And the White Out Continues

White Out

Vermont Champagne Bucket. A bit suggestive but very effective.

Gee, no one told us it snowed in Vermont before we moved here. But apparently it does and today was the latest iteration. At this rate the garden fence will completely disappear in a couple of weeks. We got 5 inches of snow today and another 6 forecast for tomorrow. I may have to re-sole the snowshoes at this rate. Our snowplow guy had to stop at the bottom of the driveway to put on chains and I got a chance to talk to him. Unfortunately he was incoherent from lack of sleep what with all the plowing. I didn't even take the dogs out for a walk today. On the positive side, it's great to stand in front of the fire and watch the snow fall knowing there's champagne tonight to celebrate "first night". Here is my New Year's resolution: I promise to walk the dogs tomorrow, snow or no snow.

Happy Holidays from Vermont!

If only we had iceskates.

Sun peaking through the trees.

An intense interest in fox scat.

The postcard shot.

Some help with the snow shoes.

The house soaks up the sun.

Well, Christmas day has come and gone, the presents are unwrapped, the eating continues and plans are being made for New Years. We had a wonderful sunny day today, the first in weeks, and I thought I would cheer everybody up by sharing some of our sunshine. Happy holidays everyone!

A Walk in Winter

Snow shoeing with a dog on a leash...more perilous than dog-sledding to the south pole.

Your intrepid explorer dressed in his Winter finest.

Taking a walk on a cold Winter's day with 30 inches of snow on the ground isn't as easy as taking a stroll around the block in the middle of the Summer. The big difference is the amount of gear you have to wear up here in the northland in the middle of the Winter. There's the "normal" cold weather gear of course. Everyone knows you need a hat, coat and gloves. But frequently it's cold enough here that you need to wear the infamous "layers" of cold weather clothing. This usually includes a long-sleeve t-shirt, long-johns, sock liners, glove liners and a heavy fleece. If the wind is blowing, make sure you take a good scarf. Once you're bundled up for the cold, you're ready to get ready for snow shoeing. Put on your special boots (the ones with the heel ridge that catches the snowshoe bindings), gaiters (from the French guetres) to shed snow that is thrown up on your pants, sunglasses to ward off snow blindness and then grab your ski poles. Before setting off you'll have to lash on those snow shoes, usually only a 5 or 10 minute ordeal depending on how complicated the bindings are. And you're off to enjoy Mother Nature! Of course if you have dogs with you, you'll need to bring their treats and leashes. And you're off to enjoy Mother Nature! Oh, don't forget to get the camera in case there's something interesting up in the woods. And you're off to enjoy Mother Nature! After about 200 yards of slogging through deep snow or going uphill, you'll have to pause and start stripping those layers. Hopefully you have enough pockets to hold your glove shells and hat in addition to the dog treats, leashes and that indispensable handkerchief. For a special challenge go out with a dog on a leash as my daughter is doing in the picture above. And people wonder why we can't wait for Spring.

P.S. Well after dark tonight, Catherine spotted a flying squirrel on the bird feeder we have hanging in one of our living room windows. Flying squirrels are nocturnal animals, so it's rare to see one. Now you'd think that up here in Vermont all the flying squirrels would be "northern flying squirrels". We do have those, but the "southern flying squirrel's" range goes up to the the Canadian border. So, as incongruous as it may seem, the flying squirrel we saw tonight was a "southern flying squirrel". Betcha they can't wait for Spring to get here either.

Tracks in the Snow, Small, Medium & Large

Mouse Tracks

Fox Tracks

Bounding Deer Tracks

The snow is helping reveal the secret lives of the forest animals that live around us. There are lots of deer tracks of course; you can even see where a deer has jumped the garden fence to browse on our unharvested and now frozen brussel sprouts. Deer don't really like the brussel sprouts; they left them alone all Summer and Fall, but it's Winter and the deer can't be choosy about food. It's no surprise that there are lots of deer tracks since there are lots of deer here. We expect to see their tracks along their preferred paths, but sometimes they surprise us. Like the one that came down down the hill within a few feet of the house. The bottom photo shows the tracks of a good sized deer that was bounding along in the deep snow up on the old logging trail I walk on. The second photo shows some fox tracks. There is at least one fox, probably two, that live along the river and I see fox tracks regularly. The first photo is of mouse tracks. I saw them over by the pond. Mice and voles have a rough time during the Winter. Besides the relative lack of food, they are the prey for everything from owls to mink to foxes. I guess that's why mice reproduce so quickly; they're getting eaten by other animals at an astounding rate.

Secret Messages Found Carved in Trees!

