Sandhill cranes are back!

I heard my first crane of 2010 on February 16, and saw my first ones the following day. They've been cruising for leftover barley in the field west of our house. This is a definite sign of the coming spring. However, I do remember in the past that I've seen them standing out in a field with snow falling about them in fairly low temperatures, so I don't expect balmy temperatures to come any time soon.

Our snow depth is still at 6.5" in the yard, and one icicle extending downward from the roof is longer than I am tall.

I haven't checked to see if my garlic is popping up through the soil yet.

Quiet in the San Luis Valley

A couple of weeks ago one would have thought spring was on its way. Not the case now; we're blanketed in snow more than 7" deep. Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) of snow in the yard is 1.37". Mountains are getting snow as I type this. Bald eagles have been making more of an appearance in the area. A belted kingfisher has been seen & heard over by the Empire Canal, and the male red-winged blackbirds are making their territorial sounds over in the cattail area in the Rio Grande SWA. Our firewood supply is quickly dwindling, and soon we may have to ration fires. So, yeah, maybe spring really is on its way!

Deer leg

Went for a snowshoe around the Rio Grande & the state wildlife area; the dog found a tasty treat which she gnawed on the remainder of the night. Even missed her dinner for it.
We got 11" of snow overnight last Thursday; I skipped work to shovel, rake snow off the roof, split firewood, and go snowshoeing.

Owls, heron, deer

Went for a walk over in the Rio Grande State Wildlife Area the other night. The great horned owls were hooting from nearly every direction - I probably heard four to six individuals. At one point, I was walking on entrance road to the wildlife area, and had a sudden urge to look up. A large great horned owl was sitting up in a tree about 20' off of the ground staring at me. My eyes felt riveted to hers/his. It was such a neat experience!
Then we saw the great blue heron that seems to like hanging out around the Empire Canal. Again, I wonder how it survives the winter.
And on the way home, strolling through the Veteran's Center, the deer were out on the lawn feeding and pooping (Caddy loves to eat the latter).
It has been fairly mild here during the day lately, in the 30s and 40s. Today, however, signaled a change in the weather with steady snow beginning around 11AM or so, and continuing through the evening, at least. Mountains (eastern San Juans) are getting hit hard with two to five feet of snow! Blizzard warning in effect for the mountains, and Highway 160 over Wolf Creek Pass was closed at 6PM today due to poor driving conditions.

Dry, old snow & gardening catalogs

The snow here needs to be replenished with a new supply. We're getting drier & drier; soon I'll have to go out and water some shrubs and an evergreen or two. Haven't had new snow for about a month or so. Even the mountains around us have been mostly missed by storms.

The 2010 gardening catalogs have been trickling in - High Country Gardens, Burpee, Territorial Seed Company, Fedco, several more. Very soon I want to take an inventory of my vegetable & flower seeds to find out what needs replacing or adding to for the upcoming season.

The kitchen scraps both from home & work are beginning to pile up a little; during the winter I store everything in "Trugs" & five-gallon buckets until the compost heaps outside thaw and allow me to turn their contents over. Of course, in the meantime, the mostly-outside sunroom starts to smell a bit "aromatic", especially on those warmish days that we've had lately (upper 30s).

Twice in the past week we've spotted the lone great blue heron that hangs out around the patches of open water in the Empire Canal nearby. Ice-skaters have been taking advantage of the cold nights we've had to do some skating on Home Lake.

Quiet Christmas Eve

The weather is quiet - no new snow, blue sky, sunshine. My temperament is more receptive to a Christmas with gray skies, swirling snowflakes, and cold temperatures. Therefore, we will spend part of Christmas skiing into and staying at a backcountry yurt, where there will likely be swirling snowflakes and cold temperatures, though possibly no gray skies.
The image above is one of a yurt that we stayed a couple of winters ago with several friends. The weather evident in that photo is what I relish!

Flicker at the birdfeeder

Last weekend a pair of flickers appeared in the backyard - one female and one male. They even attempted to perch on the finch feeder perches, and looked pretty funny while doing so.
Most of the yard is still snow-covered but with temperatures some days in the mid-30s, it won't be for long.
Nights have been in single digits, both above and below 0.
Snow up in the mountains is piling up quickly; we've had a few days of high-quality skiing and snowshoeing already so early in the season.

