GRAMMA CAMP – Week 5.0

Perth has been pretty quiet.



Jos came out onto the back deck and got her socks wet. (We had 19 mm of rain, followed by winds.) She tried to toos her socks downstairs, and one stuck on the brick.



We had 4 games of Sorry, a couple of Uno.


There was an afternoon DVD.

Tacos for dinner

Isabelle helped me with dinner. 

"Do you want to grate some cheese?"
"I'm great at it!"

I asked Isabelle to ring the Taco Bell for dinner! (That was Grampa's notion. He's such a card.) The puns flew.



The winds rolled in.



We watched The Voice with Jophee. Isabelle preferred to read.



We had a small emergency, as Izzy lost her sleep toy. It was found under  her blanket.

Rain had a good question. She's begun using wood pellets, after my post on the topic. [With kitties goes kitty litter] I have tools! 
I'm having varied success. The wood pellets have lasted since January, but things have been crazy.

Life and mystery birds

Lots to amuse us. Grampa continues his wall exercises for his torn rotator cuff. I usually count aloud, to try throw him off his count. (What do we have but time?!) Now, I just walk by and he giggles.

We rented some movies to pass the time. We were watching The Kitchen, a pretty vulgar, in parts gruesome, movie with Melissa McCarthy. It was about mobster wives back in the 70s. McCarthy's character was sitting counting money aloud, complained she lost count. Another female lead,   Elisabeth Moss, start spewing random numbers, as I do. We looked at one another and hooted!

COVID–19

COVID–19 reports are better than expected in Canada, although intel tells us that the Canadian government knew about it in January. I think we all expected it wouldn't be as bad as this. It wasn't until March that the kids cancelled their April trip to Thailand, Australia and New Zealand. People, media, somebody, has been demanding forecasts of cases, which include best and worst case scenarios.

Quebec has had horrid issues with long-term care (LTC), although it's all over both provinces in LTC and retirement homes. Workers (primarily personal support workers paid $15/hour) aren't getting PPE, although most have gloves and cheap masks. They don't protect the eyes, and the PSWs go from home-to-home.  

Quebec coroner’s office launches investigation into Montreal long-term-care home, where 31 seniors have died since March 13

B.C. and Alberta have been flattening the curve. Yukon and the NWT are trying hard to keep stupid white people away. 

Ontario and Quebec, not so much. They are still triaging testing, so not everyone has been tested who could have been. They are limiting it to healthcare workers, and people with symptoms. Quebec should have far fewer cases, according to the population. 

Science is really important. It's easier in some countries rather than others. Ours is so large, with very unique provinces and territories. Most of our populations live near the US/Canadian borders.

Iceland's population is about 364,000. The Netherlands is about 17 million. Ontario is about 15 million, so you can see the difference.

Personal grooming

I know they say not to, but I used the electric razor on my hair. It was down over my ears. My right eye is so bad. Having my hair in my face was driving me nuts.

We will manage. Once a week shopping. I'll be happy if cottagers go home. There were parties, we could tell from our local general store. Not in there buying goods, but loading up on booze for the weekend. We've relied on them for odds and sods. Hydro workers are picking up sandwiches, etc., and they just shouldn't take these risks.

It's a warm day, with a front having moved in. Lots of rain! Apparently, high winds will follow. Just what we need, a power outage! OK, gotta live in the present moment.

Josephine showed Grampa how to download on his Kindle. She's been reading books from her library on her iPad. The prices of eBooks on Amazon are atrocious, and they seem to have been raised in the time of COVID–19. The Kindle doesn't work with our library's eBooks. 

I asked about Josee's iPad app. It's called Libby. Caitlin checked, while we were on the phone, and it turns out it worked. I loaded it up for him, and we logged him in. Voila!

I've given up on the chorus frog survey. I'm disappointed, but there was too much driving. The spring peepers continue, as well as the wood frogs. I think I heard a tree frog this morning.

Meantime, ANOTHER mystery bird.

mystery bird from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I've had my fair share of them. Thankfully, I've time to figure them out.

 
mystery bird in the trees from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Consensus is:

mystery bird –purple finch from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

This one was solved by experts, too. I never did see it.

Mystery bird sound - Black-billed Cuckoo from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Cats and mice friends

Actually, they have brought home three meadow voles on Saturday. I rescued one in my cap. I took another away. Finally, Nutmeg looked in the window, smacking her lips. I knew she'd caught one. We have quite a few about the front lawn.



She ate one later, and left the gallbladder behind, as they do. A raccoon must have eaten it in the night.


 I put it in the forest.

Maggie and her twins, plus one more. My yummy tulip bulbs!  Nutmeg was just looking for mice. Usually, she nip at my hostas in the summer. What the heck.

 


It was a cold night. The frog pond is frozen over, again.


I had to drain the water fountain, just in case.




We're anticipating rain. "April showers..." The crocus were pretty well closed up yesterday.

Anyway, Happy Easter to all who celebrate. Happy Passover, to y'all, too!
Here is an old favourite... one Easter in Muskoka. Josephine watched this one over and over, back 10 years ago.

The days unfold

Monday night

The winds were something. We didn't lose power Monday night, although many did.

From noon to 9 p.m. things got bad. We hunkered down and hoped for the best. We talked about filling the bathtub, but I reminded JB about our two full water barrels!

