No end to the excitement...

 We've had a busy few days. Somebody has contact dermatitis on his head. We think from a (wool) hat he put on. He is allergic to wool. This is our working theory. After Caitlin's advice, I sent him in to ask the pharmacist about some cream with cortisone. It didn't seem to work. He went back in for a stronger (2%) product. 

In the meantime, there was a doctor's appointment. Joe has problems with ingrown toe nails. It is painful, as I am sure you can imagine. The doctor said it's not as bad as some of his patients. I left the room while a procedure was done. All went fairly well. The physician forgot, in the excitement, to actually email to Rx to the pharmacy. (That took a couple of days to fix. I picked it up for him.)

At home I'd prepared various bandages, not knowing what we had or needed. It turns out not to have bled as much as last time, not as extreme a lift off.

🐭I arose from my bed the next day. I could hear something rattling the furnace vent. Hmmmm. Flipping out the vent, I pulled back the sofa to wait and see. 

I took off to the kitchen to get coffee going, then settled into my chair to do my blogging. Nutmeg came back into the room, after pointing out the noise to me (like a hunting dog!), and was staring in the upside down vent. There was a mouse!

Out it went, to live another day. 

Over it goes, into the leaves. Whew!

It scuttled off. 

 🇨🇦 The rest of our day was taken up with politics. There is more great excitement here, since PM Carney has tabled his first budget. He is an international economist, and many have great faith in him. The government either votes to accept the budget or to topple the government and have another election. 😱The Liberals have a minority government. The Liberals had a new member of their party 'cross the aisle' to join them from the Conservative Party. Then, late yesterday another Conservative met with the PM, stating his resignation. Rumours are that there were many threats in the darkness against him and his family, should he defect to the Liberals. He decided to resign his seat shortly. The word coercion was mentioned. 

This morning, he has not officially resigned. Perhaps in 6 months? What a soap opera!

TorStar article

Saturday's Critters

I split our pumpkins with the reciprocal saw. 

 

It has revealed its bounty to several critters! 

I really believe we must notice the small as well as the large critters! Can you see it?!

   

Chippie is happy!

 

Bunny is happy!

   

 In both the front and back yards!

   

 I love the paw lift on the raccoon. After staring at the camera lights, it seemed pensive!

 

Saturday's Critters # 569 <= visit more critters on Eileen's blog.

It is September...

🍁 Autumn approaches, despite 30+ C. temperatures. Another day of this heat.

 

🦨 I think I've found the skunk den. It is likely an old Fred groundhog burrow. I don't know where Fred has gone, but he did this last year, as well. This one was built into the soft sand of the built up area around the septic bed. 

You may wonder how I found it, but the nose knows! I was cleaning and filling the fountain, and that whiff told me something was up. Beyond the flower sculpture, down the hill in the gully.

I was suspicious, and cautiously waded through the bracken down in the gully, to find the hole I could see from above. It is really well-hidden.

Here is an aarchive photo

I went down to the trailcam, having put bug spray on my lower legs. It didn't do much good! You can see three mosquitos on my leg. The point of the photo was the white fungus, but as I looked down, I was a bit surprised.

Both cameras are slightly tipped. I had high hopes for critters.

There was a doe and she seemed spooked by coyotes.

DOE AND COYOTES from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I put out the garbage Monday morning, and spotted these two. Cinnamon doesn't like the heat, and has been indoors for a few days.

Another invention I dearly love.  This is a tool meant for particular BBQ cooking, when you want the lid open for slower cooking. I realized it would help me. I have a problem BBQing. I am too short to lift the lid, then let it gently go back. I risk singing armpit hairs. It is a BBQ too big for the two of us, but it was a COVID purchase. Need I say more?! 

I can flip the meat, and close the lid easily, now. JB thinks it look like a Klingon tool. Mebbe so.

🐭 Mice friends

I noticed both Cinnamon and Nutmeg giving much attention to the guest room. Hmmmm. 

It was in a corner in the bathroom, shaking miserably. I scooped it up in the butterfly net, and took it outside. It is a young one. 

