Furry guys, Mushrooms and Sourdough.....

September 7, 2026

Labour Day...definitely. 

This morning we cleaned up the wood yard, and got the grass cut.

There are so many other things to keep us busy around here, that the job of splitting and piling the last of the log rounds, was put on the back burner, but done this weekend.   

 So good to finally get the woodshed topped up. Full.

 In a few months we will be starting the process all over again, but for now, job done.

In amongst the wood chips was this furry caterpillar...

I think it is an American Dagger Moth Caterpillar.

Across the front of the house, out near the line of bush between us and the road, is a damp area that doesn't need to be mown hardly at all as it mostly grows lovely moss. Today I walked it, throwing off any branches that had fallen from the trees, in preparation for collecting the leaves that will be falling. I need a clear run as the leaves are collected with the mulcher blades and the bagger attachment on the mower. The reward for that was...

a handful of fat puff balls that will be sauteed in butter and added to the menu. Yum. 

On the apple is a fellow that I found when picking up the fallen fruit under the trees in the yard, a daily chore this time of year.

I think this guy is a Spotted Tussock Moth Caterpillar.

On a bush wander earlier in the week, this beautiful Lion's Mane mushroom was found on a dying beech tree.  

In the garden, there are now enough red peppers to make a batch of red Pepper Jelly. A few hot peppers in the mix give it a nice zing. 

Recently, I have been bitten with the Sourdough Bread making bug. The first two loaves were abysmal, inedible, and got composted. Gradually I am getting the hang of it. The last two loaves have rapidly disappeared...so delicious. I had no idea.

Second last loaf, a little chewy, but good.

The loaf I baked off this morning. Much much better, but still room for improvement. Making sourdough bread requires patience, and about 24 hours from start to finish.

 

Enduring the heat, and preparing for winter...

July 14,  2026

This morning...  

The weird ball in the sky, a smoke obscured sun in a smoke hazed sky. The camera didn't capture how red the sun was.

We are under a heat and smoke warning. 

Every one of these hot mornings, we are up just as the grey dawn breaks, and off to check out the garden, me; and Hubby is off to the bush with chainsaw and trailer in tow. After splitting and piling all the wood we harvested in the winter, there was still a gap in the woodshed. After nine heating seasons of having sufficient stores of wood; last winter, with it's long cool spring, used up more wood than any other year since we've been here. There are some dying beech trees Hubby has scouted out, and this is the latest instalment to the wood yard, the gap they are to fill, once split, is on the right end of the woodshed. 

Giving all my garden plants a good deep soak once a week and a good layer of leaf, grass or straw mulch, has been the recipe for keeping things hydrated and growing in my gardens, even through these hot and humid days. 

Here is the last full head of broccoli from my eleven plants, and the first harvested Caraflex cabbage. The broccoli will continue to supply us with lots of side shoots.

The first cluster of cherry tomatoes are showing some colour!

Zucchinis are producing lovely little fruit. One of my favourite ways to cook them is sauteed just to 'tender-crisp', with garlic butter and a little salt.

The celery bed is doing well, sandwiched between carrots, beets and the pepper patch at the far end. Determinate tomatoes are in the next bed over. 

In the field garden, everyone is happy, squash and pumpkin are starting to crawl and climb, Glads are growing, indeterminate tomatoes are blooming, and so far....no potato bugs!

An early morning look over the 7 raised beds closest to the house. The dill in the foreground are volunteers in the onion bed, I thinned them drastically when they were small, but apparently not enough! They are co-existing with a full 4' X 8' bed of onions, my winter supply of cooking onions, plus some big sweet guys and some green onions.

I am hoping the dill will help to confuse the leek moths, which seem to be a new pest up here on the hill. Some of my garlic got hit, so plans are in the works for how to deal with that new threat next season. 

Presently the Grey catbird is serenading us with his eclectic repertoire from the lilac bush. The heat is increasing, although it has been quite delightful to spend some time out here on the verandah, with a nice morning breeze from the west keeping things bearable. 

 

"Hey-ey-ey snowflake".......

 May 2, 2026

Yes...snowflakes. The odd white fluff is drifting down today. 

'Nuff said.

We had a couple of warm, sunny days where tree blooms and spring shoots jumped...then it cooled right down and everything stalled. I did get my onion sets in early in the week, and if you look carefully now, you can see some bravely poking their heads up a tiny bit. Peas are in and the brassica bed is broad-forked, and the planting holes prepped. One of my baby plum trees will be a bevvy of blossom, as there are tons of little growing bloom bumps on it. The other, twice deer denuded, is showing nothing, still in shock from last spring.

We've had a busy week, started to make an inroad on the wood to be split and piled, and the big one...replacing our 20 year old solar panel array with new, bi-facial panels. Because these panels are bigger, new mounting holes had to be drilled in the aluminum frame, and it just happens that some of the needed holes lined up with the steel cross-bracing, so the panels are not aligned nicely like the old array, but hey.. it works! We ran into a few glitches, but Hubby has worked them out. 

So, from this...

 to this...

with the help of this...

The first Ruby-throated Hummer arrived here on the last day of April, I saw him a few times at the feeder, but he has since vanished. A pair of Blue birds showed up, hung around the clearing for a day, and have also since left. The White-throated sparrow is calling from the edges, and a Phoebe pair is working on a nest over the door of an outbuilding. Things are pretty quiet in the bird department, with this cool, breezy weather.

Last week's Bird Cam caught a few interesting posers. 

A Northern Flicker, 

Chipping Sparrow,

Red-winged Blackbird,

White-breasted Nuthatch,

and a Junco, giving the camera a side-eye.

