Spring Cleaning

While making a list of spring cleaning chores to do around the house and barn, I thought about my digital clutter.  I have two Facebook accounts, a Twitter account, and a Tumblr account that I never use.  I haven't logged into Facebook in over a year now, so why keep it?  I just deleted all four accounts and feel a little less digitally exposed.  I still have my Ipernity account for my photos and this blog, and that's plenty for now. And it's on to actual spring cleaning!  Time to de-clutter closets and give every room a good wiping down.  Time to rearrange the barn now that the firewood is gone.  Time to dig out seed trays and set up the little greenhouse.  It may still be cold, and we may still have over a foot of snow on the ground, but spring has sprung in my mind.  Huzzah!

Reprieve, Not Repeat

Well, we wound up with about two feet of snow out of that last nor'easter.  I can tell you, when I heard that a potential fourth storm was on its way, like most folks in the northeast I was not happy.  Luckily, this latest storm is keeping far enough south of us that we'll only see a dusting to a few inches of snow at most.  I'm selfishly happy as all the shoveling I did in that last storm blew out some discs in my neck and back, and apparently shuffled my ribs around.  I've had discomfort breathing for the past week due to that, but a good chiropractic adjustment yesterday and a follow up adjustment today is setting things right. 

Some photos from the last storm:

 

And meanwhile, in my window...

I now have five celery starts and have just started snacking on my lettuce mix.  I need to cut up that spaghetti squash and toss it on the manure pile while it's still relatively cold.  That one came out of my manure pile last year, from a store bought squash I'd thrown out there. 

I'm pleased to say that due to the warm February, I was able to stretch my winter heating products enough to make it through to spring.  This is the first time in the six winters I've been here that I haven't run out of wood, wood blocks, or oil before we ran out of cold weather.  I have about ten pieces of firewood left for an especially raw spring day, a couple packages of wood blocks, and half a tank of oil.  Normally I'd spend at least two or more weeks uncomfortably cold at this point.  Now that we've entered spring proper, my attention will turn to starting some plants for the garden.  It looks as though we're going to have another cool, damp spring, so I don't want to start them too early, like I did last year.  Most of my cucumbers and tomatoes ended up stunted and not producing any fruit, and I had to replant a lot of things.  This year I'll start my plants in mid April so they don't get quite so advanced before the soil warms up enough to transplant them.  My kingdom for a cold frame!  If I were planning to stay in this house, I would build a few of those in the yard.  I'll save that effort my next home. 

This weekend I'll get my green on by taking my mother to the Portland Flower Show in Maine.  I'm excited to attend a short lecture on creating habitats for pollinators.  I'm sad that I'll miss a lecture on medicinal plant gardens, but them's the breaks.  Hopefully I'll have some photos to share.

Pete and Repeat Were Sitting on a Fence...

I'm fairly certain the NWS has used this exact same map for the past three storms. 
Three nor'easters in 11 days...spring is never going to come. 
*cries, fires up snowblower, cries some more*

And So It Goes...

In like a lion, indeed.
In less than 24 hours winter storm Quinn took us from nearly spring to shit, still winter.