Thirty

That’s how much snow we got yesterday—30 inches. Given the extreme wind, it doesn’t necessarily look like it. We’ve got areas which suggest we got a mere dusting (sadly not our driveway) and spots with three and four foot drifts.

Happily, we did NOT lose power. Not even once. Yea us!

How do Valhalla's non-human neighbors get through these big storms?

During blizzards, most birds hide in dense trees, bushes, and even around buildings protected from heavy winds. (source)

What about our fox and coyote friends?

Red foxes dig burrows in the snow to evade the harsh temperatures. They hide inside to get extra insulation from the snow. Temperatures inside the snow hole are considerably higher than outside the hole. (source)

In the winter, coyotes do not usually seek shelter in a den, but rather prefer to sleep outside, preferably out of the wind in a hollow or under an overhang, a fallen tree or the spreading boughs of an evergreen. (source)

Photo taken, pre-storm,  by one of my PT's who lives around the corner from us.

I googled What do coyotes do during a blizzard—sites describing how to hunt and kill them while it’s snowing, was the bulk of what came up. What the fur-covered fuck is that all about?

Killing coyotes, according to the popular claim, protects livestock. It controls populations. It helps farmers and ranchers and the ecosystem as a whole. Or at least that’s the claim. The science disagrees.

Coyotes are a predator species. They tend to eat small animals, like gophers and frogs. A pair or group of coyotes might go after a small deer in the winter, but will eat fruits and berries in the summer and fall. Livestock is not typically even on a coyote’s menu. (source)

Basically, coyote hunting is cruel, stupid and desperately counterproductive.

Counterproductive—how so?

In a seven-year study of coyote populations published in 2005, Eric Gese, of the USDA’s Wildlife Services own research center, found that coyote culling does not facilitate population management of the species. Coyote-killing might actually result in the opposite of the intended effect.

By killing coyotes, hunters give an unnecessary foothold to species lower in the food chain, and nature responds by creating more coyotes to control those populations. Therefore, the go-to reason for coyote-killing is, in effect, a great reason not to kill them. (source)

So, these kill-happy, brain banjaxed, empathy devoid, dainty dicked gun fetishists are slaughtering animals just for shits and giggles. That’s some ghoulish, mentally damaged shit.