Archive for September, 2010

11 Sep

OBITS – SEP 11, 2010

Posted by CAPER in Obituaries.

Obituaries for September 11th, 2010

10 Sep

RIDE 4 THE CURE

Posted by CAPER in Health.

Special bike part of this year’s Ride 4 the Cure motorcycle rally

(Submitted by Danielle Johnston – Cape Breton Post)

 

 

 

Gord MacDonald (Gord’s Sports), Travis Ingram (Arachnia Designs), Shelly Gerow (Arachnia Designs), Carla Murphy and Bill Steele stand with Steele’s spider motorcycle, which Arachnia Designs covered with a pink ribbon design for Ride 4 the Cure.

SYDNEY — Bill Steele and Carla Murphy have unfortunately witnessed many friends and family members battle cancer — a struggle not everyone wins.

Topics :

Cape Breton Cancer Centre , Cape Breton Cancer Centre. Since 1991 , Cape Breton Regional Hospital Foundation , North Sydney

In a bid to raise awareness and money to fight cancer, Steele and Murphy are offering a little twist to this year’s Ride 4 the Cure motorcycle rally on Sept. 18.

Steele is the owner of a Canam Spider motorcycle which, thanks to Arachnia Designs of North Sydney, is now donning a pink ribbon for the Ride 4 the Cure. The plan now is to sell space on the bike for names of people who have died from the disease.

“Last year was our first year doing the Ride 4 the Cure. We were so touched by the generosity of everyone involved that we wanted to give back,” explains Steele.

“Carla and I both know too many people that have needed the Cape Breton Cancer Centre. We want to make a difference.”

The goal is to have 500 names placed on the bike. To have a name added, donors are asked to call Steele at either (902) 544-1270 or (902) 578-8223. All proceeds raised support the Cape Breton Cancer Centre.

Since 1991, the Cape Breton Regional Hospital Foundation in partnership with the community has raised more than $15 million to purchase medical equipment that has dramatically reduced wait times and provided an increased menu of services closer to home.

(Please support the fight against this deadly disease – CAPER)

10 Sep

CAPE BRETON “PORK” PIE DESSERT

Posted by CAPER in Food.

  Cape Breton “Pork” Pie Dessert

 Pork Pie Dessert is Absolutely Delicious

Pork pie for dessert? When the “pork” is really chopped dates it works well. There are a million stories about the origin of the name, none of which we believe so we’ll have to keep guessing. This is a rich dessert, but the small tart shell only offers a few bites.

Shortbread Shells:

1cup butter 250mL

½ cup icing sugar, sifted 125mL

1 egg yolk 1

1 tsp vanilla 5mL

2 cups all-purpose flour 500mL

2 tbsp cornstarch 25mL

¼ tsp salt 1mL

Filling:

2¼ cups chopped dates (12 oz/375 g) 550mL

¾ cup packed brown sugar 175mL

¾ cup boiling water 175mL

¼ tsp salt 1mL

1 tsp vanilla 5mL

Icing:

2/3 cup icing sugar, sifted 150mL

2 tbsp maple syrup 25mL

1 tbsp butter, softened 15mL

Shortbread Shells: In large bowl, cream butter with sugar until fluffy; beat in egg yolk and vanilla. Stir together flour, cornstarch and salt; gradually stir into creamed mixture; gently kneading until smooth.

Working in batches, gently form dough into 3/4 inch (2 cm) balls, place in 1 1/2 inch (4 cm) tart cups and press evenly over bottom and sides of cup to form shell. Bake in 325 E F (160 E C) oven for about 18 minutes or until crisp and pale golden. Let cool in pan on rack; loosen shells with tip of knife.

Filling: In a small saucepan, bring dates, sugar, water and salt to boil over medium heat; reduce heat and simmer; stirring often, for 4 minutes or until thickened and smooth. Let cool, stir in vanilla. Spoon into shells.

Icing: Blend together icing sugar, maple syrup and butter until smooth; dollop onto each tart. (Tarts can be stored at room temperature for up to 4 days or frozen for up to 2 weeks.)

Makes 4 dozen.

10 Sep

OBITS – SEP 10, 2010

Posted by CAPER in Obituaries.

Obituaries for September 10th, 2010

9 Sep

SS KISMET II WRECK – MEAT COVE

Posted by CAPER in History, Military, Safety.

