Change Is In The Air

We have, since Saturday, gone from winter to spring.  Saturday morning, we had about five inches of snow still on the ground, the temperature was in the twenties, and the sky was an uninspiring grey.  DS1, K3 and Toad stopped by for a little while in the early afternoon (DS1 still had a few things to retrieve from our basement, plus wash the crayon marks off the walls and windows and the smeary little hand prints from the sliding glass doors as he had promised to do before moving out.  I held him to it.)  While DS1 was wiping and washing indoors, DH and I took the kids outdoors, bundled to the teeth in snow pants, boots, hats, gloves and coats. We made snow angels, and snow balls, and filled small buckets with snow in order to make snow blocks.  Toad mostly ate snow.  He seemed to like his unflavored 'sno-cones'.  DH even got the 4-wheeler out, tied a sled to the back of it, and pulled the kids around the driveway and hayfield (at a safe rate of speed, of course).  They had a ball.

Saturday night, a south wind blew.  Sunday morning we had only an inch or so of snow left on the ground, not counting the snow piles from plowing the week before. Sunday afternoon, there was bare ground most everywhere, and puddles forming.  Canadian geese began flying through, stopping in the bare corn fields to search the stubble for a meal.

Monday, water was running.  The low spot across the back yard had it's seasonal river flowing through it, the marsh was underwater, and a large pond took up at least an acre of the field.  The snow melted faster than the ground thawed, and the water could not percolate downward.

Monday night, shutting in the chickens for the night, I heard killdeer. Have not seen any robins yet, but apparently the killdeer are coming back northward for the warm months of the year.

Today the sun was out.  And so was the mud.  The ground is thawing several inches down now, making boot-sucking mud.  Rut-inducing mud.  No more driving anywhere other than the driveway!  Barn yard is now officially off limits until things dry out.  I loaded up the pick up with hay this evening, before declaring the barnyard undriveable henceforth, and parked it in the garage until I can drive it to the horse farm (of course my winter stash of hay where my horses are boarded will run out this week).  Starting tonight we are supposed to have rain off and on for about 48 hours. Which will only make the barnyard softer and less vehicle accessible.  So now was the time to load the truck, even if I can't deliver the hay until the sun reappears.

The wind was up today, but it didn't matter because the sun was so warm.  We actually hit 70 degrees!  I ran errands this afternoon in a t-shirt.  Oh the joy of a balmy March day!

Red-winged blackbirds have been winging their way to this little place here.  Before the sun went down tonight they could be heard trilling from the marsh and the trees in the yard.  The calendar might not say Spring yet, but change is in the air.  Won't be long now.  Made it through another winter.