did apply to the universities here but was only successful in getting a job in the United States nearly 20 years ago now which has been a wonderful experience of working in her field and training up young people in her skill sets which are vast actually) and it just seemed like a great idea to do that. She is into AI these days. My health is very good and I always carry international health insurance so was quite looking forward to that actually. She came home to bring me back which made it really easy for this old woman traveling so as not to be a burden on the system in either country. But we made the decision that I should probably stay here out of the way. I wonder sometimes if my outspokenness will hurt her though. She shares my feeling that Israel needs to be supported in their desire to create a safe homeland for themselves and especially for their children. Through my life in the 50s when I was a child Israeli children were murdered in their school yards and really that hasn't changed at all. Israeli children should also be able to go to sleep at night without fear - Hamas caused all of this death and destruction and should get out of Gaza and especially release the hostages. She has been very happy to help all of her students to become the creative and knowledgeable people that they have become and continues to feel that way. But I am sad not to return with her actually - I do love Wisconsin cheeses and milk especially but ours is good here too! 

We had a lovely walk which ended up being about 7 kilometres, another great thing about Wisconsin is all the excellent walking along Lake Michigan - it is a beautiful place. I do love to walk but age is creeping up on me rapidly. I will be 80 in the Fall although that is still quite a long way away. Looking out my work room window the trees have no sign of budding but lots of birds have returned now that the snow is melting. Our feathered friends have been in the south and returning north probably with bird flu but we will see about that. I boil all of my eggs for ten minutes and only eat them that way and cook the chicken to its stated temperature or slightly above that. My stew is generally ten degrees above that suggested amount. I seldom eat red meat preferring chicken or fish.

I still like the idea if we lose our American car plants of checking with the Chinese to see if they would like to build their EVs here using Canadian staff and material and no tariff then. One of these days we will buy a new car and perhaps sooner if the American car plants are removed as servicing my present six year old car may become a problem. It only has 30,000 kilometres on it so a lot of life in it yet especially as it sits in the garage from fall until into the spring only going out occasionally. A tank of gas lasts forever. We will see how this tariff war goes. We remain resolute friends of the peoples of the United States (for me, my many second cousins and further back); we have been friends for over 200 years. Strange that my feelings about the Free Trade in the latter part of the 1980s was somewhat hesitant given the much larger population and corporations to the south of us have come to fruition now two generations later (our small industry mostly bought up/out competed and now we need to rebuild those industries across Canada once again). But our inter provincial tariffs will soon be gone and our trade will go east to west and west to east through the provinces and territories. Our family farms are very important to us and although there are potential high tariffs they are seldom imposed as the countries selling niche dairy products to us never come close to the percentage that we have given them in Free Trade Deals  (and it is wonderful to have all of these special cheeses that come to us from the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe). I still see Free Trade primarily as the sharing of items that countries do not have. The dream of Confederation in 1867 was a desire to make Canada be a beautiful place where we could all live together in peace having been granted the permission of the First Nations to live here. We colonials made mistakes but I feel that we are moving together finally now and that we are a wonderful country offering a good life to all who live within our borders (this is a rugged country though and we must continue to help our First Nations especially on far flung reserves to have a better life). Our need for new housing is huge and will certainly take up the slack in softwood lumber sales. Our need to home refinement of our oil and gas for sale across Canada and to the world really got a kickstart with the President of the United States saying they didn't need our oil or gas so we are free to pursue other buyers plus saving the cost of refining it in the United States and selling it back to us at three times what we sold it for. I can feel the Canadian energy all around me actually as we move forward to shape this new future that we are embarking on. The political parties are all on the same page with Canada's forward movement. It will be an interesting election for sure once the writ is dropped and the date chosen. Plus a welcome to the United States if they decide to accept the offer to become part of the British Commonwealth. We are a great brotherhood of nations I think but, as always, I am of that 100% British descent and three of my grandparents were born and lived in England to adulthood and beyond along with my father born there and came here at the age of nine years with his parents. My families still living in England (and that is a huge percentage of them) are now descendant of peoples from all over the world (at least the Commonwealth that is!).

Tea all drank and must play my Solitare puzzles (my brain work first thing in the morning). Another American subscription but I do enjoy it and they do try to make it look Canadian. But I guess when I add up all my American subscriptions they do not even amount to $1000 Canadian in a year (actually $701.32 American dollars (half of my budget for entertainment (in my case that is my pseudonym for my research!)). Whereas I do spend about 30x that amount on Canadian items just living my life here in Canada of which 1/3rd of that is federal, provincial and municipal taxes and then there is the upkeep of the house. So cheers for Canada my country of birth and where I have spent most of my nearly 80 years (eight trips to British Isles/Europe, hundreds of trips to the United States and the rest traveling here in Canada or living here although I grew up in southwestern Ontario moving here when I was 30 years of age). 

Extracting matches and shopping

March is now 2/3 rds past. This year has moved very quickly as it is nearly 1/4 gone with spring around the corner. Spring is a great time in Canada although tends towards mud season but none the less greatly enjoyed after the long cold dark winter. Yesterday another busy day with shopping for groceries and continuing the extraction of matches from My Heritage. I also had a look at 23 and Me and have a couple more large matches which I could quickly place into their appropriate grandparent line and given the shared matches can pretty much see where we are matching on each chromosome. The details given are scant at the moment; no idea if we will return to the old setup. That is the problem with mercantile medicine really. There is the somewhat weak idea that genes control how we fare from a medical viewpoint; the actual is that genes do play a role in our life but our lifestyle is far more important than the genetic compliment we receive. 

