Snow...and birds

[DThille]

So, I was out to the country place today. It was a lovely day...the days are definitely getting longer and we can feel the sun's energy increasing. There were a number of common redpolls flitting about so I took a number of photos and I've got some obligatory snow photos for @Mandy Onderwater .

Male among snowshoe hare droppings.

Male at the suet...either a female or juvenile to the left.

Three caught in motion.

Oh look...I get to move snow...again...yay.

The markers delineate a row of raspberries that have had a tough life thus far...they've been moved a couple times and hopefully this spot will work better for them.

Looking toward the half-buried cherry orchard...I didn't go over to see how much nibbling there has been, but if the snow gets much higher and the snowshoe hares have their way, we may not have a large crop this year.

These are pretty birds. She Who Must Be Obeyed and I had watched a YouTube video on them the other day and I mentioned that I didn't recall seeing them at our place before (of course that could just be faulty memory).

This is out near the compost pile...I thought it looked neat.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Oh my goodness, that is so beautiful!

And whilst I hope the snow melts soon so you can start on your garden, I absolutely love seeing the snow and the animals in it!

 

[DThille]

I heard today and searched it out that as of about a week ago, Winnipeg recorded the third highest snowfall for a winter to date in about 150 years of record-keeeping…and we’ve had some since and more coming. I expect we will move into second place this week since we were only about 9 cm short. March usually sees more snow than February so this could certainly get interesting.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Stay warm and safe!

 

[DThille]

It's still winter....

We saw at least 2 snowshoe hares today and one male common redpoll.

For reference, I'm about 5'9". I was hoping to clear up the courtyard today as it's a lower area and water will pool in this area, so the more snow I can blow away before it all melts, the better. There was certainly a limit to how much I could do...hopefully I'll be able to get out again when things are melting and the drifts are getting softer.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

They look so cute!

That is definitely a lot of snow though! Do you normally get this much snow?

 

[DThille]

No…as of February 20, this was the 3rd snowiest winter since they started keeping records. February had the 4th highest snowfall on record. Since we are getting more, if we haven’t already moved into second place on the all time list, we should be very soon.

Of course, drifting is interesting. Between the two shops, there’s virtually exposed ground…and further out beside the big shop there’s another drift that might be taller. At least this moisture should help compared to the last two years of drought. Of course that all comes dow to how the spring melt goes.

On the way home we did stop and pick up some additional seeding supplies. I need to get started on the leeks and a couple others sooner than later.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Oh wowzers! I suppose it's better than drought, but this much snow would be a struggle. I bet the roads can get quite dangerous as well. I hope no elderly got snowed in!

Good luck with the seedling! Do you start them indoors under grow lights?

 

[DThille]

To a degree, we do use lights…we do have some south-facing windows which get a lot of sun…that and trying to start more seeds than we will have lights for, but we’ll figure it out.

Yes, the roads have been somewhat challenging at times and the roads have been closed on occasion (including yesterday with some slippery conditions and blowing snow). I don’t pay attention to news so can’t really speak to anyone getting trapped. Some days I wonder why we still live here….

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

There are probably many reasons why you live there - things that don't get knocked down by 'some' snow.
I have the same in the opposite direction, haha. We're stuck in a heatwave with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celcius daily and I'm struggling with the heat. I can't stand it this bad! And the sunburns.. oh god...

When the snow isn't being this hazardous, it can be quite beautiful as well

 

[DThille]

Yeah, wherever you go, there are hazards…here in the middle of the continent, it’s really only the cold and occasional tornadoes that are of issue. The snow in and of itself isn’t really hazardous. Harsh winters limit what we can grow, but also limit the nasty things that can hurt you…since we are outside the range of the prairie rattlesnake, I don’t think there’s anything in our area that can kill with venom…a few things can introduce disease, and a few bigger predators could do harm. Hurricanes, tidal waves, and such are academic here…we can approach 40 C here, but that’s rare…we do usually have a number of summer days over 30 C and we have higher humidity here - I grew up about 850-900 km NW of here and while it would get hotter in summer and colder in winter, it was drier.

