It's been quite a while since I've posted to this blog. I've been thinking of posting for a while and have begun a few posts, finishing none. his week has got me into gear.
We're past the equinox now and we have seen the early hints of Spring already. Our daffodils are beginning to show yellow, buds are swelling on some trees, and we are hearing the birds gearing up. The itch to get to work outside has been needing a scratch, but it's been rainy for a week or so. Until Wednesday, that is.
That morning we woke up to over six inches of snow, with lots more falling. Soon after starting our morning coffee the power went out. We had a cold breakfast and enjoyed the show.
We hoped to be able to have another cup of coffee after breakfast, but as we had no power we had no way of boiling water. I thought "let's see what things are like out there." The temperature was just at freezing and I figured that while the main road would be pretty snowy (there's little chance that any plows would get out this way for a long time) it would be soft and we could follow the tracks of other cars. So we cleared the snow off my car and headed out to Chrystal's Cafe in Low Pass about three or four miles west of us. The road was drivable and we'd have to go around fallen branches from time to time, but we got to the cafe with no idea whether it would be open or have power. It was open (Chrystal and her family lived out back) and they had no power. But cafes have to wash and rinse with especially hot water (184 degrees) so Chrystal was making coffee with it and a half dozen locals were hanging around, including her two young children.
A few of the men (it was all men, save Chrystal) got some old cooking oil and newspapers and went out back to start up a fire (I later explained to Catherine that building fires was a guy thing) while we hung out with some of the other and our good fresh coffee.
One thing that came up in the conversation was herbicide spraying, something that Catherine dealt with out here in the 80's. A number of people about twenty miles west of us have been found with residues of herbicides in their systems and Chrystal said that there is evidence that the speech delay her daughter has is connected to the spraying. An example of painful underbelly of resource extraction dependence and its indifference to the lives and well being of others.
I also got into a good chat with a fellow (who also milled the center beam in our expanded shop) about apple trees and grafting. We had a great talk, but also one that had others drift off. He told me about the annual Propagation Fair in Eugene last weekend. Off I went, got two rootstocks and had two apple cultivars grafted on. Dreams of more fresh fruit and pies than I can imagine eating.
We did get our power back before noon and by the end of the day we had about eight inches of wet and heavy snow. We heard the sound of tree limbs cracking throughout the day and into the next day. When we went off to get our paper the next day we left with a saw and had to cut up and move a tree that fell across our lane.
By today, Tuesday, most of the snow is gone and we've been able to see what clean-up we have to do: a lot.
So it is Spring. Spring always seems to have been like this: no fixed reality, everything in constant flux.
Trees are budding and our daffodils are finally blooming, the newts in the pond are mating, and the woods are filling out with bird song. I heard Spring peepers last night. The snow was tough on the birds and yesterday I found a dead Varied Thrush that looks like it was killed in the snow. The deer are beginning to go at the new growth in the garden so I have to keep my bucket of stones full to throw at them and chase them off.
I think I'll finish off with news on the hens. One of them died when we came down to Berkeley in February (she had not been doing too well for a month or so) and another was injured when attacked a couple of weeks ago. She finally seems back to normal.
Right now a flock of Varied Thrushes flew in. They generally leave the area in April, so maybe they're fueling up for their trip north and saying good bye to us today.
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