April 16, 2013 It Ain't Over........

This was yesterday morning, April 15, 2013.  It was snowing like a son of a gun and heavy snow to boot!  We had 8" on the ground, already, when I took this in the morning.  The deer are doing a lot of laying around the edges of the yard, 50' from the house or so....under the spruces, in the wind break, in the open, wherever.  Snow is getting difficult, especially this heavy stuff that crusted a bit on the top today.  At about 29-30 degrees, it made it just hard enough to make things difficult. 
Toby tried to go check something out across one of the snow banks this morning.  He got up there and once he started, every other step he went thru.  He soon came crawling back to a hard surface on his belly.  There is more snow in the forecast too.  We maybe had a pretty mild winter.  But, we are making up for lost time lately.  There is a lot of snow in the woods. 
Yesterday, I was out walking my brother and sister-in-law's dog.  He is a big, long legged yellow lab.  So, he was bounding along through most of the snow with no problem.  Toby, on the other hand, was not having an easy time.  He is much shorter than Kirby and twice as old.  I had to take the west loop of the trail out of the walk yesterday, as I wasn't sure Toby could handle it.  He even was letting me know he wasn't happy when we walked on the county road in the morning.....no school.....short a grader operator out here right now.....road not plowed......not a happy Toby in that heavy snow.
The forecast is for more snow yet.  I had the snowshoes out for the first time in quite a while yesterday.   I probably will be wearing them again today.  I am hoping by the time I go walk Kirby, it warms up enough to soften that snow.  Otherwise, both dogs will have problems today.  Yesterday, in some of the shady areas....the bottom had gone out on the trails, being it was so warm.....and even Kirby went in past his belly.  It has clouded up already and trying to snow.....so, time will tell.....
I have been thinking about all the people from the county who have gone to Mexico, or other warm places, on their vacations.....and are returning this week.  They are returning to more "winter" than they left.  That can be a bit disheartening.  Before they left, the road restrictions had gone on for spring and we thought maybe it was coming; but, not yet.

Here is another photo I took, a couple of days ago, when it was snowing.  This was in the afternoon.  It is a photo of one of Shadow's twins, the girl, who will be one year old this spring.  I have gotten more comments on this photo of her looking in the window at me and watching what I am doing than just about any photo I have ever taken or posted.  The close up of just her face, right after that was right behind. 
She is cute....no doubt.  But, it was interesting to me to get this much attention on a "deer" photo.  I have taken a lot of deer photos.....because I can.  Because.....they are around year around and they are fun to watch and interact with.  But, it is really hard to get a photo of a deer anyone will react to.  So, I guess that was interesting to me this week.  Anyway, Shadow's little girl is now a star.  Her little boy is awful cute too....but, he was in a lazy sleep mode at the time.  So.....the girl got all the attention.  I will post the close up of her too!

Here's miss cute stuff, in all her glory, chewing away on her food.  She has no fear and is so adorable.  Since the twins are the first of Shadow's "kids" to be so friendly, it will be interesting to see what happens when Shadow has her new fawns this spring.  I imagine the little boy will be gone.  Usually the buck fawns get kicked out and the girls, tho they are chased off for a while when the new fawns are born, generally become part of the family unit and stay together.  As mentioned previously, I have 4 generations of Shadow's family here now.  The same is true with a couple other families of deer....tho most of them are 3 generations. 
Here's to an end of winter.....sometime this month!
But.......I can tell you about a time when I was a teen, we had a snow day in May....and, my brother went over and fished steelhead in the nearby creek.  Didn't want to hear that.....did you.  But then, that was before  "global warming!"