Category Archives: Humor

Grouse v. Squirrel

We’ve had more Ruffed Grouse activity in the yard this winter than usual. It’s been fun to watch them, and to keep them returning Rose put some sunflower seeds out on the floor of the deck. They appreciate it. Yesterday I watched one slowly amble across the snow in the back yard, gingerly stepping and often breaking through. It did not look fun—basically postholing, which when I have to do it is exhausting. Oddly, when it came across a fallen aspen leaf, brown and ugly at this time of year, it picked it up and swallowed it down. That was a surprise; we see them eat tree buds a lot, but this looked like almost the lowest quality food one could find (one step above spruce needles).

As the grouse slowly approached the edge of the woods, the red squirrel who lives over there went batshit crazy.
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Another Time Vortex

We’re in a jam. Another jar of homemade blackberry jam dropped into the present out of a time vortex. This one is from 1993. It’s a full quart – a massive quantity – and is even better than the last jar that dropped in from 1995. We’re clearly doing something right and only wish we could do it again on purpose.

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A 22-year-old jar of jam showed up, just as delicious as the day it was made.

Bust a Move, Snowshoe Man

We generally see snow from late October through early April, but with an average annual precipitation of just 11 inches of water, we usually don’t see really deep snow. This year, however, we’ve been getting a lot of snow. It’s the third-highest snowfall ever recorded this far into the winter, and this past week it really piled up. With the long weekend, we’ve been getting out and enjoying it. Blowing it, shoveling it, walking in it, snowshoeing in it.
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