Gramma Camp – Week 26

 Monday night, we adults were sitting watching our shows, with Cinnamon on my lap. I hugged him and said we had to tuck Josephine in. Down we went. Safely tucked in, Cinnamon stayed on the bed with Jos. This is an oldish photo, but happy boy, he is. Isabelle is sleeping in her office!

Tuesday Morning

I slept in. Grampa woke me up at 7:30. I was awake for a couple of hours at bedtime. Speaking of being late... Then, when the school bus was ready to leave, Isabelle was sitting on the throne reading! She missed the bus! She was only late by a minute! 

All this is keeping me busy. It's a good tired. I'm down 2.1 kg.

9:55 a.m. – I came upstairs after my workout and checked in on my students. I had to print off a worksheet for Josephine, she sends it to me in message as I cannot get her laptop to print from our wireless printer. Pythagorean Theorem! These are worksheets found online. 

I wonder, in all the new curriculum, and new plans for the Ministry to allow for permanent remote learning through TVOntario (what could go wrong?!), how well they supervise the curriculum. When I taught, we had to put together a full year's plan, when learning outcomes would be covered, what resources we used had to be on the Circular 14 list. This seems to be haphazard, now. The ministry is throwing these things out, leaking them, perhaps:

Anyway, I toddled down the hall to Isabelle's office, "You good?" 

    "Yep, algebra!"

    "OOh, I love algebra! Can I do your work for you?"

    "Nope, I love algebra." 

Wood frogs

Jos and I went down to the trailcam. We saw the wood frogs. This is the earliest I remember seeing them.

• April 10, 2017 It's a busy pond!
• April 15, 2016 On my way to the pond...
• April 18, 2014 Daisy and I took a walk down to the frog pond
• April 19, 2013 Tree frogs and wood frogs are singing in the wetland

They were quite vocal! Wood frogs Mar 30  

After that, we disdecorated for March, and put up yellow ribbons for April. Isabelle chose to climb her tree. She said is was a bit scary, but more exciting, since the wind was blowing her around up in the pine tree!

Our area has a three-year-old lost on Canoe Lake Rd., we've driven there many times [Apr. 7th => Canoe Lake Rd.]. It's forested, with poor phone signals. There is a fishing camp, and he'd wandered off. It reminds me to enjoy each day. It could get worse. The OPP have drones, heat sensing equipment, and canine sniffers. Volunteers are showing up, unwanted, blocking the roads and leading the dogs in the wrong direction. 

Hold your children close.

Gramma Camp – Week 26 Monday

 The week began with a bang. I threw the garbage outside, fed the 2nd last batch of food for the deer. Waking the girls, our day had begun. 

I read online that our health unit was open to vaccinate 70+-year-olds. Online I went. No appointments available, none nearby, and I stopped looking when I hit June. We're going to wait. Surely they will open up the pharmacies. Almonte is 50 km away, or Ottawa, or Brockville. Napanee (91 km), Orleans (87 km), Ottawa City Hall (74 km), Kingston (71 km), Nepean (63 km).

There are select pharmacies that have vaccines, but they are few and far between. There was a piece on the news that those in small towns, with such pharmacies, are irate that out-of-towners are booking appointments, and locals are not being accommodated. Joe, being over 70 can get one at one of the large centres. Me, they sent to the pharmacies.

Grampa went into town to buy new summer tires, and book an appointment to put them on. Winter is over. I suggested it, since we have no idea how well the supply chain is doing for new tires! 

I did a short workout in the basement, then headed upstairs to see if all was well. The three news channels were all showing the same press conference with George Floyd's family. I just couldn't watch. I have to protect my mental health, as well.  

Josee's one teacher (she has at least 2, 3?) went on long-term disability. This is stressful for many. I asked how things were going. There were zero kids with their videos on. She said they'd been given asynchronous time during a synchronous period to work on an assignment she finished last week. She is working on another assignment. She is a good girl.

During our big break, at 1:45, Isabelle went tree climbing, while Jos and I emptied and refilled the wood duck nesting boxes.

Josie’s teacher had to leave the Google Meet. Her kid’s day care called and her kid has a cough, and she has to go get the kid and have them tested for COVID. It’s not easy! Many schools are closing as they don't have enough occasional teachers. 

After our work was done, we did some crafts. We'll send them to the cousins out west.

Dinner done, Isabelle was playing on the computer. Jos and I went walkies down to the trailcam.  First, we had to greet the doe and Nutmeg under the bird feeder.

We met Cinnamon along the way, and he tagged along. Truly, he led us along.

The frog pond is still partly frozen.

I love the trees. They have such character. 

The wetland isn't all that wet. 

By then we were tuckered out. 

The trailcam showed Chad📹, the coyote, who visited in the dark. (Isabelle has been calling him Chad!)  Here he is again, in the daylight; Chad coyote Mar 29 

There are rumours the provincial government is going to cancel our March April break. The kids and the teachers all need a break. I just don't know how they can do this. Our public health officer is a dipstick. He says there isn't any transmission in schools, which is a crock, and he and our premier think COVID–19 isn't spread in schools. Crikey... Toronto School Board teachers are being told to take everything home Thursday after school, there are closed for Good Friday. The rumours are flying about a full shut down, as well.

