TheHardin Hollow Farm                                                         26 December 2011
The Roundtop Farm
The Trade Branch Farm

     Last year in about October we forecast a rugged winter. As to cold, not by way of snow. Professional forecasters, more or less, predicted a mild winter. We had it right, here it was one of the coldest Januarys we've ever had to work through. We had put this at the time to the drought that stayed with us throughout the autumn months of 2010. Our theory, and it does seem to hold is that dry air is too light and insubstantial to press back the frigid, bulked up atmosphere of the far north.
     In the last two months of this year, we've had more than adequate rainfall, and we're predicting a relatively mild winter. If we have it right, defer to our foresight, if we don't, don't.
     Now, tiger salamanders likely already are moving into some of our ponds so as to breed, and they'll continue to do so more or less all winter. The spotted salamanders will move more as a pack. We can expect two good spotted runs following a warm rainfall, and this can happen into early March.  
     By way of reporting, last August we had excellent breeding runs of our local leopard frogs. An absolutely dry September dried out several of our ponds and so the hatch was compromised, although not wiped out.
     The latest run of newts by now is well represented in all of our ponds, and winter collecting is set to begin.