Still winter

We have 6" snow in places and in other places the ground has been scoured clean. Gambol and I took a walk/run/drag but didn't see the rabbit, who has been hiding at the campsite, or the elk at Paradise. We did see fresh 4x4 tracks along the fence but no fresh hay. We watched the redtail pair play and scream above Walnut Grove. We flushed a whitetail on the hill high behind the house. I saw the deer flush, but had to look to Gambol to find it. He never took his eyes off the running deer. One of the lessons in his puppy class was "look", where he is supposed to looks at our eyes. We've turned that lesson around many times to see birds and deer fleeing. We also saw lots of downed limbs and leaners from all the big winds we've had recently. We have 1 chestnut oak just down the hill from the house that is still standing but is twisted splinters held by bark. There will be no lack of chain saw practice this spring.
Gambol would make a great sled dog; he pulls us up hill without looking back.
The pullets are 8 months old tomorrow and have given us 168 eggs. Once they got going, 4 of them became regular 1-a-day layers. We let them out to free range and explore when we have 4 eggs, usually around 2:00 o'clock now. There's not much to graze on yet; I suppose they find some dried seeds.
Last night as we came up the hill after dark I saw a porcupine scramble out of the headlights near the snow depth gauge. We've noticed the jack pine by the birdfeeder has several large bare bark spots. Perhaps this guy is the culprit.
Yesterday we picked up a treat from the post office: fresh limes and grapefruits from the Empress's garden. What an extraordinary breakfast we had today: really fresh fruit and really fresh eggs. If only I'd made bread... So, we sent her a return box.