Downsizing and a couple of new tasks

 Downsizing is great but a new task emerged which I had not considered before now. In our trips to the Northern United States in particular over the last fifty years we visited a lot of graveyards deep into the woods on occasion and took pictures of the gravestones of Edward's ancestors. There are two binders of these pictures (not actually part of the 40 plus binders that are under current survey) and I have resolved to put them into a *.pdf file and publish them as ancestral photos of gravestones and I think his index tells where they are located (hopefully). A smallish project really as just two binders but it has a greater likelihood of happening. What to do with the binders when I have completed the task? I could ask the OGS Library if they want them and will probably do that but the actual images are all scanned and in the backups so do not need to keep these printed pictures at all. 

So another task to do but it could be a diversion whilst I work on the cross-over points using the Living DNA data for the five siblings. I did begin with that yesterday and have Chromosome 1 completed as coming directly from the Living DNA data. I will work with this data somewhat as it is influenced, I think, by the points that have been selected by this company as testing points for DNA matching. Where there are very small gaps in particular I can ignore those as cross-over points as they are likely just a product of the methodology used for the actual running of samples. I note that it shows up quite strongly in just one sibling. The problem areas that I found with the original phasing is showing up quite consistently in these new match results and were truly ambiguous so that was good to find as well. 

I do want to get together the journal that I still contribute to the OGS Library along with some family newsletters and get them to the library. It is hard to believe that it is a year since I last took them a box of items. What I thought was a real stack is really just a few items actually as it included a box which turns out to be a bankerbox full of back-ups that we need to review and discard if they are backed up adequately in the present. These backups go back to the last century! 

Edward was very consistent in backing up all of his material from a very early time in the life of computers but then he did work with electronic messaging systems almost from his arrival at CISTI where he worked for 30 years. When he was there, retired in 2004,  it was a busy place heavily involved in research but then Prime Minister Harper sold the library to the United States which was pretty weird at the time and remains pretty weird. Why would anyone sell or close up libraries as he did - it will be forever a black mark against him trying to destroy research and gag researchers preventing them from attending particularly foreign conferences. Life moves forward always and if you do not like the research perhaps one should examine why that is rather than suffocating research. 

The oil industry must survive the perils of research the same as all other industries have overtime. Research perfects the system to make it better, safer and more economical. It was such items that cost the Conservative Party their control of government  in Canada. A return to the Progressive Conservative fundamentals is what is needed in order for them to win again - I am after all a Conservative but a great believer in science and its value in the human sphere. Attacking the Prime Minister on a personal level continues to be a no-go for me unless he is breaking the law. I do not care what stocks he owns if they are in a blind trust. Obviously the man is not stupid and does know where his money is likely invested. I haven't seen anything yet that I do not like that he is doing. He is walking a very fine tightrope dealing with this tariff issue and I was accepting of his saying that likely there will be a tariff in the end on Canadians exports to the United States that are not covered by CUSMA but we can do a claw-back on American imports just the same to match. Farm management is never up for change because we will protect our family farms! I mean putting tariffs on us at the time was unkind (which is basically a very weak comment on my part) considering the close and honest relationship between us and stripping shelves here of American products was just a tit for tat and continues thus.  That is life and the government coffers here need money to manage projects which are huge to come in this country once acceptance is gained by all involved parties (we let our local industries go over the past fourty years but now we can re-invent them and build this country to be the great powerhouse it will be). Roll up the sleeves and lets get to work building this energy corridor that 85% of Canadians voted for. Re-invent the industries that were destroyed by free trade over the past fourty years and get our youth working at meaningful work not sitting behind a desk staring at computers. The Americans will always be our friends though and for some of us our cousins!

So today is another research day. Yesterday I completed the fifth sibling's extractions from the Living DNA site. There are 230 new files to put into my databases and I have completed the first couple of them yesterday.  I have one new folder that will include all of those files that demonstrated endogamy and have already built the file structure for that as they will primarily be part of the Knight family (my great grandmother (wife of Edward Blake) and includes a number of family lines - Knight, Arnold, Butt, Ellis, and a couple of other ones where blocks of data are composed of sticky pieces of DNA coming down from these ancestors and looking like just one grandparent but are in reality coming down from several different great great great grandparents and can be readily distinguished and separated. These particular matches will not form part of the larger system that I use looking at new matches but rather just to illustrate the areas where endogamy is occurring and lets me slot these matches into the correct family line coming down from those 3x great grandparents. 

