A Difference of Nine Days

Nine days ago we were buried in snow, but today things are looking up!  Tomorrow is the first official day of spring and it is beginning to actually look a little spring-like out there!  Today it got up to 35 degrees and it sure felt good!  A person can walk around with no hat or gloves and a thin coat - well, you can if you are a Minnesotan! We all "go nuts" when the temps get above freezing!  The rest of the week is going to be in the upper 40's, so we will all really be crazy with spring fever!
     I took a few photos to compare with those of my last post so you could see the difference.   We had some rain several days ago and that melted about a foot of snow.   With the higher temperatures the rest of this week we hope that a lot more will melt.

The cats can actually get in and out of their house easily now!  And their favorite resting spots - the hay bales  - are clear of snow, so they can spend their time sunning now.

I went into my greenhouse this afternoon to see what's what in there.  As you can see it was a warm place with the sun shining:

It was 108 degrees in the sun in the closed up greenhouse.   Nice...........I soaked up some warmth in there!

I have a lot of work to do in a couple weeks to clean things up and get the greenhouse all pretty and ready for planting.

Underneath all the straw I have garlic planted.  It isn't up yet, but in a couple weeks I will see spikes coming through the soil.   The extra hay bales in the back of the photo will be used on potatoes this spring.   We read that potato bugs don't like straw, so we shall see if that is a good organic solution to those dreaded bugs.   We love those small new potatoes, and they also are big sellers at our market booth.  The greenhouse tends to be a catch-all for winter storage, so I will be busy cleaning things up.

Around the first part of April I usually get to start planting things in the greenhouse.  Spinach, leeks,  romaine lettuce, Chinese cabbage and bok choy are all good things to start with in colder weather. 
     For the past month I have been growing seedlings in the living room as usual under grow lights.    Peppers, flowers and Walla Walla sweet onions are growing nicely.

Newly transplanted petunias and statice is in the foreground.   This year I am growing double flowered "fluffy" petunias in shades of purple.   I am also growing lots of statice in various colors for dried bouquets that I hope to sell at our market booth.

When I need more space for plants, we add a middle section and more grow lights.  The only things left to start early are cabbages, and I will start those next month.   I used to start herbs early, but I have learned that they do just as well with direct planting outdoors.  Later as tomato seedlings grow, I will be transplanting them into larger pots.

Since we have melted quite a bit of snow in the last nine days, we can actually see the road again!   Here comes the mud season.............

The roads will get muddier and muddier as spring progresses.   Our cars get so filthy it's pitiful.   The joys of living on gravel roads!

Earlier this year, Harold's tractor broke.  The starter on his tractor actually broke off a piece of metal, and before he put a new starter on, he had to get the broken piece out.   He tried magnets of various kinds and sizes, but that didn't work.   So he had to split the tractor to get the large piece out.  That was a JOB!  He has been working on it in his shop as the weather permitted.  The huge tractor barely fits in his shop, but he got it in there with the help of a neighbor.   Shortly after that, the neighbor's tractor broke right in our yard - the front axle broke!  Neighbor Frank finally got that fixed today and got his tractor out of the yard.

Harold had to split the tractor and move the front end out.  He built some supporting wheels to slide the front piece.

A challenging job to put a new starter in.

The tractor is neatly split.

Harold got the tractor back together again.

The other side of the tractor.   Harold is starting to put all the side pieces back on.  Here he is going to put the yellow piece of metal on the front - a radiator protection bracket.   There isn't much room to work with the big tractor in there.

Well, this is what we have been busy with the past couple weeks.   If the snow melts enough, we hope to make maple syrup again.  If there is still a lot of snow on the ground, then we might skip it this year.   Nobody around here is in the mood to fight snow for maple syrup this year.   Thing is, we have spoiled ourselves with pure maple syrup - nothing else can be had with pancakes!  Nothing!  And it also is a big seller at our market booth.   We hope the snow melts soon.
     Oh - the last couple days we have seen trumpeter swans flying back and forth between the two ponds on our farm.   We always enjoy the swans and their noises.   It's a real sign of spring around here!

