Al Larson Photography

We’ve had a few very wet snow storms this winter that left about 8 inches of snow on the level. Imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning and found several inches of new snow on the ground. As of noon we have almost a foot of new snow resulting in an accumulation of nearly twenty inches. There’s more on the way according to the weather forecast. Out comes the snow blower to clear a path to the woodshed. My hope is to get enough precipitation to fill the reservoirs come spring.

This photo was taken with a flash in the early morning dusk. The flash froze the snowflakes in mid-air against a dark background.

Santa gave us a nice present this year. For the first time in several years a Cottontail rabbit hopped into the scene at the bird feeding site by the woodshed. It brought an interesting shadow too. Cottontails are so cute and cuddly looking. They could also be nuisance in the flower garden come spring. We will be content to have an occasional rabbit visitor only during the winter months.

Our pesky little squirrel, who clears the feeders of birds, did not budge our visiting rabbit. He finally met his match.

With Winter bearing down my activities have turned to keeping the wood box full. Living in the mountains with dieing pine trees near at hand I have no problem finding wood to harvest for the heating stove and kitchen range. I bring in several arm loads of wood every day. Most of the wood I harvest has been killed by bark beetles. Every once in a while I happen upon a few sticks with intricate designs etched in them. Again I am sharing a photo that shows in detail the channels left behind by the larvae of the bark beetle. It is critters like these that attract woodpeckers, nuthatches and chickadees.

With our cold nights and days remaining below freezing we find frozen beauty all around us. In this photo we find a dog track that was laid down the day before. Jack Frost did the decorating. Ice crystals formed over night. You might say that I was following a “cold trail.”

Summer is but a distant memory. Not too long ago the landscape was festooned with beautiful blossoms. Autumn matured the flowers. The petals dropped. Seed pods opened and potential future life scattered in the wind. The remaining dried stalks are the only reminder of the beauty that once was. Then as if by magic these stalks burst into bloom again. A winter storm piled high a feathery effervescence of powder snow on these empty stalks. The flowers bloom again!

December 7^th marks the day that World War II started for me. I know that the conflict had been going on for several years in Europe but when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor I soon became involved. I was employed by Boeing in Seattle, WA operating a router machine cutting parts for B17s. The incoming swing shift brought news of Japan’s raid. U.S. Army security from Fort Lewis was soon posted throughout the plant and windows were blacked out. Would it take long to over power the invader? Some of folks thought it would take only months. Little did we know!

The following spring I came back to Idaho and in the fall I joined the U.S. Marine Corps. After boot camp and radio school I was placed in a signal battalion and embarked overseas in May 1943. During my stay in the Corps, I spent more than 200 days aboard various ships and landing craft. Some of the islands and ports I saw were Samoa, New Caledonia, Guadalcanal, Ulithi, Enewetak, Saipan, Guam, Okinawa and North China. These overseas assignments covered a span of 32 months. I came home in 1946 and received my first Honorable Discharge.

There were many opportunities for recreation during my travels. The accompanying photo was taken of me while I was doing duty with the 22^nd Navy Construction Battalion. One of my buddies snapped this picture of me posing as a “snake charmer”, a towel wrapped around my head, playing a flute I had made from local bamboo. It takes a special skill to cause a coil of rope to suddenly rise like a serpent from an urn.

Now that it is winter weather with snow on the ground I browse through my files for reminders of summer. Here is a photo of a robin taken last July. She is setting on a nest just outside the porch window in a plum tree. Robins are one of my favorite birds. I love to watch them search for worms in a freshly watered lawn. Hilda and I often sit in lawn chairs during the summer days and robins practically ignore us as they search for food to feed their nestlings. Robins tend to be found in all types of habitat from desert riparian areas to high mountain forests. They belong to the thrush family.

Here is a photo taken a couple of years ago in March. I was approaching the Deer Flat NWR headquarters at sunset. There was a sign at the east end of the upper dam prohibiting parking on the dam. I just had to stop long enough to snap this picture. The air was still. The water reflected the sky like a mirror. The sun was behind the clouds on the left. On the right you can see a “sundog” and its reflection in the water. Sundogs are usually created by ice crystals in the sky. One never knows when the next photo opportunity will pop up.