SNOW & COLD

Yep, it's that time of year! A supposed blizzard (really! Even the National Weather Service is calling it that) is hitting the San Juan Mountains west of us, and the San Luis Valley is supposed to get about 3-4" of snow by end of tomorrow or so. Wolf Creek is due to get about 50" of snow out of this storm! Hooray for skiing!
All of my water barrels are now empty for the season, bird feeders are full for now, and the birdies have water kept thawed by the new water heater.
We went jogging at the Rio Grande State Wildlife Area yesterday, and saw a lone great blue heron. I bet we'll keep seeing it throughout the winter, which I marvel at. What does it find to eat? All the sandhill cranes appear to be absent now; the very cold temperatures we had this past week (low was -10F) probably drove them away to the Bosque del Apache NWR in New Mexico.
I've already received two 2010 garden supply/seed catalogs! Even I think that's a bit early.....

Frozen water barrels and everything else

I've been absent for a while for work, and have returned to water barrels that have thick layer of ice on top. It probably would be a good idea to empty them or I'm going to suffer cracked barrels. Nighttime temperatures for the past week+ have been in the low to mid single-digits, and highs in the 40s. There is still snow left in all shaded areas from the snowfall we had over a week ago. I'm sure the soil is drying out already, and the forecast through Thanksgiving is more continued dry conditions.
The sparrows and a couple chickadees are attacking the suet outside.
A great blue heron has been hanging out over at the Empire Canal, and deer are making a strong showing at the Home Lake Veteran's Center next door. Our front yard has small piles of deer scat; that's their calling card from eating the fallen crab apples from this fall. T'was a great crop of apples.
We alpine skiied at Wolf Creek last Sunday, and conditions were excellent--they couldn't have been any better, remarkable for November 15. Though there were a few covered stumps and rocks, their presence paled next to the amount & quality of the fresh snow, and few people.

Not so fast with the brusselsprouts.....

I'm still able to squeeze a few more brusselsprouts out of my plants - picked probably about a pound or so today. I think the slight purple hue that some of the little sprouts have is due to the frosty temperatures we've had some nights.

We got a great moisture-filled snowfall & rain storm a few days ago - over 1.25" of moisture sank into the dry-as-bone ground. All of the snow still hasn't melted.

Leaves are now off the trees; they were helped by the wet snow. I've raked up most of them & stored them in my several leaf bins, ready to be used for the next compost session!

One winter or late fall task is to move three of my raised beds in the vegetable garden away from the 6'-high-tall privacy fence that separates my garden from the neighbor to the south. The fence keeps those three raised beds snow covered and full of cold or frozen soil into late April & early May, which is too late when I could be planting seeds/lings in them. Moving them means I'll have to rearrange my drip irrigation tubing that spends the summer out in the garden.

Snow has mostly melted

These are my allium bulbs that have come up over the past couple of weeks - two days ago this is what they looked like sitting in the snow from the storm that swept through. 95% of the snow is now gone, and with the temperatures predicted over the next few days we'll have none left in a short time.
My onion bulblets look good - I did cover them w/ some Reemay based on the advice an anonymous poster submitted.
Indoors, my tomatoes and peppers are doing great, and now I'm soon going to be transplanting basil, cabbage, brusselsprouts, and broccoli seedlings.
Some raspberry canes have arrived in the mail, and now I need to prepare the bed for them. I have several varieties that I've planted over the past three years, but I've had little success with them. Where I planted them is an area I did not have a soil test run on, so I don't know if it's the soil quality, too many hours of hot & pounding sun, wrong raspberry variety, or something else.

