Summer Hopes

On a blisteringly hot day in mid July with a forecast of 37 degrees C, air quality warnings from northern wildfire smoke, severe thunderstorm and possible tornado warnings, and a humidex that makes it feel much hotter than the temperature displayed on our outdoor thermometer, I open my photos for the next blog writing and find myself staring at a photo of snow.  Taken April 10th, just 3 short months ago.  Somehow I can't help but feel instantly cooler.

At the same time, I try not to think that in 3 months we could be looking at the same scene. Instead I simply marvel at the diverse weather conditions of this place we call home, grab a glass of cold water, and opt to sit quietly in the coolness of the house and think about writing a blog update.  It is a lovely 24 degrees C in the house, the windows are closed to keep out the midday heat, and as soon as it cools off later in the night to an outdoor temperature that is below our indoor temperature, we will open the windows wide, allowing the house to drink in the cooler air.

Back in April we were hoping to begin gathering our firewood (we have this hope every April, but it seldom transpires). We were preparing to travel for a family wedding (hoping the weather would improve not just for travel reasons, but because I was worrying that in our absence ice and snow on the solar panels could cause a loss of power to our fridge and also slightly worried that the house could get rather cold as we heat solely with a wood stove). I had also offered to do a dog sit/farm sit at a nearby farm and was a tad nervous when I found out that I might be bottle feeding a newborn calf for my first time, and I was hopeful that I could manage. Lots of "hope" in our minds for the month of April!

Not unexpectedly, we weren't able to start on our firewood due to the weather.  It was a rather long cold spring, and April continued that trend, with a bit more snow arriving as late as the third week of the month. Fortunately it all melted pretty quickly.

A week before my dog sit/farm sit I went to the farm for instructions on how to bottle feed the calf. First we had to find the calf, traipsing out into the fields, and calling it's name as it would apparently sometimes come running! I was surprised at the how big he had grown already, and how strong he was when feeding! Still, it was a pretty cool experience I must say.  By the time I arrived for my day at the farm though, the calf was no longer in need of a midday feeding, so I didn't have to add that to my list of chores.  I don't know if I was more relieved, or disappointed!  But I did still have an opportunity to collect chicken eggs at two different locations away from the farm, (the first time I've gathered fresh eggs!) had a lovely long walk with Jax the dog through muddy but pretty paths in a forest, and kept an anxious eye out on the herd of cattle to make sure they hadn't broken through any fencing, and that their water trough was always filled. I had also been shown the greenhouse vegetable seedlings and plants and instructed on how to make sure they were all faring well when the day suddenly warmed up. It was a great glimpse into just a few aspects of a busy farm life, and a nice opportunity to "hang out" with a lovely dog!

We were able to make it to the wedding with no weather or travel issues, and the temperatures finally warmed up so I could stop worrying about snowy solar panels, or loss of power, and the house stayed at a perfectly decent temperature in our absence.  It was a very lovely wedding, small and inviting, and Rob and I visited a bit with several family members, and also managed to squeeze in some time for a wonderful walk or two along the Niagara River before heading home.

Cool temperatures in early May saw us still using the woodstove most nights for a short period of time to take the chill off of the house.  We noticed that the blossoms and leaves seemed slow to emerge this year due to cooler than normal temperatures, and hoped that maybe the arrival of the mosquitoes would be delayed as well!  The second week of May we began scouting around the woods for fallen trees suitable for firewood gathering.  We found quite a few that we would have loved to pull out, but they were too deep within the forest, so reluctantly had to leave them where they lay.  Even with ropes and chains, they were beyond the reach of the tractor, and the forest floor footing too tangled to try to safely carry out heavy segments of the logs by hand.  

I was surprised when I checked one of our trail cameras one day, to discover that a bear had strolled by just a few hours earlier, at the very same spot where we were gathering trees! 

By mid May we felt like we had stockpiled enough, and began to get ready to chain saw what we had, in preparation for splitting and stacking.  When we first start on firewood every year, it feels a bit daunting, but as the days progress, it feels much less so.  