The smoke  slowly dissipating with Air Quality now at 69 which is still above good but not too bad. It is just 23 degrees celsius but feels like 28 degrees celsius apparently and rain is coming likely as the humidity is 94%. 

Drinking tea and solitaire puzzles are next and then breakfast.  

 

 

 

A moment in time

 My moment in time this year was the passing of my younger brother (just 17.5 months younger actually) and we were very close as young children. I used to take his hand and we would go for walks before I went off to school (Kindergarten) and then slowly but surely the strong friendship disappeared as we grew up and went our separate ways (me primarily as I married at 20 and then we moved 700 kilometres away when I was 29). We just lost touch although I did phone him through the years but we drifted apart as well. We got back together for a bit when my older brother and I started doing the family DNA and he asked John to be part of that. He was enthusiastic at the beginning but it did wane unfortunately but it was a good joining item for us to get back together at least on the phone. However, time always moves forward in a daily eventful way and we are better for it actually. Leaving the past behind (good or bad) is better for us although the memories are lovely of the good times with my siblings. 

I did start to read the manual for driving in Ontario and it no longer is a one day read I discovered unless one kept at it all day! The booklet that I had when I learned to drive, a wonderful instructor for sure and he gave me a copy of the booklet that I needed to know (he said) from cover to cover and I did take that literally and had it memorized by the next week! For me driving was something I had wanted to do but no one dared to go anywhere in a car with me because my vision was impaired although corrected somewhat with my lenses which were very thick and imposing I suspect on anyone who actually looked at them. After all a student ophthalmologist told me I would be blind when I was 20 and I was all of six years of age at the time. I did take that seriously at the time and learned braille! But at 20 I could still see although my sight was always one of my weak points. My grandmother had taught me to read when I was three years of age because she felt that I needed something that would get me to sit down for more than a minute at a time and it was successful to the extent that I would hide away in my attic bedroom and read all summer long until my mother rooted me out to play!

Moments in time are special and I must admit I would love to go back to my hometown one of these days and visit the graves of my parents/grandparents and brothers (three of them gone now) sadly missed but yet they were ill and one must accept that illness restricts in one's old age. And so life moves on as it always does but the memories of my brothers will always be with me. 

Cleaning all accomplished yesterday I am content to say although I was pretty beat by the end of the day. But even though I could have more help I need to be able to manage these things on my own until I cannot at least that is my humble opinion. It is good exercise for sure for both the body and the mind. 

We still have smoke although it is coming down and hopefully will pass the next couple of days so that we can get out for long kayaks and walks once again. The yard needs clearing up. A huge branch came down whilst we were away and it was surprising as it was still a live branch rather than a dead one. Perhaps a big storm no ideas on that. Cleared it away partially and will get it broken up for the garbage pickup this week. The grass is starting to look like it needs cutting. There is always weeding to do but the sunflowers that survived being eaten as seeds and young plants are coming up nicely. The rabbit is mostly nibbling at the tender young shoots of weeds and leaving the thicker sunflower leaves alone which is great. 

Today some work on the matches I suspect. I have not yet gotten back to the Latin documents I was working on at the time that John passed away but will get to that as well. I generally do my Latin Duolingo lessons every day along with my French Duolingo lessons. Back to German in the fall likely. That is just sort of a maintenance thing; I learned German at University (mostly scientific) and perhaps I will use my German but probably not. Edward and I were re-learning our German in a more colloquial way in preparation for our trip to Germany in 2020 that we did not take because he was ill and COVID cancelled it anyway. Working at the German reminds me of our time spent together relearning our German. 

Up early drinking my tea and will perhaps have a nap and then breakfast and on to the matches and a day of exercise inside pretty much I expect.  

Preparing for License Renewal

I shall start reading the  Official Ministry of Transportation Driver's Handbook today just to sharpen up my memory of the rules. I only need my license to drive to the grocery store and back in actuality as I do not go out of my area on the roads anymore. I am too busy and I hate shopping so have no need to go anywhere actually except for food which I can have delivered. However, I will go and renew my driver's license as it is handy to have. Who knows I might have to drive someone to the hospital or something like that in an emergency but for the most part at nearly 80 emergency is a word in my past for sure. 

