I was hoping for a mild winter, but it doesn't seem like that's what we're going to get. It's been cold, with sub-zero night temps for more days than seems reasonable. Now we've got this constant snow. It's really not snowing hard - we've only accumulated a few inches with each storm, bringing us up to a total of 19" this morning. We're much luckier than the west side of the state, which is a giant mess with many inches of the wet snow they get over there that paralyzes their whole world. Down in the Columbia Basin, they've had high winds and drifting that has closed most of the highways off and on. I guess I should quit grumbling about our pathways drifting closed. At least with this cold weather, the snow is light and fluffy. The plow dude is here right now so we should be good to go, since it's snowing lightly again, with more predicted all week. Sigh.
We have a big Swainson Hawk hanging around, that is quite impressive. Haven't seen much of the quail since it moved in. We've also got a female cougar with a pair of kits in the neighborhood. It killed a deer and left the carcass under the boat out by the pole barn over a week ago. Since then, it has been seen going out the driveway by the ponds with its kits in broad daylight. Yesterday Sam saw all 3 of them rolling around on the county road in the middle of the afternoon. She thought they were dogs until she got close and 2 of them ran up the hill. One of the cubs just sat there and looked at her while she stopped, rolled down her window, and said hello. She said it was just the cutest thing in the world - bigger than Ruby, but still had a shadow of its spots.
I'm having to keep an eagle eye on the dogs, who want to go chow down on what's left of the deer carcass, and I'm not walking out to get the mail for the time being. (Not that 10° and blowing is conducive to a stroll anyway.) I hope she doesn't get shot, but I also hope she doesn't come any closer to the house. I'm checking for tracks every day and haven't seen any yet - Ruby is barking more than usual and that's probably a deterrent. We'll have to be really careful next year when she boots the kids out and they are on their own. Seems like it's always the young ones that cause the problems when they first have to start fending for themselves.
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