🐸Happy critters🐇

  We just went into lockdown again last week. We managed to get all our healthcare needs attended to. One of us had a footcare appointment, a blood test, physiotherapy,  an X-ray (for his sore neck), and a vision checkup. All went well. 

I managed to go to the dentist, while JB picked up his regular homeopathic meds from the gym. The gym was closed, but they have essential services, like massage therapy, housed in the building. Our naturopathic doctor has an office there, as well. She leaves him his meds at the front desk.

Our healthcare professionals have had their first vaccine dose. My massage therapist, our dental office staff, as well.

Restaurants are surviving doing Take Out only.

We tootled on home for lunch. JB had picked up Subway sandwiches for us. 

I visited the trailcams and found lots of critters. They are all happy with the green grass. The critters are much more active these days. It's wonderful to see. That fresh hope of spring.🐰

Food fight: this is why it is illegal here, and in many other countries, to take in wild animals. They are wild. Butch food fight   

Talk about 'quick like a bunny!'

 

Quick like a Bunny part 2.

It made it to the backyard, if it is the same one!

 

backyard bunny from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

April 4th, Porcupine  still has a leaf stuck to his butt! Here is a daytime photo.

He hauled out the skin of the pumpkin that has sat here since the fall. There were a few seeds left. 

 

He came back again, and this time was marking the bushes. Porcupine marking     

The skunk has been around, as well. Again, archive photo! They are so fascinating. It wandered by one summer day, oblivious to me and my camera.

 

The woodland jumping mouse is back! It's like a deermouse, but with long tails. And, of course, they jump!

 

We knew it was coming. The 🐸frogpond  is awake, with mosquito larvae dancing in the warming water.

 

Zola is still alive and doing as well as she can. She's putting a bit more weight on it.

 

I've been watching for the wood ducks on the pond. 

They nest in the three boxes I have put up. They are flighty things. If I come around the pond from the far end, I can spot them, but they take off, being frequent flyers. I videotaped them, as I wasn't sure if they weren't just regular mallards. Nope, once I looked at the video, I realized they had taken off, came back, then crawled up on the land. When I went down to the pond the next day, they were in the wetland, on the other side of the path. wood ducks 

 

Visit more critters! Saturday's Critters #382

Monday's critters

We are hanging in here. It's going to be a busy week with appointments. We schedule them when we are not caregiving grandies. We took it easy on the weekend, except Saturday our food order was scheduled. I made a few mistakes. It's rather funny. I ordered both a single avocado and a bag of them. Also, instead of small bottles of spices, I got the biggies. Finally, I ordered a full pot pie, for Jos for next week instead of a single serving size, and mistakenly ordered the family-sized lasagna. That's too much for us. JB cannot have either. That fine print! 

Everything has been waking up, two-legged friends are flying back from their winter homes, four-legged friends are more active. I've set up a camera at the frog pond. The ducks are back.

Cinnamon frogging was happy to accompany me down to the pond. There were wood frogs mating. He was fascinated. I watched him, as I walked up the hill he remained on the dock just wishing he could reach them.

 

 The mallard ducks  were on the pond Sunday morning. 

They weren't on the trailcam. I'll have to reposition it. You can hear them squawking in the video. They flew around above the tree canopy, complaining to me.

 

The deer are busy. They've been mulching my iris in the back yard (below). Happily, they are leaving my daffodils alone. Our little bunny has been nibbling my tulips. Ah, nature!

The Running deer  are going in circles around the big pine tree in the back. The yearlings are quite ready for spring.

 

Zola is hoofing it a bit more. Our other broken-legged deer, Maggie, hung in for 10 years!

 

There was a brief sighting of Chad📹. 

 Butch continues to make me giggle. They are looking for grubs. They do it on the back lawn, as well. Butch comes and goes  

This silly 1-second video is a result of a low battery. Still Butch makes me happy.

 

First phoebe of the season, April 4th. It would have been my mom's birthday, in 1925.

You can laugh at the excitement in my voice. We need all the excitement we can get. 1st phoebe 

 

The hawk  did a flyby.

Looking out the bathroom, I thought I saw something on top of this bird nest. I roared outside. I think it was the red squirrel. You can't see anything, but the cardinal has been declaring his territory. He's dabbled in it, singing now and then, but this is now serious. Cardinal song  

 

Yesterday, we began our first Western Chorus Frog survey. It's a challenge.

Rain, rain...

All I had was my videocamera, and I did a screen capture of this poor old elm tree. It housed a flicker family last year. You can see the hole. The top fell off in a wind storm. I shall keep my eye on this hole. 

