Burley Loving Life in the Snow

As you know if you have been following life here in Fy Nyth for any length of time, Burley adores the snow! He loves winter, and I think must believe that summer is this odd little time of year when his wonderful snow melts temporarily. If you have seen some of our backpacking trips in the summer, you probably remember him searching out any snow patches left high in the mountains and racing right to them to roll in and do belly slides on. But right now he doesn't have to search at all to find snow. We are just wrapping up the second snowiest

Spring Backpacking and other Walks in the Woods

While there's still a lot of snow in the mountains above our house, we've been able to do some backpacking and hiking, two of my favorite activities. And one of my one younger brothers came to visit for a bit. Among other things like work projects, long conversations, and enjoying good homemade meals, we went on a two

Late Winter? Or is it Spring?

Greetings from Burley, the wet rat dog, and I. 😀 It's warmed enough for wading in the creeks to be fun. At least for him, I am not nearly so into wading in water that is approximately the temp of ice melt. He however adores it, and begs for more sticks to be thrown in the water pretty much endlessly. When he's all wet, you can see his neat coat color, dark shaded or wolf sable. Every hair that looks black most of the time, is actually

March Snowpack Comparisons around the Tiny House

You folks always seem to enjoy weather and snow comparisons. And I find it fun to scroll back through older photos and be reminded of the differences myself. So here's one for March! The above photo is today, March 19, 2020. As you can see, there's still a good bit of snow around. It's about my waist level in most areas where it has not been shoveled higher. Below is 

Changing Showpack Depths

Up to the first of January, this winter was running a little below average snowfall. Of course long term averages are made from higher and lower years. As you can see in the above photo, heading into the new year the snow around the house was not very deep.

 Then at the begining of January, it started dumping. It snowed almost every day for the first half of the month, and actually broke records for January snowfall totals. Which has brought us up to about average for the whole winter so far. Anyway, I thought you might all enjoy photos of

Winter Wonders - Snowshoeing, Wildlife, Ice, and Snow

We've been very much enjoying winter around here! Many miles of snowshoeing through woods and along rivers have provided delightful glimpses of beautiful things in the natural world.

 The snowpack, the amount on the ground, is always changing with new storms, well below zero weather that sucks moisture back out via sublimation (frozen water turning directly into vapor without melting into a liquid first), or a warmer day with some sunshine that helps compact all the layers from the various storms together as the snow settles. The snow fall totals are a different measurement from snowpack, generally measuring the amount of new inches that have fallen once a day before all the above mentioned effect have much time to act on that new snow. At the moment this leaves the mountain above me reporting over

2019 Highlights

Sometimes on new years day, I want to tell people, "you know, a new year starts for you each day you wake up still alive." Do something with it. Don't wait for some random day on a calendar to make resolutions and do new things. If it's something you want to or know you need to do, start right now. Whatever day on a calendar that is. 

That said, it is nice to look back through what happened in the last while every now and then. So here's some highlights

Deepening Snow

Over the past week or so, the snow pack on the ground has deepened a good bit. From the above photo to just a little deeper now than

Winter Crystals

It's continued to be cold, with little new snowfall over the past few days. Though there is more in the forecast which is

Finally Snowy

So as you may know, this winter has started out unusually dry. We've had a few inches of snow several times, since late September. And overall cold temps, down to -10F. Actually setting the record for the coldest October in the area. But even when it's cold, when the sun comes out and you have dry air, the snow just evaporates. It's called sublimation - the process of a solid turning

Merry Christmas, Thank You's, and Eating Snowballs

An attempt at a self timered shot of Grizzly and I. Hitting a camera shutter, getting in place, and trying to show her how to pose all at once it a bit challenging! But we did get one shot of us and the house together. 

A bit late, but Merry Christmas and some big thank you's to all of you amazing folks following the journey here!

And Grizzly is starting to get pretty comfortable here. She's even feeling relaxed enough to play some. I learned that while she doesn't seem to have any interest in chasing a ball, she does like to catch and eat snowballs. :) 

The snow is still not very deep, but at least it's white and clean looking out there now!

Isn't Grizzly just a really beautiful dog? :)

And one shot of one of the many little cheerful birdies that flit and chirp around here in the winter. 

I think the forecast was wrong...

Well the forecast said 50's and mostly sunny for today. But this is what I woke up to today. ;) I think they might have got it wrong...