Nothing doing at the Malloys

Things are very very quiet at the Malloy homestead because both of us have come down with the flu.  I have lost my voice for about 6 days now (this makes Brian happy), but he too is down for the count.  Fortunately he still has a voice.  We are both indignant at surviving the winter without a problem, but now the weather is nice we are laid up inside.  We hear comments that the cough persists for about 3 weeks, so we are not impressed.

As you may have guessed, we have had little/no interest in the house and will take it off the market at the end of June when the contract expires.  The agent changed real estate companies in March and seems to be disinterested in working any further on it.

We have come to the conclusion that a major deterrent is the lack of bathrooms, and so have contracted to build an ensuite bathroom off the bedroom to enhance the house.  This will take place during the summer.  If nothing else, I will be relieved to not have to have it show-ready.

Despite our deathly illness, we still have been out and about a bit.  We volunteering to monitor a 48-acre property near us that is owned by the Ontario Heritage Trust, due to significant archeological findings of a native village.  We have found a couple of patches of garlic mustard, which is a terribly invasive plant, growing on the land.  The only way to get rid of it is to pick it, and we therefore pulled three garbage bags of it today.  It is extremely pungent smelling, as the name suggests, and will continue to be a problem for some time yet.

There is one noteworthy picture from my most recent Naturalist Class.  We found some small skulls under a big rock, and considerable efforts were expended to get at least two specimens.  It looks like a coyote or wolf was having a lovely time eating muskrats. We are really getting down and dirty and you should have seen the mud on the car after this excursion.