Time is getting shorter here at Buttercup Ridge....

Our Location: Buttercup Ridge, Roseneath, Ontario Canada


A week has past since I last posted, my but how time does slip away from us. I’ve been reading your blogs folks, not necessarily commenting  but liking some and simply keeping up with others. I like that little like button, but I can’t figure out how to check to see who did the liking. Haha, oh well, it’s nice just to know someone took the time to read, and I thank all of you for your continued interest.  Today is a bit of a catch up, a bit of humour, a bit of a rant, and a bit of nostalgia, it’s a full post folks. 

We gathered all those sticks from the yard to be used in the fireplace over the summer. Fireplace on the left, pizza oven on the right.

 

Our 14 day quarantine is up and we’ve ventured out to the small hamlet of Harwood for some very wonderfully sweet, cold drinking water from an artisan well there. We didn’t see anyone, talk to anyone nor did we touch anything. The water simply flows from the well pipe, no on or off switch, lots of space for any size jug without it touching any piece of the pipe. Kind of like hands free. Perhaps next time I’ll remember to take a photo.

 

 

 Fun times here at Buttercup Ridge. 

 

 

 

 

 

Back at Buttercup Ridge we’ve been working inside and out, cleaning up a bit of  the yard  and gardens as well as the house (since we’ve been here over two weeks now I thought it needed a bit of a spruce up). We’ve noticed Mike and company at the barn most days (he comes twice every day but we don’t always see him), Wendy the gardener stopped by for a few minutes yesterday but we kept our distance while chatting. The oil truck came to fill up the tank but again we conversed over a good distance. Other than that, not a single interaction with anyone during our time here. Alma the housekeeper here at Buttercup Ridge hasn’t been around since we are here to keep an eye on things anyway.

 

 

I cleaned up part of this garden just in time for the snow to cover all those wonderful green shoots. 

 

 

The weather has taken a nasty turn as you can see from the photos. This morning when I opened the door tiny snow pellets were pummeling my face, they have now turned to big wet flakes of snow that leave rain drops in their wake. Great packing snow for snowman building. The ever present wind is once again making itself known as it climbs steadily from a light breeze to registering in our minds as winds. As I finish this post the snow has stopped but it's cold, single digits. 

 We are tucked up very close to the house and for the most part, out of the majority of the wind.

 I told you were close to the house.

 

 

While talking with Janet over the last while (they are still in Indian Wells, CA), their flights have disappeared into thin air, no notice, no memos, just seemed to disappear. Aliens or conspiracy? Haha. It is neither. They aren’t too upset by this fact as they have made arrangements to drive anyway. It was necessary for them to stay where they were but have now managed to arrange things to come home 3 weeks earlier than planned. No they aren’t sick, they don’t have the virus and they are being very cautious.

 

 

An interesting article I read ( a while ago) about  statements made by a provincial government official in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada. I’m always amazed at how some people think and wonder if they realize how little they know about what they speak. I don’t recall the exact wording of the article but it was in reference to people who travel and live in RV’s, 5’ers, trailers, etc, in other words snowbirds and full timers. This government official doesn’t want people like us to be staying in campgrounds, as he feels we can’t self isolate there, and mentioned that those same travellers should use only pay at the pumps fuel stations so we don’t have to go inside as we travel homeward. My favourite was this one: we should use the drive thru for getting take out food. Now I can only speak for myself but truly I found this to be one of the more humourous articles I’ve read in a long time. Really a drive thru? I have enough worries sometimes making the sharp corners with the Dogsled, I couldn’t imagine the Igloo making them. I have a cousin that used to be a long distance hauler and even years ago complained that he couldn’t use the drive thru window because they wouldn’t sell him anything when he walked up to the window. It seems this is still the practice at some fast food places. Really? In this time of worry, stress and economic hardships, they won’t take your order unless you drive thru? Yes I’m certain they have reasons for such foolishness but during these times I think common sense needs to prevail. Seriously people we as a society need some common sense when our nations are depending on supplies being brought to us by truckers who are finding it difficult to get food and use a bathroom. Businesses won’t allow them to use a drive thru window if walking or use the bathrooms at many locations. Truly if I were driving a big rig, I think I might be tempted to take a crap at the drive thru window after I walked up and was denied food.
 

 

 This is about half of the area of the side yard and we've cleaned it up over two days. Leaves, pine needles, pine cones and walnuts. Truly a lot of work but it looks so much better, even with the snow.

That pile of sticks from one of the earlier photos is over there between the pizza oven and the fire place. 