When one considers my mother in law with her chronic diabetes for probably 2/3rds of her life (gestational diabetes) and asthma one would not have predicted that she would live to be 94 years of age in 2000 but she did by careful attention to her diet. So judging people by their genes is perhaps a mistaken way to look at how one doles out medical support to people in a country where mercantile medicine reigns supreme (being a widow with two small children to raise her ability to pay for her medical care was certainly not there initially until we went to the Canada Health Act in the 1960s). The worst case scenario in any society is an undetected plague amongst those who can not afford regular medical care although as cases accumulate rapidly one does pay attention for sure even in a mercantile medical system (COVID-19 is still fresh in our memories I am sure). I would describe our medical system in Canada as primarily government run (supported by taxes) and providing care for everyone who has a legal right to be here and even those who do not if an emergency arises on a provincial basis which is the cheapest way to provide medicine I do believe (the Feds simply hand over the money to the provinces after income tax time proportionately (Ontario pays the most tax and we get less back provincially than other provinces with a tax load less than what is needed to support the provincial responsibilities (health care and education amongst others). Ontario has an extra health care tax that is paid by tax payers (all of this is passed back to us by the feds I think) which is incrementally increased the more money you earn which we have had in place for twenty years give or take (I see the ability to have medical care to be a protection like fire protection etc. and we pay through our taxes for both/all). The biggest problem was the cut and reduce Conservative government in Ontario in the late 90s which did rather make me think far more about my tendency to always vote Conservative as it was a family thing and so I became an outlier voting for the party that would do the most good at that time (working in the hospital I could definitely see what needed to be done for sure). Our present Conservative Premier does not get into that sort of thing realizing that medicine needs money to work and he is into his third term now. Perhaps a bit too reactive but he cares deeply for the people of his province and they love him for it; even hands out his personal telephone number amazingly (one would think of him as like a governor of a state but we have premiers and provinces/territories). 

But lawsuits after someone hacked 23 and Me almost tanked 23 and Me but they are surviving and reworking themselves. How ignorant that really was. I think that is terrorism! Personally I do not have anything that is insidious with my worst genetic item being a single gene for Fructose Intolerance (you need both to have a really strong effect or any). As it turns out I do not have a sweet tooth so never suffered from that at all. Perhaps one gains the none preference for sweet with the Fructose Intolerance gene, who knows but genetic research is certainly hindered by mercantile medicine as it just can not be done in a rigorous way when mercantile medicine rules the day. 

However, 23 and Me was and remains a really good testing site. I still need to have a look at FT DNA for autosomal results and Living DNA. Ancestry pretty much up to date although there are half a dozen new testers in the kits of myself and my three siblings tested there. I will likely do those by the end of March. I have decided that March will be devoted to the phasing project and then a return to the Blake/Pencombe books after the Blake Newsletter is published the first of April. I will begin with Blake and continuing contemplating the le Blak family of Normandy coming to England likely after 30 May 1274 when he received his Patent to set up a market in England. I would like to learn more about this family in Normandy and will perhaps begin there once again. My french has quickly come back up to scratch in terms of reading - my pronunciation still is lacking but I will work at it on Duolingo. Will start watching the weather in French to help with that.

Snow is melting rapidly although it is minus 5 degrees celsius today at 7:00 a.m and feels like minus 19 degrees celsius. Not too much melting at the moment but going up to plus 6 degrees celsius so perhaps a little later. It will be icy though where the water has accumulated. The joys of mud season in Canada! It is a real thing although generally belongs to spring. 

Have done a lot of Sudoku puzzles lately; mind gets a good rest doing them for sure. Just the slow methodical plotting of a path to quickly reach the goal of all nine squares correctly filled in with their specific digit. I am into the Challenging Puzzles now. I used to go from back to front (the hardest puzzles first following my grandfather's theory on how to approach work - always do the hardest items first and then you can really enjoy the less difficult ones as they fall neatly into place because you have worked out all the quirks of the difficult side). 

Drinking tea and solitaire puzzles to do and then breakfast.

F-35s

I think the big question is why would we want two different types of planes for security? The amount of money and planning that has gone into this purchase is enormous and if it is fear then that just doesn't make real sense when we are sitting beside a nation that is about 8.5 times larger than ours in population and mostly armed to the teeth (probably not actually but one is sometimes left with that impression)! 

Personally I say to complete the F-35 purchase because it is the most economically viable purchase for us (already reviewed so many times); requires the same upgrades and maintenance for the entire fleet. We did build many many airplanes ourselves during the Second World War especially in 1940 when Britain stood alone with the Commonwealth (which includes Canada). We need to find again our absolutely excellent talents at doing all of this things. Who knows where we will purchase the next set of stealth aircraft after the F-35s but likely we should be thinking about it for the future instead of living in dream land? Certainly our military is always thinking ahead. We need to support them with their proposals when they are submitted and not take so long to fruition. 

Free Trade, likely going to be an election issue which in a way is a pity as I personally think we should move away from this current Free Trade deal with Mexico and the United States. Perhaps only individual items although the United States President has said he doesn't need anything that we make so we are free to find new buyers without feeling that we are leaving them in a lurch. Free Trade always had the problem that it destroyed our local industries (except Farming which we protected). We made that choice in 1988 for free trade for short term gain but long term dismemberment of our local industries (out competed/bought out and they disappeared into conglomerates owned by the United States). Tariff on softwood lumber we got during the last administration and the Free Trade deal was still in force; not really a new item. Our dollar is low and it looks like we are getting this huge break and here come the tariffs. Anything is an excuse to tariff us! What we need to do and continue to need to do is to restart our local small industries so that we do not have to buy externally. If decisions are made that close the American car plants here than we buy elsewhere - it is not really our decision but then we have our car industries (foreign owned) that produce locally and we can buy from them (we could buy Chinese EV cars and remove the tariff if they promise to build them here with Canadian materials and use Canadian personnel!). The American car plants make their own choices as to whether or not they want to lose a consumer base of 41.5 million people; if they let the President of the United States make the choice for them that is something we can do nothing about particularly. It has cost us in Ontario a lot of money to keep them here since 1965 and still will for quite a while yet even if they are not here!.

