It's March now and I had hoped to have my greenhouse full of planted flats and eagerly checking them each day to see if anything came up yet. The temps have been reasonably warm out there when the sun is shining, but with another arctic blast in the forecast, I'm leery of making too much effort in that direction just yet. It snowed again yesterday and we still have 19 inches on the ground and solid ice in the driveway and on the shady walkways. This is just ridiculous! We've lived here since 1992 and I've never seen this much snow on the ground in March.
We're a bit concerned about the spring run-off, with the mountain snow pack being so high this winter. We have a meeting with someone from the Yakama tribe next month to discuss the river bank erosion issues. I'm hoping they can do something soon, otherwise we will have to dump some rip-rap. We lost a lot more bank last year, and I'm not going to wait for the fish people to come up with a plan while the river starts running through the front yard. If the cottonwoods look they're going to fall down, we're dumping rock. I'm encouraged that the Yakamas are involved because they seem to have more money than God, when it comes to fish.
The cougar saga continues, with Sam startling one of the cubs on her back porch a week or so ago, when she let the dogs out after dark. I saw fresh tracks from their barn to the driveway on my walk around that time. I continue to limit my walks to our two driveways. I did brave a trip to the mailbox one day, but Ruby was so nervous and on edge, that it gave me the heebie-jeebies. I heard in town that another one had been shot on our road down by Carlton a few weeks ago when it came at an armed man who was walking his dog. He thinks the lack of deer is driving the males down lower, which upsets the whole territory for everyone. I kind of wish I owned a hand gun right now.
We have a Merlin falcon hanging around, terrorizing the bird feeders. The thing is a little bigger than a pigeon and can take down a quail in mid-flight. The other morning there was a small ruckus on the front porch and I saw a quail on the windowsill, like it was trying to get in the house. Down on the porch deck is the little falcon, having quail for breakfast. When I made a sound and startled it, it picked up that quail, which has to weigh about the same as itself, and flew off about 20 feet before landing and finishing its breakfast. Tough little bugger.
The redwing blackbirds showed up today - a sure sign that spring is on its way. I love to hear their trill and see the bright flash of their wings. We were up to 40° yesterday, with gorgeous blue skies, and it's pretty warm today again. The snow is sliding off the roof.
The cougar drama continues. We drove down to the neighbor's house to see one of the cubs caught in a trap that Wildlife put out to try to get a collar on the adult. While we were there, mama and the other cub showed up - that got us right back in the car! The one in the cage was just pacing back and forth, and then it lay down with its tail twitching, just like a pissed-off house cat. Cute little bugger, I hope it all ends well for the three of them. They are way too comfortable being close to humans for me to hold out much hope. I wish they'd move on so I could take longer walks with this warmer weather. I'm afraid to go very far at all with them being repeatedly spotted close to the houses in the middle of the day, and I don't feel like packing a shotgun with me. One neighbor had prints on his porch the other morning. We've got a lot of white tail coming across the river and through our woods, so that might draw them in here as well. Beautiful animals, but scary.
I was hoping for a mild winter, but it doesn't seem like that's what we're going to get. It's been cold, with sub-zero night temps for more days than seems reasonable. Now we've got this constant snow. It's really not snowing hard - we've only accumulated a few inches with each storm, bringing us up to a total of 19" this morning. We're much luckier than the west side of the state, which is a giant mess with many inches of the wet snow they get over there that paralyzes their whole world. Down in the Columbia Basin, they've had high winds and drifting that has closed most of the highways off and on. I guess I should quit grumbling about our pathways drifting closed. At least with this cold weather, the snow is light and fluffy. The plow dude is here right now so we should be good to go, since it's snowing lightly again, with more predicted all week. Sigh.
We have a big Swainson Hawk hanging around, that is quite impressive. Haven't seen much of the quail since it moved in. We've also got a female cougar with a pair of kits in the neighborhood. It killed a deer and left the carcass under the boat out by the pole barn over a week ago. Since then, it has been seen going out the driveway by the ponds with its kits in broad daylight. Yesterday Sam saw all 3 of them rolling around on the county road in the middle of the afternoon. She thought they were dogs until she got close and 2 of them ran up the hill. One of the cubs just sat there and looked at her while she stopped, rolled down her window, and said hello. She said it was just the cutest thing in the world - bigger than Ruby, but still had a shadow of its spots.
I'm having to keep an eagle eye on the dogs, who want to go chow down on what's left of the deer carcass, and I'm not walking out to get the mail for the time being. (Not that 10° and blowing is conducive to a stroll anyway.) I hope she doesn't get shot, but I also hope she doesn't come any closer to the house. I'm checking for tracks every day and haven't seen any yet - Ruby is barking more than usual and that's probably a deterrent. We'll have to be really careful next year when she boots the kids out and they are on their own. Seems like it's always the young ones that cause the problems when they first have to start fending for themselves.
This is the earliest I have ever started any seeds - an experiment. I was reading where a commercial nursery would start some seeds in an unheated greenhouse, very early, and let nature do its thing. That sounded so much easier than all that putting stuff in the frig, taking it out and keeping it at X degrees for so many days, etc, etc. I have one flat with seeds planted in small cells in moist soil and a humidity dome over them. The soil temperature was about 40° yesterday, when I planted about 10 different seeds, which required cold treating, and was about that again when I checked them this afternoon. The low in the greenhouse was around 23° last night with outdoor temps in the low teens or single digits. The sun is shining and it's probably in the low 30's outside right now, but it was 62° inside when I went out there. I also tried some lettuce seeds, just to see if I could get an early crop of them going. I've never had success with the sometimes complicated process of cold treating, so this will be cool if it works. I do have one inside the house that needs warm first, and another one in the frig, that needed very cold temp for a couple weeks. It was fun to do something out there anyway!
We got about 7 inches of new snow last night, bringing our total to 16 inches. The sun is shining and it's warm today. We tag-teamed the blowing this morning because it wears both of us out, and boy is it ever slick around where we park the cars! There is about a 2 inch layer of ice that we've been trying to get rid of with little success. Greg has tumbled out there twice now, and I've come close a few times. The plow dude hasn't showed up yet, but I'm sure he'll be here sometime today. Our feathered friends are still the bright spot in a cold and sometimes tediously white world.
