Skunked!

It was your average Thursday evening.
2330h - I was already in my pj's and ready for bed when I went to let Eco out for her last pee. I open the door and Eco explodes from the house, I see a skunk. I frantically try to recall Eco but it was too late - I saw it's little butt turn and then a spray, about 6' from her face. My night changed in an instant.

Eco came running back to the house shouldering her face on the grass, her sensitive eyes and nose probably burning. I grab a towel and wrap her up and carry her into the house, telling JP that she was skunked. I can imagine he must have been wondering what was going on. He immediately looks up remedies on the internet and tells me that I shouldn't have brought her in the house - well I wasn't going to use the garden hose on such a sweet dog and didn't feel like getting soaked in my pyjamas late at night, so to me gently washing her in the shower was the only thing to do for her.

I washed her and dried her and put all my clothes and her towels in the laundry. I was going to sleep on the kitchen floor with her, but then realized that by now the skunk smell was throughout the house. Personally I didn't mind it so much, after a few minutes I kind of got used to  - what the commercials call "nose blind".

Two days later, during my early morning walk I smelled the skunk smell on the street.  I later heard that our sweet Polish neighbours woke up from the smell and first thought it was some sort of gas leak. Another neighbour's dog also got skunked.

Either we've got a gang of skunk thugs, or one very active little guy who's trigger happy. Panic Attacks in skunks don't bode well for the rest of us.

Blast from the Past

This morning I was up at 4:52 and out the door at 5:15 for my morning walk with Eco. It was the usual day of trucks with guys in safety vests (most likely) on their way to work; a couple of crows and the odd squirrel making a mad dash across the road. The usual early morning happenings.

But then my attention is called to a lady in a bright blue car. I first see her pull up in front of a house and run towards it, then drive off down a side street. Probably just dropping something off, I reason. But then I see her zoom down another road, and another. And I start to wonder what she is doing. Stalking someone? Looking for a lost pet? And then the answer becomes clear - she is delivering newspapers.

Well this is a little creepy

So I'm just toodling along for my morning dog walk, when I turn the corner and see this:

Yes that's right, three old fashioned style dolls, one of them sitting on a tractor in the front yard of a vacant house that's up for sale.

I have never really been okay with these types of dolls, especially the one in a black dress and white bib which looks like the old style of mourning clothes.

I bet that realtor will not be happy pulling into the driveway with prospective buyers and coming across that site.

BTW - it's about 4 days later and they are still on the front lawn. ((shiver))

A Learning Experience

This weekend the Kid and I were mowing our front yard when the neighbour asked if we could mow hers. She said she'd pay $10, I asked the Kid if he would do it and he agreed. But by the time he had mowed both parts of it she handing him a $20 and didn't want change.

Then she asked if he could take apart an old garden area- remove old landscape ties and loosen and level the dirt so she could replace it with grass. He agreed. She said, "I'll pay you $10, no $15 an hour". Saturday night she told me she'd pay him "$200, $50 every other week until the end of September". I told her I doubted it would be that much.

Sunday morning the Kid was out there sweating in the sun until it got to be 29 degrees C and he had sweated enough so we had him come in  - he worked 4 hours. Multiple we would check on him and give him advice on how to do this or that and to keep an eye on how he was working. We supplied all our own tools and even some paper lawn and garden bags. On Sunday she mentioned something about $60 but I told her to wait as the job wasn't done yet.

By  Monday he finished the job putting in another 3 hours to a total of 7 hours. She paid him $60. The Kid was disappointed (good thing I never got his hopes up thinking he was going to get $200) - because he had done the math and he did expect to get at least $100.

I felt bad since I felt I had a part in his price negotiations and he did a great job. He was polite and responsible and didn't want to quit until he was done. I was proud of him, so we had a family discussion about working for others and quoting prices etc and I gave him $40. Lesson learned all around, I believe. And do you want to know what he plans to do with the money? He wants to be a pilot, this money goes towards a training flight.

Freaky is...

...seeing a roadkill squirrel body when you leave for your walk though a bushy area when you live in 'bear country' at 7am on a Saturday morning when no one is around, and 45 minutes later when you pass by the same spot finding that the body is gone.

Did a bear get it? Did the conservation officer remove it during his morning rounds so a bear wouldn't get it? Did the person who lives in the house nearest to the roadkill clean it up? I don't know. I didn't see any people during our walk, and only a couple of cars.

I mentioned this to my brother who had recently come across the scene of a recent coyote kill this past winter and he agreed that 'no body' is actually more freaky than seeing the body.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.  - Carl Sagan 

Blue Squirrels?

