HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 1978-05-03, Page 20Page 20--Lucknow Sentinel, Sitedneaday, May 3, 1978
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Seed Oats
Barley Mixed Grain
Also mer certified or Canada no. 1
FIax contracts Grass Seed
Full line of Farm chemicals
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LUCKNOW PRONE • 528.3203
to aft your. weed
Everything you need for, the
things you don't want to grow
Surfactant — Oil
concentrate — Use to
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Atrazine.
Brush Killer — 64 and 112,
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2,4,5-T combined. Provide
exceirent brush and hard -to -
kill weed control.
2,4-D Amine 80 — Most
widely used weedkiller. Use
on pasture and cereals that
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Bladex 80 — Use for pre-
emergence•and early post -
emergence alone or in
combination with Atrazine to
control annual 'grasses and
broadleaf weeds in corn.
Cytrol — Combine -with
Atrazine to control quack
,grass and broadleaf weeds
in corn.
Sutan -}- —.Use before
planting corn in combination
with Atrazine to control
annual grasses and broadleaf
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Embutox E — 2,4-D Butyric
acid for broadleaf weed
control in legume crops.
AAt tlx 90W — Atrazine.
Use for pre, emergence and
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Lorox — Recommended as a'%
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Plus other'chemicals for
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Free copies
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Weed Control
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from:
LUCKNOW DISTRICT CO.OP
Phone 528-3011
Chemicals for Weed Control
House designed to use sun
for light and heat
EDITOR'S NOTE:
The following story about Tony
and Fran McQuail, R. R. 1,
Lucknow, appeared in the Kitch-
ener -Waterloo Record on April 7.
It was sent to the Sentinel by Jim
Webster, 187 Erb Street, Water-
loo, and is reprinted here for tie
interest of our readers.
BY JIM NAGEL.
SPECIAL TO THE RECORD
• The panoramic view south over
rolling Huron County is a sunny
clue to how Tony and Fran
McQuail heat and light their big
country house for less than $100 a
year.
The wood -burning stoves have
been out all day. Out in the snow,
the temperature is a chilly —8
Celsius.
But inside the house the
McQuail built themselves (with a
little help from their friends), it's
a comfortable 20.
That sunny southern panorama
is not only pretty, it's practical.
Plent of free sunshine is trapped
in the house by 228 square feet of
south -facing, double -pane win-
dows and super -insulated walls'
and roof.
The three-storey house is as big
as anything you'd pay a developer
$80,000 for, plus an annual $1,500
or so to OntarioHydro and fuel
companies.
Yet the McQuails doubt that
they've paid $10,000 so far - and
nothing for the sun and the wind.
Their annual energy bill of under
$100 includes gas for the chain-
saw to cut their wood, kerosene
for their lamps and summer
cooking, use of the freezer at their
neighbour's house and batteries
for their radio.
They might be without .some of
the amenities, building piecemeal
as they could afford it, but they
are without the morgagp as well.
They own the house now and the
$15,750 for their 100 -acre farm
will be paid off within a year.
Like their ideal of simple living,
the name the McQuails have
given their place at R. R. 1
Lucknow - Meeting House Farm
and Orchard - reflects their
Quaker background.
Both 26 this year, they met at a
Quaker boarding school in the
U.S., but romance was interrupt-
. ed in January 1971, when
McQuail moved from the Phila-
delphiaarea to Canada rather
than co-operate with the Vietnam
draft. He worked as a farm
labourer for a year, finished
Grade 13 and after a coast-toJ
coach search bought the Lucknow
farm in late 1973.
Mrs. McQuail graduated from
her biology course at an Indiana
college in 1974 and , they were
married in a Quaker ceremony on
the farm the following May.
The barn was the only building
when McQuail bought the 100
acres, and he lived two years in
its drafty loft while working the
1978 FORD F100, pickup
1977 DODGE, 1/2 ton
1977 DODGE ASPEN, 2 door, .6 cylinder
automatic
1976' DODGE ROYAL. MONACO, 4 door with
air conditioning
2 1976 DODGE CORONET, stationwagon
1975 GREMLIN, 6 cylinder automatic
1975 DODGE MONACO; 4 door hardtop
1975 PLYMOUTH GRAND FURY, 2 door
1975 CORONET STATION WAGON
1974 BUICK APOLO, 2 door
1974 PONTIAC VENTURA, V8 automatic
1974 DODGE COLT STATION WAGON
1974 DODGE MONACO, 2 door hardtop with
air conditioning
1974 GMC :VAN'
1974 FORD GALAXIE 500, 4 door
'/2 TON TOPPERS IN STOCK
SEE THESE AND OTHERS ON OUR LOT
SEVERAL OLDER° CARS TO CHOOSE FROM
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81YTH PHONE5234342
land and building the house.
The energy-efficient design of
the hilltop house, says McQuail,
"has worked out surprisingly
well, considering how little we
knew."
The 36 x 24 foot house is
insulated to around R29, McQuail
rechons - at least three to five
times a conventional wall's resist-
ance to heat. Walls have four
inches of fiberglass, then con-
struction board, then a second
stud offset from the first so as not
to conduct heat, and another four
inches of fiberglass before the
pine exterior.
Besides the usual vapor seal
and cardboard to protect it, there
is a reflective coat to bounce heat
back in.
Styrofoam sheets are kept in
the non -south windows all day
and in all windows at night.
Stone boulders compose the 10
foot foundation walls. The ama-
teur builders learned masons' ,
tricks as they went along. Stone is
a good medium for storing heat,
especially in the eight -foot green-
house added outside the whole
36 -foot length of the south wall.
Here McQuail will add to the
thermal mass of gravel floor and a
series ,of 45 -gallon water drums
painted black to absorb heat.
Winter snow also acts as a solar
reflector, McQuail says. "This is
something people in Canada
don't appreciate. Snow is extre-
mely reflective, and you can
double your solar -collector sur-
face at no cost simply by angling
your design right."
His greenhouse lets snow on
the slopingground outside
bounce even more sunlight
through the glass.
The woodburning stove in the
second floor- kitchen consumes
only about an arm load a day. The.
couple light it sporadically in
November, "and then it burns all
winter. A thermostat controls the
damper, adj sting, the stove's
oxygen supp°y according to the
indoor temperature.
McQuail added an air vent so
the stove can tiring its air direct
from outside rather than suck
drafts through craS ks.
A wind generator is on the
drawing board for lighting and
maybe for_. a freezer.
• In the meantime, kerosene
lamps are economical and ade-
quate, but the big south windows
are still the mainstay for lighting
until the sun has gone right down.
An old windmill will be erected
as soon as the snow is gone. It will
take over raising water 35 feet
from the farm spring to storage
tanks in, the house, which feed
both house and barn. The present
chore involves 250 strokes of the
pump handle twice daily.
The 100 -acre farm southeast of
Lucknow, although an over-all
square, "looks like a little English
farm; not a square field on the
place.
After two years of trying to
grow grain, McQuail put 50
workable acres into hay in an
effort to restore the soil. This
year, the plan is to try improved
pasture or a bit of mixed corn and
grain. They prefer, to use no
chemical fertilizers.
Another 10 acres are apple
orchard, most needing to the
replanted. There are 25 acres of
bush and lots of marsh area for
wildlife - and swimming.
Meeting House Farm and
Orchard supplies the McQuails
with all they need in the way of
vegetables, fruit, maple syrup,
° wood, "and entertainment".
They spin some of their own wool.
Cash income comes from grain,
CONTINUED ON PAGE 24