Catching Up

Clearly, the weather has been fine and nobody is indoors.
Not only have I fallen down on my daily blogging because of it, but not one person responded to my newsletter mailout -- did anyone even receive it? I can't help but wonder.
However, I blame it on the weather and people's good sense. We've all got spring fever and are out and around, where we should be.

The farmer boys have finished seeding.
Scott and I went for a drive around the countryside, which is nice and green where the tent caterpillars haven't eaten:

See? Not flat.

He has been out preparing the space for his vegetable garden. You are seeing less than half of the total area behind our house that he will seed to grass, leaving a regular gardening spot:

On Sunday, Everett and I drove to the animal shelter in Humboldt and brought home a lovely four-year-old kitty for him to love. I haven't got a photo of the two of them yet but I will. What I do have is a picture of the heavy plate I purchased for 50 cents at a garage sale in Watson on the way back. It will be going to the office with me tomorrow:

Yesterday I worked here at my desk for an hour and then jaunted off to Margo. It was my turn to see that newborn baby! Little Everley Grace. As some of you know, Grace is my mother's name, and I was very pleased and deeply touched to see the wee girlie given this name.

She slept like an angel the whole time I was there having tea with her mother and grandmother (my sister Karen). Then Michelle took pity on me and brought the hungry little girl out, so I got to hold her and give her a bottle. What a darling. A hungry darling. Her older sister is struggling a little with the change in family dynamics, but that seems pretty common. Her mom and dad are giving her as much attention as they can.

Everley has been fed, but seems to want more;  with her mom Michelle.

While the baby was getting a diaper change, I was in the bathroom taking a photo of the stained glass that Karen made:

Which reminds me, I still haven't purchased the wire I need to hang the stained glass she made for me.

 It's a grey, coolish day, although the forecast was for 30F heat. We've put a beef roast into the oven and Dad's coming over for supper. I've warned him that there is less than half of one of those big bottles of white wine left, but we have rye, vodka and scotch.

Aunt Reta phoned last night from Phoenix. She and Uncle Carl are coming out in July for the mini-reunion. And Cathy R and I have made a plan for a short road trip to the Edmonton area the following weekend, when I'm on holidays from the newspaper.

Life is good.

And now, it's out I go to dig some more flowers into their pots. and curse at the ants that are already living in them. I guess they'll be cursing right back at me for the great disturbance I'm about to cause.

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Ralph Goff on "Dog Germs": 

Those tent caterpillars are the worst I've ever seen. Big bushes in the hundred acre woods are leafless looking like fall or early spring. They were literally raining down on me the other day. Good thing I had a wide brimmed hat. Then they were crawling up the legs of my coveralls. Between them and the wood ticks I almost forget about the mosquitos. 

My only comfort is that they say the leafless plants will come back. 

It's the ticks, though, that are making me wonder if I might go live somewhere else for a couple months of the year. 

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Lori on "Dog Germs": 

Yuck! I'm with you on the "dog germs". About 'coons: This week I coiled chicken wire around the perimeter of the deck to stop them from going there. Apparently they don't like the smell of ammonia (neither do I), so I have rags soaked in ammonia strategically placed where they climb up. Raccoons are a big problem here and they are well adapted to urban life. Our "food" is top notch. A CBC doc about them basically said we need to learn to learn to live together...accommodate. :) 

We have to try to do that in the country too, although when they get to be a problem, it is not always easy or humane to put a stop to shenanigans. You may have a pack of coyotes attack and kill a newborn calf; you can't accommodate, alas, but have to decimate their numbers. You may have raccoons tear the shingles off your house or kill your barn cats; costly damage can't continue and you need your barn cats to control rodents; I don't know if raccoons help with that, although they are meat-eaters so maybe. I don't think they eat the cats! But I don't know.  Right now the property owners who farm are having their land flood due to beavers, so there is a war on -- a cull -- where the government is paying $35 for a beaver carcass, and people are shooting them. It's said that won't solve the problem but they're doing it anyway. It seems terribly unfair to the beaver and to the natural ecosystem, yet one can see the farmers' frustration too. One of our reporters at the newspaper has just done a good article on different ways of controlling the problem, but what works in one place doesn't always work in another. I'm sure there is a balance that can be found, but we are still a long way from implementing it for the good of both human and wildlife.