Take a look at this squirrel - maybe it doesn't show up on the photo, 

but he appears to have blue on the side of his tail and body. 

Do you think that's the colour of his fur, or did he have a little encounter with some paint? 

I don't think I've even seen colouring like this before, have you? 

Daily Photo - Cucumberus Serpentii

Look what caught my eye during our early morning dog walk!

There is the grass a rare siting of the cucumberus serpentii!!


Why it was just laying at the edge of a hedge in the middle of someone's lawn at 5 in the morning, I do not know. Maybe Mr. Bear or Mrs. Raccoon dropped in during a midnight raid?

The Yearling

So I'm just sitting at my desk when I hear this strange scratching squeaking sound. My brain is searching to recognize at as I am running towards the sound. I get to the kitchen and find a black bear with his paw on the window and his long 3" nails scratching and squeaking as they slide down the glass. He was trying to reach my suet bird feeder which hangs from our fascia. I yelled at him through the glass and clapped my hands to scare him away - I was very afraid that our 35 year old single pane window wouldn't be able to hold his weight. Luckily he was scared off and ran away.

This is sort of what he looked like (not my photo): 

 - except our guy was very skinny. A couple of hours later I saw the conservation officer's truck go through our street so I hopped in the car to catch up with him. I guess another neighbour had called him.

The sad news is that this little guy is only about a year and a half old and has been recently kicked out of the den as his mother is about to have a baby. He's hungry and has become garbage habituated. The conservation officer told me they will set a trap and he will have to be destroyed because he can't be rehabilitated.

It makes me so sad that once agains humans messed things up. If we hadn't made it easy for the bear to find food in our neighbourhood, if we had cared a little more about nature and our surroundings, this little guy wouldn't loose his life. I know it's the circle of life, but we still shouldn't expedite it!

Stumped

The other day there was a terrible racket and so I went into the backyard to see what it was - there I could see two men on hoists cutting down a tree. I know this may sound crazy to you -but cutting and chipping trees really affects my body. It seems to violate ever cell in my body. There is no escaping the sound and it vibrates through my whole being. I don't think we need to cut down many of the trees we do - once again it's humans destroying the planet because something's an inconvenience.

It was a very large tree and the cutting went on all day. I ended up leaving to get a hair cut and then went for a ride-along with JP a short time later. I just couldn't bear to hear the cutting all day long.

I'm very sad to see this big tree go. Look how big the stump was!!! 

To give you some perspective: 

In Plane Sight

Eco and I walk every day in our neighbourhood. It can be a little boring but every day is a different route. My neighbour doesn't get why I don't drive somewhere else but it seems a little wasteful to start up my car and drive for 5 or 10 minutes just for a change of scenery. Besides, if I only have an hour for a dog walk then losing time driving instead of walking means both Eco and I miss out.

I suppose it's a good thing that my neighbourhood is rather boring. I certainly wouldn't want to live in a place that's not as that's usually not a nice place to live. Being so close to the river (and one of the best places for catch-and-release Sturgeon fishing) there are many boats in people's yards along with motorhomes and campers.

However,  I believe in all the years I've lived here, this is the first time I've seen a plane in someone's yard :

Isn't that interesting?

Cat-struction

I must say, my daily walks around the neighbourhood do yield some interesting things sometimes. I'm sure it's partly because I'm walking and I have time to let my thoughts roam free. I often recall the saying "leave with a problem, come home with a solution" and try to use my walking time to figure things out. But by now I'm sure you're noticed that I've see things in the neighbourhood that I noteworthy. For example,  this house that's being built :

Ah, you think it's just an ordinary, normal, run-of-the-mill suburban house, right? 

Nope!

Look closer - we've already built in the house cat!! LOL! 

Yarn Bombed (Again)!

Remember the other day when I found some local yarn bombing? Well lookie what I just found (the pink and blue attachments to the park bench):

This one is about 1/2 kilometer away from the other one, but similar colours so it could be the same person. It's extra fun when you run across it on a rainy day when no one else is around)

Street Heart - spider web

Here's another to add to my "street heart"  collection, I came across this heart shape in a spider web:

Isn't that interesting? It's also really hard to get a photo of a spider web in the middle of a park in dewy, foggy weather, with a dog randomly pulling on the leash.

Reservations

While walking the dog, I came across some children's street art. The first was a large rectangle surrounding a van - it says "Reserved for A Person":

I thought it was cute it was for "A" person and not someone's name - like Dad, or John or something else.


