Busy days on the Hill....

July 2, 2025 

'Tis a busy time up here on the hill. The garden is starting to really take off with the heat and humidity of late. Every day, the garden walk-about shows more growth than the previous one. Some broccoli heads have been harvested and processed, with more to come. A second planting of beans has gone in, as well as more rutabaga, and we'll soon be harvesting peas. We've also been working on getting last winter's tree harvest split and piled in the woodshed to cure. 

Hubby built an hardware cloth covered protection box for the turtle nest, and nailed it down in place with long spikes.

It will be a slight obstruction in the driveway for a while, and in August we'll start checking it regularly for hatchlings. 

The Barn Swallows completed their nest, were there last Friday evening, then never re-appeared. We've waited and watched, but there is no sign of them. I am very, very disappointed and can't help wondering what happened to them. It seems strange to abandon the nest after spending all the time and energy to build it.  

Last week's Trail Camera chips yielded this picture of a Whip-poor-will sitting up on the oak tree branch. He's showing his marvelous camo feathers.

On another trail camera, a couple of doe and fawn captures.

How fast the little ones grow! (clicking on the pics make them bigger)

In the woods, Partridgeberry is blooming,

They have pretty little fragrant, furry blossoms. 

Later in the year, one bright red berry grows where the twin blooms were. 

Another, almost in bloom woodland plant, is this Shinleaf, a variety of Pyrola.

It's little, waxy, bell-like blooms are also aromatic.
 

Both plant's leaves remain green under the snow throughout the winter.

Along the highway, I spotted orange....

The Wood lilies are blooming!

Some things are harder to spot, like this American Toad, blending in so well with the leaf litter.

As far as the garden goes, that will be another post!

 

More tree stuff, and fox in a tree.....

 January 23, 2025

Excuse me just a tick, while I wax eloquent about this wonderful weather we've had over the last week, and hopefully ongoing for a while!

Beautiful clear mornings, the stars, sharp pricks of white in the sky's inky blackness. The slowly lightening sky, until the orb of day is visible, her 'crinkle' light sparkling through the bare branches of the trees at the SE corner of our clearing, the sunlight hitting the very tips of the tall spruce spires on the west side. Gradually, the sunlight creeps down until it brushes across the solar panels. By then, the whole world is bathed in glorious sunshine.

Some mornings, I throw on a coat, hat and mitts, and just go out to inhale deeply of the beautiful crisp air, and watch the pinkish sky turn to blue. This January is so much more like normal, or should I say, more like winters we have enjoyed in the past. Of course, not being dressed optimally for the weather on these early morning forays, it is so good to come back inside to the heat emanating off of this!

Wood harvesting goes on. Hubby dropped a big, beech tree that has grown along the E side of our clearing.

It was still in relative good health, although signs of the encroaching Beech Bark Fungus are there. We decided to harvest it while the wood is still fairly sound. It is a branchy beast, having grown with full sun exposure on it's W side, so a bit west side heavy. It was relatively easy to aim it's drop zone across the clearing.

We will be beavering away at clearing up sticks and twigs after getting all the usable wood, for some time to come. Apparently the ATV is not as enamoured with this weather as I am, and refused to start when required to start hauling log rounds, so the tractor was urged into action, boosted to start, then the balky hydraulics warmed with a heat gun, then a tow job to bring the ATV back to the garage....frozen carburetor. We used the tractor bucket then, to roll and pile the log rounds into, and ferry them to the pile behind the barn. Believe me, we sure didn't notice that it was cold out!

The coldest morning over this stretch was just -24C (-11F). Most days the temperature rises to the low minus teens C (12ish F). The air has stayed mostly still and calm, so there hasn't been much of a wind chill factor.

This is what we call the 'Glove Tree'.

Along one of our trails, someone in the past has temporarily put their gloves in the crotch of this tree, who knows for what reason...and forgotten them. They are now totally encased in wood.

Another human sign is the 'Sole/Soul' Tree.

The sole of a boot has been nailed on this cedar tree. We routed the Cedar Bush trail to come by it, picking the highest and driest route, as in the spring, it can be quite wet underfoot. The cedar bush is behind my garden shed, delineated by a stone fence on its east and west sides, and seems to be a place in the past, where refuse was tossed. We have found broken crockery and rusted cans poking up in one area of it. 