WRECK OF SS KISMET II – MEAT COVE

(Story as told by late John Angus Fraser – a cousin of ours – CAPER)

Kismet II during WWII – Liberty Ship (note gun forward and both sides at midships)

 

Allow me to permit John Angus to introduce the story in his words and here they are. It happened during the early morning hours of November 27, 1955. A very cold morning during the time of year when you can get some pretty bad storms especially here on the Northern tip of Cape Breton Island. It was blowing a gale and snowing.  For the full and detail account of this event please see, Cape Breton’s Magazine Issue Number Seventy.

Early that morning at 6 a.m. I woke Ronie up and told her I heard moose bawling. My wife Ronie looked at me as if I was crazy but it wasn’t long before we heard it again and I said, “Now, Honey wasn’t I right? Isn’t that a moose bawling? Ronie said, “If it is then he is firing rockets out of his nose.”

Sure enough this meant a ship ashore under the cliff in our front yard. The first thing was to call the R.C.M.P. and the rescue party. It was too rough on the water for any type of boat to get near the Kismet which hard against the cliff and being pounded by the heavy seas. As well, there was no way you could get the crew off by land although we got a small cable ashore and anchored it down.

Offshore, the tanker Gulfport had been standing by but the weather forced her to leave.

The Navy rescue operation went into full operation. The breeches buoys, lines and other rescue equipment were transferred to a truck. Headed by a snow plow, the convoy started over the Cabot Trail. They were stopped short of their goal by narrow mountain roads, covered with ice, and small, unsafe bridges. The journey had to be completed on foot.

Sikorsky to the Rescue – Not the Kismet II

Meanwhile, the crew of the Kismet II were cold, wet, their food ruined and now into their second day trapped on the rocks at the foot of the cliff at Meat Cove. An unsuccessful attempt was made to reach the ship by helicopter that first day. But due to the high winds and associated danger was unsuccessful. The helicopter returned to Sydney. Next morning, rested, they returned to the Kismet. The wind was still blowing at from 25 to 45 knots, but it had shifted slightly, perhaps not more than 10 degrees, though there was a chance there might be relatively smooth air hear the ship in the lee of cliff. Arrangements on deck were made enabling the helicopter to land with the motor running and remove the crew, parrot, budgie, ship’s mascot and later found a cat. Several trips were required because of the limited number of crew that could be carried in the helicopter. Navy crew members were left behind on land to accommodate the removal of the ship’s crew.

Sikorsky type used in resue of Kismet II crew

The ship was as described in the table below with a crew of 21, a parrot and a budgie and the ship’s mascot a small dog. She was empty en-route from Philadelphia, P.A.  to P.E.I. for a load of potatoes for Europe. The only way to get those men off was by helicopter and then only when the weather settled down somewhat. Late the following day the wind lightened and a Royal Canadian Navy helicopter from HMCS Shearwater got the crew off and settled at the Navy League Home in Sydney, N.S. where they were provided with a hot meal, warm dry clothing and comfort.

Navy Helicopter Crew – The helicopter crew responsible for the rescue operation, from HMCS Shearwater Naval Station near Dartmouth, N.S. were: Petty Officer Paul Smith; Able Seaman Lawrence Vipond; LCdr Roger Fink, co-pilot of the helicopter; and LCdr John H. Beaman, pilot of the aircraft. The pilots, Jack Beaman and Roger Fink, were awarded the George Medal (presented by the Queen), an award for “acts of bravery and military service. Lawrence Vipond and Paul Smith were each awarded the Queen’s Commendation for this combined effort.

John Angus Fraser wrote his story 14 years after the event. He wrote it as something to hold onto during the rough months after his wife Ronie died – killed in a car accident. The pain of his loss comes through clearly in his story. But what comes through as well is a vigourous storyteller at the centre of his tale. Our thanks to John Angus for sharing this story with us. We admire, especially, his ability to keep alive the feel of good spoken storytelling in his writing.