🕷️ I found myself a tick, Sept. 3. It was on my foot. We don't have too many this year. One year Daisy brought home 200, this was prior to the invention of the cat goop to prevent them from staying on cats. 

Tick bites get itchy, and itchy painful. It'll soon heal. You can see the bandage on my foot on the right. My tenosynovitis acted up, too. Ain't old age grand?! I stabbed my finger with a needle. I'm working on a felting project for Christmas.

I heard two barred owls hooting to each other Saturday night, Sept. 2nd. "Who-cooks-for-you?" I hope we have a pair next year. I haven't seen one in a dog's age. These are from my archives.

With Autumn comes season-end chores. I spotted Percy goldfish. It is a chore getting him inside for winter. My little, mostly hand-dug pond, isn't deep enough and it will freeze. Not good for a tropical fish.

In the meantime, enjoy the shoulder season. I think it is a great time of year.

Saturday's Critters

I've been hampered by my own mistake. I found a different setting for exporting my videos, 'large' basically. I never even thought about my Vimeo plan limits! I just reached my upload limits, and figured out why. So silly! I'm at 90% of my storage limits, too. I guess I ought to dump some old videos...

Out front, a mice friend!

mouse from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Out back, the cats come and go. These are ours.

cats from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Out in the dark, when my cats were indoors, it appears as if we have a black cat visiting, then wild Oregano. The nearest house to our is across the highway. How do they find us?! 

What do you think? A black cat?

   

2 cats? from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Down in the forest, a lone coyote.

coyote from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Also in the forest, there were a few deer just watching and listening. You can hear the crows in the video. They are back, maybe house hunting! The one deer gave a mighty leap worth isolating and doing at slow motion!

deer aleaping from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

For more critters: Saturday's Critters # 430 visit Eileen's Saturday's Critters. 

🐸Happy critters🐇

  We just went into lockdown again last week. We managed to get all our healthcare needs attended to. One of us had a footcare appointment, a blood test, physiotherapy,  an X-ray (for his sore neck), and a vision checkup. All went well. 

I managed to go to the dentist, while JB picked up his regular homeopathic meds from the gym. The gym was closed, but they have essential services, like massage therapy, housed in the building. Our naturopathic doctor has an office there, as well. She leaves him his meds at the front desk.

Our healthcare professionals have had their first vaccine dose. My massage therapist, our dental office staff, as well.

Restaurants are surviving doing Take Out only.

We tootled on home for lunch. JB had picked up Subway sandwiches for us. 

I visited the trailcams and found lots of critters. They are all happy with the green grass. The critters are much more active these days. It's wonderful to see. That fresh hope of spring.🐰

Food fight: this is why it is illegal here, and in many other countries, to take in wild animals. They are wild. Butch food fight   

Talk about 'quick like a bunny!'

 

Quick like a Bunny part 2.

It made it to the backyard, if it is the same one!

 

backyard bunny from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

April 4th, Porcupine  still has a leaf stuck to his butt! Here is a daytime photo.

He hauled out the skin of the pumpkin that has sat here since the fall. There were a few seeds left. 

 

He came back again, and this time was marking the bushes. Porcupine marking     

The skunk has been around, as well. Again, archive photo! They are so fascinating. It wandered by one summer day, oblivious to me and my camera.

 

The woodland jumping mouse is back! It's like a deermouse, but with long tails. And, of course, they jump!

 

We knew it was coming. The 🐸frogpond  is awake, with mosquito larvae dancing in the warming water.

 

Zola is still alive and doing as well as she can. She's putting a bit more weight on it.

 

I've been watching for the wood ducks on the pond. 

They nest in the three boxes I have put up. They are flighty things. If I come around the pond from the far end, I can spot them, but they take off, being frequent flyers. I videotaped them, as I wasn't sure if they weren't just regular mallards. Nope, once I looked at the video, I realized they had taken off, came back, then crawled up on the land. When I went down to the pond the next day, they were in the wetland, on the other side of the path. wood ducks 

 

Visit more critters! Saturday's Critters #382

Mice Friends!