I can see that there have been tufts pulled out of the wool roving ball tied up on the tree branch, so someone is busy making a nest somewhere.  

 All the garden plants are doing well under lights, most have been up-potted and it amazes me that I can still get everyone under light with a bit of rearranging, and a few flats of plants on window sills. 

Now that the panels are installed, it will be back to the 'chopping block' to complete filling the woodshed before the biting insects arrive.  

 

"Old Man Winter....

April 10, 2026

This is starting to wear a little thin. Are you done yet?"

"No. Suck it up, Buttercup."

This morning.... from bare ground, back to white...for the second time in a week. Huge flakes of snow have been just 'a bustin'' down all morning. 

This was on Tuesday morning...

Hubby felt it necessary to do this...

and the township saw fit to plough the road. It was a lovely day though, the sun came out and we went for a snowshoe around,  the pad of new snow softening the hard crust on our trails.

As the warm afternoon wore on, the floating ice in the pond was melting before our eyes.

By Wednesday, the last vestiges of snow in the clearing were gone except for places where there had been snow piles. The shrinking ice pan in the pond evaporated and the turtle log is again free to float at the whim of the wind. 

We got busy bringing in the wood rounds from the last trees cut, to the pile behind the barn, preparatory to splitting and piling. Even on the north side of the barn, we were standing on bare ground. 

Last night we listened at dusk for the 'pweenting' of Timberdoodles, (AmericanWoodcocks), as they have arrived just south of us. A friend on whose farm they were heard, has also heard her first Eastern Phoebe.  No luck here, but coyotes were being quite vocal.

This morning, we awoke to bare ground, then it started to snow, and snow and snow. There is now a couple of inches of heavy wet stuff.

Well it can stay. I refuse to budge until this all melts away, again. 

More snow, hungry critters, and keeping busy

 March 29, 2026

It has been a week of more accumulating snow, with a sunny day here and there, but with temperatures not too conducive to melting this white stuff much. The morning of the 26th. Another overnight skiff of snow.

Facing east, looking up the road, light from the rising sun beginning to hi-light the snow laden trees.

What to do, what to do... Well, how about a cup of Chaga tea and a cookie...or a muffin?

Or, how about some crafting?

I just built a new project bag with a drawstring top, and used some of the fancy stitches on my sewing machine for the top stitching. (You might have to biggify to see them.) It is very roomy inside and has lots of pockets around the perimeter. 

The woodshed, with it's creeping glacier of melting/refreezing snow, is now officially, totally half empty...or is that half full? 

These wood piles are verboten until next fall, but there is a large pile of rounds waiting to be split and piled, enough to fill the space, and then some.

On one of my daily walks, this big spruce tree drew my attention. What is with all the blunt ends on the branches?

A little closer look.

Well, someone is getting very hungry and doing a lot of nibbling! This is what the branch ends should look like, buds ready for spring.

Looking around, I see where the culprit has struck again.

That is an icicle of maple sap. A critter, probably a red squirrel, has supplemented his meal of greens with some maple sap, nipping the branch to get a drink of sweet water. Overnight the drips have frozen into an icicle. 

So, on the gardening front...no, not here....

In here, peppers sprouts are just starting to show themselves, geraniums are ready for pot up-sizing, and very soon tomato seeds will be planted. 

Thankfully, there are some signs of advancement of the season. 

Ground water and melt water is seeping into the pond, and the level is slowly rising. The turtle log, grounded and encased in ice is now buried and totally invisible under the layers of ice and snow that are gradually lifting the water level. 

Here's hoping that the water level will be right to the brim once everything melts.





 

Messages in the snow, spinning and cutting.....

 February 15, 2026

The cold weather we have been experiencing of late, has moderated to minus single digits.

Tuesday blew in with a snow storm that lasted most of the day. The trip home from my spinning class was a bit of a white knuckler, as there had been no ploughing done, the snow was coming down so hard and fast that visibility was very limited and I felt like there was a fog in front of my eyes. Following the vague brownish snow up the middle of the highway was how I made sure I was still on the road!  Since then there have been lovely clear starry nights and sunny days. 

Friday overnight, a pack of wolves/coyotes came in across the back property line, coming right up around the barn and up toward the house a bit.

Apparently they all had to leave a message on the base of the apple tree behind the barn, and play king of the castle on the mound over the root cellar.
The driveway to the barn was just littered with tracks. Out by the garden beds was a big upheaval in the snow,

and on closer inspection, I found that the critters had dug right down to soil level in the end of my garlic bed. 

That line in the snow is the top edge of the caged garden bed. There is about two feet of snow on the level. Lots of lovely moisture to melt and get absorbed come spring. 

On our tramp around the trails this morning, we saw more canid tracks and many detours for territory marking. It is breeding season for them now. 

Other than Chickadees and Blue Jays, the only other bird to pose in front of Bird Cam was an Hairy Woodpecker.

Yesterday was Flannel Fest in Barry's Bay, and a group of spinners took up the corner of the Legion Hall with a spinning circle. 

There were other craft exhibits and demonstrations, including Kashub embroidery, quilting and weaving. 

 The cold weather has put a bigger dent in our wood supplies than usual, so today we rectified that by cutting and hauling in a birch tree from along the road that goes across the front corner of the property. The tree was a bit gnarly and some branches were dying, so an easy choice. Yesterday, Hubby took the tractor and cleared the snow away in a clearing beside the road in preparation, and today dropped the tree there, so we could find it!

We do have enough wood, but the hole in the woodshed from this winter's useage, is bigger than usual, and we would like to make sure to have enough to totally refill it.
 

This is just the first step. Come spring, we will be splitting and piling all of this into the woodshed.

We want to get the additional wood harvested before the sap starts rising in the trees.