The rows of holes in these trees could be ancient (but simple) hieroglyphics telling us about who knows what. Probably some aliens left them eons ago. Or maybe not; after all this isn't Roswell, N.M., it's Northfield, VT. After a little sleuthing, I discovered that one or several yellow-bellied sap suckers made these holes. What a name! I'm glad my Mom didn't name me after this member of the woodpecker family. They are actually pretty birds and we have seen them around the house during the Spring and Summer. They are one of the few woodpeckers to completely migrate in the Winter. They won't come to a feeder, but they do visit the trees around the house on occasion and one male used to like to drum on the metal roof of our shed. The YBSS drills out small holes in regular rows on a tree in order to drink the sap. They apparently like birch trees because all of these pictures are birch trees. The YBSSs are gone for the Winter, but counting them we have a really good representation of woodpeckers here on our place to include the hairy woodpecker, downy woodpecker, northern flicker and pileated woodpecker. I haven't actually seen a pileated woodpecker yet but the big rectangular holes they make in trees are everywhere. The hairy and the downy woodpeckers are daily visitors to the feeders. They've even managed to finish off the homemade suet I put out. (I can't take credit for the YBSS picture above which I found on the web.)

"Peace in our time..."

Or at least peace with the squirrels. Well, a truce with the squirrels would be more like it. Last year the little bushy-tailed rats of the forest ravaged our bird feeders like a bunch of rampaging Visigoths. After a lot of "squirrel proofing" which included putting feeders up on poles, installing squirrel baffles and sheathing one side of the house where we have window feeders with sheet metal, I am happy to announce that the squirrels almost never get into the feeders we have reserved for the birds. We have left the "covered bridge" feeder, shown in the picture with two squirrels, installed on the deck railing so that our thieving furry friends won't feel unloved. Although the squirrels have figured out how to get on all of the feeders, they don't seem to want to work too hard at it and have been pretty happy with the sunflower seeds in the covered bridge. We do have a platform feeder in the side yard hung on the side of our big old maple tree, but I have pretty much given up on stocking it. If you put anything out on a platform feeder, the squirrels fill their cheeks with as much as they can, run off and hide their bounty, and then return for more. As a result, a couple of squirrels can empty a platform feeder in record time. I wouldn't mind so much if they actually ate what they hide away. Unfortunately, they forget where they put a lot of their hidden food. This is great in the forest as the squirrels end up planting a lot of acorns or beechnuts or whatever which helps trees reproduce. When the squirrels are performing the same trick with sunflower seed from my feeder, it's a lot less endearing.

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

Well, the outdoor Christmas tree has been up for a couple of days and it looks pretty good if I do say so. The 10 inches of snow we got yesterday smothered some of the lights on the tree and along the deck railing so that now they glow warmly under their blanket of cold. The "Marie Antoinette Memorial Bird Feeder" there on the left compliments the tree nicely I think. (Hey, we lived in Texas for a long time and have a fascination with "big hair".) Barry the barred owl hasn't been back to the birch tree tonight, but we'll keep looking for him.

A Barred Owl in the Birch Tree

Barry the Barred Owl

Today was a stay inside and watch the snowstorm and the birds at the feeders kind of day. On the birding front there was no real excitement for most of the day. All of the usual suspects showed up, the chickadees in large numbers, our flock of 10 or so doves, a couple of bluejays, the hairy woodpecker family (Harry and Harriet), a female downy woodpecker and a lone redpoll. Then around 4:30, just as it was starting to get dark, Catherine looked up from her computer and asked me excitedly what kind of bird was roosting in the white birch tree that is just off of our deck. From the profile I could immediately tell that the bird was a fairly large owl. After lots of ohs and ahs and a few looks through the binos we were able to identify it as a barred owl. All Summer I had heard a barred owl at night (usually between 10:00 and midnight) and then this Fall, nothing. I wondered what had happened to "our" owl. Left for the tropics? Left for Quebec? Bad case of laryngitis? Killed by a vicious mouse during a night hunt? Whatever the story was this Fall, "our" barred owl or a suitable replacement has moved back to the area. Hopefully we'll again start hearing his/her pleasant hooting as we lay in bed at night during what is shaping up to be a long cold snowy Winter. As you can tell from the photos, our camera is a pretty simple point and shoot affair that doesn't have much of a zoom and really can't handle low light conditions. I was finally able to get a couple of photos of our owl by going out the front door and creeping around on the deck. Unfortunately the snow falling caught the flash each time, obscuring the tree and the owl. Still, you can make out Barry the Barred owl in the middle left of each photo perched in the birch tree. There's even a faint red-eye if you look closely.

