Crumbly Acres

We had to turn off the news on Tuesday. I fear for my US friends. The impact on Canada has been terrible. We're not in as bad a condition as come countries, and we cannot complain. 

I'm not done with out studio tour, but I want to save some photos. Plus, the season is moving on, and I wanted to update it all. It's a bit chilly out there.

The last of the flowers! 

In summer, so much foliage, but it is all done. The leaves were dead, and the birds had harvested the wee seeds.

🍁Fall chores

First big clean up. It was brown and crumbly. 

 I've been busy. These saplings had to be taken out. They aren't good for the foundation. I got dirt in my eyes, and in my bra, and even my helper/supervisor, Cinnamon, disappeared with the dirt that was flying.

I've been watching this tree. Just after I took the previous photo, 4 geese flew by. It could have been an amazing photo!!

 

I bought myself a new phone stand. It was to support a Canadian author (Book Review: Jean Paetkau) and her husband. Jean's been managing cancer and her husband, Jason, creates these at Moonstone Woodworks. The pieces separate, and are cleverly shipped flat from B.C.

They are in such a rush to be first.

Perth:

There are some shortages of pumpkins this year, what with the drought. I share mine with the critters. Although, I haven't seen a deer in weeks!

Yard clean-up continues. I think I've got some blackfly bites for my efforts. Silly bugs. The thermometer fluctuates, a hot day Saturday, they say. We carry on. 

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! 

Crumbly Acres

 💉This was a week for needles! Monday, I had COVID and Flu shots. They have a small, private room set aside in the pharmacy. I peeked in and the pharmacist was listening to someone and motioned, just a minute. When he was ready for me, he apoligized for the delay I said to the pharmacist, 'your mother must be proud.' We need more kindness. Listening is important. 

There was no reaction to the shots, other than a mild headache, but that may be due to stress and clenching my teeth!

Cancer Treatment 

PART CXV – Nov. 6th PSA test, hemolyzed blood sample, had to do it again. It was good.

PART CXVI – Nov. 12th Lupron injection.

Joe had his Lupron injection Tuesday. He's good for another 3 months. He can have his COVID and Flu shots in two weeks.

😷Our LGL Health Unit is showing some respiratory viruses circulating.

🚘 One winter tire has had a slow leak. Joe checked it, and it was looking bad. He took it in for repairs. They patched it for him, no charge. That was a bright light in the day.

 Just when I think I have a handle on things, I readjusted the Crumbly Acres camera. This is where it sat late summer.

I moved it to cover the driveway where critters run. Here's Joe bringing in the empty recycling bin! 

Once it was all reset, I found that it wasn't saving videos to the MicroSD card. It was saving directly to the computer if the application was on and running. Sigh. Get out the ladder. (My SIL installed it for me, I'm not sure how he did it!)  

I opened up the back of it, which requires removing these two wee screws. I dropped screw #1 and swore.  Un-inserting the Micro card, I reinserted it. This worked last time. Tried it, no difference. I decided to look for screw #1, found it. I thought about it a bit. Rather buying a new Micro card, why not switch it with another. The dashcam! Did so, dropped the other screw. Found that screw. Still no luck with it working. 

I went back to it after lunch. 
(#1) The aluminum case had unscrewed from the base. I couldn't reattach it. 
(#2) The power cable runs through the wall to the garage. It pulled off. No power. No luck. 
I'll have to figure out how to get the cable in the garage through the wall back out to the power cable to reattach it. Maybe tape it to a thin dowel? 

Either way, I gave up for the day when the sun began to get low and it was really getting cold. 

Here we were Wednesday morning. 

After my workout, I put on warm clothes and went to it, again. First task, lay down a towel, just in case I lose more screws. <Insert screw loose joke here!>

Houston, we have a problem.

I put the AC plug back in the hole through the garage wall. It had pulled free. That I could manage.

My conclusion is that the wires from the lens, to the plug into the mother board, have been pulled out. 

The problem stemmed from the fact that this piece no longer rotated and I tried to tighten it, it just pulled the wires out. 

I ordered a new one. There are Black Friday sales (which many Canadian businesses have copied from the US), and it wasn't very expensive. In fact, cheaper than some trailcams and works better! 

Our cottontail needs a name! It's as if Fred Groundhog moved off (Aug.) and Bunny moved in!

I captured the cottontail on the Crumbly Acres camera before all this happened. Their behaviour is interesting. First – they freeze. It is quite camouflaged. I didn't realize it was there till it moved. I chased it away as the cats were out for their morning romp. It isn't often here in the daytime!

Crumbly Acres, we're limping along

 Things are hopping around here. Well, it is Crumbly Acres, we're limping along. Poor Joe put his back out shopping on Friday. Sigh. He suggested it was too late for me to trade him in for two 37-year-olds. Past his best before date! I'm a wreck, too. Our Pink Eye is better. That's a good thing.

Then there is the tech stuff... Before my VISA was compromised, the football TV pooched out on us. This is the room downstairs with the fireplace where Joe goes to watch his teams. I phoned them up and went through the troubleshooting. Nope. Unplug, plug her in, wait 30 seconds: all stuff I'd done before. I tested the box on the other TV and it worked. The assistant said she'd send a technician. Funnily enough, he checked everything, found the cables, it's a bit of a spaghetti mess. He climbed the ladder and found the needle in the hay stack. When we had it fixed last time, he'd stapled through the cord. All the new dude had to do was pull it out and we were good to go. 

As with many in our latitude I have been busy working outside: power washing and edging, and putting the garden to bed. These stones were covered in moss and slippery.

I think that the stones look much better. The fossils are cool. The original house owners made these paths, and I have to look after them. 

Look at my shoes and pants, though! I was cold and soaked, so I sat in the sun eating a fruit salad Joe fetched for me from the fridge before finishing up my work. I was cold and tired, but I didn't want to stop. The next day I started AFTER lunch! 

I did this spot since the bird feeders go here, and with freeze and thaws, there is often a puddle. That is the next chore, once the frost hits, to put out the feeders.

The maple at the end of the driveway keeps getting more and more red.

The deer are on the move.

Power washed and cleaned: 

The water fountain ready for winter weather! It is dried, wrapped with Christmas lights, and secure. It has to be wrapped since the snow collects, melts, freezes and thaws and can wreck the cement. 

Just for fun, our Vancouver grandies are in a panto show in winter. This in between ski lessons, and school! They are busy, bless their hearts. Cluny (with rabbit ears) and Bryony, in front on the right side of Robin Hood, will have so much fun. They did a show last year, and were chosen for the photo ads. 

Meantime, on the acreage. They are having lunch. We ended up seeing 5 of them. They gather together in winter in herds by gender. We usually have females.

I truly believe the critters are looking for the bird feeders. We've had a bunny, Butch raccoon, and the deer. No bears, so far. We must get some bird seed!