Waiting For Spring to Arrive

I write this a few days before March begins yet there is certainly no hint of spring on the horizon here in Saco, Maine.  The pictures below were taken today, February 26th, a day after the latest snow storm brought six or so inches of heavy, wet snow to Saco. Another storm may happen tomorrow and even if some days next week reach the 40 degree range as predicted, the nights will continue to be below 32 degrees. This winter has not set any records for total snowfall but these pictures show as big of piles of snow as I have seen in my eight winters here.  The diference this year has been the fact that there has almost been weekly snowstorms since Christmas and the weather has stayed cold so melting between storms has rarely occured.  I certainly hope the spring, when it finally arrives doesn't bring a steady deluge of rainstorms and flooding!

No serious garden planning has occurred yet even though the seed catalogues continue to arrive in the mail. I have tallied my seeds on hand so I can soon place an order though. The greenhouse is set up in the basement for some indoor planting that should get started in early March.

The wood pile is rapidly shrinking as the wood stove continues to have a voracious appetite for logs. I certainly will go thought the three cords I had split, cut and stacked for this heating season. If there is some decent snow melting in early March I may be cutting more wood for this season in addition to beginning the process of working on the stockpile for the winter of 2011-2012.  Ideally the following winter's wood piles are prepared in the spring and neatly stacked and covered to dry over the long summer and fall months.

There really hasn't been much to report on since my last posting in December. The Christmas gathering of the family was fun and festive as always. I have made two more New York trips for Cotton babysitting duties, or as he would say, "I am not a baby, I am a boy."  I have endured two long, lingering winter colds, read a lot and made a lot of soups and crock pot stews. Much time has been spent planning for the big news here on the homestead this coming spring, namely a complete makeover of the kitchen. Cooking, canning, freezing and endless food preparation of the harvest has been challenging in my current kitchen. Soon a wall comes down to open it up to sunlight from the south facing deck glass doors, to allow the warmth of the wood burning stove to better reach the kitchen and to have a big island and lots of counters to handling all the work needed for my Schlaver Seed Farms operations.  The new cabinets are now being made and the actual construction on site will begin in late April. I bet I will do a mid to late May posting on this blog of the results!