snow at the ranch

Well it certainly feels like winter around here now as temperatures have remained below freezing for several days. The Hill Country received a beautiful dusting of snow last night and the ranch is blanketed in a cover of white. The dogs and I were eager to get out in it before it melts in a few hours. My Alaska born dog Cassie was especially excited to get outside this morning. As any good mountain dog would do who hasn't seen snow in a while she immediately proceeded to roll in the white stuff for a good while and then break into circle sprints. And then of course, she began eating it. Ella, my lab/beagle mix, was a bit more cautious, thinking perhaps it was somehow dangerous, but she eventually got the hang of it and started to enjoy it.
My favorite thing about when it snows at the ranch is to go looking for animal tracks since it is so easy to see them. It's an adventure to go and find 'clues' as to who was passing through, how many, how big and what they found so interesting as to circle around and stop. So the dogs and I set out on a hike of the ranch before the snowmelt to 'get to know' our nocturnal neighbors.
We found a pack of coyotes, at least four or five, had taken a nightly trot around the barn area and then headed off down the field. One of them must have caught scent of something, because at one point, it does a little circle in the road.
We found several fox prints on the same path as well. Maybe one was following the other. But the fox took off into the barn area somewhere.
The most humorous ones we found were of the cottontail rabbit. I either am surrounded at my house by a colony of them, or there is one BUSY little bunny that lives nearby. His (or her) tracks were all over my place. It appears the rabbit tried to access my garden only to find that, yes, I had once again shut the gate that I put such effort into for the sole purpose of keeping him OUT. So after giving up on the garden he hopped over to the chicken coop maybe hoping for some of that delectable chicken feed he occasionally finds out outside. He then made his way to his favorite spot, underneath the bird feeder. My bird feeders are also rabbit feeders because the chipping sparrows are notoriously messy eaters and are constantly dropping half of their meal onto the ground. On many an occasion I have found Mr. Rabbit enjoying someone elses leftovers. He in turn leaves me an offering. Of sorts. Rabbit droppings are high in nitrogen so I've taken to scooping up his pellets once a week or so and add them to the compost pile.
Mr. Rabbit is always keeping a watchful eye out because, whether he likes it or not, he is an important 'meal' on the food chain. He is primary prey for predators around here (coyotes, owls, hawks, and fox to name a few) His life expectancy is short, less than a year. However, Mother Nature has compensated for such brief tenure, requiring the prolific reproduction attributed to the rabbit species. Mama Rabbit can produce up to 6 litters in one year and yield up to 5-6 per litter. That's alot of little hoppers! Granted, many of those little bunnies won't live long enough to reach breeding age, but that is still an impressive amount.
Cassie, when she was younger and sprier, would every once in a while be able to actually catch a rabbit. And that's not an easy thing to do since they are able to jump distances of up to 8 feet when being pursued. And if you've ever witnessed a rabbit on the run you will have observed their amazing ability to change directions on a dime. Very quick.

Well the sun is out now, the snow is melting quick and the dogs are taking advantage of the sunshine and warming themselves on the porch. I'm gonna' spend the day at the ranch clearing some more cedar, making another batch of homebrew, practice my guitar and keeping the chickens' water free of ice. When I walked to the farmhouse earlier, I looked in Nina's diaries because I'm always curious what she was up to on the same day. And on February 4th, 1937 she said "light frost this morning. Started ironing at 10:00 AM, wasn't done till 3 PM', worked on quilt in evening." A little different from my day. But not really. (- :

Till next time.

Sally Anne