Daylight Savings Time Ends 2013

Don't forget to change your clocks and check the batteries in your smoke detectors as well.

Wordless Wednesday - Harvest Moon

Harvest Moon

Aurgust 15, 2011

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

End of April Already!

My gosh, here it is the last day of April already!  Where does the time go?  The worst of the weather is over or should be and yet we had snow in April.  Last night the temperatures dropped to close to freezing.  The boat came down so is ready to use but we'd need snowsuits.  We've been rather busy with a fair amount of excitement that has helped the time pass.  I have a couple of secrets that I will share later but for now things are interesting to say the least.  In my spare time I've been decluttering ever hopeful the house will finally sell.  As a diversion I've been playing CityVille and FrontierVille on Facebook.  It's a toss up which one I like the most but what is really nice is our kids are playing both games too so we have a bit of extra daily interaction.  I really enjoy that!  Honestly though, April went by in the blink of an eye. 

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Spring Thaw

Log in the Water

March 17, 2011

The weather has turned milder which has been quite welcomed after what seems like a long winter.  While we didn't have any really bitter cold like we normally do, we had a lot of snowfall.  The snow came in a series of rather nasty storms that brought accumulations of 15 to 25 cm at a time with high winds resulting drifting and blowing snow.  As a result the driving conditions were quite hazardous on numerous occasions. 

The milder weather has brought ice down from the lakes.  Along with the ice is other debris, mainly logs and brush.  There has been a fair amount of run-off from the spring thaw as well.  The nice thing is we have been heating mainly with our gas fireplace that keeps the living level warm enough so that the furnace doesn't kick on.  I will be so glad when we can turn both the furnace and gas fireplace off!  Our heating bills are more than reasonable coming in about the third of the average for our area but we are very energy conscious and have done a lot of winterizing so it is to be expected they would be less.  Oh and I saw my first robin of the season too!  At any rate, spring is on the way...

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

It's That Time of Year

Daylight Savings Time (DST) ends tomorrow morning.  Please turn your clocks back 1 hour and check the batteries in your smoke alarms.

Garden Gnome ©2006-2010

Battling the Nasties

This certainly has been the year of battling nasties on more than one level!  On the home front,  spiders have become a huge problem.  Four venomous (toxic to humans) spiders have been identified on our property including the brown recluse spider with the funnel spiders reaching huge numbers.  While funnel spiders are non-aggressive so the chances of being bit is low their sheer numbers greatly increase a chance encounter.  They are everywhere!  I finally decided we had no option but to take drastic measures by hauling out chemical insecticides something I try to avoid at all costs. 

Yesterday I loaded up the pressure pump spray with the first insecticide that would take care of the funnel spiders in the cedar and boxwood hedges.  They were my first target.  Then I reloaded with a residual spray to treat the outside of the house, sunporch and garage.  Tomorrow I will do a bit of back tracking to check for any active webs left on the hedges then spray targeted areas of the house indoors.

We last treated for spiders in 2007 so hopefully won't have to treat again until their numbers get to the point it causes a potential risk.    At any rate we should see a significant decrease in the venomous spiders and spiders in general while driving all spiders back from the house lessening the chance of a chance spider bite.   It was a productive, preventative action day.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

Making Sauce

Plain Tomato Sauce

August 20, 2010

This is the time of year that I'm extremely busy processing tomatoes.  Along with canning excess tomatoes from the garden I also process an average of 10 hampers (6¼ bushels) of commercially grown tomatoes from a relative.  Pictured is one of the first tomato based sauces I made this year.  I will be blogging about it on my cooking blog along with the other tomato based products I stock my pantry with.  I thought you might be interested in seeing what I'm up to this time of year.  The gold lids are standard Bernardin single use metal canning lids.  Once used they are not to be reused for canning.  The white lids are Tattler reusable lids that I'm testing out in the hopes of eliminating the disposable ones.  Doesn't that sauce look yummy?

