Get prepared for a good ride this month! Lots of things happened…
When I try to set out the framework for the month’s
highlights, sometimes I go in date order; other times I try to save the best
parts for the last. For this month both
methods work to the same conclusion, so here we go.
May was still a cooler month than we had hoped for, with
temperatures getting into the 20’s only a handful of times, with two of them
being on the last two days of May.
On June 1, the temperature switch was activated by
mother nature, and we hit 28.6 that day.
Now we were geared for summer! On
June 2, Osoyoos hit a new temperature record, with a high of 36.2 versus 35.0
in 1970. Yes!
June 3: Mom
bear and her 2 juveniles came through the yard around 10:45 am, just checking
things out again.
June 4: I was visiting
at neighbours, and Pat mentioned she had seen a chipmunk lying inside their
swimming pool utility room, and the little beast didn’t look well. I immediately asked her to show me, and ended
up rescuing this cold little lump, near death, weighing only 24 grams. For those of us who can’t think at that
level, that is equal to 3 toonies and a penny.
We have Yellow Pine Chipmunks, which are smaller than some of their
counterparts, especially the eastern ones.
My mammal book said they should weigh between 35 and 70 grams, so I
figured this was a juvenile.
I took her home and warmed her up gradually, and then gave
her some fluid and soft food to try out.
For a couple of days, she did little more than sleep and occasionally
nibble something. Pat had mentioned a
chipmunk falling from the side of the house, and I suspect this was the one,
and that it was probably suffering head trauma from the fall.
I didn’t take a picture, frankly, because she was in such
bad shape and I didn’t want to remember her like that. A couple of days more, and I tried to weigh
her to see if she was gaining weight.
She obviously was now sensitive about her body image, and absolutely refused
to be weighed. We spent the next half
hour playing “chase the chipmunk” in my workroom, with me stuffing towels under
the door so she couldn’t slip through, and me moving every single piece of
anything on the floor that provided shelter to her. By now, even the most pessimistic
rehabilitator could conclude that she had improved considerably. By that time, it seemed appropriate to name
her “Phoenix” since she had risen from the ashes.
A week from pickup date, we arranged to take her back to
where she originated and release her. I
had checked her container in the morning, and everything was fine. With Pat and Dennis peering over my shoulder,
I gently tipped her container to the side, and started remove the 2” of pine
needles I had given her for bedding. To
my chagrin, there were lots of pine needles and NO chipmunk.
I shamefacedly went back home and went through my workroom
again thoroughly. No luck. Then I started searching the entire basement,
searching every room from stem to stern (with a flashlight for every hard-to
see corner). No luck. Finally, I started closing each room off
after searching it again by closing the door and stuffing towels under the gap
to prevent her from sneaking through. After
all, she still was very, very little…..
After an hour and a half, I went back to my workroom for one
last time, and stacked everything on top of tables, chairs and shelves and
voila! A brief furry flash. After another half hour, and another
resounding game of “chase the chipmunk”, Phoenix was recaptured and put into a
no-escape box with high walls. This is
the only picture I have of her. She is
sitting on a square of cardboard that is 3”X3” with lots of room to spare. After a second and more joyous return to her
surroundings, she was back where she belonged.
I don’t know how a 24 gram chipmunk could leave such a big empty hole in
the house when she was gone.
June 7: We
woke up to SNOW on the ground. Yes,
SNOW. The hummingbirds were desperate
for food, and did not have the energy to fight for territory, so I have this
unprecedented picture of five of them at once at a feeder (and another was
hovering nearby). The low that day was
0.5 Celsius.
June 8: The
Shaw television technician came out to adjust our satellite dish which is
mounted on a tree; mother bear had probably rearranged it on her last visit.
June 15: We got
5.4 mm rain today!!!! This brings us
to a total of 69 mm rain for this year to date.
For those still working in imperial, that translates to a total of 2
5/8” for six months. Wow!
June 16:
Carmine, our local tiler and stone mason, started to tear down of our
guest bathroom shower stall; we intend to have a steam room built in instead.
June 19: I ramp up my annual weeding rampage. One of my favourite hates is an invasive weed commonly called “Goat’s Beard” or “Salsify” around here. The Latin name is Tragopogon dubius and my name is “F’y Tragy”. They are starting to mature.
It has a fairly pretty yellow flower, and the seed heads are
a beautiful golden gossamer globe that promptly sends these seeds all over by
wind. With nothing else to do, I started
counting as I pulled them. I picked 500
today. I have also picked another 376 to
the end of the month. Had I spent more
time weeding there would have been many, many more…..