 Some mornings there has been a skiff of new snow, just enough to be able to see the tracks from our foxes, who have been diligently scouting the perimeter, on the hunt for vermin.

And, finally...fox in the crab apple tree.... (taken through the window..just a short jump up for him.)

Foxy, did you really think you could reach the suet feeder from here????

The Polar Vortex, trees, deer and pie....Oh my!

 January 18, 2025

We've had a lovely run of cold weather, although today the temperature is just above the freezing mark, and icicles are dripping off the front of the verandah. The Polar Vortex is apparently heading our way later this weekend, so that will firm things up. On our snowshoe walk around the bush this morning, the snow was a bit sticky. It tends to ball up under one's feet on the snowshoe webbing, when it is really mild, and you end up tapping the shoe against trees along the trail to dislodge the lumps. My old-fashioned webbed shoes are much quieter than the modern aluminum and vinyl (?) decked ones, but the modern ones don't have as much issue with sticky snow.

The bush is absolutely riddled with tracks, predominately of deer, but because we've been getting lots of little snow flurries, the tracks are mostly blurred out. One track is distinctive though, that of 'Stumpy'. That is a name we've given to a large deer, probably a buck, whose walking track is well spaced, sinks into the snow further than other deer, and each foot makes holes in the snow the size of a small tree trunk. 

This doe and her fawns show up quite regularly on the cameras..

Here, they are gathered near a salt block we've placed with a camera.
We have had some lovely cold, clear days..

and others, milder with hazy sunshine....

both of which are great for getting exercise and fresh air.

Tree harvesting continues, preparing for the 26/27 heating season. The snow is not too deep, there is only about a foot in the bush so the plough on the ATV keeps the trail drive-able. Most of the beech trees are past their best before date for firewood now, due to the Beech Bark fungus which is decimating Ontario's beech trees, so we've turned to birch, which puts out a decent heat when burned, and they are not long-lived trees. Here and there along the trail, we pick ones that are not in optimum health, and are more accessible.

Timberrrr....

 

This big poplar was more of a handful, but a bit of poplar is better for the 'shoulder' heating seasons, when not a lot of warmth is needed.

The beginnings of the pile behind the barn...

A couple of the latest 'builds' from the sewing room...

Needle books... one for regular sewing needles, and the mauve one for darners used in sewing up knitted goods.

A better solution than rattling around in a little tin box getting their points blunted. 

A bit of mindless crocheting for these dark evenings...

A Tunisian crocheted afghan to use up yarn left over from this Corner to Corner afghan I made a few years ago for our son.

As always, one needs food to keep body and soul together, particularly in the cold weather. The makin's of potato-bacon soup...All the vegetables from my garden.....

And to use up the lemons purchased for Christmas baking, (waste not...want not!) a lemon pie, cooling in the 'back porch refrigerator',

Spring meanderings......

March 24, 2024

We have passed the vernal equinox, and it seems that Mother Nature suddenly woke up, and is trying to make up for the 'Winter That Wasn't' by the temperatures and snow she is throwing at us now. We have had mostly bare ground for a while, then a good dump of about 2 inches of snow that miraculously evaporated once the sun got at it.

March 18

The ice in the pond went out on March 17, but now is firmly back in, to the point I might be tempted if I still had my skates! This is the first spring in the 6 springs we have experienced here, that the pond has re-iced. 

March 22

Temperatures have been quite nippy, mornings dawning with lows of -11 to -19C. (12F to -2F), some days the mercury barely getting up out of freezing territory. Of late, we have had an abundance of lovely sunshine, with the solar batteries staying topped up so well, it is time to disinter some electrical appliances from winter storage. During the winter, we watch our power usage carefully and use the wood stove a lot for cooking. Living with solar electricity, one is cognizant of electricity being a finite resource.

Yesterday, a cold but beautiful sunny day, we meandered up the Valley to Petawawa where my sewing machine was in for servicing. We did a short foray into the residential area of Garrison Petawawa. There is a park there on a high promontory overlooking the Ottawa River, with a wonderful view of the islands in the river and the hills along the shore in Quebec. The picture does not do it justice. That is quite a steep hill going down from my vantage point. The park is called Home Fires Park, and is dedicated to the families who keep the home fires going while their loved ones are on deployment.

