Monday, March 15, 2010

We're Back!

The FedEx man brought my new computer on Thursday evening.  He called from down by the Sula Store to make sure I was here because he didn't want to drive all the way up the East Fork if I wasn't home.  I swear, the people in the lower Bitterroot Valley act as if the upper East Fork is Barrow, Alaska.

My old computer had barely limped along during my hiatus, but almost as soon as my new one arrived, the old one, as though waiting for that moment, crashed one final time and sent its spirit to the happy blogging ground.  I was able to transfer all my documents and photos to a memory stick before it died, but not all of my music made it, so I'll have to re-rip a lot of CDs.  No biggie.

So, what did we miss?  There was a big warming trend for about two weeks, where the highs were in the low 40s and the lows were in the low 20s.  It felt like summer.  Some of the snow started to melt, and I could even see the ground in a few places, mainly close to trees, where the snowfall was not as deep.  But then on Tuesday of last week, we got a fresh six inches of powder.  The temps are still warm, so the new snow is melting, too.  The days are now three hours longer than they were on the shortest day of the year, and each day is a little over 3 minutes longer than the previous one.  Spring is on the way!

Here are some of the snow pics from last Tuesday: 

Going out the road from my place to the East Fork Road.

The East Fork, a few miles downstream.

 This squirrel has been picking up seeds from under my bird feeder.  He didn't like the snow, but it didn't slow him down.

 He burrowed under the snow and came up to climb a rock under the feeder to survey the situation.  No food up here.

 Then he burrowed under again and came up with a seed.

 This time—empty handed.

4 comments:

  1. Woo hoo! Glad you got your new computer, and cannot wait to hear the goings on. Can you throw this little guy a bone or would that be wrong (like feeding a bear)?
    LDB

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  2. Thanks, LDB. He and his friends are eating pretty well. The snow is now gone from the base of the feeder, and the messy stellers jays always sling most of the seed from the feeder out to the ground. I'll post an updated pic when I can get one.

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  3. I second the "hurrah!" to have you back online! What great pics from last week -- no snow here near Big Timber, but the frost sure is thick on the ground in the morning.

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  4. Thanks, Mary. I know it's a little early to be wishing for spring up here, but these long, warm days are encouraging.

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