Ok, I’m ready.  Fall has been long and pleasant.  There were a couple of days early where it was really cold, but overall it has been a relaxed transition from a warm,  green  and busy summer to a cool, moist and quiet Fall.   Finally, inevitably, winter is arriving right on schedule.  We’ve had little hints of things to come in the form of sleet or a few brief episodes of heavy, clumpy snow that melted as fast as it arrived.  Over the past several weeks it’s been harder and harder to get to my favorite walking spot up in the woods with the dogs because snow, first on the ridgetops, has worked it’s way lower into the valley.   But this weekend brought snow to our little patch of woods.   Only a couple of inches and it’s probably going to be gone in a few days, but it’s more likely now that whatever we get will not melt away.  Rather it will linger and each new inch of snow will add itself to whatever has come before.

I’m ready for this.  It’s time to slow down from all the work I did this summer in the yard, on the barn, in the woods, etc.  The house is warm and comfortable.  Once the stove is finished in the barn (soon!) the office/shop will be cozy too.  Finishing up that space can continue at a relaxed pace while the season turns cold and dark.  I look forward to painting again, getting some lap-time with Tipper and watching the snow come down to cover the last six months of my life here.

First Snow

The foxes have been secretly active over the last couple of months.  The den holes have been newly excavated, pine needles and grass have been pulled into the holes for padding.   Every couple of days there’s some sign that they’ve been doing their thing, no doubt getting ready for winter.  All the work has been simply reworking what was already there.

But overnight, in the space of a few hours of darkness, a big change has happened.  Well, maybe not “big”, but really interesting nonetheless.  In March of this year I posted this picture and the area has remained as it was then through the spring, summer and recent fall seasons:

As it was last night...

But this morning, this is what I found:

This morning...

They must’ve decided that one set of holes wasn’t enough.    You can see the exit hole in the middle of the picture between the two tree trunks.  The new hole burrows into the same den space as the one beside it but I guess the urge to dig and excavate just got the better of them and they worked this new entrance.  It’s good to see that they hang out even though the area gets visited so often from our dogs – who sniff and pee all over to mark the space as theirs.  The foxes don’t seem to mind.  I’m hopeful they’ll stick around through the winter that we’ll see a new litter of kits in the spring.

Different day, but the same tree and no doubt the same bird.  The tree it’s in is one of the ponderosa that rings the foxes ‘play circle’.  That space just across the creek is proving to be a pretty interesting activity zone…