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My friend Jean spotted a three legged doe (far left, above) on a hillside in the residential area of Okanogan again during the first week of December. The deer’s leg injury is pretty much identical to Pi’s injury, and she’s known to frequent that area sometimes, so odds are high it’s her. We continued to get pretty smashed by snow through the end of November and through December: first 20 inches, then 15 inches, then 10 more inches. A lot of the deer browse (food) on my property is bent over, broken, frozen to the ground and covered in snow, so I’d begun to hope they were finding sun facing hillsides that had some snow melt. Looks like that’s possible, though that last ten inches of snow fell after the above photo was taken.

Left: This is the spot the little fawn tried out his/her first foot stomp in one of the videos in the OG Returns post. Center: Places the deer used as shelter are masses of snow right now. Right: Those lumps are 8 foot forsythia, now barely three feet tall in their snowsuits. There will be damage on this property from these big snow dumps. Broken branches on trees and shrubs are entry points for disease, and things are probably going to require a lot of pruning in the spring to stay healthy. The blueberries are particularly at risk because their little branches are so delicate, and they’re almost entirely buried in both plantings. I tripped in snow over my knees and fell on one while trying to clear the roof of a small greenhouse. I have no idea the extent to which the habitat here will be damaged come spring, but it will also be well watered.

Left: Backyard grapevines showing layers of our snow storms. Center: Backyard and view of the river with orange space ships, lower left corner of pic is a trounced yucca plant. Right: A bouquet of flowers dropped off on surprise by a friend. It’s sitting on the back deck table.

Above: Early morning osprey and disintegrating chem trail over the Okanogan River in the backyard. The extreme winter we’re seeing has been beautiful, but it’s also been tough.

Addendum 4: January 2023