Minnie the Mink Makes a Move

Minnie's stunt double crossing the river in a scene from her soon to be released movie.

Minnie too is wondering when all of the snow will be gone.

The weather has been so nice lately that I have resumed having my late morning coffee out on the deck, if it's not raining that is.  Sure there's still lots of snow left on the ground, about 24" (60 cm), but with temperatures in the high 40s F (5 C) during the day, it's starting to feel (dare I say it?) a lot like Spring.  So anyway, this morning I'm out enjoying the warm weather, sunshine and my coffee when who should appear out of the pond's drainpipe but Minnie the Mink.  She started to scamper across the ice along the far bank and then realized that the dogs and I were intently watching her from the deck.  By the time I rushed inside and got the camera, she had disappeared back into the pond's drainage culvert.  After a few minutes I saw her reappear near the river, swim across and start exploring.  She sniffed and searched busily along a 200 meter arc on the far side of our property before disappearing from view.  Unfortunately she was too far for me to get a shot with the camera.  Although some minks do turn white in the Winter, Minnie is black.  The white and the black minks are the same species.  They're excellent hunters and fishers, and I'm sure Minnie appreciates us stocking the pond with all of those plump trout.  She's going to be really excited about the chickens we're getting this Spring/Summer.  Mink's apparently are extraordinarily gifted at getting into chicken coops and raising hell.  Think of all of those eggs to eat, topped off with the occasional chicken dinner!   Of course, I'm the one responsible for designing and building the mink-proof, fox-proof, coon-proof chicken coop.  But hey, no pressure.  As we keep telling ourselves, they're just chickens.

A Perfect Late Winter's Day

Moose tracks in deep snow up on the trail.

The view from up here on a perfect Winter day.

Thursday turned out to be the sort of Winter's day that seems to make all of the snow and cold weather and crappy driving conditions worthwhile.  Particularly if you're retired and can get outside for some relaxed snowshoeing.  If you have to work, well maybe not so much.  But anyway, the day dawned sunny and mild and stayed that way all day.  When I say mild I mean the mid 20s F (-5 or so Celsius).   There was no wind and a full sun so it felt like it was a lot warmer.  The dogs and I took a long walk up through the woods, enjoying the balmy weather and checking out any new tracks or other signs of animal activity.  Some fresh moose tracks followed the trail for some distance and there were other mysterious scents that the dogs thoroughly investigated.  Other than that there was nothing of note really, just the feeling that Winter may be on its last legs and Spring may actually appear sometime in the next few weeks or months.  In that same vein, on Groundhog day back in early February everyone in the region was encouraged when the groundhog apparently saw his shadow.  There was dancing in the streets when people got the word that there would be only 6 more weeks (as opposed to the usual 6 more months) of Winter.  Our current weather is keeping that hope alive.  At this rate we may get to plant the garden before July.  Who says global warming is all bad?

Up a Tree With No Place to Go

Well I'm back from a stint of work in Burkina-Faso, West Africa as of Saturday and slowly adjusting to the 80 to 90 degree daytime temperature differential.  It's about 20 F (-10 C) here during the day and it was between 105 F to 110 F (45 C) where I was working.  When we would get back to the hotel after a day of working outside in that heat, our 80 F hotel rooms seemed like heaven.  I would have liked it even cooler in my room but 80 F was about all the air conditioner could manage.  As part of my readjustment to the somewhat cooler climate of our fair Green Mountain state, I took the dogs for a walk up through the woods this morning, shivering all the way and trying to readjust to walking with snowshoes.  It would have been a pretty uneventful short hike except that on the way back Nella started frantically running around a pretty good sized white pine tree and barking excitedly.  She never barks when she trees squirrels so I went over to investigate.  And there was Pauly the Porcupine about 25 feet up the tree and ambling out on what looked like a pretty fragile limb as he tried to put a little distance between himself and Nella.  Imagining what would happen if the branch broke and the two dogs jumped Pauly, and having no desire to spend the rest of the morning pulling dozens of porcupine quills out of the dogs' snouts, I quickly called Nella and hustled the reluctant dogs back onto the path towards home.  As usual when something interesting happens up in the woods, I didn't have the camera, so I missed getting Pauly's mug shot.  Nonetheless, I've posted a picture that should let you readers imagine the high drama that the dogs and I lived through this morning.  The porcupine in the picture seems somewhat smaller than Pauly who is a pretty good sized animal.  Also it was snowing this morning, so you'll have to imagine snow falling around the porcupine in the picture to get the full effect of our few moments of terror.  O.K., maybe not terror but at least mild concern.  

