A Few Quick Notes 610

-Yesterday evening snow started falling quite heavily.  Fortunately, after a few hours it seemed that the snow had stopped falling.  When we woke up this morning to about 5 cm of sticky snow we realized that we'd been wrong to think that the snow had ever stopped.  Amazingly, after a day of thawing it seems to have started snowing again (though hopefully we won't again wake up to 5 cm of snow).

-Oh man, I'm super tired and it's not even 8:15.

-Much to my surprise, on Saturday I started to install our recently acquired anti-pigeon spikes.

Initially I only installed a two foot section, hoping that I might get some sense if were indeed a functional pigeon deterrent.  Fortunately or unfortunately, by the time we returned from an afternoon there were fresh pigeon droppings on the other side of the porch - indicating that the spikes were working.

By the end of the weekend I'd installed all $100 worth of the stuff (aka 10 feet).  The only bummer is that we'll have to buy another 10 feet or so for next weekend/later this week.

-On Saturday Pierre we being particularly cuddly.  At one point he even took a rather long afternoon nap in my arms.

By that night and several hours of this excessively sedate behaviour we were starting to worry that something was up.

At about 2:00 AM Pierre confirmed that something had been up by puking up part of a rubber glove and some other garbage that he'd recently scarfed down behind our backs.  For a small cat he really managed to save up a fair bit of puke for the event.

Unfortunately for Jeannette, I found the smell so upsetting that I had to leave the room to avoid adding to the mess.  Fortunately, by the next day Pierre seemed to be back to normal (AKA the kind of cat that would sneak around trash cans to hunt for discarded rubber gloves to eat).

A Few Quick Notes 593

-Despite the fact that we've had nice weather during the day recently, our nights and mornings have definitely been getting cooler.  I'm constantly surprised in the afternoon that I need to take the sweater off that I'd been wearing all morning.

-This weekend, thanks to a reminder from my mother, I purchased some millet.  Since we fed this stuff to our pet budgie in the early 1990s I've been curious about the stuff.  Maybe I'll manage to get around to cooking some of it tonight.  I'm imagining that it will be comparable to quinoa, but I guess I'll have to wait to find out.

-I realize that I'm likely of a dying breed, but I really love waking up to a freshly delivered newspaper.  While I also check online news sources, there's nothing quite like being able to flip through the newspaper every morning.

-Today, while running an unrelated errand I happened to walk by the parliament buildings and was able to see the remnants of some protest activities.  I guess these protests were timed to coincide with the first day of the House's fall sitting.  I also witnessed a corresponding increase in the number of police officers.

-While out on my aforementioned errand I had the pleasure of walking along Sparks Street.  Despite the fact that the pedestrian-only nature of Sparks Street is one of the things I like most about it, I keep getting the sense that it's perceived as some kind of failure.  Though I don't necessarily head there all that frequently, it always seems like a resounding success to me.

-I suspect that the cooler evening and nighttime temperatures are slowing down the growth rates of our plants.  Presumably in the relatively near future I'll have to start wrapping everything up for the season. It will be strange to see our bare balcony after so many months of relatively rampant plant growth.

-On a related note, I think I spotted someone in an adjoining backyard engaging in some anti-squirrel sling-shotting.  I would guess that this means that I'm not the only one frustrated by their presence.

Other exciting plant-related developments that I keep forgetting to mention

After months of waiting and watering our mo(u)rning glories have finally started to bloom.  For the past few days we've been getting between about 6 and 10 blooms each morning.  It's been pretty nice to have a few hours of flowers each day.

One of our avocado seeds has finally started looking like more than just a seed, though it still hasn't produced any leaf growth.  Maybe even more exciting is that despite the fact that they're still not doing much of anything we still have two other avocado seeds that are still alive and may eventually turn into something.

One of the squirrel caused plant casualties that I neglected to mention a few days ago was our banana plant.  For some reason the squirrel decided to rip up one of the incoming leaves.  It's this kind of squirrel behaviour that I just don't understand - what could it possibly be hoping to find in a leaf?

A few weeks ago I purchased a nice piece of ginger with intentions of sprouting my own ginger.  Of course I didn't put the ginger in a big enough pot, but it has started to do its thing and I'm hopeful that every few days we'll keep seeing new signs of growth.  Unfortunately, I'm not particularly hopeful that this ginger plant will ever lead to much edible ginger.

Those were some pretty exciting plant updates weren't they?

A Few Quick Notes 590

-After a few relatively pleasant low-humidity days we seem to have transitioned back into that muggy weather that Ottawa does so well.  It's been so muggy and humid that I'm almost starting to think that the appearance of rain may be helping by cooling things off.

