Fall Chores

Fall Chores 

Lots of chores to do, with the impending snow today. It is on its way.

 I had to move the snowblower from the storage shed to the garage. It won't start without being plugged in. Well, *I* can't start it manually! Some of you may be able to, but not me! You should have seen me trying to wrestle that thing across the yard. There are quite a few vole push ups and the ground is soft. I had to do it in small attacks. But I'm not failing! 

This morning it is -3 ℃, and the goldfish pond has a shim of ice on top. Our Great Blue Herons have flown south. The fish have gone deep, and the reptiles and amphibians sleep.

The cement bird bath is fragile in winter. The heater gets unplugged, and we have massive, sudden changes in temperatures. This is what happens:

But, this morning, so far so good. 

 The nut and screw are rusted, and I'll have to get on that.

Soon I'll switch over to the bird bath A/C gifted me. It really makes it so much easier in the depths of winter! It is much easier to clean. 

Next job: fill up the feeders. I always feel happy to feed the birds! 

I detached and drained the 2nd water barrel which goes to the goldfish pond. If that freezes, it'll crack the barrel. 

Sunday morning:

🚉 🛤️ 🚉 🛤️ 🚉 🛤️ 🚉 🛤️ 🚉 🛤️ 🚉 🛤️ 🚉 🛤️ 🚉 🛤️ 

I've news of our Ottawa grandies. Aster took the train to visit Jordan in Kingston. She went to classes with Jordan, and came back Friday afternoon. Jordan is crazy busy with things going on, and I am sure Aster misses him terribly. They must have had fun. 

Aster made pizza! Papa hammed it up.

Saturday, Jordan wrote :  "It’s Dark Matter Day, and Queens had some cool talks and tours of the observatory! 🔭🔭☄️" 

He has so much going on, studying astrophysics! 

Saturday's Critters

 It's both hunting season, and mating season for deer. I noticed some deer scrapes in the forest. They scrape out a clear spot, and urinate on their glands to spread their scent. They nudge low hanging branches with the same purpose. They've 5 sets of glands, I believe. 

Sure enough, a young buck.

The does are hanging around now. We didn't see them most of the summer after the fawn was born in the front yard.

   

 I heard the owl, and figured out it was in the back 40.

 

Butch in the rain, they are bulking up for winter!

   

 I found this caterpillar on the driveway. I put it in the leaves, in a safer place. Time to sleep!

   

 The coyotes continue to take advantage of the driveway. Only in the dark.

 

Saturday's Critters # 621 visit Eileen's blog for more critters.

No end to the excitement...

 We've had a busy few days. Somebody has contact dermatitis on his head. We think from a (wool) hat he put on. He is allergic to wool. This is our working theory. After Caitlin's advice, I sent him in to ask the pharmacist about some cream with cortisone. It didn't seem to work. He went back in for a stronger (2%) product. 

In the meantime, there was a doctor's appointment. Joe has problems with ingrown toe nails. It is painful, as I am sure you can imagine. The doctor said it's not as bad as some of his patients. I left the room while a procedure was done. All went fairly well. The physician forgot, in the excitement, to actually email to Rx to the pharmacy. (That took a couple of days to fix. I picked it up for him.)

At home I'd prepared various bandages, not knowing what we had or needed. It turns out not to have bled as much as last time, not as extreme a lift off.

🐭I arose from my bed the next day. I could hear something rattling the furnace vent. Hmmmm. Flipping out the vent, I pulled back the sofa to wait and see. 

I took off to the kitchen to get coffee going, then settled into my chair to do my blogging. Nutmeg came back into the room, after pointing out the noise to me (like a hunting dog!), and was staring in the upside down vent. There was a mouse!

Out it went, to live another day. 

Over it goes, into the leaves. Whew!

It scuttled off. 

 🇨🇦 The rest of our day was taken up with politics. There is more great excitement here, since PM Carney has tabled his first budget. He is an international economist, and many have great faith in him. The government either votes to accept the budget or to topple the government and have another election. 😱The Liberals have a minority government. The Liberals had a new member of their party 'cross the aisle' to join them from the Conservative Party. Then, late yesterday another Conservative met with the PM, stating his resignation. Rumours are that there were many threats in the darkness against him and his family, should he defect to the Liberals. He decided to resign his seat shortly. The word coercion was mentioned. 

This morning, he has not officially resigned. Perhaps in 6 months? What a soap opera!

TorStar article

Sunrise, people and politics

Sunrise was lovely.

The US military is still bombing and murdering unknown people in boats.

I am reading a lot of posts by 🇺🇸 Robert Reich. Everyone should be able to earn a living wage, if they are healthy. Others need a hand up. It's like universal healthcare, everyone contributes some, if they can, and everyone is entitled to food, clothing and shelter.

It appears that the people knew what to do! Our two countries have been so tied at the hip. Things are changing. There might be hope, in the meantime our elbows are up.

I am very excited to see Zohran Mamdani elected as mayor. All that despite racists fearmongering about what he would/could do. These are people with little understanding of the Muslim faith, or his platform. They conflate Socialism with Communism. 

Zohran Mamdani

This horrific plane crash in Louisville was shocking. You can see the helicopter surveying the scene. They have 300 cargo planes go through this facility. I am happy to look for the helpers. You know many people are out there trying to help.

🇨🇦 A cloudy day, I was watching Flight Radar. 

There were some power outages with the winds from the storm. Not too bad, truthfully.

Canada has a newish government. PM Carney has presented a new budget. Thing is, the Liberals have a minority government. Parliament can vote to topple the government. I don't think that will happen. One Conservative has 'crossed the floor' to join the Liberals. We are fairly tired, many of us, of the Conservative leader.

The Opposition Conservative Leader is a tool. Poilievre's attitudes mimic someone else we know. He's never had a job aside from being a politician. He faces a confidence vote himself, in January.

Aren't politics fun?! 

Git yerself outta the gutter!

 I needed to clean out the shed eavestrough. An annual chore. 

The easy part was getting the ladder out and up. Next, I waited for Joe to come home. 

ladder up

Up I went. I have bad knees, and once I made it to the top, I couldn't step-up knee-up! I thought I might just turn around and sit, then stand up. I got stuck. My big butt! I laughed so hard, as my attempts increased. 

Joe could barely look, fretting, but he was moral support. Bless him, he was too worried to laugh with me. I was roaring. 😆😜😹 Picture me, my butt stuck between the ladder prongs. I had to turn around and back up the top rung. It was filled with dead leaves and pine needles. My gloves were a mess. 

The Aspen trees still have some leaves. Poor Joe was cold. I was tromping around and heated up.

I need to reshingle the wood shed part of the roof. (Non-mental note.) 

The previous owners seem to have reshingled the top roof. Not the lower one. It's falling apart. 

ladder down

I was a bit stiff by the time the ladder was put away. Walkies were a good idea. The frog pond is good with several inches of water.

We've more rain on the way. I'm glad the shed is done. 

It'll be indoor play today. At least I think it's rain. Could be snow. Snow tires go on next week! It is November, and this is the way it goes.