The (Blog) Drought (May Be) Ending

Hey all you 1 or 0 (binary audience, cool ;) faitheful readers. In an attempt to blog after drinking a very stiff vodka cocktail, I mean, keep you up to date in our world, I'm posting again less than 2 weeks (barely, maybe over) than Kelly did. My GOD what has happened. Perhaps it's the fact that spring is here and the coming green (and blackfly) explosion has me inspired. Who knows.

Anyhow, so yes, spring is here in all its slow-to-bloom glory. Seriously though, I'm loving just looking out the window at all the shades of browns, grays, and reds. It's all very stunning. Doesn't hurt that our daytime highs are into the whopping 40's. It has struck me the last couple of years (this is my fifth Maine winter) how the first days of fall when it gets to the 40's it feels so cold, though by the end of winter 40 is just balmy ;)

Anyhow, yeah, it's balmy out there ;) The last few days have found our little family spending lots of time outside. Not like we totally hunkered down through the winter, though it's nice to be outside and walk on the *earth* rather than snow. And have said earth not be frozen solid. When it thaws the whole smell of it changes from the crisp clean air of winter to the, well, earthy smell of spring.

Indeed, I stood outside today and listened to birdsong. Just stood and listened. It's been months since I've heard birds besides chickidees and ravens. And even then, the song of the winter is the wind in the bare branches or just plain silence echoing through the valley.

So yes, now the view is one of deep reds of ripe deciduous leaf buds and quickened blackberry canes, of dried grasses, fallen leaves, and soil. Soon it will be green beyond comprehension.

And with all this spring-ness comes water, water, water. Every vernal spring, seep, and stream is running full-bore. The other day Raelin and I were down by one of said seeps that Kelly and I have talked about turning into more of a stream bed. As Raelin and I stood there, me with shovel meagerly attemping to create a channel for all the water, I called to Liam, who had toddled out of site. He answered and so I figured what the hell, he's in hearing range. Not a moment later he appeared up by the house with ATW (that's "All Terrain Wagon" for you) in tow. And as if in slow motion, I watch as his little toddler body begins running down our front grass towing the wagon. I think to myself "oh shit, he's either going to trip on the grass and run himself over or get into the woods and trip and run himself over." So I start running toward him and the former happens. It's like slow motion. I can still see the image of his blond hair flying as not only he trips, though is pushed down by the empty wagon and then those big balloon tires run him over. When I got to him he was more or less self-extracted, though his head and shoulders were still a bit stuck. Since he wasn't hurt, just scared, it was all quite funny. What wasn't so funny was a couple hours later when I caught Raelin starting to make the same run, though this time with Liam *in* the wagon. It's nice to know that my kids know to stop when I yell that loud to stop ;)

Anyhow, we had another nice walk today. Kelly was off to work, so she dropped the kids off at my shed-to-office conversion project (more on this in a second) in the wagon. They were both calling out for a trip to the creek, so off we went. Took a brief stop by our pond, picked up some trash from our mid-winter roof replacment that had been buried by snow, then down to the creek. We left the wagon on our side of the little bridge (rotting, hence I won't take the wagon across), then up to see the neighbors' goats, then back down along the creek to see a series of waterfalls. At one point the kids took turns throwing rocks while I laid on a patch of thick dry grass. Ahhh, so blissful. As it was getting late I suggested heading home, and we decided at my suggestion to head home through the woods. Not a good suggestion as before too long the open woods turned into a combo of very snowy woods and lots of blackberry cane. By the time we got back to the wagon there was not a warm or dry foot among our little band. Raelin and I had decided earlier that the situation did in fact suck and had ceased to be much fun. Oh well, so it goes.

We also lost a bird, my and Raelin's favorite, to a red fox. There wasn't much left of her, I only found 2 feathers, which clued my in to the fact that we were dealing with a pro. See, other chicken kills I've seen by dogs, racoons, and the attempt by a hawk, have all been accompanied by lots of feathers and evidence of struggle. With this bird it was almost like she just disappeared.

So it wasn't that surprising the next morning when I looked out my office window to see a big red fox slinking around the chicken coop about to have another meal. The fox was stunning; don't think I've ever seen one that close and clear. If it wasn't going for my chickens I would have been a lot more in awe. As it was it was more an mix of anger and irritation. I mean, between the coop and the feed and whatnot we've spent a lot of cash on those birds, and if they're busy feeding the local wildlife (which should be hunting, granted), they're not feeding us with their eggs.

Anyhow, so off I ran out with a gutteral and primitive yell at the poor guy as he loped, make that busted ass, back down into the woods. Haven't seen a sign of it since, and once again the birds are out free ranging. They all seem pretty excited that the ground is thawed and they can actually scratch now.

Another thing that comes with the thaw is frost heaves. This year the roads have been particulary, shall we say nicely, beat to shit by it all. Big dips, cracks, and bumps. Big enough that coming home with the kids in the back "seats" of the truck (in their car seats, of course) I hit was must have been a 10" - 12" heave. The truck got air. I almost shit my pants. The kids hollered to turn around and do it again. Liam happily squealed about the truck going "ka-boing." That's what he does on the bed: "ka-boing."

So the office thing. Yeah, it's slowly coming along. Got a lot of the wiring done today. Almost, really, for reals, truly done with carpentry. Then insulation and sheet rock. Of course, noone's so interested in helping hang 12' sheets of drywall, so I'll likely just cut 'em in half (the sheets, not the people) and hang them myself. Kind of a drag to have so many more seams to tape, though I think less of a drag than having to beg and bribe my buddies to give a hand, and certainly better than paying the dry wallers $1,500 to come do it ;)

OK, off to bed for me, it'll be another early morning with the kids and my turn to get up with them tomorrow. Waffle day; Liam should be pretty excited. Wow, I just typed the last couple sentences with my head back and my eyes closed. Very few typing errors. Not sure if that's a good thing or not ;)