Kaitiaki Hamon’s Look At Weather And The World

[NOW PLAYING] 😈 September – Earth, Wind & Fire 😈
/ba-dee-ya, dancing in September by on October 20th, because joy doesn't check the calendar/

It's Tommy Douglas's birthday today, celebrate it his way: check on somebody who's struggling, and actually do the small thing that helps. ❤️

🌤️ Intro

Hey crew, Kaitiaki Hamon here 🌳🚜, it's Tuesday, and today is the week's golden work window: sun, 13 degrees, and a list of jobs that all have Friday's storm breathing down their necks 🍂⏰. Secret Path Week rolls into day four 🪶, the name-change paperwork week is underway, and the MANAIA dots keep stacking past 61 hours 🖌️. Persons Day is behind us, a birthday worth honouring is in front of us, and the yard is in full get-it-done mode 💪. Inside today's blog you'll find the 5 Things Most Pro Landscapers Won't Tell You, Today's Message, Today's Weather, the Star Wars galaxy forecast, the Daily Landscaping LOL, the Deep Dive, and Ron Hairemy's Songs That Guarantee LAWNgevity 🎶. Let's ride. 🚀

🛠️ 5 Things Most Pro Landscapers Won't Tell You

1. 🌿🛠️ Swap the sump-pump discharge to rigid pipe, sloped continuously away, before Friday's rain + freeze
2. 🌿🛠️ Never plow snow off a septic field, and never drive on it in winter
3. 🌿🛠️ Don't spread fireplace wood ash on Edmonton beds
4. 🌿🛠️ Guard shrubs under metal-roof eaves from roof-avalanche snow
5. 🌿🛠️ Rodent-proof winter storage: clean mower decks, seed in sealed metal bins

👇 Continue reading to learn more, the full breakdown on all five is waiting for you after the joke.

🌟 Today's Message: The Edmonton Kid Who Moved Time: Michael J. Fox

Michael J. Fox was born on June 9, 1961, right here in Edmonton 🇨🇦, a military kid who bounced from base to base before the family settled in Burnaby, BC 🌲. He dropped out of school to act, landed Family Ties as Alex P. Keaton, and then in 1985 Back to the Future turned a 24-year-old Canadian into the biggest movie star on the planet 🎬⚡. For a solid decade, the man simply could not miss, the charm, the timing, the face on every lunchbox in North America 🌎. If you wanted a picture of a life with no visible ceiling, his was it ✨.

Then, in 1991, filming in Florida, he noticed his pinky finger twitching and it wouldn't stop 😔. The diagnosis: young-onset Parkinson's disease, at thirty years old, at the peak of everything. He hid it for seven years 💔, working constantly, drinking too much, terrified that the day the story broke, the career and the identity went with it. Imagine carrying that secret through every interview, every set, every premiere, performing lightness for a living while your own body quietly rebelled against you 🎭. In 1998 he finally told the world, on his own terms, and what he did next is the reason this story belongs in this blog 🔥.

He decided to act, and not small 🎯. In 2000 he stepped back from Spin City and founded The Michael J. Fox Foundation with a goal most charities are too polite to say out loud: find the cure, then put itself out of business 🧪. Not galas for their own sake, research money, aimed like a tool, with deadlines attached. He became the most famous patient-advocate on Earth, testified before Congress, wrote bestselling memoirs that treated his disease with more honesty and humour than anyone expected 📚, and kept acting whenever his body allowed, because the work was never the problem. Quitting was 💪.

The lasting impact has a number on it: his foundation has funded over two billion dollars of Parkinson's research, the largest nonprofit funder of it in the world 💰🔬, and in 2023 the science it backed landed a breakthrough the field had chased for decades: a biomarker test that can detect Parkinson's pathology in spinal fluid with about 90% accuracy, even before symptoms 🧬🎉. Canada made him an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2010 and has since promoted him to Companion, its highest rank 🎖️. Yesterday's blog honoured Tommy Douglas on his birthday, a man who turned one act of free care into medicare. Today's honours an Edmonton-born kid who turned a devastating diagnosis into two billion dollars of hope for strangers 🌍. Different fights, same refusal. So here's my call to action: somebody in your orbit is carrying a diagnosis quietly right now, be the person who asks how they are, and then keeps asking 📣. Forward is always a choice, and that means YOU too!