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

Golf Poem

It's nearing that time of year when those so inclined will be out chasing that silly little ball. Every golfer know you have good days and bad days but always fun days. Here's a cute golf poem from my email files.
----
[from my email files]

In My Hand I Hold A Ball,
White And Dimpled, Rather Small.
Oh, How Bland It Does Appear,
This Harmless Looking Little Sphere.

By Its Size I Could Not Guess,
The Awesome Strength It Does Possess.
But Since I Fell Beneath Its Spell,
I've Wandered Through The Fires Of Hell.

My Life Has Not Been Quite The Same,
Since I Chose To Play This Stupid Game.
It Rules My Mind For Hours On End,
A Fortune It Has Made Me Spend.

It Has Made Me Yell, Curse And Cry,
I Hate Myself And Want To Die.
It Promises A Thing Called Par,
If I Can Hit It Straight And Far.

To Master Such A Tiny Ball,
Should Not Be Very Hard At All.
But My Desires The Ball Refuses,
And Does Exactly As It Chooses.

It Hooks And Slices, Dribbles And Dies,
And Even Disappears Before My Eyes.
Often It Will Have A Whim,
To Hit A Tree Or Take A Swim.

With Miles Of Grass On Which To Land,
It Finds A Tiny Patch Of Sand.
Then Has Me Offering Up My Soul,
If Only It Would Find The Hole.

It's Made Me Whimper Like A Pup,
And Swear That I Will Give It Up.
And Take To Drink To Ease My Sorrow,
But The Ball Knows .... I'll Be Back Tomorrow.

-author unknown

-----

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

Ontario's Splendor

Ontario's Splendor
November 1, 2009

Ontario is such a beautiful province that never fails to present amazing photo opportunities. My husband took this gorgeous picture at this year's hunt camp. I just love how it came out!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Just a Reminder

It's that time of year!



Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Winter is a Coming!

Jockey
September 12, 2009

Oh my gosh! Things are rather hectic at the moment as we are into the heavier harvest so the kitchen is a buzz of activity. That's a good thing for the pantry but a bad thing for blogging. I can't believe September is more than half over! The weather is already cooling and leaves are starting to turn. The cooling weather is starting to affect the garden as well. At the same time it has sent me into a frenzy of checking for more air leaks and winterizing in my spare time. I've heard the predictions for a mild winter buy I'm not buying that one so will scurry along making all my winter preparations.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Party Time

Party Time
August 15, 2009

Summer is an endless party when you live or vacation on water front property. There are all the activities associated with the water like boating, water skiing, tubing, jet skiing, fishing and swimming during the day. In the evenings there are the great summer time meals quite often followed by sitting enjoying the sunsets and perhaps later a lively conversation around the campfire.

Saturday afternoon we spent the afternoon boating and swimming at the swim hole. It was a beautiful hot, hazy and humid day perfect for spending the day on and in the water! As we were heading to the swim hole I spotted the obvious signs of a party so just had to take pictures. It was rather fitting with Jimmy Buffet's Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes playing in the boat. Normally the signs aren't quite as blatant but this one did get the message across. I hope they had an enjoyable and safe summer party!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Springtime

Spring Blossoms
May 10, 2009

Spring is a wondrous time that always signifies renewal not only for our surrounding environment but also the spirit. There's the new growth combined with cleaning off winter's grime. There's the anticipation of warmer weather to come. It is officially spring here even though it is still unseasonably cool. The cooler, wet spring has slowed progress in the gardens. Yesterday we woke to a good coating of frost. I acted on the previous day's frost warning so all my plants were protected so had very little frost damage.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Wordless Wednesday - Spring Beauty

Spring Beauty
May 7, 2009

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Morning Visitor

Peaking in My Window
March 20, 2009

Look who was peaking in my window this morning. Isn't he adorable? This cheery little fellow has been visiting our yard for a couple of weeks now. He's a very friendly little fellow that likes to sit close to our windows watching us. It's just brightens the day to see him!

