A few green tops of asparagus trying to peek through! We forget how beautiful daffodils are and how green grass can be. Snow flurries predicited for tomorrow. This has to end soon.
Wonderful Easter at Duvicks on Shell Lake. Saw the first boat of the season on the lake. The drive up there really felt like spring. The girls played outside in the sun and loved it.
Soon................

April 17: cold, clear blue sky with a few puffs of clouds, windy and a couple of inches of snow on the ground. We've decided to plant the cucs and squash regardless of Mother Nature and just hope for the best!
Kal and Kade came yesterday morning. They are growing up. Kal has made a meatloaf; Kade has fixed taco meat; all with the intent of helping Mom and Dad out a couple of evenings next week. How well I remember what a chore supper could be after working all day or all night or going in on an evening shift and wanting to leave something good for supper. Both boys enjoy cooking - not much for clean up but who is?
Tom installed a water softener yesterday after long discussions about the pros and cons. The challenge was keeping the cold water in the kitchen (love the coffee it makes) and the outdoor faucets. Houses built a 100 years ago never planned on any type of modernization.
Off to the greenhouse!

A week and a day from my last post and it's still nasty outside. Wind gusts to 45mph today, cold and piercing, coming from the north. Weatherman said this storm began in sunny California. Now that's a joke! So much for their sun!
Oh, well, it's been a fun day and we are looking forward to a fun weekend. Kal & Kade are coming tomorrow while Mom works and Dad is at a German immersion weekend with some students near Bemidji. Our good fortune! Kade will probably help Grampa and Kal will help me finish planting cucs, squash and those kinds of veggies plus get him a container of green onions (he loves green onions!) that he can take home and watch grow. We'll make tacos for Kade and meatloaf for Kal.

I ordered "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" and finished the first 6 chapters today. Instructions are to read the first 6 and master that before attempting the rest of the book. I have bread dough in an ice cream bucket on the counter; after it rises and begins to fall, it will go in the fridge. When I am ready to make a loaf of bread (boule, baguette, whatever) I will take a grapefruit sized piece out and shape it, let it sit about half an hour and bake it. The dough will last up to 14 days and can be used for quite a few different kinds and forms. Lynn Betker tuned me into this with her whole wheat bread. Tried that, it was very good, and got hooked on this bread baking process all over again. Her recipe makes 3 loaves which lasts quite a while for us (unless we have visitors); it makes wonderful toast. (Lynn & Ernie have a vineyard north of Hudson; he brought a bottle of his special wine to dinner one evening; I am sure it is one of the very best red wines we have ever had!) Today is the kind of day when we want to do something warm and comfortable - bread and soup, that's about as good as it gets. The boys and I will give it a try tomorrow. Probably will need to do it again Sunday for them to take home!

Asparagus is cleaned off - just needs to come up so we can pick it. Strawberries are all covered with fresh straw waiting for them to peek up through it. The yard has been rolled, raked, thatched, fed and has begun to be really green. The geese are in heaven with the pond open. Only Belle would chase a goose running clear around the pond while the goose swims lazily around in the middle!

It's Friday night fish fry - our big night of the week!

Thursday, April 7 - SUNSHINE 60+ DEGREES! Do we dare believe that winter might really be over? Took all the plants back to the greenhouse, healthy and looking good. Cucumbers and squash will get planted next week. Herbs are beginning to have an aroma; lettuce is getting tall; onions will be ready next week. Best of all, the air actually smells like spring!
Tom is spreading gravel (3+ tons in this load) into the holes in the driveway. A couple more loads and we should be good. He and Charlie rolled the lawn yesterday after picking up all the pine branches and winter junk. It really looks good and has just a tinge of green.
The pileated woodpeckers are beginning to come around 9 am daily. We are hoping they will keep coming during the summer but are afraid there will be too much traffic around here for them.
The horses are losing their winter coats and look pretty shabby. Casey and Belle will need haircuts soon. The geese know it's spring and have paired off leaving a couple of loners who really don't know what to do. Asian beetles and boxelder bugs are awake and moving. (Yuk!)
Cleaned the desk and file cabinets. Why do we keep all the junk we keep? Look out closets, you're next.

April 3 and still not great evidence of spring. The snow is melting slowly, it's mud and more mud, the pond has a circle of water around the edge to tease the geese, and we are getting very anxious! It has been the longest, coldest, most difficult winter we can remember. Some of the misery may be attributed to age but deep snow, ice, and bitter cold are hard on everyone and everything! The last storm blew the horses' shed over so they need spring more than we do!

Lisa, Kyle and Cody were here over their spring break. We planted tomatoes, herbs, cabbage, brussel sprouts, pansies, petunias; had to bring them into the sun room after they sprouted because it was impossible to keep the greenhouse warm enough when the temp was around zero. Yesterday the flats went back to the greenhouse so we are keeping our fingers crossed that it will be ok this time. My usual lettuce box and onion box are doing well; we should have salad in a couple of weeks and green onions about the same time. Fresh produce in the market is so expensive as well as not top rate so we are really anxious for a good, fresh salad!

Lambing is done for the first group, an average year, not the worst and not the best. The market has been up for so long that we are wishing we had lambs for the Easter market. But, we will have to wait until August to deliver our orders and have some for ourselves. Tom belongs to the WISBA, Wisconsin Indianhead Sheep Breeders Association; this year they sponsored a recipe contest and guess what!? I am published! My recipe for Lamb Shanks was one of six chosen for publication in the brochure/booklet to be used for marketing/publicity. I won a copy of the booklet, $10and a year's membership! I have lots of copies of the booklet (yes, I know you aren't' surprised); if you would like one, let me know. I will even autograph it.

Tom as survived his total shoulder replacement extremely well. He can now put his wallet in his back pocket. That may not sound like much but it's a real accomplishment. He is more than ready to get back outside and play in the dirt!

The whole family is headed to Seattle in June for Patrick and Jaime's wedding. We are all excited and so very happy for them. The nephews will be ushers and the nieces will be flower girls. Needless to say they are feeling quite good about that! Alex is most concerned, wondering what shoes to wear and how to fix her hair and so on and so on.

If you've never seen a pileated woodpecker, google it. We have 2 that come to the bird feeders in the front yard. They may not be as rare as they used to be but are very elusive. I have tried to get photos of them but they aren't cooperative. All winter a male pheasant came to scratch around under the feeders; he is the fattest pheasant we have ever seen. Thankfully we have had any turkeys there yet!

Keep checking back. It's been too long since we've been in touch. Think SPRING!