The daily highs have inched up into the forties and sometimes fifties, but the wood stove is still a necessity. The major snow cover is gone, but snowbanks still persist on the north side of buildings and anywhere large amounts of snow were piled up. Road restrictions are in place, which means I can drive without meeting logging trucks. There will be no logging trucks until the frost is completely out of the ground.
Today I saw my first turkey vultures of the year, soaring over the Kettle River. Sand Creek has absorbed the majority of the snow melt, and may have reached its crest today; the banks are overflowing but are nowhere near reaching our house; that's the nice thing about having huge areas of low wetlands upstream.
The woodcock were putting on their show tonight, making their strange call before spiraling into the sky in a shower of twitters. What an amazing bird.
Still waiting for frogs, and it will be a week or so. But it will happen.
