I had a psychological sleep-in this morning...not a real one, but as the clocks went forward last night, but it was nice to wake up to 7 a.m. rather than 6.
We had a little snow first thing, but I went into town anyway to stock up on fresh veggies & fruit. Cody came with me and slept all the way there and all the way home. There is very little snow left in town...they've been loading it into dump trucks and hauling it away!
I coaxed the first stump pile of the season to burn this afternoon (just a very small one!). We're going to have to take more dead pines down this spring, so burning will continue through at least 2008. Our area has been absolutely devastated by the mountain pine beetle. From Clinton to about 130 Mile, there seem to be more dead conifers than alive. The highway 97 corridor from Williams Lake to Prince George is mostly spruce and fir, so things don't look so bad up that way. I have no idea what it's like north of PG. Luckily this winter hasn't been very windy, or we would have had many power outages from falling pines. They will eventually come down, one way or another. I worry about the lot across the street. It's almost entirely beetle-killed pine, and the owners haven't done anything about taking the dead trees down. They're a big fire risk. The property is for sale, so perhaps the new owners will log it.
The wooded areas have lost enough snow to make it pretty easy to get around on foot. I did a test step into the untouched snow in front of the greenhouse, and it's still knee deep (and I have long legs). This is the slowest the snow has retreated since we moved here. I think I'm going to have to make a trip south to see some green things soon. There is a little kinnick-kinnick showing itself in the woods. The willow buds are beginning to swell. The first Canada geese flew overhead this afternoon. I've seen them up by the 108, but not yet here. We're higher and colder, and the birds pass right on by us initially in the spring. I feel a little sorry for the geese at this time of year; there isn't much for them to forage on.
The dogs all played and played outside today, and have all passed out on their various beds. And I think I'll be heading to mine quite soon.
2 comments:
There are areas near Prince George where you can see miles upon miles of red, dead pine trees. In the two years we lived there it was incredibly depressing to see entire parks having to be completely cleared out. There was talk of compensation from the city to homeowners to help cover the cost of taking down dead trees in yards as some of them had quite a lot of pine and just couldn't afford the expense. We're in an area of mostly Douglas Fir, thank goodness.
I'm sorry to hear about your neighborhood pines. Here in rural San Diego, we've lost some of our oldest pines - possibly to the same pest. It bores inside and the trees die from the bottom up.
It's a strange feeling when seasons you rely on begin to change. But Spring can't be far now - less than 2 weeks.
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