Bringing Spring Inside

Since it certainly doesn't look like spring outside . . .

This is the road going back to our wood working area.

The view out a kitchen window last Sunday morning.

. . . I decided I needed to make it look like spring inside.

This is a wall hanging I made several years ago.  A Log Cabin block in pastel 30s prints.  It hangs in "that" spot in my kitchen.  Machine pieced, hand quilted, 32" square.

I wanted something that would kinda sorta coordinate with it to hang under the kitchen clock.

I came up with this 16" square piece that I finished today.  The center pot of flowers is hand appliqued, the rest is machine quilted.  I call it "Easter Tulips."

Welcome Spring Time!  Even if it is only indoors.

Spring Time Is Hard Up Here!

I know, I know.  If I don't like it, why do I live here?  I live here because the advantages (for us anyway) of living in No Man's Land (Or as some people like to say, "It's not the end of the world, but you can see it from here.") far, far outweigh living elsewhere.  Now that I've said that, let me complain a bit.

We have virtually no spring in northern Minnesota.  And yet every year we expect it, look for it, yearn for it, hope for it.  Spring is the forgotten season here.  Every year we go from dirty, muddy, cold, wet, frozen winter into summer.  While we're looking the other way (probably scraping tracked in mud off the just washed floor), one day the temp hits 70 degrees and, lo and behold, summer has arrived.  Forget about spring.  It doesn't happen.  Spring flowers bloom in June.  Ice and snow can be found hiding in any shaded corner about the same time.

See, the thing is that the frost penetrates down so far into the ground over winter that any melting we do get during this time (which actually should be, but isn't, spring) can't soak into the ground . . . because of the still frigid, frozen soil.  So what does the moisture do?  It makes mud.  Which holds puddles caused by melting snow or precipitation occasionally falling from the sky.  These same puddles freeze each night to form booby traps for anyone (man or beast) traversing the ground.  Frequently, that terrible phenomenon called black ice appears on the roads each morning.  Black ice is a very inhospitable surface on which to drive.  Just ask the two drivers that we heard of whose vehicles traveled an excessive distance into the woods after encountering black ice and subsequently leaving the pavement this morning.

This is the time of year when I look out at my wet and muddy, yet still frozen, garden and lament I'll never be able to work the soil until at least July.  It's hard to remember that's not the reality.  As happens every year, one day the temp will hit 70 degrees and summer will be here.

Perhaps I shouldn't say spring time is hard up here.  It would be more accurate to say it just doesn't exist.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

We went for a hike up in the woods behind our property this afternoon, and it was great.  The sun was shining in a cloudless Minnesota-blue sky, the temperature was in the mid-20s, and there was no wind.  (Imagine that!) 

Although it may look as if Papa Pea is packing enough provisions for a two-week trek, the only thing he had in his backpack was our snowshoes.  When we started out, we didn't know what snow conditions would be in the deep woods so took the snowshoes in case we needed them.  We didn't.  The level of snow was much lower than we had expected and frozen enough for us to walk on top of it in our boots.

The slightly treacherous part of the hike was that about half the trail was ice covered.  The trail we were on runs east and west, but the land slopes down from north to south.  So, much of the melting that has already occurred formed very slipery ice over much of the territory we covered.

We saw lots of animal droppings and tracks including these pictured above with my boot in the photo for comparison.  We have no idea what could have made these unusual looking prints.

About half the trail was right along a ravine that has a little creek running in the bottom of it.  Very picturesque even though the water was still frozen solid.

It's really a lovely time of year to be out in the woods.  No bugs, it's easy to dress warmly enough (without being too warm) for hiking, and you see so many tracks and trails that the wildlife uses.  With no shrubbery leafed out, visibility through the woods is at its highest.  The fresh air, exercise and oxygenated blood pumping through our veins weren't bad either.

Can A Week Be Quiet And Busy At The Same Time?

I've been absent since I've felt I haven't had much of interest to say.  No pictures, no out-of-the-ordinary excitement to share.  So what has been going on?

Well, so far it's been a busy week full of "usual" stuff.  Our weather has not been spring-like, that's for sure.  We had snow all day yesterday but with the thermometer reading 33 degrees and up to a few degrees higher, we had no accumulation.  More of the same is forecast for today.  

This past weekend I ventured out into the garden to see if either the rhubarb or chives were poking up under my blanket of winter mulch.  Nope.  How can the little greenies be expected to make it up through ground that is still frozen solid?

We made a trip to the The Big City on Tuesday of this week for supplies.  If I'm not mistaken, it was our first trip since last October.  On such excursions, we use our credit card which we always pay off each month.  The charges on the next billing are going to be so astronomical, I don't think I'll even have the courage to open the envelope.

I've finished going through the pantry and freezers to determine how I did on putting food by last fall.  Results?  I can definitely cut down on how much I plant of nearly everything this gardening season.  Either we're consuming less on a regular basis or I've finally gotten to the point where I'm planting too darn much.  Not a bad situation to have to rectify.