A few of the logs were too heavy for us to lift onto our splitter, and Rob had to hand split them first.  We prefer handling smaller logs, but of course have no control over the size of trees that come down during a storm.

One of the logs we had gathered was quite hollow in the middle, and I was super surprised to discover in the debris within the hollow some suspiciously familiar threads and fabric.  After poking around a bit in what appeared to be nesting materials, I realized they were the remnants of my prayer flags ! I had put a lovely long string of them in the garden at the cabin a couple of years ago, and they were mysteriously completely removed just a few days after I hung them up.  I always suspected the red squirrels had taken them, but had no proof.  Until now!  

Although we always hope to finish the firewood as quickly as possible, there are days in between that require us to stop, sometimes due to the weather, sometimes to recuperate a bit, and sometimes just because we need to work on some of our other ongoing projects. 

One of those jobs for me was to get some seeds into my garden, and to pull out my herb pots and get soil and seeds into them as well.  The snowshoe hare in the meantime was busy trimming our "grass" so I didn't need to! 

Some days we would also try to limit our work hours somewhat, leaving ourselves some free time to get groceries and supplies, do laundry, help get our neighbours to appointments, pick up diesel for the tractor, or service the chainsaw. Rob is still making (delicious) beer, and we generally try to make some before the heat of the summer arrives, so he needed to get a couple of batches on while it was somewhat cooler.

Keeping track of the time when we are working on firewood was made easier by this amazing little clock.  I bought this cheap clock for Rob 14 years ago, when he was timber framing up at the top of the property and would lose track of the time. When I bought it,  he made it pretty clear that he thought he would be lucky if the clock lasted more than a couple of weeks. What a surprise to find that this clock, that sits in a unheated shed year round, is not only still working, but it is still running on the original batteries!  

With most people using their phones now to tell the time, I wonder if clocks like this even exist any more ?  Of course, it may just run another 14 years, so no need just yet to search for another.

Although it felt like we were behind in terms of completing the firewood, we finished it on June 1st, one day ahead of when we finished the previous year!  Overall we are pretty pleased with the wood as most of it was quite sound, and should do well for us this coming winter.  It is primarily spruce, poplar, aspen and ash with a bit of cedar and birch.  In previous years some of the wood we pulled out had sat on the forest floor for too long and had deteriorated quite a bit, and although we still used it, we know now to try to scavenge logs that have only been down for a relatively short time. 

We also had some wood left over from the previous winter that we have stored elsewhere.  I always feel happiest if I think we have more than enough, as we never know what kind of winter we will come up against.  

Although this spring seemed slow to warm up, eventually we began to see blossoms, and perhaps because of the long cool spring, it seemed to be the best year ever. Wherever we drove in the valley, beautiful blossoms were in full view.

We always look for the first sign of turtles; in particular the snapping turtles.  We were pleased to catch sight of one making it's way up our creek and into our wetland area.

As well, some baby foxes appeared again this year on our hill, and were still young enough that they were curious and would peek out at us from the underbrush.

With the firewood completed Rob and I went off in different directions, doing many of the usual spring jobs that are required.  We pulled out our slightly tattered garden chairs and Rob fixed them up once again with braces and screws, and we should be able to use them all for at least another year.  I started "spring" cleaning the house, and we both worked to get the cabin open and running ready for the arrival of some family members in June.  

If this was the year of excess blossoms, it was also the year of excess aspen/poplar "fluff", and the air was thick with it.

It gathered along the edges of our laneways like snow!

It also filled our window screens, and the screens of the cabin porch, and we will likely need to use a power washer to get it off of the porch screens again.  Luckily this doesn't occur every year.

We took down our "temporary" firewood shelter, and began to think that maybe this year would be the year that we build a permanent firewood shed.  (How many times have you read that in previous blog postings?)

