Snow Melt and Rain

All Sunday night it rained hard and by morning everything was icy slushy. Ice on the ridge top and the roads, slushy here in the hollow.

I went out and fed the critters in my old coveralls and a rain jacket. I actually stayed warm and dry. I walked down to the fence line to see how deep the slush/water was and was surprised to hear water running in the 'dry' run.

The dry run is that line of trees in the distance. The dry run ditch takes all the water off from the ridge and fields 100 feet above us and washes down through the depression to the little creek that runs through our property.

I went back to the house and changed into rain pants and grabbed my camera. Hubby was not surprised that I wanted to go out in the rain and sleet.

He shrugged. He knows how I enjoy a good snow melt event.

Yes, the water turns brown as it gathers dirt and manure from our pasture, the neighbor's cattle pasture, and the dirt from the fields on the ridge. This water is probably some from the gravel road up on the ridge also. It all comes downhill through a rocky ravine that is generally dry but only fills with water with snowmelts and heavy run offs.

I followed the water through the neighbor's pasture noting that it still followed the depression in their land. The water eventually makes its way around and over all the fallen branches and obstacles and heads to the creek.

The water keeps searching for the path of least resistance and dumps into the creek where the spring is.

The brown expands outwards as the snow melt and run off increases. The water runs over the slushy ice and eventually melts it too which adds to the volume as the water seeks its way down the valley.

Over the past few years the snow melts have been rather boring and weak. Our normal snowfall and rains have been less than normal. Our creek has become a seasonal creek over the past two years. Parts of it have become dry and others have tiny springs just barely flowing.

I watched fascinated as the snow, leave debris, and water searched its way down the creek.

Below is one of the now dry areas that only flows during a flash flood or run off.

I walked to the other end of this and then climbed alongside the last dry run on our land. I found the spot where the water was working its way down from the ridge. It was going to be an hour or so before it joined the creek bottom.

Still, it was interesting to watch. Well, it was interesting to me.

I waited a while down in the bottom and just watched the little swirls and eddys of bubbles and water.

The rain started coming down heavier again and I figured that hubby would be worried about now. Sadly, I climbed out of the creek and started towards home.

However, I was pleased to see the run off, it made me happy.

Below is a couple of video clips of the water moving through the valley and two different dry runs.
It is 50 seconds long.

I hope we get some more moisture this coming year, so the water can return to normal in our creek. If there ever will be a normal again.

If you were my Grandma...

...that would be kinda cool. 

Such a wonderful compliment from a 10 year old. I picked up my pal Briar and took him to CrossFit with me where he read a book and I worked out. We headed home and he chatted about the weather, Covid, school, insects, history, and what he was doing for the weekend.

He was going to visit his Grandparents on mom's side. 

His mom and one sister had a doctor's appointment and for these appointments I've offered to help out by taking Briar to my house so we can take a walk or he can play with my neighbor's kids. 

After all, I have a bit more leeway in my schedule than most folks. 

After the kids gathered...

As Briar has said before. "If we come to your house we always walk to the creek. Always."

Water draws doesn't it? It draws us to it.

With the drought parts of the creek are dry. The kids were discussing what to do when I suggested a castle.

A castle for Teddy Bears...

A couple of Bears just happened to be in my camera bag.

And furious building ensued. The Bears needed a grand castle with sticks as a roof. Grass, moss, and bark were layered onto the roof to make it more secure.

And Groundchalier [not my name, but the kids came up with it] was born. Named as such because it was like a beautiful chandelier but it was on the ground.

I sat and watched and stayed quiet. This was all their fun. I was there just to keep an eye out in the woods.

Plans were hatched to build future huts for the army they were going to hire to protect the castle.

They asked if I had toys they could build huts for.

As

if...

Of course!

We headed back and stopped at the Forest Garden where they re-arranged the Gargoyle, unicorns, dragons, and dinosaurs. 

All was as it should be. 

Charlie was very sad to see his new friends go.

Until next time.

Chionophile

Chionophile: Any animal that thrives in winter conditions, especially one that thrives in snow.

