Trip to Brockville

 We were off and stopped to pick up the mail. As I watched, the car on the left whipped around the one in front, and passed them. You have to imagine. Two men are still in hospital from rolling their car right here.

There were lots of people out on motorcycles.

The boats are wearing their winter coats.

Lots of pumpkins about, yards cleaned up for winter. The lawns are still green, despite this being November.

I like this mural.

There is water now. It was a bit dry at times in the summer.

We made it this far!

But it was slow going at times. It's farm country!

Roosdale Elevators

It's a farming community, for sure!

The farm house and barns all done in brick.

Farming is on the wane these days. There are many barns that are falling apart. 

Then, there is fire... it destroys so quickly.

A mural!

Next post: the purpose of our trip!

Who goes there in the dark?

 It's that time of year. Flora and fauna are hunkering down for winter. Except, it's been a bit balmy for Autumn. That will change, and winter will unfold as it should. Wild temperatures... Not as bad as out west, as Red has said. 

I've put out my lights. I had a chance to see them as I was BBQing on the back deck and I heard noises by the road. Sure enough, I walked down with my flashlight and found two vans, three men and a flat tire. Apparently, they were on their way home from a job and the spare tire was under equipment. They were cheerful. I asked if they needed anything. They told me that lots of people had stopped, but they were just about done. I took a photo of my lights.

In the backyard, I've put lights around the water fountain.

The coyote was back. This time, the lights were still on. The trailcams only do black and white in the night.

coyote Nov 5 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Bunny came back, at great speed. It was a short sprint, and I repeated the frames in slow motion!

bunny Nov 5 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Froggie, Frosty, and Fishy

 What a strange warm up we're having. We often get a warm period in October, after some hard frosts, but this is unusual. 

The goldfish pond was frozen over, but it melted and the froggies woke up!

The meadow, with all the leaves.

I was changing over from October to November decor. It was strange in such warm weather! The milk can Josee spray painted for me.

The wreath is made of felt, and we did it in my last Ottawa homeroom class. It's lasted about 15 years.

As I was working, I could hear a woman talking. I expected a pair of cyclists, but this woman was jogging and talking on her phone wearing ear buds.

I did some spray painting. I think I might work some more on fishy. It was blue before, we bought it in Prince Edward County. This really brightened up.

What a week for weather!

Snow a few days ago, but this week it's balmy. It is very strange. Last week we had frost. They expect cold and snow out west. There is a low, and polar vortex, with the jet stream pulling the cold down.

We haven't taken the cats on walkies in awhile. Cinnamon doesn't like the cold! We let them out in the morning, without breakfast, and let them in and keep them in when they are hungry. They've adapted well to this, until it warmed up yesterday. Cinnamon was out all day. He must have found his own brekkie.

 

cat walkies from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

With the cold and the snow, the deer are snapping up whatever vegetation they can find.

deer from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Then, there was a buck in the backyard, with little pickle stabber antlers.

buck Nov 3 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Momma Butch and the gang.

Butch from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I've placed one trailcam in the backyard. Something spooked the coyote. I'd thrown some vegetables out the back deck, as well as a popcorn bag. I don't know what I was thinking. He shows a healthy fear of humans, knowing we are in the house. I've never seen him in the day time at the house. He was joined by a friend, whom he carefully watched. You'll see it at the end of the video, if you have the time or inclination to watch!

Coyote from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

We had snow!

 We did. I quite like the change. Which reminds me, I should test run the snowblower. My sturdy SIL brought it up from the shed to the garage for me.

The clouds have been lovely. We had a skiff of snow off and on during the day Monday. 

JB decorated poor falling apart Bear. He's cracking up. He's lost an eye, as well. 

This is wrong. It was below zero when we woke. Stupid thing.

What I love is seeing tracks in the snow, here we are Tuesday! These are from Butch.

In the backyard, Momma Butch and the 3 kits. I shall not recognize them again, as soon they will split off from Momma. She'll have more babies next year.

Butch Momma from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Also in the backyard: a skunk. It totally ignored me, grub hunting.

skunk oct 31 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Indoors, Cinnamon hasn't liked the cold temperatures. He's taken to fishing. They think he'll feed them. I have to use the spray bottle and squirt him with water. 

Cinnamon fishing from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Signage

 Finally, after 10 years here, they put up a sign. I have been asking them for years [Roadkill - slow down]. It took a massive incident at 3:30 a.m., and lives changed forever, but we have signage. We are in the middle of a habitat, and they cross the road to go back and forth.

