Gramma Camp – continued...Week 30

Sunday afternoon, when we brought the kids here, Isabelle walked up the sidewalk and complimented me on my garden! It was so sweet. I stand on the shoulders of three gardeners, the previous owners of our home. 

I'd woken Josephine Tuesday morning, talked to her, and come back upstairs. I leaned over the railing 10 minutes later, and called 3 or 4 times. No reply. Apparently, they each had one mosquito in their bedrooms last night, and didn't get to sleep in good time.  I sent Izzy down to wake up Jos, again. Iz came back up and said she'd talked to her, then yodeled some, then threatened to get a small, annoying bell. Josephine declined! She promised she'd get up.

I taped the hole where the little ants were coming in. They have switched to coming in above the window frame. I need to get some caulk.

The gypsy moth caterpillars continue to morph. They were 4 mm, now 13 mm, and I found one hanging from a tree that was 18 mm, and you can see the red colour in it.

I found a clearwing moth on the lilacs.

Poor Butch and bugs !

This pair are so cute, way out in the forest. Butch x 2  

 

I've put a camera in the meadow. I think this is who took the squirrel carcass. coyote in the meadow  

 

Or this one! crow    

I noticed sparrow in the spruce tree. I wonder if it is the caterpillars? sparrows  

 

🍃Moth Caterpillars🐛

 May 23 –  Lymantria dispar dispar (LDD)

The moths are into a new instar (going from 4 => 6mm), and have covered my rose bush. I picked off (all I could see), and dropped them into soapy water. 

Monday, May 24 – Gypsy Moths

There were more the next day. Instar #3: 11 mm long.

This is the young elm in the garden under the bird house (see above). Lots of holes, and little caterpillars. While discouraging, the holes in the leaves, you can see the dragonfly on the top of the leaf.

Bugs and blooms

Finally, it took years, but I have two rhododendron plants, and one is flowering. I wrapped them all winter, and the deer have avoided them. So far. 

I made it up there, with the ladder, JB handing me the drill. The piece had slid down, and while I put in the first screw, attempted the second, and third, the wasp came back looking for its nest. The 2nd screw split the wood. The third was too long and didn't go in. I gave up! Either way, the wasp is thwarted. I was not stung, so I won.

This is the before and after.

It's called Lychnis flos-cuculi, "Petite Jenny!" I love it! 

Honeysuckles and serviceberries are in blossom!

I've two lady slippers in full colour, 9 plants total on 16 acres! I ended up putting on bug spray to go down there. That helped! 

OK, the gypsy moth caterpillars are slowing down on the deck. I reused the container, and put in dish soap. The irony is, they are falling down on the deck from the roof, and crawling all over the bottle. I wiped down the railings every couple of hours. They have finally slowed down. Now, we await the second stage and third of the larvae, the caterpillar stage. Each growth stage is called an instar. They molt and grow 5 or 6 times until they are mature larvae, 50 mm long (Gypsy Moth, Ontario Government).

Down in the meadow, I looked up and the tree was covered in gypsy moth caterpillars. The irony is that this is an elm tree, and it will suffer from Dutch Elm Disease sooner rather than later. 

They are mostly on the back deck, but the propane tanks were covered in them, as well. I gave up, other than on the railings.  

Phoebe is still on the nest. (Any minute now they'll hatch!)

Robin only has 2 eggs. Maybe she took a break yesterday. They usually lay 3 -  5 eggs. 

I'd moved the trailcam down to the meadow. I'm glad I did! First fawn of the season! fawn May 22 

You asked a good question, Karen! It could be the 3 raccoons from yesterday's post are from the litter of six we had. I cannot imagine that they would travel with unrelated raccoons, they are so hostile with one another! 

Apps and technology for fauna and the skies

The gypsy moths are here 🍃Gypsy Moths🐛 <= I'm going to keep track of them. There's not much we can do about it. They have hatched, I noticed them Monday, May 17th. They fling themselves out into the world on gossamer threads, and their 4 mm bodies are spread on the wind.  They are all over the back deck railing, which is unreal. They eat tree leaves. It really is discouraging. 

I've a bucket of soapy water, I keep washing it all down. We cannot spray anything, you need dormant oil prior to the eggs hatching, and now we've gray tree frogs who inhabit the back deck, plus lots of butterflies and moths.

