Spring Coming to the Tiny House in the Mountains

As recently as March 27, this is what the clearing looked like around our house. A lot of snow had melted, but there was still a whole lot there as well. But since then, it's rapidly been going! Overall the winter has been colder than normal, but we only got about 85% of the average snowfall. So lower than normal snow totals, but with lots of colder than normal days total. But now it's warming up some and frozen crystals are turning into liquid. A couple days ago the creek right below the house started to flow water on top of all the ice layers. I haven't been able to see or hear the creek since fall when it first iced over and that ice just got thicker and thicker. But as some snow melt started to make it's way out of the mountains, it had to flow on top of all that ice. In this picture, the ice under the water is about three feet thick. Back to the colder than normal winter, I've never seen the ice quite this thick with water coming down on top of it. The flow on the surface like that continued for days before finally eating down through most of it and getting back to running on the actual creek bed. 

In this small pond not far from the house, the melting water flowing in is breaking up the thick pond ice. Check out that one "iceberg" tipping toward the sky as the majority of it's slab was forced underwater by other moving ice chunks. I find watching the change of seasons fascinating!

By April 4th, the snow around the house was down to this. 

Garden beds melting out starting on the uphill sunniest side. 

And with fun things like those little tiny pinkish nubs above, which are the start of rhubarb leaves poking up, started to appear. And below you can see the hints of green in little horseradish leaves already growing before the snow even melted off of them! Horseradish and rhubarb are both very tough cold hardy plants for sure.

Part of the mint and raspberry bed melted out too. Exposing the fact that my least favorite little gophers have continued being active all winter, munching through many of my plants. You might be able to see all the black soil they've dug up in little tunnel shaped piles as the snow recedes. I'll have to see wait till things start growing out to see how many plants they've killed. They once again tried to get into the garden beds to as evidenced by their tunnels, but thankfully with no success there.

I had some family come for a visit! One of my younger brothers with his lovely wife and daughters. We had a lovely time together talking, enjoying good food, walking through the woods, blowing bubbles, and going fishing. Some of those activities involved one person more than others as my brother was more into the fishing and the older of my neices more into the bubbles. 😀 I think fun was had by all though.

Now they are home again, and Burley and I are back to things like walks in the woods. Where we encounter wild things like this skunk. Thankfully spotting it in the brush from a bit of a distance before we got too close to each other! And in places near creeks, there's green grass shoots pushing up through the dead layers from last year.

And now as of today, this is what the yard looks like. Most of the yard is now bare though there are still a couple feet of snow along the wooded shady side just out of the lefthand side of the photo. And... there are snow flurries coming down right now. 🙂 But this is the earliest spring melt out in the years I have lived here! Unless we get another big dump which is always possible. How is spring looking around your home?