That said, if we did want to go anywhere else, we would probably limit ourselves to Commonwealth countries…almost anywhere we would go would have warmer winters, but that isn’t everything. The pup has walked me over 55 km in the last 30 days and the weather prognosticators are predicting we could get above freezing early next week…spring is coming.

 

[Alpenrose]

Hello from South Western Montana !!
Thank you so much for the lovely pictures. Do you save any of the snow runoff in a pond or cistern, or something? The Australians have gotten very good at saving water and my thought is that we should be learning how to do the same.
We have about 2 inches still on the ground today, but for the past 4 or 5 days we could see all of the grass and brown spots under the trees. It snowed a little last night, but DH and I believe we are well on our way to spring. HOWEVER, this is Montana and as such I have seen the last two weeks in March and the first week in April with no snow on the ground at all. Woke up one morning had 5 inches (boy, was DH upset at that one ;-) !!
With regard to beans: we have a Costco store near by and can buy them ( at least until last week) in large sacks at a good price. A dry cool storage area will keep them for several years.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Spring is coming
I'm getting ready for Aussie winter here, my tomatoes are starting up now (Less fruit flies etc in winter)

 

[DThille]

We have a dugout, but haven’t used it per se. There appears to be some sort of irrigation out there (a spigot and a plug on the power pole) beside the dugout, but I’ve never gotten it to work…only discovered it after we had the property and didn’t get a chance to ask the previous owner, who has since passed, about it.

This spring I intend to begin creating some swales and berms…of course, this is Manitoba and, unlike much of Montana, we don’t have a lot of slope to the land so I don’t know how that will go. We did put up a plastic snow fence in the fall, but it was partially destroyed. Last winter was incredibly dry here, so this winter has been an incredible turnaround.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Oh wow! That's very interesting! Then again... you did say this winter was quite extreme.

I mean, trying wouldn't hurt!

 

[DThille]

The tide may be turning…too soon to be certain of course…I’ve seen snowfall here in May. I’ve been told to beware the Ides of March…. At least there is less bundling up involved to go outside in these mild temperatures.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Hehe, at least it'll have a chance of melting at least some of the snow!

 

[Alpenrose]

Here in Montana DH's uncle warned me--"don't put your tomato plants in the ground before June 10" I was a young bride then--"ahh, no it's been so warm and so lovely for weeks!" I put them in sometime around the first or second day of June. On June 15 it was snowing and dear Uncle was in town at the ranch store. He called the house(no cell phones in those days).When I answered the phone I heard that gentle giggle in his voice: "would you like me to bring home some tomato plants?" ;-) Forty years later and given the impact of global warming on our place, I will put them in the ground on June 10, or later!

 

[DThille]

My father spent almost all of his life 40 miles north of Saskatoon. August was the only month he didn’t see snow.

Here we have about 110-115 frost free days to work with for anything that is tender. I’m itching to get started, but not in a rush to get things in the ground unprotected, especially since our country property where we will have a lot of the plants is 61 km (38 miles) from home.

 

[DThille]

Well, we've had a number of days get above freezing with that continuing throughout the forecast period. I was out to the country yesterday...it was interesting to watch along the drive as we start to see land exposed.

Sigh. The hares have gotten to the other tall apple. If I recall correctly, the fence around is 4' tall.

This tree had previously produced a few apples for us.

This is after the tractor and I did what we could...I'll need to wait for old Sol to do more of his thing.

I had to bust through this drift to get my vehicle to the house. Standing beside it, the top is a bit below eye level, so about 5'.

It's beginning to look like spring. By the fall, I guess I will need to invest in some six foot tall fencing of some sort to surround my young fruit trees...either that or work on making rabbit stew.