I meant to post this earlier, but my friend is still in town and I was able to meet up with her at the last minute. We had a grand time!
It was getting dark by the time I was heading home, which meant being extremely cautious about deer! At one point, I passed at least 5 standing on the edge of the highway but, thankfully, they did not try to cross.
I put together some of the better videos from the gate cam, showing our morning visitors. I hope you like it! :-)
The Re-Farmer
I’ve made more videos in the past few days than I have in ages! I just can’t resist those deer images!
This is a short one; I did resist including more of the files of deer from the trail cams.
I love how they came so close to the camera! I don’t think they’ll be able to do that after today, though. It’s warmed up enough that I think they’ll start sinking, if they try.
The other trail cam had a deer go close by, too. The snow has finally melted enough that they can get through to that area again. :-D
I think we can officially say we’ve seen more deer this year, than we have since we moved out here.
The Re-Farmer
I haven’t been going out to the sign cam to switch memory cards for the last few days, due to the weather conditions and the path being blown in as much as it was, but I finally was able to get out there today.
It was just a few days, but there were over 300 files to check out!
Yes, they were mostly of deer. A whole parade of them!
I couldn’t resist. I put them together into a video.
So. Many. Deer!!!
The Re-Farmer
With all the stuff going on today, it was a while before I had a chance to check the trail cam files.
What a surprise I found!!
Here is a compilation of several of them.
So many deer!!!
What on earth where they all doing, hanging out at our driveway??
The Re-Farmer
Counting today, we’re expected to have three cold days before the spring-like temperatures return.
Not that it’s particularly cold – until you step out into the wind!
The outside cats barely made an appearance this morning. They were far more interested in staying out of that wind!
The wind was mostly coming from the north, which meant stepping around the house to put seed out, was like walking into a wall.
A cold wall.
The path to the sign cam was pretty much blown in.
I paused this morning to check out the deer damage to the Chokecherry and Saskatoon bushes we uncovered while clearing out the invasive spirea at the edge of the spruce grove. Cleaning things up meant they got more sunlight and actually produced fruit during their first uncrowded summer, but now the deer can get at them. All the lower twigs are nibbled away, and there are many broken branches. And by “lower twigs”, I mean basically anything under about 7 feet. The deer can reach pretty high when they stand on their hind legs!
I wonder if these deer were among those causing damage?
I didn’t see any deer when I came out this morning. They’d already left. :-D
The winds are still high and it’s quite unpleasant out there.
Rolando Moon the Wise has staked out her spot in the sun room, where it’s much warmer and cozier! Not to mention, she has her own private food and water bowls. :-D
As for today, we’ve got a big project to work on. While doing the laundry last night, I came to the entry and found water all over the floor.
It wasn’t from the washing machine. At least not directly. It’s from the drain. I’ve long had concerns about it. When the water starts to drain, you can hear it flowing, but the tone changes until the sound stops. Basically, the water is draining out of the washing machine faster than the water is flowing through the pipes, and what I’ve been hearing is the water backing up until it reaches the end of the drain hose from the washing machine, and then you can no longer heard the water flowing. I’ve been keeping an eye on it, to see if it’s at risk of overflowing, but until now it’s been fine.
I did a larger “heavy duty” load last night, and it may have been just too much water this time.
So what I want to do is see if we can clear the drain a bit. Which means we have to move the washing machine.
The washer and dryer just fit between the built-in closet and the wall the taps are in. There are two steps from the entryway into the dining room, and the bottom step is several inches in front of the washing machine. Which is handy for short little me to stand on and reach the bottom of the washing machine, but it also means we can’t simply pull the washing machine straight out. In order to move the washing machine, we have to move out the dryer.
Since we have to move the machines out, anyhow, we’re going to clean up the mess we know is back there. The cats have been knocking things down off the shelves and, from the smell of it, they’ve been peeing back there, too. It’s just so difficult to get back there, we haven’t done it, yet. I would love to find some way to keep the cats from going back there, but no practical solution has come up yet.
