More than a little rain

The forest is greener than green and the cabin’s surrounds are muddy. Torrents of rain fell yesterday evening, a real gullywasher. This morning I carefully pick my way around the cabin and Roundtop, trying to avoid the worst of the mud. It’s the kind of morning where being squeamish isn’t going to do you any good. You will get muddy. It will get on your shoes and your pants. Even with boots. April showers in June indeed.

Baby Dog and I don’t wander far off a trail or a road, and still we come home muddy. Baby Dog does not like baths any better than she likes mud, so that makes for a struggle. The rain doesn’t seem to have slowed down the more feral residents of my mountain. I heard one of the red foxes barking not long before the deluge last night. The raccoon was still out and about, though as a nursing mother raccoon, she has mp choice. She has to be.

A rain-soaked deer sprang up in front of me by one of the snowmaking ponds, dashed across the road, paralleled my walking route, and then circled around, still at a full run, to get to the opposite side of the pond and head up the slopes. I see what I think is this same doe every morning, either by the pond or down on one of the dirt roads. I’m pretty sure she’s hiding a fawn somewhere nearby, so her big circle was designed to take her back towards wherever the little one was hidden. I have a rough idea where that is, down to within perhaps a hundred yards. I don’t feel the need to disturb the fawn just to see if I’m right.

More rain is in the forecast. We need it, as the area is still below where it should be for rainfall. But I’m not looking forward to more mud.