That time of year

It's that time of year. We are making the transition from winter to spring. Well, that's according to the calendar. For me, spring isn't really here until the ice on the lake breaks up. I can still walk on it. It usually lets go somewhere around the third week of April. The ice has gone out earlier, but once didn't leave until the middle of May.

It's been sunny of late; a welcome thing here. Temperatures have climbed into the 50's. That passes for T-shirt weather up here in the woods. Still gets below freezing at night -good sugaring weather. Hope my buddy Jeff has a good maple syrup year. Once you get used to the real stuff, nothing else compares. Think I'll head over to his sugar house and get some warm syrup right out of the evaporator.

This is also the time of the year when I get cheap and refuse to buy any more heating oil. Last year I ran out on April first. Scrounged up enough wood to keep the place warm until summer. Melting snow has revealed a fair amount of missed placed firewood -wood pieces I never got under cover before the snow came, branches that came down over the winter, and even good sized wood chips near the splitting log. I'm burning some now. It's like found heat.

Chickadees are scouring my deck. As the snow melts hemlock cones are revealed in abundance. Once the birds have gone over it pretty well, I'll sweep the deck.

The snow's only melted in a few places: off the deck, where the sun hits all day, and over the septic tank. It's true, the grass is always greener over the septic tank.

-Sixbears