We have already paid for the first set of F-35s soon to be delivered. I see no value in having two types of aircraft to service. The next set can be from somewhere else if that is the choice we make. By then there will be a different administration in Washington and one doesn't know the future. As the little one around the elephant we just have to go with the flow really; verbally fighting back doesn't work with a neighbour (look at Ukraine and Russia) and we long ago made the decision that we wanted to be our own country (1867) which we are and can continue to be. We just need to move forward; get the pipelines built and find new markets (Canada itself has huge building projects that are needed in personal housing alone and we ship our oil south to the United States to be refined and then buy it back at three times what we sell it for). Build the pipelines and refineries as needed.

Our internal needs need to be managed inside the country; no more sharing across our huge shared border. The friendship between Americans and Canadians on a personal level will stay because we want it to. We are learning a lesson about politics; all of us. When we let big business own politics then the individual on the ground does not benefit and gradually loses the coverage that government provides as big business eats away at the services. Big business only takes care of itself and has no interest in the people of a country except as workers and when they no longer provide them with a service they need (at the cheapest rate the businesses can arrange) then they become liabilities and they will use their ownership of government to diminish the services in whatever way possible that provide for the retirees and the children as there are billions of people in the world.

Being part of the EU is an interesting idea. Their organization is more flexible and we, as a people, more closely resemble the EU at the moment. Certainly the United States was also similar during the last administration and many of the ones prior to that much more similar to the EU in their world outlook. In fact the United States has led the way since that fateful day at Pearl Harbour in 1941 when infamy looked them in the eye until this moment in time. Did they become the world leader because they wanted to? Maybe not but Pearl Harbour showed them they didn't have the luxury of sitting back and watching. Myself I do not think that we ever do really; there will always be ego maniacs that want to be world conquerors. They always go after the strongest or the biggest on their way (most times they pretend to be friendly before they stick the knife into their neighbour's back or anyone else). But that doesn't protect the weaker by any means! The other big item is that the ego maniacs lie all the time; they do not make friends and they take what they want when they can. Russia's Putin certainly fits that description at this moment in time. One is wise to be wary of Russia's Putin.

Sad but the search has been fulfilled for the two families of the young women murdered in Manitoba

I missed mentioning yesterday that the second set of remains found in Winnipeg were identified as Marcedes Myran. Premier Wab Kinew announced that the two young women Marcedes Myran and Morgan Harris have come home and that was the purpose in this search. Prayers for the families of both these young women as they can now be laid to rest with their ancestors. God bless them and keep them close to Him.

Yesterday saw the top floor cleaned and we are done for another week. It is good to do that regularly every week; never really any accumulation of dust other than recent and works well for us. The snow is rapidly melting and mostly being absorbed as the hot sun really heats up the upper part of the yard this time of year. I suspect the early spring flowers (snowdrops, crocuses, etc) are coming up and will check that out today. The backyard at the top is pretty mushy and we need to dig the dog excrement in to the soil. Great fertilizer for sure for the grasses. 

Not much work done on the matches but probably more today. I can see that it will be the beginning of April before I am back to the books - Blake and Pencombe. The Blake Newsletter is due the beginning of April but I do have a couple of new items for that. 

Renewed my ancestry subscription which again is an American company but I use that subscription daily in my work. Again it is in Canadian dollars which makes it easier for me. A lot of Canadians probably do subscribe as like me they are interested in the records - as it turns out I use mostly the British and Canadian records since I do not have any American ancestry although do have quite a few American cousins (the second cousins are known to me mostly by name although I have met a few of them). I have many many third and up cousins though and the matches abound on 23 and Me, Ancestry, FT DNA as well as Living DNA and My Heritage. It is difficult in Canada not to buy some American items during this time of the tariff war. 

Watched the news yesterday when Prime Minister Carney was in Iqaluit with the Premier (Pauloosie J. Akeeagok) and, as usual, I do find the Premier Akeeagok to be an extremely interesting and knowledgeable speaker. The future of Canada is in very good hands I think. It is perfect to see more and more of our First Peoples involved in the government of Canada. The information shared with us by the Prime Minister also very interesting. I see that Premier Akeeagok is an Independent and I think that I myself may have become an Independent - never really concentrated on that thought before but certainly my 100% Conservative voting record was shattered after I turned 60 although I continue voting Conservative in the Ontario elections. Now I wait to hear the thoughts of all the candidates although still doubt the value of the NDP on a national level - I think it is just too radical and wastes too much money (it also splits the Liberal vote allowing them to have too much input into a government that relies on their support). People need to be cautious and continue working until they can be independent in retirement. 

My eyes have taken another leap forward in terms of depth of vision; not sure exactly when that occurred as life has been pretty busy this past three to four weeks. I think what amazes me is how well I can see without glasses. I can not read small print but my ability to read 12 point and up is fabulous - never had that before. I continue taking every precaution with my eyes - it is said that you shouldn't rub your eyes for at least a couple of years after the surgery. 

So today likely working on the matches in My Heritage and likely until the end of March which will give me time to sort the entries into my database and begin the task of re-phasing my grandparents and great-grandparents DNA. I find it to be a very useful enterprise and will pass it this time to my siblings as I did forget to do that in the past. 

