Our 2013 Send Off

CFB Crow Lake has been closed for a few weeks now.  If I recall correctly, we spent the weekend after Thanksgiving there, then went for a day trip the following Sunday to wrap things up (literally.  We bagged up the mattresses, then boarded the windows, emptied the fridge, etc.)

On the Sunday of our last weekend, while doing some of the outdoor work, I heard (and eventually located) a woodpecker.  I tried to get a good picture of him, but since it was cloudy and because he was partially hidden by branches, I struggled to do get one any better than what is displayed at your right.

That reminded me that we'd seen relatively little wildlife this year, I thought.  In about two months of ownership the previous year, I'd come across raccoons a couple of times, we'd seen a fox in our garden, Christine is convinced she saw a lynx on our deck (sure you did...).  Based on that, it seemed like we should have seen more than turtles and ugly-ass vultures.  But whatever.  I shrugged that off and went on with whatever I was doing.

While walking Oscar that morning, we came across something that we had seen earlier in the year and found kind of funny.  I didn't have my camera on me at the time though so I couldn't act on it. But when we got back to the cottage I grabbed it and went back to the scene.

There's a cottage around the corner from ours.  It has a long driveway that is gated at the far end.  We could tell from the road that there's a note attached to that gate and curiosity got the better of us..

If you view this from the blog (and not the e-mail version) and are able to open the picture in a separate window, you should see that it reads...

KEEP OUT

Police will be contacted if anyone caught trespassing on this property

ESPECIALLY ...

...And it goes on to include a list of names.

How...inviting!  That cracked me right up.  I wasn't sure if I should get (and post) a picture of it, but then it occurred to me that the person who put it up made it quite public him(or her)self anyway so there should be no harm.

In any event, a few minutes later I was walking back towards our place, looking at my pictures to see they came out.  A movement to my right caught my attention and I was rewarded with this view, directly across the road from our driveway:

I squeaked a little.  His little buddy was just over to his left.  They didn't mind me much when they saw I was clearly not a threat (pretty much what anyone's assessment would be) and simply resumed their frolicking.

So I just sat back and fired away.

They were there long enough, and so unconcerned with my presence, that after I incorrectly thought they'd gone and I went in to tell Christine about the whole thing, she was able to see them when she next went to the car.  I was quite happy about that as I would have hated for her to miss it.

So while I wasn't looking forward to leaving, that was a nice way to go.  We haven't been there in a couple of weekends now but may make the occasional appearance to make sure everything is cool.  And in the "off-season" we're going to work out our 2014 reno plans, which should include putting in a new floor in the guest bedroom, some deck maintenance, perhaps plumbing upgrades and maybe a little painting / sealing.  We'll see.