Banking woes

 What a week for banking! Others have shared their issues, I know I'm not alone... I dropped the F*💣 several times. (Don't tell the kids!) I had two problems yesterday. 

1. JB's VISA Payment – I tried to pay JB's VISA the 24th, but sent it to his old VISA at another bank. What was I thinking? Dumb, dumb, dumb. I did not realize it at the time, or I could have rescinded it that day. Do you know how difficult it is to do all this? I could wait an hour on the phone, but it often drops me. 

Spoke to Heather, then spoke to Gavin, who sent me to VISA. Then I had to contact our old bank, and try to cancel and get back our money. Promised a call back within an hour. It was 2 1/2 hours, but meant I was stuck with waiting. They couldn't rescind the payment, and advised me to wait as the other bank will have to manage the VISA payment. They told me to talk to the receiving bank.

We'll borrow money on the line of credit to pay off the good VISA. Trust the system! Wait patiently. Pffftt.

2. OLD VISA card  – You know serendipity is a good thing. I went back to my old bank card online. MY old VISA account was there and I found that some dipstick in Quebec charged $150 in gas in Laval on Oct. 9th, AND on Oct. 12th another $150. I might not have spotted it. I got on the phone, again.

There was an hour wait, they said. Leave your number and we'll call you back. Robo returned the call, then they said to do it online. Which I'd done. Eventually, I stayed on the line, as they said if there was fraud to wait. There was fraud. I got myself a person, Tina, who heard my tale of woe. She looked at my account, and confirmed my last charge and payment on Sept. 26, when I stopped using this old card. 

It was a good card, I'd had it since 1993, and it was a 7% interest rate (prime + 2%), I hated to let it go. When my last card # was stolen, the card was in my wallet, I had lowered the limits to $2500, which was a wise thing to do. She let me know that there was a $1371 charged refused from Amazon, as well as a $2010 purchase for clothing, similarly refused. You'd think they might have told me! Anyway, $300 charge is gone this morning, and a new card is in the mail. I simply won't activate it. They don't like it when you try to close up an account. 

💸 💸 💸 💸 💸 💸 💸 💸 💸 💸 💸 💸 💸 💸 💸

OK, that's my tale. We settled enough to go into town for flu shots. There was a nice man, age 91, getting his shot. I got the senior formulation. Set me back a tad emotionally. Yes, for 65 and older. When did that happen? 

I noticed this building in town. I loved the juxtaposition of the truck, 'disasters'. And the 'For Sale" sign that says 'Too Late!' I'll be keen to see what they do with the place. Are these good bones?

I slept in until 6 a.m. today. I was so happy. Yesterday it was 4:30 as we did a ton of work on preventing this gun range happening and it was weighing heavily. 

It's another nice day of 22 C. expected. It's nearly the end of that, methinks. We're ready. I let the cats sleep on my Grandmother's hand made quilt. She never had a sewing machine. It keeps fur off off the $10 IKEA sofa cover! That was a great find. 

Forest walkies were wonderful.

 

forest tails from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Walkies in Spring

 April 6, 11:00  – notice the shovel. I didn't quite make it to the shed. Caitlin put the snowblower in the shed for me, when she was here two weeks ago. I didn't jinx it, and bring the storm!

He likes his walkies, but also sitting.

The wetland is wet.

April 17th, I ventured out into our third lot and found our old white pine tree is really done for.

In the fall, the old pine tree in November and now: dead as can be. 

I have the remains of this tree (below), I stacked it as a totem pole. The chickadees checked it out a few years ago. I'd secured it to a stump, which has now deteriorated. It fell over! I'll have to remove the red metal spider. Non-mental note...

Nutmeg resting after a big day!

The kids were in Orlando, Florida, during March Break. I created a book for them, just for fun. It arrived yesterday, and I can reveal it! You can view it online on the link↑.

Antler hunt and forest walkies

 Joseph Brian had a banner day. He called me to the window a couple of times. One sighting was three robins on the birdbath, drinking a lovely drink. "But there are only two," you might comment. Honestly, there were three. By the time the camera was fetched and focused, one was up in the tree with the male  cardinal!

It may or may not be a sign of spring. Several, I've heard, have overwintered in the region. 

As Yam said, King Henry has lost half his crown! I went out on the back deck for a better look. He was curious. I wonder, too, how they feel when they lose one antler. I know that they shake their heads, feeling them loose. They still act as if they have antlers, and are king of the forest.
This was Tigger, back in the day, followed by Jake. 

One year, I found five antlers. It was a really cold winter, and 5 bucks hung around, which was unusual. I weighed the antler.

457 grams

Venturing out into the forest, I made it to the wetland. The walking, even in snowshoes, is horrid. I circled the perimeter of the forest, checking each path for blood spots. I was out about 50 minutes, and it is really difficult walking. 

