Coyote Crap

I know, I know. This is decidedly slim pickings for the blog, but I can't just keep putting up posts that talk about how much we wish Spring were here, although we do. I think the coyotes will be happy when Spring arrives as well because from the looks of this coyote scat, they've been reduced to eating a lot of scavenged or leftover bones. In the meantime the dogs and I still strap on the snowshoes and wander out each day to see what we can see in the forest. We've seen lots of turkey tracks from a small flock of about 6 birds over the last few days in addition to the signs of coyotes. There was one sign of Spring today. Our golden retriever took her first swim in the river which is now almost completely free of ice. Stay tuned in the days ahead for a post on maple sugaring. The maple sugar season is about to take off for real after a false start about two weeks ago. The next 10 days are shaping up to be good weather for the sap to run and all of the local sugar makers should be firing up the evaporators.

Winter Project Nears Completion

O.K., so it's not really "near completion" in the strictest sense of that phrase. On the other hand the bottom portion of the entertainment center / library is in and functioning. You can tell it's functioning because there is a T.V. sitting on it with all of the associated "home theater" boxes installed just beneath the T.V. I still have to finish the drawer fronts and add the upper library shelves. I'm guessing three more weeks, but who knows how long it will ultimately take. After all I'm both lazy and retired. I have to officially thank my son Neil who helped me carry two sections of this monstrous thing up from the shop.

Bent Birches

All over the North Woods you tend to bump into bundles of bent birches. (See photo above.) They're not always in bunches of course; bent or bowed birches are just as likely to be individual trees. I've often wondered what caused the bowing of the bent birches. Is this a genetic defect? It sometimes appears to have no environmental cause so I guess it could be genetic. On the other hand the bunch of bowed and bent birches above (how's that for an alliteration Whitney?) could possibly have been bent over several years from the weight of successive snows. Whatever the cause of birch bowing and bending, birches are, in my mind, the most beautiful trees in the North Woods. They are lithe and graceful and the paper birches have that surprising bright white bark. I'm not the only one that really likes them either. The sap suckers love the paper and gray birches because I regularly find the birds' geometric pattern of sap holes on those trees. (See one of my earliest posts.) If anyone has a theory on how the birches get bent, I'm all ears.

March Mink Madness!

The river bank where I saw Mathilda. (Note the 3+ feet of snow pack.)

Mathilda during an earlier photo shoot. (Actually a photo from the internet.)

Yes, we had a real life mink sighting this morning during our regular walk. Mathilda the mink saw me before I had a chance to get the camera out and she quickly scampered down the river bank and into a snow den. Mathilda was smaller than I imagined, about 20 to 24 inches long. Of course she may have a mate around who is bigger. Who knows. What is clear is that our property is a good territory for mink with all of the fish in the brook, the river and our pond. There are also lots of amphibians and birds for the mink to hunt. They will hunt waterfowl and I'm sure they're happy to raid any bird's nest for some eggs. Who knows, maybe we'll have a litter of mink come Spring. I'll keep everyone updated.

Waiting for Godot . . . and Spring

Scanning the southern horizon for signs of Spring.

Sunbathing Vermont style.

My daughter and daughter-in-law, who live in Boston, have started complaining recently about being tired of Winter, having cabin fever (although they live in a condo) and being just desperate for Spring to arrive. Well, I've got news for them. Spring has arrived in Boston, at least compared to Vermont. I mean come on, there's no snow on the ground in Boston, most days it gets above freezing and their flowers are showing signs of wanting to bloom. Hell, up here in Vermont we call that kind of weather "High Summer!" (Not really, but it does sound suspiciously like June weather.) Up here it still gets down into the single digits at night, 3 F last night, and it looks like I'll be wearing snowshoes to walk the dogs for at least another 4 weeks. Yes, we're still waiting for Spring up here and with it the sugaring season and of course our beloved "Mud Season". I promise everyone at least one blog entry on both of those ...if they ever actually occur this year.

p.s. The pictures above were actually taken last July during a heat wave when it was possible during a brief two week period to go outdoors without getting instant frostbite.

The Great Lady Bug Suicide Pact

Several lady bugs getting ready to "drink the kool aid".

Up close and personal.

Our house has a lady bug infestation. That's not necessarily a bad thing; I mean, lady bugs are beneficial predators of destructive aphids and they're pretty cute. They don't eat wood like termites either. So all in all we are very accepting of lady bugs except....except when they go through mass die-offs in the house. Apparently lady bugs can over winter in the walls of a house and we are beginning to think that we have the equivalent of a massive lady bug city in the walls of our house. That would be O.K. if these over-wintering lady bugs woke up in late March and headed to the garden. Unfortunately, many of them seem to have seasonal clocks that are out of adjustment and so dozens of them show up in the living room everyday wondering if Winter is over. Unfortunately Winter is not over, and so after hanging around on the windows, the table, the floor, my computer and who knows what else, these unfortunate early adventurers die, littering the living room floor. We hold a brief memorial service and then vacuum them up. Zazou our Golden Retriever likes to eat a few every now and then as well. So there you have it, another reason to hope for an early return to Spring up here in the North Country. To stop the lady bugs from taking over the house!

Spring Comes Early to Vermont!

World class icycles

Our locally grown glacier slowly curls off of the roof.

That Spring will come early is at least our fervent hope, disappointed so far. As a matter of fact we had the coldest temperature of the year two nights ago, -14 F, and we have gotten a fresh 20 inches of snow in the last 6 days. This has been the snowiest year in recorded history here in Vermont. That includes a record breaking 48" in February. In fact it hasn't snowed this much here since the pliocene era approximately 1.5 millions years ago. Here at our place we've gotten a total of about 10 feet during December, January and February. The snow pack is now a solid 4 feet. In other news, the suicide rate is sky-rocketing across northern New England, and most migratory birds have canceled plans to leave the South before Spring 2009.

Where's global warming when you need it?