Edmonton 2025 - 1st week

 

Before leaving for Edmonton I took a quick trip to Northlands Nursery. The Fern Leaf Bleeding Heart replaced one that had died last year, in the front bed, and the rest went down on the bank to the lake.

Mike picked me up at the airport and our first job was to sex and band the Quail. 

 Mike has 3 coops in the garage with 14 Quail. The ideal ratio is one male for 3 or 4 females. With too many males they fight. After watching a video on how to tell the males from the females we got a system going. Mike would catch one and turn it upside down. I would determine the sex and then put a zip tie on the males leg. Maya would snip the ziptie close to the leg. We discovered that there were 7 males. He needed one for each coop so the other 4 were for the "pot".

 

Maya and Mike decided which ones to keep. This one is Snow. Once the "keepers" were identified they were all named.

The eggs are tiny. 3 of them equal 1 chicken egg.

There are 7 females and we are getting 5 little eggs each evening. 2 are "freeloading"

 

Next job was picking up the municipal compost and purchasing soil. Mike planted potatoes and I planted herbs, lettuce and spinach in the planter boxes on the deck.

Mike and Aimee are exploring the lakes around Edmonton with the idea that they may, some day, buy a lot or cottage on a lake. On one of Mikes days off we went to Isle Lake where

he kayaked and

I went for

a walk.

Maya relearned how to crochet and got thoroughly addicted. Crocheted for 2 days straight and finished a scarf.

If River doesn't get a nap she just suddenly crashes. This was while eating dinner!

The weather has been lovely most days. Cool overnight and then up into the 20s during the day. Buds are emerging. This is one of their apple trees about to blossom.

Meanwhile Rick has been sending me pictures of a rather needy

Rasta,

a clean and shiny Spellbound, ready to launch

and his first photo with his new camera.

Video of a musk rat taken when Mike was kayaking.