Another week begins...

ICE Detention

The bad news is another Canadian 4 months in ICE detention, along with a number of other foreigners to US soil. (Give me your tired...) 

#39. 🇨🇦 Canadian man living and working 25 years in the oil industry in Texas. Four months in an ICE facility. Mar., 2026. A true Canadian, he's been getting GoFundMe money, and helping others from several countries in the facility.

The weather has been fooling the critters! They are twitterpated. 

This shows the Otter tracks in the snow. They glide on their bellies, and give a shove with one back paw. This was the first time I hadn't taken a camera!

More snow, more deer. 

 

 Good old Butch raccoon! One was curious about the camera. You can see my Christmas lights are still up.

   

 The crow has been hungry. They are cleaning up deer food!

   

 He is a beautiful animal. This is the frog pond camera.

   

 Here he is on the trailcam beside the pond. The house is up the hill to the right.

 

I hope you have a good one!

These things are sent to test us!

Joe Brian had a Bone Mineral Density test (BMD #9) on Thursday. His first one was in 2013. This one was in Smiths Falls. They test his BMD since the Lupron he takes robs his bones of calcium. He takes calcium supplements to counteract this. I keep track of these things in order to review them.

• PART IV: Bone Density Scan #1 (Oct. 31, 2013) 
• PART XXV: Bone Scan #2 (Sept. 19, 2014)
• PART XXXVIII: Bone Density Scan #3 (Jul. 17, 2015)
• PART LVIII:  Bone Scan #4, 2017
• PART LXVIII: Bone  Mineral Density Scan #5, 2018
• PART LXVIII: Bone Mineral Density Scan #6, 2019
• PART CIV – Last minute Bone Density Scan #7 Wed., Dec. 7th. (#104, 2022). 
• PART  CXI – Bone mineral density scan #8, 2023.
• PART CXXIV – Bone Mineral Density test #9, Mar. 19, 2026.

 Good Bunny Labbit is coming out just before dusk. As Joe Brian says, "if you see a rock with ears, it's probably our bunny!"

The critters are quite hungry, for the most part. The birds are doing well. During that warm spell, he was singing his spring mating song. 

Eileen used to post photos of her birds out the window where she works out. I didn't spot a bird, but our mother/fawn duo. Can you see the fawn?

I ended up going upstairs and getting the zoom lens!

They are scratching away at the dead grass. Skunk ambled on by.

 

Skunk wandered over to check out Good Bunny Labbit's lair! 

After we lost a fawn last week, and the warmer spell, the deer were quieter for a few days. Saturday morning, there were 9 deer feeding. Joe Brian was watching them from the kitchen window and a coyote  roared on by, down in and across the meadow, heading toward the frog pond. Fortunately, they avoid the house in the day time. They cannot get the big deer. 

Saturday's Critters

  It's been  a whirlwind, literally, of rain, snow, graupel and wind. Poor critters! There was 5 cm snow Friday. 

Butch is awake 

 

And this one is missing a paw. Another has a weird-looking tail!  

Early Sunday, the robins were singing two different songs.  

Good Bunny Labbit is still doing well. She likes the deer food.  

After the coyotes took down a fawn, the crows were around helping clean up.  

We had a red-headed woodpecker! 

Saturday's Critters # 640

Fred is awake!

 The big news, Cinnamon and I spotted Fred running across the back of the lawn. Cinnamon watched from the deck. She went back to her winter burrow, and we might have 6 more weeks of winter!

 

Cinnamon liked to watch Fred in summer. Fred is just under the deck, behind the planter. Cinnamon watches from the table.

July 6, 2025

I went out to check its tracks before the snow covered them up. They are a bit imprecise in the fluffy snow! 

It was better under the tree, with less snow.

I think this is Momma Fred, as I know miniFred is sleeping in this hole (#2, in front of the shed). 

Fred came over to check it out, but it is frozen and snow-covered. There is no way miniFred or Momma Fred can get in or out.

Following the tracks down to the wetland, I think she was headed back to her winter hide out under the highway. She will wait another day. I hope we don't have 6 more weeks of winter!

This is burrow #4, into the side of the septic bed. She didn't go in there! 

There are lots of tracks in the upper meadow. Skunk, Fred, coyotes and deer.

Fred <= my observations.

Fred was awake March 21st last year. I keep track just for fun. In 2024 it was March 30th. 

We've another winter storm on the way. Landing is getting rain. This morning is the Vernal Equinox. Days are getting longer, the sun is warming us up, when it is out. 

Canadians in ICE detention

 I don't know if this reaches everybody, but I do want to draw attention to it. Canadians are not safe. A Canadian woman, Tania, married a Texas man, Edward. She has a daughter (7) with autism. They have lived 5 years in Texas. Mother and daughter were at a baby shower, on their way home to Kingsville. Going through a checkpoint they were stopped, fingerprinted, and put into the infamous centre that housed children in cages. 

Tania has papers, and has a work Visa. 

According to CTV the centre, in McAllen, Texas, has been renovated and cages removed. However, they are cold, are only given space blankets, and sleep on floor mats. The food is horrible. What are they doing to human beings? 

More snow!

 We celebrated in our own way! Joe Brian is Irish on his mother's side!

Even after the melt, the wetland is still frozen and Barry Beaver slumbers. Of course it has refrozen with this roller coaster weather.

I had someone email me to ask about this bird feeder! I had to explain that it was adapted for my needs. I wrote about it here. The curved topper is from one source, the tray feeder was a gift, and the base I bought at Lee Valley. I McGyvered it! 

While the topper is intended to be a squirrel baffle, it works to keep the rain off, and to stop birds pooping in the feeder.

After the coyote kill, it came back a couple of days later but decided there was no need.

Butch has awoken!

It was tense. We watched the radar all day last Wednesday. And the thermometer. The big branch kept lowering layered with ice. Saturday another 13 cm snow...

There was ice all down the balcony glass. 

Out front I chewed my fingernails... all was well, though. 

2026

No branches lost during this storm. Whoopeee. The last one, and the one before, cost us several thousand dollars to clean up. [The arborists were here!] We had ice storms in 2013, 2016 and 2023.  

#75 is doing cleanup.

We had the first sign of Butch March 7th. Butch makes a good clean up crew. Sort of.

  

Cats were chomping at the bit Thursday morning. Going outside with them on the deck I noticed that some thing had moved the hornet's nest. The cats were very keen on looking out onto the lawn. I saw nothing unusual.

 

On the back deck some stones had been moved out of the rabbit's bowl. I usually plant paperwhites in this container. Deeply suspicious I was. 

Off to check out the Crumbly Acres camera footage, I found them! Butch doesn't hibernate. They tend to hunker down in the deep cold around here. Something like 5 - 10 degrees below zero. 

I prepared this a few days ago. Since then we've had snow. This morning we're back in a deep freeze. to -16℃. We've been going back and forth between rain and snow. Coffee is a welcome ritual this morning.