Kismet II on the rocks hard against the Meat Cove Cliff

We are grateful to the Rasmussen family of Bay St. Lawrence for having encouraged John Angus’s writing and for preserving his work. Over the years after the disaster, more and more people went aboard the Kismet II. They came from all around Cape Breton. Joe Curtis of Bay St. Lawrence told us that when they would be out lobster fishing, it seemed that “you just couldn’t pass her without going aboard again.” As an example, he took off 35 cans of paint, towed them away in the ship’s own lifeboat. The Kismet was so completely stripped that a salvage crew from Halifax arrived; they found virtually nothing left but the shell of the ship. It was a marvelous example of salvage, and of recycling! Brass pipes became drain pipes. Clocks and barometers and valves found new homes. Even the anchor chair was gone. Not surprising, the beer and booze was the first to go.

Wreck Data
Vessel Name Kismet II
Other Names Empire Lorenzo and Baron Elcho
Vessel Type Liberian freighter
Owner  
Length / Beam / Draft (feet) 315′ / 46′ / 
Tonnage 2,865 GT
Hull Construction Steel
Propulsion Oil / Screw
Cargo In ballast only
Built 1942 as Empire Lorenzo at West Hartlepool, UK (William Gray & Co.)
Date of Loss November 25, 1955
Reason for Loss Grounded in storm
Fatalities None
Last Trip Philadelphia to Summerside, PEI
Wreck Location Off Cape Saint Lawrence, west of Meat Cove, Cape Breton

 

 

9 Sep

OBITS – SEP 9, 2010

Posted by CAPER in Obituaries.

Obituaries for September 9th, 2010

8 Sep

HOCKEY – CANADA’S GAME

Posted by CAPER in Sport.

Irish Game of Hurling

 

 The Origin of Canada’s Official National Winter Sport from Hurley on Ice to Hockey – Canada’s Game

By Dr. Garth Vaughan

(Reproduced with the kind permission of Irish Connections Canada)

Nova Scotia was still a British Colony at the time that the Irish game of Hurling was introduced to boys at Canada’s first college, King’s College School in Windsor, N.S. back around 1800, the school having been established by United Empire Loyalists in 1788. The first Principal of King’s College School was an Irishman named William Cochran, who had been educated in Ireland and left to come to America for the express purpose of teaching youth. He began at King’s College, New York, but, following the American Revolution, left for Nova Scotia. The Rev. William Cochran D.D. was born in Omagh in County Tyrone and was educated at Trinity College Dublin. For more than 40 years he was a Missionary of the Church of England and a Professor in King’s College, Windsor. According to his great granddaughter, Mary Cochrane in 1916, William was a fiery graduate of Trinity College Dublin and was full of Irish Nationalism. His political opinions and cantankerous temper took him to New York and as a mark of his displeasure with the Government and his family he shed the last letter of his name on the voyage in 1784, so you will find William Cochran, without the “e”.

The name of King’s College, New York was changed to Columbia College and then to Columbia University, thus freeing up the name of King’s College. Here, he accepted the position of Principal of Nova Scotia’s new King’s College at Windsor. During his time in that position, the Irish game of Hurling, the world’s fastest field game, caught the imagination of college school boys who adapted it to the ice of their favorite frozen skating ponds and created a new game of Hurley on Ice which developed into Ice Hockey, using flat wooden pucks rather than the conventional Irish ball/sliotar.

The Nova Scotia game of Ice Hockey was taken to Montreal by James George Aylwin Creighton of Halifax in 1872, where it was first played as an “organized game” on March 3rd, 1875. Just recently, in Montreal, a monument has been placed to honor both J.G.A.Creighton and the site of that so-called “first game of organized hockey”.

As the game spread beyond Montreal, it was next played in Ontario. At Ottawa, the Governor General at the time was an Englishman appointed by the Crown, named Lord Frederick Stanley of Preston. He and his wife had eight sons and three daughters. Two of the sons, Edward and Arthur played Ice Hockey with an Ottawa team made up of senators and aides-de-camp, called the Rideau Hall Rebels.This team was a predecessor to the present NHL team called the Ottawa Senators. The Rebels competed with other Ontario teams. Lord Stanley allowed the Rebels to use his private rail car to travel to other towns for Ice Hockey matches. Lady Stanley was also thrilled with the game and tried her hand at it by playing with a women’s amateur team in Ottawa. Governor General Stanley was so fascinated by the game and the involvement of his sons and political friends with Ice Hockey that he had an associate purchase for him in Britain, a silver rose bowl, a mere seven inches tall, at a cost of $48.67, that would serve as a championship trophy for Senior Amateur Hockey in Canada in 1893. At that time, Ontario was as far as the game had progressed in its trek west across the country from Nova Scotia.

