March is a blustery month. For some reason the shift in the season seems to come with a lot of wind. I like the wind when it cooperates. A good stiff wind can blow away all the loose leaves left unraked from last fall from my yard to somewhere else. I like it when that happens. Unfortunately, the wind often doesn’t cooperate and instead blows someone else's leaves into my yard.
Things always look bedraggled this time of year. The world hasn’t started to green up yet. The snow looks dirty. There’s a lot of winter debris, fallen branches, soggy leaves, and litter along the roads waiting to be cleaned up. All that should change by the end of the month.
I’ve got a hankering to start our spring cleaning. Try as we might to prevent it, somehow over the winter things just get cluttered and dirty. The back porch and the woodshed are especially bad. All the things we didn’t feel like dealing with over the cold months seem to end up there. And in the house there are things that accumulate in cupboards, corners, and closets. I want to purge them all. All I need is a stretch of nice weather warm enough to let me open windows and take the rugs outdoors for a good beating. It will happen soon. I’m ready for it. Spring cleaning makes me happy.
I took advantage of two dry and relatively warm days on Monday and Tuesday to do some things outdoors. The weather was so nice, I couldn’t resist. The first day I took a long walk around the property to review my plans for the coming growing season. I’ve done it a hundred times in my head over the winter, but it was good to go out and pace it off and map it out in the real world. Happily, my feet are each exactly a foot long and that makes measuring long distances easy. I just have to heel-and-toe it along the edge of a garden, a flowerbed, or an orchard path and I know its exact dimensions. Anyone watching me pace my way around the yard might think I’m crazy, but the only ones who can really see me are the Shilligs and they already know that.
On Tuesday I did some actual yard work, mostly raking. I raked out the strawberry beds and parts of the flowerbeds where winter debris had accumulated. I even pulled a few weeds. I know raking doesn’t sound like very strenuous work, but after a long winter of inactivity, a couple of hours of raking made my arms and shoulders ache for two days. I need to get my gardening muscles back into shape.
Snowy weather returned on Wednesday and the temperature dropped back into the too-uncomfortable-to-work-outdoors level. It stayed that way the rest of the week. Next week is supposed to be better. I hope so. I have a list and I’m itching to get things going.
Things always look bedraggled this time of year. The world hasn’t started to green up yet. The snow looks dirty. There’s a lot of winter debris, fallen branches, soggy leaves, and litter along the roads waiting to be cleaned up. All that should change by the end of the month.
I’ve got a hankering to start our spring cleaning. Try as we might to prevent it, somehow over the winter things just get cluttered and dirty. The back porch and the woodshed are especially bad. All the things we didn’t feel like dealing with over the cold months seem to end up there. And in the house there are things that accumulate in cupboards, corners, and closets. I want to purge them all. All I need is a stretch of nice weather warm enough to let me open windows and take the rugs outdoors for a good beating. It will happen soon. I’m ready for it. Spring cleaning makes me happy.
I took advantage of two dry and relatively warm days on Monday and Tuesday to do some things outdoors. The weather was so nice, I couldn’t resist. The first day I took a long walk around the property to review my plans for the coming growing season. I’ve done it a hundred times in my head over the winter, but it was good to go out and pace it off and map it out in the real world. Happily, my feet are each exactly a foot long and that makes measuring long distances easy. I just have to heel-and-toe it along the edge of a garden, a flowerbed, or an orchard path and I know its exact dimensions. Anyone watching me pace my way around the yard might think I’m crazy, but the only ones who can really see me are the Shilligs and they already know that.
On Tuesday I did some actual yard work, mostly raking. I raked out the strawberry beds and parts of the flowerbeds where winter debris had accumulated. I even pulled a few weeds. I know raking doesn’t sound like very strenuous work, but after a long winter of inactivity, a couple of hours of raking made my arms and shoulders ache for two days. I need to get my gardening muscles back into shape.
Snowy weather returned on Wednesday and the temperature dropped back into the too-uncomfortable-to-work-outdoors level. It stayed that way the rest of the week. Next week is supposed to be better. I hope so. I have a list and I’m itching to get things going.
 |
| Sunrise Saturday morning. |
It’s been cloudy a lot lately and the sunrises and sunsets have been pretty dull. Saturday morning the sunrise looked promising, so I went down to the beaver pond to watch it. As I approached the pond, I saw a weasel scamper across the ice, a beautiful little animal that I hope stays on that side of the road and away from my chickens. At the far end of the pond there was a beaver swimming slowly to its lodge along a path cleared of ice. The red-wings were singing as the sun came up. It turned out to be a rather subdued sunrise, but it was the prettiest we’ve had in a while.
 |
| Red-winged blackbirds and a grackle under the feeders. |
 |
| Red-wings squabbling at the feeder. |
The brightest evidences of approaching spring right now are the birds. Our bird feeder is mobbed from sunup to sundown with all sorts of birds. Every morning now the red-winged blackbirds start singing at dawn. Their song isn’t beautiful, but it’s cheerful and hearing it makes me happy. Some people have reported seeing robins, but none have landed on my lawn yet. There was a report of a pair of American wigeons on the Waterwheel Pond down in Colesburg, so early on Saturday morning Stacey and I drove down to have a look at them. They only come through here during migration. These are the first I’ve ever seen. They are very pretty ducks. I got to check them off on my life list.
 |
| American wigeons on the Waterwheel pond. |
On Saturday my straw bales arrived. I ordered 50 bales from a farmer up the road. The delivery was scheduled for noon and I was worried. I was home by myself. Stacey was up at the church and Josiah was working at making maple syrup for the Nicholases. I knew it would be hard for me to handle it on my own. Josiah got home just in time. We got the bales unloaded and set them in place in the garden. I’m excited to try this new method.
 |
| Josiah with the straw bales. |
 |
| Straw bales in place - one angle. |
 |
| Straw bales from another angle. |
Saturday night we went to see the movie Risen. It was a good movie as far as it goes. I think it tried to portray the New Testament era accurately. It didn’t do anything controversial. It didn’t preach any particular denomination’s interpretation of events. It didn’t commit any Biblical atrocities like the movie Noah (the worst Bible based movie I’ve ever seen). I thought the actor who played Yeshua (Jesus) looked like a Maori and sure enough, when I checked, he’s from New Zealand. I thought that was kind of odd. I don’t think of Jesus of being Polynesian, but maybe that’s just my Eurocentric biases at work. The main character, the Roman soldier, Clavius, was a sort of 1st Century A.D. Forrest Gump, a fictional character who witnesses the events. I think that watching New Testament videos produced by the church has spoiled me. I expect a higher standard of excellence. This movie was okay. That’s all I have to say about that.
We’re home from church now and waiting for dinner. Stacey put a pork roast in the crock pot before we left for church. It’s fast Sunday and when we got home and walked into the house the fragrance thereof was very pleasing unto me. It’s sunny and a little warmer today. The snow that fell last night is melting away. I’m thinking that maybe the forecasters are right and we will have 50 and 60° weather this week. I hope so. I’d like to see some crocuses soon.
We’re home from church now and waiting for dinner. Stacey put a pork roast in the crock pot before we left for church. It’s fast Sunday and when we got home and walked into the house the fragrance thereof was very pleasing unto me. It’s sunny and a little warmer today. The snow that fell last night is melting away. I’m thinking that maybe the forecasters are right and we will have 50 and 60° weather this week. I hope so. I’d like to see some crocuses soon.
 |
| Sunrise Saturday morning. |
