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.
8 comments:
Sounds like a lovely, peaceful place to be. I hope it will warm up soon.
So why can't the logging trucks go on the roads until the frost is gone? Seems like frozen ground is the best time for big trucks to be about.
Lovin' Spring, Lovin' Spring... doo be dooo....
Lovely phenological post, Deb... from logging trucks to woodcock. Haiku material. I wish I lived in such a beautiful and wild place.
I'm glad your snow is melting. Ours is finally long gone while the Ohio River goes up and down, up and down from the rain. Our woodcocks finished up last week.
nellie
It still seems to be pretty cold here in Pennsylvania. My son says it's only a bit below average but that's enough to get a dusting of snow twice this past week. Snow in April in our part of Pennsylvania is unusual. I have some mail order raspberries that I haven't planted yet...I hope they survive. I finally got out in the garden for a short time yesterday but I sure wish it would warm up!
Webb- saw our first sixties on Friday! Perfect for the Twins home opener.
Pablo- it is while the roads are thawing that they are at their worst. They don't thaw evenly; water makes its way to the surface in certain areas, bringing small mounds of gravel with it. Maybe that would be a good topic for a blog post...
Barefoot- Dandelions and crocuses in Hinckley!
Greg- Thanks. I was a bit distracted while I was writing because the Twins were staging their come-from-behind win over the Yankees!
Nellie- Welcome! It's amazing to hear how spring progresses in different areas.
Elise- This spring is a lot slower than last year's here.
We're at that no-logging-truck stage too. There is half a foot of melted mud on top of the frozen under soil which makes for interesting driving. But I don't like to log right now because the bark on the trees is loose in the spring. Still, the milk truck has to make it up and down the mountain every day or so. The town and state don't close the roads to everything or the farms would have to shut down and the cows and other animals won't agree to those terms.
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