The River news

I just got back from a few days down in Brockville. A month makes a huge difference. 

Then I was facing enormous snowdrifts, cold temperatures and a river full of ice. 

This time I was able to run in my shorts, ditch the ski-jacket and walk right to the front door without a shovel. 

Winter's aftermath was everywhere. The snow isn't gone, there are piles all over, one of the largest in front of the shed door which would have required a god chunk of time to dig out. As the snow retreats, the dog turds are revealed, a considerable number. They belong to the neighbour's black lab. There is a lot of windfall: oak branches, maple, pine. There is one tree on the back end of the property that is missing its top 30 feet. The ground is not entirely thawed, so a misstep can send you skidding along the muddy surface. The runoff is keeping the sump pump busy.

The neighbours to my east, Liz and Dave, the longest-serving of the full-timers out there at 34 years, tell me the ice coming down river was the thickest they had ever seen. Evidence of it's force was visible at my other neighbour's (owner of the property-lined challenged lab). George is the guy with the helipad dock that is slung out over the water (you can see it in the bottom right corner of the picture). I can report that the dock survived, it's still sitting there, but is missing most of the wooden planks that constitute its skirt. The ice just peeled it away. The replacement wood is sitting on the deck, waiting to be hammered on, presumably when the water is a bit warmer. 

The fauna is of the season too. Woodpeckers everywhere, their hammering a constant rhythm. The robins are nesting, the red-wing blackbirds are in abundance, the chipmunks are back and digging.

It was the woodpeckers that caught my eye, especially when I took a look at the west wall of the house. It's full of holes. The birds have hammered out perfect circles, about two inches across, yanked out the insulation and are preparing to nest. They pecked through the outer skin of stained cedar, then through the sublayer of coated particle board and into the fibreglass. The wall looks like someone has been taking target practice on it. 

We don't want birds nesting IN the house, so I got the ladder and began to inspect inside the holes. No nests. I got some old bits of hardwood flooring and hammered them over the holes. I was distracted at one point by a starling that exited from one of the holes, ever the squatter, but his hole was too high up to cover. 

The flowerbeds are still covered with leaves and some snow, so it's too early to get the rake out (if I could, it's snowed-in still). The big clean up will have to wait for next time.