I am not looking forward to this particular job. I’d almost rather be working outside, in the wind!
The Re-Farmer
I spotted these guys on the driveway cam!
They are looking to spritely!
Also, while doing my rounds this morning, I heard Canada geese for the first time this year. They’re back!
Yup. Spring is here.
The Re-Farmer
Wow, what a gorgeous day, today!
The forecast was for a high of 0C/32F today. As I write this, just past 5pm, we are at 4C/39F!
It was a perfect day to work outside.
This morning, after feeding the critters, I tried to keep the burn barrel going while hauling away more snow from near the house. It was so warm, I had to take off my parka, and I was still overheating in my sweatshirt!
I actually meant to post these photos yesterday, when the melt was just starting to kick in. Today, that trickle was pouring. There is nothing slowing it down, either, so while the end of the diverter is still buried, the water has obviously cleared itself an opening, somewhere inside the pile of snow.
The ceiling in the sun room is dripping like crazy. The drips are right over a shelf, and I had some boxes stored on top. My efforts to cover those and divert the water away were clearly not working anymore, and the boxes were getting soaked in places. They only have packing material in them, so I ended up putting those into an old feed bag, and the boxes went into the burn barrel. The top shelf got covered with an old feed bag, then I made use of the under-bed storage box that we used to start seeds in last year. Between the container and the lid, I was able to get under most of the drips, and for those that still missed, I had buckets on the floor.
You can see how much water has already accumulated, after about… 6 hours? Maybe 7.
We need a new roof so badly. *sigh* I shudder to think about how much water damage is in that ceiling!
On the plus side, by the end of today, most, if not all, of the snow should be gone from the roof, and the leaking should soon stop.
After a run to the post office this afternoon (more on that in another post), I went back out to do more digging. This time, to the trail cams. With all the cold and snow, I was no longer switching out the memory cards every morning. Today, I decided it was time to see how they fare.
The driveway cam was easy enough to deal with. I just had to re-dig a short path to it’s stand, and I could change the batteries and the memory card.
The sign cam, on the other hand, was a whole different ball game!
I took this photo when I was a little more than half way to the corner. In previous years, this area was crisscrossed with deer paths and the tracks of other wildlife. Between the deep snow over the garden area, and the piles of snow left by the plows along the road, the animals stayed away from this area completely. The roads, driveways and cleared paths in people’s yards were much more accommodating!
Even under the trees, sheltered by branches, I had to shovel a path right to the corner.
Here, I was actually standing on the hard packed snow of the deer path to the fence.
There was just no way I could have gotten to the corner, without digging this path. I don’t have snow shoes!
There’s something we might need to invest in at some point!
It will be about where this path is now, or a bit to the left (west) of it that we will be planting silver buffalo berry bushes, this spring. :-) We still want to keep an avenue between the berry bushes and the trees at the fence line open for access.
At the time I was digging out this path, it was 3C/37F. I had on a light coat and a t-shirt this time, so at least I wasn’t overheating, by my goodness, it’s amazing how hot 3C feels, after the temperatures we were having not that long ago! With the snow melting, it was very wet and heavy, too. Even if we could get a snow blower this far out, we couldn’t use it; it would just clog up.
Thankfully, I really enjoy shoveling. :-D What an excellent workout!
With these paths cleared, I’ll be able to add switching memory cards back into my morning routine. I finished uploading the files from the trail cams while I was writing this. The gate cam, which is set to take short video files only, recorded 160 files before the batteries died. The sign cam, which is set to take 3 stills, then a short video, recorded only 58 files before the batteries died. With the high piles of snow along the side of the road, and no wildlife going through the deep snow between the sign and the road, there wasn’t a lot that could trigger the motion sensor on that one!
It’s going to take me a while to go through all those files!
I think I’ll save that job for later. :-D
The Re-Farmer
Oh, how lovely today it feels outside today! As I write this, just before evening, we are at a lovely -8C/18F. the wind chill is -13C/9F, but the wind is from the north west, so the yard is well sheltered from it.
