Another Snow Day!

This afternoon, we headed down the driveway, Trust, Tank, Blast and I. I rarely take all three together, as it gets a little too chaotic. However, being low on places not deep in snow, I decided to take a chance. It worked out great, we didn't go too far and all three kept busy.
Tank went in search of a snowball I threw off the driveway; he actually found it, but it fell apart.

Blast is just circling around to charge off after Tank into the deeper snow.

Blast bugs the heck out of Trust whenever there's a break in the action between him and Tank.

She 'allows' him a couple of kisses, and he always pushes it too far. I can see his little mind churning away here, deciding if he dare try to lick her face again. Trust looks like she doesn't care, but is always ready to give him 'the lip' telling him to back off.

I'm not sure what this is about. Blast appears to have a bad taste in his mouth, while Trust is just standing there. Nothing happened, I was watching them, think he's just being his usual silly self with her, showing off.

Tank apparently has the prize - a weed!!! Wow!!! When Blast can't get "it", whatever it may be, away from Tank, he throws himself at him. Doesn't usually work too well....

Tank charges off, with Blast rapidly catching him. I think it's time for more snowballs into the deep snow.

We had a good walk/run/play and now it's time to head back up to the house for a rest before dinner and get Jess and Storm out for few minutes.

It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas!!!

Coming home from the second shopping excursion this week, (I HATE shopping!), I paused in the bend of the driveway to take this shot. It was so quiet and peaceful, one thing I love about winter. Well, quiet until I drove up to the house. With he snowfall we've had, and shopping, the dogs have not received their usual amount of walks...most of the trails are halfway up my thighs in snow height. They were raring to get out.

I decided to play in the snowplow piles and wear them out throwing "snowballs" over the back. I really had to put things away, so a walk would have to wait until later. They had a glorious time! Tank is sinking into the "pathways" they've made as it's still pretty soft.

Blast is blocking Tank and waiting for the next snowball to make sure he gets it first.

They're both trying to squeeze out the narrow opening from the back. It almost looks like Blast is on top of Tank, but they are actually side by side. All of our dogs have always enjoyed the winter season and the snow much more than the heat of summer....a good thing.

It's a stand off! Trust only ventured once over the back with these two...way too much commotion for her liking. She stayed mainly down in the front, but since Tank wandered off, Blast has decided she "should" play with him. Fat chance, Blast!

We will be making some pathways this weekend with the snowblower for the dogs. We are really limited already where we can walk, and really miss having the trails. Little Jess and Storm just can't go anywhere now, without making paths for them. Probably we will do some snowshoe trails through the forest, if possible, and try to keep at least a few trails open.

There's nothing more beautiful than the forest walks in winter.

Snowstorm - Before, and After...

On Saturday morning, we had two of the most lovely walks you can imagine through our forest.
There were some sunny breaks at times, no wind, not too cold, and a lovely fresh snowfall from the night before. We didn't see too many animal tracks, mainly just some deer and fox. We knew a bad storm was on its way, and thought this might be the only really nice walk of the weekend...which it was...
This is Trust, catching up after wandering off a bit looking for one of "her" birds- spruce grouse.

Oh-oh...Tank thinks the forest monster may be lurking out behind those bushes...better wait for Trust!

But here comes Blast to save the day! We had such a pretty walk. The weather changed drastically after this, and we had a huge dump of snow. It was unrelenting, through the day, the night and Sunday. We are actually still under a winter storm warming, but the snow has been light today, the worst is the high wind and -30C windchill. I've not been too enthused to spend much time outside today, but had to shovel the deck for the fourth time in the last two days.

The dogs are all very happy when we have snow, but the old two are having a tough time navigating, Tank and Trust are having fun, but getting cold feet. And then there's Blast, who never seems to be bothered by anything.

Above, Blast has climbed up the back of this pile of snow (from the plow) that is about 5' high. He loves to be 'on the top of the world'. He's just about ready to spring down again.

