Saturday's Critters

I split our pumpkins with the reciprocal saw. 

 

It has revealed its bounty to several critters! 

I really believe we must notice the small as well as the large critters! Can you see it?!

   

Chippie is happy!

 

Bunny is happy!

   

 In both the front and back yards!

   

 I love the paw lift on the raccoon. After staring at the camera lights, it seemed pensive!

 

Saturday's Critters # 569 <= visit more critters on Eileen's blog.

🎃 Happy Hallowe'en!

There are folks who really get into this, young and old! I am always impressed with the efforts. We don't have any kids around us, besides, the rural kids tend to go into town to get more bang for the buck! In the past I've carved pumpkins, some years painted them. My energies are elsewhere. 

We drove through Perth and found lots of participants!

My indoor plants include the orchid cactus and my orchid. The afternoon sun has been lovely for them.  

The afternoon sun means that JB has to switch chairs if he wants to watch his afternoon curling or football. Cinnamon did not mind. My chair! 

Poor Joseph Brian accidentally stepped on his glasses. You know how you need your glasses to find your glasses?! They are bent, and won't sit properly on his face. He's taken out his penultimate pair, and they will work for him until he gets into the optometrist. 

We are still researching our options for this gun range. A new article has come out and finally the OPP are talking to the media, if not the township. It's an article about the gun range clean up. The condition of sale was that the OPP clean up the metals. This is a good thing. We are across the wetland from it and we were concerned.

My mother's generation were crazy mad with cleanliness, warned about germs. Living in a forest and wetland, I'm not too worried about it! They were obsessed by bacteria.

Here is proof of my outdoor efforts, aside from the debris in my bra and on the bathroom floor just before my shower. (I find it difficult to keep that floor clean!)  Atop the ladder I'd taken a couple of photos. I'm not sure what to do about this. We had the eavestrough installers in thrice, as I recall. Maybe flashing? What do you handy people think? The hole just invites bugs and woodpeckers!

It's bare wood where they finally re-installed the fascia to allow the proper drainage angle. 

eavestrough from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

"Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results."     – Einstein.

Red squirrel went up the post and came down. I grabbed the videocamera, and caught it doing it again!

red squirrel from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

The birds have been wonderful to watch: a cardinal, 3 female evening grosbeaks, blue jays, chickadees, several goldfinches. I videotaped them on the feeder last year. 

 

Sadly, a nuthatch flew into the window, and it has gone over the rainbow bridge. I decided to replace the now wilted hanging basket of flowers with my goldfish. The window, with these light levels are like mirrors.

Chipmunk has been busy. The 'bird bath' I could rename. We get a lot of birds drinking from it.  

I crossed off another chore: cleaning the hops off the back deck. It created a habitat for so many critters over the spring and summer. The railings are washed and the deck furniture stacked under the overhang.

We are making progress with 🍁Fall Chores! 

Snow storms, power outages,

 What weather! Our friends in Muskoka, in central Ontario, had power outages, and snow! Lots of people were without power overnight, about 1500 households. Its hovering near zero overnight. 

 

The blue is snow, dark green rain. The rain skipped us, for the most part. 

 

The catalpa leaves are blowing off. Many have blown right over the house to the back deck. The power of nature... The leaves are huge and will need to be mulched. It is an amazing tree.

When the leaves fall, all will be revealed. I found another hornet's nest (top arrow). It's fallen apart. The lower arrow points to a red-eyed vireo nest! A bit too close for comfort? 

A giggle: across the pond, a UK journalist writes this: 

"My son has lived through four chancellors, three home secretaries, two prime ministers and two monarchs. 

He's four months old." 

This was the day before Truss resigned. That is a hoot, sort of. All any constituents want is stability, stable government, and trust that there is a plan.

Meanwhile at home, I've been watching the hearings over the horrific truck convoy occupation in Ottawa, just to take my mind off things. My friends in Ottawa suffered so much from verbal and physical attacks, a fire in an apartment foyer, racism, public urination and defecation, the noise of the horns 24/7, the smell of diesel fumes as trucks ran all night.  