Intrepid Explorers Brave Icy Expanse...Snowshoes Required

The Tree Expedition Begins

The dangerous pond sirens beckon.

Proof of a successful crossing.

This morning broke cold and sunny. How cold was it? So cold your snot would freeze just at the thought of blowing your nose. Not a pleasant experience I can assure you. (Actually it was 5 F this morning at sunrise and about 12 F when these pictures were taken.) Such challenges from Mother Nature cannot go unanswered, and so Catherine and I ventured out to get a Christmas tree and some evergreen boughs to decorate the house. On the way back I got curious about the thickness of the ice on the pond. Last year I was able to start walking on it near the end of January, and although I never drilled and measured the thickness I'm guessing it was over 5 inches. With the good run of cold weather we've been having, I figure it is probably 2 inches already this year. The next interesting question of course was whether the ice would hold my robust weight at this early date; I mean Winter hasn't even officially started for heaven's sake. Actually I had a partial answer to that question since I had crossed at the narrow shallow end a few days ago. That gave me some measure of confidence. Still, crossing 20 feet of pond 4 feet from the shore where the water is only 2 feet deep isn't quite as exciting as crossing right in the middle of the pond where the water is 4 to 6 feet deep and the bank will seem impossibly far if you break through. After asking myself what Peary would do, I struck out and completed this perilous journey successfully. If the weather holds, I'll attempt the lengthwise crossing in the next few days. Wish me luck.

New Snow and More on the Way

Snow starting to take over the trout rapids.

The dogs on the prowl...unsuccessfully.



We have gotten 6-7 inches of snow over the past 24 hours. This after a forecast of "2-4 inches". Apparently the weathermen here in Vermont like to overindulge in organic "weed" prior to preparing their forecasts. (Everything is organic in Vermont to include the marijuana.) Much of the river is slowly freezing over and the snow is engulfing many of its features. I was hoping to get a great photo of a big roiling brook over on our neighbors land (they graciously let me take my walks on their property), but when I got over there the brook seemed very tame and smothered under the heavy quilt of snow. The dogs were disappointed at the paucity of new tracks during our hour walk, and I was a bit surprised as well. Usually we run across several sets of tracks, fox, deer, mink, etc. after a new snow, but we saw nothing today. The sun's supposed to be out tomorrow morning, so maybe we'll have better luck then.

Homemade Suet

It's been unseasonably cold here for the last few weeks, and everybody knows that when it gets cold, you need to eat something nice and greasy. That goes for the birds as well. Winter is the best time to feed birds suet since they are more in need of the calories and in the Summer the darned stuff melts and just drips away. We could buy our suet, but in the spirit of the early bird-watching pioneers I decided to try my hand at making a batch. Fortunately for me I had to cook up a pound of bacon to get the necessary grease for the suet. After eating the bacon and then resting several hours, I re-heated the bacon grease, mixed it with some bird seed and poured the mixture into an old foil dish. Using my not inconsiderable woodworking skills, I constructed a suet holder and mounted this whole mess outside. That's what you see in the picture hanging from the metal arm that's attached to the deck railing. The suet has had less success than I'd hoped for although the woodpeckers seem to enjoy it. That's a male hairy woodpecker pecking away at it in the photo. (They're called "hairy" woodpeckers because they refuse to shave...even the females.) A couple of squirrels have tried the suet as well, but none of the chickadees or other birds besides the woodpeckers seem interested. Not sure why that is. On the next go-around I'll melt some peanut butter in with the lard and see if that's not more to the birds' taste.

Welcome to Four Seasons in Vermont

As a repentant flat-lander living for the past few years in Vermont, I thought it might be nice to share the incredible beauty of my adoptive state with anyone interested in taking a peek via the internet.  My wife and I live in a rural area in central Vermont on a small 10 acre property which I walk with my dogs just about everyday.  We have a pond, a trout stream, old apple trees, a new garden, a wildflower meadow and several acres of woods.  The land around us is pretty much undeveloped except for a few neighbors.  Most of this blog will be about the daily life of this little place of ours.  I suppose this makes it sort of an amateur naturalist blog.  On occasion, however, I'll broaden the perspective to include our local town and other interesting places we may visit.  I hope anyone accessing this  blog enjoys it. 

     This first picture shows a bend in our trout stream after a recent snow storm.  The storm dropped about 12 inches here a couple of weeks ago, and it's been cold since, so nothing has melted.  The large wonderfully symetrical tree in this photo is an Eastern Hemlock, a species which is dying out to our South as a result of an imported pest.  I haven't seen any signs of problems on our place just yet.   I've seen mallards on the stream the last couple of days.  They'll generally hang around for a few days and then fly off and try their hand somewhere else.