Hooray! Spring is here....

I know it is very wintry outside today in Maine (snow sleet & freezing rain, anyone?) but the astronomical facts are clear: It is the first day of Spring! Congratulations all 'round for surviving another winter.

The bare muddy spots of yard, the muddy driveway edges, the muddy dog, the muddy chickens, all point to one thing -- Spring. I've even felt my unusually dormant gardening urge stirring to life of late -- soon, I'll have my vegetable planting list complete, and then the garden plan, and by next weekend, the seed starting cart will be set up in the laundry room (I hope.)

Enjoy the longer days, lengthening know until June, when the cycle reverses itself. I know I'll be spending as much time outside as I am able too.

More signs of spring

There are ever-increasing patches of bare ground in the backyard, mostly near the sugar maple and flowering crab trees, and along the path to Henbogle coop. The snow is still thigh deep in other areas, alas.


The garden shed, surrounded by thigh-deep snow. Note the white garden gate to the left.


Dog hair from Fisher, stuffed into the gate to be available to birds for nest-building. We cleaned out the nest boxes on Sunday, and were scolded by a cheeky tufted titmouse, probably one of the 2 broods last year to be hatched in that nest box. We decided to make good by bringing out some Fisher fur saved from his last lion-look grooming.


Pippi, looking suspiciously at the camera. Is that a treat? Home sick from work with Dan's bug today, I looked out the window this morning to see Pippi out of the hen-pen, perched on the snow. On went my new boots, and I was off to catch a chicken. Fortunately, Pippi recognized the bowl in my hand as a treat container, and hop-flapped her way over to me. Back into the pen she went to share the leftover pasta with the other chooks.

Signs of spring

Although it was a dreary gray day today, I saw sure signs of spring.

A pileated woodpecker busily working on the dead tree next door. (click photo to enlarge)















Tulips peeking up in the foundation bed behind the house.














Muddy boots in the muddy chicken yard.
















My birthday present in action. This will be the ONLY vacuum cleaner I will ever request as a gift. It sucks up the leaves, and chops them up, ready to compost. This will be perfect in the perennial gardens, where the leaves get caught in the shrubs.

Spring is on the way....

Even green fuel can be a killer

I wish I could say I was surprised, but no, I'm not. It turns out the green fuel, or bio fuel, revolution taking place here in this country isn't so green after all. As usual, it all comes down to greed. It is cheaper to dump bio fuel by-products than to dispose of them safely. The New York Times reported earlier this week on the illegal dumping of fuel production by products, including a tanker dumping glycerin in Missouri.

an anonymous caller reported [to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources] that a tanker truck was dumping milky white goop into Belle Fountain Ditch, one of the many man-made channels that drain Missouri’s Bootheel region. That substance turned out to be glycerin from a bio-diesel plant.

In January, a grand jury indicted a Missouri businessman in the discharge, which killed at least 25,000 fish and wiped out the population of fat pocketbook mussels, an endangered species.

Apparently Times Beach has receded from the memory of this Missourian, or more likely, he's the moral equivalent of W.

When I bought my car (Pontiac Vibe) in 2003, I researched extensively trying to find the best combination of fuel economy, safety, reliability and model that would meet our needs. I really debated about purchasing a diesel VW Jetta Wagon, hoping to run bio-fuel in it, but decided against it. My car at the time, a VW Golf, was only slightly more reliable than a Yugo, which did not inspire hope for reliability in the Jetta, and bio-fuel was still scarce in Maine at the time. Reading this story, I'm glad I opted for the Vibe, which gets good mileage, especially once I remove the snow tires, (35+mpg hgwy) and is utterly and completely reliable.

As for the polluters, time to make toxics dumping subject to the death penalty, and increase the fines and criminal penalties for businesses guilty of dumping, such that the business and its trustees are bankrupted. (Since my first choice is a firing squad, this seems like a compromise.)

He's a real party boy

Photos from the big par-tay

A customized card from Michelle & Bill --note the power tools :-)

Wearing his new coveralls, Kyle shows off his old coveralls

King for a day

A mighty wind snuffed the 19 candles

It takes a village to raise a child, and the villagers came to the party to celebrate with cranberry punch, chocolate-orange cake, and homemade dulce de leche ice cream.


Even Ocho attended, with Bill B providing seating.

Showing off the LED flashlight in his new Swiss Army emergency pocket tool kit.



Look at that grin!


Kyle hugging his dad after Dan's toast to Kyle

Happy Birthday Kyle!

Kyle at age 1 --look at that strawberry blonde hair.

Kyle in our wedding party (far right) at age 11

Kyle with Dan vacationing on Cape Breton, age 12


Kyle age 12, the second winter in the house, when we got 18" of snow over Christmas

Kyle with an eel he caught in the Kennebec River at the town landing, age 13



Kyle with his new mountain bike at Christmas, age 13

Pastry Chef Kyle, making Christmas cookies, age 13

With the final product

Kyle ice fishing, age 15

Kyle age 16, with birthday chainsaw from his mother, modeling his safety gear from Dan and I

Kyle age 16, with the 1972 John Deere snowmobile he refurbished

Age 17


Kyle in Dan's kayak, age 17


Kyle in his new kayak, age 17

Happy 18th birthday! We love you!!

Look for more photos tomorrow after the party.

Wintry mix

The remnants of Wednesday's storm. I heard this morning that more is on the way for Friday night and Saturday.

