Real Talk!

Things are happening in cottage country. Resorts, lodges, inns, hotels, motels, B&Bs and other leisure and tourism business appear to be gaining market. Advertising initiatives promoting fall in Ontario may be credited for some of the influx of activity.

Bill Duron, an experienced tourism leader and media executive, has been reappointed for a second term as Chair of the Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation (OTMPC).

The McGuinty government has been very supportive of recreation programs and is expected to continue to develop partnerships within the industry. This same government has supported rural economic development and has promised to continue their investments in the rural Ontario infrastructure.

After the recent election, Mr. McGuinty announced plans to create an Eastern Ontario development fund and help restore historic downtown areas of rural towns. Further, in addition to having already uploaded health care costs and ½ the ambulance costs, the Liberals plan to upload the entire burden of the Ontario Disability Support Program and the Ontario Drug Benefit Plan.

The Liberals have already launched a Provincial-Municipal Fiscal and Source Delivery Review that they believe will set the tone for long- term solutions to the downloading issue.

Chris White, the chair of the Rural Ontario Municipal Association, is quoted as saying, “Cities may be the engines of growth, but rural communities provide much of what fuels that growth and development.”

White also indicates future government attention providing improved information and communications technology, transportation- as well as infrastructure and other issues critical to sustaining the growth of new opportunities and new business in rural areas.

Chris White says, “We need to ensure that policy cultivates strength across all municipalities, including rural communities in particular.”

This is all good news for the greater Bancroft, Haliburton and Barry’s Bay areas.

Ontario in-bound visits rose 1.4% in 2006 to 114.8 million visits. We expect inbound visit growth to continue in 2007 and 2008, up 2.3% and 1.8% respectively.

Intra-provincial travelers is expected to grow to 98.3 million in 2011, reflecting an average annual compound rate of 1.6% and travel from overseas origins is expected to be robust in the coming five years.

Development interest and new projects in the area are also more evident. Local Realtors ® report a notable increase in interest in commercial, industrial and development properties.

The word on the street is that this area is ready to bust wide open and boom.

This is not surprising. It has been coming for a long while. Saturation in markets west of us, like Muskoka and Collingwood, even Huntsville and Haliburton has driven the consumer east, in recent years. The increasing demand has contributed to consistent increases in prices.

And, overall, it isn’t slowing down.

Buyers should consult a local Realtor ® for representation. A local Realtor ® can and will provide valuable information with regard to the historic and current marketplace.

While nobody can predict with 100% accuracy – the leading experts all share the belief that our precious rural Ontario, cottage country property is going to continue to rise in value. Given the state of the world, does that really surprise anyone?

Properties for Sale listings have been declining in cottage country at an alarming rate. Local by-law officials seem to be more restrictive about severances- perhaps more clues that securing a rural retirement, recreational or residential property may be getting more and more difficult.

I'm happy to already be a Hastings County property owner.

Believe it or not… I’ve been asked many times, “when is the best time to buy?” It just might be now.

04/28/07 I wrote a blog enitled “OF DNA FOSSIL FUEL AND MEMORY” which made a segue into a somewhat philosophical spew about genetics and genetic memory… and inherited memories and…

anyway… a friend recently mentioned epigentics to me. And you know what that means… I have been researching it, furiously, in my spare time.

Essentially, epigentics is a branch of science that has, more intensely since the 80s, been working on a theory that there is some sort of “on-off switch” with a molecular basis through which heritable information other than DNA sequence influences gene function.

The commonly accepted notion is that through our DNA we are destined to have particular body shapes, personalities, and diseases and perhaps even a predetermined intelligence and predilection to certain social ills, including poverty, crime, and violence.

We know that certain biological ‘information’ is passed from parents to their offspring and that cells pass information on to each other, when they divide and it seems that it’s not just the genes that influence the traits and functions. of an organism but also ‘epigenetic’ or non-gene factors.

There are “epigenetic” factors within the cell that can be inherited when cells divide without changing the genes themselves. They do, however, modify the behaviour of genes.

Epigenetics researchers have recognized there are many molecular sequences and patterns that may determine which genes can be turned on and off. Studies indicate that the introduction of some vitamin, or brief exposure to a toxin, even an added dose of mothering can tweak the epigenome—altering the software of our genes, if you will—in ways that affect an individual's body and brain for life.

Perhaps even more unbelievable, epigenetic signals from the environment can be passed on from one generation to the next, sometimes for several generations, without changing a single gene sequence.

Okay, we’ve all been taught that environmental effects like radiation, can alter the genetic sequences in a sex cell's DNA and can leave a mark on subsequent generations. It's well documented that the environment in a mother's womb can alter the development of a fetus. What is really interesting it the growing evidence that the epigenetic changes brought on by diet, behaviour, or surroundings can work their way into the line up and resonate far into the future.

It seems that what we inherit from our parents are chromosomes, and chromosomes are only 50 percent DNA. The other 50 percent is made up of protein molecules, and it’s these proteins that carry epigenetic marks and information.

Over the years, researchers have argued on one side or the other, or a combination of both in the nature-versus-nurture divide. Recently, scientists have found solid proof that nurturing attention from the mother stimulates serotonin receptors in the hippocampus of her child. These receptors send proteins called transcription factors to turn on the gene that inhibits stress responses. This switch can alter gene expression permanently.

It is interesting to note that adults who reported in a questionnaire that they had a poor relationship with their mother were found to have hippocampi that were significantly smaller than average. Those adults who reported having had a close relationship with their mother, however, showed normal size hippocampi.

In November 2005, a clinical geneticist presented data drawn from two centuries of records on crop yields and food prices in an isolated town in northern Sweden. Swedish researchers have discovered that fluctuations in the towns' food supply may have health effects spanning at least two generations.