I do find our friendship/working relationship with Europe to be a good direction for us but the citizens of the United States are also our good friends and neighbours and we will always do our best to see them that way. One cannot share a border of thousands of miles/kilometres and not be good friends. It is not an easily workable relationship unless that is true. Many many Americans work in Canada and many many Canadians work in the United States. The Premier of Nunavut also works directly with the government of Greenland (they are very close neighbours) and that is really our shared border with the European Union and of course our long standing relationship with the United Kingdom and France as the mother countries of the colonials who came to Canada in the 1500s/1600s is very important to us. It is fascinating to think that the name Canada (Kanata, although applied incorrectly by Jacques Cartier in the 1530s during his explorations as it was the word used by the Iroquois for village) has been in use for nearly 500 years although the original name for this continent is Turtle Island as given to it by the First Peoples. 

Tea finished and will play my solitaire games. Breakfast soon but first Yoga.

Shopping

 My most hated thing is shopping but spent the afternoon yesterday doing that very thing having cleaned the basement and the main floor in the morning. I last filled the tank of the car with gas in early January and it is still nearly full. I really do not need a car; it is just practical and already existed because my husband loved to drive everywhere. But I needed all sorts of things - the largest container of dishwashing soap you can buy (lasts me about eight months), large container of Mr Clean for cleaning also lasts about the same amount of time and finally clothes washing detergent and again the largest and it says 100 loads and it generally lasts me well over a year and a half. Having accomplished I moved on to the essential of my existence - breakfast cereal makings which includes large bags of sultana raisins (2 bags lasts me about four months), bags of oats and each bag is good for about six weeks and then two large boxes of blueberries (frozen) and again I am looking at about four months for that and the cranberries I buy at my regular every three weeks or so trip to the grocery store. It involves going to four separate stores and all had what I wanted in stock. The hermit in me is fully satisfied by this type of shopping on my part. The clerks most efficient at checkout and all is stored away in my house now. Generally my groceries when I am alone cost me about $75.00 per week - I do eat well (chicken thighs generally are in a container of 12 and I freeze two packages of four each making the first four into my regular stew. I buy frozen scallops and there is enough in the package for four meals. I buy 1 and 1/2 dozen eggs usually at a time and that is six per week which is generally plenty for me. Bread I buy four loaves and freeze three of them. Then all the vegetables (stored in Canada through the winter like cabbage, turnip, potato, carrots, onions, garlic and frozen like peas, broccoli, spinach, corn are in my freezer) but generally I supplement with fresh vegetables that come up from the United States along with fruit but not happening just at the moment I sadly report as I do miss them. Hopefully that will all be resolved one of these days. It is our duty as Christians to maintain the earth as it passed to us and to pass it on intact to those who follow us. It must be carefully nurtured and maintained and waste especially eliminated. Hence our desire to make sure that Canada is as pristine as possible and we have the good advice of the First Nations which we follow in many respects to how we care for this huge land of which we are guardians. That is important to us.

I am assuming that this tariff war against us is a desire to renegotiate CUSMA/USMCA/MUSCA in the near future (required in 2026). We devote a good deal of money to the care of this land and protecting our food supply (hence the Dairy Management System that does annoy other countries because we protect in particular our dairy industry but we do not want to lose our family farms and one is left with the thought that perhaps a Free Trade Deal is not everything it is said to be as we managed very well before Free Trade Deals and just having to pay duty on imported items either at the border or on receipt).  Canada is a country rich in natural resources and we do share these with the world both through trade deals and donations to the poorest countries. We are also an extremely supportive neighbour and do plan to continue in that regard. Americans have had branch plants in Canada for a very long time (since I was a child) and it benefits both of us as there is some manufacturing that is more economically produced in this way but we can also return to the many smaller companies that existed in Canada before Free Trade but were out-competed/bought out during Free Trade. It depends on our very large neighbour the United States and how they decide to deal in trade with us. They are much much larger (9 times in people) and so it is a disproportionate relationship and I am beginning to wonder if it actually can work (although we buy a great deal of American goods in Canada both from their stores here and what is ordered in by Canadians stores (I am suspicious that our actual purchase of American products is very much under reported); Should we just return to pre Free Trade lifestyle?  It is pretty cheap to ship raw materials south from Canada and the Free Trade deal between us worked very well in that regard but the loss of so much of our industry is a problem for us if free trade turns to tariff. The desire of the United States to restore their industry from other areas of the world (who would have ever dreamed that American industry would hire people in other countries around the world (build branch plants; desire for more and more money in profit is really the problem) to produce products for consumption in the United States and Canada since we are a large purchaser of American products). Bringing production back to the United States is the aim of the current President. Time will tell how it all flows but making Canada pay for the mistake of American producers going off shore should not be our fault but the tariff is penalizing us for that very thing it would appear. Our workers are being laid off because of tariff and that is painful for the premiers of our provinces to see their constituents suffer.

Our military expenditures are now increasing exponentially and we shall be at an exceptional rate soon enough which means that our part in protecting this continent is covered although in reality I think we were always capable of doing our part in union with the United States in protecting it. Converting from peace time to war time is a very rapid process actually according to my mother when she commented on the Second World War.

 

Church service in Cornwall England was lovely

I did enjoy the Church Service on YouTube from Cornwall, England yesterday. Seeing the green grass is always a treat there although our snow is starting to melt here and we did not go skiing yesterday as it rained most of the day. 

I did accomplish a little on the matches but also spent some time thinking about the re-phasing of my grandparent's and great grandparent's DNA based on five siblings results and quite a few 2nd and 3rd cousins known to me (on the charts not personally - my orbit is very very small!). At 79.5 years I do not go many places or spend time with very many people and that will continue to decrease as I concentrate on my books and my family.  The time that is left to me is considerably smaller than the time that I have spent on this earth - God be thanked for His kindnesses throughout my life. 