There are some natural behaviours in animals that are really hard to put up with. Like when we had cats and they'd catch the birds around the yard. I hate that. 

You will have to let me know how well the ammonia-soaked rags work!

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Lorna on "Dog Germs": 

Cat and dog germs! I'm totally shivered. 

As for the table, we don't allow technology, but we do allow books and magazines, which both can be read on an e-reader, so the wedge is in. 

It's all reading and writing, isn't it!

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Dog Germs

There is a very serious tent caterpillar infestation in these parts. We drove up to Kelvington last night for beer and a burger and were surprised to see the many large swaths of poplar trees that are leafless. 

They haven't seemed too bad around our yard, but when I was pulling quack grass out of a perennial flower bed today, several of the worms were on the leaves of one of the rose bushes. Damn! And here's the amazing part: I picked them off with my BARE FINGERS. 

It's as if someone else has taken over my body. 

Why, a few years ago I actually began to catch moths with my bare hands, and put them outside. I could never have done that before.

I still can't crush an insect (other than a mosquito) by touching it directly; smashed bodies give me the heebie-jeebies. I flung the tent caterpillars into the grass and came into the house for gloves and a plastic bag to dispose of them. Still I don't like to do this, because it seems cruel. Better to kill them quickly so they don't suffer, but I can't make myself do it. 

Quirks, eh. Irrational, but there they are. 

Recently I discovered that our office dog has been drinking water (probably for the past five months) out of the flattish bowl that I always use for lunch when I'm at work. There is now no chance that I will ever eat from that bowl again, even if it's been washed with hot water and soap, then bleached/sterilized. I know it's silly. I've probably eaten off the same dishes as a dog has, many times in my life, not knowing it. It's not going to hurt me. Nevertheless, I've seen where dogs put their noses and the kinds of filthy things they'll eat, like cat turds. I'll be taking my own plate and bowl to the office and keeping them in my desk where no one is likely to feed or water a dog or cat from them. 

What can I say? (Shrug.) Some things put me off, and sharing dishes with dogs and cats is one of those things. I wouldn't eat or drink from my pets' dishes, and I don't want them to eat off mine. It's just one of those quirks that I don't feel guilty about, but accept and respect myself enough to heed. Others may think and do as they wish, and I'll do the same for me.

We had an overnight guest on Tuesday, and this was the scene on Wednesday morning.

I've seen a lot of this in recent years. You've got company, and in the morning everyone sits around the kitchen table with their phone or laptop. It's the new way, I guess. Doc is touring/playing across the country and his laptop is his office, so he's got things to check out when he gets the chance. Scott's got a little iPhone love going on and was looking up some particular music to share with Doc. 

That's my iPhone laying unused near Scott's glasses. He's got progressive lenses that he can't use for reading. 

I was where I can often be found: at the sink, doing dishes. 

Doc and I had been able to visit in the kitchen for several hours the previous afternoon, a rare opportunity for some one-to-one conversation (the best kind), and in the evening Bev came out and we sat and drank wine for a couple hours, and Scott came off the field and joined us at dark. 

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Teresa on Ducks and Deer": 

The circle of life! Happy June. 

Ha! I didn't make that connection! Good one.

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Lori on "Ducks and Deer": 

I love hearing about your animal kingdom there. Just curious...do you have raccoons? If not, would you like some? We have two babies visiting us under our deck. 

Oh my! What are you going to do? 

