Cooler Weather is Good

View from Maple Mountain Trail
Looking across to Salt Spring Island

The intense heat of summer is beginning to make way for fall.  We don't have those nippy fall mornings yet, but a light breeze and somewhat cooler temperatures makes being outdoors much more pleasant.  This week, the leaves are beginning to turn as well, though many are going right from green to brown as the very dry summer takes its toll.  Hopefully, we'll see those reds and yellows emerge before all the leaves drop to the ground.

With the more comfortable temperatures, the dogs and I are back to exploring again. Last Wednesday, with our friends Liz and Sasha, Eddie and I checked out the new-and-improved trail system from Osborne Bay Park up Maple Mountain - a different route up the mountain than those we have taken before.

View from trail

The municipality has been upgrading an old overgrown trail system across the mountain, and eventually we'll be able to hike from Osborne Bay Park in Crofton all the way to Maple Bay without getting lost or risking life and limb.  While I have maps of the old trails, they sound far too difficult and dangerous for me, and have long been neglected according to those who have attempted them.

Looking towards Shoal Island log sort

If the quality of the new trail is any indication, we are in for some great all-day hikes in the future.

For those in the area, this new trail begins at the end of the parking lot for Osborne Bay Park on Smith Road  in Crofton (near Camp Quanoes).  It is a comfortably wide, gravel trail through the trees.  It climbs steadily upward using a series of switchbacks, but is not so steep as to be daunting.  It will give you a good workout though.

New gravel trail intersects with old Blue trail.

The new trail criss-crosses the old "blue" trail, and in fact one can do some loops if one knows the way.  We got a bit confused despite directions from another hiker, but always had a pretty good idea where we were.  As we both had afternoon commitments, we erred on the side of caution and returned before reaching the summit and without exploring the several side trails along the way, with the exception of a short familiar section of the blue trail.

Liz asks Eddie which way we should go

This new route offers some lovely views, and the old hiking books tell me there are many more great views along the old blue, yellow and pink trails  - which will hopefully continue to receive upgrades from our great parks department in North Cowichan.   Best advice for now is to take a map (available on the North Cowichan website), a compass or GPS, a cell phone (though I won't guarantee there will be service on the mountain), and pack water, a snack, wear sturdy shoes, and maybe carry a walking stick. If you stick to the gravel path and the old logging roads, you won't get lost; wander off down the dirt trails and you'll want to mark your twists and turns or at least take note of the colours of the survey tapes.

Liz makes notes while Eddie and Sasha meander

On Friday, Eddie, Mitzi and I took our friends Anne and Chelsea to Osborne Bay Park - not to hike the new trail but to take our favourite path down through the off leash park to the beach.  Chelsea loves the water and spent much of her time chasing sticks.

Chelsea and her stick

She is the most well mannered dog I know - when she comes out of the water she walks AWAY from you to shake herself dry before bringing the stick over to be thrown again.  Hmmmm....Sadie B, Tess, Tanner, and other canine water-loving friends, please take note!

Detour

Huh?  Why'd she go this way?

Okay, I'm dried off now!

Two great hikes in one week.  It's good to be out and about again.  I sure hope we have a long beautiful fall.

Well, ah don't know why there's no photos of ME  in this entry!

Calling Victoria-area animal lovers!

Those of you living near Victoria BC will likely have seen reports in the Times Colonist or heard on the radio and TV of changes at the Victoria BC SPCA.  In recent weeks they have lost three key staff members - dedicated, passionate animal lovers well-respected in the rescue community.

Cory Bond, former assistant manager at the Victoria SPCA, resigned in July.   Penny Stone, who has been the manager there for ten years, was 'let go'  this Tuesday. And yesterday, the kennel master Marty Meszeros resigned  in protest of Penny's firing.

A shelter is only as good as the staff and volunteers who work there, regardless of policies, practices, or personnel of the broader organization.  The Victoria SPCA was one of the best, and it is not only local animals who will feel the loss of these key players.

Those of us who support Cory, Penny and Marty are being asked to post the following message:

This Sunday, August 18th @ 1:00 PM.  Meet behind the shelter to have a public demonstration demanding accountability and answers to the recent and ongoing changes to the Victoria SPCA.  We will present ourselves as a professional group who are supporters and/or volunteers of our local shelter and animals.  Feel free to draft your own placard with messages you wish to portray to the BCSPCA.  Feel free to bring your four-legged family member(s).  Walk will be on public pathways around the shelter.  This is Canada and we are allowed to have a peaceful demonstration.  PLEASE SHARE with your family and friends.  

