Saving the birds

Yesterday was a pretty crazy day- so many incidents with wildlife!

In the morning I was working (as per usual now that I am working from home during the pandemic) in my living room, and BANG! A poor little hummingbird just splattered hard against my patio glass door. 😦 I was instantly up and looking for it, and it did not look good…It was flat on the ground, all its feathers splayed out, not moving.

Sitting up, but very dazed.

I yelled for my husband and we gathered the poor little hummer up on a book and I brought it some sugar water. I watched it (during a meeting for work, ha) and after about 15 minutes it started actually looking around at things, and then it perked up and flew off! 🙂 SO relieved. I was very worried about the little dude.

And then after work I had some time and the weather was pretty nice, so I went for a walk with my husband and dog, and I put my bunny out in my backyard for some fresh air. I went to check on him after the walk and to my surprise, a racoon was digging in our raised gardens!! I yelled at it and he took his sweet-ass time sauntering off, and I was pretty worried because my RABBIT was still out there too! Sheesh. Except…My dog saw the racoon and ran straight at it barking like Hound of the freaking Baskervilles…And scared the bejeezus out of my poor rabbit! He was terrified! He took off, so I had to chase the racoon off, catch the rabbit (thankfully contained in my yard) and chase off my dog from the raccoon. Chaos!!

There was fluffs of fur flying everywhere, so we were concerned that the racoon had somehow scuffled with bunny, but nobody had any injuries. Tucker bun did have a bloody spot on his foot, so we cleaned it up but there was no scrape or anything there today, so who knows?? He was exhausted after that, poor bun bun.

And THEN I had a jump lesson at the barn, which was great. I finished up and went to sweep out the crossties and found this:

Poor little thing!

Yeah, a baby bird kicked out of its nest. Not again 😦 I thought it was definitely dead, so I went to sweep it with the broom and it MOVED. OMG. I freaked out, called my husband, and put gloves on and picked it up. It moved so weakly… I couldn’t put it back into the nest it fell out of (in the window-well of a locked locker, behind a grate where the window was) so I found another barn swallow nest inside the barn, got a step ladder and kind of tossed the little baby up there. Hoping for the best for it!! I hope it survives.

So, that was a very exciting and emotional day for me. It’s so hard when it’s wildlife animals…I feel so bad for them. I want to help!!

I just wasn’t made for these times

So, in these strange new days, my husband and I don’t have a lot going on during the weekends (well now I have jumping and he has climbing) but we got into a routine of doing a mega run or trail run/hike day on Sunday.

About halfway up?

A big one, where we pack food, drinks, camelbak, and hoof it out for hours to a new place! Lately we were exploring sections of the Galloping Goose (just running), after a few mountain excursions, but this weekend we returned to the mountains… Heather mountain, in Youbou.

See the trees at the very top? That is where the trail begins! 

I have never even been to Youbou (it is just past Lake Cowichan, from Duncan), so it was all new and strange to me, ha. And quite a long drive from where we live, with large sections of gravel road.

We made it after shooting past the (fairly unmarked) turnoff, and jogged up the trail for a ways. We made 1 false move by following a trail we thought was the one, and we were confronted by an angry grouse pretty much immediately! Ha! Ian screamed and was pretty surprised. After that the trail turned into bushwacking and I hated it. I got scratched to pieces, ugh and was like NO WAY are we doing this for hours.

Nearer to the top

We struggled through and then returned to the main road, and followed that to a trail- that- thank god- was wide and well maintained. The only thing we didn’t realize is that it takes forever– like 2.5 hours- to get to the actual top of the mountain trail above the treeline. So by the time we ran there, we were freaking spent and tired.

As I mentioned…

We also noticed the trail had tons of bear poop on it. TONS. Yikes! At that point I would be surprised if we didn’t see a bear…

So we finally made it to the top of the trail and I backed down. It was steep, closed in and really high up= triggering all of my vertigo. Yikes!!!! We called it there (ok, well I called it..) and then jogged back down. We stopped for a snack and a drink and I spotted the bear- finally!

Mr. Bear! 

He was ambling around the path, sniffing and stuff. We watched for a bit and then decided to shout, to scare the bear off the path that we had to go down. He immediately lumbered off and we got down to the path where he had been- and wow you guys, bears go FAST. He was already halfway back up the mountain in like 3 minutes?!

Lucky for us it was the only bear we saw, and it was a safe bear situation. Phew!

We got down with no other interactions and back to the car. A long day but a good one 🙂

Team work to make the dream work?

Remind me again that if I ever sell a house, to move somewhere else for basically the entire showing time period. ARGH!!! This weekend was basically a parade of pack my animals up, load them into the car, drive to the barn, ride, check on the animals, come home…Pack the animals up, load them into the car, drive around for awhile, come home…Pack the animals up, drive around for awhile, come home…

UGH.

