CANADIAN REGION: What are you doing in November 2016

Here in BC we have the forecast of snow flurries on the night of November 14th.  Two weeks later than usual.    Brrrr!

My snow shovel is ready.

Just a few days to get a little bit more cleared up in the garden.  I will be starting my little AeroGarden shortly. I like it lighting up the corner of my living room.

Kelejan wrote: I will be starting my little AeroGarden shortly. I like it lighting up the corner of my living room.

I love bringing my garden inside for the winter. There's something very soothing about live plants in the house when it gets really nasty outside.

Kelejan wrote:Here in BC we have the forecast of snow flurries on the night of November 14th.  Two weeks later than usual.    Brrrr!

My snow shovel is ready.

Just a few days to get a little bit more cleared up in the garden.  I will be starting my little AeroGarden shortly. I like it lighting up the corner of my living room.

My indoor herbs are doing surprisingly well. Really only the majoram is giving up the will to live. The thyme, basil, savory, and mint are all doing great. And in Ottawa they would have all died already, believe me! That Mel's mix works wonders. I have also fed the plants with some kelp plant food (to make up for lack of sun light).

Mimi, that plant stand you posted over in the Butterfly Junction thread is very beautiful. It looks like it would make a great room divider.

Thank you CC. I go the stand and the pots from IKEA, when they were on sale, and then filled them with MM. This way I can have fresh herbs all winter long. Good idea about a room divider. Right now they are in one of my largest, south-facing, windows.

Kelejan, where are you?  Hope all is well.

Kelejan, where are you?  Hope all is well/

trolleydriver wrote:Kelejan, where are you?  Hope all is well/

Well, TD, I wrote a long screed and when I checked the Latest Topics column I thought you had replied to me, but I find that I must have sent my reply into cyberspace or something.

I wonder where it is?  Anyway, I complained about the weather and mentioned that we had the second wettest October in memory.  The fact that my two best friends are elsewhere for a couple of months, in different directions, and as they are not on email I expect they may not get in touch with me, and so forth.  So I will not complain anymore but just say I woke up this morning feeling bright and cheerful and that the blues have faded away.  I had better start taking my Vitamin D3 capsules.

It is nice to now that I am missed on this Forum.

Thank you. 

I really need to get my outdoor projects completed this week. High temps are forecast to be in the 10C to 15C range for until Sunday. Looks like it will be mostly sunny as well. Next week's high's are only going to be in the -1C to +4C range.

The sun was shining this morning, so I said to myself, get the vacuuming done then you can go out and play in the garden.  Finished it  then found that it was raining hard.

Not fair .

Another beautiful day here on Canada's capital. The weather this week is giving me a chance to finish off a lot of outdoor projects. I want to get the lawn mower prepared for winter, finish off getting the SFG beds ready for their sleep and I have to store the bags of leaves somewhere. I should be turning one of my compost bins but may leave it for another day. I'm tempted to empty the plastic compost bin and start a new batch in there. 

I started the day going to a clinic to get an x-ray on my right heel. I thought I had plantars fasciitis but my GP thinks it may be a bone chip. When he pressed on it I just about went through the roof. Waiting now to see what the x-ray reveals. Of course all the yard work I have been doing just aggravates the situation.

YIKES! TD. Good luck with the heel. Doesn't sound like fun.

Sorry about you heel, TD.  Sometimes life sucks.

Yesterday through the mail some survival blankets I had ordered arrived.  One of the reasons I bought some was the suggestion that they could quickly double as crop covers in case one is caught napping with the weather.

The ones I bought are size 60" x 84", an ideal size for my 6' x 3' beds as they are very light so can be laid on top of crops with little damage.

I am giving some away to my car-driving friends to keep in their cars as some of them do quite a bit of winter driving over the mountain passes.  Also good in case of electricity outages.  They reflect 90% of one's body heat.

Kelejan wrote:Sorry about you heel, TD.  Sometimes life sucks.

Yesterday through the mail some survival blankets I had ordered arrived.  One of the reasons I bought some was the suggestion that they could quickly double as crop covers in case one is caught napping with the weather.