Then just slightly behind it was a very small box that says "Reserved for me"

I have no idea if the "me" would be parking their bike or themselves in the spot, but it was very little.

The Give and Take of Living Around People

Since the weather was so beautiful yesterday afternoon, I decided to sit outside and enjoy it. I should've been weeding the garden or mowing the lawn, but decided since the rainy season will soon start,  I would just enjoy -  except it's not always easy to do when you live in a city or suburbs, is it?

I find it amazing how little children who are only 3' tall and only weight 40-50 pounds can be so loud. The lungs on some of those kids, my word! Yesterday a three year old neighbour was emitting some weird whine that I found quite disturbing, so much so that I resisted the urge to yell "shut up" hoping that his throat would get sore or he would get tired of it. But no, he continued for about 10 minutes (it felt like an hour). His parents seemed completely oblivious.  Another set of kids were playing on a trampoline and arguing as that group often does. If children learn from their parents then I suspect their parents must fight a lot!

I consider myself a fairly quiet neighbour but I'm sure that Eco's squeaky toy or her ball-in-the-pool game can be quite disturbing to others. And of course one neighbour's lawn mowing is never a convenient time for another is it? My mom used to lament (she still might, but I don't live with her anymore) about neighbours mowing the lawn during our dinner time. But really my dad might have mowed the lawn during someone else's dinner time  - we just never know do we?

The give and take doesn't just include backyard sounds it includes street activities too - children riding bikes/skateboards/scooters up and down the road or playing in the street. I always find it 
humourous when a little kid gives me the 'slow down' hand signal when I drive by, especially since I am doing about 5 kph past them and the speed limit for school zones is 30kph. They have no way of judging my speed, they have no idea how slow I am going, yet someone's taught them that they should tell cars to slow down.

Street parking is also included in the give-and-take and this is where I am at a disadvantage because I live at the 'bubble' part of a cul-de-sac and so the space in front of my house is only about 1 car length. My one neighbour has much more room, but has much more visitors and their guests have learned to park perpendicular to the street so they can fit about 6 cars in front of that house, however to back out of my driveway I have to go the long way around since those cars all stick out so far into the cul-de-sac.  I don't own the road or the street, and it's not up to me to police it and who's going to listen anyways - as long as they don't block my driveway, there isn't much I can do about it is there? Even when they park in front of my house - that's just life with neighbours.

As I've long said, when you own a house you're like a sitting duck. And one should always be cautious of others who have a lot less to lose than you. Some people have loads of time to think of evil and devious ways to get even. I don't need that. It takes them less time and money to cause damage to my things that it does for me to fix and clean up. So I discourage the children from playing in my driveway, drive slowly down the street so I don't smoosh a kid and put up with other people parking in front of my house. It's all part of it. And then I can go back to sitting in my back yard dreaming of winning the lottery and buying a house with a big property so I don't have to be so near to my neighbours. Or moving to the back country, or buying an island, or ...

It's event time

Last weekend a nearby community had an airshow. On the Sunday morning we had some rain and a thundershower. For a while in our house we played a little game trying to figure out if the rumbling in the sky was thunder or one of the planes. Luckily it cleared up later in the day and apparently the air show was a success. This is also important to note because this was the first year without any US planes since the budget cuts grounded all participation in airshows across the US and Canada. The organizers here had to get creative and found pilots and planes from across Canada (or independent American planes/pilots not government funded).

Usually we have participation from the USAF Thunderbirds and the USN Blue Angels but we filled the sky with the Canadian Snowbirds and the Canadian Army SkyHawks parachuting team. And a special visit from the Ice Pilots now popularized by the TV show. Our airshow is listed in the top ten across North America - the only Canadian airshow listed, and right up there with the Oshkosh EAA Airventure, the British Royal International Air Tattoo and the Reno Air Races, according to a February 2103 USA Today article. Not bad, is it?

We didn't go this year, but did see a little bit of it from our houses. I'm glad the event was a success.

This weekend our community is having a country music festival. The papers have reported that there were reservations from across Canada  - including Labrador  - and as far south as Louisiana. I'm not a country music fan so I didn't go and after trying to get around town following lost motorhomes I decided I'd just wait it out until the visitors left but I am glad to hear that despite high gas prices and  tight budgets people are still getting out and about and enjoying these things.

This weekend is also the start of Vancouver's Pacific National Exhibition which used to be more of a farm type fair but is now more of a games and ride type of event including several Showmart building where vendors try to convince us we can't live without their ShamWow, or Ginsu Knife  or vacuum cleaner or special mop. And of course there is the food that we all allow ourselves to indulge in once a year - the mini donuts, the elephant ears the cotton candy, corndogs and lemonade.