We also had to deal with a shelter cover replacement, that we wanted to do last year, but had decided to leave for another year, hoping that it would make it through one more winter.  Which it did! But now it really needs to be replaced.  They usually have a life expectancy of three or four years, and ours has been on now for 14 years already. Before we went to the effort of swapping in a new cover though, it seemed like the perfect time to move the entire shelter frame first to a better location.  Rob set to building a site for it, and moved rocks into the perimeter, and filled in some gravel for the base.  Just as he was preparing to dismantle the old shelter though, one of the Phoebes decided to build a nest in the rollup doorway. 

So the site is prepared, but now we will wait.  Approximately 16 days for the eggs to hatch, then a further 16 - 20 days until the little ones leave the nest.

There are also Phoebes that nest at our front door, and they are currently feeding their second brood of the season. I was enchanted to see one of the eggs on our porch (hopefully the adult phoebe was just nest cleaning and tossed out the shell after the little one hatched). 

How tiny is this shell?  Smaller than a penny.  (For those of you who remember pennies!). It is hard to imagine how small the little one is when it emerges from this size of egg.

When the Phoebe adults are busy feeding their young, they like to perch close by, swooping out for insects, and bringing them to the nest.  One of their preferred places to perch seems to be the driveway markers we have, so we moved one closer to the porch area, where they have a good view of the nest. They seem to use it quite happily.

The robins here and at the cabin have also successfully raised a couple of broods already.  Here are two little robins not long before they got brave enough to jump off of the beam and flap away.

This year Rob and I have both noted that the number of bird sightings seems greater than previous years. We have been seeing (and hearing!)  more Rose Breasted Grosbeaks, Northern Flickers, Brown Thrashers, Catbirds, Yellow Bellied Sapsuckers, Black and White Warblers, and Baltimore Orioles than previous years.  The areas around the house are always full of bird movement, and there are several more birds that move too fast for us to identify. It has been really lovely to see all the activity.

One day while I was waiting for Rob to finish up on the new shelter site, I was fortunate to look up and spot the Oriole, and then saw it dive head first into a nest.  I had been wondering where the nest was, and all this time it was right above our laneway. It's pretty hard to spot, but when the wind blows the leaves a bit, it's location is more easily revealed.

One of life's amazing observances for me, is when I am down at the river at the exact time that some of the dragonflies emerge from the river.  I read that dragonflies live first as nymphs, under water, and can live anywhere from several months to several years, until one day, they climb out of the water, their skin then splits open, and the dragonfly emerges. Although I often search the shores to witness their emergence I am not always lucky. But this year I was once again able to see it happen.  I am completely intrigued by the process, wondering what it is that makes the nymph decide that today is the day it shall move out of the waters, shed it's skin, spread wings and fly.  It's an awesome sight, and I am so pleased that I was able to see it happen again.

With the moving of our shelter on hold due to the Phoebe nesting, Rob had gone back to working on the design and placement of a firewood shed.  It will be about 8x20 feet, and a timber frame structure of course. It will look very different from our usual shed, built out of scaffolding and platforms each year!

It was somewhere around this time that Rob started talking about "concrete".  I didn't pay much attention at the time, as I was busy tending to my little raised bed garden, doing some more "spring" cleaning both inside and outside the house and cabin, and all the other little jobs that come up when summer arrives. Friends were arriving in early July and I was making plans for meals, food items to leave in the kitchen for them, and making sure all the bedding and towels were ready after family visited here in mid June.  The local farms were beginning to offer lots of fresh produce and I was happily freezing strawberries, and enjoying making fresh salads from their roadside stalls.

Rob was off sawing wood to use for the firewood shed.

And from time to time I could hear him out using the tractor, and catch sight of him moving stones, and gravel.

I 

But then he began to talk a bit more about "concrete".  A small concrete walkway between the house and the workshop.  A small concrete walkway and/or pad at the cabin entrance doors.  Concrete posts for a future porch.  And a concrete pad for the firewood shed.  I began to realize that he really was set on mixing it himself, and doing all the pouring and levelling as well.  And then the word "we" began to creep in ! 😀 Not really. Truthfully, I already knew that I would be involved (despite saying I might have to be somewhere else on those days!) and I have full confidence that we will be able to do it ourselves.  Not all at once of course, but in steps and stages.  And with the help of some well planned "concrete gizmos" to make the job easier on us both.  

