Winter's Fury

The temperatures have dipped low for the past couple of days, and will continue to do so through the weekend. But by Tuesday it's supposed to be around 23, which will feel like spring after the sub zero temperatures we've been having. We'll all be walking around in short sleeves!

There is a glimmer of optimism in this frigid hell; there is an obvious lengthening of daylight in the evenings. Driving home 5:15 tonight, there was still light over the mountains to the west - finally!! I swear that's the only thing that gets me through these long, cold winters.

On Tuesday it warmed up all the way to 33 degrees and melted a fair amount of the snow away. Unfortunately all of that melted snow froze solid last night and the roads were as slick as a skating rink. Driving home, traffic was moving at 20-25 miles per hour in a 45 mile zone. Most people were patient and driving very safely, although there were a few idiots who thought they could drive better - and faster - than everyone else. A few of them tried to take themselves out of the gene pool, as evident by their cars in the ditch alongside the road.

As I shoveled snow Tuesday night, for what seemed like the millionth time in three months, I noticed icicles hanging around the rim of my patio table, and looked sort of like a parasol with fringed along the edges.

I was certain that with the coming cold front, the birds would be gluttonous at the feeders, but I've seen no sign of them for three days. They usually leaves "scraps" of seed all over the ground, that the deer vaccume up at night. It doesn't mean they haven't been here, just haven't left any evidence. Perhaps they've gobbled up every little morsel to prepare for the cold snap.

The deer still come - they leave fresh tracks across the driveway every evening. Sometimes if I wake up in the middle of the night I peek out the window to see if they're in the yard. But I've never seen them. They slip in and out like shadows.

The forecast for last night and today was six to ten inches of snow in the valley, but fortunately (so far), we haven't seen any of it. I'm hoping it has either passed us by, or it's just too darn cold to snow. Since the first of October we've had 23.6 inches of snow. My driveway is 20 x 80 feet, or 230,400 square inches. So, I've actually shoveled 5,437,440 inches of snow so far this winter....

Spring arrives in 80 days!!!

Christmas in Montana

Very foggy yesterday morning, so much so that I could not even see across the road. By 10:30 however, it began to burn off and the sky was SO blue - it beckoned to me and I headed out for a short road trip down the Bitterroot Valley. The mountains reflected the bright blue sky and everything was crystalized by the heavy hoar frost. The cattails alongside the road looked like rock sugar on a stick. They were back-lit by the sun and so beautiful - unfortunately there was no place to pull over safely to take any photos of them. Too bad, would have been a great shot!

I turned off at the Stevensville junction, stopped near the bridge and got some photos of the Bitterroot River and the mountains. It wasn't too terribly cold, although I did have to keep my camera tucked inside my jacket periodically, to keep it from freezing up on me.

As the day went on, the weather actually turned out to be fairly pleasant. I think it got up to around 25 degrees, and with the sunshine, lots of the ice melted quickly. Walked around the destered streets in town for a short while, then headed back home.

On my way back out to the highway, I stopped at the gate of Fort Owen to get a few more shots of the Bitterroot Mountains. As I was standing along the fenceline (only about 15 feet off the highway), a guy came driving up on his "gator" and asked if he could help me. I told him no, I was just taking some pictures, and he sat there looking at me with a sort of suspicious look on his face, and I wondered if he was upset at me "trespassing". While Fort Owen is on private property, it is also a state park, and therefore has public access. Moron...

Heading back toward Missoula I saw several small flocks of turkeys along the road, and back into Lolo I was hoping the buffalo were near the fence so I could get some pictures of them in the snow. But they were not, so I continued on my way.

Stopped at Kona Ranch Road and pulled into the river access parking lot, parked the rig and headed down to the edge of the Clark Fork River. The pine trees were thick with snow, so much so that the branches were drooping heavily. There were small "puddles" of ice in the river, which was moving at a pretty fast pace. The bridge must have recently been painted, for it was a bright orange (sort of reminded me of the Golden Gate - at least it was the same color), and was a striking contrast to the blue water and bright white snow.

