Friday, 16 June 2023

June is just ticking along!

In the smoke, and the need for indoor play, I began doing Sudoku. It is an app, but I have been unable to do the ones on paper. This is great as it tell me if I've made a wrong move. It is exactly what I need right now: success. 

🔥 Canada has been blessed with partners from various parts of the world, recently 1296 firefighters are here or on their way. This totals 5,000 firefighters who have sent to assist from around the world, including South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. We are so grateful. 

  • The US has sent 600 firefighters.
  • A battalion of 350 firefighters from the EU are headed to Quebec.
  • France sent 109 firefighters. 
  • Portugal sent 140.
  • Spain another 97 firefighters.

Thursday brought more smoke to our area. We saw the sun, after a few days of welcome rain, but I had to close up the house. Friday we have a bit more smoke. It's supposed to get up to 5 on the scale, of 10, but I will be vigilant. The recent rains helped, but we aren't done yet.



🌧 It's now been a few days of rain. I actually washed floors. I'd put it off in the nice, hot weather, preferring to go outdoors. After several days of rain, I had no excuse. JB went into town for a couple of hardware store items. One important one, we didn't have the number of our house on our mailbox. Canada Post had done inspections along our route. He bought us some shiny new numbers, which I put on yesterday. I rubbed off the side of the mailbox with rubbing alcohol to clean it.

Speaking of rubbing alcohol, I found a tick on myself yesterday afternoon. It was plucked off with tweezers, and hastily dropped in the tick jar with rubbing alcohol. I could feel the itch. It is a nymph, a new hatch this year. The bites aren't as bad as the blackflies, honestly, and it wasn't on me long.

We aren't doing too badly with ticks. One year, Daisy brought in 200 that I plucked. The vet's goop we put on them really helps. You have to be aware. I knew the itch was a bad sign.

 

In the meantime, we'll have to clean the gutters. The kids are coming tonight. My SIL, JL, has promised to help, again. Bless his heart!

full rainy gutter from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Also, I'm working on a support for the orchid and the cherry tomatoes. I've been trying to figure out how to support the orchid. There is one bamboo "U" in the planter, but it keeps falling over. Can you count the blossoms? It is looking really healthy since I brought it indoors. 

 

I ordered the green one (below, left) for the orchid, and we may get it June 23rd. Or not!  JB bought me some dowels for a home-made one for the cherry tomatoes. 

This is what I accomplished. I am sure there is a better way to tie them, but I didn't check that out on YouTube! When/if it gets bigger, I can add another row of horizontal dowels. We've a couple of tomatoes near to being ripe!


The cats go out for a run, catch a rodent, and come back in. They don't like the bugs.


The bugs are still keeping them close to home, which is good. They come in hungry, usually. 

 

Cinnamon on the rails from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

The cardinals seem to be nesting, again. He is singing at the top of his wee beak. I am hoping phoebe finds another nest location. You can hear them singing. 

 

Phoebe nesting? from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo

I'd prepared this prior to going out doors Thursday morning. Thursday afternoon, I found these!

8 comments:

Tom said...

...time stands still for no one!

William Kendall said...

I can relate to not wanting to be among the bugs.

Barbara Rogers said...

Yay for new eggs! Boo to ticks and other bugs that bother warm blooded animals! Sorry the smoke is still bothering you all, it stopped coming our way this week at least.

Olga said...

When I read the title I immediately thought it might be in reference to those darn little critters. Having had Lyme disease I really have anxiety about ticks and they certainly are plentiful around here.

Anvilcloud said...

You said ticking along and then you got a tick. Ticking and ticks or not, it's not been tickety-boo over thisaway.

RedPat said...

Eggs again. That is great to see.

Elephant's Child said...

Have a great weekend. I have never had a tick bite and given how I react to other insect bites I am grateful.

Red said...

OW! The tick! I guess you have many ticks because of he deer. Taking my outdoor ed. kids on field trips was exciting. The kids really freek about ticks and we set up a buddy system where they had to watch each other.