Spring Rains

Well, it's been raining heavily. Which is good, because it's not snowing anymore, but - together with all the meltwater - there's a lot of soggy ground...



... as well as serious sediment transport in the normally-dry creek.

A very late spring

Back in January, it looked like this winter might not actually be very strong; a second warm not-really winter. I was wrong.

In February and March, the snows and ice storm brought down a number of trees and also took out the power. The downed trees were too dangerous for me to cut up, so a crew came out and took out a number of the cedars, maples, and oaks that fell across the main road. (Unfortunately, none of that damnable buckthorn was broken.) The box elder (Acer negundo that borders the east side of the grassy area may well have to come down this spring. It suffered heavily from the ice, and one of the major boles is broken, another is already dead, and with the trees behind it having been blown down, knocked down by falling trees, and/or cut away, the remaining boles and limbs are likely to break. More hardwood for campfires.

On the plus side, all the snow (and ice) has brought up the lake levels (although they are still lower than average) and returned water to the frog pond. Indeed, the "frog man" was out once again this last week, checking the fencing, anticipating the spring to come. It was, of course, late; one of the latest times that he's come out during his multiple decades of monitoring that pond.

Looking into the waters from the dock, I saw a few shoals of bluegills. They've started to emerge from the depths as the near-shore waters slowly warm up. Third Sister is one of the first lakes to open up (due to its groundwater source), but it also takes a while for the water to warm up (again due to its groundwater source). Still, even though the water vegetation is only just starting to poke through the muck, it's good to see the fish swimming around. It's another (also late) sign of the spring.

Finally, this Easter was one that came without any flowers to meet it. Even now, the bulbs are only just sending up green shoots, as the nights continue to drop below freezing five nights out of seven. However, last night didn't drop below freezing, and - as I went in for the evening - I heard the single *pweeep... pweeep* sound of a spring peeper. (Not in the frog pond, but in the nearshore wetlands of the lake.) Soon - hopefully - it will be deafeningly loud once again; a veritable amphibian ode to spring. (And at that point, I'll likely have to sleep with the windows closed.)

Searched Third Sister Lake

This past Easter Sunday, I took one of the boats out to search for evidence of the dogs (or coyotes) that were seen falling through the ice this past winter. It was of additional concern, since - to the witness - these appeared to be German Shepherds, and the witness knew that two German Shepherds had gone missing recently in the (very) rough area of Saginaw Forest.

I found no evidence of any animal that would have fallen through the ice.

On Wednesday afternoon, I took the boat out again with one of the owners of the missing dogs, and we found nothing, either.

I hope that the dogs do turn up.

Well, the Geese Are Back

The Canada geese have returned to the area. Now all I have to do is keep them off the lawn, since I'm not a big fan of walking through goose droppings.



Usually, running at them while clapping loudly is enough to shoo them into the lake, and after a few days of this routine, they are usually content to not walk around the lawn, and I'm content in not having to deal with large goose droppings.

Soil Settling and the Compost "Bin"

One corner of my compost "bin" has sunk due to soil settling. The location of the compost "bin" was almost immediately on top of where the hole was dug for accessing the shower drain line, and so it's not surprising that the soil has settled since that time (especially now that it went through a freeze-thaw cycle).



I'll have to fix it by putting in more soil in the area. Hopefully, that will let me keep the "bin" in that same location, since moving it (again) will be a real pain.

Returned to Find...

So I returned from a slightly extended "Spring Break" to find a wreckage of tree limbs



and blasted tree trunks:



Apparently, there was a massive ice storm that had hit while I was away, and UM grounds likely found the driveway blocked when they came in to plow it. Even if I were here, based on the sheer amount of chopped and sawed wood lying on both sides of the road, I wouldn't have been able to make much of a dent on it all.

...and now a possibility of an icy, icy driveway

Looking at the forecast, it appears that there is going to be rain coming this afternoon and continue through until tomorrow at noonish. It will also be accompanied by above-thaw temperatures, which, when they hit the packed snow will (initially at least) turn to ice. Tomorrow does not look to be a fun day. Not at all.

In other news, happy beginning to the Year of the Snake!