A short walk along the river bank and I headed up toward the road and out across the bridge, where it was tricky footing. On the other side in the beaver pond, a flock of about 40 or 50 Canada geese were resting. The sun warmed the icy cold water, creating a light steam that rose behind the geese, and a few deer wandered along the bank. Looking south I noticed some heavy clouds closing in on the sun so I headed back to the car. By then the temperature was beginning to drop considerably and I headed home to my warm flannel "jammies" and a bowl of hot soup.

All in all a good way to spend Christmas day!

Winter Beauty

Yesterday was the Winter Solstice, a full moon and a full lunar eclipse. Those who practice Paganism definately had something to celebrate! I don't recall anything like that ever happening before, at least not in my lifetime.

I did not stay up to see the eclipse, as it occurred at around 2:00 am Mountain Time, although I would have loved to try and get photos of it. I thought about setting my alarm so I could get up and see it, but I'm sure if I had, my dog just might start waking me up at 1:30 every morning. Damn thinking dogs...

TWO whole minutes more of daylight today! Hope everyone had a chance to enjoy that.

The past few days have also provided six inches of fresh snow to add to the ever growing berms on either side of my driveway. While shoveling last night, I noticed a very narrow "trail" across my neighbor's yard that apparently crossed my driveway and continued on the other side. The deer have been attracted to the bird seed and suet spilled from the bird feeders by over-zealous woodpeckers. Their small, pointed hoof prints revealed that, rather than detour to the snow-free sidewalk, they relentlessly follow a habitual trail, which may have possibly been set down well before human habitation cluttered up the landscape here, and they stumble over the piles of shoveled snow. To help them out a little, I shoveled out a narrow path through the berms on both sides. This morning I noticed that they had avoided the snow berms and had filed through those paths on their way to - and from - the bird seed.

Sometime late last night, a thick, heavy fog rolled in and settled. That, combined with temperatures of between zero and five degrees, created the most beautiful hoar frost that attached itself to everything. The pine trees on the hill behind my house are coated with it, looking like heavily flocked Christmas trees. With the frosted pine cones, red berries, rose hips, dried leaves and a host of other "leftovers", why in the world would anyone want to decorate store-bought trees when Mother Nature has already provided them for us.

BRRRRR!

Winter blew in with a vengence! After several days of below zero weather (think wind chills somewhere in the neighborhood of -20), with blowing and drifting snow, we finally settled in to more normal patterns of snow, sunshine, melting, snow, sunshine, etc. Two days ago the snow was blinding in the sun, with almost spring-like temperatures, yesterday was warm but overcast, and today is cold, gray and stormy over the mountains. Typical Montana; if you don't like the weather just wait ten minutes - it'll change!

If you're not a skier or snowmobiler, you may think of winter in Montana as a huge inconvenience. It's cold, the roads are icy and it's a toss of the coin whether or not your car will start. And those days when the sky is a bright, clear blue and and the sun is shining turn out to be incredibly deceptive when you step outside into biting cold air that almost literally takes your breath away. But winter only makes us that much more appreciative of the warmer weather, even though it usually arrives way too late and departs way too early. It always seems that just as you're on the verge of a serious case of "Cabin Fever" spring suddenly peeks out and says "Gotcha!!"

My only real complaint so far is that I've had to shovel my long driveway several times already - by hand. Every year I ask Santa for a small, manageable snow blower, but apparently I haven't been good enough during the year...

I try to take winter on face to face (and yes, sometimes it's a real stretch). I still enjoy making snow angels and snow sculptures. I say 'snow sculptures' because anyone can make a snowman. I prefer to try my hand at other "critters" like dragons and dolphins. It's a little bit more of a challenge because the snow needs to be packed much tighter to hold the sculpture in place, but if you pack it too tight, you'll crumble the entire thing!

Photography during the cold winter months can be challenging, but well worth the trouble.

I also feed the birds in the winter and my feeders are full of Flickers, Magpies, Chickadees, Ring-Necked Doves, Pine Siskins, Goldfinches (in their winter coats), House Finches, a Downey Woodpecker, Gray Partridges, and this year I've been treated to an Eastern Blue Jay! Tracks in the snow tell me that deer and mice also frequent the feeders at night to gobble up any seed left on the ground by the birds.

Winter Solstice is December 21, at which time the days begin to get longer - and there are only 98 days until Spring!!