Hundred-Snow Winter
Dec 24th, 2009 | 10 responses
There are hundreds of kinds of snow… these are but a few…
…walking over a bridge, over a river, maybe near Chicago’s Water Tower; snow quiet, unshoveled, but wind so sharp-cold it feels like it will crack the bones in your face…
and the slush with mud puddles ankle-deep, and your boots arent sealed well at the soles…
and up near timberline in the mountains, the snowpoles that stick up above the snowline so the big yellow snowplows know where the road ends and the ravine begins… are nearly covered over, including a no-parking sign at a turn out…
I dont drink, but it’s kinda cool when you open the front door and the snow has drifted high. Some are ingenious … using the snow to cool the brew
we can now see what our ancestors could only dream in their night dreams… a satellite picture of the swath of snow… some not even yet fallen yet but carried in the clouds overhead… here is Nebraska, Kansas and part of Colorado…
and the willow trees are the most vulnerable as are the electrical wires… covered with snow those long wands, then… it rained, then it froze… the ice is heavier than snow… trucks from the local light company will be cruising in the snow reporting back on endangered heavy lines… and some houses will not light up with yellow window panes this night
the men and women driving the big rig repair trucks with the cherry pickers and harnesses will have thermoses of hot coffee, the heaters in the trucks never work well enough, the men’s mustache’s will frost over, and hair in the nose will fill with ice crystals
and for any of us wise-guys who thought we would take a shortcut and just pull aside those snowy limbs, the slash of a tree branch whipping back against our cheeks is such memorable pain…
being a commissioner for Special Needs scouts in the BSA, I’m more deeply aware than ever that some of us have more challenge than others in snow, especially when snow is not shoveled long long after it has fallen
and in the Rocky mountains here, those humans who have been given such grace and bearing so as to have near-flight on skis, imitate fireflies by skiing with yellow wands lit full against the night sky… In my next lifetime, I would love to not have delicate health all my life, but rather be able to have this wondrous gift of ‘near-flight.’
Then, there’s this, can you imagine??!! Come stand with me here.Truly come stand with me here at the very top of Everest looking into Nepal. Can you imagine?? This lifetime, next lifetime, any life time, can you imagine us having made the trek without dying and standing here? Wouldnt that be the coolest? They say people climb mountains because they’re there, the mountains that is.
But, many of us know, dont we, that people climb mountains in order to see the naked face of God fully alive… to lay eyes on the living Alpha and Omega.
So, dear Readers,
May any snow this winter be good to you and for you and your loved ones. May all your roads be safe, all water reservoirs be filled and not overfilled; may all snow cover and make beautiful even those structures that seem homely and plain, and may the quiet of the snow at night while we’re warm and cozy indoors, fill us with a resonant peace and calm.
There’s a saying from the Old Country that my immigrant father used to say about the winter: ‘Winter’s lessons to man, year after year, are the same… peace and patience… and good stories around the fire.’
May this be so for all of us.
Blessed Holidays,
Dr.E
10 Responses to “Hundred-Snow Winter”
Beautiful pictures and beautiful words.
Especially around Christmas time, snow is so appealing, so appropriate, so “part of it.”
Thank you, dr. e.and a Merry Christmas to you and yours,
Dorian
May your holidays, and your winter, be filled with love, archangel.
Dr. E. and readers. . .in all the ways the holidays are celebrated am wishing you and yours the best for this day and all to come through the year. Thanks Dr. E. for another soulful year of your wisdom and goodness may you be truly blessed and held in arms of the Blessed Mother.
Love the snow pictures and words. Here in Missouri we are suppose to have snow this afternoon that will last until late Christmas evening. It does feel like the Season.
Blessings to One and All. . .
Snow sucks….but I do give generously to the BSA each year. Darn good organization.
Hi Doc.
We've been hit by a very nasty blizzard in southeast Nebraska and I realize that a lot of people here are unhappy with the weather but today, after I went outside and put out the daily dried corn (for the squirrels), I sat back and watched as one little furbaby came to get his daily corn. The snow falling, frostcicles on the branches and out came my wee buddy with snow on his whiskers to sup on his corn.
I do this daily and just watching the little critters brings a joy to my heart.