-I guess quite a number of university students started classes today.  Maybe that is why it was a little quieter last night?  I guess we'll probably have to wait until Friday to find out how much of a U of O party scene we'll have to contend with in this neighbourhood.  Hope it's not too bad.

-One of local feralish kittens has taken to sitting on our front steps.

And though at times I've simultaneously seen about ten cats hanging out in our neighbourhood, these days this is one of the few cats I see on a regular basis.  If only this thing was big enough to take on the local squirrels.

-So my cayenne pepper and water solution seems not to have worked (though the squirrels were absent for about 24 hours).  For the past two days they've been back and badder than ever.  If I didn't know better I'd think that they were purposely destroying things before they ripen just so that we can't have them.

The worst part is that I have no idea what it is they are looking for.  They keep digging in the dirt, but a far as I know there isn't anything there for them to find (aside from more dirt - and that doesn't seem to be what they are looking for).  

It definitely bums me out to look at the plants each morning and find that new damage has been done and a bigger mess made. 

-On Saturday Jeannette and I took a day trip to upstate New York.  In addition to witnessing what appeared to be a glee club sing-off in Potsdam, we also managed to find the world's worst homefries.  These bad boys were undercooked, soggy, cold, poorly seasoned, and over-priced.  Oh, and the same at the same place the 'side of fruit' was canned pears.  While we didn't see to many things that we would recommend, on the up side we have started to create a list of places that don't merit a return visit.

(Oh, and we saw five bros buying a 55 inch TV for their apartment.  Probably a pretty solid investment for your average undergrad student wouldn't you say?)

A Few Quick Notes 589

-It looks as though it is going to be a beautiful Labour Day in Ottawa this year, though maybe a few degrees warmer than ideal.

-Because we don't have the same morning rush to readiness today I'm hoping to crank out a batch of raspberry muffins for breakfast.

-Last night, based on a recommendation from my father, I sprayed our balcony plants with cayenne pepper water.  The idea is that this will deter the squirrel from visiting the plants.  I'm a little curious to see if it worked, or if the squirrel responded vindictively to the new flavour.

-Yesterday Jeannette and I engaged in a multi-hour cleaning and organizing event.  Is there any better way to spend a beautiful Sunday?

-Actually, because it's move-in weekend at the local universities (and one of these universities is only a few blocks away) it was nice not to be outside and in the midst of that craziness.

Caught in the act

Since my flurry of squirrel related posts a few days ago I've intermittently been trying to memorialize our pesky squirrel in a time-lapse film.  Until this morning I've been entirely unsuccessful and was evening starting to think that my recently installed ultrasonic rodent annoyer may have been working.

Of course today I've caught the squirrel out in various plants a few times.  Bummer.

On the upside, I was finally able to get some footage of it doing its thing in a few of the plants.

[Embedded video]

I really have no idea why it keeps digging deep into these pots.  I don't think that there's anything at the bottom of these pots that the squirrel could possibly find useful.  Maybe at this point it's just trying to annoy me?

Third time's a charm?

So when I just went back to refill up my coffee mug I again noticed that a squirrel was digging around in a few of the plants.

This time instead of grabbing my water squirter I reverted to loud noise making.  Though the squirrel didn't immediately leave the balcony it didn't take too long before it was at the furthest point away from me and then looking an escape route.

Amazingly, this time, instead of just jumping off of the side of the balcony, the squirrel climbed up one of the support beams and then into a tree.

I'm not if I should be tricked into thinking that this is a different, smarter, squirrel or if the first squirrel has finally realized that just jumping from a third storey balcony onto a garage roof below is not the best idea.

Just to be clear, until today I'd only actually seen the squirrels in the plants one time (though they frequently leave evidence of their visits).  I have no idea why they keep visiting today, but hopefully I've seen the last of them for the day (but I guess I thought the same thing the first time I saw a squirrel make a hail Mary blind jump from the balcony to a roof below).

Damn thing just came back

So I just went out to refill my coffee cup and look at our plants again and again found a damn squirrel messing things up.

This time I was a little bit more careful about my closing the door thing and the squirrel was definitely less responsive to the squirting water thing.  Instead of leaving the balcony it just climbed around and tried to hide.  Of course because there aren't many hiding places on our small balcony this wasn't an entirely effective tactic.

Of course eventually the squirrel decided not to share the balcony with me anymore and again jumped from the side rail balcony across our car and onto the garage roof.  Again my stomach was in my throat as I worried that I may have to deal with a seriously injured squirrel.  Fortunately, like the last time, the squirrel again scurried across the garage roof to safety.