I'm happy to take a break, go indoors, and watch curling with JB. The poor man is fighting allergies, as well as being unable to use his left arm to lift, and his neck pain. Technology has really helped many get through this all with family Facetime and Zoom. 

That said, my son and DIL had their birthday/wedding anniversary yesterday. I kept meaning to phone, knowing Jesse is working from home. I didn't want to interrupt his work day. I kept watching the clock. Then it was 4 p.m., and it was 1 p.m. in Vancouver. Then, our dinnertime, and I was wiping caterpillars off the back deck. Next, I was sleepy, konked out, and went to bed early. I feel so badly! 

This is Jess and Stacie, with her niece and nephew and Isabelle and Josephine, 7 years ago at their Surrey  wedding! It was a lovely backyard wedding, at her mom's place. Jesse is doing so well, with a new job.

Up in the air!

In the meantime, look up to the skies. When my dad was dying, I found it helped to record what happened in a memoire on a daily basis. I've written about my noise issues, that is a symptom of anxiety. (Also, inability to make decisions, trembling, a sense of danger or doom.) JB has to warn me if he's using the dustbuster. I startle so easily. Bless his heart.

What I found helps is to try capture the air traffic (a good challenge), try ID them and spot them on the Flight24 Radar. Some don't show up. Especially the military helicopters📹! They are big and LOUD! Compilation: heads up 📹. 

More air traffic around the hummingbird feeder. Yesterday, the female was watching me📹from the safety of the lilac tree. Wednesday, the female visited, the male came by, and she chased him away! When he left, she went back to the lilac tree to see if the coast was clear! You go, girl! hummingbird battle  

Song Birds

They are back from their winter break. There is an app I heard about on Twitter. BirdNET, by Cornell U. It's not bad. It identified the red-eyed vireo for me, as well as a Cardinal, and blue jay. I was down at the frogpond, and ID'd another red-eyed vireo. It took a couple of tries, as there were noisy dump trucks going by. That was funny: "human made sounds!"

Thursdays are OPP gun days, and the app was mystified. The long green marks show the guns going off. They do recertification for all 500 OPP members in the region 500 m behind our property. Again, when it began we used to go out for a drive, and lunch out.  It sounds like a murderous insurrection, with 12 police, shooting upon command, for 10 seconds. I had a tour of the facility, and that helped calm me.

Are you languishing?

While I am on meds for depression and anxiety, many people are facing life-limiting health issues. Then there are fires in Manitoba, drought, COVID–19 is everywhere, anger and resentment boils over what governments are or are not doing. I have to turn the news off. 

I watched one CTV segment on Languishing, which seems to reflect the challenges of many. Mental health is a spectrum, from depression < = > flourishing. I've many people I follow on Social Media with serious issues that make daily life hard. The impact of the pandemic has been horrible for them. Self-care is truly important for those who are struggling somewhere in between. People can feel joyless, aimless, stagnant and empty, according to experts. 

CTV segment on Languishing

NYTimes wrote: 

There’s a Name for the Blah You’re Feeling: It’s Called Languishing

The neglected middle child of mental health can dull your motivation and focus — and it may be the dominant emotion of 2021.   

I hope you are all looking after yourselves. We will get through this! 

Painting the decks, back to school, trailcams

 Is my back ever sore, but it is all repainted! I had to lay down a second coat, as recommended. I'll leave this here, in order to remember what I used. I was quite pleased with it.

One is supposed to not replace furniture for three hours, but I don't have that option. I moved it all to the side, painted the inner portion, and moved it back carefully, painted the outside section.

I managed to get the top off of the swing, preparation for winter, standing on the now dry deck. Progress.

I saved enough stain for my chair.

JB went for a walk, as he does several times a day. He said, "It's raining, but I have all this rain gear I ought to go for a walk!"

I found some invasive gypsy moth eggs on a conifer in the front yard. 

Tired and colder in the cooler weather, they've hunkered down.

Our sumac aren't doing well. We've had a couple years of dry Augusts, but there are some leaves.

A little Isabella caterpillar...

Our granddaughters online classes begin today, Friday morning. They have mixed emotions. 

I caught myself on the trailcam! Soon I will be mulching leaves.

Nutmeg grabbed a shrew in the forest.

Our coyote was back, three days later. He was snuffling in the bushes. The cats may have left the shrew there. He's a good clean-up crew. I've not seen him in the daytime. 

 Butch

Butch from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.