Friday, 10:00 a.m. – Another power outage. I'd neglected to charge the smartphone, too! duH. I phoned and they said it'd be back up by 11. It was up by 10:15. Whew! I was working out downstairs and everything went dark! What a storm. By 10:30 we'd had 27 mm rain. By the end of the day, we had nearly 30 mm of rain. Saturday, a skiff of snow. 

The goldfish pond is full. The water barrel is draining into it. 

Cinnamon wanted to sleep on the front porch. It wasn't that warm, in fact, damp and cold.

The back shows that all is not thawed yet. The eavestrough drains in the bushes, flowing from the underground pipes.  It is a clever system, for 30 years ago. We had a sudden warm spell. 

Watching the lightning map, I could see it moving east. We didn't get any of that, at least.

Weird outages. 

Then, us. 

At its peak, there were 14,746 without power in Ontario. Most were up by the end of the day.

Nearly 30 mm on the 26th.

In the backyard, the daffodils are starting to rise up! Spring is such a green and hopeful season.

March 23, Cinnamon got himself 📹another vole. I think it got away. He likes to bring them to the house. Nutmeg, AKA Killer, likes to eat them. There is a huge tunnel system in the garden beside the front porch. They didn't think that through.

Meantime, the porcupine  is finding food. If you choose to watch the video, you can see it nibbling on a small sapling. It is so gentle a critter.

 

March 26, the coyote had a visit  📹. 

 The frogpond continues to thaw. Cinnamon and I inspected it. Pond walkies  

 

Now, even you should watch this video, John! It's only 9 seconds long, the clip repeated in slow motion, for effect. No sooner did I hang up the filled bird feeder, but the chickadee launched itself at the feeder. Sometimes, they land on the feeder as I am coming around the corner from the garage, having filled it.

 

Then, 7:30 p.m., feral (?) Oregano was back in the pouring rain. Oregano Mar 26  

 

Zola, the doe with the broken leg, is still hanging in. JB fed her this morning, and she ate her fill. There were 4 deer this morning, including the young buck. Another five deer showed up. They are going to disperse into the forests, soon. She is putting more weight on the leg.

Our week begins this afternoon. The girls are back for virtual school for the week. They are hanging in with it. Since September. Their laundry is washed, I vacuumed, and washed the kitchen and bathroom floors. We are good to go. 

We are all looking forward to 'March Break,' which was deferred to April. Then I can switch from teaching support staff to Gramma, again. I ordered some craft materials, some for the girls. We'll make some things to send to their cousins in Vancouver. It won't arrive in time, we've a four day week this week and next, with Good Friday and Easter Monday being a holiday. 

 There were quite a few items on sale. It was $13.95 to have it delivered. Caitlin offered to pick the order up for me. Turns out, her store was out of a bunch of things, and they are mailing the rest to me for the $13.95 we were trying to save. One simply must laugh! 

Last vestiges of winter

 Friday, March 19

Spring is unfolding. The geese flew over in the morning📹. It was lovely! Jos wanted her soup on the front deck. It was steaming!

As with everything, Vimeo has changed up its working pages. I'm on it, though. Old dog, new tricks! Oregano was back, Mar. 20, 4 a.m. We've FOUR turkeys now. turkey deer 1  

 

Amazingly enough, we had a little Bunny Mar 20 visit. My question is, why do they all use the sidewalk to come to the feeder??!!

Porcupine was back. It came through at 1 a.m. and back from whence it came at 4! I enjoy seeing who has come through this path. It's good exercise to go down to the forest and wetland. porcupine Mar 20 

  

 

Zola is still hanging in.

Nutmeg nabbed herself a vole📹. I threw it under the feeders. Something would snap it up. Indeed, it was gone in a few hours. In the afternoon, I saw a vulture fly right over my head. Their sense of smell is amazing.

Gramma Camp – Week 25 Tuesday

Monday's dinner show: St. Patrick's Day's Eve Eve

• Here comes Patrick O'Cottontail
• Hoppin' down the chicken trail
• Hippity Hoppin' before St. Patrick's Day

• Bringin' every girl and boy
• Baskets full of Irish joy
• Things to make this eve a fave--- 

Grampa chose to do this on Monday, since Tuesday Isabelle has a Girl Guide virtual meet. They are making a craft together.

Monday night, I realized that floppy fish was in the hallway. Everytime a cat went down the hall, they'd take a whack at it. It could have been funny!

Floppy fish📹

Grampa put on an excellent performance. 

