80AcresOnline

Early morning, 22F, snow has crunchy crust…the little Eleocharis there in the wet area are ice-coated but they don’t mind.   What a difference a day makes.  I took different trails than yesterday and have over a hundred images–here are some of my favorites.

This is just upstream of the #3 gabion pool, and just below where the natural drainage and old ditch cross; the ditch continues under the big live oak.

Below is a view NW, including the old ditch, the line of tallgrasses along the natural drainage north of it, and the dry woods beyond.

I continued on toward the highway alongside the ditch, looking at tracks as I went, and then crossed over (fairly near the highway) and headed back at an angle to the dry woods.

The trail into the dry woods looked like this:

When I got past that low-hanging juniper limb, I looked back and saw that it was backlit by the early sun:

Beyond it, you can see the line of the dry woods swale, then the south grass, then the line of trees on the south fenceline.

Fox Pavilion, one of the rain-barns that collects water for a wildlife waterer, looks even more rustic in the snow:

The black tank is one of the two 305 gallon water storage tanks here (the other is behind the juniper blocking the end of the structure.  The other dark blot in the snow, to the left, is an overturned tub holding a solar panel that runs the pump to circulate water in the guzzler (not shown here.)