The Flowers are coming out

This spring is has been pretty hit or miss for weather on the weekends. A little rain, a little sun and a little snow. This last weekend Friday and Sunday were perfect with Saturday the area socked in.

When we did get a chance to go for a walk we saw that some of the wildflowers had started to peek out, which surprised us because we didn't think we had gotten that much moisture this spring and it was still only May.
But the Indian paint paintbrush's were out. They are my favorite because of the orange-scarlet color.

Also out were the Woody Actionella, which look like miniature daisy's.

Now if we could only get the field grass to fill in the front of the patio area.

Yes it looks green in this picture, but that's due to the parallax angle. It is still pretty spotty.

Derek and I spent Friday afternoon culling branches from the trees and bushes around the house to reduce the fire fuel. There is still a lot to be done in that area. The trees down hill from us need to have the branches taken off up to about the 5'-6' level so that if a grass fire starts it lowers (doesn't eliminate) the chances of it getting into the trees and starting a crown fire. According to the state wildfire guidelines we need to do this a good 100-200' feet downhill from the house and about 50' uphill. We also spent time raking the pine needles out from around the house and trees to remove fuel also. The slash pile behind the barn is growing and waiting for a damp day to be burnt.

Besides the flowers, the critters seem to be about, enjoying the weather also. Saturday evening I came across the wild turkey flock again down by the barn, they look to be between about 10-12 of them.

During our walk on Sunday morning we came upon another deer herd and on the drive in Monday morning a couple of elk.

You may be able to see the deer on the ridge line in this picture.