Fires in Canada

 We are have terrible news filled with fires on this continent. Right from Canada's far north and south to California. Then there is the smoke. The weather smoke forecast shows fires on both sides of the border.

Fire & smoke forecast on The Weather Network: 

There are so many factors that cause forest fires.  Climate change, drought, ATV exhausts, arson, lightning strikes, winds spreading fires, and so on.

Congress members representing Minnesota and Wisconsin feel that Canada isn't doing enough to stop these fires. I suppose this hearkens back to the 'raking the forest' idea the orange felon suggested for California forest management. They sent a letter to our Canadian ambassador to the US, to get her to tell our government about this. Such arrogance! And a weird use of social media. 

I figure these two white men ought to get their own acts together! The governors of several states were up here begging Canadians to travel there and spend money. Look at the fires and smoke in their states.

In the meantime: there are about 7,000 humans evacuated from their homes in Manitoba. I feel badly for those suffering with smoke, but many have lost their homes, livelihoods, and are displaced to cities, where life is difficult, especially for Indigenous people.

"Leaf Rapids evacuation underway, Thompson declares state of emergency due to Manitoba wildfires"

'Manitoba is now at 235 fires in 2025, exceeding average of 187 for this time of year, the province says'

🌈 June Pride Month

The fires continue out west. Vast hectares of burning trees and homes and infrastructure. We're getting smoke from it this far east. I feel so badly for all impacted, evacuated by helicopters, planes, from remote areas. This is what we had in 2023. 

People are working so hard: 90,000 of Canada's 120,000 firefighters are volunteers. Apparently, those on the ground say there are still ground fires from the May 2023 fires.

 

Wab Kinew responding to ignorant media questions, this is the way to do it. Check sources, don't repeat rumours. Be responsible.

@franann61

Media is a threat to our democracy at this point.

♬ original sound - #FrannK🇨🇦

With 4 grandies, one gay, one trans, it is important to be an ally. Jo, April, 2017! 

🌈 🌈 🌈 🌈 🌈 🌈 🌈 🌈 🌈 🌈

 

Perth has its banner up!

Tim Hortons, Home Depot, Google are withdrawing funding from the Toronto Pride Celebrations. This is awful, that the orange felon can dictate anti-DEI policies on Canadian soil. Lest you think that tariffs are our only issue...

We're proud. So is phoebe momma and papa. They are madly feeding them. I love the bright yellow beaks. It gives the parents something to aim for!

I added to my bottle bush. The deer can't hurt this one.  I spotted the bottle tree idea on Crafty Gardener's blog. 

I really enjoy this flower. It's Candytuft, which the deer usually eat from the edge of the garden border in winter. I kept covering them in snow and I won! 

I lost this trailcam photo. All I had to do was search for 'bobcat' and the computer found it. (???) I have no idea where this cat comes from. Ours don't go out at night.

Then there is Butch raccoon.

Here I am roaring by on the tractor!

Air traffic: here and there

 I've been watching air space in Ukraine, and so has Flight Radar. <= This is an interesting article about the different planes and radars they are using. 

Look, up in the sky!   military helicopter from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Meantime, the fires continue out west. Happily, the remnants of Hurricane Hilary are approaching B.C. and Alberta. There were 20,000 people evacuated in Yellowknife. The mayor, bless her heart, drove around looking for homeless people to get them on planes and evacuated.

Someone was tracking the planes carrying water to the fires. It is wonderful seeing so many people getting helped. 'Look for the helpers,' said Mr. Rogers.

Aug. 21

I LOVE watching these planes doing their thing. Unable to go watch live but their aerial ballet is something to watch.
This team of six planes can lay down 20% more water with far more precision and without having to evacuate firefighters than the Mars Bomber.#ThankAFirefighter pic.twitter.com/gr0R2AUvXx

— Joanne 🇨🇦 #ClimateChangeIsReal (@jbart1055) August 19, 2023

June is just ticking along!

In the smoke, and the need for indoor play, I began doing Sudoku. It is an app, but I have been unable to do the ones on paper. This is great as it tell me if I've made a wrong move. It is exactly what I need right now: success. 

🔥 Canada has been blessed with partners from various parts of the world, recently 1296 firefighters are here or on their way. This totals 5,000 firefighters who have sent to assist from around the world, including South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. We are so grateful. 

• The US has sent 600 firefighters.
• A battalion of 350 firefighters from the EU are headed to Quebec.
• France sent 109 firefighters. 
• Portugal sent 140.
• Spain another 97 firefighters.

Thursday brought more smoke to our area. We saw the sun, after a few days of welcome rain, but I had to close up the house. Friday we have a bit more smoke. It's supposed to get up to 5 on the scale, of 10, but I will be vigilant. The recent rains helped, but we aren't done yet.

