Butch has awoken!

It was tense. We watched the radar all day last Wednesday. And the thermometer. The big branch kept lowering layered with ice. Saturday another 13 cm snow...

There was ice all down the balcony glass. 

Out front I chewed my fingernails... all was well, though. 

2026

No branches lost during this storm. Whoopeee. The last one, and the one before, cost us several thousand dollars to clean up. [The arborists were here!] We had ice storms in 2013, 2016 and 2023.  

#75 is doing cleanup.

We had the first sign of Butch March 7th. Butch makes a good clean up crew. Sort of.

  

Cats were chomping at the bit Thursday morning. Going outside with them on the deck I noticed that some thing had moved the hornet's nest. The cats were very keen on looking out onto the lawn. I saw nothing unusual.

 

On the back deck some stones had been moved out of the rabbit's bowl. I usually plant paperwhites in this container. Deeply suspicious I was. 

Off to check out the Crumbly Acres camera footage, I found them! Butch doesn't hibernate. They tend to hunker down in the deep cold around here. Something like 5 - 10 degrees below zero. 

I prepared this a few days ago. Since then we've had snow. This morning we're back in a deep freeze. to -16℃. We've been going back and forth between rain and snow. Coffee is a welcome ritual this morning.

 

Icy Crumbly Acres!

Remember Fred?! 

 It was a heckuva storm. A few days prior, Cinnamon and I went to check out the shed. I stuck a piece of wood in Fred's hole, just so I didn't twist my ankle on it. Fred, konked out for the duration (AKA hibernating since Sept. 13th!), had mice friends visit. 

Cinnamon found some sand and rolled around on it! 

Mice friend visitors! I love reading the tracks in the snow. They came and went from the shed.

There was 9.65mm rain, with an overnight temperature of -4℃, it froze on everything.

The poor deer tromping through the snow, covered by a half inch of ice. Eventually, the ice melted as the temperatures rose, and the pine trees recovered.

Overnight there was a visitor: Labbit!

 I caught her on two cameras...

We watched during the day as the temperature slowly rose. This is the snow, with the ice on top. It was awful walking. I scraped it off where I could.

I worked on the sidewalk. A layer of ice so I scattered some non-salt ('safe for paws and concrete') Joseph Brian had brought home. I used the entire container! But it worked. 

At its max, there were 62,923 households without power in southern Ontario. We escaped all that. After that, the winds blew and my light-up gifts were tumbled aside! Then the temperatures rose above zero, and it thawed. Then they fell. It was -12℃ this morning. Sadly, we had another dump of snow, several centimetres. I dare not look yet. 

Icy Weekend!

That was another storm! This time we had the ice rain. The rain poured and stuck to everything.  The poor bird feeders. I could hear the birds wake up as dawn shone a light on everything. 

Note to self: next time shovel the back deck next time. All I did was the path to the rain gauge on Saturday. Sunday, the cylinder was coated in ice.

Sunday morning, I went at it. (There's the green tub that leaks!) 

I began shoveling the deck in order to make room, should I have to pull the BBQ out. You can see the top layer of ice. It's a little shelf.

I measured the ice accretion: 0.5 cm or 5mm. It is awful.

I was up early on Sunday, what me worry? 

   

Around Georgian Bay:

First job, check power outages. They spread across the province, creeping across the path of the ice rain. I've often complained that we are, as Joe says, 'the rock in the river' with precipitation going around us. I am happy for that this weekend. 

Central Ontario Hydro Outages

My friends in Muskoka, as well as the city of Peterborough, have massive downed trees and power lines. 

 This is the Gravenhurst Opera House. We've been many times. 

Gravenhurst, Muskoka

I like their website, as Kingston shows when repairs have been done.

Kingston Power Outages

It just kept on raining. The trees began drooping. This tree branch is our 'canary in the coal mine' as we know there is ice accretion when it touches the ground. We have had a terrible time with our white pine trees and snow or ice accumulation in past years. It has cost us thousands of dollars to have it all cleaned up.

Monday morning they predicted a Colorado Low bringing 15 ℃ temperatures and a grand melt. After that it gets colder. I'll have to remember to empty the water barrels or the water will freeze and split them.

This poor tree! This morning, the ice accretion has been melting, you can hear the drip drip, and crashing of ice chards.

By the afternoon, it was above zero: 1 ℃, and it kept raining on and off. The sidewalk, covered in 5mm ice, melted. The driveway drained away. All my preparations went well. 

My Bala friends tell me they might not have power for a few days. Schools will be closed in lots of districts. They won't get back up on the grid, my friend told us, until Wednesday! 😖

I woke at 5 mm, and heard the ice falling off the roof onto the back deck. I am so happy I knew what it was. We have had a lot of rain this month.

By bedtime last night, lots more without power. This morning that is down slightly.