Buried in Snow Part 2

As if we didn't have enough snow, last night we got another 16 inches of snow!! On top of the 3 1/2 feet we already had!  We also lost power for about 3 or 4 hours.   During that time Harold and I got out the oil lamp, and a few tall candles and played card games and ate mixed nuts.   A person has to make the best of things, right?  The road grader/plow came up part of our driveway, which helped a lot.   I just got done shoveling for about 45 minutes and I'm already sore.  Harold got up at 2 a.m. and took the snow off the roof of the greenhouse because it was already starting to cave in from the heavy load of snow.   He spent an hour out there with a snow rake.
     Here are some pictures I just took:

Any bets on how long it'll take to get my car out of here?  The poor cat house is almost completely buried.  Harold dug out small space for them around 2 a.m. so they could get out.

It's a scary world for the cats right now.

After a lot of shoveling we managed to get a path.  This is not a good year for the snow blower to be broken down!!

Look at my poor greenhouse now!

After hours of shoveling four "little helpers" came out to play!  Harold managed to get the 4 wd pickup out, so at least we have a vehicle to use.

Do I dare say that on Wednesday the weathermen are predicting MORE snow?  This time it's only supposed to be a few inches.    Hey - what's a few more inches when you have this much already?  I don't think we're going to have a spring this year.

Buried In Snow Until July?

Oh! - it's been such a long, tough winter!  We haven't had this much snow since 1996.  We currently have 3 and 1/2 feet of snow on the ground, with 6 to 8 MORE inches of heavy wet snow predicted for this weekend!  NO!!!!  Not only have we had way too much snow, it's been way too cold.  On Monday and Tuesday of this week we had minus 20 and minus 25 degrees F.  This isn't normal for March!  However, today it got all the way up to 25 above zero, and we all "went crazy" enjoying the warmth.   I got outside and shoveled snow, and took a walk, and even my cats have been running around all day long playing and following me and 'helping' me shovel. (not).   But tomorrow the temps are supposed to get to 32, and we are supposed to get a very heavy dose of wet snow followed by high winds and then sleet, rain,  and more snow for next week.    I think this is the never-ending winter.

Standing next to my greenhouse.  The snow slides off the roof and piles up on the sides.  This pile is about 6 feet high from the ground level.   I'm standing on 2 ft of snow with another 4 ft of snow piled behind me.   Today we are going to try to shovel some of this away so the sides of the greenhouse don't cave in.

I finally got a path shoveled going to the greenhouse, and one of my cats (Bobbysox)  just had to see what's up in there!  It was nice and warm in there with the sun shining, almost 90 degrees!  No garlic is coming up yet under the straw cover.

Everything is so drifted!

Harold's sawmill is buried.   It'll be a while before he can saw wood again.

I took a walk down the road to take pictures, and several of my cats followed me for the walk.   They love to go on walks with me, just like a bunch of dogs.   We have all been cooped up for too long.  You can see how deep the piles of snow are on each side of the road.    The photo doesn't do it justice, but these piles of snow are about 5 feet high.   I dread the mud season when all of this snow melts.

I doubt we will be doing maple syrup this year unless the snow melts quickly.  This pile of snow is blocking the path to our sugarbush.  Harold needs to get his tractor fixed to move snow before we even attempt to start tapping trees.   This pile is almost 6 ft high.

Even the deer are having a hard time this year getting around in the deep snow.   For some reason they can't seem to walk in a straight line - note the crooked path they have made.

A couple of our cats decided to soak up the warm afternoon sun on the porch.  You can see how drifted the snow is all against the house.   

Hopefully this weekend and next week won't add too much snow to our already deep piles!  We are truly sick of winter.   In a couple weeks the calendar will say that it's "spring", but I think actual spring will be a couple months away for us.