CANADIAN REGION:what are you doing in April 2018?

I am thinking of you and your family and neighbours, TD and expecting you to be cut off from us any time now, but I certainly do not want it to happen.

With TV and the Internet we can keep an eye on everyone, even if we cannot help them.  A different story a couple of centuries ago.

countrynaturals wrote:

Kelejan wrote: I intend to plant members of the cucumber family, patty pans etc. and let them  sprawl down the bank so that any passerby can pick them from the road.

Great idea!

countrynaturals wrote:

trolleydriver wrote:Freezing rain with winds up to 70 km/hr. Ice is building up on the power line coming into our house. The driveway and street are skating rinks.

YIKES! Pull up the covers. Throw another log on the fire. 

Good idea. I can't imagine an ice storm or icy ground.

As of 2 pm today there were 43,000 customers without power in Ottawa and across the river in Quebec there were another 37,000.  Not sure what I will find when I get to my Winter Sowing containers. Here a re a couple of photos of downed poles.





Here are more images and videos including people skating on the roads.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-s-april-2018-ice-storm-in-pictures-and-video-1.4575934

Holy cow!  That's brutal!
When I was without power this past March (twice for a total of 5 days) I had just received delivery of a propane Mr. Buddy heater and it saved my hide.  
What do you use for heat when the power goes out, TD?

CapeCoddess wrote:Holy cow!  That's brutal!
When I was without power this past March (twice for a total of 5 days) I had just received delivery of a propane Mr. Buddy heater and it saved my hide.  
What do you use for heat when the power goes out, TD?

We have a natural gas fireplace. It has a furnace rating and it should produce heat even if the power is out. However, the fan on it will not work without electricity. We put it in after the ice storm of 1998 (20 years ago) which had us without electricity for three days. Our son-in-law's parents had no electricity for three weeks.

I watched the cbc video. Of course, young males ice skating on their street! The ice looks so damaging and slippery.

Oh, my.....

Finally, my forsythia is starting to bloom and some of my peonies are putting up some spears, so they are not dead after all.

I went to the Women's Centre for breakfast this morning to find that it was closed due to illness so had to return home but having found that some of the garbage I had collected on Saturday had been disturbed by bears this morning I had to re-collect it again.  My own fault as I had forgotten to latch the container.  Have I told you my other worst faults,  apart procrastination, are sins of omission? I am a negative sinner, not a positive one.

It has been raining and the sun is now showing itself perhaps for an hour our two so I hope to do an hour pit in the garden.

Very satisfying these last two days as I was able to get a lot done in between showers and downpours when the forecast seemed to be nothing but continual rain.

My pile of wood chips is nearly half distributed, mostly on the frontage where I had not enough chips to finish it two years ago, and also to replace the shrinkage that has turned to lovely black earth.  Due to these wood chips the apples on my very old tree have produced first class Transparency apples with not a worm in sight, and also very large and tasty, a pleasure to process.

Topped up my little Jazz's grave that had also shrunk and have added an edging of plastic railing so that I can see it more easily from my side window.

As I missed the City recycling collection early April I am also focusing on clearing up the little piles of debris that I keep meaning to do something about ready for the collection in May. Having a deadline works wonders for me.

I notice my rhubarb has broken surface, just three very crinkled leaves so far, but I know there will be many more to come.

I am also looking forward to the first mowing of my grass (lawn ), also a landmark for me as early last year I was still using my old Black and Decker that when one wanted to raise or lower the wheels, they had to be taken right off and re-slotted into a different hole.  One reason I kept it on high and never bothered changing it. By the second cut I always feels that my garden looks so much nicer.

My forsythia is in full bloom and brings a ray of sunshine to my home.

Still have bear problems.  My neighbour told me  he had set up lights etc, and the other night the lights were on and off so fast that in the end he turned them off so that he could get to sleep.  The bears certainly know what day is Garbage Day collection so they visit the night before.

Lovely write-up.

sanderson wrote:Lovely write-up.

+1

 Spring here finally too!

Scorpio Rising wrote: Spring here finally too!.

Isn't it lovely?  The grass is greening so if it keeps up I will be able to mow the lawn.

I managed to mow my main lawn today and hope to finish the bits and pieces remaining tomorrow.  We have this good weather for another couple of days then I will welcome the coming rain.

Yesterday started clearing the first raised bed at our Women's Centre amd today cleared another layer.  It contains a mixture of chives, strawberries and a rhubarb plant and it is all one mess,  It seems the beds were not cleared last fall and put to bed in a good manner;  I will make sue that at the end of this season it will all be tided up. The strawberries look pathetic and have what must be two year's worth of runners, most them dried up, but I did save some small runners that I have brought home and potted up to give them some TLC. the rest of the bed will be dug up and cleaned and given new soil and compost and replanted. There are two more beds to go in equally bad shape.

We have a plant sale in town this Saturday. I hope to get some transplants to give me a flying start this year.

I hope others are helping with the beds??

It was a clear and sunny day yesterday so I got quite a lot done.  I have now checked our local forecast for today and in about 1 1/2 hours times it is scheduled to rain.  So instead of continuing my lazy morning I had better get outside as the rain is due to continue for another four days until May 4th.

Bye for now.

We have to get while the gettin’s good!

Another day when is is sunny in the morning and then chance of rain in the afternoon, so once again I am getting while the going is good.

Report on my day's efforts on "Back to Eden".  I notice the date on my entry is for thursday, and this write-up is for Wednesday. May 2, 2018.

Tomorrow I will get back to clearing the debris from my garden in time for collection on Monday 8th.  Later on in the year we citizens get a couple of free bags of compost from the City, and I wonder how many atoms of of my garden biomass will be in my two bags.

Normally I return any biomass to my own garden but as I did little gardening last year I am having to make up the the work I did not do last year.

In addition to my "Back to Eden" efforts today, I also managed to get my lawn mowed plus the roadside strip.  A very satisfying day.