 

Back here, on our home front, Hubby has been trying ways to get at a large fallen white spruce tree that had split at it's base when it fell, but firmly wedged itself up on neighbouring trees. It has been taunting him for quite a while.

The tree top is still hung up, as even with pulling it with the tractor, it refuses to budge. There is another good length of usable log in it.

He was able to cut out one log to process. The tree has been hung up there for a while, and the lumber is very dry. This is some seriously beautiful, dry spruce lumber. The boards are just over 13 inches wide.

We have piled it with stickers between the boards and covered the pile with a piece of metal sheeting.

As far as gardening goes, one can only dream as of yet. I've pruned my little fruit trees, and cleared up winter detritus from around the edges of the clearing that might interfere with the mower. I have cell packs filled with starting mix, ready for a few things I will start indoors, but am trying to patiently wait a couple more weeks. The tulip nubs have stalled in their tracks, helped along by the deer who found them before I got them shielded. They sure weren't a very big mouthful!

Sun, sun, sunny sunshine!!

Finally, the pall has lifted and we have sunshine. It has been such a long stretch of grey, sunless weather. With cool temperatures, and not much snow, it is a good time to get out and get some more wood cut. We are working on wood for the 25/26 heating season.

The winter so far, has not made much of an inroad on our woodpiles. Unheard of, that some days in late December, we actually let the fire go out from afternoon to the next morning.  

We are harvesting beech trees. They are all dead and dying from the Beech Bark Fungus Disease, and lots are too far gone for firewood, and dangerous to fall, so unless they are a hazard to trails or structures, we leave them and let nature take its course. 

After bringing up a couple of loads of firewood from the barn woodshed this morning, to restock the back porch, off we went to see if the tree dropped yesterday, had come down overnight.

Timbeeerrrrr!

It was making ominous cracking sounds, lodged up in neighbouring trees, when we left yesterday. Hubby tried winching it off the stump with the ATV, but it was too heavy, so we left. Thankfully, it was down this morning, so more stringent measures were avoided. (tractor)

That big log to the left is a gigantic poplar that has been there for ages.

It got cut into firewood lengths, and the 'go-fer' (me) rolled, dragged, end-for-ended each piece over closer to the trail so it could be loaded into the trailer for transport. All the bending and lifting is great exercise and a way to whittle off those Christmas pounds. We keep telling ourselves that we have to cut smaller trees though, as hefting the bigger chunks into the trailer is a little hard on these old bods!

There was a day, (oh glorious youth!) when we would have worked away at it all day, felling, cutting and transporting with breaks for water and snacks.....We are a little wiser now, and know when it is time to stop for the day, because we'd really like to be able to move tomorrow!!

 

 

Horse parking and sock knitting addiction....

November 1, 2023

The first heavy frost arrived overnight on the 23rd of October,

which did in the dahlia,

then the first white blanket arrived overnight on the 30th, but melted off by noon. This morning, the world is white again. Yeah!

Last weekend, we went to an auction sale at a farm south of Renfrew, and were interested in the parking arrangements.

There is a sizable Mennonite community in the area.

The woodshed is full, a two year supply, and recently I've been getting the winter's kindling supply split and ferreted away in the barn.

 

The 'dynamic duo' (this year's fawn twins) have been boldly grazing in our clearing in daylight. We took these pictures just after the noon hour one day, by creeping around and pointing the camera around the side of the Battery House. With the aid of binoculars, one can see tiny nubs growing on one's head.

The snow is still coming down, fairly wet and heavy, so it is a good time to finally do some sorting and organizing in the sock knitting department...

Most of it is Kroy sock wool, which has a nice feel while knitting, and wears very well. Behind are little balls, the remains of many pairs of socks. Still trying to decide on a project with them. Perhaps some funky looking fingerless gloves? In the little bag at the front are all the little bits, too small for much except perhaps darning. 

There are a couple of skeins of hand-dyed 90% merino sock yarn from Hedge Hog fibres, a gift from last Christmas, which I haven't decided what to do with yet, some homespun from Madawaska Highlands, 100% pure wool, and the remains of a gifted skein of hand-spun silk-bamboo, a gift from a fellow spinner-knitter, out of which I made a lacy cowl.

Temperatures appear to be staying lower for the next while, so hope I to get to wear it soon!