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bugs
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# Posted: 7 Aug 2011 04:18pm - Edited by: bugs
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Hattie: The Ruddy Duck Lodge (aka RDL) estates now extends over 400 acres..... for now.... but there may be something afoot in the near future. Don't want to jinx it.
Not sure what we are going to do with the old buildings and yard site. The arable land is being used for hay at the moment. Which is fine by us. The house has a look of a T. Eaton mail order house. There is a scar of a porch around the door. So maybe it has more history than we think. Papers scattered around the floors suggest it has not been really used by people since the mid '80's and likely since the mid '70's.
The yard is extremely overgrown so will not be able to see what is there until the fall or early winter when the leaves are gone and grass is flattened.
Had some interesting trail cam pix at the salt lick this week.
sparring elk
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fawn and doe
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"3-Musk-a-deers" A
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"3-Musk-a-deers" B
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bugs
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# Posted: 26 Aug 2011 05:28pm - Edited by: bugs
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Had quite an interesting couple of visits since last post.
We discovered all the flooding going on in our area over the last 2 years has flooded in a healthy population of fat head minnows. We were wondering why we had so many gulls, cormorants, grebes and kingfishers around. We can now sit on our dock and enjoy watching the schools swim around. (No not game fish but that is fine with us.) However, it seemed the birds were munching on something larger than a tiny fish. The gulls would imitate a kingfisher and dive into the water from 50 feet or more trying to catch something. And, the schools of minnows were regularly being spooked to the surface by something in the water. Turns out the food items for the birds and the predators for the minnows are likely tiger salamanders. According to what I have read the aquatic larvae of salamanders are predatory on bugs, each other and minnows. Kind of a neat food chain. Always nice to learn something new about the place.
As I mentioned on another thread we decided to try catching rain water. We went with a tub design rather than a usual rain barrel for ease of cleaning and bailing out water. Our porch and 1/2 the roof caught over 50 gallons of water in one week. So we now have water at the shack. Will just run it through the Sawyer filter and treat in with chlorine/peroxide to give any viruses a shock and it should be good for washing.
Still exploring our new property. Lot more junk/cars under the tall grass than we thought. Still no treasure yet but we are still hoping. lol
patrolling gull
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50 gal water tub
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Meteor (or maybe now a meteorite!)
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friendly chipmunk
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hattie
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# Posted: 26 Aug 2011 09:51pm
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bugs - Your place sure is interesting with all the wildlife and waterlife. I love the chipmunk photo. *S*
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bugs
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# Posted: 6 Sep 2011 09:00am - Edited by: bugs
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Hope all had a good long weekend. Woke up at home this morning to the sound of sirens instead of a chorus of coyotes.
We seemed to go through three seasons this weekend with rain, a cold front that dropped the temp to +2C, hi winds, calm and +27C. The weather did provide us with some wonderful sunsets.
Fall is definitely in the air. We saw a few flocks of snow geese, canadas' and ducks headed south.
We celebrated international bacon day on Saturday with a fry up of good Canadian bacon. This fueled us for a day of clearing parts of our trail system. We got about 3/4's of a mile cleaned up but still have a lot left to do. We also scouted out a trail system for the new land. It should make a nice tie-in with our existing trails.
We stirred our poo bins. One had a great mushroom cluster on it. We inoculate each bag of "poo" with leaf mold before we add the bag to the bin. This seems to accelerate the decomposition of things.
It looks like the snakes had a good year. We saw many newly born/young snakes along the sunny trails. They are only about 6 inches long and richly coloured.
