It's official!!!! Spring is here. Just finished planting tomatoes (4 kinds), peppers (3 kinds), cabbages (red and kraut), brussel sprouts, basil, parsley, thyme, sage, rosemary, lemon grass, leeks, and repotted some herbs I had in the window of the sun room. In 3 weeks I will plant cucs, squashes, and the rest of that family. They will be moved to the green house shortly and the fun begins again. It's totally rejuvenating to plant the seeds, watch them grow and know that we will enjoy the "fruits of our labor." Sounds kind of corny but to this city kid, it will always be a thrill.

Back to that cottage cheese. Somehow not everyone found that to be a great event. One son thought it was rather funny, the other asked if there was a shortage of cottage cheese at the store. One daughter can't wait to try it herself, the other just smiles and knows Mom is having a good time. Seriously, there are so many things in this world that I want to do and try before I die. Later this week we are making butter. I remember doing that at Grandma's when I was a kid. Brother, Mike, always got to churn more than Gerry and I. Come to think of it, Gerry probably got to churn the least. Oh, well. And, I didn't mention that Lisa and I made mozzarella when she was here. It was delicious. Come on over and I'll give you a lesson.

March 24 - four days into spring - about four weeks from our first asparagus cutting. So far we have been unseasonally warm and sunny. March has always been wet snow and awful wind; maybe there is some truth to global warming!
The kitchen cupboards, floor and counter tops are in and beautiful. Tom did a super job finishing the wood-it's like satin. There is still a lot of trim work to finish but that will have to wait until a rainy day. Right now Tom is up to his ears in lambs, maple syrup, and garden prep. The next 4 months will be hectic but we are looking forward to it.
I spent a week in Feb. at the Mooses while Mike and Lisa took a cruise to celebrate his milestone. The boys and I spent every minute we could wrapped up in the Olympics or going to their basketball games. Fortunately, a friend of Lisa's, Kathy, was my guide. Nice week.
Mike and Lisa then came up here for the weekend of the 14th to begin my birthday celebration and leave the boys while they were on spring break. This week we got wrapped up in March Madness (not with very good bracket picks!) although the boys spent a lot of time in the woods with Grampa setting up sap lines or in the barn with the lambs. It was a good week.
Convincing my children that I did not want a big celebration for the big 7 -0 was a trick. They settled for grilling at the Duvicks with tiramisu for dessert - perfect! While Mike and Jenny were in Florida, Jaime and Pat in Portland and Mike Moose at work, the rest of us had a wonderful evening. Be watching for a picture of my birthday present! More on that later!
The 22nd finally arrived and surprisingly it didn't hurt a bit! Neighbor, Joe, and I made cottage cheese for the first time - it was delicious! Tom and I went out for lunch at our favorite German restaurant (wish I had that meatball recipe with caper mustard sauce) and then bought the flag to go on our flagpole in the front yard. So many emails with good wishes arrived during the day that I had to wait until later in the evening to enjoy all of them!
Plan for the day is to start planting tomatoes, etc., and get the green house ready to go. I already have lettuce ready in the sunroom and lots of herbs about 3 inches high. Spring is here. The winter was hard but somehow we forget that when spring finally arrives.
Enough for now. Someone told me blogs were supposed to be short and concise. Ha!
More later.