Showing posts with label #onstorm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #onstorm. Show all posts

Thursday, 29 February 2024

Wednesday Storm

My massage therapist had a cancellation, which I snapped up. I realized I hadn't been there in a year! 

 We had fair warning. We expected a storm, winds, and a flash freeze. I headed home to hunker down.

The storm approached: lightning, winds, rain. The lake effect snow coming in behind was amazing. 


The lightning map was confirming what we were hearing!

Feb 28 storm from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

We hunkered down to watch TV, hearing the wind outside. I was watching the thermometer. I was fascinated in the change: 

Temperature drop Wednesday

  • 2:30 p.m.    16℃
  • 3:00            14
  • 4:15              9
  • 4:25              8
  • 4:38              7 
  • 4:48              6
  • 5:00              5
  • 5;15              4
  • 5:32              3  
  • 5:45              2
  • 6:08              1
  • 6:45              0
  • 7:11              -1
  • 7:55              -2
  • 8:34              -3
As I watched, the power outages accrued. They worked on it quickly, and the next morning there were about 23,810 without power. 


Tuesday, 28 February 2023

My newest drawing, goldfish update, and Cinnamon

This was an Amazon video screensaver. It inspired me, so I saved it.


 🎨 The tree looks a little tipsy, but there you go! I used my coloured pencils, as well as the charcoal pencil for the house. It colours over the coloured pencil, which pleased me! 


🎥 While someone was watching 🥌 curling (beside a fire I built for him, as well as two cats), I was watching Shotgun Wedding upstairs. The movie was cute. 


I accomplished a lot Sunday. I roused myself to do some vacuuming, Cinnamon didn't budge from his perch. Nutmeg tore out of the room, though. My other big chore was my end-of-month fish tank cleaning. I really have to get a couple more goldfish this summer. This one (below), along with another small one, have disappeared. The styrofoam protection wedge has been duct-taped on. Cinnamon is so curious about the fish, I think he is to blame.

 

I removed the plants, and the little clay pot with the gravel and fake foliage (first photo, below, back left). Percy empties it everytime, looking for food. He is a bottom grazer. It will give him more room! The water takes time to settle after a cleaning. 


Percy is a large boy! The remaining five look as if they will last until I can throw them in the goldfish pond in the spring.

It is tricky work and takes me over an hour. I have to remove ~10% of the water, clean the filter system, replace the floss filter, water the plants with the rich fish water, and refill the tank with fresh water. This is the time Cinnamon likes to hop up top and stick his face into the tank. We have to be vigilant. 


Monday morning I put the garbage out in -13 degrees C. Afterwards, I snuggled down with my laptop, cat, and coffee. I had trouble getting going later, though! You can see why. JB left to go walking at the arena. Cinnamon heard the door close, but decided it wasn't anything to investigate.


I've set the older trailcam on the front deck. It means I don't have to trudge through snow to get the videos! Two black squirrels, 8 red squirrels.

squirrels crazies from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.


Tuesday, I have a hospice client at 8:45. It's going to be tough that early for me! I'm not usually fit for company at that hour. I may have to shovel out, as well. A big storm. At least there isn't any rain. Today it is only -6˚ !  They changed up the radar from yesterday to this morning. I might just wait until after my gig, and the snow all falls. Never do today...


Busses are cancelled, except in Ottawa. Our girls usually walk to school, as they've a lot of school work to do, better done there than in the comfort and distractions of home. They are great students.

Tuesday, 31 May 2022

Phoebe, robins and ONStorm

 🐣 Critters

🐣PHOEBE –  Phoebes have hatched May 28th. It looks like all 5 of them! They should fledge June 11th. 

The first 🐣ROBIN was here as of Feb. 1st, in the snow and cold! They've nested and hatched: May 14. The robins fledged on Sunday, May 29, having hatched exactly 13 days ago. No eggs remained, I assume they hatched 3/3 eggs. 


I anxiously await the Wood Ducks hatching. I did a quick check on them. May 29. 


🍃 Invasive Spongy Moths🐛 <= my data!

We had a helicopter go over the nearby lake. It is always a bit creepy since I associate them with emergencies. I asked on Facebook, and they are spraying BTK on the caterpillars. I hope all our butterflies and caterpillars are safe here. They were up about an hour. Our LDD Spongy Moth caterpillars have mostly died off. After a couple of years they get hit by a naturally occuring virus.

helicopter from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Public notices describe BTK as harmless to people, and non-toxic to insects, birds, fish, mammals, and adult moths and butterflies. However, this is misleading. BTK is not species-specific and, if consumed, will result in mortality of any butterfly or moth larvae at the time it is sprayed. BTK has been sprayed in several extremely rare Ontario habitats, such as oak savannah, oak woodland and tall grass prairie — which means it can also negatively affect many rare moths and butterflies that use these habitats.

I was quite happy to be able to sit on our back deck in the 31 C. weather. There were flies, but no mosquitoes or blackflies. I've been using Skin-so-soft when I go out to do the lawn. That certainly helps.  My left arm is covered in several blackfly bites, oozing little hives. Unlike mosquitoes, they land and immediately dig in. You just don't feel them.


There are ~5600 households with Ottawa Hydro still without power lo these 10 days. Some homes need to have individual repairs, as their neighbours are up, but they have household damage. What a mess it is. Ontario Hydro has about 7100 left to get reattached.

Sunday, 29 May 2022

On the Home Front

Well, the good news is that more Ottawans have power, as well as Ontarians. We're down to 12,000 without power, from an Ontario high of 277,000. 

