Fred on Crumbly Acres

I've alluded to the battles in the US. It is shocking. They've achieved 40% of their Project 2025 goals. White Supremacy reigns. How does this happen? we ask. Absolute power corrupts. 

This is the far right. Racism, gender bias, lack of appreciation for humans who look different than ourselves. This man sets back the women' movement 70 years. Back to when women, or people of colour, couldn't vote, own property, hold decent jobs. This is our neighbour's post on Facebook:

The orange felon is arresting and holding the people who do the jobs white people don't want to do.  

It's a busy week for us. I let Nutmeg in with a mouse and realized, when I tried to get it out from under the furniture, there was a good amount dust and cat hair here. I pulled it all out and gave it a good wash. 

🐀FRED

Fred and the Fredletts have been giving me grief. I tried to block the hole and dissuade them from digging. Again. Same spot. Attempt #2. This was the day before our big trip to the hospital.

The railing, scavenged from the forest and the old fencing, is falling apart. 

Fred was back at the shed, still enlarging. I love the little paw prints. These are the kits', Fred's are bigger than this. 

Plugging the hole, I hoped Fred was out. Turns out she was. The kits are the ones wreaking havok out at burrow #6. She was at burrow #4, an old one.

In the rain!

June 4th

They were quite perturbed that I blocked their hole. Who, me? A problem?!

See the kit peeking out?!

I set up the trailcam on the sidewalk. Just to catch the action.

In the dark of the night, a little frog. 

This is a reminder, to remove the foliage from in front of the camera. I must have had 100 snapshots of this lovely bladderwort blossom.

There was a robin!

The phoebe chicks are still doing well. The parental unit is working hard to fill those beaks. They could fledge any moment.

The Process of Prostate Cancer Treatment PART CXX

 PART CXX 

 We motored on into Ottawa for what's become an annual trek to Joe's urologist. Happily, his quarterly injections have been here in town. His PSA tests will be once a year, as well. 

We had to leave at 7:45, which for a couple of retired old farts results in a bad sleep the morning of. 

Imagine my surprise when we had to divert due to construction and a closed road. Not so bad in rural Ontario! Gillian GPS wanted me to cross back over the river and I refused, knowing where I was. Not only that, but once around that construction, I realized I'd programmed the Civic not the General Ottawa Hospital. Oh my. We're not failing!

The wind blew. The clouds were delightful as I sat there in the park. 

This dude decided he'd do business on speaker phone. I was trying to read. I put the key in the ignition and turned up the radio, hoping he'd get a hint. I couldn't concentrate!

There were lots of dog walkers! 

By 10:45 the road was packed. Parking is expensive at the hospital, and they were beginning to get people to move their cars from the roadside parking. They left me alone in the park parking lot. 

I made a huge mistake driving home, the road I usually took south was closed with construction. We ended up driving across the city on Baseline Rd. It was truly ridiculous. It was nice seeing the canal, though! There were several car incidents with police and flashing lights. I'm glad I wasn't one of them.

Anyway, home by 12:30, and we tried to unwind. 

Original Sin

I sat at the park and tried to read Jake Tapper's new book on former President Biden. What a tale. Many have dissed it. I was amused by those complaining about him flogging it on every CNN show! 

Joe read it first, and then told me about it. I thought I'd give it a go. 

Biden's family tragedies seemed to be the beginning of his decline. The premise is, that the president was unfit to run in the first place, but the party faithful and his family blinded them to the fact that the man was in decline. His cognitive issues were covered up by all. There was a powerful group who controlled his actions, wrote his speeches, and kept his public visibility hidden. 

People misjudged whether to convince an 80-year-old to cede power, and put the country before the president himself. The authors write of the Biden White House administration believing that he was the one to defeat Trump. Until the debate.

 But he's not the only politician. There are other people in power whose cognitive decline was covered up, or the individuals, like President Biden, don't know what they don't know. We have all heard of people who are trying to convince adult parents to stop driving. What irks me is that Kamala Harris had no chance. As with many presidents, they fail to mentor or give their vice-presidents a chance to shine. 

Back to reality today. We've 21,000 people evacuated by horrific forest fires. Things in California are on fire, as well. It is truly shocking. 

Speaking of battles, I may have won with miniFreds 1 & 2. I'll have to do the lawn today. I hope it doesn't terrorize them! 

Crumbly Acres

 The birds have been singing beautifully. They are wonderful, especially in the morning.

"Quoth the raven, nevermore!"

This is my old camera, with the dirty zoom lens! Perfectly fine for audio, however.

Nevermore, indeed!

What can I say? Fred is back at the shed with the 2 remaining kits.

She opened up her hole again! I caught her doggy digging.

I managed another photo of the jack-in-the-pulpit! It is very tall this year. 

One poppy. I guess Fred doesn't like them. I've believe miniFreds are back at hole #6. I saw one on the front deck. Mom was gone all day. More on that later.

Down at the frog pond, Tadpoles are growing. Soon they will will grow legs.

 

Here was a fun sight: Scarlet Tanager from the archives. I have to keep writing that because I keep mixing up Scarlet Tanager and Baltimore Oriole. 

And in bath mode at the fountain.  

 They need baths. The pine tree pollen is falling everywhere!

 

Crumbly Acres Driveway

Firstly, Nutmeg brought me a jumping forest mouse. I let her in the house where she released it. Eventually I put it outdoors. Cinnamon caught one the day before. Mostly they get rodents. 

 I have a great time watching the driveway at night. Truthfully, I haven't put the trailcam here in summer much, as I recall. We've had several visitors. 

First our regular: a deer. I've not seen fawns yet this year.

   

 Next, another regular critter: coyote.

   

 This is rather funny. Bears are curious and the young ones seem to go after the trailcams. This is what he did to it. I could tell a bear had been by, as it was askew.

 

Lookie here! 

   

 I was disappointed he didn't get himself on camera, but here he is on the driveway.

   

 And, an amazing sighting of an illusive critter, a Bobcat! June 5th.

 

Crumbly Acres Action

🛬🛫Imagine my surprise when I read the flights, they had to land in Newark around 4 pm! What could go wrong in Newark?!  Then, they had to catch another plane home at 8 9 pm. I live vicariously through others' travels.

The kids arrived home from Portugal, via Frankfurt. I like to watch their progress! Imagine my surprise, watching them all day, when they veered like this.

I added the weather radar layer: a massive storm!

🐀Back to our little groundhog nursery. 

Fred moved her kits just before I left for Ottawa. I sat on the deck and watched them. Sadly, we seem to have blackflies around the deck. I can't do a deck spray, since we've tree frogs and a hummingbird feeder up. I have a sunburn, as well as blackfly bites on my arms. I wasn't out much in May, as it was cold. I put on sunscreen, but not enough. 

As we sat there, Fred brought her kit out. The other miniFred seemed to be back at the shed.

 They were quite worried. Fred and Cinnamon had an agreement. He got a bit close to her kits though, and she hustled them under the deck. 

Joe's thought is that Fred was making them feel better, feeding right there in front of us. I was fascinated.

🦌Saturday, we heard some squealing, and I wondered if coyote was back. I saw a deer heading across the yard. Fred was not pleased. I believe it was just the deer who was going to eat Fred's Hostas! 

Phoebe should fledge Next week. Bless their little souls, bopping around debugging the yard!

My planters were well-looked after by Joe. This is a fuchsia, Eileen!

Fishies are doing OK. I may have to fill it up with some well water.

The back deck had gray tree frog nap here.

We had a pair of bucks come by June 1st.