I have out a “squirrel feeder” that's screwed into the side of a tree about 5 feet off of the ground. It has a small platform and a 4 inch screw that comes out of the bottom of it so that I can put a dried corn cob onto the screw (which keeps it in place).
The squirrel comes up, stands on the platform and takes out one piece of corn, eats the middle of it, tosses the remains on the ground then grabs the next piece.
I've been aware for a long time that the bunnies get the remains (which, depending on which squirrel is eating, can amount to a good quarter of the kernel of the corn) and several birds get fed by this as well BUT …
Over the summer I began to notice this amazing behavior…
My usual “customer” was a squirrel whom I called Benjamin (Benny for short).
Benjamin has white swirl on the end of his tail so it's easy to tell him apart from the rest.
One morning as I was watching on, Benny showed up and was just about to get started when he looked down below….
There was a rather pudgy rabbit right at the base of the trunk of the tree attempting to make something out of the left overs from Benny's dinner from the day before. There wasn't much left since Benny eats more of the kernel than most of his buddies do and many had been squashed into the mud as well.
Benny ate a few kernels of corn and there was the poor rabbit, down below trying desperately to make a breakfast of the smatterings left over by Benny.
Benny kept looking down and watching the rabbit ….
Suddenly he ran down the tree. The rabbit didn't budge. She stayed right where she was and continued on, still trying in earnest to make a meal out of the wee bits Benny had dropped down.
Benny sat next to her, looked the bunny over and then moved himself even closer to her and began to sniff at her when the oddest expression came over his face.
He moved himself around to her posterior and sniffed her in a most inappropriate personal area…
She didn't react what so ever. She just continued pawing at the leftovers.
He moved right up in her face and put his nose to her nose. This broke her study of the leftovers but she looked at him and stayed still as his nose met hers in, what looked to be, a nose kiss.
I was entranced by the whole thing! I was absolutely glued to the action outside of my window.
Benny sniffed the rabbit again and then did the “nose kiss”, and after touching his nose to her nose, Benny turned, ran up the tree, and began grabbing kernels of corn off of the corn cob, as fast as he could, and pouched them in his cheeks! Once his cheeks were full, Benny ran back down and, as my jaw dropped open, I watched him feed, one kernel of corn after the other to this rabbit. At first she ate it out of his little hand but after a few times of this, the rabbit began taking each piece, in her little paws and then eat it…then take another, etc.
Piece by piece he fed her the whole lot of his cheeked corn kernels.
I was stunned. It was an almost unbelievable sight but I had personally witnessed this inter species food share happen and sat there thinking, “No one is ever going to believe this!”
When Benny had finished giving the rabbit the one batch of cheeked corn, he ran back up and began to do the SAME thing. Grabbing the corn as fast as he could, cheeking the corn …I was thinking, “Oh man! He won't do it again…will he??”
It was then that I saw what must have been the cause of all that sniffing behavior that Benny had exhibited earlier.
When Benny was up in the tree getting what looked to be, the second batch of corn for his new “friend” she stood up on her hind legs to see what he was doing. It was then I realized, she wasn't pudgy at all. I could SEE what the extra weight was about and it was then that I knew 1) it was a doe 2) the doe was pregnant.
I'm only guessing THAT was the cause for all that sniffing and nose kissing was about but I'd bet money that part of this phenomenon was due to the fact that she was carrying babies and Benny could smell it.
She watched as he got her some more corn and then brought her down her second “feast.”
After that, Benny took turns. He would eat for himself for a bit, then he would start cheeking the corn, bring the rabbit down some, sit with her as she ate, then he'd get back up, eat for himself a bit, then take her down some more. It became a cycle of sorts.
What's more is ..she would wait patiently for him to come and bring her more food, every so often standing on her hindquarters to see what was going down up there.
After a few weeks of this delightful behavior between the male squirrel and the pregnant cottontail, she disappeared.
I assumed she had given birth and was staying close to her nest. About two months or so passed, when she came back. Well, I assumed it was her as Benny ran down to “greet her” immediately – something I'd not noticed him doing with other rabbits that came by. He did his “nose greetings” thing and it was then that I noticed, as did Benny, that she was not alone. She came with her brood …
Behind her were two wee teeny weeny cottontail baby bunnies.
Benny was so excited! You would have thought the baby bunnies were his very own.
