just sit and observe -- maybe you've done some good

I'm standing in my garage right now, big door open, cold fingers and toes as I type.

The sun came out a bit, and it has some kick. And I'm watching a dozen of our courageous overwintering juncos working my very long country driveway. Which I cleared by hand after a magnificent Alberta clipper, just to prove I still had the mojo to do it.

The juncos are working an area of our ridiculously steep driveway where I throw down fine grit instead of native silt/sand for traction. The are obviously looking for grit for digestion. Everything else is under a foot of heavy snow.

So I think I accidentally did some good. Cheers little buddies; you brighten my days.

So far we;ve been grateful to be sandwiched between the snows both north and south of us and don't really need the rain that we could be getting.  One of the yard hydrants is still frozen below grade and is my benchmark for the frost finally leaving the ground.  Something is moving down there because the sump pumps are becoming more active even with no recent rains.  Just the frost releasing water when the temperatures provide the nudge.  A bit of ice left of the river now so the gate was opened to let the geese out of the yard and man were they ecstatic to wash of the dust and dander of winter!  Imagine the equivalent of a good hot shower after 4-5 months in the same thermal one-sie.  After several hours exploring the river banks again and diving, sparring, and preening, they came back through the gate to rest up before dinner.  They get pretty jazzed as well with the enormous Canada and Snow geese migration overhead....suddenly such a noisey time of year!

I have a broken chicken waterer that will not hold a reserve of water due to missing a piece. It has been turned into a slow tree waterer where I place it near my fruit trees and fill it up letting the drip-drop of water soak the soil.

My wife took the time to scrub it down as it was looking a little dingy the other way and she refilled it to give a young peach some soak. We were talking a ways away when we noticed a gang of chickadees swooped in on the waterer and started to bath in the water. What a sight to take in! I might have to work on a dedicated birdbath area now.

Just sit and observe can help folks not make a bunch of mistakes.

During a torrential rain storm parts of our property turns into raging rivers and we are lucky we used just sit and observe when placing buildings, etc on our property.

Indeed, very near me is a house, about 30 years old, that is built in a gully.  In the past 25 years it has had 5 owners.  The most recent owner jacked it up and raised the foundation as well as digging 6 foot deep trenches to run 18” drainage lines for many yards until they reached lower ground.  He bought the property with his eyes open and was aware of the issues.  

Often times, I'll bring a book outside to read, but just as often, it stays closed on my lap; there is so much going on where nature is involved.  I can be entertained for hours just watching all of the plants and animals going about their business. Last week, I went out to cut some zinnias before the first hard frost of the season.  I had the scissors ready to snip when I noticed a bumble bee curled up on the flower head.  I checked to see if it were still alive, and it groggily waved its feet about.  Needless to say, I didn't cut the flower.  There are so many precious sites to see when we slow down and look.