THE HOOTERS

Last nite was the annual owl count so the Hooters headed out at around 7pm.  Ute, Ginny, Mary and myself travelled up the highway and started our count at the place where the fire was a couple of years ago.  Every 5km or so we pull over, play tape recorded owl calls and see if an owl returns the calls.  I need a hearing device because I just can't hear the calls without it unless they are sitting on my shoulder.  We heard everything but owls - geese, wood cocks, robins - but no owls - until the last stop.  We played the tape and right away there was a call back.  Ute warned us that it was coming towards us.  It was pitch dark so we couldn't see anything but the sound was now really close.  I edged a bit closer to Ute just in case.  Every time the tape played the call, the owl responded with a wild crazy laugh and then the normal call.  It was thrilling to hear.  I am sure there was a second one as well.  We felt bad after because the owl thought he was going to get lucky but then - nothing.  Poor thing.
The last picture is of our snacks on the owl count.  Ginny made the cinnamon buns, Mary, the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and Ute brought grapes, cherries, cheese, nuts and animal crackers.  I didn't bring a thing because I knew that there would be plenty.  I drove.

TADAAAA

Finished the green house and got the seeds in the mail today - excellent timing.  The snow remaining in the green house should be gone very soon.  It is nice and warm in there which should hasten the melting.  We trimmed some bushes and trees away from the structure so it is easy to walk around it.

Next project?  The sauna of course.  16 x 10 - hopefully it will be done in time for the hunters this fall.  Maybe...

ALL WORK AND NO PLAY...

It was going to be a nice sunny day today with temps in the vicinity of +8 or +10 - I thought it would be a nice day to relax in the sun but it was not to be.  We spent the day installing the trusses on the garden structure.  Rejean had to clear a path to get to the garden with the tractor and then the snow around and in the garden worked to our advantage.  I tramped it down so we could walk on it and we didn't need a ladder - you could stand on at least 2 feet of snow and I could reach.  I helped carry stuff from the garage, I held things in place, I helped lift and place the trusses, I made lunch, I looked for the lost hammer.  We worked from 11am till 4pm and we got all 11 in place and firmly secured.  Tomorrow we install the panels and maybe if we have enough time, wrap the plastic around the outside of the structure.  I have my seeds ordered and the starter kits ready.  Hopefully this year I will have a bumper crop of beautiful tomatoes and cucumbers.

HOW THEY ROLL IN WHARNCLIFFE

We were invited to Robin's 50th birthday party on Saturday afternoon and what a party it was.  The ladies spent all most of the time inside because it was damp and cold outside.  Of course the guys were outside catching up on all the guy stuff.  And all the grand kids were in with us.  Robin has 3 3/4 beautiful grandchildren and they got to celebrate with her - hot dogs, hamburgers, deviled eggs, cabbage rolls and the best home made pizza I have ever had.  Have to get the recipe from Randy.
And a delicious cake from ValueMart - I got a rose - yum yum.  At about 7:30 Cathy and Lynn pull up in their neat ride.  I thought it was a tank rolling up the drive - well, it is sort of.  I don't know the exact details about what it is but if you really need to know I can get that info for you.  It is just something they tool around in in the bush.
Hey, it's what we do up here.

LUNCHIN' WITH THE LADIES

Today was the day the ladies lunched.  There was about 19 of us - most from up the highway, some from Kynoch and some from town and we all met at the Sinton, the only bar in Thessalon.  They had a table all set up for us with nice blue table coverings and the white chairs.  It made us all feel very welcome.  The service was excellent considering the number of us.  I had a toasted western and it was delicious,  Others had the beef barley soup and I saw a large number of Cesare salads being served.  And as an added surprise, we were all served a piece of home made lemon meringue pie for desert, on the house, to show their appreciation for the business.
We all had a good time.  It is always nice to get together with friends just to enjoy each other's company and talk about anything and everything.
Plans have already been made for next month's luncheon - same place.  Be forewarned...

LOTS'A SOX

Dave likes loud, crazy sox so I might as well get the "KIDS" started early…

A LOOK AT THE TRUSSES

Rejean was working in the garage today building a panel to see if his design would work and it did.  He just has to figure out a system to secure the panels at the bottom.   I had no doubts at all.  He now has to make 19 more - 10 on each side of the roof.  Then we will wrap the plastic around the base of the garden to enclose it. The door will not be wrapped and he has plans to put in two windows for ventilation.  He has the watering system all picked out from Lee Valley - it will be on a timer so we don't have to worry about our garden when we are away - or forget to water it.

Now we have to wait for planting season - which may be in July the way things have been going...