The ones I bought are size 60" x 84", an ideal size for my 6' x 3' beds as they are very light so can be laid on top of crops with little damage.

I am giving some away to my car-driving friends to keep in their cars as some of them do quite a bit of winter driving over the mountain passes.  Also good in case of electricity outages.  They reflect 90% of one's body heat.

Interesting. Please keep us posted on how they work out.

Oh, yes... We keep these in our "bug-out-bags" and our cars. They take up very little space and could save your life!

We were at a conference at the beginning of the month. One of the give-a-ways was a small backpack. I'm putting together a travel pack for my mom's car. One of the blankets will be in it!

Day-length here in Ottawa is down to 9 hours and 27 minutes. Me no like these short daylight periods.

trolleydriver wrote:Day-length here in Ottawa is down to 9 hours and 27 minutes. Me no like these short daylight periods.

Here in B.C. today sunrise is 16:08 and sunset 7:03 so according to my arithmetic skills we have 9 hours and 5 minutes of daylight, 22 minutes less than you.  But I do know that in all the world, daylight and night total the same during the year.

trolleydriver wrote:I started the day going to a clinic to get an x-ray on my right heel. I thought I had plantars fasciitis but my GP thinks it may be a bone chip.

Plantar fasciitis is painful. The podiatrist showed me how to wrap the foot to maintain the arch and told be to wear a comfortable heel in the house. I found some slippers/sandals that worked. Don't know how that would work for a man!

I think this may be the last day I can do outside work in the garden.  I spent a few hours putting some chicken manure on several beds, emptying the water hose of any water in the coils and put that away in the shed.  I could have done that a month ago, we have had so much rain in October and the beginning of November.

Tonight we have our first forecast of snow flurries and/or rain and that forecast seems to be set for the next seven days.  My snow shovel has been brought to the car port, ready to use.  Another year that I am happy not to have to clear the whole driveway just to park a car.   I always found the worst part was after clearing the driveway, I had to tackle the car then clear around the car again.

Our local shoe store has a 50% sale on so I hope to get a decent pair of winter boots that will make walking more safe.  Walking into town, although it only takes ten minutes, can be very unsafe going down into the tunnel under the railway.  It is like walking on an ice-slope.   For Canadians, think of curling on a sloping rink.  For Americans and other countries, curling is game started in Scotland, where one hurls 40 pounds rocks down an iced surface. It is very popular in Canada, along with ice hockey.

Kelejan wrote:
Our local shoe store has a 50% sale on so I hope to get a decent pair of winter boats that will make walking more safe.  

Aw, Kel -- your feet aren't that big. 

countrynaturals wrote:

Kelejan wrote:
Our local shoe store has a 50% sale on so I hope to get a decent pair of winter boats that will make walking more safe.  

Aw, Kel -- your feet aren't that big. 

Maybe this is another over-watering problem!

Sorry KJ but I can't help joining in.

"These boats are made for walking,
And that's just what they'll do
One of these days these boats are gonna walk all over you."



On a more serious note, looks like I need to get the snow blower tuned up. We are expecting up to 12 centimetres (almost 5 inches) of snow starting on Sunday.

Here is the afternoon fly past of Canada Geese. They go back and forth between the Ottawa River and the corn fields. I expect they feast on left over corn, etc. after the farmers harvest the corn. Thankfully we escaped any aerial bombardment.

About the geese, TD.

Today I visited our Seniors' Centre  and the talk turned to the wild turkeys that visit just down the road alongside the railway track where I walked Jazz.  It is a field that has been up for sale for so many years and nothing is done with it except three cuts of hay each year, that I can remember.  Then one resident who has been here much longer than the twenty years I have been in my house, told me that white geese used to land there on their way to and from their yearly migration, and that the field was a sea of white.  The reason being was that the farmer grew corn on that land so there was always food for the migrating birds.

Then one year they stopped growing corn.  I expect the birds suffered for several years after and possibly changed their route or died out.