When the cats go out in the morning, Nutmeg, especially, goes and sniffs around the mouse hole. They are deermice. They are quite frequent flyers around here. Mostly I find them in the shed.

One year [Mouse tails – Happy endings are good!], they built a nest in my lawn tractor! 

This is our front window. We've left the Christmas lights up, just because. 

There is a bench. Under the bench is a mouse hole. It's been there for ages.  Lately, we've been hearing them in the wall. None in the house, but in the wall, for sure.

The other day, I noticed that some of the insulation was out on the porch, some still in the mouse hole.

We've set up the trailcam at the feeder, just for fun. When the cats go out in the morning, Nutmeg heads straight for the mouse hole. Mice friends  

We've had a strange cat outside a couple of times. Last time it was Saturday night, Jan. 9th. It looks just like Cinnamon. Apparently, it was there at 10 p.m. on Jan. 13th.  The trailcam found the Strange cat   hunting for said mice friends. 

Saturday's Critters #370 <= For more critters: visit Eileen's blog!

Gramma Camp: Monday, Day 1

Sunday, March 15th

Happy dance for Cinnamon. He caught his first critter. Sunday, March 15th.

It's a meadow vole...

I texted my daughter and said we could clear our calendars for them. The sad thing, they'd planned a trip to Germany, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand in April. That no longer is possible. Joffie is now 12, and Isabelle is 8, turning 9 in May!

We're going to have some fun!

One parent has developed a schedule, posted online. It's pretty tight!

We're going to negotiate with the girls. They deserve a week off. Scholastic has an online activities page.


Personally? I embroidered this a few years ago... it's party time!



We've stocked up on library books. The libraries will be closed here, and in Ottawa, for three weeks.
My fear? Our TV has a bit of a problem. When it first starts up, it looks like this. There is a band down the left side. The rest of it is a reflection of the room.

The girls have some guidelines from teachers. (Both are in French Immersion!)

Monday, March 16th

Off we went into Carleton Place for the hostage exchange. There were few cars that early in the morning, but the vehicles that were out were hot headed and screaming into the city.

We said goodbye to Momma.



Grampa and I wore masks as we got out of the car. We had a fair bit of fun with that.

Unpacked, Isabelle asked if I could make her a fire in the basement. She did most of it.
Izzy made her own lunch. She managed to open the new pickle jar, as well as slicing the cheese and pickles.


As she was sitting, there eating her creation, Nutmeg appeared in the doorway.



Isabelle did  a Talking Pet video on my phone! They are so clever. It took me a half hour to figure out how to hook up their iPads to my Wifi. Typical old fart!

nutmeg from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.


We knew it would be raining today, Tuesday, so we played outside while we could. We filled feeders, and then went tree climbing.



We discussed the tree house that is falling apart. Maybe a project will be to take this side down. The tree, bless its heart, is still growing.



A package came for Grampa. I sent Isabelle to the door with it. Grampa thanked her. I told her to ask for a tip. She did. Grampa said, "Don't stay out in the sun too long!" She groaned!



It was leftover meatloaf for dinner. I'd forgotten it had mushroom in it. The girls just set them aside!
I banked the fire, and they read at bedtime. At lights out time, Isabelle asked for a Gramma story, so Nebuchadnezzar came for a visit, and we joked that it was July and the girls were still here, they went flying in the forest.

With these difficult times, we've been discussing what to do about our health. JB needs a PSA test in a week, so we decided he would just go for it today. He can have his treatment in town in two weeks. We're gonna get through this. We've lots of food. It's freezing rain outside, but Izzy kept the fire going overnight. What a trooper.

Canada is limiting international flights...

ALSO NEW: Starting Wednesday, March 18, international flights in Canada will be restricted to four airports, and not admitting people from across the pond: Toronto (YYZ); Montreal (YUL) Vancouver (YVR); Calgary (YYC).

Our food supply chain is complex, and they don't want to close the border to the vast amount of food we get from the US. That said, our first three cases of COVID-19 came from people who'd been to the US, where they hadn't started testing for it.