Canadian Hockey Player

Lord Stanley’s position as Governor General of Canada ended in 1893 and he and his family returned to England. Two years later, he captained a team that challenged the Royal family to a game of Ice Hockey on the grounds of Buckingham Palace. Four of his sons played in that game including Arthur and Edward who had played in Canada. This adds a note of interest regarding the international spread of the game which is also of historical significance, for today the game is played in all parts of the world. In 1908 the Lord Stanley Trophy became the Stanley Cup, symbolic of Professional Senior Hockey Championship in Canada.

Ice Hockey reached Winnipeg by 1890 and quickly became accepted and firmly entrenched as the favorite winter sport in the west. One other fact of historic interest is that the game was played on natural ice surfaces all across the country until it reached British Columbia where the warm climate did not allow for natural ice. Therefore artificial ice was required. That happened in 1911 when the now legendary “Patrick brothers” of Nelson, B.C., Frank and Lester Patrick built the Victoria Arena and Vancouver’s Denman Arena. They also enticed eastern hockey players to join them, and established the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. As Canada was building from east to west, they established Ice Hockey on the West Coast. In the 1914-15 season, the Vancouver Millionaires under the guidance of playing coach and manager Frank Patrick won the Stanley Cup.

Present day Ottawa Senators

With the Stanley Cup now known the world over, the Ireland Monument currently being designed for Stanley Park (opened by Lord Stanley on October 29th, 1889), Vancouver will pay tribute to the Irish origins of ice hockey.

(Contributed by John K. Downs)

8 Sep

OBITS – SEP 8, 2O10

Posted by CAPER in Obituaries.

Obituaries for September 8th, 2010

7 Sep

POINT ACONI ABATTOIR

Posted by CAPER in Food.

Inspections important aspect of operating local abattoir

 

Operator Donald K. MacNeil cleans his meat cutter, one of a number of pieces of stainless steel equipment in his abattoir.

Julie Collins – Cape Breton Post

Published on September 6th, 2010

Published on September 6th, 2010

Julie Collins

POINT ACONI — Donnie K. MacNeil, who operates Lambscapes Farm and Abattoir (formerly George MacNeil Meats) in Point Aconi learned the business from the ground up.

Topics :

Department of Agriculture , Antigonish , Sydney River

“We’ve been here for almost 25 years. In fact I believe we were one of the first abattoirs in the early 1980s when the program first got going,” said MacNeil, operator of the industrial facility where animals are processed for consumption as food products. “The plant has been idle for a few years. We did extensive renovations over the last eight months or so, with a lot of support from Department of Agriculture officials and the provincial Meat Inspection Program.

According to its website, the Meat Inspection Program is responsible for ensuring compliance with government acts, regulations and policies related to meat production and processing. The inspectors conduct inspections and audits on meat plants using risk based assessments.

Lambscapes Farm and Abattoir is the only government facility east of Antigonish.

“I think it’s important that the customer has that confidence in the product that is added by the inspection program,” MacNeil said. “We have a government assigned inspector on hand every time we butcher and follow a strict protocol each time without exception.”

Up until three years ago, his father, the late George MacNeil was operating the abattoir on a seasonal basis.

 “I retail at the local Farmers Market in Sydney River. The customers appreciate that they can talk to the guy that raised and kept the cows, harvested the hay to feed them, brought them in to be processed and is  selling them the final product,” he explained. “Any questions they have, they can ask me face to face. I’m there through the entire process, everything short of cooking it and cutting it up for them.”

For MacNeil and his family, it was a big decision to continue to operate the family farm and the abattoir.

  By themselves the farm or the meat shop could really be a struggle, but for MacNeil, operating them together makes sense.

  “The abattoir means that producers don’t have to go off-island, we can do the process from start to finish,” he said. “It’s been busier this summer than we expected. It’s a struggle to get the hay in, but it will be done.”

MacNeil noted that there seems to be an increased interest in buying local.

“We’ve come full circle. For a long time meat had to be western or imported before it was any good.  People are realizing that we have a good product here, we just need to get it out there.”

(jcollins@cbpost.com)

7 Sep

OBITS – SEP 7, 2010

Posted by CAPER in Obituaries.

Obituaries for September 7th, 2010

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