Fall is falling!

We are hanging in, getting ready for winter. Joe took himself into the opthalmologist and his pink eye is good, but he has dry eye. There are drops for that, as well using eye pads for relief. There is always something. 

The goldfish pond is cold, 2 ℃., which is the air temperature this morning. I think the froggies are on their own. The leopard frogs have to move from the grass, where they've spent the summer eating bugs, to water for hibernation. This one croaked at me as I was carrying it down to the frog pond. It's a brighter green than the ones that are cold. It was happy to jump into the pond. That's 26 that I moved. 

We are so close to the end of the leaves. 

I used the lawn tractor to mulch the driveway. I thought it was going to rain. It didn't! Nothing like trying to mulch soggy leaves. 

This is a non-mental note to get up on the ladder and clean out the eaves. Once they've all fallen. Also, the shed. There is no sense dragging the ladder around until the trees are done.

The bird feeder is up. The birds laugh at Cinnamon. 

Tuesday I roared up and down the driveway to mulch leaves. I enjoyed it! When I finished... looking to the skies. My first photo was with the video camera. B

y the time I fetched the phone, the double was much less exciting.

Winter, bring it on!

I left the wood order a bit late. Usually I order it in August, when the ground is dry. We had some surprising rainfall the first few days of September. Ah well.

I cleverly asked them to dump it in two places, after getting wood in for nearly 9 years! I cannot stack all of the two bush cords behind the house, but it would be preferable. I love the exercise, though, deep in winter: going out to the shed to haul wood on the sled.

Wednesday, Sept. 4th

He arrived at 8 a.m., bless his heart.


This is pile #1. You can see #2 in front of the shed.


I took it about an hour at a time, lots of breaks over 6 hours. JB kindly went into town and brought me home a Subway sandwich for lunch. I took a good break, watched a bit of tennis with him, and went back to it.  TA DA! The first bush cord is done. 


Apparently, the cats cleaned up the remaining debris (above) when I was at my client's house on Thursday!

Friday, Sept. 6th

 I'd taken Thursday off, and I'd best get going before the rain arrived. I knew storms were on their way. We ended up with 16 mm!


A 'friend' on Facebook said I should just get a propane insert, but that's a conversion and spending money bests saved for other projects. Besides, JB and his cats love the fire in winter.


Out I went after breakfast. I had a bit of a delay. A baby robin had been closed up in the garage. I usually leave the door open a litte, to let Hooper get in and look for mice friends. Instead, I found the robin locked in. Hooper was at the window of the shed, the robin banging on the window to get out. Her parents were out yelling at us all.

Running to grab her, the parents led Hooper away. Then Annabelle turned up. I grabbed Annie, tried to grab Hooper and they both scratched me. There was yelling and swearing involved. JB brought both cats in.




The shed takes half of it.


Finally, I got down to it. Cameras, gloves, water. I shed my coat, as I'd I worked up a sweat.


You know the best part? That shower afterwards. I was too tired to get into the tub. You know you've done a good day's work when you have debris in your sport bra! Following my shower, an ice pack on my foot!

I iced my foot

Saturday, Sept. 7th

I'd left the last until Saturday morning. I didn't want to push it, what with my foot and back issues.

As I removed the tarp, I drenched my shoe. Yuck! We had 16 mm overnight. Mind you, the dew was on everything until the day warmed up.

JB went out to get me some finger bandages. This is where Hooper and Annabelle scratched me. Then, I was getting boils on my wrist. It felt like poison ivy. Putting on my ointment for that, it was feeling better.
I whittled away at it Saturday, Stopping by 2 p.m. It's such good exercise.

No helpers, thanks to the bird incident. Daisy loved to help with the wood. I thought about her all day.



I went in, happy to put my feet up. My 'tennis elbow' has been acting up, as well as bruising on my left arm from the wood. It was too warm to wear long sleeves.

Then put on my brace

Speaking on tennis: we had a great time watching our Bianca Andreescu win at tennis. #SheTheNorth

"I know you guys wanted Serena to win....I’m sorry.”

She was amazing.
I went outdoors, after the rain passed, and spotted a rainbow. I cooked us some t-bone. The day was done.

This morning there are 500,000 people without power in Atlantic Canada, thanks to hurricane Dorian.  They had over 135 mm of rain. There is a massive clean-up. What havok all along its path.

What a week!

October ended with an horrific crash between Barrie and Toronto, on highway 400. Another incident with a tanker truck, which involved another tanker, 14 vehicles total. They are bringing cadaver dogs to search for bodies in the debris. This is becoming common.

Back to nature... last night we were treated to coyotes howling in the back 40. They must have caught something.
The week began with 3 days of rain over the weekend (100+ mm/4").
The goldfish pond is green and full beside the house. I have to drain the water barrel, which drains into it. It'll freeze soon.
 The frog pond, down beyond the meadow, is full of lovely water for the critters. The swamp grass is green!

Tuesday, Oct. 31st

I visited with my client, on the way home I had to stop, climb the bridge, and photograph the clouds and the rainbow. By the time I climbed up to the top of the bridge, the rainbow was much less visible.


I left hubby waiting for Scott, who does trees for us. This one had fallen over the house. By the time I returned home, they'd done the deed. It was quite a production, they covered the windows, and the air conditioner. JB put towels on the windows, just in case, and they covered the old air conditioner.



All went well. I have more clean-up to do except it's pouring rain today.