Yesterday, our high temperature was 45F. Today, we hit 63F with bright sunshine. That’s pretty toasty-warm for February!
Predictably, this shrank our snowpack from about a foot to mere inches with large bare spots. We’ve lost snow in all of the locations where the sun shines directly and where the wind doesn’t bank the snow. The road also thawed, so the sound of dripping and flowing water was punctuated with the sound of the grader and dumptrucks struggling to keep Creek Road passable.
I took the opportunity to walk around the land as much as I could. I am interested in seeing what areas thaw and dry first. I also need to familiarize myself with the wettest areas so I can plan to exclude the sheep from those areas as long as necessary. I noted that water flows from the uphill side of the road, under the culvert, and across our land. It was rushing down the swale area and bouncing down the hill into the wooded area that we’d most like to clear for additional pasture. Good to know.
We also have a gentle stream that flows from our spring down to the little kettle where one of the sheep got trapped last year. The water here is flowing more slowly- I’m guessing this will stay wet longer than any other area.
As the day went on, the sunshine turned to a drizzly rain. I have been walking up and down the road trying to increase the numbers of steps I take each day to help prepare my foot for the busy season. I noticed areas of deep, squelching mud. Trucks coming by me weren’t outpacing my walking by much and struggled not to lose momentum on the extra-deep parts.
So it was no surprise when we noticed stationery headlights on the road. Matt took the Ford tractor out to have a look. He came back saying that some travelers from Massachusetts in a 4wd CR-V were stuck in the road. Matt was able to help them move their car back to pavement. We expect that the spring will furnish more such experiences as it comes.
