Preparing for Dormancy

Hoarding like a Pine Squirrel

My dog walks this past week have been classically autumn-like in the winds blowing Aspen leaves and Ponderosa Pine needles to land on, and embed themselves in, everything. The trees are nearly bare now, with just a few late hold outs. This is at our elevation of 8700 feet though, biking in Denver last week, 2500 feet lower, the small climbs we did in Morrison around Bear Creek Park, Red Rocks, and Dinosaur Ridge showed broad views of the Denver west metro area enjoying a spectacular fall color season still with bright red mixed in with the golds and yellows. Warmish, clear weather has encouraged all who can and want to, to get out for hikes and bike rides through it all since we know, all too well, that this is temporary. The next storm system has been blowing in all day today, as we comically struggle to grab flapping gazebo curtains to close it up.

Our yearly autumn traveling and hikes done now, we returned home to the task of winterizing, and none too soon, as the pond has a thicker layer of ice each morning now, some temps getting down into the low 20’sF overnight. Our property has an extensive outdoor plumbing system with two sinks and even an outdoor shower (thanks to the previous, creative owners). Those have to be shut-off and blown out by late September to avoid damage from freezing. I emptied the rain barrel and cleaned out the greenhouse. Soon we will be replacing the lawnmower for the snowblower and moving the kayaks, bikes, and deck furniture into storage.

The tasks as we prepare for dormancy carry the memories of the summer activity and the friends who enjoyed this property with us. The fondest being, our Irish Music friends weekend in the lush, dragonfly buzzing greens of July. The Spring and Summer months fly by with so much activity, color, sounds and schedules it’s hard to capture it all, appreciate it all, in its moments. Slowing down is good, though, and memories linger. We now discuss ‘November projects’. November being the month that it’s too cold for summer-ish activities and not enough snow yet for winter-ish activities. A good time to tackle that disaster of a walk-in closet that has been driving me crazy since we moved in.

The chaotic hummingbirds left a month ago and there are only a few ducks that visit the pond now, and soon, the pond will freeze over, and they will all have left. Our ducklings are full adults now and migrating with the rest. Hoards of little Juncos have arrived for the winter to join the Nuthatches and Chickadees that usually stay. My Abert squirrels remain, their Winter ear-tufts growing back in.

Abert squirrel sheds his ear-tassles in the summer and grows them back in the Fall. Hoards of little Juncos.

We stuff a suet-feeder with dog fur from brushings, and I watch the Pine squirrels make off with great mouthfuls to line their winter nests in warmth and comfort. They are also hoarding the duck feathers of the seasonal molt that seem to be as abundant as the Aspen leaves. The Pine squirrels are also hoarding pine cones a great deal also, doing their part in the overall ecology as they tend to NOT recall each cache and are responsible for much of the forest planting. (The link is a previous article about the squirrel midden.)

The bird feeder is a busy place as Steller Jays, Canada Jays, Chickadees and the rest are busy making food caches in thousands of little pockets in the trees. A Chickadee’s brain has been shown to grow as much as 30% in autumn as they keep memories of each cache they make. It shrinks again in Spring when food is abundant again.

The Golden-mantled ground squirrels, that I wrote of not long ago, disappeared to their underground cities back in September.

The ground has become crunchy as grasses die back and wildflowers have gone to seed before returning to the earth. A walk through the meadow yields a variety of ‘prickers’ (seeds that gained the evolutionary brilliance to hitch rides to new locations) grabbing my pants legs up to my knees. Very few blooms are still out there, the butterflies and most other pollinators have migrated or expired with the frost cycles. Wooly-bear caterpillars (Tiger moths) which emerge from eggs in the Fall, begin to curl up under rocks and leaf litter as the weather turns cold to overwinter, still in their caterpillar form, but will freeze completely until the warmth of spring thaws and wakes them.

Wooly Bears tucking under rocks for their winter dormancy.

Preparing for dormancy is a process that is neither sad nor death oriented. It is a long rest before the explosion that is Spring. A critical cycle that is actually very much life oriented. It’s a good time to dream and plan, to simply rest, read, learn, and think. Something my introverted mindset relishes.

Now, I am well aware that this type of slowing down is a luxury of the retired. My working, parenting, schooling three-ring circus days marked the change of seasons by the Colorado Summer/Winter tourist high and off seasons, and the holidays affecting kid activities more than the weather. Work duties have shifted and kids now grown, there is time to relish the true change of seasons more.

The work of prepping for winter nearly done, we are already planning trips and events for next summer. This gracious gap between, though, I don’t want to miss. I look to my to-be-read book pile with eagerness. Richard Powers’, Playground, has me currently hooked, along with a re-read of Annie Dillard’s, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Several online courses in biology, ecology, writing, photography, and piano feed my mind. As the evenings get darker earlier, we are watching Slow Horses (just try to get that theme song out of your head), The Irregulars, Rings of Power, Ben Franklin, Beacon 23, Silo, and many others. Parts of dormancy are to be enjoyed with those who share your space.

It’s a season, that the Pandemic reminded us, that we can find so much to interest us and time to indulge those interests. November projects will bring just that sense of accomplishment that will reward the hours of self-indulgent reading and learning as the snow falls outside.

📷 All photos are credit: The Abert Essays unless otherwise noted.

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