Fun with Gwuss

So excited!! On our way to Kings Town Renaissance Festival

Dock O'clock 😀

A pair of fawns were wanting to join in on our Bilbo Baggins day today.

After several days of revelry and celebration with family, friends and neighbours it's a rainy Sunday morning and we know what we're doing. It's a Bilbo Baggins day today.

What is a Bilbo Baggins Day?

Staying in: You avoid going out, running errands, or doing heavy work.

Eating often: You enjoy several small meals throughout the day, much like a hobbit's routine of second breakfast, elevenses, and afternoon tea.

Prioritizing rest: You spend your time reading, napping, or simply relaxing to recharge your energy.

How to Spend Your Day

Wear comfortable clothes: Skip shoes and walk around barefoot or in thick wool socks.

Indulge your appetite: Plan a few extra snacks or a comforting, hearty meal.

Unplug: Leave chores for tomorrow and focus on quiet comforts like a good book or a warm drink.

Some memories always bring a smile to my (Gwen) face.
Recently, one memory in particular keeps coming back to me...

My daughter was in kindergarten and got to ride the bus. This was a big deal, as the older kids had to walk. Normally, she really enjoyed the bus ride. (This is an AI cartoon image based on an actual picture).

But one afternoon, she stomped into the house and very angrily declared that her friend Max was a meanie and a stupidhead.*

Worriedly, I asked what had happened, but then had to hold back my laughter as she exclaimed, "I told him he was going to marry me and he said no"

I honestly don't recall how we settled that, but I'm sure the conversation included explaining how we can't demand others do what we want, especially things like marriage. We did have to go over why I, as the mother, could demand that she pick up her toys and go to bed at a certain time.

I think I was tempted to call my mother for sympathy, but knew she'd laugh and tell me some similar story from my childhood.

One of the reasons this memory is cropping up a lot for me right now, is that the President of the United States is calling Canadians 'nasty'. But, the reality is that Canada is the first country to stand up to Trump, say No and walk away from the negotiations, confident that Canada is better off without a deal than with a bad deal.

**Truth be told, I can't recall exactly what the friend's name was or the names she called him, but this is a pretty close rendition.

Despite what your being told, there has not been a Canadian government ban on US products. Yes, some Provinces aren't stocking US liquor, but most Canadians likely wouldn't buy it, there are lots of other options.

There is a grassroots initiative that started when Trump began disrespecting Canada, threatening our sovereignty, and telling countless disparaging lies about Canada.

The grassroots boycott began fairly small as "Elbows Up" but quickly accelerated with every attack Trump made on Canada. Today three out of every four Canadians buy whatever they need from ABUS, or Anywhere But the US.

Canada is the single largest export trading partner for a massive majority of U.S. states (over 30 states), followed closely by Mexico.

You can thank your current administration.

On Thursday morning, Canada's Industry Minister stood at a lectern in Vancouver and calmly read out the names of sixty-four of the sharpest minds on the planet who now work for Canada.

Nobody stormed a beach. Nobody sanctioned a bank. Everybody clapped, had a scone, and went back to work.

Three-quarters of those names walked straight out of American institutions. Harvard. MIT. The best labs on Earth. Canada put half a billion dollars on the table, roughly a million a year for each of them for the next eight years, with another $37 million waiting to collect sixty-three more rising stars over the coming twelve months. The whole war chest was quietly stood up in December, back when half the world still thought the trade war was a bluff.

And while the removal trucks were idling outside America's best universities, the President of the United States was in the Oval Office signing an executive order to rename a lake.

That is genuinely where his head was.

Here's the detail that should terrify Washington, and it's not the money. Congress actually blocked most of Trump's proposed cuts to American science. The courts stopped huge slabs of the rest. The budgets largely survived.

The scientists left anyway.

Because a budget line can be restored with one vote, but trust takes a decade of adult behaviour to rebuild, and nobody with a functioning lab and a career's worth of unfinished work is betting on Washington finding a decade of adult behaviour down the back of the couch. When Nature polled American scientists, three out of four said they were considering leaving the country. Canada just skimmed the first sixty-four off the top. The queue is still out the door.

There's a precedent for this, and it's brutal. In the 1930s, when Europe's strongmen decided science was the enemy, Einstein got on a boat to America. So did Fermi. America took in the world's fleeing geniuses and built the atomic bomb, the space program, and the greatest scientific empire in history off the back of other countries' stupidity.

That was the deal for ninety years: you produce a tyrant, America takes your geniuses.

The boats are now heading north.

The full piece has the names, the numbers, the bloody magnificent way Canada named the operation, what one astrophysicist's move really says about Boston, and exactly what this costs America a decade from now, long after the man responsible is gone.

The quietest raid in history. Read how they pulled it off. 🔗 👇

Canada (who owns US$460 Billion in US debt) will rename the Welland Canal (which we own and control) to the Straight of Our Moose 🫎. 🤣😂🤣

About 40 million metric tonnes of total cargo passes through the Welland Canal annually, with roughly one-third to one-half of that total consisting of US goods traveling to or from American Great Lakes ports. Because the canal serves as the exclusive deep-draft gateway bypassing Niagara Falls, it forms a critical chokepoint for US-Canada trade and international exports from the American Midwest.

This week our major contribution to the trade war effort, is a Canadian made pressure tank from Burcam - manufactured in Quebec.
Our water pressure tank had stopped working and as we searched for options we added a step of looking at where it was manufactured.
The first one we found turned out to be manufactured in Indiana, so we kept looking for one made here in Canada.
It only took a few more minutes and we found Burcam products and the pump we chose was $10 less expensive!
It feels good to do our part to support Canada right now.
And it’s amazing not hearing the water pump turn on and off every few minutes when I’m trying to sleep!

As a side note, we would much rather return to a strong integrated friendly economic relationship with the USA, so please, if you are a US Citizen (as Gwen is) let your state representatives know you are unhappy with the current situation and then vote for positive change this November. Let’s get a Congress that will do its job and stand up for the people.