Yet more wintry mix

Another school cancellation for Dan today, the result of an overnight snow/sleet/rain/freezing rain storm that left a thick layer of ice everywhere, and had people scrambling to get roofs shoveled and or inspected. At least 2 schools in Maine have canceled classes due to concerns about roof snow loads. (Don't get me started on the topic of flat-roofed buildings in snow country.)

Will this winter ever end? I'm finding it really hard to get motivated to get garden planning, even though I should be planting peppers and onions right now.

Pizza

Saturday's pizza was so good, I made more today. The microhood works great, I didn't set the smoke detectors off yesterday or today. Whoo hoo!

Pesto Potato with Parmesan


Another Pesto Potato, Artichoke Hearts and Roasted Red Pepper, and Linguica Sausage

Pesto and Parmesan.

Sunday Snow Report

We never did get a snowfall total for the March 1 storm. By the time the snow slowed down, it was 40°F and the snow had significantly compacted into a sodden, heavy mass. It snowed all day, though, slowing considerably late in the day, but flakes were still drifting down when our friends Bill and Michelle headed home post-pizza a little after 9 pm.

We shoveled in the afternoon Saturday, enough to get by, and today in the sunshine, batted clean-up. There was a chilly breeze, but the March sun really warmed things up. Spring is clearly on the way, snowstorms be damned.

The girls were very happy to have the snow removed from the yard around Henbogle coop, and even happier to see the big plate of leftover pasta, fried rice, and aging spinach we brought.

We have a LOT of snow. Temps today and yesterday were in the high 30°-40° F and the snow is melting quickly but it is still amazingly deep even in the yard. We've given up shoveling the deck off, we have no where to put the snow. We just keep a path to the door cleared.

In the photos on the left above and to the right, this is the path between the 2 new garden beds I planted last summer. Hard to imagine now, isn't it?

In the front yard, Dan is atop the snow filling the front yard feeder, which normally is level with his head. The snow he is standing on is another lovely perennial garden, buried under 3 feet of snow.

We noticed that the heavy snowbanks have snapped several of the lower branches off the spruce in the front yard (you can see a few of the branches framing Dan in the photo). That tree gives the front yard some privacy, and more importantly, shields the house from the glare of the streetlight. I hope that we don't lose too many more branches from this poor tree. I sure hope this is the last big snow of the season.

In like a lion

Here's hoping the old adage about March is true, in like a lion, out like a lamb, as here at Henbogle it is snowing hard at 8:50 am, and the NWS forecast is calling for 5-9 additional inches today atop the 3" or so that fell overnight. Sigh. I am so DONE with winter and snow, but apparently the message has yet to be received by the weather gods. The snowy winter is really feeding my unreasonable longing for a greenhouse.

The girls are out in the hendome. They weren't too happy about the snow on the ground, but the lure of treats was too strong to resist. The other day Dan came upon a bale of hay fallen from a truck, and stopped to bring it home for the girls. He threw the bale in the dome and they are in hen heaven. We'd intended to stop by the feed store and buy a bale Sunday, but mis-timed it and the store was closed, so the girls had to do without. Scratching through the bale and eating the seeds gives them something to do and keeps them happy. This morning I threw a couple of handfuls of scratch into the hay and they'll be occupied happily for some time.

On my way back to the house I refilled all the bird feeders. I'd say at this point we've gone through about 125 lbs of sunflower seed, and 15 lbs of thistle seed. It is money well spent, feeder bird watching is more entertaining than cable tv anyday. I find the upside down finch feeder especially amusing. Some of the finches, and even a few chickadees, figure it out right away, but there are always a few who never do get the idea.

Well, time to make some pizza dough, I think tonight will be an excellent night for a big pizza feed. As I nearly always manage to set the smoke detectors off when I make pizza, it's time to test out the new microhood and see how good a job of smoke removal it does. Once I get the dough made, it will be time to buckle down and make some decisions about what seeds I will be ordering. I've been a quivering blob of indecision, but it is more than time to get off the pot, as they say, or I'll be SOL when order fulfillment time comes around!

Good Maine Cooking

Mainers are a thrifty lot, savers extraordinaire and experts at reinventing uses for old equipment. The infamous toilet lawn planter springs to mind, although equally thrifty would be the reuse of old cast iron-porcelain bathtubs as livestock waterers. My former landlord in Greenville, Lonnie Rowe, used an old delivery van as a chicken coop, and made wildlife watching perches out of old tractor seats set on pipes in the ground.

This thriftiness transfers into the food category, too. Chicken and turkey carcasses become stock, meat scraps go in the freezer to become soup. Of course, poultry owners have a ready source of birds to productively dispose of every scrap of food. And should you trap a big old coon or a give terminal lead poisoning to a pesky groundhog, well, there's good eating if you know how to prepare it properly.

For my birthday earlier this month, Dan found a great old-time recipe book for me, All Maine Recipes, published by the Courier Gazette of Rockland in the late 1960s. It is chock-full of good Maine recipes, many for game such as venison or pheasant, with some modern ones, too, with many variations of the Jello salad --shudder. (I even found a recipe from my long-ago landlady Irene Yerxa of Bridgewater, Maine, and Dan saw a recipe from a woman he knew in Waldoboro, Athlene Damon. Maine is a small town spread over a big state.)

And there are several recipes for preparing garden-chomping rabbit, raccoon and woodchuck.

It is good to know I have a resource handy for preparing varmint should the opportunity arise. You just never know.

Photos for Mom

By request, more photos of the kitchen project. Next up, some old-time Maine recipes....