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_J._Fox
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/michael-j-fox
https://www.michaeljfox.org
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Michael_J._Fox_Foundation

🌤️ Today's Weather

Edmonton: Today: Fair and frosty to open at -2°C with humidity at 93% and a light SW wind at 3 km/h 🥶, then a sunny climb all the way to a high of 13°C ☀️. Rain chance 0%, humidity easing into the low 60s, wind SSW around 11 km/h, and tonight stays clear down to a low of -2°C 🌙. Sunrise 8:10 AM, sunset 6:25 PM. The vibe: the week's one perfect workday wearing a frosty disguise 😄. For work and yard, everything in today's tips is scheduled by Friday's forecast, rain at 90% followed by a freeze, so the sump line, the crack sealing and the storage cleanout all happen in today's and tomorrow's sun 💪⏰. Scale of the Pantaloon: L6: "Don't Judge If You See Me in Some Tacky Khakis" (10 to 15°C) 👖

Aotearoa (Auckland): Today: They're into Wednesday there, cloudy at 13°C this morning with humidity around 80% and SW winds at 11 km/h, building to a high of 18°C and a low of 12°C with morning cloud breaking to afternoon sun 🌤️. Rain chance 0% and the sunset doesn't land until 7:42pm ☀️. The vibe: spring on cruise control 🌸. For mindset, they're gaining a minute of light a day while we lose three, and both hemispheres are just doing their season's honest work 🌏. Scale of the Pantaloon: L7: "Bust Out the Booty Shorts, Baby!" (15 to 25°C) 👖

📅 Next 5 Days: Edmonton – Aeoteroa

Wednesday, Oct 21, Edmonton: Sunny, high 13°C / low -2°C, rain 10%, wind SSW at 7 km/h ☀️. Dry window, day two, finish the sealing list ✅. Pantaloon: L6: "Don't Judge If You See Me in Some Tacky Khakis" | Aotearoa: Morning clouds, afternoon sun, high 18°C / low 12°C, rain 0%, wind SW at 22 km/h 🌤️. Pantaloon: L7: "Bust Out the Booty Shorts, Baby!"

Thursday, Oct 22, Edmonton: Mostly sunny by day, high 13°C / low 2°C, rain 0%, then showers late at night at 80% 🌧️. The hinge: everything outdoors wraps by dark ⏰. Pantaloon: L6: "Don't Judge If You See Me in Some Tacky Khakis" | Aotearoa: Mostly cloudy, high 18°C / low 13°C, rain 10%, wind SW at 23 km/h ☁️. Pantaloon: L7: "Bust Out the Booty Shorts, Baby!"

Friday, Oct 23, Edmonton: Rain, high 4°C / low -2°C, rain 90% with about 6.4 mm, wind NW at 27 km/h 🌧️❄️. The storm the whole week's been pointing at, then it freezes behind it. Pantaloon: L4: "Jeans… No Cap!" (−5 to 5°C) | Aotearoa: Partly cloudy, high 19°C / low 12°C, rain 0%, wind SW at 16 km/h 😎. Pantaloon: L7: "Bust Out the Booty Shorts, Baby!"

Saturday, Oct 24, Edmonton: Mostly cloudy, high 3°C / low -6°C, wintry chance 10%, wind NW at 22 km/h 🥶. The cold new normal arrives and stays awhile. Pantaloon: L4: "Jeans… No Cap!" | Aotearoa: Partly cloudy, high 19°C / low 13°C, rain 10%, wind WSW at 19 km/h 🌤️. Pantaloon: L7: "Bust Out the Booty Shorts, Baby!"

Sunday, Oct 25, Edmonton: Partly cloudy, high 3°C / low -6°C, wintry chance 10%, wind west at 9 km/h ☁️. Grey, cold, quiet, indoor season's opening day 🛋️. Pantaloon: L4: "Jeans… No Cap!" | Aotearoa: Morning clouds, afternoon sun, high 18°C / low 12°C, rain 10%, wind WSW at 21 km/h 🌏. Pantaloon: L7: "Bust Out the Booty Shorts, Baby!"

⭐ Star Wars Galaxy Forecast: The Coming Week

The week opens sunny over Bakura ☀️, 13 degrees at the very edge of known space, above the capital Salis D'aar; the Rim's quietest world gets the week's best day, a long way from help and not needing any 🌌. Wednesday stays bright over the ocean world of Velusia 🌊, 13 degrees, light running on water in every direction. Thursday runs mostly sunny over the plains of Dressel 🌾, 13 degrees, but rain shoulders in after dark, the way it does before every storm in every cantina story ever told. Friday the deluge hits Tibrin 🌊💥, 4 degrees and a 90% soaker over the ocean world of the Ishi Tib, then a freeze behind it; even the tide files a complaint 🐙. Saturday turns grey and cold over Quermia ☁️, 3 degrees over the Quermians' quiet world, the cold arriving without ceremony and staying without apology 🥶. Sunday is part-cloud and thin-aired over the mountain world of Bardotta 🏔️, 3 degrees, where the Dagoyan masters move slowly and so does everybody else 📿. And Monday closes mostly sunny but biting over Kinyen 🌤️, 4 degrees by day, -4 underneath, on the Gran homeworld. Somewhere in the Temple, Jocasta Nu is filing this forecast in the Archives 📚, while Yarael Poof reads the barometer without bending down, Even Piell checks the scarred weather vane, and Adi Gallia, Stass Allie, Pablo-Jill and Coleman Kcaj argue over who shovels the Temple steps on Saturday. The Council has seen the forecast. The Council is wearing layers 🧥🚀.