STUFF I THOUGHT WAS WORTH PUTTING ON MY BLOG

There are still some die hard fishermen out on Cummings - they say the ice is still ok but I wouldn't be out there.  And it still snowed earlier this evening…
The next picture shows just how low I am getting on wood and kindling - that's it.  But I know where I can get some more - just down the driveway.  I am hoping that I won't have to do that.  It has been a long cold winter.
And there is a new project going on that involves trusses.  Ron is an amazing friend who is very knowledgeable about just about anything and he helped Rejean with the trusses.  I timed them and it took 6 minutes to put one together - we needed 11 altogether.  Of course they had pre-cut all the pieces they needed before they started assembling them.  We are going to put a roof on our garden structure and enclose it in thick plastic.  Our tomatoes and cucumbers don't do very in the existing garden so we are going to try this.
That's it for today.

W H A S U P

It's here!!  Joanne's inflatable stand up paddle board she ordered and had delivered up here.  I am not taking it out of the box because I will never ever get it back in.  It will have to wait until Joanne gets here in July.  She'll be paddling that and Susan and I will be in our kayaks - and much safer I might add.  And probably dryer :o)

Hurry up Summer...

JUST A COUPLE MORE...

We visited John and Linda today and I got a picture of her house - the snow has come off of their roof and almost buried the back of their house.  Linda can barely see out her back windows.
The next picture is of Joanne and Mitch's sauna house - I sent it to her and asked if she could see what was missing.  She guessed her dock.  The snow is still so deep on the lake that her dock is completely buried.  When we do finally get the big melt, the water levels are going to be H I G H ! ! ! !

HOPEFULLY THE LAST SNOW PICTURES THIS YEAR…MAYBE

This is the morning after the day before when we got all that snow.  Rejean blew snow today and there was about 5 inches of the white stuff.  The middle picture is a panoramic picture I took - I will have to get better at lining up the last picture to the next picture - it is a combination of 3 separate photos.  I have the feature on my Fujifilm Finepix S1000 but never really played with it before.  But I will now.  And the last picture is of the road to our local dump or landfill if that sounds better to you.  Still a lot of snow up here.  Still…it is pretty.

THIS IS APRIL 4 - NOT APRIL FOOL'S

Mary and I were in town for our camera course this morning and made it home just in time to beat the snow.  It was raining but quickly turned into heavy snow.  There has to be a good two inches out there at least!!!

Even our highway is closed from 17 up to Chapleau due to the weather conditions!!

I have no words...

DOWN SHE CAME

The pictures do not do it justice - you have to see it in person to appreciate the amount of snow that was on that roof.  We have had our eyes on it for the past couple of days - it was the last roof to go.  I even parked my car down the driveway because I have to be in town tomorrow for 9:30 am and wanted to be not trapped on the wrong side of the slide. Plus I didn't want anybody coming up the drive and being caught in the snow.  It was also a dash to get the mail today too.  I had been hanging around the garage all day - I had a hunch that today could be the day.  I wasn't around when it came down - it was sometime between 2:30 and 4pm.  But we were fortunate that it didn't move the wood shed.  It touched but not enough to move it.
Rejean is out there now cleaning it up - it is going to be a slow process but he had nothing else to do.  Couldn't have come at a better time.

A BIRD DAY

Not much going on here today.  It was snowing this morning and very cold.  We are chipping at the trap rock pile to get enough to put on the lane way as it is very slippery this time of year.  The trap rock is frozen so it is a slow process.
I saved a bird today.  I was in the wood shed and noticed 2 birds in the pile of snow behind the house.  One was just sitting there and the other one was on his back with his little legs just shaking.  He had probably hit one of the windows back there and was stunned.  I picked him up and got him right side up - the first thing he did was stick his little head under his wing and just shivered.  These birds, if they haven't broken their necks or wings, will usually be ok after a bit of rest.  But I decided that he needed to be warmed up so in stuck him in a box and put him in the house.  After about 1/2 hours I peeked and he seemed to be ok.  I put the box outside tipped over so that all he had to do was hop out and fly away.  He's gone now so he will be ok - until the next time he flies into a window.

The first picture is of a common red pole at the feeder.  We have gone thru 300 pounds of bird seed this winter.  Believe it or not.

And we always seem to get one mourning dove this time of year and lo and behold, there she is, sunning herself on the cement right outside the door.  I had to sneak up and take this as she is very timid.  She knew I was there and kept her eye on me the whole time.  You just wonder what is going thru their little minds.

TOUT EST FINI

It is finally done - the drawers are filled with glasses and the wine is on display.  The recycle bin is in place and micro wave has been popcorn approved.  The beer case is ready to receive empties and the sound system works just fine.

Now we get a chance to catch our breaths and wait for the snow to go to get started on our wood.  Let's see, we have 4 trees down - only 26 more to go.

The fun never ends.

ONLY ONE LEFT TO GO

The snow came off the garage roof at the back - as you can see the pieces were massive.  I was worried about the window but it was ok.  The roof is so sloped that it slid out from the house instead of just down.  Thank goodness.  But that is bad news for the wood shed across from the garage.  I have a feeling that there will be some adjusting to do to it after the snow comes down on that side.  I am checking every couple of minutes this afternoon for it to come down.  I can just see it from the window at the top of the stairs here.  Just checked - not yet.

And no sign of the raccoon.