What a Difference a Day Makes

Yesterday...

Today...

Ugh!

Instructions Required

Do you know what is in this photo? 

Those who grew up in eastern Canada know. Much of our existence depended on salted protein, such as the codfish seen here. It was not only food but a source of income for our fisher families. Long before the days of refrigeration, going back to the first fishers to arrive on the shores of Newfoundland, codfish was salted to preserve it. 

Fish caught in Newfoundland was transported back to Europe after a fishing season on the Grand Banks. Splitting and salting the fish was standard procedure. Before it could be eaten, this fish had to be rinsed thoroughly and watered to re-hydrate it, then boiled. For many of us raised on salt cod, it is delicious. But, a piece of salt fish does not come with instructions.

Today it would be easy to research how to cook salt codfish. However such was not the case on the Canadian prairies during the Great Depression. It was a difficult time for people on the prairies, when drought conditions caused a shortage of crops for income and food.

At this time, fishers in eastern Canada, from Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island were still fishing and salting the catch. Wanting to help their fellow Canadians, Nova Scotians sent a train load of salt fish to the prairies, providing much needed protein for hungry families.

One such family in Saskatchewan was teacher Max Braithwaite and his wife. He wrote about the distinctive odour of the fish which did not come with instructions, so the couple tried to fry it as it was. It was inedible of course, as anyone familiar with the product would understand. It was discarded but not forgotten nor ever tried again.

Fishers in Prince Edward Island also sent salt cod to the prairies.* There, it was reported that some farmers, not knowing what to do with it, used the hard, flattened fish to shingle their roofs. One can imagine the smell! Try to imagine what happened when it rained!

With a few simple instructions, people on the prairies could have made delicious fish, potatoes and onions or fish cakes, to name two of our favourite recipes for salt cod. This cod is simple food which sustained generations of people on the east coast. It was a missed opportunity for hungry westerners during the Depression, but an amusing story today.

Reference material:

Book: The Night We Stole The Mountie's Car by Max Braithwaite

* Paper: The Depression of the 1930s in Prince Edward Island by Heather Keefe of Wyatt Properties, Summerside, Prince Edward Island

Historic photos from the Center for Newfoundland Studies, Memorial University of Newfoundland 

Owie!

She was a sad dog! 

Georgie had an owie, as our granddaughters call it. Georgie is their six year old golden retriever who stays with us when her family is on vacation. Several weeks ago, Georgie had surgery to remove a growth from the roof of her mouth. The growth was benign but there was a shaved spot on her leg where anesthetic was administered. Georgie licked the spot so much it was sore! 

Hence, the cone around her neck prevents licking.

When she arrived at our house last week, we were determined to give Georgie some time without the cone. We bandaged the trouble spot and watched her carefully, using the cone at night. Meanwhile, the spot grew some hair which discouraged the licking. We weaned her from the cone completely and worked on weaning her from the bandage for the entire day.

Georgie is a great companion. She is friendly, eager, energetic and loving. She is also a great deal of work. I wonder though if there is any other creature in the world who loves as unconditionally as a dog? 

                                                                       Happy days are here again.

It's a Matter of Geology

A news item here in Prince Edward Island recently caught our attention. One of the local communities received funding for a new breakwater. The cost of the project includes the cost of bringing rock from New Brunswick, our neighbouring province across the Confederation Bridge. For my husband and I, from Newfoundland,  known as The Rock, 

                              Shoreline in Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland

it is an amusing, though understandable cost. Prince Edward Island has very few rocks.

When we moved to our new island home, we put a clothesline in our backyard. We dug a hole, set concrete for the pole and needed one small rock to put beside the pole when we put it in place. Simple, right? Not at all. Finding a rock on this island is not easy; it took four years. 

The beaches here do not have beach rocks so typical of Newfoundland and the soil is void of rocks. Foundations dug in our neighbourhood reveal tons of red earth, without a rock in sight. What looks like rock along many beaches is sandstone that breaks up easily. 

                                                     Sandstone shore of Prince Edward Island

Millions of years of pressure will be required to produce rocks from this sand.

