Friday's Hunt v 3.22

It's time for Friday's Hunt again.  Today I am hunting to find time, as usual.  It has been a crazy busy week with working until midnight most nights.  I have a bit of respite from work this coming weekend but the weekend itself is busy with cleaning and organizing my former home in Nova Scotia to get it ready for the real estate market.  Then it will be back to the grind on Monday.

Fortunately, I managed to take a few pictures for today's hunt.  The prompts from Eden Hills are:

Starts with V
Vermin starts with V.  The term vermin usually refers to animals or birds that cause a significant nuisance.  This little raccoon probably falls into the vermin category in the minds of most people.  It is a significant nuisance because he (or she) eats my bird seed and damages the bird feeders.

On the other hand, I think this is a really cute example of vermin, despite it being a nuisance.

There's a look in its eye, as if to say "What....I wasn't doing anything?  Why are you staring at me?"

See?  I'm just doing my exercise routine.  Nothing to do with the suet feeder.  Nope.

Usually this little vermin visits after dark, but on a very wet and rainy day earlier this week, he/she was there earlier in the day while there was still light for these pictures.

Week's Favourite
My favourite picture this week is courtesy of Mitten, our cat.  He was nestled in the shelving unit inside our closet - when Marc opened the closet door, he found Mitten comfortably sleeping in there. He called me up to take a picture and Mitten stayed in place for this cute shot.

Here's the overall view of how he looked when the closet door was opened.  Funny cat!


Inch
I'm excited to say that it is moth season again!  I'm always interested in taking pictures of moths that visit our screened-in porch.  I leave the light on overnight and it tends to attract moths who rest there and I photograph those that remain in the morning.  This moth has wings that are just about an inch across (from top to bottom as seen in the picture below).  It is the Northern Thorn moth (Selenia alcipherea) and it visited my porch this morning.  Hooray for the start of moth season!

My handsome, handy hubby, and a few other bits and pieces

Today Marc installed a GFI outlet on the outside wall where the electric fence charger will be plugged in.  He doesn't like having his photograph taken, but since Timber and Izzy were there to help him out, he didn't mind so much.  That's the new plug just on the left of the picture.  Thank you, my handsome hubby!  I am so appreciative of his work in helping me get ready to have my sheep and goats come home!  He also installed the fence charging unit inside a weatherproof metal box so it can be put up on a post next to the fence.  What a lucky gal I am!

Now we just have to wait for NB Power to install the new power line so we can hook up the electric fence.  I spent some time this afternoon ripping old, rusty barbed wire fence out of the ground, because it was entering into the fenced area, and I didn't want any animal injuries resulting from it.  I dislike barbed wire very much, and hauling it out of the ground when it's been buried for years is not my idea of a good time.

I had another new daylily open up this weekend and it's a gorgeous plummy burgundy colour with a greenish-yellow centre.  This one might be my favourite!

Here's one of my favourite little neighbours - the chipmunk!  I managed to photograph him (or her) earlier this week.

I picked some more of the wild blueberries today, as well as some raspberries from our yard.  The raspberries are a big brambly tangle, and I would like to get that sorted out into an organized raspberry patch so that they are easier to pick and prune.  I found what I think are blackberries.  They are green and very far behind the current raspberry crop.  Blackberries are usually a later crop, so that's what I think I've got.  I hope so!

Here's my favourite moth from the past week - Habrosyne scripta - the lettered habrosyne moth.  I love the detailed patterns in its wings.  One day I'd like to have a proper macro lens to take even better photographs of moths like these.

Friday's Hunt v 2.5

It's Friday, so I'm joining in the Friday's Hunt meme hosted by Eden Hills.  Today's subjects are: starts with E, week's favourite, and bounce.

Starts with E
One of the plants that is becoming interesting in the garden is the Echinops ritro.  This is an ornamental thistle species.  Eventually, these globe-shaped flower heads will open with tiny flowers, making them look blue.  They will be really pretty then, but for now, they provide an interesting shape and vertical element in the perennial garden.

