It’s spring on the calendar, if not entirely in our hearts.
Things are relatively quiet here on the farm. The first busy season of the year – spring planting – hasn’t begun in earnest. The fields have yet to wake from their long winter’s nap.
This cold, snowy winter lingers, lulling us humans – there’s still time! No need to hurry, yet! Each late season winter storm, polar vortex, and blustery wind is another chance to hit the snooze button on the metaphorical alarm clock – just one more time; OK, no more than three more times …
In recent days, I’ve heard the robin’s song, and the first greens of the hyacinths are nosing their way above ground. The stack of seed catalogs arriving in the mail grows taller each week. Every sunny, blue-sky, puffy-cloud afternoon is another reminder that spring is coming!
The dank smell of mud and earth after a rainfall is a call to tackle that To Do List: finish the seed order, trim the raspberry brambles, maintain the tractor and equipment, get ahead of paperwork, and so on. These are among the chores sure to fall by the wayside when things get busy.
For most farmers, spring is an exciting time. Paradox inherent: we’ve been working all winter long, but with warmer air and longer hours of daylight, we break our hibernation, reinvigorated and ready for a new year. Spring is the time of hope and possibility. To plant the seeds of tomorrow, you must, generally, work long and hard.
Today is one of those days when the weather tries on numerous outfits for best fit. Its sunny and still for a bit, then the wind blows in, stirring snowflakes in every direction, as though the farm were caught inside an immense snow globe happily shaken by a careless child. Soon, the sun is back, erasing any chance the snow might have of sticking to the ground.
It’s not always easy – while looking forward to warmth and all the promise of sunny days ahead – but, we enjoy this all-season weather, too.
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Things are relatively quiet here on the farm. The first busy season of the year – spring planting – hasn’t begun in earnest. The fields have yet to wake from their long winter’s nap.
This cold, snowy winter lingers, lulling us humans – there’s still time! No need to hurry, yet! Each late season winter storm, polar vortex, and blustery wind is another chance to hit the snooze button on the metaphorical alarm clock – just one more time; OK, no more than three more times …
In recent days, I’ve heard the robin’s song, and the first greens of the hyacinths are nosing their way above ground. The stack of seed catalogs arriving in the mail grows taller each week. Every sunny, blue-sky, puffy-cloud afternoon is another reminder that spring is coming!
The dank smell of mud and earth after a rainfall is a call to tackle that To Do List: finish the seed order, trim the raspberry brambles, maintain the tractor and equipment, get ahead of paperwork, and so on. These are among the chores sure to fall by the wayside when things get busy.
For most farmers, spring is an exciting time. Paradox inherent: we’ve been working all winter long, but with warmer air and longer hours of daylight, we break our hibernation, reinvigorated and ready for a new year. Spring is the time of hope and possibility. To plant the seeds of tomorrow, you must, generally, work long and hard.
Today is one of those days when the weather tries on numerous outfits for best fit. Its sunny and still for a bit, then the wind blows in, stirring snowflakes in every direction, as though the farm were caught inside an immense snow globe happily shaken by a careless child. Soon, the sun is back, erasing any chance the snow might have of sticking to the ground.
It’s not always easy – while looking forward to warmth and all the promise of sunny days ahead – but, we enjoy this all-season weather, too.
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