I have memories of this time, almost 20 years ago now, when Rob did some of his own concrete work for a workshop in Navan.  (I'm pretty sure I did leave the house and go off to work that day, after taking this pic!) 

Rob assures me that this time it will be much more "automated" using the tractor, a winch, a stand, a bucket, a concrete mixer (no getting away from that!) and a well thought out plan to make it all work.

I will do an update in my next blog posting!

In the meantime summer is well on its way.  My little garden is flourishing with garlic, rosemary, thyme, basil, cilantro, dill, tomatoes, and tomatillos all growing well. We have already enjoyed a few fresh tomatoes and herbs, and I have some mint and thyme already drying ready for winter.  I once again did not manage to coax my oregano, chives, or thai basil to grow, and I only produced one head of lettuce before the heat arrived.  But it's a small garden, and I am happy with it's progress.

I had a few concerns when "Chuck-E", a rather stout looking groundhog, showed up and spent a few days sunning on the rocks, when not eating somewhat voraciously the leaves of several nearby bushes.

It was fascinating to see how much it used it's paws to reach the higher branches and pull them closer.

I also spotted them piling dried leaves into their mouth, and disappearing below the rocks, which I suspiciously thought might indicate a pregnant burrowing groundhog.  But there have been no more recent sightings, and so far, my garden seems to have remained intact.  In terms of the raccoons and chipmunks that do seem to like to visit my garden, I regularly spray the wood sides with a diluted vinegar solution, spread wood ashes around the perimeter, place jalapeno powder on the inside soil perimeter, and side dress here and there with some blood meal on the advice of some fellow gardeners.  So far, so good! 

As summer progresses, we've been loving the extra long hours of daylight, and have spent many evenings relaxing at the point above the river.  As darkness falls we have been treated to some wonderful firefly light shows.  We had a good visit with family members in June, and friends in July. More friends are scheduled to arrive in August.

We know that summers pass by quickly, and if some projects don't get done this year, that's o.k. We will do as much as we can, while still making sure to enjoy each and every day here. By the time I do my next blog posting, likely that snowy scene I posted at the beginning will once again be a reality!

Meet "Millie"

Every year as we slide into March, we begin to think about upcoming outdoor jobs that will need to be done as soon as Spring arrives and the snow begins to melt.  When we spot our neighbour's maple syrup collection buckets, we know that warmer temperatures are about to make the maple sap run, and that Spring must be just around the corner. 

Spring can be a bit of a tease though. This year, just a week after we were treated to the sight of the buckets, another snow storm arrived.

We had a few visits from some local deer and it was such a treat to watch them from our windows. I am sure they were probably just as ready as we were for a change in weather, and a more varied diet!

Rumours of a particularly nasty ice storm in early April dashed our hopes for getting out to begin collecting our firewood anytime soon.  We stocked up on a few necessities, and prepared for some time closer to home. 

After the storm moved on, we ventured out for a walk.  The road in wasn't too icy and we were able to view some of the damage. And the beauty!

Once our internet was back though, we learned that many areas in Ontario and Quebec had been hit much harder than us, and a lot of people had no power, and that repairs would take quite a while.

A large tree had come down on our local power lines, and we had to guess that Ontario Hydro had cleared the tree and branches, leaving them all on our property at the side of the road.  We made plans to go collect it for firewood once the weather improved. We checked on our reserve firewood stack and it was completely covered in ice. It really looked like winter had come back.

But just a couple of days later, it began to warm up, and we were greeted one morning by the sound of the Phoebes returning.  I can't imagine that they were thrilled with our weather on their return.  By April 13th though we had some lovely warm temperatures, and as you can see below, it was warm enough for a t-shirt, but so strange as we still had snow all around us on our walk!