😂 The Daily Landscaping LOL

A man buys a talking centipede as a pet 🐛. "Amazing!" he says. "Hey little buddy, run to the store and grab me a carton of milk, would ya?" 🥛 The centipede nods politely… and doesn't move. Ten minutes pass. Twenty. HALF AN HOUR 😤⌛. Finally the man throws open the little enclosure door and says, "What gives?! I asked you to get milk ages ago!" The centipede looks up at him, deeply offended, and says:

"I'm putting my SHOES on!!" 👟👟👟👟👟🤣

🛠️🌿 The Deep Dive: 5 Things Most Pro Landscapers Won't Tell You 🌿🛠️

1. Swap the sump-pump discharge to rigid pipe before Friday 🚰
That flexible summer discharge hose is a freeze trap: it sags, and every low spot holds water. Friday brings a 90% rain day followed by a hard freeze, pooled water in the hose freezes solid, and the next melt the pump pushes against a plug of ice and backs up into the basement instead 💧❄️. Swap now to rigid, larger-diameter pipe with a continuous downward slope away from the house and no dips anywhere in the run. Ten metres of straight, sloped pipe in October beats one flooded basement in February, every single time 🏠.

2. Never plow snow off a septic field ❄️🚫
It feels backwards, but the snow ON a septic field is insulation, not obstruction. Plow it off (or drive and park on the field all winter) and you strip the blanket that keeps frost shallow, the cold drives deeper, lines and the field itself can freeze, and vehicle weight compacts frozen soil right where you least want compaction 🚗. Leave the field's snow exactly where it falls, keep every tire off it, and let the blanket do the engineering. The ugliest snow on the property is doing the most work 💪.

3. Don't spread fireplace wood ash on Edmonton beds 🔥
The old-country advice says wood ash feeds the garden, and on acidic soil, it can. Edmonton clay-loam is not acidic: it typically runs alkaline already, around pH 7.4–8+ 🧪. Ash is both alkaline and salty, so spreading it pushes pH higher still and starts locking up iron and manganese, that's how you get yellow, chlorotic plants in soil that's technically full of nutrients. Unless a soil test actually shows acidity, your ash belongs in the garbage or the compost's story ends badly. Test first; amend second 📋.

4. Guard shrubs under metal-roof eaves from roof-avalanche snow 🏠❄️
A metal roof doesn't shed snow in polite little handfuls, it lets go in one sliding sheet, all at once, straight down the eave line. Any shrub planted under that line takes the whole roof's snowpack on the crown in a single second: leaders snap, crowns split, and the plant you find in spring looks like it lost an argument with a truck 🌿💥. Mark the slide zones now, while you can still see the eaves clearly, protect keepers with a sturdy wooden A-frame, and plan to move anything precious out of the fall line entirely.

5. Rodent-proof winter storage 🐭
A mower deck put away dirty is a mouse hotel with the heat already on: packed grass and soil make perfect nesting material, and a warm shed does the rest, by spring you're looking at chewed wiring and a nest where the air filter used to be 🔧. Scrape and wash the deck before it goes in. Same logic for grass seed: an open paper bag in the garage is an all-winter buffet. Move seed into sealed metal bins with tight lids, and the mice can file their complaints elsewhere 🗄️.

🎶 Ron Hairemy's Songs That Guarantee LAWNgevity 🎵🌱🔥

Gord's boys open, an Aussie spends three minutes bragging about himself, Angela Gossow starts a war, Compton checks in, and Poi E spins like it never left 1984. Eclectic is not a strong enough word.

🎸 Momentum
😂 Morale
🧠 Focus
⚔️ Endurance
🎤 Reflection
🌌 Creativity

All music. No filler.
(Except comedy… because everybody needs a laugh.)
No Nickelback.
No Slipknot.
No T-Swizzle.
As it should be.

