Crumbly Acres: KEE POUT

Just when I thought things would wind down, Fred is winding up. Fred took her kits to burrow #4. It is beyond the edge of this section of the yard, with two entrance/exit holes. The first photos shows Fred in Spring. 

Now, all the foliage is out. That is sanctuary for a groundhog.

It is a clever location, with the bracken hiding the exit/entrance. 

I was doing a workout when I spotted a kit at the daffodil garden. It was smaller than Fred. I thought of Eileen who sees song birds out her window.

This shot I quite like, with worried Phoebe atop the purple pencil, watching miniFred down below.

It was raining on and off, and chilly. Neither of us were feeling 100%. My Wild Parsnip poison boils are still on my arm. I peeked out back, checking things out. Fred has been munching on my Hosta plants. Usually, it is the deer!

I admire her tenacity!

 

 I watched Fred hop up the stairs, and slip under the gate. I wasn't sure where she was headed.

I slipped out the front door, ran around the house, and found her in the act. 

Chewing on the garage door frame. 

I put a log with a brick on top, blocking the area of interest. A trailcam would let me know what was going on.

Caught in the act, again.

Later, I found coyote was on the frogpond trailcam, with a muskrat in its mouth. Oh my. Fred was wise to move her kits. Coyote seemed to show it off to the camera.

One needs a sense of humour! I ordered a book for Joe, and the man delivering it chucked it on the chair. Fair enough! Either he wanted to save time or he thought this was to keep humans out. That was the day before.

I thought we had to laugh over this. So much is going wrong in the world I have to remember there are good people in the world. 

The Kee to Bala was the great band venue one attended on Saturday nights in Muskoka. For many, many years at the cottage, there was a privacy sign across the busy highway. It said KEE POUT! 

My poor UPS man. I was down at trailcams, but Joe greeted him. He said he read the sign, figured out he was neither a groundhog or a Fred, and climbed over. 

And, in good news, I was trolling around on the lawn tractor, and that disturbed #75 squirrel. He's still there! He whipped out of the box and up the tree, leapt to another tree, most disturbed. 

Saturday's Critters # 598 <= Visit Eileen's critters here!

Fires out west, critter updates

🔥🚒The fires continue out west. Manitoba has declared a state of emergency. The same isn't true for Saskatchewan to its west, there are calls of racism from the tribes profoundly affected. THAT province has a white premier.

There have been 17,000 evacuations, with military flights to move them out.  Manitoba has a population of about 1.5 million people. Wise people are listening to evacuation calls. The media showed someone NOT bemoaning the potential loss of his truck and home, but this wise young man said that it is only things, and he's glad he has the opportunity to flee rather than losing his life. Wab Kinew, the trilingual premier of Manitoba (English, French, Ojibwe), is an amazing man. He has asked the federal government for assistance. He is on line supporting his constituents.

The bigger the circle, the bigger the fire. The smoke has been an issue, as well, drifting east towards other provinces. 

Fire Outage Map

🕷We finally had a break in the rain Wednesday. I managed some outside work, even picking up a tick. It was crawling on my shoulder. I was about to catch it and kill it (futile, I know!), but it dropped off me beside the goldfish pond. 

I did some research. I have noticed that this happens in the forest, not so much in our grassy areas, but where there are saplings, and wee new trees my height. 

Ticks are QUESTING – by Bruce Smith, Otty Lake, xxx Former Professor at Ithaca College, Dept. of Biology:

“What is your quest?” – I couldn’t resist a quote from the movie ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’, but ticks have a behaviour called ‘questing’ where they climb up on a plant and extend their legs, waiting for a host. If they make contact with a potential host, or pick up a cue from a possible host (e.g., warmth, carbon dioxide, odours) then they will drop and try to grab onto anything they can – hopefully a host. 

PREGNANT DOE 

I was watching her, but Fred had just moved her kits to this part of the yard, and scared the doe with her high whistle! She was staring down at burrow #4 under the fence. I was walking nearby, and Fred squealed at me. 

I found an April 12th, 2025, photo of Fred's burrow #4. You can see the fence, and the house behind. This is all covered in bracken, and other foliage. It's quite safe, I hope.

This is a young buck on the dock for some reason!

 COYOTE

The coyote visited the frog pond trailcam, peed, and made eye contact with the camera! Such attitude!

They have beautiful colours.

PHOEBE

Phoebe's eggs hatched May 27th. I predicted May 28th. Not far off. I'm giving them some quiet time. 

#75

We haven't seen #75 in several days. I think he's moved on! We have stopped feeding him, as it is encouraging other wildlife.  I noticed a pair of crows landing in his tree Wed., May 28th 7 am.

May 28th I noticed the fireflies are out and about.

