Woohoo! Spring has sprung!

If you haven't been in Southcentral over the last week, you have missed something special. Really special, honest ;)

First, we have had one entire week of sunny skies. Actually more sun than we had the entire summer last year-no kidding!

Second, the cranes, geese and ducks are trekking on through our flyway in large formations. I love hearing sand hill cranes on the wing, they are unique in their calls and habits. In fact, a neighbor usually has a family who spends the entire summer there, raising chicks on their fields and the one pond.

Third, just this morning I can see a hint of green on the birch trees! With bright sunlight shining through, there is a definite faint fuzzy green showing. With any luck, we should have leafed out trees by the end of next weekend.

Fourth, the yard work and summer prep is in full force. Nearly everyone is out picking up, raking, burning, and tidying up their yards and we are no exception. My hub ran the thatcher over the lawn to loosen debris and then bagged the remains to start composting. The lawn is amazingly enough, showing a tiny bit of green under there.

Fifth, gardeners are getting twitchy. It's still too cold at night to even think about hardening anything off-and most vegetable gardens are still too frozen to rototill as yet. But boy are we all anxious! Nothing like a solid week of sun to get a juices flowing, and make plans :) Live plants are starting to show up at the big box stores, and greenhouses are seeing a flurry of customers, mostly window shopping at this point.

We have had a productive couple of days at home ourselves. One big chore for the weekend will be splitting and stacking about two and a half cords of firewood, plus moving another two cords. The plan is to build a wood shed, and for that, we need to clean out the area to make space to get a Bobcat (with auger) to drill the holes for posts. The other big chore is going to be moving all those pavers I scrounged up, and the old cold frame needs to be moved also. We are hoping we can literally tow it about 50 feet, and I am toying with the idea of taking the vertical legs off and placing it over a good portion of the vegetable garden. It might be the perfect way to ensure a good crop!