There are raccoons around but since we've had an outside dog till just recently, we didn't see them. Now that we're without a yard protector, I expect we'll get a glimpse of them once in a while. I think there was a litter in our unused chicken coop last summer. I went in to get my bicycle where Scott had stored it over the winter, and heard some telltale chattering on the other side of the wall that warned me quite quickly away. 

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Ducks and Deer

Vee haff ducklings!

Click to enlarge. 

In other news ... there is no other news.

Unless you want to see the mule deer laying in the ditch not far from our driveway, no doubt struck and killed by a vehicle. Nah, I didn't think you'd want to see it.

It lay there two days before the flies found it, and after dark that night there was a coyote chorus from that direction. They must have been feasting, for the next morning when I drove past on my way to work, all that was left were the head and the rib cage.

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Lorna on "Comings and Goings": 

It continues to amaze me that my life in retirement is so full. Of stuff. Not planned. 

Most retired people say there's no such thing as an empty day.  I believe them. 

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Comings and Goings

Had to chauffeur Emil from his place to Everett's on Saturday after Everett got home from work.

And then back to town Sunday evening to take Emil home again.

Dad arrived from B.C. and has been here a couple times.
The first time, we had grilled cheese sandwiches and white wine.

After Dad. He gave me his laptop.

Then Doc showed up yesterday afternoon so we spent the day chitchatting at the kitchen table, and after supper Bev came out. She's in town helping her mom get moved to a seniors' residence.

Doc and Bev

Then my hairdresser is heading out on holidays so, unless I want to have very big hair by the time she gets home, I've gotta be in town in an hour for a cut.

Never a dull moment.

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Lorna on "Drafts Folder": 

Empathy for you both....still on the lookout for a couch my mom liked at LaZboy.

I can relate. I watched a re-run of Last Tango in Halifax last night and wondered what Mom would think of the show, since one of its characters was also a regular on Coronation Street back in the day when I used to watch it with her.

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Teresa on "Looking Back to 2004": 

Time does get away from us. Journalling is a good thing for the most part. 

Thanks for your comment. Daughter is feeling somewhat better. Waiting to see her specialist. Think it is all stress related. 

Glad she's okay. 

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Ralph Goff on "Looking Back to 2004": 

Not quite ready to publish my own boring life journal I've kept. But I do publish another family member's daily journal of farm life through the 1930s to early seventies in "Nevardblog". Its been a good way to spread a little family history on the net. 

Boring lives aren't boring! Whaddaya mean?

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Looking Back to 2004

It's been 11 years since Mom passed and I haven't really been able to dip back into the old journals, either online or handwritten. They have the power to take me to a shitty place. But since posting that link yesterday I followed up with a bit of reading last night and this morning and have had a few good laughs ... mostly at Everett's expense. He was a funny little guy back then and he's a funny big guy now.

One good reason to keep journals is that one forgets the many amusing and/or sweet things said and done by one's children, otherwise. But once written down, the memories can be triggered. It's so worth it.

Cattle on our "hill."

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Lorna on "Robins & Magpie": 

Magpies, for me, are always associated with silver; Ottawa has a couple of stores full of lovely silver jewellery, which in my dotage I have learned to avoid. 

Hm! That's an unexpected connection. Will we ever hear the story behind it?

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Birdie on "Drafts Folder": 

I blogged all through my mom's ovarian cancer diagnosis, treatment and eventual death. It was over teo blogs and then I started my current blog because, well, I don't know why. Just too much sadness connected with it all. She died 4 years ago in September and I will never, ever get used to her not being her. I have just learned a different way of living. 

The last thing mothers want is for their children to be defeated by their passing. That doesn't take the ache away though, does it.

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Drafts Folder

Wait! Have I forgotten to finish a letter to a longtime friend and correspondent? Is it languishing in the drafts folder? Let me see ... 

No, it's not there, I must have sent it. Good. 
There aren't as many drafts there as I thought, either. 