I managed a video June, 2014: Firefly from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo. 

The birds, butterflies, and bees are out!

butterfly

We made it up to 29℃ twice this past week. It was lovely, with cooler temperatures overnight. 

Fred got into some bad trouble. I am not amused. More on that later. 

Happy Anniversary!

May 28th – 20 years ago! We were so much younger then. 

Son Jesse, Joe, Me, Caitlin, JL, my youngest son, my late mom, and my brother.

 Caitlin and JL are celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary in Portugal. They are foodies, and began their first day by doing a food tour. The other gramma is in Ottawa with Jordan and Aster this week. We visit next week.

This is a funny story. I began this eleven years ago, for the kids' 10th wedding anniversary. I am having a hard time finishing it. I keep looking at the mistakes, making errors, miscounting. I was making progress knowing their 20th anniversary approached. It's a rainy day, maybe I can work on it some more!

 Here at home, things are a little quieter!

Goldfish pond - I'm not quite ready to put them outdoors!

FRED

That was the last straw, apparently. Me mowing and a strange groundhog travelling on by. 

Fred moved her kits to another burrow. Joe and I watched the spectacle unfold. She had them in burrow #2 under the shed. She still runs under the lower deck (#3). She ran, leading them across the yard to burrow #4, which has more foliage around it. 

I saw her eating in the daffodil garden late that afternoon. Joe took a walkabout and Fred squealed at him. Cinnamon spent the afternoon watching them in the bracken. Fred and Cinnamon have an agreement.

I did notice a coyote going by the trailcam with something in its mouth. Maybe that's what scared her. There is no burrow where that other visiting groundhog took off to.

 

Wild parsnip, the lawn, and Fred

🌱Monday, after days of on and off rain, I did the lawn. It didn't go well. I knew Fred would be disturbed. Thing is, they don't hibernate until late August, the lawn will need to be done regularly depending upon rainfall. They all hid in their burrow.

I grabbed an errant weed in the 'lawn' (mostly Twitch grass, and native weeds, dandelions, devil's paintbrush). Even as I reached barehanded for it, I thought, it looks vaguely familiar. I now know it was Wild Parsnip. 

I am susceptible to contact dermatitis, after several annual bouts with poison ivy in 2011. Our township has worked hard to eradicate this noxious, poisonous weed. The birds kindly spread the seeds. There were a couple of bunches under and around the mailbox. I got rid of that. I used the heavy duty poison ivy killer.

 

I do have an ointment the dermatologist gave me back in the day, a topical steroid. Thank goodness. It is in a vaseline-like substance, and still seems to work. 

It is better after three days. I've been wrapping it in a neckerchief, as it does transfer to other parts of my body if I am not careful.

 

🐀 Fred and miniFreds didn't like the lawn tractor. (I had to back it out of the shed over their burrow opening.) I began in the front, hoping they'd hear it coming. 

This was fun! A piece of Twitch Grass sticking up in her face. 

iPhoto has a feature that 'cleans up' the image. Those are big teeth!

Fred and Cinnamon hung out at the deck. He's a gentle cat, and seems to know she is either harmless, a vegetarian, or bears watching. Fred was concerned with something, standing and doing 'bear.'

Another Fred came by, and approached the shed. Winnifred didn't like that. 

 

 

 After she made it back to the burrow entrance, there was a feeding involved! I think they head bump her to get he milk flowing!

 

She sat most of the afternoon under or near the lower deck. Chirping loudly. She chirped right through dinner and into the evening. It was strange.

Crumbly Acres Fred and Cinnamon

Gardening has been tricky. It's been cold, dark, and wet. I was using the hacksaw to cut a metal piece for my new bottle tree. This was a mistake, as blood dripped down my hand. That was lots of fun! I wasted a sunny afternoon.

It's a work in progress. I spotted the bottle tree idea on Crafty Gardener's blog. Hers are much better.

We were out back, Cinnamon and I. He heard something. He sat thoughtfully, listening. I figured it could be our porcupine, or a turkey.  It turns out he had his eye on a chipmunk raiding our black morph gray squirrel's daily feed of seed. We hadn't seen #75 all day.

Cinnamon sat himself on the lower deck and watched our new friends, Fred, and her 4 miniFreds.

#75 showed up late in the day. We were wondering if he'd flown the coop.

Fred has been vigilant for predators. It's pretty safe in the yard. We're home all day and predacious critters tend not to visit at that time.

 May 26 – Three owls callout out the back. Quite a bit apart in the forest. 

More fun, we had the strange cat visit. In the night.

It's been funny watching them. Thanks to those who watch the videos. They will be gone so soon, good summer fun.  

 My feline inspector checked out my work.