Luckily our dogs love SNOW!

 

 I took these pictures two days ago, and we've had just a little more snow since, but pretty cold temps.  We've not been over -11C for a few days and windchills -22C.  Our walks have been shortened due to losing the walking trails. Tank is standing on 'what was' a walking trail.

 Blast has decided it's time to race around through the field and engage Tank in a good chase.  One nice thing about this, is it certainly wears them out, running through deep snow.  They love it!

 The chase is on!  Tank can look like some ancient odd dog at times.  We have to laugh at him; his ear tips are touching...

 Time out on top of the old round hay bale.  A good time to eat some snow.
I don't let them eat much, though, if they are running, they start to choke.

 Kira was so thrilled to go on a walk with Trust.  Trust was so not thrilled to go on a walk with Kira.  Kira is trying her best to get attention from Trust.

 Oh, well!  A big frozen hunk of dirt and snow off the driveway, will do fine...gets a bit of interest from Trust, racing past and ahead of her.  Trust starts to run to "try" and catch up to see if she's missing something.

Coming back up behind the house, looking into the forest (little storage shed next to a trail).  So calm and pretty and silent.  So far, have seen few deer.  I'm so hoping we don't have the herd coming like last winter.  It was so difficult trying to take dogs out when the deer were all around, and they also became so tame.  Pretty....but don't want them back.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Happy Holidays from Blast

Seasons' Greetings from Trust

Joyeux Noel from Tank

What the heck...just play, play, play from Kira

A Merry Christmas from all of us at Birch-Bark Hill, be safe and enjoy your family and friends, and all the hairy critters we enjoy so much every day.

Sharing...

I took these pictures a few days ago, and forgot about them on my camera.  Can we learn any lessons from these simple creatures?  Such a sad time this has been...will anything change?  Above the grouse, pine grosbeaks and bluejays happily share the seed fallen on the ground.  Chickadees are on the feeders hanging above and seed drops out of them.

Even more interesting was the squirrel who finally was brave enough to creep up for some seed.  He went in a little closer to grab something, and the grouse just watched him.  I expected a little tiff, but they get along just fine - there is enough food to share.

Kira's Scent Work in the Snow

This sequence of pictures and description will only be of interest to those keen on learning how the dog works scent in tricky conditions.  It is NOT tracking.  I am always amazed at Kira and Blast in particular and often end up wondering 'how the heck they did it'.  I threw a broken ball of Kiras' off in a direction when she was paying no attention, and was quite a ways off.  Then I told her to "find it".  She immediately alerts keenly and begins a large circle scenting all the while.  The first circle was large and took her through a section of bush.  I stand not near where the ball landed, which went well into the snow, and look in another direction, but always am able to watch her work.

The temperature was about -10 degrees celsius yesterday morning when we were returning from a walk, it was quite breezy and the sun had come out for a short time.  Kira was making her circles increasingly smaller, checking a few places she had missed earlier, but continuing at a brisk pace.  She would eventually rule out an area and then move on to another location and begin to search again.

She has begun to move back towards me, circled back on one area, and then turned in a new direction to circle and scent. By this time she had ruled out a large area, and then ran past me like she was on fire to work in another area.

Above, she is quite intent and made two small circles, then dismissed it as well.  She ran up and over a hill and began to work along the top and I thought she may have picked up the scent. (Of course, I knew where the ball was!)

But she kept moving on as if missing it completely.  She looked like she was going to move down the slope which would take her back to an area she had already checked.

Red arrow shows where the ball dropped down into the snow. It is also in a shady portion, she's mainly been working out in the sunny areas.  We know scent in snow can be tricky!  And she did move down the slope at the left and circled around to her left.

Suddenly, she whips back around and behind me and over to the bottom of the hill.  As she was running past, she suddenly stopped and turned back.  Kira started to move up the side of the hill towards where the ball was buried.

She has just grabbed the ball out and is turning to come back towards me.
She never quits, she loves this "game" and I am always amazed.

Wow! Two Pileated Woodpeckers!!!

 If you have never seen a pileated woodpecker, they are a sight to behold!
Huge, the largest of the woodpeckers, often just in the deep woods.  They leave a giant pile of "wood chips" at the base of the trees, pulling off bark in chunks.  This morning I heard one close to the north side of the house...they really sound like woody woodpecker!

 I was astonished to see TWO of them, and staying close all the time, in the closest trees behind the house.  I grabbed my camera, and the battery was almost dead, but got a couple of pictures before running for my spare battery.

 If you are lucky enough to see them, usually we hear them but don't often see them, they look almost prehistoric...It was amazing to have this opportunity to watch them, so close.  All the pictures were taken from our bedroom window, I knew I would have no chance to sneak outside.

