Power outage, critters

 Monday, I had a plan. I was going to wash sheets. I didn't begin until after lunch as somebody in our house went back to bed for a nap. He's fighting a cold. Sheets done, bed remade, Suzy Homemaker wins again. 

With that, and the looming tariffs, it was a helluva day. Many are angry and unsettled in Canada. USA, what are you doing? 

We're getting tired of explaining ourselves! Americans aren't listening to our news. Finally some of your media are getting it and providing push back.

Our countries have been connected. There are a lot  of goods and services crossing back and forth on the border. Ontario sells electricity to 3 states, for example.

Grampa has new regalia.

☔Rain all day Tuesday, more today. Well, truthfully, we had rain, snow, ice rain, and graupel.

I am trying to find solace in nature. If you have a conscience, what is happening in the world is devastating for many. I continue to think of those facing war, famine, diseases, and then North American citizens who are suffering, with the 1% having vast wealth, and sucking more out of those with less. Then there are tariffs... 

Here is Labbit and a deermouse. 

🔌 We were thinking about dinner. Abruptly, our power went out. My first idea was to check the outage map. We weren't on it. And then we were! 

At first it was declared to be 'planned work' but we are always informed of that in the past. Nada. Next, they changed the restoration time to 7:45, then 8:00 and at one point 8:45. I reported it on the phone, which was down to 29% power! Whoopsie. 

🔦Joe got out lanterns and flashlights. I made a 🔥fire, just in case. 

We scrambled for dinner. Reading by flashlight isn't so bad. I texted the kids to let them know. Suddenly, you know how it is, various electronics came on again. That was about 6 p.m. Not so long after, I could hear an alarm going off. It wasn't the smoke detectors. It was the carbon monoxide detector in the basement. Who would you call in that case? The company that installed the furnace? Fire department? At least we had lights. My instinct was to get out of the house, but what if???

Down we went. Flashlights in hand, just in case. If we were gonna go, we were going together! It occurred to me that it may just be that the detector needed resetting. I unplugged it and plugged it back in. No alarm. It took awhile to calm down. 

Monday was garbage day!

I went into town on Monday. The wind was throwing around the garbage cans. Mine were rolling around. I threw the can behind the fence, the recycling bin (in the ditch) I'd pick up after I shopped.

I like online orders. Stores still give me the heebee-jeebies. 

Arriving in the designated parking spot, I grabbed my phone to let them know I was there. Then, I reopened up my wounded finger. I wrapped it in a tissue, while the employee and I loaded up my car. 

Thankfully there is a First Aid Kit in the car! 

Back home, I had to bring in the garbage can and recycling bins. It was cold.

The snow blows onto the roads, and it is suddenly slippery. When it went to -14 overnight, everything froze. Black ice on the road is dangerous. 

 A storm!

Power was out for a lot of homes, very spotty, which is more difficult for Hydro to repair. I checked it to see if we should get our flashlights out! 

We are south of Perth, and kept our power.

Not everyone was so lucky. As I sat in my chair, I saw four emergency vehicles zip by, lights flashing. I wished them well., out there in the dark.

Cinnamon was bored. Nutmeg had already gone to bed all by herself. She is a loner.

We had another 7.5 cm overnight. I have some work to do! See you on the other side.

Smashing out from the ice accretion!

The Ottawa high schools are in exam mode. All exams are cancelled Wednesday, and shifted a day forward. Josephine had an exam to write Friday, Isabelle had a PD Day, and then both girls were to take off to Florida to see their paternal grandfather. Bye-bye beach time. I am so sad for them. They have to cancel.

School busses are cancelled again today. What a shame. I know the kids wanted to their exams done! There is another 10 - 15 mm rain on the way on top of knee-deep snow. 

Yesterday the ice accretion was about a cm. The ice pellets had melted and there was a layer of ice on everything. The back deck was an ice rink at 7 a.m. I managed to scrape it off later in the day when it warmed up. By then everything was dripping and you could hear the ice falling.

My first worry was losing more branches. They were OK, except for one touching the ground.

The sun rose, as it tends to do... Squirrel was being cute.

The trees are snow and ice covered. 

The ice accretion if obvious on the bird feeder! It warmed up and everything melted off the trees and the trees relaxed. (So did I!)

After using the chipper on the sidewalk, the ice was gone. The driveway was still a mess. But I worry about slipping on the ice. 

