A Little More Spring While We Are At It

Even though temps this week are dropping down to the low 20’s at night, the days are clear and sunny with comfortable daytime temperatures in the 50’s. We have been concentrating on the yard/garden/orchard area this week in an effort to get things caught up before I head out for the next session of REALOregon and so that Marilyn can apply dormant spray oil to the fruit trees before the spring moves farther along.

With all the laddering, snipping, hauling, clipping and wheelbarrowing, we have taken the week off from firewood bundle production. Although we were working just as frantically as normal weeks, the break from the firewood was welcomed by the whole family and since the orders were light this week anyway, the rest of the producers were able to fulfill the needs of the stores easily without our help.

I even took a little time to get out to the bull barn (usually Mike’s territory when we are not bundling) to sweep out the wood production area, replenish supplies and get things in ship-shape for the next round of producing.

The yard area around the house is showing signs of transition from winter to spring. Last week you heard about the skunk cabbage emerging and I had mentioned the dead purplenettle plants are already blooming. The daffodils are cheerfully waving their bright yellow heads as cars go by on the county road. The rose bushes that were planted last spring are sprouting new leaves. Both lavender and white violets are emerging around the rock garden, the buds on the vine maple are swelling (this is the plant that I am monitoring for Natures Notebook Citizen Science project) and I have found and eradicated  a couple of dandelion-sized tanzy (an invasive noxious weed) that popped up in the last couple of weeks.

The official beginning of spring is more than a week away, but the plants are not going to wait for the calendar this year.

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I am so pleased to announce that MaryJane Nordgren has made her new book available to the public! Click here for your copy of Nandria’s War.