There's a Star Trek Christmas poem for the boys' dad.
There are several epitaph-type poems about pets that have died. I was collecting them to send to Karen after one of her beloved Yorkies chomped down on a sharp piece of cow hoof, which sliced into her upper palate and killed her. 

There is a link to the journal I kept online before this one. The draft's subject line is Blogging Through My Mother's Dying. The link goes to an entry written shortly after we got the news that Mom had terminal kidney cancer and maybe a year to live, at most. I'll never forget the shock of that. I remember falling to my knees a couple times after getting off the phone with Dad, and then just heading out to the field to be alone and bawl my eyes out. If you're new to this blog, you might be interested in that shitty little journey, which ended in tears but also gave us many enriching times together as a family: http://xoetc.antville.org/archive/2004/05/19/.

Today is 11 years since Mom passed away.  I miss her. It doesn't get less so. Time heals? I don't think so. And now that I've set her photograph next to my desk here at home, I think of her more often. Which is nice, but still hurts too. When they say this life is a vale of tears, they aren't kidding.


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Julie on "Robins & Magpie": 

We were quite pleased to see some husky robins chase away the bluejays who were tormenting the smaller birds like our mascots, the brave and bold chickadees. Robins are so cool; they love people or at least the worms we stir up from the ground and the water we provide. 

That's true: they do seem to love people! And we sure love them.
This year we've got a pair of merlins in our yard, which means the songbirds will probably be decimated. No one likes that, but the "experts" say the merlins won't be back every year.

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Birdie has left a new comment on your post "Robins & Magpie": 

I have a friend who tells about being chased by crows for 2 blocks. The way he tells it is hilarious but it was actually not funny. Birds can be scary! 

When my husband and I have traveled throughout Canada we always enjoy the magpies. We don't have them here. 

I didn't know Nanaimo doesn't have magpies. I thought they were everywhere.
They are a regular around our yard, as they nest in our spruce trees. They are so common that I hardly glance twice at them, when really they are a very interesting bird. Smart and quirky. Also, the year-old birds stay with the parents and help raise the next brood; it's how they learn to be raise their own young. 

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Annette Erickson on "Robins & Magpie": 

Magpies! Can't say I like those birds much. 

They are little buggers, that's for sure. Scott's always threatening to shoot them but he never does. I'm glad he doesn't because in winter, the only birds we see at our feeders are the magpies, chickadees, redpolls and woodpeckers. The magpies can't get into the feeders but they sure check out the snowy ground beneath them. I wonder what they find to live on during those cold months. 

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Robins & Magpie

Michael Crummy was being interviewed on CBC Radio by Shelagh Rogers and I was sitting in the driver's seat, listening, having just arrived home from taking Emil into town.

During the 15 minutes till the end of the show, I watched a robin perched on top of the chimney on the roof of the tractor shed about 50 feet from the car. Or maybe it was watching me. It was standing lookout, apparently, over the yard.

When a fat smartypants magpie landed near the truck parked near Little Green (the car), it hopped around between the two vehicles, quite unconcerned, until suddenly from the air two missiles dived at it. The three swooped like lightning across the windshield of the car. I nearly jumped out of my seat.

The robins must have a nest very near, and they are having no truck with no magpies.

Taken through the car window

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Maggie Turner on "Tractor & Me": 

My oh my, how tractors have changed since I was a girl! Of course, the farm where I grew up did not require a large tractor, it was only 25 acres. There were no cabs, and I remember riding on beside my Dad, standing up; it couldn't have been all that safe, but back then people didn't think much about those kinds of things. 

Hell, Maggie, they still don't think enough about those kinds of things. You still see children on tractors and even driving other machinery, no matter how many public warnings there have been against it. I guess everyone thinks accidents only happen to other people. In short, they don't think.

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Birdie on "Tractor & Me": 

I have lived in Nanaimo my whole life. In fact, my family had lived here for 162 years. I also work in Home Support and see and know a LOT of people. No doubt there is a connection somewhere. :-) 

No doubt! 

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