Out Like A Lamb?

March is almost over. The old saying “In like a lion out like a lamb” was partly true. There was plenty of leonine windy roaring through the month, but the lamb, if these last almost mild days count, was a cold, sad, and soggy lamb. Tomorrow is April Fools Day and, true to form, nature is playing a not so funny joke on us with a chance of snow this evening and below freezing weather tomorrow. And yet there are happy signs all around us that winter is on its way out.

About this time of year, every year, I find myself thinking that spring is late. That we usually have many more flowers than we do now. I decided to see if that is actually the case. I went back through photos from the end of March for the years 2006 until this year. There was a lot of variation. Some years we had daffodils other years a few snowdrops buried under snow. So it seems our lack of flowers and our lingering cold weather are entirely normal for the end of March in Potter County.

The end of March: 2006-2019

Monday and Tuesday were not warm days, but they were sunny and dry. So after bundling up, I took advantage of the weather to do some much needed yard work. I’m a neat freak when it comes to my lawn. I think of my lawn the way some people do the floor in their home. I like it tidy. Leaves and sticks and pine cones on the lawn make me nervous. So on Monday I started raking. I began at the foundation of the house and went out from there in concentric bands. It was tiring work and I only made two laps around before I gave up. On Tuesday I did it the easy way. I fired up the mower, hooked up the grass catcher, set the blades on low, and mowed. The grass isn’t growing yet so all I mowed up was the offending leaves, sticks, and pine cones. When I was done, the lawn looked like a freshly vacuumed carpet (albeit a rather tatty brown one – I can’t wait for the grass to revive and green up).

My tidy lawn.

I spent an afternoon last week gathering up the pruned branches in the orchard and on Thursday Josiah and I burned them. We also burned the Christmas tree, a rite of spring we observe every year.

Gathering the prunings.

Burning the Christmas tree.

We got a load of straw last week and this week one of our tasks is to clean the chicken coop and put down fresh straw. Last year Miriam bought three peacock chicks. Two of them died and the remaining one went to spend the winter in the heated barn belonging to the Rigas family, the people Stacey works for. They told us a week ago that they need to use the pen the peacock has been in, so it’s time to move him back to our barn. So Josiah and I will also clean the peacock pen that we set up in our barn last fall and bring the peacock home again. It’s time to get new chicks, so we will have to make arrangements for that too.

I planted the first of my seed trays last week. I started tomatoes, basil, parsley, and several types of flowers – all the plants that need to be started eight weeks before Planting Out Day. It’s exciting now that this year’s garden is finally underway and we’re only eight weeks away from the big day. There’s so much to do to get the garden ready. And I’m ready to do it.

Starting seed trays.

The Thayns – Rachel and the girls – arrived on Thursday evening to spend the weekend with us while Tabor is out of town. Our house is always lively when the girls are here. Hazel and June help me do the chores every day. They love to throw scratch to the chickens and collect the eggs. When they are here, Stacey always tries to give Hazel a piano lesson.

Collecting eggs.

Piano lessons with Grandma.

Rachel brought us their chainsaw and heavy duty weed whacker. We’d planned to have a big yard work day yesterday, but the weather was not very cooperative. It was not cold, but it rained off and on all day. Even so, we managed to cut down three trees in the orchard that needed to be removed and a big branch on one of the old apple trees that was cracked. Josiah did all of the sawing. He also cut down a hemlock tree that had become overgrown and one of the dead spruce trees in the woodland garden. There are plenty of other trees that need to be cut down – all the spruce trees on the property. We will work on that this week too. Some of them are too big for us to do. They will have to be cut by a professional. The other smaller trees we’ll do ourselves. It’s sad to see them go, but they are all dead or dying.

Cutting trees in the orchard.

Then yesterday in the afternoon we went on a little outing to the Rigas barns to visit the peacock and other animals. I hadn’t seen the peacock since last fall. He has grown so big and is very pretty. We also visited their chickens. The girls loved their little bantam hens and got to hold one. We visited the goats. We went to one of their fish ponds and fed the trout.

The peacock.

Our Saturday outing.

It is cold again today. It was snowing when we left for church this morning, but it has stopped now and it didn’t stick. Today was Fast Sunday and we came home from church hungry. We had an odd mix of foods for lunch – reheated pizza, steamed pot stickers, and coleslaw. It was ready quickly and that was our main concern. It also happened to be delicious. Now the Thayns are getting ready to go home. Rachel wants to arrive before it gets dark. The house will seem sepulchral then, as it always does when they go home. They’re planning to come up again soon and we are planning to go to their house for Easter. That will be fun. Maybe it will really be spring by then.