It Felt Like A Spring Hike

My better half and I (plus our faithful canine companion) took a hike up around our loop in the woods yesterday. We had beautiful sunshine all day, and it felt more like a day in late March than just past the middle of February.

A shot of me heading into the deep woods.

The woods are absolutely riddled with deer trails . . . and other signs of the critters.

We've had so little snow that we've been able to hike the trail all winter without snowshoes. In the picture above, Zoey the Wonder Dog is standing on the trail where you can see that roots and rocks are free and clear of snow in many places.

When we got to the top of the ridge, we decided to hike a little farther east and went over to our neighbor's property.

They hunt deer in the fall and this is the cool deer stand they've built. I love the looks of it. Reminds me of a food cache in the Alaskan wilderness.

Our neighbor is in the construction business so he's used some of his machinery to clear the land up near the top of the ridge and has planted clover there for the deer to feed on in the summer.

When we came back to the house in early afternoon, this was the temperature in our someday-greenhouse. And that was with the door standing open all morning.

It seems all of a sudden we're getting so much more warmth from the sun and days are visibly lengthening. I've been having trouble getting dinner on the table on time these nights because I keep waiting for it to get dark to start preparations. Get with the changing season, Mama Pea!