The "Will" to Survive

I came across this tree during a walk awhile back and was impressed by its survival skills.  I guess you can't talk about a tree's "will", not in a Nietzschian sense anyway.  But still, there's something both touching and impressive about this determined tree.  Was it knocked over by one of its fellow falling trees?  Bent by a vicious ice storm?  Just a little twisted from birth?  We'll never know, but this is one yellow birch that just won't give up.  Perhaps a lesson for these troubled times although I hope we don't end up as bent and bowed as our tree after our national economic mess has played itself out.

A Killer's on the Loose

Barry settles in for an evening of hunting.

A closer look at our steely-eyed killer.  (I couldn't edit out the branch obscuring those steely eyes.)

And if you're a mouse you should be afraid.  Very afraid.  Especially if you're a mouse who lives around the foundation of our house underneath the deck and the screened porch downstairs.  If you live down there, bad things stalk you at every turn.  There are the peanut butter baited mouse traps inside the house that the cruel owner strategically places around the basement, and then there is Barry the Barred Owl.  Barry loves mice, as appetizers, as main courses and as desert (dipped in a little maple syrup I presume).  This is the second year in a row that Barry has shown up in late Winter (please let me continue with my delusion that it's now late Winter and not mid Winter), perched in our birch tree and hunted the mice that live beneath the deck.  Last year we actually saw him swoop and snatch.  He showed up again today for the first time this year and although he has done a lot of swooping, we haven't seen him snatch anything yet.  Catherine and I were again impressed at how big of a bird Barry really is.  He must be over 20 inches from head to tail, and he has a really impressive wing span.    Tonight would be a good night for Rocky the Flying Squirrel to stay home, forget about the bird feeders and just watch a little T.V.  Even if he is hungry.  Because if there's one thing Barry likes more than mice, it's flying squirrels.  (Dipped in a little maple syrup of course.)

How Cold Is It?

Our recent heat wave has given way to some bone numbing cold as a cold air mass has descended on us thanks to the good graces of our Canadian neighbors.  In no particular order then, here are some answers to the question in the title of this post.

It's so cold the camera froze up when I tried to take pictures for this post.

It's so cold that not only will the car not start, it implodes as soon as you turn the key.

It's so cold you can't speak while outside or your tongue freezes solid, swells up, and you suffocate.

It's so cold the dogs are watching videos on how to use a toilet so they won't have to go outside for a walk.

It's so cold the trout in the pond are wearing sweaters.  They'd start a fire, but they live under water.

It's so cold you have to dress in 26 layers to go outside and 12 or 13 if you remain indoors.

It's so cold they're thinking of extending the Kelvin scale into negative numbers.

It's so cold even Florida is beginning to seem mildly appealing.

It's so cold that exposed skin can get frostbite within 5 minutes.  And that's in the house!

It's so cold that each increase of 1 mph of wind speed increases the wind chill by a factor of 1 million.  (Or maybe more.  I mean, who knows when it's this cold?)

Those are just a few examples of how cold it is.  I'd list some more, but it's just too damn cold!

Heat Wave Rocks Vermont!!

This ice shelf is doomed if these temperatures persist!

Larry, Moe and Curly, our Adirondack chairs, contemplate the effects of Global Warming.

The river is once again open for navigation.

The dogs plow through the newly warmed snow.

Yes fans, in another sign of rampant global warming, the temperature got up to 38 F yesterday! To avoid heat prostration, I only wore my swim trunks and a a t-shirt on my daily walk with the dogs although I did need snowshoes. (Pictures not available unfortunately.) The snow pack is still about 4 feet deep after all. The warm weather was welcome after the rude awakening I got upon my return from Ethiopia. 75 F (23 Celsius) and sunny all day in Ethiopia. 0 degrees Kelvin and snowing here in Vermont. Takes some getting used to, but now I'm re-acclimated. And since my typing fingers have thawed (what with our heat wave and all) I'm back with some new posts. The pictures above really tell an eloquent story about the recent one day thaw here. If you look really, really closely, you can see some of the snow flakes at the very bottom of the snow pack melting. Kind of makes you anxious for Spring.