Driveway clear out!

 Well, we had to buy a new printer/scanner. We use it a lot, considering we are retired! We scan a number of thing. It refills with ink bottles. We'll see how this goes. I did a print of an article I wrote on animal tracks, and the photos came out really well. 

We had the snowblower taken away, and it should be repaired next week. A part is on order. A new machine is about $3500! It's a great workhorse. 

Feb. 16, 2025!

Things can be quiet indoors. Not in the morning, as they roar around chasing one another. Nutmeg likes to sit on the railing, then jump down loudly on all four paws.

By night time, we hope we've worn them out.

The young man who did our driveway was terrific. In the dark, 8 pm! Very conscientious.

I wandered down the day before. There was a lot of snow from the snowplows. I couldn't even attempt it. 

We are free!

I did the steps twice Tuesday, once on Wednesday! Spring is coming! 

JL took Aster to the ski hill this week. She goes snowboarding while Papa skis. This is almost like being there, without the pulled muscles. 😏

We're having fun watching the Olympics. Again, with all the horrid news out there...  We wondered how they cleaned the half pipe. This way:

Butch Raccoon visited

 I'm amazed that people have time to visit blogs. I've been sheltering in place! I do enjoy connecting with fellow bloggers. It makes my day. 

First, we had a snow storm Tuesday. JB went out and did the sidewalk. Twice! We are having a white Christmas.

I did the driveway once, just before dark. There was only about 4 cm at the time. It kept snowing!

Mid-October RVWS brought a dozen rehabilitated, orphaned raccoons for release. It was so much fun. There was a trio that stuck together through November. They've appeared on trailcams from time-to-time. 

There was plenty of food, until there was our cold December. They hunker down in the cold, don't truly hibernate. Safe in a tree in the forest. Until our recent melt. 

In our big melt, we had raccoon visitors. Hungry ones! 

Raccoons 1

   

 It's difficult to spot them until you see them moving. I was clued in as the pumpkins had been attacked! JB has been looking forward to these videos. They can get into trouble if you don't keep garbage secured, as well as bird seed. 

 

Something scared them and they ran up the tree. You can see their eyes reflecting the light.

 

One of them sounded the all clear, and they all came back down the tree quickly. This one decided to check out the water barrel!

 

I hope you had a good giggle. It's a busy time of year for many. A sad time for some as they miss family or friends, or old traditions. I hope I helped. 

Leafing things here

It's been beautiful, seeing our leaves turn. I knew rain was on the way, there was mulching to do.

It looks wonderful. Well, it did. Most of these leaves are gone.

Non-mental note: clean out the leaves in the eaves!

The garden is slowly getting cleaned up.

We had a huge dump of rain, Wed., OCt. 22nd. I'm glad I didn't put away this rain barrel. The goldfish pond is full.

Last of the summer plants.

We were expecting rain. I zipped around doing a leaf mulch. This is the day after. They fell again! 

Once it dries up, I'll have to do it all again. Good thing I like to roar around on the lawn tractor!

Snow Day Part 2, Monday!

Today looks to be a bit chilly. We shall see. I just hope we have sunshine. It makes all the difference.

I am terribly happy I chose to do the snow half way through the storm. The snow just kept falling on the weekend! That was yesterday's post for Part 1. The clouds cleared away, and the sun shone Monday. 

My second job was the sidewalk. I didn't do the sidewalk on Sunday, despite doing the driveway. It's  crucial for getting out in an emergency, not so the sidewalk. I knew, too, that the wind was going to blow, and move the light, fluffy snow flakes to end up on the driveway. 

This was Monday morning. There is a sidewalk there. Honest! We had gusty wind all night.

Storm Feb. 16

🌤Behold, the glorious sunshine!

How much snow did we get? Mebbe 30 cm. It's really hard to tell, what with blowing snow. A lot of this was blown off the roof, but it still had to be moved. I couldn't get to the bird feeder. That is a metre/yard stick behind the shovel.

There was about 30cm in the middle of the sidewalk. I took my time. I had to. The birds were winging, and singing. They were happy I cleaned off the feeders! The oak leaves are blowing everywhere. Someone in my house has to sweep out the garage.

That done, I had to start work on the driveway for the second day in a row. This is what the driveway looked like as I made it to the highway. It was daunting.

This is heavy snow, knee-deep. It took a lot of work. I had to take little bites out of it over several passes.

This is a respectable pile of snow. It's almost too high to blow it over the pile off the drive. Almost. Aside from the wind flinging it in my face, I made progress.

The highway wasn't too bad, but I'm going to have to wash my coat. When traffic roars by, it splashes the slush. Most drivers are kind and pull away from me at the side of the road. This wasn't true for the propane tanker. It flew by at top speed, and splashed me. Fortunately, I'd turned my back as I know what happens. 

The house looks cosy, nestled in the snow. We had a propane delivery last week. They'd never get through the snow to get to the tanks on the far side of the house today. It's about 60 cm on the front lawn.

I'm nearly done. Progress was being made until...

Disaster struck. I ran out of gas. Just metres away from the garage the motor sort of flickered and I put it in top gear to hurry. I had to resort to two extension cords to restart it after I put gas back in. 

Thanks to another face warmer from Jean in New Zealand, I lived to tell the tale. It snowed all day, into the night. My hat belonged to my late father. It was a gift from BJ.  It says Bee Jay's Grill Breakfast Club! That's where mom and dad used to get their take out meals in Bala.  

This used to be BJ's in Bala, Muskoka! Once dad had his licence taken away due to his brain tumour and subsequent dementia, they would phone in their fish and chips order. Mom would drive in. BJ would bring them their meal to the car window and they would take it home to eat.

This was BJ's place! He was a sweet man. His older parents helped him at the grill, as he was mentally challenged. Eventually it was sold. Ah, good times!

Cinnamon was mushy! After I'd shovelled out, and had a hot shower, I got into jammies and got my blanket.

 

I suspect we may have two Labbits! I'm seeing our bunny about, more on that later.