 The males and females look the same, unlike most bird species.  But I imagine this was a "pair". 

They almost seemed to be 'playing' with each other.  One would fly a short ways off to another tree, and the other would quickly follow.  I've hung out some 'bird fat' and hope they will return...and not 'something else' will find it tonight!

Morning Walks

 Blast leads the way with the covetted ball on a rope!  Tank almost had it to begin with, and now is trying to reach Blast for a tug on it...

 Kira is a very rare "all four on the ground" moment...it didn't last long...

And off she goes, looking like one leg has been amputated; doesn't matter, she has the ball!

Dogs Loving the Snowy Walks!

 A 'reflective' moment for Tank??  I wonder what Santa will bring?

 Trust is showing her 'wolf' appearance, coming out of the trees.

 Side by side, good friends, Blast absolutely must have a ball in his mouth!
Both Tracking Champions now, I think both would be happy just to forever go on our walks and runs through the trails.

 Ah, another reflective moment for Tank...hopefully he is making plans to earn his TCh in the coming year???!  More likely just wondering what's wrong with just having fun forever!!!

And speaking of "fun forever"...Kira is dive bombing on a ball buried under the snow.  Little does she know, she will be starting her "tracking career" this coming spring.  But next spring is now a very long way off...enjoying the snow is her only real 'job' right now.  And it keeps building up, so it looks like a long and snowy winter for us.

The Next Morning...

My tire marks going in the driveway the night before.  There was approximately 8" of snowfall, after being completely bare when I left for the CCTC party the day before.  And still the weather said only 2 cm.

 It was a pretty walk with the dogs, of course, in the morning.  But just don't want the snow to keep coming and staying.  And more came again last night...David spent 4 hr. blowing snow yesterday...not exactly fun.

 And the birds were hungry.  The pretty pine grosbeaks came back, and we had to put out feed 3x yesterday for all the birds we have now.

 Walking in the paths in the front west field.  The dogs just love it.

Blast, with his face covered in snow, in trying to suck up to Trust while Tank pretends not to notice.  He and Blast had just come back onto the path after a frantic chase through the weeds.  About two hours later, the wind and snow started to blow in again, and we had a freezing rain warning all night.  Luckily, we didn't get much here, but just MORE snow!

Heading Home Up the Highway...

 Attending my tracking clubs' Christmas Party and AGM this weekend.
Look at the truck baring down on us in my rearview mirror.  We were driving in only one open lane, and soooo slow, I just held up my camera now and again without even focusing, and taking some shots.  A horrid drive in a long stretch on Hwy.#11.  I just thought this was a funny photo showing the transport truck.  There were so many on the highway.

 This was in a 100 zone highway, double lanes, and we were moving along mainly at 70 in only one lane.  At times, it was down to 50.  The radio said up to 2 cm snow....they should look out their windows!

 Believe it or not, there is a car that drove up the snowy lane and was just passing the trailer up in front of me.  I had backed off a little, expecting 'maybe' the worst...He did get by but what was the point?!

Further on, two snowplows came on the highway, clearing both lanes, but it was still bad driving.  This is a very long line of traffic following the plows.  We were driving between 40 and 60 here, and this went on for miles and miles and miles.  Safe...but slow.  I was very happy to have attended the party and see many people I haven't seen in a long time, and an overnight visit while there.  Blast was presented with 3 club pins by the Cross Country Tracking Club, for the three titles he earned this year (TDX, UTD, UTDX) and also a beautiful engraved medallion for earning his Tracking Champion title.

I am very proud of this boy.

Winter Brings Pine Grosbeaks

 There have been a few female Pine Grosbeaks for a week, but today the beautiful red male ones arrived.  Always so pretty against the white snow.

 Female on the left, and male on the right; under a sunflower seed feeder.

The chickadees or bluejays knock out some seed on the ground and I have areas I distribute the seed also.  The evening and pine grosbeaks are mainly ground feeders.  They didn't stay long, but I'm sure will be back!

We Have Snow!

Although it's 'pretty' I certainly wish we didn't have it beginning to come all at once!  I do NOT want to lose all our walking trails like we did last winter.

This is Kira in the above picture.

 Taken in the front field looking east to the vacant property next door with the ancient barn in the background.  Calling for 'some' snow every day this week!

 Kira again.  All the dogs just love the snow; I don't think we've ever had a dog that did not.  They often barge out, dive in and roll.

 Coming back from the field and walking up the driveway.  I'd be happy if we had only this much most of the winter.  We are drifted in quite often and don't even want to think about that yet!

Tank, Trust and Blast running along a path nearing the end of a walk.  As I said, they just love the snow.  It's around -8 degrees Celsius today, but had some sun and little wind, so was quite comfortable on our walks.