I came upon this old abandoned house in the Niagara area last year. I only know of one person who has managed to get inside it and unfortunately that person is not me!

The last time I stopped by, they had covered all of the windows and doors with fresh plywood boards.

So for now, we just get to enjoy this exterior photo!

https://freaktography.com/

Bonus if they do acupuncture.

Been dealing with lower back pain for just under a year. Been to other physiotherapist, osteopathy, RMT, and acupuncturist; all seem to lean towards chronic tightness in the back. I’ve been consistently stretching for months now and still in pain.

X ray have shown no irregularities. Waiting to get MRI done.

Hello,

I made a cosplay group for people who want to do meet ups, talk about cosplay, props and such.

https://www.facebook.com/share/g/19bD4uBcCQ/

I drive by this house everyday. I believe its a new build but it's been on the market for 2 years. Granted they were asking a fortune at the start but its just kept dropping. Its on a main road beside Tim Hortons but it just seems weird that its still available especially at that price?

https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/30004006/4392-ontario-street-lincoln-beamsville-982-beamsville

4392 ONTARIO STREET, BEAMSVILLE ONTARIO

I've seen these posters all over Niagara Falls. Every major intersection has them. Someone put a lot of work in spreading these and just wondering if anyone knows the real message.

Hi,

My birthday is coming up and I’m looking for a unique experience. I’m not much a risk taker in general and scared of heights, but I try to do things that challenge me every year on this date. I already did the zip line “along the falls”.

I’m here to ask you for suggestions!

Thank you!

We may be searching for a 3/2 house to rent somewhere in the area in Feb-march and trying to get advice about if it's a difficult market? Any tips?

I’m talking BIG juicy jumbos haha not looking to travel anywhere outside of the city so please only refer Niagara Falls 🙂 also not into smoked wings, just good ol regular bar style big bois pls, thanks guys!

How do we stay here for 1-2 nights and get a deal where you don’t have to sell your first born child to go there

The abandoned house that got me started in this hobby of exploring abandoned places.

240 Centre Street, Niagara-on-the-Lake | The Breakenridge-Ure House

This is the story about the abandoned house that got me interested in the hobby of Urban Exploring.

The house, located at 240 Centre Street in Niagara on the Lake, Ontario is known as the Breakenridge-Ure house.

On my birthday in 2012 I was at a pub with some friends, my friend Steve was telling us a story about a ghost tour that he had just went on in Niagara on the Lake.

The tour took them to this one oddly placed abandoned house at the corner of Centre Street and Mississauga Road, across the road from a cemetery.

It is claimed that an owner who once left in the middle of the night with his family, saying nothing to the neighbors.

It was not listed for sale, but was then bought by local Robert Ure. Years later, after telling real estate agents not to bother him, Ure was approached in a restaurant by an interested buyer who offered him $1million for the property.

The owner told him the house was not for sale and finished the conversation by saying “This house has a life of its own!

The paranormal activities that had been experienced in this house could not be explained and the owners agreed that no one should ever live in this house again, and it was left empty and abandoned for several decades as a result.

This story piqued my interest and the next day I started looking into the abandoned house and it’s history. In this research I kept finding photos that people had taken of other abandoned places, many of them in Ontario and in the areas near me.

I decided then that this was something I could get into.

Oddly, I never did get to explore the inside of the Breakenridge-Ure house, I only ever took one set of exterior photos.

The home was eventually purchased and was/is undergoing extensive renovations, but I haven’t been by in a long time so I am unsure of its current status.

I did a deep dive on the history of the house, it's various owners and the restoration efforts, you can read that on my website:
https://freaktography.com/240-centre-street-niagara-on-the-lake-breakenridge-ure-house

I've built an app that tracks the bridge status along the Welland Canal, with a very minimalistic interface, called Ship Evader. The main advantage is that it works with Android Auto so you can check the status of the bridges without using your phone.

You can get it directly from the Play Store

This is a personal project, free and without ads. I did it mostly to learn and test a few extra things on the development and back-end side. I know there are other options out there (though I haven't found any with Android Auto integration). Please let me know if you find any issues or if you have any suggestions or feedback. Cheers!

