There's a storm comin!

Well, it's a tad chilly this morning! They are predicting a big storm for us for Monday. We've got gas in the snowblower, since they predict 30 - 40 cm (about a foot). It should begin tonight. I may or may not get the garbage out Monday morning. Sadly the kids are going back to school Monday, and they are predicting quite a bit of snow. It is far better than rain. Our flora and fauna need the snow cover in these temperatures.

I hope people stay safe and warm. We had power outages yesterday in Ontario. Could just be the cold.

Bird watching has been fun. It's the small things we can take pleasure in to keep us going. 

  I love these birds. We had 15 or so goldfinches in their winter colours. I missed this photo a few days ago, trying to be succinct (yes, not really good at that...), and noticed the one at the back was feeding the other. Spring is coming! Soon we'll have nests and babies!

I changed up the feeders and the cardinal prefers the tray feeder. It has a cover to prevent most of the precipitation on it. I managed a photo of the two of them in the chestnut tree (male and female) and they are a bright spot in my days.

My orchid is beginning to create another stem! Yippee!

I managed a photo of our bunnies in the dark. 

Cinnamon insisted on going outdoors. Crazy cat. It warmed up to -20 for him in the sunshine. What a boy! He's been sleeping curled up beside me, his head on my arm. It is cozy. 

🍝🍝🍝🍝🍝🍝🍝🍝🍝🍝🍝🍝🍝🍝🍝🍝🍝🍝🍝🍝

JB has been busy. I do the heavy stuff, he still has issues with his rotator cuff, his arm is bad, but he can do dishes and clean up.  He cleaned the stove. Then I made spaghetti sauce... Me bad. It is good to keep him busy! I've had the dropsies lately.

The trailcams have been critterless! They are wisely hunkering down in this cold. The fisher came by, marking his presence. I haven't seen one in ages. I bet food is getting scarce. Fisher from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

 

Dangerous times...

It was a heckuva week around the world. We are having vigils all over the country for those we lost in the plane crash, PS752. Now Iran admitted they did it. Beautiful souls, young people, students returning from winter break.

Saturday the NY Times mocked Canada. The responses were varied, from anger (me, and others) to Gerry, who is a comic. Lee nailed it. 

Then, we had an emergency alert, which was since rescinded. It was sent "in error."

No word from our Provincial government. 

There are many things for which we can be grateful. I stopped to check out the damage at this house.



In the Muskoka Room, Nutmeg jumped from the pillow in the foreground, to the door ledge, clung by her claws, then pulled herself up to the ledge. She sits out there in all weather. She was out in the -15 C. temps for the better part of an hour the other day. It poured rain all day Saturday, still she begged to go out.



I noticed that the aforementioned pillow was wet. I climbed up on the ladder, to check the eavestrough. I'm not sure why it is leaking out from the soffit vent. I cleared out some debris. We'll see what happens.




There is water everywhere. 2" of it... all flowing into the backyard into the aquifers.



The wind has been wicked. I don't know if it was the wind, or the raccoons that knocked my cupboard over. This motion detector light has been sturdy. It is affixed to the front of the cabinet. The arms bent, again, but it still keep on ticking. We so often leave the house, and don't realize we'll be home after dark. These solar powered lights, from Lee Valley, are amazing.



The goldfish pond. It rained all day, and it was about 10 C. for much of the day.



The driveway WAS all clear and melted. It is covered in a combination of snow pellets and snow this morning. While I've cleared the sidewalk, fed the deer, goldfish and cat, I'm going to wait to so any more.



This, I learned. Maybe. I climbed all the way up the ladder, with the cordless drill in one hand, the new bat box in the other (it was a gift), and two screws in my mouth. I made it to the top only to find the battery in the drill was dead. sigh.



Sunday morning, 7:30, it was raining, when I got up. JB was up at 4 a.m. and said it was snowing. At 8 a.m. it is snowing, again. We had nearly 50 mm rain Saturday.


There are more than 12,000 homes without power.

This morning was a bit of a shock.

I cleaned the birdbath yesterday. Sadly, it froze over. I went out in housecoat and jammies to check it out. The heater had come undone. I dodged a bullet. There was enough water that it didn't flash freeze. This was covered in a layer of ice.

We have happy critters, happy to be at the bird feeder. Well, IN the feeder.

About 100,000 people without power in Ontario!

There are many people who will be having a candle lit Christmas Eve! I hope they embrace it in the spirit of the season. I've cooked a turkey on a BBQ! It builds character.
Mind you, it's not as bad as the 7 people dead from tornadoes in the southern states, but there will be those who complain.

Thanks to those Hydro crews who are working away tonight and tomorrow. This is true for all those who work on days when the rest of us celebrate a festivus! Hubby is taking chocolate into our local emergency room!

 

Ice Storm 2013 hundreds of thousands without power

News Release

December 23, 2013 - For Immediate Release

Ontario Utilities Report 380,000 Outages; Restoration Efforts Ongoing

TORONTO – The Electricity Distributors Association (EDA) has this morning canvassed its membership – which encompasses all local electricity distributors across the province – to better determine the scope of current customer impacts resulting from the weekend ice storm.

The data compiled thus far from various sources confirms impacts largely restricted to the Greater Toronto Area and some immediately surrounding regions, with a total of approximately 380,000 customers without power. This is down from well over 600,000 at the peak.

Local electric utilities have reported the approximate number of outages shown below as of mid-day Monday. Areas not listed are reporting minimal or no impact, or were not immediately reachable. All numbers are approximate and are changing frequently.

Cambridge & North Dumfries Hydro Inc.	1,000
Canadian Niagara Power Inc. (Fort Erie, Port Colborne)	1,000
Centre Wellington Hydro Ltd.	40
Enersource Hydro Mississauga Inc.	750
Guelph Hydro Electric	50
Haldimand County Hydro Inc.	50
Horizon Utilities Corporation (Hamilton, St. Catherines)	1,500
Hydro One Networks (serving primarily rural areas)	110,000
Hydro One  Brampton Networks	3,500
Kingston Electricity Distribution	150
Milton Hydro Dist. Inc.	1,000
Niagara Peninsula Energy Inc.	40
Oakville Hydro Electricity Distribution Inc.	200
Oshawa PUC Networks	4,000
Powerstream Inc. (York Region)	16,300
Toronto Hydro-Electric System Limited	219,000
Veridian Connections Inc. (Eastern GTA)	18,900
Waterloo North Hydro Inc.	200
Welland Hydro-Electric System Corp.	50
Whitby Hydro Electric Corp.	400

Still about 225,000 Toronto Hydro customers without power. The map has been iffy!

Ontario Hydro has many, many customers still without power.

Southern Ontario - right across to Kingston

Surrounding the GTA - many are out

Dear Prince Edward County

What we learned from Ice storm '98: keep your BBQs & generators outside. There were 35 deaths, and many became ill from carbon monoxide poisoning. Beware!

They are reporting 11 poisonings, and 2 deaths from carbon monoxide poison today.