I went downstairs and watched the live stream while I worked out. Carefully propping my laptop on the machine, it kept me occupied. The backbiting on the part of those involved, the lack of transparency, and the poor leadership was shocking.

I looked out front and noticed a lump of dirt. Needing some fresh air, out I went to figure it out. Someone had noticed the action. This is cat TV at its finest.

A pile of dirt with a hole. It was a big pile of dirt.

After coming back in, all was revealed! I thought this is who it could be. 

chipmunk from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Saturday's Critters

Power went out at 7:52 last night. We went to bed! It came back on around 11:30, but we were sound asleep! The Hydro outage map shows 30,935 without power this morning. We had massive winds last night. 

We appear not to have power this morning, but we do! There is no end to the excitement around here.

Back to the critters...

Soon I'll have to take this feeder down. In the meantime, Butch likes the debris.

Butch from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Strange Oregano

Frontyard from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Chipmunk in the rain

chipmunk from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

The males are in mating mode

turkey wrestling from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

The crows are just nuts!

four crows from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

For more critters: visit Eileen: Saturday's Critters # 435!

Careful, little chipmunk!

 This is our backyard. Under the deck, there are upended cement bricks upon which the deck was built. Chippies have nested in here. Can you see it peeking out?! 

It was a dreary day yesterday, and it is today. Lots of splatty rain, and a damp kinda cold. Judging by the radar, we're in for a lot more rain. We've had 15 mm (0.6"), and more to come. 

The rain began yesterday, just after our dinner. Nutmeg came indoors. Later, I was looking out the front window, and I saw Cinnamon on the brown bench, lower left in the photo. This is where the cats peer in, letting us know they want indoors. I walked over to look, and turns out it was Butch raccoon. Cinnamon was sitting below it on the cement, with a look of puzzlement on his face. He's such a gentle cat. Cinnamon was quite concerned. He came in for the night.

Butch took off. Can you spot him? 

I love the little face, and the little hands.  butch  

This crow  seems to have something stuck on its cheek. I've seen it before.  

It's a mystery. 

crow on deck from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

🕷️TICKS 2021 <= we had 200 one year, you can see my data! Then, they invented a Rx for cats. Our numbers went way down.

Outdoors, it is tick season, again. We've ordered goop, but it's still not arrived at the vet clinic. 

Thanks, Eileen for hosting the party! Saturday's Critters # 386

Trailcam Critters

We are easing into the day. Lots of rain is expected, and we've had small rainfalls in the past week. That means little traffic on the path. I've been saving these up.  I spent yesterday fixing the eavestrough downspout in the sunshine. We will see if it holds.  My legs are sore, up and down the danged ladder, as well as several trips into the hardware store. 

BTW – Alberta has already had snow. I'm not quite ready, but I know it will arrive soon.

First up, the chipmunk. This was filming into the sunset, through the front window. But after I saw it do this the 4th time, I had to record. it. The squirrel baffle baffled it. 

chipmunk from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

The raccoons are still finding grubs. I love their little paw action, as they dig and search. Soon, it will all be frozen over.They are getting plump for their winter. We tend to have more freeze–thaws with Climate Change. It used to be a nice cold winter, with more even temperatures. They would sleep a long time. That has changed.

Butch 1 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

The deer are still hanging around. I just happened to look out, and there they were.

 

doe from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

The fisher was back Oct. 6. This was a great close-up.

fisher Oct. 6 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Finally, the coyote didn't like the box. It's good that they are cautious.

Coyote Oct 8 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Cats, birds, and others

The cats have been quite busy. Early in the week, it was really cold. They hunkered down on the front deck, not moving.




Potential craft.



We're watching the birds!

On our way home from the hostage exchange, I noticed a building was gone!

The girls have been bird watching. I've been feeding the birds, again. I'm bringing them in at night. It seems to be working.

Down on the trailcam



Butch 1 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.