Back to bird watching as I caught my breath. The Hairy woodpecker was being an arse. She kept on scattering seeds until she found the perfect one. You can see the seeds flying to the ground. She knocked all these down!

The sidewalk: Before and After! My arms are sore, but it was a good workout.

I was ready for a shower. Happily I did not wait. At 3:00, we lost power. It came back about about 3:45. That was a relief. It was still light out and we sat and read. There was a tree on the line...

Now I have to get caught up on reading my blog newsfeed. Who knows was today will bring! Hope you are warm and dry.

That was an ice storm 2023

 For Wednesday it was a day of warnings. Rain or ice rain. On Tuesday I did laundry, JB put the dishwasher on, and I had a shower, and washed my hair. As ready as we'll ever be. Water saved in the tub.

School busses were cancelled. Our Ottawa grandies usually walk into school, as it is a place to get work done without the distractions of home. This was a mess, though. It was coming.

Thunder and lightning everywhere

I rigged up the water barrel, again, to get fresh water into the goldfish pond. (We have two ponds, the frogpond down by the meadow, and the goldfish pond I hand dug beside the house.) That will give us flushing water, if we need it. When power goes out, we don't have our well water pump, as well as electricity.

The lightning map was amazing, as thunder and lightning boomed all around us.

Over the day, more and more people lost power in our province. This morning, it is a disaster. Ours went down at 3:19. I watched and took note over the day. Power outages simply escalated. It was getting worse.

Ottawa has a ton of outages

It appears as if we should NOT have power,
but, thankfully, we do.

The temperature hovered between -1 and -2 C. all morning. Eventually, it began to drip icicles all around the eaves. I decided to forego my usual morning workout. It rained all day, and it was -1 C. I didn't want to risk needing a shower, with no water!

I emptied the rain gauge three times, 70 mm / 3" of water, mostly clinging to the trees and branches.

Our power went out at 3:19. It came back on at 8:40, right after a text message saying it would be on by noon the next day. It only last about 15 minutes.  When I woke at 4:30 a.m., we had power. I'm not sure why. I can still hear trees falling in the forest. It is shocking. If I weren't on anti-depressants, I would cry. The trees were all cleared up, branches chipped, logs in 16" lengths.

 

We are going to have to hire our crew again. The backyard is a mess. Not only are there branches down in the back, but in the front yard, as well. You can see where the branch is missing. It just crashed to the ground.

See the tree just beyond the hanging feeder? It is a mess, with branches down all over.

We had sandwiches for dinner. We'll have to check out the fridge and see what we have to throw out. We read by flashlight but by 10 and went to bed.  I was happy to wake up at 4:30 to have power. 

I am happy to be warm and dry indoors, the fire I made took us through the night. It is foggy this morning, and I hope the ice coating the trees melts before we lose more branches. I am so sad for the trees. 

I like September!

 Here we are, September. The plants have nearly run their spring/summer cycles. I'm putting together another Fall Chores post. The year unfolds as it should. We've still a few cherry tomatoes. Soon, with first frost, my outdoor plants will die off, their year done. 

The Perth Fair is on this weekend. There is a display contest, top prize $175, 2nd = $100 and 3rd place = $75! I figured that out after being out driving and seeing these! 

After their morning run, in the cats come for breakfast. The horse chestnut tree, in the background, is beginning to lose leaves. It was chilly yesterday.

I knew the morning was going to be sunny, so I did laundry early and hung it out. Sitting on the back deck to process some photos on my laptop, it began to rain. Happily the clothes were nearly dry. I hustled and brought it all in.

August 2022 <= rain totals! They were decent.

On Wednesday, the day progressed. I did some much-needed weeding. The clouds rolled in, and then a big storm. Well, not so big, but spotty. Very isolated. The tree frog in the bathroom sensed the impending storm and began to chirp. I still cannot find it.

Thunderboomers everywhere around us, as well as power outages.

Ontario Hydro posts outages, hopefully you can access it with a cell phone if your home is without power. People were back up by the next morning.

The rain stopped, but there were warnings for the kids in Ottawa. They were out picking up a grocery order. Happily they made it home safely.

Ottawa Hydro also shows a map of outages, Caitlin texted that theirs was out. They had power back by 9:30 p.m.! 

Whew!

Goodnight sun!