Thursday, March 31, 2016

Wildlife


The amazing creatures I get to see around my place regularly! Two days worth of looking around can yield at least these species.  One of my favorite things about living tiny, and the whole reason I made the initial choice to go tiny, is being able to live in this area. I've never regretted that choice.


 







Thursday, March 17, 2016

Spring in WY


So it's spring here. This was the last 4 days of weather here at Fy Nyth. First it was warm, slightly rainy, some sun, and I had little green shoots coming up all around the house.




Then it looked like this for a while.


And now the sun's back out. The kitties are enjoying sitting and soaking it up on the porch.


Here I was foolish enough to think maybe I was done shoveling snow for the year. 50 F., here we come again in a few days. The water, mud, and slush will be back, but the snow will probably be back a few more times as well. 




Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Wolves!


Last night I had this delightful experience. I was awakened around 1:30 am by a pack of wolves howling not too far outside my open loft windows! My wood stove keeps my whole house so toasty that I often sleep with one or two windows open now even when it's well below freezing outside. And last night that allowed me to hear this.

I grabbed my little camera since that is the only way I have to record sound and propped it in the open window to try to catch their voices. There is no visual with this video, just turn your volume up the whole way to catch the audio. It was a pretty dark cloud covered night. Not that they were within sight of my window anyway, but they were not too far away.



Last winter I saw tracks from a loan wolf around my place, but this is the closest I've heard a pack. I'm pretty sure there were at least three distinct voices, and a lot of times it sounded like five or more. It was a pitch dark cloudy night, so I certainly couldn't see them, but from the sound, they were not too far up the drainage from my house.


These photos are obviously not from last night, but they are all mine. Of various wolves I have seen over the years, always from the road, or tracks I've run into, mostly while hiking. I have to admit, I'd love to get one of my house with one or more wolves walking through the frame. Not that that is very likely, but I can dream...



I think hearing a wolf howl is about the most wild sound I've ever heard. And it was amazing to get to listen to them for almost a half hour before I fell asleep again. I don't know how long they kept it up, or if I will get to hear them around here again, but it was certainly an amazing experience.