[To 👀 view | part 2 📹 |  part 3 📹 ] 

Tuesday March 16

I went downstairs to wake Josephine. Stoking the fire, to get some warmth, the day had begun. It was -11 C. Josee is sleeping on the air mattress in the basement. Caitlin found the last air hole prior to Christmas. Jos looked and listened on Monday, trying to find the new hole. She could not. I woke her up, put my foot on the bottom of the bed, and it is deflating. 

        I said, "This is a pretty bad motel, isn't it?! Your bed is falling down." 

        "Well, the staff are amazing!" she assured me.

I admit to distracting Josephine, at the dining room table doing virtual school, but there were deer sitting in the backyard, momma chewing her cud. I said that they have 2 (?) stomachs, cows have 4. Jos looked it up, quickly. Cows and deer have 4! During the morning, we had deer friends.

Grampa offered Subway sandwiches for lunch. "Yes, please!" He also checked the flyers and a hardware store has the queen-sized mattresses for sale. He'll do 3 errands and come home. He assures me. His arm might be on the mend.

Josee's 2nd period teacher is off and they couldn't find a replacement. Jos worked on her own, on the math, of course! She took a break, and told Siri to set an alarm for 10 minutes. What a good girl! "OK, Meggie, you can go out, but only if you give me a kiss!" She did the same to Cinnamon!

Jos was searching for an artist to mimic for art. She looked at Jason Pollock, then I suggested Maude Lewis, but she settled on Franz Kline.

I watched the birds, tripod and all. From the indoors! Can you spot the FIVE red-winged blackbirds??!!

The afternoon activity was tree climbing. Back indoors for asynchronous learning. Learning done, Jos, Izzy and I played SKIP-BO. Jos won. 

Happily, Zola turned up. Grampa was given special dispensation to miss the beginning of dinner and feed his woebegone deer. 

In December our health unit had 21 active COVID–19 cases. Tuesday, Ottawa is going into orange, we are in yellow. 

Deer Zola

 I'm usually a day ahead, at least, for posts. Not today! Yesterday was fairly busy. More on that later. To start, we had an uptake in COVID from Lanark East – specifically Pakenham, Almonte and Carleton Place. They are shutting down for two weeks. Thanks to COVID-19 tracking, they've traced it to a 'social gathering; and then some of these people went to a pub, and from there it has spread to municipal offices, sports teams, etc. We are in Lanark West.

We had 21 deer yesterday. Poor JB's arm is still sore, so I went out to feed them. The trailcam caught the rising sun. Deer Mar 4

The only way we can tell them apart is by habits or behaviour. Zola's broken leg draws our attention.

 Also, one doe has a single yearling. They hang around most of the day. JB calls them 'You Two' since he goes outside, he talks to them, "Hi, you two!" The yearling is fuzzy. Although, soon they won't be yearlings, and the males will split off to be with the other males. The does give birth in the spring, having been pregnant all winter.

There is another doe we can ID, and she has twins. You can watch for them. The twins like to play, as twins do. Otherwise, it's a dog-eat-dog world. When a pair of deer share a feeding spot, you know they are related. Zola continues to dominate a feeder. I think she is a survivor. She fended off several deer this a.m. deer Mar 4 1 

In the evening, before I locked up, I noticed tracks in the snow. That could be Oregano, the wild cat. Although, when cats walk, they put their back paws into the spot where their front paws touched down. There is a name for that, but it escapes me.

Zola, Oregano,

I had an adventure. Oregano cat came back to visit. I knew that if I wanted to track it, I'd have to go right after a snowfall. Tuesday was the day. This is how the day began. It was -18 C. (F. and C. converge at -20)

The traffic is fierce. Some kind people pulled out, like this contractor. Some just barrel on past. The propane trucks seem to be fierce.

I found the tracks.

He went up onto the snowbank, here.

The silly thing avoided the driveway, and trotted up the hill to the highway.

Here is the falling apart veggie garden, with the tracks running beyond it. (I did this trek backwards. Who knew?

This is the trip he takes. I'm so proud of myself for figuring it out! I'll bet he lives in someone's shed.

The water fountain is waiting to be turned on. 

During Gramma Camp nearly a year ago (April), Isabelle was keen to set it up. 

In August, Josephine helped me clean it! 

Meantime, there is a fine puddling of ice around the bottom. I still have the lights on a timer. We need a bit of colour in the darkness.

Zelda has become Zola ! She is hanging in. She may do OK.

She might overcome this, like Maggie deer did for a long time (2011). Otto and Stan turkeys have been regular visitors, too. Zola 2