 

 

As a Canadian, and a full time RV dweller I must say I find the Canadian government, as well as the provincial governments to be doing a pretty decent job overall although I think they could do better in a few areas but one area in particular bothers me. They pleaded, yelled, threatened and begged us to come home early from the warmer climates and I understand why they did such things but I must say they didn’t take into account all of the folks that live in a home wheels. They didn’t think about the reality of us coming home at such a time. They offered to keep hotels, motels and such types of living facilities open but they didn’t open up spaces for us to live in our homes, they consider campgrounds NON ESSENTIAL, and in fact have been keeping them closed and delaying their openings, yet they keep the beer and liquor stores open. While some campgrounds are opening to help snow birds and full timers, they run the risk of big fines as being open for NON ESSENTIAL business. How better to self isolate than to be in a contained environment like a trailer. Do you know that places like Quinte West and Gananoque, Ontario  are  now offering health care workers campers/trailers for free (both private people and dealerships) to help them keep isolated from their families but yet be at home in the yard or driveway, instead of sleeping in the garage or the car? How can government officials feel that we are a health risk by staying in our own homes instead of a hotel/motel? Really people, open the campgrounds and let us nomads in to keep us as safe as those in stix ’n brix places. I would like to assure those in government that the space between rigs is greater than 6 feet/2 meters. We are no greater risk than anyone else, but we will be if you don’t give us a place to put our feet down and live comfortably during this time of stress and worry.  We need places to dump our tanks, get our water and use electricity to keep warm. We need to have people around us that can help us by doing all those things we can’t do for ourselves for 14 days, get groceries, and propane and our medications. Campground owners, managers and workers will do that for folks when family and friends can’t be around. It’s absolutely no different than family dropping off the needed supplies while returning folks are in 14 days of being alone. Truly I believe if you are going to break the newly imposed rules that are meant to keep us safe you will do so no matter where you live, be it in your stix ’n brix house in your own neighbourhood or in a campground, a store or fuel station. We can’t fix stupid but we can make it easier for everyone to get through this very stressful time with some of our sanity in tact. 

 

 

 

 

So there you have it, we’ve been keeping busy and are happy to be out of quarantine even though we didn’t do anything different except drive for 10 minutes to the well. A little fact for those that think about these things, we crossed on March 23rd, and yet didn’t arrive at Buttercup Ridge until the 24th. Did our time start on the 23rd or the 24th? We stopped for fuel on the way to Buttercup Ridge which the border guard knew about and said it was fine. We didn’t enter any buildings though and so we debated about which dates our quarantine was actually in effect. Did it really matter? No, we didn’t leave the farm anyway, but it is a curious thing for those that are keeping track of their time alone. However it is a mute point, since April 6 and 7 have both passed, which means our time of sticking to the rules of not leaving the property has officially ended. However if one is keeping track, our plates entered Ontario, Canada around 2:30 pm on Tuesday, March 23rd. It was officially recorded at customs.

 

 A bit fuzzy but you get the idea. This sits just inside the front door here at Buttercup Ridge and makes me smile each time I see it.

 

 

A couple of other things I would like to mention before I sign off. Happy Birthday to Aunt Eileen. My father’s youngest sister. She celebrated the big day on April 2. We hope she had a most joyous day!! Also a belated Happy Birthday to Joan, who celebrated on the 5th. She is married to my father's youngest brother. We hope also had a wonderful day Aunt Joan. Another birthday greeting goes out to our friend Steve Mitchell. I meet Steve while travelling and staying in the southeast years ago when I stayed in his park at Albany, GA. Happy Birthday my friend, hope you have a wonderful day. Happy Easter to one and all, may you find warmth, love and comfort in places least expected during this holiday season. Keeping a good distance from all who love and care for you as well as those you don’t know is one way to help ensure that we will be around next Easter too.

 

 

On a sad note, the passing of singer songwriter John Prine at the age of 73 leaves me remembering a nice time Richard and I had when we journeyed to Kalamazoo, MI many years ago to see Mr. Prine in concert. A beautiful old theater with great acoustics that allowed the concert to feel intimate and personal.  It was a very good concert and we had a great time. Maybe not well known by the masses but he was well known by many big names in the business. A few of my favourite songs include Dr. Abbey, Paradise, Souvenirs and  Please don’t bury me.  Give ‘em a listen, you may like them.

 

 This is our summer location, Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada. If you look toward the bottom right you will South Baymouth. The ferry docks there and we can see it from our favourite swimming spot. We spend most of our spring, all summer and most of the fall right there about under the "U" in south. We come and go by way of Little Current, where the swing bridge is located near the top right right of the photo. 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you are all healthy, warm and looking forward to a less restrictive time in the future. Again I wish you all a Happy Easter.

Until next time...take care, be safe, stay healthy,

Deb

 

A few leisurely days....