Finally had the energy to get the telescope out. Had magnificent views of the the moon, Jupiter, Ring Nebula, Dumbbell Nebula, Andromeda Galaxy, globular cluster M13, the double cluster and comet Garradd. There is nothing like dark skies.
sunset
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International bacon day
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poo pail mushrooms
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baby garter snakes
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bugs
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# Posted: 6 Sep 2011 09:03am
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The trail camera caught, besides a neighbour's cat, a family of a mom raccoon with six babies in tow, a coyote with what appears to be a muskrat in its mouth, and some youngsters. The three bucks are still together altho one seems to have lost its velvet.
successful hunt
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deer
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moose and calf
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bucks
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outdoorguy
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# Posted: 6 Sep 2011 10:06am
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bugs... love the wildlife...what a spectacular sunset!... and I can smell the bacon from here!
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bugs
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# Posted: 11 Sep 2011 07:12pm
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Some pix from the weekend.
photogenic duck
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white pelicans
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thistle down
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harvest sunset
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toyota_mdt_tech
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# Posted: 11 Sep 2011 10:25pm
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bugs, I look forward to your updates every time! Nice work as always.
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Timberjack
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# Posted: 12 Sep 2011 08:49am
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Bugs, I saw your earlier post regarding old cars and junk found on your new property. In our area scrap metal is bringing a premium price, you might have hit the jackpot after all. There may be a few dollars there to finance future cabin improvements.
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bugs
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# Posted: 28 Sep 2011 06:14pm - Edited by: bugs
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Hi Timberjack: I checked about a bit re scrap metal and I doubt if it would be worth the dealers' time to drive all the way out to our place to collect it. It seems the general practice is to just let the cars and old farm machinery just quietly return to "the earth from whenst it came".
We have been enjoying the fall with wonderful colours and continuous flocks of waterfowl. Always a spectacular sight to see.
fall shed
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driveway
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fall pelicans
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Canada geese
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bugs
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# Posted: 28 Sep 2011 06:17pm
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More harvest sunsets.
sunset a
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sunset b
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ducks in the sunset
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RDL's name sakes
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bugs
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# Posted: 28 Sep 2011 06:42pm
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A couple of trail cam pix.
Too bad about the coyote....Always a branch or twig gets in the way!!!!
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hattie
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# Posted: 28 Sep 2011 07:04pm
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I love the fall colours at your place. Beautiful photos.
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bugs
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# Posted: 29 Sep 2011 02:04pm - Edited by: bugs
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Hi Hattie
The colours were great this year. The yellow of the birch/aspen really contrasted with the reds from hazelnut, chokecherries and saskatoon. Toss in a good SK blue sky with continuous flocks of geese flying and it is truly wonderful.
I have noticed that my last few/many posts have had very little to do with cabin building per se except for minor tweaks ( ie putting up a shelf, putting in an exterior outlet, etc etc). I think we have moved into the "kick of our boots, put up our feet, crack a beverage of choice" and enjoy the fruits of our labour phase of having a cabin/shack/shed in the woods. The "trip" (both physical and mental and dare I say almost spiritual) was well worth the effort methinks.
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bugs
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# Posted: 16 Oct 2011 10:57am
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We were out to our shack for the Cdn Thanksgiving and enjoyed some good fall weather altho a tad windy.... Still no snow!!!
We spent a day strolling about our holdings, enjoying the fall colours, the flocks of migrating geese, checking out the old yard site and just being out of the city.
Soon it will be time to start readying things for winter.
overlooking the estate
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fall field
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parking lot
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parking meter expired
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bugs
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# Posted: 16 Oct 2011 11:03am
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We had some nice trail camera images.
The two bull moose images may be the same one or two different moose. We are not sure. The first "happy moose" was taken a day before the "sad moose" with only one antler and some bloody wounds on his head. We did have a glimpse of a bull about twice the size that maybe this one tangled with.
Of course the moose calf spotted the camera and the next shot in the series was "nose cam".
It seems the three bucks are still together. We thought they would separate during the rut but I guess not. Sure a gorgeous image tho.
happy bull
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sad bull
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cow and calf
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buck
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bugs
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# Posted: 23 Oct 2011 12:15pm - Edited by: bugs
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Hi folks
We were out to our shack for a day trip to put the finishing touches on winter readiness and to download two weeks of trail cam images. Always fun to see "who" has been visiting when we are not around. We had our first image of a fox.
