🚑 🚔 I think of the First Responders

😼 We arrived home from Ottawa, the roads were now cleared. I guess the cats didn't miss us much. I thought they looked sweet and innocent when I saw them in the office. 

The trailcam reveals the action.

I took a walk on the day we had sunshine! The cedar corridor is a lovely spot. The 2nd photo shows a deer bed. They scrape the snow out and settle in. 

Sometimes they bed down in our backyard. This is a fawn in Feb., 2019.

🚑 🚔 I think of the First Responders, out there in the cold doing their best to rescue people, and get them help or to hospital. We laud them. What a calling it is. The storm on Saturday was awful for driving.

On the way home from Ottawa there was a car incident. A car went into the railing📹. 

🎣 On the way into Ottawa, we spotted people ice fishing. It's a bit worrisome as there were two separate ice fishing incidents in Ontario. One man died in Latchford, the other man rescued. Another incident, in South Frontenac on Dog Lake a pair were rescued.

   

Death on Roadway Black Ice

It was a terrible weekend for incidents. When we were in Ottawa, I had a text that our power was out at home. Later we found out what it was.

 

It was a very sad incident. Matthew Bigras was in his truck was taking his 4-wheeler home. He skidded on black ice on highway #7 and hit a stationary police SUV cruiser. (This was the afternoon we drove into Ottawa.) I took Perth Rd. #10 into the city, and I am happy I did. The police officer went to hospital. On a post, a mother spoke of losing her infant in a similar situation on highway 7. Photo by Dennis Papa on FB.

The son, Michael, was airlifted to CHEO in Ottawa, but did not survive. He was ejected through the windshield. The mother donated his organs to others in need. "Michael will have the walk of life to the surgery room. He  is saving 5 beautiful souls, 4 adults & 1 child." The family invited family and friends to walk the halls when life support was turned off to honour the child. 

The mother is doing a Go Fund Me in order to bury him. The father (Matt) won't be able to work for a while.  Chastity Tharp, the mother wrote:

"Matt is stable however he has a broken leg, a crushed pelvis and a punctured spleen. As for Sharon they have brought her to Kingston Hospital and I haven’t gotten any updates."

UPDATE Dec. 20: The third person in the vehicle was Sharon St. Amour. The poor woman is in an induced coma, needing a hip replacement, so her sister says on their Go Fund Me. 

Ornge helicopter whisked him into the Children's Hospital.

Hold your family close in your ❤️ heart.

A sunny day!

Temperatures have been up and down. We finally had a sunny day and decided to do a dump run. We've stuff that needed throwing out. An old metal garbage can of my dad's that had rusted through, pond equipment I can't use, old pots, etc. 

The wet fields, with all the rain we've had.

Around the bend, we had our car weighed first.

This is the pile of metal.

We drove up the hill, where we to dump our stuff.

Back to the weigh scale. 

It was an adventure! I think we went right at the top of the hill instead of left. We will know next time. The guy came out a vaguely sent us up the hill, but I suspect...

 This is sped up 4 x's, just for fun.

To the dump from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I noticed a memorial. Research tells me it was an 18-year-old in a head on collision. I always wish there were follow-up reports. What did the OPP learn? Who was at fault? How could it be prevented?

We passed a vernal swamp. It disappears in the heat of summer. 

On the way home, I asked Joseph Brian to take me to the quarry. The chorus frogs were singing for love! 

We did some chorus frog surveys over the years. They put the research on hold for some reason. 

chorus frogs 3 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

More research, this place is for sale just up the road. It's on an acre, only $679,900! I think there are chorus frogs there in the pond from one of our frog surveys.

That was a wet afternoon!

This was a bit of a surprise on social media. It was a really nice morning, Jan. 3rd. Dry, roads clear. I posted it to my timeline and told friends on Facebook that it wasn't us. The author of the FB post was driving and saw it happen. There is, of course, much speculation online. The witness did not see an animal. The bottom line is they are fine. 

It is a lovely home, and long frontage, with pillars on either side of the drive. (Google maps)

Dashcam, JB went into town.