Our Location: Buttercup Ridge, Roseneath, Ontario

A very nice few days here at Buttercup Ridge. Warm sunshine, and a nice warm breeze from the south helped to make things quite nice here. The mud is drying up, the flowers are starting to show promise of blooms and of course the buds are beginning to appear on some of the trees near by. 

Tulips just scream SPRING.

We've been having the big door open most days for a while, windows as well, even the vents open at night. The frogs are close and very vocal, as well as chipmunks, squirrels, birds and various other forms of life. The odd moo of a cow, the honking of geese, while the gobble of the wild turkeys hasn't been heard they are around. Some deer are also lurking as I've noticed some of the tulip blooms have been eaten off and I doubt that was anything else. I don't have a picture but I'll get some before we leave of a number of  the new calves which have been born here at Buttercup Ridge. According to Mike there are 16 new calves already, and I witnessed a 2 day old calf kicking his heels and testing his wobbly legs as we chatted.

Buds are coming slowly.

Yesterday (Wednesday) we headed out for a couple of errands and managed to accomplish most of them. One more will have to wait until we arrive in Sudbury I think. We left Buttercup Ridge and ventured along County Rd 29, crossing over County Rd 45 where we settled down for a few miles on County Rd 9 in a westerly direction. We turned North on County Rd 15 (the little subdivision) toward the small hamlet of Harwood. It's a very small little bump in the road but it has an amazing feature. Free (donations welcome) water from an Artesian well or an aquifer that runs all the time. The water is amazingly cool and crisp. We will return before we leave the area to fill all of our drinking jugs. It's a mere 10 minutes from Buttercup Ridge. 

Just one of the  many statues here at Buttercup Ridge.

Leaving Harwood we retraced our steps to County Rd 9, again turned west, until we met up with County Rd 18, which we took south all the way to Cobourg and the local Walmart. We've shopped here before and so knew where we were heading. It's a bit more straight forward than coming down County Rd 45 which would make us wind our way through the city of Cobourg. 

I was quite far away and couldn't really tell what that was as it was just getting to be dusk.

We managed to get just about everything on the grocery list, which of course mostly consisted of fresh veggies and some juices. We also managed to exchange one of our small BBQ tanks, $24 CAD which seems to be the consistent price range here in Ontario. Our next stop was the Bulk Barn for some sea salt which we prefer instead of fine table salt, we use our little salt and pepper grinders to provide a fresher flavour for us. After that it was a stop at Petro Canada Gas Station (the only one in the area unless I venture further into Cobourg) to top up the Big Dog's drinking bowl. Diesel prices are high at $1.28 per liter which works out to be about $5.12 a US gallon.(There is approx 4 liters to the US Gallon) But surprisingly much less than even the lowest gasoline prices at the pumps there which started at $1.36 per liter which works out to be $5.44 a US gallon and continued to climb in 10 cent increments. After that it was home once again to Buttercup Ridge. 

Then he turned around and I could see his charming face.

The last few days have had us outside doing a few odd things, raking, puttering, etc. A quick chat with Mike (his cow's we hear mooing on occasion) had it decided that no more raking will be taking place as he assured me that his mower will mulch all the branches and sticks down on the lawn now that I've moved the big limbs over to the large pile by the barn. Any piles I make he'll have to clean up and he would rather not do it that way. So I'll have to find something else to putter at for the next few days. 

Very blurry but this guy was big and fast.

The other evening I went out to get a few pictures and noticed something by the pond. Heading that way I couldn't really tell what it was but once it turned around I knew it was a raccoon. It is the biggest coon I've ever seen in my life. This thing was huge. He took off running as I went nearer and while the pictures aren't the best I think it gives an indication of what a constant diet of corn will do for a raccoon that lives in the barn here at Buttercup Ridge. As that's where he made his get away dash for, the open areas that allow them access to the hay loft. 

He's under the hay wagon turning the corner to head back toward the barn. That's a regular sized hay wagon and look how little space there is above him to the bottom of the frame.

We've been catching a few episodes of our boxed set of Hawaii 5-0 as well as reading and getting a few walks in up and down the driveway. Today however we will be Igloo bound off and on as the rain falls outside, stops and starts again. The temperatures are still warm, 57F/ 13.8C over night with yesterdays high temperature reaching 69F/20.5C. I'm sure today won't reach that high but it's still a sign that spring is coming. Yeah!!!!!

I was more interested in the geese than the foliage or lack of it in the back ground but as you can see there is no hint of any colour yet.

So there you have it, our few days of leisure here at Buttercup Ridge. Amazing how the time is slipping past. We have only 4 more days here before we head to Peterborough for a stop at Kal Tire for tires, and then a bit west before turning our noses northward again. We'll take a few days to reach our Island destination as we have a thing or two to accomplish before leaving the Sudbury/Lively area. 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit. 

Until next time.... take care, be safe, 

Deb