One day it’s 58 degrees and sunny and the next it’s 8 degrees and cloudy with snow and wind. It’s hard to plan, for sure. But it is letting us get some inside work done, as well as outside on the nice days. Will and I went to bail our ATV out of the shop in Hibbing. One day it just didn’t start, no matter what Will did. Having no heated shop to work in, we hauled it to Mohawk, our favorite fix-it shop for snowmobiles and four wheelers. Yes, we sure missed it! I’ll bet we put 100 miles a week on that old beast of a Yamaha Bruin. And it’s far from new, too! They called and we drove down to pick it up. While Will was paying up, I waited in the truck and what did I see on the edge of the road? A great big bush of pussy willows! I’d seen a few before, while driving. But this one was up close and personal. Happy Spring!
I got my last tomatoes planted yesterday and the first two flats I planted are starting to pop up. Our little greenhouse, in the house, is pretty full now. Tomorrow is the start of a supposedly warm period, with lows in the 20s and above. So, tomorrow I’m going to start transplanting the peppers, which now have two sets of “grown-up” leaves besides the two “baby” seedling leaves. Once transplanted, they’ll go out into the greenhouse. Will’s going to start the propane heater in the morning, so it’ll be nice and toasty when those babies go in. Besides, the daytime temperature is supposed to be quite warm, warming up even more on Sunday.
With the ATV back home, Will took Sarge for a nice long run through the woods yesterday and Hondo, today. They loved getting out and sniffing all the wild scents. I’m sure the exercise helped them too. After all, Sarge now weighs over 200 pounds and has developed some “love handles” as the golf cart spent the winter in the barn.
Our hens are starting to lay well. Now I’m thinking about rhubarb custard pie, lemon meringue pie, quiches, and other egg friendly recipes. Spring sure pops a bounty upon us, which is a nice, fresh change of diet. We are so grateful to be homesteaders! — Jackie
A large portion of Iowa is dry; humidity was 17%, and the wind at 25 mph to gusts of over 40 for numerous different days hasn’t helped. Set some new records for near 90 degrees in March too. I thought I’d, for once, get the Good Friday potato planting done but we had over an inch of rain, and the next 3 days more to come. Nope, not complaining!
Our climate pendulum is swinging–in the 1970’s it was ‘Ice Age is coming’, now we’re crazy and warm. Personally, I think it will continue escalating because of higher population, and electricity is produced mostly by using fossil fuels. Much of the public won’t ever go back to horse and buggy, firewood, lanterns. Even our food has to be GMO and heavy fertilizer to feed the masses, ugh! Family farms are vanishing and were better stewards of the land and water than these corporate farms.
I’m thankful to know there are many of us like-minded folks who live the conservative lifestyle of caring for our own little spot; it won’t stop the trajectory our planet is on, but our families will eat healthier.
I used to complain about all the work my cats created. My granny used to say, “you will miss them when they are gone’”. She was right.
Oh yes, Granny was sure right!!
How much mankind influences weather I don’t know. It seems we must as earth citizens have some impact on our environment. After snow melt one thing that disappoints me is the amount of road side trash. I make it one of my missions to pick up the cans, bottles, plastic and trash. I do this as I check our roadside fences. It’s striking how people flick trash out and I’m in a low population area. I carry a tote in my ATV for trash to send to recycling. Celery, onions, tomatoes, peppers up. Seeds planted of broccoli, cabbage and Brussel sprouts. A few more old trees went down with our local wind and will be buzzed up for fire wood. The blue birds are back. Plenty to do!
I’ve been seeing trash like mattresses on the side-road. It costs so much here in California to throw away at the city dump.
I, too, sure hate to see the trash along the roadsides. Long ago, we prided Minnesota for never having any trash along the roadsides. You would never see cans, bottles and bags littering the shoulders. Today, without someone picking it up in the spring, it looks horrible! We also pick up after the slobs and wish we could dump it in their living rooms.
Same sort of crazy weather here in Yorkshire, UK. It’s going from glorious sunshine to brutally cold to driving rain and back again in a couple of hours at times. Some days it warmer after dark than middle of the day and my poor woodstove is on and off again at all hours – not to mention the times I light it because it’s properly cold and before I need to add more wood it’s now so warm I’ve got doors and windows open.
Crazy weather that’s just not normal
I totally agree with you, Wendy! I used to be able to easily say what the normal weather would be for, say, the beginning of April. No more. It can be anything!!
Same unsettled weather in Central
Kansas. 82 one day couple days
Later it’s 47. But most days some
Wind 15-25 mph Being someone
That’s interested in History, I’m
Reading anything about the
Discoveries when the glaciers
Melt Many stories of equipment,
Camping/traveling remnants, hunting
And trade goods in those many
Mountains in Norway, Sweden and
Swiss Alps. Makes me question the
Very distinct possibility that area
Was Not always ice and snow. But
Open travel/trade routes. Was there
A time when much less snow and
Ice on those elevations ?? Nomad
Hunters wouldn’t deliberately go
Into difficult, cold trails. We might
Be going back to what was Their
Normal.
It’s sure hard to tell about the weather! I’m sure air pollution has something to do with it. As a race, we’re sure hard on the environment. Humans are so darned “needy”, always wanting more of everything and obviously being okay with doing whatever it takes to satisfy their desires. More cars, more air travel for vacations, fossil fuel heat, multiple air conditioners in most homes, more “stuff”.
