Emerging From Winter Slumber

March 26, 2025 I By Katie Cox, Executive Director

Hello Spring! 

I have become a really bad dog mom/grandmother over the winter. After work, all I wanted to do was come home and sit by the fire. I assumed Mutt and Jeff (the names have been changed to protect the innocent) felt the exact same way. But, I think that was just a convenient way to make myself feel better and add 10 pounds to an already oversized dog. 

The time change woke me out of my winter slumber.  

After work it wasn’t the fire that called me, it was the land. Everything is waking up and I wanted to be out there to welcome all the things. 

We have a sweet little trail that my father made that winds through the forest below our house. In spring, the seasonal creek flows beside the trail below the tall timbers and down to the meadow. 

The trail had become overgrown with the lack of activity, just like the dogs. 

I grabbed my little electric chainsaw one day last weekend and went to work clearing the low hanging branches as the dogs played together through the trees. They were so happy that I had woken from my winter slumber. 

Now, twice a day, we take a walk along the trail, down to the meadow, greeted by the sounds of spring. We have a mallard that has inhabited the small pond at the bottom along with one million singing frogs. I’ve found 2 sets of shed antlers on my jaunts, and now I am flagging the remainder of the trail which I meant to finish ten years ago. Seriously. 

Are you finding a pull to spend more time outside? 

Spring is a refresh, everything is new again. I am glad I can be out there to watch it all jump to life. So are Mutt and Jeff. 

Tweet tweet,

Katie