He sniffed them up and down and even groomed them a bit (with the doe looking on, seemingly unaffected or concerned) before he ran back up to his feeder, grabbing lots of corn kernels, cheeking the corn and ran back down and began to share his breakfast with the babies and then with the mother.
This too went on for some time, then as if a clock had chimed, one day, the bunnies no longer came for their joint breakfast with Benny.
Not long after though, Benny got a new “friend” (wink, wink). This time it was a female squirrel and Benny showed his mate his new prize…
I had put up a squirrel nesting box a few feet box the feeder on the opposite side of the tree. It's a male squirrels responsibility to make the nest for his mate and Benny was the “DUDE” on the street in terms of being the proud owner of a very kewl pad. Both Benny and his girlfriend checked it and it seemed that Benny “gave” his kewl new pad to her (she literally moved into it that same day). After that Benny wasn't around as much. He seemed to come around to bring food, and check in on his mate.
Soon the babies came out and Benny was back! He treated the squirrel infants as he had the cottontail babies.
One day, two rabbits showed up. Same as before, they waited down at the bottom of the tree until Benny showed up. I had to wonder if they weren't the same one's as before. They were still young. About the age those other two would be – adolescence – not quite grown up but almost there.
Benny came out of nowhere from the top of the tree and ran his butt off to get to ground and started sniffing all over the two youngsters. I swear it looked like old home week! They were all nosing each other, Benny was going up, grabbing corn and bringing it down to them when …out of the nesting box came Mama squirrel and her two youngsters.
At first, Mama was not amused but the two young squirrels got into the act immediately! They copied their father's behavior and soon all four of the youngsters were playing a type of “tag” and eating together as first Benny, then MAMA brought down corn to be shared by all.
It was truly an amazing sight and an amazing experience.
Near the end of summer, Benny started acting funny. He seemed to be very tired and worn out and finally he showed no interested in food. He was showing all the signs of old age (or illness) and finally the day came when I put out the food and only Mama and her two babies came.
Every so often the two young rabbits would show up and they'd play with the young squirrels and the squirrels would still share their food with the rabbits just as they'd seen their father do but the visits were infrequent and finally it seemed that the rabbits had gone to a different area as they just didn't visit anymore.
The area where Benny lived is still inhabited by, what I think, are his two children (adults now) as well as his mate (she, too, has a distinguishing mark). For the most part it's only these three I see come to eat at the squirrel feeder but as winter goes on, they're showing the severity of the weather.
They've lost some weight (although not as much as many of the other squirrels I've seen in other area's of the city) and it's obvious that they're cold and hungry.
I've doubled the amount of corn cob's I'm putting out. It's so cheap and it makes me happy to watch the little buggers get a “good meal.” I've also noticed that with doubling the food (and including nuts in the mix) they've gained back some of the initial weight they had lost but they're still not up to normal weight and they're still in need for more variety in their diet.
Then we got hit with a blizzard at the beginning of Dec. Poor little things have whiskercicles. I also notice that they're using the nesting box for a regular house where they can go in and get a moments rest from this unceasing snow (with below zero's temps).
This evening, as dusk hit, I got a wonderful Christmas present from my little friends. They couldn't know they were giving me a present but it hit like a ton of bricks when I saw the events.
Squirrels don't stay out past dark. About midday I had put out a second corn cob for them and hoped they would make it back to the feeder in time to eat before dark fell.
I thought my hopes were dashed as the blizzard blew in earlier today but has continued to get worse with every passing minute.
Suddenly, I saw one of the Benny babies (he has some white on the middle of his tail so I call him, Benny Jr), scuttle down, get on the feeder and munch out. He looked so cold and, relatively speaking, thin. As he was munching away, I noticed a couple of rabbits approach the tree. They looked terribly thin, cold and tired.
Benny Jr looked down and at first he continued on with his dinner. He's so hungry and it's winter. I was busy thinking how hard this winter is turning out and, of course, he couldn't afford to share what little he had when, in the midst of the wind howling, the snow falling, he looked down and saw the rabbits below him, waiting for his leftovers….
I was literally shocked out of my winter's lethargy when I witnessed a Christmas Eve special.
Benny Jr ran down the tree and began sniffing the rabbits..and they sniffed him in return and THEN they took turns, moving very slowly at first, putting their noses forward, they all took turns “nose kissing!”
