Mud season

Well its here- the fifth season in Michigan country, the mud season. I see it in the path to the barn, the path to my car and the muddy path down the laundry room and across the kitchen made by dozens of tiny and not so tiny dog paws. Today was beautiful and sunny, 55 degrees and the snow is melting very quickly. However it’s supposed to rain tomorrow, which is definitely going to make it mud season. So far the road hasn’t been too bad, but I expect that to change.

I got the hose to run today going to the barn, glory halleluiah. Hopefully if I fill buckets in the evening before the sun goes down I won’t be carrying those heavy buckets from the house twice a day. The hose runs inside my raised herb bed and as I pulled it out of the remaining snow and mulch to lay on top of the bed in the sun, I noticed that the oregano was still bright green where it had been buried under the snow. Tomorrow I will pick some for the chickens.

The chickens sit on their ramp just outside their door, but they don’t go down into the snow. The snow is still deep in their run. Its supposed to rain in the next few days so maybe it will clear it away. The little pasture and the backyard where the dogs run have most of the snow melted. The horses are also tracking the wet into their stall, making it mucky. All the lovely piles of manure in the pasture are waiting to be moved to the garden or compost pile.

Started scraping the paint off the house, its time to re-paint. I want to get it done before the plants are up too much - it will be a race to see if the weather is nice enough to paint but the plants still too small to damage. Steve’s new wheelchair ramp is up and I did some measuring to make some landscaping plans. There is so much I want to get done this spring, as usual. Time and money will decide just how much actually gets done.