Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 5, 2006, Winnipeg, Manitoba sunday columnists Winnipeg free press sunday november 5, 2006 a5 City Milkman one of vanishing Breed convenience is the name of the game John Woods / Winnipeg free press Eugene Dick performs his rounds As one of the City a few remaining milkmen. E Ugene Dick is one of a vanishing Breed. He a a Milkman a Job that Sas anachronistic As a butter churner or an Edsel repairman. Milkman summons up the 1950s ? Glass bottles left on porches Crisp uniforms White trucks and women in houseboats popping the cardboard tops off their freshly delivered milk. Lets All have a father knows Best moment shall we a lot of people look at me funny when i Tell them says Dick 53. They Don to believe we still do this for a very few people deliver milk anymore. Saputo Dicks Dairy has Only five Drivers left. Parma lat has about a dozen. Times change and those changes Lindor have conspired to drive a Reynolds lot of folks right out of the business. When you be got the Wal marts and shop pers drug marts Selling milk so cheaply it was going to Hurt us says Don Papineau Saputo a regional director of sales. They do it just to get people through the door to attract them with Low milk prices. We really have to push the convenience now. We try to keep the focus less on the Price and More on the fact that its delivered right to your Saputo produces Dairyland products. Par Malat represents Beatrice. To drum up More business milkmen now deliver much More than milk. You can get sour Cream cottage cheese sunny Delight juice bread and a variety of other products dropped on the front stoop. Seasonally they la add things like egg nog to the mix. Milkmen Are Independent contractors. They own their own trucks maintain a customer base Send out Bills and collect payment. Its an exhausting Job. Eugene Dick gets up at about 12 30 . Three Days a week. He son the Road by 1 30 ., pick ing up his product and loading the truck. On mondays he smiles he gets to sleep until 3 . I a Home by noon and then i try to get an hour maybe an hour and half Nap he says. I a usually in bed by 7 30 or 8. My wife figures i should get a Job at Home Dick figures he grosses about $60,000 annually. That May sound pretty Good until you consider the Price of Gas the repairs on his 1988 truck the hours spent on bookkeeping and the fact that its darned difficult to take any time off. He began his career in 1980, taking Over a Rural route from his former father in Law. It was hard work driving from House to House trying to build up a bigger customer base and make some Money. He laughs when he a asked if he gets to know Many of his customers. I did in the country and sometimes people would want to Chat he says. If you Stop and talk to every customer for just a couple of min utes you be added a couple of hours to your he has to met most of his City customers Sim ply because he sat their houses in the Middle of the night. His route which encompasses River Heights Charleswood and heading Ley includes schools Day cares and seniors centres. He a got about 300 customers. Those who use a Milkman become attached to them ? and to the convenience. Fort Garry resident Noreen Sealy had the same Milkman for 33 years. Walter Cho Babbo tar retired recently but Sealy is still singing his praises. It just blows my mind that we still have milk men she says. We had Walter As a Milkman Ever since my daughter was six months old. I think its a terrific Sealy adds there a another Benefit to having milk delivered. We still use it because its a terrific savings for us. Every time you run out to buy milk you end up spending a Bunch of Money on other Don Papineau laughs when he hears Sealy a explanation. Maybe that show we should promote it he says. We keep you out of the stores.?. Lindor Reynolds blogs at petrified Beaver dams Dot Duck Mountain t he discovery of another Petri fied Beaver dam in Duck Moun Tain by an undergraduate student suggests petrified material could be More widespread in the area than anyone realizes. The student discovered the petrified Beaver dam two years ago for a geology project. A local trapper pointed him in the direction of what was believed to be a Mound of Limestone. Jason Galbraith found the Rock had unique Cylinder shaped holes As if from Sticks and logs rotted out of a Beaver dam. At first he and a professor weren to sure what it was. Eventually we decided you could see on the face of it where mud and Sticks met said Galbraith in a Telephone interview from Calgary where he is now an Oil exploration geologist with Paramount resources Ltd. The free press reported oct. 8 on a visit to three Beaver dams in Duck Duck Mountain open Road Selkirk Brandon Winnipeg Bill Redekop Mountain that were turned to Stone by Calcium Springs. Those dams Are located on the Northwest slope of Duck Mountain. What a interesting about the dam found by Galbraith is its at least 10 Kilometres away on the Southwest slope. Galbraith said that suggests there is probably More petrified material to be discovered on Duck Mountain 450 Kilometres Northwest of Winnipeg near the Saskatchewan Border. There could be quite a few Petri fied dams and they May not be exposed at surface he said. And it might not be a Beaver dam. There could be swamps that have been completely preserved in that Way. If there were Trees fallen into May be the dams Are petrified by Calcium Carbonate dissolved in the water that fastens to them. What a happening is groundwater is moving beneath the surface in creeks where there Are Beaver dams and Calcium is gripping onto dams and Over time As the original material rots away you re left with a fossilized Beaver dam Galbraith said. His site is particularly fascinating 2006 04 9318 november 5, 2006 if this matches your press card number Call 697-7558 to claim a $50 gift certificate to Manitoba liquor marts prize must be claimed within 5 Days of publication. Deep freeze is fast approaching Are your heating dollars going out the window let us Supply & install new windows doors before the Snow flies. Power smart residential loan at we Supply & install 6.5% ? windows Over a 5 year period & doors maximum ? sunrooms $7 ,500o.a.c. Offer applies to windows / doors Only violence & abuse prevention 1611 Brookside blvd. 632-8803 / 253-1916 because a Stream has eroded right through the dam so you can walk Between the dams three metre High Walls. The Cleft in the dam reveals it is made of what a called travertine a Type of Limestone that hardens around organic and geologic material and takes on interesting surface shapes. The site could have tourism potential but like the other dams written about in the free press its very hard to reach. Galbraith travelled about 15 Kilometres by All terrain vehicle then hiked an additional three Kilometres through the Bush. Duck Mountain is not a traditional Mountain but a giant Mound of glacial debris created in the last ice age. The glaciers came Down from the Northeast across Manitoba and Saskatchewan and they carried a lot of material from up North. What a happening i think is when they dumped All this material in the Duck Mountain there was quite a bit of Limestone material there that Snow flowing up through the Bill Brisban Galbraith a geology professor two years ago said the fossilized dams could reveal any changes in the composition of groundwater Over time. Brisban said the discovery of additional petrified dams May also mean the calcification is not caused by a localized water source but by a Dis Tant groundwater system. That is its possible that the Calcium Springs Are from far away like the Salt Springs that discharge into Lake Winnipegosis. Those Salt Springs Are from a groundwater system that starts in the Black Hills in South Dakota. Galbraith did to Carbon Date the Rock because he could to get an originating Carbon Deposit without damaging the site. However it would have been Cre ated after glaciation 10,000 years ago. Duck Mountain is an interesting eco logical site that is both under researched by scientists and under visited by tourists. in search of the contest starts saturday november 11 ;