Gramma Camp – Week 26

 

They are back. It's a short week, though. Good Friday, Easter Monday, March Break, then a PD day this month.

Grampa picked the girls up at the hostage exchange point. We had a quiet afternoon. I meant to take a photo of dinner: ribs, potpie, roasted carrots and broccoli. I forgot, between taking it out of the oven, and calling the troops. So many people create amazing meals and feature them on their blogs, and I was proud of myself. You'll have to imagine it!

Bedtime, I went in, "Teeth and jammies, Iz." She does her teeth in the basement bathroom. She'd forgotten that Grampa had already reminded her and she'd done them. She roared back upstairs, giggling.

Another crisis, her nightlight wasn't on the correct setting. Fixed that. Then, Cinnamon was roaring around under her bed. Sigh.  I closed her door. 

The cats were happy to see them. Cinnamon went downstairs to sleep on the bed with Josephine!

And now, our critters...

Poor old Butch  . He knows there is food up there!

I'm wondering if this doe  is pregnant?! They show up in May with fawns. I videotaped one a number of years ago. You could see the fetus kicking her sides! (I can't find it, though!)

  

 

I love our Porcupine Mar 26 . It's a regular visitor. I hope it's not boring you! I like tracking their visits.

 

The coyote mar 27  was back, twice! I amalgamated them into one video. He pooped right in front of the camera, if you watch to the end. Little twerp!

And, last, but not least, the fisher   roared by.

Sunday promised more rain. You can see Ottawa through a hole in the predicted rainfall. I was dubious, however. We ended up with 11 mm. This morning, we are at -1 C.  and putting out the garbage was a tad chilly.

We are having another surge of COVID–19 in Ontario. Our local surge was due to a curling bonspiel, which spread to locals, families, and then schools. It is such a shame that people either don't care or don't believe we've a pandemic.

Caitlin continues to beat me at Scrabble! It's a fun long-distance parallel play!

Rain, rain...

All I had was my videocamera, and I did a screen capture of this poor old elm tree. It housed a flicker family last year. You can see the hole. The top fell off in a wind storm. I shall keep my eye on this hole. 

Friday, 10:00 a.m. – Another power outage. I'd neglected to charge the smartphone, too! duH. I phoned and they said it'd be back up by 11. It was up by 10:15. Whew! I was working out downstairs and everything went dark! What a storm. By 10:30 we'd had 27 mm rain. By the end of the day, we had nearly 30 mm of rain. Saturday, a skiff of snow. 

The goldfish pond is full. The water barrel is draining into it. 

Cinnamon wanted to sleep on the front porch. It wasn't that warm, in fact, damp and cold.

The back shows that all is not thawed yet. The eavestrough drains in the bushes, flowing from the underground pipes.  It is a clever system, for 30 years ago. We had a sudden warm spell. 

Watching the lightning map, I could see it moving east. We didn't get any of that, at least.

Weird outages. 

Then, us. 

At its peak, there were 14,746 without power in Ontario. Most were up by the end of the day.

Nearly 30 mm on the 26th.

In the backyard, the daffodils are starting to rise up! Spring is such a green and hopeful season.

March 23, Cinnamon got himself 📹another vole. I think it got away. He likes to bring them to the house. Nutmeg, AKA Killer, likes to eat them. There is a huge tunnel system in the garden beside the front porch. They didn't think that through.

Meantime, the porcupine  is finding food. If you choose to watch the video, you can see it nibbling on a small sapling. It is so gentle a critter.

 

March 26, the coyote had a visit  📹. 

 The frogpond continues to thaw. Cinnamon and I inspected it. Pond walkies  

 

Now, even you should watch this video, John! It's only 9 seconds long, the clip repeated in slow motion, for effect. No sooner did I hang up the filled bird feeder, but the chickadee launched itself at the feeder. Sometimes, they land on the feeder as I am coming around the corner from the garage, having filled it.

 

Then, 7:30 p.m., feral (?) Oregano was back in the pouring rain. Oregano Mar 26  

 

Zola, the doe with the broken leg, is still hanging in. JB fed her this morning, and she ate her fill. There were 4 deer this morning, including the young buck. Another five deer showed up. They are going to disperse into the forests, soon. She is putting more weight on the leg.

Our week begins this afternoon. The girls are back for virtual school for the week. They are hanging in with it. Since September. Their laundry is washed, I vacuumed, and washed the kitchen and bathroom floors. We are good to go. 

We are all looking forward to 'March Break,' which was deferred to April. Then I can switch from teaching support staff to Gramma, again. I ordered some craft materials, some for the girls. We'll make some things to send to their cousins in Vancouver. It won't arrive in time, we've a four day week this week and next, with Good Friday and Easter Monday being a holiday. 

 There were quite a few items on sale. It was $13.95 to have it delivered. Caitlin offered to pick the order up for me. Turns out, her store was out of a bunch of things, and they are mailing the rest to me for the $13.95 we were trying to save. One simply must laugh!