First stop was to pick up the trailcam card. I was hopeful at first. There were fisher tracks all over. The mammals are hungry! I'd brought my backpack, the videocamera, a water bottle, and grabbed one trailcam, left the other.

The walking is terribly difficult in the wetland itself. Very deep snow, on top of bulrushes. The rabbit, fisher and coyotes traipsed along the top of the frozen snow. 

Rabbit tracks and poopies, but not a critter to be seen.

It is pretty. The sun warms, without wind. It is calming and quiet. You almost cannot hear the traffic on the highway. There is the odd bird, mostly chickadees.

This bird caught my attention, singing, and a partner joined it. This was the best I could do. I'm wondering if they were evening grosbeaks. I shall never know. They were just too far awy.

Lask week, there was remains of a rabbit. This week, evidence of a turkey kill. 

What I did was circle about half the property. I found one drop of blood. If I do a circle, crossing regular deer paths, I can check up and down the path for an antler or at least blood. The blood ceases to circulate in the antler due to lack of food and testosterone. Like a bone, the antler pops off, and sometimes it bleeds some, sometimes not.

I kept at it, but wore myself out. Having taken water, I stopped to catch my breath. The sun warmed the cockles of my heart!

Back up to the house, I was done, and happily tired.

I don't hold out much hope. I might venture out again today, covering the areas I thought likely. Thursday we are seeing likely seeing rain, followed by snow. Yuck.

It was a good bit of exercise. Bundled up, with heavy sweat pants, and layers, I'd had to zip and unzip and I warmed up during the walk. The shower afterwards was wonderful!

Walkies in the forest

• Sept. 2nd, I did a show. Here is Polar Bear telling them about her home. 🐻SNUGGLE Bears

  
  
  

  
  

Cinnamon was privileged enough to go walkies twice on Wednesday. Once with me, and once with JB.

He did 'bear,' as we call it. Then, I heard Nutmeg meowing and knew what he was looking at.

He launched himself up several trees with great glee. The wetland, in the background, is still green, despite the lack of rain.

There are fewer critters on the trailcams these days. Well, except for the favourites. 

 

JB walkies from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

This one is funny. It shows Cinn, at about 17 seconds in, being startled by his sister, and then hurtling himself up a tree. Then, they both follow JB through the forest and around the pond. 

You can see how wary Cinnamon is.

cat walkies JB from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Cinnamon's tail

Cinnamon was taking it easy in the heat. He is staying close to home, as well. I think I figured it out.

He was out Sunday night (Aug. 22), and Monday night. I just couldn't keep him awake in the day. We try to keep them indoors at night. Monday he was confined to barracks. Then he slept all day Tuesday. 

Wed., Aug. 26, he was out a half hour, back in sleeping. Now, he doesn't like the wood pellet kitty litter we have, so I think he went out to do his business. Then, he was in all day. This isn't normal. 

We dug up the deworming pills from the cat cupboard, and gave them both a pill. I wasn't sure if he wasn't well.

He seemed to want a walk, but stayed up the hill in the forest watching me go. This is most unusual. Usually, even if he is sleeping, I'll wake him up and ask if he wants 'walkies'. He'll get up and then come out with me. Thursday, he slept with us overnight, which was nice. It seemed a mystery. Thursday, he sat at the top of the hill, and wouldn't venture into the forest. That's a good thing. When I came around, he was on the edge of the forest, but didn't want to go into the meadow.

I thought it through, and wrote down his behaviour, to try process it. Then, I remembered, he was out Monday night, the night the carcass was on the empty lot: The circle of life. I'm betting he had an encounter with the coyote or fox. Probably climbed a tree. 

It took until Friday for him to come walkies. 

He sat here, at the bottom of the hill, on the edge of the meadow, meowing at me in the shade. I'd crossed the meadow.

Along he came... with a pouffy tail. That is a sure sign he is afraid of something. 

He kept up with me. My good little boi!

My poison oak infection is easing up with my meds. Here is one of the culprits. Even though I wore boots, I was careful. My five spots are nearly gone.

I've eradicated it elsewhere. This was mostly poison ivy (below, right, under the tree). I ripped up the vines around 2011. That was an adventure. I ended up at a dermatologist's office, and she recognized the rash right away. 

The poison oak is in a particular part of the forest. I simply wasn't careful this past week. It's good now. It is a specific pain: both painful and itchy at the same time.  It's a pretty forest. The wetland is in the background.

Cinnamon kept up and practiced his tree climbing skills.

Here he is atop the hill (below), our house in the background. Look at the wilted plants around him. We sure could use some regular rain. Our lawn is crunchy. We had 13 mm Sunday.

There are still crows around, hoping for more roadkill. You can see them beyond the dying sumacs.

I love the frogs. If you look closely, you can see about 6 of them, although I've counted 14 at the maximum last week. All but one are facing away from me! The bugs some down the side of the pond, and the froggies go for it.