What's your favourite local summer events? 

Nasty Raccoon

It was a beautiful sunny, warm day and so I decide to take a break from work and eat my lunch outside. Soon I hear the sound of claws on bark and look up to see a raccoon in a tree, I talk to him and he starts coming down the tree closer to me. At first I'm hoping for a quaint magical moment but then I'm get a little concerned as he gets closer and I wait to see what he's planning on doing.

He sits and wags his tail (I've never seen a raccoon do that before) and licks his lips. I thought maybe he was hungry or thristy. He continues his descent until he's in a branch about 20' above me, and then - he turns around and poops! Yes he did. From the tree branch. Twenty feet from the ground.  Then he turned around again and as he's looking me in the eye he pees a steady stream down the tree and onto the ground below. Nasty!

I guess that was the latrine branch or something because after that he climbed back up the tree and travelled from one tree to the next until he was out of site.

Sometimes nature is not all unicorns and rainbows, is it?

How big IS the bear?

So Eco and I are out for our morning walk when a man drives by, stops, rolls down his window and tells me there's a bear eating garbage just around the corner.

I thank him and then I say "how big is the bear?". I guess my first instinct was that it would be better if it was small. The man paused, probably trying for figure out a size for comparison when I realized what a stupid question I had asked and I said "it's okay, he's big enough. Thank you"

Oh my, the things that cross our minds.

As it turned out we didn't encounter him which is just fine for me, I can live vicariously through another's bear sighting! No matter how big he is!

Raccoon Bites

On the weekend my neighbour was entertaining in the back yard when a raccoon came under the gate and found itself face to face with the family dog. The racoon and dog started to fight (it sounded really nasty too) until several guests broke it up and the raccoon was chased away. The dog was taken to the vet where my neighbour was told she could 'put him down or quarantine him'. (They were told -two weeks completely for people and pets, but ultimately 4 months before they are 'out of the woods')

First, if that was my dog, I would not return to a vet that would even suggest putting my dog down just because of some raccoon scratches.

But here's the second difference. I believe in vaccinations. And last year after telling my vet about the frequency of raccoons in our neighbourhood and yards, I was advised to add the Leptospira Vaccine to Eco's cocktail. This is a pretty nasty condition and I've heard dogs dying from a raccoon bite sometimes within a couple of days. I did not want to take the chance.

When I came home from the vet after Eco got her vaccinations last year I told this neighbour all about the vaccine. But she didn't do it. Perhaps because her dog doesn't leave their back yard, she didn't think she needed to worry about it? Her dog hasn't had a rabies shot in 3 years either and now the vet wouldn't give the dog one until he's out of the quarantine phase.

So now we had to close up all the holes in the fence between us so the dogs can't kiss and greet each other like they used to. And obviously no play dates since they can't share toys (no saliva transfer). I'm not worried about Eco because she's up to date on everything and I'm sorry my neighbour has to worry for 2 weeks looking for signs of illness on her beloved pet.

Oh, and now suddenly it's okay to get out a gun and shoot raccoons too. Whenever I joked about using a low powered pellet gun to 'poke' the  raccoons or squirrels in the rump she'd get all uppity but now she told me her husband would 'shoot to kill' if a raccoon was threatening their dog again. I find it interesting how people's opinions change once something happens directly to them. Like I always say   - steer clear of talking about people's kids and dogs, they are two very highly charged emotional subjects, that's for sure. And vaccinations - remember the whole Jenny McCarthy/Oprah thing?

More on Halloween Costumes

By now many of you may have gone to Halloween parties on the weekend, but if you're still looking for costume ideas, watch this fab video for ideas:

Catchy tune isn't it? 

Grey Gardens, Tim Gunn, The Color Purple, Louis C.K...pretty creative

Also, check out the  "Oh Happy Day" blog  for some great kids ideas - this is one of my favorite kids costumes:

And I like this idea for a dog costume - especially with the glow in the dark bones:

But puppy would have to wear it before Halloween night because it's really not a good idea to have them out on the street on the 31st - too many loud noises, dropped candy and a multiple of other unpredictable occurrences that will most likely not be good for your dog. Even though fireworks are illegal in my community they are still around and go off quite frequently - so many poor dogs that suffer from noise phobia just as my past dog, Jazz, did for over 7 years - and almost every time I hear one go off, I am so grateful that Eco isn't affected at all. Jazz sure did suffer severely and if affected the whole family. 

What costumes did you see that made you laugh this year? 

Did you see any fresh new ideas?