Flint-Hill's photostream  

Our latest rainy spell is over for the moment. We checked our watercourses today and found muddy water flowing onto the property and clear water flowing off.

That's what we want to see: Free topsoil, delivered and spread, with more soil coming onto the property than leaving it.

When we came here. this pasture had a single watercourse that ran muddy during storms. We broke it into several meandering anabranches that diverge and then rejoin the old channel just before leaving the property The flow in each little meander is low enough that the grass cover doesn't break up even in midwinter.

The water is almost completely clear by the time it gets to the point where I made this picture.

Mouse and Fidget under a low sky.

More rain. I was thinking, "What is this, Seattle?"

No, if it were Seatlle, we'd have snow. It's really an upside-down winter.

Show weight for a Great Pyrenees female is 85-120 pounds (38-54 kg). Fidget, who has always gotten plenty to eat, weighs 75 pounds, making her a wee lass by Pyr standards. She has always been a small doggie.

One day at the vet's office recently, a big guy came over to us, ruffled Fidgets fur and said, "You sure are cute. If you were a little bigger, you'd look just like a Great Pyrenees".

Fidget didn't bite him or even growl, but if looks could kill ...

That's Fidget's and Mouse's view, anyway. They got their zoomies on out in the snow yesterday.

We're glad to see it, too. The snow is good for the pastures and it's pretty, of course.

It's going to be 48F (9C) tomorrow.

This is one weird winter we're having. We usually have consistent snowpack from early December through February, and most of this will be gone in two days.

She's very patient and sweet about being photographed.

Looks better in the Lightbox, I think.

...

Made with a Nikon 55mm f/1.2 lens, ca. 1976, shot wide open, 1/60 second, ISO 2000 in hand-held-twilight mode. DOF at this distance is about an inch.

Another shot from the same session with a few more notes.