Unfortunately, I have an equally important volunteer commitment Sunday so am unable to attend.  If you can, please do. The Victoria SPCA is located at 3150 Napier Lane.

I will also post this publicly on my facebook page so you can easily share with friends and family in the area.

Jean

A wee little brag

It's official!  Another of my short stories is going to press. The Year the Animals Brought Christmas will be included in a book entitled "O Canada, The Wonders of Winter", being published by Chicken Soup for the Soul. Release date is November 5th. It is a true story based on an experience I had living on my little farm in the Fraser Valley with four dogs, a cat, twelve pigs and an alpaca.  While parts of the story originally appeared on this blog, this will be the first time it has been published in its entirety. 

In addition to getting paid for the story, I will be getting ten complementary copies of the book.  While I have plans for some of them, I just may have to think up a contest for blog readers to win a copy.  Ideas anyone? 

Eddie:  Ah has an idea!  Everyone sends me a cookie and
the best cookie-baker wins a book!
I'll even offer to be the judge!

Me:  Eddie, you would NOT make a good judge.
You inhale cookies without even tasting them! 

Excerpts from My Summer Journal

By Mitzi

I don't know why Mama Jean doesn't let ME be the keeper of the blog.  I'm sure I'd do a better job than she has lately.  Seems like she doesn't post much any more, and when she does it is mostly 'bout flowers an' Eddie.  Except for the Screaming Monkey video, you'd think I hardly existed.

Well, let me tell you, I haz been one busy, busy girl this summer.  Here are some excerpts from my summer journal.

June 11-19

Mama Jean and Eddie were away camping so I stayed with Auntie Gail and Sadie B.  I like it there!  I got to snoopervise in the garden, an' check out Sadie's pool,

Hmmmm.... a Very Big water dish!

an' go fer walks to visit with a bunch of dogs  - and a cat - that are Just My Size!  I really likes that!  I must 'member to tell Mama Jean I would like a canine bruder or sister the same size as me.

Me an some of mah new friends

An' even though I took my own bed, I liked this one of Sadie's better.

That's more like it!  

Can you find me in this picture? Heheheheh!

I had a good time there.  Thanks Auntie Gail!

July 1

It is Canada Day.  Auntie Gail gave me this neat hat which used to be Georgi's.  It was the perfect attire for Canada Day.  I was borned in Canada, but lived most of my life in the Excited States, so I thinks I haz duel citizenship.  That means I get to celebrate both Canada Day and Independence Day.  I am an Independent Canadian, that I am!

All dessed up fer Canada Day

July 4

And I celebrated Independence Day with a hike to Swallowfield wiv Mama Jean, Eddie, Auntie Gail and Sadie B.  I loves going fer hikes.  There's lots of good places to explore.

Lookin' out at the Chemainus River

Eddie's more interested in the treat pouch.

An' Sadie's chasing sticks in the water

July 13

Today mah friend Rajah and I went to Grace Road Park.  We let Mama Jean, Eddie, and Auntie Margaret come wiv us.  We had LOTS of fun.  Rajah and I really liked to wade around in the water.  I got kinda wet and sandy, but Mama Jean said that was okay cause I waz havin' so much fun.

Hmmmm....do ya thinks there's any fish in here?
I loves fish!

Maybe I'll find some fishies down stream a bit.

C'mon in, Rajah, the water's fine!

I'm coming!

Wait fer me!

Even Anxious Eddie came in for a paddle

I'z not afraid of water, just of bridges!

It is a very bootiful spot.  A good place to just enjoy the scenery or maybe haz a little snack:

Rajah enjoys the view

Snack?  Did you say SNACK?

Oh Boy!  Treat Time!

July 25th
We haz a visitor - hmmmm, that would be Auntie Donna! - and we took her to Crofton Lake.  There was a shady place to sit at the end of the path, where we could stare at the lake and watch for eagles. There weren't no eagles today though - that's cuz I'm FER-O-CIOUS and scared them all away.