Today is cleaning day and it begins in the basement and hopefully the main floor. I take it as it comes most days; how much work I actually do but can still plan on it until it happens or it doesn't happen!

Not yet sure when the election writ will be dropped here in Canada but our Prime Minister (Mark Carney) is off to England and France for a couple of days and also up to Baffin Island to meet with the Premier there. It is wonderful to see so many of the First Nations in government here in Canada. Interesting how our two colonial mother countries (France and England) have become so much a part of our lives these last couple of months. Having a shared border with the EU is rather interesting even if it is just one tiny little island off the coast of Greenland. 

I continue with my Latin and French studies on Duolingo and will phase in my German studies as time becomes more and more flexible in the next couple of months. Duolingo is such a terrific way to keep in touch with the languages that I would like to speak better and that I would like to maintain in my life.  All of these languages are useful in my research although perhaps German less so but my son in law does have a couple of German ancestors although likely 95% French (with his ancestors stretching back into the beginning days of Quebec City and Montreal).

Breakfast soon as I shall begin this day early for cleaning so that I can accomplish as much as possible. Teatime.

 

Another perfect skiing day

 Yesterday skiing at Mer Bleu was very nice actually. A warm day always appreciated by someone with arthritis out in all that moisture! I also managed a small hill which surprised me actually and it was going down not criss-crossing to go up! It was a surprise and my daughter said maybe you should snowboard but it was clear sailing amazingly. We were out for about an hour mid afternoon. 

Worked on the matches and success there as well. I marked up the next set but I think it will be the last ones that I look at for this sibling and move on to my next oldest brother who is the most different from me of all my siblings. Most of them fitted immediately into one of my four grandparents just by their matches alone. Some of them were a relatively good size (more than 35 cM match in one length). I have to admit after I had five siblings tested I never really looked at anything else in terms of matching since my idea was always to phase my grandparents and take a stab at doing my great-grandparents. The other part of my DNA work has been with the studies but my siblings do not generally figure into that. 

The snow is melting though and rain all day today. Hopefully tomorrow I will dig in the recycling from the dogs as there are a few sheltered spots where the ground is soft enough to dig down. It is good fertilizer for the grass for sure. 

A dull early spring day mostly at 5 degrees celsius and no sign of budding or anything like that; pretty rare here in eastern Ontario to have early budding. There is still more cold to come for sure we are not clear of that until mid May mostly although there can also be cold June days. The warmth comes in July and August and the last couple of years have been quite warm actually. Global warming is most felt in the polar areas and it is not that far north to the polar regions in Canada above the settlement areas. 

Nice hot tea to start the day and I am into my late hours just while I have company otherwise I am up at 6 but surprisingly my husband and oldest daughter preferred the night hours to the early morning hours although that certainly varied through the years. I too like to do viewing in the night on the telescope but would generally have a few hours sleep first. Now it is pretty hard to get me out the door in the winter to look through the telescope unless it is really good. One thing I would like when we move is to be able to set up a viewing area that is protected but that is a long way off likely and it may be my descendants who set up such a viewing area! Interest in the skies was something Edward and I shared. 

Church today and it is one of my favourites from Cornwall and the Trelawny Benefice led by the Reverend Richard Allen. Cornwall is a beautiful county (they all are actually but we spent a little time on our own walking about one day when the tour was going to a place we had been to before so decided to just enjoy the day at the resort). You can taste the sea in Cornwall and the fresh salty air is most enjoyable. It is such a green isle although I have only been there once in the deep summer (mid August) but it appeared fairly green then as well. All that moisture does contribute to them being called the Emerald Isles I guess. 

We are into Lent and it is the second week. A time of contemplation for Christians as we move towards Easter. Christmas is the birth of Christ but Easter is the birth of the Christian Church both symbolically the roots of our Christianity. Because the Church of England ( and those Churches of Scotland, Wales and Ireland) are so very ancient to the British Isles one does during Lent (at least I do) contemplate the ancient roots of the Church of England. Was it actually a lost tribe of Israel bringing the word of God with them as they fled from the Middle East during the times of turmoil thousands of years ago that founded the Hunter-Gatherer societies in these islands? The word of God was certainly part of their thinking from a very long time ago and the stories of Jesus made their way to the Isles long before the Romans adopted Christianity as the State Religion. Fascinating really looking back at the Church in the life of the Isles. 

Today more work on the matches although also a day of rest somewhat for my eyes although this past couple of weeks has not been a strain on them. The dogs are into the past now as settled back at home in their normal abode. Their first dog Jackson (a sheltie) and I had a strong relationship; he understood what I asked him although did not always do exactly what I said immediately but eventually would come to do what I said. I did not have that strong relationship with these two dogs but in the weeks we developed one actually. A quick tap on the window and the younger dog stopped barking or toned it down considerably as she was talking to the dog two doors up. The older dog and I came to a better understanding as she liked to be the alpha dog even around humans and accepted that I was the authority at all times. Both were eager to go  home which is the idea really!

Church soon although I want to read my Lenten readings that I did not really get to appreciate at the time of receipt.  Prayers for the souls of the more than 30 people killed by tornadoes in the United States yesterday and for the injured although numbers not mentioned.

 

Skiing

Finally out skiing and it was not too bad. Getting old is actually great; it has its downsides I assume but having spent years as a child with aging grandparents I am prepared for the slow degrading of one's abilities especially physical. So I am not yet seeing the downside in that regard as it is just simply life moving onward. My brain still very active accompanies me on my trip through life. But the skiing was nice and I enjoyed it. We hope to ski most days and there is quite a bit of snow out there still. This is a warm week coming though and we might lose it all but on the other hand I will not wake up feeling like I ran a marathon yesterday if the snow is gone. So I am fine with that.