I was riding by late at night and saw this. Not sure how it happened.

​

Hey Niagara 👋

This week's question is:

“Should I put wound dressing or tree paint on a pruning cut?”

The answer isn't simply yes or no.

For most normal pruning cuts on healthy landscape trees, we don't apply wound dressing.

But there are situations where protecting a fresh wound has a very specific purpose.

Let's explain the difference.

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First — trees don't heal wounds like we do

If you cut your arm, your body repairs the damaged tissue.

Trees work differently.

When a branch is removed, the tree compartmentalizes the injury. Basically, it creates barriers around the damaged area to limit the spread of decay and eventually grows new tissue over the outside of the wound.

That's one reason making the proper pruning cut is so important.

A good cut just outside the branch collar gives the tree the best opportunity to respond naturally.

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Trees need oxygen too

This is another reason we don't automatically cover every pruning wound.

The living tissues around a wound are actively responding to the injury, and oxygen is part of those biological processes.

If you completely coat a pruning wound with the wrong product, you can change the conditions at the wound, including moisture and gas exchange, and potentially interfere with the tree's natural compartmentalization and wound-closure process.

Think of it less like putting a Band-Aid on a person and more like letting the tree manage the injury the way it's built to.

For a normal pruning cut, the goal isn't to seal it ourselves.

It's to make the cut properly and give the tree the best conditions to compartmentalize it naturally.

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So why don't we normally paint pruning cuts?

Years ago, painting or sealing tree wounds was much more common.

The thinking was pretty straightforward:

Cover the wound and protect what's underneath.

But research has shown that routine wound dressing generally doesn't help a properly made pruning cut close faster or prevent decay.

Some products can actually trap moisture or interfere with the tree's natural response.

So for normal pruning:

Make the proper cut and let the tree do what it's designed to do.

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But there ARE exceptions

This is where the answer gets more interesting.

Sometimes wound dressing isn't being used to help the tree “heal.”

It's being used as a protective barrier against a specific pest or disease.

And we now have a very relevant example right here in Niagara.

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Oak Wilt changes the conversation

We've talked about Oak Wilt before in this series.

Oak Wilt has now been confirmed here in Niagara, including detections in Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake.

One way the disease can spread is through beetles carrying fungal spores to fresh wounds on healthy oak trees.

Those beetles are attracted to fresh wounds.

That's why we avoid pruning oaks from approximately April through November.

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What if an oak HAS to be pruned during that time?

Trees don't care about our schedules.

Storms happen.

Branches crack.

Limbs fail.

And sometimes leaving a damaged branch in place creates a bigger safety concern than making the cut.

If an oak needs to be pruned during the no-pruning season because of storm damage, a cracked branch, or another legitimate safety concern, that's a situation where wound dressing should be applied to the fresh wound as soon as possible.

The purpose isn't to make the tree seal the cut faster.

It's to reduce the chance of beetles being attracted to that fresh wound and potentially introducing Oak Wilt.

That's a completely different reason for using wound dressing.

---

What about fruit trees?

You'll also see wound treatments used in orchards and fruit-tree management.

Fruit production has its own pruning systems and disease-management practices, and certain wounds may be treated when managing specific diseases or infections.

That's different from automatically painting every pruning cut on the Maple in your backyard.

The reason you're applying something matters.

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The takeaway

For the average healthy landscape tree:

Proper pruning cut → leave it alone.

Don't automatically reach for tree paint because you think the wound needs a bandage.

But wound dressing isn't useless either.

There are specific circumstances—Oak Wilt prevention being an important one here in Niagara—where covering a fresh wound serves a legitimate purpose.

Like a lot of things we've talked about in this series, there isn't always a universal answer.

Understanding why you're doing something is just as important as knowing what to do.

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If there's a tree topic you'd like us to cover next, drop it below.

A lot of this series has come directly from questions and conversations with homeowners around Niagara.

— Driftwood Tree Service 🌲