It's about the absence of heat!

 I've had to switch up trailcams. My old one doesn't like our temperatures! I brought it indoors to thaw.

It was sunny yesterday, and we both took walks. Back indoors, some TV, a thriller/murder mystery, and some sketching. (More on that another day!)

I saw the Irwin family being interviewed on TV. Brother Robert, mother Terri, Bindi, her husband Chandler. They were married in 2020, they said it brought joy to them in a horrid year of Australian fires and the pandemic. She's having a baby this year, too!

Bindi Irwin's books we bought for the grandies. They are a great series. It's based on their animal shelter in Australia, where they rescued and rehabilitated hundreds of thousands of animals, including koalas, and kangaroos after the fire. Many were homeless due to habitat loss after the fires. 

It is so cold here. I cannot complain, though. We are safe, warm, and dry. They have had to close the Ottawa shelters to new clients due to COVID–19. It's terribly difficult for all those who provide support for those who so desperately need it.

4 Ottawa shelters pause new admissions to reduce COVID-19 spread

As of Saturday, one unnamed shelter had 72 cases, with 62 residents and 10 staff testing positive for the virus. 

Speaking of the homeless, we're still getting visits from the feral cat, Oregano. I put out cat crunchies, but I'm not sure it touched them. Wet cat food would freeze. I've not seen him in the heated cat shelter, so I unplugged it. He's here for the mice friends.

In this one, if you look beside the shovel handle, you can see Oregano's eyes. 

Down to the trailcams. There were bunny tracks, nowhere near the trailcam, though! The trees are creaking, the snow is deep. 

I still cannot find my snowshoes, the snow cover is getting deeper. I often leave them out in the sun to dry, but they are nowhere to be found. It's discouraging. The kids bought them for me about 20 years ago. Jesse was working at Bushtukah in Ottawa.  

The wetland is frozen enough for me to cross over to the island. There were several deer beds there. 

People with trailcams know how much fun it is to fetch the SD Cards and bring them back to the house to discover the critters. We're still debating what this is. I went down to try and track it, but all I could see were deer tracks. It looked more like a coyote to me. mystery in the dark  

 

Bird bath, star-nosed mole, and the orchid

 How cold is it?

 I saw the motion sensor lights go on a couple of nights ago, and saw Oregano, our neighbourhood feral cat, out under the tree house. Nutmeg was watching him from the window. I don't know how he survives.
These are his tracks, coming from across the highway and down our driveway. He's after our mice!

Frost on bird bath 

A cat found a star-nosed mole. 

I transplanted Caitlin's orchid for her. It liked her office at work, but it didn't like working from home!

They put them in this little plastic pot inside the clay pot. 

 

A few days later, your orchid is surviving, Caitlin!!!

Outside, the young deer  are happily playing around.

They are perfectly happy to stay in this morning!

 Nutmeg has a strange way of resting!  

For more critters: 

Saturday's Critters # 372

Gramma Camp Week 22 – Thursday

 I awoke at 4:30. I figured I might as well go downstairs and chuck some firewood in the wood stove to keep the girls warm in their basement lair.

We began the day with a screaming dog. I taped it for them. Giggles all around. A great way to start the day. I cherry pick a few from my morning show, and they laughed. The other video was a twin, being called by the father, but he was calling the wrong name. The wee 2-year-old tried to point it out. 

thats ok, here have this screaming dog pic.twitter.com/ZW6gaaMttc

— 💜💛Golden_Freddyz9💛💜 (@GFreddyz9) January 28, 2021

While our local school board (USDSB) goes back to school Feb. 1st, Monday, and the girls' school board goes back then, as well, the girls have been doing virtual school since September. I think it was a good move, as they have that consistency over the months, and they are able to come to us alternate weeks.

We decided to quit virtual school at 1:30, and have a good break. Well, Isabelle and I. Josephine worked until 1:50. 

Izzy made a snow angel!

Isabelle and I checked on her trailcam. We found a spot where a deer peed, and mice tracks in the snow.

