Decaf and Weather

 

I do love mornings. The view above is looking out the kitchen window at a pretty sunrise.

Mornings are when I get time to myself in the house. 
Since I love coffee in the morning, but coffee doesn't always love me. I switched over to decaf and it made a huge difference. I thought I'd go through caffeine withdrawal and have terrible headaches.

I didn't. But Folgers Decaf is some of the nastiest tasting stuff around. My son's girlfriend works for a coffee company and while talking with him last week I asked if she knew of any kind of decaf coffee that actually tasted good.

This week, I received a package in the mail.

Yum.

This is one of the flavors. Color me tickled to have a smooth and good tasting coffee in the morning. It helps me start the day out with a brighter mood.

Saturday was all about weather. Warming temperatures, ice, sleet, and then rain. As the temperatures warmed up to nearly 50 degrees, the melting snow and warmer air created instant ground fog.

Even though it was raining lightly, I decided to head out the door and explore the intense weather.

I knew that it would be just a short walk through muck, mud, and ice to get to the runoff area just west of our fenceline.

Aurora was absolutely correct in saying, don't follow the trails. Stay off the beaten path.  This deer trail was treacherous. 

The meltwater and ice follow this dip towards the bigger ditch. 

Certain spots have a little drop into a pool and that creates a mini waterfall.

The foam is due to organic matter in the stream like fall's dead leaves. Chunks of ice were slowly spinning around too.

This drops into another lower spot that is wider. I don't know how many years ago this vehicle was dropped in here, but it was probably used at the time to slow down erosion. Of course the water just goes around it.

Just past this car is another one that is nearly submerged in mud.

I kept walking down the hill to follow the water. I got almost to where the creek that flows into our land starts when I heard thunder and decided to hurry back to the house.

Here is a shot from about the same spot in 2018, after a huge rainfall February 21st.

Another storm came in and now the Kickapoo is flooding. I'm all up for going to the creek bottom and exploring today, even if it is dreary looking.

Who knows what I'll discover now that the temperatures have dropped to just below freezing again?

Wild Things near

When the morning sun broke over the tree tops, I saw this young deer north of the house at the top of the hill. The winds hadn't started yet and everything was calm.

Taken through the 

back door window

After I'd finished the chores, the breezes started. By the time hubby got up and had some coffee, the sun had disappeared and it began to snow.

Imagine our surprise when we spotted another fawn bedding down between the old garage and a tree. It curled up and went sound asleep. [And it looks like it is drooling!]

Later during another snow squall, some fawns came ambling through the yard.

I took these through a screened window so they are sort of soft looking. But the mules are standing just on the other side of the electric fence napping and ignoring the deer.

Two of them walked around to the side of the porch and then turned around and headed out to the woods but not entering the mules fenced area. I know the electric fence doesn't bother them much as they just jump through the two lines.

I do know that the mules will chase intruders that enter their areas.

I'm curious if the fawns had already learned this.

I'm also learning that deer tend to be more active during certain barometer readings. 

I do know that they feed towards dusk. 

This little one came right up to the spot I'd cleared for parking and off loading groceries. 

Speaking of feeding at dusk, we were quite amused at 6 deer that decided to surround my Subaru. It is parked in a grassy area that was plowed last week.

One actually walked up to the passenger door and looked in the window.

I couldn't pass up adding this little nuthatch to my shots this week. Just check out that face!

Attitude!