June 21:
Highway 3 between us and Osoyoos was closed for hours due to a dump
truck hauling a trailer of tar that lost control on one of our hairpin turns,
spilling somewhere between 2000 and 3000 gallons of tar/road sealant. The road still is undergoing work because of
necessary recovery efforts to get rid of tar contamination. Road crews have put sand everyone, but the
road surface still has a lot of tar on it as you can see from the photo. In the meantime, the driver is probably in
deep do-do because he had no manifest describing the nature of the load, and
there was no indication it might be considered hazardous material.
Here’s a link to a news report which was the source of the
photo.
https://globalnews.ca/news/7968643/tar-spill-closes-highway-3-east-of-osoyoos/
One of the benefits of having a xeriscape garden is that
your cacti come into bloom at this time.
It never ceases to amaze me what delicate flowers adorn these burly
spiny plants. The cacti are well
established now, and I counted over 72 flower buds on one plant alone. They don’t all come out at once, so we have
had a number of days of spectacular flowers.
June 25: The
weather forecasters are predicting extremely high temperatures for the next few
days. It was 29.7 here today, with a low
of 16.2. That was quite comfortable, and
we have the benefit on the mountain of being 5-6 degrees lower than Osoyoos,
and we always get afternoon/evening breezes to help clear things out.
June 26:
Record high in Osoyoos at 40.1 C.
At our place, the high was 33.6, but the low was 19.9.
June 27: Record
high in Osoyoos at 42.0. Lytton BC
breaks all-time national hot temperature record at 46.1 C. (The previous record was 45.0 on July 5, 1937.) At our place, the high was 35.7 and the low
was 23.2. However, the interior of the
house is heating up and ranged from 26.1 to 31.6 degrees. There were no breezes. I am now sleeping in the basement which is at
least a little cooler.
Highway 3 is closed between our place and Osoyoos because of
a semi-trailer flipping on its side exactly where there was the tar spill. The driver was apparently going at a good clip
(not good), but the fire department members responding figured that when he put
on his brakes he just slid through until coming to a stop at a rock face. A local resident (Cody Haller) was first on
scene and this is his picture posted on Facebook.
June 28:
Record high in Osoyoos at 42.7.
Lytton breaks yesterday’s record at 47.9. We experience a high of 36.5 and a low of
26.0 (inside the house it was 33.3 to 27.6.)
There were no breezes. It is just
plain hot hot hot.
June 29: Record
high in Osoyoos at 45.0. Lytton breaks
yesterday’s record at 49.6. (It got to 34.3 inside the house.) We both sleep downstairs. A big highlight was driving to town for
groceries in an air-conditioned car…… We
were essentially useless for most of the day.
June 30:
Record high in Osoyoos at 43.0.
We experience a high of 38.1 and a low of 27.1 (inside the house it was 34.8
to 29.8 .) Tragically, Lytton was
evacuated around 6 pm because of a nearby wildfire and subsequently suffered a
loss of at least 90% of their structures almost within minutes.
https://www.castanet.net/news/BC/338729/It-s-unclear-how-much-of-Lytton-B-C-is-still-standing#338729
Carmine has completed the cement board and drywall portions
of the work and is starting the mud the drywall.
Now, the grand ending for the month:
A Lemonade Stand
Neighbours
below us have their daughter and son-in-law and their two daughters living with
them while the family looks to move into a home in BC. We got a neighbourhood announcement this
morning that Liley, the elder granddaughter, was planning to run a lemonade
stand starting at 10:00 am, with the proceeds going to the local Search and
Rescue unit. We didn’t make it there
until 11:30, near closing time, but Liley and her little sister Evelyn had been
going gangbusters. They provided lemonade and cookies with considerable aplomb. When
they counted the proceeds up, they had earned $285! (Lemonade can be expensive on Anarchist
Mountain.) With both the parents and the
grandparents committed to matching donations, the SAR unit will do well.
The US invades BC and the Cattle Rustlers are out…..
Now
honestly, I can’t make these things up.
While the lemonade stand is in business, who do the homeowners see
coming up their driveway, but:
Yup. Two cowboys.
Apparently, some rogue cattle have broken out of their US
pasture and have invaded Canada. This
morning the cattle were walking through the neighborhood of million-dollar
homes. Two cowboys from Omak, Washington,
got involved to try and round the critters up.
(I am not quite sure how they crossed the border…) They had found 17 cattle, and determined another
5 illegal immigrants were making their way south-east just below our home (I
did not have the game camera properly positioned), and the cowboys went off in hot
pursuit (no pun intended).
The Federal Government has been silent so far on this
egregious intrusion, perhaps trying to keep things silent in advance of Canada
Day. Fortunately, anyone with a vegetable garden is safe because anything like
that has been fenced off to keep deer away.
Boredom is not possible here!
Have a wonderful Canada Day, and a good July.
Thanks for visiting.
