April 13, 2012 Spring Showers

Balsam root shoots - It really is Spring!

Two days of occasional Spring showers and the snow is quickly melting.  More than half gone now.  There are balsam root shoots popping up on the south ridge along with other greenery.  Temperature has been in the high 40's, which is perfect for working outside.  And we did.  I continued working on the piles of branches on the north ridge.  JB discovered that tightening MAX's chain will be a bigger project than he initially thought, so we will do it together probably on Sunday.  He is going Down There today and hopefully we will be able to bring my Jeep up at least to our road on Saturday.

I made pea soup as planned on Wednesday.  The ham bone was so big I had to use my big canning pot in which to cook it!  Turned out delicious, and I may still be able to get some of it in the freezer.

Don't need to bring firewood in every day now.  When it's up to 50 for the day, we just put a fire in first thing in the morning and then again around dinner time for the evening.  But we do need to pump water every day.  JB is going to Seattle next Friday to help his brother at their winery for the weekend.  We will pump just before he leaves and hopefully that will do until he gets back.

I really miss not having a fire in the stove during the warm weather.  We use the top of the stove as a place to keep our coffee and other food warm, melt butter, etc.  But most of all, I miss standing by it even if I'm not really cold, and of course watching the flames and gases dancing like a manic aurora borealis.

The juncos are busy scratching like chickens in the yard.  They are often joined by sparrows and nuthatches.  The squirrels are out and about now too, driving Dinga and Jesse crazy.  I watched one climb a thin rose bush stem to get a left over rose hip.  He sat on the dog pen fence and ate it like it was quite a delicacy.  I am surprised the bushes hadn't been stripped clean in the Fall.  We also had a big critter going across our east slope yesterday that JB thought might have been an elk.  He just got a quick glimpse before the dogs scared it away.

I saw a letter in a recent Country Woman magazine from a woman in Maine who was looking for a manual bread maker just like the one we have.  We don't use it any more because gluten free dough does not have to be kneaded.  I wrote to her and I guess I was the only one who offered her one, so JB will be mailing it to her today for the cost of the postage.  Am so glad I found someone who will really use it.

Thought for the day:  Lots of people talk to animals. . . Not very many listen, though. . . That's the problem.  Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh