Travel between Ontario and Nova Scotia can be tricky in winter – at least for us

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So last time we travelled to Ontario in the winter, we spent Christmas in a small motel in Quebec with a broken truck and we had to eat Leonard.

Fast forward 4 years, and Jeff found himself working in Burlington last week for work.

He tried to come home on Friday, and the plane got all the way to the Bay of Fundy, but there was too much snow on the Halifax runway, so the plane turned around and took him all the way back to Toronto!

WestJet put him up in a hotel, but they lost his luggage, so he had no clothes, no toothbrush, and nothing to do.

They weren’t able to get him on another flight until Saturday at 5:30pm!

Luckily he made it to Halifax this time, and his luggage was waiting for him at the airport.

He sure was happy to be home!

Today’s bird party sponsored by….

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Brian & Leanne & family!!

They had a humongous bag of sunflower seeds delivered to our house for Christmas.

Today I filled up the bird feeders before I left for work with their seed.

I see the birds have already dug in!

Bird Party

Update: Argh. Looks like the cam might have froze on one pic. I’ll reset this afternoon, if it doesn’t fix itself.

A day in the life of …. ME

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8:38am – Holy smokes that was a good sleep. I didn’t stir once. Who turned the TV off? Last I knew I was watching Seinfeld? Where’s Monty? Wow, he’s still sleeping too!
8:39am – Relief. Wow did I have to pee.
8:42am – Still really windy. Sounded like a jet above the house last night it was so windy.
8:43am – Uh oh! Birds are out of seed! They could be here soon for their morning bird party.
8:45am – Let Monty out. Fill up bird feeders.
8:48am – House is intact. Garbage can only blew a few inches over. White eavestrough extender blew off and 6 feet across the back yard!
8:50am – Feed Monty.
8:51am – Tell Zeus it’s fire time.
8:53am – Take some wood stove ashes outside. Close eyes and jump back as I through ashes into the wind on the driveway.
8:54am – Resume fire building.
8:55am – Turn on a Bubba the Love Sponge replay to listen to.
9:00am – Hug and squeeze a needy Zeus.
9:05am – Swat Zeus’s tail away from the stove.
9:15am – Close up damper and declare fire officially going.
9:16am – Turn on TV. Decide to watch a movie. Once that Jeff likely wouldn’t watch if he was home. Check the PVR to see what I’ve recorded lately. Settle on “Gnomeo & Juliet”.
10:40am – That was an awesome movie! All about animated garden gnomes. Lots of Elton John music in the sound track. Feel inspired to decorate our lawn with 100 or so cute garden gnomes. Think of Jeff’s reaction if I did this before he returned from Ontario. Snicker. Wonder where I could get gnomes in January.
10:45am – Hit Randomizer on Elton John on my iPhone, hook iPhone into speaker dock, crack Elton, commence singing/shower/dance party.
11:00am – Trim toenails.
11:01am – Think about what a good idea it would be to do a day in the life of post about myself.
11:12am – Start blog post and make up times from 8:38 until now.
11:27am – Only 3 birds out there. Maybe it is too windy and they are hiding out somewhere. Wish a blue jay would come and eat his peanuts.
11:32am – Surfing web. See there is a fracking protest disrupting traffic near the Canso Causeway. Think about joining protesters. Remember Jeff is not here to bail me out of jail. Decide to protest from afar.
11:34am – Cave. Open bag of licorice all-sorts I bought Dad for his birthday. Oops.
11:36am – Realize I have a lot of music shuffling on my iPhone that I don’t like. Switch to listen to a Shannon Burke radio show re-run. I haven’t listened to this guy much, but I’m a talk radio nut and need to branch out and not listen to Howard Stern re-runs of shows I listened to live.
11:45am – Fill up dishwasher and turn it on.
11:50am – Publish a couple stories for my ForestTalk website.
12:00pm – Text with Julie as she is heading with Mom to meet my husband and his parents for lunch. I guess if they can’t have lunch with me, tracking down my husband is the next closest thing. I hope they squeeze and hug him and pretend he is me :-)
12:15pm – Kiss Monty on his whitening snout and let him outside. I think he’s still looking for Jeff to come home.
12:20pm – 19 mourning doves arrive at bird feeder (some under it, some resting in tree). 1 evening grosbeak, some goldfiches, and chickadees.
12:24pm – Let Monty in. Get new box of kleenex from the pantry for my office.
12:34pm – Decide it is time for some outdoor exploration time.
1:17pm – Back inside. Monty and I went for a walk around the yard, then we went up in the woods and walked around the back of our lot. Realized Monty doesn’t seem to put himself in my shoes when he is leading the way. We walked around trees and zig zagged here and there, sniffed deer poop, stopped twice to unhook my glasses from tree branches, but I drew the line at walking under dead hanging logs at knee height. Headed home and I took a nice little meditational stretch on the porch swing. Smelling the wood smoke in the air, listening to the wind in the trees, the birds in the trees, the cool air pinking my cheeks.
1:21pm – I see more birds have showed up at the feeder. The finches are actually picking away at the niger seed too. Usually they ignore that feeder in the winter and just hit the sunflower seeds.
1:30pm – Random internet browsing. Need to update ForestTalk theme. Think I’d rather nap.
2:15pm – Julie is texting me about her lunch with Jeff and his parents.
2:22pm – Turn on TV
2:25pm – Go downstairs to rake out hot coals. Open damper a bit to help burn off coals for next reload.
2:30pm – Vacuum dog hair out of electric baseboard in front hallway. It could be heading to -17°C on Sunday night so I should get a couple baseboards ready to go on to help keep the house from freezing.
2:37pm – See I missed a call while I had the vacuum on.
2:37pm – Call Jeff back. Listen to complaints about his gravy being too light at lunch. Thinking I haven’t eaten lunch. I could use a hot turkey sandwich and gravy. Tease Jeff about having all the baseboards on and sitting in shorts in a 26 degree house. Ha ha sucker.
3:07pm – End phone call. Head back to TV.
4:59pm – Did I really just watch Celebrity Wife Swap with Dee Snider and Flavor Flav? What has this day come to?
5:19pm – Just watched the Canadian Parks show about Fathom Five National Park on the Bruce Peninsula. I had no idea that in the 30′s the flower pots of FlowerPot Island were cemented and bricked so they won’t erode or fall over on a tourist.
5:21pm – Fed Monty
5:22pm – Opened up the damper, cracked the wood stove, time for fire #2 of the day.
5:23pm – Seafood Medley is on the menu for Zeus tonight. Fed Zeus his prednisone pill. It is so easy to give him a pill now. He practically opens the hatch himself for me to stuff it in.
5:45pm – Fire ready. Zeus is full and lounging on the dog bed near the wood stove, ready to soak up some heat.
5:55pm – Just made a little plate of crackers, old cheddar, and kielbasa. Mmmm. Listening to Manson’s radio show on RadioIO.
6:09pm – Just saw a tweet that there is a LIVE show on today. Hallelujah. Switching to listen to the Abe Kanan show on Howard 101.
6:30pm – That radio show wasn’t cutting it. Time to dive into YouTube for some educational videos.
6:41pm – AHH! Just bit my tongue. Almost right off I think. Damn licorice.
6:41pm – Sorry licorice, I know it wasn’t your fault.
6:56pm – Monty is whining. Better go investigate.
7:02pm – Monty and I went outside. It is lightly snowing. He didn’t really have to go. I think he was just hoping for a Milkbone when he came back in. Little manipulator. I’m not caving.
7:31pm – Hoodie and sweat pant time. Back on the Abe Kanan show.
7:34pm – Inspiring to make phone calls. First stop. Becky. Haven’t talked to her for eons. Was thinking of our wild night in Halifax and our visit to Peggy’s Cove earlier.
7:35pm – No answer. Left a super lame voicemail. I hate voicemail. Should have been funnier. Can I redo?
7:46pm – Tweaking my blog template.
8:46pm – Just went through hundreds of old emails from 2001′ish to 2007. Copied out photos and saved them separate from the emails. Found some real gems. Even a pic of Julie’s eyebrow ring.
9:00pm – Just became friends with an ol’ friend on Facebook. Love catching up with friends!
9:30pm – Am I really going to watch Jeff’s Denver Broncos? I never have ever watched football by choice. This is new.
9:31pm – Give Monty a rawhide.
10:23pm – Watching Monty rub his face in the snow. Porch is covered already. I’ve been babbling away on Facebook with ol’ friends. Not old friend, just long time friends :-) hehe
11:15pm – 42 – 7. Am I jinxing Jeff’s team by watching?
11:20pm – Getting sleepy. Time to check fire. Rake out coals. Room for a few pieces of wood. Let Monty out.
11:29pm – Reflecting on day. 90% unproductive. Just what I needed. I did good!
11:30pm – Let Monty in. He runs straight upstairs to bed ( to wait for his bedtime milkbone)
11:31pm – Monty came back downstairs.
11:33pm – Guessing Jeff has long ago given up on his Broncos and is probably in bed. This game is getting rough. Injured player on every play.
11:35pm – Digging into a new book I finally got my hands on – The UV Advantage.
11:42pm – Oh good, Denver hits double digits. 42-10
11:56pm – I am heading up to bed to read some more about the healing qualities of the sun. Good night. Wait. Text from Dad. Bet he is watching football. Yep.
12:05am – Haven’t made it upstairs yet.
12:14am – K going to bed for real this time. Good night. Sorry about your team Jeff.
12:17am – Football brawl. Damn still didn’t get away.
12:20am – ok for real THIS time. Bye.

