Crumbly Acres Chores

What a spring it has been. Apparently, allergens abound. I heard an expert explaining that some early trees were delayed with the cool weather. They now are in bloom, and the other trees are blossoming at the same time. It doesn't help allergy sufferers, but it does explain the severity.

Maggie Magnolia is in full bloom. She is so pretty. I tried a drive by shooting from my lawn tractor, and it didn't go well in the close-up! Ah well, a record of the tree.

Cinnamon was supervising his goldfish.

More rain! The problem is the little pieces of the tree blossoms. 

We've had winds, and the dead leaves and blossoms are blocking the gutter. At 6 a.m. (after putting garbage out!) I was up the ladder, inserting my old hose to syphon it out. 

After the syphoning, I realized I had to climb up and clean it. There wasn't a lot of debris, just enough to blog the drain spout.

It was mucky, smelly stuff! Splatted on my face. 😒

It didn't take long. I took a panoramic from the roof. This is the back.

Here is the front yard! We don't have to hire someone this time!

Joe Brian fetched the makings for meatloaf. I thought it'd be nice to heat the house baking. It turned out to be a 24 ℃ day. It was a good idea at the time!

The clouds moved away, the sun came out, and I worked on a couple of other things. I went down well.

Critter action

Here we go, Tuesday. It's not bad outside. Now. There might be another storm coming in today. Where was this precipitation when we needed it in August?! Thursday they predict we'll go down to -13℃. At least we've snow cover to protect flora and fauna. We had some snow last night. Perhaps you'll notice I put up my Valentine's Day wreath (far right). We need some colour.

It was a lovely fall. Despite the drought. I forgot to publish this at the time. Doing a panoramic photo for my header I caught myself on the dashcam! I miss the colours.

 

 Jan. 6th, I noticed the coyotes following my snow shoe path.

   

 This is the present.

   

 It is tricky walking. I do love watching them.

 

In the morning, Joe goes out to feed deer. They hear the garage door and come running.

 

Finally, at 5 a.m. the fisher came for a visit. The feeders attract rodents in the night. You can't choose your visitors! I never see it in the day.

 

Fires, rain, indoor games

🔥Well the fires are still firing across Canada. Our smoke has gone. Thankfully. The numbers are slowly evolving. There are some fires they simply do not fight, as they have to prioritize them, with limited crews. 

 "Canada lost 30,000 firefighters over the past six years, according to a national survey."

Canada is a nation of volunteer firefighters🚒. Apparently 70% are volunteers. The big cities have permanent, paid staff, but our rural areas rely on men and women to drop everything and go fight a fire. They've gone from 156,000 firefighters (2016) across Canada to 126,000 (2022), as the economy and the nature of the work evolves. Most calls are NOT for fires (medical, environmental, accidents): only 10% were actual fires. There are shortages in budgets, affecting equipment, and training.🧯

Our PM visited Ukraine. More money, more sanctions. Something needs to be done. Perhaps Ukraine joining NATO will make a difference. 

PM Trudeau, Freeland in Ukraine

🌧 We had 4.8 mm (0.19") rain yesterday afternoon. Praise Be!  That is only 7mm this month, so far. We need a long day of rain. In 2020 we only had 29mm rain, whereas there were two years we had 150+ mm.

During the smoky days we've spent our time indoors, although the last couple of days have been cloudy and cooler. I was happy to get outdoors Saturday and Sunday.

Fred has been gathering nesting materials:

On Friday we went into Perth and had our booster shots for COVID. I booked it online. Our last shots were October. 

When we came out of the store, I spotted this car, licence plate: PLAINFUN! Snazzy car, for someone!

Friday, June 9th Phoebe has fledged! I went to check on them and two flew away. There were none left, so I am going to assume we had at least survive. They have been checking the nest for remainders! I was going to be able to load up the wood, but I forgot about the cardinal nest in the lilac tree. I checked it Saturday, all gone. I guess I should have been more vigilant. 

The cardinals are gone!

Nutmeg has been out. She caught herself a rodent, and threw up some guts on the front sidewalk. At first I couldn't figure out why the crow was flying by and/or perching in the tree. They must have a good sense of smell. Here she was checking out a bedside table.

On a happier note: I've been having fun figuring out the panoramic setting on the phone. I took a regular photo of the most recent Bears, but you can see how good the panorama is showing 🧸Snuggle Bears🐻!

This is a regular photo:

The panoramic image is far better↓. The signage says, BEARVILLE ANNUAL ART SHOW! (Grampa was inspired by the art show at the Ottawa girls' high school, they put photos on the family photo stream!)