On the up side, I'm learning a little more about the jumps squirrels can safely land.  On the downside, I'm now pretty sure that making the jump the first time didn't scare the squirrel away from our balcony garden.

Maybe we'll have to hire an old guy with an air rifle to sit back there and mind the farm while we're away?

My heart is still pounding

I just went out to the kitchen to refill my coffee mug and take a look at the balcony garden.  While looking at our plants I noticed that one of our local squirrels was digging around in a few of the pots.

I opened the door and stepped onto the balcony to scare the squirrel away.  While reaching for my water squirter (a tool that I use because the squirrels don't seem to respond to me shouting at them) I noticed that there were actually two squirrels on the balcony and that the second squirrel was behind me.  Just as I was getting an accurate sense of the lay of the land squirrel-wise the second squirrel ran under the open balcony door and into our apartment.  At the same time the squirrel I first saw made an unseen departure from the balcony (but by this point I didn't really care where it went or what it was doing as long as it didn't involve the inside of our apartment).

The squirrel then ran around the kitchen at speeds that were unnecessarily fast.  Of course, in addition to running around it was also insistent on taking a convoluted path that seemed to involve jumping on just about everything around.

Almost before I knew what was happening it ran from the kitchen to the living room and continued jumping on things (including Jeannette's knitting box).  

At this point I was pretty worried.  Because I was standing between the animal and the door I was fearful that the squirrel would make its way further into the apartment and maybe even try to stake out a hiding place rather than run through me towards the exit.  And because I couldn't see how to get the squirrel between my body and the door I was worried that any step towards the living room might exacerbate the situation.

Fortunately once the squirrel entered the living room it cut left into the main part of the room and I was able to slip into the room and put the squirrel between my body and the door.  Of course, even though the squirrel was where I wanted it, it's not as though my body was an impenetrable shield that protected the rest of the apartment (all the squirrel needed to do to get past me was run around me).

Fortunately, I think the squirrel was less interested in being in our apartment than I was in having it there.  Once I was in position it ran out of the living room, through the kitchen, and right off the side of the balcony.

All of a sudden the squirrel was flying through the air, seemingly heading towards the pavement two storeys below.  Amazingly, despite the apparent lack of planning on the squirrel's part, the squirrel managed to leap off the balcony, make it all the way over our parked car, and land on a section of garage roof on the other side.  From there the animal, seeming uninjured, scurried away across the roof to safety.

Do you think it's too much to expect that this near death experience will be enough to scare the squirrels away from their now daily destructive visits to our balcony garden?  I really hope so because the visits are becoming more regular and more destructive.  At this point we're hardly harvesting anything because the squirrels keep destroying the fruits of our labour just as they start to ripen (and sometimes even before they start to ripen).

A Few Quick Notes 579

-After a few days of temperatures over 30, we've now returned to much more pleasant temperatures.  Even though it's about 14 and overcast at the moment I am not inclined to complain.

-Our local raccoon made a particularly early appearance yesterday afternoon.  By my calculations he was out rummaging around through construction debris before 5:00 PM, which seems early for an animal that's supposed to be nocturnal.

-Thanks to some recent sun our balcony garden is finally starting to look as though it might turn out quite well.  Over the past few days the bean, tomato, and pepper plants have started to do particularly well.  I'm even hopeful that some of our herbs may eventually be large enough to harvest.

-In the bathroom we started some wheat a few days ago.  Much to our surprise, these plants have put on inches in just days.  Eventually we are hoping that the plants will be large enough that they will provide a natural privacy barrier in front of the bathroom window.

This is a classier solution than mini-blinds, right?

-The recent mailed body parts/gruesome murder story has really been dominating the news in Ottawa for the past few days.  I keep imagining this is because of the Ottawa connection to the crime, but now that I've seen a little bit of the non-Ottawa coverage I'm wondering if the coverage is so extensive just because this is such a bizarre and gruesome crime?

My hours of Raccoon Watch finally paid off

Soon after we moved into our new Ottawa apartment we learned that, like many urban areas in North America, our neighborhood has something of a raccoon problem. Much to our surprise it took only a few days for us to spot a local raccoon making its way across the roof of the garage behind our building.

After this first sighting we soon learned that if you wanted to see this local raccoon all you needed to do was sit on our balcony at dusk and, like clockwork, it will make its way across the roof and through a gap between the garage and the adjacent fence.

After about two days of this apparent pattern I was hooked. I started spending at least a few minutes our balcony each night watching and listening for this neighborhood raccoon to make its nightly appearance. Even after only five or ten minutes to my stakeout I was almost always rewarded with an appearance by the raccoon.