This is the amount of snow we received, in flat places, not affected by the winds. We were drifted in until our "snowplow guy" came at 4:30 this morning. Wake up! there's a monster coming up the driveway!!! Our driveway is 1500' long, from the road to the house. The townshop plows had not been out yet, expecting school closures and no school buses, I guess.

I haven't gone down to check for mail delivery, just not in the mood yet for winter, I suppose.

I'm just hoping we won't be drifted in again by morning.

If you feed them, they will come...

The last two winters have been very difficult for the birds in Northern Ontario. The lack of spruce cones, among other things, have forced many bird species to leave the area or starve. We have really missed seeing some of our beautiful winter birds and it seems, a few are beginning to return this year.
We usually have two, or four, mourning doves on a regular basis. This is the first time we have seen seven together. They are a placid, pretty bird, and hope they will stick around.

There are presently two female hairy woodpeckers "in residence" on a daily basis. This one is fluffed up for warmth.

And this one is hanging on a sunflower seed feeder, swinging in the wind. They are very comical to watch

And this is one of my assistant bird feeders, Jess....

A cute little nuthatch showed up a few days ago....the word is spreading...food, food, food...

The first redpoll to arrive, another two quickly followed. These birds used to plentiful in numbers in the winter, will be interesting to see if they are making a comeback.

My other 'assistant bird feeder', Trust, is collecting snow while she watches....

Lots of Birds/Lots of Seed!!!

The birds were cold this morning and when not gorging themselves on seed, they were fluffing up to keep warm.

You can see the amount of snow on the branches, it finally stopped last night, got colder, and was a lovely sunny day today. This bluejay is annoyed to find the sunflower seeds gone from this feeder!

Doesn't this bluejay look like a little fatty?! He's not, just really fluffed up to try and keep warm.

This is how they "insulate" themselves.

This female hairy woodpecker is finding more food on the ground than pecking on the tree trunks

We have seen only male evening grosbeaks so far, not sure why the females are missing. This year seems to be bringing back more grosbeaks and bluejays than the last two. It will be nice if we are back to normal bird populations this year, except for having to purchase way more seed again

Looks like a little dancing circle here....All these pictures were taken from a bedroom window, including the one below.

There were 4 deer almost directly behind the window, but by the time I ran for the camera and came back, they were on the move. They actually just went over to the west side of the house and found a few apples over there.

Snow and cold...

I'm glad we don't have the amount of snow that some poor folk in southern parts of Ontario received recently, but we've got more "cold" today. Our walks were pretty brisk!!! First sunny day in a while.

I just hope we don't lose all our trails again this year. We were running out of nice places to walk last winter. Oh, this is about as far as Blast goes and then turns around to make sure I'm coming....

Blast the predator in this photo. He's certainly begun to fill out a little and looks quite a bit more mature...19 mons. now. He was the only one this morning not to get "cold feet" in the snow.

Happy Birthday, Jess!

The little princess, Jess, turned sixteen years old today. Hard to believe, in many ways. I'll add a link at the end for those that do not know "The story of Jess" if you are interested. She came to live with us at 9 1/2 from an awful earlier life. Became a pet therapy dog and just recently retired from this 'job' after visiting for six years. Jess got a PEN number with CKC and earned a Rally Novice title when she was 13. She then began to track and earned her Tracking Dog title just two months before turning 15.
Jess is getting ready for her little birthday party here. We usually have all the dogs together and have iced carrot muffins. However, I changed the menu for Jess and Storm, who is attending, as they are getting a little old for the usual 'party'.

They look like they think I'm going to set them on fire...instead of the muffins, they are having a little ice cream with strawberry yogourt.

Yummy, yummy, this is even better, I think they are saying.

I think it went over well! The other dogs know exactly what we're doing, and got theirs a little later. Oh, and Storm is due to turn 16 in January...another party!

http://www.dogsincanada.com/jess-story-an-old-dog-learns-new-tricks

There is also a link in this story describing Jess' former life in B.C. before she came to us.

Her biggest thrill today was probably rolling in the deep, fresh snow early this morning. She's a real little cutie.