🌧 🌧 🌧 🌧 🌧 🌧 🌧 🌧 🌧 🌧 🌧 🌧

We had rain yesterday afternoon and all night. It was like a November day, hovering around 1, and overnight to 0 C. Mother Nature is not sure what she is doing. This morning it is -1, and the back deck is all ice. There were 12,000 without power at 5 a.m. We had 25 mm (1") rain. The snow is mostly gone. 

My camera has a friend. It looks like a spider, active in the warmer weather. It looked like ghosts, at first!

I saved a video of it!

spider web! from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

We stayed indoors and dry, watching the events south of the border. Ain't politics grand?! NOT.

I switched this camera to the backyard. Richard Deer

 

Richard deer from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I'm trying to capture bunny on it. Richard is the star, however. Diva... 

We'll have a good chance of identifying him, even after he loses his antlers, because of his demeanor. He is obviously alpha male! 

  

Richard Deer from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

⛅Spring Break at Gramma Camp – week 27 ☔

Wednesday morning, I heard giggles coming from the basement. They were telling each other their dreams. Josephine's involved kittens. Isabelle's involved her sister, as a snake. Here is another one!

It's a strange month. Two stat holidays (green) and this week's Spring Break. The 23rd is a PD day. 

We spent a frantic time looking for BB. She has had BB since she was a baby! She was sitting in the arm chair. Looking for a photo I found this blog post:

Gramma camp 2.1 2018

Isabelle and Grampa were going shopping. Izzy put Beebee (her sleep toy) in the chair. I asked, "Will Beebee watch TV while you are gone?"
    "Yes, she has special eyes that can see the TV even when it isn't on!"

The tooth fairy visited overnight. Her BB (apparently the tooth fairy spelled it wrong), is her sleep snuggle.  

Jos did some painting. These are little kits, on sale at Michael's.

Apparently, Josephine painted her hands. I sent Isabelle to take a photo. She was too late!

They fetched the trailcam cards for me. grandies

  

Thursday – Yucky day for weather

We had 13 mm rain Thursday.

Cold, rainy, 

Breakfast was al fresco!

I FOUND THE BOLTS FOR THE SWING! Now I can attach the awning.

In the morning we took it easy. They watched some YouTube videos. Then lunch. All week they've been having leftovers for lunch (pot pie, baked beans), but now we're back to chicken soup.

Then a nice read. Three p.m. is video time.

We'd not gotten much done, definitely not 'quick and sprightly' to quote Izzy. It's just miserable outdoors. I asked if Izzy was drinking her water, she said she'd forgotten to put lemon in it. She doesn't like our well water!  I offered to spit in her water bottle for her. "GRAMMA!"

I've a list of spring chores to do - the reverse of Fall chores, that they might help me with. We managed some of them.

• set up bench swing with cushions,  ✅
• find the bolts for the bench swing canopy,   ✅
• install the window blind in the guest room/Izzy's office,   ✅
• take down the Christmas lights,  ✅
• take down the front yard Christmas tree   ✅
• open up the water fountain,   ✅
• recharge the tractor battery, (it works, BTW!) ✅
• put the fish into the goldfish pond,
• clean the fish tank,
• install the new dryer vent, (partly done)
• make birthday cards for cousin Bryony in Vancouver, NOPE
• tear down the picket fence around the old veggie garden.

They're back home for the week this afternoon. The provincial government is coming up with some new laws to keep people home. People are still engaging in super spreader events: parties, and such. It's been a long haul. Hopefully we get our injections Saturday.

Drugging and driving

Many of us have fought long and hard for the right to use medical marijuana (MM). I've had several clients; with catheters or colonoscopy bags (or both), some with unmitigated pain, who would benefit from certain strains of MM. One client, whom I escorted to the pain clinic in Ottawa, unable to afford it she was told to find a kid in her neighbourbood from whom to buy some.

This has been the whole argument around MM.

Then there are the 20-somethings. Little remorse for drugged driving, at least amongst Facebook buddies.
 Arrested...

"after the vehicle lost control on a curve on Hwy 416 at around 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 24 and slid into a tractor-trailer in North Grenville."

Continue reading...

His Facebook page makes for dubious reading...