While I totally understand that being overwhelmed with multiple-day viewing requests is a GREAT problem to have, it is hard on my critters and is quite stressful for them to be vacated & into my car multiple times a day…

My dog came to work with me on Friday, and my rabbit spent the day in his cage in my car, in the underground (cool) parking lot…

Gidget is not cut out for this job!

And other than that, they came with me to the barn, on a run, on grocery shopping trips, to grab a beer (stayed in the car)…thank god the weather has been pretty lousy, so it is cool enough in the car for them. Anyways- we hear today, as offers are being presented. My fingers are crossed!!!

So yeah Oats has also been getting a TON of rides in. My legs are killing me actually. Ha. I rode him Thursday after I lessoned on my trainer’s horse Blaze, and then rode Fri/Sat/Sun and he was really good! My eye blew. Like, stunk out loud. I can’t seem to see my distance to a pole anymore unless I pull to it –he took the long spot every time. I finally gave up and just started jumping and that was sooooo much smoother….He did get a good eyeball in at the barrels, silly pony, but jumped anyways.

We did have one scary moment when we were hand-galloping down the long side of the outdoor arena, and then BLAMMO we were shooting sideways at a full gallop….I was like SHIIIIIIITTTTTTT. Turns out the granddaughter of the stable owner had decided to creep over the fence – I never saw her coming or heard her- and startled the ever loving shit out of my horse!..THANKS?!~!!

I did kind of yell at her about letting me know she is coming. Jesus. I always fall off in the outdoor at the ‘spooky corner’ and this year I am determined NOT TO. Thanks, kid, for almost making me eat dirt yet again…grrrrrr.

Other than that, we enjoyed half-price sushi last night while we were wasting a few more hours out of the house, and also watched bunnies frolic, eagles snatch fish away from seagulls, and a clever sea otter drag a salmon back to its lair, also pursued by eagles! Cool eh??

A not-so-progress weekend

We all have these I guess. The grey days, in a funk, blah rides. Though check out this pic- even on his most blah days, Oats is a cutie! Taken on Saturday:

Mr. Handsome- photo credit to Hannah R.

Also, Oats got his vaccinations on Friday and he felt really ‘off’ on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday, his canter felt terrible. He was scrambling, couldn’t keep the gait, felt like he had about 10 legs going at once, and was very unbalanced. I was like WTF? After our fabulous rides this past week, I was quite disappointed to have such a lousy ride…

Then I clued in that he most likely was feeling sore and out of it. Fair enough, Oats.

I let him graze for about an hour in the outdoor arena while I worked on it, digging up grass clumps. I do think he had the better part of the deal though!

I went for a fairly good 15k run with my husband on Saturday after I finished riding and working in the outdoor. In retrospect  I was running on legs that were already feeling tired. I was complaining on Friday that I felt tired, really tired. Like, I came home and lay down- on a Friday?! I was THAT tired, I guess.

So, running on Saturday after riding and digging in the arena was probably a bit much but it felt pretty good. AND I saw a seagull fish a crab out of the ocean and start smacking it around. The poor crab didn’t stand a chance, even when the seagull dropped it a few times!

Sunday, I tried again with Oats and he still felt very ‘eh’. His canter was improved, but his trot got worse. He could.not.bend.right. for the life of him! I tried everything, and he cranked his leaning to the left.

It was frustrating…And yet again, I figured it was stiffness due to the vaccination. I guess it was just hitting him harder than usual? So, two days of me feeling like I don’t know how to ride my pony, and don’t know how to run anymore either. Positive progress? It’s a bit of a game of snakes and ladders, haha!

Oats had Monday off, and so I did I. We normally take that day off to decompress, and give he and I, a fresh start to the week. We have our dressage lesson today and after the weekend, I am not sure what I’m going to be getting from him…

Holiday fun at Parc Omega

In the land of the hungry deer

A small detour for my blog to talk about what I did on my holiday- we went to Parc Omega, which is a really cool wildlife- themed park sort of safari thing. It’s in Montebello, just across the border from Ottawa.

Parc Omega

We’ve always gone in the past, and I’m still impressed with how they have maintained everything. The park looks beautiful, it’s open all-year round and the animals are kept in great shape and allowed to roam at will (except if they are a bit dangerous, then they are kept in enclosures for their and our safety!)

More carrots!

You can bring carrots and feed them from your car, and at the deer park area, get out and hand-feed the little deer. There is a small trapper’s cabin type thing, and you can buy more carrots, coffee and hot chocolate there too.

Close and personal bison

And the animals are so close! You can get up close and personal with so many of them, and even the ones that are behind fences are still really close. It’s amazing.

Moose fight

We went on December 24th this year, and it was a great time to go. My mom couldn’t make it because she wanted to stay and clean up the place to get it ready for the traditional lobster dinner we normally have, but otherwise she would have come as well, she loves that place.

Wolves or coyote? Cute anyways!

I highly recommend a visit to Parc Omega if you’re ever out east. Totally worth it.

Lonely ibex