More Hallowe'en!

 Some of us can't get enough of Hallowe'en. Like most of my life, these days, I live vicariously through the kids.

Jean-Luc and Aster in Ottawa. JL was a character from this movie, which I'd never seen! Ben Stiller in Dodgeball in 2004. It's pretty darn good! Aster is totally unrecognizable!

I was so excited to be involved! When we visited Jordan at Queen's he showed us the guitar he was making for his Hallowe'en costume. He was making it from scratch. He pondered how to make the guitar strings. I had an idea. We thought they should be gray. I had some string. I dunked it in a can of garage floor paint that dated to the previous owners.  It was sort of gray! 

I thought it was so clever! But the entire thing fell off the toilet paper roll, and I had to straighten it to let it dry. Then mail it. 

Dried, straightened, wrapped around a piece of cardboard, Grampa mailed it off to Kingston.

Jordan designed and cut and pasted all the pieces, I think it was that plastic stuff campaign signs are made of. He made stickers for it, pegs and keys. Just amazing.

My fun has been in the forest. I moved the frog pond trailcam, as I spotted a worn path on the point. This leads to the wetland. Here it is in the daytime. 

It is a peninsula, that extends into the wetland. It is surrounded by water on 3 'sides' and the critters trod from little out cropping to outcropping. We had two roly poly Butch racoons and a Fisher.

There were three deer. I love the eyes in the dark!

And just for fun, the Barred Owl again!

Saturday's Critters

 What a week! So happy to relax and watch our critters. New shingles on the roof, and a root canal for me! The pain is lessening. We're moving into the Computer Age, and watching the news and soccer, hopefully, on the Internet. 

In the peace and quiet, after two days of banging, hammering, and chaos, the critters came back out. 

I have to repost Barry Beaver, who is cleaning up his mess. It all blew over in our big storm.

July 11th, our regular pair of kits were hanging out.

I think this is Auntie Fred, July 17th. 

In the peace and quiet, I could hear the Black-billed Cuckoo.

 

 It's not a good video, but I think it is the Fisher at the back door. July 7 Between humidity, heat and rain, condensation tends to condense on the camera lens. 

   

 Labbit came by! I haven't seen her in ages! 

   

 Butch has been active. 

   

 The coyote colours are amazing. 

 

Saturday's Critters # 657 Visit Eileen for more critters from around the world.

Saturday's Critters

We continue to laugh at our Freds. We do have other critters out and about. I've raised the pots to keep them out of groundhog reach. They are climbers. All over the deck, and into my petunias and my zucchini. 

 With Fred choosing to eat the flowers, I popped this planter on top of a plastic crate. Butch raccoon had to inspect it. 

   

 I haven't seen the Fisher for a long time.

   

 One doe ran, another, the pregnant one, popped out of the yard.

   

 We had two bucks visit. It was while the HVAC guy was here for an inspection.

 

Pregnant doe!

 

Saturday's Critters # 654 visit Eileen's blog for more critters.

Who goes there?

I heard a Pine Grosbeak, according to Merlin. This one sounded like it was in the big pine tree out back. I've no photos that I can find. Just a photo of the purple finch. Whaddya think? Close enough?! 😉 The purple finch and house finch always give me trouble. Now I have to worry about the Pine Grosbeak! 

 

The doe was on a mission.

These two hang around all the time. Once Spring arrives we won't see them.

I saw these tracks, and wondered who was out in the night! 🦨

Skunk videos

Scanning the trailcams, I found some answers. The Crumbly Acres camera doesn't capture small mammals too well. 

 

 I caught it as it went along the driveway, headed across the highway. 

 

I wrote a piece about animal tracking for our local lake association! Soon the snow will go and we won't know who goes there!  

Crumbly terrarium!

Indoor play

I've been having fun getting inspiration from other bloggers. However, Rain is stopping blogging, as have several other people I follow. I volunteer once a week, and haven't any close friends here. It's a small, but supportive community online. Val, at Mulewings, has brought me inspiration with her little figure tableaux pieces. I am going to keep my little set and set them up outside. 

 I wanted to remove my terrarium for our seasonal decor. (I bought it that at an 'antique' store.) Hooper cat had fun with it, back in his time. He was fascinated with it. I stuffed it with fairy furniture. Cleaning the brass made it shine. The plants changed over time, as I found many did not survive. Hooper was quiet keen on them. 

Sadly I cannot keep it up. The copper is deteriorating, water leaking from the seams. The plants just don't have the right humidity balance. I give up. This is a tribute to it.

The decorations manager is fine tuning his decor.

❄️ In Gravenhurst they've a webcam. We used to drive past Campbells Landing Marina between Gravenhurst and Bala, where we lived for a time. I enjoyed living by the lake, except for the jet skis and snow machines.

We've had some snow. Just a few cm over a few days. It is protecting the ecosystem. I noticed that last year we had about as much rain as snow. There is that.

Outdoor play

The fisher has been an inspector, but I think Barry is safe inside. 

 

 The fisher and I inspected Barry's Lodge. I was careful on the ice. This is as far as I ventured. It's not very deep. By the time I got to where I am standing, I turned around. 

Barry, I presume, is safe inside. Barry must have run out of time to gather winter food. I hope he's sleeping!

 

Crumbly Acres Critters

The bird feeder is going full tilt. I change it up over the winter. Here it is for now. I'm hoping the bears are close to denning up. 

The Blue Jays concentrate on the one at the left. They half emptied it during the day. 

Downy woodpecker:

The globe feeder is for the smaller birds. The big ones can't get in. 

Goldfinch: 

The mourning doves like to line up on the branch. 

The cardinal is peckish, as well. No sign of the female.

I don't know if this is #75. We have two Gray Squirrels, black morph. This one was under the feeder.

 I am quite behind on my videos. It's hit or miss. Feast or famine. Drought or flood. 

If you watch the video, you can see the bunny beside the tree, the deer staring at it. Then Labbit hopped up the driveway. It's two clips from two trailcams.

 

We've had a pair of coyotes hanging about. On the driveway and in the forest.

   

 The fisher was back. Two days in a row.

 

Saturday's Critters

 I've been busy, so have the critters. They are on the move! Go, Blue Jays, GO! 

First, the fisher with dinner!  

 We released rehabilitated raccoons last week. I'm seeing the odd one around.

   

 The coyote was hunting for good smells.

   

 Papa bear came by. Soon they'll hunker down for winter and I can put bird feeders up!

 

 Saturday's Critters # 619  <= Visit more critters at Eileen's blog.

Saturday's Critters

UPDATE: We had 14 cm snow overnight, not the ice rain they'd predicted. Tomorrow maybe ice rain. If so, there will be power outages. We'll see you on the other side of that.

Friday vs Saturday!

We found a ribbon snake out back! Joe let it go in the grass.

Nutmeg on the front sidewalk: 

Butch:

Butch Raccoon is doing well.

   

 I've been using my Merlin App, since it is tough IDing spring birds from only their songs. This bird, Merlin told me is a red-shouldered hawk.

Guess what? It's a blue jay imitating a hawk!

 

The fisher turned up.

   

 The deer are impregnated in November-ish. They give birth in April or May.

 

Saturday's Critters # 589 <= visit Eileen's meme and Miney!