The day light hours were getting longer and I really liked the lingering light through the trees, and the reflections of our house in the window one night and snapped a quick photo.  Longer daylight hours are always so welcome.

With a bit more time to work at some indoor jobs, Rob decided to do some much needed organizing of his workshop.  He built this cabinet many years ago for the workshop in Navan, and finally got a chance to set it up properly again.

He was also busy programming a microcomputer that he hoped would allow him to use a foot pedal to make changes to his PC keyboard. When he is recording himself playing guitar, he needed to be able to more easily switch the camera off and on without having to stop and lean over to use his keyboard.  Just another little project on the go!  I never know what he will be dreaming up, but this one made me smile.

I had been busy painting lampshades for the log cabin bedrooms and doing many sewing repairs.

Unfortunately my amazing 50+ year old sewing machine stopped working and we were waiting for some parts to arrive to see if we could fix it. My backup machine would not wind the bobbin any longer, but Rob took it apart and fixed it with a hose washer until parts for it could arrive too!

In the meantime, I was trying to come to some sort of decision as to whether to fly out to Vancouver to visit family.  I had "some concerns" (actually lots!)  about the trip as friends had told me to be prepared for long flight delays and cancellations, and I also worried about Covid and the chance that I might bring it to my 96 year old mom.  Fortunately, despite the fact that I spent 4 hours seated in front of someone who coughed and hacked their way through the entire first portion of my flights, I managed to stay healthy. The flight delays weren't too bad and I arrived in Vancouver only a bit later than planned.  Unfortunately, no sooner did I book my flight than the airline announced a possible strike before my return home ! Of all my concerns, an airline strike wasn't one of them. 

I had a good trip, spending most of it in my Mom's apartment, as we had a list of things that needed doing, but did manage to get out with her for a short time each day to take care of a few things as well. She takes cabs a bit more often now, but will still take a city bus from time to time if she is up for it. I couldn't convince her to try the motorized shopping cart at the nearby supermarket, and she insisted on pushing the manual cart herself, while I dashed around trying to find items and save her a few steps. I also lost the argument about who would sleep on her couch.  She is  a fiercely independent little Welsh woman for sure.  She is still a pretty wicked Scrabble player too. 

My breath of fresh air is always my much anticipated ferry trip to the Sunshine Coast to spend time with my cherished brother and sister-in-law.  It is also the time that I most regret that Rob and I didn't make the trip to Vancouver together.  It's a hard choice, but I always feel like I should focus as much of my attention on my Mom as I can while I am there.  We also had to consider that one of us should remain at home to look after our sweet senior cat, Axle. At  the age of  20 he is now the equivalent in age of even more human years than my mom.  The minute I stepped on the ferry though and saw this view, I sure wished that Rob could have been there with me too. And I know he would have loved the chance to visit family on the coast as well.

I had made the choice not to bring my camera on this trip, which wasn't an easy decision for me. A friend had kindly lent me a cell phone for my trip so that I could keep updated on the airline situation, so I thought I could simply use the phone for taking photos instead.   But I found that without my camera, I pretty much forgot about taking photos!  I am not in the habit of using a phone as a camera at all.

I did manage to grab a pic of the lovely Hidden Grove Recreation area where I went for a short hike (with two of my favourite people!), and another one of the lovely sea (and two of my favourite people again!) before I returned to Vancouver less than 48 hours later.  Much too short a time but I was so grateful to have had the chance to visit.  

My other brother passed away last year, and so my trip was rather an emotional one at times.  The last time I had returned to Vancouver on the ferry I had met up with him for a coffee downtown, and I was filled with mixed emotions to pass through that area again.  I was thankful to have a chance to spend a couple of hours one evening with his son. 