Thursday

Maybe I ought to empty the rain barrels???

COVID-19

Some dipstick was out in Vancouver, protesting the lockdown (see below). I would imagine, in warmer climes, they want to get outdoors. It's just so weird to think this is a hoax, or something perpetrated by the state. He's on a "massive march against tyranny! Not OK with unlawful orders and quarantines and lockdowns."
"Be a shame to sit at home and let the government tell you what to do!"
Save us from the covidiots!

Fires

In other news, emergency crews continue to step up. There are many at home, and there seem to be cooking fires.
There was a fire Monday night in Kars, Ontario. I used to teach in that town. For the victims, it's not just being homeless, but homeless in a pandemic. We are grateful for all we have here.

Scott Stilborn

@OFSFirePhoto

We're still managing. The US has 10 times our population and 32 times the COVID-19 rates. We are fortunate. We've had 26,897 reported cases, minus 8173 recovered =  18,724 cases. I'm sure there are innumerable undiagnosed cases.

Yet...We've a death in Perth, from a local retirement home.

Long-term care
"Outbreaks at seniors’ homes linked to almost half of #COVID19 deaths in Canada"

LLGHU


O'Reilly's Ale House is doing a grocery service!

What's going on with you?

I keep track of local collisions. Despite an arrest for car theft, etc.(see below), collisions are down. There is that!

April 8th, OPP arrested  a 24-year-old from Ottawa, on our highway:

1. Flight from police 
2. Assault a police officer with a weapon 
3. Resist police officer 
4. Dangerous operation 
5. Dangerous operation causing bodily harm 
6. Operation while impaired 
7. Failure or refusal to comply with demand 
8. Theft of motor vehicle over $5000 
9. Mischief over $5000 
10. Possession of a schedule I substance

There are lots of interesting pieces of information out about the 1918 pandemic.

Brent Bellamy

@brent_bellamy

· 16h

I took a look back through the @WinnipegNews archives to see what life was like in Winnipeg during the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic. So much of it is strikingly familiar and could be lifted off those old pages and reprinted today. – a very long thread (I know you have time) 1/50

Show this thread

Gramma Camp Week 4.4

Easing into the day, we decided to make masks. We took the day off school, since it was Good Friday! They didn't work very well, as it wasn't the right size for kids, but it was fun.



Josephine mushed Nutmeggie. You can see her paw "making dough!" You cannot hear, but she was purring mightily. Nutmeggie, I mean. Well, maybe Jophee was purring, too!



Next, Jos videotaped Cinnamon! She used my camera, which is a bit awkward to use. She did well.



I thought Tiberius should get into the spirit.



They checked trailcams, brought in wood, and kept quite busy.
They played with the cat. Twice he rolled off the shelf, held on to the ladder by two arms, and once hit the ground, but he got back up.

Cinnamon from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Grampa went into our GP's office, where a healthcare worker stabbed him with his cancer treatment injection, in the parking lot, in the snow. (He's had a cough since November, and they have strict rules.)



After breakfast in the snow, on the front porch, Josephine was birding, identifying birds by their sound, as well as sight, wrapped in a blanket. It was peaceful.



The girls fetched the trailcam memory cards. The first section is the site in the day, with the wicked winds. Next, the coyote ate something. I think it was a frog. You can see it dangling.



Butch raccoon was there. There was a group of three. I hope it was our 4 release raccoons, who have stuck together all winter, with one off-camera. Taco, burrito, Mary Kate and Ashley.


Stay safe. Stay well.

Saturday's Critters #330

GRAMMA CAMP – Week 4.3

Thursday
Rainy day.
Whoops. Snowy day.



06:30 I went down to check the fire. Josephine's alarm was playing. Nobody woke up, though! The fire was needing attention, although Isabelle had kept it going very well. I added a bit of kindling to the large log.

I sent Josephine out to do a weather report...

rainy day from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Breakfast

Science

Water, food colouring, baking soda, 2 paperclips and string. This was an assignment from her science teacher.



Crystals!


Jophee is still enjoying birding. I heard the tell-tale sign of the Yellow-bellied sapsucker. This video was made 10 months ago. I think the birds are ahead of schedule. I called her up to the bathroom and explained that he does this to call a female. They've learned that the noise is loud on the metal.

Yellow-bellied sapsucker from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

You can hear him, here. I just happened upon him in the forest two years ago.

Yellow-bellied sapsucker from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Curriculum

Isabelle did L.A., in English and français, then some math, and a math game. Their iPads just aren't adequate. We could open up the math questions in one window, and the place to type in the numbers in another.



Jos did math online. She helped Grampa buy a book and load it onto his kindle. Grampa is out of library books.

Then she had to do a math contest, I think it took an hour, using my computer!



It went from pouring rain, to huge snowflakes.



Grampa had spent two days, and several phone calls, trying to get his cancer treatment injection from our GP's office. He buys it at the drug store, then takes it in to the office.
He has a cough, which he got in November, for which he has been treated by the GP, and they didn't want to let him in. Instead, he drove in, and they gave him the injection in the parking lot beside the car.

Dinner was spaghetti. We list our options, and then plan it all out. We've done a plan for next week, too.



Stay well. Stay safe. These are crazy times.