We are in the process of ordering a direct vented heater for the shack to replace the Big Buddy. The shack does pretty good on its own. If it is about -2C outside the inside temp with us in it goes up to a cozy +16C or more thanks to the 6" walls and insulation. We don't run the Buddy when we are asleep and having to have a window open makes it inefficient so we thought the vented heater with a thermostat may extend us being able to do overnighters into the early winter and early spring.
After tracking down info on number of types Empire, Eskaboe etc. We have chosen the Longvie DV12 heater. It produces 10000 btu's max. It has a modulated gas valve, theromostat, prizzo on the top and a flame viewing window. And does not use electricity.
moose at the shed
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tussle
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elk
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does and fawns
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bugs
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# Posted: 23 Oct 2011 12:20pm - Edited by: bugs
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Sorry for our ignorance but we were wondering if someone would know what these "diggings" were made by? They would be about two weeks old. It had rained a fair bit so we could not find any tracks or scat of interest. We do have our suspicions tho. We have also found similar diggings in other places in the fields. Thanks.
bugs
yard visitors
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diggings 1
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diggings 2
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diggings 3
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Just
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# Posted: 23 Oct 2011 07:32pm
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looks like a moose urine pit to me, dose it smell urinesh ?moose mating ritual,, just returnd home from a sucsesfull hunt in northerm ont . i have seen a few of these in my time.
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RnR
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# Posted: 24 Oct 2011 05:09pm
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Hey Bugs, I, and I am sure many ohters, am dying to ask if you have any plans for the house that came with your new parcel of land... you mentioned it's structurally sound... any plans on conducting repairs or is it too much of an undertaking? is the roof metal?
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bugs
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# Posted: 26 Oct 2011 09:27am
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Thanks Just...That sounds right with all the moose we have. Enjoy your steaks.
RnR: We have had a chance to go through the house a few times. The basement is cinder block, even the cistern was constructed of cinder blocks, and showing some large cracks in the corners. The shingles are asphalt and appear to be in good condition. The wiring is all old. There is no real plumbing. We think they had a chemical toilet in the basement or used the out house as was the fashion of the times. Insulation appears to be wood shavings. So I don't think it would be worth the effort to resuscitate it to liveable status. We could salvage the lumber tho. But again sounds like a lot of work.
For now we have fixed the door hinges, put padlocks on the doors and signs in the windows saying "floors unsafe". We have left the windows open as the house appears to be a wildlife condo with a number of birds nests, a feral hive of honey bees in the wall, a squirrel mushroom stash in the basement and probably lots of mice, chipmunks and bats. And then there is the potential vulture nest.
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bugs
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# Posted: 26 Oct 2011 09:29am - Edited by: bugs
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Another option is to turn it into a haunted house. Something scared that doll to the point of her hair standing on end. The place seems to be full of dolls. There are writings on the wall that are scratched out but we can make out "help me". The gravestone leaning against the wall is spooky.
A friend suggested the diggings (see above) may be the walking dead searching for their graves.
scared doll
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headstone
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chair
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writing on the wall
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bugs
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# Posted: 6 Feb 2012 04:52pm
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After almost a three month hiatus we finally made it out to the shack. We were very apprehensive to see if things were still intact after hunting and denning season. Thankfully everything was as we had left it so we were able to enjoy the wonderful sunny 0C day and snow shoe our trails.
It appears our newly acquire old house has resident(s) in it. Must be a luxury condo with passive solar heating for this little guy.
snowshoeing
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yard site
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yard from the pond
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squirrel in the window
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bugs
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# Posted: 6 Feb 2012 04:54pm
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Had some good trail cam pix too
bull elk
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coyote enjoying the sun
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sun beems
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three elk
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Just
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# Posted: 6 Feb 2012 06:01pm
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At least you have snow .we have none in ontario .nice pics glad you had a good time .crocuss are coming up here..
