Jun 1 - honk honk

We went over to water Bonnie's flowers yesterday, taking the boat.  A pair of geese rushed their five goslings into the water.  Sandy went up to do the watering and found another pair, with their brood, up on the grass. 

This morning that same crowd is in front of me in our cove, at dawn.  The one pair has five and the other four, from what I can see.  The four are smaller than the five.  The adults are constantly on the watch for danger. 

It's funny to watch.  The one pair of adults is up by the Muskoka chairs and their goslings, the small ones, are on the log by the sand, unable to get over the concrete lip to their parents who are only three feet away.  The parents have just walked closer where the lip isn't as high and the goslings have now made their way up.

No doubt there will be extra manure/guano/poop down there !

For a few years now there has been one pair; it's good to see the numbers growing. 

I didn't have a lot of energy yesterday but didn't want to completely waste the day either.  What a conundrum !  I did some bike maintenance -- two new tires, new chain, cleaning -- and will get a ride on that setup tomorrow before it needs to be packed.  I sorted through the stuff in my rack-pack, removing things that I wouldn't need and shouldn't have been carrying anyway, like CO2 inflator and cartridges, extra weight that didn't matter in Florida on the flat but I've been carrying up the hills. 

The old tires still have a fair amount of life in them and they'll be back in service at some point but I want to start this trip and the two 1200's with fresh rubber.  The chain was marginal before the last 300k; now in the trash.  I've now got quite a few "still have more life in them" tires that I'll have to dispose of at some point if I don't use them.   As rough as the roads are around here, they are actually easy on tires because there's very little glass. 

I did some minor organizing for the trip, sorting through adapters and such for electrical plug-in.  I've got a voltage converter that I'm bringing although I don't think that we'll be bringing anything that isn't dual voltage -- at least electronic wise.  I don't know if Sandy is bringing a hair dryer and if so, whether it's dual voltage.  I'll check with her.

I hauled the power washer out of the basement and up the hill to the garage.  It started right up and I gave the X5 a power washing.  You could hardly see the paint on the front of the car for all the bugs.  That's a slight exaggeration but you get the idea.

The black flies have just about died down but the mosquitoes are bad.  It's been hot with no rain so that will help.  It won't be long before they're just a dawn and dusk nuisance and the horse flies and deer flies are busy during the day ... ah yes, the bug cycle.  Bring on the dragon flies to keep those populations in check !

The water temperature, at least at the surface, is now in the upper 60's, according to my depth finder.  The weather has been just glorious for the past two weeks; still cool in the a.m. -- low 50's -- but mostly in the 70's during the day.    Unfortunately it's colder in the U.K. ... it seems that every time we get to the point where the weather is good, we leave for colder weather !  We have this backward.

I have a short list of things to do before we leave, other than trip-related that is.  Some use of the weed eater, a dose of ant spray around the property, one more bike ride, put the Whaler away etc. etc.  I'm saying etc. because I'm sure that there's more but I don't know what it is.

The hummingbirds have been going crazy, emptying both feeders in a day.  They'll be very disappointed when we leave, having to work harder for their food.

Today we head to Parry Sound to drop off the rental car.  We also need to pick up a small sprinkler and a perforated hose to do the herb garden.  Sandy has covered 80% of the garden in a deep bed of leaves so we only need to water small areas while we're gone.   I should probably pick up another 24v valve to do a second zone.  My dad had a couple of valves but I think that I'm using the only one that works.  I'll check before heading out.  If I was properly organized, I would also be bringing the 4-wheeler down to someone in Parry Sound, but I'm not. 

Onward ?