Eddie an' me looking at Crofton Lake

August 1

We went to Stocking Creek Park wiv Auntie Gail and Sadie B.  I'z never been there, and Eddie hadn't been there fer a long time.  Mama Jean didn't take no pictures of me - I think it was because Eddie was being a big baby and had to be CARRIED across a wee little bridge cuz he was so scared of it, so she hadta put the camera in her backpack.  What a wimp Eddie is!  I is brave and not afeared of nuthin.  Here's the only photo Mama took that day that even sorta turned out - Sadie is swimmin' in the water and Eddie is wondering if there's a shallow spot where he can wade across instead of taking the bridge back home.

Sadie swimming, Eddie searching

August 8th

We went to Osborne Bay Park wiv Auntie Gail and Sadie B.  I likes this park a lot.  The tide was just right so we walked on the beach and Sadie B went swimmin.

On the beach

Eddie and I mostly just mooched fer food.  Auntie Gail has the BEST treats.  Way better than the ones Mama Jean has.

Pwease may we haz a treat?

I loves the beach.  See my happy face?

Well, I haz other stuffs to show you, like about the neat games Mama Jean has been teaching me when it is too hot to go fer a walk, and some photos Mama Jean took of mah friends Archie and Tanner, but all this bloggin' is hard work, so I need a nap now.  I'z havin' a good summer.  I hopes you are too.

G'night!

Love Mitzi

Who knew?

Last year, a neighbour gave me a couple of baby leek plants she had left over.  They grew into healthy leeks, which I happily cut down and used in homemade soup.

I left the base of the plants in the soil over the winter, simply because I didn't get around to digging over the bed, and this spring a new green shoot appears.

Within a few weeks, that shoot had soared to five feet tall, and instead of a fleshy green and white bulbous end near the soil for soup, it sprouted a round ball, about an inch in diameter, on the top.  The ball wore a paper-thin toque with a long pointed end.   I wish I had photographed it.

I left it alone, knowing nothing about leeks but hoping the plant might still produce some veggies for the pot.

Then, one day, I noticed its toque had split and slipped sideways.

Seed head in toque
(c) Jean Ballard 2013

And over the course of the next few days, the round ball grew, and the toque shrank,

(c) Jean Ballard 2013

And little flowers appeared on the ball,

(c) Jean Ballard 2013

Until it was nearly four inches in diameter,

(c) Jean Ballard 2013

And a garden favourite for the bees.

Bumble bee on leek seed head
(c) Jean Ballard 2013

Who knew that one plain green and white veggie would become the most lovely flower in the garden?

Mother Nature is full of surprises!

What NOT to do with a power mitre saw

I wrote this a couple of months back, but never got around to posting it on the blog.  It happened when I was getting the house rewired and new insulation blown in. The job was supposed to take three days.  The electrician was right on schedule.  The insulation people were not - due to repeatedly blowing out the motor on the blowing machine and having no spares available.  The following occured around day ten or twelve of the three day job - as I watched the insulation company pull out of the driveway around noon, once again leaving a broken machine in my carport.  It was a day that only got worse:  

One should never make quick decisions that involve the use of power tools when one is frustrated and pissed off with tradesmen.  I err on the side of caution where power tools are concerned, and so far I’ve never cut off a limb or blinded myself with a woodchip through careless use of tools.  This time, however, I messed up (pun intended) big time.  

I had the power mitre saw out for some work I was doing on the shed while the electrician and insulators were working in the house.  As the insulation truck pulled out of the driveway, job again incomplete,   I popped into the house to see all was in order.  

That's when I had a not-so-brilliant idea.  In the last big bag of  frozen beef neck bones I bought for Eddie were some that were far, far too large for him. 

Y'mean they were bigger than THIS one?
Yum!

Let’s just say no matter how simple it might seem to take frozen meaty bones and slice them in halves or thirds with the chop saw, it is never a good idea.  

No, I didn’t get injured, and the bones didn’t go flying – but it did take me the next three hours to take the machinery apart and clean every nook and cranny of the meat and fat that had melted from the heat of the saw blade and blown into each tiny convoluted crevice, of which a power mitre saw has many.  

By the time I was comfortable that I wouldn’t find the machine crawling with maggots (one of the few living critters I hate more than slugs) within a day or two,  that saw was so shiny and clean I could have sold it ‘as new’ and bought myself the larger, sliding arm one that I’d really like.  Y’know, just in case I missed a spot and maggots appeared anyway. 

The culprit - or is it the victim?

But, alas, I have no money for new and improved tools, so the only logical thing to do was to phone a friend and invite her to commiserate with me over an evening of pizza and beer.  Cheaper than a new saw, more reliable than tradesmen, and a good way to end the day. 