The outside cats were quite enjoying the warmer temperatures!
Creamsicle Baby even followed me when I went to change the memory cards and frozen batteries on the trail cameras.
With the cold and snow, I hadn’t gone to the corner camera in a while, but today was nice enough to finally get out there.
Oops.
Well, that wasn’t going to be much use.
The last time I’d changed out the card and batteries, I’d noticed the nut at the plate was getting loose. I also noticed a lot of thread showing. The fixture has a nut on the inside, which is supposed to be threaded as far as possible, but these are not lock nuts. Every time I had to tighten the nut on the outside, that meant the nut on the inside was getting closer to the end of the threaded post. With that in mind, I made sure I had the tools I needed to fix it. After removing the camera, I had to take the plate off completely, tighten the nuts as they needed to be, then put it all back together.
Before I could check the files, though, I had some errands to run. I discovered the end of the driveway not only had a plow ridge at the road, it was drifted over from about the gate to the end of the road. I knew I’d have troubles if I stopped in the driveway to lock the gate behind me, and I didn’t want to stop on the road, so I asked the girls to shovel out the end of the driveway while I was gone, and just rammed my way through with the van!
The dump is open only for a few hours on Tuesday mornings, so that was my first top. We were also running out of dry kibble. The outside cats are going through it a lot faster, and I was only able to get three big bags the last time I bought any, so a trip to the smaller city was in order. The difference in price is enough to make the drive worthwhile, even though gas prices jumped 12 cents per litre since the last time I was out!
Dry kibble is still in short supply. It’s been like this for months, now. I got the last two big bags from these shelves, but even the smaller bags were getting low. The really expensive brands in the big bags were almost out, too. There’s lots of wet cat food, cat treats, etc. in stock. It’s just the dry kibble that’s low in inventory.
My sister works at this Walmart. I think I should ask her to keep an eye on the inventory and, the next time a shipment comes in, maybe pick up a few bags for us!
After the shopping was done, it was one more stop to pick up some packages at the post office – and my letter from the Court of Queen’s Bench, with the conference call information I need for our vandal’s vexatious litigation against me – before I was finally able to settle in and check the trail cam files.
The corner cam had 160 files on it. Only the first 4 were right side up! Most of the others were triggered by moving shadows and branches blowing in the wind.
There is a slight down side to having the camera set to take three still shots, then video!
Still, I did find some fun shots. I flipped the images to make it easier to see. This camera goes pink when it gets cold.
I think that’s a chickadee that triggered the camera in this shot.
The internal thermometer in the above shot reads -25C/-13F, which would be a few degrees warmer than outside.
Squirrel butt!! :-D Too funny!
The camera even caught it in mid jump. :-D
There were a whole bunch of files of the squirrel moving around on the ground before it finally ran off. The next files were of me, moving the camera around to fix it. I’m actually surprised it was still recording. The frozen batteries were so low, there were many files that were completely black, except for the red text saying the batteries were too low for the infrared flash.
Oh, sweet. In the time it took me to write the above, we actually warmed up another degree. Nice!
Well, yesterday, my daughter did a whole bunch of bread baking. Now it’s my turn.
I think I’ll start with muffins. :-)
The Re-Farmer
Well, I’m certainly glad I did my extra shopping trip yesterday! A storm that was not in the forecast showed up overnight.
While it is still “warm” at -16C/3F, once we move out of the shelter of the house or trees, we got hit by the -36C/-33F wind chill!
My morning rounds today required doing some shoveling, which included shoveling out the driveway cam, so I could change out the frozen batteries, reset the time and date, and switch out the memory card. With the temperatures being what they have been, the chances our vandal would do something stupid are somewhat lower, so I didn’t switch out the memory cards during the deep freeze.
When uploading the files from this camera, however, it got very strange! The card supposedly had only 8 files on it, but when I tried to look at them, I saw this.