This isn't the first time a bird has taken a shining to us. We had a bluejay that would sit on the windowsill and peck the window until I tossed peanuts out for him. A very friendly robin used to follow me around in my last garden. We get a fair number of Juncos here as well. They too are extremely friendly little birds!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Day Light Savings Time

Ice on Water
March 7, 2009

Last Saturday night we turned back our clocks effectively initiating Day Light Savings Time (DST). So I'm happy surfing the net when I come across a blog that declares that DST does not save energy. Well I am going to dispel that myth right now! We aren't even a full week into DST and already I have saved oodles of energy. Here's some of the creative ways I've saved energy since DST began this year:

• electricity - I rolled over and didn't see any light coming in our bedroom. Assuming it was pre-dawn I pulled the covers over my head and promptly went back to sleep awakening in the late pre-lunch hour. This meant none of our normal lights were turned on that morning so right there I saved electricity. But it got better! I fumbled for the toothpicks to keep my eyes open but switching on even one light was just too bright so I turned it off. My eyes wouldn't focus enough to find the tea pot so I grabbed a glass of water and went back to bed. The tv was off too deferring to the Kodak colour episodes of CSI playing in my dreams and let me tell you it was a heck of a great episode, one I don't recalling seeing previously.
  
• heating - Spending all day in bed under a nice feather duvet means there's no need for the furnace to run. Good thing I turned it off the night before so the balmy just above freezing temps in the house could clean the air and kill off all those dust mites. Oh well a full day of sleep thanks to DST versus cleaning, I'm pretty sure you know which one won.
• water - Seriously saved on this one! I didn't have to shower or anything other than pull those covers up higher. I didn't run the dishwasher or washer either but that kind of thing is highly over rated when DST kicks in.
  
• calories - The average body needs 600 calories daily to maintain life. Thanks to DST I had ZERO! This is a real plus but when I consider the calories used rolling over, pulling up the blankets and stuffing toothpicks in my eyes while walking around in a sleep deprived stupor, heck I can eat a gazillion calories in prep for the end of DST so it will balance out.
• cooking - Not cooking saved me a lot of energy. I was going to order out but couldn't find the phone in the dark and likely wouldn't have been able to use it. Besides CSI: Criminal Dreams was on.

Thank-you Ben Franklin for saving me all this energy. I honestly could not have done it without you! Well maybe I could but that would take a lot of energy something I'm working hard to save thanks to DST.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Spring has Sprung!

First Robin
March 5, 2009

This morning I had plans to blog about another topic but because I have another sinus attack. Saline rinses are keeping the congestion in check but not doing much for the pain so I sat sipping my hot tea while I dropped on EC. My mind wandered to how winter had not been all that kind this year. By mid-morning I was ready for a second pot of tea so shuffled to the kitchen when what did I see? It simply could not be! My eyes must have been playing tricks on me so I grabbed the camera, tea forgotten and snapped several pictures. There right in our yard was a robin! Take that you scaredy groundhog (hysterically laughting).

For those who don't know in northern regions seeing a robin is the first sign of spring. I never did make that second pot of tea. Just seeing that robin was enough to make me feel a bit better. He stayed for awhile so I sat watching him pondering the upcoming spring and what we need to do. I hope he visits tomorrow!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

autumn

Autumn Beauty
October 22, 2008

We are now well into autumn! While the air is turning chilly and the days are getting shorter there are still enough nice days to get a good amount of outdoor winterizing done as well as simply enjoying being outdoors. The fair aroma of wood smoke coming from nearby chimneys mingle with the distinct smell of autumn. Leaves flitter and dance their way to the ground on calmer days or whip about in a frenzy when the winds are stronger. The water takes on a cooler look yet still sparkles when the sun graces us with it's presence. Waterfowl make their presence known both in the water and overhead. We really are very blessed to live in such a beautiful area in our little corner of planet earth!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2008