Chee--on--ooo-file.

This term refers to those who absolutely adore winter also. I am one of those.

Winter is my time. I love...underline that and put it in italics...I love winter.

I am lucky that I live in a region where getting out of that cold wind is an option simply by hiking.
Yesterday was my first foray out in a week. Hubby was okay with watching some Amazon or Netflix while I went out to wander. 

I didn't tell him the temps were only 2 degrees F or that the wind chills were far below 0. I dressed and headed out.

On the east end of the valley the creek runs faster with a higher volume of water. The overhanging grasses are splashed by bits of water and humidity from the warm springs....and make....

Ice Fingers

Further upstream where the water flow is much slower, the creek did a flash freeze when the temperatures dropped from 45 degrees to 6 degrees over a period of 6 hours.

Even the little water falls froze. The water that seeped over the ice froze in what almost can be described as ice waves.

I found the leaves below to be very interesting. I haven't figured out exactly why it looks like this. Perhaps because the leaves soak up sunlight and heat and melt a bit around the edges changing the consistency of the ice?

I think winter is the best.

Interesting tracks...

Interesting ice formations along the creek or any small stream for that matter.

And the beauty of Ice Walls.

December 11th...

December 25th...

I rest my case.

I am a true blue Chionophile and proud of it.

Today I took a long hike downstream with Charlie.

We had an incredible adventure and found the Blue Ice.

I just do love winter.

My Fungi Fun

For my work out of the day...yesterday, I was supposed to go out and power walk or jog and see how far I could go in 30 minutes.

Simple right?

So I grabbed my lighter sweatshirt and Charlie and we headed off with my phone on a map my hike app running. I had my little camera with me and decided ... you know... just in case....

So an hour and a half later, I'd actually covered over a mile. But I had spent so much of it peering into moss covered logs and crawling around mule dung, rotten wood, and searching under leaves.

Cool huh? Velvety Black Earth Tongue Fungi. Eww. I saw these last year and wondered what they were. This year I went to Mushroom and Fungi book to look them up. 

Red Banded Conch. On the same log but on the underside. By the way those little fungi from my last outing? They are on this log too! I counted 4 types of fungi on one log!

While not really a fungi, these Indian Pipes are often mistaken for them. They are of the blueberry plant family and are white as they have no chlorophyll. 

I have no idea what these little ones are, I will have to go back and see how they change!

These? Inky Caps. At least I think so. I'll go back and see if their tops turn black and icky. That will identify them for me. I'll go back and check them out if it ever stops raining.

I don't know the ID of these either, but I am working on it.

The top photo was taken on Sunday. The bottom was taken 5 days later. 
And there still is a slug at the end of them!

Oh and for the workout? Guess I'll have to have a Do Over!

Pandemic Play

What can I say? My closest neighbor and I call ourselves the Lockdown Ladies. We come up with ways to socialize distantly.

We talk with our electric fence between us. When we have something for one another we have worked out the Stump Exchange at my place or a designated spot near her house.

Her children love adventure and love going to my creek.

So I worked out a game for our two households that includes 'no contact' and lots of fresh air. It ties in well with learning for both myself and the neighbors.

We call it Treasure Hunting. An old game. We write clues down on paper and leave it in a plastic bag on the Exchange Stump. She texts me when they are ready for a creek walk and I stand outside and wave. 

Sometimes the clues include a type of tree. Sometimes the clues include the names of fossil rocks or fungi. We include upstream and downstream. 

Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out a couple of clues the kids left me.  

Each child takes turns writing clues. I can see that from the handwriting. I have to say that it is a delight to have this 'game'. I get to spend time in the creek hiding toys and items, and they get to splash around in the cool waters on a hot day!

The game gives each household a purpose. I can get creative with these old toys and they can too.

Yesterday I was thrown by a couple of clues. I actually resorted to tracking the bent grasses and weeds to ferret out where the Truck was hidden.

They were clever, I was clever too!

It was not an easy find as it wasn't right in the creek but the description was a Great Fallen Tree by the Orange Target. If I'd read it properly the first time, I wouldn't have had such a hard time with it!

