Quinte West, ON

The village of Stockdale is not very big, if you blink and miss the road sign you probably wouldn't know you are in a village at all. It consists of a few houses, a few farms and an an old mill.

Stockdale is between the town of Wooler and Frankford on Hastings County Road 5.

I drive through Stockdale quite a bit as Stockdale Road is a pretty nifty shortcut if you want to get from Trenton to Frankford or Stirling. There hardly ever is any traffic on Stockdale Road, and the only time I have ever been inconvenienced is when I got stuck behind a rather slow moving tractor once.

The Stockdale Mill is just about the only destination in Stockdale. It used to be a grist mill in its working days. As well as being a cafe, restaurant and pub these days, it's an arts and crafts place where lots of colourful things are on display. It was recently bought by a new owner who is making a lot of positive changes to the place, so it's well worth the visit.

The mill is on Cold Creek which joins the Trent river in the town of Frankford. In the summer months I hear that Cold Creek is quite popular with canoeists and wildlife enthusiasts. It has been told to me by a very reliable source that there are a few very good fishing spots on Cold Creek. I have been sworn to secrecy as to where the exact locations are though. Buy a house from me and I might be tempted to leak the information.

Stockdale is just one of the communities that make up Quinte West. I can confidently say that it's one of the smaller communities. The residents of stockdale have all the services available to them that are available to all residents of Quinte West.

As a Quinte real estate agent, Stockdale is just one of the many small communities that I love to do business in. It happens to be less than a ten minute drive from the Trenton Century 21 office so I wouldn't mind picking up some listings there, it would be very convenient. You do have a listing for me, don't you?

If you are thinking of buying or selling a home or farm in Stockdale Ontario why not give me a call and we can discuss this some more.

The town of Glen Miller is only a couple of miles north of Trenton. It is a rather small community of approximately 500 or so people and lies on both the east and west sides of the Trent River. Glen Miller is the home of Lock #3 on the Trent Severn waterway.

The town of Glen miller has been around since the mid 19th century, it wasn't named after the popular American band leader with the similar name of Glenn Miller (although I probably would have believed it if someone had told me so).

Locks are very important on the Trent Severn waterway, there are 45 of them between the mouth of the Trent river in Trenton and Port Severn on Georgian Bay. there are also 39 swing bridges and 160 dams on the waterway. The waterway is controlled by Parks Canada who are responsible for maintenance and water level management.

Glen Miller is a rather quiet place, it serves as a bedroom community for the larger town of Trenton. Only minutes from the 401, it's also a popular spot for commuters to live. It is one of those smaller communities that make the Trent area such an interesting place to live.

Glen Miller is also the home of the Bleasdell Boulder (or Glen Miller Rock as it's sometimes referred to). This gigantic rock is belived to be over 2 billion years old and was deposited in its current spot when the glaciers retreated a few millenia ago. It's a very big rock and likely won't be going anywhere in the near future, it's almost three stories tall.

Glen Miller is one of the small towns that I happen to sell real estate in, so if you are interested in buying or selling a home in this very pretty little town, give me a call.

I'm not sure why I enjoyed this little clip so much, I have watched it a few times and I still laugh at the ending. Perhaps I just enjoy the little fellow getting his moment of revenge. Anyhow, I bet you that this frog could probably beat my high score.

Well, it happened today.

By the time you read this, the world's human population will have exceeded 7 billion people. Of course, we don't know for sure where that baby was born, but in all liklihood it will have been born in India, the country that is currently producing the most human beings. India's population is growing at the staggering rate of one person every second. China has a larger poulation at the moment, but has a much steadier birth rate,

The seven billion number is quite eye opening, the planet only reached one billion humans in 1804, and it wasn't until 1927 until we hit two billion. Those who are quick at extrapolation can grasp the significance.

I got this little graphic earlier today from the site worldometers.info. You can head on over there and see where we stand right now.

Quite often I get into conversations with people who will argue that folks in poorer nations should just stop having babies and overpopulating this planet. They see this overcrowding in developing nations as a threat because it is overtaxing the world's resources. They worry that the rainforests will be over run by logging and mining, and that we are on the verge of descending into some sort of Malthusian catastrophe. Quite often these same people are very self righteous, and I do get quite a bit of pleasure pointing out that no matter how green they think they are, chances are that their carbon footprint on this planet is still most likely about 35 times as great as someone living in a developing nation.

