HAPPY HALLOWEEN

They do celebrate Halloween in Abu Dhabi as you can see from these two little Spider Men.

I wonder if Dave will be joining them in his costume.

Trick or Treat!!

JUST NOT MEANT TO BE

First picture is of our recent snowfall - always a special day when that happens!!  We had been waiting for good weather to try and get up to Hinckler and we finally decided to leave Wednesday and come home on Friday or Saturday.  The weather looked like it would co-operate.  We got a nice run in on Wednesday and got 5 birds.  It was chilly!!!
We returned to the trailer for dinner and a movie and finally all got to bed about 10pm - the furnace was working fine.  It had been acting up before.  At 1:30 in the morning Rick realized there was no heat.  We got a small heater out and survived til morning.  After our run in the morning and breakfast, we packed up and headed home.  Oh and I might add the furnace worked fine when we returned for breakfast!!!  Go figure.
It was disappointing but at least we got a total of 6 birds and had a lot of fun out on the trails.
We will for sure get that stupid furnace fixed!!!!!

STUFF GOING ON

It is always a sad day when you have to put the boat away.  But the long range weather shows no good day to get it out again so away she goes.  Rejean MacGyvered
 the bucket on the tractor to receive the trailer hitch on the boat trailer - much easier backing it into the storage shed and it just fit inside the shed.  We had to move the riding lawn mower to the other garage to make room for the boat - talk about shuffling stuff.

With all this rain we have been having there were wash outs and sink holes up Highway 129.  They were up by Chapeau and Hinckler Road - nothing around our area.  But there are no detours once you get past certain spots so they close the road.  The Ministry Road Patrol got a logging truck that tried to slip past the sign.  It is a good thing as he could have caused more damage plus be stranded until they get the road repaired.  I got home via Iron Bridge Road.  No signs there of the closed highway - besides, I was only going home.

Jason and Steve were up for a week of rain.  They said they had a good time and I believe them.  We did have a fun ride and they managed to stay busy.  We visited with them on their last night here.  The top picture is of Steve's view of our lake - I think it may be the best view.  The next picture is of Stacey and Andrew's cabin and ours is to the right of theirs barely visible.  And finally the guys gathered on Steve's front porch in front of his bunkie.
And you can see there are still brilliant colours to be seen right now.

And this is coming up....

A GREAT RIDE

It was a beautiful day yesterday so I suggested a bike ride in the afternoon, once we had established it wouldn't rain.  Rick and I would have our guns with us in case we saw any birds and Jason and Steve were just along for the ride.  Rejean had to get gas so he stayed back.
We went down FootPrint Lake road and enjoyed the scenery and the beautiful leaves.  It was quite warm but damp.  I lead them over to where we can see the Mississaugi river where we ran into Brent and Nat and their friends.  They hadn't seen any bird either.  We stopped and enjoyed the view of the mighty Mississaugi smooth as glass.  You don't see it like that very often.
Because it was so warm out, the snakes were out and about.  I rescued one on 129 - he wasn't too happy with me helping him across the road - he was trying to rear his head and lunge at me - thank goodness he was just a little garter snake.  I ran over one on FootPrint Lake road and I had to veer quickly on Axe Lake road to avoid running over another one.  We took the Axe Lake Trail back and it was very very muddy - lots of puddles.  We had to hose all the bikes down when we got back to get all the mud off of them.
And the leaves are still beautiful...

GOT WOOD?

As a matter of fact, we do now.  We had our double bunk delivered this morning by one of our local loggers, Tim Bouda.  We have not had to have logs delivered for a couple of years as we have been caught up and still have enough cut and split wood for next year but it was time.  These logs will sit over the winter and we will get at them in the spring.  We first block them to 16 inch lengths and then split and stack them to dry.  It is a process but one that a lot of folks up here do.  You drive up and down the highway and see the same stacks of wood in people's front yards waiting to be processed.
They are all a nice size as well.  You don't want the big logs as they are harder to handle.  Never thought in my wildest dreams I would be admiring a pile of logs and anxious to get working on it.  But I have to wait til spring...

By the way, I think the leaves are going to peak very shortly.  They are late but beautiful.

MUSHROOM TRANSFORMATION

Remember that mushroom from a couple of posts ago - the top two pictures are the original photos that I took.  Well when I returned to that area I found that it had transformed into something totally different.  It had bloomed into a true mushroom shape.  The third picture is an angle that my friend Sandy used to take whenever she found a mushroom she liked.  She held her camera underneath the rim and took a picture looking up.  gives it a totally different angle.
As soon as I find out what it's name is, I will let you know.  I didn't pick it - it is still there.