Snow ... and I mean snow!

[Yeso Bill]

Well, I'm certainly no moose man but if I recall my Feeds 'n Feeding class correctly, a cow needs 25lbs of dry fodder daily.  Since that isn't usually available on western winter ranges, cow cake was invented.  So, those Willow twigs must be made of pretty good stuff.

Seems like I read somewhere that the mountain men fed their horses willow bark?

It is trying to blow us away today.    

Billy

Later....  So I got to wondering and Moose are ruminants like cattle, sheep, goats, elk, buffalo and deer.

[PJ Hardtack]

One of the native names for moose is "Twig eater". Some of the browsing I've seen is on 1/2" stems.

The poplars here are often scarred quite high up by moose feeding on bark during the winter when nothing else is available. One year a tall poplar came down and over the winter, the cow and her calf completely stripped it of bark.

We see them putting their heads under water all the time, feeding on the roots of aquatic plants, like bull rushes and reeds.

I have watched the cow walk into deep water an completely disappear, not even a ripple on the water and not surface again for well over 25yds! If anyone had told me moose could do this, I would not have believed it.

We are disallowed removing willows from the riparian zone (lake shore) by the 'lake police' (Fisheries & Oceans and Forestry) for the sake of the beavers and moose. We all gotta get along if we are going to survive, and they were here first.

[greyhawk]

One of the native names for moose is "Twig eater". Some of the browsing I've seen is on 1/2" stems.

The poplars here are often scarred quite high up by moose feeding on bark during the winter when nothing else is available. One year a tall poplar came down and over the winter, the cow and her calf completely stripped it of bark.

We see them putting their heads under water all the time, feeding on the roots of aquatic plants, like bull rushes and reeds.

I have watched the cow walk into deep water an completely disappear, not even a ripple on the water and not surface again for well over 25yds! If anyone had told me moose could do this, I would not have believed it.

We are disallowed removing willows from the riparian zone (lake shore) by the 'lake police' (Fisheries & Oceans and Forestry) for the sake of the beavers and moose. We all gotta get along if we are going to survive, and they were here first.

PJ
Protect the willows hey!    come downunder and they declared a noxious weed - I kid you not! - Some idjit in an office decided they "damage the riparian zone" whatever the hell that means - so we have seen millions of taxpayer dollars deployed cutting, bulldozing, burning, poisoning --- thousands of miles of beautiful willow lined creeks have been decimated - oh yeah they have a story and a whole bunch of "research" that proves willows destroy the environment ......Funny thing is this all started after someone did a study on how much water a willow takes up frrom the soil - and I believe the man from the govmint decided if they stopped the willows using that water - it would run on down the creek and they could sell it to a downstream cotton farmer . grrrrrrr. 

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[Buffalo Creek Law Dog]

This is the most snow that we have had in about 10 years. Only one Chinook came through and it was a short one. The temperature has been below normal for most of the winter so far.

This is the year Leonardo DiCaprio should have filmed the movie, The Revenant, up here instead of 2015 when we had several Chinooks blow through with hardly any snow.  He went on and on about global warming because they had to relocate to South America for some of the snow scenes.

The president of our muzzleloading club was one of the technical advisors on that movie.  He had to teach the actors how to load a muzzleloader so they looked like they knew what they were doing.  He also had to teach DiCaprio how to start a fire with flint and steel.
We are approximately 80 miles as the crow flies from where most of the Revenant was filmed.

The forecast for here is still cold with no Chinook in sight.  They say that there is a lot of snow on the eastern slopes of the Rockies this winter, which means that the Old Man River will probably threaten Lethbridge and Medicine Hat with flooding again in the spring.

[PJ Hardtack]

Bright, sunny day, no wind - but -36C.  It's -40 where Fahrenheit and Celsius meet. Only been that cold a few times over the last decade.

I often wonder how the little birds survive these temps. It is my pleasure to feed them sunflower oil seeds. They also like some types of dog kibble.

Time to bundle up and take the dogs for their morning walk.

[greyhawk]

Bright, sunny day, no wind - but -36C.  It's -40 where Fahrenheit and Celsius meet. Only been that cold a few times over the last decade.

I often wonder how the little birds survive these temps. It is my pleasure to feed them sunflower oil seeds. They also like some types of dog kibble.

Time to bundle up and take the dogs for their morning walk.

PJ
We should meet someplace in the middle - its been + 43 to +45 C here a fair bit since christmas - starting to ease off a bit the last week - we get our bugs in spring too - september - october -- skeeters - little black bushflies by the million - rutherglen bugs all summer - lil suckers climb through the window screens at night - they getting worse n worse - being hosted on canola crops 

[PJ Hardtack]

I don't know if I could adapt to a place that didn't have extremes of temperature. Gives me something to look forward to.

The odd thing is that it swings to +36C in the summer. Last year was very dry and we paid for it with a devastating wildfire season that destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres and many homes, businesses, etc. The wildlife habitat as well, of course.