Canadian Track'O'The Day: "Ahead By A Century" by The Tragically Hip (clean ✅). Kingston, Ontario's Tragically Hip, with Gord Downie up front, from 1996's Trouble at the Henhouse by the song that opens with that acoustic strum every Canadian over thirty can hear from just the words 🇨🇦🎸. It won Single of the Year at the Junos and became a fixture of this country's summers, and it threads straight back to Blog #4's message for me, we spent that one with Gord's Secret Path work; this is the band that made him a household name in the first place 🌾. For me it's golden-hour Canada in four minutes flat. Play it on the drive between jobs today, sun out, storm still two days away ☀️🚗.

Today's Musical Funny-Bone: "FIGJAM" by Butterfingers (explicit 🔞, enthusiastically; the title is an acronym you can expand at your own risk). Brisbane's Butterfingers built Australian comedy-rap's strangest little empire, and FIGJAM, from 2004's Breakfast At Fatboys by is the national anthem of unearned confidence 🇦🇺🎤. It's a man rating himself a ten in every category while the evidence politely disagrees, delivered with total sincerity, which is exactly why it works. For me it goes on whenever a job estimate needs its swagger back 📋💪. Play it loud, then go be humble at the actual work.

Hair Whippin', Head Bangin', Finger Blazin' Therapy: "Nemesis" by Arch Enemy (clean ✅). Arch Enemy are Swedish melodic death metal royalty, built by guitarist Michael Amott out of Halmstad, and "Nemesis" is the immortal opener of 2005's Doomsday Machine 🇸🇪. That's Angela Gossow on vocals, one of the most commanding voices metal has ever produced, and the band's current singer, Alissa White-Gluz, is Canadian, out of Montreal, so the fury has a home-country chapter too 🇨🇦. "One for all, all for one" energy over riffs that move like siege equipment. For me, this is Friday-storm-prep music: no panic, just formation 💪. Play it sealing cracks with the crew flying in step beside you 🛣️.

Tongue Trippin', Bar Spittin', Beat Killin' Bars: "Straight Outta Compton" by N.W.A (explicit 🔞, landmark explicit; this is the record that changed what rap was allowed to say, noted plainly). 1988, Compton, California: Ice Cube, MC Ren and Eazy-E trading verses over Dr. Dre's production on the title track of the album that announced gangsta rap to the world like a siren getting closer 🚨🎤. This is the same album that drew an FBI warning letter over another track, and the Library of Congress still put it in the National Recording Registry, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame still inducted the group in 2016 🏆. For me it's architects' music: you study how a scene declares itself, and nobody ever declared louder. Play it studying the blueprint, volume set to era-appropriate 🚗🔊.

Māori Track / Aotearoa Pick: "Poi E" by Pātea Māori Club (clean ✅). Some songs are hits; this one is a landmark 🏆🇳🇿. "Poi E" by lyrics by Ngoi Pēwhairangi, sung entirely in te reo Māori, music by Dalvanius Prime, hit number one in Aotearoa in 1984 and has never really left, resurfacing for a whole new generation through Taika Waititi's Boy 🎬. It's the Pātea Māori Club swinging poi and singing a community back to itself after the freezing works closed and times got hard 💛. For me, this is what a song can carry when a whole people picks it up. Play it swinging something, a rake, a rope, a day 🌀.

Ron Hairemy Spotlight: "The Night Owls" by Little River Band (clean ✅). Australia's Little River Band, from 1981's Time Exposure by Glenn Shorrock riding a groove built for headlights and empty highways 🇦🇺🎸. LRB were quietly one of the most successful harmony bands of their era, and this one is pure after-dark motion. Sunset's at 6:25 tonight and shrinking, for me this is the new season's theme song arriving right on schedule 🌇. Play it on the last drive of the day, when the yard lights kick on behind you 💡.

That's the goal. That's LAWNgevity. 🌱🔥

🌅 Conclusion

Two days, two men who turned private fights into public good, Tommy's birthday today, Michael's story above, and I'm starting to think that's the whole instruction manual 💛. The yard version is smaller but it rhymes: swap the pipe, seal the cracks, clean the deck, guard the shrubs, everything done in today's sun is a stranger named Future You getting a fair shake on Friday ☀️➡️❄️. Shoutout to every crew using the dry window properly, and to the night owls adjusting to the dark commute home 🦉. Do the small thing that helps, then do the next one. If you liked today's blog, be sure to star, speak out, and stay a while for updates. Until next time, this has been Kaitiaki Hamon. Keep your stick on the ice. And may the Force be with you. Always! Ka kite, landscaping whānau!

Sincerely,
Kaitiaki Hamon (Ron Hairemy)

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