I’ve heard of April showers bringing May flowers, but what do April snows bring? On Friday, I awoke to a white world with about an inch of snow covering everything. It was kind of a shock considering only a week before, there were promising signs of Spring. Of course, after the snow, the temperatures are back up and the weekend’s forecast is quite pleasant.
I was in town today getting snow tires for Erin’s Jeep, and when I’m in town, I often head over to Hyperspud to look at maps, books and gear that I can’t afford. Today I was looking through the book Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills put out by the aptly named Mountaineers Press. They put out some nice hiking guides and how-to books for outdoor recreation. Turns out, this book is the “Bible” for mountaineers, and I want it. I also desperately want to get into mountaineering so that I may continue to hike and explore all year round. While…
I had a good Christmas this year. It began with a week of continuous snow fall. We’d have 3-6 inches here and there with warm days compacting the wet and heavy accumulation. But all of that still adds up so that by the time Christmas rolled around, the snow was over a foot deep in parts of our yard. Meanwhile the mountains have been getting hammered. Moscow Mountain has over 40 inches in the upper elevations, Brundage has over 90 inches at the summit, and I’m not sure of the current depths at Freezeout and Lolo Pass as the snotels…
[map style=”width: auto; height:400px; margin:20px 0px 20px 0px; border: 1px solid black;” maptype=”ROADMAP” gpx=”http://www.mineral2.com/wp-content/uploads/Flights.GPX”] If you don’t already know me, I have a thing for maps and geography. It’s an absolute delight to see the landscape from the air. I’ve been bringing my GPS with me when I fly, mostly to keep track of flight progress and to identify what I’m seeing out the window. But it’s also interesting to see how the FAA routes flights. Spoiler Alert: it’s not a direct path between cities. The two tracks above show the flight path between Phoenix and Cancun in both directions….
Because I was laid up and out of commission for much of the spring, I wasn’t able to work on expanding our garden much this year. Last year, I built a third 4×8 foot box and a 2×4 foot box which were meant to be tiered for planting small annual herbs in large quantities. I never got that box filled with dirt, so that will have to wait until next year. In the mean time, we’ve planted our usual array of crops in the two 4×8 foot boxes with limited success. Erin had bought some tomato plants in April, and…
Fox sparrow Passerella iliaca White-crowned sparrow Zonotrichia leucophrys Northern cardinal Cardinalis cardinalis Today I took the camera out to photograph the birds. We’ve got a feeder in the front yard, but all the birds flock to the seed spilled on the ground. So I threw the dogs inside, scattered a can of seed on the ground, sat and waited. It didn’t take long for the birds to come in. Around the farm, I’ve been mostly seeing the usual winter birds: Cardinals, Chickadees, Titmice, Carolina Wren, Junco, Song Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, and some non-feeder birds: American Crow, Raven, Black and Turkey…
We get lots of birds in our trees in the front yard. This could be contributed to the source of food we are supplying to them. The list of winter birds is less than the summer residents. For example, I haven’t seen a bluebird in months, and most of the woodpeckers have left the yard too. And of course, the hummingbirds have gone since they don’t have the proper gear to tolerate the cold. But even with the few remaining species, watching the feeders has been a delight. In Idaho, we have the possibility to see four different kinds of…