🌧 It's now been a few days of rain. I actually washed floors. I'd put it off in the nice, hot weather, preferring to go outdoors. After several days of rain, I had no excuse. JB went into town for a couple of hardware store items. One important one, we didn't have the number of our house on our mailbox. Canada Post had done inspections along our route. He bought us some shiny new numbers, which I put on yesterday. I rubbed off the side of the mailbox with rubbing alcohol to clean it.

Speaking of rubbing alcohol, I found a tick on myself yesterday afternoon. It was plucked off with tweezers, and hastily dropped in the tick jar with rubbing alcohol. I could feel the itch. It is a nymph, a new hatch this year. The bites aren't as bad as the blackflies, honestly, and it wasn't on me long.

We aren't doing too badly with ticks. One year, Daisy brought in 200 that I plucked. The vet's goop we put on them really helps. You have to be aware. I knew the itch was a bad sign.

 

In the meantime, we'll have to clean the gutters. The kids are coming tonight. My SIL, JL, has promised to help, again. Bless his heart!

full rainy gutter from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Also, I'm working on a support for the orchid and the cherry tomatoes. I've been trying to figure out how to support the orchid. There is one bamboo "U" in the planter, but it keeps falling over. Can you count the blossoms? It is looking really healthy since I brought it indoors. 

 

I ordered the green one (below, left) for the orchid, and we may get it June 23rd. Or not!  JB bought me some dowels for a home-made one for the cherry tomatoes. 

This is what I accomplished. I am sure there is a better way to tie them, but I didn't check that out on YouTube! When/if it gets bigger, I can add another row of horizontal dowels. We've a couple of tomatoes near to being ripe!

The cats go out for a run, catch a rodent, and come back in. They don't like the bugs.

The bugs are still keeping them close to home, which is good. They come in hungry, usually. 

 

Cinnamon on the rails from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

The cardinals seem to be nesting, again. He is singing at the top of his wee beak. I am hoping phoebe finds another nest location. You can hear them singing. 

 

Phoebe nesting? from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo. 

I'd prepared this prior to going out doors Thursday morning. Thursday afternoon, I found these!

Fires, rain, indoor games

🔥Well the fires are still firing across Canada. Our smoke has gone. Thankfully. The numbers are slowly evolving. There are some fires they simply do not fight, as they have to prioritize them, with limited crews. 

 "Canada lost 30,000 firefighters over the past six years, according to a national survey."

Canada is a nation of volunteer firefighters🚒. Apparently 70% are volunteers. The big cities have permanent, paid staff, but our rural areas rely on men and women to drop everything and go fight a fire. They've gone from 156,000 firefighters (2016) across Canada to 126,000 (2022), as the economy and the nature of the work evolves. Most calls are NOT for fires (medical, environmental, accidents): only 10% were actual fires. There are shortages in budgets, affecting equipment, and training.🧯

Our PM visited Ukraine. More money, more sanctions. Something needs to be done. Perhaps Ukraine joining NATO will make a difference. 

PM Trudeau, Freeland in Ukraine

🌧 We had 4.8 mm (0.19") rain yesterday afternoon. Praise Be!  That is only 7mm this month, so far. We need a long day of rain. In 2020 we only had 29mm rain, whereas there were two years we had 150+ mm.

During the smoky days we've spent our time indoors, although the last couple of days have been cloudy and cooler. I was happy to get outdoors Saturday and Sunday.

Fred has been gathering nesting materials:

On Friday we went into Perth and had our booster shots for COVID. I booked it online. Our last shots were October. 

When we came out of the store, I spotted this car, licence plate: PLAINFUN! Snazzy car, for someone!

Friday, June 9th Phoebe has fledged! I went to check on them and two flew away. There were none left, so I am going to assume we had at least survive. They have been checking the nest for remainders! I was going to be able to load up the wood, but I forgot about the cardinal nest in the lilac tree. I checked it Saturday, all gone. I guess I should have been more vigilant. 

The cardinals are gone!

Nutmeg has been out. She caught herself a rodent, and threw up some guts on the front sidewalk. At first I couldn't figure out why the crow was flying by and/or perching in the tree. They must have a good sense of smell. Here she was checking out a bedside table.

On a happier note: I've been having fun figuring out the panoramic setting on the phone. I took a regular photo of the most recent Bears, but you can see how good the panorama is showing 🧸Snuggle Bears🐻!

This is a regular photo:

The panoramic image is far better↓. The signage says, BEARVILLE ANNUAL ART SHOW! (Grampa was inspired by the art show at the Ottawa girls' high school, they put photos on the family photo stream!)