Good Morning!

[baronrenfrew]

Good day from the Ottawa Valley eh! This shot from a few weeks ago is a fav of mine.

sundown on the farm

[kenya]

That's a pretty picture, makes me think of the last summer days.

[WLLady]

Hey @JimW! How do you like the online teaching? I find it's just not the same. my students don't like having their cameras on, and i cannot tell if they are even there or "there" (ie tuned in or out) or sleeping or listening or engaged or what. I definitely prefer in person teaching. but yep, don't want to risk covid 19!

great photo @baronrenfrew.

Our leaves are all down now with the exception of a few oak trees. Yesterday i managed to get my GP on the phone, she helped with the pain management....I just want to get to the barn and figure out who to keep, and who goes, and this weekend we will make it happen somehow. We'll (meaning DH) likely end up taking a trip to hagersville, or putting a lot of meat in the freezer. Someone is coming for 3 turkeys, 2 jennies and a jake. the neighbours/friends across the road have been wonderful in offering to help with the work part. We have a group coming to hunt the week after next and i'll get them to rake up the walnuts out of the paddock and throw them into the woods (the walnuts-followed by them for hunting lol). I'm going to send DH out to get the trail cameras today/this evening. no point tracking the deer if i'm not going to be out to shoot one. sigh. i've seen some nice deer this year...missed a shot-even though i was all sighted in for the beginning of the season, we had to switch out broadheads, and even though they're the same weight etc, they fly totally differently. so on my 30 yard shot it was 5 inches too low and 5 inches to the right. argh! so got that problem figured out literally an hour before the hardware busted in my back. just crappy. the bow is perfect, and the user pooches out. ah well, safer for the deer then. there are a couple very nice bucks out there for the guys this year. they can rake the walnuts in return....

i can walk today....that's an improvement. and i managed to pick something up off the floor that the cats had dumped. so also an improvement. i'm hopeful about getting to the barn before noon. the guy to do the corn should be up today or tomorrow to get started. it's only about 100 acres to harvest. then we'll have corn stalk/leaf drifts all around the house LOL. Somehow i HAVE to get these roots planted...I have spots to put them, so guess that will be my chore today to figure out those logistics. Do i just go and try to do, or do I wait until DH is not teaching and see if he can help.....ug. i don't want to stop moving because then it's even harder to GET moving later! it's so warm out that the bees are flying again! I'm glad i left the broccolli in the garden to go to seed - it's still blooming and the bees love it. I have decided i will keep "Mike" (my was impossible to catch, got bumblefoot that we fixed and now he's practically a lap chicken, fought off a fox this summer rooster), and all my silver and gold welbars-including the 3 roosters (that all get along). Once the turkeys are gone, we'll move the chickens into the 2 turkey pens downstairs so they can have access to the outside, and will move the nesting boxes from the outside coop into the pen and remove 2 of the wall boards between the pens so they have a roost and can go between the two sides. the ducks will go into the horse stall (where they are now), and then there's just chores in the downstairs of the barn, one pen of turkeys (2 red slates) and the chickens and the ducks and the horses. 1 heated water trough, 3 heated buckets and 3 feeders. that's it. will take 20 minutes TOPS. so now it's time to make it happen.....

[JimW]

@WLLady

I am at home teaching the student who selected to learn via the "asynchronous digital" model, so I don't broadcast anything live. I post course content and help students via email, instant message or one-on-one Teams meetings. I really miss the interaction with the students and it is just some much harder and takes so much longer to answer student questions via email or even using live Teams meeting. Plus our school board keeps changing things, which is not helpful for students or teachers. Out first Quadmester was suppose to end November 16th, with the last 2 days of that exams, then they announced 3 weeks ago the board was canceling all exams for the year and the exam days would change to instructional days, which was okay. Then on Monday with week they announcement they were adjusting the start and end date to the 4 quadmesters. So instead of ending on November 16th, this current quadmester ends on November 10th, and Quad 2 starts November 11th, so we lost a week of classes, just like that.

I know this is all new but the school year is turning out to be a crap show already. lol

[WLLady]

@JimW yeah, my lectures are all online-we had the choice to just upload and then spend an hour with the kids online to answer questions etc, or to do the entire lecture online. I asked my students what they preferred (i have 6 students in the class) and they all said "3 hour lecture please". So we've been doing that. Everyone is showing up and there, and if i ask a question they do interact, and it's always "thank you" at the end of lecture. I think they're getting the material, but it's hard to know. We were to have 15 weeks, we have 13, and no fall break like usual. And no exam weeks....So we lost 2 weeks and had to incorporate that right into the schedule too! 6 hours of class time just gone! but we still needed to teach it somehow! I also miss the students catching me in the hall to ask a question kinda thing on my way to class. I just have to get the final up online for whoever will be taking over my class in a couple of weeks. All the lectures have voice over too online, so i really don't need to "be there", so i'll have to see what the college decides. I couldn't imagine having my time changed like that all of a sudden. I wouldn't be able to teach the content! ug. Hang in there Jim! I know the students know we are all doing the best we can! i just find it funny that we saw this coming ALL summer and the boards are scrambling now....even the college and universities are scrambling now.....had at least 6 months to prepare, and DH and I were saying all summer why aren't they working on this....??!
We'll get through it! And hopefully the students won't be left too far in the dust......i think we'll have about 5 years of filling in gaps in the future, finding out what kids missed and helping them out.

[ross]

And then the boards blame the gov for the boards lack of getting er done .
Thank you teachers for what you do . To those that whine .....

[Farrier1987]

Back from Alberta. Good to be home. Wouldnt have gone except my mom is 91.

[Killerbunny]

Hope Mom is doing OK.

[Ontario Chick]

Good morning, for sure now :)
and the weather is nice too , although I must say I feel somewhat badly for son who lives in Whitehorse, apparently they are digging out from 47cm snow fall. Since they normally get very little snow, somewhat mindbogglingly it's a High desert environment, but I guess if we can have a Bermuda high, Whitehorse can have our snow.

[WLLady]

that's almost half a meter! wow. well, good time to stay home LOL!
Welcome back @Farrier1987, hope your mom is doing well!

Managed to sneak into a cancellation for the CT. Already been to the hospital and back now. Hopefully the surgeon's appointment will happen soon. I talked to the office this morning and she MAILED my appointment details. by snailmail. like WTH. Sigh. She has my email address, and i'm 100% sure that the letter will get here AFTER my appointment has come and gone. i did manage to get to the barn yesterday....and was practically useless for anything. i cannot lift a bucket, let alone carry water in a bucket....or drag a hose....or bend down to get eggs. but we have a plan going forward. @Bayvistafarm we will hold your 3 ducks for you. and keep 4 for me along with the 2 red slate turkeys. and about 20 chickens-my gold and silver welbars will be staying, along with Mike our best protector rooster. They will move into the turkey pens once the royals are out. i think @Farrier1987 wants 3 or so for friends of his......the rest of the birds will end up in the freezer. I cannot justify 2-3$ each at auction right now....let alone get them there. So we're going to process and freezer camp them. My deer tag will go unused, since we won't need the meat anyways. The guys that hunt here in second ML week - I'm going to draft them into raking the walnuts out of the paddock, and helping to clean the loft out with DH if the snow stays away. They'll be happy to help, like usual. so this weekend will be super busy, but that's okay. i'll do what i can.....