Crumbly Acres

 Sunday afternoon, Oct. 20, I could hear an ambulance roaring by. It caught my attention, since the lights were flashing, then the siren began. Still people didn't pull over. They were honking their horn to get stupid people out of their way. It turns out a man and toddler were out canoeing and fell out of the canoe. He got them to an island, but the canoe blew away in the wind. NO lifejackets. The OPP used the canoe to rescue them. Oh, city people.  

In other news, a 16-year-old girl was arrested for the murder of a 15-year-old in Perth, ON, on Friday afternoon, Oct. 25th. It has been a shock to many of us. The town population is about 6500, and lots of people know one another. We live 5 km out of town, but it still hits hard. 

 Back to nature...

The milkweed seeds are good to go!  

 We had a fisher come by.

   

The cottontail is adorable!

  

 The blue jays are happy with the feeder.  

 The mice friends are regular visitors, as well.  

Talking to a friend, she mentioned her issue with mice. It was in 2014 that Dorah would watch for deermice here. I ended up trapping some. I put them in the cat carrier so she wouldn't get into the traps. 

And we knew it was coming... It's melted this morning. This is a good thing. 

This morning we have people coming to cut down some dead sumac and elm trees cluttering the yard. We'll see how they do. I'll have some wood to stack. Thank goodness for the lawn tractor and trailer.

Bird feeder, frogging

That was a bit of rain on Friday. We had 14 mm. We have had about the same as last year in October, although we've about a week and a half to go for the month. It reminds me that I must do the eaves. 

Oct. 29, 2022, the bird bath froze. I'll have to put the heater in. It was 5 C. this morning.

Birding from the front window

The mourning doves:

The Blue Jays!

🐸 Moving Froggies <= Frog Count

There are quite a few Wood Frogs about. They are forest dwellers and spend winter under leaves.

We appear to have a whole new batch of frogs in the goldfish pond. I was outside, in the rain, checking on things and couldn't resist trying to catch more. They were a lot less spooked, and I counted 20+. I captured  22 yesterday, and chucked them into the wetland.

Somebody went shopping and found me a new fishing frogging net. I managed to capture two in the net at once. I was so pleased! 😲

The leopard frog was the strongest jumper, and thought he'd resist the move.

 

Moving the frogs from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Overhead, a skein of geese. Not too bad in the rain with the iPhone camera!

The wet wetland welcomed them:

 In 2021 I moved a grand total 64! Only one dead frog in April 2022. I cannot find any count for 2022.  

For the most part, these are leopard frogs and green frogs. 

Oct. 11  a.m.  –  7 frogs moved

Oct. 11 p.m.   –  7 frogs

Oct. 12 p.m.   – 13 frogs

Oct. 13 p.m.   –   5             = 32

Oct. 14 p.m.   –   3     

Oct. 18 p.m.   –   5       

Oct. 19 p.m.   –   3              = 43

Oct. 21 a.m.   –  10

Oct. 21 p.m.   –  12              =  65

Snow, wind, freezing rain

I accidentally posted twice yesterday. I'd forgotten it was Earth Week –a moot point, as the ditches are full of another 15 cm of snow. We had Caitlin and the girls for the weekend. It was busy and I'd scheduled that post to post. In the meantime, it was a crazy weekend for weather, and still anticipating rain or freezing rain.

Today, Monday, the school busses are cancelled. Our snow blower I put away in the shed, so we must wait for the snow to melt! There is ice rain on the way, now.

 Back a few days. The deer didn't quite know what to make of the bunny.

It was a lovely day Friday! The grouse was having a feed in the snow.



Friday night, the girls came for dinner and a 2-night sleepover. Papa had gone to Copenhagen for the weekend.
One day we had crocus about to bloom, the next, 15 cm snow, then 6.5mm freezing rain.


The next day the snow plows were on the move across the province. There were 42,000 Ontarians without power.

Track my Plow!

April 15th

Crews face hazardous conditions and significant damage such as broken poles, downed lines & trees as they work to restore power to over 42,000 customers. Teams from our contact centre to lines, forestry and damage assessors are coming together to help with relief efforts #ONstorm pic.twitter.com/mZiBWTqzVr— Hydro One (@HydroOne) April 15, 2018

The birds feeders were BUSY. We had 9 common grackles, 3 non-breeding starlings, 2 hairy, 2 downy, chickadees, 3 red-winged blackbirds, Mr/Mrs. Cardinal, several blue jays, tree and song sparrows, purple finches, juncos.


The poor blue jay had freezing rain and ice pellets stuck on its feathers. It tried to shake it off, but that didn't work.


There was a huge flock of black birds. I think it was a group of red-winged blackbirds, as well as grackles and starlings. I counted about 75 in the tree. They were amazing.

Sometimes one simply must laugh about the weather!

RIGHT NOW: Heavy Traffic at Dufferin and Davenport. Buses can’t get up the hill because of the slick roads. Commuters have to find other ways around. If possible, try to avoid this area. #CityStorm #ONstorm #icestorm pic.twitter.com/JYfAC1yYAi

— Nitish Bissonauth (@NBissonauth) April 14, 2018

Twas a busy night!

That was a busy night. Don't tell my Reptile & Amphibians group. Around 10 p.m. Dorah roared in the cat door, and I knew she'd brought something in. It was a red-belly snake. It wasn't amused, she dropped it on the floor in the hallway. Annie was watching quite keenly. I put it out in the garden.

Then, 3 a.m., Annie was roaring around the bed. She'd brought in George mouse, and was chasing it in circles. I slept through it. Hubby fetched the butterfly net, cornered it, and took George outside! He remembered the garage door, and closed it so we wouldn't have a repeat of Butch Raccoon in there.

Then, 3:00 a.m., Annabelle was roaring around in circles on the bed. I didn't wake up. Hubby told her to settle down, until she kept ramping it up. He realized that she'd brought George mouse to bed. Outside he goes, to fetch the butterfly net. George was in the corner, behind the door.




Today, Sunday, it is pouring rain. I should have checked the eavestrough! Sigh. Later...
Meantime, in our drought, the birds have been bathing in the birdbath, as well as the water fountain.


Hubby watering the garden for me.