Signs of Spring

The croci at Chris and Jonathan's house are going wild, like preschool crayons poking up amongst last years dead stalks of lilies, hollyhocks, morning glories, and other summer beauties. Little Ada's asleep on my chest, our neighbor has pulled out his taps, and the temperature is solidly above 40. But, this is what is says on the NOAA website:

Tonight: A slight chance of rain and snow before midnight, then snow likely. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 31. South wind around 6 mph becoming calm. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Total nighttime snow accumulation of 1 to 2 inches possible.
Friday: Snow before 2pm, then rain and snow. The snow could be heavy at times. High near 35. Breezy, with a northeast wind between 11 and 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 4 to 8 inches possible.
Friday Night: Rain and snow, becoming all snow after 11pm. Low around 29. North wind between 13 and 18 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible.

The cliff notes are: predictions of 7 to 14 inches of NEW SNOW on April 1st, 2011! Is NOAA allowed to play April Fools jokes? Because if they are, that's what I think this is. Unfortunately, I think enough people's lives and livelihoods rely on them that they probably are NOT joking. And, I have to say, the sky is a bit overcast. I'm ready for warm weather, real spring, and more flowers. If they all get snowed over, I'll just sit in front of my computer watching this picture until things thaw out again:


The fruit of many weeks' labor, a few cords of wood, and the futile moving of sap from roots to twigs of a stand of noble sugar maples:


The beginning of our spring garden and winter CSA: thousands of onions and hundreds of leeks are starting to sprout. The celeriac, a slightly surly vegetable, has yet to show its cotyledons. Lucretia and Lân are on watering duty.


Lao and Gib picked up a roadkill deer and Seth and Graham butchered it for the tasty eating pleasure of the Yentes-Fulford-Etc clan.


Ada enjoying a new view from her own personal chair--and now I can eat lunch without covering her in food. Ada's doing splendidly well. On the same day as the first high-chair-sitting was the first pushing-up-onto-hands-and-knees.


And...Ada once again. Being a star.

This past week, Lucretia and I, with assistance from Elsie, Minh, Lân and Ada, started our first round of seedlings: onions, leeks and celeriac. We're a little late, but within the range of normal. Nothing has sprouted yet, but I expect to see some baby onions in the next week. Seth has been working at Fedco trees and pruning other people's fruit trees lately in addition to many other exploits. Here is one of the old apples he pruned and its very prominent graft line.


Here are Ada and I asleep, Ada in an unusual but of course darling position. She just passed her six month birthday.


And here is Ada, laughing at Seth as he plays peekaboo with her over the edge bed.


Short but sweet--more photos of the farm to come!

In like a lion?

March seems to be coming in like a big wet, snarly lion. And while it may go out like a lamb, we won't be going out with lambs, because our lambs aren't due until April! Our sugaring season has been a bit funny so far; it's been either warmish and gray or frigid and sunny--either way, the sap hasn't been pouring out of the trees and, in fact, we've only collected sap once. My camera's battery freezes up so easily that I had to drive by the farm and take photos through the window of the car. Here we have the product of many hours of work by Graham, Tyler, Gib, Elsie, and maybe others:

Trees--mostly hemlock--that were felled got hauled out of the woods by April and May and were then milled into 2" thick boards on our Woodmizer sawmill. What you see in stacks here is the future floor of the barn's upstairs. Soon we will have no more holes, no more skinned shins or tiptoeing around or covering holes with big sheets of plywood!

Here's the barn, silo peeking out from behind, and Seth and Anna's house with a newly finished roof in charcoal gray.

Anna and Ada hanging out at the apartment, modeling a killer sweater knitted by Rachel, a killer knitter. It has owls with buttons for eyes across the chest.

The ash post and the upstairs of our house, which I can't wait to live in.

Ada, her slowly shrinking hemangioma (ear bump), and her new trick: chewing on cups.