Bingo loves to hide in small places, likely because of his insecurity. It is unfortunate because he has gotten to be a large cat. Last week he found a new place—in the TV cabinet. In addition to being in a snug, safe place, the location also offers two remote controls on the shelf below to play with.
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| Bingo's green eyes looking out from his new lair |
The ground dried out enough for Terry to get the Gator out. He had already done much of the chainsaw work around the edges of the field to cut up the fallen limbs that Olive left behind. He cut up around the fire ring on Monday. I helped him pick up the pieces Monday and Tuesday. Some we loaded in the Gator; some we threw in the adjacent woods, and some were stacked up around the fire ring.
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| The tidied-up fire ring area |
Terry has not gotten out a ladder yet. There are still some “widow-makers” hanging from the trees. The limb on the left is holding on by the bark. Terry predicted it would come down on its own in a week. Last time I checked, he was wrong. The one on the right will probably require an intervention with the chainsaw.
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| Hanging branched |
The day after we finished cleaning up, the big box elder branch was leaking sap. Four days later it was still leaking sap. The third time I saw that it was still dripping, I had the nerve to taste it. It was, indeed, sweet. I expect it develops off flavors if boiled down to syrup, or else maybe it just has a lower sugar content than maple sap. Whatever the reason, you never hear about box elder syrup, do you?
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| Sap dripping from a broken limb two weeks after the ice storm |
Tuesday evening at suppertime, I saw nine or ten deer on the far side of the field. They refused to hold still so I could get an accurate count. Seven of them circled the willows and came out by the house. Yes, I was able to verify that some of them stayed behind. We see the group of seven fairly often and think it is three does and four yearlings. We know one of the does had twins last year. As I walk around, I see tracks of deer that are smaller than I think they ought to be by now, but when I saw them all together, I could tell that the yearlings were not yet full grown.
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| Seven deer coming out of the birches and willows |
The young ones are excited about spring. Periodically they would chase each other around. Maybe the guy who wrote “Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer” knew something about young caribou besides that “games” rhymed with “names.” There do seem to be white-tail deer games.
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| The exuberance of youth |
Look at how far they lean in the curve! You’d think they’d tip right over!
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| Banking the corner |
After awhile, they wandered on. I went back to making dinner.
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| Moving on |
Winter storm Ricardo went through Thursday leaving 8” of heavy, wet snow in his wake. Terry used the snowblower. Good thing. He is no longer young enough for me to not worry about him giving himself a heart attack shoveling snow.
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| The deck shows the depth of the snow |
Speaking off, I hardly had to use Mr. Long Arm at all to clear the solar panels. Most of the snow slid right off. I had to shovel out the pile of snow at the bottom of the panels so the rest would have some place to go, but that took little time compared to sweeping the panels.
In a world that was mostly black and white, it was nice to see a bright red cardinal.
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| A male cardinal provides a splash of color in a dull world |
I shoveled a little bit of the run for the girls so they would not spend all day in the coop. A
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| Mmm--snow! Best Thing Ever! |
s usually, they didn’t want to walk in the snow, but eating it was the Best Thing Ever!
Ricardo’s snow settled quickly. It was down to a couple of inches before Sage put two more inches on top. The sun is out today, although it was 14°F this morning. If it really does get to 40, we’ll see more of the bare ground. March is indeed a weather roller coaster, but I’m glad this little cold snap has slowed the buds down. We can be absolutely sure we haven’t see the last frost yet.
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