In like a lamb, out like a lamb

March started off beautifully, then it snowed and froze, and today the last of that snow washed away with rain, and it was a nice, warm, grey afternoon to be outdoors.

when the crocuses first bloomed this month

 

 

 

 

 

 

after the snow

this week

Mike has little plants sprouting under grow lights and in trays outside. He and I both put in a nice order at Baker Creek Seeds, and I got a lot of flowers that I am excited about, except there is now no room under the grow lights... guess some will have to wait to be planted outside after the last frost!

Mike planted some lettuce seedlings in the garden, has been spreading compost, and put netting over his raised bed of strawberries and onions, since the critters keep trying to eat his stuff. And here are his mushroom logs:

mushroom logs

shiitakes growing today

So there's a little update. The grass is lush and green now, and I even heard a lawn mower or two this week. Welcome, Spring!

Maple Syrup Time!

It's that time of year when you are brought to tears over the "inside" temperatures, outside. We were blessed with temps in the 60s at one point in February, and now today, the white from the early March snowfall has disappeared, and we played outside, without coats. 

Our house is one big, sweet-smelling steam room, as maple syrup season is now finishing up. The season started Feb 20 this year, and is ending now, with the end of nighttime freezing temps. Mike was able to add a few neighbors' trees to his syrup-harvest this year, and also built himself a simple evaporator to boil the sap outside. 

He had 19 taps in a total of 11 trees, which produced 216 gallons of sap (so far), 3 gallons of syrup already canned, and 3 more gallons of syrup in process.

Below are some pics of his evaporator. He used inexpensive cinder blocks to build it, not fire bricks, so it won't be durable enough to last, but it is serving its purpose well. 

Our daughter insists on checking to see how much sap is in the bucket:

Mike has a little added pressure to his gardening this year. He is planning to host a 5 member CSA, which stands for community supported agriculture. Basically, customers pay up front for a subscription of weekly boxes of produce. It will be nice for him to have someone to take all the produce he gets, but again, there is the added of pressure of making sure he has a variety of things every week. I'm excited to see it all come together, and for him to have this chance to work out any kinks in the process.

Because it was so warm today, I decided to rip out the dead plants from my raised beds around the deck, where I have my little kitchen garden, and planted a few lettuce seeds. I don't think I've ever planted anything in March before! Having a small garden close by is great, because when you're cooking and there are two little kids running around the house, it really is that hard to walk all the way out to the big garden to grab some herbs or greens!

And now I'm enjoying the luxury of deciding whether to spend my free time scrapbooking or gardening. There's so much I want to do to add curb appeal and landscaping to our home, and I can't wait until we Dave-Ramsey away all our loans so we can do more fun things like this. What a joy-- Spring is here!