Today is the second cleaning day and it is an all day affair for the most part although I take breaks. The main floor and the basement get the cleaning today. Yesterday went very well and was accomplished primarily in the morning. Today is another day of the heat wave and at 7:00 a.m. it was 19 degrees celsius and at 7:45 it is now 21 degrees celsius and brilliant sunshine. I have the windows all covered with drapes etc at the back where the sun shines in. The air conditioner is working well and set at 24 degrees celsius although it doesn't come on very often generally mostly the dehumidifier runs. 

Still have moving on the brain and gearing myself up to downsizing once again for this move. No idea when I will move but the where is gradually coming into view although I doubt that I will have a clear thought on that before next spring. But move I need to do as this house is too much work for me. 

No work done on the extraction of matches and probably not today either but back to that tomorrow likely. I would like to complete the last sibling's extractions so that I can start entering them into the database. I will also be paying attention to the endogamy and recording that on a separate database now that I have a clearer picture of the involved chromosomes where we all inherited from the Knight-Arnold-Butt families and how they break down into these family lines. The Routledge is actually more difficult and I may not yet have adequate information although the number of matches with Routledge has increased exponentially with the Living DNA results which is not surprising as most of those cousins are still in England with just Thomas Routledge and his wife Elizabeth (Routledge) Routledge coming to Canada in the late summer/early fall of 1818 and my first Canadian colonials with their daughter (married a Gray and they are my 2x great grandparents) also born in England with them along with their other eight children (one daughter already married came with her husband and children as well). However the footprint of this family is not that large in that most of the sons never married (and had no children) with just one son marrying and he and his wife had nine children and all three daughters married where the bulk of the descendants continue into my generation although the one son who married was the father of seven sons and two daughters so quite a few descendants in the Routledge surname there. But primarily the relatives remained in England. 

I would really have liked to have seen the session in Parliament last much longer this year (surely a couple of weeks off in the summer is adequate given the present situation) and some movement towards the energy corridor right across Canada. However, I am still willing to give the Prime Minister a break (a honeymoon) so to speak and I think that the news sources should do the same after all what they write is read especially on line and we must continue our trend of support (85% of Canadians voted for the platforms put forward by the major two parties Conservative and Liberal) for the government to get the job done. Internal trade seems to be coming together with the hurdles between the provinces coming down and it is what we buy and sell everyday in our country that is most important - trade is a luxury; nice to have when it works for us but otherwise the internal sales in a country are the most important. 

The weekend plus at the cottage was good for me. Left me a bit disorganized as we had to shop more than once for groceries and with our downsizing had taken items to Salvation Army as well as mailing boxes to cousins of Edward's material so quick trips here and there in my socks and shoes with a dress. It must have looked very 1950s for sure! 

Drinking tea and solitaire puzzles are next. Then yoga and breakfast.  

 

Excellent Sermon yesterday at Church

 The Service at Christ Church Cathedral online was very interesting and the Sermon thought provoking. I like the way that the sermon flowed. We are into the quiet time of the year in the Season of Pentecost (old name Trinity). No choirs only a soloist and they have been spectacular these weeks. Thank you to them for their dedication to the service. 

Spent the afternoon, since it was a rainy one, cleaning out the large closet and reordering everything for ease in downsizing. One big box for our niece of some items which will mean more to her than us because it was part of her childhood since she lived with her grandmother (Edward's mother). There is still so much of Edward's material that we once again sorted through and made a complete box (we hope) of all the Kipp material for the family in southwestern Ontario (Oxford and Brant Counties) and then in Chilliwack British Columbia. I need to find an archives that will take the single Banker's Box as the material has been published in a book and do not want to see the original images lost.  

Two binders of gravestones as well for Edward's American Colonial ancestors. Our trips down into the Northern United States in the East were many (usually five or six times a year) to visit the various graveyards generally on the way to Family Reunions or Genealogical meetings meant that we were able to go to many graveyards that we otherwise would not have visited. There are also copies of gravestones in local cemeteries in southwestern Ontario. I need to check and see if the OGS Library will take this material along with a small package of UEL material that he collected to use for his talks. Since that is a duplicate of original material though there isn't any loss there of material if I am unable to donate it. We also gathered up another load for Salvation Army including the Christmas Tree which is too large for me and a box of decorations - I suspect they sell such things. It will be just in time for this year's Christmas for someone wanting to have that at a lower price. 

Cleaning day as well so will work on sending letters about the material in between bouts of cleaning. This is the top floor once again and with the big closet already done it will be less work this time. I will clean out my closet I think this next Sunday. I have pretty much stuck to online material for my studies so just have one big box of material that is printed. 