Grandfathers who lived their preteen years during times of plenty were more likely to have grandsons with diabetes—an ailment that doubled the grandsons' risk of early death. Equally notable was that the effects were sex specific. A grandfather's access to a plentiful food supply affected the mortality rates of his grandsons only, not those of his granddaughters, and a paternal grandmother's experience of feast affected the mortality rates of her granddaughters, not her grandsons.

It appears that timing is critical to the intergenerational impact. There was a direct corelation to the ages at which grandmothers and grandfathers experienced a food surplus and the affect on future generations. The granddaughters most affected were those whose grandmothers experienced times of plenty while in utero or as infants, precisely the time when the grandmothers' eggs were forming. The grandsons most affected were those whose grandfathers experienced plenitude during the so-called slow growth period, just before adolescence, which is a key stage for the development of sperm.

I guess it means that our environment and general health (emotional as well as physical) has an affect on the way our bodies manufacture the protein with which our cellular information is packaged. So it stands to reason that if it’s packed differently- even identical strands of information would be open to a slightly different interpretation.

The logic of all of this applies backward as well as forward: Some of the disease patterns prevalent today may have deep epigenetic roots. If you have a generation of poor people who suffer from bad nutrition, it may take two or three generations for that population to recover from that hardship and reach its full potential.

To put all of this into simple terms what you eat or smoke today could affect the health and behavior of your great-grandchildren and in more ways than you might suspect.

& apparently, our cells do have some pretty serious memory capacity.

I've been very lax again, lately. Blogging has taken a back seat to other activities.

I wouldn't say I'm absent minded... it's just that sometimes, I'm absent from things, because I'm focusing my thinking on something else...

Family Tree Research:
most recently, I've discovered that I am the 6th cousin 5 times removed of Humphrey Bogart

Writing:
I've done a couple of articles at the request of one of the local papers, I've had to write up a number of ads (particularly for long weekends) and I have actually completed a new series of poems

Children:
among other things- I'm still coping with "the boyfriend" being away at college (and arranging transportation to get him home on weekends) and "the daughter" being more available

Business:
there's a flurry of activity in the market place, again. Typical for this time of year, really... lately, nothing seems simple... a lot of complicated lives of, in and around the biz... I get called on, quite often, to help people sort stuff out... and I often get referred customers & clients with unusual circumstances, too

Friends:
unlike Spring fever, when you live in a small rural town, it seems like the autumn brings out some strange emotions... many people look for a better solution... a good place to hunker down for the winter... and they often look to friends for advice that they probably won't take anyway

Family:
seems like the lot of us have been ill... coughing, hacking and some have actually had the nerve to go as far as pneumonia- rats and phooey...

the other day, I finally caught up on the old green bus blog (one of my bro's websites)

I'm cooking a turkey today... my neice spent last Thanksgiving in Korea and was desperate to celebrate a traditional holiday- but it turns out that she has to work this weekend

Motorcycle:
the last two Sundays, we've been able to get out for a nice long ride... the leaves are weird this year... some trees area already bare, some haven't turned at all... and some are ablaze... we've added more chrome... and wheels of fire (lights in the spokes)... sometimes I find myself humming "Rhinestone Cowboy"... but we've ordered more chrome yet...

House:
Fabian finally chopped down the jungle that had grown up at the end of our very long driveway... people couldn't see the 911 #

Bell Canada:
OH MY... well... it seems like we've been on the phone with Bell about 10 or 12 times in the last couple of weeks... when we moved, we couldn't put a phone line in for the teenagers because the phone line comes in at the hydro line and the trees had overgrown the lines... it took us a year to get that sorted out and hydro finally came in and cleaned up the line... then Bell came to put the second line in and it seems that our accounts went upside down... they changed the address on our service and... well... Fabian nearly blew a gasket... we pay a lot of money for phone service... with between 6 and 10 cell phones... satellite tv... and various land lines... and we've never been late to pay... but... we couldn't seem to get anyone to send us actual statements... the post office doesn't like the 911 address and insists on the p.o. box number... and we couldn't get anyone at Bell to understand.... sigh

Recently, there was a meeting in Bancroft about "Big Box Stores". We couldn't make it... but there was a piece in the paper saying we'd better brace ourselves... they're coming.

I am getting sick of watching Tracey manipulate Charlie (Coronation Street)... and also, I'm wondering when the CBC is going to catch us up to the BBC... the street just celebrated New Year 2007!

I did the mandatory RECO update for Real Estate practitioners, last week... 6 classroom hours mostly talking about mistakes that people have made... it's a little depressing. Fortunately, there are more of us that do things right- I think. It's just that it is an industry that constantly evolves and it encompasses theoretical things like the law... which constantly changes... I figure, if you keep up on things, they won't pile on you...

Has anyone else noticed how many t.v. shows about "the paranormal" and "ufos" there have been the last few months? Speaking of which...
ex-husbands keep making their way into my life... and people keep bringing them into conversation... it's not that I mind... it's just that I really don't have anything to say about them... it's kind of old news.

Katie is counting the days until she gets the braces off her teeth. I have to say that she is smiling a lot more... which makes it all worth while... not that her teeth were THAT out of whack... they just bothered her... you know, it makes me wonder, how many sullen teenagers are just hiding behind teeth that make them feel embarrassed...

A lot of local talk this time of year about: how bad of a winter to expect... about moose hunting... moose sightings... about deer hunting... about deer sightings... and how fast the summer went.

The Phil Spector trial turned out exactly how I expected... the jury had a hard time with defining "beyond a reasonable doubt".

Anyway... it's time for me to "baste" again and after all, it's probably just a sign of maturity when nothing much surprises you any more.