Snow Shoeing Days

January began with very cold and sunny days with lots of fluffy snow. Half way into the month everything changed. There would be wafts of warm air towards evening, a few evenings the temp rose into the 50's! Rain fell instead of snow and the clouds rolled in to stay. Other nights the temp dropped making the morning walk to the barn a slippery adventure. Today on the last day of January, the sun is coming out (Hello Sun - we sure missed you!) and it's cold again (below freezing) Hopefully the snow will start falling again - ironic that the Northeast is getting all the snow that we want!

There isn't a lot to do on the Farm these days, no fields or gardens to maintain. The grounds to hard to build fences. Thank goodness the animals still need a little of our time to keep them happy. So Keith and I have been snowshoeing, quite a lot. We are getting out into the snow more this year because I now have fantastic winter wear (light weight and super warm) and we have poles to go with our snow shoes thanks to our neighbor Dorothy who had some extra ones in her garage. I'm no longer falling down and getting wet when I snow shoe!!!

We snow shoe around Longs Trail(butts up against our property) and ...

the farm.

The Vineyard.

When the weather changed the hens started laying like crazy. Time to put up the sign and time for a new sign.

The plaque with the eggs painted on can be flipped to show the word "empty" when we have no eggs to sell. I left plenty of room on the sign in case we have produce to sell this summer.

We also snowshoed up Potato Creek - a dirt road about 3 miles up river from us.

Evidence of the 1994 Tyee Fire is everywhere, but you also see the new growth of planted trees by the forest service.

Love these trees.

Two weeks later we went up Potato Creek with our friend Anne-Renee. The snow melt was so thorough that we sometimes felt a bit over prepared for the hike.Below are 3 sets of photos from the two hikes taken from the same spots, just for comparison purposes.

Lots of Beaver Dams on Potato Creek.

With the lack of snow the beaver workmanship was seen more readily.

Last weekend Keith & I went up Preston Creek which is about 12 miles up river from us. We figure there would be better snow and there was. But also lots more fog.

"Don't jump Keith"
The hike is all up hill and the views are suppose to be beautiful. We'll go back when it's sunny, because it's a real nice hike. Any one want to join us?

Here are a couple of videos of our goats A-R took. We call it:
"Goats on Parade"