A Nice Piece of Ash

So we knew when we moved here five and a half years ago that our two massive ash trees were already dying, afflicted with the fatal scourge that is the Emerald Ash Borer. This tiny green invasive pest (thanks, Michigan!) bores S-shaped galleries just under the bark, and gradually, nay, inexorably, disrupts and deprives even the mightiest ash of the ability to transport food and water vertically to sustain itself.

Science lesson aside, I'm sure there's also a Karate Kid lesson in there somewhere about sweeping the leg. Anyhoo....we knew that someday we would have to cut them down before they FELL down...most likely atop a barn, hydro line, Juke, or Gods forbid the Man-Garage.

Today was Tree Day. They weren't exactly falling down yet by any means, but the stars aligned and Brad the Tree Guy had some free time given the unseasonably warm weather (note the preponderance of green in mid-January) and offered us a ridiculous price for professional removal, before one of us rounded up friends and family to attempt some rather unprofessional removal involving beer, our home and property insurance policy, and a trip to the hospital.

It went a little something like this:

Start with one large dead ash tree

Sprinkle lovingly with safety ropes

Add one whole chainsaw

and a dash of gasoline

Simmer for about 40 feet

Baste periodically

Season liberally

and Serve with gravity!

Serves 6 and heats 4 homes, leaving new Stump Bar(TM) feature

Drive those January Blues away....

....with Green!

January thaw

Sunday January 13th - Green Day!

The one drawback - confused flocks of migrating birds!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year all and welcome to 2013!

Got to spend some quality time with friends and family over the festive season, far less rushed than the usual Christmas blur. Found a little more snow than at home, but all in all, we got pretty lucky with the holiday travel with mostly good roads and weather.

Even squeezed in a visit to the SS Keewatin, a former CP Rail passenger ship that cruised the Great Lakes  between Port McNicoll and Thunder Bay since 1907. Decomissioned in the 70's, the ship was recently brought to the former CP rail terminal in Port McNicoll as a floating museum and restaurant. A certain impressionable young ginger actually spent the summers of 1994 and 1995 working on an Environmental Youth Corps site assessment project of this 800-acre waterfront property. Nice to see them doing something with the place.

Also managed to FINALLY make one of Kevin's World Famous UFC Parties(TM), basking in the glow of friendship and takedowns all at the same time. Well, not at the SAME time. We were not disappointed.

Finally moved the bed downstairs for winter, such as it is. We had been sleeping in our lazy boys chairs for about a month before our holiday road trip. Of course, it's supposed to be double digits by this weekend....

SS Keewatin in Port McNicoll harbour

Winter Wonderland south of Barrie

Juke in foreign northern lands, under siege by powdery white substance

Let us in, it's cold!

Think the cats are enjoying having the bed downstairs?

Ground and Pound!

Yet another denizen of Wheatley made an appearance at the house, sharing cat food on the back porch. He also likes to sit in the tree near the car. As mentioned in an earlier post, apparently he and the cats have "an understanding".

Two weekends back, Daisy Juke with Her Nose So Bright led us through a soupy night to foggy London-town. An all hands on deck effort towards some basement renovations at John and Julie's culminated in enjoying the UFC 154 pay-per-view on their new 103" projector screen basement home theatre.

As you can see, things deteriorated rapidly from there.....

Playing (O)possum

You know Dasher and Dancer, Prancer and Nissan....

Juke joining in the Reindeer Games

Vicious Ground and Pound Attack!

Vengeance - sleep with one eye open!

Travel Travails

Found some cool (and free!) sites that allow us to track our travels, albeit with random and meaningless colours. White, or the absence of colour, means we haven't been there. It's fairly vague, i.e. you've been to a state or province or you haven't, regardless of whether you explored it in depth or merely cut across a corner. Labrador also shows up as visited, though we have not, because we've been to Newfoundland and it's all one province.

These two maps represent road trips:

Then I found this application, which includes those road trips plus trips involving flights and cruises:

Create your own travel map - TravBuddy

Looks like we're only sitting at 6%, better get our butts in gear!

November Brain

Here we are in November....a.k.a. Round 4 of dandelions. I suspect frost is not far off though, and we officially turned the furnace on today for the first time, to take the chill off. It wasn't my choice. We'll just leave it at that.

Otherwise a nice sunny autumn weekend for yardwork, including cleaning up the downed willow branches from Hurricane Sandy, and later a bonfire under starry skies on the marge of a depleted cornfield. And one inquisitive cardinal who was less than impressed that I picked his football team to lose. Call it an omen, but they lost anyway....in spite of the implied avian stink-eye.

Cat Week on Ellen

Apparently it's "Cat Week" on Ellen, so I figured what the heck. In the absence of anything relevant to post besides the gradual winterizing of the property, cat pics seem apropos. At least they're current pics.

Haven't turned the heat on yet, though the mornings are getting a tad chilly. Methinks a large weekend bonfire might take the edge off, and keep Jack Frost at bay for a few more glorious weeks....

Have had a few Close Encounters of the Opossum Kind on the back porch recently. In spite of our initial concerns re: cats interacting with a creature that is 40% teeth....apparently the two species have an "understanding". They don't even seem concerned about one another, and readily share space and food.

I can't help but think there is a lesson here for us and the Aliens.

As for the last three pics....I ventured out to the garage and noticed Gronk (aka Big Nug, also doing business as Perca) showing a particular interest in the clothesline. Upon closer examination, he had managed to drive a mouse out onto the line. This is somewhere between "cat on a hot tin roof" and "bird on a wire" in my estimation, "rodent on a clothesline". Fear not, I saved him (after the obligatory photo shoot).....at least for today.

The Infamous sibling "Nug Pile"

Feline Fur-niture

Cardinals are especially interesting....

Look again, there's a mouse on the line!

See, I'm not making this up

No, I did NOT Photoshop this l'il guy in there