Of course one of the frustrations of my nightly watch was my seeming inability to take a photo of the creature that didn't look as though I had taken a photo of dirt. After a few dozen photos I was beginning to think that I might never be able to properly capture a reasonable image of our furry friend.

Finally on Friday night my luck turned. Our neighbors seem to have been kind enough to have left some trash out for the raccoon to rummage through on Thursday night, and then they were also kind enough to leave the shredded bag in the same place on their back steps all day on Friday.

This great generosity on the part of our neighbors turned out to be enough to attract the raccoon back for a second feeding from the same source on Friday night. Because the back porch on which the pile of garbage was located was a story off the ground and also not the ground I was finally able to have a much better view of the animal.

It turned out all I needed to get a better shot of the animal was a better view, and maybe also the raccoon's innate sense of performance.

While I won't go so far as to say that this is a great, or even good, photo of a raccoon, at least it is a photo of a raccoon that is clearly a photo of a raccoon.

It's summer so that means...

Freshly grown Nova Scotia fruit flies!

And, boy, do we have them again this year. They seem to be particularly fond our our compost containers even though they mostly just contain carrot and celery refuse. Fruit scraps are nowhere to be found in my compost containers.

Fortunately, during the height of last year's invasion Jeannette figured out how to make a relatively simple fruit fly trap that seems to be somewhat effective, at least the fruit flies seem to be attracted to it. Unfortunately, this time around I seemed to make holes that may be a little too small to easily allow the flies to enter.



[Embedded video]

Anyway, even with its flaws, this thing is much better than nothing. Now that I think about it, I wonder why we don't set up a second trap to handle the overflow from the first one?

A Few Quick Notes 539

-While today is still a little cooler than I might have expected it to be in early June in the Annapolis Valley, it is fortunately brighter than it was yesterday. Not that the forecast means anything here, actually it seems to be worse than it was in Halifax or St. John's, but they are not even predicting any major improvements in the coming days. Bummer.

-Yesterday Jeannette and I made our way to a meat shop in Windsor with plans of buying some ground llama and some llama and wild boar sausage. While we weren't able to get the second of these two products (we had to settle for venison and wild boar sausage), we were able get some ground llama and also some ground beef. Maybe more importantly, we learned that the store we visited is really a full-service butcher shop (we thought it might just be a speciality meat shop). So not only will they cut your meats how you want them cut, they also sell quite a variety of meats, including lamb, goat, beef, pork, rabbit, bison, emu, llama, and poultry. While we were in line waiting to be served we both had the sense that their customers were coming in from all over the province to take advantage of the wide variety of products and services that this company provides.

-Many of our container garden plants finally seem to be sprouting and starting the early stages of their growth. Unfortunately, some number of the plants seem to have been struck with a spider-mite like pest (though I think it is something different and that they picked it up from the local environment). Anyway, I just hope that they aren't too negatively impacted by these pests, as that would really bum me out.

-I definitely feel as though I am in something of a post-comps work slump. Hopefully by this afternoon or this evening I will find a way to roust myself from this period of sloth and get back to work.

-Because of the developments relating to the NHL team in Winnipeg and the possible AHL team in St. John's I have been thinking about hockey and sports teams much more than I traditionally do. That being said, even though I have been thinking about hockey teams I have spent very little time actually thinking about hockey. That people are so interested in watching the game still baffles me. I just don't get what makes the game so exciting.

-Maybe instead of trying to fill up the internet I should either have some lunch or get down to work.

A Few Quick Notes 476

-Yesterday, for the first time this year, we had a real snowfall. For better or worse, most of the remnants of this snowfall have now melted or otherwise disappeared. I presume that this means that we will now be in for more similar weather over the coming days and months.

-We managed to rather decisively lose our first Ultimate game of the new winter season. Though it wasn't our only problem, our team was not helped by a high absence rate. Hopefully more of us will turn up next week and we will be able to provide our opponents with a better game.

-The aforementioned shift towards more winter-like weather seems to have encouraged a few more mice to invade our apartment. Fortunately, aside from one that we caught a few days ago, most of the evidence that we have that these guys are living in the building comes from hearing them in the walls rather than seeing evidence of them in the apartment. I think our continued efforts to plug holes with steel wool has really helped things, though I guess I shouldn't be so confident yet.

-This afternoon Peter and I attended a talk that presented the findings of a study that examined the ways in which Dal students used the Killam Library. One of the aspects of the talk, which was quite enjoyable, that I found most interesting was that the findings of the study were not effectively integrated into the development of new library website (even though the research was conducted in a way that would provide the designers with feedback).

