May 25, 2013 Hard to get inspired......outside!

"Sharing"        The young deer and the yellow-headed blackbird are sharing some seeds and corn treats on the ground.  As you can see, a lot of the grass is still not greening up as well as it should.  It probably doesn't help that it just rained 3" and the deer are turning it to mud!  I have been back in the woods each day.  I am finally seeing some of the spring flowers coming up and a few ferns popping through with their fiddleheads sticking up.  But, food for the critters, in the woods, is still pretty scarce.
I have plenty of outside work to do.....for sure.  Trees are down on every trail ...... and half the woods, after that nasty wind that blew through with that rain.  Man...it just wasn't nice out there.  Then, I think about what happened in Oklahoma and think.....well, I guess I don't have it so bad.  I can't even imagine starting clean up in a mess of that magnitude.  I can't! 
But, the inspiration isn't there yet.  What with the mud and the soft trails.....I would create some mess and ruts of my own trying to clean up the mess made by Mother Nature.  So.....I haven't.  I have done a little work in my flower beds; but, not much.  26 degrees this morning making two white frost mornings in a row.  I am trying to keep cover on everything for that reason and so the deer don't eat every green bite that comes up in it.  Some of the yearling fawns have been standing in the dirt inside of the retaining walls and even under the deck when I have gotten up lately.....scrounging any green thing they can find.  I feel sorry for those critters after the winter that wouldn't quit and the spring that won't come.  They're hungry!
Shadow has had her fawn(s) this week.  I have it marked on the calendar the time frame of the one afternoon I saw her at 3:30 and still round.  I next saw her at 5:30 the next afternoon and she had been nursing her fawn(s).  Her trips to the yard to see me are quick now.  She tears in here, follows me around for some attention and treats.....always with an ear turned toward where her babies are stashed.  It used to be, in her early years....she would just disappear for a week or two and I wouldn't see her at all.  She was, and still is, very protective of her babies.  However, she has learned I will help protect her too and she trusts her babies with me now.  I will be curious how old they will be now that I have the timing down  so much more exact.....til she brings them to show me. 
I did get one huge pile of branches and brush chipped closer to the house this week anyway.  I had been doing some work getting ready for it.  I have another pile, too, that I can just see from the house.  However, can't get the heavy chipper there yet either because of wet ground.  Heavens, the mallards are still over there playing in the water every day!
Speaking of mallards.....the big salty water hole that the deer absolutely love......is also being enjoyed by the ducks.  The pair go in there and swim and splash every day.  They have clean water ponds and the beaver ponds over the ridges north and east and south too......and, they like the salt lick.  Go figure.  I would think they would feel all slimy, briny, or something. 
Working on the Hovland Arts Festival stuff is keeping me busy too.  So, it isn't like I am bored.  But...hopefully the weather shapes up and the inspirations start coming on again........soon!