Today, I shall clean up after the dogs as the snow has softened and I can likely walk on it easily. The backyard is a mess and needs cleaning up. There are a couple of soft spots in the ground so I might be able to dig it all in where it will nourish the soil. We will see. 

Also I shall work on the matches which have suffered these past weeks with limited work done but at least I did some throughout the two weeks plus of dog sitting. Do I miss the furry little ones; no, it was fun at the time and I enjoyed it. They are such beautiful dogs; they are very big but they are very loving to their family. They had a good time playing with the dog two doors up. Running races to the back fence. Dogs are so sociable with each other when they are not worried about protecting. After all what danger in fenced in dogs two houses away!  Dogs are definitely not stupid. Plus the two dogs together outweigh me or close enough!

The books I shall likely return to next week unless I decide that another week of rest from intensive work is good for me in which case I will continue with the matches and moving towards that moment when I can start phasing my grandparents and great grandparents DNA once again. I like to start each time from scratch using what I know to frame the different lengths in each chromosome and then introduce the new lengths also known to me and finally look at some of the large interesting ones that I have more or less entered in and see how that goes - generally I can at least place them into one of my four grandparents' lines. Not always but most times just by the people they match. But I do still have my paternal grandmother whose father appears to be George Cotterill but no matches at the 2x cousin level there as far as I can tell but I do have some new 2nd cousin matches that could be interesting (the advantage of being able to actually phase my great grandparents). Why do I think it is George Cotterill? It was and is a small village, Kimpton, Hampshire and the priest when he baptized my grandmother has entered her name as Ada Bessie Cotterill Rawlings. There is only one Cotterill family in that area and it does seem logical but I refrain from making that decision until I have DNA proof. I think I owe that to her memory actually - I never knew her; she died when my oldest sister was just over a year old. She lived long enough to see two of her seven grandchildren actually (since my father, her son, was thirty three when he married she was already into her mid 60s when she became a grandmother having married at 27 years of age).  

I am into a new schedule now as my daughter is doing a research week with me (she does her research) and enjoying a bit of skiing on March break. These days it is so easy to keep in touch with one's students on the internet which is great. Plus she gets a change of pace which is also wonderful and like a refresh on the brain for sure - all that skiing! She skied as soon as she arrived. 

Perhaps today I shall be able to catch up on my email as the dogs did take up quite a bit of time although they very kindly let me work away for good lengths whilst they lay on my bed watching me type away. 

First exercises of the day completed, second group coming up and then breakfast. It is a sunny day and 1 degree celsius already. 

Still thinking about our new Prime Minister and whether his blind trust is an asset or a liability for him but even more importantly how does it play into our current trade situation. I need to keep hearing what the Conservative Party plans to do if they form the next government. For the most part the Liberals will likely carry on as they have; already they have eliminated the carbon tax for individuals as that was the one item that was most likely to harm them in the polls and election likely soon to come. Then I can make my decisions based on those discussions as to where I will place my enthusiasm and my vote. First and foremost we need to spend more on our military; I have been saying it for so long now that I am probably constantly repetitive in that regard. But it is important; the military serves its country in so many ways and we have not spent the monies that we need to to keep it 100% relevant. It has nothing to do with anything that is happening in the world; it is just simply a matter of self-sufficiency and is likely a product of my British heritage - the British are always keeping up their military in as much as their government lets them. But the sense I acquired as a child from the people that I knew was that military is important in the upkeep of a country both internally and externally. I did grow up in a city (London, Ontario) where the military was the largest employer. That has changed for sure but for practical reasons - a city can outgrow the military and they need space in which to train and operate. 

Hamas is finally getting the point perhaps; they are diminished. Their being diminished is good for the Middle East as Hamas are just butchers with no regard for human life unless it fits into what they want. They have sacrificed nearly 50,000 Palestinians over this time period since they attacked Israel on the 7 October 2023. Hamas deserves the same fate as they handed out to the mostly Jewish peoples that day - the weak, the young, the old and the hostages dragged back to Gaza dead and alive - Hamas are cowards. Personally I do not have any fat in the fire where Gaza is concerned. I think a people that spent three generations whining and using up the resources of the United Nations has had their help. Now they need to do something for the world; they owe the world as they have wasted all that money and time that was devoted to them by the United Nations. Time to pay it back by shunning Hamas and moving forward developing whatever in order to do the job that they were born to do - love God and take care of the earth and be useful people to the earth.

Yesterday was a lazy day

 As I bid the dogs goodbye, my day slowly dwindled into a very lazy day. I cleaned up everything which involved taking the protective sheets off of the two couches, collected up all of those towels from drying and put them on to wash. Then I vacuumed the entire main floor and will clean the floors today likely although they were not really marked up very much as I cleaned the dogs at the door every time and I had moved rugs to protect the hallway. The couches were immaculate when I took off the protective covers but vacuumed them anyway - always methodical. That was pretty much my work for the day. After that I just rested as I was fairly tired. I didn't even go skiing with my oldest daughter but will do that today. I just worked away on Sudoku puzzles here and there; I collected more matches and read/watched the news on the television. 

