Dusky Grouse and Porcupines!

On a walk this afternoon, Thayer and I came across a handsome male Dusky Grouse singing his courting song.  Hoo hoo hoo.  Hoo hooooo hoo hoo.

And three nights ago, while Carolyn and CR were staying with us, this big fatty of a porcupine payed us a nighttime visit.

Some other photos from our walk this afternoon.

Our marmots are awake!  And by 'our', I mean the two little ones that were sleeping under the deck of Gates.  We've been waiting a while for our first glimpse of them.  I saw a marmot running across the grass near Ender about two weeks ago, and we've been waiting since then for the two little ones to wake up.  I heard a thump from outside our window and joked to Thayer that it was probably a marmot falling off our bench.  I looked through the window, and lo and behold, there was a marmot! (Albeit not falling off our bench)

The road was plowed yesterday!  Huzzah!  At the moment it's still a muddy slush-pile, but it should dry up and be drivable in a few days.

The weather was wonderfully sunny, but a little gusty for our visit to the weather station today.  We went on a walk and found lots of growing things.

And several beetles.

This is what we woke up to this morning.  About five more inches of snow.  Doesn't the weather know that it's May and we want the road to open?

Also, the shawl I've been working on is finished (click for bigger photos)!  It's very large- about 6.5' by 2', I would  say.

Even though the latest storm has set us back a bit in terms of melting, the valley is looking remarkably clear!

Gothic isn't nearly as clear as this- there's still a fair amount of snow around our cabin.  Our porch is clear though, and I'm looking forward to reading outside once the weather warms up (32 F and windy with off and on snow is not warm enough).
[T - the south facing hillsides are totally out of the snow now, and the little sprouts of plants are starting to poke out of the dirt!  It's really exciting]

 
The sheer volume of melt is amazing.  Believe it or not, 397" of snow adds up to a lot of water, even if it's dry snow.  Here's a view of what the recent cold snap did to some of that melted snow.

[T - every little valley between hills turns into streams at this time of year.   This is one that runs under the road]

Bluebird

Look who we saw on our ski/walk into town today.

A handsome little mountain bluebird.

[T - they're blue all over!  When we saw it, we we had no idea what it was, since the midwest has eastern bluebirds which are quite a bit different.  We wondered if they had different bluebirds here, especially since it's just so...blue, how could it be anything other than than a blue bird?]