Late March snowstorm

About 4" of snow fell last Thursday, and it's still melting. The storm was very windy, and drifts piled up in lots of places. My leafed-out Golden Currant shrub (Ribes aureum), fortunately very hardy and apparently unbothered by snow, is sitting in a pile of it (left). So many leafed-out plants have been hit with frost, but so far everything looks OK.
The nice thing about spring snows is that they're usually full of water, so they're a good slow-release water supply for nearby plants. I usually shovel as much as I can on the ground around my perennials & shrubs.
Skiing at Wolf Creek yesterday was great - much new snow that was still fairly light early in the day, but became heavier to ski through as the day passed and temperatures warmed. Crowds of skiiers were non-existent. Maybe the last ski of the season?

February Snow Survey

Last Friday, February 27, was my monthly excursion to the Silver Lakes snow course to measure the snowpack. This will be repeated two more times in 2009. The day was very warm, sunny, and windy. At this site, the snowpack measured out to about 165% of normal, compared to the survey in January at this site which was about 190% of normal. I'd expected a lower number since we have not received much snow since the January reading.

The photo to the left shows me holding--in my left hand--the scale suspended on a telescoping ski pole, and in my right hand is the notebook for recording the measurements we take at ten sites within the course. Snowmobiles & their moronic drivers had driven over our course in several locations, and the resulting compression of the snowpack distorts our readings. We thus had to take several samples at a couple of the sites to get an accurate reading.

Worms slowly adjust to "remodeled" home

The worms always seem to take a while to adjust to their new, poop-free digs. Of course, I don't know what I expect them to do---jump up and down in glee, sing my praises for providing them new, clean bedding, what???? How in the heck can I tell if they're adjusting slowly or quickly, they're worms, for gosh sakes! Okay, enough anthropomorphising.
Today was a spectacular day, 41 degrees F, clear, blue sky, sandhill cranes & Canada geese flying all around, more snow melting. The yard is still about half covered with snow, but it is dwindling rapidly.
I inventoried my vegetable seeds today to see what I need to purchase. Many of the packets are fairly old (two to six years) so I need to check my seed-starting book on germination rates for these guys. I also started a list that contained many gardening-related entries, but I guess since the ground is still frozen and we're going to get at least a couple of snow storms, I should calm down a bit. Last fall Bruce happened to come across a Green Cone composter unit that was being sold down the street from us at a garage sale ($7, WHAT A DEAL). I had hoped to get the hole dug for it prior to freeze, but didn't happen, so now I want to get that done this spring. Just one of the many tasks I want to do......

New snow in the high country

Along with other activities at my workplace, I also participate in snow surveys. This means that during the last five days of January, February, March, and April, I and several other federal employees fan out across different parts of the mountains surrounding the San Luis Valley to measure snow depth and water content. These surveys take place at specific locations, which--for Colorado--may be viewed at the link below: http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snotel/Colorado/colorado.html.

Yesterday was my first day on snow survey for 2009, and two of us traveled by snowmobile up to the Big Meadows manual snow course site, and the Grayback SNOTEL site http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snotel/snotel.pl?sitenum=1058&state=co. Both of these sites are in the eastern San Juan Mountains. At the Grayback site we took measurements of snow depth and water density both at the automated SNOTEL site and at the manual Snow Course located nearby. At the Grayback SNOTEL site, there are currently 49.6" of snow, with a Snow Water Equivalent of 15.4".

The difference between a SNOTEL site and a manual snow course is that at the latter, the snow depth and water content measurements are recorded manually by trained observers, and at the SNOTEL sites, the snow & water information is measured and transmitted automatically. SNOTEL is an acronym which stands for SNOwpack TELemetry.

There are manual snow courses and SNOTEL sites scattered throughout all Western states, and measurements are taken by an assortment of Federal, State, and other employees. The data resulting from all snow surveys, whether manual or automated, are used for water forecasting for agriculture, recreation, flood control, and more.