I searched high and love for the Creepy Doll without a face [these toys are left in the forest and apparently a squirrel or some other varmint decided to chew on its face.]

The Teddy Bear in the tree was pointing to the Creepy Doll which was 'upstream' from there.

So I looked in the area where the Teddy was pointing his face. I searched up stream and around to no avail! I was going to give up. But I went and stood in front of this sapling and pulled up the photo of the Teddy. HIS arm was pointing behind him!

How insanely clever!

The Very Creepy Doll was exactly where the Teddy was pointing.

Now it was my turn to hide the items. 

I used this time with the toys to experiment and get my photography fix for the day. The rest of my day was slated for my workout, cultivating the garden, mowing, and weed wacking.

The Pink Dozer is

trying to remove a log.

I think it may be too Big!

That Pink Pony

is resting on the 

Large Oak that is

bent over 

the trail!

Meanwhile, the lonely

Teddy Bear

decides to sit and 

chat with the 

blue 

Stegosaurus,

downstream from the desk.

The John Deere truck

has gone to work.

It is building a

dam just upstream from

the crossing path.

[Maybe you should stop and 

help him build a dam?]

This poor fellow was building a

dam too to make a

tiny waterfall! 

I think he fell 

into the creek!

This part of the creek is so

strange!

The Very Creepy Doll 

likes roots and rocks not 

far from the tree with 

huge roots!

Percy prefers a nice safe 

rock ledge to sit

on.

One time being lost

 in a flash flood was enough

for him!

Crazy Zombie Doll is hiding.

Not far from the place where the

rocks look like stairs.

The Orange Dino has decided 

to build a rock fort.

He thinks his brother the

Green Dino was picked 

up by a raccoon!

And once again, it is your turn!

I Touched a Trout

Oh the photo stinks but ever try shooting into the surface of the water and under a rock?

But I went to the creek to sit for a while. I decided to let all those crappy things stay up at the house on my to do list.
I needed the sound of water and some fresh air.

One of the very first things I noticed when I got down by the creek was a water ripple that splashed around and stopped. I stood stock still. Trout fish are so shy and quick to hide. I saw what I thought was the body pattern of a trout, it had to be a very small one to get up into this shallow place.

Slowly I squatted down and stayed there for a while, just watching and waiting. I took a few shots with my tiny camera. The trout didn't move though I could see him/her. It was a fingerling. As long as my pointing finger. I set the camera on the rock above it and slowly reached in with my finger.

I touched a trout.
Hmm.
That was amazing.
So I backed up and moved the large rock that it was under.
Quicker than the eye could follow... the trout flitted and went downstream.

I decided to find another spot to just squat and peer down into the creek bottom. It took a while but I started to see movement below me in and about the rocks and tiny granules of sand.

I found a pouch snail. Note the tiny Caddisfly stone houses around it. I dipped the camera into the water for this shot. [I like that it is water proof!]

Below is one of the more curious finds in a while. I found the Scud Bugs, they were scuttling about and Caddisfly larvae were not far off.
But this creature was really bizarre looking.

....
and it was pretty darned ugly in a way.

I got out my handouts from the Master Naturalist course. The chart from the book Wonderful,Wacky, Water Critters helped me figure out the creature. Six legs, 3 tails....

The tails got me closer to it. I 'googled' 3 tail Mayfly larvae and found much better photos of it.

I studied this Mayfly larvae to see where in the stream it was staying and decided to come back and see how many more times I could see them until they morphed into something else.

I walked up stream and stopped in another place where the water was not rushing.

Another new creature!

Well, obviously not 'new'. But new in the sense that I'd never examined the creek's bottom before like this.

A beetle of some sort. A Riffle Beetle? A Whirligig Beetle?
Nope.

I kept up my search of images and settled on a Crawling Water Beetle. The images matched as did the description of where it liked to live.
They don't swim, they crawl.

It's name or bug family is Haliplidae. I like the Crawling Water Beetle better as it describes how it moves.

I finally decided to head home excited about my finds.

And

I
touched
a
Trout!

Amazing.