About Frontenac County, ON

Kingston, Gananoque, 1000 Islands Region

It is tomato season again here in Canada and I would like to make some tasty salsa to save for the winter months when tomatoes have all the flavour of wood!

Do you have a tasty recipe you could share? Or possibly you have a chili sauce or spaghetti sauce recipe you would be kind enough to pass on?

Thanks,

Susan Emo
Sales Representative, RE/MAX Riverview Realty Ltd. - Brokerage

613 382-2211

Did you hear Susan Emo LOVES working with First time buyers? Another happy couple now living in their own home in Kingston Ontario

SOLD SOLD SOLD SOLD SOLD SOLD SOLD SOLD SOLD SOLD SOLD

Old Quarry Road, Kingston, Ontario

Susan Emo, Salesperson, RE/MAX Riverview Realty Ltd. Brokerage

Gananoque Ontario
613 382 2211

GANANOQUE & 1000 Islands Region to Host One of Ontario's Largest Music Festivals

The organizers of this year's inaugural 1000 Islands Music Fest 

are proud to announce the festival is now confirmed! 

This will be one of Ontario's largest music festivals of 2009, 

The 1000 Islands Music Festival 

will take place August 13, 14, 15, 2009 at The Dingman Farm, 

located at 15 Pykeview Drive, Gananoque, 

in Leeds and 1000 Islands Township.
               

 It's expected that The 1000 Islands Music Festival will draw crowds 

from all over Ontario, Quebec and Upper New York State 

and bring an expected 15,000 new visitors to the region. 

The festival organizers 

have assembled a roster of artists that have established world-wide success, 

and also a great list of Canadian independent and major label recording artists. 

The location will house two stages; accommodate over 30,000 people, 

camping for as many as 4,000, with food vendors, 2 beer gardens, 

and a VIP LLBO Tent near the main stage.

The festival kicks off on the evening of Thursday Aug 13th

with a celebration of the community. The event

will wrap up with a large fireworks display Saturday August 15th.

Line Up To Be Announced In Gananoque - Press Conference May 28th

I'm an old fashioned kind of guy. I prefer C.D.'s to MP3's ( in fact I have still to download any music over the net!). I miss my Vic-20. I like older computers because their slower speed provides a pace that is some somehow just more comforting. I still marvel when I can take a little plastic box, push some buttons and make the television change channels! It's a man thing. I can control the television with a push of a button. My will is law !

So, here in the Home Inspection world, along comes the newest tool for investigation; the Infra Red imaging camera. This camera allows the inspector to take pictures that reveal the relative temperatures of surfaces in view. So, the inspector can produce a collection of pictures that show areas of possible heat loss. From this information the inspector can draw conclusions about what is going on behind walls, around windows, foundations, roofs etc etc. It provides a 'view' of what was previously hidden and allows the inspector to 'see' where he previously couldn't.

But here is the problem. Home inspectors carry out what is known as a 'visual inspection'. That means that the inspector can only report on conditions he can observe. Any defect that is not directly observable ( visible ) cannot be reported. When you think of it, that makes sense as reporting on any area that cannot be seen is a guess at best.

One would think that the I.R. camera neatly circumvents this problem by providing a view of the hidden area so that the inspector can now report on any faults found there. But ( and you knew that was coming!) there is a school of thought, especially amongst lawyers that the I.R. camera opens the inspector to all kinds of grief because he is now reporting conclusions based on an effect rather than an observed fact. That is, the camera has detected the effect ( cooler / hotter ) that has been caused by SOMETHING behind the now famous wall, rather than a fact ( the wall is wet ) It is a slippery slope. If the inspector is able to draw conclusions from a detected effect then why didn't this new second site detect . . . . . . . ?

I'm an old fashioned kind of guy and I am weighing the pros and cons of this new I.R. technology In the mean time I have to go and assert my dominance over the television

He has a television programme.

He has a huge marketing machine.

He is a self promoter the like of which we haven't seen since the last election.

He has railed for years about home inspectors and their complete lack of competence without evidence or the chance of rebuttal. ( he has been challenged to an "inspect-off" by a Canadian Home Inspector organization, but has refused )

He is Canada's walking talking ( well OK yelling!) expert on everything that has to do with houses; Mike Holmes. And now he is starting both a television show about home inspectors and their multiple sins and at the same time establishing a home inspection franchise system. Despite years of demonstrating that he knows next to nothing about inspecting homes, he is now, in his mind, engaged in reforming the industry. It's brilliant really. A media machine, with a television show or two, feeding clients who hang on his every word, into his home inspection franchises.

I wish I had thought of it first!

However there are a few things that Holmes doesn't seem to understand about home inspections;

1 - An inspector cannot punch holes in walls to see what is going on behind them.

2 - An inspector cannot walk through a house making snap judgments and jumping to quick conclusions

3 - An inspector uses a completely different skill set than a contractor to diagnose problems.

4 - An inspector operates under a recognized Standards of Practice.

5 - An inspector operates under a recognized Code of Ethics.

It will be interesting to see how the "Holmes Inspector" does all of the above and still lives up to the usual "Mike Holmes" hype. And we can be sure that with his new television show providing the ill informed with hyperbole aimed at feeding them into the maw his new home inspection franchises, it is going to be an interesting year.