A February attempt to walk through the woods

It was a beautiful day yesterday (Sunday) so we tried to take Monty on a walk through our little piece of property here (3.6 acres).

It didn’t last too long.  The snow is a little too deep. It is crusty on top, but almost every step we fell through.  Monty’s leash got caught on everything. Here he is getting revenge on a stick that poked him.

Monty and Jeff left the woods and I went on a bit farther.

We lost a couple more white spruce to the bark beetle over the last year.

It’s impressive how fast a tree can rot.  The burl on this next tree is already mushy.  The squirrels and woodpeckers call them home now.

(You caught me. The sky wasn’t that blue. I fiddled with it in my new graphics program because I love tree crowns in front of blue sky and clouds.)

There are rabbit and squirrel tracks everywhere.  No coyote tracks this year.

Here is the old road, or more of a trail, that went along the hydro lines before they tore them down and moved them to the road a few years ago.  Our property goes up the side of the valley up to this old road.  I’m looking south here, behind me is the ruin of the old little cabin. It took a lot of effort to get through the snow up to here.  Hopefully after the sun this week it’ll be better.

We checked for ice dams this year.  Roof looks good!  Jeff is convinced our problem a few years back was because the top eavestrough was blocked.

Today is a day off!! Reading week starts this week so the University staff gets a day off. I’ll take it!