It was during this time that I noticed that President Trump said that Canada shouldn't exist - its existence was the result of just drawing a line. But the roots of Canada are fairly old and it is true that this entire continent was managed by the First Peoples who moved north to south and created this logic that still exists today of trade moving north to south and back again. Over a thousand years ago the Vikings sailed the North Atlantic setting up small colonies here and there and we visited L'Anse aux Meadows in northern Newfoundland and the experience was truly amazing. I had heard about Viking explorations since my early days in school and even before as my brothers liked to tell me what they learned at school when they came home. They taught me how to do some of the schoolwork long before I was in a classroom. So Viking was a word known to me as far back as I can remember but in the late 1940s and early 1950s it seemed more a mythology than a reality but here in front of me in 2010 was L'Anse aux Meadows - a recreation but none the less it looked ancient. It is interesting how we do that. we visited Edinburgh Castle in 2008 and when we reached the top of the structure there was an ancient chapel in front of us "St Margaret's Chapel" and the tour director said this is the only part of this entire structure that is original (800 years old); the rest was all rebuilt. 

Can Canada and the United States of America recreate that open structure north to south that has existed in this part of North America for eons as two independent countries? I think they can; Premier Ford thinks that a closer economic relationship between us is possible (it does for the most part already exist with CUSMA/USMCA/MUSCA). Anything that we now do here in Canada to restore our industry pre-NAFTA is already available on a continental basis inside of Canada and the United States (or will be if President Trump succeeds in bringing back all this industry that went to Asia). It does require a leap of trust which has been somewhat tarnished of late. Canada would still be maintaining our Westminster Model of government based on the King and Parliament and the United States their Republic based on a President and Congress and the Courts should be possible but it requires a leap of faith which has two hundred years of proof for its steadfastness and workability. In 1818 the British and the Americans signed a treaty which created the 49th parallel as the border from the western side of Lake of the Woods, Upper Canada (now Ontario) to the Strait of Georgia (British Columbia). Canada later bought in 1870 Rupert's Land (a huge tract of land in the west owned by the Hudson's Bay Company which also extended down below the 49th parallel) and ceded the land below the 49th parallel to the United States of America as per that earlier treaty. You can see continuous happenings between these two countries all in a peaceful way throughout their history over the last two hundred years plus on this shared continent which is also home to the First Peoples whose right to move north and south is guaranteed by the Jay's Treaty of 1794. All of these treaties being created after 1783 when the Republic of the United States of America defeated the British. So why does Canada exist anyway - it is ancient in its naming although a misunderstanding; the First Peoples have been here for thousands of years and the word Kanata (original name for Canada) became mistakenly applied to the entire area that was part of the French North American Colonial Empire by the colonials. When Jacques Cartier explored Newfoundland and the St Lawrence River finally all the way to what is now Montreal and slightly beyond in the 1530s, he asked the First Nations people in this area what the name was. A misunderstanding by Jacques Cartier when the First Nations peoples noted that he was pointing at Stadacona (now Quebec City) and said that it was a "kanata" (Iroquois word for village or settlement) but the word which was interpreted as Canada stuck for that portion of the continent as France claimed that part of the continent including the Louisiana colony which extended all down the Mississippi River. In reality the actual name of this entire continental area is Turtle Island. The name Canada gradually came to be a huge amount of this continent going west to the Pacific and south to New Orleans as the French occupied this area (the Mississippi River drainage section) that later became the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 by the Thirteen Colonies (the United States of America) from France of this huge tract of land and included most of the lands in the Mississippi River's drainage basin (15 million dollars was paid). A small amount of this land was above the 49th parallel and was ceded to Canada in 1818 by the treaty mentioned above.  What was happening to the south of this area - in 1587 Sir Walter Raleigh (England) attempted to found the first English settlement on this continent at Roanoke. This colony had disappeared when supply ships returned in 1590. In 1598 England did establish a colony north of the French explorations of the 1530s at Frobisher Bay (now Iqaluit) on Baffin Island. Then in 1604 the French established a colony at St Croix, an island on the Saint Croix River between Maine and New Brunswick. They moved to what is now Quebec City in 1608 as this area around St Croix was too limited and heavily exposed to the elements. The Quebecois (descendants of the original French settlers in 1604 and greatly added to through the years) continue in this part of the country and form one of the provinces of Canada. Their roots in this land are continuous (and all across Canada actually) and their pride in country is huge (Prime Minister Trudeau is a descendant of the early French Canadian pioneers (as is my son in law)).

In reality the French were the original colonials to North America (huge settlements following the 1608 habitation at Quebec City) although the British were at Frobisher Bay on Baffin Island in 1598 (and in Newfoundland during the fishery season and later settlements on the island) so in some ways they were earlier  but colonials tend to set up villages and permanent residences so it is debatable which was really first the French or the English as permanent colonial settlements with farms etc in what was known as Canada by the French and English. In 1614 the Dutch established trading posts first at Fort Nassau (Albany NY) and Fort Orange (Albany NY) in 1624 (my husband's Dutch ancestors were there this early on). In 1607 the Jamestown Colony, Virginia was established by the English and 1620 saw the Mayflower land in now Plymouth (this is marked with a large flat stone actually and quite intriguing in the harbor at Plymouth, Massachusetts; when we were there it was very busy with people celebrating this initial colony) by the Dissenters (many of my husband's ancestors) as I tend to refer to them. But through all of this the First Peoples were present on the entire continent and the United States of America emerged in 1783 in control of the 13 original colonies having defeated the British. The Declaration of Independence was signed 2 Aug 1776 although it is my understanding that the commitment was made 4th July 1776 which is Independence Day as celebrated in the United States of America (independence from England). 

