Springing About

When the snow starts to 'let go' of the land, it leaves in a sporadic fashion.  On the north slopes, in the woods, it hangs on. And on.  On the westerly slopes where the sun comes in, it leaves fast.

Here are some random shots today, from my hike with Taffy.

The very back field, where it drops to the black spruce bog, is about half open. Which means there are lots of very interesting smells to be explored.  We have been told that there are pair of young wolves hanging out on the manure compost this winter, because it is warm -- it is at the neighbour's gravel pit until we can get the trucks into our own fields, happily rotting down so he can mix it with topsoil.    But that is not very far away, so no doubt the wolves have been prowling through here, too. At least, Taffy said they had been...

 My students will be delighted to know that the cross country fences are emerging nicely.

 Grass! Grass starting to show up everywhere!

 and Spring smells....  She came home a tired, happy dog.

 Brian and David are working in the woods now, logging. Removing diseased trees, or dead wood to keep the bush healthy as part of our Managed Forest agreement. This also provides us with firewood for our cottages.





These tracks were left by the bulldozer, making quite an interesting pattern.

 The field closer to the Fire Hall, which is the northern end, a little lower and more sheltered, now that field hasn't let go of the snow yet, at all!  You could ski circuits here quite nicely for several days to come I think.

 Hiking along the bulldozer tracks up to the toboggan hill, again, on the northern side of the hill and sheltered by trees, there's LOTS of snow in the woods.  That is good for those making maple syrup -- which needs a good snowpack in order for the sap to run well.

 Tobogganing anyone?  The bottom half of our huge toboggan hill is thick with snow.  It's a little icy on top, so it would faster than fast, but a ton of fun!

 But when we turn around and look up at the top of the toboggan hill, well, that is another story! Spring arrives up high!

 The neighbours are coming out of their long winter nap, too.  Mr. Raccoon had been checking out the toboggan hill, but there was no indication that he had a flying saucer or magic carpet to slide down on!

 Technically, you have until the end of March to remove fish huts. If you were even a little smart, you've already done that.  That gray that is showing up on the ice surface? That indicates that the ice is both thin and rotting, and not safe.  It's already opening up along the shoreline.

 That melting along the shoreline, that requires careful examination...















There is heat in the sun -- as soon as you get out of the wind, it is very warm and wonderful.  The water levels are coming up already, but we hope that there will be enough of a melt /freeze cycle that we don't get flooding this year!  If it gets cold at night, it is not only good for the syrup producers, but it allows the melt water to move through the system without causing problems.