There is smoke out there today; the perennial hazard of living in a heavily wooded country (40% of our land area is forest and that is almost 10% of the world's forests). Nearly 40% of our land mass is Arctic and northern as well. Just under 80% of the population of Canada lives within 160 kilometres of the Canada-US border although there is still a good portion outside of that perimeter including nearly 200,000 above the Arctic Circle. But we are a fairly  mobile population with huge movements north all year long for various reasons. 

Time to make tea; I am a bit late today I guess but decided to write my blog first.  

Do we actually need external trade; that is the question?

 Pipelines are what we need and distribution for liquid gas to sell internally ( no more importing of our own oil back refined). Building materials are needed here to house all the people. More internal production of items we actually need like refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, clothing and less importing of these items. Back to when we produced everything we needed pretty much because we can eat turnip, cabbage, carrots all winter since we store up so much and we have plenty of protein product from the fish in the waters to the meat on the land and the products of such cultivation - cheese and other protein sources. Still stored carrots in the store here; not as nice as last fall but they are edible and they are Canadian. Invest in Canada if you are Canadian; we are a powerhouse. Trade is just a luxury item and like all luxury items not really needed just interesting. But we need to concentrate on re-inventing our industries lost during free trade. Our youth has the opportunity to reinvent these many products as they look for work to do that is meaningful. 

Always interested in being in the wooded areas of Canada. One must always be on one's toes and safeguard any fires so that we minimize wildfire to storms. As always that is the main cause of wildfire. Surrounded by the bush for miles has this very ethereal effect really on one's brain as you sit out in the middle of a lake first thing in the morning and just smell the air, listen to the birds and it is a truly memorable experience that wakens the brain cells and re-energizes these old bones for sure and blisters the fingers kayaking. Kayaking all alone on an empty lake is a beautiful experience and communion with God. God put us on this earth to care for it; nurture it and not destroy it. He put us on this earth to use our brains to ensure that the best life can be obtained by all; Jesus reinforced that message when he told us the two great commandments - Love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and love (respect I read) our neighbour as ourself at all times and in all places (are you listening Russia and Hamas (the Houthis, Hezbollah and their supplier Iran)). This world can not survive given the ability to destroy it held by ignorant people (are you listening Russia) if these ignorant people do not withdraw back into their borders. God loves the world and World War II taught us that as He watches and He waits; He does not act. Peace has to come on the terms that He set and sent Jesus (His son) to tell us. When will the world wake up! Armageddon was World War II but we survive by the Grace of God and now it is our job to continue the work of all that youth that died on the battlefields of Europe in pursuit of freedom. Does mankind never learn; one wonders. 

Sunday and it is Ordinary time (the Trinity for Christians) as the summer wears itself away and already the darkness descends earlier day after day as we head towards fall. The richness of the fields as we drove to the cottage was beautiful to see. Lots of stored vegetables for the winter once again. Lots of cattle out in the fields also storing up for their consumption next winter. Still no shovels in the ground that I can see and we do need to move on this economic powerhouse idea put forward by both the Liberal and the Conservative parties - 85% of us voted for that and we all need it to happen sooner rather than later. 

Back to work on the books and the other items I continue to think about but do not accomplish to any degree. At the moment I am engrossed in the extraction of the remaining data from the last sibling as I work my way towards the rephasing of my grandparents with 100% British data which should prove interesting and already I can see where it will resolve the few conflicts that I had with the earlier data. Then on to the great grandparents and writing the books on the Pincombe family of North Molton, Devon, England and perhaps Pencombe, Herefordshire, England and Blake of Andover, Hampshire, England. When those are done then I move to the Buller family of Bermondsey, Surrey, England and Birmingham, Warwickshire, England (and are they descendant of the Buller family of Cornwall) and the Rawlin[g]s family of Pewsey, Wiltshire, England and Collingbourne Dulcis, Wiltshire, England. Along the way I am picking up my French once again to get back to my son in law's French Canadian families from various places in France although several of them concentrated in the south east near Ile de Ré where my husband's Huguenots lived before coming to Staten Island, American Colonies in the early 1700s. 

Today though will be Church online and I look forward to that. 

Then some weeding this afternoon if it does not rain when I am wanting to do that! 

Prayers for those who died in the Texas floods and continuing prayers as the hunt for survivors continues.