gnrcw

[gnrcw]

Snowy Bliss An old picture of a park in Winnipeg

[gnrcw]

This is my favourite part of winter.  The river that I keep posting pictures of in the other months finally FREEZES and we can use it as a walking trail.  These are some pics I took over the past couple of days while walking the best dog in the world, who you can see in the last photo.  

[gnrcw]

RV Care -  2015 Year in Review

2015 was a big year for RV Care in so many ways, especially on social media. We broke into the Instagram and Pinterest platforms and amped up our Facebook + Twitter action. This year we were provided with a fantastic RV season and we are so thankful to be able to use social media to connect with RVers across Canada and hear about their adventures. We want to take this time to reflect on the year and look back on the exciting things that we did, as well as things that happened within the RV and camping industry, and with all of our amazing dealers.

Here are some highlights from our year:

We kicked off the year with RV shows and sales across Canada at many of our dealerships and industry associations. In January we launched RV Travelers Choice Parts + Accessories, exclusive to RV Care dealers and their customers. The products were a huge hit and will  continue to be sold and expanded upon in 2016 – stay tuned!

Read More: http://rvcare.ca/blog/rv-care-2015-a-year-in-review/

[gnrcw]

Nature

[gnrcw]

Polar bears have a nictitating membrane, or third eyelid, that allows them to see underwater and protects their eyes in blowing snow. (photo by Clark Oden)

[gnrcw]

Road down to the wilderness

[gnrcw]

Dream House // Cuma Çevik

[gnrcw]

Is Winter a Good Time to Buy an RV?

[gnrcw]

Mount Tamalpais State Park // Jude Allen

[gnrcw]

Lakes around the world are warming surprisingly quickly due to climate change, threatening the global water supply. And lakes in Canada are some of the fastest-warming in the world, a new study shows.

The warming waters can lead to problems like toxic algae blooms that make water undrinkable, declines in fish populations that people rely on for food and other serious problems, warns the international team of researchers that released the study this week.

“If air temperatures continue to increase and this influences water supply and water quality, that has a huge implication for humans as we need fresh water to survive,” said Sapna Sharma, a researcher at Toronto’s York University who was one of the lead authors of the report.

Sapna Sharma, a researcher at Toronto’s York University who was one of the lead authors of the report, said Canadian lakes are warming at twice the global average rate. (Courtesy Sapna Sharma)

The study looked at 235 lakes on six continents representing half the world’s freshwater supply. Their surface temperatures between 1985 and 2009 had been measured both directly and using satellites.

The lakes had different sizes, depths, locations and other characteristics, but despite their variability, “over 90 per cent of them had a clear signal of warming,” said Sharma. “I didn’t expect to see that.”

The study found that on average, lakes were warming at a rate of 0.34 C per decade — faster than either the ocean (increasing 0.12 C per decade) or the air (warming by 0.25 C per decade), the researchers reported in the journal Geophysical Research Letters and announced at the American Geophysical Union meeting San Francisco Wednesday.

“Canadian lakes and ice-covered lakes were warming twice as fast as air temperatures and most of the other lakes in the study,” Sharma said in an interview with CBC News.

The study found that the rate of warming averaged 0.72 C per decade at high latitudes.

Continue Reading.

[gnrcw]

P.K. Subban has just issued a holiday challenge to Justin Trudeau. This ought to be good.

[gnrcw]

The cheetah on the loose in B.C.’s Kootenay region looks like an adult female named “Annie Rose” that is likely to stalk children, says the owner of an Alberta zoo.

A cheetah was spotted wandering along the side of a snowy B.C. highway north of Creston, B.C. Thursday afternoon, triggering a public warning from the RCMP and a search by three conservation officers.

Doug Bos of Discovery Wildlife Park says the markings, collar and other details of the unidentified cougar match Annie, a female cheetah that was at his facility in 2014.

“I don’t know 100 per cent for sure if [it is] the same cheetah,” he told CBC News. “But the chances of [it] not being the same cheetah are very unlikely.”

Continue Reading.

[gnrcw]

Peppermint Hot Chocolate

[gnrcw]

[gnrcw]

Manitoba, Canada. Photo by Scott Kroeker

[gnrcw]

A program run out of the Siloam Mission that hires homeless people to clean up the downtown streets is so successful it fills up nearly every day.

The program, part of Mission: Off the Streets, or MOST, pays $11 an hour, and for some, is a path out of homelessness.

People who stay at the shelter can sign up each day to be part of a team of eight that goes out to pick up garbage, shovel snow and do other street maintenance duties.

“A lot of people go each day,” said Randy Malbranck, who’s been working nearly every day on the team for the past 6 months. “You don’t always get in but sometimes — usually — you do.”

Malbranck and the daily team pick up garbage from an area extending from Higgins Avenue and Main Street to Isabel Street and William Avenue. Last year, 86 people were employed through the program.

“People see their capabilities and believe in themselves again,” said organizer Cathy Ste. Marie. “They’ve still got gas in the engine. They’re still capable, and it’s a catalyst to get back into the workforce.”

She added people who are able to keep employment through the program for a few months can then get references and valuable job experience.

Continue Reading.