                                                                 Island sandstone

                                         Sandstone dropped from a foot above the walkway

We always smile to hear people speak of buying rocks for decoration in their gardens. Trucks deliver small boulders to homes here. In Newfoundland, they are trucked away. When we dug the hole for our clothesline pole in Newfoundland, it took a crowbar to pry a boulder from the spot. One difference between The Rock and our Garden Island is a matter of geology.

Though we chuckle at the need to truck rock into this province, the red soil, rich and rock-less, yields lots of great potatoes. However, our lifetime experience with rock has made for a curious adjustment to our current home.

Empty Pocket

Having been raised by parents who grew up during the Great Depression, I had a sense of the poverty and want of that time in Newfoundland history. People did not have money; their pockets were empty. Fisherman sold their salt fish to the merchant, who graded the fish, and sold food and supplies back to the fishers based on the value of their catch. Money seldom exchanged hands as the value of the fish was rarely enough to cover the goods the fishers needed for the coming winter. Most families were indebted to the merchant from year to year.

Max Braithwaite wrote about Saskatchewan, Canada during the Depression and referred to the empty pockets of the people who lived on the prairies at that time. During his first year teaching, he lived in the basement of the school, ate food provided by the families of the children he taught and was not paid until the end of the school year. He did not have a penny in his pockets.

In Prince Edward Island, Canada, Marion Reid wrote about the egg economy at that time. Farmers did not have any money unless they brought eggs to the store where they received cash for them. 

Today many people do not carry cash although it is not due to a lack of money. Rather, we are becoming a card carrying society and the need for cash is limited. Standing in line at a store check-out, it is obvious that few people carry cash and the people who do are often seniors. Rarely do young people make payment with cash. Bank cards have taken the place of currency for many people.

Times have changed but pockets are still empty. Will we become a cashless society? Will every exchange of funds for goods and services become electronic? With many of the transactions today being electronic in nature, it will not be a huge step to eliminate cash altogether.

If we pay for everything with a card, will we spend more than we would if we handed out our hard earned cash for a transaction? If so, we will be no better off than the generation who was indebted to the merchant from year to year. It will take discipline to live within our means if a cashless society becomes a reality. In some ways, times have not changed all that much.

View from the Shore

Built over four years, the Confederation Bridge over the Northumberland Strait between Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick is an engineering wonder.  The longest bridge over ice covered waters, it covers 12.9 kilometers or 8 miles. The structure spanned time as well, taking the island from her centuries of marine dependency to a more efficiently mobile future.

Below you can see how the concrete was reinforced with steel to create the spans and deck of the bridge.

                                                                This photo is in the public domain on-line.

We took lots of photos and the close-ups of the structure are impressive.

But my favourite photos show the sweep of the bridge over the Strait as it winds to the far shore.

There is a toll on the bridge, as you exit the island. While many complain about this cost, it is a small price to pay for the benefits of this great structure.

Starting Over

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CBC, has a program called Canada Reads which runs for four days every year on radio and television. The program features five Canadians, each of whom champions a book by a Canadian author. The French division of the broadcaster runs the series for French language books as well.

Every year, our book club members are among the many Canadians who enjoy the series featuring debate about which of the books best exemplifies a theme for the year. The winning book is judged to be one which all Canadians should read. This year's Canada Reads occurred last week with the theme Starting Over. 

The books discussed by the panelists this year were

Minister Without Portfolio by Michael Winter,

Bone and Bread by Saleema Narwaz,

Birdie by Tracey Lindberg,

The Hero's Walk  by Anita Rau Badami,

The Illegal by Lawrence Hill.

The selection of books reflects the multi-cultural nature of Canada and the breadth of literary talent in the country. 

The program is unique in its focus on Canadian books and has done much to promote Canadian literature in the last fifteen years on the air. It is great to hear books discussed on air and elsewhere during the series. Every year, I, along with many others, purchase or borrow and read the books featured.

The winner of Canada Reads this year was The Illegal by Lawrence Hill. I am working my way through the books and enjoying them, saving The Illegal for last.