The weather is never disappointing here

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Evidence that the weather here never disappoints:

  • It started to snow heavy last evening and quickly we had a few inches everywhere.
  • Jeff plowed the driveway at 4am while I shoveled the deck and cleaned off our vehicles so he could get to the airport. It started to lightly rain while we were outside.
  • During my work day it warmed up, much of the snow melted, and the fog grew thick. People on the news tonight were saying it is the thickest fog they’ve ever seen. Now I heard the east coast folk knew fog, but this certainly isn’t the thickest fog I’ve ever seen, but it IS ominous at any rate.
  • Tonight the entire province of Nova Scotia has a wind warning. Gusts of 100 km/hr are supposedly on the way, even though it is completely calm out there now at 7:10pm
  • There may be thunderstorms over night.
  • By Sunday it will be -12°C

Awesome!

Jeff is in Ontario. I will be having a quiet weekend at home. I’ve got many things to do, and hopefully one of them won’t be chasing the roof in the wind tonight.

Monty is pining away at the door for Jeff. He thinks Jeff should be home by now. He is usually a little extra whiny for the first day or two after Jeff leaves.

-14°C and I forgot…..

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I was almost all the way to town this morning when I realized I forgot something.

The thermometer on the dash varied between -11°C and -15°C during my drive.

But it was a nice calm morning, no wind, just beautiful.

But I forgot….

MY COAT!

Oh well, I often just carry it from the car to my office in the morning anyway. As long as we don’t have a fire drill and the car doesn’t break down on the way home, I’ll survive :-)

Ice, cold, new wipers, days are longer, and I’m still standing

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-11°C this morning! The lake is frozen from our place north, but is still wide open south, through the widest parts of the lake. We don’t have much more than a dusting of snow, but it can stay that way until Jeff goes and comes back from his Ontario trip later this month.

Our days are becoming noticeably longer. Love it! Last night I was able to go to Walmart for a few things after work, and it was still not dark at 4:50pm when I got home! The yard light clicked off this morning around 7:25am while I was scraping the windows of my car. Love it!

The meteorologists that I follow think the El Nina tread is reversing and February will bring significant cold and big storms to North America. Are you ready?

Hey, you know how they say that you should replace the window wipers on your car every 6 months? And by ‘they’ I mean the manufacturer of the wipers?

I usually wait until they fail, and I guess I’d consider it a fail when one flew off while Jeff was driving the car. So we got 3 new wipers. This is the first time in 4 years I’ve replaced the back wiper.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE! Too bad they are so pricey, or else maybe I would replace them every 6 months. Maybe I’ll aim for once a year now. The rear wiper used to be so noisy. Now? Not a sound. Love it!

OK break is over, back to work.

Oh by the way, I’m still standing at work. My feet can handle it much better than when I started this in November. I don’t switch shoes during the day anymore, just wear my hikers. I make sure to scrunch and stretch my feet inside my shoes once in awhile, and I sit down for a few minutes every hour just so I’m not straining anything by standing. I find I think about the fact that I’m standing far less often and it seems natural.

Fascinated by the idea of daemons, and it’s official, I’m an open sensitive soul

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Have you seen The Golden Compass?

We watched it over the holidays, and ever since I’ve been fascinated by the daemons in the story.

In the world the movie is in, people’s souls are actually animals and everyone has one that is their constant companion. A person is metaphysically connected to their daemon and can never be separated. If one dies, they both die.

Sometimes I feel like Zeus is my daemon when he is following me all the time, but he doesn’t talk, well not much anyway.