I’m so pleased to have you mention climate change. Too many people in denial sadly. Perhaps someone like you will wake people up. And, over here we’re having weather problems. Sometimes the night time temperatures are warmer than the day. Crazy
Yep, that happens here too. If people would just look at society today and realize the cost of all the stuff they have and the cost of getting rid of that unused, unwanted stuff, they would soon see we, as a human race, are killing the planet. From literally tons of plastic, floating in the oceans to burning or burying trash at landfills, buying clothes we really don’t need, then disposing of ones we are tired of, having multiple vehicles in one family, on the road every day, using chemicals on farm fields, which also run off into watersheds. Holy cow, how can there not be climate change???
Going to throw this out there. Thinking it might be doable if I had large family owned acreage like you live on. I don’t, and probably will never have that. But this was interesting. https://earthfuneral.com/resources/tracker-where-human-composting-legal
I’m not really a fan of human composting. I have a son, husband and parents who were cremated/buried in our small, local cemetery. Yes, I did spread half of husband, Bob’s, ashes down at his garden in the woods. But as our funeral director told me, it’s possible that in the far future, the land would be sold, and relatives could not enter to visit the spot. Personally, I find it comforting to maintain the graves and visit periodically rather than have the bodies transported to a “facility” that handles composting. Or if we did it here, on our land, there is still the possibility that the land might change hands, leaving our loved ones composted remains unavailable to relatives.
Yes, it is a roller coaster, for sure. We had 80’s one day and now 32. I carry my heavy sweater everywhere I go because it can change from breakfast to supper. We have 7 cold snaps here in Tennessee. We call them winters and we have had 4 already. So now it is Cottonwood, Strawberry and last is Blackberry. I had held true as long as I can remember. That means we have 3 more cold snaps, Bummer! Your plants look super!
Well, some of our tomatoes are pretty leggy as we didn’t check them every day like we should have. But I’ll just transplant them deep, burying that long stem, which will then make roots. It’s fairly warm today so I’ll get out and mow the flower beds.
March weather is sure being fickle, even for March! Every where. Thank you for your seedlings photos. Helps me to see your s and my are very similar. Your peppers have a thicker stem but once I transplanted them into styrofoam cups in Promix soil-wow I’m so appreciative for your recommendation on Promix! Can’t wait to see how tomatoes will do, still a few to poo up an no Leaf other than the two first. Something about sprouts and spring brings out a calming feeling after any type of winter. Glad the boys got back out for some runs beside the repair ATV! Don’t work too hard! Thanks Jackie for your shares!
Even with the up and down weather, it’s so nice to see spring coming closer and closer every day. I love it!!
Same type weather on Tug Hill in NY. Zone 4a.
And here I thought I was alone with my bi-polar polar weather. : )
Weather is crazy here too. 58 one day and 91 the next. Could somebody be playing games with the weather???
One thing is for sure now. Water the trees. This happened a few years ago and we didn’t water and as a result we lot a bunch of really nice trees.
I think this crazy weather’s a result of climate change, myself. I agree it’s a great idea to water those trees, especially young trees, as their roots haven’t had a chance to plunge deep for moisture yet.
We’ve been cat sitting for a neighbor. Including mine, I’ve been feeding 15-18 cats twice a day. The one stray she feeds was caught off guard when I walked into the barn’s heated cat room one morning (he got smart a few years ago during a cold snap). He did not expect to see me. Her cats are fed in three different areas and 9 litter boxes between the three areas. I get my exercise. Better half keeps an eye on the house for any problems/window left open (not this time of year however). And better half wheels out their garbage which is at least 200 feet from the house and uphill one way. At least the weather is not hot – a couple of previous times I’ve wheeled out/retrieved when it was hot and humid. Tomorrow morning is last day of cat care unless they are delayed getting home.
Other neighbor was out of town for a few days so better half collected eggs – 15 of them of which we’ll share some with my dad.
Glad you have a good mechanic in your circle. We appreciate our vehicle mechanic as well as all our other service people.
I’ll be checking our one wildflower patch tomorrow. I saw a patch was blooming at another house we drive by. The garlic mustard had about overtaken it a couple years ago. I hope better half didn’t spray the garlic mustard in that area last summer – I’ll find out.
A field not far from us caught fire the other day. That next morning, better half thought there was a fire on our lots. It wasn’t – it was pollen haze as the morning was windy.
Wow, that’s a lot of litter boxes!! And cats to feed. Hopefully, they’re not as fussy as ours are. Mittens, especially, is a Primadonna. She will only eat exactly half a bowl of dry food. She leaves exactly half, cut down the center of the bowl, uneaten. Then she wants us to stir the remaining food before she will eat it. A feral she is not!
None of the cats are fussy – they eat what you put in the bowl (dry and a blop of wet). All of the cats were homeless – some are the kittens of a rescued mom who found a good home, some are the pregnant mom she took in who had 4 kittens, a couple pairs of kittens found in the neighborhood.
LOL re: Mittens – cats do have their quirks. One kitten always checks the other kitten’s bowl then budges the other kitten out of “her” bowl.
Good Friday tater planting may get pushed back if we get the snow the prognosticators have in the forecast. We’ll see.