This has happened before, but just a few files, not anything to this extent!
Check out the “date modified” list. Apparently, our driveway camera is a time traveler! The dates range from 1980 to 2103!!
I have no idea what those files are, because I couldn’t even transfer them from the card, never mind look into any of those folders. There should be nothing but AVI video files on here.
Curious, indeed!
The corner cam by the new sign at least had some files I could check, before it froze and stopped recording.
While on the subject of our cameras, I got some news about the court date at the end of this month, about the suit our vandal filed against me in retaliation for my applying for a restraining order against him. The court office called and left a message; civil suits fall under the federal courts, so we get letters and phone calls. They don’t do that for provincial matters, which is what restraining orders fall under. I had to call them to find out anything. Anyhow. The court date is still on, but because our province has once again stepped up the police state we’re still under, the time has moved to the morning and it will be by teleconference. The dates will be rescheduled until our provincial dictators lift their boots off our necks a little bit. So who knows when this will get resolved.
Well, at least I don’t need to make the drive out at the end of the month. :-/ It’s supposed to get milder by then. We’ve got extreme cold warnings again, for the next couple of days. After that, we’re even supposed to get a day or two above -10C/14F!
It’s going to feel like spring. :-D
The Re-Farmer
Last night, while I happened to be near the live feed to our garage security camera, I was distracted by movement. I looked over just in time to see…
… this cow, making her way back up the driveway!
She managed to get through the fence into the outer yard, but was foiled by the gate.
No road access for you, Lady!
I went outside to check and saw several cows in the outer yard, but they got spooked and ran off. I didn’t want to take a chance of them getting hurt in the dark, so I just closed up the gates to the inner yard. I then sent a message to the renter, rather than phoning, because it really isn’t an urgent thing. I’m glad I did it that way, because their small children were in bed already.
So when I did my morning rounds, I checked out the outer yard fence line. Usually, they break through the gate opening near the barn. I currently have a chain across it – the chain we used across the driveway until we could repair and return the gate our vandal damaged – that has reflective rope wrapped around. I could see hoof prints in the frost on our side of the fence, but not on the other side. The renter’s electric fence wire, however, was loose and clearly broken somewhere.
There was one other obvious place to check.
Sure enough, this is where they came through, as you can see by the trampled grass and tracks in the frost.
There is no barbed wire in this section of the fence, nor the one to the right. The wire starts up again at a post that is off frame. This is clearly by design, as the wire is wrapped securely around the post it ends at (you can sort of see it on the post on the left).
The white pipe coming out of the ground near the tree is where our septic tank’s grey water is expelled. It’s unfortunate that willow was planted so close to it. We will have to keep a close eye on the area, because the roots could mess up the buried pipes. The remains of a fence surrounds this entire low area, and my guess is that this section of fence was left open to access the septic field.
Which was a great idea, but no one maintained or repaired the fence around the septic field.
So now, the only thing keeping the cows out is the renter’s electric fence. You can just see the orange colour at the top of one of the supports for the wire, next to the fence post on the right. I couldn’t see the wire at all, so it would be somewhere in the grass.
The rent will come by to fix the electric fence when they can; I made sure to tell them there is no hurry. I don’t mind the cows grazing down the overgrown areas in the outer yard! I didn’t see them this morning, though I could hear them. They have not been back here for long. The herd is being rotated a lot faster than usual, as the renters are trying to keep them on grass for as long as possible, while the weather holds, but there just isn’t a whole lot of it. The grass certainly recovered well when the rains finally came, but nothing like what there would have been had we not gone through such extreme heat and dryness this past summer. Part of the deal with the renter is that they maintain the fences. It’s such a mess here, though, just to access it. The cows don’t even usually go here at all, so it was very unusual for them to break through here, and they only would have done that if the electric fence stopped working. Which happens every now and then.
I look forward to when we can finally clean up in this area. This is mostly a “hire burly, able bodied people with equipment” sort of job, though, and other things are higher on the priority list.
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 