I returned home somewhat tired, jet lagged, and introspective.  I took it easy for a few days, and then we ventured out into the bush in search of downed trees to pull out for this winter's firewood.  We usually start earlier in the season, before mosquitoes and black flies are out in full force, and long before the arrival of the poison ivy, but the weather and my trip had delayed us. Unfortunately shortly after we pulled out the first two downed trees, the tractor signaled a problem, and stopped working.  It took a couple of days to diagnose the issue, but Rob was able to get it working again, just before a mini heat wave hit!  There are always lots of other jobs that need doing so we decided to delay the firewood for a bit longer until the temperatures dropped a bit. The forecast was for more moderate temperatures in just a couple of days.

A large pine had snapped off this winter, so as soon as the temperatures dropped, we got at it. After moving a portion of it out, we gathered up the huge number of pine branches that had come down as they too make for good firewood. Cutting them into lengths is a tedious job though.  So after watching some videos, this new crib was constructed and we tried it out.  It worked perfectly!  We were glad of it, as we later found more smaller diameter lengths of wood that were easier to cut in this as well.  The crib allowed us to simply lay the branches in and then Rob was able to chainsaw through several at a time, and all at the same length so as to later fit into the woodstove.

Conditions became rather dusty as we were working.  Recent construction in the area had produced a huge number of pot holes in our common road, so the road had been newly graded.  As we were working, gravel trucks kept going by producing huge amounts of dust. The air quality wasn't good, and it unfortunately just got worse with the smoke from the wildfires later on.

I'm not usually the one to talk about or praise tools, but here is a little gizmo that has proven to be most useful this year. Meet "Millie" our Milwaukee Hatchet Pruning Saw. Battery operated, it is light enough for me to use, and it has been super at allowing me to help trim the branches of the trees we are gathering for this year's firewood.

The dead spruce trees in particular have a wicked number of branches.  It took a bit of getting used to, but once I got the hang of it, I could trim them off, stack them to be chipped later on, and leave the remaining log for Rob to cart away with the tractor. It definitely made the task easier.  We of course find ourselves using it for other tasks, like clearing trails as well.

Usually this is the point where I say "And in no time the firewood was done".  Well, not this year.  The smoke I mentioned earlier got worse as more fires burned in Quebec, and then one started about 60k south of us.  Air quality warnings were issued for our area, with warnings to wear N95 masks if doing any outdoor activities.  We continued doing firewood, while wearing masks, but then decided to wait until the air cleared a bit to continue. The smoke does produce some rather spectacular sunsets, but the cause detracts from the beauty. 

With conditions so dry, our area was already under a total fire ban.  I  pulled out my list of items to bring in the event of an evacuation order, and we discussed our emergency plans just in case.  With hundreds of fires burning across Canada it is foolish to think it can't happen, as much as we all hope it won't.  

Fortunately a bit of rain arrived, and although it wasn't enough to make a huge difference, the air quality improved.  We got back to doing firewood, with a short break as we needed to get some new parts for the chainsaw.  We made pretty good progress and were pleased with our work.  But the tractor announced another problem, so we had to take a break again to fix it.  Once complete, Rob took a short trip with it to get some parts for our scrap wood box.  And that's when the hydraulic hose blew.  Yikes, what a mess it made! 

More parts, more hydraulic fluid and a LOT of clean up later, it was back up and running.  

We worked for a couple of more days on our firewood and declared it done.  We still have more dead and fallen trees to pull out, (like the dead elm in the rear left of the photo below) but we think it might be better to wait until late fall or even early next spring.  The stacks on the left are our well seasoned oak, and the ones on the right are our more recent work.  We would have liked perhaps to have done a bit more, but I am sure that we have more than enough. And we both agreed that June 19th is the latest we've ever finished the wood, and aim to do better next year.

We celebrated with a great homemade beer that evening at the point, and put our feet up and enjoyed the river view, but didn't waste much time before getting at our next "task" for the summer.  There is still some siding that needs to be finished, and we really want that job to be done this year.  There is still one small section on the east side of the workshop to be done, as well as the back of the shop. We are just waiting to hear whether the propane company will agree to move our tanks for us. We should probably do this section first as it requires the longest and most noticeable pieces of siding.

