Crumbly Acres Tails

 We had such a sunny Monday. The snakes are finding their winter shelters, called hibernaculum. Lots of critters hibernate. Right now, hibernators hang out within 100m of their shelter settling in once the real cold begins. This includes bears and porcupines.

The cottontail has been around, looking for the bird feeder I think.

It was unusual to see it during the day!

 

I tried the panoramic setting on the phone. The frog pond looks quiet, with leaves on top of the weeds.

My VISA was compromised last week. I finally got a new one and proceeded to update all my automatic payments. Using the list of things to change from when this happened before (6 months ago), I sat out in the back in the warmth, with the lady beetles buzzing around. 

It is lady beetle season. They are looking for a place to hole up during winter. They are everywhere around the doors, in the sunshine. I open the front door and they fall off and around me. 

This is their life cycle. All done for the year.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 We had an early Thanksgiving last weekend. Our SIL, Jean-Luc, was going to be traveling to Las Vegas for business on a last minute basis, and we were worried about him bringing COVID back. 

Many of us have a holiday on the second Monday in October, on either side of the border.

From my reading, some Americans are marking Columbus Day today, yet there have been changes. Of course, Columbus' and his men brought disease and they put native into slavery. He didn't actually 'discover' this land. Nor did he have any respect for its people. 

Some states have replaced this day with Indigenous People Day or Native American Day. I  like that. 

Back to us! I sent Grampa out for a turkey. He couldn't lift it, and staff were very helpful in putting it in the cart, and putting it in the car for him. This one was 9.4 kg. It thawed in our little refrigerator. We have two bar fridges. The previous owners put the regular fridge in the basement, we gave it away. We've a chest freezer in the basement. 

I worked on the table. There were adjustments. Did you see it?

They arrived. While dinner was cooking, we were catching frogs. This took me back! The days of kids and nature. Jo and Aster took them down to the pond.

As they were headed down the hill to the frog pond, Jo found a ribbon snake. He came back to show us. Aster held onto the frog bucket.

Back down he went...

JL stuffed the turkey with Caitlin's stuffing, and then put the turkey in, I could barely lift it! (9.4 kg/ 22 lbs.) Then he used the power washer on the sidewalk. He was soaked. He loves a project, Caitlin says!!

xxx

The turkey was great. JL did a really good job. I sent home half the leftovers for Caitlin. 

We had a surprise dessert. Aster decorated it for us. Jo turns 17 in early December, but we seldom are able to celebrate it since things are busy at school. Both kids are in the musical, The Addams Family, in the chorus. Rehearsals after school for a couple of weeks. Also, Jo has to train the tech crew. Then, there is school work! 

His gift was a piece from an artisan in the Sundance Art Festival in Maberley. You can hang it on the wall. 

Saturday's Critters

 There is a wee baby ribbon snake in the garage. Joe called me over as it headed into the garage, and I tried to catch it. It slipped away. I don't think it will starve, as there are lots of bugs in there, but it won't be happy in winter. 

I did (at great risk to my back), grab a wood frog who was hell bent to get into the garage. It hopped into the tipped over pot and I got it. FREEDOM!!!

Fisher

   

 Coyote 

   

 Bear came by! 

   

 I put the Birdcam on the sidewalk after skunk visited twice. I was rewarded! I've only ever seen skunk on the cameras at night. They pretty much ignore people, anyway. 

 

Saturday's Critters # 563 <= visit more of Eileen's critters here.

Dropsies, snakes, sunrise

 I wrote about our visit to the dump. When we arrived home, I got out of the car and dropped the phone. A fitting end to a bad day! Joseph Brian did his research, where we bought it they don't do repairs. We still owe money on buying this phone, which we pay monthly. He took it into our local computer store and they ordered a new cover for us, which could be a quick process. The phone still works, but we shall have to buy a cover. 

I had a hospice client Tuesday, went for a visit, but I wasn't needed. I came home and decided to clean the water fountain in preparation for setting it up for the season. I ended up not finishing, covered in bits of algae. The elbow grease was in short supply, it'll wait a few days as we've rain on the way. It gets grungy by end of season as you can see from a summer photo. The birds love it.

I'd left poor Cinnamon in the garage overnight Monday. Whoopsie. He likes to go out there and check for mice friends. I took him outside to work in the sunshine. He found 4 snakes: one garter snake and 3 ribbon snakes. It is my belief that there is a winter hibernaculum where they overwinter. In these upsy downsy temperatures they aren't wandering far from it. 

Cinnamon began on the top of the septic bed. It was like watching a toddler. I couldn't leave him alone for a minute. He would see a tail twitching and couldn't resist. 

This is a pretty ribbon snake.

And the garter snake.

Cinnamon wandered down the hill to Fred Groundhog's cette. The pile of sand in getting higher. You'll picture his head in the hole, sniffing. I was a bit worried, but he didn't go in any farther! 

Cinnamon headed to the hill where he found another snake. King of the castle! See the tree buds? They are getting ready to burst into leaves. 

The daffodils are up and blooming! 

Wednesday brought us a lovely sunrise. I played around with it, the iPhone images were better than my camera.

I managed another panoramic photo with the broken phone. Not so shabby.

And still the leaves fly!

 We've still a few leaves. I think I spotted my last snake, Oct. 20,  when I blew the leaves prior to our rainstorm. We are getting down to single digits overnight. They get close to their wintering spots in preparation. The prairies was hard hit with snow. I am not quite ready for that, but neither were Albertans, I'll bet. 

Today we are going to be warm, though, with a high of 19 C. Plus rain. You never know who or what will be out and about! More frogs, I am sure. I moved another yesterday, and counted at least 10 more. 

The catalpa tree leaves are massive. Amazing trees. They are the last to come out in spring and the last to fall off in the fall.

JB out doing walkies.

It was unusual, but Oct. 23rd, I looked out the kitchen window and saw 4 deer. We haven't seen deer other than on the trailcams all summer. JB had walked right by them, concentrating on his feet on the slippery leaves. They watched him intently. I called his attention to them!

Can you see the trailcam beside the deer on the right? This is what I captured!

deer friends from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

While JB was out getting groceries, I did some yard work. I moved all the logs behind the fence, ones too big to fit into our wood stove insert.

I ran the lawn tractor and blew leaves off, again, know rain was on the way. The tractor won't hold a charge, I had to plug it in, again.

 

Finishing my chores, I drove the tractor into the shed. Look who was watching me! They like the shed.

 

deer mouse from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.