I have a bonus "E" item today.  This is Eurrhypara hortulata, although because taxonomy is a difficult and ever-changing thing, sometimes it's classified as Anania hortulata.  In any event, it was a visitor to my screened-in porch, where I leave the light on overnight to attract moths for photography and cataloging purposes.  The common name of this moth is the small magpie moth.

Week's Favourite
This isn't necessarily a favourite photograph, but it depicts a favourite thing that happened this week.  I finally put up some fencing, with the help of a contractor/carpenter friend.  We put up just over 300 feet of fencing in my woodland area for the sheep and goats.  We added 2 hot wires that are at about 1 foot and 30 inches off the ground, in an attempt to keep the goats from climbing the fence, since Lucky Nickel is an expert at fence climbing.  I still need to get a grounding rod for the charger and Marc will build me a little box for the charger to keep it from getting wet until the barn gets built.  Then we can bring the gang home!

I was glad I still had a bit of fencing from Iowa.  The woven wire fence I used to be able to buy there was much better quality than what I can get here.  As you can see in the picture below, the woven wire that I brought with me from the US has a really secure twisted knot at each wire intersection, preventing the animals from expanding the holes.

By contrast, the wire I can get locally is relatively weak, and the small coiled intersections are only in one direction with no cross-wiring, meaning that they can easily be pushed aside, distorting the wire openings in the fence.  This is really not very good quality construction and lends itself to fence problems.  I'd rather pay more for well made fencing, but I just couldn't find it here.  That's another reason I decided the hot wires were needed.

Bounce
This was a tough one for me.  I've been pondering it all week.  I don't use the classic dryer sheets with this name, and most of my laundry is being line-dried these days.  I don't have a trampoline.  I don't have cute baby animals who make a habit of bouncing around the pasture.  I don't have anything in my house that bounces, except possibly a dog toy or two, but I'm not sure where they are at the moment.  I forgot to take a picture of today's bread dough "bouncing" back from a finger poke before it was baked.  It's raining today and I noticed leaves being hit by raindrops and bouncing on their stems, but I really didn't want to go out and take pictures in the rain, and being able to catch just the right leaf at the right moment was going to be a tricky endeavour.  I kept coming up blank.  And then I thought about me.  That's when I realized, maybe I'm the thing that is bouncing, or at least bouncing back from where I was a few years ago.   So I got out the tripod and used the self timer...

Just over 5 years ago, I returned to Canada after living in Iowa for 9 years.  I had joy and excitement in my heart and a whole lot of dreams to fulfill.  I thought I knew exactly how that was going to play out, and I was ready to take on the world.  Within a few short months, all those things crashed down around me as a whole house of cards built on lies and misrepresentations came tumbling to the floor. The work I thought I'd be doing, the partner I thought I had, the business I thought I'd be running, and the entire purpose for moving back - all of it dissolved in a very short time frame leaving me shaken, depressed, anxious, uncertain, and lost.  Some of those losses were, unquestionably, very good things to lose!  Some of them have been more difficult, and the financial struggles of being saddled with a crumbling heap of a farm have been almost insurmountable.

But here I am, and I think I'm doing a pretty good job at bouncing back.  Initially after the collapse, I took a miserable job for a few months before realizing that was making things even worse. I then boldly started my own business, I started to fix up the farm (it's still in progress), and I eventually decided I was ready to consider dating again, I found a wonderful partner (for real, this time!) and remarkably got married at the ripe old age of 46.

We now have a lovely home surrounded by wildlife, woodlands, and garden beds, all of which bring me joy.  My business has taken a hit from the drop in the oil and gas industry, but I am still managing to get by.  The farm heap is being renovated, slowly getting better, and will eventually be able to be put on the market.  Soon I will have my sheep and goats back with me, and that will bring me even more joy.  I no longer wake up with dread in my heart and a weight on my shoulders I can't bear.  I don't have panic attacks any more.  I don't burst into tears at the drop of a hat.  I don't feel like a burden to my friends and family.  And here I am, blogging regularly again.  So, that's my interpretation of bounce...I'm doing it, each and every day.