🐠🐟 The 8 fishes are in!

Yes, YAM, it's truly Autumn... 🐠🐟 The 8 fishies are indoors for winter! It's too shallow a pond for them to overwinter. 

I DID IT!!! We did research, checking the forecast. The nights were getting rather close to freezing. Not good for the fishies. I wanted a warmish morning, followed by a couple of days of rain to refill the pond from the water barrel and eavestrough.  

I began around 10 a.m. Sunday, by starting to drain the goldfish pond. I counted about 8 frogs, including the bullfrog, and the fish were hiding.

After an hour draining...

By noon, I was good to net them.

Non-mental note: I have to wash the pump and put it away. 

After an hour of drainage, out I went. I snagged 2 almost immediately. They were easy. Except for the holes in the two nets. You should check your tools before you begin a project! 

It's intense work, even with a supervisor... Two of my nets had holes, the other fell apart. While I have 8 fish, I caught three of them twice, which means 11 captures!  Repairing them, just tying them up, I went back at it. I'll have to look for a new net in the spring.

Bullfrog took umbrage, and hopped away after I left. I could see he was trying.

There was way too much action for Bullfrog. I tried to tell him, there isn't much water around. Finally, at 3:30, this was the last hold out! I waited and waited. It was well-hidden in the mud. 

With great surprise, we finally had rain, as predicted. About 10 mm so far (0.38"), not much... but better than nothing. We timed it perfectly. The pond has refilled some, and my water lily will be protected.

Fall chores

UPDATES: 

1. Our American cyclist/visitor, Rick, made it to the St. Lawrence River, cycling from Ottawa. 
2. Jordan has safely arrived at Queens University. Caitlin, JL, and Aster drove him there. (Our other 3 grandies begin school this week. )

I am working on 🍁Fall Chores. There may be some warm spells between now and fall. I keep records, since the change in temperatures really impacts us. Also, it's good to know the patterns of the seasonal changes. The big thing, for me, is bringing in the goldfish. 

We've got someone coming to pump out the septic tank, someone to check the chimney, and clean the fireplace (every two years). 

This is something I forgot about. The down pipe came off this year in March. I fixed it, but not very well. It was cold that day. The bugs are bad in Spring and early Summer, and now is the time. 

Our Gray Tree Frog was there supervising. 

Joe spotted me on the ladder, and assisted by handing me the drill. I dropped the drill once, it landed on the flowers, the battery popped off and ended up on the ground above the old drain spout hole. Sigh!

The Hibiscus are falling over with the rain. Soon they will be done, too.

I am tracking all sorts of 'last spotted,' although these two I only heard and did not see. (Hooray Merlin app!) These are photos from May, when they returned to us from the south. It was warm enough to sit reading on the back deck, albeit under a blanket!

Great Crested Flycatcher:

Also heard, the Northern Flicker. This is one of the woodpeckers that migrates. It prefers to forage on the ground, and soon ours will be frozen!

Northern Flicker in Spring

I found a Monarch on Friday, Aug. 29.

 I've been watching a series: The Spy. It takes place in Portugal, during WW II. Caitlin and Jean-Luc went to Portugal for their 20th wedding anniversary this year. 

Joe and I are watching Munch. It is fun, and a light mystery. A great way to end the day, in between tricky tennis tournaments! 

Last view of critters & RAIN!

 We were quite happy to have rain on Thursday. I did a quick outdoor job, removed the out-of-hand burdock, then rested on the back deck. All morning, no rain, despite the forecast. This is a non-mental note to not let it get so big. I waited until the blooms were done, for the insects.

August, 2024 – shoulda removed it then.

I watched the clouds, then, finally, the rain began.

As always, I have to check the eaves for leaves. Yup, overflowing. Non-mental note for the To Do List. The goldfish pond was overflowing.

 

 🚲 Our friend Rick, cycling for 1500 miles, rested in Ottawa on Wednesday, did bike repairs on Thursday. I emailed to see where he was, then checked his Facebook page:

"Tomorrow I will be camping on the St. Lawrence River after a big ride of 115 miles. The rain is stopping and the wind will be at my back. No problem. September is coming and the days are getting both shorter and cooler."

🐸 The goldfish pond is hosting a green frog, now, in addition to the two bullfrogs.

We'll say farewell to the insects, bees and wasps, who will sleep for the winter. Others migrate.

The goldenrod is busy with bugs! 

How much rain did we get? A LOT! Two dumps, about 43 mm (~1.7") for the day. We were so relieved. 

The arthropod and the gutter!

 We had one lay eggs in November, 2022. They hatched into little teeny caterpillars in June, 2023. 

. 

They lay their eggs on the white-marked tussock moth cocoon. 

 

arthropod from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

☔The Aug. 11th rainstorm was heavy at times. I took a video of the rainfall, to remind myself to clean it.

rainstorm from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

We've a storm arriving on Saturday, so Wednesday I took the ladder out, set it up, but had to rest. Back at it, up I went. There wasn't much debris, but the Catalpa tree leaves sure blocked it. I chopped off some of the end of the branches. I'll cut off some more limbs, as they'll fall in there again, once Autumn arrives. 

I sat myself back down, and had a bit of a coughing spell afterwards. This danged disease. 

After I was done, I noticed my supervisor sitting on top of the air conditioner (Cinnamon). Joe's not allowed outside when I'm climbing the ladder. He makes me nervous! I do tell him I'm going up, and report back when I'm done!

😷We continue to recover from our COVID symptoms. Our semi-local hospital, Smiths Falls, has put out a mask mandate due to a COVID-19 outbreak in the surgical ward. Of course, we don't know how many cases we have in our health unit, since our Premier shut all that tracking down. We used the data to gauge our risk and public activities. He is busy trying to privatize healthcare in a country where universal healthcare is a priority.

I went for a bit of me time, a pedicure. I wore an N95 mask. The esthetician told me she'd had COVID twice. Since she has asthma, it took her a long time to recover. I think she said 6 weeks. I'm coming at 31 days. Since I usually get viral-induced asthma, I was not surprised that I coughed after coming home. Thank goodness for the puffer. I cancelled my haircut that I'd booked for today. 

We'd some leftover turkey breast, and I made tacos for dinner. Joe helped me. Then we went back to watching Grantchester. My cough settled down.