Spring is oh so slowly coming. The twice weekly storms are more rain than snow, and I can leave the hose out to water the animals. We had the same temperatures in December, but the December sun was not enough to thaw the hose in the afternoon, while the March sun does. That saves a really frustrating fifteen minutes a day. There’s mud everywhere, of course.
Lisa planted the flat of celery last weekend, the tomato planting orgy is scheduled for next weekend. With seeds coming out our ears, she’s going to start a bunch and sell heirloom tomato plants in May. I think it’s brilliant. Otherwise we’ll be trying to use the same seed packets in 2015.
Spring is not however coming fast enough. The temperatures for the last two weeks have slowly drifted up from 15°F at night/35°F during the day to 18°F at night/38°F during the day. This is not enough to melt the ‘record snow pack’ and it’s not enough for a good sap run. For both we need a low of 25°F and 45°F.
I’m afraid, of course, that the temperature is high enough that the trees will bud without having a good sap run at all. We’ve never sugared before so I have no perspective. However, my deciding to sugar is quite capable of changing the earth’s weather, especially in conjunction with still having a bit of firewood left: the snow can’t melt until it’s gone.
That said, I’m less convinced about the ‘record snow pack’. I, of course, believe the snowfall records, but this is the twenty-third spring I’ve owned this land, and I’m sure that at least eight of them had more snow on the ground on March 15 than we did this year. Perhaps it’s only the seacoast and the Merrimack valley that have the record.
That said, we need spring to come. We have seeds, we have plants and trees coming and we need to be ready. We have three sets of baby birds due this week. (ducks, turkeys, geese) We also need a new horse house, and we need to run a mile or so of fence. And not a one of those things can be done when there’s eighteen inches of snow over three inches of ice on the ground. We’re going to spend April the same way we spent November. I had hoped to spend the winter logging which would get us a leg up on things, but the snow just stopped us. We couldn’t skid, we had no place to yard, and whatever we cut was buried in three days. I’ve no clue how the pros do it.
While we’re bing impatient, both Hermione and the brood hen are seriously overdue. There’s nothing we can do about Hermione, but that hen has way too many eggs. Lisa suggested we stick the next one in a crate so she broods a constant number. I think that’s a good idea.