After sniffing a bit more and nosing each other, Benny ran back to the feeder.. He was moving as fast as he could! He picked out kernels of corn and was shoving them into his mouth as fast as was possible and cheeked an intense amount of corn.
At first I thought perhaps he was trying to make sure they couldn't get his dinner. Lots of rabbits go through here and Benny's family do none of the things they did with that one rabbit family.
But no.
Through previous encounters he knew they couldn't get up there and he must have realized in his own little squirrel way that the incredibly thin bunnies were in desperate need because aftercheeking what looked to be a massive amount of corn, he ran down and began handing over the corn to them and I am very sure that these two were the same two he had known in his infancy.
Now the truly amazing part …
After cleaning the corn cob of all of it's kernels, Benny ran down to the rabbits. They all nosed kissed each other and the rabbits began hoping away with BENNY right behind them.
They were even stopping, looking back and waiting for him to catch up with them.
I ran from window to window to watch where they were going (which, as it turned out, wasn't very far).
There is a vacant lot across the ally and kitty corner to my house. The rabbits hopped to the side of the lot that bordered a rather broken down shed. Then they disappeared from sight (Benny Jr. with them!).
I stood up on tip toe to see what the hell happened over there but couldn't see anything. I was standing there with my jaw hanging open when I decided, I had to know!
I grabbed my jacket, knitted hat, mittens, scarf and my little flashlight (one of those ones that runs on AA batteries?) and went out to be hit by a nightmare of cold and snow.
I trudged as fast as I could through the snow (which was very slow due to how much we've gotten since early this morning) and as I approached the old shed, I stood back and turned on my flashlight. I moved myself into the position of where the cars come into the alley, as the rabbits and squirrel must have gotten used to car headlights going by, thus there would be less chance of them freaking out when my flashlight passed them by. I turned on the flashlight and began moving it's small beam about the yard. Right about the time I was about to give up, what with the wind picking up and all, I was truly miserable and half frozen, my beam hit a small indentation in the ground next to the shed.
I quickly turned off the flashlight. Then I turned it back on and began moving the beam back and forth only hitting the indentation in the ground three more times BUT I did see what I had come there to see…
I could barely make it out but it WAS next to that small indentation close to the shed.
It turned into a very small tunnel that went into a den (very, VERY small tunnel)…
From the angle I was at I could just make it out …
Fur…Gray and then separate, red brown …
Bunnies and Benny Jr. were huddled up inside after a nice Christmas Eve's dinner. Cuddling and snuggling, they too were celebrating the season, family and friends, warmed together by a special kinship…One that I have been told does not (and some would say CAN not) happen in nature…
But I know what I saw and how important the message is from what I witnessed..
It started with a father reaching out to pregnant mother from an altogether different species, and his big heart was inherited by his children, who, in addition to inheriting their father's beautiful heart, were taught by their father's fine example about sharing, caring and giving and learned how to express their acceptance and love for others who are so very different than they are….and a cycle started and continues to move onwards.
And may it be so for all living creatures, that the love we hold for others, especially those who are so different than ourselves, is learned by our children and by our childrens' children, forward into the future…
Benny… Even after you have gone, you became my very own Christmas miracle.
May you rest in peace and know that your big heart lives on.
To Doc E, the Scar Tribe, and to all the readers of TMV,
May you all have a Happy Holiday with lots of love, kindness, warmth and good cheer with lots of your loved ones close to you to share the season.
Love,
Chris (aka Ghosty)
that is a remarkable set of observations with love Ghost. Thank you for telling us a winter story. My old country father would heartily welcome you to the fire,
blessed return of the light Ghost,
dr,e
tribe of the sacred heart, scar clan
The beauty of your poetic words and images make me appreciate the snow to a greater degree although I am not a fan of this kind of weather. Poetic words and insight can make all the difference in the world and I understand that I need to see more deeply into what I see and feel what I feel. Have a wonderful white Christmas…cpe!
Wonderful story Ghost, thanks for sharing it. . .
Happy Holidays
I miss squeaky snow.
Merry Christmas Dr E
God bless the snow and the winter, a time of pulling inward, of digesting, — it is as if, even in the darkest period, the lightness of day, falls from the sky in the form of snow, beautiful, mystical, and at least for me, deeply comforting.