I also find their stance very hypocritical, and very often, just thinly veiled bigotry. Look at us in North America. We get to sit in the comforts of our heated and air conditioned homes that are in communities that were built a couple of hundred years ago on land that was stripped bare during the most intense phase of human expansion. In just a few short centuries we took a continent away from its indigenous people, cut it down, used its resources to our advantage, and now we sit on top of the heap fretting that other people might do the same thing. Just two generations ago it wasn't uncommon for North Americans to have large families with six or seven children, and now we think we can sit and tut-tut at other people who still do that. Our wealth was built on that, yet we feel we are morally superior to others who are following the same path.

Famine does not occur because the world doesn't have enough resources, it occurs because we lack the will to distribute the resources properly. One of the most vital resources is education. Look at a country like Brazil, a nation that is partly developed yet still has crushing poverty. The wealthier segment of the Brazilian population has a fertility rate that is very similar to Western nations, whereas the poorer segment of the population has a fertility rate that is more in line with the poorest nations on Earth. Education is the key to getting larger numbers of people to move from the poorer demographic into the wealthier one. It makes economic sense allocate our resources in a more thoughtful manner, and to ensure that children all over this planet have an inalienable right to go to school.

I'm afraid that the population on our little pale blue dot in space will increase tremendously before we start to see a plateau, and at times, it may stretch our resources, and we are going to face many stiff challenges. However, we will face these challenges as they come.

In the meantime, we can just welcome the 7th billion little human being into our fold today, and maybe remind ourselves that where ever he or she may be born, in whatever circumstances he or she may be born into, that baby has every bit as much right to be here as you or I do. Oh, and don't forget, you are unique, just like the other 7 billion of us are on this planet.

I realize that we in the Western world can get fatigued by all the pleas for help and aid from organizations that represent the interests of less fortunate people in the developing world. It has even come to the point where some people don't watch the news anymore because "all that negativity affects their inner peace".

I am not a terribly religious person, but Matthew 25: 35 - 40 has always had a certain resonance in my life. It's very simple and I'm sure we are all familiar with the words;

"‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38 ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 ‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’ "

Having said that, I'm usually very annoyed with certain celebrities who seem to be able to stir up the masses in short lived, highly fashionable, and ultimately inneffective campaigns that do not address the real issues and make us weary of hearing about yet another crisis. These celebrities are unaware that they are squandering the goodwill and patience of a lot of people.

I recieved an email from Bono's organization (ONE) this morning though, and I thought I would pass it along. The message is concise, to the point, and (I believe) effective. It is obscene that people are starving in the 21st century. It is obscene that we lack the political will to make real changes. Famine is not a natural catastrophe in this day and age.I think this campaign is well worth supporting, as it is a campaign to put pressure on our political leaders to fulfill the promises that they continue to make and then break.

Dear world leaders,

The famine in Somalia could kill 750,000 in the coming months, and tens of thousands have already died. When you meet at the Group of 20 (G-20) Summit in November, you have the opportunity to break the cycle of famine and ensure people are hungry no more. Lives are in your hands. Please keep the promises you have made to the 2 billion poor people who depend on farming for their livelihoods.

The reasons for the famine in the Horn of Africa are complex and solutions are difficult, especially in Somalia, but we can’t lose sight of some simple facts:

1. 30,000 children have died in just 3 months. Thirty thousand. With over 12 million people at risk.

2. Famine is not a natural catastrophe – drought doesn’t have to lead to famine. It can be prevented, as we have seen in much of Kenya and Ethiopia.

In the 21st century, it’s an obscenity that people are dying because they can’t get enough food to eat. Every one of those 30,000 children is part of a family – a son, a daughter, sister or brother. We can’t imagine what it must be like to starve to death, but most of us know what it’s like to lose someone we love.

Please watch the film and make use of the voice you have -- sign the petition. It will make a difference in putting pressure on world leaders to do more to help those in need right now, and live up to promises already made to invest in the things proven to work – early warning systems...irrigation...drought resistant seeds… and of course, peace and security.

Thanks for reading.