Thoughts of Spring - then More Snow!

Friday morning was spent planning for spring and the garden.  With the 'growing guide,' a calendar and the trusty Old Farmer's Almanac by our side we sat down with the seed inventory and scheduled the planting dates for the vegetables, flowers and herbs we are going to start in the greenhouse and the seeds that get set directly into the garden.  The basic outline established, we discussed the arrival of this years Christmas trees, the average date of last frost in the region, the cash flow for the repairs that have to be done on the tractor, the fencing that needs to go up around the garden and the prospect of including some sort of initial retaining walls for the expansion of our garden up the sloped hill in front of the house.  We re-arranged a few of the dates in the schedule and then I entered all the information into our farming spreadsheet.

Discussions moved to sap and syrup which has been negligible since the weather turned cold again.  But forecasts of temperatures in the low 40's for Saturday and Sunday kept us hoping for the best.  Sugaring will wait until the grand old maples we placed our six buckets on decided to wake from their winter slumber. 

The calendar lay on the table between us open to the month of April and we discussed the broody hens, when we should allow them to start keeping their own nests and the brooder that needs to be built before any new babies arrive.  As we wrapped up our disucssion on several projects we discussed DH's upcoming trip to Maine for the End of Winter Gathering in Newport and the various vehicle repairs which need to be completed before he leaves.  Finally, we checked the most recent forecast to see when in the next ten days would be good for accomplishing even a few of the tasks we covered this morning.  UGH - more snow! 

This morning as we were finally able to see the Christmas trees again, we are getting more snow.  Old time Vermonters call this Sugarin' Snow.  I call it another drive slow drive to work.  The turkeys don't seem to mind it as they peck at the grass which was relinquished from its long winters slumber under the snow only to be covered again today.  So the pots will remain in the greenhouse enjoying the warmer days when the sun graces us with its presence, raising the temperature in the greenhouse to a balmy 50 degrees.  It will too soon be 85 degrees with 90 percent humidity, and we will long for the last remaining, calm days of winter before the flurry of activity on the farm takes the shape of projects instead of frozen precipitation.