I was just googling to learn more about the idea and the books that the movie is based on, and I found a link to a quiz that can determine what kind of animal my daemon would be.

The quiz is long, but the results seem accurate to me, and Zeus would qualify as a suggested form for my daemon!

It said, I am an Open Sensitive Soul:

You are an open, emotional person and very sensitive to the things going on around you. You are empathetic and make an excellent listener, but you also like to share your thoughts, feelings, and opinions with the world. You are not particularly extroverted, preferring time at home with a group of friends than a busy and stressful night out among strangers and acquaintances.

You wear your heart on your sleeve, and probably become upset when someone tries to give you constructive criticism. Your loved ones tend to accidentally hurt your feelings with their insensitive, off-hand remarks, and then accuse you of being too sensitive.

You are open and honest, and you do not do well at hiding your feelings, even when you try. You prefer to get things out in the open and resolve them, rather than leaving them to fester. Other people might sometimes frustrate you by hiding their feelings, shrugging and saying “oh well” instead of standing up for themselves, like you try to do.

Your daemon’s form would represent highly sensitive nature, your frank honesty, and your devotion to friends and family. He or she would stick close to you and whisper comfort and advice in your ear most of the time. When you or your loved ones needed defending, however, he or she would become as openly vocal as you, and help you in your protestations.

Suggested forms: Songbird, Dove, Swan, Domestic cat, Border Collie.

Want to try the quiz?
Go to: http://www.okcupid.com/tests/the-golden-compass-daemon-test

Good morning, slept in, Jeff is missing, and the birds are coming

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Awwww, the perfect Saturday morning.

It is after 10am and my hair is still standing straight up. I can only guess that Jeff woke up in the dark hours but I slept right through.

I was stumbling through a old mechanic’s shop carrying empty pop cans with my sister Julie trying to get to the ocean, and hoping Dad that was somewhere behind us talking to a guy of the last shop we snuck through would find our same short cut and catch up with us.

But by 9:45am I figured I should leave the ocean and wake up and shake off the dreams.

First thing I did was stumble outside and fill up the bird feeders.

We’ve been having bird parties every morning. Sometimes 30+ evening grosbeaks fly in! That bird species always seems to travel in packs.

Still no blue jay has showed up to tackle the new whole peanut feeder.

Last night when I got home from work there were two really large grouse in a tree behind the house. They were walking along the branches, eating something. Branch ends? Buds? There were on the hardwood trees. I tried to take photos of them, but it was getting dark and I couldn’t hold the camera still enough. Sometimes I think I should be keeping the tripod out of the box and ready to go.

Jeff can’t be found, but neither can his truck, so I’m assuming he went to town early to find a new tire for the ATV wagon. It is going up to +5 today so he’ll likely be itchin’ to get more gravel into the ruts in the driveway.

We also need to get another cord of wood in the basement to do it’s last drying before burning. Jeff is going to be in Ontario for a week later this month, so he wants to be extra sure I can survive on my own, and have plenty of wood to burn and keep warm.

OH! The first birds have arrived to the bird party. Let me take a photo for you.

–pause–

bird party

bird party

bird party

Oh and here is the least out of focus photo of one of the grouse in the tree last night:
grouse

Jeff is back. He had no luck getting a new tube for the tire for the ATV wagon trailer, so he will have to order the one from Princess Auto for $5, although it will also have a $5 shipping charge. And he might as well order two since the other one has been repaired too.

So much for that. And how do I summon a bluejay?

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We tried to take advantage of the non-frozen state of the world today by shoveling gravel into our ATV trailer and dumping it on the huge ruts the rain is carving into our driveway.

But we were only three loads in, and barely sweaty, when the tire on the wagon broke. The stem broke right off the tube so I guess that finishes that.

We got so much rain over night again the ground is completely saturated, the water has filled the drain of our sink downstairs, and I spotted 2-3 inches of daffodil growth from the first daffodils that bloom in the spring.

Where did you go bluejays?

Brian and family got us this really cool bird feeder. It is a spring/slinky like metal that wraps around a circle wire and hangs on a post. Then you fill the stretched out spring/slinky thing with whole peanuts in the shell.

Here is what the blue jays are supposed to do:

We always seem to have blue jays, and they are the first bird to discover I’ve filled the feeder, but they’ve been missing in action since I put the peanuts out there. I hope the peanuts don’t rot in the rain.