By then, Jos had joined us. She wanted to try and find Isabelle's trailcam by herself. She did!

They hung out at the tree, then began a snowball fight.

Josee climbed a tree!

Isabelle climbed a tree, too! Trust me, she's in there somewhere...

Refreshed, we went back indoors.

Grampa made the three of us tea and we set out to work. Isabelle brought Grampa's laptop into the dining room from her office, and we plugged away from 2:30 until after 4 p.m. I pulled ideas out of her brain, while Grampa threw vocabulary at us. She cleverly keeps a browser window open with Google Translate. Next, she typed out a script, translated what we couldn't do, rehearsed, she memorised the intro, and I filmed it. 

It was an ad for a product Izzy developed online: a plug in for her iPad, attached to her Mom's rowing machine.

We finished the ad. It was quite the process. It was assigned three weeks ago. A bit much for a gr. 5. I wonder who is monitoring the teacher assignments. I know there is a principal to oversee the teachers. 

If I were the teacher, I'd have broken the steps down, scaffolding the project, saying page one is due today, second section the next, with support.  isabelle ad They need the structure in this online forum.

After Grampa brough pizza home, and we ate, we gathered in the living room. Izzy pretended to be irked I'd taken yet another photo of her! At dinner we discussed red hair, and Isabelle explained how it is a recessive gene and she must have gotten it from her paternal grandfather, who had red hair. We have interesting discussions over dinner! 

The wolf moon...  I showed it to the girls. It's the best I would do for a photo. I could have hauled out the tripod, but I chose not to. 

I tucked the girls in, and there was Cinnamon, nestled in the bed with them. 

Oregano was outside, I spotted the motion sensor lights on, the poor wee thing. Izzy asked what I was going to do about it. She offered one of their live traps for me. I said that the rescue shelters are pretty full, plus he's likely feral, and not inclined to be a pet. I don't know how he survives. 

Gramma Camp Week 22 Wednesday

A big winter storm, and lots to clean out.  One of our cats brought a big fat mouse. I left it on the front deck. In the meantime, in this awful storm, Oregano was back.

In the morning the mouse was gone, and there was a set of lonely cat tracks! The trailcam didn't capture anything of Oregano. 

The day dawned, and we had friends in the backyard.

The school bus ran a bit early, just in case there was a computer issue. I hadn't told Izzy that her laptop  turned on. She feels so badly spilling water on it.

I was so excited that the computer turned on. Izzy noticed that the cord plug light wasn't on, meaning it wasn't charging at all. I ran around trying different outlets then changed the cord for Josee's computer cord. Neither made a difference. The computer was quite hot, from Google Classroom activities.  I said wait until I'm finished clearing the driveway, and we'll see. 

Once the girls went to work for the first virtual school session, I went out to do the front walk. My back was good, and I kept going. My back is much better, thankfully! Thanks, all, for your empathy.

I did the 100 m driveway, and it is spiffy. I'd say we had about 10 cm of light snow. The snow blower had some inhabitants. About one third of the way up the drive, a deermouse popped out. Then, at the end of the driveway, another bailed. They came flying out of somewhere and bury themselves in the snow. 

Nope to the computer fix. It works, but still isn't recharging. I consulted Momma, again, and we decided to do the rice treatment, again. There is rice in my slippers, all over the bathroom floor, I’d don’t think I ever want to eat rice again! I had some leftover rice casserole for lunch, and managed to spill some on the counter and the floor. I just shook my head! Grampa cleaned it up for me, so frustrating! 

Thing is, it's a lovely, sunny day, now. I cranked up the heat a tad, with the computer on top of the heating vent. Our house keeps the heat in pretty well, and the furnace isn't on all that long. 

I gave her Grampa's computer to use. His videocamera doesn't work, as it is my old computer. Nor can Momma message her. 

During the afternoon break, Isabelle volunteered to shovel the back deck. Then, Jos came out to fetch the trailcam card. She had lots of deer on it.

Much fun in the snow. You wonder why I log this, but Momma has to send a weekly report on the kid's physical education activities. sigh. It's not simple.