Mitzi and the Monkey

Our company last week sent this gift of a Flying Screaming Monkey for the critters. The toy works sort of like a slingshot - pull both elastic arms back and let him go - and he screams as he flies across the room.  The reaction of both Allie and Mitzi was hilarious, and although Eddie ignored it at first he later decided to join in once he saw Mitzi having such a barkfest over it.  I couldn't make the monkey fly, a two handed operation, and run the camera at the same time, so I just pulled the arm and showed it to the critters for this video.  Turn on the sound!  (Thanks, Donna, for some fun entertainment!)

I hope this works - 

Camping with Eddie: Petals and Pigs

Thought I'd melted into a puddle on the computer room rug, didn't you?  Well, it is still hot, but that isn't the whole reason for not blogging.  And I certainly have lots of photos and topics to blog about.  So as well as summer inertia, we'll blame it on lost dogs (not mine!), facebook (what a time sucker), company, gardening, volunteerism, writing for other purposes, and just plain laziness.

So let's wrap up the Camping with Eddie series and move on to other topics...

The last couple of days of our camping trip were spent lazing around, playing with the camera.  Although it was mid-June, the spring flowers had just come into full force - spring arrives much later in the mountains than on the island!  There were blossoms everywhere, in every colour and shape.  Here's just a few of my favourites:

Okay, not a blossom - a berry!
Salmonberry
(c) Jean Ballard 2013 

California Poppies
(c) Jean Ballard 2013 

Foxglove
(c) Jean Ballard 2013 

Orange flower
(forgotten the name!)
(c) Jean Ballard 2013 

A bee flew into this shot
just as I snapped the photo!

Wild Rose
(c) Jean Ballard 2013 

Don't know what these are -
They grew on a large tree and lower shrubs, with large, broad,  five-petalled leaves.
(c) Jean Ballard 2013 

I was going to call this entry "Petals, Peckers, and Pigs", because I also have some photos of a woodpecker who entertained me one morning.  I thought, however, that pairing Peckers and Pigs in a title might be misinterpreted and who knows who might end up on this page while searching for completely different material!  But here are the photos of the woodpecker - he was either a rather large male Downy, or a male Hairy Woodpecker with a rather short beak. (The two species are almost identical except in overall size and in the length of the beak).

(c) Jean Ballard 2013 

(c) Jean Ballard 2013 

(c) Jean Ballard 2013 

(c) Jean Ballard 2013 

On the day we left the campsite to return home, we took a sidetrip to Hearts on Noses Mini Pig Sanctuary. Janice, the owner, was in hospital having had a heart attack two days previous, but her mom and sister were there to receive the fruit and veggies we took for the piggies and to share a cup of tea while I said a quick hello to all the critters.

Molly and Chilko, Janice's two dogs, came to greet me first.

Molly

Chilko
(c) Jean Ballard 2013 

And then Dior and  Lacey, the horses, came over to check out the apples I'd brought.

Got Apples?
(c) Jean Ballard 2013 

Then it was time to say hello to the pigs. They were all in their pens, as Janice's family was just about to leave for the hospital.  First stop was Panda, whose ears were bitten off by rats in the filthy conditions in which he was confined before coming to the sanctuary.

Panda
(c) Jean Ballard 2013 

Then there was this newcomer, whose name I don't know, but whose black and white markings and longer nose make him stand out in a crowd.

(c) Jean Ballard 2013 

Then off to see the twelve I fostered.  Most were sleeping, but some made the effort to come say hello to their former foster mama.

Hi Former Foster Mama!
(c) Jean Ballard 2013 

I didn't have treats on me - not wanting to get all the pigs excited just as everyone was about to leave - so some just opened their eyes and grunted a hello. 

What, no treats?
(c) Jean Ballard 2013 

Then round to see the pink pigs - Comet, Rose and Roscoe:

Comet
(c) Jean Ballard 2013 

Rose
(c) Jean Ballard 2013 

Roscoe
(c) Jean Ballard 2013 

And lastly a quick peek at some of the other potbellied porcines.  I particularly liked this shot:

Hello there.
Haz you seen our Mama Janice?
(c) Jean Ballard 2013 

And then it was back in the van, back on the boat, and back home to the island.  And onto other stories.

Yahoo!
(c) Jean Ballard 2013