Dunrovin Ranch’s world is exactly as it should be to start 2015. Snow covered pastures and mountains, crystal clear blue skies, animals with woolly fur coats to keep them warm, and the Bitterroot River gaining more and more ice with each cold day all signal a real Montana winter. It is truly winter wonderland for the first day of a new year. We Montanans love these winters with cold temperature and heavy snows accumulates in the mountains that will keep our streams full and our forests green and fresh come summer.
There is something very mysterious about watching a river freeze – chunks of ice float by, little ice shelves form along the shore, and the sun raises little whiffs of steam off the water’s surface.
There is magic in watching a river freeze.
Instead of venturing out with Kola and Jewel and our usual morning walk after feeding the barn yard crew, I waited for the warmth of the midday sun. Kola has recently been refusing to come along as his feet would get cold in the sub zero temperatures of the last week. Try as he might, he simply can’t manage to walk without putting at least three feet down in the snow! I am glad that I waited. Kola happily went along and explored; I took my camera to capture some of the beauty of the river freezing; and Jewel was her usual impatient self whenever I would stray from my assignment of chucking the ball for her. It was a glorious way to start the new year. It seems that I will never tire of my little corner of this beautiful planet.
Kola was very interested in the ice as it floated by. He just know that he should be catching it – but THAT would mean getting his feet wet and he avoids that even in summer. He did find a couple of field mice to chase under the snow.
The cattail marsh is a favorite stopping place for all three of us regardless of the season. Winter’s solid ice invited us to explore deeper into its world of water and reeds and bushes and bogs. We found no open water for the ducks that are usually present – but the main river still provided plenty of ice free stretches.
Jewel’s disgust is ever apparent when I stop for photos. “What are you doing? Get that ball in the air!” I live with such a canine task mistress.
