Fire Safety for the Holidays

In the wake of some recent holiday season fires across Ontario, the Grey Bruce Fire Prevention Officers Association is urging residents to stay in the kitchen when cooking.

“The hustle and bustle of the holiday season means it can be very easy to become distracted and called away from the kitchen,” said Fire Chief Ed Nowak. “Unattended cooking is the leading cause of residential fires in Ontario. People must stay in the kitchen to keep an eye on their cooking.”

Important steps to prevent cooking fires include:

• Stay in the kitchen while you cook, particularly if you are using oil or high temperatures. If you must leave for any reason, turn off the stove.
• Keep combustible items such as cooking utensils and paper towels a safe distance from your stove. They can easily ignite if they are too close to a burner.
• Keep a tight-fitting lid near the stove when cooking. If a pot catches fire, slide the lid over the pot and turn off the stove.
• Drink responsibly and keep an eye on those who do not. Excessive alcohol use often is a contributing factor in many residential fires.
  

Stay safe and smoke-free this holiday season!!

What Not to Eat Over the Holidays

How about some fully loaded unadulterated eye candy to get you into the holiday spirit of indulgence? Bob and Diana from The Dock were chatting about this website recently, so like a bad car accident, I just had to go and look. If you’ve ever wondered what a Grilled Cheese Birthday Cake, Doughnut Pizza or BBQ Pulled Pork Doughnut Sandwich might look like, now is your chance to get a glimpse. Please be advised of viewer discretion and indigestion!

Aside from the website, there is apparently also a book called, “This Is Why You’re Fat”. Now you don’t have to feel so bad if you pack on the Christmas pounds. No matter what you eat, nothing could be worse than this!

Dare to be disgusted… http://www.thisiswhyyourefat.com/

Snow Shovelling Tips

With the recent avalanche of winter wonderland in our region, there is no doubt that many residents are feeling the aches and pains of digging out. Even if you’ve managed to unbury your vehicle and clear out your driveway, you just know that the plow will come by and add to your workload by blocking your entrance with big chunks of frozen white.

Thankfully, there are some helpful tips available when it comes to safer and easier shovelling. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health & Safety has a web page loaded with info on getting the job done without incident. From the importance of the size and shape of your shovel blade to actual physical positioning, it is well worth the read for anyone living in Grey-Bruce.

Check it out by clicking here.

Winter Pet Peeves

‘Tis the season of snow plows, drivers who go too fast for the conditions, drivers who go too slow for the conditions, malfunctioning windshield wipers on messy days, snow squalls, slippery walkways, salt overload, digging out, etc., etc., etc.

Before I go any further, I want to state for the record that there are some aspects of winter that I very much enjoy. But I’m sure that I’m not the only one to point out the winter peeves we all have to deal with from December to March (or even May in some instances).

In spite of the above annoyances of winter that I have generally come to accept, there is one personal peeve that I continually shake my head at every time I encounter it. What’s the deal with the motorist who sees no issue in driving our roads and highways with an extra thick slab of snow mounted on top of their vehicle? We can all understand a thin coating in these cold dark days of stubborn ice accumulation. But the avalanche look?! Whenever I see this intriguing sight, I half expect the snow to topple off and distract oncoming traffic or those poor drivers keeping their distance behind. If you’ve gone to the trouble of clearing your driveway, brushing the snow and scraping the ice off your vehicle in the first place, what’s an extra thirty seconds to take a few inches off the top? Maybe in the chill of winter, common sense can sometimes freeze up and a proper thought process needs to go through a thaw process!

But let’s not be too hard on confused winter drivers. There are a lot of people out there who really do exhibit safe driving habits and extra cautious know-how when the snow flies. I guess it’s all just part of the Grey-Bruce lifestyle where the reality of winter is as surefire a thing as encountering farmland on a county road.

Shake or Fake Your Tree?

Is it time to put up the Christmas tree yet? Is that a common question in your household these days? If so, then maybe the next question should be whether you want the real deal or festively fake. Our family has gone the artificial route over the past several years. However, there was a time (i.e. growing up) that real was the ONLY way to go.

We keep saying that we want to go back to the authentic. But the reality is that we find it easier to open up the closet and dig out last year’s fake fir than visit a Christmas tree lot on a messy winter night with the hassle of how to transport our pick of the patch back to our house. And let’s face it… Who wants to vacuum up all those pine needles?!

But if you don’t mind roughing it in exchange for a truer Christmas experience, keep this in mind… Fake trees are rumoured to contain carcinogens which can be offensive to your health and the environment. Read the warning label and heed the advice of not inhaling or ingesting any dust or loose parts. Herein lies a cruel irony of ‘kill a tree and protect the environment’! But I digress.

On the other hand, many real trees do come into contact with pesticides during their growth and can therefore contribute to pollution issues once discarded. Some people actually opt to buy a tree from a local grower with roots still intact so that they can replant it in their yard beyond the holidays. Too bad more of us can’t be so eco-friendly.

Personal choice is where it’s at when all is said and done. If you still don’t know which way to go and are seeking the ultimate compromise, perhaps Charlie Brown’s spatially efficient tree branch wasn’t such a joke after all!