At that time the area known as Upper/Lower Canada extending from Newfoundland to British Columbia) and north to the North Pole was in the hands of the British having defeated the French on the Plains of Abraham in 1759 and taking Quebec (but did not include the area in the south west (the Louisiana Colony still held by the French but presumably all called Canada - historians could correct me on that). Sitting across the Bering Strait from Russia lies Alaska (the very north west of the North American continent (below the many islands on the way to the North Pole) above and beside Canada) which was a Russian colony of the Russian Empire up until the purchase of this property by the United States of America in 1867 for 7.2 million (equivalent to $129 million in 2023). There had been ongoing wars between the French colonials and the British colonials in the thirteen colonies but all of that ended in 1763 clearing the way for the 13 colonies to look at a larger picture for these colonies. As mentioned they purchased in 1803 as the United States of America the Louisiana Colony from the French thus greatly enlarging the United States of America to the west of the colonies but limited in 1818 by the treaty establishing the 49th parallel between the British for Canada (name first given in 1534 by the French explorer Jacques Cartier but in reality the Iroquois (First Peoples nation) word for village) and the United States (created in 1776). The Treaty of Ghent ratified 17 Feb 1815 had earlier ended the War of 1812-1814 between the British regulars (including First Nations, Metis, Canadian militias both Quebecois in Lower Canada and British/Loyalist settlers in Upper Canada) and also in the Maritimes (First Nations, Metis and British/Loyalist settlers) and in Western Canada (First Nations, Metis, British settlers and others)) and the Americans. 

 Anyway forward and onwards as we negotiate this new way of life called tariff wars. The winners: who ever collects the tariff money in the long run (does trickle down economics ever work!) - the losers the purchasers (always the purchasers pay for tariffs enacted on products!).

  

Last day for the dogs

 Our time together has been memorable but the dogs go home today. They really put a different spin on my day; I never really got adjusted to them so did not get them into a routine that let me work effectively. But two large poodles do take up a lot of time. They are loving and just so very wonderful to be around in spite of the loud bark of the baby. I could knock on the window and she would stop for me but she forgot often enough and need another knock on the window. But it does take something to get her barking generally and I always go and see what she is barking at and tell her that I have taken care of it. 

I did get some matches pulled though which was good and as I wind down this week I will continue working at that. 

The new Prime Minister will be sworn in on Friday along with his cabinet. I do not know when he will call an election. I do not believe there is any requirement that it be done in a certain time limit. The Liberal Party has elected him as their leader but eventually he does have to have a seat in Parliament. It will be interesting to see how he looks at the tariffs actually. I am hoping that he sees a value in supporting new industry here in Canada that could be created. For instance beer cans are all made in the United States from aluminium made in Quebec and perhaps someone would have the desire to start up such a business. It is a guaranteed income for sure; people drink a lot of beer. I would think designing the cans might be rather interesting in that line of work although I am not artistic - I just have that thought! I think PM-designate Carney's choice of chief of staff, Marco Mendicino, is an excellent one for the times. But the election should not be far off and plenty of time to see what the new Liberal leader offers; I have a clear view now of the Conservative thoughts and will see how they continue to be framed - NDP does not interest me particularly due to their activities in Ontario in the 90s but I always listen. I can not, of course, vote for the Bloc (Quebec only) although there are times when I find their ideas to be particularly interesting and useful.

The tariff war could be the remaking of Canada as we regain the lost industries destroyed by NAFTA. So many small engine businesses were out-competed or bought out and closed down and many other items. We need to restore those. We would never have gone this route except for the new President as it turns out. We were quite content with the status quo although ever mindful of the tariff on our softwood lumber (WTO ruled it as illegal if I recall correctly) put on a while ago but after the signing of CUSMA. It is not our fault that the downturn of the Stock Market in 2008 dragged our dollar down to less then 70 cents to the American dollar and has not recovered from that or COVID making us very competitive against the American dollar and all other currencies in the G7. Our Farm Management System which deals with dairy has been a bone of contention because we give a percentage to a contract Like CUSMA (the United States gets the most actually (3.5%) of any of the Free Trade Agreements that we have) and so long as you are sending us that percentage that is fine and actually 97% of the goods that enter our market from countries that we have an agreement with do not have a tariff but when you exceed the allowed percentage then there is a tariff which is clearly noted in the treaty. We have many many family farms in Canada and need to protect them from the same fate as our small industries that were lost. But for the most part most goods enter tariff free until this tariff war started (and the United States did tariff our softwood lumber a couple of years ago). I do feel somewhat sorry for our provincial political leaders at the moment (they are limited in the types of surcharges or taxes that they can create on anything). They know the suffering of so many of their provincial citizens now that have reduced hours or their job terminated because of the threat of tariffs, the tariffs and move to do things that support their workers monetary wise by surcharges and taxes that can support them whilst they are under employed or unemployed. The hit to our economy is large but we will persevere and come through this. The sad loss is that wonderful friendship between the United States and Canada. Perhaps it will return  time heals many deep wounds. I think that was the thought during the Fenian Raids of the 1880s (in that case lives were lost not economic stability). We are lucky to have such a large wealthy country rich in natural resources to help support us and our First Nations as we move forward together like Sir Isaac Brock and Chief Tecumseh who worked perfectly together protecting Canada. I was very lucky to have attended the namesake elementary school for Tecumseh as a child. We learned a great deal about Tecumseh and the role he and his fellow warriors played in the development of Canada.

It was a busy week of cleaning and now I will need to clean up after the dogs actually do head home. But it was an interesting two plus weeks which I am unlikely to repeat as I will be 80 this year and it was perhaps too much work some days as I couldn't get my own work done!

I will continue with pulling matches because it is a simple task that I can walk away from easily and I am not ready to get back into the books yet. Next week. 

Minus 12 degrees celsius and another cold day but perhaps it will be a clear night to see the Eclipse of the Moon. It should be spectacular actually.