I've never seen it so dry. We closed our local ranges as did others due to the fire hazard. The wild berry crops dried up on the bushes, making for a lot of hungry bears.

The good news was that it was so dry, the bug season was very short as all the ponds dried up. Oddly, the grouse population flourished. Wet springs and summers are hard on the chicks and few survive.

It was -36C this am again, but it warmed up to -10C so me and the dogs went x-country skiing on the lake. The snow had a hard crust on it from the wind, si I only sunk a few inches on my skis. Not a cloud in the sky!

Great to leave your tracks on a beautiful lake 5 miles long and be the only one out there. Yesterday I was on the lake with snowshoes so I knew that it would be good on skis. While I was on snowshoes, we went into the trees on a trail where the snow was quite deep and the snowshoes sunk about a foot in soft snow.

If you want a good aerobic workout, I highly recommend it as a pastime. Around here, if you can't go there in a 4x4, snowmobile or quad, you stay home. That's when I get out the skis and snowshoes.

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

We finally got our first snow of this winter, about 3-4 inches worth. We'll see if it persists. The most troublesome weather here in Victoria is wind. Because bedrock underlays the city, most power lines are on poles. Because the climate is temperate there are a lot of trees. power lines, trees and wind cause many power outages. Saturday we were dark for about six hours, just enough time to let frozen food get a bit mushy. I'm sure some folks took the opportunity to go out for supper, as the outages are randomly scattered.

As you can see, we have it pretty rough here!

[greyhawk]

I don't know if I could adapt to a place that didn't have extremes of temperature. Gives me something to look forward to.

+ 46 celcius not extreme enough for ya ?

The odd thing is that it swings to +36C in the summer. Last year was very dry and we paid for it with a devastating wildfire season that destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres and many homes, businesses, etc. The wildlife habitat as well, of course.

we saw that all on the news - they blamed global warming of course (even tho its cooled the last ten years ) oh NO sorry they changed it to ""climate change ""to cover their little lefty asses ---- how much of the damage is simply down to more people living in pretty places that periodically puts them in harms way ? this is regular occurrance in southern Australia - people with nice homes in the bush - long period of no problem - everybody becomes complacent - then - howling wind + 40degree temp + low humidity + it forgot to rain for three months + massive accumulated fuel load because this is a fertile environment with good rainfall - and to top it off our aussie natives are incendiary devices in this weather - volatile oils that vaporise and see a fire front leap ten miles at a time ........ the rains come -- the insurance pays out -- green grass grows all around all around - the city dudes build it all back in the trees - 20 years down the track - maybe longer - it all plays out again

I've never seen it so dry. We closed our local ranges as did others due to the fire hazard. The wild berry crops dried up on the bushes, making for a lot of hungry bears.

The good news was that it was so dry, the bug season was very short as all the ponds dried up. Oddly, the grouse population flourished. Wet springs and summers are hard on the chicks and few survive.

It was -36C this am again, but it warmed up to -10C so me and the dogs went x-country skiing on the lake. The snow had a hard crust on it from the wind, si I only sunk a few inches on my skis. Not a cloud in the sky!

Great to leave your tracks on a beautiful lake 5 miles long and be the only one out there. Yesterday I was on the lake with snowshoes so I knew that it would be good on skis. While I was on snowshoes, we went into the trees on a trail where the snow was quite deep and the snowshoes sunk about a foot in soft snow.

If you want a good aerobic workout, I highly recommend it as a pastime. Around here, if you can't go there in a 4x4, snowmobile or quad, you stay home. That's when I get out the skis and snowshoes.

I used to email with a farmer in Saskatchewan - he sent me pics one time - 30 below and the ground froze hard - hes in the yard with a back scraper clearing snow away so he could get a load of fertiliser in ready for seeding - I wondered what the rush was - one month later he was half planted -- hard to believe how quick the season turns around on that prairie country!!! 

[PJ Hardtack]

We've been off power here for up to four days at a time, phone for up to 10 days.

And no, we don't have cell phone service until we get within 25 kms of town. The phone company forgets that, making us a low priority for service. Our TV and computer service are via satellite.

Our main heat is a power dependent hi-efficiency propane furnace, backed up by an independent propane freestanding stove in the living room which can heat the entire main floor. The cooking stove is propane as well, so we can use the burners but not the oven, which is dependent on electricity to ignite.

The basement stays cold so our freezers don't thaw. To shower, we go to the local campground where they also have washing machines.

This house was built without provision for a wood stove. Odd since we live on a woodlot surrounded by forest. I cut and give away a LOT of wood to neighbours and keep the community hall in wood.

[major]

I live in Buffalo NY and we have a reputation for snow but this winter we only got what the weather guy called normal amounts.  But we did have a very cold second half of January and first half of February. 

[Lumpy Grits]

Well PJ, if you want extremes in temps. Come on down to The Mojave Desert.
Got a great private range about 15 minutes from my place, and we can shoot out to 600+ yds anytime.
LG