Doe – a deer

I love the way she bounced into the frame!

doe from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

We have many other regulars. It's fun tracking them. They are munching their way through the pumpkins.



This female whacks at the pumpkin with her hoof.



Then she wrestles with a larger piece.



Butch raccoon, of course.



The squirrels are fun, too!



I've bought myself a new trailcam for my birthday. The setting are different, I am disappointed with myself. The trigger is too slow for smaller animals. The quality is amazing, though. See the difference.

I set it up by the house.

We've a big rain storm on the way. This is terribly unusual. We anticipate a quiet weekend, which is good. We watch the news, and then have to shut it off. Canada lost 63 Canadians in Iran, in the lane crash that killed 176 people. There have been memorials across the country. Adults, children, university students, creative gifted scientists. 

Happily, we've had firefighters return to Manitoba from Australia, where they have helped with the bushfires. More have been sent. Of course, Australia sent us help when we needed. That's what we need to do. Look after one another, not drop bombs. 

The fishers and trailcams

We're in a cold spell! Despite this, down I go to the forest. We've had 6 cm snow on top of the ice, and it's a little easier to walk on it. The trailcams showed me the fisher has been a regular visitor. S/he's been a shadow in the forest, and an infrequent visitor.

National Geographic says, "The name ‘fisher’ has no relation to fish, but is derived from ‘fiche’ an old English word for the European polecat and its pelt."

They are members of the weasel family, larger than pine martens. They live in holes in the ground, moving about unless they have kits. It eats porcupines 😖, also mice, chipmunks, squirrels, hares, fawns and, of course, carrion!

We're on a travel route, and while I've seen the fisher now and then, it hasn't been a regular visitor. It follows the edge of the wetland. Many talk of cats being killed by fishers. Despite popular tales and stories, scientists aren't sure that fishers eat a lot of cats.





Surprisingly, there were two, but not together.

Fisher Diets – scientist Roland Kays:

With an undergrad student from SUNY Albany named Paul Gallery, I collected 24 diet samples from suburban fishers. ...We washed the samples and compared the remaining fur, feathers, and bones with our museum collections to identify the remains. We found a little bit of everything — except cat. Comparing our results with published studies showed that the suburban fishers ate more gray squirrels than most (20 percent of their diet). There is one study on fisher diet from Massachusetts that recorded two observations of a fisher eating a cat, but found no cat hair or bones in 226 physical diet samples.

Some say, and I'm inclined to believe it, that it is the coyotes that snatch the cats.

A Massachusetts website says,

Fishers were extirpated from much of the northeast in the 1700s and 1800s when loggers and farmers cleared the forests and unregulated trapping took its toll. During the late 1800s, as farms were abandoned and the land became reforested, fisher numbers rebounded.

My new orchid

For some bizarre reason I posted twice Monday. I really don't know why. It was an accident.
I had a really good day, too. JB greeted me with, "Good morning. I love you. It's garbage day!" I got the message, and the garbage out before 8 a.m., and I didn't fall on the ice!

JB took himself in for his quarterly cancer treatment injection at our GPs office in town. Next time, it'll be into Ottawa. At least we can have some of them 5 km away.

Phalaenopsis orchid

The nurse examined him, he still is coughing. No infection, and he isn't infectious. She thinks it'll be another three weeks, at least, until the cough goes away. He's had it since mid-November. He has congestion, and his voice is peculiar.

I stayed home. I finally was healthy enough to do a workout downstairs. What a relief to be back to 'normal!' I went to visit my client Tuesday. I'm back to normal.

JB went to the grocery store to pick up a few things. He brought me an orchid. I've never had an orchid. I'm a bit worried about it. We shall see how it works out. There are 8 blooms.

It's from a company that is called Just Add Ice. They have a care guide, based on research. You water it with three ice cubes once a week.

"The Phalaenopsis orchid, often called the “beginner’s orchid”, or moth orchids, are one of the easiest orchids to take care of."

Also, they have a repotting webpage of info. I have high hopes! I can repot it, after it blooms, so as not to shock it. It has cool air roots.

The flowers are 13.5 cm across!

The guide explains the parts. I find I remember things by writing them, taking notes, or reproducing a graphic. There are two petals, and three sepals.

My giggle of the day

For our entertainment, after a long day, we watched America's Got Talent. This young lady blew us away.

Angelina Jordan Astar  known professionally as Angelina Jordan, is a Norwegian child singer. A child prodigy, she won the 2014 season of Norway's Got Talent at age eight.

I paused the TV, as they announced her age. I said to JB, "You have to process this. She was born in 2006."
 He always has a funny bone...

"It's quite astounding that there are people on stage that aren't any older than some of my clothes."

Hormones, cats – part II

The two pals fell asleep. JB'd had a bad early morning with cats. You can read Part I here: Hormones...

I lost her later on. Here she was: on top of the folding chairs in the basement. Totally konked out.

The chair she got wet was a fabric office chair, and I cleaned it with one of the various products on the market. There are many brands. They do a good job. No worries. I've had three kids and grandkids!!! She hasn't had any more incidents.


JB went to the pet store for toys. She is missing her brother.



This is a funny scratch pad toy. The balls do not come out of the thing. JB was looking for treats for her. These scratch pads were 20% off, only $15. What the heck.

She likes to watch the birds outside, gets grumpy when I take her photo... 

Nutmeg from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Nutmeg is roaring around the house. She likes the Muskoka Room! She is much more relaxed.





She is coming out of her shell. Here playing the mousie/foot stool game!



Cinnamon is quite happy at the Cat's Meow Inn, where he is cooling his jets until Snip Snip Day.    Cassandra posts photos of her clients just for fun. Annabelle is watching him!

He winks for effect!

Caitlin bought me a bird house! It's made from 1970 licence plates...

World Hockey Junior Championships 2020

We seldom watch hockey, except in certain circumstances. The Olympics, or major world championships. It was great excitement to win. What truly ticks me off, and a lot of others, is that our women won silver and it wasn't televised.

Anyway, our juniors won gold.



The fans are the best part...


Then there are the sniffers.



I asked what this was about on Facebook, not being a hockey nerd. My trailcam mentor knew, smelling salts. He says it clears out the respiratory system. Sure.
The cats have liked hockey. Daisy, mostly.

When I was a kid, Fluffy, see him on top of the TV, used to try to catch the hockey puck from up there! 

Hooper liked curling. So did Daisy.

Hooper and Daisy liked tennis, too.

Now, lest you think I am still a couch potato. I got outside yesterday, and did some clean-up. It felt good. First job, cleaning out the bird bath. A sunflower seed had sprouted! 

I cleaned up most of these fallen branches. Some were frozen into the thawed/melted/frozen snow. I gave up at that point.



This is one of the dozen pumpkin we left out for the critters. It has rained a lot, as well as the snow melt. They keep on munching away at it!