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hattie
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# Posted: 6 Feb 2012 06:38pm
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What is the story behind the headstone? It looks real. Do you know where it belongs?
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bugs
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# Posted: 7 Feb 2012 07:28am
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Hey Just
We follow Ontario storms... lack there of... closely. We have good friends in the Ottawa area. We had an essentially dirty brown icy Christmas in much SK too. Thankfully the shack is enough northeast of home that it seems to be in a different storm track than we are. Still it has been a real mild and dry winter for us.
Hattie: The headstone is real. It is likely of the grandfather of the people we bought the land from. The grandfather died 1951 and then many years later the grandma died. Likely they exchanged the single headstone for a double. So we have this headstone propped up against the house. Catches a person off guard when they first see it..... Maybe down the road we will get it resurfaced and I/we will use it!LOL
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hattie
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# Posted: 7 Feb 2012 12:15pm
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Quoting: bugs The grandfather died 1951 and then many years later the grandma died. Likely they exchanged the single headstone for a double. So we have this headstone propped up against the house.
Ahhhh...That makes sense. I was just a bit worried about it. Bob and I look after our local pioneer cemetery here and you would be amazed at what people will take from a cemetery! We replaced the sign at the entrance because it was falling apart, so Bob made a new one. I told Bob to just leave the old sign on the ground and within a day it had been picked up by someone. *S*
I have seen headstones at antique shops and I always worry that they have been pinched from a cemetery.
Your headstone certainly is a conversation piece. *LOL* Maybe you can put it at the entrance to your place with a sign that says, "here lies the last person who trespassed on our property". Could be a new form of security. *S*
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bugs
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# Posted: 1 May 2012 05:20pm - Edited by: bugs
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We finally made it out to our RDL a couple of weeks ago (Apr 21) for our first overnight stay of the year after many bad weather weekends. Altho a tad nippy (-3c overnight) we were comfy (+14c) without using a heater in the shack. Our water tub was full of rain/snow water and ready for use. And our poo bins had lost half their volume so we can dump the oldest bin into the ordinary composter to finish things off.
The ice was almost off the pond. Frogs were going crazy. Migration is starting (Must have seen 5K geese flying over just above the tree tops) and many of the birds are back including "our" phoebes and tree swallows. And of course the ticks are out. Still no leaves out on the trees but the pussy willows are out.
Got a chance to try out the new toy we got for the shed. It works very well, does not require power and it stores nicely under my cot. It is great as a spotting scope too. We could watch the Canada geese blink while they were sitting on the beaver lodge 400 yards away and see the bullet dents/holes in the road sign almost a mile away. Saturday evening/night it cleared off and at 1am 3 bright green curtains of northern lights took up almost half the sky from the nw to the se and blotted out most of the stars. Every so often the curtains would start to dance and shimmer and reds would appear. Spectacular. Even saw some of the Lyrid meteor shower. Almost forgot to try out the telescope. Had splendid views of the Saturn and Mars and the ring nebula. Love the dark skies.
So now just waiting for the next nice weekend to pack up and head out again. While we wait we are enviously reading other people's posts of their shed visits.
new toy
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shed visitor
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another shed visitor
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single file
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bugs
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# Posted: 14 May 2012 09:50am
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Got out for another visit to the shack. Spring is in full spring. Lots of early nesting and migration going on. The phoebes already have 4 eggs in their nest in our porch. And with our new toy we were able to get images of the Canada geese nesting on the beaver lodge. At supper we were treated to a herd of 8 white tailed deer at the salt lick. Also saw our first mule deer.
Trail cameras showed we also have a herd of elk! And unfortunately feral wild boar are in the area. We have read these are nasty beasts that have escaped from game farms and are now multiplying rapidly in many parts of SK. Hopefully it was just moving through our area.
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phoebe
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elk
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wild boar
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