Rob has set up scaffolding in preparation for completing the back of the shop. This area requires shorter boards, and we are hoping we have enough to complete that side.  The "porch" area may be done in metal siding if we don't have enough wood, or we may have to see if we can find some at the local mills to complete it. I think we still have lots of stain to use up!

As soon as were set up and ready to begin, the forecast changed to some much needed rain.  Which didn't arrive, but more wildfire smoke did, and it was the heaviest yet. We drove up to visit a friend and were stunned by how heavy the smoke was, and how poor the visibility, especially on one of the lakes (called Lake Clear, but definitely not-so-clear when there is smoke fall out !)

This pretty much sums up our rather strange Spring and introduction to Summer so far this year.

Oh, and those Phoebes that arrived in April ?  Well, this is a photo of the first brood in the nest at the front door just before they all flew away.  We didn't think they would nest there as we had finished the siding and ceiling in that area, and there wasn't much room,  but they were determined.  Rob put a little extra ledge there for them and that seemed to help. There is a second brood coming along now so we are avoiding using that door as much as we can so as not to disturb them.

We had robins nesting on a tarp next to the workshop door, and the babies left the nest a couple of weeks after I took this photo of them. 

We had another robin nesting at the cabin, but I found broken eggs at the door so I will guess something destroyed the eggs. 

They are trying again in a new nest set on a ledge on the porch now.  I hope this batch of eggs works out for them.

I found a starling inside the wood stove one day and ran to get Rob so we could escort it safely out.  It had a bit of a flight around the cabin before we caught it again, and left a bird-like smudge on the window that I thought looked pretty cool, but I guess I will have to wipe it off. It seemed none the worse for it's time in the stove, and flew off.  I have been checking every day now to make sure another one doesn't come down the chimney pipe.

On an afternoon walk one day this month we had the chance to watch a grouse have a dust bath.  They are usually pretty shy and fly away when we come across them on our walks, but I think this one was simply enjoying it's bath too much to leave.

Our wildlife cams have revealed a parade almost every day and night of fox, hares, fisher, deer, raccoons, porcupine, wild turkeys, coyote and a very brave little cat. In the video of the cat, it appears it chased a young fox back down the path, reappearing minutes later, puffed up to twice it’s size and casting an evil eye back to where the fox had been.  A few minutes later a very nervous looking fox came back up the path. That little cat shows up on the camera a lot, usually late at night.  I hope it stays safe. It looks healthy and well fed so I will guess it may belong to one of our neighbours.

A young hare is outside of the house most days, and seems pretty accustomed to our comings and goings.  I am glad that it can’t hop up onto my raised bed garden though, or it would make short work I think of my lettuce and spinach.  

And my battles with the chipmunk continue.  This year it is building tunnels in my garden.  I read that onions are a good deterrent so scattered lots of cut up onion onto the soil and into the tunnel before replacing the soil.  It seemed to work for a while, until I found a new excavation with all the onions pulled away.  A little ghost pepper powder worked too, until I water the garden and then it is no longer effective.  I just continue my efforts, and hope for the best.  I have what looks like a good crop of tomatillos coming up so hope they survive.  We have already enjoyed kale, cress, spinach, chives, cilantro and lettuce.  The chippie thankfully seems to not care about those!

We are now a week into "Summer" and the smoky skies have cleared somewhat for now.  We are hoping the siding project will go smoothly and try to imagine what it will be like to have that task off of our "to-do" list. I think we have been working on that job for the past three summers!  We are making plans for a bathroom renovation at the log cabin later this summer if all goes well. We are also making plans to take time off to scout out the area a bit more.  We have friends arriving from Germany in the fall and we could use some new locations to explore.     

Of course, summer is also the time when we love to relax outside.  We have had a few lovely evenings sitting out at our point, and look forward to more.  The river levels have dropped significantly, so I hope we will soon venture in for our first river walk of the year. And of course, if the hot summer weather arrives, the day will come when we simply plop our chairs into the cool river and sit for a while.