March, to me, is Mud Month. Yes, we still have our cold weather; most nights are below freezing, but March is predominantly mud. It snows, it melts, we have mud. It rains, we have more mud.
The temperatures warm up into the forties or even fifties (or sixties or seventies--I have memories of bathing horses one 75 degree March day many, many years ago), and the frost begins to come out of the ground. Which means mud, mud, and, yes, you guessed it: mud. Ever deeper mud.
First the squishy surface mud, then the slick mud with ice and frozen ground underneath, then the deep, boot sucking, tractor bogging mud. The frost laws are on the roadways now (I saw the sign at the end of my road yesterday; it hadn't been there Friday when I last drove that way).
Beware driving anything heavy on the fields this month. If you aren't aware of your terrain and the recent temperatures, you might just find yourself axle deep and having to call a neighbor with an even bigger, more powerful tractor, to come haul yours out of the quagmire that is your field. Been there, done that, and learned how to (hopefully) never do it again.
March is also bright, sunny skies. March is promise in the air. March is tapping maple trees. March is starting the first garden seeds indoors, where the climate is stable and controllable.
March is watching the migratory birds arrive. I have all ready seen blue birds, Canadian geese, and the earliest of the sandhill cranes.
March is smelling skunk in the air, as their mating season is in full swing.
March this year for me, will be frost seeding some more hay field. It will be finally attempting to throw together a musty-hay-bale-and-old-window cold frame to start some lettuce and salad mix in.
Hooray for March! Hooray for Mud Month!
No comments:
Post a Comment