Tin Mining

I may have mentioned that Kampar used to be a tin-mining town. In fact, my house is one row of houses away from an old tin-mining pond. I call it a pond. (Need to research this whole subject.) Now, apparently, people who worked the tin would sit in the water ALL DAY LONG. Can you imagine? And what was in that water?

These days, you know, there'd be all kinds of regulations if that were happening in the West. In fact, they probably wouldn't even allow it to happen. So, there were fatalities. I guess some people even drowned in the water. Maybe they fell asleep and just fell in and nobody noticed?

Anyway, there's this huge dent in the ground behind my house where the water used to be sitting. Now it has grass growing over it. And, for some strange reason, I never see anyone go into the park. Maybe a dog or cat, once in a while. It sort of gives me the creeps, actually, thinking about the slavery that went on here.

My house is only a decade old or so, but where my house is used to be the home of tin-miners. It was probably more like a shack. It's doubtful that they had electric fans in those days. We still don't have street lights on the narrow paved road that leads to my street. That road passes by the "water buffalo field", as I like to call it-- especially since my encounter with the angry water buffalo.

Speaking of water buffalo, I looked out my back kitchen window this evening to see a light coloured buffalo sauntering along through the alley! Just taking a quiet walk all by itself. I guess, since it had been raining, it was a little cooler and a nice time for a bit of a jaunt through the neighbourhood. Funny things. I just don't enjoy coming on them unawares!

The other day, a dozen of them decided to take a walk in the middle of the road, back and forth and wherever they pleased, nibbling here and there on the roadside growth. And the cars were stopping and waiting for them to GET OUT OF THE WAY. MOVE! And driving around them (carefully) so as not to get a horn in the windshield. Never in Canada. (Well, we have unruly moose, it's true.)

Then, you have the "meadow muffins" left plentifully by the well-fed cattle. These things grow like wildfire. After a couple of days, you get a whole garden in a muffin because I guess all the seeds are in whatever the buffalo eat.

And, when they move on, the grass is evenly trimmed. Yep, we have free gardening here in Kampar. Maybe I should open my gate once in a while and let the buffalo weed-whackers at my mess of weeds. I usually just pull it up by hand myself. Thorny stuff.