Grampa, Caitlin and Isabelle went to our local market Saturday morning. They had some breakfast and brought home some supplies. 

The big news is the kids went home yesterday. Come hell or high water they wanted to be their own home in their own beds. They'd been checking their neighbourhood Facebook page, and residents nearby to their house were reporting that they had power, they were hopeful. When they arrived home, Caitlin texted me that they had power AND hot water! What a blessed relief.  YIPPEE!!!

It was the kids' 17th anniversary, and they went out to dinner after doing groceries.  What a fine end to the week for them.

I had a haircut, and came home to do cleanup and laundry. It was a beautiful day. I managed to get some outdoor chores done in the sunshine, including hanging clothes outdoors. We've had two days of rain. 

The cherry tomato plants is coming along! I watered them, filled the fountain, and enjoyed the sunshine.


My fuschia plant fell off the soffat onto the ground. I had just put more earth in it, it seemed to have compacted. I rehung it on another hook, topped up the soil, and hoped for the best. I like its new placement, it is in the middle of the picture window. The hummingbirds visit it.




We've had a lot of rain, and they are like jewels, these blossoms. I realized there are two different types of species in the planter. I actually went outside with my reading glasses on, this time, in order to get a better image. 


They are so pretty. If I had Anvilcloud's skills I'd fiddle around with this image, but I lack patience these days!

 Ontario Election

We've a provincial election. We went into town, Monday, May 21st, for the early voting. The actual voting day is June 2nd. I worry, as we've some whacko fringe parties represented on the ballot. They are represented by this person in this truck. 

This is the last weekend of the election period. Our former premier has been absent from the issues around the Ottawa power outages, he's too busy campaigning. He was absent from the Trucker Convoy on Parliament Hill, as well. He is all about cutting corners, putting in a new highway Toronto does not need, across environmentally significant lands. He cancelled LTC inspections. He cancelled 750 energy farm contracts, wind farms, at great expense in penalties costing Windsor $2.5 Billion in an LG factory contract. He failed thousands who died of dehydration in long-term care (LTC) during March 2020, from COVID, accounting for 69% of all COVID deaths. Then he extended the licences of the very worst LTC home chains, his buddies. He's doubled the waiting list for children to get help with autism. Routine lab tests are now costing individuals, including cancer screening ($86).

Thankfully. We've too many local candidates. Happily, the fringe right have split into separate parties, and won't get many votes.  We've local candidates for the main parties:  NDP, PC, Liberal and Greens. Canada doesn't have 'incumbents' per se, as the previous government is no longer in power after the writs are drawn up and signed. Once parliament was dissolved, we start the slate clean. 


Then there are these folks: Chelsea Hillier (Populist Ontario), Craig Timothy Massey Rogers (Independent), Marcin Lewandowski (New Blue Party of Ontario), Thomas Mulder (Ontario Party). 

We cast our votes electronically, this was the day that power came up in town! And headed home. This is what happened when we stopped in order to turn left on the highway into our driveway. It amazes me that people cannot wait 10 seconds while there is a break in traffic. One day they will take out our mailbox in their anxiety to get to where they are going.

Well, another sunny day. Here is Big Bear, video #2 from May 25th. He was there at 7, 7:24, and 10 p.m.!

Bear May 25 #2 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Saturday, 28 May 2022

The storm & Saturday's Critters!

 POWER OUTAGE UPDATE: We made it to Friday! Tacos for dinner Thursday, we watched a movie: Uncharted. It was a fun one for all. Everyone is helping out, and we are all making it work. To go from 2 to 6 people is quite the excitement! The kids still didn't have power in Ottawa, although Friday night a neighbour had power come up. We think it'll be back today. That is 7 days without power for them.

This is Merivale Rd./Viewmount Dr.
We lived near here, in Pine Glen.

We went down on Saturday and came back on Sunday last week. There was a lot of damage.

Caitlin worked in the Muskoka room, or the office. Josephine had homework to do. I puttered. Grampa went into town for dinner supplies. We're just taking one day at a time.

JL had to go into the city for work. He ended up at his house, cleared out the freezer (such a waste) and put it in recycle for Saturday pick-up. He drove back here and we feasted on spaghetti and meatballs. Another movie, Moonfall, and I konked out at 9 p.m.! 

There are still 26,800 without power across the province, about the same number are out with Ottawa Hydro. Here are the original power outages map May 22nd, and the map from yesterday, May 27th.






Saturday's Critters!

The critters have been busy. Robins have hatched, House Wrens are singing lustily, housed, as they are, in the Bluebird Nesting box. 

Phoebe babies have hatched. The kids have enjoyed watching them swoop in and out under the deck as they worked in the Muskoka Room. Singing at the top of their lungs. 

Off to the forest...

The coyote was caught on the trailcam, but it didn't like it!

 

coyote May 21 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

In the backyard, the doe ambles, whilst bats fly about.
 

doe & bat from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I had three eggs that I knew I should throw out after our 23 hour power outage last weekend. I thought Butch raccoon would get them. 

 

crow & ducks from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Our three Musketeers are still hanging about.

 

3 crows from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Blonde Butch raccoon is definitely lactating!



And, finally, Big Bear. What a surprise! I have two more videos of him. He was here at 7 p.m., and later in the night twice. He's nowhere near the house, and we've been running around doing outside chores, so he is a good bear! Hunting season begins today, we wish him well. 

 

Bear May 25 7 p.m. from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Thanks to Eileen for hosting Saturday's Critters. Join us at: 

Saturday's Critters # 441