Icy sheen on all snow surfaces

It feels like an abnormal January weather-wise here, but I just looked back at my temperature records for the past four years (January '06 through January so far) and it's not that abnormal. I'm aware that a scant three or four years of records means little, but it's still fun comparing year to year. No averages calculated yet - that'll be next.
In January '06 we had mostly 30s and 40s as our daytime temps, and single digits below zero all the way up to 34 degrees for nighttime temperatures.
In January '07 my outdoor wireless thermometer bottomed out once (-21.9, can't believe it bottoms out at that temperature!) and only five nights were above zero. Daytime temperatures ranged from 11 degrees to above 40.
In January '08 temperatures were very similar to last year, with the thermometer bottoming out twice, and daytime temperatures were in exactly the same range as '07.
This year is wienie compared to the past two Januarys. Thermometer has not come close to bottoming out - the lowest has been -11.1. Our daytime temps have not gone below 20. Personally I'd rather have blistering cold than what we have, though this year is still better than having bare ground showing. Still too cold to ride the bike to work, though.
And as today's blog title says - the thawing and re-freezing we've had nearly daily has made all snow-covered surfaces look as shiny as a bald pate.

Too warm for January?

Though we still have 9.5" of snow in the front yard here in Monte Vista, 39 degrees still feels too warm for January in the San Luis Valley.
Last week we were staying in a yurt outside of Leadville, CO at 12,000 feet, and the temperature did not sink below 20 degrees the entire three days & nights. That is bizarre.
Large puddles are appearing in late afternoon as snow continues to melt and attempts to sink into the frozen ground. Some perennial plants are now showing as the snow depth decreases. The gardening fever is starting to show up more often in my thoughts. Marianna, it is WAY TOO EARLY to think about starting seeds indoors.

Snow, "blazing" sun and blue skies

Snow in the amount of 4.4 inches fell last evening. This morning it was -11 F and extremely bright once the sun rose. All our bird feeders are busy. It was about time some new snow fell so all the old & dirty stuff could be covered up. There'll be a good supply of water infiltrating the soil & roots of all my planties. As of two days ago, when we had only 8" of snow on the ground, the snow water equivalent (SWE) was 1.46", and the SWE of the 4.4" of snow we got overnight is .3".

The shrubs in the photo foreground are Apache Plume (Fallugia paradoxa), a wonderful drought-tolerant plant that does great here in the San Luis Valley. I plopped them in the ground probably my first summer here ('05), watered them somewhat consistently the first year, and now I very seldom do anything to or with them. Yet they grow well, and put on beautiful flowers which turn into plume-like seed heads that are sort of pinkish in color. I highly recommend this shrub for xeriscape areas. I bought one more this past summer that's only about 6" high, so it has a lot of growing to do to catch up with the others.

I was over at the nearby Empire Canal last night, and saw a great blue heron standing on the ice, poised over a hole in the ice--I guess it was waiting to spear something for its dinner. I always marvel when I see herons this time of year in the midst of the frozen, white landscape.

Beautiful winter & seed catalogs!

Blizzard warnings today, mostly in the mountains. Overnight last night it was very windy, and many drifts had appeared by morning. At 7AM it was 31 degrees, now at 1:30 PM it's about 28 degrees.

Bruce split a bunch of wood yesterday so we're now safe from freezing! We have this wood carrier thing that allows easy hauling of split wood. It also makes a handy dog carrier - poor Caddy is at Bruce's mercy!

I went snowshoe running over at the state wildlife area yesterday in the late afternoon - saw several hawks and many tracks in the snow. It was beautiful but cold; returned home with a frosted face.

Had to replenish the black oil sunflower seed and Niger thistle today at the local co-op---holy cow! Not (sort of) cheap like it used to be to buy that stuff for "wild" bird-feeding.

Picked up the mail today - four more seed catalogs arrived. Got one yesterday, and received a couple more several days before Christmas. I'd hate to think how many I'd be getting if I hadn't taken my name off a bunch of mailing lists! But it is making me think of seed-starting........

Merry Christmas/Feliz Navidad !!

Today is a beautiful, snow-covered day in the San Luis Valley. The day began with snow falling until about noon or so, but now at 2PM the sun is mostly out with lots of blue sky. We took a walk in the falling snow and it was lovely. The orb of the sun was trying to break through the snow clouds, and finally succeeded.
The Canada geese are out and about, but the sandhill cranes that have been hanging out near the irrigation canal north of our house have left. The snow must have cleared them out.
Wolf Creek Ski Area's website says they've received 55" of snow in the past 7 days, and are due to receive a bunch more tonight. We head up there tomorrow to verify that snow report.....