Car incident near Perth 

The two young men who were passengers are still in hospital. 

This is where drivers get set to pass, as well as it being an animal crossing. We've had much roadkill here, as well as deer: porcupines, raccoons, rabbits, 3 of our black cats, plus Hooper, a turkey chick (LOOK FOR THE HELPERS! right while JB and a neighbour were watching), barred owl, Fred gopher, a beaver, snakes and turtles. 

Do you think it'll do any good? 

Trailcam Critters

I went down to the trailcam on Wednesday. It was late, as Josephine wanted to come with me, but was working on a video as a school assignment. She didn't finish until 5 p.m. I headed down alone. I picked up trailcam #2, as I wanted to move it. Taking it with me, I arrived at trailcam #1 and it was dead as a doornail. I couldn't figure it out. I'd just replaced the rechargeable batteries the day prior. I took it off the tree, and put #2 in its place. 

Trotting up to the house, the sun was heading for bed, and it was getting chilly. I grabbed the memory cards and hoped for the best.

For some creative reason, I was trying to get rid of an old pillow, and I'd placed one by camera #2. I'd had 150 videos to sort through, and I accidentally deleted the one of the coyote hauling the pillow away, about 2 m., and then shaking it several times. 

Sometimes the coyotes just pee on the space.

coyote Oct 27 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

The coyotes were being silly, again. They go right, they go left. Sometimes very fast, other times, not so much. 

Coyote trips from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Momma Butch still has 3 kits, down from 5. I was happy to see them.

Momma Butch 3 kits from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Fisher Oct. 28

fisher Oct 28 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I moved the camera. We had a bunny!

bunny from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

School in a time of COVID – Friday

We're getting closer to winter. The goldfish pond froze over! Just a small layer of ice.

 

We had a big day. There was packing to do, costumes to put on. Grampa set the table Thursday night. He bought supplies in town.

Breakfast, and then dress up, and clean up, and pack.  "Gramma, can you help me 'put on my face? That's what you always say!" I helped Isabelle with her make up.

Isabelle's run: 54 sec. two times around, yesterday it was 52!

10:10 a.m. – I heard this from down the hall, "You're being too loud!" I went down to see what was wrong. Apparently, everyone was talking at once in their Google Meet. 

ISABELLE: (to me, rolling her eyes) "The teacher did nothing." 

     "You've got one job," she says, shaking her finger at the teacher on the creen! 

A note from Momma, at home, confirmed by the girls, the teacher's internet was wonky. There was a note on Twitter, too. The Google Meets just weren't working.

Some of our schools are experiencing technical issues this morning, which means that some of our #OCV educators are having trouble getting into Google Meets. Thank you for your patience as we work to resolve this. Students should continue with asynchronous work for now. pic.twitter.com/D33v9LTboa

— OCDSB (@OCDSB) October 30, 2020

Papa was getting snow tires on, so we had to wait until he was done. We had assembled all the luggage.Caitlin texted at 3 p.m. that they were done, but Jos was in the middle of finishing something. She was done at 4, and off we went for the hostage exchange. 

At the hostage exchange, on a Friday afternoon, the traffic was quite busy. The red car didn't believe the woman was pulling into the parking lot! 

We were sitting there. Grampa said it was pretty cold. Josephine said that, actually, there is no such thing as cold. It's an absence of heat. She's right, you can Google it! It's the atoms banging into one another that cause heat. "Not a lot of heat!" became our mantra on the way home.

I said something else, and Isabelle corrected me! So, it was time for a story.

I mentioned that Grampa Pat used to correct my parents all the time. It really ticked them off. They only had a gr. 10 education, they didn't have a wide knowledge. They did, however, have big hearts and did a lot of volunteering in their communities.

My third child used to correct his gr. 8 science teacher. Said teacher, apparently, had taught one year 25 times. He was wrong, but my youngest used to feel obliged to correct him. 

Hallowe'en decor!

Sadly, we realized that Josephine's laptop was still in the car. I phoned Caitlin, as we agreed to a computer exchange Sunday!

There was a hard frost Saturday morning.

Grampa and I slept in until 8 a.m. on Saturday. It was a great week, and we worked hard, and did really well. 

This is the 19th week we've had the girls since last March Break, mid-March. 

School in a time of COVID – Monday

School in a time of COVID – Tuesday

School in a time of COVID – Wednesday

School in a time of COVID – Thursday