Speaking of the garden, I'm about halfway done with the master plan for this coming season.  Good thing I can cut down on space needed for veggies because I've got those 200 new strawberry plants coming that I need to fit into the field garden.  Strawberries were the only thing we didn't have an adequate supply of over winter.  One more year now and that won't happen again.  Hopefully.  Or my strawberry lovin' husband will NOT be happy with me.

We've been seeing a lot of wildlife activity.  Just this morning right after dawn we saw the biggest, healthiest-looking fox come trotting up our driveway, take a hard left back into the wood working area and then disappear behind the big storage building.  He looked to be on a mission.  Wonder if he could have been a she taking breakfast home to her youngun's?

We've been seeing one or two wolves a week recently.  These are bona fide timber wolves and not the brush wolves, or coyotes, also in the area.  They are beautiful animals and we realize they have every right to live here, but when they do become too plentiful, there is always the problem with them attacking livestock and pets.  I'm not real keen on encountering them up close and personal either.

A lovely surprise came in the mail this week from a beautiful blogging friend in South Carolina who is fast becoming an expert quilter.  I now have a very pretty, spring motif mug rug beside me on my desk this morning.  So bright and cheerful!

Time to get some breakfast on the table.  We had French toast with homemade blueberry sauce yesterday morning.  Today I think it will be poached eggs on slices of hearty, heavy, moist, dark bread that magically arrived late yesterday afternoon from a sweet gal in our area who turns out the BEST bread. 

Have a great end to your week and a good, good weekend, y'all! 

Fickle Weather

We were feeling quite perky after some down time in the months of January and February.  We were ready to hit our spring/summer/fall To Do List with a vengeance.  (Or as I said a couple of days ago, slowly so we didn't hurt ourselves.)

Last week it felt like spring time.  Okay, so the thermometer showed only readings in the 40s, but for us that was spring time.  We spent the week organizing so we could begin by getting off to a running start this week.

Mother Nature obviously has a mean streak.  We've been working outside this week and freezing our beezers off.  Our highs for day time are just above freezing and night time lows are back down in the low 20s.  This afternoon we had snow for several hours, although with a temp of 35 degrees nothing accumulated on the ground.

But this is typical March weather for us.  No matter how much we would like early, warm spring weather to arrive, we have to keep in mind we haven't had our March blizzard yet.  And there is rarely a year when we don't get one.  Or two.

Two years ago, we got the majority of our snow for the whole winter in April.  (Now there's a depressing thought.)

My dictionary defines the word fickle as likely to change, especially due to instability; erratic changeableness.  Darn fickle weather.  

No matter.  We're tough.  We'll keep at it since we are accomplishing tasks on our list.  Besides, what's another month of wearing long johns?  And slight cases of frostbite?

The Wind Will Have Its Way . . .

The March wind doth blow, and we shall have snow.  Or . . . if it's not snow, it's a bit of rearranging of cold frames.

My laziness caused this.  Well, yeah, and the mighty gusts of wind we had last night.

Last fall I covered my herb bed (see the framing on top of a raised garden bed closest in that jumble in the picture?) with a deep layer of straw.  The next day the wind did an excellent job of blowing my winter blanket of mulch clean off the bed.  Papa Pea suggested we put a cold frame, minus the top, on the bed, gather the scattered straw and dump it back on top of the herbs but, this time, inside the topless cold frame.  Worked like a charm.  The mulch stayed put and was soon covered by a layer of snow.  Sleep tight, little herbs.

The bed directly in front of the herb bed was fall planted in some greens I wanted to carry into the cold weather as long as I could so a cold frame with a cover was put on that bed.  And we were able to have lettuce, kale, spinach, chard, etc. longer than usual because of the protection of the cold frame.

Before the snows started, I should have removed that cold frame, but my lazy self said I could just leave it there until I wanted to start working the bed this spring.

Even though the cold frame was tied to the frame of the raised bed with several lengths of baling twine and had a bungie and a hook and eye holding the lid to the raised bed framing, you can see what the wind did to it last night.

The cold frame with lid was torn from the raised bed, picked up and deposited on the top of the topless cold frame covering my herb bed.

The wind continued to blow today also.  Not a bad thing because no more damage was done (that we've discovered anyway), and it should have helped evaporate some of our remaining snow and, I hope, hope, hope, dry out some of our mud.

I should have had my camera in hand this afternoon while Papa Pea  and I were running some rough cut lumber through the planer.  If you've ever done that you know tons of sawdust and wood shavings are created in the process.  Mix that with the stiff wind and you'll know we had sawdust blowing everywhere.  It's so embedded in my work jacket that trying to brush the stuff off didn't work worth a diddle.  I think I even have some in my . . . oh, never mind.

The March wind doth blow.  Somebody should harness it for power.