A Few Quick Notes 460

-Much to my surprise today was beautiful. Instead of experiencing the side-effects of Hurricane Igor we had a pretty regular fall day.

-Contrary to what was reported by Reuters earlier today, Canada did not escape Hurricane Igor unscathed. As noted earlier today, Newfoundland has been suffering from Igor's consequences for the better part of the day. According to my family many trees have been knocked down and power is still out in certain parts of St. John's (and presumably the rest of the province).

Not surprisingly, a number of photos of the damage have been posted online already.

-Last night, after several people suggested that we use baited traps, we made the switch. So far it would seem that these baited traps have been a little less effective than the unbaited variety. Last night we didn't catch a single mouse though each of the two previous nights we caught mice with unbaited traps. Apparently you can mess with success.

-I should get back to work.

-Oh man, there are some associated with commenting on Globe and Mail news articles that will be rolled out over the next few days. Just tonight I learned that one of the major changes was something that I suggested. Maybe I will try to provide a few more details at a later date (and once the changes have been fully implemented).

Another near miss

We managed to catch another mouse last night, this time with our kitchen/living room trap line. And, like our last catch, this mouse just barely managed to be caught. Apparently it was so lightly trapped that it dragged the trap to a hiding space, though wasn't able to bring the trap in with it.

My understanding is that it took Neil about an hour to deal with this.

The only good news, at least from my selfish perspective, is that I managed to sleep through this entire ordeal.

I presume four mice in about two weeks and two in two days indicates a problem?

Something approaching success

At about 8:00 AM this morning Neil and I were both roused from sleep by the sound of a mouse trap snapping shut. When we went out to investigate we learned that the trap had been set by a mouse, and that the mouse was still in the vicinity of the trap but was not quite dead.

After a little hemming and hawing as to how we should proceed, a scenario that likely wasn't helped by our respective sleepiness, we continued to hem and and haw. Then, as we were standing around the engaged trap, the mouse moved and engaged at least one more trap, this time catching another part of its body. The resulting situation was anything but pretty.

So this is all to say that while we were eventually able to catch yesterday's intruder it wasn't pretty, nor was it quick. Furthermore, the capturing of a third mouse in about two weeks would seem to suggest something of a real mouse problem. The only good news is that we seem to be slightly more proficient when it comes to trapping that we were even a few weeks ago.

False Alarm

Just a minute ago we all heard a snap-like sound come from the living room. Of course we were all hoping that it was a mouse trap with a mouse. Sadly, upon inspection we learned that none of the traps had been sprung and that the source of the noise was not immediately discernible.

I guess we will just have to keep waiting.

The invasion continues

After a day or two of mouse-free living, Rebecca and Neil happened to see a small mouse earlier this evening. At one point it seemed to be hiding out beneath the table holding Neil's printer.

Shortly after the mouse was observed in the living room Neil and I set up a few trap lines. We have one such line in the hallway that leads from the living room to the bedroom and another in the doorway between the living room and the kitchen. In each case a narrow gauntlet with multiple traps has been created. In addition to these (hopefully) impassable walls, we have scattered a few traps around the living room in areas that we suspect could be potential mouse highways (or where we have seen mice before).

I guess we should soon find out whether or not our most recent trapping efforts will be successful or not. I am hoping that they will be successful.

Oh, aside from this development meaning that we have a mouse, it also means that the hole that we located and filled with steel wool either hasn't been completely blocked or that it wasn't the only point of entry (a somewhat disheartening development).

A Few Quick Notes 458

-Though today was mostly nice, we did have a brief period of heavy rain. Fortunately, this period of rain was brief and to the point.

-We had our first Fall Ultimate game this evening. Somehow we managed to tie the game. For most of the game it felt as though we were being smoked. At least this brings our undefeated streak to eight, a number that is surely a person record for both Neil and I.

-My Eight Treasure Porridge seemed to turn out pretty well. Not surprisingly, given the relatively short cooking time, the beans were quite undercooked and a little crunchy. I think that if I made it again I might try to soak everything overnight and then cook it in my pressure cooker for about an hour.

-At some point today Neil and Rebecca discovered a hole in the wall in our apartment. They suspect that this was one point of entry for mice, and I happen to think that they are likely right. Hopefully the plugging of this hole will lead to a diminishing of the mouse population in our apartment.

-Jeannette, much to my surprise, cancelled her Empire Avenue account cold turkey. I suspect the whole thing will be less fun if I don't have people to engage with in-person on related matters. Maybe I too will have to give things up in the near future as I really can't afford to spend much time engaging in such activities.